Bringing the Railway to Daming

Liu Kuan thought for a moment and said, "Among all my colleagues at the Tiangong Academy, Huang Huai is the most upright and has a good understanding of natural sciences. He is suitable to be the academy's director."

"In addition, Yang Shiqi is capable and knowledgeable in mundane affairs, and has worked in the Tiangong Academy for many years. He can serve as the deputy assistant to Huang Huai."

"As for those scientists and researchers, we only need to guarantee their treatment and status so that they can concentrate on their respective research projects."

Zhu Xiong Ying nodded slightly, because the candidate recommended by Liu Kuan was similar to the one he had in mind.

However, he preferred Yang Shiqi to be the head of the academy—although Yang was less knowledgeable in natural sciences, he was very good at handling affairs and at least knew how to understand his intentions.

However, Zhu Xiong Ying recalled that in the original history, Yang Shiqi was one of the "Three Yangs," and the core of the Three Yangs. It was very likely that he was the key figure in the original history who, through the cabinet, gained the power to secretly rival the Ming emperor. Therefore, Zhu Xiong Ying became more wary of this person.

Thinking of this, Zhu Xiong Ying said, "After you retire, I will have Huang Huai succeed you as the head of the academy. By the way, do you have any suggestions for the future development of the Institute of Crafts and the Institute of Natural Sciences?"

Liu Kuandao said, "Today, there are many research units in the Tianjin Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Natural Sciences, and new project applications are constantly being submitted every year and even every month."

"This is certainly a symbol of the vigorous development of science in our Great Ming Dynasty, but not all research projects are worth investing funds and manpower in. Some research projects are dead ends, and no matter how much you invest, it will be in vain. And some research projects, even if they succeed, are not very meaningful and are not worth the effort."

"Although our Great Ming Dynasty is now wealthy and has more and more scientific research talents, we cannot waste them recklessly. Because once such a habit is formed, the problems will only get bigger and bigger in the future, and eventually become a major financial burden on the court."

"Therefore, I believe that the Academy of Natural Sciences should establish a professional project approval group to be responsible for approving which projects are worth initiating research."

"At the same time, the imperial court should also have a budget for its annual financial investment in the Academy of Crafts and the Academy of Natural Sciences, and should not allocate funds arbitrarily."

Zhu Xiong Ying was very clever; he understood immediately upon hearing Liu Kuan's words.

In fact, the annual budget allocated by the Ming Dynasty to the Academy of Crafts and the Academy of Natural Sciences is fixed, but this fixed amount is basically determined by the emperor and Liu Kuan, and mainly by Liu Kuan.

Because Liu Kuan came from a later era, he had the knowledge and understanding of that era. Once he learned about a project, he could tell its potential, whether it was worthwhile to initiate a research project, and how much money and manpower should be invested.

Once Liu Kuan retires, without anyone to guide him, the previous approval method, which was primarily based on people, can no longer be used.

Therefore, it is very important to establish a more impartial and professional research project approval department.

In addition, because Zhu Xiong Ying attached great importance to the development of science, in recent years, in addition to always granting the requests for funding from the Tian Gong Institute and the Natural Science Institute, he sometimes even bypassed Liu Kuan and directly provided funding and manpower support.

In Liu Kuan's view, several of the projects decided by Zhu Xiong Ying were unnecessary, but he didn't dare to say so because Zhu Xiong Ying was the emperor. Now that he was about to retire, he offered his advice in a roundabout way.

Although Zhu Xiong Ying felt that the Ming Dynasty was very wealthy, he still listened to Liu Kuan's advice before his retirement, saying, "Teacher, don't worry. I will have the Academy of Crafts and the Academy of Natural Sciences set up special project approval groups. We will be more cautious in approving scientific research projects."

Liu Kuan said, "If there is nothing else, I will take my leave."

"Yes, teacher, you can go back now."

a few days later.

At the court assembly, Zhu Xiong Ying announced Liu Kuan's retirement and issued an imperial edict.

This imperial edict recounted Liu Kuan's various merits during his more than 30 years of service in the Ming Dynasty. In the end, in addition to retaining Liu Kuan's honorary title of Grand Tutor to the Crown Prince, he was also given the honorary title of Pillar of State, and the title of Duke of Ningguo was made hereditary.

It can be said that, by this point, Liu Kuan had completely equaled Xu Da, the greatest founding general of the Ming Dynasty, in terms of honor. As for comparison with Li Shanchang, Tang He, and others, he was naturally no less outstanding.

