The wheel of history soon came to the well-off for eight years.

Three days after the Lantern Festival, on the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, under the strong promotion and escort of the imperial court, the first batch of students of Nanjing University was finally enrolled on schedule.

The number of students enrolled in the first class is relatively small, which is also due to the fact that the school has just been established and the teachers are really insufficient. Including Newton, there are more than 20 Western scholars recruited today, and at least half of them are just a few years after graduating from the four famous universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Leiden and Leipzig, and some of them are equivalent to completing master's degrees in the West.

There are only four or five people who were originally lecturers and professors in the four famous schools. However, the only consolation is that Zhu Shuren has not dug any theologians or jurists, at least eight to ninety percent of them teach mathematics and mechanics and optics, and some are involved in naturalism and chemistry.

In the end, there are only more than one percent, who are involved in philosophy, and the Ming Dynasty will not raise pure people who only understand Western philosophy, and that kind of person is not needed at all now. Therefore, even if you teach philosophy, at least you have to understand logic at the same time, so you can complement the educational needs of the Ming Dynasty, after all, the traditional philosophy of the Ming Dynasty is more contemptuous of logic, and there are certain shortcomings that can be made up.

There are more than 20 newly dug Western scholars, plus more than a dozen disciples and grandchildren who came in the early years and left behind in the Cartesian era.

There are also thirty or fifty researchers from the Daming Academy of Sciences in China, who were temporarily brought in to make cameos, and these researchers are not teaching full-time at Nanjing University, and some of them are also in the research and development work of the Academy of Sciences and cannot be completely put down, so when converted, it is equivalent to 30 full-time people at most.

So all of them add up, and the teaching force is only sixty or seventy, teaching more than 300 students, which is already quite tight. Especially considering that Nanjing University has to recruit students every year, and the first batch of 300 students this year will only increase year by year in the future. If there were three years of students to teach there at the same time, the total would be more than a thousand.

Seventy teachers teach 1,000 students, and the students have to be divided into many courses, such as mathematics, physics and chemistry, naturalism, and logic, and the five major categories of subjects, and the teachers are absolutely insufficient.

In the actual process of running the school in the future, we will definitely have to wait for the first batch of students to advance to the sophomore and junior years, and then select the best students and award them to the position of teaching assistant in advance. In this way, students can help lead a group of students in the future and reduce the pressure on teachers. After the earliest talents come out, the relevant talent gap can be quickly plugged.

……

Because of the lack of manpower, in the first half of the eighth semester of Xiaokang, Nanjing University's running was really lackluster. A lot of things are running in the chaos and stretched.

Gu Yanwu, who was in charge of the Ministry of Rites and education, was also a little ashamed, and pleaded guilty to Zhu Shuren several times for the slow run-in of the university.

However, Zhu Shuren said very generously that these are all problems that arise in the process of development, and they will inevitably be solved with development. These temporary difficulties do not need to be taken to heart, as long as Daming's scientific and educational talent team can be steadily expanded, everything else is a minor problem.

Feeling the trust and kindness of Zhu Shuren, Gu Yanwu also strives to be more fair, not to interfere with the work of specific scientific and educational personnel, and let them play freely.

Most of the students have the inherent thinking of respecting teachers, or dare not question, or have various inadaptability to the new learning, and the cultural differences have also brought a lot of internal friction. There is no way to do it if the learning efficiency is temporarily low. It's difficult when anything new comes along.

In the blink of an eye, in the middle of summer, Nanjing University was also asked by Zhu Shuren to arrange winter and summer vacations, but they were only for one month, not as generous as later generations. The summer vacation is only from the 10th day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar to the 10th day of the seventh month, and the hottest time is chosen.

In fact, because everyone's learning progress can't keep up, many students with poor grades also need to make up classes during the summer vacation. Those with good grades may be dragged by the teacher who is a researcher to do some miscellaneous work in the Academy of Sciences.

In the first half of the year, the Academy of Sciences, which delayed a lot of work due to lack of manpower, barely managed to catch up some progress during the summer vacation.

Fang Ziling is still in charge of the Daming Academy of Sciences, so she can't help but take advantage of the opportunity of the summer vacation to complain to her husband, saying that since the establishment of Nanjing University, it has been more than half a year, and the results of the Academy of Sciences have not been seen at all, but many projects have stalled.

Zhu Shuren smiled and comforted his wife: "This is normal, when you first invest, how can you see an immediate return, if it is so immediate, there will already be countless profit-seekers to invest in science and education."

It is because of the loss at the beginning and the immediate effect cannot be achieved immediately, so the imperial court needs to be far-sighted and overcome all difficulties. Anyway, I don't have any obvious side problems now, and other studies can also ease my breath and lay a solid foundation.

