The morning light broke, and the traces left by the rain and wind last night were only the faint fragrance of flowers and the freshness of the earth at home.

The summer wind passed through the cloister and gently stirred the curtains of the study.

Jiang Xinghuo sat in front of the desk, dressed in a green shirt, and wrote with a pen.

""Huangzhou Cold Food Post" is really difficult to write."

Jiang Xinghuo was halfway through writing, put down his pen, rubbed his somewhat sore elbow, and smiled.

"Master, this is halfway." Yu Qian, who was standing by and observing, had grown into a half-sized child, and the child was flying fast when he was eight or nine years old, and he was completely different from when he was young.

"Master, this is to exercise your abilities."

Jiang Xinghuo stuffed Yu Qian onto the chair.

Su Shi's masterpiece "Huangzhou Cold Food Post", together with Wang Xizhi's "Orchid Pavilion Preface" and Yan Zhenqing's "Manuscript for the Sacrifice of Nephews", is called "the three major books in the world", with only 129 words, ups and downs, and unrestrained momentum.

It belongs to the type that will be known after reading it.,But when you start copying, your hand will express strong protest.。

Jiang Xinghuo has practiced with Xie Jin for several years, although he is far from the level of centipede climbing, but unfortunately he still failed to really enter the house in the eyes of famous artists.

However, Jiang Xinghuo himself can't do it, which doesn't mean that he can't count on Yu Qianxing.

Just as many parents can't be Jackie Chan themselves, but always hope that their son will become a Chan, although Yu Qian is not his son, but his disciple, in this era, it is a very common concept to be a teacher for one day and a father for life, so cultivating Yu Qian's calligraphy level can be regarded as "for his good".

Yu Qian's calligraphy skills are good, and Jiang Xinghuo has found him a famous teacher to teach him in recent years, which is much better than the education conditions he received in his hometown in Hangzhou, and Yu Qian's calligraphy is mainly the calligraphy style of Xie Jin.

"Master, you wrote so badly, does it have any deep meaning?"

Yu Qian asked after carefully writing the last few dozen words.

Jiang Xinghuo looked at the font that was obviously better than what he wrote, and was silent for a moment and said, "Not everything has a deep meaning. ”

"Do you know what it means to be a gentleman and be happy?"

"I don't know."

"You must respect everyone's fate, someone has been opened a window, someone has been opened a door, everyone's strengths are different, and you must learn to be optimistic about your shortcomings."

"Oh."

Yu Qian nodded seriously: "But Master, your handwriting is really bad." ”

"Write ten more times."

Jiang Xinghuo took the fruit plate cut by Jiang Xuan next to the desk and walked out of the study.

Xie Jin is watering the flowers.

It's not the kind of temporary hobby who comes to hoe the boss with a pickaxe, but really lifts up his robe and squats to water the flowers seriously.

Seeing Jiang Xinghuo coming, Xie Jin turned his head and said, "The orchid seeds I brought last time are so tall in a flash. ”

"Is this what Lan Xinhui refers to?" Jiang Xinghuo asked casually.

"Probably so."

"Probably? And allusions you're not sure about? ”

"Of course."

Xie Jin's face didn't move, and he pulled out a smile that didn't look so sincere.

"When I was a child, I looked for a fortune teller, and people said that I was suitable for raising orchids."

Jiang Xinghuo nodded: "Zhilan is born in the valley, not to be unpopular, a gentleman to cultivate morality, and not to change his temperament for poverty, isn't it good?" ”

Xie Jin couldn't deny it, but said: "People say that orchids are in line with my life, and they can help me warn, and when the orchids bloom, I can be careful of bad luck." ”

"Accurately?"

"It's quite accurate, but then I learned that there are different varieties of orchids, except for June to August, which bloom in turns throughout the year."

Jiang Xinghuo smiled and said, "You don't need to follow you when you go north this time, just stay in Nanjing honestly." ”

Xie Jin was relieved, he had just returned from Beijing a few years ago, and he really didn't want to toss.

"But there's a couple of things."

