Zhu Youzhen faced Huang Liji, who had not said a word since entering the upper study, waved his hand to let the waiter in the room exit the room, and then asked him casually: "What does Shoufu want me to express?" Could it be that you can't even communicate this little problem between you and Qian Shilang? ”

Huang Liji's face suddenly became very exciting, he immediately got up from the seat, kowtowed to Chongzhen and pleaded guilty: "The minister is guilty, he shouldn't have a private relationship with Qian Longxi..."

These days, the emperor's estrangement from him and his unexpected silence on Huang Zongxi's case made Huang Liji faintly understand in his heart that his private contact with the Donglin Party members was probably transmitted to the emperor's ears.

Therefore, when Chongzhen was a little clearer, he simply explained the experience of his dealings with Qian Longxi, so as not to let the emperor continue to be suspicious.

However, after talking about his dealings with the Donglin Party, Huang Liji still defended himself a few words, "... The Donglin Party members controlled the public opinion of the Shilin in the world, and often criticized and smeared the various policies introduced by the cabinet, and some local gentry refused to implement the imperial court policies at the local level because they were bewitched by the Donglin Party members.

As the head of the cabinet, the minister also has the responsibility of adjusting yin and yang and reconciling the five flavors. The minister and Qian Longxi really hoped to put aside their old grievances with the Donglin party and help each other in the same boat, but the minister really had no other ideas. However, the matter has come to this point, and the ministers are invited to return to their hometowns to avoid the disaster of party strife between the government and the opposition again..."

Zhu Youzhen listened to Huang Liji's own defense, and it was not good to continue to take Qiao. He immediately changed to a mild tone, and tried his best to appease the cabinet chief who wanted to leave his stall and go home.

Under the emperor's relief, Huang Liji, who was originally unfortunate, finally retracted Zhishi's decision to return to his hometown.

It's not that Huang Liji is greedy for power, but that he needs to consider his protégés, subordinates, relatives and friends. If he was forced to return to his hometown under such circumstances, it would be tantamount to admitting that he was responsible in the Donglin case.

After the Donglin Party overturns the case, they may not directly retaliate against him who has returned to his hometown. But his protégés, subordinates, relatives and friends in the court will inevitably be purged or marginalized.

It's not that it's an irreparable desperate situation, Huang Liji obviously can't accept this worst ending.

What's more, he was willing to reconcile with the Donglin Party, originally thinking of leaving a way back for himself. After all, it is impossible to maintain a mode of harmony between the leaders of the civil servants and the emperor forever.

But the Donglin Party still had words in their ears, and they had already betrayed their promises, not only wanting to remove him from the position of first assistant, but also trying to destroy his reputation, which really made him a little angry.

If it weren't for the fact that he couldn't determine the emperor's thoughts, Huang Liji would have wanted to fight back a long time ago. After calming Huang Liji's emotions, Zhu Youzhen said slowly.

"The Criminal Department's questioning these days is indeed a bit excessive. It is obviously against the law that a scholar can stab and beat an official of the court in the public court, and the officials of the criminal department actually ignore it. In my opinion, this case will be suspended for a few days, and a court meeting will be held three days later to discuss this case, and I will express my attitude when I arrive. ”

Although Chongzhen did not explain what his attitude was, his dissatisfaction with the Criminal Department had been undoubtedly revealed, and Huang Liji's heart that had been hanging up these days was finally relaxed.

Before he could say anything, Chongzhen took out a copy of Shangshu from the brocade box on the side and motioned for him to take it and take a look.

After Huang Liji read this book at a glance, he suddenly said with some anger: "Shi Huang Bingshi, the head of the Fuwang Mansion, can't persuade the Fuwang to keep to himself, and at this time, this negligence is obviously a bad intention."

The minister asked His Majesty to send an envoy to reprimand King Fu and ask Huang Bingshi for the blame, so as to deter the heart of the Fu Domain. ”

Zhu Youzhen stared at Huang Liji's expression for a while, and then waved his hand and said, "It doesn't matter what Uncle Fu Wang thinks, what the officials in the court are thinking is more important."

As soon as this Yao Jiang Huang Xiaozi came out, Uncle Fu Wang over there went to this sparseness, and the timing was too subtle. ”

Huang Liji was suddenly led by Chongzhen to think crookedly, but he still had some doubts in his heart, he couldn't believe that these Donglin party members who drove King Fu out of the capital would create momentum for King Fu to return to Beijing.

However, he soon thought that no matter what the original intention of the Donglin Party was, as long as the current actions of the Donglin Party were related to King Fu's return to Beijing, then Qingliu public opinion would shift from overturning the case for Donglin to the question of collusion between the Donglin Party and King Fu.

Huang Liji's words that he originally wanted to question were swallowed back. He said cautiously: "Back to Your Majesty, the minister thinks that Your Majesty is right, this matter is not so simple. A simple edict to reprimand the Fu Fan will not only not make King Fu dispel his thoughts, but it may put His Majesty on his back and hinder King Fu's notoriety of filial piety. I thought that I should..."

