Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 127: The Magnificent Universe, Lao Zhu's Calculations [Subscription Request]

After Liu Kuan and Zhu Huilan entered the Dashan Hall and saluted Empress Ma, they exchanged greetings with other princes and princesses.

Not long after, Old Zhu came with Zhu Biao.

Everyone saluted together.

After the ceremony, Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Liu Kuan with a smile and said, "Liu Kuan, I heard from the Queen that you are going to show movies again, but I wonder how many movies you have prepared this time?"

"Your Majesty, we have only prepared one movie."

"Only one?" Zhu Yuanzhang looked disappointed.

Liu Kuan couldn't help but smile inwardly when he saw the change in Old Zhu's expression - he knew very well that although it was Empress Ma who conveyed the words to Zhu Huilan, it was definitely Old Zhu who mentioned watching a movie on New Year's Eve.

Zhu Huilan, who was sitting at the same table, touched Liu Kuan's arm when she saw this.

Liu Kuan then said, "But I have also prepared six pieces of music and three interesting videos."

"Video?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked in confusion, "What is that?"

Liu Kuandao said: "Videos and movies are somewhat similar in form, but they are much shorter and have their own unique content."

Zhu Yuanzhang blinked his eyes and said, "From what you said, isn't it just a small movie?"

Liu Kuan was stunned and subconsciously hurried to explain: "Your Majesty, a video is a video, and a short film is a short film. They cannot be confused with each other."

“Why can’t they be mixed together?”

Liu Kuan couldn't say that the meaning of the later short film was bad, so he could only say: "I can't explain it clearly, but Your Majesty will understand after watching the video."

Zhu Yuanzhang stopped asking questions and nodded, "Okay, then get ready to play it."

After that, he gathered the whole family together and sat down as they did on the Double Ninth Festival.

Liu Kuan had already adjusted the video, and after everyone was seated, he placed the tablet on the small round mahogany three-legged table.

Liu Kuan was worried that the crowd wouldn't understand, so he said, "Your Majesty, this first video is about the universe and the stars."

"The universe?" Zhu Yuanzhang asked.

Zhu Biao, who had read more books than his father, smiled and said, "Father, there's a saying in Zhuangzi's On the Equality of Things: 'Why are you beside the sun and the moon, holding the universe?'"

"Rang Wang also wrote in his essay, 'I stand in the universe, clothed in furs in winter, and linen in summer; in spring I till the fields, my body fit for labor; in autumn I gather the harvest, my body fit for food; I work at sunrise and rest at sunset, wandering freely between heaven and earth.'"

"So, the word 'universe' should refer to the vast universe, which is somewhat similar to the world in Buddhist terms."

These two passages from "Zhuangzi" narrated by Zhu Biao are concise and easy to understand. With Zhu's current literary attainments, he can certainly understand them.

After hearing this, he sighed with emotion: "He is content to be a farmer, free and unrestrained in the world. If everyone in the world had the same enlightenment as Zhuangzi, the world would be free of so many troubles. Zhuangzi is indeed a sage."

Liu Kuan has always hoped to use videos and movies to have some ideological influence on Lao Zhu and his son, and he will not give up this opportunity.

Therefore, in the past few days, he has consulted a lot of books as information for the videos and movies he prepared.

Upon hearing this, he said, "Your Majesty, Your Highness, in fact, the earliest source of the word universe is not Zhuangzi, but Shizi."

"Shizi?"

Now not only Zhu Yuanzhang, but even Zhu Biao was confused, and the first thing that came to his mind was poetry.

Generally speaking, books called "Mou Zi" are all works by sages of the pre-Qin period. Zhu Biao claimed to have read a lot, but he could not remember a single poet among the 100 schools of thought in the pre-Qin period.

Naturally, no one else had heard of it.

Liu Kuan explained: "The 'shi' in 'Shi Zi' refers to the corpse. Its original name was 'shijiao', and some say it was a Chu person, while others said it was a Wei person."

"The Shi Zi combines Confucianism and Taoism, while also taking into account Legalism and Mohism. Therefore, later generations often classify it as a miscellaneous school and consider it as one of the Hundred Schools of Thought in the pre-Qin period."

"I have searched many ancient books and found that the book 'Shi Zi' still existed during the Sui and Tang dynasties. It is said to have a total of twenty chapters."

"But after the wars at the end of the Tang Dynasty, only fragments remain. After the wars at the end of the Song Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty, I guess it's all gone now."

