Early Ming Dynasty: Turning Clouds and Rains into New Learning Saints

Chapter 256 Zhu Yuanzhang’s considerations
Upon hearing Zhang Yifan's affirmation, Zhu Di immediately became serious and said to Zhang Yifan: "This is no good. We can't teach in such a public way. I will immediately send troops to control all the students attending the class. If your class is spread, we will What should I do if my enemies also know about this?"

After hearing this, Xu Da, Lan Yu and others immediately nodded in agreement.

"That's right, it can replace animal power, it's very useful!"

"Especially a ship that does not rely on wind power and is invincible in naval battles. It really cannot be known to the enemy!"

Zhang Yifan was a little dumbfounded when he heard their statements. He didn't expect that they thought so.

When he came back to his senses, Zhang Yifan burst out laughing when he saw that Zhu Di and others were indeed very serious.

"What's wrong? Did I make a mistake?" When Zhu Di saw it, he frowned and said a little dissatisfied, "Yifan, let me tell you, you must pay attention to this matter, just like the improvement of firearms, it must not be made public It’s taught!”

Zhang Yifan still laughed after hearing this. After laughing for a while, he suppressed his laughter and asked Zhu Di: "Do you think that kind of power device can be made just by doing it?"

"Isn't it?" After hearing this, Zhu Di felt that he was being laughed at by his brother-in-law. There must be something wrong, but he couldn't think of anything wrong, so he still argued, "Speaking of it, it's just a matter of boiling water. Isn’t it simple?”

What he said is indeed correct. In fact, it is just boiling water. Even when nuclear power generation comes later, it is still just boiling water.Many technologies in the future will boil water.

Zhang Yifan listened and nodded. Zhu Di was overjoyed when he changed the subject and said, "Although it is indeed boiling water, do you know what technologies are needed to make a truly useful power device?"

Zhu Di heard that the next step was probably professional knowledge, and he couldn't tell, but he still asked casually: "What does it need to be related to?"

"Steel smelting, processing, the invention and use of lathes, etc.!" Zhang Yifan became serious and talked eloquently, "It also includes the principle of energy conversion, work, pressure, etc. It's not easy to say, although I have already attended two sections. The class inspired them, but it would be impossible for them to do it alone.”

Zhu Di, Xu Da and others were speechless after hearing this.

They didn't expect that from the prince's words, there was a lot of knowledge involved, and it was something they had never heard of.

How come there is such a big gap between this person and other people!

Looking at the expressions of the few of them, Zhang Yifan was not complacent, but continued to say with a very serious expression: "No matter what, after this kind of power device is released, others will know how to make this kind of thing after seeing it. But the key point is that the technology produced is not something that ordinary people can master. For example, Meng Yuan, relying on their craftsman ability, I put things in front of them and let them imitate them, and they may not be able to make them. !”

Hearing this, Zhu Di, Xu Da and others suddenly relaxed.

At present, the biggest enemy of Daming is Meng Yuan. They can't even learn it, at least they can make Zhu Di and the others feel at ease.

Zhang Yifan, on the other hand, continued: "Why? Because the reserve capacity of their craftsmen cannot be compared with that of our Central Plains dynasty. Behind this power device, it involves smelting and other aspects. If our Ming Dynasty wants to continue to maintain its lead, we must We must stay ahead on the basis of craftsmen, or in terms of talent pool. What I mean is that the talents in all walks of life are leading. This is why I want to carry forward my new learning and want my father to add the new learning to social studies and add more One of the reasons for entering the imperial examination in the future."

"In the future, if the imperial court only pays attention to the Four Books and Five Classics, and only Confucianism, it will inevitably be surpassed by other countries. Don't just look at the small countries around our Ming Dynasty. The world is very big, and the places Genghis Khan visited are all there. Seek change. Don’t underestimate the progress of craftsmanship.”

"Not to mention the future, we can look back at history. From the use of bronze to the use of steel, human progress was not made possible by Confucianism, but by the progress of craftsmen. How much impact did the emergence of firearms have on swords, guns, swords and halberds? The few of you should be very clear. All of this can show that the advancement of technology is what we humans need to pay the most attention to if we want to stay ahead."

"..."

Taking advantage of this topic, Zhang Yifan expanded the concept of technological progress and talked about it with eloquence.

