national surname chiming

Chapter 489 Ah!Ming dynasty!The hope of mankind!

Isaac Newton did not expect the captain who took him to Daming to take him all the way to Nanjing.

After all, businessmen are chasing profits, and the purchase of goods from sea trade can be done in Suzhou and Hangzhou, and there is no commercial significance in going to Nanjing.

If Captain Morton hadn’t seen the prosperity and dignity of Nanjing when he first came to Daming more than ten years ago, he might still have wandered around out of curiosity, but now he has no such interest.

Even if he has free time to play, there are still too many places along the southeast coast of Daming that he has never been to, so why bother to go back and forth.

However, Captain Morton's pickiness also created a little trouble for Newton.Because he could not speak English well after all, even if he hired a guide, he still had to worry about whether he would be deceived.

So Newton decided to temporarily stay in Hangzhou City for a month or so. While Captain Morton was still loading and unloading cargo, he followed suit every day, dealing with various Han businessmen and improving his oral English.

Newton is also worthy of being a person with outstanding IQ. He spent nine months on the ship to China learning written language and half-mute spoken language. Conversational pronunciation is practiced stutteringly, at least I can speak complete sentences.

It's a pity that because he landed in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, he couldn't learn pure Nanjing Mandarin. In the end, he learned an accent that was between Wu dialect and Mandarin, so he could make do with it temporarily.

Learning Chinese in Hangzhou Prefecture, although you can't get in touch with the frontiers of Daming's scientific research, you can still get in touch with some of Daming's peripheral application technologies.

In addition to Newton's visit, the original purpose was to find a solution to the London rat plague.

So during this month, when he was in contact with Han merchants, he took the initiative to learn about the progress of medicine and public health in Ming Dynasty whenever he had the opportunity, and he really discovered some good things.

It was one day at the end of September. A businessman from Jiangxi came to Hangzhou to ship porcelain. It seemed that his family was also engaged in medicinal materials business. Can't stop showing off.

So Newton got a copy of "Journal of the Institute of Biochemistry" - that is a new publication issued by the Daming Academy of Sciences in recent years, and each research institute under the Academy of Sciences has its own sub-journal.Institutes that can release relatively few results can also publish jointly by several institutes.The timing of the publication is also uncertain. If there are few achievements, it may only be published every six months. If there are many things worth writing, it may be published once a quarter.

Strictly speaking, this thing is not the same thing as the academic journals of later generations, because the things published on it do not involve technical secrets, and are mainly used to popularize science and literacy for the literate people, and to provide some guidance on technical applications .

Take the book that Newton obtained as an example. Although it is a journal that mainly deals with the latest achievements in epidemic prevention and control, the content in it is mainly about the details of how to do a good job in sanitation and eradication, and there are also some repeated emphasis on the old-fashioned pollution of urban life. The laws of drug disposal, and finally, the description of the usage and curative effect of several new drugs invented by the Institute of Biochemistry this year.

But in this, it will never involve the ingredients, how to manufacture, and process links of new drugs.Those technical secrets that can involve commercial interests are not included at all.It's just a product manual, telling consumers how to eat and use after buying it.

In this way, the journal only involves public scientific discoveries and product usage precautions, so there is no risk of R&D leaks at all. At the same time, it can also cultivate the market, improve people's wisdom, and help popular science and literacy. The whole scale is well-balanced Very precise.

Newton spent several days carefully reading the journal, and then found that the journal introduced how to use existing commonly used materials, such as quicklime, to scientifically kill and repel rats to prevent and control plague.

There is even a section dedicated to teaching how to scientifically raise cats to eliminate rats, how to raise cats to be more energetic and have a stronger desire to catch mice, which can be said to be very down-to-earth.

At the end of the special issue of the plague, it also introduced a highly toxic substance called "hydrogen arsenate", which is suitable for exterminating rodents. Just figure out how to make that poison out of salt and arsenic plus some other secret ingredient.

The article only emphasizes that this new poison can be better mixed in rat bait to induce rats to eat it. The stuff was described as a better antiraticide than any previous rat poison.

After introducing how to get rid of rats, there is an article at the back of the special issue, which mentions the more general concept of "disinfection", saying that most of the microscopic insects on the surface of everything are invisible to the human eye, with various traces of toxicity.

Then it is recommended that for those involving human trauma, sutures or surgery, sulfuric acid produced by Daming Kyushu Sulfuric Acid Factory can be used, diluted to 5.00%, and then smeared on knives or needles and threads for disinfection.

