Just after the silkworm disease was over, the summer flood arrived in the south of the Yangtze River.

The rainfall in the fourth year of Longqing was much greater than in previous years, but the water level of Taihu Lake never rose above the warning line.

This is of course due to the Taihu water conservancy project that Hai Gong built with all his efforts last winter and this spring. Today, six major waterways in Taihu Lake, namely the Huangpu River, Wusong River, Baimao River, Taipu River, Wangyu River and Lou River, discharge floodwaters simultaneously, which greatly ensures the safety of the coast around Taihu Lake during the flood season.

However, the counties of Suzhou and Songjiang still dared not be careless, because the production capacity of Jiangnan Cement Factory was limited, and a considerable part of the river embankment was still earth dam. Moreover, even if it was a cement embankment, if the water level continued to rise, there was still a danger of overflowing the embankment, so sandbags had to be used to raise the height when necessary.

But as time went by, the newly built dam withstood the test, and the dam protection team was idle most of the time. So the counties withdrew the strong laborers from the work and replaced them with the elderly and young boys to patrol the dam. The men would go back to the dam when they found dangerous conditions or when the weather station on Dongshan predicted heavy rain.

Yes, Wuzhong already has a weather station, its full name is Nanjing Qintianjian Suzhou Meteorological Station.

Mr. Zhao’s oldest disciple, Lao Denuo... Oh no, Bei Peijia followed him south and has been the director of the Nanjing Imperial Observatory for two years.

In the past two years, Bei Peijia has completely gotten rid of the heavy and risky work of observing the stars and predicting good and bad luck for the court. She can finally serve her young master wholeheartedly and explore the true meaning of the universe.

In fact, I am just working like a slave for my master...

However, Zhao Hao did not let him work like a slave alone.

When Master Zhao asked Bei Peijia to go south to take up the post, he actually had his eyes on the astronomers and astronomers at the Nanjing Imperial Observatory.

The Imperial Astronomical Observatory was responsible for astronomical divination, calendar formulation, solar term calculation, date selection, time reporting, etc. It was a highly technical department. And because it had the special task of "seeing through the secrets of heaven", it was naturally treated specially by the court.

In the sixth year of Hongwu, the domineering Emperor Taizu stipulated that the personnel of the Imperial Observatory "are never allowed to move, and their descendants are only allowed to learn astronomy and calendar calculation, and are not allowed to learn other subjects; those who do not learn will be exiled to the South China Sea"!

Therefore, the officials of the Imperial Astronomical Observatory, the "astronomers" in charge of astronomical divination, and the "yin-yang people" in charge of choosing auspicious days and fortune-telling were classified as "yin-yang households", and their family name and business would never change.

Thus, the seven great imperial families, Bei, Wang, Ni, Gao, Song, Yang, and Xu, were formed. Over the past two hundred years, seven or eight generations have multiplied and there are thousands of people...

The children of these families studied astronomy, calendar, arithmetic and divination from generation to generation. Some learned foreign languages ​​in order to compile astronomy and calendar books from Persia. They also learned mechanics to repair the various complex astronomical and time-telling devices of the Imperial Observatory... In fact, they knew more than the scholars of the Ming Dynasty, but they could not serve in the army or take the imperial examinations, and their employment prospects were very narrow... Apart from accepting the duties of the Imperial Observatory in the two capitals of the north and the south, they served as yin and yang officials in the yin and yang schools in the princes' palaces, local prefectures, states, and counties, and received meager salaries.

There are limited jobs, but the population of Yin and Yang households is increasing day by day. Now 70% of the idle people can only find ways to make a living. Those who study astronomy and calendar work as accountants for shops; those who study astrology and divination tell fortunes and read faces; those who study geomancy help people choose feng shui and graves; those who study divination and witchcraft draw talismans and cure diseases... This business is very profitable, but the premise is that you don't cure people to death.

In fact, the professional level of these ways of making a living is not important, what is important is to be able to deceive people. Those who can deceive people will become rich, while those who cannot deceive people will die of poverty. And the number of people who have the high-end talent of "deceiving people" is always less than one in a hundred. Therefore, 99% of the Yin-Yang households have no food to eat.

Especially in Nanjing, the Yin-Yang households that were completely forgotten by the imperial court were extremely poor. They even melted down and sold the copper of the gnomon and armillary sphere made by Zhu Yuanzhang...

When Zhao Hao gave his students their first science lesson at Yuhuatai, he had already learned about the miserable state of these marginalized people. After hearing their basic situation, tears began to flow down his face... These were thousands of science students who had studied astronomy, geography, mathematics, astronomy, geomagnetism, and mechanical manufacturing since childhood.

In the Ming Dynasty, which only produced liberal arts students, virginity was as precious as a virgin in the Kingdom of Women.

Young Master Zhao swore to make everyone happy, so he always kept these hermaphrodites in mind and sent his disciples to rescue them whenever he had the chance... but he didn't want to take advantage of their bodies.

~~

But sometimes, ideals are full and reality is skinny...

Although Bei Peijia was born in the Bei family, the first family of Ming Dynasty metaphysics, their branch became Beijingers during the reign of Emperor Chengzu. To be honest, he didn't know the situation of these imperial astronomical families in Nanjing.

When he arrived in Nanjing and checked everything out, he was disappointed. Because they had been marginalized for a long time, most of these Nanjing hermaphrodites were just learning blindly and their skills were not good enough.

What was even more unsolvable was the attitude problem. After a long time of idling around, people were tired. No matter how much Bei Peijia talked and shouted, she couldn't wake up these guys who were pretending to be asleep.

