Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 741
In fact, since the three scholars came to Xiangfu Kingdom, they found that there were too many things that made them curious and had never heard of it.Among other things, Xiangfu Kingdom's recent vigorous military reforms and the authentic Xiangfu Academy are unheard of.

This time, Ye Chen took advantage of the reorganization and replacement of the seven major armies of the Xiangfu Kingdom, and ordered the Military Council to carry out some reforms on the army.

Generally speaking, there are three aspects.

First, implement the military salute system within the army, and cancel all kneeling salutes.Ye Chen was originally a soldier in the later generations, so he directly copied the salute of the great People's Liberation Army of the later generations.

Second, the military organization has undergone a major change. Ye Chen combined the modern military system of later generations to organize the Xiangfu country's army from top to bottom into six levels: legion, brigade, battalion, company, platoon, and squad, and further refined the types of arms divided.At present, each of the seven major legions has 2 people, and has four combat brigades, one engineering battalion, a supply battalion, one health company, and one police investigation company.Among them, each brigade has 4000 and 50 people, and has four battalions and a police investigation platoon under its jurisdiction. Each battalion has 1000 people, and the police investigation platoon has 250 people. , on the whole, all legions adopt the 'four-four system'.The engineer battalion and the supply battalion each have 1000 people, and the health company, the police investigation company, and the two-level staff of the corps and brigade add up to 1000 people.As for the composition of the four combat brigades of the Seven Great Legions, except that the four brigades of the Xuanwu Legion are one heavy cavalry brigade, one light cavalry brigade, and two infantry brigades.The other six armies of White Tiger, Suzaku, Qinglong, Zhelan, White Wolf, and Black Wolf have the same organization and distribution, with two light cavalry brigades and two infantry brigades.

Thirdly, the soldiers of the seven major legions will be sent to the training department in turn to teach the brigade for an intensive training, and the officers will also take turns to undergo a one-month training in the newly established military academy.One of the main contents of these two trainings is to let the whole army memorize the various regulations and rules set by Ye Chen himself.

Such a thorough reform of the army quickly caused an uproar within the entire army of Xiangfu Kingdom, except that the kneeling salute was changed to a military salute, which was warmly welcomed by all soldiers.Naturally, many people objected to the other two aspects. For example, the party cavalry in the White Wolf and Black Wolf Legions naturally did not want to be assigned to other legions, nor did they want to form an army with the Han infantry.Another example is that Zhe Yuxun of the Zhelan Legion neither wants to divert his troops, nor does he want to shift defense.But under the forcible suppression of Li Guangshun and Tuoba Gelu, coupled with the prestige that Ye Chen gradually built up in the hearts of the party members, finally after Li Guangshun and Tuoba Gelu each killed two assassins to make an example, they went All reforms were completed smoothly and smoothly.

But when Zhe Yuxun saw that the party members were so obedient, and the family members of all the officers of the Zhelan Army from him down were still under the control of the court, he finally obediently obeyed the order despite being unwilling.

After Ren Pengbo and the other three felt the novelty of Xiangfu country's military reform, they began to discuss Xiangfu Academy again.

At this time, Ren Pengbo said: "Throughout the dynasties, when academies were set up in various places, either with the support of local officials or with the joint efforts of gentry, it was possible to maintain the daily expenses of an academy. Scholars like you and me are probably not rich. It is farming at ordinary times, studying in leisure time, half farming and half studying, so that we can barely make a living. This Xiangfu Academy is completely different."

Yan Jingguo also said with emotion: "Yes! The biggest difficulty in running an academy is how to ensure the life of the academy's scholars. It is not an easy task to support these many people for a long time. For example, several academies in the Song Dynasty It is funded by local gentry and wealthy merchants, but the imperial court will not pay a penny."

Zhou Runzhong said: "This Xiangfu Academy... Oh! No, all the expenses of Xiangfu Academy are covered by the financial affairs of the Xiangfu Kingdom. This is somewhat similar to the Guozijian."

Ren Pengbo shook his head and said: "Xiangfu Academy is very different from Guozijian. In the past, the imperial court had to pay monthly salary to the scholars who went to school, but all the scholars who came to study in Xiangfu Academy had to pay half of the tuition fee every year. I have to take care of myself, board and lodging, books and ink, and I have to study for three years in a row before I can graduate. What’s more, I heard that the emperor of Xiangfu Kingdom decreed that the Guozijian, which was established not long ago in Xiangfu Kingdom, was directly merged into Xiangfu College.”

Yan Jingguo sighed again: "Confucius gave lectures to three thousand disciples in ancient times. Is it possible that he still had to support these three thousand disciples? Now that I think about it, the academies in various places are half-farming and half-studying. That's a bit of free learning. Guozijian is for the country to cultivate talents, so it has to pay monthly salaries to scholars. And Xiangfu College didn't say that graduates must be used by the country. But... such an academy also Will someone come?"

...

...

