Chapter 255: A Thunderclap on Level Ground — Science Makes Its Dazzling Debut

The afternoon demonstration was set for the Tengxiang Four Guards parade ground beside the Drum Tower north of the city.

Originally this had been the garrison for the Warriors and Four Guards camps.

But after His Majesty ascended the throne, he merged in the Valiant Guard Camp and moved the drill grounds to the left side of Di'an Gate, and the place suddenly lost much of its bustle. Then, after the former seal-holder of the Directorate of the Imperial Horses, Xu Yingyuan, fell from power, the new seal-holder, Cao Huachun, simply carried out another purge and reorganization of the Tengxiang Four Guards. He pulled out three hundred and fourteen elite soldiers from among them and merged them into the Capital Camps' crack troops for combined training; everyone else was stuffed wholesale into the ordinary Capital Camps roster.

So for some time now this place had belonged to no one, and no one expected it would be pressed into temporary service today for a demonstration.

As for Lu Zhenfei's side of things.

He first sat half the day in the duty room of the Six Offices of Scrutiny before his page finally came back with the purchased official hat and black boots.

Once he had put on the hat and boots and saw the time was about right, he simply found a mutton shop by the roadside, ordered a bowl of scalding mutton soup, and downed it with two sesame flatbreads — that counted as a meal dealt with.

Only then did he clasp his hands behind his back and stroll leisurely toward the north-city parade ground.

He had thought himself early, but to his surprise, the entrance to the parade ground was already a sea of bobbing heads.

Lu Zhenfei stepped into the parade ground and first swept his gaze around.

The majority of those present were the local officials appointed under the new policies for the Northern Metropolitan Region, all standing in clusters of three or five, murmuring in low voices; over by the reviewing stand, several secretaries from the Northern Metropolitan New Policies Group were bunched together.

Just as he was taking stock, someone off to one side of the ground suddenly raised an arm high and waved in his direction.

"Brother Jianbai! Over here! Over here!"

Lu Zhenfei peered closely, and a genuine smile broke across his face; he strode quickly over to meet them.

"I thought I was early — I never imagined you gentlemen would be even earlier."

Waiting over there were none other than Fu Yongchun, Gao Jie, Chen Tingmo, and the others.

Not all of these men were jinshi of the same examination cohort as Lu Zhenfei, but all were of Northern Metropolitan origin, and it was precisely the five days of training that had made this group familiar faces to one another.

At the mention of those five days of training, everyone was full of feeling.

A full forty class hours, and they had forcibly crammed twenty-seven booklets into them.

Only jinshi like them, who had fought their way through the civil examinations, could manage it; an ordinary person would likely have long since been dizzy and overwhelmed.

The most memorable of all, without a doubt, was Case Analysis of Zhang Juzheng's New Policies.

Not only did it take a full seven class hours, but for the final session they actually entered the palace and held the lecture right in Wenhua Hall, with the reigning Son of Heaven himself attending in person. That day, the Emperor wore no dragon robe, only ordinary dress; his complexion was ruddy, his stride carried a breeze, and every gesture exuded a vigorous, heroic spirit. The Emperor's various sharp questions during the session were nothing worth mentioning.

After all, that interview in which Lu Zhenfei had been grilled by the Emperor until he was drenched in sweat had long since been copied and sold far and wide by the booksellers, who had made a tidy fortune off it. What mattered most was that the Son of Heaven's complexion was ruddy, his spirit robust, his voice resonant, his mind incisive — he truly looked the picture of extreme health, and no matter how you looked at him, he did not have the appearance of a short-lived man, which set everyone's hearts greatly at ease.

Apart from the Zhang Juzheng volume, which took considerable time, the remaining booklets were not too difficult; some covered three booklets in a single class hour, some covered five. Among the four hurdles of the Northern Metropolitan county magistrate selection — the personnel evaluation depended on luck, the official documents were tedious, and the interview was tricky — but this training hurdle of rote memorization and textual comprehension was precisely their specialty, their bread and butter.

So over these past few days, everyone had been perfectly at ease, handling it all with room to spare.