Jiang Xinghuo thought for a while and said: "The first thing I just remembered, Sanyang's calligraphy is correct, and it is good to open a poetry and essay assembly, and now it is vaguely known as 'Taige style', I am afraid that a trend will be formed in the future, and people all over the world will follow suit, but they will lose the interest of calligraphy. Your writing is free and easy, cursive is the respect of the world, you have to print more book stickers, it's a pity not to stay. ”

Xie Jin was slightly stunned, this is a trivial matter, and it is inevitable.

I didn't print it before, because Xie Jin was crazy, and he felt that he could learn his own handwriting for others, especially cursive, and others would learn it in vain, and he wouldn't be able to learn it.

"The second thing is your job."

Jiang Xinghuo was two steps away from these flowers and plants, he didn't mind looking at these flowers in his spare time to soothe his mood, but let him raise them, in the face of those annoying little flying insects, he would definitely not raise them.

And Xie Jin loves to deal with flowers and insects.

It's probably the reason why no one likes to play with him since he was a child.

"Honglu Temple, responsible for receiving foreign envoys, guests, now the Ming Dynasty has more and more places to deal with foreign countries, the Ministry of Rites is responsible, Honglu Temple is also responsible, there is no trivial matter in foreign exchanges, and it is the majesty of the Ming Dynasty that is maintained."

Xie Jin stood up and looked at Jiang Xinghuo.

"No matter how we do things sometimes, but for these foreign envoys, the basic respect must have you understand what I mean, respect is not connivance, nor let them kick their noses and face to feel that Daming is weak and bullying, but not only to respect some of their customs, but also to adhere to our etiquette and maintain the majesty of Daming."

"I understand."

Xie Jin nodded.

Jiang Xinghuo handed the fruit plate to Xie Jin, Xie Jin looked at the strange Nanyang fruits on it and didn't dare to eat it, and he was afraid of brushing Jiang Xinghuo's beauty, so he could only insert one with a bamboo skewer and put it into his mouth, but he didn't expect the taste to be very sweet.

"Nanyue killed the Han envoys and slaughtered them as nine counties; King Wan killed the Han envoy and hung his head in the north; North Korea killed the Han envoy and was immediately exterminated. ”

Jiang Xinghuo said softly: "Similarly, in the current world, no country can be disrespectful to the Ming Dynasty. ”

Jiang Xinghuo's slender hand rested on the railing of the cloister, propped himself up slightly, and he looked at the flower garden in the cloister, which was like a brocade of flowers.

Seeing that this era is moving towards a better and better direction under his own guidance, Jiang Xinghuo is also quite sincerely gratified.

"Japan wants to be false and wrong, North Korea wants to be beaten hard, Ryukyu wants to be kind, and as for the Nanyang countries, it is a combination of grace and might."

"Will we see the day when the real nations will come?" Xie Jin asked.

"All nations? If you count those tribes, maybe they will. ”

"But these things, I still think too far ahead."

Jiang Xinghuo thought for a while, and then said: "In the next few years, the focus will still be on the West, Chen Cheng has already set off to be an angel in the Timurid Khanate, Fu An, Yang Dewen, who have experience in the West in the past, are rare and available talents, whether it is Ceylon or South Tianzhu, or the Aries Dynasty, the Mamluk Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty has to deal with them, these are the economic entities centered on the Ming Dynasty in the world second only to the east of the Manraka Strait. ”

"As for the farther west, those small countries on the European continent are not actually more economically than the countries in the circle centered on the Timurid Khanate, but those are all countries that can only be exchanged after Zheng He continues to explore."

"Anything else?" Xie Jin asked.

Jiang Xinghuo was about to speak, but he glanced at Yu Qian, who was working hard in the window behind him, and swallowed his words back.

Xie Jin understood what Jiang Xinghuo meant.

"In short, be careful."

Jiang Xinghuo, who had finished eating the fruit bowl, put the fruit bowl on the suspended bench in the cloister, took out a hand towel and wiped his hands.

"Don't worry."

