In Edo in April, the warm breeze blows.
In a medical clinic called "Shilando" in Motosaigi Town, fifty-one-year-old Lin Ziping smiled and greeted each of the two dozen orchid scholars and their disciples who were invited.
This "Shirando" is the first orchid school in the history of the island nation founded by the orchid scholar Otsuki Genzawa. It is both a medical school and a private school for orchid education.
Many scholars and their students who came from all over the country today know or have heard of the famous Lin Ziping, and have also heard that he is in poor health. But when I came today, I found that Old Lin, whom I hadn't seen for several years, had a red face and his body looked very good.
"Mr. Ziping?"
"Ah, it's Mr. Ziping. I haven't seen him for many years. How are you?"
"Haha, okay, just like an eighteen-year-old boy."
Speaking of the early introduction of Western culture to the island country, it actually relied on a large number of Chinese classics from the late Ming Dynasty. Through books such as "Tiangong Kaiwu", "Elements of Geometry", "Agricultural Administration", "Taixi Water Law" and other books, Chinese books not only brought the latest science and technology to China in the Ming Dynasty, but more importantly, Chinese books brought Western science Technology has also been introduced to the island country, and China has become an important channel for the introduction of orchid science.
Although the island country in the 18th century implemented a trade-locked policy like the neighboring country, the Dutch used trade as a medium. While trading with the shogunate, the Dutch also brought a large number of Western books, technology, and instruments, which made the island people It was through Nagasaki that I came into direct contact with Western culture.
Basically, the early Orchid scholars in the island country started from medicine, and then came into contact with mathematics, astronomy, calendar, geography and other natural sciences and even humanities.
Correspondingly, Daiqing next door is intoxicated with the dream of a heavenly kingdom, and the imperial autocracy has reached its peak. Scholars cling to the Four Books and Five Classics and regard natural science as a heresy. It was not until after the First Opium War that a few people such as Li Shanlan, Xu Shou and Hua Hengfang emerged.
So don’t look down on the island countries. Basically, they have laid the scientific foundation for the “Meiji Restoration” since the late 18th century. More than a hundred years of orchid studies were transformed and sublimated into "Bakumatsu Western Studies" in modern times, making it quickly complete a leap into modern science.
Today, at the invitation of Lin Ziping and Otsuki Genzawa, we came to Shirando. In addition to many orchid scholars from Osaka and Nagasaki, there were also some people studying at Shirando; among these people were samurai, businessmen, and businessmen. Common people, as well as farm children from the countryside come here to study.
These orchid scholars include Asada Tsuyoshi, Takahashi Yoshitoki, and Yamakata Honmo who studied astronomy; Shima Ehan, Motoki Ryonaga, Kuchiki Ryuhashi, and Katsuragi Hōshu who studied geography; Goto Uiharu, and Physics; Hashimoto Yoshimune, Shizuki Tadao and others. The most famous scholar nowadays, Sugita Genpaku, who once wrote the anatomy book "New Book of Disintegration", had gone to another place before and was on his way back day and night.
As for the owner of the local Shirando, Otsuki Genzawa, he comes from the Mutsu Ichinoseki Domain, and his current head is the Tamura Murasaki who previously attacked the Shimazu family with the Northern Navy. Otsuki Genzawa was a doctor since he was a child. He went to Nagasaki to learn Dutch and is now a famous surgeon in Edo. Lin Ziping was also a member of the Sendai clan, and he and Otsuki Genzawa had known each other for a long time.
Seeing the orchid scholars from all over the island country gathered together, Lin Ziping felt that "the world's heroes have fallen into the trap" and couldn't help but feel happy for Zhao Xin.
In his opinion, if Beihai Town has the help of these people, both surveying and railway surveying will reach a new level. And Lin Ziping also had his own little thoughts. If Zhao Wangdian had so many island country scholars to help him, he would probably be merciful to the island country in the future.
The reason why Lin Ziping was able to come to Edo this time and summon these island country orchid scholars through Otsuki Genzawa was mainly because the shogunate, Sendai Domain and Hokkai Town formally signed an armistice agreement in February this year. Of course, the money lent by Beihai Town to the shogunate also played a key role.