Even though the atmosphere had been tense lately and no one dared hold grand banquets at restaurants or touch mahjong or leaf-card games —

the moment word spread that Zhang Zhiji, eldest son of the Duke of Ying and one of the "Five Masters of Statecraft," had already taken charge of the gambling matter and was making preparations, no one wanted to be kicked out at the very last moment before taking up their post.

But private visits for tea and swapping tips on the "factional-strife game" that had leaked out from the secretariat were harmless enough, and in fact rapidly drew everyone closer together.

So after five days as classmates, these hundred-odd county magistrates had already vaguely divided themselves into distinct circles.

One for Shandong, one for the Northern Metropolitan Region, one for Henan — and as for the Southern Metropolitan Region, it was further split into Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, and other places, truly large circles nesting small circles, great factions harboring lesser factions.

The group gathered together and first spent a while speculating about the content of today's demonstration.

"Most likely a review of the Valiant Guard Camp." Fu Yongchun stroked his beard and said with certainty, "With our departure from the capital imminent, His Majesty means to let us see military might, so we will know the numbers and effectiveness required when we request the Valiant Guard Camp's assistance."

Everyone agreed.

The topic had little depth for further discussion, and in a blink each man had shifted to exchanging views on local governance.

Of the hundred-odd county magistrates in the Northern Metropolitan Region, nearly half the original magistrates had been weeded out by the selection process.

And those who had filled the vacancies each truly had their own solid set of methods.

No one was foolish enough to share openly, but after passing the interview, private exchanges had become the norm.

Lu Zhenfei did not hold back either; he described his methods for dredging river channels and dealing with merchants back in Jingyang.

Beside him, Han Xiang followed up, discussing his tactics for disciplining petty clerks and clearing backlogged cases in Wuchang, drawing nods of approval from the listeners.

But the one most sought after had to be the former magistrate of Gushi in Henan, Gao Jie.

Everyone pressed him for details of how he had put down the White Lotus sect rebels back then.

"... Those White Lotus devils were masters at putting on ghostly airs — that night, the flames lit up the sky..."

Gao Jie told the tale with vivid color, and everyone listened with rapt fascination.

After all, most of them understood legal matters and fiscal administration to some degree, but leading troops to quell a rebellion — that was not something just anyone had experienced.

Just as the talk was growing lively, a crisp bronze gong rang out across the parade ground.

The hour of wei had arrived; the demonstration was about to begin.

The previously noisy parade ground quickly fell silent; the officials consciously arranged themselves by rank and fixed their gaze uniformly on the high platform ahead.

A man was seen ascending the platform with measured steps — none other than the man whose appointment had just been announced at the morning court session: the Director of the Academy of Sciences, Xiong Mingyu.

Xiong Mingyu took his place, drew a deep breath, swept his eyes across the hundred-odd faces below the platform, and declared in a ringing voice: "Colleagues all, today's demonstration is not, as rumor has it, a review of the Valiant Guard — it is to invite you all to witness the very beginning of the great path of 'science'!"

As his words fell, a stir rippled through the crowd below.

Not a military review? But to watch the great path of science?

The county magistrates looked at one another, faces full of bafflement.

Xiong Mingyu, as if he had long anticipated this reaction, did not pause but continued.

"What is science? The division into categories, the learning of each separate branch."

"Agriculture has its agronomy, crafts have their engineering, commerce has its commercial studies."

"His Majesty has said: the path of science is divided into theory and application."

"And what we shall demonstrate today is to begin from this single path of 'qi' — to follow the principles of the formless, to speak of their tangible uses, analyzing each step by step, as the very beginning of Ming science!"

Lu Zhenfei stood amid the crowd, his brow slightly furrowed.

Though the speech was full of new terms, by stringing together guesses and inferences he could more or less understand it.

It could not be helped — since entering the capital, too many new terms had appeared, and anyone without that skill would have had a hard time securing a new-policy appointment.

But what did any of this have to do with them, the local officials?

Were they supposed to go back to their counties and set up some sort of Academy of Sciences too? Or was this new policy about to sprout yet another strange novelty?

Doubts swirled in his mind, and his gaze involuntarily settled on Xiong Mingyu.

