Red Mansion Taoist

Chapter 322 Conversation
"Is this true?" Qin Keqing asked Li Qiang after leaving the cold palace and before getting on the sedan chair.

"It's true. I learned about what happened from Master Jing. If I hadn't become the crown prince, this secret might have remained unknown for the rest of my life!" Li Qiang nodded in response.

"I am the daughter of the deposed emperor. You won't look down on me, right?" Qin Keqing asked again.

"I will take good care of you!" Li Qiang comforted with a smile.

However, he still had a little concern in his heart, that is, the reason why Qin Keqing was suddenly sent to the mansion was really incomprehensible.

From the book Dream of the Red Chamber, we know that Qin Keqing's engagement with the Ningguo Mansion was actually her engagement with Jia Rong.

Qin Bangye did not care about his face and sent Qin Keqing directly to Li Qiang's house on the pretext of an engagement, which seemed too deliberate.

However, as Li Qiang became more and more powerful, he became less wary of immortals.

This is also the reason why he agreed to Emperor Jingwen's request. He would try to accept Qin Keqing slowly.

"You don't have to observe mourning anymore. Spend more time with others and don't be alone all the time!" Li Qiang said again.

"He has always raised me. Now that Qin Zhong is gone, I will still fulfill my filial duty!" Qin Keqing said with a wry smile.

Even though she knew what Qin Bangye had done, she could not forget how much Qin Bangye doted on her and how he gave her the best things in the family.

She felt that Qin Bangye's feelings for her were not fake, and that love made her unable to give up the grace of raising him.

"It's up to you!" Li Qiang didn't insist.

"Can I go see my mother?" Qin Keqing asked.

"Okay, I'll accompany you there when I'm free!" Li Qiang knew she was talking about Concubine Qing's tomb, and nodded.

A few days later, in the main hall of the East Palace.

Scholar Tian and Lin Ruhai sat below Li Qiang. They were summoned by Li Qiang.

"Your Highness, the cement road paving is already under design and construction will begin on a chosen day!" Grand Secretary Tian thought that Li Qiang summoned them over to build the road, so he began to report.

"I asked the two masters to come here not for the cement road paving, but for another matter!" Li Qiang said, waving her hand.

Scholar Tian and Lin Ruhai looked at each other, as if nothing major had happened during this period of time.

Li Qiang almost handed over all government affairs to the cabinet, and Li Qiang was required to make decisions only when there were major events.

"I am preparing to hold a big exam!" Li Qiang continued.

"Your Highness, are you planning to hold an imperial examination?" asked Grand Secretary Tian.

Enke refers to a major examination held outside of the regular subjects for various reasons.

The special examination can select a group of more Jinshi in addition to the regular examination, thus adding more fresh blood to the court.

"It's not a special exam because the content is somewhat special. I plan to hold a big exam focusing on arithmetic, physics, astronomy and geography!" Li Qiang explained.

"Are you going to take the miscellaneous exam?" Mr. Tian hesitated and confirmed.

There were miscellaneous subjects in the previous dynasty, but they were no longer accepted in the Daqian Dynasty.

Miscellaneous subjects include professional knowledge such as medicine, astronomy, law and mathematics, which are used to prepare talents for certain specific official positions.

These professional official positions in Daqian were generally passed down from father to son, from master to apprentice, rather than through miscellaneous examinations.

"It's a miscellaneous exam. I'll be in charge of writing the papers. I need to select a group of talented people in this area!" Li Qiang nodded.

"Your Highness, if you only offer miscellaneous subjects in the special examination, I'm afraid the scholars in the world will be dissatisfied!" Grand Scholar Tian bowed and reminded.

"Then we will open the exam for liberal arts as well, but this time the exam will focus on miscellaneous subjects." Li Qiang thought about it and decided.

"I, an old minister, would like to thank Your Highness on behalf of all the scholars in the world!" said Grand Scholar Tian happily.

Increasing the number of special examinations would help select more talents for Daqian, which would be a good thing for Academician Tian.

"Except for the palace examination, the rest will be discussed by you and Lin Zhongtang!" Li Qiang said again.

Lin Ruhai was looking at Li Qiang, wondering whether Li Qiang was planning to speed up the emergence of new Jinshi by opening the imperial examination this time, so as to replace the ministers in the court more quickly.

It was impossible to ask such questions in front of Academician Tian, ​​so he planned to find an opportunity to ask him in private.

"Since it is an imperial examination, there must be a name. I wonder what name Your Highness is going to use?" Grand Secretary Tian thought of a key thing and asked.