"If you are undecided, you can ask Rong Guogong, there will be nothing wrong with him."

Now in the temples of Nanjing, only talking about the chief officials in the six ministries and six temples, the power of Jiang Xinghuo's Fa Transformation Sect is already quite impressive.

In addition to the chief officials of the two key departments of the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Households, there are also Huang Ziwei of Guanglu Temple, Yuan Heng of Taichang Temple, and Xie Jin of Honglu Temple.

However, if you count it together with the deputies, it is not so enough, or Zhu Gaochi's power is even better.

And if the scope is expanded to the middle and lower-level officials in Nanjing, they are still mainly conservatives, because it is not easy to climb the ranks, and after accumulating over the past 30 years or so, these people have long been deeply rooted, and although they cannot be promoted, it is difficult for you to remove them from the ranks of the bureaucracy, and you can only wait for the passage of time to automatically eliminate them.

Fortunately, the time is on Jiang Xinghuo's side.

Two years have passed, and the science of science has lost its position of completely dominating the ideological world, and it has been replaced by the science of mind that spreads at a speed like cell division, and the schools of eastern Zhejiang led by the Jinhua school have also been integrated by Jiang Xinghuo, raising the banner of practical learning of meritocracy.

Although there is no contention among a hundred schools of thought, at least the three-legged pattern has been realized in the ideological circles.

In the academic and political system, from the imperial court to the political envoys to the prefectures and counties, the questions began to focus on the practical content, and at the same time, the content of the Four Books and Five Classics also changed, Xunzi's thoughts increased more and more, not to mention, with the publication of editions and editions of the "Ming Encyclopedia/Yongle Canon", students began to no longer be completely blinded by Cheng Zhu Lixue, but projected more eyes on the past history.

With the efforts of Kong Xilu, Gao Xunzhi, Cao Duan and others, the Confucian theory of pre-Qin and original Confucianism and the subsequent evolution of the ancient literature school and the modern literature school became clear.

At the same time, after more than two years of development, physics, chemistry, astronomy, the basic disciplines of modern science, have also made great progress, and are sought after by the students of Guozijian Middle School.

In short, although there are still some controversies in the intellectual circles and academic circles about the new learning (practical learning + science) with a complete system of Jiang Xinghuo, as well as some prejudices that can never take off the colored glasses, on the whole, the new learning is indeed constantly developing, and it has a growing trend.

- People will always be on the side of the truth.

Because of this, whether it is the Daming Administrative School, the Guozijian or the imperial examination, the change of young people's thinking is conducive to changing the law, so Jiang Xinghuo is not in a hurry.

He just had to wait.

In another ten, twenty, and thirty years, the old Dengs will be honored, and the entire court will be influenced by his thoughts and become officials.

However, he still needs to cultivate good Yuqian.

The stubbornness and some extremism in Yu Qian's personality are deep in the genes, and they cannot be completely changed by the acquired educational environment, Jiang Xinghuo can ensure that the education and ability he has cultivated in his hometown must be stronger than in his hometown, but it is not a good thing to let children see some things beyond his age comprehension ability too early, and the seedlings will not necessarily get the desired results, so Jiang Xinghuo always controls what Yu Qian is exposed to.

"This kid is too smart and too stubborn." Xie Jin looked at Yu Qian and said in a low voice.

"I asked him to write it ten times, and he would never just write it ten times, I was afraid that he would not give up until he had to eat the "Huangzhou Cold Food Post" thoroughly."

"He won't understand what you mean."

"He is very similar to Su Shi, if I throw him in the coal mine, he will be so optimistic and willing to do it, do you believe it or not?"

"Faith."

"So, I hope he can learn something from Su Shi, who was demoted to Huangzhou, and don't be so stubborn."

"Maybe people have learned, 'Who is afraid?' What about the smoke and rain in his life'? Xie Jin quipped.

"Then there's no trick."

Jiang Xinghuo laughed.

Yu Qian in the window behind him was frowning, persistently copying the handwriting, not noticing what the two people outside the window were saying.

