golden scales

To some extent, the train represents an extension of the central authority.In the era without trains, it would take two months to travel from Beijing to Jiaozhi for a copy of the "Huangming Bulletin", and it would take an extra month for the central government's decree to prohibit the use of carrier pigeons.

Three months is enough time for many great things to happen.

But now the roaring train has extended the arm of the imperial center of the Ming Empire, allowing the court princes to understand local problems faster and mobilize troops, food, and goods at a faster speed.

Although it was only a test section and the length was only twenty miles, the thousands of kilograms of goods carried by the train, as well as His Majesty the Emperor and members of the royal family, finally arrived at the first stop outside Beijing at a faster speed.

"Your Majesty, the maximum speed of the train reached 24 miles per hour just now." The professor in charge of the train plan reported to Zhu Cihong.

The professor's surname is Tian and his name is Shuang. He is only in his early thirties. He is a proud student of Wang Kui Xingong, and he is quite accomplished and talented in the field of machinery.If it hadn't been for Zhu Cihong calling the wind and rain in this time and space, perhaps he would have a poor head and a life of poverty at the age of 50, and live his mediocre life.However, because of Zhu Cihong, his childhood hobby became a lifelong career, and brought him the opportunity to glorify his ancestors.

Zhu Cihong nodded to the young professor and said, "How much is the load?"

"The experimental cargo is six thousand catties." Tian Shuang said, "but the theoretical data is around twelve thousand catties."

"Because I'm heavier." Zhu Cihong joked.

Tian Shuang also laughed, and said: "Your Majesty shoulders the sun and the moon, and holds the mountains and rivers in his hands. How can you not be heavy?"

This time because His Majesty the Emperor asked to experience the train in person.Therefore, of course the compartment cannot be fully loaded. Judging from the previous experiments, the danger of being fully loaded is much higher than that of being empty. Several accidents have occurred due to excessive loading.

Zhu Cilang looked at the platform from the window. Because he adopted his design concept, it is not much different from the later railway platform.He asked, "How is Mr. Kui Xin?"

Tian Shuang suddenly became depressed, and said, "I'm afraid I won't be able to see the Beijing-Tianjin line run through."

Wang Zheng has lived an extremely long life in this era.At the beginning of the establishment of the Beijing-Tianjin Line, he no longer had the physical strength and energy to be responsible for the actual work, so he made an exception and pushed his closed disciple to the foreground, that is, Tian Shuang.He gave Tian Shuang the honor of building the first railway in Ming Dynasty, which just shows his expectation and attention to Tian Shuang.

This can be regarded as his greatest legacy.

Zhu Cilang recalled his correspondence with Wang Zheng, the step-by-step progress from Technical College to Jingshi University, and even the awarding of the Kui Xin Award.

"Forget it, I won't go down anymore. Let's go back to Beijing after refilling coal." Zhu Cihong said.

Tian Shuang was ordered to come out and immediately went to make arrangements.

There were only five princes left in the carriage, sitting around the emperor.

Zhu Hegui looked at his father, feeling quite distressed.He thought for a while, and finally persuaded: "Father, please don't be sad, and the salary will be passed on. Kui Xingong can see this train. He must be satisfied."

Zhu Cihong took a deep breath and said, "It's not sad, it's just loss." He paused and said, "A hero should not be afraid of life and death. The only regret is that he can't see his career achieve success. Mr. Li Ge was still worried before he died. Those are loyal ministers, whether they will follow the old path of death and government if they pass the examination."

In the twelfth lunar month of the tenth year of Longjing, Li Yuzhi passed away. An hour before his farewell, he also met with a visiting official from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and asked in detail about the improvement and implementation of the examination method.The official's visit was just an accidental visit, and Li Yuzhi also intervened in political affairs this time after he became an official, which seemed to be God's will.

The Crown Prince knew that His Majesty the Emperor was depressed after hearing the news of Li Yuzhi's death.Today, I also learned that Wang Kuixin's death is approaching, and the bustling travel has become depressing.

"Father, Li Gelao's posthumous title has not yet been agreed." Zhu Hegui said: "There seems to be quite a dispute between Wen Zhong and Wen Zheng."

"Why didn't I know there was such a controversy?" Zhu Cihong asked back.

Zhu Hegui was a little surprised, and said puzzledly: "The Hanlin Academy and the Imperial Academy have had a quarrel for a long time, and it was also in the newspaper... How could the father not know?"

"Father means that there is no need to worry about this matter!" The second son of the emperor, Zhu Heqi, suddenly interjected: "Wenzhong or Wenzheng, it depends on what they report in the end. If it doesn't suit Father's wishes, Father Naturally, Wenzheng can be bestowed, which is called kindness from the top; if it suits the father's wishes, it will naturally go along with the flow, and this is what everyone expects. Right, father."

