My life skills in Daming Liver.

Chapter 278 Fighting for the Future
In Nanjing city in May, you can see crowds of outings everywhere.

Yanziji is a good place to look far away. On May [-]th, the weather was sunny and mild, and Tiangong Academy also had a day off.

Those who can come to Tiangong Academy to study are also young people. The young people get acquainted with each other very quickly, and the students make friends one after another, and they also board the Yanziji near the academy together.

Together with his companion Sun Wei, Wang Yuanqing looked at the scene of Nanjing while climbing the mountain.

Unlike Suzhou, which is flat, Nanjing is mostly hilly, with the terrain of tigers and dragons, which is why Zhu Yuanzhang made Nanjing his capital.

Wang Yuanqing was from Taicang, and he was somewhat related to Wang Xijue's Taicang Wang family, but Wang Yuanqing's family had separated long ago, and no one studied for the imperial examination anymore.

Wang Yuanqing's father sold the family's land and set up a small and medium-sized textile workshop with fifty weavers.

Although the scale of the cotton textile workshop at home is not too large, Wang Yuanqing has never had to worry about food and clothing since he was a child.

Sun Wei was much worse than Wang Yuanqing. His family originally had two acres of land outside the city, and three generations of his family lived on these two acres of land. Although life was difficult, they could live on.

Later, the year before last, Japanese pirates invaded Jiangnan and broke through Taicang County. When Sun Wei's family fled, two people died, and the family's land was ruined by Japanese pirates.

When the Japanese pirates left, suddenly a landlord near Sun Wei's home took out a title deed and complained to the county government that the land of Sun Wei's home belonged to their family.

The house of Sun Wei's family was burned down by the Japanese pirates, and the family's land deed was lost when they fled. After the lawsuit came to the county government, the land was awarded to the landlord.

Sun Wei's father died of anger because of this lawsuit, leaving only Sun Wei and his sister to depend on each other.

The field at home was gone. In order to support his younger sister, Sun Wei could only enter a cotton textile workshop in Taicang city.

Both of them were of the same age, Wang Yuanqing was pampered, and he was out of breath just halfway up the climb.

Sun Wei's hands are full of calluses. Since he was 16 years old, he has been doing all kinds of work in the cotton textile workshop, and he can climb up to the middle of the mountain without being short of breath.

"Brother Wei, take a break!"

Sun Wei stopped and saw Wang Yuanqing panting. They found a tree on the side of the mountain and sat down cross-legged, enjoying the cool and resting.

Wang Yuanqing untied the water bag at his waist, took a sip of water and handed it to Sun Wei. Sun Wei shook his head, but instead of taking Wang Yuanqing's water bag, he untied a green plum from his waist and stuffed it into his mouth to quench his thirst.

Wang Yuanqing moistened his throat and said: "Mr. Su Shan said that the daily study in the afternoon will be changed to electives, and you can also go to woodworking practice instead. Brother Wei, do you want to switch to carpentry practice as well?"

Sun Wei shook his head and said, "I quite like Su Shanchang's class, and I want to continue taking it."

Wang Yuanqing said: "I have a headache hearing those daily routines. I might as well go to a carpentry internship."

Sun Wei just smiled. Wang Yuanqing will go back to inherit the family business in the future. His main purpose of coming to the academy is to learn how to manufacture and maintain hydraulic spinning machines.

After seeing the real thing and experiencing the efficiency of the hydro spinning machine, all the young trainees regarded this machine as a magic weapon!

Such a hydraulic spinning machine can be equivalent to 200 old-fashioned spinning wheels. This amazing increase in productivity has made all future workshop owners who have seen the machine feel excited.

They can't wait to learn how to make this machine, and want to use this advanced machine at home as soon as possible.

Wang Yuanqing once imagined that as long as there is a hydraulic spinning machine at home, one weaver can be worth two hundred weavers.

There are currently fifty weavers in their family, which means that as long as there is such a machine, one person can complete four times the original workload!
The family workshop can employ fewer people and complete orders faster, all of which are enough to impress Wang Yuanqing's father.

Wang Yuanqing was only interested in the technology of the hydraulic spinning machine. He was not interested in Su Ze's lectures on daily use in the afternoon and mathematics courses in the evening, and even felt that it was a waste of time.

After Su Ze announced that he could freely choose carpentry practice in the afternoon, Wang Yuanqing, the children of small and medium-sized workshop owners, chose to give up learning the way of daily use and practice carpentry instead.

Compared with Wang Yuanqing's impatience, Sun Wei and other spinner students were not so eager to learn the technology of hydraulic spinning machines.

