Chapter 1615 Star Change Fire
On the night of the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, the square in front of the "Science Ball" at Xiangshan Academy was crowded with people.
More than 600 science students who were currently studying or returning to school after graduation were breathing out white air, stamping their feet, and all raised their heads, staring at the southwest sky without blinking.
When the big comet with a pale tail arrived as expected, thunderous cheers rang out in the academy.
"Science, science!" The students jumped and threw their cotton hats and leather hats into the sky, venting their excitement at the moment.
"True knowledge lies only in science!"
"Without science, the world would be as dark as night!"
As the saying goes, seeing is believing. Although the disciples have studied science for years, many of them are still confined to the old cage, dare not or are unwilling to break through the shackles of traditional thinking, and only regard science as a stepping stone to the imperial examination.
Because those concepts and cognitions that seemed absurd, ignorant and ridiculous to Zhao Hao were, for people of this era, the original order that had maintained the world running for thousands of years.
It is very painful to break your original understanding of the world. For many scholars, it is even destroying their inner world, so they do not have the courage to truly believe in science, but just pretend to believe in it in order to get into a prestigious school.
Therefore, Zhao Hao summoned all his disciples in Beijing to Xiangshan Academy. In addition to letting them escape from the vortex, he also wanted to use this rare astronomical wonder to give those disciples who were still unsteady in their hearts a shocking collective baptism!
The sponsor of Xiangshan Academy is the wealthy Xishan Group. When it was built six years ago, an observatory was established in the name of the Imperial Astronomical Observatory. In recent years, 20 refracting telescopes and eight reflecting telescopes have been purchased from the Jiangnan Precision Instrument Factory.
The difference between the two types of telescopes is that the refractive telescope has small aberrations but has chromatic aberrations and is more expensive as it gets larger. The reflecting telescope has no chromatic aberrations, is cheap to make, and the reflector can be made very large, but it has aberrations.
In order to observe this once-in-a-century comet, Bei Peijia invested a lot of money and developed three catadioptric telescopes that combined the advantages of two telescopes according to the design ideas given by his master. This telescope has strong light power and a wide visible range. It also solves chromatic aberration and aberration, making it particularly suitable for patrol observations of meteors, comets, etc., as well as astronomical science activities. It was named "Bei Peijia Telescope" by Zhao Hao.
There are three Beipeijia telescopes, one is located at Purple Mountain Observatory, one is at Yufeng Academy, and the other is right here.
In fact, the students had locked onto this comet through a telescope twenty days ago.
Because according to the description in "A Brief Knowledge of Nature", when a comet gradually approaches the sun, its frozen surface begins to evaporate, forming a huge comet head or coma, which suddenly increases the brightness of the comet.
At the same time, strong solar radiation and solar wind will force the dust particles and gases on the comet to form two comet tails facing away from the sun. The comet tail formed by dust particles is shorter, curved, thicker and yellowish, while the comet tail formed by gas is longer, straighter, thinner and bluer.
When a comet passes Mars, its tail begins to form. Until the perihelion, the comet produces the most gas and the tail is the longest. Then, as the comet moves away from the sun, the tail gradually shortens and disappears...
Therefore, more than 20 telescopes of Xiangshan Academy have been staring at the direction of Mars. As expected, they discovered the shadow of the comet 20 days ago. Through continuous observation day by day, they witnessed the whole process of its tail gradually forming, bifurcating, and lengthening...
Until tonight, you can clearly see it with your naked eyes, without a telescope!
The astronomical phenomena witnessed in recent days have eloquently demonstrated that comets are not some bad omen from God at all, but are celestial bodies composed of ice, gas and dust, and revolve around the sun like the five major planets!
Because the continuously observed movement trajectory of comets is an ellipse with the sun as the focus, this proves the correctness of the law of universal gravitation!
The disciples even calculated the altitude of the comet and the time when it would disappear from sight - which would have to be after the Lantern Festival next year!
Through this series of observations and studies, the disciples successfully demystified the comet, and in their hearts, they completely said goodbye to the connection between heaven and man, and began to truly reshape their worldview with science...
At this time, people did not know that this change would have far-reaching impacts, and even directly shook the foundation of the dynasty's rule. It would take several years for the change in thinking to create a clear crack in the social system that had been closed for thousands of years...
Because there are still very few people who believe in science. Even in the officialdom of the capital city where scientists are most concentrated, the vast majority of officials still firmly believe in the theory of the connection between heaven and man.
Therefore, the news that science accurately predicted the appearance of a comet did not at all dilute the panic of superstitious people, and what was supposed to happen still happened.
The next morning, Wanli ordered the Ministry of Rites to inform all palaces and temples, asking God to calm his anger.
The government and the public were also in a state of panic, and people in the streets and alleys were discussing this ominous omen. That afternoon, someone linked the big comet to the recent heated debate about the seizure of love. It was said that Mr. Zhang was reluctant to mourn, which violated the principles of heaven and human ethics, and thus caused a warning from the heavens. If he did not correct himself quickly, a great disaster would surely befall him!
At nightfall, the comet appeared again, still with its long tail, looking pale and terrifying.
That night, the Forbidden City was flooded. At the second watch, a beam of fire shot up from the Yihe Pavilion in the northeast corner of the Forbidden City.
The weather was dry in autumn, and the golden wind howled. The Summer Palace quickly turned into a sea of fire, and then spread to the Hall of Joy and Longevity, the Hall of Mental Cultivation, and the Palace of Tranquility and Longevity. The entire northeastern part of the Forbidden City was enveloped in blazing flames. The fire soared into the sky, shining with the huge comet in the sky, which was extremely terrifying.
