Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 264: Trial Operation of a Technical School, News from America! [Subscription Request]

After the Tiangong Academy was officially established, Liu Kuan did not rush to introduce policies to reform the craftsman system, but instead prepared to pilot a technical school within Zhili.

This day.

Liu Kuan held a meeting in the Tiangongyuan government office.

Because of its close relationship with the Ministry of Works and the frequent exchanges in future affairs, the Tiangongyuan Yamen was located in a courtyard to the east of the Ministry of Works compound. Although this building complex was far smaller than the Ministry of Works, it also had seven courtyards and hundreds of houses, so it was not small.

The meeting will be held at the Administrative Office of the Academy.

The administrative office is located in the middle of the northernmost courtyard. When you open the gate, you can see a cement road that can accommodate two carriages running side by side, leading directly to the cement archway gate of Tiangongyuan.

It is said that the archway gate of Tiangongyuan was originally intended to be made of marble, but in order to highlight the difference between Tiangongyuan and other departments and academies, Liu Kuan asked the craftsmen to use cement and steel bars to build the current gatehouse with a novel style.

As for other buildings in Tiangongyuan, most of them are made of cement, steel bars and blue bricks.

The administrative office of the hospital is even a two-story building made of steel and concrete. No wood is used in the main body of the building. Only during the final interior and exterior decoration, some wood was used to make the interior and exterior styles of the two-story building more in line with the aesthetic tastes of people at that time.

In addition, the windows of Tiangongyuan also abandoned the paper-pasting method and adopted multi-pane glass windows.

Anyway, the money for building the Tiangongyuan government office was allocated by the imperial court, and most of the building materials came from the court's subordinate departments, so it actually didn't cost much money.

At that time, the most expensive materials for large-scale construction were various high-quality woods and even large timbers. Tiangongyuan replaced them with steel bars and cement. Even with the use of glass windows, the final cost was still much lower than the budget of the old-style construction method.

It can be said that the construction of Tiangongyuan truly overturned the architectural concepts of the Ministry of Works officials. From then on, the Ministry of Works began to use steel and concrete extensively to build houses, and only used large wood where necessary.

However, the craftsmen in the construction industry of the Ming Dynasty were still in the process of exploring and accumulating experience in the use of new building materials such as steel bars, cement, and concrete. Therefore, although Tiangongyuan was built cost-effectively, it was still inferior to the old-style buildings that mostly used wood in terms of aesthetics.

Liu Kuan's level of architectural aesthetics was not high. He just felt that it looked a bit incongruous to see a group of officials in ancient costumes sitting in a building with cement floors and whitewashed walls.

At this moment, in the conference hall of the Academy's Administration Department, Liu Kuan had this feeling as he looked at the officials sitting on both sides of the long table.

In fact, Zhao Chengzhu, Zhao Youxuan and others were also uncomfortable at this time.

Liu Kuan shifted his butt in his chair and saw the clerk serving tea to everyone. He then went straight to the point and said, "Deputy Ma, please tell me about the progress of the construction of the technical schools in the various prefectures and counties of Zhili."

Ma Jiawen, the deputy director of the hospital in charge of this matter, is in his forties, thin, with a weathered look, giving people a sense of efficiency.

He was originally an official in the Ministry of Industry and had long accepted some of the changes brought about by Liu Kuan, such as bringing a notebook to meetings.

At this point, he opened his notebook and said, "According to the previous meeting of the Craftsmen Management Office, the first batch of engineering students to be recruited by the various prefectures in Zhili will be between one hundred and three hundred. The number will not be too large."

"Therefore, each prefecture first looked for existing buildings to set up a technical school. Currently, the school buildings for the ten prefectures and four prefectures in Zhili have been selected and can accommodate at least one hundred technical students to study."

"However, the quality of the school buildings chosen by each state capital varies. Some are in such poor condition that they are not even able to accommodate local working students. They may need to be replaced in the future."

