In the seventh year of Chongzhen, it was eight o'clock in the morning on March 8th.
Thirty-eight cities in the Ming Dynasty include Beijing, Tianjin, Nanjing, Jinan, Yangzhou, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Chengdu, Wuchang, Quanzhou, and Guangzhou.
Plus No. 0 Manor and Harbor City in Xujiazhuang.
There are forty places in total.
Countless trained professional newsboys took to the streets, holding large stacks of newspapers in their hands and using their clear and loud voices to hawk:
""Oriental Times", the world knows."
“The first issue is officially released today!”
"Knowing everything about the world's major events, including astronomy and geography!"
"Today's front page headline is "The impact of the Little Ice Age will reach its peak in recent years, disaster prevention and disaster prevention must be done in advance." The article says that this year is very likely to cause severe floods in the south and severe drought in the north. The food security problem is extremely serious. If not handled properly,
A widespread famine is likely."
"The content of this second edition will introduce you to an overview of global geography, allowing you to understand the planet beneath our feet, and print an exquisite global map."
"Do you want to know the basic conditions of the Ming Dynasty such as population, economy, life expectancy, food production, male-to-female ratio, etc.? You don't have to travel thousands of miles. The "Basic Situation Report of the Ming Dynasty", the result of more than half a year's hard work by thousands of investigators in Xujiazhuang, will let you know
I have a good idea of the current situation of the Ming Dynasty."
"The all-out war among the Western countries is still in full swing, with no end in sight in the short term, and will continue to affect trade with the Ming Dynasty."
"Even affected by the war in the West, Ming Dynasty's foreign trade activities last year still earned the equivalent of 15 million silver dollars. For details, please see the article "Ming Dynasty Foreign Trade Report in the Sixth Year of Chongzhen" on page five."
"Xujiazhuang's "Three-Year and One Hundred Thousand Miles of Road Construction Plan" has been fully implemented. Those who are interested in cooperation can apply to join the plan. Any active investor will definitely bring you generous returns!"
"Seven cents, each newspaper only costs seven cents (the newsboy earns two cents, if it is difficult to buy, he earns one cent or nothing), three full sheets of quarto paper, and an additional sheet of two thousand words in simplified and traditional Chinese
The comparison table and the third edition of the world map can also be cut out and collected. What are you still hesitating about? Buy it and you will earn money!"
Hear these cries of newsboys.
Not to mention those literate groups.
Even the illiterate and semi-literate groups, whose ears pricked up, became very interested. Those with some spare money might even be tempted to buy a copy and ask literate people to help them read it.
…
Beijing.
Chen Zida, a student of the Imperial Academy, a young man in his early twenties, was eating breakfast at a roadside stall. When he heard the newsboy's hawking, he couldn't help showing some disdain on his lips.
In fact, the newsboys started to warm up three days ago, but all they handed out were leaflets, saying that the "Oriental Times" was about to come out in a shocking way, which would bring unprecedented changes to the Ming Dynasty and lead into an era of public knowledge.
, exaggerate as much as you want.
Romance
But Chen Zida just doesn't buy it, he just doesn't read this so-called "Oriental Times", he will never buy it, and he will never be influenced or brainwashed by it.
Because this is another new thing coming out of Xujiazhuang. You don’t need to look at it to know that it is a poisonous and harmful weed. And Xujiazhuang’s various actions are to dig out the roots of the saint’s orthodoxy and to establish an order where businessmen are only interested in profit. This
This is absolutely intolerable and must be resolutely resisted.
There are relevant regulations in the Imperial College. All imperial students who purchase bicycles, mechanical watches, lighters and other strange and cunning things will be given a warning once found, a severe warning found twice, and expelled three times.
Everything in Xujiazhuang was cut off to protect the orthodoxy of the saints.
Chen Zida is a staunch boycotter!
Every time there was an activity to boycott Xujiazhuang, he was always at the forefront, the one who jumped the highest, and reported three classmates and friends without hesitation, causing one of them to be expelled. Not only did Chen Zida not feel any guilt,
He also vowed to report more people and make greater contributions to purifying the atmosphere of the Imperial College.
but……
He couldn't help but be attracted by what the newsboy was selling.
What is the so-called Little Ice Age?
Global geographical overview, is it possible that what people are standing on is a big ball? How absurd is this?
Is there a war going on among the Western countries? Why are they fighting?
And what is the basic situation of the Ming Dynasty, such as the total population, grain output, average life expectancy, etc., can a businessman in Xujiazhuang know more than the imperial court?
