Wang Pu asked anxiously: "Are you Descartes?"

"Oh, no." The pagan shook his head and smiled bitterly, "My name is Wellington, Descartes is my mentor, and he is now devoted to the study of analytical geometric theory in the Netherlands."

Although Wang Pu was a little disappointed, he nodded and said, "Professor Wellington, it is honored to tell you that your research project has passed the review. When the president of the Academy of Military Sciences comes back, you can go and register and receive funds."

With Wellington at the beginning, the remaining pagans also signed up enthusiastically and submitted a review request to Wang Pu.

The academic fields of these pagans are all-encompassing, including astronomy, mathematics, physics, but the most are philosophy. Although there are no great figures who have been famous in history, they are indeed somewhat real. They have basically received good university education and are very researched in their respective academic fields.

Since the Renaissance, the dominance of theology has been severely weakened, and natural sciences have developed rapidly. By the mid-17th century, disciplines such as astronomy, physics, chemistry, and medicine had made great progress. At that time, the Ming Dynasty was overwhelmed by Jiannu and the thief, and had lagged behind the West in academic research.

Fortunately, the gap is not too big, and Wang Pu has enough confidence to reverse this situation in a short period of time.

After about half an hour of review, more than thirty pagans received satisfactory answers and went to Yangming University with joy to report. The school buildings of Yangming University have been fully built and more than one million books have been in place. The school will be officially opened only when the first batch of students are recruited.

However, there are only a few deans including Sun Chuanting, Song Yingxing, Fang Yizhi, Li Changfu and more than 30 infidel professors at Yangming University. The teaching staff is a bit weaker. In addition to the language barrier, foreign professors will be less efficient. With such a teaching staff, at most a few hundred students will be recruited, and no more, they will not be able to teach.

What’s even more difficult is that the Ming Dynasty is different from the West. The West has systematic university education, but the Ming Dynasty does not. "Alien" like Song Yingxing and Fang Yizhi have mastered natural science knowledge by relying on self-study. There are not many such talents in the country, so the faculty of Yangming University has to be invited from the West.

At least before the first batch of students graduated, Yangming University's faculty had to rely on pagans in the Western world.

Wang Pu asked John for help. Just as he was thinking about how to speak, John spoke first and said, "Dear Governor, your promise you made before..."

Wang Pu smiled and said, "Dear John, as long as you obtain the authorization of the Pope, you will be the cardinal of the Ming Empire."

John said happily: "Then, what about the Cathedral of Our Lady, which His Excellency the Governor promised to build?"

"Don't worry," Wang Pu smiled, "When you return to Nanjing with the Pope's edict and the architect, you can start construction of the Cathedral of Our Lady. Our governor will send you enough craftsmen and provide sufficient funds. Of course, you'd better hire clergy from the West. Our governor is worried that the people of the Ming Dynasty may not be able to accept the teachings of the noble religion at once."

John said happily: "His dear Governor, your wisdom is enough to illuminate the entire empire."

"But..." Wang Pu changed his tone and continued, "I have something to bother the Bishop."

John's heart thumped, but he asked quietly, "Jesus the Governor, just give orders."

Wang Pu said: "Bibetan, can you hire another group of professors from the West for the Empire? For example, Descartes who stayed in the Netherlands to study analytical geometry, such as Mr. Galileo's students, tell them that the Ming Empire could provide them with sufficient research funds and an absolutely free academic atmosphere! Moreover, as long as they achieve academic achievements, they can become lifelong academicians of the Academy of Sciences."

John said: "I am willing to serve His Excellency the Governor, but..."

"Hahaha." Wang Pu laughed, "Of course, this governor would not treat the Bishop unfairly. In this way, he would first give 10,000 ounces of gold as the Bishop's activity funds, and then give 10,000 ounces of gold after the matter is completed. How about it?"

Anyway, the Ming Dynasty was a silver-based monetary system, and gold was unable to circulate in China. Ten thousand ounces of gold were about 280 kilograms. This amount of gold was nothing to Wang Pu, and it was given to others. But for John, a Catholic, ten thousand ounces of gold was an unimaginable huge wealth, enough for him to buy a castle!

"Oh, God." John said excitedly, "You are the most generous governor I have ever met. Your wisdom and generosity will soon spread throughout Europe. The best scholars in Europe will look up to your reputation. They will be very happy to serve you, and for this, they will travel far and wide to the distant East."

Wang Pu stretched out his hand and smiled and said, "Happy cooperation."

John held Wang Pu's right hand tightly and said excitedly: "Happy cooperation."