Huang Liji suddenly paused, he was just thinking about using this matter, but he hadn't figured out how to use it, so his mind was stuck, and he couldn't say why.

After waiting for a while, Zhu Youzhen finally couldn't help but say, "I thought that no matter how it was handled. We always have to figure out the position of the DPRK and Chinese officials on the matter of Uncle Fuwang's negligence before we can prescribe the right medicine, right? ”

Huang Liji suddenly replied: "What Your Majesty said is very true, this is the first priority. The minister took this letter and discussed it with the cabinet and the six ministries and nine secretaries, and then reported to His Majesty whether there were any people among them who colluded with the Fu Domain. ”

Zhu Youzhen shook his head and said, "That's too slow, and it's easy to give them time to deal with it." I have ordered this to be published in today's Daming Times, and no matter what thoughts they have, it is time to take action..."

When Chongzhen was busy talking with Huang Liji in the palace, the three boats happened to slowly approach the new pier next to the Datong Bridge outside Chaoyang Gate.

The three ships were not carrying grain, but baskets full of strange stones.

With the newly erected pulley hoist, the new terminal can unload cargo ten times faster than the previous manual unloading.

While waiting for the loading and unloading of the ship's cargo, a small steward who managed the loading and unloading of goods at the dock couldn't help but ask curiously to the little official who was directing the carriage to pull away the goods: "This brother, what are these stones that look like guano used for?" ”

The little official didn't look back and said: "Brother has good eyesight, these are bird droppings, in addition to bird droppings and bat droppings." They were all dug out of islands and caves in the Sea of Denglai. We went to the forest to pull them back to test whether these things could be used as fertilizer. ”

After seeing that the bamboo baskets on the ground had been loaded, the little official said hello and prepared to get into the carriage and leave.

"This brother, what about half a shipload of cargo that hasn't been unloaded?" The little steward suddenly wanted to remind this sloppy little official of the Shanglin Yuan Supervisor.

The little official stepped on the steps in front of the carriage with one foot, turned around and thanked him, and then said: "That half of the boat is not our cargo on Lin Yuanjian, you put it aside first, and someone will come to receive it soon." ”

The little steward of the dock suddenly stopped talking, and the stones of the last half of the boat were much more beautiful than the previous struvite stones, all of which were round as jade, crystal clear, and colorful pebbles, and many of the patterns on the stones were like a landscape painting.

The steward was delighted when he saw the hunt, and picked out a few stones with good patterns and colors and hid them. He privately thought that this was probably an elegant object used to lay the ground or pool in the palace.

When the person who came to collect the stones arrived, he couldn't help but ask curiously. However, the man who came to pick up the goods told him that the stones were used to crush the hard lumps of ore.

The lime plant has recently developed a kind of cement, but it needs to grind the sintered clinker into a fine powder, which is both uneven and too labor-intensive. Therefore, several academicians of the Academy of Sciences have designed a machine that can quickly and evenly grind out fine powders.

However, this kind of machine needs a smooth-looking, but hard-textured object to be used as a grinding ball, so these pebbles are specially brought from Changshan Island.

It wasn't until these people left with colorful pebbles that the little steward felt sorry in his heart, this was really a bit of a tyrannical thing.

Just when the scholars in the capital were all focused on Huang Zongxi's case, and the debate between supporting and opposing the reversal of the case for Donglin in the public opinion in the capital was becoming more and more intense, the School of Natural Sciences of Yenching University was still in a calm situation.

The most hotly debated issue among the students of the Faculty of Natural Sciences right now is not the case of Huang Zongxi's avenging of his father.

Rather, it was for the experiment that the last emperor showed them, proving the atmospheric pressure with mercury at the height inside a glass tube.

Although Chongzhen did this experiment in front of them, he also briefly explained that this was the result of atmospheric pressure. They were also told that as the height increased, the height of the mercury column inside the glass tube would gradually decrease.

However, there are still many students who have just entered the school and do not believe their eyes, they think that the emperor's experiment is just an eye-covering method, how can the air support such a heavy column of mercury.

It's just that because it was the emperor himself who did the experiment, these students didn't dare to question it on the spot. But after the emperor left, they began to do the experiment on their own.

No matter how many times they did it, they got the same result, and the students finally believed that it was a scientific phenomenon, not a trick.

Soon, though, the students were arguing again. After most of the students proved the authenticity of the experiment, they changed their attitude and began to believe in the atmospheric pressure theory explained by Chongzhen.

Others, however, are skeptical. They believe that it is not necessarily the atmospheric pressure that holds the mercury column, but perhaps the vacuum in the upper part of the mercury column that pulls the mercury.

The vacuum force and atmospheric pressure split the students of the Academy of Natural Sciences, and in order to prove that their theories were correct, these students began to look for evidence to prove their claims.