Ming Dynasty: Domination of the World from the Imperial Examination

Chapter 242 Letter to Li Shanchang!
Sunset.

Xia Zhibai went to the Kyoto Salt Shop.

After weighing the pros and cons, he decided to visit Li Shanchang.

However, considering the degree to which he is currently "disliked" by others, if he rashly asks for a meeting, he is afraid that Li Shanchang will not pay attention to him. Fortunately, he is still a Grand Secretary of the Hanlin Academy. With this status as a Grand Secretary, a copy of the letter can be sent to Li Shanchang's residence.

And in this era, articles are more popular than people.

Xia Zhibai was sitting at the table thinking about something when he heard the sound of footsteps coming from outside.

Xia Zhibai looked up and frowned slightly.

"Bachelor, Governor Zhou wants to see you." Lu Cang's voice was heard outside the house.

"Oh." Xia Zhibai responded.

Lu Cang said: "I will let Governor Zhou come in right away."

After a while, Zhou Ning walked into the study. He was no longer as serious as usual, and suddenly shrank his body and bent over, as if he had made a mistake. He came here today, not to ask him anything, but more like a person who came to apologize.

Without waiting for him to speak, Xia Zhibai ordered directly: "Governor Zhou, you came at the right time. Help me get some water and grind ink for me."

Zhou Ning was stunned for a moment, then responded, "Yes."

He ran around busy for a while, and then respectfully ground ink in the inkstone carefully in front of Xia Zhibai, or when he saw Xia Zhibai's eyes, he concentrated on composing the article. He wanted to say something several times, but finally did not dare to speak.

At this time, Xia Zhibai had already thought about what to write to Li Shanchang.

What you write in a letter will naturally be different from usual things, and it should be richer in content and connotation. Otherwise, if you write a long piece that is all lyrical in the end, that would be a sheer waste of emotion.

He wanted to tell Li Shanchang something.

The imperial court will not raise troops.

At the same time, on the pretext of not raising troops, he reminded Li Shanchang that "one must first stabilize the country before fighting foreign enemies", especially as there had been two major riots in the south within a year, which had seriously threatened the safety of the Ming Dynasty. It would also make His Majesty alert and even wary.

Li Shanchang is a smart man.

He could understand the purpose of writing this letter.

Xia Zhibai picked up the pen and began to write on the letter paper. The only sound in the study was the faint rustling sound of the pen.

After an unknown amount of time, Xia Zhibai finished writing the letter and let out a long sigh.

He raised his head.

Only then did he realize that Zhou Ning was still beside him.

Xia Zhibai placed the brush on the inkstone and said slowly, "Governor Zhou, I was distracted just now and neglected you. Is there anything going on at the salt factory recently? Or have you made any other breakthroughs in your research on steam engines?"

Zhou Ning said: "Nothing has happened at the salt factory recently. With the help of hundreds of engineers, the improvement of the steam engine has indeed been greatly improved. However, it is still in the experimental stage for a short time, and it may be difficult to be sure for a while."

"This time, I came here to..."

"I'm here to plead guilty."

Zhou Ning still said it.

A blush appeared on Zhou Ning's skinny cheeks, looking very unnatural.

"It's related to Li Sheng." Xia Zhibai said.

Zhou Ning nodded and sighed, "It is indeed related to Zhou Ning. Recently, Li Sheng came to see me privately, and I rejected him. But he never gave up and kept looking for me. He insisted on meeting me. In the end, I agreed for the sake of his father."

"That's it?" Xia Zhibai showed a strange look.

Zhou Ning smiled bitterly and said, "I have already made a big mistake, and I am really nervous."

"Besides, Li Sheng is quite shrewd. I am also worried that if I am not careful, Li Sheng will trick me into revealing secrets. If I leak secrets again, I will not be able to face the scholar."

Zhou Ning sighed repeatedly.

In fact, he had already made up his mind to completely cut off contact with Li Sheng.

But Li Sheng’s father asked him for help before he died.

He struggled for a moment.

This time he came to find Xia Zhibai, also wanting Xia Zhibai to make a decision for him. If Xia Zhibai was unwilling, he would simply not go. If Xia Zhibai agreed, he would go. He had found a reason and excuse for himself not to go.

Being soft-hearted for a moment will lead to long-term threats.

Xia Zhibai smiled and said, "If you want to go, go ahead."

"I have never paid attention to Li Sheng, but I am afraid that he has been worried recently. First of all, the officials of the Salt Transport Bureau have been persuaded by me to stand on my side. His biggest backer is gone. Without the support of the Salt Transport Bureau, he is not in the south, so he will always worry about being targeted by me."

"And in a hurry, they would probably try to get some truth about the salt industry to please the officials and gentry in the south."

"We were full of vigor and vitality in the past, but in just one or two years, the situation has changed."

“What a pity.”

"But it was his choice."

"You can't blame anyone else."

"If he wants to ask, you can tell him some truth. Nowadays, my Kyoto Salt Industry is the best in the world in steam engine research. You can also tell him that you will be heading south soon. Since he is so eager to please the southern gentry, it is not a bad idea to make them nervous in advance."

Zhou Ning smiled bitterly and nodded vigorously.

