Chapter 55: Establishing the Science Department (Seeking Monthly Tickets)

Shen Kuo threw down his official seal and resigned, making all his colleagues green with envy.

Everyone had simply been slacking off and enduring hardships together, surviving on bran and coarse greens, so how on earth did he suddenly strike it rich?

Li Chang'an led the large and small figures back to the manor to formally discuss with Qian Weiming the formation of the school's teaching and research team.

They could no longer afford to wait; by the time the school buildings were fully completed, the moment would have long passed. Even with master craftsmen personally overseeing the construction, the progress was still far too slow.

Moreover, the *Song Dynasty Financial Weekly* was in urgent need of mathematical talent.

How could anyone handle finance without even knowing how to perform a regression analysis? Surely he, the president, couldn't be expected to jump into the fray every single time.

Qian Weiming expressed his full agreement. He was also suffering immensely at the moment, as all the recruits he had managed to attract were strategists, completely lacking any pragmatic capabilities.

Initiating teaching and research would also allow them to launch training programs concurrently, which would be a huge boon for accelerating talent development at the weekly.

With the two magnates in complete alignment, the notice was issued immediately.

"Due to the profound nature of the work at the Song Dynasty Economic Research Bureau, the Bureau has specially appointed a mathematical expert to urgently provide curriculum training for everyone."

The inaugural editorial team had assumed they would be spared from classes, but Qian Weiming gave a grand wave of his hand: "We are doubling up!"

Unlike the regular researchers, the deputy editors and lead writers were required to attend classes during the day and undergo extra drilling conducted by Qian Weiming at night, in order to play an exemplary and leading role and ensure that the learning outcomes were fully implemented.

"Ah! After graduating from the Imperial College, why do we still have to attend classes..."

"I almost want to go back and wait for the autumn examinations. What a mess, the study pressure here is even greater than the imperial examinations!"

"Hey, who's saying otherwise? I'm only here to learn the principles of economics, otherwise I would have gone home long ago. This recent stretch has completely worn me out..."

Despite all the grumbling, not a single person quit.

Nobody was a fool. This was a project personally commissioned by Lord Sima, and even before the weekly publication had officially hit the streets, a few commentary pieces had already made its influence soar to unprecedented heights.

As long as they stuck around, a position as an imperial censor was practically guaranteed in the future, and even landing a post in the Transport Commission or the Bureau of Finance was not an unrealistic fantasy.

Why bother exhausting oneself trying to pass the imperial examinations? Those who ranked in the lower tiers of the imperial graduates never secured good placements anyway.

Li Chang'an had partitioned a separate courtyard within the manor, equipped it with office furniture, arranged brushes, ink, paper, inkstones, counting rods, and an abacus, and hung up a plaque.

Thus, the Department of Science of Bianjing University was born.

Shen Kuo was appointed as the head of the science department, responsible for teacher recruitment, student cultivation, project development, theoretical research, and external scientific exchanges, among all other matters.

Aside from his monthly salary and allowances, considering that renting a house in the city was inconvenient for his daily commute, a small courtyard was specially allocated to him as living quarters.

By the way, the experimental design for measuring the speed of sound, as well as the education of little chubby Su Mai, were all bundled together and handed over to Shen Kuo.

Shen Kuo's day was spent entirely in a state of stunned awe. With a single signature on a contract, he had somehow become a department head.

He had a title, a salary, and a rent-free house.

It was like a dream. Wasn't this precisely the kind of treatment he had pursued relentlessly for over thirty years—the kind of veneration usually reserved for sages by others?

After welcoming his wife and child and tidying up the rooms, he opened the scientific research and experimentation plan given to him by Li Chang'an, along with a thick volume of pending research topics.

"How to measure the speed of sound propagating through the air? Disregarding humidity, temperature, and wind speed, is the speed of sound constant? If the speed of sound is constant, what is its specific velocity on the current scale? If the speed of sound can be determined, can it be utilized in the future to measure large-scale distances..."

His son was much older than Su Mai, having already reached the age of fifteen—a prime age for seeking knowledge and learning.

Stepping closer to take a glance, the boy instantly grew interested.

