Pierre nodded when he heard the name Nicolas Trigault, saying, "Of course I know him. We generally consider him French, but he considers himself Belgian. And I know he visited the Ming Empire, though it was over a hundred years ago."
Zeng Cheng nodded and said, "Nicolas Trigault, that's who I mentioned as Jin Nige. This person arrived in Jinling in the 39th year of Wanli and began to preach, which can be considered a venerable elder."
"In the 46th year of Wanli, Mr. Jin Nige came to the Great Ming again. Among his companions were learned scholars such as Deng Yuhan, Luo Yagu, Tang Ruowang, and Fu Fanji. In addition, seven thousand Western books were brought."
It was at this point that Zeng Cheng revealed his true purpose.
The idea of solving a problem by directly eliminating the person who raised it, or obtaining a six-thousand tael silver rebate for Pierre, was all designed to lower Pierre's guard and serve as a prelude to Zhu Jinsong's ultimate objective.
This matter was rather complicated, almost dating back to the Wanli era of the Great Ming.
During the Wanli era, the barbarians of Europa had not yet risen, or rather, had only just begun to show signs of rising. The Ming Dynasty was also starting its decline. In the eyes of those European barbarians, the Ming Empire was still the mysterious Eastern great nation "where gold is everywhere" as described by Marco Polo.
In order to spread religion to the East, they were eager to empty their coffers, spending their own money to transport it to the Great Ming. Thus, seven thousand Western books entered China—
In those days, Matteo Ricci, with a heart full of passion, set foot in the mysterious East described by Marco Polo, intending to spread the glory of the Lord in the East.
Comrade Matteo Ricci's plan was excellent: a direct approach through the upper echelons. If the high-ranking officials of the Ming Empire could be managed, and with their help, wouldn't missionary work be as simple as a piece of cake?
However, to Matteo Ricci's great disappointment, the officials of the Great Ming were all great scholars, cultured people, not easily fooled like the barbarians of Europe.
After all, our Middle Kingdom's temples had developed for thousands of years. In terms of deceiving people, none of the Buddhist, Taoist, or Confucian schools were weak. The officials of the Ming Dynasty were more skilled at deceiving people than Matteo Ricci. Matteo Ricci immediately started talking about the affairs of Jesus and the Heavenly Father. Would they be interested?
Besides, what were the officials of the Great Ming best at? Talking glibly, being shameless. They could even scold the Emperor to the point of not attending court. Did Comrade Matteo Ricci really think he could fool them?
It could only be said that Comrade Matteo Ricci was still too naive and easily fooled, so it was only natural that he was treated as someone with a mental illness by the officials of the Great Ming.
Since direct missionary work was not working, Comrade Matteo Ricci changed his approach—"We won't preach today. Let's talk about mathematics and astronomy first. I don't believe you still won't take the bait!"
As a result, many people in the Great Ming did take the bait with Comrade Matteo Ricci's approach. A large group of people went to study mathematics and astronomy with Matteo Ricci.
When the news reached the Holy See, the bigwigs of the Holy See were excited.
Could missionary work be done with books? Had science become an absolute condition for missionary work among the upper-class intellectuals of the East?
In order to spread religion, the Holy See immediately demanded that missionaries strive to improve their academic qualifications, and Europe vigorously sought books, and then translated these Western books in China, which the Holy See called the "Library Defense Movement."
Gu Qiyuan's "Ke Zuo Zhui Yu" stated that "Matteo Ricci carried many books printed in his country." "Xi Xue Fan" stated: "In addition to local products, there were over seven thousand bound books. Duplicates were not included, nor were trivial ones. The book baskets were seen at Dunxiangshan澳, so that if they were presented to the Ming court one day, the court would surely send officials from the Ministry of Rites and the Imperial Academy to translate and annotate the books brought from the West."
Xu Guangqi once said, "Ten thousand volumes of scriptures, and I have not yet been able to translate them all." Fang Hao believed, "In addition to the seven thousand volumes, there must have been several thousand more brought by Westerners throughout the country."
However, what the Holy See and Comrade Matteo Ricci, who promoted this matter, did not expect was that the scholars of the Great Ming were not good people.
These people were very enthusiastic about learning mathematics and astronomy, but as soon as Matteo Ricci mentioned missionary work, these fellows would just beat around the bush: "Ah, yes, yes, yes, tell us more about how Copernicus calculated it?"
It was exactly like some unfeeling customers in a brothel.
The most unfeeling among them was Comrade Matteo Ricci's good friend, Comrade Xu Guangqi.
If one only looked at his appearance, no one would have thought that this young fellow from Songjiang Prefecture was the worst one: "Brother Mateo, look, I have converted, and I even have a Christian name, Paul, do you know? So, could you translate Euclid's Elements for me?"
Comrade Matteo Ricci naturally disagreed, thinking, "You only ask me to translate, and you don't talk about missionary work. This is a bit unreasonable, isn't it? After all, fishing still requires bait, right?"
Then, Old Xu stopped arguing with him about irrelevant matters. While perfunctorily dealing with Matteo Ricci, he turned around to teach himself barbarian languages and found a large group of followers to help with the translation, including Song Yingxing, the author of "Tiangong Kaiwu."
Of course, Old Xu was a proper person. At least after Comrade Matteo Ricci passed away, when the Holy See intended to give Matteo Ricci a grand burial, Xu Guangqi strongly supported it.
Then he requested the Holy See to send people to help him translate "Taixi Shuifa" (Western Hydraulic Engineering).
The missionaries who came to bury Comrade Li at that time were all stunned—"Big brother, do you know what we are here to do?
We are here to enslave the world through missionary work, not to be great benefactors spreading technology. Can you be so shameless?"
