Chapter three hundred and forty-eight the award of the title
On the afternoon of New Year's Day, when Li Mingyuan was accompanying his two young wives to explore the scenery in the back garden, he received a message from the Royal Academy of Sciences.
"Your Majesty, is there any good news?"
Seeing the smile on Li Mingyuan's face, Queen Wu Lingxuan asked curiously.
"That's good news."
Li Mingyuan unfolded the letter paper in his hand, placed it in front of the two women, and explained, "This morning, several researchers from the Royal Academy of Sciences were testing the performance of a new dye at the Susong Textile Factory. The trial production results were very successful. Gray fabrics soaked in the new dye
The color is bright, does not fade, does not wrinkle, it can be said to be a first-class finished fabric.”
"Congratulations to Your Majesty, the Royal Academy of Sciences has developed a new dye. In the future, the finished fabrics produced by Susong Textile Factory using the new dye will be more popular among local people."
"There's more than one good news."
Li Mingyuan was in a good mood and said, "Research on picric acid, rubber, plastics, etc. have also made considerable progress. After ten years of financial investment and support, the chemical industry has finally ushered in its first new technology explosion period."
"Your Majesty, I have seen rubber trees. When I was in Songkhla, a large one was planted on my father's estate outside the city. But what are plastics and picric acid? Are they important to Your Majesty?"
Wu Lingxuan said in confusion.
"Plastic is a moldable substance. For example, in locally produced cameras, the film loaded inside contains plastic components. Picric acid is a new type of gunpowder. When ignited, it is more powerful than traditional black powder, and it is also used as rifle ammunition to shoot out.
when
At this time, it will not produce burning smoke like black powder.”
Li Mingyuan gave a brief explanation to the two women, and then said, "The level of science and technology in Western countries is higher than that at home. If the government wants to protect the lives of the eight million people in South America, it must make early arrangements in some emerging science and technology fields to catch up with Western countries."
technology level.
Xuan'er, Baoyi, although our marriage was short, we had been in contact with each other for a while before we got married. You should have a general understanding of my temper. I am not a stubborn and conservative man. If you stay bored in the palace, or
If you want to get in touch with Western technology, culture and other aspects of knowledge, you can tell me and I will send someone to collect relevant books and send them to you."
"The living environment in the palace is very good, and there is nothing that I find uncomfortable with it. Moreover, I usually only like to play piano and chess with Your Majesty. I am not good at playing with Western gadgets, so I don't bother Your Majesty to worry about it."
."
"Baoyi, foreign cameras and piano are very fun. If you don't know how to play, I can teach you."
Wu Lingxuan was in high spirits and said coquettishly to Li Mingyuan, "Your Majesty, brother, I want to take a photo of your Majesty in person, so just use the camera in the palace, okay?"
"Not today. I have to go to the outer court later to meet with some officials. Next time, next time, I will personally accompany you to take photos."
Li Mingyuan smiled and patted Wu Lingxuan's little hand, and then chatted with the two women for a while. After the two guards came to the back garden to inform several officials that they were all present, he said goodbye to the two women and hurriedly left the back garden.
The Daming Palace built the Ji Hall. Because the dynasty was closed on New Year's Day, there were only a dozen officials and researchers from the Academy of Sciences standing in the vast palace.
"Everyone, please take a look at the materials in your hands first. After reading them, if you feel there is something inappropriate, you can give us your comments."
Li Mingyuan sat high in the center of the front hall of the palace and said.
More than ten minutes passed before an official spoke first: "Your Majesty, I think there is nothing wrong with establishing a new Chemical Society within the Royal Academy of Sciences.
But is the reward for Zhou Sheng and Lin Shenhe too high? Although the two have made some achievements in the research of gunpowder and dyes, will this grant them hereditary barons? Will it make some people who have not been awarded the title Spyker’s officials and generals think that the imperial court treats scientific and technological personnel too favorably?”