Zhu Hegui looked at his younger brother coldly, and said, "You can be more presumptuous and show Father."

Zhu Cihong touched the back of the second child's head: "This is not presumptuous, he can say it because he is worried about you as an older brother."

Zhu Hegui was quite reluctant, and his face became more and more ugly.Although no one said anything to him, he felt more and more that his father's love for him was shared with his younger brothers.Recalling that back then he never left his father, and he played games with him, but now the people who have always been with his father have become the second and third children.

The third child is still young, let alone talk about him, but the second child is getting more and more presumptuous, quite disregarding him as an older brother.

Seeing that the boss looked bad, Zhu Cihong said to Zhu Heqi again: "Anyway, there should be no estrangement between brothers, but the way of monarch and minister should be scruples. Your emperor brother is the vice-lord after all, even if there is something that you can't worry about for a while , you should also pay attention to the way of persuasion and advice.”

"He, hehe, there are so many things he can't worry about." Zhu Heqi said carelessly, "And he's a deadhead!"

"You!" Zhu Hegui was about to get angry immediately, seeing his father looking over, he restrained himself from attacking.

"How to say?" Zhu Cihong looked at the second child again.

"The last math test, he scratched his head for a long time. I threw him the answer, but he didn't know how to copy it." Zhu Heqi said.

Zhu Cihong nodded, and said: "This is your brother's honesty, cheating on exams is not an honor anywhere."

Only then did Zhu Hegui feel warm on his face, and said: "It's unwise to lie to yourself, it's dishonest to lie to your husband, it's even more dishonest to lie to your father, you are really daring!"

"Father, didn't these creeds come out of the rotten Confucians? Brother Huang is a vice-lord. Are you still bound by this?" Zhu Heqi dissatisfied.

"What rotten scholars! They are all gentlemen! They are my husband. They are also your husband!" Zhu Hegui had already shouted.

Zhu Cihong held down the two sons, and said: "Don't make noise, Father has a headache." The children's voices were too loud, and chattering really gave people a headache.

"First of all," Zhu Cihong turned to Zhu Heqi, "it's definitely wrong to call you gentlemen corrupt scholars. As descendants of China, how can we distinguish ourselves from the barbarians? It's because we have great etiquette. We have inner beliefs and principles for dealing with the world. These etiquettes Beliefs, beliefs, and principles are the rules taught by the gentlemen. We must respect the ancestors, respect the elders, honor our parents, love the young, and be sincere to others... and so on. the difference?"

Zhu Heqi curled his lips and bowed his head in silence.

"As for you," Zhu Cihong turned to the crown prince, "how could your math, physics and chemistry scores be so bad?"

Zhu Hegui didn't expect his father to ask this, and it was difficult to answer for a while.

"Do you think that as long as you learn the way of a sage, you can govern the country?" Zhu Cihong didn't wait for his son to answer.He also said: "Where is the root of the way of learning? Investigate things to know the four words. Numeracy, physics and chemistry are all studies of gewu, and the purpose is still to learn. If you can't study things, you can't get to know. Wouldn't you be fooled by others in the end?"

Zhu Hegui lowered his head and said in his heart: I don't know what the gentlemen are thinking. It's really annoying to have a [-]-point system instead of good and good grades!When I become emperor, gentlemen will no longer be allowed to use the hundred-point system to evaluate students.

In fact, the [-]-point system was implemented as early as the popularization of elementary school, but it was not adopted in religious studies.In earlier royal education.The husband is also a courtier, how can a courtier judge a gentleman?So there is no examination and assessment at all, it is just that the teacher explains the content clearly so that the students can understand it.

The chief culprit in implementing the percentage system in Zongxue is Zhu Cihong.

He found out from Mr. Zong Xue that the liberal arts teacher had a high evaluation of the crown prince, but the science teacher had an average evaluation, and even thought that the second prince was more handsome than the crown prince.This is obviously a signal of partiality, and it has not been noticed, because there is no strict evaluation with the percentage system.

From the second half of the tenth year of Longjing, Zongxue will also conduct exams and grades to grasp the knowledge mastery of the students.As a result, the crown prince was beaten back to his original form, and his performance in natural science subjects such as mathematics, physics and chemistry was very dangerous.

"My son was wrong." Zhu Hegui readily admitted his mistake.In his childhood experience, as long as he admits his mistakes, his father will not blame him anymore, this trick has been tried and tested repeatedly.

