Gu Yingxiang was galloping all the way on his horse, carrying a set of pulleys in his hand. He was a frequent visitor to Wang Yuan's house and could go directly to the classroom, laboratory and living room without notification.
Gu Qingcheng, who was calm and solemn in Jinyiwei, was as happy as a child who got a toy. He shouted: "Ruoxu, I have completely verified the lever experiment you mentioned, and I even made a pulley set myself!"
"Congratulations!" Wang Yuan didn't even raise his head.
Gu Yingxiang ran over and saw Wang Yuan and two craftsmen busy at work, with a few drawings scattered beside them. He couldn't help but ask: "What experiment is Ruoxu doing again?"
Wang Yuan smiled and said: "You will know after you make it."
Please ask the merchants to go to Yanshen Town to hire craftsmen. There is no news yet, and Liuli Official Kiln doesn’t know when it will be able to make transparent glass. Wang Yuan can’t just keep waiting, right? He might as well hire craftsmen from the capital to grind concave lenses with crystals.
and convex lenses.
Natural colorless crystals also have vacuoles or bubbles, and only high-quality ores meet the requirements.
Gu Yingxiang squatted down and asked, "Is this glass?"
Wang Yuan nodded and said, "Yes, it's glass."
This glass is not that glass.
In the Ming Dynasty, glass, poli, water jade, jade, water essence, water green, quartz, crystal jade, and Bodhisattva stone all expressed the same thing, that is natural crystal!
Glass is crystal, crystal is glass.
Gu Yingxiang squatted beside him curiously. The two craftsmen had reached the final stage and were using a felt to dip the tin powder into it and rub it repeatedly on the surface of the crystal.
In ancient times, there was no sandpaper. How to polish a smooth copper mirror? That is to use mercury mixed with tin powder to grind it.
Tin will change from white metal to gray powder when the temperature is lower than 13.2 degrees Celsius. The lower the temperature, the faster the conversion. Using such powder, copper mirrors can be ground flat and smooth.
After grinding for another two hours, the craftsmen cleaned the crystal and handed it to Wang Yuan respectfully.
Wang Yuan had already prepared the wooden cylinder, buckled the two crystals into the slots, and wrapped the cylinder with ropes to secure it. He raised the telescope, looked at the treetops in the distance, and then handed it to Gu Yingxiang:
"Brother Gu, let's take a look. By the way, the two lens barrels can be retracted. You can adjust the distance yourself."
Gu Yingxiang was confused and curiously used the telescope to observe objects. At first, the focus was wrong, so he tried to stretch the lens tube, and a clear picture suddenly appeared. The treetops more than a hundred steps away seemed to be very close, and even the bird's nests on the trees could be seen.
Be clear!
"What is this?" Gu Yingxiang asked in shock.
Wang Yuan smiled and said: "Thousand-mile mirror."
"What's the principle?" Gu Yingxiang has been following Wang Yuan for two months. He has acquired scientific thinking and always asks for the principle when encountering novel phenomena.
Wang Yuan said: "Optical principles."
Gu Yingxiang was eager to try: "Teach me quickly!"
The telescope made by Wang Yuan is a Galilean telescope, consisting of a concave lens and a convex lens.
Immediately, Wang Yuan explained what reflection, refraction, focal length, and focus were, and Gu Yingxiang was stunned for a moment.
Half an hour later, Gu Yingxiang said with great shock: "If we make a telescope with a strong enough light-gathering effect and a long enough focal length, wouldn't we be able to see Chang'e in the Moon Palace?"
Wang Yuan laughed loudly: "Not only can you see Chang'e, but you can also see Wu Gang. Maybe Wu Gang is roasting the jade rabbit and eating it."
Gu Yingxiang asked: "How much does this telescope cost? I bought it!"
Wang Yuan said: "Then you have to wait first. This telescope is dedicated to His Majesty. I will give it to you when the second one is made."