Wenhua Palace.

The official documents that had been accumulated for several days were finally processed. Sun Chuanting breathed a long sigh of relief, leaned on the chair of the Grand Master with some fatigue, and asked Qian Qianyi: "Old Master Qian, you have to hurry up the enrollment of Yangming University, especially the 200 students in the foreign language crash course must be recruited as soon as possible. These students must be responsible for serving as language translators for foreign professors at that time."

Qian Qianyi exchanged a look with Lu Daqi and said, "Sun Ge Lao, the disciples and Lu Ge Lao mean that these two hundred students are best recruited from Fujian and Guangdong, because Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi have more opportunities to contact Western-Japanese businessmen, and it is easier to master foreign languages ​​than Zhejiang students."

Sun Chuanting shook his head and said, "From Fujian, it is probably too late to recruit students from Guangdong and Guangxi. Wang Pu means that the foreign language crash course will have to start within ten days!"

"Ah?" Qian Qianyi said in a lost voice, "then you can only recruit students from the governments around Nanjing."

Sun Chuanting said: "Old Master Qian and Old Master Lu should pay more attention. This is a big deal and cannot be delayed."

"The Marquis and Master Sun Ge Lao were very worried." Lu Daqi echoed repeatedly, "The subordinates will draft a charter with Mr. Mu. At the latest, the day after tomorrow, they will issue announcements to Yingtian, Changzhou, Suzhou, Yangzhou, Zhenjiang and Songjiang governments, allowing scholars aged between the eighteen and twenty to come to Beijing for the test."

"Okay, the matter of recruiting foreign language crash course students is decided like this." Sun Chuanting rubbed his temples and said, "Now we will discuss the matter of silver."

Qian Qianyi thought for a while and said carefully: "Master Sun Ge, the palace has been in disrepair for a long time. Every rainy day, even the Fengtian Palace leaks. It should be repaired."

"Well." Sun Chuanting nodded, "Old Qian Ge thought it was appropriate to allocate how much money?"

Qian Qianyi said: "The current national treasury is empty, so there is definitely not enough money to be distributed, just 5,000 taels."

Sun Chuanting said: "Five thousand taels are too little, let's get eight thousand taels."

Lu Daqi smiled bitterly and said, "Old Sun Ge, Mr. Mu, the account book of the Ministry of Revenue has just been checked. The treasury is empty. Not to mention eight thousand taels, even eight hundred taels can't be collected."

Qian Qianyi said in a dismay: "How could this happen? Could it be that he really wanted to move the Central Army's salary?"

Sun Chuanting waved his hand and said, "The problem of money is not a big deal. Wang Pu means to auction the official workshops in Nanjing City and let merchants from Jiangnan take over the business. First, they can fully utilize the production potential of the official workshops and promote the prosperity of the Western Yili's remittance. Second, they can give the national treasury input income at least tens of millions, and third, they can also increase a large amount of tax revenue every year, which can be said to have three goals at one stroke!"

Qian Qianyi's eyes lit up and he said in a lost voice: "Ten million taels of silver?"

Lu Daqi thought about it, but said with concern: "Old Master Sun Ge, if you really want to auction the official workshops of salt, iron, silk, spinning, tea, porcelain, etc. to merchants. It would be difficult for the court to interfere any more. It would be fine if those merchants had good character. If they were not good in character, they would deliberately raise prices, what would they do?"

"This husband has already made preliminary investigations with Wang Pu." Sun Chuanting said, "At that time, the Ministry of Revenue will formulate corresponding regulations and explicitly prohibit merchants from making huge profits in order to raise prices. At the same time, it will also add a business department to the Ministry of Revenue to supervise the business and trade activities of these private workshops."

"Yes." Qian Qianyi agreed, "You must supervise them, otherwise you will let these merchants mess around and sell food and weapons to Jiannu or thieves, which will cause chaos in the world."

Sun Chuanting said: "But this is a big deal. The regulations that need to be formulated must be considered as thoroughly as possible, and the concerns and emotions of merchants must be taken into account. I and Wang Pu alone obviously cannot do the best. Let's take some time to invite Wang Pu to Wenhua Palace, and then invite a few famous merchants in Nanzhili to discuss together."

"Yes, yes, yes." Qian Qianyi agreed, "This is the safest."

As soon as Wang Pu saw John away, Lu Liu came in and reported: "Mr. Marquis, Mr. Song, Mr. Fang and Mr. Zhen have returned from Jiande, Zhejiang."

"Oh?" Wang Pu said happily, "Where are people?"

