Shopkeeper Chen hesitated before replying: "That Fan Xianggong has eaten, but I see that his face was very ugly when he came back, and he still muttered in his mouth, what kind of evil demons, slander famous religions and other words. ”

Fan Yongdou didn't make a sound, he took another sip of noodle soup before he spoke: "You don't need to worry about the affairs of these scholars, but in the next few days, Fan Xianggong will live here, you will be careful to serve, and the request he made is equivalent to the request I made." ”

Shopkeeper Chen hurriedly nodded and agreed, "Yes, the owner." ”

Fan Yongdou slowly drank the last mouthful of noodle soup, then pushed the dishes and chopsticks forward, and said after a comfortable burp: "Let people clean up the dishes and chopsticks, and then you go and invite Fan Xianggong to come over, and then tell us about the business in the capital in the past six months..."

With curiosity about the capital, Fan Wencheng asked him to take him to the Bell and Drum Tower and the former Guozijian. The swing of the bell and drum tower verified the truth of the earth's rotation, which made him feel particularly amazed and a trace of fear.

But then in the debate hall of Guozijian, now known as Yenching University, he heard a debate that made him angry.

This debate revolves around a sentence in Dong Zhongshu's "Virtuous and Virtuous Measures": "The great origin of the Tao comes from the sky, the sky does not change, and the Tao does not change."

The students of Yenching University used the astronomical phenomena observed by the Beijing Observatory, the rotation of the earth proved by the swing of the bell and drum tower, and the concept of gravitation proposed by the Department of Physics, and finally came to the conclusion that everything is constantly moving and changing and interconnected.

In other words, the conclusion that "the heavens do not change" is an erroneous conclusion reached by the ancients based on the lack of scientific means to observe the world in which they live.

The students at Yenching University, although they only proved that the heavens are subject to change, did not further criticize the extended conclusion that "the Tao does not change". However, this has undoubtedly begun to shake the foundation of the existence of the Three Principles and the Five Constants.

For a scholar like Fan Wencheng, this is simply a heresy that makes them angry even more than the invasion of foreign enemies.

In particular, when these students quoted the famous saying of the Westerner Heraclitus, "One cannot walk into the same river twice", leaving the old Confucian students speechless. It made Fan Wencheng feel indignant, and he couldn't help himself with anger.

When he returned to the residence of the Fan family's business, the anger in his heart still did not subside, and after entering the small courtyard prepared for him by the Fan family, he closed the door and prepared to write something to refute these rude people who slandered the famous religion and insulted the saints.

But in the debate hall, Fan Wencheng, who felt that he had something to say to refute the other party, really began to want to write something to refute the other party's arguments. He was stunned to find that he could criticize the arguments of the sages, but he could not find a way to refute them.

This is because the arguments used by the other side are not theories that cannot be proven, but real data that can be verified repeatedly. In order to refute these arguments, he must first understand these scientific knowledge such as physics, chemistry, mathematics, and astronomy, which are known as new studies.

Otherwise, even if the criticism he writes is brilliant, it will be nothing more than a pale castle in the air, which will not only fail to criticize the other party, but will make readers laugh at his pedancy.

looked at the dozens of scrapped words on the ground, and then looked at an article that was barely put together on the table. Fan Wencheng thought about it for a long time, but he still crumpled the written text.

He wrote this article not only to refute the new school and defend the famous teachings. More importantly, I still want to give advice to the Great Khan, when the emperor of the Ming State connived at Xinxue to slander the famous religion, if the Later Jin State can respect the famous religion and criticize the new school.

Then Houjin will be able to get rid of the embarrassing identity of being regarded as barbarians by the Ming scholars, and thus become a state of etiquette and music that respects famous religions.

If it can be recognized by Dr. Ming Guoshi, then the obstacles for Houjin to enter the Central Plains will be reduced a lot.

After all, in the eyes of Confucian scholars, changing the dynasty and changing the surname is just a change of one family and one surname, as long as the new dynasty continues to respect the famous religion, then the world has not changed, and the Taoist system can still continue.

But Fan Wencheng looked at the article he had written more than ten times, but he was never sure. When Huang Taiji, the Great Khan of the Later Jin Dynasty, saw this article, whether he would listen to his own advice and respect the famous religion and criticize Xinxue in the Later Jin Dynasty, or whether he would become interested in Xinxue.

The current Houjin country cannot be called a country yet, it can only be called a military bloc. The Jurchens transformed from a primitive slave tribal society to a feudal society in just 20 years, and were in a period of intense ideological change.

The leaders of the Jurchen tribes can be said to be thorough pragmatists, and the Later Jin Khan Huang Taiji is the best among them.

Huang Taiji was more willing to get close to Confucianism than other Jurchen relatives, and he was not really convinced of the way of Confucius and Mencius, but he hoped to use Confucianism to unify the minds of the people in the Later Jin Dynasty and ensure the establishment of the ruling order of the monarch and the father and son in the country.

After the loss of Nurhachi, a military strongman, the various military groups within the country were suspicious of each other, and finally turned the dissent in the court into a bloody incident in reality.

For such a pragmatist who holds great power, it is not at all something that a weak scholar like Fan Wencheng can master. Once he felt that Xinxue was more suitable for improving the national strength of Houjin and would not be assimilated by the culture of the Ming Kingdom, then he would not be confined to the views of the Confucian scholars of Liaodong.

Fan Wencheng hoped that the Jurchens would enter the Central Plains, and they would use Xia to change Yi, not Yuyi, otherwise he would not have become a famous sinner.

