Volume 2: Residence in the Capital Chapter 157 Map
On the second day of classes at Jiuzhang Hall, more than twenty students spent the entire painful morning under the bombardment of Lu Sanlang's exercises. In the afternoon, after Zhang Shou aroused great interest among the students with the three words "Tianyuanshu", he threw out the killer weapon of univariate equations, and then irresponsibly handed the task of explaining it to Lu Sanlang, and left quietly.
One doesn't know how hard it is unless he is a teacher. Moreover, he has to teach up to eight classes a day, which is unbearable. Naturally, more efforts have to be made by Lu Sanlang or the students on their own.
Moreover, he felt that he did not have enough patience to explain the simplest one-variable equation to a group of students who had no idea what an equation was. He was also very indignant that the simple mathematics textbooks of Emperor Taizu had been lost.
When he arrived at the Imperial College, he saw the carriage sent by Zhang Kang waiting there, and of course, Ah Liu, who would always be there when you needed him, was also there. He had gradually gotten used to the bumpy ride, and after being tired for most of the day, he fell asleep in the carriage without realizing it, until he was suddenly awakened by the sound of knocking on the wall.
"Master, we have arrived at the Arms Bureau."
Zhang Shou patted his cheeks and finally recovered his spirits. He got off the car and found himself standing in a quiet alley. Not to mention the harsh sound of tools knocking, even the sound of people talking was almost inaudible, which seemed to be inconsistent with the three words "Arms Bureau". A blue-shirted official who came forward took the initiative to solve his doubts.
"The headquarters of the Military Equipment Bureau is here, but the workshop is underground. All the land around here is assigned to the Military Equipment Bureau, and many of the houses are empty, so there is no noise. This is Dr. Zhang's first time here, so he may not know the rules here. Without the order of the superior, even the princes and even the princes cannot enter the Military Equipment Bureau, so the uncle asked me to take you to his other private residence here."
Seeing that the other party explained in detail, Zhang Shou immediately thanked him with a smile - it was a confidential unit, so it was normal to have strict rules. Maps might be very precious to those merchants and even fleets, but for the Military Equipment Bureau, they should be more valuable than those important weapons and equipment. In particular, he wanted to see the world map outside the territory of the Ming Dynasty, so it was not surprising that he could bring it out.
Since there was no one else on the road, Zhang Shou had to strike up a conversation with the blue-shirted official who was leading the way, and then he learned that the other party was Li Wei, an eighth-rank official in the Military Equipment Bureau. Although he was only one rank lower than him, a doctor of the Imperial College, he was not stupid enough to think that there was really only a small difference between the seventh and eighth ranks, so since the other party was respectful and distant, he asked a few questions and then stopped talking.
When he stepped into an ordinary-looking courtyard, the bookkeeper Li in front of him suddenly asked, "Dr. Zhang, are you here to unlock the Fourteen-Ring Delicate Box?"
Zhang Shou didn't even think about it and pretended to be dumbfounded and asked, "What's the Fourteen-ringed Delicate Box?"
Li Dianbu saw Zhang Shou's puzzled expression. Naturally, he didn't expect that such a famous young talent would pretend to be confused. He said in a deep voice, "That is a secret box that has been kept in the Military Equipment Bureau for many years. It has a 14-ring text lock on the outside. It will cause self-destruction if you are not careful. Therefore, it has not been opened for decades. Dr. Zhang, you are famous for your ability to decrypt, so I naturally thought you came here for this."
Since he decided to play dumb, Zhang Shou naturally decided to play dumb to the end: "Haha, I just hope that Weinan Bo can be flexible and let me see the map of all the countries in the world because Lu Sanlang and Weinan Bo have some friendship and met each other last night. I was curious for a while.
Li Dianbu laughed immediately, with a look of disapproval on his face: "What are the nations of the world? Those foreign lands are at most dozens or hundreds of tiny countries. You will understand when you see those maps, Dr. Zhang."
Zhang Shou could not help but feel more and more puzzled by such a reaction. However, he soon found out the answer. Because when he stepped into a room in the middle and saw Weinan Bo Zhang Kang, this old nobleman, who was still strong and resolute in his youth and did not look like a barbarian at all, waved his hand to dismiss Li Dianbu and then pointed to the east room.
"Because it's not important, I brought it out. You can go in and have a look. Since you said you're not lending it out and just want to take a look, I'll give you a quarter of an hour. I think that should be enough, right?"
"Of course it's enough. Thank you, sir."
Zhang Shou thanked him with a bow, and then immediately entered the east room without hesitation . Even in the daytime, the room was still lit, and with the help of the light, he saw the three maps hanging on the wall at a glance. However, because the light was still not so ideal, he could only see a rough outline, and then he found an unexpected item on the table below the map.
It was a huge globe.
His first reaction was that many people in the West at that time did not seem to believe that the earth was round, because Columbus's voyage that could truly prove that the earth was a sphere had not yet begun. Even with the sage Emperor Taizu, the Ming people had actually abandoned the belief that the sky was round and the earth was square and believed that the earth was a round sphere?
Just as he was doubting, Zhang Kang's voice came from behind: "This is something left by Emperor Taizu. He said he had a dream in which he was taken to the sky by the Emperor of Heaven and found that the world was not round but a sphere. So he ordered the craftsmen to make this. Then he drew these lines and maps on it. Of course, he made more than a dozen at a time."
