The debate venue was arranged a bit like a symposium. The center was naturally Liu Ji's throne. On both sides of the debate were both sides. Below were neatly arranged chairs. Now they were filled with officials from the court and people with some identities in the capital. These people filled the huge venue with seats.

Liu Ji found that the young man who caught his attention was also inside. He whispered to Cheng Tinghua, who was beside the guards, "What is the name of the young scholar in black clothes on my head?"

Cheng Tinghua was happy. This kid was really lucky. The emperor asked him personally. He quickly replied: "Your Majesty doesn't need to inquire. I happened to catch this kid climbing up a tree just now. I was pulled down by the minister and knew that his name was Zeng Guofan."

"What, he is Zeng Guofan."

"Does the emperor know him?"

"No, oh! I know each other."

Liu Ji felt that the world was so small, and he didn't expect that he could meet acquaintances like this.

While Liu Ji and Cheng Tinghua were talking, Cao Zhenyong, a Grand Secretary of the Wuying Palace, announced the official start of the debate, and then officials from the Hanlin Academy read out the rules of the venue. The discussions in the venue gradually became smaller, and people focused their attention on the two groups of people in the middle of the venue.

Faced with these great scholars, Wei Yuan and others, they were very respectful to the rituals. A total of five of them stood up and bowed respectfully to the Confucian masters opposite. Faced with these younger generations, the younger generations, only returned the tribute indifferently. If it were not for Liu Ji's intention, they would not have come here. To discuss the truth with these younger generations, it would have been absent from these great scholars. The reason why Liu Ji wanted to organize this debate was because the court officials were talking about the changes to the scientific examination questions, including the cheers of the overseas school and loudly opposing voices. These opponents were the most intensely regarding Ruan Yuan and Wang Niansun. Liu Ji believed that instead of letting them debate below, it would be better to let them discuss it clearly in front of everyone.

The first person to speak was the old Wang Niansun. He heard his somewhat vague voice saying: "Shan Juli asked Zengzi, "Is there really something about the sky that is round and the place?" Zengzi said: "Li! I heard it, I heard it!" Shan Juli said: "I dare to ask if I don't pay attention to it." Zengzi said: "When the sky is born, the earth is born, the upper head is called round, and the lower head is called square. If the sky is round and the place is square, it is the four corners that are not closed."

Wang Niansun's words resonated with another person, and the man pointed his head and said, "The master of the sacred saying, "The way of heaven is called round, the way of earth is called square, and the way of earth is called quiet and round is called bright; the bright one exhales the air, so the external scene; the quiet one contains qi, so the internal scene, so the fire day is outside, and the metal and water are inside, and the exhales are given and the qi is converted, so the yang is given and the yin is transformed. The essence of yang is called spirit, and the essence of yin is called spirit; the spirit is the foundation of qualities, and the ancestor of rituals, music, benevolence and righteousness, and goodness is caused by the rise of chaos."

Liu Ji looked at this man, but he was Qin Chengye, an old minister in the court. Qin Chengye was once Minning's enlightenment master and rarely spoke on weekdays. Today, he was elected by many scholars and took charge.

A person from the overseas school said, "Li Taibai once had a popular poem [Sending Meng Haoran's Guangling]. There is a sentence in it, "The lonely sail is gone from the sky, but only the Yangtze River flows from the sky." Just think about it, why did Li Taibai stand on the Yellow Crane Tower and see the shadow of the ship leaving only a lonely sail. Why?"

Qi Junzao's allusions quoted from Li Bai's poems attracted everyone. No one has noticed this question on weekdays. Why can only see the above parts in the distance?

When everyone was attracted, Qi Junzao continued: "Everyone who has sailed on the sea knows that the sea boat is just a sail in the distance, and the hull and the sea surface are in a line. As the boat approaches, it slowly appears in the field of view from top to bottom. The reason is very simple, because the earth is round." Speaking of this, Qi Junzao asked someone to roll out a waist-high stone ball that had been prepared. He put two small boat models on the top of the stone ball and explained: "There is a arc between the two points on the ball. It is this arc that blocks people's sight, so that things in the distance can only see the top."

