Chapter 309 A Historic Moment

Although Fan Zhongyan sometimes looks like a dazed young man, he actually has excellent writing skills. Historically, he, Fu Bi and Ouyang Xiu often wrote edicts.

So after three times, five and two, he wrote a sternly worded document, which was signed by many prime ministers present. When the regular meeting was held in the afternoon, it would be approved by Zhao Zhen and then it could be officially issued.

But that was only in the afternoon. After Zhao Jun signed at noon, he did not stay in the Constitutional Yuan to work. Instead, he left the palace and went all the way to the Academy of Sciences outside the north gate of the palace.

The Academy of Sciences occupies a large area and was renovated by Beiqing City. Many people don't know that Beiqing City was a civil and military school built by Zhao Kuangyin in the early Song Dynasty for the children of the Zhao family clan.

Later Song Huizong Zhao Ji studied here. As a result, he was named Prince Duan at the age of fourteen. He shamelessly came here to be the principal and built Prince Duan's Mansion in Beiqing City. Therefore, this place was also the location of Prince Duan's Mansion of Zhao Ji, Emperor Huizong of Song Dynasty. .

Since it is a civil and military school, it must have a school ground and a horse farm. And later, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty was able to build the huge Prince Duan Mansion. You can know how big the area is here and it can fully accommodate the scientific community for scientific experiments.

Naturally, Beiqing City at this time was not as luxurious as the later Prince Duan's Mansion. Coming out of Xuanwu Gate, the streets on both sides were the residences of the clan's children. The Ten Prince's House on the east side was once the residence of Zhao Yunrang, the great Zongzheng.

But at this moment, things have changed. Zhao Yun asked the couple to commit suicide, the tree fell and the hozens scattered, the direct descendants were imprisoned, the side branches had long since disappeared, and the mansion was taken back by the royal family.

Zhao Jun's carriage drove through the streets where the clan members lived and went straight into the Academy of Sciences. Most of the Academy's territory was occupied by various scientific research departments. Now the clan children no longer go to school here, but go to newly opened schools in the city.

However, the Academy of Sciences has also opened a school of its own, right next to the Academy of Sciences, but even the clan members who can enter must be the smartest, and their status is of no use.

After all, both Zhao Zhen and Zhao Jun attach great importance to scientific development, but they don't want any dandies from the clan to come in with no knowledge and skills, causing a mess inside, so they strictly control the situation.

When Zhao Jun arrived at the gate of the Academy of Sciences, Guo Shen, the dean of the School of Physics, and several professors were already waiting outside the door.

When it comes to physicists or great inventors in the Northern Song Dynasty, Bi Sheng, Su Song, Shen Kuo and others are definitely inseparable. However, they are just more famous. In historical records, there are still many less famous talents.

For example, Guo Shen was a Jinshi scholar. He studied mathematics and physics. He once designed military equipment, used the principle of leverage to build river embankments, and constructed water conservancy facilities. He was recommended by Lu Yijian to the School of Physics, where he concentrated on mechanics and the design of cannons. How helpful.

Although he often feels that in front of the official Zhao Zhen, he is like a little figure in physics, looking up at the mountains, but this does not prevent him from being obsessed with physics. Recently, he is conducting in-depth and multi-faceted research on the law of universal gravitation proposed by Zhao Zhen.

"I have seen the magistrate!"

Zhao Jun's carriage slowly stopped at the gate of the Academy of Sciences, and Guo Shen and everyone hurriedly came up to greet it.

Many of the big guys in the Academy of Sciences are Jinshi, and they all hold official positions. The dean of the Academy of Light Sciences is on the same level as the ordinary ministers, and is the third rank, while the deans of the branch schools are on the same level as the ordinary ministers, and is the subordinate. Third grade, the status is definitely not low.

"Um."

Zhao Jun nodded and said: "Thank you for your hard work. The officials just told me that you have developed electricity, so I came over to take a look without stopping."

Guo Zhen said with shame: "It's shameful to say that the world has long known that magnets can attract iron, but they didn't know that it can emit electricity. It's the official god who can actually use magnets to attract electricity. We still need the officials to teach us the principle. I'll wait. I am ashamed to repay the imperial court."

"Skills have specializations, and officials like to tinker with these things. Sometimes these things are actually not difficult. What is difficult is how to think of the key points and understand the truth."

