Chapter 294 Skill: Natural History
As the weather turns to autumn, this year’s autumn grain has finally begun to be put into storage, and the high grain prices in the capital have finally come down.
However, all this has nothing to do with Emperor Jiajing, who is lying deep in the palace. He is currently drafting the list of people to be killed by the Queen of Autumn.
The so-called "autumn" in Qiuhouwenzhan refers to the autumnal equinox.
Dong Zhongshu said: "The king matches the sky, which is called his way. Heaven has four seasons, and the king has four political affairs. The four political affairs are like the four seasons, and they are all the same. They are the same thing between heaven and man. Celebration is spring, reward is summer, and punishment is autumn. , the punishment is winter."
Looking at the row of names on the list, especially the name at the head, the emperor picked up the ink pen and decisively ticked the list.
The right deputy censor of the capital, the governor of Datong, the right minister of the Ministry of War, the acting governor of Jiliao, the father of the current Emperor Wenzong Wang Shizhen, and the veteran minister Wang Yan from the Jiajing years, were impressively on the first list of Gou Jue.
In the thirty-eighth year of Jiajing's reign, Anda invaded the Panjiakou Great Wall. To the west of the Luanhe River, Zunhua, Qian'an, Jizhou and Yutian were in danger.
Yan Dang's censors Wang Jian and Fang Ren then impeached Wang Yan and others for dereliction of duty.
In fact, Wang Yan, Wang Shizhen and his son were not clean people.
Even when Wang Shizhen first became an official, he was admired by Yan Shifan, and Yan Shifan recommended him to be an official.
But when Yang Jisheng died, Wang Shizhen and Yang Jisheng, who was also a literary scholar, were good friends. They collected the body for him, which offended Yan Shifan.
Wang Yan wrote a letter to plead guilty, but Fang Ren once again impeached three of Wang Yan's missteps and four guilty persons. The emperor then ordered Wang Yan to be arrested and imprisoned.
After Wang Yan was imprisoned, his son Wang Shizhen resigned and rushed to the capital. He and his younger brother Wang Shimao bowed down at the door of Yan Song's house every day, weeping and begging for mercy.
However, Yan Song still went to the secret service to reveal that Wang Yan could be executed. Today, in the list of Qiu Hou sent to be executed by the Ministry of Punishment, Wang Yan was listed at the top.
In addition to Wang Yan, the governor, the name of the former Hangzhou magistrate Ma Ningyuan is also prominently listed.
In order to promote the conversion of rice to mulberry in Zhejiang, Ma Ningyuan destroyed embankments and flooded fields, and was also caught with both personal and material evidence.
Later, flooding occurred again in Zhejiang. Although it had nothing to do with Ma Ningyuan, people's grievances always need an outlet.
The beheading of Ma Ningyuan was also a way for the court to ease the grievances of the people in Zhejiang.
Whether it was Wang Yan or Ma Ningyuan, there was no expression on the emperor's face. Killing several ministers every year has been the practice of Emperor Jiajing for so many years, in order to frighten those ministers.
After the execution list was drawn up, Chen Hong, the newly appointed eunuch Bingbi who was in charge of Dongchang affairs, came to the emperor with a secret report.
Since Lu Bing's death, the leadership of Jinyiwei and Dongchang has once again returned to the hands of the eunuch group. Chen Hong won the battle and successfully took charge of the factory guard.
"Your Majesty, this is the list of officials who Yan Shoufu and his son visited last month."
Emperor Jiajing just glanced at it and said: "Old Yan Ge, there is no need to read it. Let's take the list of the 'Old Xiao Ge' secret meeting." Read it."
Chen Hong immediately picked up the roster and read out the records of Yan Shifan's secret meeting with the minister last month one by one.
When the long list was finished, Emperor Jiajing asked again: "Where are those at Prince Yu's Mansion?"
Chen Hong said quickly: "Going back to the Emperor, Jin Yiwei reported that, except for a few masters giving lectures, Prince Yu had no secret meetings with foreign ministers.
The emperor still had no expression on his face, and he suddenly said: "Pray the ink."
The emperor picked up the brush, licked up the ink and wrote on the paper: "Although the Yellow River is turbid, it can be irrigated; although the Yangtze River is clear, it floods from time to time. " ."
Then, before the ink was dry, the emperor said to Chen Hong:
"Give this calligraphy to King Yu."
Several eunuchs quickly stepped forward, carefully picked up the still-dry calligraphy, and sent it to him in the dark. In the palace of Prince Yu.
At this time in Prince Yu's Mansion, Zhang Juzheng had just been recommended by Xu Jie and became the new minister and reader of Prince Yu's Mansion.
The lamps were lit in Prince Yu's palace, and Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng were sitting upright. Of course, they were not lecturing, but analyzing the situation in Zhejiang with Prince Yu.