In fact, ever since Hokkai Town's large iron ship arrived in Sendai Domain and Nagasaki a few years ago, many orchid scholars from the island country have been wanting to contact Hokkai Town. However, because the shogunate had issued an order strictly prohibiting contact with Tang Yi, and Beihai Town had almost always been in a state of hostility with the shogunate, the orchid scholars in Edo and Nagasaki always kept a respectful distance from Beihai Town.
In the history of this time and space, this large gathering of orchid scholars has become a major event in the natural science community of the island country. It was from this beginning that a large number of orchid scholars from the island countries rushed to Beihai Town to study or work, and the so-called orchid study style soon became "Tang Study".
Without him, the natural science used and spread by Zhao Xin and others in this time and space is many times better than that in Europe, and a group of orchid science enthusiasts naturally gathered here.
As the "social equality concept" associated with natural science was introduced to the island country, it soon had a fierce conflict with the island society with a clear hierarchy. This completely broke through the concept of autocratic rule based on the hierarchy of generals, daimyo, and retainers, and seriously threatened the rule of the shogunate.
During this period, the shogunate intensified the persecution of some people who had returned from Beihai Town and instigated many prisons. Eventually, many people returned to Beihai Town to naturalize and became Chinese, which was a slap in the face to the shogunate.
After listening to Lin Ziping's brief introduction to Beihai Town, the scholars present in Zhilan Hall were all speechless and exclaimed in surprise from time to time.
The famous painter and astronomer Sima Jianghan asked: "Mr. Ziping, did you say that there are several astronomical measuring instruments in the North Sea that even the Dutch do not have?"
"Exactly, what I use every day now are precision measuring instruments from the Royal Secret Collection of Beihai Town, which are far more advanced than those of the Dutch."
After Lin Ziping finished speaking, he took out some sketches of surveying and mapping instruments that he usually drew by hand, such as laser theodolite, laser level, gyro theodolite, three-dimensional coordinate measuring instrument, etc. If you don’t see the actual thing but just look at the pictures, you can’t explain the usage and effects at all. Old Man Lin just briefly talked about the function, which left all the island country scholars stunned.
You just need to aim at the target and take a photo to know how far it is without having to walk?
In these days, both astronomers and geographers in the island countries used step counting to measure the earth when conducting field measurements, and then estimated the length of the longitude through the angles of Polaris at different locations. With the length of the longitude and latitude lines, a new calendar can be formulated.
Everyone began to circulate Lin Ziping's drawings, while Ma Tian Goli on the side asked respectfully: "Mr. Ziping, I heard that there is a huge medical clinic in Beihai Town, which can treat all kinds of diseases, including tuberculosis and smallpox." To cure the illness?"
Lin Ziping nodded and twirled his beard and said: "That's true. That medical center is called Beihai Town Central Hospital. Zhao Dian has now popularized cowpox in every village and town in Beihai Town, and there has been no more suffering from smallpox. As for tuberculosis, it only takes one year. It can be cured. There is also a machine that can see through the whole body of a person, every detail will be revealed, and the disease can be detected early."
Everyone was shocked when they heard this.
However, Asada Godachi, a doctor, frowned and said: "Cowpox? I have only heard of human pox in the Qing Dynasty. Even if vaccinated, only two or three out of ten can survive. What is the explanation for this cowpox? Is it related to cows? The fatality rate how?"
Speaking of smallpox in the history of the island country, it was also very scary when it spread, and its main transmission route was North Korea. The most serious incident during the Heian Dynasty even spread to Heijo Kyo, when all four brothers of the Fujiwara family who were in charge of the government died. The death toll during the epidemic was as high as 1 million to 1.5 million, equivalent to 25 to 35% of the total population of the island country at that time.
One of the reasons why era names were often changed during the Edo period was the epidemic of plague, with smallpox being the number one culprit. The later "Sumida River Fireworks Festival" began during the Yoshidaime Yoshizune period of the shogunate. The purpose was to commemorate the people who died due to famine and plague and pray for the disaster to subside.
