Chapter 73                                                             �

The Huanghelou Academy has a large building scale, covering almost the entire Snake Mountain.

It is already the largest academy in the entire south. It is also the appearance of Zhou Mengchen’s university. It is divided into different departments and is located in different places in the entire Snake Mountain. There are also gardens separated from each other.

Therefore, although Huanghelou Academy is in the center of the entire Wuchang City, it looks very quiet. However, it is not far from the troubles in Wuchang City. It can be regarded as a quiet place in the troubles.

The Huanghelou Academy has developed into this way in just over twenty years, thanks to two places. The first place is Zhou Mengchen. Zhou Mengchen is here, and Zhou Mengchen’s disciples donated countless funds to Huanghelou Academy.

With enough money, with Zhou Mengchen's guidance, there will naturally be enough development.

The second point is the support of the court.

The Ming Dynasty court, the royal family, Huguang Province, Wuchang Prefecture, and even Jiangxia County all allocated funds here.

There are also support in this way. Not to mention anything else, the entire Snake Mountain was originally owned by the King of Chu in Wuchang Prefecture, but with a stroke of the imperial court, it turned into academy. Some of the buildings above were other courtyards of the King of Chu, and the other part was built by the imperial court.

There are not many people who really built the academy itself.

But at this moment, the entire Huanghelou Academy was very lively.

Dress up and down with lights.

Emperor Wanli has been here, and this news is no secret. Many people know it.

It can be said that today is almost the stage for the top celebrities of the Ming Dynasty.

I don't know how many it has arrived for a while.

King Chu, the prince who is already a member of the King of Chu, etc.

The governor of Huguang is already a senior official from Huguang.

Celebrities from various schools in Jiangnan, etc.

It was like a crowd of guests. Anyone who could just pull out was a famous figure in the court.

Zhang Juzheng did not come, but Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue arrived.

Although they are not the prime minister now, their status as the former prime minister is already noble enough.

It's very lively for a while, of course there is no need to say more.

However, Zhou Mengchen had just had a social event here. After all, he was old and had a noble status. He could not accompany the audience.

All the expenses here are expenses from the government.

Zhou Mengchen spent more time in the backyard.

The so-called backyard is actually the courtyard where Zhou Mengchen lives.

It doesn't seem big, but that's relatively speaking. The entire courtyard is also on the third or fourth level. Those who come here to celebrate their birthday are the closest people Zhou Mengchen is, such as children and disciples.

Zhou Mengchen now has several grandsons and more than a dozen great-grandsons.

Zhou Mengchen couldn't recognize the children of all sizes, big and small, and they were just smiling and slimming. And these children didn't know what the meaning of today's 80th birthday is. Anyway, they are just delicious food and drink.

Zhou Mengchen sat with his disciples, but he relaxed a lot and sat in his wheelchair. Zhou Datong's son, also Zhou Mengchen's eldest grandson, was pushed by Zhou Changhai.

The disciples sent gifts one by one.

Zhou Mengchen had already said that he would not have gold, silver, jewelry and other common things. He would have to make things they themselves made.

At the beginning, it was Shen Shixing, who were like Wang Xijue, who gave various poems and essays as gifts one by one. Among his praises, Confucius was two thousand years ago and Zhou Zi was two thousand years later.

Zhou Mengchen felt a little embarrassed when he heard this.

Then the disciples who are engaged in science presented their birthday ceremony.

The first one to come was Yin Zongyi.

Yin Zongyi is now in his seventies, with white hair and white hair. He has given all the family affairs to his children and grandchildren. He has put down everything, but he has more energy to focus on scientific research.

After tremblingly kowtowed to Zhou Mengchen to celebrate his birthday, he asked several people to carry something long on two sides of the table, covered with a layer of red cloth.

Yin Zongyi opened it and said, "Please look at it, teacher, this is the gift I gave to the teacher."

Zhou Mengchen narrowed his eyes slightly and said, "Is this an iron-armored ship?"

Yin Zhengmao said: "That is, there are three steam engines that push, seven main guns in front and rear, and more than 30 secondary guns. It is enough to match all the warships today."

