Volume 4: Gathering of Sages Chapter 671: Ups and Downs
The public school said that it had sent out 200 invitations this time, but not all of them were juren, and there were also a few students from the capital. And in the lecture hall today, there were of course far more than 200 people, there were also astronomy and numerology talents who came in with another batch of invitations, including Ye Mengqiu who was staying in Zhang Garden.
In addition, there were undoubtedly some guys who got the upper hand because they were close to the water, for example, Fang Qing and Mr. Song, as well as three other Mr. Zou Ming, Yang Zhan and Guan Qiu, who also got seats by virtue of their status as residents of Zhang Garden.
At this moment, although His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had arrived, many newcomers were surprised by the warmth of the lecture hall, which was like spring. Some people whispered that the public school was rich, while others whispered about its extravagance. Peanut, who came to help today, almost wanted to curse. It was so cold, if the fire walls on all four sides of the lecture hall didn't burn, you would freeze to death!
But at this time, Peanut also heard what Lu Sanlang said to the Third Prince. Except for those people in Jiuzhang Hall who had long been accustomed to the attitude that people never worship the prince as a god, everyone else in the huge lecture hall was shocked. But what they didn't expect was that the Third Prince gave an answer without even thinking: "I would love to be your assistant!"
The Third Prince was indeed happy to be Zhang Shou's assistant. Back when he was in Banshan Hall, he had personally seen many very simple but very interesting experiments done by Zhang Shou, whether it was pinhole imaging, frictional electricity... all of which opened his eyes and made him feel that there were countless secrets hidden in this world.
At this moment, he stood beside the podium without thinking. When he saw Qi Liang carrying a basin of water and placing it on the high podium, he couldn't help but look at it curiously. When he was a little confused, someone below couldn't help but exclaimed: "Crystal basin!"
Hearing the words "crystal basin", the Third Prince was slightly startled, but then he rubbed the basin, which looked irregular in shape, thoughtfully, and then knocked on it twice. He then raised his head and said with a calm smile: "You have never seen this thing, so you mistakenly think it is crystal. In fact, this is the glass that the teacher fired not long ago."
"Teacher has already presented the glass formula to the court. Now the workshop under the Military Equipment Bureau is also trying to make it, but it is still unable to make an object this big. I didn't expect that teacher's workshop has broken through the limitation of the size of the equipment, but it is still not very transparent."
At this point, an excited voice came from behind him: "Brother Qi, why did the teacher take out this glass basin?"
Without turning his head, the Third Prince knew that the person behind him must be the Fourth Prince. Sure enough, after the person flashed out from behind him, he seemed not to notice his reproachful look and said to himself, "Brother Qi, it would be boring for the Third Prince to be the only assistant. I will also help out! Don't worry, I will never do anything without the teacher's order!"
Hua Qi, who was in the crowd below, couldn't help but cover his forehead. This naughty kid is really unwilling to give up if he doesn't cause any trouble every day. I should have kept him in the palace earlier!
Although most of the other people who came today did not know the Fourth Prince, when they saw his age and heard that he was the Crown Prince's Third Brother, they knew that he was the Fourth Prince. When they heard that this little guy was so persistent in wanting to be an assistant, and thought of the Third Prince's attitude when he readily agreed to Lu Sanlang just now, many people became even more envious and jealous of Zhang Shou.
At this moment, they finally heard a calm voice: "I'm really sorry, I was preparing some things inside and didn't have time to go out to greet His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, the Fourth Prince, and all my colleagues."
Zhang Shou did not wear an official robe today, but a scholar's scarf and a blue robe. Even though it was common clothing for scholars, he still looked elegant and handsome. Zhu Ying, who had disguised herself as a man and mixed into the crowd, looked at him and couldn't help but smile secretly, not noticing that Zhu Hong beside her had turned pale.
Today, he had been ordered by Zhu Ying to go out and invite the so-called female teacher, but who could have thought that the young lady went into a garment store, claiming to be visiting a friend, and then she never came out. When he rushed in, he saw that she had undergone a magical transformation. When she saw him come in, she was not in a hurry, but took out two invitations and pulled him in without saying a word.