Zhao Jun smiled. He would not say that Zhao Zhen copied everything from novels, and his Zhao coil, which imitated the Tesla coil, was not actually a Tesla coil.

Because there is no transformer.

He just fumbled around and found out a few Faraday electromagnetic induction copper disks, with some coiled copper wires wrapped around them. After the current was generated, he could use an iron sheet to scrape it to produce electric sparks, which were no different from the sparks produced by metal collisions. He threatened to Electricity was invented.

So sometimes science is really about whoever invents it first gets it first. Even though it was just a simple invention of principles without any rigorous experiments, Zhao Zhen dared to call himself the father of electricity.

"I really don't know what this electricity can do. If we can make it more powerful, can we use something like this to summon thunder and lightning and kill the enemy?"

As expected of Guo Zhen, he was originally a munitions maker, and his first thought was military use.

However, many things were originally invented to serve the military in war. For example, GPS was originally used by the military, and later became navigation for civilian use.

Zhao Jun said: "Its function is not just these, let's talk about it later."

"Invite the Supreme Court."

Guo Shen quickly invited Zhao Jun in.

Surrounded by everyone, Zhao Jun arrived at the School of Physics.

Since the School of Physics needs to conduct large-scale experiments, such as using steam engines to pull things, it covers a very large area and has a campus directly there.

There are many things piled up in a mess on the school grounds, including bicycles, water trucks, farm tools, and machinery.

The most eye-catching ones are more than a dozen huge steam engines.

These steam engines have their own functions, some are used to pump water, some are mounted on wheels as engines, and some can repeatedly perform work and are used for grinding powder, spinning, weaving, forging, etc.

Basically, transportation, energy production, and metallurgical smelting covered by steam engines have been realized. The only problem is that rubber needs to appear to replace copper rings and lead rings to achieve complete sealing like Watt's improved steam engine, so as to increase its power. maximize.

Then Zhao Jun, led by everyone, walked through various courtyards. Some courtyards are engaged in practical physics and inventing and creating various things. Some are engaged in theoretical physics and conduct in-depth research on mechanics, optics, mechanics, etc.

The current level of physics in the Song Dynasty is actually between junior high school and high school. Moreover, many physical formulas have not been developed yet, and they all rely on Zhao Zhen to copy the books. After copying the books, he came up with the formulas for the research institute to experiment.

After all, copying is much faster than developing it yourself. Even if Zhao Jun will guide and issue research directions and help them establish a system, it can't be something that can be completed in two or three months.

So in summary, the progress of physics in the Song Dynasty was entirely due to Zhao Zhen's role as copywriter.

Soon Zhao Jun was led to a house in the inner courtyard. There were various copper wires, copper plates, magnets and other sundries in the house. On the experimental table in the center, a young man was debugging.

The young man turned around and saw Zhao Jun and others approaching, so he raised his hands and said, "Your Majesty, Su Song, has seen the Imperial Academy."

Zhao Jun had met him before when he came to the Academy of Sciences for an inspection. He recently learned that Su Song was truly a genius. He was responsible for perfecting the steam engine. He was also promoted to a doctorate from the Academy of Sciences and was awarded the fifth rank due to his merit.

He smiled and said: "Dr. Su, you are polite, you invented this thing?"

"Song dare not take credit."

Su Song hurriedly said: "It is made according to the instructions of the official family. Compared with the official family, the lower officials can't match it."

"I didn't expect that the official family would be so respected by you, but the official family advocates scientific governance. Science can improve the development of the Song Dynasty. Science is the first weapon for a strong country. The Constitutional Yuan also firmly maintains the official family's reverence for science."

Zhao Jun looked around with a smile and said: "You are all Confucian masters and came from imperial examinations, but in fact, both Confucianism and science are essentially the exploration and understanding of the world. Confucianism and science are not contradictory, they are both The same kind of knowledge.”

"yes."

Guo Shen nodded repeatedly. Promoting the integration of Confucianism and science is what the imperial court is currently doing.

In fact, Zhao Jun does not reject Confucian culture, but rejects the dross in it.

Political books of later generations emphasized the removal of the dross and the essence of Confucian culture. At least before the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Confucian culture still had many merits.

People like Su Song, Zhang Zai, Shen Kuo and others were not only Jinshi scholars and representatives of Confucian culture, but they were also scientists. Among them, Zhang Zai, as the founder of Confucianism, had a profound influence on the research and development of astronomy.

"Please demonstrate this to me."

