Linjiang West Mountain.

A heavy snowfall turned the West Mountain into a vast expanse of white.

Although the sun had risen long ago, its light not only failed to drive away the winter chill, but made Qin Bingzhong feel even colder because of the melting snow.

He was on leave from Xishan College and was sitting in a side room of Xishan Villa, warming himself by the fire, reading the latest Daxia Weekly carefully in his hand.

Of course, the first thing to look at is the front page headlines, which are still the most important policies of Daxia.

As he read, his brows furrowed. He saw His Majesty's article on education system reform!

In this article, His Majesty adopted a method of first criticizing and then praising. He praised the many advantages of the imperial examination system adopting the contents of the Four Books and Five Classics over the years, but then changed the tone and said that it was time for the imperial examination system to change.

Starting from the third year of Daxia, policy essays were only one of the subjects in the imperial examinations, while the other three subjects were mathematics, physics and chemistry!

Xishan College also offers these three courses, but even the teaching is still in the exploratory stage, so the result of this education can be imagined.

Such a big change came so quickly... Qin Bingzhong felt that Your Majesty was being a little too hasty.

Besides, what use are these other three subjects in governing a country?

The country's governance now follows the Code of Principle, and students are educated based on the contents of the Code of Principle. As the dean, Qin Bingzhong has also read the other three subjects and even discussed them with the teachers, but the physics and chemistry among them... Even though these teachers have studied at Daxia National University for a period of time, they have never grasped the profound meaning of them, and they just recited them by rote and forced them to learn.

The educational effect of this kind is definitely not good. In Qin Bingzhong's opinion, if these three subjects are to be taught well, it will take at least two generations of study.

Qin Bingzhong's point of view was not wrong. After Fu Xiaoguan proposed educational reform, the three prime ministers and Wen Xingzhou all raised objections. Therefore, Fu Xiaoguan included Chinese studies in the imperial examinations again, but the other three natural sciences must also be tested. Finally, talents were selected based on the total scores of the four subjects.

It was indeed too urgent. He was the one who led the compilation of those math, physics and chemistry textbooks. Even if he was once a top student, how much could he remember after so many years?

So these teaching materials are at most equivalent to the junior high school level in the previous life, but he is the only one who understands these things!

Without teachers, how can we teach students?

He was forced to give detailed explanations of these teaching materials, which took up a lot of his time but achieved little results.

But he still persisted, because he expected that one day someone in Daxia would be hit by an apple and then think about why the apple fell down instead of flying into the sky.

This is the enlightenment of natural science. It is like a seed. Although the soil is not suitable for the growth of the seed, it may still take root, sprout and grow into a towering tree.

Qin Bingzhong didn't know about Fu Xiaoguan's thoughts. He thought this was a bit ridiculous, so he thought about writing a letter to Fu Xiaoguan, saying that students have limited energy, so they should not learn such strange and tricky things.

Just at this moment, Qin Ruoxue walked in covered in snow.

Her face was filled with joy. She took off her straw hat and raincoat and hung them on the wall. She sat down beside Qin Bingzhong, stretched out her hands to warm the fire, and said with a smile: "Grandpa, I have invented a very powerful cannon. The test firing was successful yesterday, but it still needs further improvement. I think it is more powerful than my brother's third-generation red cannon!"

Qin Bingzhong also smiled kindly. None of his grandson and granddaughter followed the route he had originally thought of. According to Qin Bingzhong's previous ideas, they had gone astray.

If it weren't for Fu Xiaoguan, he would even think that these grandchildren were simply not doing their jobs properly - instead of taking the imperial examinations, they were obsessed with those weird things. What kind of future could they have?

But now it seems that the path they chose was the right one. They like it and have made considerable achievements on this path.

"Isn't it just a cannon? What new things can you come up with?"

"Grandpa, you don't know this. The red cannon my brother got is a muzzle-loading cannon... which means the ammunition is loaded from the muzzle."

Talking about her professional matters, Qin Ruoxue's face was full of light and she talked freely:

"Of course, this type of cannon is no problem on land, but it presents a major problem on ships. If you want to fire the shells farther, you have to lengthen the barrel. A longer barrel makes it difficult to turn and reload ammunition on board a ship. The gun base on a ship is fixed, and the barrel can only be rotated. Due to the ship's structure, the barrel of the Red Cannon cannot be lengthened. This is its biggest flaw!"

"So, I've been researching rear-loading cannons. Ammunition is loaded from the back of the cannon, so there's no need to rotate the cannon. This not only reduces loading time, but also allows us to lengthen the barrel, allowing our cannon to fire further!"

"Hehe, granddaughter, am I awesome?"

Qin Ruoxue craned her neck, waiting for her grandfather's praise. Qin Bingzhong laughed, "Of course my granddaughter is the most amazing, but... what is your attitude towards that brat Yan Xiwen?"

"You two are already grown up. Grandpa thinks that even if you want to pursue scientific research, it won't affect your marriage, right? Besides, His Majesty is calling for a third child, and you haven't even started yet!"

Qin Ruoxue blushed immediately. She lowered her head, bit her lip, and whispered, "That guy... is okay."

Qin Bingzhong was overjoyed. "Then I will reply to Master Yan and ask him to come and propose marriage in person. We can choose a date for you to get married!"

"Ruoxue, now that you're married, Grandpa has nothing to worry about. Yan Xiwen is the governor of Tailin City, so there's no way he'll come to Xishan again. But His Majesty is interested in training Yan Xiwen, so he might be transferred to Guanyun City in a few years... You, you can settle down in Guanyun City then."

Qin Ruoxue raised her head and said firmly, "No, this breech-loading cannon still has many problems that need to be improved. Even if we want to get married, we have to wait until I perfect this cannon. Besides...Grandpa, I won't go to Guanyun City either. I'll stay in Xishan. Here I have you, and here is the Xishan Research Institute!"

"I, I can't bear to leave."

"But you're a girl. Once you get married, you belong to the Yan family. How can you live apart from each other?"

"Then I'd rather not marry!"

"you……!"

Qin Bingzhong was so angry that he blew his beard and glared, but Qin Ruoxue's eyes fell on the newspaper. She took it and took a look. For a moment, her eyes suddenly sparkled:

"Grandpa, your Majesty's chess game is simply a stroke of genius!"

"What chess?"

"Science exam reform! Math, physics, and chemistry are so incredibly important! Xishan Institute of Science is desperately short of talent like this, so much so that I have to do a lot of the calculations myself. But, but my math, physics, and chemistry aren't great either!"

"Is this thing useful?"

Qin Ruoxue nodded firmly. "Yes, it will be of great use! By the way, I need to ask His Majesty how to solve the problem of sealing the breech-loading gunfire and explosive gas. I've calculated for a long time, but the thrust is not enough, resulting in a serious lack of range."