Bringing the Railway to Daming

Chapter 270 Yingtian Technical School, Running and Doing Exercises [Please Subscribe]

On the afternoon of the fifth day of August, Zhu Biao took time out to inspect the Yingtianfu Industrial School with Liu Kuan.

The trial operation of the technical school in Zhili started in May, and it has been three months now, and it is now on track.

Old Zhu now attaches great importance to craftsmen. Although he is confident in Liu Kuan's work, he still asks Zhu Biao to inspect it.

Liu Kuan began to prepare for the establishment of a technical school on the eighth day of the first lunar month. In his plan, Yingtian Technical School would be the largest prefecture-level technical school in the Ming Dynasty in the future. It could even be said to be a model for technical schools in the world, so he attached great importance to it.

Therefore, Yingtian Technical School is the only technical school in Zhili with a newly built campus.

It is located in the north of Houhu Lake (Xuanwu Lake), not far from the three judicial offices: the Inspectorate, the Ministry of Justice, and the Dali Temple.

After the completion of Yingtian Technical School, Zhu Biao turned back for the first time. When he stopped outside the gate of the technical school, his eyes lit up when he looked around.

Because the architectural style of this technical school campus is more inclined towards later times than that of Tiangong Academy - although Tiangong Academy was also built with new building materials such as bricks, cement, and steel bars, it was later decorated with wood and other materials in a style that is more inclined towards the architectural style of the time.

However, the campus in front of us has not undergone similar decoration.

For example, the gate of the technical school in front of us has two vertical octagonal concrete pillars as doorposts, which require about three people to hug together.

Between the two concrete pillars are two large iron doors that are more than ten feet wide and more than ten feet high!
You can see that there is a set of steel pulleys installed under each large iron gate, which allows the large iron gate to be easily pushed open to both sides.

The iron gate was not a closed type, but was made of riveted steel - there was no welding technology at that time, but Liu Kuan just wanted an iron gate, so the craftsmen used riveting technology.

The skilled craftsmen gathered at Tiangongyuan did not just rivet simply, but riveted out intricate patterns on it.

There are patterns of auspicious animals, flowers, birds, and clouds, as well as various tools commonly used by craftsmen. It can almost be called a work of art!

More than ten feet in front of the gate, a sculpture made of cement stands upright in the north-south direction - it looks like it is made up of various craftsmen working together.

The statue is three meters long from north to south and three feet and three inches wide from east to west, and is only a little over one person tall. Four large red characters are carved from top to bottom on the front - Yingtian Industrial School!
There is an auxiliary door on each side of the main gate, and next to the auxiliary door are two two-story small buildings.

At this time, Liu Kuan introduced: "Your Highness, please look, the building on the west is the security room, and the building on the east is the gatehouse."

Zhu Biao nodded, but his eyes quickly fell on the couplets carved on the two concrete pillars.

"The essence of heaven and earth, overflowing with color and light, the fine wood is carved into the atmosphere of the celestial dynasty."

"Blending ancient and modern techniques, the dragon and phoenix patterns are carved with divine craftsmanship to create a style of a superior country."

After reading it out, Zhu Biao commented with a smile: "This couplet is well written."

Liu Kuan was delighted to hear this and said, "This is an adaptation of a couplet I remembered from later times."

Zhu Biao smiled and said, "It seems that my brother-in-law does have some literary talent."

Afterwards, Liu Kuan and several officials from Yingtian Technical School brought Zhu Biao into the campus.

If it were a normal garden, it would have pavilions, towers, rockery, streams, springs, strange pines and rocks, with a scene every five steps and a view every ten steps.

The newly built Imperial College is almost of this style. Apart from the training ground where students practice riding and shooting (students of the Imperial College in the early Ming Dynasty needed to practice riding and shooting), there is no particularly open space.

After entering the campus of Yingtian Institute of Technology, Zhu Biao discovered that although there were landscape trees such as pine and cypress planted there, most of them were planted in rows.

Most cement roads are built wide and straight, rather than winding like garden paths.

Most of the flower and plant gardens are very low, and different flowers and plants are often arranged in the garden to form words, such as "diligence", "self-reliance", "excellence" and so on.

There are also rockery, streams, pavilions and other such scenery, but they are relatively few, and the surrounding areas are relatively empty, which gives people another kind of architectural beauty.

However, what attracted Zhu Biao's attention most were those three-story buildings!

As far as Zhu Biao knew, there were regulations on the heights of all types of buildings in the Ming Dynasty. Even for the Imperial College, if one wanted to build such a tall building, one had to report to the court and obtain approval.

These three-story buildings of Yingtian Technical School were naturally approved.

"Your Highness, please look. This three-story building to the east is called 'Huiwen Building.' It's where engineering students take courses in literature, politics, mathematics, and various other theoretical subjects."

"The building to the west is where engineering students take their indoor craft and laboratory classes. It's called the 'Seiko Building.'"

"The two buildings behind Huiwen Building are student dormitories, the two-story building behind Jinggong Building is the cafeteria, and the two rows of two-story buildings behind the cafeteria are faculty dormitories."

"The concrete and grassy area east of the teaching building is a large training ground for engineering students to run and do gymnastics."

Hearing this, Zhu Biao couldn't help but ask: "Running, doing gymnastics?"

Liu Kuan explained, "It's actually a form of collective exercise. First, it helps students develop a strong body, and second, it helps them develop a sense of community and collaborative thinking."

"In later generations, schools, apart from universities, elementary schools, junior high schools, and high schools all had similar arrangements."

Zhu Biao's eyes lit up when he heard this. He said, "That sounds good. Why didn't my brother-in-law tell me about it earlier? Can this method be promoted in official schools?"

Liu Kuan thought for a moment and said, "Running and doing exercises require no other requirements except for an open space. It should be possible to extend it to government schools."