"In the eleven years since we have been based in South America, there are many officials and generals who have made meritorious deeds. However, there are only fifty-one people in the first batch of hereditary titles. Hereditary titles are limited. It is impossible for every official and general to have a meritorious service. Some people did not receive hereditary titles because their merits did not meet the standards for the title, but Zhou Sheng and Lin Shenhe were different. Although they had not fought for the country on the battlefield, they had great achievements in chemical technology. The progress achieved is no less than the achievements of real swords and guns on the battlefield.
Zhou Sheng was one of the first batch of local students to study in Germany. He went abroad in 1870 and returned in 1874. After his return, he stayed in obscurity at the Royal Academy of Sciences for five years. During this period, in addition to studying "Organic Chemistry" written by me personally, " In addition to the knowledge of chemical engineering subjects such as "Inorganic Chemistry", he also accepted additional teaching tasks from the Polytechnic University, helping to cultivate a group of local chemical engineering technical talents.
His contribution to the Congo red dye alone may not earn him a hereditary baronetcy, but considering the group of chemical talents he has cultivated for the local area and the technological progress he has made in textile chemistry in the past few years, he will be awarded a hereditary baronet. A title is not an exaggeration."
As a new technology industry with high hopes, the big chemical industry strategy has attracted great attention from Li Mingyuan. Zhou Sheng, Lin Shenhe and the entire Royal Academy of Sciences have more than two hundred Chinese technicians engaged in chemical technology research. Li Mingyuan can name them. Everyone's name.
In order to support the development of chemical technology and set an example for the people, Li Mingyuan publicly announced that he would invest half of the annual income from all industries controlled by the royal family into the research of chemical technology. At the same time, the palace under construction will house the palace maids. , the number of female officials was also reduced from the originally planned 1,000 to 300. Normally, when the emperor ascended the throne, the general selection of female officials was only held once before becoming emperor, leaving 300 maids. After the female officials, it was temporarily banned.
Li Mingyuan's behavior may not be thorough and clean enough in the eyes of future generations. Take the draft girls and taking money to support chemical technology research as an example. He has selected 300 show girls and then announced that he will no longer conduct draft activities in the future. It is a bit The feeling of being secretive,
As for supporting chemical technology research, although the government's propaganda focuses on Li Mingyuan's willingness to sacrifice money to take into account the direction of the big chemical industry strategy, in fact, the money is not wasted. More than 60% of the new technologies developed with the support of royal industry funds are patented The fees and product licensing production fees belong to the royal family. In the long run, Li Mingyuan's investment will not only not lose money, but will also enable the royal family to own more high-quality industries.
Taking into account the interests of the country and the royal family themselves, only if the country continues to develop healthily will the status of the royal family and the monarchy not be shaken. Li Mingyuan is well aware of the relationship between the two, so he also pays enough attention to the improvement of the status and rewards of researchers.
After a short pause, Li Mingyuan continued, "The significance of smokeless gunpowder to the combat effectiveness of the army is self-evident. Western countries have studied smokeless gunpowder no later than us. However, due to the influence of some factors, the local people have developed it earlier than Western countries." How to make picric acid, but in fact, the local technical background in explosives is not as high as that of Westerners, so we should reward researchers who promote technological development, provide an example for other scientific and technological researchers, and let them know clearly , the Chinese also have their own scientists, and we can still independently develop science and technology that surpasses Western countries."
The long-established prestige coupled with the importance of encouraging the first batch of local scientific and technological researchers to boost national confidence led officials to accept Li Mingyuan's statement.
The proposal to confer titles on Zhou Sheng and Lin Shenhe was successfully passed. After the two parties expressed their gratitude, they put forward a new proposal to integrate the chemical engineering disciplines of various local universities and re-establish a university affiliated with the Royal Academy of Sciences. Chemical engineering colleges and universities.
Local talents in various industrial categories are scarce. It is necessary to gather a small number of technical talents to specifically overcome certain important technical problems in the current real environment. Considering that later countries have had similar plans, Li Mingyuan After thinking for a moment, he nodded in agreement and agreed to build a new engineering university with chemical engineering as the main discipline and chemical engineering-related disciplines as the supplement. It would be named Chang'an University of Technology. It would be affiliated to the Royal Academy of Sciences and accept the dual leadership of the Ministry of Education and the Royal Academy of Sciences.