Both craftsmen were employed by Wang Yuan on a long-term basis, with a fixed salary of two taels of silver per month. For every qualified lens polished, they would be rewarded with another one cent of silver. Moreover, Wang Yuan also helped them deal with the corvee, which was the most attractive thing to the craftsmen.
place.
Why do craftsmen live so miserably because they rely on their crafts? It’s because they have to do corvee work regularly, work hard and make little money, and even have to lose money if they screw up.
Wang Yuan continued to teach Gu Yingxiang the knowledge of optics, while the craftsmen continued to polish the lenses. He planned to send the telescope to the Leopard Room tomorrow.
The football stadium is building an auditorium for the official match next month, which is perfect for Zhu Houzhao to watch the football with a telescope.
Is it okay to sell the thousand-mile mirror used by the emperor for one hundred taels a pair? No, it has to be sold for at least three hundred taels, which is cheaper than the lanterns.
Just ship two or three pairs every month. Rare things are more valuable, and hunger marketing will whet the appetites of nobles and merchants.
In the evening, Wang Yuan left Gu Yingxiang to eat, and Jin Lei and Chang Lun suddenly came to visit him with wine in hand.
"You were robbed together? Why are you all crying?" Wang Yuan asked with a smile.
Chang Lun drank to himself and said angrily: "Important ministers in the cabinet are committing crimes and disregarding human lives, and the three law ministers actually want to get by!"
Wang Yuan said: "Isn't this kind of thing normal? You have encountered it before."
Jin Lei sighed: "It's different this time. Nearly three hundred people died. They were killed at will. The Sanfa Division actually wanted to exonerate several of the masterminds."
"Three hundred lives?" Gu Yingxiang was startled, "Which case committed by the son of an important minister could actually convince the Three Justices?"
Chang Lun smiled and said, "Who else could there be? Mr. Liang Ge, who is unparalleled in integrity, dares to give direct advice, and pleads for the people."
What happened is this--
In Nanhai County, Liang Chu’s hometown, a rich man named Tan Guanhai was beheaded on suspicion of crime, leaving more than a hundred properties, which were successively occupied by the rich man Yang Duan. Although Tan’s son Tan Zhen was angry, as a family member of a criminal, he had no choice but to
Dare to take back the family land by force.
Therefore, Tan Zhen simply gave up his family land, and only wanted to take revenge on Yang Duan to relieve his hatred. He dedicated more than a hundred of the occupied land from his family to Liang Chu's eldest son Liang Cixu, Nanjing Minister of Industry (the late
)'s son Dai Zhongpeng, as well as the local powerful Ouyang Yuan, Li Runcheng and others. That's all. When he donated his own land, he also included the land of his enemy Yang Duan.
Yang Duan originally occupied the Tan family's property, but inexplicably, his property was donated to the rich and powerful by Tan Zhen. The Yang and Tan families became mortal enemies and fought with each other many times. Dai Zhongpeng, Ouyang Yuan, Li Runcheng and others saw that things became more and more troublesome.
The older he is, the more he wants to exterminate the Yang family once and for all.
At this time, Liang Cixu had already assumed the position of Dusi of Guangdong and was one of the three chief officials of Guangdong Province. When he learned of this plan to exterminate the family, he not only did not stop it, but also took over the task and sent people to kill nearly 300 members of the Yang family in the middle of the night.
Kill them all.
Only one woman managed to escape by hiding in the pond, and later reported the case to the police.
The Criminal Division, the Criminal Department, the Governor, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate all intervened and jointly tried the case, and the masterminds all confessed. Immediately, the case was thrown back to the capital for a joint trial by Dali Temple, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the Criminal Tribunal.
Lu Wan, who oversaw the military clearance of the rebel bandits last year, has been promoted to the post of censor of Youdu due to his meritorious service. He is a confidant of Yang Tinghe, belongs to the same group as Liang Chu, and actually serves as one of the presiding judges of the case.