Zhu Biao asked again, "Can we watch the students of the Technical School do their running and gymnastics later?" "The Technical School's running is scheduled for 5:30 in the morning, and the gymnastics is scheduled for around 10:00 in the afternoon. Both are past. However, I can ask the Technical School to arrange one."

After Liu Kuan finished speaking, he gave instructions to several technical school officials who followed him, and someone immediately went to do it.

Zhu Biao sighed, "It seems that we have disturbed the normal teaching of the technical school this time."

Li Baiqiao, the principal of Yingtian Technical School, immediately said, "The teachers and students should welcome His Royal Highness the Crown Prince together. Now that we're just arranging some running and gymnastics, which won't take more than half an hour, how can it be considered a disturbance?"

Today, the Ming Dynasty has implemented the 24-hour system. Although the people are not used to it yet and still mostly use the twelve-hour system, all departments of the court have begun to use the 24-hour system when mentioning time in formal occasions.

Once more sophisticated clocks and watches are produced, Liu Kuan will also ask the court to introduce the hour-and-minute timekeeping system.

Zhu Biao smiled after hearing what Li Baiqiao said, then pointed to the west and asked, "What's going on over there? It looks a bit messy."

Liu Kuan smiled and said, "Your Highness, that's the training ground for the technical school's outdoor craft classes and experimental classes. For example, if a bricklayer wants to practice building a house, he must do it outdoors. But he can't build an entire house in one class, so he usually builds a part of it."

"Furthermore, blacksmiths smelt iron outdoors. Many other crafts also require outdoor practice, so that area looks quite messy."

Zhu Biao nodded and asked, "This Yingtian Institute of Technology campus seems quite large. How many acres does it cover?"

Liu Kuan said, "It currently only covers 37 acres, but in the future, the Zhili Industrial School will also be located here and merged with the Yingtian Industrial School. By then, the entire campus will cover over a hundred acres."

Hundreds of acres?
Although it is not as large as the current Imperial College, it is not much different.

Zhu Biao imagined the scene, as if he saw that in the future this place would train one outstanding craftsman after another for the Ming Dynasty, contributing to the Ming Dynasty's scientific and technological development and industrial construction, making the Ming Dynasty more powerful and prosperous!
Afterwards, Liu Kuan and the others took Zhu Biao to the drill ground for a look around. Then, a minor official from the engineering school came over and said, "Your Highness, the Crown Prince, and Director Liu, the students have already assembled at the main drill ground and are ready to start running and doing exercises."

"They gathered so quickly?" Zhu Biao looked surprised.

He felt that it had been less than a quarter of an hour since Liu Kuan had arranged for the preparations. Although most of the students were in Huiwen Building, it would take time for the people to notify each classroom.

In other words, it may take less than ten minutes for students to leave the classroom and gather in the parade ground!
The speed of this gathering is faster than that of many Ming Dynasty garrison troops.

Liu Kuan smiled and said, "Since the day we started attending the technical school, the engineering students have been required to gather twice every morning for jogging and exercises. We have been practicing for three months now, so naturally we are very fast."

In fact, when the engineering students first came to school, they underwent ten days of military training - Liu Kuan did not mention this.

Zhu Biao suddenly became more interested in the workers' students running and doing exercises, and said excitedly: "Let's go and watch."

When Zhu Biao, Liu Kuan and others arrived at the "Command Platform" in the parade ground, they saw columns standing below, with about five or six hundred people.

Liu Kuan introduced softly, "Your Highness, Yingtian Technical School currently has 600 students, divided into 15 classes. Most of the students are between the ages of eight and twelve."

Zhu Biao took a closer look and found that the students were indeed arranged in fifteen square formations. He nodded and said, "Let the students begin."

"Yes."

Afterwards, under the personal command of Principal Li Baiqiao, the 600 engineering students first ran five laps around the playground, then regrouped and did the exercises again. Again, under Li Baiqiao's leadership, they shouted "His Royal Highness, may you be well" three times before filing off the field one class at a time.

Liu Kuan looked thoughtfully at Li Baiqiao, who was in his early forties, and thought to himself: This man really wants to make progress.

He didn't care, and even thought it was a good thing that Li Baiqiao wanted to make progress - if he wanted to make progress, he had to run the technical school well, and it would definitely not work just by scheming.

"Let's go check out the cafeteria, student dormitories, and faculty dormitories."

"Yes."

After Zhu Biao inspected the cafeteria and several dormitory buildings, he left with Liu Kuan and others, quite satisfied.

On the way, Zhu Biao mentioned another matter.

"Brother-in-law, the Mid-Autumn Festival is just ten days away. We've downloaded a lot of videos before, and Father hopes we can watch some more movies during the Mid-Autumn Festival."

Liu Kuan had anticipated this and said with a smile, "I understand. I will prepare for it in the next few days."

···
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Time flies and it is August 15th.

in the afternoon.

When the water-powered mechanical clock in the nearby clock tower rang five times in succession, Liu Kuan brought Zhu Huilan, Su Caiwei, his daughter Liu Chuxue, and his son Liu Ping'an to the palace to participate in the Zhu family's Mid-Autumn Festival banquet.

To be honest, Su Caiwei didn't want to go at first, but she didn't want Liu Chuxue to stay in the mansion like her, so she came here reluctantly.

When Liu Kuan and his family arrived at the Dashan Hall, Zhu Yuanzhang, Empress Ma and others were already waiting inside.

After the palace servants led Liu Kuan and his family to their seats, Zhu Yuanzhang said with a smile, "Let's have dinner first, and then watch a movie together after dinner."

As he spoke, Zhu Yuanzhang turned his gaze to Liu Kuan and asked, "Liu Kuan, have you prepared the music for this time?"

　First update.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)