——————

In the next few days, Jiang Xinghuo explained in detail the various affairs of the current law change.

The usual ones are the examination law, the recovery of currency, maritime trade, diplomacy, land clearance, road repair, etc., while the more special ones are the research and development of steam engines, machine tools, and flintlock guns, as well as the pilot work of policies such as progressive tax on household registration, notary tax on separation, and integrated payment of grain by the gentry.

Things are complicated, but fortunately, all departments can do their own duties now, even if Jiang Xinghuo is not in Nanjing for the time being, it can still operate normally.

In addition, I met with Jingqing's two daughters, and then inspected the income level and working environment of workers in the industrial and mining industries around Nanjing.

The day of going north is gradually approaching, and on the eve of parting, Jiang Xinghuo and Yao Guangxiao met again in the study.

The moonlight was like water, quietly sprinkled on the two of them, and the air was filled with the sorrow of parting.

"Life is about gathering less and leaving more, and there is no need to be sad."

Yao Guangxiao took out two pairs of insoles from his robe and handed them to Jiang Xinghuo, who had just recently gone to Ningbo and returned to his hometown in Changzhou County, Suzhou Prefecture.

Jiang Xinghuo took the insole: "Is your old sister okay?" ”

"It's okay, she just told me that she couldn't eat with a toothache recently, but she lost all her teeth."

"That is, gum pain, first use ice cubes to relieve pain, then rinse your mouth with more green salt and water, and then send someone to bring some allicin in the past, maybe it can reduce inflammation and swelling."

Yao Guangxiao nodded, his bald head shining in the moonlight.

He asked again, "How is the cultivation of penicillin by Kong Xilu?" ”

"I have poisoned three death row inmates in the Imperial Prison, and they are all walking peacefully."

“.”

"It doesn't seem easy."

"It's not easy to do, and science rarely succeeds overnight."

The conversation between the two was as aimless as ever, and the old friend chatted casually over tea, talking wherever he wanted.

"Zhu Yunwen has been dead for so long, and the remnants of the violent Zhao haven't been caught yet?" Jiang Xinghuo suddenly asked.

"Discipline Gang raises self-respect."

Yao Guangxiao smiled meaninglessly: "Otherwise, how would he complete the indicators of the test method?" ”

Yes, two this year, three next year, as long as it is not uprooted, then there will always be work.

It's not the Hongwu Dynasty now, there aren't so many opportunities for Lianxing Prison, these eagle dogs like Jinyiwei are snorting on weekdays, and the only task that can be called a little valuable is gone, how can they mix?

After all, Jinyiwei also issued a year-end reward package.

Obviously, although the test method is very useful, as time goes by, the people below have also figured out the bugs.

Of course, if it is placed in another department, this kind of thing that has not been done for several years will definitely be deducted, but Jinyiwei is more special, so the emperor sees through it and lets them mix.

"I'm going to have to get some work for them." Jiang Xinghuo thought for a while and said.

"For example?"

"Go to Liaodong to hunt the head of the Jurchens, go to Korea to win over the Korean magnates, and go to the Japanese daimyo to spy on intelligence. There's a lot of work, so why do you always stay in the country? ”

"Then you can please tune it up, and you can do it on a piece of paper." Yao Guangxiao drank another cup of tea, people feel less when they are old, and the more they drink, the more energetic they are.

Jiang Xinghuo replied: "Well, when the time comes, let Cao Song go to Beijing with me, let him bring a batch of people, Japan's affairs should be taken care of as soon as possible, it is difficult to complete the scheduled reconnaissance mission just by relying on those spies and the people of the White Lotus Sect in the early stage How did the Timurid Khanate conduct reconnaissance in order to expedition to the Ming Dynasty, do you see?" ”

"See, it's really hard work."

Yao Guangxiao also sighed a little, he had seen the captured map drawn by the Timurid Khanate, which spent more than ten years sending countless merchant groups and missions, and was stunned to study the terrain of the northwest of the Ming Dynasty more thoroughly than the Ming Dynasty.