The crucial part was that Li Chang'an hadn't just provided a topic; he had also designed an experiment utilizing the difference in time between the speed of light and the speed of sound to accurately calculate the speed of sound.

"Father, what is so difficult about this? In my view, this experimental design is entirely foolish!"

"Oh? Does my son possess the talent of a genius? Speak up then. If this succeeds, I will grant you permission to shorten your calligraphy practice by half an hour every day from now on."

Shen Tang pointed at the experimental design diagram. "Since the speed of light is extremely fast and indistinguishable to the eye, we can simply treat the speed of light as instantaneous. Now, we only need to have one person hold a light source at a certain spot, while another person gradually moves away from the light source until the difference between the arrival of light and sound equals a single unit of time. By measuring the distance between the two, the speed of sound will naturally be known."

Brilliant!

Shen Kuo delivered a resounding slap to his son's back, startling the boy so much he thought his elderly father was about to silence him permanently.

With the mathematical calculations removed, only one problem remained: how to obtain a precise unit of time measurement that could correspond to current timekeeping methods.

The Song Dynasty currently had numerous timekeeping methods, including sundials, clepsydras, burning incense sticks, and even the armillary sphere.

Yet in Shen Kuo's view, all of these were far too crude to establish an extremely small standard value. Surely one could not use one-hundredth of a stick of incense as a unit of time.

How could a traditional double-hour be further subdivided into an infinitesimally small unit perceptible to human senses?

Shen Kuo quickly settled into his new role. Being a regular official was utterly dull; being a scientist was far superior.

Just as little Su Mai had said, by walking a path that predecessors had never trodden, all descendants in the future would bow before his footprints and recognize him as the founding patriarch.

Of course, he had to exert himself as quickly as possible, for he was not the only one on this path.

For instance, his student—the son of Su Zhishi and the exclusive nephew of President Li—Su Mai.

Having settled Shen Kuo, Li Chang'an felt the tension drain entirely from his body.

The descendants of China possessed boundless aspirations, and the Song Dynasty truly lacked no beasts of burden. This Shen Kuo was unquestionably a self-driven workhorse, far easier to manipulate than Su Shi and Qian Weiming.

Whenever someone else could do the work, he preferred to exert less effort himself.

As a master leading an era, a quasi-sage! The task he had assigned to himself was to act as an initiator, specializing in dangling carrots in front of donkeys.

Yesterday he had scolded Wang Anshi, and today he needed to continue.

To heed the advice of the ancestors: if you strike a snake, do not let it live; follow up with the stick, for mercy toward an enemy is cruelty to oneself.

When someone has already taken action against your family, failing to retaliate means next time they might dare to step on your face and relieve themselves upon it.

The general principles of the reforms had already been criticized; this time, he intended to target the technical level of the reforms.

Everyone understood the concepts of increasing revenue and reducing expenditure, but Wang Anshi, after serving as an official for so many years, did you truly understand how this millennium-old bureaucratic apparatus actually operated?

Very well, then this Sage shall give you a lesson.

Ordering two basins of ice and a maid to fan him, he began to write furiously, preparing an article explaining the "cost of taxation."

He had barely written a thousand words—explaining the taxation methods and costs of "poll tax," "land tax," "tax in kind," and "currency tax"—and had not yet even begun to analyze the evolution of tax burdens from the Spring and Autumn period down to the present day, when he heard a commotion outside, sounding as if a fight was about to break out.

This was somewhat peculiar. A bunch of scholars, accustomed to idleness and utterly detached from practical labor, how could they possibly resort to physical blows?

Just as he was about to step outside, with a loud crash, Qian Weiming burst into the room.

The Court of Judicial Review has come to arrest you!"

Run? Where was there to run? This room had only a single door, and it was blocked completely solid by the other man.

"Don't panic yet. What is this about? Why would the Court of Judicial Review want to arrest me?"

Qian Weiming's face was etched with anxiety. "What else could it be? You scolded Wang Anshi until he passed out from rage!"

Impossible, absolutely impossible!

A prime minister of a state, possessed of extraordinary magnanimity, how could a mere few words from him cause someone to faint in anger? Did they take Wang Anshi for Zhao Dabao?