Liu Kuan nodded and said, "Let's first solve the problem of whether there is one or not. We can solve the problem of whether it is good or not later. Deputy Dean Zhao, please tell us about the recruitment of teachers and students for the school."

Another deputy director, Zhao Youxuan, was also in his forties, but he was slightly plump and had a friendly round face, like a businessman.

He also opened the meeting notebook in front of him and said to the prepared materials, "Although our Tiangong Academy does not have the authority to manage craftsmen, we can recruit craftsmen, so the craftsmen of various disciplines have basically been recruited."

"However, it's not easy to recruit teachers for literature and mathematics—local scholars are quite critical of teaching craftsmen, so there are few willing applicants."

Liu Kuan frowned and said, "The literature department of the technical school only needs to teach students literacy and loyalty to the emperor and patriotism. There is no need to teach Confucian classics. The requirements for teachers are not high. If it is really not possible, we can lower the standards. It is impossible not to recruit."

It is now the eighteenth year of Hongwu. Zhu Yuanzhang has run official schools for sixteen or seventeen years, and there are many people in Zhili who can read and write.

"As for mathematics teachers, if they are really unavailable, we can borrow them from local government schools. If we can't get a teacher, we can borrow a student."

Liu Kuan didn't believe it. The older generation of scholars despised craftsmen, and so did the students.

He has been running the journal "Natural Science" for three years, not only promoting various natural science knowledge, but also promoting the importance of science and technology, industry, and craftsmen.

Now that the sales of "Natural Science" are so large, there must be a group of young people who are influenced by the journal's ideas of "attaching importance to science and industry".

Zhao Youxuan nodded and said, "I understand."

After saying that, he wrote down the key points in his notebook.

“How is the recruitment of engineering students going?”

Zhao Youxuan said, "The age range for industrial students is eight to twelve years old, and regardless of whether they are children of artisans or commoners, they are all eligible to attend. Furthermore, our first batch of students is small, and the enrollment quotas for industrial schools in various prefectures have already been filled."

"Therefore, some principals are currently suggesting raising admissions standards or simply conducting an entrance exam."

Liu Kuan looked at the others and asked, "What do you think about this?"

Zhao Chengzhu and Guo Tianwen remained silent.

Ma Jiawen said, "I think we could allow each school to hold an entrance exam."

Zhao Youxuan said, "If we want to conduct an examination, we must have a fair examination system. This is not something that can be established in a short time."

"If we allow each school to hold its own exams, I'm afraid cheating will occur, which will be disgraceful for our Tiangong Academy," Qiu Qichi said. "Exams involve too many factors to be held casually. It's better to let each school give priority to children from artisan families and those who are older. We'll continue to recruit students next year anyway, so if anyone wants to attend the technical school, they don't mind being a year late."

There are indeed many people in the court who are keeping an eye on Tiangongyuan. Even with Zhu Yuanzhang's support, Tiangongyuan must not make any mistakes or give others any handles, otherwise Zhu Yuanzhang will lose face.

Thinking of this, Liu Kuan saw that no one had any other suggestions, so he said, "Then we should do as Doctor Qiu said and give priority to artisans and older students."

Afterwards, Liu Kuan discussed other aspects of work with his subordinates and then adjourned the meeting.

As the director of the court, Liu Kuan had his own independent office on the second floor of the court's administrative department. The windows were large and low according to his requirements, and each piece of flat glass in the lattice window was more than half a foot square, giving it a bit of the feeling of floor-to-ceiling windows in later generations.

Liu Kuan held the teacup and sat on the swivel chair specially made for him. After taking a sip of tea, he couldn't help but sigh.

"It's a pity that I'm an official of the Ming Dynasty, not a CEO of a company in the future. If I were a CEO, it would be great to have a pretty and capable young female secretary."

After a little random thought, Liu Kuan drove some bad ideas out of his mind and began to deal with the various documents on his desk.