As a last resort, he had to use his trump card - spending money lavishly!

Bei Peijia applied for a sum of funds from his master and established the Purple Mountain Astronomical Research Foundation outside the rotten Nanjing Imperial Observatory.

Because private research on astronomy and calendar is taboo, the foundation is not affiliated with the Jiangnan Group. It is a non-profit organization nominally established by Bei Peijia with funds raised to improve the level of astronomical research of the Nanjing Imperial Observatory and the Ming Dynasty Yin-Yang House.

Zhao Hao would allocate 20,000 taels of silver to Bei Peijia every year as the daily expenses for running the foundation. If there were scientific research projects commissioned, there would be special funding, of course, in the form of social donations. In order to make everything more natural, Zhao Hao also brought in Wang Mengxiang, Hua Bozhen and other big dog owners as sponsors for Bei Peijia.

Even famous Qinhuai prostitutes such as Xuelang and Zheng Yanru were deceived by Master Zhao out of a thousand taels of silver each... At that time, Zhao Hao spread the word through the Red Mansion Poetry Society that as long as they donated a thousand taels of silver, the Astronomical Research Society would name a newly discovered star after them in the future!

How romantic it is! Even the most beautiful woman will eventually wither, but the stars are immortal! One thousand taels won't buy you any loss or deception. It's just a few boxes of perfume and a few sets of jewelry. How can you miss the chance to shine with the Weaver Girl Chang'e?

The ladies of Qinhuai were moved, and thought that Mr. Zhao was so romantic. So they generously took off their clothes... oh no, opened their wallets. As a result, the funds raised by the Purple Mountain Astronomical Research Foundation suddenly soared to 80,000 taels.

Well, the famous prostitutes haven't made a penny from Mr. Zhao yet, so they let him open his business first.

"Teacher, you have been really worried and heartbroken for the Ming Dynasty's astronomy..."

But while the old disciple was happy, he was also a little worried. In the future, the names of prostitutes would be everywhere. She was not afraid of being poked by the master, but she was afraid of being executed by the emperor...

Zhao Hao scolded him for being stubborn. He insisted on naming it after a star? Aren't the 1.27 million asteroids in the solar system stars? Not to mention the famous prostitutes in Qinhuai River, even if it was the Taishan nun, the West Lake boat girl, the Yangzhou skinny horse, the Datong woman... or even the prostitutes in the world, one would be enough... right?

In short, with money, things would be much easier. Bei Peijia left the rotten Nanjing Imperial Observatory aside and devoted himself to running the Purple Mountain Research Society.

He issued a recruitment order to all the major astronomical families - there was no extra rhetoric, only a plain and boring price list:

Recruiting senior researchers with a monthly salary of fifty taels of silver.

Intermediate researcher, monthly salary twenty taels of silver.

Junior researcher, monthly salary of ten taels of silver.

Assistant researcher, monthly salary five taels of silver.

Graduate students have a monthly salary of three taels of silver.

This silver-shining recruitment order was like a huge rock thrown into a pool of stagnant water.

After all, even the lowest-paid graduate students earn twice as much as a skilled craftsman in Nanjing. And they pay their salaries at the end of every month, without delay. It's not like setting up a street stall before, where if it's windy, you get half the salary, and if it rains, you get nothing...

The major astronomical families were in an uproar, and the long-numbed Yin-Yang people rushed to fill out the application forms, wanting to become a glorious researcher.

But they had to take the entrance examination first, which consisted of four subjects: arithmetic, astronomy, geography, and meteorology, all of which were the skills that Yin-Yang people relied on to make a living. More than 2,000 Yin-Yang people signed up with full confidence, but only 300 were admitted.

Among them, a dozen old hermaphrodites who were indeed experts in this field were hired as junior researchers to work under the direct leadership of Bei Peijia.

Dozens of Zhongyinyang people with solid foundation and hard work were hired as assistant researchers to assist junior researchers in their work.

There are also more than 200 young hermaphrodites who are interested in this field and are smart and capable of development. They have become graduate students taught by Bei Peijia himself... They are the real hope. As for the researchers who were recruited, Bei Peijia was not satisfied. Their knowledge system was too old, and the older they got, the more stubborn they became. The more knowledge they had, the more reactionary they became.

Bei Peijia hired them for two reasons: first, to buy horse bones with a huge sum of money, and second, to use them as manpower... because the tasks assigned by the master were too tight.

After two months of intensive training for these people, he started a series of research projects according to Zhao Hao's orders, including:

Use astronomical telescopes to conduct astronomical observations and try to verify the laws governing the operation of the universe as described in the Mathematical Principles of Natural Science.

He sorted out the vast amount of astronomical data from the Imperial Astronomical Observatory and attempted to compile a star catalog.

The star map was redrawn using Pei Xiu's cartographic sextet, and a longitude and latitude grid system was established.

Moreover, Mr. Zhao had an old habit of acting on his ideas. Whenever he came up with an idea, he would immediately ask Secretary Ma to write a letter to add to his responsibilities.

Later, he was assigned to make a trial octant, compile an astronomical calendar to match the marine clock, study weather forecasts, and even typhoon warnings, and other tasks that were increasingly irrelevant to the Imperial Observatory...

But there was no other way. The master's orders were as heavy as a mountain. Bei Peijia had no choice but to grit her teeth and persevere in carrying out the difficult tasks one by one. So far, it can be considered fruitful.

ps. My mother is going to have a minor surgery. I went to the hospital today to discuss things and only finished writing one chapter. I will continue writing, but I will definitely not be able to finish it. I will post it tomorrow morning...