Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 173 Seeing Western Wang Yan Thinking of Change
Macau Seminary, in addition to teaching Catholicism, also has some natural sciences, and most of them are missionaries sent to China by the Jesuits.

Following Bai Yingli, Wang Yan visited the seminary for a day and found it very novel. He found that Xiyi focused on exploring the laws and essence of things, while the Chinese were good at summing up experience. There was a big difference between the two.

However, after Wang Yan thought about it carefully, in fact, China also has similar thoughts. In "Book of Rites·University", there is a saying that "to know is to study things, and then to know things." Lost many original things.

In the Seminary, Wang Yan was surprised by Xiyi's achievements in mathematics and navigation, as well as Bai Yingli's description of the Western barbarians fighting for hegemony at sea and conquering land everywhere, and what surprised him most was Xiyi. A map of all countries drawn by Yi, which is very different from "The Complete Map of Kunyu All Nations" drawn by Matteo Ricci during the Wanli period.

In "The Complete Map of Kun Yu Wan Guo", Daming is in the center of the world, but in the picture in front of him, Daming is in the corner of the map, which made the accompanying Chen Bangyan and others very unhappy, but Wang Yan was fascinated by it for some reason up.

He did not have the anger of Chen Bangyan and the others in his heart, but instead felt a strong sense of crisis, so he proposed to bring the map of all nations in front of him back to Guangzhou. Naturally, Bai Yingli had no reason not to agree.

Looking at it one day, Wang Yan had to admit that the missionaries trained by the seminary were all rare talents, and almost all of them were involved in the knowledge of cannon casting, navigation, arithmetic, water conservancy and so on.

In contrast, the academies of the Ming Dynasty only taught the Four Books and Five Classics, and seldom dabbled in miscellaneous studies, and most of the scholars who taught them could only write articles, but they knew neither agricultural politics, water conservancy, nor Local talent in management.

In the operation of the imperial court, these scholars who have been admitted to the Jinshi and become officials often have to struggle in the local area for a long time before they can learn how to govern the country.

For major national affairs, such as river regulation, water conservancy construction, and city building, officials from the Ministry of Industry have to go through trial and error before they can be competent, and the waste of time and resources can be imagined.

Wang Yan was a little surprised to see that in addition to teaching theology, [-]% of the theology courses in the seminary were miscellaneous studies, but he had to admit that if the academies at all levels in Daming also offered courses such as arithmetic, agricultural administration, water conservancy, etc. Casting guns and other miscellaneous studies, the cultivated scholars are bound to be much better than those who can only write poems.

In fact, a long time ago, China did not only pay attention to poetry, books, classics and annotations. As early as the Spring and Autumn and Warring States, when a hundred schools of thought were contending, Confucius taught students in accordance with their aptitude, with hundreds of disciples, scholars, farmers, businessmen, and all walks of life. Among the six arts, only books are emphasized nowadays.

After watching the seminary, Wang Yan couldn't help but sigh in his heart. When he marveled at the achievements of Xiyi, he also found that China originally had these ideas, but they were gradually abandoned later.

Since the national change, Wang Yan has been thinking in his heart, why was the dignified Huaxia defeated by the Cuoer clan?
In the face of the loss of the two capitals and the repeated defeats of the court, any scholar of the Ming Dynasty will reflect and ask a question, why is this?Isn't Daming the Kingdom of Heaven?Why are you losing so badly now?

Wang Yan once thought that this is because the common people did not know China, but in the Han and Tang Dynasties, the common people were also like this, but why did they shock Yidi?
If you think about it, the problem can only appear in the imperial court and the scholar-bureaucrat class.

Because we lost many good thoughts and spirits, it became what it is now.

Bai Yingli said that after hundreds of years of dark Middle Ages in the West, the Crusaders brought back a large number of ancient Greek and Roman classics from the Arab world, which led to a renaissance in the West.

From the civilizations that have disappeared, they found the brilliant thoughts of Plato, Socrates, Aristotle and other sages, which brought the medieval West to light.

When Wang Yan was faced with the humiliating reality that the great Ming Dynasty had tens of thousands of Han people but could not defeat a mere 20 Manyi, he had to start thinking about changing, had to make him think of regaining the martial arts of the Han and Tang Dynasties, and regaining the martial arts of the Song Dynasty. Open and broad.

Wang Yan wants to regain the spirit of the past in China, reduce the suffering of the people from the principle of "the people are more important than the emperor", and calm people's hearts, promote talents from the principle of "selecting the virtuous and appointing talents", and from the principle of "those who commit strong men will be punished even if they are far away". , regaining martial arts, and unconsciously, the word "reform" came to Wang Yan's mind.

Wang Yan wants to reform the tax system, open up sources of income, collect business taxes, and reduce agricultural taxes.He wants to reform the academy, join miscellaneous studies, improve his status as a military commander, and achieve both civil and martial arts, but things are not so simple and easy to achieve.

Since ancient times, reforms have always had disputes between the old and the new, as well as radical and conservative disputes. If Wang Yanzhen wants to change, everything will be counterattacked by traditional forces. If nothing else, just let the academy teach miscellaneous studies, and he will be scolded to death by scholars.

At this time, although Wang Yan had an idea in his mind, it was definitely impossible to implement it immediately, but he decided to make some changes slowly.

When he left the seminary, Wang Yan promised that the Jesuits would be allowed to preach in Guangdong, but he hoped that Bo Yingli could recommend a group of talents for him. He needed to go to Guangzhou to re-establish the Cannon Workshop, and he would prepare the General’s Military Academy Formalization, in addition to teaching military tactics, there are also certain teachings on firearms, infantry combat, cavalry combat, and logistics.

Bai Yingli immediately complied with Wang Yan's request, and wrote to Ai Julian, who was preaching far away in Fujian, asking him to go to Guangzhou to help Wang Yan establish a casting workshop and develop Christianity in Guangdong.

The next day, Wang Yan led his troops back to Guangzhou with a hundred cannons purchased from the Portuguese, and immediately handed the cannons over to Shi Lang.

Compared with the artillery built by Daming itself, these artillery are indeed better, which stems from Xiyi's attitude of striving for perfection.

Shi Lang ordered the cannons to be loaded onto the three lucky boats. Of course, these lucky boats could not be compared with the lucky boats that Zheng He sailed to the west, and they were several sizes smaller.

"Boom~" The sound of "Boom~" sounded, and Shi Lang called Wang Yan happily: "My lord, this Xiyi artillery has a long range, and its accuracy is much better than that of self-made artillery. On the sea, Warships brave the wind and waves, and it is very difficult to be hit during the voyage, but with this batch of artillery, the shelling of the Cantonese navy can at least hit three out of ten, and they will finally go to sea with confidence." Now the Hakka people are ready to move in. Qiongzhou, and the people of Yangzhou on Qiongzhou Island are also in urgent need of material support, but the Zheng family pretends to be a pirate and attacks the Guangdong sea ships everywhere, so that Wang Yan dare not send the boat out to sea.

Now that Wang Yan heard Shi Lang's words, he immediately asked, "How sure is the general?"

(End of this chapter)