Zhang Juzheng has the best memory. He told King Yu the news he got from Liubu and said: "There were floods in nine counties of Zhejiang. This year's autumn grain harvest was not harvested. And because rice was replaced by mulberry trees, mulberry trees were planted, so the winter grain was It will definitely not grow. This year, Zhejiang's food shortage is at least 200,000 shi."
King Yu just listened quietly. When Zhang Juzheng finished his introduction, King Yu frowned and said, "Don't the imperial court provide disaster relief? Isn't it the same as changing rice to mulberry? Reform instead of relief?"
Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng looked at each other, Gao Gong said:
"Wherever there is any reform in lieu of relief, the land of the people affected by the disaster in Zhejiang has been bought at a low price by powerful families."
Wang Yu said He patted the chair and said: "This Gao Hanwen! That's not what he said when he submitted the letter! Master Gao, please write to Gao Hanwen, the prefect of Hangzhou, and ask him to find ways to suppress profiteers and resolutely implement the replacement of relief!" Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng faced each other
. After glancing at each other, they saw helplessness in each other's eyes.
How could such a pale letter from King Yu allow Gao Hanwen to produce food? What could he do to stop these big households from annexing land?
King Yu's political childishness was evident, but the two of them did not remind King Yu.
Gao Gong continued:
"Now it depends on winter. If nothing happens this winter, Zhejiang will be able to convert rice into mulberry."
Hearing that the conversion from rice to mulberry will be successful, King Yu also showed conflicting expressions on his face. expression.
As a national policy proposed and implemented by the strict party, if the conversion of rice to mulberry is successful, it will naturally be a huge blow to the Qingliu party headed by King Yu.
But if the conversion of rice to mulberry is successful and the court can increase its income, King Yu will naturally be happy.
If civil unrest breaks out in Zhejiang in winter and disrupts the conversion of rice to mulberry, King Yu, who is the opponent of the strict party, should be happy.
But this is tantamount to ruining the imperial government's affairs.
Just when King Yu was caught in a conflict, the eunuch in the palace sent the word "gift" written by Jiajing just now to King Yu's palace.
After accepting the calligraphy and bribing the eunuch who gave the calligraphy as usual, King Yu invited Gao Gong Zhang Juzheng out again.
"Two masters, what does the word Father mean?"
Although the Yellow River is turbid, it can still irrigate; although the Yangtze River is clear, it floods from time to time.
Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng were both top scorers in the imperial examination. Zhang Juzheng said almost immediately:
"What your Majesty means is that traitors like the Yan Party are like the Yellow River. Although it is turbid, it is also beneficial to the court. A clear stream is like the Yangtze River, and it is also There will be flooding sometimes."
After saying that, Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng both knelt down, and King Yu quickly helped them up.
Looking at his two teachers, King Yu said: "I understand what my father said, and I will definitely not betray my two masters." Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng
showed expressions of "A scholar will die for his confidant", and then After some words of loyalty, he left Prince Yu's Mansion.
After the two left, King Yu looked at the calligraphy and fell into deep thought.
The strict party must be used, and the clean flow must be used. Is this the father's method of controlling people?
Both the emperor and King Yu, as well as Yan Dang and Qingliu, seemed to have forgotten the dying people who were tossed by the flood in the clear and turbid water. In October of the 40th year of the Jiajing reign, news of the execution of Ma Ningyuan, the former governor of Hangzhou, reached Hangzhou. Under the propaganda of the current governor of Hangzhou, Gao Hanwen, they finally "borrowed Ma Ningyuan's head" and temporarily calmed the grievances of the people of Hangzhou Prefecture.
Occasionally there were a few sporadic civil uprisings, but they were all put out by Gao Hanwen himself.
But even so, Gao Hanwen was still anxious because the plan to convert rice to mulberry trees had only been implemented for a quarter, and those people who still had fields in their hands refused to change to mulberry trees no matter what.
Gao Hanwen suddenly began to understand the difficulties of his predecessor who had moved his head.
His boss, Zheng Michang, kept urging the progress of converting rice into mulberry, and he must produce enough silk next year.
King Yu wrote to himself, requesting that those powerful people should be suppressed and there must be no civil unrest.
Powerful and powerful families, with invitations from court ministers, various intricate relationships, and even Princess Yu's family, wanted to find their own way to annex the land of the disaster-stricken people at a low price.
The people who were affected by the disaster were crowded around the city of Hangzhou all day long, asking for food. Those whose land was forcibly sold by big households even went to the county government office to express their grievances.
All these things made Gao Hanwen in it feel like a mess.
After serving as the magistrate of Hangzhou for so many months, Gao Hanwen no longer had the enthusiasm for book business he had before.