"We can look down on Japan strategically, but we must not also lose sight of what should be prepared tactically. When we arrived in Beijing, some preparations for the cross-sea expedition should be done. ”

Yao Guangxiao nodded, and only said: "In fact, the cross-sea conquest of Japan, in my opinion, is not the most important thing, although Japan has a population of tens of millions, but after all, the Muromachi shogunate's internal suppression is not strong, so many feudal states oppose the shogunate, and there is no unified concept of identity, as long as the Ming clearly states that they do not intend to annex the whole of Japan, it is difficult for them to unite under the shogunate because of the Ming expedition, but will take advantage of the strong reinforcement of the Ming Dynasty, revenge and revenge, and overthrow the Muromachi shogunate." ”

"I think the most important thing is the progress of obtaining the four important weapons of the country."

Yao Guangxiao looked at the floating tea leaves in the teacup, his expression was a little solemn.

"The steam engine is one, and the potato, corn, and sweet potato are three."

"Everything else is secondary, for Daming, there is only the icing on the cake, and the things that can really determine the fortune of Daming are these four things."

"The steam engine thing. Alas. ”

Jiang Xinghuo relied on his memory to guide the senior technicians of the workshop to rub out the prototype for the test, but the prototype and the finished product are two different things at all.

The steam engine in the early days of the Industrial Revolution was used to pump water from the mining area, and the steam engine developed by the Ming Dynasty is also a pumping steam engine.

The pumping steam engine is mainly composed of a pot, a fire chamber, a condensing chamber, a cylinder, a piston and other parts, the pot is used to hold water, the fire chamber is used to burn fuel to heat the water in the pot, the condensing chamber is used to cool the steam, the cylinder is used to hold the steam, and the piston is used to convert the pressure of the steam into power.

Sounds simple, right?

The whole working process is nothing more than adding water to the pot, igniting the fuel to heat the water in the pot, the water is heated and evaporated to produce steam, the steam enters the cylinder to push the piston to move, the pressure of the steam is converted into power, and the piston drives the gear to rotate, thereby driving the pump to work and pumping out the water in the mine.

This thing can be used in mining areas to pump water, can be used in mill grinding, and improved models can also be used in textile, papermaking and other industries that have been in the Ming Dynasty, which can be described as having unlimited prospects.

But the problem is that the ideal is very plump, and the reality is very skinny.

Now the trial production of the steam engine not only has poor piston efficiency (even worse than manual shaking), and the exhaust gas is extremely serious, but if it is only these, then it is not unacceptable, the exhaust gas is far away, and the piston efficiency is poor to find a way to improve, in fact, the most important thing is that the airtightness can not be solved.

If it is a structural problem, then it can be solved very easily with the amazing structural technology played by Chinese craftsmen, but the problem of airtightness is not so easy to solve.

Craftsmen have tried lead pads and copper pads, but the actual effect is not ideal, the steam leakage phenomenon is more serious, the work efficiency is low, and it will be frequently damaged.

For this reason, Jiang Xinghuo specially ordered the overseas staff of Daming Fruit Co., Ltd. to find rubber trees well, he didn't know how to solve the airtightness of the early steam engine, but the rubber must be right.

The rubber tree was found, and the rubber was shipped back, but how to get vulcanized rubber for sealing has not been solved until now.

Jiang Xinghuo took out a stack of drawings from under the desk in the study and spread them out on the table, which was the design sketch of the steam engine, which Jiang Xinghuo drew by himself, and every stroke contained his expectations for the future.

Jiang Xinghuo sighed lightly, and his eyebrows revealed a little tiredness and helplessness: "At present, the research and development of the steam engine is indeed facing many difficulties, although the craftsmen have a deep understanding of its principle, but in the actual production process, there are still a lot of technical problems to overcome. ”

He paused, ran his finger over the drawing, and continued to explain: "The steam engine may seem simple, but the sealing issues, material selection, thermal efficiency, and other aspects involved are extremely complex. For example, this cylinder needs to withstand high temperature and high pressure water vapor, and at the same time ensure the smooth movement of the piston, which has extremely high requirements for materials. At present, the materials we can find are either unable to withstand such high temperatures and pressures, or the cost is too high to be applied on a large scale. ”

Yao Guangxiao listened very carefully, he turned the drawings over, and his eyes scanned back and forth over the drawings, as if trying to imprint these complex technical problems in his mind.

