Chapter 1260 Vientiane

Chapter 1260 Vientiane

Chapter 1260 Vientiane
Stone City has now become a busy port. Almost every day, ships come from Liyang, loaded with ironware, farm tools, seeds, and even oxen, and of course, many common people.

The tools were not new, and there were traces of plowing on the oxen. It was obvious that these were old things from some manor fortresses, but they were loaded onto ships and brought to the south.

The crew members on board are clearly divided into different levels.

There were high-ranking scholars, powerful people, sons of nobles and their families, soldiers with calloused hands and complete equipment, and even old soldiers who had retired from the battlefield. The majority were ordinary farmhands.

They looked at their new home with curiosity and were even surprised to see the snowy weather, because in most people's impression, the south of the Yangtze River is "low and humid" and it shouldn't snow.

No one could answer their questions.

Adapting to the south from the relatively cold winter may be much better than coming here in the summer.

After arriving in Jiangbei, most of the surrendered people in Lu Wan's team were handed over, and the First Defense Force soldiers also returned to Jiangnan, leaving only a hundred or so people by Lu Wan's side.

On the fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, he stayed in the only remaining fortress near Liyang - the Liyang Shao family's fortress.

The reason why this fortress survived is similar to that of the Shao family in Shanyin.

Heading north from Liyang, all the rivers were frozen, and it was obviously impossible to take a boat.

Lu Wan stayed here for a day to avoid the wind and snow, but he saw that there were still carriages and horses heading south continuously, and they didn't even celebrate the New Year.

A migration comparable to the migration of the elite to the south, or perhaps even on a larger scale, brought their domestic slaves, retainers, farmhands and property in the north to the south. Those of high status moved into existing forts and manors, while those of low status reclaimed wasteland, filling up the land in the south bit by bit and leaving more fields free in the north.

Lu Wan stared at it for a long time without saying a word...

On the twelfth day of the twelfth lunar month, he arrived in Bianliang and was immediately summoned to the palace for questioning.

Shao Xun was giving rewards to a group of officials and craftsmen at Fangzhou Pavilion.

The reward is not much because the progress is not great.

Simply put, the Shaofu Weaving and Dyeing Bureau miniaturized the machines used to weave wool.

The machine that was originally almost as high as the roof beam has been greatly reduced in size. Now female workers can operate it while standing, without having to stand on a high place like Ying did before.

"It took a year to pay out more than 2,000 hu of grain, more than 200 strings of money, and more than 300 pieces of silk. It's not bad." Shao Xun said, "I am quite satisfied."

Upon hearing this, Zhiran Ling was delighted.

Every time he spent money, grain, wood, iron and wool for experiments from the Shaofu, he was questioned, which made his hair turn gray, and he lost his appetite and couldn't sleep at night. Fortunately, he finally got some results.

Unexpectedly, Shao Xun did not look at him, but only looked at a craftsman named Liu, and said: "I only gave you money as a reward, but not an official position, because this improvement is not enough, and there are machines sent from Liangzhou for reference, but I decided to give you another chance-"

Shao Xun pointed at the yarn on the loom and said, "I call these two crossed threads 'warp' and 'weft'. The weft crosses the warp and is thrown onto the beam of another loom. The hammer makes it fall and collects it on the shuttle. There are many ingenious things in it, but I want to ask, why do you do this?"

The craftsman was stunned for a moment and said, "This is the only way."

“Why can we only do this?”

“It has always been like this.”

Shao Xun nodded and said, "Your craftsmanship is good, and you have mastered the ingenuity of our predecessors. The 100 rolls of silk I will give you will not be less."

After saying that, he walked out of the weaving room.

He felt that he was asking too much. This craftsman had top-notch skills, and he had mastered everything the master had taught him, to the last detail, and he knew how to use some basic mechanical structures to achieve his goals, which was actually quite impressive.

But what Shao Xun wanted to ask was why those mechanical mechanisms were designed in this way and how the forces were acted and transmitted, but the craftsmen could not answer.

In other words, this craftsman can only develop and improve the machine based on the underlying technology designed by others.

For example, someone first researches a scientific theory, and then derives a lot of applied technologies based on this theory. The craftsman is equivalent to using these derived applied technologies to select and design parts, and then assemble them into a machine.

It’s not that his level is not high, but what Shao Xun wants is scientific theory, not applied technology.

Science guides applications, and science derives technology.

Just like the electric motor, it is the product of the development of electrical theory. Without electricity, there would be no electric motor, but even without electric motors, there are still other machines that use electricity.

The progress in applied technology is certainly gratifying, but scientific theory is the foundation.

However, this craftsman only knew a small part of the characters, so it was difficult for him to study theory.

So Shao Xun still gave him money as a reward but not an official position.

After going out, Lu Wan had been waiting for a long time.

"Your Majesty," he saluted.

Shao Xun returned the salute, a little distracted. After a moment of silence, he turned around and said, "Never mind, you have made a contribution after all. I will grant you the title of ninth-rank supervisor of the Ministry of Works. In two days, you will be appointed as an official of the Ministry of Works and continue to study spinning equipment for me."

"I...your servant...thank you for your majesty's grace." The craftsman did not expect such a good thing to happen and was overjoyed.

Lu Wan watched from outside the door and felt something in his heart.

"I heard that you stayed at Sun Xi's house for a few days?" Shao Xun asked. Lu Wan was still hesitating whether to tell everything that happened on the way, but now he found that there were indeed spies around him. Alas, these surrendered people.

