Chapter 424: Establishing the Zhao Zhen Award

"Boom boom boom boom!"

Outside the east city of Bianliang, the steam engines in the steel mills, textile mills, and cement plants roared.

White steam mixed with black gas rolled out of the chimneys, making half of the sky outside the east city seem much darker.

Farther away, ships of coal and iron ore were being transported from the canal in the north.

Strictly speaking, Bianliang is not an industrial production base now, and it is far from becoming a foggy city like London during the first industrial revolution in Britain.

Because Bianliang is too far away from the production areas of coal, iron, wool, and cotton, the transportation cost is very high, and the investment is huge, but the return rate is very slow.

As a result, few private businessmen are willing to invest in this kind of heavy steel industry and labor-intensive industries in Bianliang except for brick factories.

So now the only two steel mills, more than ten textile mills and four cement mills in Bianliang are all opened by the court of the Song Dynasty. They have been operating at a loss in the early stage, and now they are just barely breaking even.

In comparison, brick factories and honeycomb coal factories are the kind with small investments and large returns. Although honeycomb coal factories are still limited by the cost of coal, they are better than steel factories.

At this moment, Zhao Zhen was standing on the Chenhui Tower in the Chenhui Gate of the East Garden of the Imperial Palace, scanning the East City.

The East Garden is located north of Zishan Hall. Going out from the east gate of the back garden is the Gongchen Gate Fudao, which is also the back door of the palace, and then passing through the Linhua Gate is the East Garden.

This is also the exit of the Jinshui River flowing through the palace.

Downstairs of the Chenhui Tower, the surrounding flowers and plants are lush. It is approaching winter, and there is still rain outside. The whole Bianliang is shrouded in mist and rain, but these flowers and plants have no signs of withering.

In order to make the palace full of flowers all year round, the plants here are naturally evergreen all year round, and there are also professional gardeners to take care of and trim them.

Zhao Zhen glanced outside the city. Although it was rainy, there were street umbrellas on Ma Xing Street in the inner city of the East City.

There were countless people going out to shop and work, and the dense umbrellas directly blocked the sea of ​​people.

Especially near noon, when it was lunchtime for factories and workshops outside the East City, many workers came out to eat one after another.

Large factories such as steel mills and textile mills must have their own canteens.

But in order to solve the increasingly serious problem of river pollution in the city, Zhao Jun moved a large number of workshops in the city out of the city, such as blacksmith shops, printing factories, dye workshops, and paper mills, all of which were moved out of the city with subsidies and land purchases.

In this way, the court recovered a large amount of land in the city for construction and development. Secondly, the pollution source was transferred from the city to the downstream area outside the city to relieve the pollution pressure in the city.

However, this method cannot last long. Recently, dead fish have appeared in the lower reaches of the Bian River. In the future, it is still necessary to build a sewage treatment plant to solve the problem of industrial wastewater.

Standing on the five-story Chenhui Building, Zhao Zhen could see all the mountains. He looked at the streets of the inner and outer cities, as well as the construction outside the city, and couldn't help but feel deeply moved.

In the past, the outside of the East City was a suburb with only some villages and farmland. How could it be like this place now?

The current prosperity of the Song Dynasty was something he had never imagined before.

There were tall buildings everywhere outside the city. Although they were all staircase houses with seven floors and no elevators, which could not even compare to a county town in the future, this was already a great spectacle for Zhao Zhen.

At least he could see this change in his lifetime.

Maybe he could see that kind of skyscraper in his later years. After all, the eldest grandson once said that the large number of buildings over 50 meters appeared in the late 19th century.

The current technological level of the Song Dynasty has basically reached the level of the late 18th century to the mid-19th century.

A few decades later.

The Song Dynasty might be able to build a skyscraper of 50 meters or even 100 meters.

Zhao Zhen turned his head and asked Wang Shouzhong: "Shouzhong, how many people are there in Bianliang now?"

"At the beginning of the year, the Statistics Department reported that the population last year was 2.17 million. This year's population has not yet been counted, so it may be more than 2.4 million."

Wang Shouzhong responded respectfully.

The government occasionally asks such questions, so he naturally has to find some information to write down from time to time, so as not to be unable to answer.

"My Song Dynasty is getting stronger every day."

Zhao Zhen was very satisfied, and then lowered his head to look at the Jinshui River under Chenhui Building.

At this moment, a cement bungalow has been built by the river. Two huge steam engines are placed in the bungalow, and dense copper wires extend from it.

These copper wires are supported by wooden frames and connected to various palaces, buildings, and laboratories in the back garden. Light bulbs are hung in these places.

In recent months, Zhao Zhen has been building a power plant.