But in the end, Yao Guangxiao gave up.

He is not this material, he is good at rebellion, he is world-class in handling government affairs and military planning, but when it comes to technology, he is really not very good.

However, Yao Guangxiao is well aware of the importance of the steam engine, which is not only a new way of energy utilization, but also a major breakthrough in the future development of science and technology.

With the steam engine, there are steam trains and steam ships in Jiang Xinghuo's mouth, which not only represents a great improvement in the transportation efficiency of the empire, but also means that the speed of information transmission is accelerated.

Why is the current Ming Dynasty's power extended to the Manraka Strait almost to the limit of expansion?

To put it bluntly, the first is that there are not enough people to colonize overseas, and the second is that the efficiency of transportation and communication is too low.

Once steam trains and steamships appeared, they could not only solve the problem of border control within the Ming Dynasty, but also go to a higher level in external expansion.

A larger overseas sphere of influence means a larger raw material production area and commodity dumping market, which means that the new class of the Ming Dynasty will continue to grow in a snowballing way, and this means that it is one step closer to slaying dragons!

Yao Guangxiao pondered for a moment and asked, "Is there any solution to these difficulties?" ”

"There will always be difficulties."

Jiang Xinghuo's words changed: "But as long as we continue to explore and try, there will always be a solution." ”

"At present, the workshop has organized a group of top craftsmen, is studying the application of rubber, as long as the rubber material can be sealed well, then the loss of steam heat energy will be minimized, and then solve the problem of piston efficiency, the pumping steam engine can basically be used."

"And with the pumping steam engine, the textile steam engine and the locomotive-drawn steam engine in the back are constantly escalating."

"In the final analysis, it is the most difficult to start from nothing, and now we have to solve the problem of 'having or not'."

Yao Guangxiao nodded, and he said: "Potatoes, corn, and sweet potatoes, we have to wait for Zheng He to arrive in the west before we can consider continuing the voyage to the west." ”

"What? Can't wait to go on your own? Jiang Xinghuo teased.

Yao Guangxiao was half relieved and half helpless, and only said: "When people are old, they always want to seize the day." ”

Jiang Xinghuo refilled him with a cup of tea and diverted the topic.

"By the way, do you have any suggestions for those people in Beijing now?"

"Xu Huizu, you know, so I won't say much."

Yao Guangxiao thought for a while and said, "Gu Cheng, you have also met once, he has heard you in prison, and he appreciates many of your statements, and it is not difficult to get along with. As for the other noble and military ministers, even if you haven't seen them in Nanjing, I won't embarrass you if I think about it, because they are basically Zhu Gaoxu's good brothers. ”

"Mostly civilians."

Yao Guangxiao instructed earnestly: "After you go north, in the face of the civil officials of the Beiping department, the first task is to stabilize people's hearts. Most of these civil officials have old ties with Zhu Gaochi and have many misgivings about the new policy, so they need to treat each other with sincerity and gradually dispel their misgivings. ”

Jiang Xinghuo nodded in agreement: "I think so too, the civil officials of the Beiping Department can be said to be deeply rooted in Beizhili, and they should be gradually guided to accept the new policy by gentle means." ”

Yao Guangxiao added: "However, we can't blindly compromise, we should kill people and establish power, and select more new people to make them realize the necessity and importance of the new policy." ”

"But the most important thing is to develop the industry in the north."

Jiang Xinghuo put down the teacup and said.

"Yes, if you want to break the game now, if you want Beizhili to surpass the fixed Nanzhili data in the competition in just a few months, you can only rely on the industry with the highest multiplier to analyze it in all aspects."

(End of chapter)