Daming’s foreign trade earned 15 million silver dollars last year. Why don’t I know? Is foreign trade so profitable? Who made the money?
As for Xujiazhuang's road construction plan, he is not interested, but judging from Xujiazhuang's past success in the commercial field, there should be many businessmen applying for cooperation.
Anyway, after listening to the newsboy’s hawking content.
Although Chen Zida had the urge to cover his ears many times, he still couldn't help feeling itchy.
Many questions popped up in my head, and I wanted to get relevant answers.
He also heard that a newspaper only cost seven cents, which was not enough for him to have a breakfast.
Then I caught a glimpse of the exquisite printing and gorgeous colors of the Oriental Daily News.
"I'll buy one."
"Give me one."
"I want one too, no, two."
"I want three copies."
Because of the cheap price, the "Oriental Times" in the hands of the newsboy quickly sold more than a dozen copies. Some people even bought more than one copy because the newspaper was full of materials. They took it home to pack their things and wipe their butts in the toilet.
, for children to practice calligraphy, etc., it is very versatile and definitely worth it.
In the blink of an eye, nearly half of the newspaper in the newsboy's hand was gone.
Chen Zida couldn't sit still anymore, so he quickly stood up and walked towards the newsboy. He quickly took out seven light coins, handed them to the newsboy and said, "Give me one too."
"Okay, here you go!"
The "Oriental Times" with the pleasant smell of ink fell into Chen Zida's hands, and people couldn't help but take a few more breaths, and secretly thought in their hearts: Criticism, I am here to criticize Xujiazhuang's fallacies, and I will never be criticized.
The possibility of its impact can only be used as a wipe after reading it.
However, the neatly typed text, the beautiful and vivid pictures, and the smooth and tough paper quality, just these qualities made him want to collect it. No matter what the content was, as for wiping his butt, just thinking about it made him feel unbearable to waste everything.
feeling.
We found a teahouse and sat down.
I ordered a pot of hot tea and read the contents of the newspaper while drinking the tea.
For a person of Chen Zida's level of education, simplified Chinese characters do not have a big reading threshold for him. Just scan the simplified and traditional Chinese comparison table for a while, and vernacular Chinese is no problem. There are also various punctuation marks, which further reduces the burnout.
With your brain level, you can read thousands of words in a row without any feeling of dizziness.
Even so, Chen Zida still read this issue of "Oriental Times" for a whole morning.
It wasn't that it took him a morning to understand the complexity of the article, but the content inside shocked him all morning.
"Under normal circumstances, under the action of the air extractor on the western plateau, most areas of Daming can enjoy good weather, and most of the population is concentrated east of the 400 mm rainfall line. However, affected by the periodic small glacier climate, the central
The latitudinal high pressure lingers in the north for a long time, and the water vapor in the south cannot go north and can only stay in the south. Eventually, it will lead to floods in the south and drought in the north, and comprehensive disasters. This year will definitely become more and more severe until it reaches a certain turning point... This, this nonsense, is deceptive.
Everyone, I don’t know what to say!”
Chen Zida was dumbfounded, but this front-page article also cited examples from the late Han, late Tang, late Yuan and other dynasties, and provided countless reference materials to prove the fundamental laws of cyclical climate anomalies.
The article denies the Confucian theory of the connection between heaven and man, but it is well-founded and logically self-consistent. The article mentions that the population was greatly reduced in the last years of the dynasty, from tens of millions to a few million. It was the end of the world.
The tragic situation made him shiver and feel horrified.
"It's fake, it's all fake, it's all made up, it's not trustworthy."
Chen Zida shook his head and denied it vigorously, but facing the groups of data, paragraphs of reference materials, and the signs that Ming Dynasty has been able to observe in recent years, all proving the authoritativeness of this article, Chen Zida felt more and more
Feeling guilty, I am increasingly afraid to face it.
The same is true for the following articles. They can all be described as having detailed data and sufficient arguments. They are also well-illustrated and concise and intuitive. They are not difficult to understand. Questions are allowed and they are willing to make corrections, but generally there will not be too much.
Big problem.
For example, the total population of Ming Dynasty is 213.7 million.
The male to female ratio is 111 to 100.
The average life expectancy is 38.5 years.
The per capita food supply is only 365 kilograms.
The gross national product is about 2.67 billion silver dollars (of which Xujiazhuang accounts for 40%), but the gap between the rich and the poor is very huge, with the rich accounting for 10%, the middle-class subsistence class accounting for 30%, and the poor families accounting for 60%.