As for Dai Qing next door, the situation is similar. Although China has had "variolation" since the Northern Song Dynasty, it is a pity that it has been kept secret. In the early and mid-Qing Dynasty, the main reason why Han people were not allowed to live in the inner city was that the Manchus were afraid that Han people would be infected with smallpox.
Lin Ziping explained to Ma Tian Gangli: "Cows are native animals. The human spleen belongs to the earth, and the earth attracts the earth. The same qi resonates with each other, and the same kind nourishes the other, so it can be effective. Since the application of this method in Beihai Town, there has been no damage. None come back.”
Asada immediately exclaimed: "Amazing! I must go to Beihai Town to see it."
The disciple Takahashi Yoshitoki on the side bowed and said: "Sir, I want to study surveying and mapping with Mr. Ziping."
Ma Tian Gangli knew that this son was interested in the astronomical calendar, so he readily agreed.
Lin Ziping looked around at everyone present and said: "Everyone, I have been ordered by King Zhao to invite you to go to Beihai to help. Right now, I have just taken on a big job, which is to conduct surveying and mapping along the first railway in Beihai Town. The more manpower needed, the better! "
"Mr. Ziping, what is a 'railway'?" Goto Haruharu, who focuses on studying Neo-Confucianism, asked the most critical question. At this time, East Asia did not have separate names for physics, electricity, and chemistry. They temporarily shared the same name, namely, Neo-Confucianism.
After hearing this, Lin Ziping asked for paper, ink, pen and inkstone, and then wrote the word "railway" on the white paper. Then he raised his hands, gestured to everyone, and explained: "To put it simply, it is paved with steel. the way!"
Later that day, in the meeting hall of the Edo Castle, the four senior officials of the shogunate gathered again. Matsudaira Sadanobu, the leader of the old army, couldn't help but be surprised after hearing the report Wakatoshi sent to Horita Settsumori.
"Pave the road with fine fine iron? Does Prince Zhao Dian have money but nowhere to spend it?" He frowned and thought for a moment, and then said to Ruonian: "Okay, you can go down."
In fact, Matsudaira Sadanobu didn't care too much about Beihai Town's large-scale recruitment of orchid scholars. On the contrary, he was eager to blast all those orchid scholars to Beihai Town, out of sight and out of mind.
Since the beginning of the "Xianbo Reform", although the shogunate has not been allowed to study orchid in these years, it is still worried about various natural science knowledge with new ideas; the biggest problem is the impact on the original ruling ideas and ruling order.
And since Matsudaira Sadanobu became the leader of the old school, he admired Zhu Xi's learning and even rejected Orchidism. The "Prohibition of Heterogeneous Studies" he is currently preparing is to only teach Zhu Xi's studies in the academic institutes directly under the shogunate, and prohibit the teaching of "heretical studies". The purpose is to prohibit the spread of other "heretical" doctrines, including Orchidology.
In the history of another time and space, the shogunate adopted various means to suppress the spread of Orchidism, such as restricting freedom of speech, restricting the publication of Orchidism books, and promulgating the "Publication Regulation Order." Poor Lin Ziping was sentenced to "seclusion" in 1792. After that, old man Lin gave himself the nickname "Master Liuwuzhai" and eventually died of depression.
However, in this time and space, because he defected to Beihai Town and became a naturalized citizen, Lin Ziping is now very lively. The energetic old man jumped up and down as soon as he returned to Edo, contacting scholars everywhere, waving flags and shouting, which made the shogunate's Wakatoshi headstrong.
However, the main topic currently being discussed by the four senior middle school students was not the orchidology enthusiasts meeting at Jilan Hall, but a letter delivered to the shogunate after six large ships from Hokkai Town arrived at Sendai Domain.
In this letter, Zhao Xin used a tone that was half discussion and half intimidation, asking the shogunate to provide long-term "labor export" to Beihai Town. The minimum annual limit is 15,000 people and the maximum is 50,000. In contrast, Beihai Town will pay a labor fee to the shogunate per capita every year.
The treatment given by Zhao Xin is that in addition to two meals a day and clothing, plus a monthly salary of 3 Beihai Town silver dollars, these workers will also be paid to the shogunate at three stones of rice per person per year.
