After accidentally revealing the secret of nitrocellulose when introducing cotton linter to Zhao Shizhen last time, Zhao Hao made up his mind to keep the secret strictly.

The reason can be summed up in four words: 'maintaining the generation gap'.

As a charlatan with great prophetic powers... oh no, a scientist, no one knows better than Zhao Hao that after the Industrial Revolution, the development of science and technology and productivity is no longer linear. Every technological breakthrough has led to a "leapfrog" improvement in productivity.

This results in a "generation gap" in the combat effectiveness of the party that has completed the "crossing level" compared to the opponent who is still at the original level.

Generation gap, what a despairing word! Once a generation gap is formed, all advantages, such as timing, location, and people, are useless. What awaits the lagging party is only failure, repeated failure. Only when it completes the "leap" can it catch up with the advanced party and compete with the other party fairly.

Therefore, the lagging party will try to bridge the generation gap at all costs. This is a truth that even the Qing Dynasty knows.

Therefore, Zhao Hao is convinced that any invention that will cause a generation gap, once put into large-scale application, will inevitably be reverse engineered and copied by opponents, sooner or later.

After all, the Ming Dynasty is not playing a single-player game. The other two superpowers on earth in this era, the Ottoman Empire and Spain, are at their peak.

In addition to the global empire of Spain and the intercontinental empire of the Ottoman Empire, there is also France, which is competing with Spain for hegemony on the European continent, and the Netherlands and England, which are about to rise.

Oh, by the way, there are also the Portuguese, who share the world equally with Spain.

Zhao Hao's sights have never been limited to the Ming Dynasty. He knows very well that if he wants to embrace the Age of Discovery, he will inevitably become rivals with these countries.

Zhao Hao knew very well that he was not a genius. If he were a genius, he would not be so often frustrated by his students.

All he relies on comes from the great prophecy. As he, like a butterfly, continues to flap his wings, history will eventually take a path that is completely unfamiliar to him.

At that time, all historical knowledge was no longer valid, and only technology could still be his support.

Therefore, Zhao Hao must be cautious about these key technologies that will cause a "generation gap".

After all, being two generations ahead will not bring a greater overwhelming advantage than being one generation ahead. If you want to enjoy the generation gap bonus for a longer period of time, you should keep your new technology secret as much as possible and delay the introduction of new technology.

In Zhao Hao's opinion, as long as he can always maintain an overwhelming advantage over the enemy, it will be enough. If he rashly uses unnecessary advanced technology, it will only shorten the time for the opponent to catch up and make the opponent take fewer detours, which will definitely be harmful to himself.

If he could keep Ming at least two hundred years ahead of Europe, then no matter what his own fate might be, the final victory would definitely belong to Ming.

This is the 'finite generation gap theory' that Mr. Zhao established and practiced throughout his life.

Of course, in the eyes of Westerners, this theory is almost as notorious as his name, so it is also called "the solar curse that has shrouded Europe for four hundred years."

In fact, even among the historians of later Ming Dynasty, his theory has received mixed reviews... Especially in the eyes of those idiots who clamored that "science has no borders", his narrow nationalism has hindered the progress of all mankind.

Fortunately, Master Zhao had already passed away by then, otherwise he would have jumped out of his coffin in anger and beaten these unworthy descendants in the Longqing style.

Life is too easy and it breeds stupid people. This is true for everyone...

~~

So no matter how hard Zhao Shizhen begged, Zhao Hao refused to reveal a single word.

This is not about trust, but about unshakable principles.

Seeing the two of them finish their conversation, Zhao Shizhen sank into the water unhappily, gurgling and spitting bubbles. Li Chengen walked to Zhao Hao's side with his long legs, and then sat down.

"Have a drink." Li Chengen handed the celadon cup to Zhao Hao.

"I'm still young." Zhao Hao naturally didn't take it. He glanced at the drunken young master, who started drinking when he was twelve or thirteen years old.

But Zhao Hao respects other people's lifestyles. Even if Li Chengen goes to a brothel, he won't say a word.

Li Chengen also glanced at Zhao Hao and said meaningfully, "Not small anymore."

"Go to hell." Zhao Hao quickly covered his vital parts with a bath towel.

"Hahahaha..." Li Chengen burst into laughter, tilted his head back to drink up the wine in the glass, threw the porcelain wine glass into the hot spring pool, then spread his arms comfortably and sat against the pool wall.

"I want to tell you something serious." He suddenly lowered his voice: "A certain Zhao is not doing things in a very authentic way!"

Zhao Hao's heart tightened, thinking to himself, could it be that my father's crime has been exposed? He quickly kicked Zhao Shizhen, who was still blowing bubbles underwater, away and said with a forced smile, "Everyone has the freedom to choose his own lifestyle. It's better for the younger generation not to interfere."

"Uh..." Li Chengen was stunned for a moment before he said in surprise, "Yes, I admit that you are older than me, but at best you are my brother. When did you become my elder?"

"What? You are younger than my uncle?" Xiwa was furious when she heard that, and came over to settle the score. "You keep saying you are my uncle! How dare you take advantage of me!"

"It doesn't make much difference." Li Chengen kicked Xiwa away.

"Ahem..." Zhao Hao coughed awkwardly and said, "Hey, so you were talking about me."

"Who else can I say? Of course it's you!" Li Chengen said with a look on his face, "The old senior is such a good person. I love him so much that I can't say anything about him."

"Okay, I misunderstood." Zhao Hao wiped his sweat with a dry cotton towel and laughed dryly, "What's going on? I'm listening to you."

"What else could it be? My sister!" The sister-con raised her voice, staring at Zhao Hao with mixed feelings, "She came all the way from Beijing to see you. It's been more than half a month, but you never took her to your house once. She wanted to go to pay a visit to your grandfather, and you stopped her! This is too much!"

Zhao Hao wiped the saliva that sprayed on his face and smiled bitterly: "I have already explained this matter to Mingyue, and I have obtained her understanding. Didn't you hear what she said?"

"Uh..." Li Chengen thought to himself, why are you bringing up this issue? Don't I want to live anymore?

But how could he let others know that his sister had something to hide from him? He laughed dryly and said, "I said so. But I drank too much and my memory is not good, so I forgot it."

"Then there's no need to tell you again. You'll forget it anyway." Zhao Hao laughed.

After all, he himself still hadn't figured out what kind of deep hatred there was between his grandfather and his godmother...

“Uh…” Li Chengen scratched his head and said with a smile, “Forget it.” Then he widened his eyes again and said, “Don’t let my sister feel wronged, understand?!”

"Mingyue is also my sister. I would rather let her down than let myself down." Zhao Hao said lightly.

"But she doesn't just want to be your sister..." Li Chengen looked depressed and muttered softly.

"I know." Zhao Hao did not avoid the question.

"Uh, you knew?" Li Chengen was startled, then smiled awkwardly, "That's right, she wanted to let the whole Ming Dynasty know. How could you not know?"

"Yeah." Zhao Hao looked up at the bright moon in the sky and smiled bitterly.

"So what do you think?" Li Chengen lowered his voice and asked anxiously.

"I just said that." Zhao Hao replied.

"You..." Li Chengen seemed relieved, but also said with a grim look: "You mean, you don't have that kind of intention towards her?"

"How old is she? Fifteen!" Zhao Hao said as if it was a matter of course: "If I had those thoughts about her, wouldn't I be a beast?"

ps. Today is the first of three consecutive updates. Please give me your monthly votes!