"If His Royal Highness is interested, perhaps you could send someone to collect the remaining fragments, collate and proofread them, and thus enrich the Ming Dynasty with the works of ancient sages."

"As for the word 'universe', the Shi Zi states: 'The four directions above and below are called 'Yu', and the past and present are called 'Zhou'.

"In other words, the universe not only refers to space, but also includes time. This is closest to the meaning of the universe that I mentioned earlier."

Zhu Biao took Liu Kuan's words to heart and prepared to ask someone to collect the remaining fragments of "Shi Zi" to see how it was written.

Here, Liu Kuan touched the screen to play the video.

Zhu Yuanzhang saw a black screen first, and then a line of words appeared.

“The universe is in motion; it has its own life.” (Romain Rolland)

Then a huge and magnificent purple cloud appeared on the screen, with stars of various colors twinkling in it, looking dazzling and mysterious.

There are small horizontal words next to it - Orion Nebula.

Then emerged another khaki-colored cloud mass in the endless starry sky, which looked like a continuous mountain range and was shocking to look at.

There is small text on the lower left - "Pillars of Creation", located in the Eagle Nebula.

Then, a huge cloud that looked like an eye appeared in the endless starry sky, shocking Zhu Yuanzhang so much that he swallowed his saliva.

The small words on the lower left are - Eye of God!
Then slowly, many dreamy and strange "clouds" appeared under the starry sky, including the "Rose Nebula", "Butterfly Nebula", "Lobster Nebula", and "Jellyfish Nebula".

Soon the video came to an end and another line of text appeared.

“These ancient beams, messengers from the distant past, bring a story of the universe’s origins. (Brian Cox)”

When the video ended, the Zhu family who were watching it still couldn't recover for a long time.

Sitting behind Zhu Biao, the tall and strong Zhu Ying stared with his eyes wide open. He had never imagined he would see such a magnificent and breathtaking view in his lifetime. As a young boy, he had imagined the scenery of heaven when he listened to storytellers telling stories about the gods. Now, thinking about it, he was afraid that the scenery of heaven would not be as wonderful and magnificent as the one in this small "tablet".

Old Zhu took his eyes off the tablet and asked, "Liu Kuan, this endless starry sky shouldn't be just ordinary clouds and mist, right?"

Liu Kuan smiled and said, "Your Majesty, you just saw the words above. Those are called nebulae. They look like clouds and mist, but they are actually made up of countless dust and gases. They appear so magnificent and majestic because they reflect all kinds of light in the universe."

Zhu Biao couldn't help but sigh, "It's absolutely beautiful and magnificent, beyond imagination. It would be great if I could see it up close."

Liu Kuan shook his head. "These nebulae are extremely far away from Earth. Even at the speed of light, it would take tens of thousands of years to travel there. If we humans want to reach those places, I'm afraid it might not even take a thousand or two thousand years."

Liu Kuan had taught some basic knowledge about light in the natural science class at the main hall, and had also tried to write some of it in the first issue of "Natural Science". Therefore, Zhu Biao and others already had the concept of the speed of light, and at this time they could understand the meaning of Liu Kuan's words.

Then there was another silence.

Zhu Yuanzhang was actually a little unhappy when he heard what Zhu Biao said, and even a little worried, fearing that Zhu Biao would have the idea of ​​seeking immortality and enlightenment.

Seeing that everyone was silent, he said, "It's just the starry sky. When our Ming Dynasty builds a better telescope, we can watch it at will. Let's play a video."

"Old Zhu is so bold! I'm afraid that even if the Ming Dynasty develops for another three or four hundred years, it may not be able to create an astronomical telescope that can see such a wonder of the starry sky, right?"

Liu Kuan muttered to himself and prepared to click on the second video.

Before clicking on it, he introduced: "Your Majesty, this second video is about Yunnan."

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes lit up and he smiled, "About Yunnan? Great, since the Ming Dynasty is about to conquer Yunnan, the content in this video might be useful."

"That's what I was thinking, so I found this video."

"Well, let it go."

Old Zhu couldn't wait to watch it.

The video begins with a beautiful picture of blue sky and colorful clouds, and a young woman's voice is heard. Her accent is very similar to Liu Kuan's.

“Yunnan is a place that is difficult to define…”

It was this woman who introduced the customs and people of Yunnan, including food, festivals, and language, and finally turned to Yunnan's natural scenery such as mountains, rivers, etc.

