New Shun 1730

Not all emperors like to act arrogant, but Li Gan is undoubtedly one of them, at least Liu Yu thinks so.

He has long been eyeing the foreign academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

In the next twenty years, the Western French Party, the Conservative Party, the German Party, the Russian Party, foreign women, foreign women's lovers, local nobles... will make the Russian political situation a mess, especially when the little tsar dies and the Privy Council invites the German widow back to be the tsar.

Scientists also need to eat, want to live a good life, and research also requires a stable environment.

Since this group of people can go to the wild Russia, if Dashun offers better conditions, they will definitely be willing to come.

It's not that Liu Yu is not confident, but in front of the real big shot, his strength does not allow him to be confident.

People like Euler... blinded by their brilliance.

A strong man who, by his own efforts, instilled mathematical traditions into the Russian Academy of Sciences and made Russian mathematics strong for hundreds of years, would undoubtedly be extremely beneficial if he could deceive or hire the capital and really realize Leibniz's idea of ​​the Beijing Academy of Sciences.

More realistically, Dashun wanted to develop the South China Sea, prosper the navy, and get the last dish of Australia in the last glimmer of the Age of Discovery, so Euler was even more needed.

Because... navigation.

Newton and other "older generations" made sextants, and latitude navigation was no longer a problem.

There is the Southern Cross in the south and the North Star in the north. You can tell where the north and south directions are by looking at the stars.

Knowing the north and south, and then knowing the east and west, you can know your specific position on the earth.

This is indispensable for navigation without reference objects, and it is also the only way for Dashun's navigation to break away from the needle path song and island jumping method.

Euler is the key figure in solving this problem.

There are three schools of thought in general to solve the longitude problem.

Witchcraft school.

Technical school.

Mathematics school.

The UK has now offered a reward of 20,000 pounds to anyone who can solve the problem of longitude measurement. It is about the equivalent of 8,000 taels of gold.

The solution given by the witch school is this:

The witch school believes that twin brothers have telepathy, whether they are humans or dogs. So, raise a litter of dogs and let these puppies grow up together. Then when going out to sea, let the crew take a dog with them. Every day at midnight in London, use a needle to prick the dog brothers who are left on land.

They believe that the dog brothers on the ship will have telepathy and then scream.

The crew hears the dog barking, and by observing the sun, they can determine the local time, and by the time difference, they can determine their longitude.

Obviously, the witch school can't get the 20,000 pounds. Because it's pure bullshit.

The technical school thinks that this is simple. As long as I make a clock that keeps accurate time regardless of bumps, cold and heat, seawater erosion, salinity, ship steering, etc., and according to the time difference between local time and London time, wouldn't it solve the problem of longitude measurement?

However... it's not simple. At least at this time, no one has done it.

Dashun's mechanical manufacturing technology was backward, and this thing was also considered as "strange skills and lewd tricks".

Moreover, Liu Yu did not think he could convince the emperor to take out the 8,000 taels of gold, 20,000 pounds of rewards, and royal honors from the treasury to recruit such a lowly craftsman.

If so, it would undoubtedly cause an uproar, and people would think that Dashun was learning from the Mongols and letting craftsmen climb to such a high level.

Liu Yu did not dare to light this fire at this time, as it would be easy to burn himself to death.

Moreover, it would probably be useless if he did, as Dashun's watchmaking level was too far behind.

The witchcraft school was not good, and the technical school Dashun had no chance, so only the mathematics school was left.

There is always a "number" in the six arts of Confucianism, and the voice of opposition can be much smaller.

It is said that when Niu Jueye first came into contact with this problem, he thought that this problem was very simple. As long as an accurate star map and the orbit of the moon were drawn, wouldn't it be solved? Then... he went to busy himself with theology and stock speculation.

The mathematics school now has a solution.

This solution requires three things.

An accurate star map of the northern hemisphere.

An accurate star map of the southern hemisphere.

Calculation of the moon's orbit and calculus.

As the saying goes, without madness, one cannot become a saint.

The pursuit of science makes many scientists act a little crazy.

Flamsteed, who founded the Greenwich Observatory, looked up at the starry sky for twenty years, and stood on the shoulders of giants to draw a highly accurate northern hemisphere star map.

But he was a "true Virgo with obsessive-compulsive perfectionism", and thought that the star map he drew was not extremely perfect, so he refused to publish it and had to be perfect.

It is said that in mechanics and mathematics, if Newton is not born, the world will be like a long night. But Sir Newton's character is really a bit...

In order to get this star map, Newton asked Halley, the Halley's Comet, to steal Flamsteed's northern hemisphere star map.

As a result, Flamsteed, due to his obsessive-compulsive perfectionist personality, burned a lot of the northern star map.

It was not until a few years ago when he died that his descendants and disciples published this star map. Sir Newton plagiarized some of his achievements and decisively deleted Flamsteed from the citation list when the second edition of "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" was published.

Now that the "academic tycoon" Newton has died, the "British Star Catalog" for the northern hemisphere compiled by his descendants has just been published.