This Minister Xiong had originally been the Right Censor-in-Chief of Nanjing, Superintendent of River Defense — a high-ranking provincial authority in his own right.

During the Tianqi years, he had been demoted and banished to Guizhou in the factional purges.

After his reinstatement, he had kept utterly silent — until this morning's court session, when he was suddenly appointed head of this so-called "Academy of Sciences," and this very afternoon he was presiding over this baffling demonstration. The whole thing reeked of something strange.

Xiong Mingyu, seeing the repeated stirrings in the crowd, could only wait a moment before continuing.

He swept his eyes over the assembly and asked in a loud voice:

"In the Great Ming Times, the 'Questions of Science' column has run three issues — the wineskin, the bottle swallowing the egg, and the water cup covered with paper. Have any of you read them? Those who have, raise your hands!"

A rustling sound — a forest of arms rose from below the platform.

Among capital officials, practically everyone had a copy of the Great Ming Times. That "Questions of Science" column, though merely a supplement feature, after all bore the word "Questions" in its title — far too similar in form to the "Three Questions of the Daily Lecture" that the new sovereign had used to stir the winds of change upon his accession. No one dared treat it lightly.

"Put them down." Xiong Mingyu pressed his hand downward and said with a solemn expression, "In truth, all these strange phenomena are the work of qi."

"Qi fills the space between heaven and earth. Formless and colorless, it seems empty, yet it possesses weight. When a wineskin is emptied of wine, there is no qi within, and the external qi presses upon it — thus it collapses. Blow qi into the skin, and the internal and external forces counter each other — thus it swells."

"Burn paper inside a bottle, and the hot qi is driven out. The qi within grows thin, and the external qi, like a great invisible hand, forces the egg clean into the bottle! As for the water cup covered with paper that does not leak — the principle is the same. With no qi inside the cup, the external qi holds up the paper, and the water naturally does not fall."

Xiong Mingyu finished speaking in one breath, but the reactions from the crowd below were a thousand strange and a hundred odd.

Some looked suddenly enlightened, lost in thought; some furrowed their brows, as if pondering just what this "qi" really was; and more still, like Lu Zhenfei, were trying to fathom the deeper meaning behind this sudden lecture on the Questions of Science.

In one corner of the crowd, Qu Shisi's gaze was deep and dark.

He came from a great Jiangnan lineage; both his father and elder brother believed in the Lord of Heaven, and he himself had been baptized.

This theory of "qi" — he had heard similar concepts from the missionary Aleni, so naturally he grasped it at once.

But the doctrine did not matter. What mattered was his future, what mattered was the chance to act!

He did not care whether a bottle could swallow an egg; what he cared about were the preferences of the man seated high upon the dragon throne.

Why not call it Western Learning? Why not mention the Catholic faith? Why deliberately coin a new term, "science"?

And on top of that, Xiong Mingyu, who did not follow the faith, had actually been made the head of this so-called Academy of Sciences — and he spoke only of the investigation of things, never touching on doctrine...

While Xu Guangqi, a believer, still had no specific official post or duties to this day...

Thoughts flashed through Qu Shisi's mind like lightning, and in an instant he strung this whole chain of clues together.

His Majesty harbored an extremely strong wariness toward the Catholic faith!

The moment this thought surfaced, a layer of cold sweat seeped from Qu Shisi's back.

It seemed this faith could be followed no longer.

He would have to think of a way, once he returned, to withdraw from the faith without injuring his father's and brother's dignity...

Perhaps he should take a concubine?

Yes, that would make a fine excuse for breaking the commandments.

Up on the platform, Xiong Mingyu naturally had no idea that in this setting, someone's mind could twist and turn all the way to the matter of taking a concubine.

Seeing that the crowd was still digesting, he raised his voice.

"Gentlemen, though this principle can be used to deduce and prove many phenomena, it still runs counter to common sense."

"To prove it with only three experiments is not enough."

"Starting tomorrow, the Academy of Sciences will stage a demonstration at each of the nine gates of the capital, proving to the common people and the officialdom alike that the force of atmospheric qi truly exists." "But you, the men of the new policies, set out tomorrow — I fear you will not be able to attend."

