Su Hao chatted with Shen Yaozhong for a few more words, then thanked him, took Matteo Ricci out of the gate of the Punishment Department, and returned to his residence. Shen Yaozhong did not know the details of Matteo Ricci and was worried that he had left the Punishment Department. It would be detrimental to Su Hao later, so he sent two jailers to follow them. Shen Yaozhong specifically told the jailers to escort Matteo Ricci to Su Hao's house and hand him over to Su Hao's personal soldiers. Give up.
In fact, Shen Yaozhong's caution was completely unnecessary. Matteo Ricci was a missionary, not a spy. His philosophy of survival was to accept the situation and look for every opportunity to impress others and spread his teachings. He remembered Shen Yaozhong's response to From what he said, in his opinion, Shen Yaozhong sentenced him to be Su Hao's slave, so he could only follow Su Hao obediently and did not dare to act rashly.
"Mr. Matteo Ricci, how did you come to China?" Su Hao chatted casually with Matteo Ricci on the street.
"Back to Mr. Su, I came to China from India. I first went to Macau, and then to Zhaoqing, Guangdong." Matteo Ricci answered Su Hao's question honestly.
"Did you come to China just to preach?" Su Hao asked again.
"No, no, no, although I am a priest, I do not necessarily want to preach. I just admire China, so I hope to stay here and serve God until death." Matteo Ricci confessed. After so many years in China, Matteo Ricci also After contacting many officials of the Ming Dynasty, he knew that many officials were very disgusted with preaching, so he never dared to publicly declare that he came to China specifically to preach. He only said that he was a priest who loved China.
Su Hao is a man who has experienced two lives. He certainly knows the purpose of Western missionaries coming to China. However, he is not eager to expose Matteo Ricci's lies. On the contrary, he wants to use this lie to restrain Matteo Ricci.
"Well, very good. As long as you don't preach, you won't violate the laws of the Ming Dynasty. From now on, you can follow me and put your talents in mathematics to use. I guarantee that you can live a better life than the Pope. ." Su Hao said.
Matteo Ricci said: "Thank you Mr. Su... By the way, I still have some items I brought from Italy, but unfortunately they were confiscated by the officials. If Mr. Su can get these items out for me, I am willing to give them to you." Give them all to Mr. Su."
"What kind of things are there?" Su Hao asked with interest.
"There are statues of the Madonna, prisms, chiming bells, maps, astrolabes, etc., all of which were not seen in the Ming Dynasty," Ricci said.
Su Hao smiled slightly. These things Matteo Ricci mentioned were very rare in the eyes of others, but they were nothing in Su Hao's eyes. He said: "I will go to the Ministry of Punishment to ask for these things for you later, but... After you get it back, you should keep it for yourself, I don't need these things."
"Master Su, these things are very magical. When I have the chance, I can demonstrate to you the experiment of refracting sunlight through a prism..." Matteo Ricci continued to kiss Su Hao.
Su Hao smiled and said: "Isn't it just to refract white light into seven-color light of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple? I can have as many prisms as you want. By the way, did you bring a Galilean telescope?"
"Galileo's telescope...I'm sorry, Mr. Su, I have never heard of this thing." Matteo Ricci said.
"So, the telescope hasn't been invented yet?" Su Hao asked in surprise. He couldn't remember when the telescope was invented in the West. From what Matteo Ricci said, it seemed like this thing hadn't come out yet.
"Master Su, do you also know geometry?" Matteo Ricci thought of a new question.
Su Hao said: "You know something about it. For example, the sum of the interior angles of a triangle is equal to 180 degrees, the opposite vertex angles are equal, and the three midlines of the triangle intersect at one point... right?"
Matteo Ricci was shocked: "Master Su, I admire you so much. You are the only Ming official I know who knows geometry. Can you tell me where you learned geometry?"
"Let's discuss this issue later." Su Hao said, "I will take you to find a place to stay first. Next, I will introduce a few friends to you. They will be very interested in your knowledge."
"I will obey Mr. Su's will," Matteo Ricci replied.
It was not that Su Hao had never thought that he should be more polite to Matteo Ricci. After all, this was also a person whose name had been left in history. But after he thought about it, it seemed that the relationship was quite good now. These missionaries were very sensitive.
If you give them too many good looks, they will be in trouble if they don't keep them all, and it will not end well at that time.
Su Hao's house in the capital was given to him by Dong Tianzhang and Yang Laizhen. It is located in a place called Sophora Hutong. When he returned to the capital this time, he brought the command organization of the Kanyu Camp with him, so naturally it was inconvenient for these people to live there.
He went home, so he bought several houses nearby, which were used as offices and residences for Li Zhi, Xu Guangzu, Zhou Ruyuan and others. This time, he happened to bring Matteo Ricci to those houses to let his relatives
The captain of the army, Xiong Minfan, arranged a room for Matteo Ricci.
"Is this a foreigner?" Xiong Minfan looked at Matteo Ricci's high nose and was surprised. There were not many foreigners active in China at that time, so at first glance it seemed quite rare.
"His name is Matteo Ricci and he can speak our Chinese language. Just treat him as our scholar." Su Hao ordered. After speaking, he added in a low voice: "Don't be too polite to him, and
, don’t let him preach to everyone. If he dares to preach in the camp, you will beat him.”
