On the third day of Cai Yong's arrival in Jicheng, a solemn and grand groundbreaking ceremony was held in a vacant lot in the southeast of Jicheng. This time, even Liu Yu came to the scene of the ceremony.

A large iron tablet with "Laying the Foundation" on the front and the words "Yenching University" on the back was carried by eight strong men in the army to a pit dug in advance in the center of the open space and put it in steadily.

Liu Yu, Cai Yong, Liu He, Han Fu and others held shovels with long handles, and worked together to cover this stone tablet into the soil, which was the most important part of the foundation laying ceremony. Immediately afterwards, Liu He asked people to carry a huge wooden plank with various reduced-sized architectural models on it, and then asked people to place it near the foundation stone for people to visit.

Although the term sand table has not yet appeared in this era, there is already a real version of the sand table, so the three-dimensional sand table model that Liu He asked craftsmen to make according to the construction drawings is not a new thing across time and space.

It is said that when the Qin State was deploying to destroy the Six Kingdoms, Qin Shi Huang personally piled up a military sand table to study the geographical situation of each country. Later, when Qin Shi Huang was building the mausoleum, he asked craftsmen to build a large topographic model inside the mausoleum. In this model, not only mountains, hills, and castles are built, but also mercury is used to simulate rivers and seas, and mercury flows and circulates with mechanical devices.

Whether there is a sand table in the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang remains to be verified, but when Liu Xiu, the founding emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, conquered Tianshui and Wudu, the general Ma Yuan, "gathered rice for the valley and pointed to the situation", so that Emperor Guangwu suddenly had the feeling of "captive in my eyes", which is the earliest sand table operation recorded in history.

The establishment of Yenching University in Jicheng was a matter led by Liu He, so he began to secretly prepare for this matter more than a year ago, not only asking Zhao Gai and Liu Hui and others to secretly help him find the design drawings of the most famous building craftsmen in the north and make sand table models, but also let people transfer residents in the southeast corner of Jicheng in advance to make enough vacant land for the construction of the school.

Jicheng is now a place where every inch of land is valuable. How many wealthy families from other states squeezed their heads and wanted to settle down in the city, but they couldn't be realized because the city wanted to squeeze out vacant land for Liu He to build a school.

Liu He has already thought about it, and after next year, when the overall situation in Youzhou stabilizes, he will focus on expanding Jicheng and expanding the existing city area by at least four times, so that Jicheng can accommodate 500,000 people in the future, and become the veritable largest city in the northeast of the Han Dynasty, worthy of the title of Yanjing.

Although it was only a miniature version of the architectural model in front of everyone, it was carefully introduced by Liu He. Everyone seems to have seen that in a few years, a magnificent university will rise in the southeast corner of Jicheng.

The construction of this university is about to begin, and Liu He, while borrowing the design ideas of the Luoyang Taixue part, has incorporated many ideas from later universities, especially those with a long history in the West. In Liu He's mind, the so-called famous schools in China in later generations have been made no different from the big vegetable market, so there is little significance for reference.

At Yenching University in the model, there is a small lake that has been dug out by hand, and the soil from the digging of the lake is piled up next to it to form a hill. There are pavilions on top of the hill where students can look out over the city, and even over the city walls.

In the center of the university, a bluestone library will be built to ensure that the library will not be damaged by fire. All the facilities and components in the building are not made of wood, but of stone, iron, copper, tin, etc. The library will be designed in the form of an octagonal square tower and will be seven storeys high, until it is fully completed. It will be the tallest building in Thistle.

Liu He wants to show the people of Jicheng an idea, that is, knowledge and learning are the most noble in this world, and everything else should look up to it.

Cai Yong listened to Liu He's idea of the library building. He immediately said that he would donate all the more than 4,000 rare books of his family as the first batch of classics in the library. The scholars were so powerful that the rest of the people who came to attend the groundbreaking ceremony did not dare to lag behind, and they also expressed their willingness to donate the books collected at home.

Liu He didn't talk to everyone at all at this time, and immediately asked his entourage to record the number of donated books that everyone reported, and said with a smile that the name of the donor would be engraved on the inner wall of the library building in the future to commemorate.

Some people who were still secretly distressed finally felt a lot better after hearing Liu He's words.

In addition to building a majestic, sturdy and durable library building in the middle of the building, in Liu He's planning, there are also buildings and halls such as the observation deck, Keju field, auditorium, experimental hall, kendo hall, etc., as well as other public facilities such as the professor's academy, the Gewu Academy, the Shoshoin Temple, the large soup pool, the large dining hall, etc., and so on.

The observatory was specially prepared by Liu He for the astronomer and mathematician Xu Yue, agricultural production in this era is inseparable from the study of the astronomical calendar, and the prediction of natural disasters is also closely related to astronomical research.