Their semester is three months longer than Wang Yuanqing's. Mr. Su Shan has already said that after Wang Yuanqing and the others finish their studies for three months, the theory in the morning will be changed to carpentry practice. These weaver students will have the opportunity to practice carpentry in the future. .

On the other hand, Sun Wei was really interested in the "Daily Uses" taught by Su Ze in the afternoon.

Most of the weavers like Sun Wei couldn't afford hydraulic looms, and there was no workshop to install these equipment. To put it bluntly, they learned the technology, and in the end they could only work as maintenance workers in the textile workshop.

It is even hard to say whether there will be a hydraulic spinning machine in the place where I will work in the future.

Students like Sun Wei, who were born as weavers, prefer to listen to Su Ze's "Daily Use" course in the afternoon compared to technology.

In addition to the morality of the four peoples, Su Ze's descriptions and discussions on the relationship between the government and the people, the relationship between employers and employees, and these various topics made Sun Wei suddenly enlightened.

He seemed to understand the reason why his own land was taken, and he also shattered Sun Wei's fantasy about Lord Qingtian.

Ordinary weavers like Sun Wei lived half-aware at first, not knowing where the suffering came from, and not knowing what their lives would be like in the future.

But after taking Su Ze's course, Sun Wei felt like he had just awakened from a dream. He understood where his suffering came from, so he also eagerly wanted to know the answer from Su Ze, that is, how to change life good.

Therefore, these weaver students tend to pay more attention to the "Daily Use" course in the afternoon than the workshop master's students.

Just like what Su Ze said in the course: "Although being awake is more painful than falling asleep, being able to die awake is infinitely better than dying in a daze."

"Let's go!"

Sun Wei stood up, and Wang Yuanqing could only reluctantly follow him to continue climbing to the top of the mountain.

At the beginning of climbing the mountain, it was Wang Yuanqing who led Sun Wei up the mountain, but at this moment it was Sun Wei who led Wang Yuanqing up the mountain.

In the capital, in Xu Jie's mansion, Zhang Juzheng was sitting on a bench near the door. Today, all the important people in Qingliu gathered here to discuss the recent important affairs of the court.

Zhang Juzheng's official position is low and he is young, so he can only sit near the door and listen to the speeches of the big bosses in the hall.

The speaker was Hou Ruliang, the governor of Liaodong who had just returned to the capital, and he was talking about his experience in Liaodong.

"Since the year before last, Liaodong has encountered catastrophes one after another, especially the snow disasters in the past two years. The cotton coats in the military camps were seriously insufficient, and many people froze to death!"

"There was another flood in the beginning of spring this year, and all the grain planted in the spring was ruined. Now a bucket of rice in Liaodong is sold for a tael of silver. The mother abandoned the child, and the father ate the dead child. It is really terrible!"

Everyone present was silent, the situation in Liaodong was really bad, what Hou Ruliang said was true, but soon a young censor jumped out and said:
"Master Hou! Governor Ji Liao is our Lord Wang Yan of Qingliu! If you report it like this, won't Lord Wang be blamed by His Majesty? Could it be that you want to help the strict party to overthrow your own people?"

"Yes, yes! Liaodong's problem did not happen after Governor Wang took office. The lack of winter clothes was a problem of the previous governor, and the flood was not begged by Mr. Wang. Besides, there is no disaster in Daming today. Wait Your Excellency picked Liaodong's fault and said that he wanted to dismiss Sir Wang from his post, will you replace him?"

When Hou Ruliang heard these words, his face flushed with anger, he threw off his sleeves and said: "What Hou said just now, I saw it with my own eyes, and I didn't mean to attack Mr. Wang at all. The people of Liaodong are like this, don't you think so? Is it just partisanship?"

After saying this, Hou Ruliang took out a scroll from behind and said: "This is the "Hungry People Picture" painted by someone in Liaodong."

Only seeing the painting scroll being pulled open, Hou Ruliang vividly described the tragedy of Liaodong that he saw, and the few young censors who criticized him just now also shut their mouths.

After all, no matter how vivid the text is, it doesn't have the impact of intuitive pictures, not to mention Ru Liang's drawing skills are so good that several officials even closed their eyes.

Xu Jie coughed and said, "Your Majesty was ordered by the emperor to govern Liaodong. Naturally, he must report according to the facts, but now the Ministry of Households has no food. How can we govern Liaodong?"

Hou Ruliang was also silent now, the problem of water transportation congestion has not been resolved, and the capital's own food is still in short supply, so how can there be extra food for disaster relief.

After a long time, Zhang Juzheng stood up and said:
"Master, why don't you imitate the method of Nanjing's household department in Nanzhili for disaster relief, and use sea boats to pull grain to Liaodong?"

