Chapter 62: Twenty Thousand Taels

Going south along the canal, Zhu Houhuang never returned to his boat.

Among the dozen or so ships heading south, Zhu Houhuang was on the boat with the smallest number of people. It's just dozens of people, just Zhu Houhuang, Wu Fengyi, Wu Ming, and a few eunuchs of all sizes who serve Zhu Houhuang. Valuables are also on this ship.

And the ship that Zhu Houhuang is now on is the second smallest among all the ships. There are more than a dozen people and some ballast cargo on it, and these dozen or so people are all transferred by Yang Shen to Zhu Houhuang, all of whom are young talents in mathematics and astronomy.

Especially Zhu Yu, this person is Zhu Houhuang's favorite object.

The Great Voyage was extremely demanding in astronomy, and even before Magellan set sail, he consulted with his friends who were accomplished in astronomy for a long time.

In the vast sea, purposeless sailing, very dangerous, if there is no astronomical strong support, it is simply a life of death, we all know, several successful expeditions, the achievement of Columbus, da Gama, Magellan and others, but aspire to become a navigator, but how many people died at sea? So much so that parents in London did not dare to let their children go to see the docks, because they were afraid that they would want to be sailors and never return.

Zhu Houhuang didn't want his subordinates to suffer such pain, so the powerful astronomical support, that is, the so-called latitude and longitude, must be made. And the key to this lies in Zhu Yu. Zhu Yu is not one of those young talents, he is an excellent astronomer. Compared to these young teenagers who are still inexperienced, it is much more powerful.

Zhu Yu and Zhu Houhuang sat opposite each other.

Faced with Zhu Houhuang coming to the door three or four times, he had no choice but to say, "Your Highness." Longitude and latitude are simple and simple, but it is also difficult to say that they are difficult. Needless to say, latitude can be measured whether it is the height of the sun or the height of the North Star, but the matter is in latitude. The easiest way to do this is to come up with an extremely precise time count, determine the time in a place, and compare it with the actual sunshine in the local area. Of course, that's none of my business. There is also the time you proposed to determine the time by the trajectory of the moon. There is also a star chart background when the moon is running. This method is not difficult to say. It's just that what is needed is large-scale measurement and calculation. ”

"Remember, it's a massive measurement. Although I have brought over the data of the moon movement of the north and south capitals, as well as all the data of the ancient star map. But the collation of these data is detected. It takes a lot of time and a lot of instruments, and I wanted to make latitude and longitude a part of the Zhengde calendar. In this way, it can be made with the manpower and material resources of the calendar. But now? “

"Now these are these people, all of them are new, and if you want to do these things, I have to teach them one by one. And it requires a lot of manpower and material resources, and now do you call this Yongguo country? Have it? ”

The more Zhu Yu spoke, the more angry he became, and he couldn't care about the difference in identity. I can't wait to spray the spit almost on Zhu Houhuang's head.

Can you not get angry? This was his lifelong expectation, and as a result, he guessed the beginning, not the end. Let his dreams come to naught for many years, if there was no hope in the first place, it would be fine, but let him see hope, and then shatter this hope, is more cruel than letting him not see a little hope.

The method of latitude measurement is never the problem, the so-called problem is the method of longitude measurement. Zhu Houhuang's idea is the lunar distance method, with the entire celestial map as the background, where the moon moves, as a standard time, but because of the rotation of the earth, the time of observing this phenomenon is different in different places. After setting the time of a place as standard time, the difference between local time and standard time can be used to calculate the longitude.

So there are two elements in this, the first is the trajectory of the moon, and the second is the background of the star chart.

I have to say that China's profound astronomical heritage, the trajectory of the moon, from the time of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, astronomers began to study, in the Ming Dynasty only need to turn over the data to almost understand, as well as star maps, in the late Three Kingdoms, there are complete star maps circulating, in the Tang Dynasty, Song Dynasty, and measured more than once, so this is not a problem.

But these materials are not from the Ming Dynasty, and that's the problem.