As soon as Qi Junzao's voice fell, someone in the crowd shouted loudly: "If the earth is round, why don't the people below fall to the sky?" As soon as the man finished speaking, the crowd burst into laughter, and some people laughed so hard that they couldn't stand up straight.

Seeing that the venue was a little confused, Cheng Tinghua beside Liu Ji shouted loudly: "The emperor is here, don't make noise!"

After Cheng Tinghua's loud voice, the crowd began to calm down.

During this noise, Qi Junzao was still standing there calmly, watching the crowd leisurely.

Wang Niansun also said: "You are so ridiculous about this. Song Yu mentioned in the "Gaotang Fu" that the square land is the hut, and the round sky is the burial. "Huainanzi; Astronomy" also said: "The sky is the lunar land, and the Tao is in the center." These common sense are all common sense, and the peddlers and barracks know a little about it, but you just took their own humiliation."

Qi Junzao was about to speak, Zhang Jiliang stood up from his seat and said, "Brother Qi, let me come." After that, Zhang Jiliang walked to the middle with his chest. He kowtowed to Liu Jixian, and then bowed to everyone. Everyone thought that Zhang Jiliang was going to say a big statement, but he saw him take out a piece of broken iron from his sleeve and throw it to the high place. He saw that the stone was several feet high and finally redirected back to the ground. Zhang Jiliang said loudly, "You know why iron or even everything will come back to the ground. Why is this?" Zhang Jiliang almost roared in his last sentence, and his throat stretched and contracted rapidly with his voice: "This is because the earth is attracting everything, this is the power of the earth, and this is why people on the other side of the earth will not fall into the sky."

Zhang Jiliang took out another piece of iron from his sleeve. It was a black piece of iron. When the black piece approached the iron block he had taken out before, it immediately attracted another piece of iron. Zhang Jiliang raised his hand high, and the iron block attracted below swayed but no longer fell to the ground. Zhang Jiliang said again: "This is gravity. The gravity of the magnet above overcomes the gravity of the earth, so that the iron block below will not fall to the ground."

Zhang Jiliang's words aroused a lot of discussion. Wang Niansun stood up and pointed at him and kept lying: "Nonsense, nonsense..."

Chen Heng, the top scholar in the Jiaqing period, came out and said, "What Hengfu said is not without reason, but what you said just now is based on your one-sided words. Things that have to fall from the world to the ground are already an ever-changing truth, and it cannot prove that the earth is round."

After returning the gift to Chen Wei, Zhang Jiliang said: "In order to prove that the earth is round, the Portuguese man Magellan sailed west from Europe. After three years, he returned to Europe. This means that as long as you identify the direction and walk towards a place, you will eventually return to the end. Can't this prove that the earth is round? Therefore, Europeans call the earth the earth. Today, the emperor cleverly and Ruida, and opened the "Earth" chapter in the imperial examination. It is precisely for the Chinese people to know this, knowing that the earth is divided into several continents by the ocean, and there are many other ethnic groups on the earth. I, China

The nation should be alert to it, and cannot wait for others to arrive at their doorstep yet without knowing that the earth is round. For example, the Russians in the north had a war in China as early as the Kangxi period, and the Portuguese people in Macau in the previous dynasty, and the Dutch had long had contact with the Japanese on the Oriental Islands, and the Spanish had traded with China very early. Recently, Americans have also begun to actively trade with China, and there are many more I will not list today. I hope that the Chinese people can keep their eyes open, recognize the earth, and recognize the environment we live in. I, Zhang Jiliang, are willing to fight for China for life."

As soon as Zhang Jiliang's words fell, Wei Yuan and others clapped hard, echoing that a young student below stood up and clapped his hands enthusiastically. Liu Ji looked closely and saw that this person was in charge of Zeng Guofan.
Chapter completed!