In addition, Beihai Town will provide a batch of advanced iron farm tools to the shogunate to replace the island country's decline in food production due to insufficient labor. Samples of these agricultural tools have now arrived at Sendai Domain, and the shogunate can send people to visit them at any time.
Beihai Town has money and food. This is no secret to the shogunate today. Ever since Makino Sadada went to Hokkai Town and reported back to Tokugawa Ieki, the upper echelons of the shogunate were greatly amazed by the wealth of Beihai Town. Of course, most of them are incomprehensible.
If calculated based on 50,000 people, the rice shogunate alone could earn 150,000 koku. Moreover, the rice provided in Beihai Town is all shelled and polished rice, which is very unusual.
In addition, the hand-pulled rice transplanter mentioned by Zhao Xin in the letter is really eye-catching. Nowadays, a strong farmer can only do 5 to 6 acres of rice in a day due to his hard work. However, the rice transplanter mentioned in the letter only requires two ordinary workers and can actually plant 30 to 40 acres of rice in a day. This can cover four acres of rice. Da Laozhong was shocked!
(To put it simply, one acre of land in the Edo period was only a little more than 99 square meters, and 7 acres of land is equivalent to one acre of modern land.)
Matsudaira Sadanobu was naturally interested in advanced agricultural tools. His most important policy after coming to power was to support agricultural development and increase government grain stocks. Don't panic when you have food in hand. The total population of the island country is currently around 25 million, and many farmers rely on a cup of buckwheat noodles to survive every day. If there is another natural disaster that affects half of the island country, the Matsudaira Sadanobu cabinet will have to step down.
After a moment of silence, the young Yoshida Hou Shohei Nobuaki finally lost his composure and asked: "Why don't you send someone to Aoba City to take a look at the farm tools mentioned in the letter?"
It is certain to send someone to visit. The key is how to report this matter to the young general. This is not just a few people smuggling across the country by boat, but tens of thousands of people going to sea to earn money for the shogunate.
Matsudaira Sadanobu looked at Makino Sadada and said, "When Marquis Kasama went to Beihai Town, did he ever see those farm tools?"
Makino Sadaga recalled for a moment and then shook his head. He was led by people from the Civil Affairs Department of Beihai Town and only visited some factories in general. What shocked him the most was the gurgling molten iron and molten steel. As for the various utensils, he didn't really care.
In the next ten days, the four senior officials of the shogunate sent people to the Sendai Domain to view farm tools while intensely discussing the feasibility of the matter.
To be honest, providing tens of thousands of laborers to Beihai Town is nothing to the shogunate. However, in the feudal era, since the etiquette of the monarch and his ministers must be respected, the appearance of food is very important. Therefore, during this period, the shogunate mainly discussed the distribution of labor shares. Naturally, the shogunate's celestial leaders will account for the majority, and those vassals who have been descended from generation to generation will also have to share the rain and dew, right?
Compared with the shogunate's dilly-dallying, the Mutsu clans headed by the Sendai clan reacted much faster. There is no way, everyone has been crazy poor in the past few years, and farmers are grabbing a lot of money if they don’t need it.
Within half a month, three thousand peasants who came from Mutsu domain to catch young men had already boarded the ship and set off.
By this time, Deng Fei and Ding Guofeng, who had been stranded in Sendai Domain for many days, were really impatient with the speed of the shogunate's decision-making, so after communicating with Zhao Xin, they drove the Thunder and Thor to take a walk outside Tokyo Bay. , and scared the young sea dog Gongfang so much that he ran to Zengshang Temple and hid for two days.
By the end of April, seeing the urgency of the situation, Makino Sadadaga finally made the decision, and Matsudaira Sadanobu made the decision. The shogunate established a new agency, the "Hokkai Enforcement", to be responsible for the export of labor services to Beihai Town. As for those Lan scholars rushing to Beihai Town, Beihai is responsible for everything.
At this point, Beihai Town finally opened up the pipeline to introduce labor from the island country.
At the same time, Zhao Xin also began to deal with the Qing army, the largest force of the Qing Dynasty outside the Pass, the Hunchun Camp.
This chapter was particularly difficult to write. I looked up a lot of information on orchid scholars from the Edo period.
(End of chapter)