The other presiding officer was Zhang Zilin, the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment. When he was the prefect of Henan, his political performance ranked first in the country. When he was participating in politics in Shanxi, he opened warehouses to release grain and saved the lives of thousands of people. When he was the governor of Hunan, he helped 400,000 disaster victims. After he was promoted to the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment,
, he was upright and upright, and he was known as the "ancestor of a generation of criminal names". I don't know the real situation, but history books commented on it this way. Such an upright person actually wanted to exonerate the mastermind of the ironclad case!
How did these two people decide the case? When several principal criminals pleaded guilty, they said that they were just accomplices, and they also came up with the sentence that "love is more important than law, so it is difficult to deal with it on a regular basis."
The Ministry of Punishment and the Metropolitan Procuratorate want to fool around with things, so of course Dali Temple won't do it.
The main responsibility of Dali Temple is to review various major cases. If something goes wrong, you will be blamed! Zhang Lun, the minister of Dali Temple, was so angry that all the trial results were denied. The joint trial of the Three Laws Division was unable to conclude the case.
Zhang Lun also stopped going to the trial. In order to express his dissatisfaction, he actually threw a few interns over to fool him. He wanted to keep delaying the case and make the case bigger, so that no one would dare to cover the lid.
As a result, Jin Lei and Chang Lun, two interns of the Supreme Court, have personally experienced this major case in recent days. They have seen the dark side of Ming Dynasty officialdom thoroughly, and at the same time they have offended several big shots in the court.
Historically, the official careers of Jin Lei and Chang Lun were probably seriously affected by this incident.
After hearing the two fist-clasping, Wang Yuan suddenly asked with a smile: "Did Zhang Jiqing (Zhang Lun, Minister of Dali Temple) ask you to come?"
"How do you know?" Jin Lei was very surprised.
Wang Yuan said: "Zhang Jiqing circled my imperial examination essay, so I have to repay him no matter what."
Chang Lun took out a memorial and said: "Zhang Jiqing went to His Majesty one after another, and the memorials were seized by the Supervisor of Ceremonies and the Cabinet. He has no other intention. He just wants you to hand the memorials to His Majesty."
Wang Yuan asked Jin Lei: "What will your future father-in-law (Jin Gui) say?"
Jin Lei replied: "Let me leave it alone. This matter involves too much, but Jia Yue is also very dissatisfied with the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Ministry of Punishment."
The civil service group is really not monolithic. Yang Yiqing and Zhang Lun, who once drew attention to Wang Yuandian's examination papers, have been having conflicts with Yang Tinghe in recent months. The former has resigned twice due to reform issues; the latter insists on judicial fairness and is also preparing to resign.
Coming to threaten.
Jin Lei's prospective father-in-law, Jin Gui, was not in the same party as Yang Tinghe. Strictly speaking, he belonged to the Imperial Party and the Li Dongyang Party.
Wang Yuan accepted the memorial and said with a smile: "Tomorrow I am going to present a telescope to His Majesty. It doesn't matter if I hand it over to you, but you must not tell anyone about it, otherwise I will be jealous of some important ministers."
Jin Lei and Chang Lun swore at the same time: "If you leak any word, you will be struck by lightning from heaven!"
Gu Yingxiang also felt that the matter was serious and swore a poisonous oath.
Wang Yuan thought that he could add some information to Uncle Wang and sent two students over, then said: "You two wise brothers, do you know Mr. Yangming's mentality?"
"I know a little bit about it," Jin Lei, Chang Lun said.
Wang Yuan smiled and said: "My mentor will give lectures another day. Why don't you two wise brothers go and listen?"
Chang Lun and Jin Lei didn't understand, but they couldn't refuse. They both nodded and said, "I am willing to listen to my teachings."
With Uncle Wang's level, he should be able to trick them into becoming a disciple.
Let's all play together in a group. In private, with the Xinxue circle as the center, we can temporarily make friends with Yang Yiqing and Zhang Lun in court.
One day when Wang Yuan comes to power, Yang Yiqing will definitely be a pioneer in reform, and Zhang Lun's insistence on judicial fairness also makes Wang Yuan admire him.