I don't expect that within five years, the scientific research progress of running a university will exceed that of not running a university. I am mentally prepared to lose money in five years, and barely stop losses in ten years. After fifteen or twenty years, it is pure earning. Ten years of trees, a hundred years of people. ”

Fang Ziling actually knew this truth, so he didn't dwell on this point. But she quickly listed a new problem, that is, Newton, the current chief professor of the School of Mathematics, did not give very good feedback on teaching, and many students reported that his lectures were incoherent, often jumping, and imaginative.

The students who studied with him had worse grades than those of other professors. Newton's class had the lowest average score in mathematics on the final exam of the first semester of the school.

After Zhu Shuren heard this, he couldn't help but be stunned, but remembered many jokes in history about Newton and Einstein who were not good at teaching.

These geniuses are easy to speak with their imagination, and he himself thinks that he has understood, and many of the processes are omitted, and then jump directly to the back. Whether it was Newton as Lucas's professor of mathematics at Cambridge or Einstein's occasional guest lecture at Princeton, it was a tune.

Zhu Shuren couldn't help asking: "But now there are only a few people who can teach calculus, you and I have only just learned it, can other mathematics professors teach better than Newton?" ”

Fang Ziling: "That's not it, but the freshmen haven't learned calculus yet, and they are still supplementing the basics of algebra and geometry in the first half of this year, and they have only learned to derive in the second half of the year.

Many of our professors are actually teaching and learning at the same time. They already knew the basics of algebraic geometry when they were in Europe, and they were the same as Newton, and they learned derivation under Professor Barrow when they were in Europe, so they could teach all the subjects of mathematics as long as they made up the integrals. ”

Zhu Shuren nodded: "Then reduce Newton's class time, let him teach other professors calculus, derivative and algebraic geometry fundamentals, and he doesn't need to teach ordinary students, it is a waste of talent."

If there is nothing else that can make him interested and worth teaching after teaching calculus, then give him 1,000 taels of silver per month, let him do whatever he likes, and he doesn't have to report regularly, when he thinks of the results to report, he will naturally report.

Later, his class time was compressed to ten classes a month, and he couldn't fall in love. There is also a regular exchange meeting of professors once a week, and the rest of the time is completely free to arrange. ”

Fang Ziling was slightly surprised when she heard this, she knew that her husband valued Professor Niu very much, but she still didn't expect it to be to this extent.

In this way, Newton was only busy teaching for a maximum of one and a half days a week, and at least four and a half days a week for free use—Nanjing University now works six days a week, mainly allowing Europa faculty members to rest every Sunday and deal with their private spiritual life. But it's not good or unfair, so the scholars and students of the Ming Dynasty are also fairly closed for seven days.

Zhu Shuren's arrangement was quickly implemented, and with Newton as an opportunity, some other talented scholars who were not good at teaching were more or less exempted according to their academic performance, and the atmosphere of Nanjing University became more relaxed for a while.

……

According to the adjustment of the new teaching management plan, the science and education work of Nanjing University in the second semester continued to be carried out smoothly. Because it is still in the stage of losing money in investment, there are no achievements worth repeating.

In other aspects of the Ming Dynasty's internal affairs, on the one hand, they continued to implement the reform of abolishing the division of nationality in the northern provinces, and on the other hand, they continued to reclaim the land and expand the borders, and changed the land in the southwest.

There was nothing major happening in the process, it was nothing more than manual work.

Time has come to the early winter of the eighth year of the well-off, and the imperial court finally has a border trouble that needs to be dealt with, that is, the Luzon issue, which has been condemned and delayed for more than a year.

In the first half of last year, when the Ming Dynasty finally settled Vietnam, Zheng Zheng of Vietnam frantically released rumors in Liangguang, trying to divert hatred and contradictions, and pull the Spanish colonists into the water. Now that the matter has been clarified, that battle must be fought.

On the one hand, Zheng Chenggong's navy had just fought two naval battles in the war of annihilation of Vietnam last year, and there were still some battle losses.

After all, the main fleet of the Ming Dynasty at that time, although it was under the idea of "key armor protection" ordered by Zhu Shuren, relied on the built-in steel plate armored capsule to protect the command cabin and ammunition compartment, ensuring that the capital ship could not sink no matter how it was shelled.

But this idea of focused armor protection does not prevent damage to the superstructure in the shelling. At that time, Zheng Chenggong almost had a 1:51 to 6 military inferiority, and he relied on the big ships and huge artillery to win the battle. After the battle, the superstructure was damaged too much, and the gun deck facilities on each floor were also lost, and there were a large number of wounded soldiers.

These wounded soldiers and veterans who participated in the bloody battles of the sea are all rare and valuable assets, so they have also been personally cared for by Zhu Shuren and recuperated.

Because the Ming Dynasty really lacked soldiers with rich experience in modern naval warfare and artillery warfare, the previous years of land warfare and annihilation of the country could still train hundreds of thousands of divisions. But the battle between gunboats, except for the battle of the Vietnamese Le Dynasty to destroy the country, could not be fought at all, after all, the previous opponent of the Ming Dynasty did not have a large-scale Western purchase fleet at all.

