Neon Clothes and Iron Clothes

Chapter 896 Loop
"One hundred thousand or eighty thousand?" Gao Wuniang was shocked by the number Wang Wenzuo said: "This, this may be a bit difficult. Many parts in this smoothbore gun are very delicate. Only skilled craftsmen can make it, so--"

"I know that, so you should prepare for the craftsmen now!" Wang Wenzuo said with a smile, "You don't have to worry about the money. I can give you a low-interest loan of 50,000 silver coins, 5% per year. How about that?"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Gao Wu Niang smiled bitterly. "I dare not lie in front of you. My workshop has made a lot of money in the past few years. The various tools and nails I provided to the shipyard alone were worth more than 20,000 silver coins in the second half of last year. I also have heavy plows, iron axes, hydraulic saws and other things for turning over the fields. I am not short of money, but my workshop has been working from morning to night and never stops!"

"You mean we're not short of money, but we're short of people?" Wang Wenzuo asked.

"Well, laborers and manual laborers are fine, but skilled workers are really in short supply!" Gao Wuniang said, "It's not just here that we need them, the whole Fanyang and Cangzhou are in short supply. A newly graduated blacksmith can only swing a big hammer or a small hammer, quenching and so on, and the monthly salary is at least five silver coins, and the salary also includes food and accommodation, and winter and summer clothing. This salary is not even comparable to Chang'an and Luoyang."

"There is no shortage of laborers and manual labourers, but there is a shortage of skilled craftsmen, right?" Wang Wenzuo asked thoughtfully.

"Well, that's it!" Gao Wuniang smiled bitterly, "Carpenters, masons, coopers, potters, well diggers, as long as you have a skill, you can live well in Fanyang Cangzhou. Even women who can tailor clothes, cook, or grind tofu can live comfortably in these two places. Within two years, you can have your own house. Those who are capable can also have their own workshops. Eating meat and drinking wine on weekdays are not a problem. I know six or seven widows. Some of them help people wash clothes, some help people cut and mend clothes, and some sell tofu. They all live very well. They even raised money to build a house and live in it together. They don't get married and plan to live like this!"

"Yeah!" Wang Wenzuo nodded. Since he put down the rebellion of Qi Sibiyu, peace has been restored in the entire Northeast Asia north of Yuguan. Pioneers, mainly military nobles, merchants, Tang immigrants from Hebei, and local chieftains, began to cultivate this fertile and vast land. Unlike individual self-employed farmers, these pioneers themselves have strong financial and human resources. Their way of reclamation is not the kind of small-scale fighting of dozens or hundreds of acres, but the literal "horse racing and enclosure". Such large-scale land reclamation is naturally inseparable from new production tools and production technologies. For example, the excavation of irrigation canals, the use of various advanced agricultural tools such as hydraulic mills and hydraulic saws, the use of heavy plows pulled by multiple horses, and so on.

Such large-scale farms that use various advanced agricultural technologies have sprung up like bamboo shoots after rain on the fertile land of Liaodong and southern Liaoning. These large-scale farms are obviously not self-sufficient, but market-oriented. Large amounts of grain, dried meat, beans, and plant fibers have poured into Fanyang-Cangzhou, the emerging commercial center of Hebei, which immediately lowered the price of local agricultural products. The price of rice in northern Hebei, centered on Fanyang-Cangzhou, is usually five or six cents lower per bucket than that in southern Hebei, located on the north bank of the Yellow River. This situation is even worse in autumn. Farmers outside the pass load their grain on ships, then go downstream, transfer to sea vessels and sell them at the docks of Cangzhou, in exchange for money to repay the debts borrowed to open farms and buy various new tools and daily necessities, making the new grain outside the pass even cheaper than the old grain in Hebei last year.

As a result, the originally developed small peasant economy in the Hebei Plain suffered a severe blow. Faced with the influx of wheat, soybeans, corn, various hemp, dried dates, and chestnuts from outside the Great Wall, more and more small farmers in Hebei gave up their homes in despair, carrying their few remaining belongings, and brought their wives and children to Cangzhou or Fanyang to find a way out. This in turn lowered the wages of unskilled and low-skilled labor in the city, resulting in an extremely special phenomenon in these two cities: skilled craftsmen had high incomes, while prices and low-skilled workers were very cheap. As long as he had certain management skills, he could easily jump from a skilled worker to a workshop owner and make a fortune. Later generations called this period of prosperity "Tianbao Prosperity" (the reign was called Tianbao at the time).