"Therefore, His Majesty has decreed that this afternoon, a preliminary demonstration be staged for you in advance."

With that, he clapped his hands twice, sharply.

"Clang!"

The gong sounded once more.

From one side of the parade ground, several dozen brawny soldiers and craftsmen, shouting work-chants, drove a team of tall horses and pushed a large cart forward. On the cart rested, conspicuously, two hemispheres cast of brass.

Xiong Mingyu pointed at the two hemispheres and said: "Gentlemen, observe. This sphere is divided into two halves, with no mechanism or latch between them. In a moment, I shall have them fitted together and the air within drawn out. If what I have said is true, with no qi inside the sphere, the external qi will press so tightly that even without molten bronze or iron sealing them, these two halves will become one seamless body — impossible to pull apart!"

"To put it plainly, this is a giant wineskin, a giant empty bottle, a giant water cup!"

At this, Xiong Mingyu simply descended from the platform and beckoned to the crowd: "Don't just stand there — come closer! All of you, come up and look! There is no danger in this step!"

At these words, the crowd surged forward, clustering around the hemispheres and studying them with curiosity.

Lu Zhenfei blended into the throng, but he had sharply caught the subtext in Xiong Mingyu's words.

No danger in this step? Then at which step would there be danger?

His heart gave a leap, and he instinctively slowed his pace, maneuvering a few colleagues in front of him as shields.

Even as they spoke, the craftsmen had already begun their work.

The two hemispheres were fitted together with seamless precision, and along the seam they were carefully packed with hemp cloth and silk soaked in oil to prevent air leakage. Then, through a small hole, they began to pour in water.

Once the sphere was filled with water, a strangely shaped device was attached to it.

It was a one-way water-extraction valve that the craftsmen had tinkered together.

"Begin!"

The craftsmen divided their tasks and began pumping furiously.

At first, several men had to hold the hemispheres down firmly, afraid they might slip apart.

But as stream after stream of water was drawn out, the two hemispheres seemed to have a body-immobilizing spell cast upon them — they clung tighter and tighter.

Eventually, the men holding the hemispheres let go, yet the sphere remained utterly immobile, as if it had taken root and grown into a single piece.

"Hssss—"

A chorus of sharply indrawn breaths rose from the crowd.

Who could believe, without seeing it with their own eyes, that two smooth brass hemispheres could adhere together like this?

And everyone had watched the entire process with their own eyes — there were indeed no tricks or mechanisms, just two copper hemispheres and a pile of hemp cloth and silk. Moments later, the water was fully drained, and the craftsman locked the valve shut again.

Xiong Mingyu waved a hand, and several soldiers stepped forward. They seized the iron rings on either end of the hemisphere and pulled with all their strength.

Those soldiers were military strongmen specially invited for the occasion, every one of them broad-shouldered and barrel-chested. Now their faces flushed crimson, veins bulging on their foreheads — yet the copper sphere remained as immovable as Mount Tai, not even a crack appearing.

"Gentlemen!" Xiong Mingyu strode up beside the copper sphere and declared in a ringing voice, "Well? This is the power of the atmosphere! Seeing is believing — do you believe it now?" The assembled officials nodded repeatedly, their eyes full of wonder.

Xiong Mingyu's gaze flickered, and he suddenly raised his voice. "Now that you know the atmosphere possesses force, perhaps you gentlemen would care to guess just how great that force is?" "Two horses! Who believes two horses could pull this sphere apart? Raise your hands!"

Silence fell over the field.

These were all men who had grown shrewd as old foxes in officialdom — who among them would stick his neck out at a moment like this?

Since Chancellor Xiong had asked the question that way, two horses certainly could not pull it apart.

Xiong Mingyu laughed heartily, unconcerned. "It seems you gentlemen have considerable faith in the atmosphere. What about four horses, then? The strength of four horses — could they separate it?" Now the crowd began to waver.

Four horses… with five horses, you could even tear a man limb from limb…

Scattered here and there, a dozen or so hands went up.

"Good!" The light in Xiong Mingyu's eyes blazed brighter, his voice louder still. "Then what about eight? The strength of eight horses! Could they pull it apart?!"

At this, the atmosphere exploded entirely.

