Chapter 421 Of course the early stage of investment is burning money
The wheel of history soon came to Xiaokang in eight years.
Three days after the Lantern Festival, on the 18th day of the first lunar month, with the strong promotion and protection of the imperial court, the first batch of students admitted to Nanjing University were finally admitted as scheduled.
The number of students enrolled in the first class was relatively small, considering that the school has just been founded and the teaching staff is really not enough. Including Newton, there are now more than 20 Western scholars recruited, and at least half of them are from Cambridge, Oxford, London and
Some of those who have just graduated from the four prestigious universities in Leipzig are equivalent to finishing their master's degree in the West.
Those who were originally lecturers or professors in the four prestigious universities could only recruit four or five people in total. But the only good thing is that Zhu Shuren did not recruit a single theologian or jurist, and at least 80% to 90% taught mathematics and mechanics.
in optics, and some dabbled in natural history and chemistry.
In the end, only more than 10% were involved in philosophy, and the Ming Dynasty would not train people who only understand Western philosophy. There is no need for such people now. So even if you teach philosophy, you must at least be proficient in logic. Then
It can also complement the educational needs of the Ming Dynasty. After all, the Ming Dynasty’s traditional philosophies of various schools of thought despise logic and have certain shortcomings that can be made up for.
There are more than twenty newly recruited Western scholars, plus a dozen researchers who came in the early years and were the disciples and disciples of Descartes.
There are also thirty or fifty researchers from China, the Daming Academy of Sciences, who have been temporarily invited to guest appearances. These researchers are not teaching full-time at Nanjing University. Some of them are also doing research and development work at the Academy of Sciences and cannot completely let go, so after calculation,
Equivalent to up to thirty full-time employees.
So all in all, there are only 60 or 70 teachers, teaching more than 300 students, which is already quite stressful. Especially considering that Nanjing University recruits students every year. This year, the first batch of 300 students will be admitted, and it will only be admitted year by year in the future.
Increasingly. If there are three years of students to be taught there at the same time, the total will exceed one thousand.
Seventy teachers teach a thousand students, and the students have to be divided into many subjects. They have to learn mathematics, physics, chemistry, natural history, logic, five major categories of subjects, and there are absolutely not enough teachers.
In the actual process of running the school in the future, we will definitely have to wait until the first batch of students reaches sophomore or junior year, then select the ones with the best grades and award them with teaching assistant positions in advance. This way, students can help lead a group of students in the future and reduce the pressure on teachers.
.The relevant talent gap can be quickly plugged after the earliest talents are available.
…
Due to the lack of manpower, Nanjing University's education was really lackluster in the first half of the eighth year of Xiaokang. Many things were run in chaos and were stretched.
Gu Yanwu, who was in charge of the Ministry of Rites and Education, was also a little ashamed, and apologized to Zhu Shuren several times for the slow pace of the university.
But Zhu Shuren said very generously that these are all problems that arise during the development process and will inevitably be solved with development. These temporary difficulties do not need to be taken to heart. As long as Daming’s scientific and educational talent team can steadily expand, other problems will be solved.
They are all small problems.
Feeling Zhu Shuren's trust and kindness, Gu Yanwu also strived to be more fair and not interfere with the work of specific scientific and educational personnel, allowing them to perform freely.
Most of the students have the inherent Ming Dynasty mentality of respecting teachers and respecting Taoism, or they dare not question, or they are not adaptable to the new learning in various ways. The cultural differences have also brought a lot of internal friction. The learning efficiency is temporarily low, which is not the case.
It’s a matter of solutions. Any new thing is difficult when it first appears.
In the blink of an eye, it was midsummer, and Nanjing University was asked by Zhu Shuren to arrange a break during the winter and summer vacations. However, each was only for one month, which was not as comfortable as in later generations. The summer vacation only lasted from the tenth day of the sixth lunar month to the tenth day of the seventh lunar month, choosing the hottest time.
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In fact, because everyone cannot keep up with their study progress, many students with poor grades also need to take extra classes during the summer vacation. Those with good grades may be dragged by teachers who are researchers to do some odd jobs in the Academy of Sciences.
The Academy of Sciences, which delayed a lot of work due to lack of manpower in the first half of the year, only managed to make some progress during the summer vacation.
Fang Ziling is still in charge of the Ming Academy of Sciences, so she couldn't help but take advantage of her summer vacation to complain to her husband, saying that more than half a year has passed since the establishment of Nanjing University, but it has not seen any achievements in supporting the Academy of Sciences, and instead it has left many people behind.
The project has stalled.
Zhu Shuren smiled and comforted his wife: "This is normal. When you first invest, there is no immediate return. If the results were so immediate, countless profit-seeking people would have invested in science and education.
It is because it will cost money at the beginning and it will not be effective immediately, so the court needs to be far-sighted and overcome all difficulties. Anyway, our Ming Dynasty has no obvious border dangers now, and other research can also take a breath and lay a solid foundation.