Of course, he wanted to refuse, but Zhu Ying said that she had already obtained the permission from the Madam and Madam of the mansion, and that the previous excuse was just to fool her father and brother. After all, the two of them did not allow her to come today, so he had no choice but to follow. But when he thought about listening to a lot of things that he could not understand with a group of scholars, he felt that his eyes were dark.
After all, others may not know how difficult the content of Zhang Shou's class is, but he knows it, because he has been ordered by the Madam and Duke Zhao to go to the bookstore many times to collect all the published volumes of "Ge's Mathematics New Edition", and even because of Zhu Ying's relationship, he secretly sneaked into the Imperial College to watch Zhang Shou's class to the students of Jiuzhang Hall. He would rather go to the battlefield to kill people than go through that baptism again!
Moreover, he, who was sitting next to Zhu Ying, had to be on guard against whether the scholar on the other side was a pervert who would take advantage of the young lady after discovering her disguise, and whether there were assassins with ulterior motives in the crowd, etc. Therefore, he secretly regretted that he should not have escorted Zhu Ying here alone. But just when he was in a state of confusion, he suddenly felt a light poke on his back.
He tensed up almost instantly, but soon realized that it was not a stab, but someone just poked his back with a finger, as if he wanted to say something to him.
After hesitating for a moment, Zhu Hong finally turned his head slightly, and immediately found that the innocent-looking Zhu Er was sitting behind him. On the left and right of him were Zhang Chen, Zhang Wu, Zhang Lu, and several other noble children he had seen before. The one who poked him at this time was none other than Zhang Chen!
The eldest son of the Qin State winked at him and told him to turn around quickly and not to disturb Zhu Ying. But before Zhu Hong could do so, Zhu Ying seemed to have noticed something and suddenly turned around.
Seeing such a group of people sitting behind her, the young lady was only slightly startled, then smiled, and then turned her head back without saying anything, but glanced at the other side of her. When she saw that the scholar who should have been sitting next to her was sitting upright, with his back straight, but his buttocks just touching the edge, a long distance away from her, she laughed softly.
When she smiled, she found that the person next to her seemed to freeze , and she immediately understood. There was no doubt that the person knew her. Even if she was disguised, strangers might not notice that she was a woman, but people who had seen her could tell from many details. Otherwise, how could those guys behind her sit behind her so comfortably?
Well, of course it could be that Zhang Shou had arranged this in advance when he distributed the invitations...
But the person next to her right now should not be arranged by Zhang Shou, or rather, she felt that the person next to her had a palace aura. That was the inherent aura of some people she had seen in the Qianqing Palace and other places when she entered the palace since she was a child. In addition, even Uncle Hua, who she was most familiar with, also had this kind of aura.
Zhu Ying did not explore the issue for too long because Zhang Shou on the stage had already started speaking.
"When Jiuzhangtang was in the Imperial College, he also held open classes. At that time, he did not take care of outsiders to observe. He just lectured, just like the blackboards I used to solve problems on the spot during Lu Gaoyuan's coming-of-age ceremony not long ago. Most people did not understand, so it naturally lost the original meaning of the three words "open class".
"So, I originally planned to simplify everything today and explain everything in a simple and easy-to-understand way. It just so happens that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is here to watch, so I will use His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's hand to demonstrate a few small experiments in public."
Although he had the Third and Fourth Princes as his assistants, Lu Sanlang still stood beside them with Qi Liang, ready to rush over to pick up the slack if anything went wrong with the brothers. However, when he saw the students standing around to maintain order, all of them had genuine bewilderment on their faces, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart.
When he first became Zhang Shou's apprentice, he actually had some axe to grind, but after so long, he was already convinced by Zhang Shou. But this teacher was good in every way, except for one thing: he often liked to hide a wonderful show from everyone at certain times!
For example, today, even he didn't know what Zhang Shou was going to say...
Of course, when he saw the glass basin, he actually had a bad feeling in his heart. Because not long ago, Zhang Shou had made a groundbreaking statement among them - iron ships can float on the water!
After his unhurried opening remarks, Zhang Shou casually explained the experiment he had performed at the Imperial Lecture Hall, which had been denounced as a sorcery by Confucius. However, he did not intend to demonstrate the actual experiment, but continued, "As we all know, people will sink when they fall into water, as will iron and stone blocks, but light objects such as wood will float when they enter water."