When they saw Zhu Di, Xu Da and others, they were very shocked.

They could understand the examples given by the Prince Consort from ancient times to the present, and then to the future.It can be said that this is the first time that they have realized how important the craftsman's work is at an unprecedented level?
Although it is said that these people in ancient times paid more attention to craftsmen.Any army, including the barbaric grassland tribal army, would do all kinds of crimes by burning, killing and looting, but they would not kill craftsmen, but plunder them back for use.

However, they will only be based on the plunder of current craftsmen, and will rarely encourage these craftsmen to invent and create.

But now, Zhang Yifan said that this craftsman attaches great importance to them, which is unprecedented to their ears.It also lets them understand how important the improvement of craftsman skills will be to the country!

After Zhu Di listened, his expression was also very serious. After a moment of silence, he said to Zhang Yifan solemnly: "Tomorrow I will leave for Liaodong to take charge. Before I leave, I will write a memorial to my father. I Support your new learning so that more students in Ming Dynasty can learn and improve my knowledge in Ming Dynasty."

Xu Da also nodded and said: "We are all leaving tomorrow. Listening to your remarks before leaving is really eye-opening!"

........................

While Zhang Yifan used the steam engine as an example to teach his students physics knowledge in Peiping, the memorials of Zhu Di and Xu Da were sent to the capital and to the imperial court within a short time.

Zhu Yuanzhang was also shocked after seeing their memorial.

Zhang Yifan was escorted by the Jinyi guards he sent there.Of course, Zhang Yifan's words and deeds will be reported to him regularly.

However, the report from Captain Jinyi did not attract his attention as much as Zhu Di and Xu Da's special report to him.Moreover, Zhu Di and Xu Da wrote a memorial specifically for the importance of Zhang Yifan's new learning.

If Zhu Di is still young and is nothing in this regard, then Xu Da and others are old enough and have a good vision. Even he is very sure of Zhang Yifan's new learning, so it is different.

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang himself believed that he paid enough attention to the knowledge of his eldest son-in-law.But I didn’t expect that judging from these two memorials, it definitely wasn’t taken seriously enough.

In connection with the principle of boiling water, Xu Da pointed out the importance of Zhang Yifan's knowledge from various aspects.At the end of the memorial, Xu Da even felt that craftsmanship is so important that it is necessary to look at it from the perspective of the past.And Zhang Yifan's new learning is the knowledge and tools to improve craftsmanship.If Zhang Yifan's knowledge is popularized, then the strength of the Ming Dynasty's national power is definitely not just talk.

Holding the memorials of Zhu Di and Xu Da in his hands, Zhu Yuanzhang fell into deep thought.

At this time, he had actually been preparing for the resumption of the imperial examination.Because of the disadvantages of the recommendation system, it is very easy to form cliques, which he does not allow.

Moreover, most of the so-called talents recommended by the recommendation system were not very satisfactory to him except at the beginning. There was even an obvious sign that as the recommendation system was implemented for a longer period of time, the talents recommended became more and more unsatisfactory. Difference.Therefore, it is imperative to resume the imperial examination.

However, the imperial examination, which was resumed for the first time after the founding of the People's Republic of China, had too many problems and eventually forced him to stop it.

Over the years, he has been looking for a new way of imperial examination.It must be fair, and it must select those who are truly knowledgeable, and it must be only those selected by the imperial examination who have a heart of loyalty to the emperor.

All in all, it is to be able to maintain the rule of his Zhu family in the world.

To this end, he chose between Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, and finally decided to choose Confucianism as the content of the imperial examination.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang was not completely satisfied with Confucianism, so he spent a lot of effort to revise Confucianism.

First, he determined to use Zhu Xi's theory of the Southern Song Dynasty as the basis, and then promoted Confucius and Mencius, revised many of Mencius' quotations, and even took away his statue.Because Mencius advocated the saying that "the people are the most important and the king is the least".

At the end of the 14th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang actually did so many things for his imperial examination and was almost ready.

Some time ago, Zhang Yifan proposed to be a saint of the Ming Dynasty and wanted to put his knowledge into social studies for the world to learn.

He himself was actually a little hesitant. Although it was not included in the imperial examination, it would eventually be allowed to be studied by the people of the world in an official name.