He thought to himself as he rubbed the article. And it happened that there was a knock on the door, and then the voice of the shopkeeper Chen came in, "Fan Xianggong, our owner invites you to go over and talk, can you be convenient now?" ”

Fan Wencheng casually threw the paper ball in his hand into the wastepaper basket on the edge of the table, and said, "Okay, I'll clean it up and come out." ”

When Fan Wencheng was led to Fan Yongdou's room by Shopkeeper Chen, this room that looked like a study had been lit with several candles, and it looked as bright as day.

After a servant made tea for the three people who sat down, he was sent out by Fan Yongdou.

Fan Yongdou first looked at Fan Wencheng's face, and after finding that there was nothing abnormal, he smiled and said, "Fan Wenshu, do you think we can start now?" Listen to the report of the shopkeeper Chen on business in the past six months. ”

Fan Wencheng tilted his head sideways and looked at Shopkeeper Chen, who was lowering his eyebrows, and nodded in agreement with Fan Yongdou's suggestion.

At the suggestion of the master, the shopkeeper Chen spoke sincerely. The main goods of the Fan family in the Beijing branch are still Liaodong goods such as ginseng and fur.

Ginseng accounts for about one-third of the store's turnover, while fur accounts for about one-third and other groceries account for one-third or less.

Regarding the ginseng market this year, what Shopkeeper Chen said was similar to the news that the two received in Zhangjiakou. The difference is that the downward trend of ginseng prices has stabilized, and there is no sign of continuing to decline for the time being.

However, the Tai Hospital has released a new book of commonly used prescriptions, which is said to have collected more than 1,900 kinds of prescriptions from all over the Ming Dynasty, and after verification and comparison, it has extracted 633 prescriptions with the best efficacy.

Of the 633 prescriptions, only 37 are ginseng prescriptions. You must know that before this, even if it was to treat a headache and brain fever, there were doctors who added a few ginseng whiskers as adjuvant medicine.

"In the Tai Hospital, isn't the Tai Doctor who pays attention to temperature and supplement the school the largest number of people? Did they just accept their fate? Fan Yongdou still said with some disbelief.

Shopkeeper Chen said with a wry smile: "The Tai Hospital's Tai Doctor who talks about Wen and Supplement to treat diseases has always been headed by Jiang and Wang.

At the beginning of the year, the disciples of Mr. Chen Ruoxu, as well as the Jiangnan doctor Wu Youke and others took the lead in attacking the theory of Wen Bu. Originally, the imperial doctors of the Tai Hospital still had some refuting meanings, but since His Majesty blamed the death of the two first emperors on the Wen Supplement Theory, Jiang and Wang, the two old imperial doctors, timidly begged to go, and there was almost no one in the Tai Hospital who dared to speak out for the Wen Supplement Theory. ”

Fan Yongdou's face was a little ugly and said: "In this way, in the future, this ginseng market will be controlled by the government, and there is no way to change the fact?" ”

Shopkeeper Chen hesitated and said, "Now the ginseng stocks of various pharmaceutical companies in the capital market have been reported to the Department of Health, and the ginseng anti-counterfeiting mark has been purchased.

When these stocks are sold, starting next year, all ginseng will need to be reported at the port of entry, and the ginseng that has not been reported at the port will be confiscated and destroyed as smuggled goods. ”

"Destruction? It's impossible, how could those officials in the imperial court be willing to give it, what is the difference between this and burning silver? Fan Yongdou was a little unconvinced.

Shopkeeper Chen said honestly: "That's true, the last time the Department of Health destroyed ginseng in Shakouchang, I went to see it, and it was indeed real ginseng." ”

Fan Yongdou frowned and didn't know what to think, Fan Wencheng suddenly asked: "Shopkeeper Chen, you just said that the existing ginseng stock in the capital can be purchased from the Department of Health for anti-counterfeiting marks, can't you buy it again after the New Year?" ”

"Yes, at the beginning, the Department of Health formulated the ginseng anti-counterfeiting mark, but it did not take into account the stock in the market, so everyone was in trouble.

Finally, the Department of Health (DH) reached an agreement with the participants of Sha Hau Farm to issue no more than 100,000 anti-counterfeiting marks based on the annual average of ginseng sold in Sha Hau Farm over the past three years.

Starting next year, the anti-counterfeiting mark of ginseng will be issued directly at the customs declaration port, and will no longer be sold by the Beijing Health Department. ”

"How much does this security mark cost?" Fan Wencheng asked with some curiosity.

"Five points each."

Fan Yongdou then asked: "How many anti-counterfeiting marks does our firm still have?" ”

"And 1,554 more."

Fan Yongdou thought for a while, and said to Shopkeeper Chen: "Tomorrow, you take me to meet several businessmen from Shakouchang, as well as officials from the Department of Health." Let's see if we can get some anti-counterfeiting signs back, if we go through the port to declare customs, we can't do this business. ”

Fan Wencheng obviously agreed with his statement, and what worried the two of them even more was that not only the ginseng business, but also a large number of high-quality furs had recently appeared in the capital, which were a few points better than the high-quality mink and fox skins they brought back, which made the leather goods in the capital also appear new competitors.

Although because of the cold weather, the demand for furs from the rich and noble families of Daming surged, so this batch of high-quality furs did not affect the price of leather goods in the capital, but the Fan family firm lost several good customers because of this.

After sending away the shopkeeper Chen, the worried Fan Wencheng said to Fan Yongdou: "The best furs come from bitter cold places, and the quality of furs that can surpass those produced in Liaodong can only be further north in Shenyang."

You have to ask where this fur comes from. If the Ming Kingdom has a relationship with the Savage tribe north of Shenyang, then I will report back to the Great Khan as soon as possible and eliminate this hidden danger..."