In addition, it also specially introduces the foreign trade and maritime trade of Ming Dynasty.
Wait wait wait.
After reading these articles.
In Chen Zida's mind, he established a rough outline of the world and the Ming Empire, including all aspects of people's livelihood and economy. Even if he didn't think it was correct, it did help him establish a set of
World view, view of the Ming Dynasty.
It was more like opening up a whole new world, allowing him to see many things from a macro perspective and gain huge benefits.
Even if Chen Zida doesn't want to admit it from the bottom of his heart.
…
afternoon.
Chen Zida folded the "Oriental Times" and carefully put it into his pocket. Then he sneaked back to the Imperial College, trying his best to avoid being discovered by his classmates or teachers. He bought items related to Xujiazhuang, especially this newspaper.
, which has a great impact on the inherent concepts in the mind, and is definitely the most strictly prohibited thing. Once caught, the consequences will be very serious.
Returning to his accommodation, he hid the newspaper in a secret place and took it out to read when he was occasionally free. Chen Zida planned to keep the newspaper instead of tearing it up or destroying it, because he vaguely realized that he would not
In the distant future, the significance of this newspaper may be very important, so it would be better to preserve it.
But his behavior was accidentally seen by a roommate in the same dormitory, and he reported him without hesitation.
evening.
Imperial College, inside Dacheng Hall.
Faced with the three-party review organized by the three top leaders of Jijiu, Siye and Jiancheng.
and the angry and disappointed looks of hundreds of classmates.
Chen Zida, who was kneeling on the ground, had no choice but to lower his head and admit defeat. He often reported others, so today he could only say that he was unhappy with his retribution.
"Disappointed, I am so disappointed in you. As the best student in the Imperial College, you would actually do such a thing." Zhou Changru was heartbroken when offering wine.
"Zida, who asked you to buy this "Oriental Times"? Who instigated you? Is there a hidden story behind it?" Siye Li Zhijie liked this student rather and was protective of it.
"Expulsion, for hiding the spiritual poison of Xujiazhuang, this student is hopeless and must be expelled!" Hu Shouheng, the prison chief, said with a black face. Although the rule of the Imperial College is to expel him for making three mistakes, Chen Zida committed the crime this time.
The mistake was so serious that I could only veto it with one vote.
"Chen Zida, I didn't expect you to be such a person. I, Zhao Xuelong, made a mistake. From today on, I will sever my ties with you. You will no longer be my friend."
"Fortunately, I thought you were a gentleman who sticks to the right path, but I didn't expect that you would also be harboring poison from Xujiazhuang."
"Disappointed, Brother Chen, you really disappoint me."
"Traitor, you are a traitor to the Saint's Court!" The classmates also drew a clear line and criticized him verbally and writing.
"Dear teachers, I spent seven cents to buy this newspaper. No one instigated me, and I have read all the contents. No matter how the punishment is given, Zida is willing to accept it without any complaints." Chen Zida, who was kneeling on the ground, said honestly.
"you--"
Zhou Changru held the newspaper in his hand and wanted to tear it into pieces, but he still resisted tearing it up. As for how to punish him, Hu Shouheng, the supervisor, advocated expulsion, and Li Zhijie, the director, hoped to give Chen Zida another chance. This is a 1:1 situation.
Next, Chen Zida's fate depends on the crucial vote of offering wine to Zhou Changru.
After thinking about it, Zhou Changru said: "I will take this so-called newspaper back and test its poison. If the situation is serious, it must be fired! If there is still hope, I will give it another chance."
Hu Shouheng and Li Zhiye nodded and agreed to this plan.
That night.
Zhou Changru, who went back with the newspaper as a sacrificial wine, tried the poison for a whole night and got rid of the dark circles under his eyes.
I also searched countless documents and materials in the library to prove the fallacies in the "Oriental Times". Most of the results were correct. Even if there were a few errors, it was not harmful and could not completely deny it.
function.
On the contrary, he was almost shaken by the constant support for the major points put forward in the "Oriental Times" such as the Little Ice Age.
In the end, he had to stop searching for information, because if he continued to search, the inherent concepts in his mind would not persist, and it would only prove that Xu Jiazhuang was most likely correct.
So Chen Zida was lucky enough to pass this test and received a serious demerit.
But the sensational impact caused by the first issue of "Oriental Times" has just begun, and the public opinion response it has set off will soon sweep across the entire Ming Dynasty!