"Don't laugh, your Guoxue grades are also very problematic." Zhu Cihong turned to the second child and said, "It's good to get [-] points in history and geography, but why is it only [-] points in ancient prose?"

"The teacher is eccentric," Zhu Heqi twitched his neck, "They all photographed the emperor's horses, deliberately not giving me high marks."

Zhu and Guideng were not happy for a while, and said: "You let the emperor read what you wrote, and you want to get a high score even if you are deviant!"

Zhu Cihong glared at the eldest son, and said again: "I really haven't read what you wrote, but you should be upright. What did you write?"

"That is to say, there are many chickens in the neighbor's house..." Zhu Heqi muttered.

Zhu Cihong quickly realized that these were actually some fables mocking Mencius.

In "Mencius" there is a story about a man who steals his neighbor's chickens every day. When the man was told that stealing chickens is not a gentleman's way, he said: "Then I will steal one every month, and I will do it next year." Mencius thought that since he knew it was wrong to do so, why wait for next year?It should be corrected quickly.

The idea of ​​this story is good, the key is that the second son does not believe that there are so many chickens in the neighbor's house that can be stolen.

"There is also that beggar in Qi who married one wife and one concubine. He said Mencius was lying, how could a beggar have so much money!" Zhu Hegui exposed.

Zhu Heqi's eyes drifted to the ceiling, apparently not taking it seriously.

When encountering such a student, it is no wonder that the gentlemen have a headache.

"What did the gentlemen tell you?" Zhu Cihong asked.

"They said, this is just a metaphor and cannot be compared to the truth." Zhu Heqi said.

"Indeed," Zhu Cihong nodded, "In order to reason, Mencius would use exaggerated techniques to highlight the absurdity of some behaviors. This does not mean that Mencius is nonsense."

"Isn't he Yasheng? What if someone believes it?" Zhu Heqi still asked seriously.

"The sub-sage was conferred by later generations. As for some people distorting and misinterpreting the wisdom of the sages, it cannot be said that the sages were wrong." Zhu Cihong said.

Zhu Hegui was a little puzzled when he heard this, and thought to himself: The emperor's accomplishments in investigating things are praised by the world, but how could he also defend the sages?Didn't Grandpa Huang also say that his father's knowledge is not pure enough and that he lacks respect for the ancestors?

"Anyway, I feel bored, and I always use the words of this and that to lecture others." Zhu Heqi said: "If what is said makes sense, even if an eunuch says it, I will listen to it. Why bring 'son' out?"

Zhu Cihong smiled and said, "Your attitude is right."

"Ah?" Hegui and Qi sighed unexpectedly at the same time.

"The truth is put there, not because of who said it, but because it is the truth. If you follow this principle, hello, me, hello, everyone. If you violate this principle, the sky will be angry and everyone will blame everyone." Zhu Cihong said: "The so-called sages and sages, It is nothing more than summing up this truth for others to see, enlightening the wisdom of the ignorant, that's all."

Zhu Heqi got the support of his father, and he was quite excited. Just as he was about to say some unorthodox words, Zhu Cihong had already slapped him on the head: "But you are not Confucius and Mencius, obviously not because you have grasped something more real than Confucius and Mencius." It’s just because you have to fight against what people say! If you don’t follow the way of Confucius and Mencius, you should at least find out what kind of people Confucius and Mencius were and what they said.”

"As for the Crown Prince," Zhu Cihong turned to the eldest son, "It's good that you are willing to study knowledge intensively, but don't be a parrot that only learns tongues. It is true to have your own understanding. After all, the world is changing. Of course, we can learn from history. However, we must also consider the differences of each era. For example, until today, there are still great Confucian scholars who hope to restore the well field system, because the well field system was the foundation of the 800-year kingship of the Zhou Dynasty.

"In his view, the restoration of the well field system will also restore the people's hearts, and it will allow the Ming Dynasty to continue for 800 years. This kind of starting point is certainly good, but can we really use things from the Zhou Dynasty now? Let alone system changes , Let’s talk about the environment, did the Zhou Dynasty have trains? North China in the Zhou Dynasty was still lush with water and grass, and the Chu State was already a hot and plagued land, what about now?”

Zhu Hegui knew that his father was talking about Liu Zongzhou, including many great Confucians before Liu Zongzhou.He also once thought that the well field system was a good system, but apparently his father disagreed.

"Hegui, you're getting older too. Sometimes you can't just listen to the truth, you have to practice the truth and understand the truth." Zhu Cihong said: "Do you still remember the little horse crossing the river that the emperor told you? Isn't it in the poem? Said: What can be achieved on paper will eventually become superficial, and I never know if this matter has to be practiced.”

Zhu Hegui nodded and said, "I know." (To be continued~^~)