Ming Dynasty and New Rome and Infinite Magic Machine

Chapter 1491 Melon Courtyard
Shangluo looked around - in fact, it was also his first time to come to the public lounge of Guayuan.

This building named "Hall of Justice" was the place where the Imperial College prepared for students who came in to take the exam based on their ancestors' inherited seats.

Although it was not called Zhengyi Hall at the beginning, the Imperial College had adopted this system of dormitory numbers since the Hongwu period, and students were divided according to dormitories. However, the dormitories were not completely parallel at that time, and there were differences between upper and lower levels.

The four colleges today generally follow the old system of numbering students. The four types of students they distinguish are actually two types of public-funded students and two types of self-funded students—it’s just that in principle the Imperial College does not charge tuition, so they have to make this distinction.

Among the four types of students, the Excellent students are those who are selected for public funding based on their excellent academic performance, and the Yin students are those who are selected for public funding based on the merits of their ancestors. The remaining two types are students who pay their own fees and students who are funded by Lan Fang's special funds.

The first two types of public-funded students are funded by the state, while the latter two types are funded by their own money instead of the state money - in theory, it is just a matter of how to pay the tuition. However, due to some historical reasons, these students who entered the school in different ways formed different circles, and the four types of monitoring numbers formed physical isolation.

As for the resulting distinction, it will soon be revealed to Shangluo.

"What? There are confrontation drills?"

"Yeah." Ge Lun said as he handed Shangluo another piece of melon. "You seem to like this melon?"

"As expected, it is best to buy melons directly from Xiaolingwei."

"Right, the watermelons here are absolutely good. Other places are not good enough. I don't see you very often, but the watermelons here are freely available. Eat more, and then lead us to victory! Shang Tianjun!"

"Give the order, Shang Tianjun!" His classmates, both known and unknown, surrounded him. Han Xingzhi, who was eating watermelon in the crowd, also joined in the fun - he and Shang Luo were not students in the same department, but they had the same admission path, so they were in the same courtyard.

"Ah, this." Shang Luoxian lowered his head and asked Ge Lun in front of him, "So, Chief Ge, how did you know that I was the 'Tianjun'? How did everyone know?"

"That's what Zhu Ling said."

"That's not surprising. So let me ask you first, how much do you know?"

"I know you are Qilinzi. You have been chosen by Daozu since you were a child. You have seven moles on your back."

"Wait, I didn't even know there was one behind me. How did you know? Is it true?"

[There are indeed some I have counted in this mirror. ]

Shang Luo covered his forehead and said, "Okay, now that everyone knows, how do you fight against this?"

"Let me explain this," Wen Yuan said. "This kind of confrontation is very old, and it was set in a very classic era - the era of line infantry."

"We're going to line up and be shot? With real bullets?"

"Drill, drill." Wen Yuan said helplessly, "If we shoot real bullets, even if the academy increases its enrollment 10 times, it still won't be enough. They are not consumables. In fact, we only shoot blanks, and then score based on the neatness of the queue. In fact, the main competition is about queuing, and the shooting is to create an atmosphere, and by the way, we can judge whether the movements are neat by listening to the sound."

"How do you compare archery skills?"

"Archery is another competition. You have to shoot at targets. Then, based on the average score of archery, a weighted number of people will be ranked for execution by firing squad. This competition is very simple. I don't understand why you take it so seriously."

Wen Yuan had heard before coming here that the four academies of the Imperial College were quite obsessed with this competition. Although from the perspective of a military academy student like him, this kind of exercise is more like a "large-scale multiplayer early modern military role-playing game" than a "competition". It's fun, but there's really no point in distinguishing between winning and losing. "

"Coach, how can you say that about our game?" Ge Lun was angry, "Are you going to eat this melon or not?"

"No. I'm just saying one thing. The situation on the battlefield is quite complicated. Even the line-up shooting is complicated. The more orderly you line up, the more you will become a target for skirmishers and artillery. If you disband the formation, you will become a target for cavalry - we can't really add cavalry simulations into the confrontation, right?"

"Can't you?"

