From the beginning, Zuo Menggeng's foundation was rough.
The lack of talents has always been the biggest problem that troubles him.
This is also the main reason why Zuo Menggeng limited the rear camp to 3,000 people.
If he was really serious about squeezing Liu Yuanqing away or turning Liu Yuanqing into a puppet, he could do it with the cooperation of Cao Wenheng, Qu Shichu and Zhang Jimeng.
And it is not impossible to directly gather an army of tens of thousands of people in the name of Linqing Association.
But he knew very well that such an army was no better than the peasants who were causing trouble in northern Shaanxi.
It's not about having too many soldiers, it's about being skilled.
Once these three thousand people are cultivated, they will become three thousand seeds, which can bring him a steady stream of powerful troops.
Until now, all the weapons have been equipped to the troops, and Zuo Menggeng did not think that the rear camp was a powerful army.
Because this army has never fought against any enemy, it is just an infant tempered by fantasy.
Without the baptism of blood and the tempering of sacrifices, a great army cannot be born.
The place that lacks talents is not just the back camp.
Factory, Zhuangzi, the same is true.
Although there are more than a hundred scholars and students, the old knowledge these people possess makes them inferior to ordinary people with a blank sheet of paper when it comes to accepting new ideas.
Zuo Menggeng can only put these people in some grassroots positions, working, learning and transforming at the same time.
Coupled with the education he was personally responsible for, he gradually accumulated useful talents.
This is the limit to which his foundation can maintain its current scale.
Zuo Mengeng was waiting for a good opportunity to transform Houying.
Wang Xiuzhi's quilt factory has a head start.
Zuo Xianmei's intervention suddenly solved the accounting problem that had been bothering the quilt factory for a long time.
The fur accounting methods she learned from Zuo Mengeng were applied by Zuo Xianmei to the financial problems of the quilt factory, and turned out to be a magic weapon.
It originally took Wang Xiuqin and others ten days and a half to calculate the accounts, but Zuo Xianmei solved it in just one morning.
Initially, looking at her delicate appearance, everyone didn't think highly of her.
Among farmers, even women are useless if they don’t have strength.
But Zuo Xianmei's knowledge immediately conquered everyone.
"Oh my god, sister, without you, we would be exhausted just settling accounts. No, I have to talk to Qianzao later. You are so powerful, why are you always hiding at home? It would be great to come here and help us.
"
"I……"
Zuo Xianmei instinctively wanted to refuse, but she didn't know why. The feeling of being needed when she was busy just now made her quite reluctant.
Wang Xiuqin has a bad temper and will not be polite.
He looked at the time, grabbed her hand and walked out.
"It's dinner time, let's go eat first. In the afternoon, Chizao is going to give a lecture at the school. I'll go there with you, just in time to talk to him."
On the way to the canteen, Zuo Xianmei was very curious.
"Brother, do you still give lectures?"
That brother, who has never cared about classics and meanings, actually becomes a teacher and is not afraid of misleading others?
"If Qianzao doesn't give lectures, where will we learn Chinese characters, mathematics and accounting? Let me tell you, Qianzao is very strict about learning. Over there in the back camp, there is a squadron who was dismissed just because he was not active in learning.
He has been dismissed."
Zuo Xianmei's eyes were opened to the dining experience in the cafeteria. The sight of thousands of people eating together was something she would never forget.
Although it was just ordinary food, the sound of thousands of people stirring rice spoons still whetted her appetite and she ate two steamed buns for the first time.
In the afternoon, the two of them went to the school and easily found the place where Zuo Mengeng was attending class.
Today we are actually not in the classroom, but on the playground.
Forty to fifty children sat in a row, all looking curiously at the long iron tube in Zuo Mengeng's hand.
And this long iron tube really made Zuo Mengeng want to cry without tears.
It took nearly six months to finally make the telescope.
Making tungsten steel milling cutters, making mercury fulminate, and making flat glass is not that troublesome. Why is it so difficult to make a telescope?
Because the craftsmen have no basis in grinding lenses.
Ming Dynasty wanted to find craftsmen who knew how to grind crystal and glass. There were not many craftsmen, and even if they were there, it would be difficult to hire them.
Zuo Menggeng had visited Linqing earlier and inquired in many places, but could not find a suitable craftsman.