Eight horses? That was the force of drawing and quartering, plus three more horses besides!

This was no ceremony — this was a gambling den!

Two hundred years since the Great Ming's founding, the prevailing mood now favored gambling, and the gambling instinct buried deep in every man's bones was instantly ignited.

"Eight horses will surely open it!"

"I wouldn't be so sure — this sphere is uncanny!"

"I'll wager on it! I say it opens!"

In a moment, nearly half the county magistrates had raised their hands.

Xiong Mingyu swept his gaze across the assembly, his face betraying the satisfaction of one who held the entire situation in hand.

"Come! We shall know once we try!"

With a sharp flick of his sleeve, he bellowed, "Gentlemen, withdraw to the review platform at once! What comes next… carries real danger!"

At these words, a chill ran through the crowd. They hastily receded like the tide toward the raised platform nearby, yet pair after pair of eyes remained fixed dead on the field.

"Bring the horses!"

At the command, two sturdy horses were led into the field, positioned left and right, and harnessed to the ropes.

"Ha!"

Whips cracked like thunder. The two horses strained forward with all their might, and the ropes snapped taut in an instant.

The copper sphere did not budge a fraction.

"Add horses! Four!"

Two more horses entered the field. Four horses neighed, iron-shod hooves pawing the earth, dust swirling into the air.

The copper sphere still hung there, cold and unmoved.

The dozen or so county magistrates who had raised their hands and wagered on four horses felt not the slightest embarrassment — only shock as they stared at the scene.

"Add more! Eight!"

Eight warhorses, arrayed at opposite ends, like two torrents pulling away from each other.

The crack of whips, the shouts of men, the thunder of hooves — all mingled into one din. Under the immense strain, the ropes emitted a tooth-grinding creak.

And yet, the copper sphere — still held fast together!

Now even the half who had raised their hands earlier stood dumbfounded.

Lu Zhenfei stood atop the high platform, both hands gripping the railing so hard his knuckles had gone white.

His mouth felt parched, his heart pounding wildly. How was this possible?

Eight horses! This invisible, intangible "air" — could it truly possess such divine strength?

"Not enough! Still not enough!"

Xiong Mingyu stood at the edge of the field like a man possessed, his great hand sweeping out: "Sixteen! Bring me sixteen horses!"

Another eight fierce horses were led into the field.

Eight to a side — sixteen in all.

The spectacle had grown rather terrifying. The white breath streaming from sixteen horses merged into a single cloud in the cold air.

"PULL!!!"

With that great roar, sixteen grooms brought their whips down as one.

Neigh-eigh-eigh!

Stung by pain, the warhorses charged forward in a frenzy.

The taut ropes stretched dead straight, emitting sharp, snapping cracks. The colossal force transmitted onto the copper sphere.

A deathly hush fell over the entire field.

Every man held his breath, eyes bulging as if they might pop from their sockets.

One breath, two breaths, three breaths…

Just as everyone was thinking they would have to go to thirty-two horses —

BOOM!!!

A thunderous report, like a sudden clap of lightning from clear ground, exploded beside every ear.

The two copper hemispheres, at last unable to withstand that terrifying, monstrous force, burst apart with a roar!

The immense recoil instantly freed the sixteen horses from their restraints, and they bolted forward, neighing wildly.

A few of the horses, timid by nature, were so frightened by the thunderclap that they went tearing madly across the parade ground then and there, beyond the control of the grooms who shouted frantically after them.

This was the danger Xiong Mingyu had spoken of.

The first time he had witnessed such a scene in the imperial palace, he had thought nothing of it, wondering why the Emperor needed to withdraw so far.

But having experienced it himself, he now understood.

Such heaven-and-earth-shaking power made men tremble in terror — how much more so mere beasts.

On the reviewing platform, the hundred-odd county magistrates were utterly dumbstruck, like clay statues and wooden carvings, speechless for a long while.

Th-this… this was the power of qi?

This was the power of that formless, colorless thing they ordinarily dismissed as empty air?

Lu Zhenfei felt his mind buzzing, a ceaseless stream of inspiration welling up.

