Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

In September, many students gathered in the capital again.

Unlike the first half of the year when the imperial examinations gathered candidates, this time the gathering was for scholars.

They were all attracted by the joint examinations of schools and wanted to be admitted to the Imperial College or the newly established University.

There were five or six hundred thousand scholars in the Ming Dynasty, and more than one hundred thousand of them took part in the joint examination.

It was impossible for all these people to come to the capital, so the preliminary examination was held in the local area, and more than 10,000 people were selected to come to the capital for the re-examination.

It can be said that these more than 10,000 people are the best among the scholars. In the future, many of them will become Juren and Jinshi.

In order to guide these people to learn science, Zhu Youjian arranged Zhang Pu to promote science in Ming Pao and at the same time conduct an experiment to stimulate their curiosity.

The Imperial College was located next to the Temple of Confucius, and a piece of vacant land was vacated for the construction of the Biyong Lecture Hall.

On this day, the open space in front of the Imperial College and the Confucian Temple was filled with students and the public.

Zhang Pu, a student from the Imperial College, held a loud speaker that looked like a suona and shouted:

"Move aside, everyone, move aside!"

"Be careful or the hot air balloon may fall down!"

He directed the students he knew to disperse the crowd.

People were walking out, but their eyes were still fixed on the frame erected in the open space, and the spherical hot air balloon with a bamboo frame and made of silk and oil paper.

The reason these people came to watch was because Zhang Pu had published the news in Ming Pao ten days ago.

Those people who wanted to watch the fun and the scholars who were waiting for the results of the re-examination were very interested in taking a look.

Fang Yizhi was one of them. He went to Beijing with his father and aunt.

His father, Fang Kongzhao, was stripped of his official title in the fifth year of the Tianqi reign because he angered Cui Chengxiu. Now that the eunuch party has fallen, he has been reinstated as a Langzhong of the Zhifang Division and serves under the Minister of War Yuan Keli.

His aunt Fang Weiyi married at the age of seventeen and soon became a widow. She returned to her natal family to live in Qingfen Pavilion. Fang Yizhi benefited greatly from her teachings when he was young.

Fang Weiyi and her sister Fang Mengshi were both talented women. Their grandfather Fang Xuejian was a descendant of the Taizhou School of Mind Learning. He once lectured at Donglin Academy and was highly praised by Gao Panlong and was mentioned together with Gu Xiancheng. Therefore, they had a profound family background, were knowledgeable and talented, and were especially good at poetry and painting, especially painting Guanyin images.

The current emperor advocates the belief in Jiulian Guanyin Bodhisattva and once summoned famous artists to paint a portrait of Jiulian Guanyin Bodhisattva based on the portrait of Empress Dowager Li enshrined in the Yinghua Hall of the palace.

Fang Weiyi was quite interested in this, and heard that the capital was going to hold an autumn auction and calligraphy and painting exhibition with many famous paintings on display, so he came to the capital to watch it with his brother who had been reinstated and his nephew who was taking the joint entrance examination.

I didn't expect to encounter this incident before I even saw the calligraphy and painting exhibition. Fang Weiyi sat in the carriage and called Fang Yizhi:

"Xiaozhi, did you see that?"

“Did the hot air balloon rise?”

Fang Yizhi turned around and said loudly:

"It hasn't risen yet!"

“We are still checking.”

He watched with interest as Lu Xiang, the head of Wensi Academy, and some engineers and tailors from the Shangyijian, inspected the hot air balloon there.

This was the first time that Lu Xiang appeared in public since he became the Secretary of Shaofu Temple.

The emperor asked him to build a hot air balloon in order to quell the controversy surrounding his position as the Minister of the Imperial Household.

After all, printing technology and firearms are all confidential. To dispel the outside world's criticism, public results are needed.

Lu Xiang attached great importance to this matter and had already conducted several experiments in advance. He even put animals on it to verify that the animals could survive after being launched into the air.

However, he was still very cautious about this public test. After checking several times, he ignited the gas.

This time, he wanted to successfully fly into the sky in front of the public. After Tao Chengdao, he became another craftsman who tried to fly into the sky. After the inspection was completed, Lu Xiang ordered the ignition, and the hot air balloon gradually rose up under the rising heat.

The people around cheered loudly, looking forward to what was to come.

Fang Yizhi even opened the carriage and let his aunt watch together.

At this moment, Lu Xiang stepped into the basket under the hot air balloon and asked someone to move the stones inside.

As the things in the basket became lighter and lighter, it slowly rose up with the people.

When the people around saw this scene, they cheered loudly, thinking they had seen a miracle:

"Flying!"

“This is the real flying!”

"Lu Gong is truly a master craftsman!"

From time to time, people praised him, saying that Lv Xiang and Lu Ban were still alive.

After all, although Lu Ban's flying bird can fly for three days and three nights, I have never heard that it can carry people to the sky.

Lu Xiang invented the hot air balloon and was the first person to successfully fly into space.

It rose about ten feet, and the rope connected to the ground was straight. Lu Xiang stood in the sky, looking at the ground tremblingly.

Looking at the crowd of people on the ground and the palace in the distance, his heart was filled with gratitude towards the emperor. He could not help but bow in the direction of the palace and said loudly:

"Long live my emperor! Long live! Long live!"

The people below also shouted loudly, and for a moment, shouts of "Long live the emperor" rang out around the Imperial Academy.

Everyone knows that Lu Xiang built the hot air balloon under the emperor's instructions.

The Son of Heaven who can send people to heaven is truly the true God in the world!

When Fang Weiyi saw this scene, she also felt awe for the emperor. She originally had some objections to the emperor using Jiulian Bodhisattva instead of Guanyin Bodhisattva, but now she no longer thinks so.

An emperor who can communicate with gods, predict droughts, and even send people to heaven, who can deny the gods he canonized?

Not only did she now agree that Jiulian Bodhisattva was Guanyin Bodhisattva, she even wanted to see the face of Empress Dowager Li and draw a portrait of Jiulian Guanyin.

Fang Yizhi also shouted loudly, delighted by the scene before him.

Although this hot air balloon looked somewhat similar to a Kongming lantern to him, how could it not be exciting to be able to fly?

In the sky, after Lu Xiang thanked the emperor, he stood up in the basket, holding a loud speaker and shouted:
"The emperor has issued a decree: Who can explain the principle of hot air balloons taking off and use science to calculate buoyancy?"

"The emperor will confer the title of 100 households, and specially grant the status of a Yuanshi!"

This intention made the crowd even more excited and they discussed the principle of how hot air balloons take off.

What they discussed most was the so-called science and the buoyancy mentioned by the emperor.

Fang Yizhi was also frowning, thinking hard, wondering why hot air balloons could take off. Why was it that if Kongming lanterns were made bigger, they could carry people into the sky?
It can be said that this hot air balloon launch experiment successfully attracted people's attention to science and the discussion of buoyancy.

Zhang Pu even followed what the emperor said and put forward the concepts of thermal expansion and contraction, cold air and hot air in Ming Pao.

It points out that when air is heated, its volume expands, and since air density is small and weight is light, the hot air rises, driving the hot air balloon into the sky.

But he did not explain how to calculate buoyancy, because even Zhu Youjian did not quite understand it.

The explanation he asked Zhang Pu to put forward was to stimulate discussion and attract students of the Ming Dynasty to explore scientific principles.

Fang Yizhi and others were inspired by this experiment and began to explore science. (End of this chapter)