Therefore, all the wounded soldiers, after the injuries were slightly stabilized, were transported back to Fuzhou for diagnosis and treatment. For the first time, the affiliated hospital of the Daming Academy of Sciences in Nanjing has set up a branch in other provinces, which is located in Fuzhou, and has made use of the achievements of trauma medical technology in recent years.

Including the British in the same period using 3% dilute sulfuric acid to disinfect scalpels, 2% dilute sulfuric acid to disinfect and wrap gauze and then neutralize with soda, as well as some other sanitary measures, all of which have been applied in the "Daming Second Military Hospital" in Fuzhou.

Now, after more than a year of rest, the wounded soldiers have all recovered and recuperated to their best. The damaged ships were all rebuilt, and the bore and worn cannons were replaced. As the time entered winter again, the problems of tropical diseases and heat were temporarily alleviated, and Zheng Chenggong's fangs were completely exposed.

Zhu Shuren personally advanced the march of more than a month in advance, and in early September, he went south from Nanjing, inspected the coastal areas of Zhejiang and northern Fujian, and finally arrived in Fuzhou in early October to inspect the army, boost the morale of the soldiers, and accept the oath of Zheng Chenggong.

Zheng Chenggong personally led Chen Jinnan, Liu Guoxuan and other generals, leading 200 warships, 300 troop carriers, and several supply ships.

The fleet had a total of 30,000 sailors and sailors, and 30,000 landing soldiers, with a total of more than 60,000, and launched an expedition against Luzon.

The fleet set sail from Fuzhou on the 8th of October, and after an eight-day voyage, it rested at the port of Chichi in the south of Dayuan Island on the 16th to resupply the fresh water, fresh fruits, vegetables, and meat consumed on the way.

Then he went south again, and after fifteen days of sailing, he was the first to arrive at Lingayan Bay, where the Spanish army was not on guard, and Zheng Chenggong led 10,000 troops to land here, set up a bridgehead, and divided a number of light and small warships to provide coastal patrol escort.

Zheng Chenggong himself led the main force of more than 40,000 people to continue south along the coast and hit Manila Bay.

Lingjiayan City is located about 240 miles north of the northern shore of Manila Bay, 300 miles away from Manila City, and there is also a bay in the north of Lingayan City, which can be landed, but it is not a deep-water anchorage, and it is not suitable for the largest warships to dock.

Historically, whenever the Philippine ruler lacked a ruling foundation and could be wiped out with one blow, the attacking force would often choose to land directly in Manila Bay.

But if the ruler has some control, it may be a protracted war, and in order to be safe, it is more prudent to open a beachhead at Lingayan first. Anyway, after landing, it is not too far and too troublesome to occupy more than 200 miles of enclosure, and these places are meant to be controlled.

Therefore, during the Seven Years' War in history, in order to attack Spain, Britain chose to send a fleet to land directly in Manila and beat the Spanish fleet violently. But in the end, the war ended and the treaty was signed, Spain relented, and Britain still had to return Manila to Spain. However, later in World War II, the United States and Japan fought for the Philippines, trying to rule for a long time, so they started from Lingayen Bay.

What Zhu Shuren wants now is long-term peace and stability, not just knocking and leaving like the British, so he persuaded Zheng Chenggong to be serious when planning before the war. Zheng Chenggong has unconditional trust in Zhu Shuren, and the regent said that it is more stable to fight like this, so he will make a detailed plan strictly around this plan.

And the Spaniards really didn't expect Zheng Chenggong to divide his troops to build a bridgehead first, so he was successfully landed by the Ming army and gained a foothold, and also ushered in many Han people on Luzon Island who had been brutalized and fled to the mountains and forests and countryside.

The owners of Han farms took out military rations to supply the imperial army, and they welcomed the king. After all, the Spaniards had instigated the aborigines to slaughter the Han people before, and killed them three times in the past few decades, each time as little as 20,000 or 30,000.

In particular, about two-thirds of the Han people in Luzon are Fujianese who go to Nanyang, and one-third are Chaoshan people who go to Nanyang. And Zheng Chenggong, who came this time, is also from Fujian, and he belongs to these people, so it is more suitable to unite the local people.

Of course, there is one thing to say, and it is easy to win over the Han people, who only account for a small half of the local population, and the indigenous people, Kunlun slaves, and savages of the South Island, who account for more than seventy or eighty percent of the population, will definitely not welcome the Ming army.

They were instigated by the Spanish colonizers to have a vendetta with the Han Chinese, and the Spaniards were also very good at using one indigenous people to deal with the other, and the contradictions between the two sides had long been difficult to solve.

After Zheng Chenggong learned about the local situation, he didn't expect those natives to win over.

Anyway, if you can't win it over, you can just win over the Han people, who account for two or three percent, and other hateful indigenous groups can reason with knives, guns and cannons.

(End of chapter)