I don't expect that within five years, the scientific research progress of running a university will be better than that of not running a university and just focusing on it. I have been mentally prepared to make a total loss within five years and barely stop the loss within ten years. Fifteen years two
After ten years, it will be pure profit. It takes ten years to cultivate trees, but a hundred years to cultivate people."
Fang Ziling actually knew this truth, so she didn't bother much about it. But she quickly listed a new problem, that is, the teaching feedback of Newton, the current chief professor of the School of Mathematics, is not very good. Many students have reported that he
The lectures are illogical, often jumpy and unrestrained.
The students who studied with him had worse grades than those taught by other professors. The average math score of Newton's class in the final exam of the first semester was at the bottom of the school.
After Zhu Shuren heard this, he couldn't help but be stunned, but he remembered many stories in history about Newton, Einstein and others who were not good at teaching.
It is easy for these geniuses to speak wildly and wildly. They think they have understood it, so they omit many processes and jump directly to the back. Whether it is Newton when he was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, or Einstein's occasional guest appearance at Princeton.
Guest lectures are all the same.
Zhu Shuren couldn't help but ask: "But now there are only a few people who can teach calculus. You and I have only just learned it. Can other mathematics professors teach it better than Newton?"
Fang Ziling: "That's not true, but the freshmen haven't learned calculus yet. In the first half of this year, they were still supplementing the basics of algebra and geometry. They only learned derivation in the second half of the year. If they go faster next year, they may learn it in the second half of the year.
Calculus.
Many of our professors are actually learning while teaching. They already understood the basics of algebraic geometry when they were in Europe, and some of them were in the same class as Newton. They learned derivation under Professor Barrow when they were in Europe, so they only need to make up for it.
If you add points, you can teach all math subjects."
Zhu Shuren nodded: "Then reduce Newton's class hours and let him teach other professors calculus, derivation and basic algebraic geometry instead of teaching ordinary students. That is a waste of talent.
If after teaching calculus there is nothing else that can arouse his interest and be worth teaching, then give him a thousand taels of silver per month and let him do whatever he likes. There is no need to report regularly. He will think of results to report.
When the time comes, I will naturally report it.
From now on, his class schedule will be reduced to ten classes per month, and he will not fall in love with it. He will also hold a regular professor experience exchange meeting once a week, and the rest of the time is completely free to arrange."
Fang Ziling was slightly surprised when she heard this. She knew that her husband valued Professor Niu very much, but she still didn't expect it to be to this extent.
Calculated in this way, Newton can only be busy with teaching work for at most one and a half days a week, and the remaining four and a half days are at least free. Today's Nanjing University works six days a week, mainly for teaching positions that allow Europa to come.
People have a day off every Sunday to deal with private spiritual life. But it is not good and unfair, so scholars and students in the Ming Dynasty also have one day off every seven days.
Zhu Shuren's arrangement was quickly implemented. Taking Newton as an opportunity, other talented scholars who were not good at teaching were more or less exempted based on their academic performance. For a while, the atmosphere at Nanjing University became more relaxed.
…
After adjusting according to the new teaching management plan, the science and education work of Nanjing University in the second semester continued smoothly. Because it is still in the stage of investment losses, there are no results worth mentioning.
In terms of other internal affairs of the Ming Dynasty, they continued to carry out the reform of abolishing Ding and dividing the country into the northern provinces. On the other hand, they continued to reclaim wasteland and expand borders, and reformed the land in the southwest.
Nothing major happened during the process, it was just manual labor.
In the blink of an eye, it was the early winter of the eighth year of a well-off life, and the imperial court finally had a border problem worth dealing with, which was the Luzon issue that had been delayed for more than a year.
In the first half of last year, when Ming Dynasty finally solved Vietnam, Vietnamese Zheng Zha made crazy rumors in Guangdong and Guangxi, trying to divert the hatred and conflicts and drag the Spanish colonists into the water. Now that the matter has been made clear, the war must be fought.
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There was no immediate action before. On the one hand, Zheng Chenggong's navy had just fought two large-scale battles in the Vietnam War last year, and there were more or less battle losses.
After all, the main fleet of the Ming Dynasty at that time, under the idea of "key armor protection" suggested by Zhu Shuren, relied on built-in steel plate armor cabins to protect the command cabin and ammunition compartment, ensuring that the battleships could not be sunk no matter how hard they were bombarded.
However, this idea of focused armor protection could not prevent the superstructure from being damaged by shelling. At that time, Zheng Chenggong almost faced a troop disadvantage of 1 to 51 to 6 and relied on the decisive victory of the big ship and cannon. After the superstructure was defeated,
Too much was damaged, various gun deck facilities were also damaged, and there were a large number of wounded soldiers.
These wounded soldiers and veterans who had participated in bloody naval battles were rare and precious assets, so they received Zhu Shuren's personal care and good health.
Because the Ming Dynasty really lacks soldiers with rich experience in modern naval warfare and artillery warfare. In the previous years of land warfare and the war to destroy the country, it could still train hundreds of thousands of troops. But the battle between gunships and bombardments, except this time
The war to destroy the Le Dynasty in Vietnam was originally impossible to fight. After all, the Ming Dynasty's previous opponents did not have large-scale Western acquisition fleets at all.