Zhao Jun looked at the copper plate.

The copper plate device is very primitive, consisting of a compass plus some copper wires and magnets.

Su Song connected one of the wires to the compass, and the compass suddenly began to swing back and forth, as if it was disturbed by some magnetic field.

This was the original Faraday experiment on electromagnetic induction.

"Um."

Zhao Jun nodded and said: "Very good, the officials told me that current will be generated between the magnet and the copper wire. By connecting the positive and negative poles of the magnet with the wire, the current can be drawn out."

"I just don't know what the use of this thing is yet."

Guo Zhen scratched his head.

"It can emit light. The officials have experimented in the palace this morning and successfully made the carbon filament glow, but it only lasted a short time. If we can find a suitable material, it may be able to keep the light shining. Then in the future, candles may no longer be needed for night lighting. and torches.”

Zhao Jun made important instructions: "You can find suitable materials in this direction. You may try tungsten. The other is to continue to study electricity to make it controllable, developable and sustainable."

"yes."

After hearing this, everyone immediately felt that they had found the direction and agreed one after another.

What the Academy of Sciences lacks now is not manpower, but the kind of genius who has a sudden flash of inspiration. As long as someone points the direction, it is not impossible to produce scientific research results with their wisdom.

After seeing the second generator in history, Zhao Jun inspected the School of Chemistry, School of Biology, and School of Agriculture.

The current technological level is not very high, basically similar to that of the West during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, but it is enough. After all, as long as science has a good foundation, there will inevitably be a period of technological explosion in the next one or two hundred years.

Now that the foundation is almost laid, basic chemistry, basic physics, and basic biology are slowly being rolled out. In the next ten years, scientific education will be carried out throughout the Song Dynasty. After the education is popularized, various scientific research talents will explode. , reaching the level of the second industrial revolution within fifty years may not be a dream.

In the afternoon, the Chongzheng Hall meeting was opened as usual. It was cooler at this time. The white-haired veterans had already taken their seats one by one. Zhao Zhen was playing with a large copper plate on his desk, surrounded by four or five people. There is a magnet coil and a wire connected to a light bulb.

Although glass cannot be made on a large scale due to the lack of soda manufacturing methods, trona does exist in nature, and some methods are needed to remove impurities. As an emperor, it was easy for Zhao Zhen to find some way to get some trona to make transparent glass.

So he asked the craftsmen to burn the transparent glass into the shape of a light bulb, installed a copper base under the light bulb, installed a carbon filament on it, connected the copper base with an electric wire, and conducted light to the carbon filament, and soon emitted a little light.

The old men gathered around the desk and watched curiously. When the light bulb actually emitted light, they were amazed and praised it endlessly.

"I didn't expect that I could actually see the appearance of electric lights in my lifetime."

"This is all thanks to the emperor. If the emperor hadn't devoted himself to research, I'm afraid we would never see it in this lifetime."

"The emperor is really a wise emperor. Now the country is prosperous and the people are safe. It is all the emperor's credit. The emperor worked tirelessly and studied and invented it every day, so that the people of the world benefited from it."

Everyone said.

Zhao Jun came over. Seeing him coming, Zhao Zhen said proudly: "Grandson, how is it? This thing is fun, isn't it?"

"Brother, you said that the light bulb is fun in front of me, isn't that showing off your skills in front of an expert?"

Zhao Jun was speechless.

Not to mention the most primitive carbon filament lamp, he has even seen LED lamps. What's so interesting about them?

"Oh, I forgot about it in my excitement."

Zhao Zhen slapped his head and said, "But you haven't seen this thing for so many years, don't you miss it?"

"Actually, I'm used to it."

Zhao Jun smiled and said, "I was definitely not used to it at the beginning, without the modern technology of later generations, but later I accepted my fate and didn't have so many thoughts."

"Now the Song Dynasty is firmly moving towards the path of scientific development, and the future will be even better."

Zhao Zhen put down the copper wire in his hand.

Although insisting on scientific development was the slogan proposed by Zhao Jun, he strongly supported it and even wrote articles in the official newspaper and Kaifeng Weekly, ostensibly insisting on the position of scientific development.

For a time, there was a trend of learning mathematics and physics throughout the country. In addition, the court had included mathematics in the imperial examination in the past few years, and in recent years, it was rumored that physics and chemistry would also be included in the imperial examination. Suddenly, the number of people studying mathematics and physics increased by many times.

