"Is the official family inside?" Lu Yi asked the young eunuch guarding the gate of Qianqing Palace in a low voice.
"The officials are inside." The young eunuch said: "After the court came down in the morning, the officials came back and finished answering a few letters, and then returned to the back hall, where His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, His Highness the First Highness, His Highness the Third Highness and the Crown Prince of Korea all Call us to talk together."
Lu Yi nodded, crossed the threshold and walked to the back hall. After a while, he walked to the room in the back hall where Yunxi used to talk to his nephews and descendants, straightened his clothes, gently opened the door and walked inside.
"Uncle Shi, my nephew thinks that Lang Jun's words are reasonable. It is said that God has the virtue of good life, and it is better to be more lenient in the punishment laws for the people. At the beginning, the Han Dynasty (Emperor) said: 'Today's people have made mistakes, and the punishment has not been given. Jia Yan. A husband's punishment is so severe that his limbs are cut off, carnosine is carved, and the carnosine is carved into it, which lasts for the rest of his life. How can the pain of the punishment be immoral? Is it the intention of the people's parents? So corporal punishment was abolished. My nephew thought that the current capital crime was the corporal punishment in the past. So it should be more relaxed." As soon as he walked in, he heard someone say. Judging from this title, it should be Zhu Bao, the crown prince of Joseon, who was speaking.
"You are right, the death penalty for the common people should be relaxed. Then after the new year, I will issue an order to abolish the punishment of being cut in half!" He heard Yunxi say again.
"Father/Uncle Shi is kind." Several people said in confusion.
"It's really a blessing for the people that the officials are so kind to the criminals." Lu Yi also said in a joking manner. However, this was not completely flattering. Cutting in half is a very cruel punishment, second only to Lingchi and second to Lingchi. The dismemberment by five horses is also cruel. The main organs of the human body are in the upper body, so after the prisoner is cut in two from the waist, he will not die immediately. It will take a long time to die. If the executioner cuts the knife from a lower part, he will even be cut in half. The upper part of the prisoner's body was moved to a tung oil board so that no blood could come out. This would allow the prisoner to live for two or three more hours, but at the same time, the pain would continue to be transmitted to the brain. It was really cruel. Historically, the filial piety was He was cut in half and died. Legend has it that after he was cut in half, he wrote the word 'usurp' twelve times on the ground with his fingers stained with blood before he died. Lu Yi once saw the execution of a person who was sentenced to be cut in half, and had a nightmare all night that night. Both hands support the abolition of halving.
"Lu Yi, I didn't ask you to assist Wang Xi on errands, why are you back now?" Yunxi asked. It was the Chinese New Year, and there were many things in the palace, so Yunxi sent out all the eunuchs with some management skills around him. The work was done and only a few new eunuchs were left.
"The official family, the prince and his father-in-law sent slaves outside the palace to escort the purchased items into the palace. On the way to the palace, the slaves met Cao Zheng, the deputy supervisor. It happened that Mr. Cao asked to see the official family again, so the slave girl asked the official family to decide whether to receive him. "Lu Yi said.
"Cao Zheng asked to see me?" Yun He was a little puzzled: "Today is already the 22nd of the twelfth lunar month, and the government offices have been closed. Both the Wucheng School and the Gezhi Prison have been closed. What does he want to see me for?"
"Could it be that Cao Zheng has made some new discoveries?" Yunxi suddenly became excited when he thought of this. It has been more than three years since the establishment of the Gezhi Prison in the fifth year of Jianye. Although some results have been achieved, some things have been invented, and some tools have been improved. , but it is still far from the role that Yunxi wanted him to play - Yunxi wanted to establish a Royal Academy of Sciences, rather than train a bunch of technicians. Will it finally bear fruit now?
"Lu Yi, you go to Xuan Cao Zheng and come to Qianqing Palace to see me." He immediately ordered. Although it doesn't make much difference if he learns of a new discovery two days early or two days later, he has nothing important to do now, so he announced his appearance. Ask.
"Yes, official." Lu Yi agreed, stepped back and went to give his speech.
"Uncle Shi, my nephew, please stay out of the way." Zhu Bao said immediately.
"You don't have to evade. Cao Zheng is not an important official in the imperial court now. You can listen to what Uncle Shi said, and there is no need to evade." Yunxi said. He didn't care at all about letting North Koreans hear Cao Zheng's new discovery. The greatest practical fact of early science The meaning is probably navigation, which is very useful for more precise navigation on the sea. But it is enough for North Korean businessmen to go to Shanghai and Nagasaki every year to do business. The eighteen pockets they can earn are not enough, so there is no need to go further. place; the Navy is only wandering around the East China Sea and Yongming Sea, and will not be interested even if it hears about Cao Zheng's new discoveries.