Now that there is sufficient raw material, the technology is up to standard, and there is no shortage of manpower, it is time to implement his power generation plan.

After the factory building was repaired, the wires were installed, the light bulbs were screwed in, and the steam engine was in place, the power generation was officially started.

In fact, Zhao Zhen had already conducted a trial run yesterday and rehearsed, successfully making the sixteen incandescent lamps in the Chenhui Building emit light.

But it didn't take long for a malfunction to occur.

He investigated and studied it for a day yesterday, and finally found the problem this morning.

After solving the mechanical failure, it was finally able to be officially operated.

"Your Majesty, the Zhiyuan and others are here."

Wang Shouzhong noticed a group of people coming from the direction of Linhua Gate in the distance and reported to Zhao Zhen.

Zhao Zhen looked over and saw Zhao Jun and others from a distance.

Noon is not the time for meetings. Zhao Jun has to go to tutor the prince at 1 pm, and will not go to Chongzheng Hall until 3 pm.

Is there something important today?

Zhao Zhen said, "Let's go downstairs and show them my achievements."

Although I talked about this matter at the meeting yesterday and took them to see this place before, they have not seen it in operation yet.

The two went downstairs, and when they arrived at the lobby on the first floor of Chenhui Building, Zhao Jun and others came in.

"Your Majesty!"

Everyone bowed.

Zhao Zhen smiled and said, "Sit down, what happened? Is the plan to attack Xixia ready?"

He has been really happy recently, and good things have happened one after another.

After Li Yuanhao of Xixia died, the Song Dynasty court had already begun preparations.

All kinds of food, weapons, and ammunition were sent to the northwest.

Di Qing had also set off.

Fan Zhongyan and Zhang Kang were not needed for this war to annihilate the country.

One of them was the prime minister, and the other succeeded Wang Deyong as the Privy Councilor this year.

Wang De was appointed as the commander of the imperial guards and infantry, which was considered to be a retreat.

If Fan Zhongyan and Zhang Kang were to go to war, and it was a war of annihilation, then they would basically be in a position where there was nothing left to be done.

So it was just right for Di Qing to go to war, and he could be considered a chief officer to be trained and prepared for the Ministry of War or the Privy Council in the future.

Zhao Jun replied: "It's almost ready, and we should be ready for the formal attack next month."

"Great."

Zhao Zhen sat on his chair and clenched his fist and said: "This time we must destroy Xixia and take back all the territories lost by us Han people."

"Not only Xixia, but also part of the Western Regions, including Jiayuguan, Yumenguan, Turpan, Hami and other places."

Zhao Jun also sat down and smiled: "Although Gansu and Ningxia were the border Xiliang in ancient times, most of them were the residences of Qiang and Hu, not the traditional habitats of us Han people, but it is not enough to just take back these places. Since our Song Dynasty wants to be on par with the Han and Tang Dynasties, or even surpass them, of course we must conquer a large territory, dominate East Asia, and radiate the whole world."

"Well, it's still the eldest grandson who has foresight."

Zhao Zhen nodded repeatedly. Expanding territory has been the greatest achievement of the emperors since ancient times.

Isn't the temple name of Emperor Wu of Han derived from expanding territory?

Otherwise, if it weren't for his outstanding achievements in his early years, he would definitely not be worthy of the title of Emperor Wu and Emperor Shizong due to his stupidity in his later years.

"I didn't come here today for this matter."

Zhao Jun glanced at Yan Shu and others, and said with a smile: "We came here to tell you good news."

"That's right, I also have good news to tell you."

Zhao Zhen also laughed.

"Then you go first."

Zhao Jun said.

"The power plant was successfully tested yesterday. Although there was a minor fault, it should be able to operate after I eliminate the fault. I plan to light up the back garden tonight!"

Zhao Zhen said proudly.

"Oh my god, are there finally electric lights?"

"The era of electrification is coming."

"It's really a great thing."

"The emperor is really a god."

"Good guy, brother, you are really awesome."

Zhao Jun opened his eyes wide, raised his thumb and said respectfully: "Your ability in science and engineering is simply amazing. Our ancestors and grandchildren are a combination of science and literature, and we are invincible in the world."

"Ahahahahaha."

Zhao Zhen was so happy that he couldn't close his mouth.

He studied science because he knew that science was the general direction of the future. As an emperor, he attached importance to science and would definitely play a leading role.

Just like the King of Chu liked thin waists, many people starved to death in the palace.

The Emperor of Song liked science, so students all over the world would definitely study science, and naturally a large number of science and engineering talents would be cultivated.

The second and most important point.

Now all government affairs in the world are under the jurisdiction of the Political System Institute. According to Zhao Jun's words, what does he, the emperor of the Song Dynasty, know about governing the country?

