The five fathers and sons arrived at the Chongli Conference Hall in Qionglin Garden. There were already hundreds of people gathered here, most of whom were professors and scholars from the Institute of Geography and Architecture of Gewuyuan and the Institute of History and Language and Literature of Hongwenyuan.
The remaining twenty-odd people are management representatives from major trading companies, industrial companies and banks. Their current status is "sponsors".
Situ Jianquan and Fan Zhixu, the minister of the Hongwen Academy, were presiding over the meeting. Su Xian, the principal of Gewu Academy, Xu Lin, the principal of Biyong University, Zhou Bangyan, the principal of Hongwen Academy, and Yang Shi, the principal of Chengjun University, were sitting on both sides of him.
The person offering wine at Gewuyuan was Sun Moli, the young prime minister. He was busy with business and did not come.
When they saw Zhao Si and his son coming in, they quickly brought the professors and scholars with them and bowed respectfully.
"I have met Your Majesty and Your Royal Highnesses."
"Excuse me. Everyone is here. I am here to study with the four princes." Zhao said politely.
After a few words of greeting, Zhao Si and his four sons sat aside and quietly watched everyone continue the meeting.
"Everyone, everyone!" Fan Zhixu and the other five people walked back to the rostrum and sat down in their respective seats. Fan Zhixu knocked on the gavel on the table. There were several bangs and the venue became very quiet.
This is a small auditorium at the Chongli Conference Hall, which can accommodate about two hundred people. The seats are arranged from high to short, forming a circle, with the circular gap facing the rostrum.
There are five seats on the rostrum, and the one in the middle is where Fan Zhixu sits, which is also what everyone calls the rostrum for maintaining order. In front of the rostrum is a tall small table, which is the speaking seat.
After Fan Zhixu waited for the venue to quieten down, he said: "Now I would like to invite Pei Juliang, the head of the Western Region Scientific and Cultural Joint Investigation Team and director of the Institute of Geography of the Institute of Geosciences, to give a briefing to everyone."
After a burst of applause, a man in his forties walked onto the stage holding a thick stack of paper. He stood behind the speaking position, placed the speech on the small table, then took out a pair of crystal glasses from his pocket and hung them up.
On the bridge of his nose, he looked at the speech in his hand, glanced around the venue from above his glasses, coughed a few times, and then began to speak.
"This time, sixty-seven professor-level experts were selected from each of the Gewu Academy and Hongwen Academy, and 291 students were selected from Biyong University, Chengjun University, Kaifeng University, and Luoyang University to form the Western Region Scientific Research Institute.
Cultural joint investigation team. We went to Yinwucheng first..."
This huge investigation team returned almost at the same time as Zhao Si. However, they went directly to Hexi and Guanzhong, and there was no delay on the way, so they returned to Kaifeng City last summer and started the sorting work for more than half a year.
This meeting today is actually a report to Zhao Si and other sponsors.
"We found the ruins of the Yinwu Army of the former Tang Dynasty near Puleihai, and found two fortress ruins built in the Han and Tang Dynasties east of Yinwu City... We investigated the ancient Big Buddha Temple in Nazhi City and the Baoguang Buddha Temple in Yidu City.
..."
"In Gaochang City, in addition to sorting out a large number of official documents of the Gaochang Uighur Kingdom, we also conducted research on the Cheshi Ancient City in Jiaohe City and the Thousand Buddha Caves in Ningrong Buddha Temple..."
"We took over the official documents of the Gaochang Uighurs, Kucha Uighurs, Eastern Kara Khanate and Western Kara Khanate from the Western Expeditionary Army. There are about 270,000 volumes. After several months of sorting, the oldest ones include
During the Xianqing period of the former Tang Dynasty, there were documents from the Anxi Protectorate and the Kunling and Mengchi Protectorates, as well as documents from the Kaiyuan Period that the nine kingdoms of Zhaowu agreed to pay tribute..."