Therefore, all the wounded soldiers were finally transported back to Fuzhou for diagnosis and treatment after their injuries were slightly stabilized. The affiliated hospital of the Ming Academy of Sciences in Nanjing also set up a branch in another province for the first time, and it was set up in Fuzhou.
All the advancements in trauma medical technology have been put to use.
Including that during the same period, the British were using 3% dilute sulfuric acid to sterilize scalpels, 2% dilute sulfuric acid to wrap gauze and then neutralize it with soda water, and other health measures, all in the "Daming Second Military Hospital" in Fuzhou
been applied.
Now, after more than a year of rest, all the injured soldiers have recovered and are in the best condition. All damaged warships have been repaired, and all the bombed and worn cannons have been replaced with new ones. As winter comes again, tropical diseases and intense heat have
The problem was temporarily alleviated, and Zheng Chenggong's fangs were completely exposed.
Zhu Shuren personally prepared for this more than a month in advance. He went south from Nanjing in early September, inspected the coast of Zhejiang and northern Fujian, and finally arrived in Fuzhou in early October to inspect the army, boost the morale of the soldiers, and accept Zheng Chenggong's oath.
Then the fleet pulled anchor and set sail. Zheng Chenggong personally led Chen Jinnan, Liu Guoxuan and other generals, leading 200 warships, 300 troop transports, and several supply ships.
The entire fleet has a total of 30,000 sailors and 30,000 landing troops, totaling more than 60,000, to launch an expedition to Luzon.
The fleet set sail from Fuzhou on the eighth day of October. After eight days of sailing, it took a brief rest at Chichian Port in the south of Dayuang Island on the 16th to resupply the fresh water, fresh fruits, vegetables and meat consumed on the way.
Then he went south again. After fifteen days of sailing, he first arrived at Lingayen Bay, where the Spanish army was unprepared. Zheng Chenggong sent Liu Guoxuan's troops to land here with 10,000 troops, established a bridgehead, and sent out a number of light and small warships to provide water along the coast.
Patrol escort.
Zheng Chenggong himself led the main force of more than 40,000 people to continue southward along the coast and headed towards Manila Bay.
Lingayen City is located about 240 miles due north on the north shore of Manila Bay, and 300 miles away from Manila City. There is also a bay in the north of Lingayen City, which can be landed, but it is not a deep-water anchorage and is not suitable for the largest warships to dock.
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Historically, whenever the Philippine rulers lacked a ruling foundation and could be wiped out with one blow, the attacking troops would often choose to land directly in Manila Bay.
But if the ruler has a certain degree of control, it may be a protracted war. To be on the safe side, it would be safer to open a beachhead in Lingayen first. Anyway, occupying more than 200 miles of enclosure after landing does not count.
It's too far and too troublesome. These places are meant to be controlled.
Therefore, in history, during the Seven Years' War, in order to attack Spain, Britain chose to send a fleet to land directly in Manila and beat up the Spanish fleet. But in the end the war ended and a treaty was signed, Spain relented, and Britain still had to return Manila to Spain.
.On the other hand, when the United States and Japan fought for the Philippines during World War II, they aimed for long-term domination, so they fought steadily from Lingayen Bay.
What Zhu Shuren wanted now was long-term peace and stability, instead of just beating him up and leaving like the British, so he advised Zheng Chenggong to be cautious when planning the war. Zheng Chenggong had unconditional trust in Zhu Shuren. The regent said that it would be safer to fight this way, so he strictly followed the plan.
This plan requires detailed planning.
As expected, the Spaniards did not expect that Zheng Chenggong would divide his troops to build a bridgehead first, so the Ming army successfully landed and established a foothold. They also welcomed many Han people on Luzon Island who had been slaughtered and fled to the mountains, forests and countryside.
The Han farm owners took out rations to supply the imperial army and welcomed the royal army with food and wine. After all, the Spaniards had previously instigated the natives to massacre the Han people. They killed three times in the past few decades, with as many as 20,000 to 30,000 people each time. How could this kind of blood feud be done?
Maybe they don't want Daming to help them take revenge.
In particular, about two-thirds of the Han people in Luzon are from Fujian who came to Nanyang, and one-third were from Chaoshan who came to Nanyang. Zheng Chenggong, who came this time, is also from Fujian, so he is a fellow villager with these people, so it is more suitable for him to go there.
Unite the local people.
Of course, there is a saying that the easy win-over is only limited to the Han people who account for only a small half of the local population, while the South Island natives, Kunlun slaves, and savages who account for more than 70% of the population will definitely not welcome the Ming army.
Under the instigation of the Spanish colonists, they had a vendetta against the Han people. The Spanish were also very good at using one indigenous nation to deal with another, and the contradiction between the two sides had long been difficult to resolve.
After Zheng Chenggong learned about the local situation, he didn't expect the natives to win over him.
Anyway, if you can't win them over, you can win over the Han people, who make up 20 to 30% of the population, and the other indigenous groups with hatred can just use swords, guns and cannons to reason with you.