As the woman introduced herself, the video presented pictures of Yunnan’s cultural and natural beauty in later generations.

Although it was not as spectacular as the previous starry sky and nebula scenes, it still made the Zhu family stare at it intently.

People like Zhu Ying, Zhu Zi, and Zhu Tan, who already had some knowledge of Yunnan, now had a big question mark in their minds.

Isn’t it said that Yunnan is a wild and desolate place, full of miasma, full of snakes, insects, rats and ants, and not suitable for living?
It is also said that the barbarian men in Yunnan are fierce and bloodthirsty, while the women are good at expelling insects and poisoning. They are not easy to mess with, and most of them are hostile to the Han people.

Why does the Yunnan scenery in this video look so beautiful, and the barbarian people are so warm, friendly, and good at singing and dancing?
Because the video was playing, although everyone was confused, no one asked for a while.

Soon, the video started and began to introduce Yunnan from a geographical perspective.

When he saw several continental plates moving on the earth, and finally the Indian subcontinent collided with the Asian continental plate, forming the Snowy Plateau and Yunnan, and highlighting Yunnan in later generations in the form of a three-dimensional topographic map, Zhu Yuanzhang finally couldn't help it.

"Wait, pause!"

Liu Kuan paused the video.

Old Zhu took a closer look and said, "Is this a sand table map of Yunnan?"

As early as the Warring States Period, the Qin State in China had sand table maps. Even if we talk about historical records, sand tables can be traced back to the Western Han Dynasty.

Therefore, as the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang not only knew about the existence of sand tables, but also had many of them made and collected.

Since he dared to let Fu Youde lead the army to capture Yunnan, he must have obtained the map of Yunnan.

But the map he got was very rough. Not to mention making a sand table based on it, even many places outside the big cities were blank.

In addition, the sand table at this time only covers an area of ​​100 miles in radius. Even if he takes over Yunnan, it is impossible for him to make a sand table for the entire Yunnan.

Therefore, as soon as the three-dimensional topographic map of Yunnan appeared in the video, it attracted his attention.

Liu Kuan said, "It's not really a sand table, but a three-dimensional topographic map. Your Majesty has seen it, but it only shows the general shape of Yunnan's mountains, rivers, and streams, without any details."

If there was an internet connection, Liu Kuan could zoom in and produce a detailed topographic map for Lao Zhu to see.

Unfortunately, he could not connect to the network of later generations in Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang narrowed his eyes, staring at the three-dimensional topographic map of Yunnan, and said, "Even if it's just a rough sand table map, it's invaluable."

"Later, you have to lend me this tablet for a while so I can have someone draw this three-dimensional terrain map and make it into a sand table."

Since Liu Kuan chose this video to play, he was mentally prepared for this situation.

He nodded and said, "It's no problem to lend it to Your Majesty, but the tablet is precious, so it's best to let Huilan use it according to her instructions."

Zhu Yuanzhang turned his head to look at Liu Kuan, as if he saw Liu Kuan's little worry about not returning the money. He smiled and said, "You kid... well, let Huilan take it over when the time comes, and bring it back the same day you use it. Now you feel relieved, right?"

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang did consider forcibly requisitioning the "tablet computers".

But he thought deeper and further.

Not to mention that doing so would offend Liu Kuan. If he forcibly requisitioned the tablet and something went wrong, and asked Liu Kuan to fix it, but Liu Kuan deliberately said he couldn't fix it, wouldn't the tablet be useless?
In this case, it would be better to put the tablet computer in Liu Kuan's hands. After all, Liu Kuan is in the Ming Dynasty, in the capital, and is under his control.

He also thought the same about his cell phone and laptop.

Of course, there is another reason: compared to these seemingly magical dead objects, Liu Kuan, a living person, is much more important in his mind.

At this time, Liu Kuan really didn't expect that Zhu Yuanzhang would have such a deep plan.

After hearing what Zhu Yuanzhang said, he did relax a lot. He smiled slightly awkwardly and continued playing the video.

　Second update.

　　Thanks to [Nie Changfeng] for the reward of 100 Qidian coins!
　　(I heard that with the recent bull market, many book friends have made a lot of money by speculating in stocks. Congratulations!)
　　(It’s a pity that the author didn’t invest in stocks, otherwise he could make a few million and follow his peers to publish a single chapter and retire, haha)
　　I wish all readers a happy National Day and a happy holiday!
　　Good night~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)