Ningshou Palace was the real sleeping palace of Empress Dowager Li, and all the eunuchs and guards of the Forbidden City rushed to put out the fire. Fortunately, the palace had become rich in recent years, and Zhang Xianggong was very thoughtful, and he installed enough water tanks, water dragons and other fire-fighting facilities in the palace. With their efforts to put out the fire, the fire did not spread...
Empress Dowager Li and Emperor Wanli were naturally alarmed, although the fire was still far from the Qianqing Palace. But for safety reasons, Feng Bao and Empress Dowager Li's brother Li Jin asked the mother and daughter to move to the Cining Palace on the west side to take shelter with Empress Dowager Chen.
Empress Dowager Chen has been a vegetarian and chanting Buddhist scriptures for nearly twenty years. Compared with her, Empress Dowager Li is just a younger sister.
Moreover, Empress Dowager Chen's health has improved a lot in recent years, but she did not thank Jiangnan Hospital for promoting the improvement of medical and health care levels. Instead, she believed that this was the result of her years of practice and charity, and finally the blessing of Bodhisattva, so she became even more superstitious.
When she learned about the fire in the Qingshou Palace, she said in a mysterious voice that it was caused by an unlucky star and that it was a warning from God to the emperor to cultivate virtue and be cautious.
Wanli was almost scared to death when he heard this, even though he was already fifteen years old. But he still couldn't bear to hear that God had specially created a comet to entertain him.
Empress Dowager Li was not very happy to hear this, and thought to herself, "According to what you mean, my son is not virtuous and cautious?"
"Emperor, don't blame yourself. You haven't taken charge of the government yet." Seeing Wanli's pale face, Empress Dowager Chen hurriedly took his hand and comforted him, "It's not your fault even if God blames you."
"That's good, that's good." Wanli breathed a sigh of relief and went to bed happily.
Empress Dowager Li was so frightened that her lips turned purple. Oh my god, that's my responsibility?
"Don't be too scared, sister. When will it be our turn as women to make decisions on worldly affairs?" Empress Dowager Chen looked at her meaningfully, comforted her, and then suggested, "Why don't we chant sutras together to ward off disasters?"
"Okay." Empress Dowager Li nodded in response, and the two Empress Dowagers chanted sutras in front of the Guanyin statue until dawn.
After daybreak, Li Jin came in with a dusty face to report that the fire was basically out and his sister's Ningshou Palace was saved...
"Thank God, thank the Buddha." Empress Dowager Li's eyes immediately turned red, and she kowtowed to Guanyin repeatedly. If her Ningshou Palace was burned down, it would be easy for her to decide where to live after the emperor's wedding next year. The key point was that she couldn't afford to lose face.
"It's just that the Ningshou Palace garden was burned down." Li Jin swallowed his saliva and said, "The trees and the Buddhist temple inside were all burned down..."
"What?" Empress Dowager Li froze. That Buddhist temple was built for her by Zhang Xianggong at great expense! Just the purchase of golden nanmu and red sandalwood cost one million taels. The pure gold statue of Bodhisattva inside was also made in her image.
This made her feel more heartbroken and terrified than burning down the Ningshou Palace...
"Oh, sister..." Empress Dowager Chen sighed and shook her head.
Empress Dowager Li collapsed in front of the statue of Avalokitesvara.
~~
The next day, Emperor Wanli ordered the Ministry of Rites to hold a three-day ceremony at Chaotian Palace, as the astrological changes had not yet been resolved and there was a fire in the Forbidden City. He also notified all palaces and temples, and ordered all officials to correct their mistakes, suspend executions, and ban slaughter.
Zhang Xianggong also submitted a petition for the fourth time, asking the emperor to let him return home to observe the mourning period, citing the reasons of astrological changes, and asked the emperor to let him go back home to observe the mourning period.
However, Wanli immediately issued an order to retain Zhang, saying that Xunzi said, "Eclipses of the sun and moon, untimely winds and rains, and the appearance of strange stars are common in every age. If the ruler is wise and the government is peaceful, even if there are eclipses, there will be no harm; if the ruler is dark and the government is dangerous, even if there are no eclipses, there will be no benefit." He also ordered him to "not bother to make further requests" and ordered the Imperial Household Department to directly reject any resignation petitions from Zhang.
Seeing that the father and son were trying to get away with the change in the stars, the officials were not happy. They said, since the strange stars did no harm, why did the emperor hold a ceremony to apologize, ask all officials to correct their mistakes, and even forbid the killing of pigs?
This is clearly a contradiction. It must be Zhang Xianggong who instigated his student emperor to change his words. Isn't this just for Zhang Juzheng alone, fooling God? Is the Ming Dynasty still good?
Now everyone believed that the emperor was just a puppet of Zhang Xianggong. The officials were filled with righteous indignation, beating their chests and stamping their feet, shouting in grief that the country would no longer exist! They did not care at all about the fact that this was the best era for the Ming Dynasty in a hundred years...
There were even many big-character posters on the streets, criticizing Zhang Juzheng for being disloyal to the emperor and his father, being corrupt, lustful and immoral, and incurring the wrath of heaven and the resentment of the people!
Mr. Zhang turned a deaf ear to all this and waited for the star changes to pass, then all the rumors would be proven wrong.
However, the tree wants to be still but the wind does not stop. How can those people miss this God-given opportunity?
When the campaign was over, the fatal impeachment came...
(End of this chapter)