As the person who facilitated all this behind the scenes, Wang Wenzuo certainly understood that this prosperity was the result of a combination of many special conditions. First of all, his previous military victories over Goguryeo, Silla, Baekje, my country, and the Mohe people, the barbarians outside the Great Wall, had wiped out all the original forces on this vast land, which made large-scale colonization possible; secondly, the water-powered mills, water-powered production tools, heavy plows that could deeply plow sticky soil, agricultural products adapted to the local climate, and advanced technologies for draining swamps, the fallow system, and the cultivation technology of leguminous plants such as alfalfa in the large farms outside the Great Wall did not fall from the sky, not to mention the developed water transportation to transport surplus agricultural products to Hebei, and the large amount of coins needed for commodity trade, all of which were inseparable from Wang Wenzuo's hard work.

He knew very well that any so-called "Renaissance" or "Industrial Revolution" in ancient times had to be built on the basis of agricultural progress. The reason was simple: agricultural progress would produce surplus food, and with enough surplus food, more people could be freed from agricultural labor, and the prosperity of literature and art and the progress of industrial technology would be possible. More advanced industrial technology could provide not only better production tools, but also more advanced weapons, ships, and vehicles, giving them military advantages over other regions of the earth, making global colonization possible.

This complex cycle began in Europe in the middle and late Middle Ages - in the 2500th century. The terrible Black Death killed million people, which was roughly equivalent to one-third of the population of Europe at the time. The survivors were surprised to find that they owned all the property of the dead. Everyone had to cultivate more land, and improving tools and technology became a necessity. History played a very cruel joke on Europeans here. Europeans used one-third of their lives in exchange for temporarily getting rid of the Malthusian trap. Not long after, in the th century, Columbus discovered the New World, and everything was different.

Wang Wenzuo is very clear that his biggest weakness is his lifespan. He is already fifty years old. Even by the standards of modern society, he is a middle-aged man - a middle-aged man who is very close to old age.

Death was getting closer and closer to him, but Wang Wenzuo was not afraid of death—really, even if he died now, his life was already wonderful enough. But he was afraid of not finishing what he should do, and it was for this reason that he stopped before the throne and did not take the last step. He did not want to spend the few remaining years of his life in a dirty struggle for power, and his sons had enough time to complete their unfinished business.

Wang Wenzuo hopes that he can promote that cycle: technological progress - market expansion - technological progress - market expansion, just like the Italians - Spanish - Portuguese - Dutch - British did in history, but this time, Wang Wenzuo hopes that it will be East Asians - to be precise, the people of the Tang Dynasty in the seventh century who can do all this. At least when he closes his eyes, he can see the dawn of a new era and leave without regrets.

"If the key is the lack of skilled craftsmen!" Wang Wenzuo paused for a moment and said, "Why not open a school?"

"School? You mean--" Gao Wu Niang asked with some confusion.

"What you just said is that there is no shortage of people in Cangzhou or Fanyang. What is lacking is people with skills!" Wang Wenzuo laughed and said, "Then why not open a school and let those without skills learn in the school. After they finish their studies, won't there be craftsmen?"

"This..." Gao Wuniang had a strange look on her face, as if she had eaten a mouthful of shit but didn't dare to spit it out: "I'm afraid this isn't going to be easy, is it?"

"Why do you say that?" Wang Wenzuo asked with a smile.

"It's not that easy to learn a craft!" Gao Wu Niang said, "Take the blacksmiths in our workshop for example. Generally, they start to be apprentices with their masters at the age of six or seven. It's amazing to be able to become a master at the age of twenty-five. Which school can teach for so long?"