The "En" in Enko means gratitude. There must be something to be grateful for before there is Enko.

"Just use the excuse that the emperor is in good health!" Li Qiang thought for a moment and replied.

He originally thought of using his son Li Heng's name, but considering that Daqian attached great importance to filial piety, if he really used his son's birth as an excuse, he was afraid that the scholars would say that he was holding an imperial examination for such a trivial matter.

But since the emperor was in good health, this was in line with the filial piety of the literati and no one could say anything more.

"Daqian was founded on filial piety, which is a great virtue!" Scholar Tian replied with a smile. He was also very satisfied with this reason.

"Mr. Lin, please stay!" Li Qiang said as Mr. Tian and Lin Ruhai were about to leave.

Scholar Tian was not surprised. He nodded to Lin Ruhai and left first.

"Father-in-law, let's go see Sister Lin first and talk while we walk!" Li Qiang said with a smile.

"Okay!" Lin Ruhai also wanted to see his daughter, so he nodded.

The two left the main hall and walked slowly towards the Crown Princess' bedroom.

"What are your plans for this exam?" Lin Ruhai asked.

"I am planning to recruit a group of students to teach, and I need some teachers, so I thought of selecting them through a big exam!" Li Qiang expressed her thoughts.

"What do you want to recruit students to study? Arithmetic, the study of things, astronomy and geography?" Lin Ruhai asked again.

"It's more complicated than this. I have already written the textbook, and the teachers who are selected will need to study the textbook first and then use it to teach!" Li Qiang explained.

"You wrote a book?" Lin Ruhai asked in surprise.

Writing books in Daqian is not an ordinary thing.

Especially according to what Li Qiang said, the books written by Li Qiang are related to arithmetic, investigation of things, astronomy and geography. Although these can only be regarded as miscellaneous studies, it is extremely rare to be able to write books on them.

"Yes!" Li Qiang replied.

"Where is the book?" Lin Ruhai asked anxiously.

"It's in the main hall!" Li Qiang replied. "Go read a book first!" Lin Ruhai completely forgot about his daughter at this moment and turned around to return to the main hall.

Li Qiang shook his head helplessly. He did not expect Lin Ruhai to be so anxious.

On the other side, in the Crown Princess's bedroom, Lin Daiyu heard that her father was coming and asked someone to prepare tea and snacks.

But no matter how long she waited, he still didn't come, which made her anxious, so she quickly asked someone to find out the news.

When she heard that her father went back to the main hall to read, she was so angry that she almost went to the main hall.

At this time, Lin Ruhai was reading a book.

This is a Mathematics (1) book, the first book in Mathematics and also the one that lays the foundation.

He looked at Mathematics (1), nodding his head as he read.

Although the knowledge in this Mathematics (1) is simple, it is a self-contained system, unlike the messy content in other arithmetic books.

He picked up "Mathematics (2)" again. The more he read, the more shocked he became. This was only the second volume, but the level of arithmetic in it was already beyond his level.

Lin Ruhai had specially studied arithmetic. As the imperial salt inspector in Yangzhou, he often dealt with account books. He learned arithmetic in order to prevent others from cheating without knowing it.

Although his arithmetic level is not very high, his level of arithmetic knowledge can still be judged.

The arithmetic level in "Mathematics (2)" has reached the top level in Daqian.

On the table, there were two mathematics books. He picked up 'Mathematics (3)', but had to put it down after reading only a few pages.

He couldn't understand it, he couldn't understand it at all. Unless he calmed down and slowly learned the calculations based on the knowledge in the book, he would not be able to understand the knowledge in the book in such a short time.

He opened "Mathematics (4)" again, and just by seeing the incomprehensible symbols, he knew that Li Qiang had created a new subject.

The arithmetic of the past and Li Qiang’s mathematics cannot be considered the same subject at all.

"Are these all written by you alone?" Lin Ruhai asked, looking up.

"Yes, at present it is just some basic mathematics. I will write more in-depth knowledge later when I have time!" Li Qiang said with a smile and nodded.

"Do you know that with these four books of Mathematics, you can become a master in arithmetic?" Lin Ruhai said excitedly.

Only then did Li Qiang realize that Lin Ruhai was excited because of the knowledge in Mathematics.

"I don't care about the master of arithmetic. Mathematics is the foundation of all knowledge. Only with mathematics as a foundation can we have a broader vision!" Li Qiang said, tapping the "Mathematics" book with his fingers.