"Yes." Lu Wan said, "I also saw that He Xi was freezing—"

"I don't care about those things." Shao Xun said, "Why did Sun Xi boil the wood ash?"

Lu Wan secretly cursed his spy for having nothing better to do than to write down such a trivial matter, but he was quick in his actions. He took out a paper bag and recounted the whole process: "He asked people to bring in a variety of plants and wood to burn charcoal, and obtained plant ash..."

After Shao Xun opened the paper package, he was frowning, but when he heard the word "burning charcoal", he immediately reacted.

It is well known that wood ash is a potash fertilizer.

Thinking about charcoal again, could this be a mixture of potassium carbonate containing a lot of impurities?

After listening to Lu Wan's story, he couldn't help but curse: "It's useless! You gave up halfway!"

He didn't care about the degreasing effects of wood ash, nor did he particularly care whether it could be used to make soap - this was a technique, not a science.

What he cares about is to persevere in research along this line, summarize some chemical phenomena, and then raise them to a theoretical level. Even a superficial theory is invaluable.

Many early scientific theories do not make money, and researchers even have to spend a lot of private money to make them successful, and they may end up in a dead end, and the huge amount of time, energy, and money invested will be completely wasted.

Later generations only saw the successful parts, but in fact there were still a lot of wrong research directions. It might seem like a waste to later generations, but people at that time did not know it and were still enthusiastically investing manpower, material resources and energy in research.

Fortunately, these people are either nobles or clergymen. They are not short of money and have plenty of time to do research based on their interests.

There are such people in China as well. Although most of them are parasites from aristocratic families, there are always exceptions once the base number increases, such as Zu Chongzhi.

The Zu family of Fanyang has been a long-established and prominent family. Zu Chongzhi has been interested in mathematics and astronomy since he was a child. He could not make any money by studying pi, but he did it out of interest because he was not short of money and did not need to make money from it.

Only these people are likely to engage in basic theoretical research that results in disproportionate gains and losses, or even completely lose money, just for interest and for the joy of the moment when the mystery is revealed - even in the 21st century, basic science is still a thankless task, and when a breakthrough is made, it may have to be shared with the whole world.

"Catch this guy!" Shao Xun said hatefully.

Lu Wan was a little surprised when he heard this, and quickly advised: "Your Majesty, just send someone to persuade him. It's normal for young men to have unstable minds. Maybe one day when he gets tired of playing, he will go back to doing these things again."

Shao Xun heard this and humbly accepted the advice, saying: "You are right. He didn't spend a penny of my money, so how can I ask him to do this or that?"

After thinking for a while, Shao Xun said, "I want to set up Wanxiang Academy in Bianliang, and invite people from all over the world who are interested in studying things to live in this academy and study the principles of nature. They can live anywhere on weekdays, and they will not be under the jurisdiction of Wanxiang Academy. If they achieve something, I will grant them official titles and the title of Wanxiang Academy Scholars."

"There are also rewards of money, silk, and land. I will build a post station for them, raise strong horses, and deliver letters to each other. If you want to become famous, you can also write to the Wanxiang Academy, which will be printed regularly and sent to the residences of the scholars by fast horses, so that they can refute each other."

"How is this?" Shao Xun looked at Lu Wan and asked.

Lu Wan was dumbfounded. After a while, he smiled bitterly and said, "If Your Majesty is willing to build post stations and academies for those who are good at discussing profound principles, and reward them with official titles, money, and land, then all the scholars in the world will praise you."

Shao Xun waved his hand and said, "Let's talk about it later."

Lu Wan knew that the emperor was not interested in the mystical principles, so he said, "During the Han Dynasty, not many scholars talked about the mystical principles. At that time, most of them discussed Confucianism. In the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the mystical principles were very popular. In recent years, more and more people have been discussing Buddhist principles. The world's customs are gradually changing, which makes people feel sad."

Shao Xun nodded slightly after hearing this. This was similar to the development in history.

Every era has its own mainstream thought.

The mainstream at this time is metaphysics, but metaphysics is actually very empty, and it seems that anything can be discussed - you can also say that it is very inclusive.

I don't understand much about metaphysics, but it would be better to talk more about nature.

The Institute of Universal Sciences has costs, but they are insignificant compared to the actual scientific research costs.

To put it bluntly, this is to decentralize research costs, encourage the children of wealthy families to use their own private money to conduct research, and then the government will pay for their exchanges and spread knowledge.

Anyway, their lives are very empty, so there is no need for everyone to do this. It is enough for a very small number of "weirdos" among the children of the gentry, wealthy families, and rich businessmen in the world to be willing to do this.

You can continue to live a luxurious life, but just devote some of your energy to research.

The nobles in late Medieval Europe were not good people either. They had decadent private lives, bullied men and women, and did a lot of bad things. But that did not stop them from doing scientific research - it is wrong to equate personal morality with scientific research ability, and Shao Xun did not have such a mysophobia.

As for what effect this will have, we'll have to wait and see.

Anyway, Shao Xun has adapted to local conditions and tried his best to "utilize" the children of aristocratic families.

Cook what you have with the ingredients you have, that’s all.

"Your Majesty just mentioned the Wanxiang Academy. Does that mean you want to confer the title of Scholar on Sun Xi?" Lu Wan asked.

Shao Xun pondered for a moment and said, "He is not qualified yet, let's see."

Even if he really made soap by accident, he would not be qualified to enter the Wanxiang Academy.

At most, we can set up an institution like Tiangong Academy in the future, which is specifically for technical talents and its level is slightly lower than Wanxiang Academy, where only scientists can enter.

(End of this chapter)