Everyone looked sideways, and Zhang Juzheng said: "There is no shortage of grain in Shandong, and there is also a wharf in Dengzhou. Loading grain from Dengzhou and transporting it to Liaodong can relieve the disaster."

"Isn't this year's winter clothes going to be shipped in the same way?"

Everyone looked at Xu Jie. The purchase of Liaodong winter clothes was decided by the cabinet at the beginning of the year. There is indeed a plan to build sea-ship transportation, and Zhang Juzheng's plan is indeed feasible.

Xu Jie nodded and said: "Uncle's suggestion is good. Then, my lord, you will report it according to the facts, and then Uncle will send the inscription on shipping grain to relieve the disaster in Liaodong to the cabinet and present it to His Majesty."

Everyone nodded, and even Hou Ruliang looked at Zhang Juzheng. This young man was able to think of a disaster relief method so quickly. It's no wonder that his status in Qingliu has improved rapidly over the years, and Xu Jie valued him so much.

Everyone dispersed, Xu Jie said to Zhang Juzheng who stood up, "Uncle, please stay here for a while."

Zhang Juzheng could only stand and wait until everyone left, and then Xu Jie took him to the study.

I thought that Xu Jie wanted to discuss the details of the disaster relief with him, but I didn't expect that Xu Jie didn't talk about this topic at all, but handed a book to Zhang Juzheng.

"Su Rulin's new book?"

Zhang Juzheng couldn't wait to open the book, but it was completely different from what he had imagined. This book was neither opera nor Su Ze's lecture theory, but a technical book.

Zhang Juzheng flipped through it for a while, and the more he looked at it, the more frightened he became. When he finished reading the part about the spinning machine, he closed the book and said:

"Master! This is the book of helping the world!"

Xu Jie nodded, agreeing with the comment of the most proud disciple.

When Xu Jie first got the book, he was no less shocked than Zhang Juzheng.

He is from Songjiang Prefecture. He has seen all kinds of looms since he was a child. When he saw the cotton spinning machine, Xu Jie knew that the design in Su Ze's book was feasible after reading it. The spinning efficiency of this mule loom is indeed old. Dozens of times that of the spinning wheel.

Zhang Juzheng still said to himself: "It's really the art of enriching the country and the people! This Su Rulin published these techniques selflessly, he is really unparalleled in the country!"

Xu Jie looked at Zhang Juzheng and said, "This Su Rulin is indeed a talent for helping the world."

Only then did Zhang Juzheng notice his teacher's expression. He remembered that last time Su Ze published "Shuo Yue Quan Zhuan" in the capital, he compared Xu Jie to Qin Hui, which caused his teacher's prestige to plummet, so he quickly stopped praising Su Ze.

Xu Jie sighed and said, "It's just that this person is quite prejudiced against our Qingliu."

Zhang Juzheng understood Xu Jie's meaning, he said: "A few days ago, I also wrote to Su Rulin, and explained to him the overall situation of the court, I hope he will put the overall situation first."

Xu Jie shook his head and said, "It's useless. I have studied his academics. Although he was born out of the Taizhou School, he has formed a family of his own. It is impossible for such a person to change his mind casually."

Xu Jie patted Zhang Juzheng on the shoulder and said:

"The only good news is that Su Ze started giving lectures early. Even if he takes part in the general examination, His Majesty will not give him a first or second grade."

Zhang Juzheng understood what Xu Jie meant. The emperor could not allow a person who combined a "living sage", a "great master of the literary world" and a "heavy cabinet minister" to exist. Such a person would be the biggest threat to the imperial power in the court.

Su Ze has already chosen the path of "living sage" and "great master of the literary world", so his official position is destined to be small, and even the emperor will not let him come to the capital.

Xu Jie said to Zhang Juzheng: "I'm getting old, the one who will fight with you in the future will not be Yan Shifan, nor Gao Gong, but this Su Ze."

Zhang Juzheng immediately understood what the teacher meant, and he cupped his hands and said, "Thank you, Master, for your teaching!"

In the same month, Ruliang, the governor of Liaodong Yushi, wrote a letter saying that there was a great famine in Liaodong, and he published the "Famine Picture", and the emperor took pity on it.

The emperor ordered, still on the suggestion of Zhang Juzheng of the Imperial Academy, to let Dengzhou build sea-going ships and transport grain from Shandong to the north to relieve the difficulties in Liaodong.

According to the suggestion of the Ministry of Household Affairs, the emperor purchased [-] more winter clothes in the south of the Yangtze River and sent them to the soldiers and civilians in Liaodong.

In Suzhou Fu Tiangong Academy, Su Ze's lecture skills have been raised to Lv10.

(End of this chapter)