Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 222 The direction of development, Ming Academy of Sciences!
Zhu Yunhuan glanced at him sideways.

Yang Shiqi cupped his hands and said, "There are indeed many officials in the court who oppose the title of Duke, but the more they oppose, the more this Duke must be conferred."

"It is of no importance for my Ming Dynasty to confer one or more dukes on it."

"But for His Royal Highness, this is a great opportunity to establish his authority."

"This time, we want to let the world know that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's words are law."

"Also let the court officials know that grace comes from above."

"Since His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is in charge of government affairs, he can decide whether to confer the title of Duke and who to confer the title of Duke. It is not their turn to make decisions."

In fact, when Yang Shiqi first heard Zhu Yunhuan say that whoever invented the steam engine would be made a duke, he thought it was purely a political trick by Zhu Yunhuan.

In his opinion, it didn't matter whether or not a steam engine could be built. He didn't know what a steam engine did, nor could he understand its importance.

In Yang Shiqi's eyes, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was telling the government through this action that his power was supreme and could not be challenged.

As long as he wants, he can make anyone a duke!

This is just like Zhao Gao's "calling a deer a horse". Although later generations cursed Zhao Gao, we need to look at everything from two perspectives. From the perspective of playing power games, Zhao Gao's move was undoubtedly extremely brilliant. It was through these actions that he gained control of the power in the court.

As for the incompetence in governing the country that led to the demise of the Qin Dynasty, that is another matter.

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince needs to establish his authority if he wants to take over power.

Later, Yang Shiqi realized that Zhu Yunhuan's move was not a political trick.

But no matter what, since this has been promised and announced to the world, there is no reason to "regret" it.

"In the future, if there are any inventions or creations, the court will not need to reward them like this, but this time is different." Knowing Zhu Yunhuan's concerns, Yang Shiqi added.

"That makes sense." Zhu Yunhuan came back to his senses.

As Yang Shiqi said, if he regretted his promises and failed to fulfill them, it would undoubtedly leave a very bad impression in the hearts of people all over the world.

In comparison, the title of Duke is really nothing.

If there are any major inventions in the future, he has not made any prior promises, so naturally there is no need for such rewards.

"It was my fault that I didn't think it through enough." Lai Wen'an came to his senses.

However, he did not understand political intrigues as well as Yang Shiqi.

"If we must give awards, several people have made significant contributions. We need to make a detailed assessment as to who to choose."

Zhu Yunhuan nodded and said, "You should send me a copy of all the improvement plans they proposed. I will review them personally."

"Once the steam engine is manufactured, tested and approved, the imperial court will officially confer the reward."

Now that you have decided to give rewards, you cannot do it arbitrarily.

This is not just a matter of establishing one's own credibility and authority, but also involves the future development of Ming Dynasty technology.

Zhu Yunhuan was already planning to establish new-style schools and even universities in the Ming Dynasty.

Those who are awarded today will become the pioneers of the entire Ming Dynasty's scientific community and the leading figures in the scientific community in the future.

They will teach more students and bring out countless disciples.

If we don't get rid of this problem now, it will have a bad influence on the entire scientific community of the Ming Dynasty in the future.

Zhu Yunhuan was naturally very cautious about this.

He couldn't understand the overly profound scientific papers like those in later generations.

It was extremely difficult and challenging for Zhu Yunhuan to think about the principles and manufacturing of steam engines, as well as methods of improvement, and to implement them in engineering.

But just by looking at the proposals put forward by others, he, as a person who has received a complete science and engineering education, can still easily understand them.

After all, he was a college student who graduated with a science and engineering degree in his previous life. Although he had returned a lot of knowledge to his teachers, he still remembered some of it.

More importantly, the scientific training is not lost.

Lai Wen'an's heart tightened.

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince really cares about this matter.

There were so many important events in the Ming Dynasty, but His Royal Highness the Crown Prince would just take a look at them and then stop asking about them, leaving them to the officials to handle.

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has inquired about this matter many times, and now he wants to make a personal assessment.

"Yes!" Lai Wen'an responded quickly.

"One more thing."

His voice gradually faded away.

"In accordance with His Royal Highness's request, the Science journal has been continuously expanding its publication and recruiting more and more editors."

“In the beginning, we only published one journal, Science, which had a large print run and was profitable.”

“But after the expansion, the print run of many special issues is not as large as the main issue, but the number of editorial staff required has increased significantly.”

"Now, our expenses are gradually falling short of our income."

"I think the price of Science is too low and should be raised."

Lai Wen'an's tone was very frightened and he was extremely worried, so much so that he even stuttered when he spoke.

Although they both run a publication, the Ming Daily is very profitable and has established its own Investigation Department and Intelligence Bureau, and has done a lot for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

However, his own journal Science was actually running at a loss.

This made him feel deeply that he had failed the expectations of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

The only way to turn losses into profits now is to raise prices.

However, the publication price of Science magazine was determined personally by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

When the first issue of Science magazine was published, it triggered a buying frenzy and the price on the black market rose to sky-high levels.

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince personally ordered more printing to keep the price down.

Therefore, Lai Wen'an did not dare to raise prices on his own initiative.

"Then how much do you think it will increase?" Zhu Yunhuan asked calmly.