In addition to sulfuric acid, an old drug that has appeared in Daming for 20 years, there is also a new drug that has just been developed by the Kyushu Sulfuric Acid Factory and the Kyushu Branch of the Institute of Biochemistry of the Daming Academy of Sciences in the past two years, called "Carbolic Acid", which can be used for "Disinfection" in other ways.

With some difficulty, Newton finished reading this academic journal by relying on his written Chinese level.Although there are many technical terms and nouns in it, he really can't understand them, such as the names of those chemicals.

But this did not prevent Newton from being greatly shocked, fully realizing that the chemistry, medicine and hygiene of Ming Dynasty had progressed to a level that the British could hardly understand.

"My God, is this the study of the plague by the Orientals? They have not only stopped at the research of drugs to relieve symptoms, but also detailed the investigation and prevention of various transmission routes, as well as special rodent poisons and 'Disinfectant' potions—if these things could have been brought back to England earlier, the Great London Plague last year wouldn't have killed 6 to [-] people."

Newton couldn't help expressing such emotion.

Don’t underestimate the Great London Plague in 1665. This plague finally killed a quarter of the population of London. In two and a half years, a total of nearly 10 people died, while the total population of London at that time It is 40.

Because any plague has a relatively high fatality rate when it first broke out, so when Newton fled London, [-] to [-] people died in the first year.

While Newton was feeling emotional, thinking of so many teachers and classmates dying in the plague, he could not help but burst into tears, and asked the Jiangxi businessman:

"Da Ming has such good things, why didn't he ever think of selling them to other countries to make a lot of money? Just these plague prevention and control medicines, if they can be sold to the right place in a catastrophe year, it will save countless lives, and it will be the same for Daming. It’s beneficial, and you can definitely make a lot of money.”

The Jiangxi businessman also spread his hands helplessly: "Our Daming just started to mass-produce these things in the past two years, and we haven't had time to sell them yet. You have to reserve some yourself first. The regent said that we must first protect Nanjing and Hong Kong. Public health reserves in Suzhou, Hangzhou and other places.

You don't know, if you go back a few years, I, Daming, don't have this foundation.Just because the world is peaceful now, the new king has been on the throne for four years, focusing on recuperating and improving people's livelihood.

The regent reminisced about the late Emperor Chongzhen, and said that the first emperor Chongzhen was martyred and the capital was lost to thieves and Tartars. Although there were many reasons, the most direct reason was the plague in the capital in the 16th year of Chongzhen.

So in the past few years, the Regent allocated a lot of money to the Academy of Sciences to let the Institute of Biochemistry focus on rodenticides, disinfectants and other things, saying that it was to comfort the spirit of Emperor Chongzhen and let him know the tragedy of the Jiashen incident. It will not happen again. "

When the Jiangxi businessman said this, a heart of admiration spontaneously arose in his heart. It can be seen that their admiration for Zhu Shuren is absolutely from the bottom of their hearts, and there is no dissatisfaction.

In fact, the rhetoric that "disinfectants and insecticides and rodenticides were invented in order to comfort the late emperor and prevent further plagues within the Ming Dynasty" is of course just the official propaganda that Zhu Shuren asked Bian Yujing to disclose.

Zhu Shuren's real purpose, of course, is for the military operations against Burma and Vietnam that will start next year.At the military conference four years ago, everyone had already discussed very clearly that the biggest obstacle to the use of troops in Southeast Asia in the future was not the enemy's armed resistance, but the natural environment, tropical diseases and snakes, insects, rats and ants.

However, in order to show the benevolent government of the imperial court, it is difficult for the imperial court to say that the public health scientific research is for the purpose of fighting, so it uses Chongzhen, who has been dead for 20 years, as a cover.

Ordinary people who don't know the truth, after hearing about it, think that the regent is really more loyal than Duke Zhou and Zhuge.

Emperor Chongzhen has been dead for more than 20 years, and he still remembers the kindness of Emperor Chongzhen who promoted him to enter the official career, and made up for the regrets and unwillingness of the other party's life before his death.

Even because the destruction of the city of Beijing in Chongzhen was due to the plague, Zhu Shuren made a great wish to conquer and contain the plague as much as possible before it harms the world. What a noble character this is!Faithful to the sun and the moon!Righteous spirit!

After hearing these deeds, Newton was also in awe, and thought to himself: "I used to be the Regent of Daming, so I must be as ruthless as Lord Protector Cromwell. I didn't expect there to be such a man with both civil and military skills. To be able to restore the country, and to be able to govern benevolently and love the people, it must be far superior to the protector of the country.”