Although the later countries with developed football were reluctant to admit that football originated from the ancient Chinese Keju sport, in fact, as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, the Keju sport began to become popular in China. The former describes the popular Keju activities in Linzi, the capital of Qi more than 2,300 years ago, and the latter records that Keju was a way to train soldiers and inspect the physique of soldiers at that time.

Liu He's purpose in building Keju Field in the university is naturally to hope that the students will develop morally, intellectually, and physically, not just be weak scholars who have no power to restrain chickens.

The auditorium is a place to organize large-scale gatherings, and in the future, not only can celebrities and celebrities from outside come here to impart knowledge to the students, but Liu He is also ready to turn this place into a big arena for the collision of ideas, and he will come here from time to time to shake out some fierce information to the students, and then cause fierce debates among everyone, and guide them to find truth and answers in the collision.

The Experimental Pavilion and the Gewu Institute belong to the supporting projects, and Liu He will study an earth-shattering weapon here in the future, and then let everyone see the power of the way of Gewu and hands-on experiments in one fell swoop. Compared with repeated experiments, sitting on the Tao is really a curse that must be vigorously overcome and eliminated.

The kendo hall is a venue for teaching students swordsmanship, allowing students to learn martial arts, which can not only temper their minds and wills, but also strengthen their bodies, which fully reflects Liu He's hope that Yenching University can cultivate talents with both civil and military skills.

As for the Professor's Academy, it is naturally the area where the gentlemen live, and the Shoshoin Temple is the area where the students usually live, and the large hot spring pond is a large public bath, not a place to drink soup......

The people who were invited to the celebration today have a deep understanding of the importance of culture and education, and although they cannot fully understand why Liu He wanted to build such unheard-of buildings as Keju Field, Kendo Hall, and Laboratory Building in the university, they can see Liu He's ambition and determination to establish this university.

Liu Yu said with emotion: "The Book of Rites? There is a cloud in the "Royal System": "The primary school is on the left side of the south of the Gonggong, and the university is in the suburbs." 'The Great Dai Li? Bao Fu" is also cloudy: "Tie your hair and go to university, learn from the big school, and perform the big festival." 'The Book of Han? Lile Zhi Yiyun: "The kings of the ancients did not take education as their main task, set up universities to teach in the country, and set up orders to transform them in the city." Today, we are here to lay the foundation stone for Yenching University, which seems to be unremarkable, but it is actually a great blessing in life! ”

Everyone nodded their heads and agreed with Liu Yu's statement.

Han Fu continued: "The forty-second chapter of the Book of Rites is entitled "University", and the beginning of the book mentions that the way of the university is in Mingmingde, in being close to the people, and in stopping at perfection. Knowing and then there is certainty, and then there is stability, and then it can be quiet, and then it can be peaceful, and then it can be considered, and then it can be obtained. Things have a beginning and an end, and knowing the order is the shortest. The eldest prince Shiren is close to the people and Mingde, protects Youzhou from the invasion of enemies from all sides, and now he is trying his best to promote the establishment of Yenching University, which is really a model for scholars in the world! ”

Although Liu He didn't fully understand the meaning of Han Fu's words about dropping his schoolbag, he heard that Lao Han was praising himself in public, so he quickly stood up and bowed, and said in his mouth, "Lord Han praises falsely, the kid is ashamed!" ”

Everyone was very satisfied with Liu He's humble and cautious attitude, so they praised him one after another, and it seemed that the more modest Liu He showed, the more praise he would get.

Although the construction of this university will cost a lot of manpower and financial resources in Youzhou, Liu He Zhilu said that this "deal" is definitely only profitable, and it is a big profit.

Not to mention that after the completion of the university, it can provide Liu He with a large number of talents in the future, just his act of leading the establishment of the school can add a lot of points to Liu He's prestige, not to mention how much blessing the new techniques that this school will develop in the future.

Liu Hezhi said what is the difference between the ancient Chinese institutions of higher learning and the Western colleges, so this university led by him will definitely open teaching subjects according to his will in the future and cultivate talents that society really needs.

The government-run schools at all levels in the Han Dynasty mainly focused on cultivating scholars who governed internal affairs and literati engaged in culture and education, and the disciplines were mainly based on a single Confucian classics, which was very lacking in natural disciplines.

Liu He is not a great philosopher, nor is he a great thinker, he is a pragmatist, he only knows that sitting and talking about the Tao cannot solve the border troubles of the Han Dynasty, the division within the Han Dynasty, and the problem of eating for the common people.

Instead of thinking from morning to night about what people have come to this world and what is the meaning of human life, these nonsense questions that will never have standard answers, it is better to let mathematicians like Xu Yue study some difficult problems in arithmetic and geometry, let inventors like Ma Jun design more practical tools, and let young students like blank paper learn more natural science knowledge.

On the day of the foundation stone laying of Yenching University, Liu He gained countless prestige. (To be continued......)