Finally, the imperial edict also bestowed the title of Earl of Ancheng upon Liu Kuan's second son, Liu Chang'an, the title of Princess Anjia upon Liu Kuan's daughter, Liu Ruoyue, and Liu Kuan's concubine, Su Caiwei, was also granted a title of Second Rank Lady.

Neither Liu Chang'an nor Liu Ruoyue held hereditary titles, and the imperial edicts were not demotions or demotions in granting them; they were essentially one-time grants. However, this still sufficiently demonstrates the immense favor the Ming imperial family bestowed upon the Liu family…
The Ningguo Duke's Mansion, the side hall of the central courtyard.

Seeing the maid clear away the plates, bowls, and chopsticks on the table, and then another maid serving a cup of freshly brewed fragrant tea, Liu Kuan picked it up, blew on it, took a sip, and put it on the table. He sat comfortably in the armchair and said with a smile, "It's really good to be retired—it's so relaxing to have nothing to do."

Seeing this, Zhu Huilan laughed and said, "Look at how lazy you are, you don't look like a duke at all!"

Speaking of which, Zhu Huilan is now over forty years old, but because she takes excellent care of herself, she still looks like a beautiful woman in her thirties.

Su Caiwei, on the other hand, was a few years older than Zhu Huilan and did not take as good care of herself when she was young. After becoming Liu Kuan's concubine, she had been managing various business affairs of the Liu family. Although she was only in her early fifties, she looked like she was in her forties.

Of course, as a beauty, she was still considered middle-aged and quite charming.

Upon hearing this, Su Caiwei smiled and said, "Although you have retired, sir, you should not be too idle. I have heard that many people are in good health when they have a position and something to do. But after retiring and being idle for a few months, they start to fall ill, or even become seriously ill."

"This shows that a person really can't be too idle, and even more so, can't have nothing to do, otherwise illness will come looking for you."

With Liu Kuan's knowledge, he naturally understood this principle, but he hadn't really taken it to heart before.

After all, he had been looking forward to a peaceful retirement for decades, wanting to be a free man with nothing to do. Now that he has just retired, why would he be thinking about finding something to do immediately?

Zhu Huilan took it seriously and said, "Caiwei is right. My husband has been idle at home for several days now. Have you thought about what to do to pass the time?"

Liu Kuan picked up the book in his hand helplessly. "I can pass the time by reading novels, why would I need to find something else to do?"

In retrospect, after Liu Kuan used several novels such as "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils," "The Legend of the Condor Heroes," and "The Return of the Condor Heroes" to guide the development of Ming Dynasty novels, the development of Ming Dynasty novels in the past twenty years has been very rapid.

Not to mention the early works like "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Water Margin," there are also many other martial arts novels, fantasy novels, and even Xianxia novels that combine martial arts and fantasy elements.

For example, the novel "The Legend of the Nine-Tailed Fox" that Liu Kuan is currently reading is a very good fantasy novel.

Of course, compared with the wide variety of online novels in later generations, the types of novels in the Ming Dynasty were still very limited. Besides martial arts, supernatural tales, and fantasy, there were also ancient and modern legends, generals and kings (like historical fiction), social affairs, and detective stories (suspense).

Even so, it greatly enriched the spiritual life of the people of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Huilan rolled her eyes at Liu Kuan after hearing his words and said, "Husband, how dare you say that—what time did you go to sleep last night while reading novels? It must have been past midnight, right?"

"How old are you? Staying up so late, aren't you afraid of ruining your health? In my opinion, you'd be better off not reading novels at all. If I find you staying up late again, I'm going to confiscate your novels."

Liu Kuan smiled wryly, "I just couldn't resist when I saw something exciting last night... I won't do it again."

He's getting old and really can't stay up all night anymore—back in the day before he transmigrated, he used to read novels all night long.

Things are different now than they used to be.

At the same time, Liu Kuan was also thinking that he should find something more serious to do to distract himself—staying at home all day reading novels was indeed not good for his health.

"By the way, why don't we use the writers from our family's novel publishing house to create a few more novel genres for the Ming Dynasty? Like science fiction, time travel, post-apocalyptic?"

Thinking of this, a surge of passion inexplicably welled up in Liu Kuan's heart, which had become increasingly calm with age. (End of Chapter)