Judging from the skins of these two notebooks, it is obvious that these two notebooks have been with Alfred for a long time, and they are definitely often turned by Alfred, which can be seen from the edges of the fluffy covers.Yang Jing didn't understand what the numbers recorded in the book meant, and the place names recorded were not known in this time and space because there was no Du Niang and Wikipedia, but Yang Jing knew some of the titles of the books recorded above.For example, there is a book title in the notebook that says this."
On the Power of the Sea", 1926 and then the number 1926 is followed by a series of other Arabic numerals.Yang Jing really doesn't understand what these numbers mean, but Yang Jing knows the famous "Theory of Sea Power", which is the work of Alfred Thayer Mahan, a famous American military theorist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.The book elaborated on the importance of sea supremacy in its time, and was regarded as a classic by navies before World War I.It's just that how can General Mahan's "Theory of Sea Power" be involved with Alfred?
One of them is in the navy, and the other is making gunpowder, so it can't be said that the eight poles can't be beaten, but if you want to say that the two of them have any close connection, Yang Jing himself doesn't believe it anyway.If you want to say that Alfred likes the navy, that's understandable, that's why he wrote down the name of the book "Sea Power" in his notebook.But the question is, what do the numbers mean?
If it's just a book of "Theory of Sea Power", it's good to say, but in addition to "Theory of Sea Power" in the notebook, there are more inexplicable titles, such as this "National Geographic", 081931, followed by a series of numbers.What is this Charles-Louis Montesquieu's "On the Spirit of the Law", 1942?
There is also this book "Outline of the Theory of Civilization" written by himself Fukuzawa Yukichi, "Theory of Human Nature" written by the Englishman David Hume in 1938, 1940 If most of the above books are philosophical books, Yang Jing can still understand, after all, Alfred was kicked out by his cousins, and it is very likely that he began to study philosophy because he was disheartened, which is also reasonable, but what about the following books on music, history, art, etc.?
What surprised Yang Jing the most was that in this notebook, Yang Jing also found purely academic books such as "The Travels of Marco Polo", Copernicus's "Theory of the Movement of Celestial Bodies", and Darwin's "The Origin of Species".And what Yang Jing can't figure out the most is the names of those pure literary books, such as Mrs.
Stowe's novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin", Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls", Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" You say that Yang Jing can understand and pastime when you look at those pure literary works, but the problem is that Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" is a children's literature, these books don't match each other at all, Rao is Yang Jing can't think of any connection between these books after thinking about it for a long time.However, Yang Jing discovered a secret of numbers from these books, that is, the number 19 followed by those books, and Yang Jing guessed that this should be the publication date of these books, or what year they were published.Based on these figures, Yang deduced that most of the names of the books recorded in the two notebooks were published in the thirties and early forties.This discovery also made Yang Jing immediately realize that the secrets hidden in the two notebooks written by Alfred should have a lot to do with these books.But with so many book names, where should Yang Jing start for a while.After looking at the "National Geographic" in the notebook, the 081931 and the series of numbers behind it, Yang Jing immediately remembered that when he first came to this basement, he once found a set of "National Geographic" magazine that had been preserved for half a century from several cardboard boxes.So he immediately flipped out the set of National Geographic magazines that he had just sorted out, and searched for a long time in them, only then did he find the magazine that was issued in August 1931.found this magazine, which made Yang Jing's mood start to get excited.Obviously, the titles of the books recorded in the notebook were obviously read by Alfred back then, or he would not have found the magazine here.Now that you've found this magazine, can you find other books in your notebook?