One of the three problems of the mathematical school has been solved.

The star map of the southern hemisphere is the second difficult problem for the mathematics school. There was a French "madman" named Lacarre who ran to the Cape of Good Hope, which was still desolate at that time, in order to draw an accurate star map of the southern hemisphere.

He lived alone there for more than ten years and finally completed the star catalog of the southern hemisphere.

The second problem of the mathematics school was also solved.

The only remaining problem was the third one: the accurate orbit of the moon.

If these two star maps could have been published thirty years earlier, perhaps Newton would have been able to make up his mind to calculate the moon problem.

But these two maps were just published, and Newton had just died last spring. It is said that if one butcher is missing, he can still eat hairless meat, but in science, sometimes it is really difficult to eat hairless meat if one butcher is missing.

The calculation of the lunar orbit inevitably involves the "three-body problem", because in addition to the moon and the earth, there is also a sun involved.

The three-body problem is difficult.

Euler was the first person to try to solve the three-body problem. He was troubled by the three-body problem for a full forty years, and finally felt frustrated that the three-body problem had no general solution.

But he found several special points in his paper, which were carried forward by the next generation of Lagrange and provided a basis for the calculation of the lunar orbit.

It can be said that without Euler's study of the three-body problem, there would be no way to accurately calculate the lunar orbit.

If the lunar orbit cannot be accurately calculated, there is no way to make an astronomical calendar and a lunar phase diagram.

If you can't make an astronomical calendar and a lunar phase diagram, even if you have a northern hemisphere star chart and a southern hemisphere star chart, you can't calculate the longitude of this place.

If you can't calculate the accurate longitude, dominating the seven seas is a daydream, dominating the South Seas and Australia is a daydream, all are dreams.

Liu Yu knows his two brushes very well, and he has no qualifications to study the three-body problem.

He can only rely on Euler, a great man who makes college students in later generations hate him and have nightmares before exams.

Once the accurate lunar orbit is obtained, the rest is to hire a group of "mental workers" to calculate the lunar phase diagram and orbit and write them into tables similar to "trigonometric function tables" and "logarithmic tables", so that sailors and navigators don't need calculus level and memorize them by rote.

Look at the table, look at the moon and stars, and you can determine the longitude at this time by looking up the table.

Once Dashun is the first to come up with the moon phase chart and astronomical calendar, it will not only benefit navigation, but more importantly, it will have the right to speak in the future world: Why is the Greenwich Observatory zero degrees longitude? Because Britain came up with the marine clock and the first to come up with the astronomical yearbook moon phase chart.

If it is done here in Dashun, it is natural that Quanzhou or Guangzhou or Ningbo will be the prime meridian.

If you want to sail, everyone has to take a copy of the astronomical yearbook moon phase chart published by the Beijing Publishing House, which will naturally affect the naming of many rules. At least for fifty years, the marine clock is still a luxury that ordinary people cannot afford, and it is not something that ordinary craftsmen can make.

If Euler can be lured to the capital, whether it is practical benefits or long-standing mathematical traditions, it will be an incalculable wealth.

Problems that can be solved with money are not problems. It is not a problem to spend one thousand taels of silver and ask someone to bring two star charts from Europe.

It is no problem to spend several thousand taels of silver and hire a group of Western brainworkers to calculate the moon phase chart and longitude comparison table.

But there are still many things that money cannot solve.

In the war against Russia, Liu Yu wants to squeeze out all the benefits that can be squeezed, not those pieces of land.

He himself does not care much about those pieces of land. Now, if the reform is not successful, he will lose them in the future; if he loses them now, as long as the reform is successful, they will still be in his hands. The true ownership of Outer Northeast and Siberia lies in whether the first railway station built there is written in Chinese or Russian.

That is why Liu Yu attaches great importance to this Luosha mission, squeezing the last bit of juice from Russia, hoping that the mission can send some signals.

With the help of the once-in-a-lifetime 20-year chaos in Russia's political situation, people like Euler have an additional choice: perhaps he can go to Dashun.

The mortality rate of sailing is too high, and most scientists will not choose to take a ship, after all, they have wives and children.

It is much safer to go through Siberia.

Once we can send an envoy to Russia and celebrate the ascension of the Russian Tsar, as long as the opportunity allows, we can try to fool Euler and others as soon as the Russian political situation is in chaos.

Of course, there is a prerequisite:

Euler must believe that Dashun is not a mathematical desert, but that there are people who can discuss mathematical problems with him.

It just so happens that the emperor, in Liu Yu's view, is a person who likes to pretend, so this is a perfect opportunity.

If he says he is 100% sure, he is 100% sure.

There is no problem in asking a few questions to embarrass the group of Academy of Sciences students who came with the envoys.

If we can ask a few questions and arouse Euler's interest after sending them back to St. Petersburg, it will lay the foundation for fooling Euler in the future.

Thinking that the emperor blurted out and asked Liu Yu how sure he was, Liu Yu knew that the emperor was moved.