Lin Ruhai wanted to refute, but did not say it out loud.

In his opinion, mathematics is not an important subject.

Li Qiang also saw Lin Ruhai's attitude and couldn't help but sigh inwardly. Daqian attached great importance to Confucianism and despised other disciplines. This attitude would cause it to be left far behind by other countries in the years to come.

He could not allow this to happen, so he insisted on spreading this knowledge to all parts of Daqian.

Even if the literati do not accept it, he must train a group of talents who can carry out his orders.

Otherwise, if he wanted to do something, he could only find suitable people among the craftsmen, but the craftsmen had limited knowledge, which greatly restricted the development of Daqian.

Lin Ruhai picked up another book, "Physics". After reading it for a while, he couldn't help but frowned.

The knowledge expounded in "Physics" is indeed similar to the concept of "investigating things", but similarly, "Physics" is more systematic in the aspect of "investigating things", making "Physics" a complete discipline.

Then he picked up "Chemistry", which contained even more profound knowledge, and this time he could not understand it at all.

Finally he picked up "Nature". This time he could understand it clearly. It contained a lot of interesting knowledge, and even a lot of content broke his cognition.

For example, why does it rain, how does thunder occur, sunlight is composed of seven spectra, etc.

"With these four subjects, you will become the new sage after Confucius!" Lin Ruhai said with emotion as he looked at the book in front of him.

"It's you who praised me!" Li Qiang said with a smile.

"No, I am not exaggerating at all. These four subjects represent the pinnacle of the study of things!" Lin Ruhai shook his head and said.

"I plan to use these books as textbooks to teach a group of students!" Li Qiang said, pointing at the books on the table.

"Personally, I think it's better not to make it public. You can just say in a private capacity that you want to train a group of people to manage your affairs and teach these books. There are many old-fashioned people among the scholars, and they can't accept the dissemination of these new disciplines.

"Every time new knowledge is spread, there is always a brutal competition. The competition between scholars may not lead to life and death, but it is more terrible than life and death. The loser may be ruined!" Lin Ruhai suggested.

Li Qiang also understood this point. Every school of thought that has been passed down in Confucianism today was the result of fighting among numerous competitors.

Not to mention that he was a crown prince, even if he became an emperor, the literati would resist his new disciplines in order to leave their reputation through the ages.

"Then take your time. I have plenty of time!" Li Qiang said indifferently.

He first trained students in these subjects privately, and then expanded the teaching of these subjects after these subjects spread and had a great impact.

His goal is to include all these subjects in future scientific expeditions.

Let the talents selected by Daqian through imperial examinations at least have a relatively scientific vision, so that Daqian can improve step by step.

Otherwise, the first industrial revolution initiated by Li Qiang was just his own fun and had little to do with Daqian.

"Father-in-law, I have asked people to research automatic weaving machines and plan to build a large workshop in Yangzhou to mass-produce cloth!" Li Qiang informed Lin Ruhai of his other plan.

"Automatic textile machine, is there really such a machine?" Lin Ruhai felt that he was increasingly unable to keep up with Li Qiang's thoughts, and he asked in surprise.

"We have already researched the automation step, and are combining automation with textile machines. When it goes into production, only one person will be needed to look after multiple machines. These machines will work around the clock and produce cloth continuously!" Li Qiang explained.

"But do you need me to prepare in Yangzhou first?" Lin Ruhai asked.

"That's right. You are familiar with Yangzhou. I plan to build a workshop in Yangzhou that can accommodate at least a thousand automatic textile machines. It requires management, technology and a large number of workers!" Li Qiang told Lin Ruhai about her plan, just wanting Lin Ruhai to participate.

"No problem. I have many old friends in Yangzhou. I will make the arrangements!" Lin Ruhai said without any hesitation.

"If you want to know the specific amount of silver you need, just ask Datong Bank directly. This business will be invested by Datong Bank!" Li Qiang continued.

"What are your plans for Datong Money House? You control such a huge fortune, but it makes the officials in the court very dissatisfied!" Lin Ruhai couldn't help but remind when he heard about Datong Money House.

"Let them be dissatisfied. Datong Bank must be in my hands. Whoever dares to lay his hands on Datong Bank, don't blame me for being ruthless. Just tell me what I mean and see who dares to take action!" Li Qiang said calmly.

He does make concessions on some things, but they are all small and insignificant things.

Datong Money House is his money bag, and it is related to many of his subsequent plans. He will not let the Daqian officials interfere in Datong Money House.

(End of this chapter)