Lu Liudao: "I've been waiting in the front hall."

Wang Pu went straight to the front hall without saying a word.

In the front hall, Song Yingxing, Fang Yizhi and Zhen Youcai were discussing something happily. When they saw Wang Pu coming in, the three of them quickly stood up and bowed and said, "I am in charge of the Marquis."

"Forget it." Wang Pu shook his hand repeatedly and asked Zhen Youcai, "How about you, how about you?"

Zhen Youcai couldn't suppress the excitement between his eyebrows and said, "Mr. Marquis, Mr. Song, and Mr. Fang came to Jiande for on-site inspection, and found that the Fuchun River in Jiande was sufficient for water, so he asked Jiande and the magistrate of Chun'an to mobilize 5,000 civilians to build two embankments. According to Mr. Fang's calculations, the amount of water intercepted by these two embankments is enough for 300 hydraulic drilling machines to be used for one year."

"Where is the arsenal?" Wang Pu said anxiously, "How is the arsenal being planned?"

Wang Pu was most concerned about the arsenal issue, and the equipment rate of rifles has always been a bottleneck restricting the expansion of the Central Army.

When will the output of the arsenal increase be improved, the Central Army will get rid of the dilemma of insufficient guns and truly realize the transition from the cold weapon army to the firearm army; when will the output of the arsenal increase be, the end of Jiannu and the bandits will come, and it will be not long before the restoration of the Central Plains.

Speaking of the arsenal, Zhen Youcai's face turned down and said with a wry smile: "Mr. Marquis, Jiande and Chun'an counties do not have special carpenters. They cannot build qualified hydraulic drilling machines. They either choose materials wrong, or the shafts drawn out are not straight or are not smooth enough. They often get scrapped after less than a few days of use."

At that time, due to the limitations of manufacturing methods, the arsenal could only use wooden hydraulic drilling machines. Except for the drill bits used to drill through the barrel, the other components such as spindles, base frames, winchs, and support frames were almost all made of wooden. The wood was easy to process but also easily damaged, and it had high requirements for carpenters' craftsmanship.

Let’s talk about that spindle. Carpenters without more than ten years of experience cannot be round at all! If this spindle is not round, it will inevitably cause disturbance when rotated. It will not only affect the processing accuracy of the drilling hole, but also seriously affect the service life of the spindle. The same hydraulic drilling machine, the old carpenters in Nanjing weapons workshops can be used for half a year. Those carpenters in Jiande and Chun'an County can only use it for less than half a month.

Wang Pu said: "Why don't you transfer the old carpenter from Nanjing?"

Zhen Youcai said: "This time, Bei Zhi is rushing back to Nanjing, just to transfer the old carpenter."

Wang Pu's brows frowned in an instant. Although Zhen Youcai did not give a positive answer, Wang Pu already knew the answer. Jiande Arsenal is still in its inception and has not formed productivity at all. It will take at least half a year to use the rifle produced by Jiande Arsenal. It is now the end of April, which means that it will not be as good as the final battle with Jiannu after autumn.

This means that when the decisive battle with Jiannu in autumn, Wang Pu could only obtain at most five thousand muskets, which was only enough to re-equip one musket battalion. With the musket battalion under Zhao Xin, the main combat force of the Central Army was still only one gun battalion and three musket battalions, and Wang Pu still had to live a tight life.

When I think of this floor, I was not so anxious to build Jiande Arsenal.

Wang Pu already had a new idea. Yangming University has not officially started yet. Since the thirty-six pagans from the West have received high government allowances issued by the Academy of Military Sciences, they cannot make them think about philosophy every day, and they have to give them some real things to do.

Wang Pu decided to send them all to Jiande Arsenal to develop machine tools, and to make lathes, milling machines, grinders, planers, boring machines, and forging machines, especially boring machines, which are the most important. Once a hydraulic deep hole boring machine is built, the artillery making process of the Ming Dynasty will progress rapidly, and the range of the Red Cannon will be greatly increased.

The structural design of these machine tools is not difficult. Whether in Europe or the Ming Dynasty, corresponding wooden machine tools have appeared. All they need to do is to replace the main components of these wooden machine tools from wood to steel.

Looking at Wang Pu's frowning, Zhen Youcai blamed himself: "Marty, it's all because of his incompetence and failure to do his job well."

"No, you can't blame you." Wang Pu waved his hand and said calmly, "Not to mention this, talented, Mr. Song and Mr. Fang, I have set up a special yamen for you."

"ah?"

Zhen Youcai and the other two looked at each other.
Chapter completed!