So every day, except for learning about government affairs from the prime ministers in the afternoon, he didn't intervene in the governance of the country.

Without the emperor's blind command, the Political System Council has become much more convenient and bold in its administration.

This has led to the current prosperity of the Song Dynasty and the surge in national strength. The annual tax revenue has increased from only 60 to 70 million guan in the second year of Jingyou to 140 million guan last year.

This is just the central government.

Since the local governments have to intercept 30% of the taxes, if the taxes of the local governments in the world are also counted, it will not be far from breaking through 200 million guan.

Therefore, it can be said that the national strength has basically doubled, and the productivity and GDP have also increased by more than 10% and even 20% year by year.

Now Zhao Zhen has no reason to intervene in government affairs, so he can only indulge in mathematical and physical experiments, right?

However, Zhao Zhen found that being obsessed with science is not a bad thing.

With his current scientific research results, coupled with the soaring national strength of the Song Dynasty, his future historical status will definitely be very high.

It is no exaggeration to say.

After the destruction of Xixia, it will be the combined status of Emperor Wu of Han, Mendel, Faraday, Tesla, and Mendeleev.

If he continues to work for a few more years and destroys the Liao Dynasty, then we have to add Emperor Taizong of Tang to the list.

A few decades later, when Zhao Jun completes his strategy of unifying China, and even the strategy of East Asia a hundred years later.

Then he will come up with the law of universal gravitation, the theory of relativity, etc., and I am afraid that whether in the political or academic circles, his status will be like a cow standing upside down, and a cow will be as powerful as the sky.

People like Li Shimin, Liu Che, Newton, and Einstein will probably have to stand aside.

So Zhao Zhen was also very satisfied.

After all, he became the most powerful emperor and scientist in human history just by lying down. Even if he just hid in the palace all day to do experiments and not take care of government affairs, what would it matter? With such a status, what could he not be satisfied with?

"Sir, I think we can set up an award, just like the Nobel Prize, to reward those who have made contributions to science."

Zhao Jun smiled.

"Oh?"

Zhao Zhen became interested and asked, "Grandson, do you mean that I am the first person to win the award?"

"No."

Zhao Jun shook his head.

"Can't even my achievements win the award?"

Zhao Zhen was puzzled.

Zhao Jun raised his index finger and said, "I mean that this award is no longer worthy of being awarded to my brother, but should be named after my brother."

"My name?"

Zhao Zhen's breathing became rapid.

"Yes."

Zhao Jun nodded and said, "Brother, think about it. Your academic achievements are already at the forefront of the world. No one can shake you. How can you be awarded the highest scientific award in the world? It's like the world's number one power giving itself a certificate of world power. Isn't it ridiculous?"

Zhao Zhen asked, "What does grandson mean?"

Zhao Jun smiled and said, "Since you are the world's number one and your status is the highest, then of course you should give it to others and recognize others. That's the medal, right?"

"Hehehe."

Zhao Zhen smiled and said, "That makes sense."

"Then it's a happy decision."

Zhao Jun made the decision and said, "Establish the Zhao Zhen Award to be awarded to individuals or organizations who have made outstanding contributions in physics, chemistry, biology, medicine and other fields."

There is no mathematics here, because Zhao Zhen's achievements in mathematics are much worse.

Although a qualified physicist and chemist cannot be too bad in mathematics, he is not that interested in mathematics.

Basically, it's enough to learn high school level. As for university mathematics, it's still left to the mathematicians in the School of Mathematics to study.

In addition to Jia Xian, there are also outstanding talents like Liu Yi and Shao Yong among the young people.

It is only a matter of time before mathematics is developed, and Zhao Zhen does not need to study hard.

So now Zhao Zhen is quite successful in physics, chemistry and biology.

For example, in physics, he studied mechanics, optics, and electromagnetism.

In chemistry, he studied inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, physical chemistry, and wrote "The Periodic Table of Elements".

Needless to say, biology has studied hybrid broad beans, hybrid rice, fungus culture, etc.

Among them, his recent "Theory of Bacteria and Viruses" in microbiology has aroused widespread discussion in the medical community and is considered a treasure of medical practitioners by many medical communities.

Because this book records how Zhao Zhen cultivated fungi through moldy fruits and discovered the existence of penicillin.

Although due to the lack of effective mass production methods for penicillin, it is currently impossible to mass produce.

Just like penicillin was discovered in 1929, but because there was no way to highly purify penicillin and the means to mass produce penicillin, penicillin was not officially put into production until 1943.

But Zhao Zhen was undoubtedly ahead of the times. As long as this discovery was made, in a few years as science and technology became more advanced and technological levels continued to improve, purification and mass production would only be a matter of time.