There are a lot of things lined up to do, such as the establishment of the Tiangong Institute, the reform of the technical school, the reform of the craftsman grade system, and the patent law. He is now busy again and can no longer read books and drink tea in his retirement like he did some time ago.

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In the blink of an eye, it was June and the weather was getting hotter.

Liu Kuan originally wanted to wait until August or September for the technical school to reopen, but he felt that was too late.

He wanted the technical school to have a "summer vacation" in June and July, but his proposal caused surprise among his subordinates - the Imperial College didn't even say it would have a summer vacation, so how could your technical school have a summer vacation?

After all, this is the Ming Dynasty, not the later times. Students are not so pampered. Most students in technical schools come from artisan families, so they are even less pampered.

So Liu Kuan gave up the idea of ​​establishing a "summer vacation".

There was a large copper ice jar in Liu Kuan's office, but he still felt hot.

"This brick building is too hot, especially the second floor. Once it cools down, we'll have to hire a contractor to add some insulation."

Liu Kuan fanned himself with a folding fan and muttered to himself.

He really wanted to go back home to work - the Liu Mansion had a waterside pavilion, which was not only cooler, but he could also have the maids fan him. If he also had some chilled watermelon and grapes, the enjoyment would be no less than that of an air-conditioned room in later generations.

"How about I find an excuse to skip work and go home, and take the work home?"

When Liu Kuan was thinking this, someone came from the palace.

It was Zhu Yuanzhang who asked him to enter the palace to discuss matters.

Liu Kuan had no choice but to suppress the idea of ​​secretly skipping work and followed the young eunuch into the palace.

When he arrived at Fengxian Hall, Liu Kuan found that it was obviously cooler here than the two-story building of the Yuanzheng Office. He didn't know whether there were more ice jars in the hall or the hall was designed to avoid the summer heat.

"See Your Majesty."

"Stand up." Old Zhu smiled and waved his hand, then said, "I just received news from the Beiyang Fleet's express ship that the First Expeditionary Exploration Fleet has returned!"

Liu Kuan was also delighted when he suddenly heard the news.

He then asked, "Your Majesty, where is the exploratory fleet now? Do you know what they have gained in America?"

Old Zhu smiled and said, "Since we've received news of the exploratory fleet's return, we've naturally also received their report—the report was sent from Ezo Island. Although the message came via a fast ship, the exploratory fleet can't be too slow. We estimate they're almost at the Beiyang Fleet Camp in Dengzhou."

"As for the harvest, it was quite a big one. Not only did we find corn, sweet potatoes, and potatoes, the three main American crops, but we also found rubber trees, cinchona trees, and many other American crops."

"I have already issued an order for the exploratory fleet to arrive at the Beiyang Navy Camp for a few days of rest and recuperation before returning to the capital. We want to meet these brave warriors who have crossed the ocean and rendered tremendous service to the Ming Dynasty!"

The three grain crops, rubber trees and cinchona trees were all found?
Liu Kuan was very surprised.

He originally thought that it would take at least two or three voyages of exploration for the Ming Dynasty to find all five of these American treasures.

But think about it, Zhu Yuanzhang sent more than 3,000 elite soldiers at one time, and specifically asked them to find these five things. He even provided drawings and text descriptions for reference. It is reasonable that they could find them all at once.

Those Europeans who ventured to America back then may have had better sailing skills, but in terms of overall quality, they were definitely not as good as the Ming Dynasty's long-distance exploration fleet.

Coming back to his senses, Liu Kuan bowed and said, "Congratulations, Your Majesty!"

"Hahaha," Old Zhu laughed heartily, then ordered, "I don't know how the five exploration fleets are doing. We asked you to come here because we want you to guide the Ministry of Revenue's Agricultural Department and have them prepare to cultivate these five good things."

Although Old Zhu had added more burden to him, Liu Kuan was very happy this time.

Because he knew very well the importance of these five American plants to the Ming Dynasty.

He immediately bowed and said, "I will do my best to handle this matter!"

　First update.

　　
　　
　
(End of this chapter)