"And today, my first experiment is to show you a very simple sinking and floating experiment."
At this point, Zhang Shou casually showed an egg in his hand. When the egg was placed in the glass basin, the people who were eagerly watching could roughly see the egg sinking to the bottom through the basin, which was not very transparent. But before they could figure out what Zhang Shou wanted to say, they heard someone speak again.
"I think everyone has seen it clearly. Then, Your Highness, please add the things on the table to the water."
The Third Prince was just thinking about what Zhang Shou said and what the last lesson had to do with it. When he heard him being ordered around, he immediately came to his senses and hurried forward to help. However, his hand shook, and the small bag of white coarse grains next to him were all poured into the basin at once! But before he could say "bad luck", he saw Zhang Shou casually picked up a chopstick and stirred it vigorously in the water.
After a while, he saw a jaw-dropping scene: the egg in the water actually floated up!
Although the people below had not had time to see clearly what was going on, they could still see clearly the Third Prince's expression of almost popping his eyes out. As for the lecturers who had sat down on the podium at Zhang Shou's invitation, they had already had some expectations from the changes in the faces of the curious audience below.
So, Shanzhang Yue was the first to stand up and ask, "Could it be that the egg in the water floated up?"
As soon as these words came out, there was a small commotion below. Although some people had accused Zhang Shou of being a sorcerer before, no one would lose their composure like Confucius did in Wenhua Palace before, with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince in front of them. However, there were definitely more than one or two people who cursed the sorcerer and sorcerer in their hearts. At this moment, they only heard the Fourth Prince yelling loudly.
"Yes, the egg did float in the water! But, teacher, why is that? What is that white thing you asked the third prince to add? How come the egg floated after just two stirs?"
Seeing that the Fourth Prince had directly interrupted his question, Shanzhang Yue was about to remain silent. However, when he saw that Zhang Shou did not answer immediately, but turned around and looked at him with a smile, as if he did not care that his question might be a nitpicking question, he hesitated for a moment and simply asked, "If I am not mistaken, what was just added to the water should be salt, right?"
Upon hearing what Yue Shanzhang said, there was an uproar, especially the person who had just whispered to his companions, who was even more stunned. Zhang Shou smiled calmly and said, "Yue Shanzhang is indeed very insightful and knowledgeable. Yes, it is the most common salt in ordinary people's homes."
"It's not that I have a keen eye or profound knowledge. It's because I grew up by the sea." Yue Shanzhang smiled to himself, and then said frankly, "It is inevitable that ships will encounter shipwrecks when sailing on the sea. Although most of the time there is no chance of survival, sometimes there will be one or two lucky people who meet fishing boats and are rescued. Some claim to have drifted on the sea for a day or two."
"The sea is not like a river. Even a good swimmer cannot cross dozens or hundreds of miles. But some of these lucky people don't even have a sampan. They are rescued purely by luck. Although most people regard this as a blessing from the gods, after hearing about it, I also visited several people who escaped death and were rescued. In the end, I heard one thing from them."
"That is, in the sea. If it is not the coldest time of the year when you fall into the water, the water temperature is suitable, there is no storm, and if you are a good swimmer, then it is easier for you to float in the sea than in a river."
Hearing Principal Yue talking so eloquently, Lu Sanlang, who had listened to Zhang Shou's lecture on the buoyancy formula before, immediately widened his eyes. Today's lecture was indeed similar to the last lecture, but he did not expect that the one who actively cooperated with Zhang Shou's lecture would be Principal Yue of Zhaoming Academy!
Not only Fatty Lu, but even Mr. Song, who was very familiar with Mr. Yue, couldn't help but ask Fang Qing on the side: "Is the sun rising from the west? Your teacher seems humble, but in fact he is the most arrogant person. Will he speak for Mr. Zhang? Is there any conspiracy here?" Without a doubt, he was given a sharp look by Mr. Song.
Zhang Shou saw that the discussion below was getting more intense at this time. He did not open his mouth to remind or lecture, but nodded and said slowly: "Just as Yue Shanzhang said, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince added salt to the water just now, so the egg that originally sank in the clear water finally floated up successfully, and this is similar to the reason why people float in sea water under certain conditions. So, why is this?"