Time will change everything, and the data of many stars will change due to the passage of time, so these data need to be reproduced and verified, and there are about more than 1,400 stars in Zhou Tian. Verify them one by one, and the time, manpower, and material resources required are all a big effort.

Zhu Houhuang was a little embarrassed and said, "Mr. Zhu, is there really no way?" ”

Zhu Yu said: "Your Highness, you don't have to look for me, the method of measuring the latitude and longitude you want is actually not too difficult, as early as the Tang Dynasty, the master of the group has already measured the difference in the solar eclipse." It's not much different from what you said about the principle of longitude measurement, all that is needed is measurement, a lot of measurement. No matter how much you urge, it can't be fast, and it takes at least two or three years of measured data. to complete the calculation. I can't get up soon. ”

Zhu Yu is an out-and-out empirical school, and it can be said that the ancient Chinese astronomers were all empirical schools, and they were long in actual measurement and short in theory. And the reason why Zhu Yu loves and hates Zhu Houhuang now is the heliocentric theory that Zhu Houhuang brought them. In the Song Dynasty, Zhang Zai had already distinguished the planets of the solar system from extraterrestrial stars. Zhu Houhuang's heliocentric theory is consistent with a lot of data. When he was about to do a big job, he was pulled away by Zhu Houhuang, and he really couldn't hate it.

Zhu Houhuang's heart was half cold. He actually had all the premonitions in his heart, but it was clear at this moment that the matter of latitude and longitude was indeed urgent. He secretly calculated: "After I gain a firm foothold in Taiwan, I can find a way to sail away." It will take three or four years, which is not too long to accept.

Before Zhu Houhuang could comfort himself, he heard Zhu Yu sneer: "And this is still done in Beijing or Nanjing, so there is this speed, and when I get to Dongyong, I only ask one sentence, does the armillary sphere have it?" Is there a waiting? Are there any armillary phenomena? There was nothing, and when I arrived in Dongyong, I couldn't use my strength. Your Highness, you better let me go back to Beijing, with your relationship with Your Majesty, after the Jingwei research in the Beijing Division, you can ask Your Majesty for a copy, and it will be much faster for a few of us to go to Dongyong to study. ”

"Lone knows that the matter of going to Dongyong is to suffer Zhu Qing. Lone prepared 20,000 taels of funds for Zhu Qing. What does Zhu Qing think? ”

"Twenty thousand taels?" Zhu Yu was stunned for a moment, he had never seen so much money when he was so big. All his savings were only a few hundred taels of silver, and this savings was still the family money saved by the officials who had been Qin Tianjian for generations. For a while, he felt that he couldn't breathe, and he frantically thought of a lot of places to spend money in his brain, such as re-customizing the armillary sphere and customizing various astronomical equipment. For example, according to Zhu Houhuang's heliocentric theory, the sun is the center and the model simulates the solar system. Wait, these things have been done, and they may not cost 20,000 taels. He didn't know what to say for a while.

"There's nothing that can't be done with 10,000 taels, that's 20,000 taels." Zhu Houhuang gritted his teeth and smashed 20,000 taels on astronomy. Not just for a latitude and longitude, not just for the astronomical system to serve navigation.

Zhu Houhuang has always wanted to implant the germ of science into the knowledge of the Ming Dynasty.

And Zhu Houhuang thought about it, and the closest thing to science is astronomy. The development of modern science in the West also began with astronomy. Therefore, Zhu Houhuang made great efforts in astronomy and mathematics in order to let the flower of science be bred from astronomy, which contains Zhu Houhuang's great desire. The development of astronomy will lead to the development of many aspects, for example, in the manufacturing industry, many precision instruments in the Song Dynasty were developed because of the needs of astronomy. There are also mechanical developments, and there are mathematical developments, and these developments can also be fed back to other industries.

Coupled with a series of guidance from Zhu Houhuang, scientific consciousness will certainly take root in the hearts of these scholars.

And these people are all Zhu Houhuang's future scientists, no matter how much they fancy it, they can't take it too seriously.