"Your Majesty, I heard that the Luosha envoys intend to perform a military show, but you don't have to watch it. Our dynasty has already won in the north and has made military achievements. Even if they want to show off their military strength, we just don't have to watch it. What else can we do? Anyway, it is our dynasty that is expanding its territory, and they are the ones who are retreating."

"Civil governance and military achievements, civil governance and military achievements. Since we have military achievements, we should also have civil governance. Your Majesty can use the name of "examining knowledge" to intimidate the "scholars" in the Luosha envoys, so that the reputation of our dynasty's civil governance will spread far and wide. And make them dare not think about it again."

"If we perform a martial arts show, Luosha will see that our dynasty still uses matchlock guns, thick formations, and cold weapons for protection, and then they will know that our dynasty's military equipment is backward. Instead, they may look down on us and dare to ask for a price in the subsequent negotiations."

"But if we use literary questions to intimidate, the knowledgeable people in the country will know the depth of our dynasty."

"Why? If mathematics is strong, then artillery is strong; if science is strong, then military equipment is strong; if geometry is strong, then building cities and attacking forts are easy."

"Compared to Luosha, our dynasty is The Russians are ten times richer and have five times higher tax revenue. Even though the Beijing camp is still using matchlock guns, the Russians will see that our dynasty is also strong in science and mathematics, and will understand that as long as they have money and as long as they have the will, our dynasty will be beyond the reach of the Russians within a few years. In future negotiations, they will definitely make more concessions. "

"As for the Book of Documents, the Russians don't understand it, and they don't know the prosperity of our dynasty. So we can only make a fuss about this matter."

Since the question and answer at Jinshui Bridge that day, Liu Yu has been saying that the military system of Dashun is backward.

This Li Gan didn't quite understand where the backwardness was, and he didn't see the Russian regular army tactics in the battle in the northern border, but the attack on the fort was a side confirmation of what Liu Yu said.

Afterwards, Liu Yu also made a picture to explain the importance of the bayonet, the benefits of the rapid mobility of the unarmored line soldiers, and... saving money.

At this time, Liu Yu mentioned this matter again, and Li Gan felt that it was the case.

If it is a martial arts performance, those who don't know the business will watch the excitement, and those who know the business can see that there is a problem with the military system of Dashun.

In the previous battles in the northwest, the huge and thick square formation and the cold and hot weapons had problems in their coordination, which led to the Junggars seizing the opportunity.

When the "grand review" that was supposed to show the military power was seen by the Russians who knew about it and gave them the evaluation of "80 years behind", it would be counterproductive.

A few days ago, Duke Yi also talked about this issue. He firmly disagreed with the Russians demonstrating Western military formation skills and artillery. It was also for this reason that he was afraid that no one would see the beauty of it after the demonstration, and he was even more afraid that the Russians would see the underwear clearly if he held a grand review.

Although Li Gan liked to show off, this hobby was always from the perspective of an emperor: Liu Yu was the one who made the plan for the attack on the fort. In the eyes of the emperor, all the people in the land were his subjects. Since Liu Yu was a subject, it was acceptable for the emperor to show off.

He captured the godson of the Rakshasa King and wanted to learn from Li Er to get a foreign big shot to act as an actor around him. This was captured by his subjects, which was equivalent to capturing himself. He could pretend to be a little bit arrogant.

But he was not a person who covered his ears and stole the bell. He would not do anything that he or his subjects did not have the strength to pretend to be arrogant.

At least this time when the Rakshasa envoys came to visit, he strictly ordered all places: it was not allowed to hang colorful flags on the carts of the Rakshasa envoys and write the word "tribute". Anyone who did so would be charged with "deceiving the emperor".

Because they really did not come to pay tribute, Western missionaries said it was "tribute" for various purposes, and they could pretend not to know, after all, it was not him who took the initiative to let them say that those gifts were "tribute".

Just like one day in the future, if the Rakshasa were really defeated to pay tribute, it might not be the emperor who beat them, but at that time, it would be natural and justified to enjoy the glory of tribute.

Now Liu Yu proposed to show off in "civil governance", which was a very appropriate flattery. Li Gan was still very itchy about it. What belongs to the ministers is his own, and the imperial power thought is naturally like this.

The emperor wanted to be happy, and Liu Yu wanted to gain practical benefits. It was just right for them to use each other and get what they needed.

Now Liu Yu also talked about the content of future exchanges and negotiations, which made Li Gan unable to refuse.

He was assured that Liu Yu would do things.

If he said he was 100% sure, then he was 100% sure. He had seen it several times before. He didn't need to ask, Liu Yu would naturally get things done.

Now Liu Yu was waiting for him to nod. Li Gan hesitated for a moment and said, "You are right. The Luosha envoys have now arrived in Zhangjiakou and will arrive in Beijing soon."

After reminding Liu Yu that the time was about to come, Liu Yu said nothing, which was to convey to the emperor by default: there was no problem with the time, and it was enough.

The two completed the conversation tacitly.