Ten miles south of Xiazhou City, there is a small village with beautiful scenery, like a paradise. It is called Lushui Village. There is a small lake in the village, called Lushui Lake. .According to Ye Chen's request, Xu Xuan traveled twenty miles outside Xiazhou City, and finally took a fancy to this place.The villagers in the village are very simple, and they were very happy when they heard about the establishment of the academy. In addition, it was the imperial court who wanted to run it, so there was no reason not to agree.However, Xu Xuan still paid some land acquisition fees to the villagers.

Once the address was determined, the construction of the dormitory began.Because Ye Chen wanted to build it earlier, Xu Xuan didn't care about the cost, and bought all the blue bricks, limestone, and wood.In this era, lime powder has been used to paint houses, and to make adhesives, and even to tidy the ground. The tidy ground with limestone and loess is smooth and dust-free, and even some skilled craftsmen have done it for decades. Flat as a mirror.It's just that the manpower and material resources spent are not something ordinary people can afford.

In addition, cement and red bricks, newly invented products in the two state-owned civilian workshops of Xiangfu Country, are just used here.Speaking of the method of burning cement and red bricks, Ye Chen took Xu Xuan to see the construction progress of Xiangfu Academy a few days ago, saw the limestone and blue bricks used by the craftsmen, and these days Ye Chen was always thinking about the imperial court. The money was not enough, so a flash of inspiration flashed in my mind at that time, and I remembered the firing methods of cement and red bricks in later generations, and told the civilian workshop to try firing.

Cement is actually very simple to fire. It is made of limestone mixed with 20.00% clay and fired to become cement.Ye Chen remembered that in later generations, when cement was in short supply for a while, many people burned it by themselves.

Red bricks are relatively more complicated. They use clay, shale, coal gangue, etc. as raw materials. After crushing, mixing and kneading, they are manually or mechanically pressed into shape, and after drying, they are fired with an oxidizing flame at a temperature of more than 900 degrees Celsius. Sintered building bricks.This is the red brick firing method of later generations. After the master craftsman in the workshop got the secret recipe given by Ye Chen, the biggest difficulty was the temperature of more than 900 degrees. Later, he tried many ways to overcome this difficulty and fired the red brick. come out.

The construction of Xiangfu College uses cement as adhesive, used to paint the ground, and red bricks to build walls. I don’t know how many times faster than the original method, and it is stronger, heat-insulated, sound-proofed, and beautiful and tidy.The most important thing is that these two things will inevitably become another way to make money quickly in the state-owned workshops of Xiangfu State. According to the calculation of the Ministry of Households, after the promotion of cement and red bricks, cement and red bricks alone can earn money in one year. At least one million taels of silver, and as the scope of promotion gradually expands, the profit will continue to increase.

Because these two things are different from toothbrush and tooth powder, others can quickly imitate them.Without knowing the formula of cement and red brick, it is difficult to develop it with the level of chemical knowledge of people in this era.Therefore, cement and red bricks are destined to be the monopoly business of Xiangfu State's state-owned workshops.

If he casually invents cement and red bricks and puts them on other people, he will definitely be shocked by many people, but Ye Chen has created too many miracles, and almost everyone takes it for granted when he puts it on him. In the words of the common people: Isn’t that nonsense?What doesn't our great emperor know?But the civil and military officials of Xiangfu country couldn't help but feel the same feeling that the capable are omnipotent.

Ye Chen originally wanted Xu Xuan to find some top talents from all walks of life as professors and lecturers of Xiangfu College.However, there is still a lot of manpower shortage. In the end, Ye Chen ordered Han Xizai, Ma Wentao, Jia Xian, Yu Wen, Zhang Bo and other senior officials from the court to go to Xiangfu College as "visiting professors".Although many of these senior officials didn't take it seriously, since Ye Chen had spoken, naturally no one would dare to disobey it, and they would do it with great care.

So in the mid-April of the first year of the Xiangfu Kingdom, the establishment of an institution in Xiazhou, the place where the Xiangfu Empire rejuvenated and risen, has become a hot topic for future generations of Xiangfu Kingdom, especially the establishment of this institution is defined by the development history of the education industry. become the most epoch-making event.

That's right, this event happened on April [-]th, ten miles south of Xiazhou City, the Xiangfu Academy was officially completed and opened.What caught the attention of the workers was that the Legendary Emperor Ye Chen, King of Xiangfu, personally led the ministers to attend the opening ceremony and wrote an inscription with his own hands.

In the words of later generations: Xiangfu College is a modern university with a three-year schooling system.The first grade is called Junior Division, and students take nine courses: The Analects, Spring and Autumn Annals, The Book of Songs, Arithmetic, Physics, Chemistry, Geography, Biology, and Political Economy.If you pass the test, you will be promoted to the second grade, which is called Zhongke. Students can choose their own majors, which are divided into six departments: "Philosophy", "Arithmetic", "Gewu", "Politics", "Geography", and "Life". The philosophy department includes Confucianism , classics, logic, philosophers, etc.; the Department of Mathematics includes geometry and arithmetic; the Department of Gephysics includes physics and chemistry; the Department of Political Science includes politics, history, and law; They will study biology, medical skills, or the exploration of all the mysteries of life, etc. After a small achievement in the second grade, they can be promoted to the third grade called high-tech, and this year is dedicated to graduation design and thesis defense.

(End of this chapter)