Zhu Bao asked again, but Yunxi still let him stay, so he stopped asking. He sat on a small chair, waiting for Cao Zheng to come, while talking quietly to Wen Qi. Wen Qi's temperament was somewhat similar to Zhu Bao's. I don’t like reading very much, but I like practicing martial arts. It’s great to talk when we get together.
After a while, Cao Zheng walked in and was stunned when he saw Zhu Bao standing by. Then he saluted and said: "Chen Gezhi, Deputy Supervisor Cao Zheng has met His Majesty, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, His Highness the Grand Highness, the Third Palace..."
"Without courtesy." Yunxi said hurriedly without waiting for him to finish speaking, and asked him to sit down. After he sat down, he immediately asked: "Cao Qing, what do you want to do with me this time?"
At this time, he noticed that Cao Zheng had dark circles under his eyes, and said hurriedly: "My dear, although I very much hope that you can gain something from your research, you can't tire yourself out. Pay attention to your health."
"Thank you, Your Majesty." He thanked him hurriedly.
Yunxi said a few more words to him and asked again: "Cao Qing, why do you want to see me?"
Contrary to his expectations, Cao Zheng did not immediately talk about his new discovery. Instead, he said first: "Your Majesty, this is very inappropriate for me. Please forgive me."
"What do you want to tell me?" Yunxi became confused.
"Your Majesty, Quijano, the envoy of the Kingdom of Castile, requests your Majesty to allow him to use the Ming Dynasty's post station to deliver messages to the northwest."
"What message is being sent?"
"Your Majesty, after Quijano returned to his country and told the people at home that the Western Region was already the land of the Ming Dynasty, and that the Ming Dynasty was also willing to trade with other countries, the merchants of the Kingdom of Castile and the other two countries in the far west He was very interested in the trade routes through the Western Regions, and asked Jijano to come to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty. At the same time, he sent his navy to a sea on their side. This sea had a river connected to the Caspian Sea to the west of the Qin Dynasty. Through this waterway Can transport goods from the Western Region back to these three countries."
"But this waterway is very narrow, and only a boat as wide as one person can pass at the narrowest point, so the three countries plan to expand the river to facilitate trade. But when Jijano came to the Ming Dynasty and learned that the Ming Dynasty had tram carriages, he thought it was a tram Although carriages are not as convenient as rivers for transporting goods, the cost is much lower, so I want to immediately tell the people in charge of this matter not to expand the rivers, but to build tracks along the rivers first."
"Furthermore, since it is a long way from the capital to the Caspian Sea, I asked him to return along the original road to inform him that the construction of the expansion of the river channel has already begun. I also know that the fastest way to convey news from the capital to the Caspian Sea is the Ming Dynasty Station, so I want to ask your majesty to allow him to use it. The inn will deliver the news to Caspian Sea." Cao Zheng said.
'Is there any river connecting the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea? I remember that the Don River flows into the Black Sea and the Volga River flows into the Caspian Sea, but these two rivers are not connected. The thing must be that the Castilians want to build a canal between these two rivers. He heard wrong.' Yunxi thought.
But he immediately reacted: "Cao Zheng, why are you here to talk to me about this?"
"Your Majesty, please forgive me." Cao Zheng said again, and then talked about the reason for the incident.
…
…
It turned out that Claviyo immediately went out to find Chen Ji after receiving the money given to him by Quijano yesterday. Chen Ji was surprised that he came to see him at this time, but he still agreed to meet him.
But he did not agree to deliver the news to Quijano. In his opinion, the construction of canals by three overseas countries was of no concern to the Ming Dynasty. How could the Ming Dynasty's post station deliver such news? He refused on the spot, no matter what Quijano said. Moved and tired of hearing what he said twice, I picked up the teacup and sipped it slowly.
When Clavi made an appointment with him, he pretended to be serving tea as a farewell, and did not dare to pester him any more, so he had to leave.
On the way from Chen Ji's residence to Fanguan, when he was thinking about whether to tell the truth to Jihano and return the money, or lie and say that Chen Ji had promised to send a message to the Ming Emperor to pay the two hundred gold coins, he suddenly heard someone calling him : "Mr. Ke."
"Sir Cao," Claviyo immediately saluted. The man he met was Cao Zheng, the deputy supervisor of Gezhi Superintendent. They knew each other because Cao Zheng also attended Wucheng Academy.
"Mr. Ke, have you just come out of Chief Chen's house? You are really diligent. It's almost the New Year and you are still busy with school affairs." Cao Zheng said. Because Claviyo's name is too long for Easterners, so Everyone took his surname to be Ke, and everyone except Yunxi called him Mr. Ke.