However, all the civil and military officials were very enthusiastic and wanted to learn Zhang Yifan's new knowledge. Zhu Yuanzhang himself also considered that Zhang Yifan's knowledge could indeed bring in money and was useful knowledge, so he agreed and wanted to select fifty students to try it out.

Unexpectedly, the newly exposed knowledge reached a new height with the affirmation of Zhu Di and Xu Da.

Both of them quoted Zhang Yifan in their memorials, saying that whether the new learning was popular or not had a lot to do with whether the dynasty was strong and stable.

In this way, it was impossible for Zhu Yuanzhang not to pay attention to it.Whether the dynasty is stable or not, whether the dynasty is strong or not, and whether the dynasty is long-lasting or not, are what he cares about most.He will not allow anything that conflicts with this to exist.

After thinking about these things for a long time, Zhu Yuanzhang looked up at his eldest son who had been waiting in front of him. Prince Zhu Biao said: "I want to call Yifan back, but Jing Jing has just arrived in Peking with her child. , and you have to travel a lot, are you afraid there will be something wrong?"

Most likely, he wanted Zhang Yifan, so he didn't want Zhang Yifan's son to have an accident because of him going back and forth.

Of course, that was his eldest grandson, so it was also related.

However, he did not want to delay the important matter of the imperial examination that he was about to announce, and thought that he must talk to Zhang Yifan in person.

It wasn't that he didn't expect to send his son Zhu Biao to go there, but he felt that this matter was too important. Even if Zhu Biao, who would be the emperor in the future, went to talk about it, he still wouldn't worry.

At this time, Zhu Biao heard his father's words. Although he still didn't understand why he wanted to call Yifan back, he naturally knew that there must be something important before he had this idea.

So, he thought for a moment and replied: "The weather in the north is getting colder, which is not very good for children. We can let Yifan and his family go south to spend the winter. There is no time limit on the road, and it should be fine."

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, his face brightened and he said: "Yes, yes, it should be better to come to the capital for the winter. It's still too cold in the north."

This was a good reason for Zhang Yifan's family, and he made up his mind. Regardless of the fact that those students had just arrived in the north, he issued another imperial edict and rushed to Peking.

………………

A few days later, Zhang Yifan from Peiping received the imperial edict and was speechless.

The imperial decree sent by the fast horse asked his family to go back to spend the winter, and the reason for such a rush back and forth in a year, the reason for such a toss, is still vaguely attributed to Zhang Yifan's too much tossing, and the Liaodong War, which was originally thought to be several years, was directly carried out within half a year. It's over.

Of course, Zhu Yuanzhang was also very considerate. Just like Zhu Jingjing when he went north, Zhang Yifan and his family asked the local officials along the way to receive them as the first priority when they took the students south. If there was any neglect, it would be severely punished.

In the imperial edict, Zhu Yuanzhang certainly did not say that it was because he wanted to discuss new learning matters with Zhang Yifan.However, Zhang Yifan had actually guessed it.

In this era, Zhang Yifan must be one of the people Zhu Yuanzhang knows well.He said such big words at that time, it would be strange if he did not alarm Zhu Yuanzhang.

That’s okay, it’s still too cold in the north.If you want to spend the winter, Xiangshan County is a good place.

But now, it is better to go back to Nanjing.

So, after receiving the order, Zhang Yifan wrote a letter to Zhu Di, went to Prince Yan's Mansion to say goodbye to Princess Yan, and made arrangements for things in the north.For example, there are arrangements for meat floss factories, fish floss factories, breeding farms, etc., and then they lead the students and head south in a mighty way.

These fifty students are all accompanied by servants and guards, at least most of them.Including Zhang Yifan's side, that's a team of 200 people, which is definitely huge.

If it were an ordinary team, it would definitely be a headache to host them locally. After all, it would cost a lot of money.

However, it is different when the Prince Consort, Rong Guo Gong’s family and his students go south, because this is the God of Wealth!

The local squires were the most active and rushed to entertain them. Even if they just heard a few words from the Ming God of Wealth, it might be of great help.

In this way, Zhang Yifan and his party spent almost two months on the road, stopping and going. It was not until the end of the 14th year of Hongwu that they finally returned to the capital.

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(End of this chapter)