The Ming Dynasty started with caution

The Zhang brothers also want to build an astronomical telescope?

You don't need to guess to know that the brothers' motive for being gangsters is, of course, to treat the Song Astronomical Telescope as a tourist attraction and charge admission fees.

This should be the earliest tourism industry.

Who knows what trouble these two people will cause, Yan Chengjin thought carefully: "No!"

Zhang Heling blew his beard and stared: "Another hundred taels, no more!"

"Ning Shouhou will add a thousand taels even if he is a subordinate, unless..."

Zhang Heling's eyes lit up: "Unless what?"

"Unless Marquis Ningshou obtains His Majesty's will and has hundreds of officials as witnesses, the officials will not agree to it no matter how much money is given."

Discuss an order with His Majesty? He was just kicked out of the palace...

Zhang Heling fell into deep thought, and the next moment he gritted his teeth: "Just wait! Our brothers will enter the palace now to ask for the decree!"

Zhang Yanling was a little frightened and tugged on her brother's sleeve. It was obvious that she had an indescribable and terrifying shadow towards the emperor's brother-in-law. "Brother, didn't you agree that you won't enter the palace within half a month?"

"Hmph! How can you accomplish great things if you are so timid? If you don't work harder, sooner or later the Zhou family will be greedy for the money in the palace!" Zhang Heling scolded.

The two brothers supported him again and limped back to the palace.

After a while, the Zhang brothers came out, taking Xiao Jing with them. Xiao Jing said to Yan Chengjin: "Your Majesty's decree is correct. You can go ahead with it with confidence."

Yan Chengjin looked strange, wondering whether His Majesty had some shady deal with the Zhang brothers.

Xiao Jing knew what he was thinking, so he stepped forward and said, "The Qintian Supervisor is asking for a machine to be used to observe the celestial phenomena and deduce the seasons. Marquis Ningshou has given the money."

He fully understood this point.

It turned out to be to save money!

There really is a deal!

Yan Chengjin was secretly stunned. In this way, Emperor Hongzhi saved more than 10,000 taels of silver. This is the benefit of power. A real word can make a fortune.

There is no harm in the Zhang brothers getting one more to use as a tourist attraction to popularize astronomical knowledge among the gentry so that they are less likely to be deceived by the white lotus.

Zhang Heling saw the two of them muttering for a long time, but he didn't know what they were talking about, so he shouted: "I have obtained the decree, and you are not allowed to go back on it!"

"Marquis Ningshou sent the silver to Master Zeng, Minister of Industry, and Song Jing will supervise the construction."

This telescope belongs to the family, and the court has no control over how much money it collects. The Zhang brothers happily went back to their hometown to raise money, and there was no shortage of money earned along the way.

Now there are 50 million people in the Ming Dynasty, and there are at least 100,000 gentry in the south of the Yangtze River who have money. If each person is given one tael of silver, it will be 100,000 taels of silver.

And it only costs 10,000 taels of silver to build a Song Astronomical Telescope!

Got rich...

…………

Yan Chengjin came to Zeng Mansion. At this time, craftsmen were replacing the carved stone lions.

In the Ming Dynasty, the stone lions placed at the door were very particular.

In the home of a first-rank official, the lion is placed with thirteen strands of round bun on its head, which means the thirteen Taibo. Every time Pin Yi lowers the rank, the bun on his head will lose one strand.

Zeng Jian was promoted, and Pin Yi was promoted from the third rank to the second rank.

Now the Zeng Mansion lion's bun has changed from eleven strands to twelve strands.

At this time, Song Jing was studying in the study. Zeng Jian became more and more fond of this student, and he changed from being an ordinary disciple to treating him as his own.

As long as he had free time, he would give lectures to Song Jing, and even open his study room to him so that he could study unique books that could not be bought outside.

Yan Chengjin originally wanted to reveal to him the questions from the provincial examination in the 14th year of Hongzhi, but after thinking about it, he felt it was unnecessary because in his previous life, Song Jing was originally a second-class Jinshi.

With Zeng Jian's guidance, I'm afraid I will do better in the exam.

Seeing Yan Chengjin coming, Song Jing quickly saluted.

Yan Chengjin said: "With the current craftsmanship of the craftsmen, how much money does it cost to build a Song telescope?"

Song Jing took out his abacus, calculated on the paper, and then said: "Five thousand taels, I didn't know Master Yan asked this..."

Just as Yan Chengjin guessed, after becoming familiar with the craftsmanship, even the cost and time of making it were reduced.