Old Xu was very dissatisfied with this. He cursed, "To hell with you!" and stopped talking about believing in religion or not. Even when he was critically ill in the sixth year of Chongzhen, Old Xu was still working hard, "Forcefully relying on the bed, he still diligently held a pen to write the calendar," and instructed his family to "quickly prepare the 'Nongshu' and present it to fulfill my wish." Not a single word mentioned religion or the Lord.
However, human effort is limited. Although Old Xu and the scholars of that time painstakingly translated these Western academic books, even with their utmost efforts, Old Xu and others were still unable to handle the seven thousand Western books.
When my Great Qing entered the pass, these academic books that could have potentially changed the fate of the Ming Dynasty's demise were no longer valued. Furthermore, many books were destroyed by the dog Qianlong and the wise rulers of his lineage throughout the dynasties.
Now that contact had finally been established with the most powerful nations in Europe, France and the British Empire, Zhu Jinsong and Zeng Cheng naturally set their sights on the latest Western academic knowledge.
To put it bluntly, the true purpose of Zhu Jinsong, the Emperor of the Great Ming, was never about making money. Even if the arms trade could ease the financial situation of Zhu Jinsong's Great Ming, in Zhu Jinsong's eyes, it was merely a temporary measure, like catching rabbits while gathering grass. If it worked, great; if not, it was no big deal.
However, what Zeng Cheng did not expect was that his flattering efforts were all cast to the blind.
Pierre did not attach as much importance to European books and knowledge as Zhu Jinsong and Zeng Cheng imagined. Instead, upon hearing Zeng Cheng's request, he generously stated, "A mere few books. As long as I can find a way to get them, I, Old Pi, will definitely find a way to get them for Lord Zeng. The price is negotiable."
For Pierre, what were books and knowledge? Could they be eaten? Could they be exchanged for twelve thousand francs?
The current situation was that Zhu Jinsong, the Emperor of the Great Ming, needed books from Europe, especially in mathematics, physics, and chemistry, while Pierre needed francs and firearms.
Therefore, under this friendly atmosphere of collusion, like a wild chicken meeting a wolf, both sides quickly reached a consensus on cooperation.
Besides France, the situation was similar with the British Empire, the United States, and the Netherlands. The members of these so-called delegations all received what they wanted, such as firearms, cannons, tea, and silk, while Zhu Jinsong also obtained the Western books he desired.
With these books, as long as Zhu Jinsong could find people to translate them quickly and organize them, this knowledge could be incorporated into the curriculum of the current social schools, county schools, prefectural schools, and universities of the Great Ming, which would be enough to advance the scientific system of the entire Great Ming by a large step.
More importantly, the Great Ming had Zhu Jinsong, this cheat.
At this time, all disciplines had not yet welcomed the technological explosion after the collective fighting of the second world's little broken ball. For any discipline, from entry-level to completing the study of the most cutting-edge knowledge of the time, it might only take ten or twenty years, or even less.
This meant that many researchers would be in their prime research age.
According to the Great Ming court's implementation of social schools, county schools, prefectural schools, and universities under Zhu Jinsong's rule, it was estimated that within ten years, the Great Ming under Zhu Jinsong's governance would have tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, millions, or tens of millions of researchers.
This was a vast number that could make any other country despair.
With so many people, who knew what they would research?
Don't believe any so-called talk about internal competition among university students, that too many university students are useless, that elite university education is better than universal university education, or that China's education model is inferior to the happy quality education in the United States and Europe. Those who promote such arguments are basically either foolish or wicked bastards.
Because these bastards will never tell the truth—all scientific research and innovation depend on the popularization of basic knowledge. The more the world develops, the more important the popularization of basic knowledge becomes.
For those who want to understand more deeply, you can check out "Denmark Grade 9 Class Z vs. China Grade 9 Class 13."
If you still cannot understand, then think about how many researchers were involved in the Manhattan Project.
Of course, for Emperor Zhu Jinsong of the Great Ming, it was tantamount to dreaming to fully popularize basic education.
Given the current financial situation of the Great Ming court, it would be a blessing to be able to popularize education up to the social school level (primary school). To reach the county school level (junior high school), it might take twenty or thirty, or even fifty years. To popularize it to the prefectural school level (senior high school), Zhu Jinsong might not even live to see it.
Zhu Jinsong was only promoting the popularization of education with the attitude of tightening his belt to promote education and enlighten the people.
If the situation were ideal, Zhu Jinsong felt he might not be able to use a mobile phone in his lifetime, but he should have no doubt about the appearance of telegram and telephone.
That's right, electricity, telegraph, and telephone—these things already had related foundations.
Regardless of whether Franklin's kite experiment was true or false, it was true that he mentioned the design of this experiment in the "Pennsylvania Gazette" in 1752, which was the 17th year of Qianlong.
Nor is it necessary to care whether Galvani discovered "animal electricity" in 1780 or 1786, because 1780 was the 45th year of Qianlong, and 1786 was the 51st year of Qianlong, which happened to be the first year Zhu Jinsong ascended the throne and became the Emperor of the Great Ming.
Hiraga Gennai died in 1780, meaning that at the latest, by the 45th year of Qianlong, Hiraga Gennai had already invented a Japanese electrostatic generator by referencing European electricity theory.
Zhu Jinsong decided to advance the development of the Voltaic pile by more than ten years, ahead of Volta. So, what should the unit of electric potential difference (voltage) in the future Great Ming be called? Several Zhu? Several Song?
...
While Zhu Jinsong was contemplating what unit to use for voltage, Howard, Pierre, and the other "envoys" had already begun their respective journeys home.