"I have a private matter to discuss with Secretary Chen." Claviyo responded casually and asked, "Where are you going, Mr. Cao?"
"I'm going to see Your Majesty. I have something to report to Your Majesty," Cao Zheng said.
Hearing that he was asking to see His Majesty and reporting on an errand, Clavijo did not dare to ask any more questions. He just joked and planned to continue thinking about what to do with the two hundred gold coins. At this moment, he suddenly thought: 'Since Cao Zheng is asking for See Your Majesty, why don't you ask him to tell the matter to Your Majesty?' Thinking of this, he immediately told Cao Zheng about the matter and asked him to tell Yunxi.
Of course Cao Zheng was unwilling. First, he thought that Yun Xi would definitely not agree to such a thing, so he would report it in vain; secondly, he was not an official of the Ministry of Rites or Lifan Yuan, so it was against the rules to report such a matter, so he had to push it aside. Absolutely.
Claviyo was persuading anxiously when he suddenly heard a Castilian voice coming from beside him: "Your Excellency Claviyo, what are you doing?"
"It's Master Brunelleschi." After Kraviyo said to him, he turned around and continued to persuade Cao Zheng. But he thought again: 'I have always heard that Cao Zheng is different from other Ming nobles. He likes to study science; although Brunelleschi is famous for his architecture, he is also a slightly famous physicist and mathematician. Perhaps he has a similar temperament to Cao Zheng and can persuade him."
…
…
"...After that, Mr. Ke introduced me to this Western mathematician named Bolu. It happened that I could speak Mongolian, and he could also speak Mongolian, so we talked in Mongolian. Unexpectedly, this man named Bolu was very knowledgeable. , I like to study many things that overlap with those of me, so I hit it off with him and chatted all night after returning home. Because he asked me to report this matter to your majesty, I took the liberty to ask your majesty for this matter."
"I am guilty, please punish me." Cao Zheng knelt down and said.
He didn't think much about it when he first told Yunxi. Now that the matter was over, he became more and more frightened and immediately knelt down to apologize.
"That's all, since this is your first offense, I will forgive you this time. But remember, don't take on irrelevant errands. If there is a next time, I will definitely punish you severely." Yunxi said. Cao Zheng is him There are a lot of rare talents at hand, and there are many people who are good at handling political affairs and leading troops in war. However, currently only this one who likes to study science and is very talented can do it. Of course, he has to be more tolerant. Fortunately at this time There were only three sons and Zhu Bao in the house besides the emperor and his ministers, so they were not worried about leaking the news.
"I'm still a little curious. What is this person named Bolu studying that made you fall in love with him at first sight? I remember that you don't like studying mathematics very much. And what is his full name?" He asked curiously. Cao Zheng just said that 'Bolu' is a mathematician, but Cao Zheng himself doesn't like mathematics very much, so he shouldn't fall in love with him at first sight because of mathematics.
"Your Majesty, the full name of this person's surname is Brunelleschi. Your Majesty, I do not like mathematics, but this person told me a mathematics that is completely different from the mathematics of the Ming Dynasty. The mathematics of the Ming Dynasty is all about addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. , how to calculate; the mathematics that Ke Bolu told me is the study of measuring land, the size of objects, length, width and height, etc. I like it very much."
"And after listening to his introduction to Western mathematics, I felt that the astronomy I studied required a lot of Western mathematics knowledge, so I asked him for advice and talked all night." Cao Zheng said.
"No wonder you have dark circles under your eyes. It turned out that you stayed up all night and talked about knowledge with scholars from the West." Yunxi smiled. He was completely relieved after hearing this. For people who are crazy about learning, what's the matter? It is not as important as one's own knowledge. It is understandable that when I suddenly heard new knowledge, I was happy and agreed to Brunelleschi's request.
"Your Majesty, at the end of our discussion with him early in the morning, Bolu said that the West also has the kind of mathematics studied by the Ming Dynasty, but although the two are both mathematics, they are completely different. The West will study the mathematics of how to calculate addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. For Algebra, the mathematics that studies the measurement of land, the size of objects, length, width, and height is called geometría." Cao Zheng added.
"It turns out that at this time, Europe had already distinguished algebra from geometry." Yunxi murmured.
"Your Majesty, I apologize for not listening to you clearly." Cao Zheng thought Yunxi was giving him an order and said hurriedly.
"The word Algebra will be translated as algebra from now on, and the word geometría will be translated as geometry from now on. The Ming Dynasty must not only have knowledge of algebra, but also knowledge of geometry. Cao Zheng, how many people can you find in Gezhi Prison to study geometry?" ( To be continued)