If this power could be harnessed by man…

Yes! Harnessed by man — that was exactly it! Such tremendous force! Could it be made into a cannon?

A tiny bronze ball, and it required the strength of sixteen horses!

Then what if it were larger?! Could a single bronze ball reduce the barbarian chieftain's hundreds and thousands of cavalry to powder?!

But how could it be done?

Just as Lu Zhenfei's mind teemed with wild fancies yet amounted to nothing but nonsense —

Xiong Mingyu, seeing the bolting horses brought under control one by one, had already slowly descended from the reviewing platform.

He walked over to the two bronze spheres that had rolled to the ground, then turned to face his dazed and shaken colleagues on the high platform.

He spread his arms wide, his gaze blazing with fervor, and cried out in a great voice.

"Gentlemen!"

"What a man sees in his lifetime is like a high wall penning him in. Matters beyond that wall — though they carry the force of thunder — are no more than muffled sounds in his ears."

"Only when he sees the wall topple and the ramparts fall with his own eyes does he grasp the boundlessness of heaven and earth, the infinity of the cosmos!"

These words struck like a great bronze bell, shaking everyone to their very core.

Xiong Mingyu drew a deep breath, pointed at the bronze spheres on the ground, and declared with fervor, "This is the power of the atmosphere! This is the Dao of science!"

"By the method of investigating things to extend knowledge, we pursue principles that even the ancient sages across ten thousand ages failed to discover!"

"With all of you bearing witness today, you can see that we men of the present, in this principle of the atmosphere, in this science of the atmosphere, have already surpassed the ancients! If this is so for the atmosphere, then how can we not surpass them in the sciences of agriculture, of water conservancy, of engineering?!"

"If every branch of science surpasses the past, then the struggle between man and land — how can its solution be confined to expanding territory alone?"

"If we can exhaustively investigate these principles, then even a mere inch of land can sustain a myriad people; even a meal without rice can transform decay into the miraculous!"

"This is the solution to the struggle between man and land that His Majesty holds in his heart!"

Paying no heed to the bewilderment and incomprehension on every face, Xiong Mingyu grew ever more impassioned as he spoke, ever more stirred in his breast, until he was utterly lost in his own world.

He recalled how, back when he had been reinstated from Pingxi Guard in Guizhou and summoned to the capital for an imperial audience —

when the Emperor proposed placing him in charge of the Academy of Science, he had been a hundred parts unwilling, a thousand parts reluctant.

He had studied the books of the sages, learned the arts of statecraft; his lifelong aspiration had been to govern a region and bring blessings to the common people.

To put him in charge of the work of artisans and craftsmen — was that not the greatest farce under heaven?

Even though he was well-versed in Western learning, he had regarded it as no more than a diversion, a supplement to his "pursuit of the Dao," and had never imagined making it the fundamental essence of ordering the world and governing the state!

Yet, within the Academy of Science, in debate after debate about "force," about "qi," about the "investigation of things," and after reading some of the crude reports compiled by the Secretariat and the Hanlin Academy —

he had changed.

He had finally understood that the struggle between man and land, the death-trap of dynastic cycles — the key to breaking that trap lay not in conquest, not in opening new frontiers, but in this very "science," which appeared to be mere clever tricks and trifling arts!

How could this be the work of mere artisans?

This was the great Dao that would establish peace for ten thousand generations!

Xiong Mingyu felt his eyes grow hot. He exhaled a long breath of stale air from his chest, turned to Qi Xinxiao, who had been standing to the side waiting all this while, and cupped his hands in salute.

"Secretary Qi, my discourse is finished. The rest of the observation ceremony… I leave to you to conduct."

"Explain well the principles that the Secretariat and the Hanlin Academy have discovered."

"Explain well…"

"The solution to the struggle between man and land, and the principle of surpassing the methods of the past!"

Indeed, this was far from over. What Xiong Mingyu had delivered was only half of today's story.

A mere "Capital Hemisphere" experiment hardly warranted summoning every local official of Northern Zhili to attend.

The logical demonstration driven by Zhu Youjian and fully supported by the Secretariat and the Hanlin Academy — that was the crucial link that would tightly bind science to the New Policies of Northern Zhili!