He felt like a prisoner with a noose around his neck and could be hanged at any time.
Once Hangzhou Prefecture triggers a popular uprising, he, the person who proposed "replacement of relief with reform", will be blamed, and his end will not be any better than Ma Ningyuan.
Gao Hanwen wished he could go back in time and give himself a few big slaps for offering to change the situation for relief.
In Fuzhou, on Chuanshi Island, all the trainees of the New Navy Army were gathered on the pier, looking at the huge beast that Wang Mao had dragged back.
The body of the right whale is fifteen meters long. You can see the horny head tumor and the huge back. Even people who have lived at sea for a long time rarely see its huge body.
Because most of the time, right whales will only expose their backs at sea, or spray out water jets like water mist.
[Discover the location of the Expo and obtain the skill 'Natural History'. 】
【Based on various types of knowledge, natural history positioning Lv3, 1/300】
A new skill was actually triggered?
Su Ze didn't expect that just by looking at the whale, he would trigger a new skill?
However, this [Natural History] is a quite practical skill.
Natural history is also a very famous science in modern times, but it is declining day by day in modern society.
In fact, the so-called natural history is also an aristocratic knowledge that emerged along with the geographical discovery and the Age of Discovery.
If classified into a branch of modern science, it is more similar to the category of biological taxonomy.
For example, Darwin, the famous proposer of the theory of evolution, was such a naturalist.
Naturalists are passionate about discovering new species, recording their characteristics, and studying new animals and plants.
Putting it this way, it is reasonable to trigger the [Natural History] skill when seeing a right whale.
Su Ze suddenly remembered and asked Lin Liangjun to get a pen and paper. Then he used a pen to outline the appearance of the right whale, and then recorded the living habits of the right whale that he had learned from Wang Mao. Sure enough, he heard Tips for skills that increase experience.
[Record species "Right Whale", natural history skill experience +20, Lv3, 21/300]
As expected, this skill is still very easy to improve. You just need to continue to discover and record new species.
The next step was to deal with this huge right whale. Su Ze went to the battle himself. First, he dissected the entire whale and separated all the blubber from the whale.
[Dissecting a right whale, natural history skill experience +30, Lv3, 51/300]
Can this also increase skills? Su Ze felt happy again. It seemed that this skill could be easily upgraded to Lv5.
The next step is to refine the whale oil. This step is not difficult, but the right whale dragged back by Wang Mao is slightly corrupted, and the smell is a bit unpleasant when refining.
After Su Ze tosses out the whale's blubber, the next step is to make soap.
In fact, the reaction to make soap is very simple, it is the reaction of oil and alkali.
The specific process is also very simple. It is the reaction of potassium hydroxide between oil and plant ash, and then adding some salt for salting out, and you can get soap.
The production of chemicals like soap is not complicated. The main reason why it only appeared in modern times is its raw material-fat.
In ancient agricultural societies, fat was a very precious source of energy.
Even in the era before Su Ze's time travel, when material was extremely abundant, it had only been a few years since Su Ze had enough to eat. When Su Ze was a child, the fat from the pork had to be left behind to make lard.
Making soap from pig fat is a very luxurious thing.
But the whaling industry uses whale fat, which is much more useful than pork fat.
By mixing some fragrances into soap, you can make soap. After the students on the island had been busy for a few days and looked at the piles of thousands of soaps, Su Ze asked people to drag these soaps to Fuzhou City. Trafficking.
Soap mixed with spices was packaged and sold for one tael of silver, while ordinary soap sold for three taels of silver.
What Su Ze didn't expect was that the scented soaps were sold out without any publicity.
On the contrary, ordinary soap without fragrance was sold in average, and ordinary people were not so luxurious as to spend three cents of silver to buy a piece of soap back home.
The unexpected sales of the soap can only be said to be an unexpected surprise for Su Ze.
He was looking at the two tanks in front of him and rubbing his hands excitedly.
One of the tanks contains spermaceti oil extracted from whale brains, which is a very resistant fuel. Su Ze plans to make these into candles. In the future, the Navy's New Military Academy can hold courses at night or self-study.
Su Ze has already placed an order for a batch of oil lamps in Fuzhou.
But what Su Ze regarded as a treasure was another vat of stuff.
The saponification reaction not only produces soap, but also produces another substance, which is glycerin.
This tank is the glycerin extracted from the fifteen-meter right whale.
The reaction of glycerol and mixed acids was an invention that could change human history.
The improver of this invention will forever be engraved in the history of human science. The science award named after him was the highest-level science award in the world before Su Ze traveled through time!
At this time, Su Ze was anxiously waiting for Eunuch Hu to come to Chuanshi Island with his experimental equipment.
(End of chapter)