There is no other way but to find skilled craftsmen from existing craftsmen and refugees and train them from scratch.
If the craftsmanship can be slowly polished and proficient, the biggest obstacle to making telescopes is the unlearned craftsmen.
Making the lens of a telescope is not something you can just grind out into shape.
This involves precise optical knowledge and very good calculation ability.
Although a concave lens and a convex lens are installed at both ends of the cylinder, the basic functions of a telescope can be realized. However, such a telescope is fine for daily use, but cannot be used for military purposes at all.
Because the observable distance is so close, it is almost indistinguishable from sight.
In order to maximize the effectiveness of the telescope, strict calculations must be carried out to determine the specifications of the convex lens and concave lens, as well as the specifications of the cylinder, as well as the exit pupil distance.
Of course, if you want to make a top-notch telescope, you need to add a prism to it.
But with the technology of this era...
The craftsmen had better polish the concave and convex lenses.
Basically all the calculations were done by Zuo Mengeng alone, and then handed over to the craftsmen for polishing.
However, because the craftsmen do not understand the data, errors will inevitably occur again and again during the grinding process.
Craftsmen can only correct errors bit by bit, which is naturally time-consuming and labor-intensive.
As for the discarded lenses, I don’t even know how many there are.
Whenever this happens, Zuo Mengeng can't help but think of the girl far away in the capital.
If she were here, she could definitely help him solve many problems with her superb calculation ability and knowledge of geometry.
She must be very bored when she returns home and has no one to communicate with, right?
Zuo Mengeng guessed wrong.
Not only is Xu Ruolin not bored, she is also very busy.
Xu Guangqi's study has been requisitioned by her.
Xu Ruolin is doing something big.
Compile "Elements of Geometry".
To be precise, it is a compilation of "Elements of Geometry" co-authored by Xu Guangqi and Matteo Ricci.
After being exposed to newer mathematical expression habits and methods from Zuo Mengeng, Xu Ruolin increasingly felt that the "Elements of Geometry" translated by Xu Guangqi was too obscure and difficult to read and understand.
She told Xu Guangqi her thoughts and specially compiled a part of them for Xu Guangqi to read.
After Xu Guangqi thought about it for a while, he found that Xu Ruolin's adaptation was more concise and easier to read and use, so he strongly supported her approach and even provided his own study room.
This greatly encouraged Xu Ruolin and she immediately jumped into it.
Her ambition was not only to compile the first six volumes of "Elements", but also planned to compile the next nine volumes.
In the new compiled version, Xu Ruolin completely copied Zuo Menggeng's method.
Change the original writing habit of Chinese characters from right to left and top to bottom to the pattern of left to right and top to bottom.
Calculation formulas are also expressed using a combination of letters, symbols and graphics, which suddenly makes the original complicated manuscript refreshing.
But obviously, doing this work must be a long process. Xu Ruolin did it alone and the progress was not fast.
Currently, there are two places in Linqing that can produce glass.
One is Fuyao Group and the other is Houying Glass Institute.
The glass produced by Houying Glass is of better quality, higher purity, and its clarity is almost as good as that of later generations of glass.
Just because soda ash is added to the glass here during the production process.
High-definition glass is also the basis for making telescopes.
This is a secret, and even within the back camp, only a few people know it.
Now, the finished telescope finally appeared. Before it was used by the army, Zuo Mengeng came to the school with it.
Compared with other teachers in the school, the courses he is responsible for are not quite standard, and the teaching content is not limited.
Zuo Menggeng knew very well that when it came to enlightening children, he was far inferior to those scholars and children.
Even though he could bring some methods of educating children from later generations, he has never been in this industry and is a complete layman.
The only thing he can do is to open the door to imagination for the children of this era, so that their future will have unlimited possibilities.
This is what he hopes for most.
After all, soldiers and officials are easy to handle. With a little training and growth through practice, you can always get enough numbers.
But mathematicians, physicists, biologists, chemists, etc. are the key to whether the Chinese nation can take a different path.
He does not have the ability to train children from scratch into top scientists, because the knowledge he has mastered is ineffective at a certain level.
The best way is to expose children to the unknown of this world through various methods when they are still young.
Just like now, Zuo Mengeng puts the telescope in front of everyone.