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince didn’t blame himself?
Lai Wen'an was delighted.

"Science is different from Ming Daily. People who want to buy it are willing to buy it even if the price is many times higher."

"At that time, a copy of Science was worth dozens of taels of silver, but it was still in short supply."

"I think the price of Science magazine can be increased tenfold now."

"Even if the circulation of Science drops by more than half, it will still be profitable."

He had calculated this carefully. For the craftsmen who needed to acquire the technology, even if the price of Science magazine increased tenfold, most of them would still bite the bullet and buy it.

The price of books has never been low in the past.

It was Zhu Yunhuan who invented the roller mimeograph machine, which made book printing extremely easy. Later, the establishment of the Ming Manufacturing Bureau greatly advanced the production technology of paper and ink, and the cost continued to decrease, which greatly reduced the price of books.

Even so, you can't buy books as cheap as Science magazine outside now.

Not to mention that the contents published in the journal Science are all extremely valuable technologies.

If the price increases tenfold, the number of people who buy the product will decrease by about half, but the money that can be earned will be incomparable.

“No price increase.”

Just when Lai Wen'an thought that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince would approve his suggestion to raise the price, Zhu Yunhuan flatly rejected it.

"Science is not set up to make money."

"Its purpose is to promote the scientific and technological progress of the Ming Dynasty."

"As for the Science journal, which is now running out of money and lacks funding, the imperial court can provide funding."

Just kidding.

He invested all the money in the Ming Manufacturing Bureau.

By comparison, Science costs nothing.

"Listen, I don't want your Science journal to make a profit. It's normal to make a loss, and you don't have to blame yourself for it."

It would be strange if an academic journal like this could make money solely through subscriptions.

Such a thing does not exist in later generations.

Most academic journals in later generations support themselves by charging publication fees to contributors.

The first issue of Science magazine made money because it was just a low-level popular science book with a wide audience.

The deeper your research becomes, the more unpopular it will be, and the less likely you will be to make money.

But that’s the point of academic journals.

Without in-depth research, it would be a popular reading material rather than an academic journal.

Today, the main issue of Science magazine is still a basic reading material with a large amount of popular science content.

However, the various special publications under it have gone further and further on the professional path.

Especially with the establishment of the post office, people from not only Jinling but all over the country began to contribute to the journal Science, and the level of work naturally continued to improve.

"Ah!" Lai Wen'an was shocked at first, then he was overjoyed: "Thank you, Your Highness."

Zhu Yunxun smiled and said, "Just make a specific proposal and tell us how much money you need. The court will give you that much money. As long as it can help the Ming Dynasty's scientific and technological level to rise rapidly, the court will not lack money for Science, no matter who else it is short of."

Upon hearing this, Lai Wen'an raised his head and looked at His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, his expression becoming complicated.

He quickly lowered his head, as if hesitating about something, and then hesitated for a moment before saying, "I'm afraid this is not a small amount of money."

Zhu Yunhuan asked: "How much do you need?"

Lai Wen'an said: "I have calculated that I will probably need millions of taels of silver every year, or even more."

Yang Shiqi's eyes widened at once: "How could it possibly cost so much money? How many editors do you have?"

Zhu Yunhuan couldn't help but frown.

Although Science journals are sold cheaply, they are still profitable if we only consider the printing and publishing aspects, after all, the costs are very low.

The only thing that was lost was the editorial department’s money.

But it only costs a few dozen taels of silver a year to support an editor.

There's no reason to spend so much.

Lai Wen'an took a deep breath and said, "In fact, the salary expenses for editors are secondary."

"It's mainly because everyone thinks that after we receive many article submissions, we still need to verify them."

"According to the records in the article, it is often very expensive to manufacture things."

"But if we don't verify it, we dare not publish the article at will, for fear of misleading readers."

“This will lead to a surge in funding.”

Zhu Yunxi was stunned for a moment.

experiment?

Are scientific journals conducting their own experiments?

Right.

As science developed in later generations, journals had their own set of standard procedures for including articles.

The reviewers are also front-line scientists with rich experimental experience, and they can see some problems at a glance.

But Science journal is actually a makeshift team.

The people who are selected to be the generals from among the short people have not undergone decades of scientific training.

They don't have confidence unless they verify it themselves.

Furthermore, there are many laboratories in later generations.

After an academic paper is published, as long as it is not a useless paper or a piece of fluff, but a truly useful and valuable paper, other laboratories will soon reproduce the results of the paper.

If the results cannot be reproduced, the paper will be retracted, and the fraudsters may even be held accountable.

But in this era, there is nothing.

In the early days, we only did basic and simple technical science popularization, so these were not a problem.

An experienced person can tell at a glance whether it can be manufactured and whether what is said is correct.

As the research goes deeper, its shortcomings will be exposed.

But, the editors of Science journal always feel it’s weird to do their own experiments?
Thoughts raced through Zhu Yunxun’s mind.

Who among those who are qualified to review academic journals in their previous lives was not a big shot in the academic world? Who doesn’t do experiments by himself or with a team?

Isn't it time for the editors of Science journal to move in this direction?

However, once they all start doing their own experiments and research... then Science journal will no longer be just an academic journal.

But the Institute of Science!
……

(End of this chapter)