"I understand!" Xiong Minfan replied loudly.
After settling Matteo Ricci, Su Hao sent someone to the Su's Factory in Liangxiang to deliver letters to Xu Guangqi, Luo Yuqing and others, telling them the news of Matteo Ricci's arrival. Su Hao himself didn't know much about Matteo Ricci.
Interested, he brought Matteo Ricci back, mainly because he wanted Matteo Ricci to teach Xu Guangqi and others the Western science and technology he had mastered. Su Hao himself had done some science popularization work in the past, but what he taught Xu Guangqi and others
Knowledge is fragmented and fragmented. He hoped that Ricci could introduce Western science and technology more comprehensively.
After receiving the notice from Su Hao, Xu Guangqi, Luo Yuqing and others rushed over without stopping. Su Hao introduced Matteo Ricci to Xu Guangqi and others. After everyone talked together for a long time, Xu Guangqi and others felt sincerely about Matteo Ricci.
There was respect.
"In other words, where did you find this Matteo Ricci? His knowledge is very good." Xu Guangqi said to Su Hao.
"Yes, let's change it. You said in the past that all your knowledge came from missionary Francis. Is it someone like Matteo Ricci?" Luo Yuqing also said.
Su Hao nodded and said: "That's right, what I learned did come from a Franciscan missionary. I know that missionary and he is more knowledgeable than Matteo Ricci. It's a pity that I only got along with him for a short time."
In just a few days, I couldn't learn all his knowledge. This Ricci was arrested by the Ministry of Punishment for preaching. I wanted him out of the Ministry of Punishment in the hope that he could systematically teach you his knowledge."
"Great, how long can Matteo Ricci stay with us?" Xu Guangqi asked, "He said that he has more than ten volumes of "Elements of Geometry" and wants to translate it into our Ming Dynasty's text. I think this matter is very important.
It’s worth doing.”
Su Hao said: "He is mine now. He will stay as long as I want him to. If he dares to run away, the Criminal Department will take him back. Whatever you want to learn from him, just let him teach you."
That's it, he will never dare to say no."
"This... I'm afraid it's a bit disrespectful." Xu Guangqi said calmly, "After all, he is also a well-educated man. If we do this, wouldn't it be an insult to our gentleness?"
"Yes, yes, since we want to treat him as a teacher, we should treat him as a teacher." Luo Yuqing also agreed.
Su Hao smiled and said: "You are really a bunch of nerds. It doesn't matter, I will give him a better treatment, but I can't give him a life insurance, otherwise he will not teach us science lessons honestly, but will run out to teach us."
He taught me."
"If that's the case, then let's follow the change." Xu, Luo and others no longer insisted.
From then on, Matteo Ricci became a professional teacher hired by Su Hao. Su Hao set aside several large rooms to teach Matteo Ricci about Western scientific knowledge. At the same time, he released news and invited the Ministry of Industry and the Hanlin Academy.
Officials, scholars, and technicians from other departments who are interested in Western natural sciences come to study.
Matteo Ricci had no objection to Su Hao's arrangement. In his opinion, this was also a way to use his talents. What's more, being a teacher here at Su Hao's place provided a very generous salary. In addition to not being able to run around
, food, clothing and other expenses were all allocated according to Ming Dynasty's high standards, and there were several servants dedicated to providing him with daily services. In Matteo Ricci's view, such treatment was indeed something that even the Pope could not enjoy.
.
The appearance of Matteo Ricci gave Su Hao a revelation. He had always wanted to use Western missionaries to bring Western scientific and technological civilization to China, but due to busy affairs, he had never been able to put this idea into practice. Now
The affairs of the camp had come to an end, and he stayed in the capital with nothing to do, which gave him just enough time to implement this plan.
With this idea in mind, Su Hao returned to the Ministry of Punishment, found Shen Yaozhong, and made him a request: to recruit Western missionaries across the country and bring them all back to the capital.
"What? Arrest missionaries across the country?" Shen Yaozhong was frightened by Su Hao's request, "Su Qiandu, this is not something we can talk about casually. If these Franco missionaries have not broken the law, we can arrest them at will.
, it is beneath my Ming Dynasty’s dignity.”
"Who said they were arrested? I just said they were trapped...invited to the capital." Su Hao said.
Shen Yaozhong was not stupid. He said: "If you are asking for someone, then you should let Honglu Temple handle this matter. How come it is left to our Ministry of Punishment?"
Su Hao smiled and said: "Isn't this because Honglu Temple has too few people and can't spare any time? Besides, if when we go to invite some missionaries, they refuse... uh, refuse to invite, then we have to use some This is a special method. This matter is very important, so please help Dr. Shen."
Shen Yaozhong smiled bitterly and said: "Su Qiandu, it's not because the official refuses to help. It's really that this matter is too serious. The official doesn't have the power."
"So, who has this power?" Su Hao asked.
Shen Yaozhong thought for a while and said: "It would be best if we could ask the Holy One to issue an imperial edict. If it is inconvenient, it would be fine to ask the Chief Assistant Wang to issue an edict. In short, this matter is not something that the Ministry of Punishment can decide, even if We, the ministers, dare not agree to this request without permission."
Su Hao nodded: "Imperial decree? Well, you are right. This matter must be decided by the Holy Emperor."