Xia Zhibai said slowly: "Zhou Ning, you have a heavy task at hand now, so you don't need to worry too much about these things. My research on many things in the world and the ideas I put forward are all for the benefit of the world. It is not my intention to make money, and I will not hide these things." "These things will be revealed to the world one day."

“For the benefit of the world.”

"As long as you can do your job steadily, why would I care about such trivial matters?"

Zhou Ning finally stopped talking and said respectfully, "Thank you for your understanding, Master. I understand."

Xia Zhibai nodded and raised his chin to indicate. Zhou Ning understood immediately and walked out of the study carefully. But as soon as he walked out of the study, he couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief. He didn't know why, but he always felt that Xia Zhibai's aura was getting stronger and stronger.

Every gesture and movement exudes a strong sense of authority.

But it was different from the "official air" he usually sensed. It was more like a kind of "arrogance" of youth, with an impulse to break through the sky. However, for this impulse, an "old man" like him could only watch from afar and dared not get close at all.

He knew why.

Because I am afraid.

I can't be as frank and brave as Xia Zhibai.

After Zhou Jing left, Xia Zhibai continued with what he was doing, not being affected by Zhou Ning at all.

He carefully checked the letter and made sure there were no obvious errors, so he put it in an envelope, called Lu Cang, and asked him to run at night.

The day's work was over and Xia Zhibai fell into a deep sleep.

He didn't sleep well.

There are a lot of thoughts in my mind, which always disturb my mind.

The next morning, Xia Zhibai got up early, washed up simply, practiced boxing in the yard, shook himself up, had a simple breakfast, and then rushed to the Hanlin Academy in the palace.

The Hanlin Academy is quieter now.

There was little sound.

Faced with the mountain of books, Xia Zhibai was a little troubled. The miscellaneous studies seemed simple, but it was very difficult to compile them. Just a simple concept of "force" was refuted by many scholars in the Hanlin Academy.

They do not recognize the existence of "force".

Just think of it all as a natural phenomenon.

But if he asked in detail why the pears and dates fell downwards, no one could answer. They just kept repeating that this was a natural phenomenon, the rule of the operation of heaven and earth, and it was not the so-called force at all. After several rounds of misunderstanding, Xia Zhibai gave up the idea of ​​arguing with these "old antiques".

at the same time.

He was also in trouble because of this.

Many things can be easily mentioned in later generations.

But in the Ming Dynasty, just giving a definition becomes extremely difficult.

Not only does it confuse people, but it also makes them more confused the more they read, and the more they understand it, the more abstract it becomes.

The word "force" at the beginning of the miscellaneous studies, as well as the subsequent "gong", made Xia Zhibai lose a lot of hair. He really couldn't remember how he understood it at the time. He just felt that everything should be like that, but now he has to explain it to others himself.

The gap between being an educated person and becoming a teacher is too huge.

In addition to physics, chemistry was also criticized. The old scholars headed by Liu Sanwu always had a tone of "a gentleman does not speak of strange and supernatural things", accusing him of teaching people to play tricks and misleading the world, and the textbooks he compiled were even more appalling.

to this end.

He was impeached many times by Liu Sanwu and others.

It was precisely because Xia Zhibai was persistent in studying the nature of heaven and earth, and the emergence and creation laws of all things that he was isolated by the entire Hanlin Academy. Originally, Fang Xiaoru and others would say a word or two for him, but now, they all felt that he had gone insane, was bent on being different, and had long lost his original intention of editing books.

Xia Zhibai was also at a loss whether to laugh or cry.

He wanted to defend himself at first, but after a few words of defense, not only was there no effect, but he was even more ostracized. Xia Zhibai fell silent immediately. It was simply unrealistic to try to convince these scholars who had been stamped with the "Confucian Seal".

They are disgusted from the bottom of their hearts, so why would they try to understand more?
However, in this way, the entire "huge" task of compiling miscellaneous knowledge fell on his shoulders.

Even though Xia Zhibai had learned knowledge from later generations, he still felt a lot of pressure, especially the initial "definition", which troubled Xia Zhibai for a long time. These definitions had to be concise and at least convincing, and also had to avoid ambiguity and misunderstanding. Given modern people's understanding of the rules governing the operation of the universe, this was really difficult.

Compared with the Grand Secretaries of the Hanlin Academy, he could communicate better with the officials of the Imperial Observatory.

It’s just that these officials always act weird.

I don't want to tell him too much.

He always looked like he was going to destroy the jobs of these officials. Although there were indeed signs of this, Xia Zhibai was still able to obtain a lot of information from the Imperial Observatory under his persistence, which also provided him with a lot of information to enrich his "miscellaneous studies".

even so.

The completion of the compilation of miscellaneous studies is still a long way off.

Time passed by bit by bit, and in Xia Zhibai's focused eyes, time seemed to pass quickly.

In just a few blinks of an eye, it was already dusk.

Many of the scholars in the Hanlin Academy had already left, and the few who stayed behind had already stopped their work and were just quietly sorting out the bamboo slips on the books. Xia Zhibai stopped writing, took a long breath, and stood up to leave the Hanlin Academy.

Not long after he walked out of the Hanlin Academy, a minor official stopped him.

"Grand Scholar Xia, Grand Tutor Li invites you."

(End of this chapter)