"Hahaha!" Wang Wenzuo laughed: "Wu Niang, I also come from a poor family. There was a tofu shop in my village. Every time the owner wanted to cook soy milk or order tofu, he would drive the apprentices out. Do you know why?" "I guess he was afraid that the apprentices would learn the craft?" Gao Wu Niang asked.

"That's right!" Wang Wenzuo laughed. "The skills of making soy milk and tofu are actually very simple, and you can master them in one go. But the boss of the tofu shop will never tell his apprentice this, unless the apprentice marries the boss's ugly daughter who can't get married. Why? Because the apprentice can do it once he learns it, and once he learns it, he will run out and open his own tofu shop. The original boss will not only lose a free laborer, but also have to face a new rival, so naturally he doesn't want the apprentice to know!"

When Gao Wuniang heard this, she knew what Wang Wenzuo meant. She smiled bitterly and said, "Your Majesty, you are right. But you should also think about those craftsmen. They have worked so hard to learn a skill that can be passed down from generation to generation. Now you have nothing left. Isn't that good?"

"Wu Niang, it may not be good for those craftsmen, but it may not be good for you!" Wang Wenzuo smiled and said, "If skilled craftsmen are cheaper, won't your cost be lower? Moreover, according to the current situation, skilled craftsmen can save enough money to open a workshop in five or six years. Wouldn't there be more people competing with you for a living? And if it is as I said, it will not be easy for a craftsman to open a workshop no matter how skilled he is, but you will benefit from it and no longer have to worry about being surpassed by others. Isn't that good?"

Gao Wuniang was a smart person. She immediately understood what Wang Wenzuo meant. She said with joy, "Your Majesty, you are right. How come I never thought of this?"

"It's not too late to think of it now!" Wang Wenzuo smiled and said, "Well, when you go back, take inventory and report the types of craftsmen you need the most. Then report the best craftsmen in your workshop to me, and leave the rest to me!"

"I understand. Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Wang Wenzuo's plan was soon implemented, but it did not cause any uproar in Fanyang and Cangzhou. The reason was simple. Wang Wenzuo was too low-key in this matter. He at least marked out a piece of wasteland outside Fanyang and Cangzhou, surrounded it with a low wall of 20 mu, and hung a plaque at the door, which read "New Oriental Technical School (Cangzhou Branch)"

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Cangzhou, port.

Xu Tuo stood on the forecastle, quietly watching the lighthouse of Cangzhou Port gradually rising from the sea level. Every time he came back here, he would stand here and find huge changes in the city, just like discovering new buds and fruits on a thriving grapevine.

Suta knew very well that he was a very special one among his father's many sons. His two elder brothers, Huliang and Yanliang, had been given kingdoms and power, and Yuanbao was appointed as the governor of Cangzhou. Only he was given the deck under his feet and the deserted wilderness. It would be a lie to say that he had no complaints at all. But as the fleet sailed farther and farther, there were more and more settlements, commercial bases, and whaling ships, and his complaints became less and less, especially when he discovered the new world that his father often mentioned, and those complaints disappeared.

According to the reports of several expedition teams, this land, which was initially thought to be just a big island, is much larger than their wildest imaginations. It is even larger than the entire Tang Dynasty. More importantly, this vast land is crisscrossed by rivers, fertile and thick soil, and covered with large forests, where bison, deer, and bears roam, as if the gods had isolated this place from the beginning of creation and left it for themselves.

"Son!"

"Master!" Xu Tuo turned around and saw Taoist Chong Jing standing behind him, looking at him with a smile: "You haven't been back for such a long time, you must have missed me a lot, right?"

"I do miss you a little!" Suta laughed, "You must have worked hard to follow me to such a far place!"

"I have no regrets in my death for having seen such a great world. What does the hard work mean?" Chong Jing laughed. "Not to mention that your talent is far beyond my imagination. You have cultivated the breath-in and breath-out method to a level that is beyond the reach of all the masters in history in just a few years. I have no regrets in my life for having a disciple like you!"

"Thank you for the compliment, Master!" Suta laughed, "I just treated Brother Pushan unfairly!"

"He is no longer your senior brother!" Chong Jing said, "Our sect has always been a one-man show. Since he has passed on his skills to you, he is no longer my disciple, and naturally not your senior brother!"

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