"Build three more, and Marquis Ning Shou will send you money soon."

Zhang Heling estimated that he would send 20,000 taels, just enough money to make one for himself. Yan Chengjin was not too satisfied with the last one, so Song Jing could think of ways to improve it.

When he was about to leave, Song Jing asked for something: "This morning, Your Majesty sent you two hundred taels of silver as a gift. The students don't need it. Please ask someone to send it home."

These days, Song Jing's thoughts and dreams are all about his married wife. He can't share the farm work at home with his wife, so he can only send some money back, so that he can feel more at ease.

Yan Chengjin looked at this guy.

A good man in the Ming Dynasty, Song Jingye!

……………

In front of the Meridian Gate,

On duty today, Yan Chengjin was waiting for the sedan in front of the dismounting monument as usual.

During this time, many people gathered in front of the Meridian Gate to watch the moon.

Just like Shang Yang standing on a tree to win trust, when a common person looked at the moon through Song's telescope without taking any money, more and more people believed it.

"The scholar has been watching this for half an hour!"

"Report to the official!"

"Yes, His Majesty the Emperor said that as long as we people line up, we can look at the moon in the sky, but this man is occupying it and not letting us see it."

"Several officials, this scholar has been occupying this place for several hours, and you don't care about it?"

Yan Chengjin discovered that the man occupying the Song telescope was Wang Shouren, wasn't he?

This guy won't be in the moon, right?

Several Jinyiwei wanted to drag Wang Shouren away, but they found that his feet were rooted, and they couldn't drag him. Wang Shouren was like a wooden stake, lying in front of the mirror, motionless.

Yan Chengjin reminded: "Don't do it, he is the head of the Ministry of Justice, Wang Shouren."

Wang Shouren is now the head of the Ministry of Justice.

The head of the Ministry of Justice requested to retire, and there was a vacancy. Wang Shouren discussed the eight frontier defenses and made meritorious service in his mission to Siam, so someone recommended him.

It must be Wang Hua's relationship in Beijing.

Otherwise, Wang Shouren was busy studying things all day, and he would have a hard time getting promoted.

"As an official, can you do whatever you want?!" I don't know which angry young man shouted, and the people followed suit.

If he didn't leave, he might be beaten, so Yan Chengjin had to push him: "Bo'an, why don't you come back another day?"

Wang Shouren turned around and said excitedly: "Brother Gao, I think it through! If you can't know by studying things, the saint's principles are questionable!"

Hiss!

Then, there was an uproar.

There were many scholars present, and someone dared to question the Saint Zhu?

The scholars blushed and glared at Wang Shouren, but Wang Shouren was the head of the Ministry of Justice, so they did not dare to scold him and looked at him with swords drawn.

"Why do you say that, Lord Wang!" a scholar questioned.

"Just now, I looked at this Song telescope for an hour, but I didn't get the answer I wanted. If this is not suspicious, what else can it be?" Wang Shouren shook his head.

"May I ask... Lord Wang said that he studied Neo-Confucianism, who did you learn from!"

Neo-Confucianism was inherited to the Ming Dynasty and was divided into three schools, each of which had essential differences. The first was represented by Zhu Cheng, the second was represented by Lu Jiuyuan, and the third was represented by Zhang Zai.

Among them, Zhu Cheng was the most popular.

"I am a student of Lou Liang."

Lou Liang was a famous Neo-Confucian scholar in the Ming Dynasty. When this name came out, the scholars became even more angry: "Do you want to betray your teacher and destroy your ancestors?"

"I just told the truth. If you think that studying things can lead to knowledge, then come and study this telescope, and then tell me why it can be used to observe the moon. Otherwise, studying things cannot lead to knowledge."

Yan Chengjin's heart skipped a beat.

Wang Shouren finally wanted to overthrow the shackles of Neo-Confucianism and start his own heart study.

Yan Chengjin was ready to run away. Wang Shouren had just occupied the telescope for a long time, and now he questioned the saint. The angry young man couldn't argue with him, so he rolled up his sleeves and prepared to beat him up.

He ran back to the palace. Speechless, Wang Shouren ran faster than him... This guy also knew he was going to be beaten.

After running back into the palace, Yan Chengjin stopped to take a breath.

Before Yan Chengjin could answer, a roar came from behind: "Evil boy! Kneel down!"

Wang Hua ran in angrily after them.

Thanks to the book friends Duoli A Meng, Kai and Wei Lan Yan Hua for their reward