Thinking of this, Yang Jing suddenly remembered that in the big study room on the second floor of the main building, there were a lot of large bookshelves, and most of the books on the shelves were old books.Thinking of this, Yang Jing immediately grabbed the "National Geographic" magazine he had just found and got up and left, and soon returned to the large study on the second floor of the main building.Yang Jing has been to this study twice, the area is very large, more than 200 square meters, in addition to a few floor-to-ceiling large bookshelves, near the floor-to-ceiling windows, there is also a large desk made of oak.Yang Jing began to look for the first bookshelf, and after looking for a long time, he saw a copy of Copernicus's "Theory of the Movement of the Heavenly Bodies", took it out and flipped it to the back to see, and sure enough, it was published in 1938, and this publication date happened to match the number recorded in the notebook.Finding two books in a row made Yang Jing's mood even more excited, and in the next half a day, he searched almost all the books on the shelves in this study, and found more than thirty books recorded in notebooks in these shelves, and the publication date could correspond to the numbers written in the notebook.These books are all unique in this study and have not been published in any other year.By this time, Yang Jing had been very sure that the number 19 after the names of the books in the notebook was the year of publication of these books.It's just that Yang Jing is a little disappointed that even if he finds so many eligible books in the study, he is still a little short of the more than 50 books recorded in the notebook.Obviously, some of the names of the books in the notebook were either written down by Alfred from somewhere else, or they were cleaned out by the servants after Alfred's death.But it doesn't matter, there's another guy here who grew up with Alfred.After calling Shelton's housekeeper for questioning, Sheldon struggled to recall and said, "Sir, after Mr.
DuPont died, I remember that some of the books were indeed taken away by Lady Vanessa, but I really can't remember the specific books. ”Yang Jing knew that Vanessa was Alfred's wife, and there were still large photos of the two of them in this manor.When her husband died, she naturally wanted to take away some important relics, and it is estimated that Alfred liked to read those books during his lifetime, so he was taken away by Lady Vanessa as an important relic."
Alex, I want to ask you to do something in the past two days."
After thinking about it, Yang Jing knew that the books that were taken away should not be recovered, but these books are not rare books, they are all books with a large circulation, although most of them were issued forty or fifty years ago, there should still be a lot of surviving books.Therefore, even if you don't have those books, you can find them in the market or in the library, so Yang Jing is ready to let Shelton buy these books back for himself."
Sir, you are so polite, you can just tell me anything.""
Well, it's not that hard.I have a list here, can you help me buy these books?
”As he spoke, Yang Jing pulled a piece of paper, and then relied on his memory to write down the names of the books that he had not found in the study, of course, the focus was on the year of publication."
Alex, I need some of these books to look up something, but I don't have them here."
Yang Jing pointed to the messy books on the bookshelf, which was his "credit" for more than half a day, "This is the name of those books I wrote, I want you to help me buy them."
Please note, however, that you must buy it according to the year in which I wrote it, and if it was not published in that year, you should not buy it. ”Shelton's eyes fell on the slightly messy bookshelves, and his brows furrowed slightly, but then he smiled and took the list and looked at it, and said: "Sir, most of these books you need were published in the thirties and forties, and this kind of books should not be easy to buy in the market now, I need to arrange for someone to go to some big city libraries to find these books, this kind of old books, only in those big libraries there are surplus collections." ”Yang Jing nodded and said, "As long as there is a way to buy these books, I don't care what it costs."
Alex, I'm sorry for you. ”"Don't worry, sir, I'll take care of this for you.Well, if it goes well, you'll be able to see these books tomorrow night, of course, because most of these books are older books, and if they don't, maybe a little later you will be able to see them. ”Yang Jing smiled: "It's okay to be two days late, but you must buy these books back for me." ”Butler Shelton nodded, and then said: "Sir, in an hour and a half, the restaurant has prepared dinner for you, today it is Mexican food, this is the hometown dish of our chef, Mr.
Carlos, I think you will like it." ”Seeing Yang Jing nodding in agreement, Shelton butler bowed slightly and withdrew from the study.Yang Jing returned to the big desk and sat down, picked up a book he had just found and put it in front of him, and took out the two notebooks from the storage space and spread them out, his eyes constantly moving back and forth between the book and the numbers behind the name recorded in the notebook