"It involves history, folk customs, religion, government affairs, military, geography, astronomy, etc., and includes Uighur, Sogdian, Persian, Dashi, Sanskrit, Chinese, Turkic and three unknown scripts, totaling ten scripts.
After preliminary research on the language and script group, these three unknown scripts are similar and must have some kind of connection. The first two may be the ancient Kucha and Yanqi scripts, and the latter may be the legendary ancient Greeks of the Western Qin Dynasty.
The Tocharian (Bactrian) language."
"These three places have been devastated by wars for a long time. Only the spoken language of some local people is left, and the written text cannot be found at present. With our research, we will definitely be able to compare the ancient Qiuci, Yanqi and Tuhuo
Luo Wen completely solved it and obtained historical and humanistic information at that time."
There was a steaming water glass placed in the far corner of the small table, which was placed there by the staff. Pei Juliang stopped temporarily, picked up the glass water glass, took a few sips, moistened his throat, and continued talking.
"In addition to obtaining 479,851 volumes of various documents and materials from official and private channels, we also compiled 11,000 rubbings, various manuscripts, drawings, etc... Geography
The institute also drew 1,200 maps of various sizes to create maps.”
"It can be said that we, who are thousands of miles apart, know the geographical information of mountains, rivers, cities, transportation and other areas in Hezhong, Qihe, Congling, north and south of Tianshan Mountains better than the locals."
Hearing this, a burst of chuckles burst out in the venue. Pei Juliang stopped, looked at the people in front of the stage, and smiled knowingly.
"With the cooperation of the Ministry of War Surveying and Mapping Bureau, the Pre-Western Expedition Intelligence Office and other brother departments, the joint investigation team also conducted a preliminary survey of various resources such as minerals, agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry and grassland in the Western Region..."
"In the next step, our main focus is to group by category, conduct further research on the materials that have been shipped back, and gradually compile the results into a volume, report them one by one, and then determine the direction of the next step of scientific research and research..."
Hearing this, Zhao Si turned to his fourth son and asked softly: "Tell me, is this Western Region Scientific and Cultural Joint Investigation Team useful?"
Zhao Kuo and Zhao Lian looked at each other and quickly turned their attention to Zhao Geng. Seeing the two brothers acting like this, Zhao Ting also looked at Zhao Geng curiously.
"Know yourself and your enemy and you will be victorious in any battle. If the Song Dynasty wants to regain the Western Region and then operate it, it must have a good understanding of the situation there. Only by organizing such a joint scientific and cultural investigation team can we thoroughly investigate the comprehensive situation, instead of just scratching the surface and perfunctory
It’s over.”
Zhao Geng, who was forced to "come forward," said.
"Then tell me, is it worth it for me and other industrial and commercial companies and banks to spend a lot of money on sponsorship?" Zhao Si continued to ask.
Zhao Geng wanted to hide his clumsiness. No matter how his two brothers winked, they refused to come forward and answer. After being lightly bumped twice by Zhao Kuo with his shoulder, Zhao Lian had no choice but to answer.
"My son, I think it's worth it. My father took the lead in spending money from the treasury of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and teamed up with several major industrial and commercial companies and banks to sponsor the joint investigation team. It is actually an investment and has benefits."
Zhao Si asked rudely: "What are the benefits?"
"Well, I know where the land in the Western Regions is fertile, where there is plenty of water and grass, where there are mines, where there are riches, where there are barrens, where transportation is convenient, and it is the main road to some foreign lands..."
Under Zhao Si's bright eyes, Zhao Lian racked his brains to search for words he could think of.
"Except for the information compiled and researched by the investigation team, which involves state secrets, the rest is shared with several sponsors. Obtaining this very useful information will give them a head start in establishing business and trade in the Western Regions..."
Seeing Zhao Lian finish his words and couldn't help wiping the sweat from his forehead, Zhao Si smiled.
If I don't push you, you won't know how powerful you are!