"No, it really can't. Believe me, it absolutely can't. Because even well-trained soldiers will run away out of fear when they see a horse charging at full speed, unless there is someone behind them to stop you from running. In a simulated confrontation environment, we can't just pick one of you and shoot him, right? If you run away, you will definitely be defeated. If you stand in a dense formation, what if you get trampled while running? Who will be held responsible if someone is trampled to death?"

"Don't make it sound like we're just playing house."

"Aren't you just playing house?"

"In theory, all competitive sports are just playing house, right? Football is about grabbing the ball, basketball is about grabbing the ball, softball is about throwing grenades, and hamstring is about hitting rubber balls in a cross-country race. But it is precisely this kind of competition within a fair framework that is the fun of sports itself."

"I can't argue with you." Wen Yuan waved her hands, "I just ask you, how much time are you willing to spend practicing?"

"Eight hours a day."

"Are you crazy? Hundreds of people are training for eight hours, and I think you're tired even though you're not. Aren't you going to have class?"

“But we want to make progress so badly!”

Wen Yuan waved her hand: "I just want to ask one question - what happens if I lose?"

"If I lose, my dad won't let me go! Our family finally has a class leader. If he loses, how can he face his colleagues?"

"So that's how it is." Wen Yuan looked around and saw quite a few familiar faces, most of them were from the Jinyiwei, Xiaolingwei, and other dukes and guards. For example, the second-year class leader was the current Xinjian Earl Wang Daisong, who was also the student representative of the entire "Guayuan".

They themselves really don't care about winning or losing the game - it's just a sports game after all.

But once they were put on the stage by their own parents, they had to win. Because everyone knew each other, it would be a big joke if they lost face here. The glorious achievements of generations of Guayuan were ahead of them, and they couldn't all be lost in their hands.

"By the way," Wen Yuan asked, "Do the other courtyards also have such a strong desire to win?"

"Yes, and in different directions. The Banana people have a stronger desire to win than us, because they came here with a national scholarship. The Lychee people have an even stronger desire to win, because it affects whether they can have good grades when they enter school. Not to mention the Salt Bean people, they paid to get here, so if they don't practice hard, the money will be wasted." "I see that each of you has special skills."

Ge Lun asked back: "Don't you have any?"

"We don't encourage internal competition. Military academies don't train censors, so why train so many aggressive people?"

Wen Yuan said in one sentence the fundamental purpose of the Imperial College's training method:

The Imperial College is to train students to "fight". They are divided into colleges for fighting, and they take classes together for fighting without breaking up. Because if the goal of training is to become a censor, then we must train brave men who dare to fight and fight no matter what the situation.

What we want to cultivate is the kind of ruthless person who, when he sees the Hun envoy on a diplomatic mission to Shanshan, his first reaction is to "find a way to get him."

Because the task of the students here is to go to the capital and beyond and find ways to get a vote. If they don't even have the heart to fight, they probably won't be able to write an impeachment petition.

"Okay. I understand." Wen Yuan stood up. "Since you want to practice, then practice. First, go outside and stand in a queue for the morning - to be shot, you have to stand in line."

A morning passed, Shangluo spent the whole morning shooting targets, and hundreds of freshmen from Guayuan stood there on the playground next to him for the whole morning.

"Wow, this guy can actually stand there." He didn't find it boring to practice shooting. It was really amazing to stand there for a whole morning.

"It's your turn, can you do it?"

"I won't stand in one place for too long. By the way, horseback archery is actually spearmanship? I thought it was bowmanship."

"Archery is used for archery ceremonies, so it's considered something else. Of course, it's something that's tested in the imperial examinations, so it has to be practical. Practicing archery these days is a bit too empty."

"." At this point, Shangluo put down his gun. "By the way, Wenyuan, we have known each other for some time. Have you noticed that sometimes I always ask you some questions?"

"I have noticed that you seem to particularly like asking me some profound questions that are difficult for me to answer. Why is that?"

"Because I think your thoughts should represent the majority of people in Daming, because you know a lot and think a lot. You are temperamental and reasonable, you like to interact with people but you have some social phobia."

"You mean I'm too ordinary, right?"