"Since this was made by Emperor Taizu Chengtian in a dream, the first of the three maps was also drawn by placing the sphere on a flat surface. The next two maps were compared after the fleet sailed. Although the small countries encountered were slightly different, the general land contours were similar. Emperor Taizu was indeed born from heaven..."
Zhang Shou, who had already approached, listened to Zhang Kang's introduction absentmindedly, but his eyes did not look at the map on the wall. Instead, he looked intently at the longitude and latitude lines on the globe, the clearly outlined seven continents and four oceans, the marked location of the Ming Dynasty's territory, and the major countries densely distributed on the European continent.
He also had a huge globe at home and a collection of various world history maps in his study. So after carefully fiddling with the globe, he found that the positions of the seven continents and four oceans were not much different from what he remembered, and were quite accurate. Then he judged from the approximate positions of the Kingdom of Spain and Portugal that this was a world map of the 14th and 15th centuries.
At that moment, he had completely concluded that Emperor Taizu was not only a map lover, but also a map lover with the maximum map skill. If it were him, he would never mark the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of Aragon when marking the Kingdom of Spain, not to mention that he couldn't even remember the tortuous dividing line that looked like a dog's chew!
But soon, his eyes were attracted by the color blocks representing the Ottoman Empire and the Byzantine Empire. At this time, Zhang Kang's voice also sounded in his ears at the right time.
"After the large ships sailed around the world, the court naturally put all its efforts into searching for the larger countries in Emperor Taizu's dream, and these two countries were naturally at the forefront of the investigation. Although they are quite far away from our country, they are not of our race, and their hearts must be different. We must be on guard. But in the end, when the ships returned after all the hardships, the news they brought back was completely different. Dr. Zhang, you can take a look at the second picture."
Zhang Shou looked up and carefully identified it, and finally found on the second map, which was distorted and difficult to recognize, that the Byzantine Empire had lost Constantinople and its territory had shrunk, while the Ottoman Empire, which once dominated the world, occupied a large area in the east of the Aegean Sea, from Mysia, Lydia to Ephesus, and its vanguard had crossed Constantinople and invaded the former Thrace occupied by the Byzantine Empire.
Recalling the history of the Ottoman Empire's expansion, he realized that the Ottoman Empire's territory should not be complete. But Zhang Kang's next words suddenly made him move.
"When Emperor Taizu first ascended the throne, he defeated Timur, who later paid tribute and became a vassal. To the east of Timur was the Ottoman Empire that Emperor Taizu dreamed of. Emperor Taizu instructed the border troops to continuously recruit surrendered soldiers from the northern barbarians, repeatedly defeating Timur's army. Timur could only press westward, and the Ottoman Empire suffered several major defeats. Later, when his strength increased greatly and he wanted to march east, he died on the way. Later, after our large ship arrived and found out, we found that the territory of the Ottoman Empire was just like this..."
Before Zhang Kang could continue, Zhang Shou suddenly asked, "When was this map drawn? Have you gotten new information and drawn it again since then ?"
"No. That place is too chaotic." Speaking of chaos, Zhang Kang frowned, then said nonchalantly, "Besides, those small countries in the west are fighting each other every day, and they are very poor. Trade can't bring back much profit. In contrast, India is rich in production. Therefore, before Yingzong, after the fleet went south, most of them passed through the Strait of Malacca and sailed to India. Some people in the court also had the idea, but for some reasons, they were all shelved."
The imperial court ships went out to sea to find out whether Taizu had any descendants scattered abroad, which would endanger the royal ruling power in the future; while the private merchant ships went out to sea to sell goods in exchange for gold, silver, gemstones and spices. As a result, the Ottoman Empire, which had not yet expanded to its largest territory, was despised because it had been repeatedly defeated by the Timurid Empire. The small countries in Europe were also despised.
Before the discovery of the rich but backward America, the small countries in Europe really could not squeeze out much gold, silver and oil!
Zhang Shou's eyes swept across the three maps on the wall and finally came to a conclusion.
The first one used the horizontal MacArthur projection map, which was the most commonly used map in the future, and drew the information on the globe on a flat surface.
The second picture was modified based on the first one based on the information of the ship's navigation. However, looking at the modified information, which was limited to the Ottoman Empire, the Byzantine Empire and some small European countries, and many of the dividing lines were even simple and rough straight lines, he knew that the fleet had a superficial understanding of those countries and might have only visited them once or twice.
As for the third map, it basically follows the second map, but makes some modifications in the center, placing the Ming Dynasty at the center of the world. The adjusted map reveals a strong sense of being the Celestial Empire.
It has to be said that Taizu hoped that the Chinese people could open their eyes and see the world, but now it seems that although their eyes have been opened, the extent of their opening is limited.
In the final analysis, civil strife kills people. It is miraculous that the Ming Dynasty has not fallen apart after several civil strife !
He sighed secretly, then smiled at Zhang Kang and said, "Thank you, sir, for fulfilling my presumptuous request."
Seeing Zhang Shou's satisfied look, Zhang Kang couldn't help but smile: "I know you scholars like the saying that reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles. Now that you have read the map, please take care of the fourteen-ring lock."
"Of course." Zhang Shou agreed happily, but he laughed secretly in his heart.
Just give it a try, he is not a god!