With the help of Changsun, Zhou Mengchen walked to the front of the model and looked at the three large chimneys above, several cannons arranged on the central axis, and rows of secondary cannons on the second deck.

And the sun, moon, blue sea flag facing the sky.

Zhou Mengchen never expected that he would truly see this thing in his lifetime.

The armored ship is a high-end project of this era, and it is related to the top steam engines, the best armor, as well as transmission systems, artillery systems, etc.

When Zhou Mengchen was in power, he kept urging this project.

But he didn't finish it when he got down.

As for Zhou Mengchen's arrival, Zhang Juzheng was not interested in this project.

Although Zhang Juzheng is an ally of Zhou Mengchen, he also has his own ideas.

Zhou Mengchen’s view on this kind of project is that large projects drive the development of science and technology in other aspects. After all, there are many examples of this kind of technology-driven development by large projects in later generations.

The most famous one is the Manhattan Project.

Moreover, Zhou Mengchen always felt that the Ming government should provide impetus for the development of science and technology.

However, in Zhang Juzheng's opinion, the Ming Dynasty's wooden ships were enough to conquer the world, and he did not think that any ship was the opponent of the imperial ships. Although Western plywood ships were good, they were not different from the Ming Dynasty's shipbuilding technology.

After obtaining some samples from the Ming Dynasty, they can immediately replace the plywood ships nationwide.

In this case, there is a problem if there is any effort to develop the imperial examination.

Even the imperial court interfered in the development of science and technology, and after Wanli took power, the Academy of Sciences was established. However, the Academy of Sciences collected the latest technology at most for Wanli to consult. There was not much desire for new technologies in all aspects.

During Zhou Mengchen's rule, the time was indeed not ripe for building iron armored ships. There were countless problems to be solved by just a steam engine boarding the ship. After all, the steam engine was to be on the sea. The sea conditions on the sea were not comparable to those of the small rivers in the Sanggan River.

However, after Wanli came to power, the Ming Dynasty had enough technology.

Steam engines have already started shipping on the sea.

But the armored ship is still difficult to produce.

Zhou Mengchen thought he would probably not be able to see this thing in his entire life, but he did not expect that he would see it again on his 80th birthday.

Zhou Mengchen asked in detail, especially about artillery.

The only thing that has been improving in Daming's technology is artillery.

The power of artillery has long been determined. Since Zhou Mengchen, artillery has been the core of the Ming army's combat operations. Therefore, the army hopes that there will be artillery with a longer range, a more explosive and lighter range.

This desire for need is endless.

Moreover, Zhou Mengchen has become a discipline alone in recent years.

The artillery has long since changed from a boring gun to a breech gun, and the gunpowder has also gone from black-gunpowder to chemical gunpowder.

Zhou Mengchen knew about these. He occasionally needed a few new firearms, but he hadn't seen artillery in the army for many years. After all, there were very few troops stationed in Huguang, but one battalion and the equipment on the second line were all the security forces.

There is no latest artillery at all.

Yin Zongyi was happy to see Zhou Mengchen and said, "Teacher, this ship has been built. In the second half of this year, it will be able to stop at Wuchang Wharf."

Zhou Mengchen said: "Naughty, what do I want this thing to do. Just keep this model here."

After Yin Zongyi, other disciples even gave other gifts.

For a moment, what Zhou Mengchen saw was nothing else. It was the science and technology exhibitions over the past few decades.

However, Zhou Mengchen also found a problem.

That is, I don’t know if the scholars and officials of the Ming Dynasty were more practical. Zhou Mengchen saw everything like Yin Zongyi, and they were mainly invented. There were no theoretical articles.

Zhou Mengchen never thought about it.

Zhou Mengchen has already done the theoretical matter.

After he retired, he published all the electromagnetic theory, even the atomic theory, periodic table hypothesis, etc.. Even Zhou Mengchen's recent book also listed some of his conjectures and hypotheses about science.

No need to think about it. These conjectures and hypotheses are things that have been proven in later generations.

This is also the greatest wealth left by Zhou Mengchen in the world.
Chapter completed!