"Your Majesty, let science develop slowly, and we should do well in the present."

Seeing that Zhao Zhen had finished showing off his research results, Fan Zhongyan immediately took out the official document he wrote and said, "Jiaozhi sent an apology letter. I feel that they have no repentance at all, so I wrote a rebuttal letter. Please read it."

"Oh?"

Zhao Zhen took it and saw that the old men were still around his desk, so he smiled and said, "Then let's sit down and talk."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

Everyone returned to their seats.

Zhao Zhen took out the official document and glanced at it, nodded and said, "Well, Mr. Fan wrote it very well, just to show the majesty of our Song Dynasty."

"If your Majesty thinks there is no problem, please seal it with the jade seal, send it back to the Li Dynasty, and officially declare war!"

Fan Zhongyan said.

"Well, good!"

Zhao Zhen took out the jade seal and sealed it.

Since the Han Dynasty, there have been certain procedures and norms for sending envoys to each other between the two countries.

In the Tang Dynasty, the process gradually evolved into a set of etiquette.

According to historical records, during the Tang Dynasty, there were three steps for sending envoys to each other between the two countries.

They are the system of state letters, the dispatch of envoys and the treatment of envoys after their return.

The first step is to send you a letter to inform the other party that the Tang Dynasty will send an envoy to your country and you should do a good job of receiving them.

After the other party replies, the envoys are officially dispatched.

Finally, the envoys return to their respective countries and express the goodwill of the other country to the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty.

The same is true when other countries want to send envoys to the Tang Dynasty.

Except for Japan, other land countries need to inform the Tang Dynasty in advance so that the Tang Dynasty can prepare for the reception of envoys before they can officially send envoys.

The Song Dynasty followed the Tang system, so the envoy system of the Song Dynasty was basically this process.

It's just that the Song Dynasty was weak militarily and had little diplomatic achievements. In the past, as long as a country sent an envoy, it would often accept the visitor and would not refuse the other party.

Therefore, the Li Dynasty naively believed that as long as it continued to send envoys to the Song Dynasty and presented precious white elephants, it might be able to calm the anger of the Song Dynasty.

But they obviously underestimated the determination of the Song Dynasty to completely destroy the Vietnamese Dynasty this time.

Seeing the letter from the Li Dynasty, Zhao Zhen directly refused to send envoys to the other side, which meant that there was nothing to talk about, and the war would start directly.

Zhao Zhen stamped the jade seal, which basically declared war on the Li Dynasty, which could be said to determine the life and death of a neighboring country.

"The Li Dynasty is determined to win, and this matter has been discussed before. It is not a big deal."

After stamping the jade seal, he put the official document aside and asked the Imperial Court to release it in the afternoon. Then he looked at everyone and said, "What's going on today?"

"Your Majesty, this year's reform charter has been completed. It only needs to be stamped with the seal to be officially issued."

Fan Zhongyan sent up another thick stack of official documents.

In fact, everyone has discussed these things every day during this period of time, and it is basically a stamping process.

Zhao Zhen took a quick look, raised his head and looked around, and saw that no one objected, so he nodded slightly and said, "Okay, then I will officially stamp and officially start this year's new policy."

As he said that, he stamped the imperial seal, and now he is almost turning into a ruthless stamping machine.

The jade seal is stamped.

The Song Dynasty will usher in the last reform of the agricultural era.

Everyone looked at the jade seal.

In fact, they also had many opinions on this reform, such as increasing taxes on rich households, which also touched their own interests.

But this is the easiest thing to pass. After all, it is natural for the emperor of the Song Dynasty to collect taxes from the rich.

It's just that they have finally reduced their tax expenditures, and now they are back to the past. It's really a bit uncomfortable.

"Pah!"

The seal was stamped, and the last reform became a foregone conclusion.

"Pah, pah, pah!"

Zhao Jun was the first to stand up and applaud, then looked around and said: "Everyone, after this reform, it marks the beginning of the first industrial revolution in the Song Dynasty. The national steel construction has officially begun. We have entered the initial stage of the industrial period!"

"Pah, pah, pah!"

Everyone also stood up and applauded. This can be regarded as a way of celebration learned from film and television dramas.

"Huh!"

Zhao Zhen took a long breath, then smiled and said: "It seems that this seal is really full of historical moments!"

This comprehensive reform will bring about steel mills everywhere, and a brand new Song Dynasty is about to usher in!