However, the emotion is the emotion, and Newton also clearly distinguishes the priorities. He has never forgotten the primary purpose of traveling and studying in Daming this time.Now that Ming has found some ways to deal with the plague, the special-effect disinfectant rodenticide, it is time to persuade Captain Lessing Morton to purchase more and transport them back to England to save lives.

That night, he found Captain Morton and expressed his thoughts.Although Newton himself had a little money and could afford to study at Oxford University, he was still incomparable with those wealthy maritime merchants.He must not be able to afford the cost of importing hydrogen arsenic acid sodium rodenticide, carbolic acid, and concentrated sulfuric acid.

It is estimated that the price of these drugs will not be very cheap in Daming, after all, they are special effects chemicals that have just appeared a few years ago.

Captain Morton hesitated after hearing this.The silk and porcelain tea leaves he normally buys are almost full.At most, I will stay in the port area for another seven or eight days, and most of the capital will be used to buy goods, leaving not much gold and silver.

"Mr. Newton, please don't trouble me. I didn't make much money when I came this time. You don't know. I haven't been here for seven years. The demand for our European products in Daming is shrinking.

Seven years ago, they would at least buy some of our most advanced guns and cannons for reference. Now they don’t even bother to learn from them. For the eight self-defense cannons on my ship, I chose the latest and best European ones. Without looking at it, it is said that European firearms have no learning value at all, and can only continue to be used as self-defense firepower.

Although the cashmere wool I sold is still marketable, it is really not that high of a profit. Those rich families in Daming just bought it for fresh clothes, and there are too many high-quality textiles from Daming instead.

Now even tobacco leaves and cocoa cannot be sold. It is said that Daming can grow it himself. The only thing that is said to be open to purchase is natural rubber.It seems that next time we will buy more American rubber and come back to Daming.

Anyway, I didn't make much money from the shipment this time, basically relying on the gold and silver I brought before I came here to purchase, and now there are only seven or eight thousand pounds left at most.Even if all this money is used to purchase the carbolic acid, concentrated sulfuric acid, and sodium hydrogen arsenic acid you mentioned, how much can you buy? "

Captain Morton's complaints can also hear his helplessness.And he doesn't know, he thinks selling rubber can make a lot of money anyway, but this window period is not long.

Zhu Shuren is in urgent need of rubber right now, but it is because Daming's rubber industry has started, and Daming has been crazy about vulcanized rubber and nitrorubber technology in the past few years.As the Ming Dynasty gradually turned to peace and Yunnan-Guizhou was gradually completed, the proportion of tobacco planted in Yunnan-Guizhou will definitely be suppressed in the future. By then, tobacco fields in many tropical rainforest climate areas will be converted into rubber forests.

If after a few more years, Daming conquers Burma and Vietnam, and gets more wet coastal rainforest belts in Southeast Asia, then the scale of rubber plantation will be even larger.After the rubber tree is planted, it can grow enough to tap rubber in about seven or eight years.Calculated in this way, the American rubber reselling business of British and Dutch merchants can only last for more than ten years at most, and Daming will be completely self-sufficient in this shortcoming in the future.

In the face of Captain Morton's complaints, Newton also knew that the current chemicals are very expensive and are profiteering, but he still urged the other party to buy as much as he could.

In the end, Newton also helped him with an idea: "If it doesn't work, we can still find a way to submit the letter of credence, fight for credit, find other chambers of commerce for guarantee, and tell the seller in Daming about the situation of the Great Plague in London.

Let them fully believe that 'this drug is sold in the UK now, it will definitely make a lot of money', and next time we will definitely pay back the principal with interest at a high price.If it doesn’t work, we can persuade a Ming businessman to send a ship to go back with us. They buy the goods and sell them in the UK. The profit is all theirs. We only want to save tens of thousands of lives in London. "

Captain Morton shrugged: "But I'm just a businessman, and I came here after I voted for the Netherlands. How could I submit the credentials on behalf of the United Kingdom? It's also quite embarrassing, and you can't get any benefits."

Newton had no choice but to think of a way by himself: "Mr. Captain, can you help me think of a way, Toto relationship, at least help me introduce a few people from the Daming Academy of Sciences, and I will try to write a letter to express my feelings for the rest.

I believe that His Royal Highness the Regent of Ming Dynasty is a benevolent ruler and the common hope of mankind.As long as I can establish friendship with the people of Daming Academy of Sciences, I may have a solution in the future. "

(End of this chapter)