"I mean, you're a normal person. So sometimes, when I ask you questions, it's like collecting folk songs."

"Then ask. Is it important?"

Shangluo nodded. He had a very important question that he wanted to ask at this critical juncture:
"In fact, I always feel that our Ming Dynasty is not the same as the one I remember."

"That's definitely different. It's probably hundreds of years different from what you expected."

"I know. But I want to know where the social changes started. That's why I asked why horse archery is done with muskets instead of bows and arrows. Since I want to make changes to the Ming Dynasty, I have to know how the current Ming Dynasty came about, right?"

"This is not mentioned much in the book, but if we must analyze it, it is the Yongqing Restoration. Since the restoration, our dynasty has determined a basic national policy - the sky is big, the land is big, and the actual achievements are the greatest. To put it more elegantly, it is 'applying knowledge to the world', which was born from the reformists in the old Donglin Party, such as Gu Yanwu and Huang Zongxi. Abandoning the empty and pursuing the real is the mentality after the restoration. The whole world must be far-sighted. The whole world must move forward." He thought for a while and added:

"In fact, this kind of 'practical learning' is mentioned in books. It can be summarized into six points: real, useful, certain, correct, organic and relative. Only through observation and induction can scientific theories be revised, and through falsification can scientific knowledge be separated from the dross - if we talk about it from an economic perspective, it is reproduction. Only by constantly investing the profits of the previous round of production into the next round of production can we create greater results. Everything must be tested by results."

“Is it going to be considered performance?”

"Yes, in other words, we need to calculate performance. I see you are also wondering why the emperor is also studying chemistry - because the emperor must do some research, otherwise it is difficult to convince the people. Because governing the country is not easy to calculate, but publishing articles is easy to calculate. So if there is any thought that is deeply rooted after the Yongqing Restoration, it is progress."

Go forward, go forward by any means necessary. People who go forward will not stay in one place for too long. After achieving one goal, they will immediately move on to the next goal. The current method of testing archery skills is to compete in shooting skills. It is possible that it will be changed to magic bows hitting magic targets in a while, and it may be changed to magic guns hitting magic targets in a while.

In the final analysis - the three flowers gathering at the top of the head is an illusion, and the clouds under your feet are not real.

Everything can be changed, except the core of reality. Reality is the core of science.

The excellence of this core is reflected in two aspects.

First, science must be applicable to society. All problems in the world can be solved by scientific progress. If they cannot be solved, it means that science is not advanced enough.

Second, science must be able to abandon the abstract and pursue the real. Nothing is absolutely correct. Archery can be archery, but it can also be shooting.

The former represents rationality, the latter represents doubt. When the two are combined, we have what Shangluo saw at the beginning, those people who used the Qigong practitioners to force the "human flight control", those who relied on the Qigong practitioners' strong arms to control the rocket passenger plane.

All the while, he saw countless wonderful ways to solve problems using "strong arms."

Under the guidance of this trend of pursuing infinite progress, Qigong practitioners, as superhuman beings, can indeed easily demonstrate the limits of the human species, thus providing a practical basis for the continuous advancement of science.

“But sometimes, aren’t we moving too fast?” Shangluo asked. “For example, the rocket airliner is totally unnecessary, right? The feasibility of the jet airliner is much higher, but it’s a little late.”

"Well, let's put it this way." Wen Yuan explained, "You can use that as a propaganda tool. Under the trend of progressive thinking, our people have little patience and want to see new major victories achieved at the forefront of science every day. Therefore, it is not good to be too late for jet airliners. We must show our cutting-edge research results in advance to inspire the whole society."

[It seems that this is indeed the case. I remember when the New Antiochus accidentally launched a rocket, the cabinet immediately announced that we would not lose to the Romans, and our rockets would be higher, faster and stronger. It is useless to say it verbally, we just have to launch a big rocket. ]

"Well." Shangluo thought for a moment, "Since everyone likes new things, why don't we let everyone participate in a bigger experiment? In fact, we have previously studied the impact of the environment on mana. Why don't we find a place where you can't kill people even if you shoot them to practice this time?"

(End of this chapter)