Judging from the cover of these two notebooks, it is obvious that they have been with Alfred for a long time, and they are definitely frequently flipped by Alfred. This can be seen from the fuzzy edges of the covers.

Yang Jing couldn't figure out what the numbers recorded in the book meant, and the place names recorded in it were temporarily unknown because there was no Baidu or Wikipedia in this time and space. However, Yang Jing did know some of the book titles recorded in it.

For example, there is a book title in the notebook recorded like this.

Sea Power, 1926......

Then the number 1926 is followed by a series of other Arabic numerals.

Yang Jing really didn't understand what these numbers meant, but he knew the famous "The Influence of Sea Power on Sea", which was a work by Alfred Thayer Mahan, a famous American military theorist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

This book elaborates on the importance of sea control in that era and was regarded as a classic by navies of various countries before World War I.

However, how could General Mahan's "The Principles of Sea Power" be related to Alfred? One of them was in the navy, and the other was a gunpowder manufacturer. It can't be said that they were completely unrelated, but if you say that they had any close connection, Yang Jing himself didn't believe it.

You could say that Alfred loved the navy, which is why he wrote down the title of the book "Sea Power" in his notebook. But the question is, what do those numbers mean?

It would be fine if it was just a book called "The Observatory of Sea Power", but in addition to "The Observatory of Sea Power", there are many more strange book titles in the notebook, such as "National Geographic", 08/1931, followed by a series of numbers. What's going on?

This book, The Spirit of the Laws by Charles Louis Montesquieu, 1942...what's the matter?

There is also this book "Outline of Civilization Theory" written by Japanese Fukuzawa Yukichi, 1938......

A Treatise of Human Nature, written by the Englishman David Hume, 1940......

......

If most of the books above were books on philosophy, Yang Jing could understand it. After all, Alfred was driven out by his cousins, and it was very likely that he began to study philosophy because he was frustrated. This was also reasonable, but what about the books on music, history, and art below? What surprised Yang Jing the most was that in this notebook, Yang Jing also found books on pure academic subjects such as "The Travels of Marco Polo", Copernicus's "On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres", and Darwin's "On the Origin of Species". Could it be that after studying some philosophy, Alfred was going to switch to studying annihilation, geography, and biology?

What Yang Jing couldn't understand the most were the names of those pure literature books, such as Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Stowe, For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain...

You said that Yang Jing can understand if he reads those pure literary works, as they are for entertainment, but the problem is that Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" is a children's literature...

These books have nothing to do with each other at all. Even after thinking for a long time, Yang Jing couldn't figure out any connection between these books.

However, Yang Jing did discover a numerical secret from these books, that is, the numbers 19** following the books. Yang Jing guessed that this should be the publication date of these books, or the year in which they were published.

Based on these figures, Yang Jing deduced that the names of the books recorded in these two notebooks were mostly published in the 1930s to early 1940s.

This discovery also made Yang Jing immediately realize that the secrets hidden in the two notebooks written by Alfred should have a lot to do with these books.

But with so many book titles, Yang Jing didn't know where to start.

Looking at the "National Geographic" on the notebook, "08/1931" and the series of numbers behind it, Yang Jing immediately remembered that when he first came to this basement, he found a set of "National Geographic" magazines that had been preserved for half a century in several cardboard boxes.

So he immediately took out the set of National Geographic magazines he had just sorted out and searched inside for a long time before he found the magazine published in August 1931.

Yang Jing was excited after finding this magazine. Obviously, the titles of the books in the notebook were all ones that Alfred had read before, otherwise he would not have found this magazine here.

Now that we have found this magazine, can we also find the other books recorded in the notebook?

Thinking of this, Yang Jing suddenly remembered the large study on the second floor of the main building. There were many large bookshelves, and most of the books on the shelves were old books.

Thinking of this, Yang Jing immediately grabbed the National Geographic magazine he had just found, stood up and left, and soon returned to the large study on the second floor of the main building.

Yang Jing had been to this study twice. It was very large, covering an area of ​​more than 200 square meters. In addition to several large floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, there was also a large oak desk near the floor-to-ceiling window.

Yang Jing started looking from the first bookshelf. After searching for a while, he saw a book called "On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres" by Copernicus. He took it out and turned to the back. It was indeed published in 1938, and this publication date happened to match the number recorded in the notebook.

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