At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 390: Craftsmen should make further progress and Luzon Copper
Xu Fan's answer obviously disappointed many students present. If the world is eventually taken over by the workshop owner, then what is the point of their efforts?

Those who can take classes here are the new generation of young people from Dahan. They still have ideals in their hearts and find it difficult to accept such a future.

Xu Fan said: "A wise man once said a famous saying, even if the reality is cruel, we should still maintain an optimistic attitude to face it."

"And this is just Master's personal opinion. There may be opportunities to change it in the future."

"In the final analysis, the competition in the future is the competition of advanced technology. Mohism must build a competitive artisan organization and a prosperous artisan culture."

"According to the class you just mentioned, the tribal leaders and the bloodline nobles, they once represented the masters of advanced technology, but in the end they could not keep up with the times and were crushed by history. You should learn from the failure of these two classes."

"In short, the workshops established by the Mohists are more competitive and can gain more profits, and then use these profits to establish more workshops belonging to the collective of craftsmen. When you can also produce competitive producers, the general trend of the world will be set, and the future will definitely belong to you."

Ai Qiang said excitedly: "Your Majesty, the collective workshops we have built are developing rapidly, with high profits and high salaries for everyone. If this model is continuously replicated and more collective workshops are continuously created, does this mean that we are the ones who will master this new distribution?"

The other students also became hopeful after hearing Ai Qiang's words. In the whole Guanzhong area, there were already 10 collective workshops controlled by the Mohist School. The Mohist School was still promoting this model, hoping to replace the current workshop owners with this method of collective labor and collective harvesting.

Xu Fan said: "This kind of competition cannot produce results in a short period of time. The new distribution must not only go through a period of prosperity, but also withstand a period of decline."

Then Xu Fan said, "The expansion of your workshops in the past two years has disappointed me. You only use the money you earn to build homes, educational facilities, and entertainment facilities for the craftsmen."

"We Mohists represent the interests of craftsmen. If we don't do these things, then what is the difference between us and other workshop owners? The only difference is that we rely on workshops to exploit craftsmen."

"A Mohist who only cares about welfare and salary is meaningless, and a Mohist who only sympathizes with the treatment of craftsmen is powerless. If you cannot master advanced technology, you will be eliminated sooner or later."

"The Mohists must be able to spur the craftsmen on better than the workshop owners, and encourage them to learn and improve. If the craftsmen are not as fast in learning and improving as the workshop owners, it will be meaningless even if the Han Dynasty destroys all the current workshop owners, because new workshop owners will still emerge."

"As I said before, if you want to become the master of the world, you must master advanced science and technology. Whichever class in the world can achieve this will become the master of the new world."

"As a Mohist, you should not only care about the salary and welfare of the craftsmen, but also organize them to study and master advanced science and technology."

Then he looked at Ai Qiang and said, "The workshop you manage has neither organized craftsmen to learn new technologies nor a research and development department to create more efficient machines. This is the most core business of a Mohist, but you have ignored it.

It is impossible to win in this cruelly competitive world by only comparing benefits and morality. "

Ai Qiang and others were very embarrassed. Xu Fan had asked them to organize night school at the beginning, so that after finishing their work every day, they could spend another hour learning cultural knowledge.

It's a pity that most of the craftsmen can't stand the pain of learning. They would rather use this hour to work overtime than to study. There are not many people who can actually attend the academies organized by the Mohists for a long time.

Compared with visible welfare benefits, organizing craftsmen to learn cultural knowledge and attend night schools, or improving advanced machines and formulating efficient production systems, are all very difficult tasks.

Qin Bo said: "Your Majesty's lecture today was very good. It woke us up like a loud bell."

"We have achieved good results in the past two years, and the development of the Mohist School has been advancing by leaps and bounds. However, this has made us slack off. We are complacent about our achievements, but we don't know that a new crisis has come to our Mohist School."

"Today's event has awakened us and pointed out the path for our future development. Although this path is difficult, as long as we keep walking on it, one day, we will become the masters of the world, and a harmonious world will be realized in our hands."

After Xu Fan finished his class, Mohist School also began to make changes, investing more resources in educating craftsmen and scientific research and development.

So many people in Chang'an saw a shocking scene: Mozi often caught craftsmen from teahouses and theaters and sent them to night school.

The various workshops under the Mohist School also began to strictly enforce management systems and profits, and as Xu Fan said, they set up research and development departments to study more new machines to improve production efficiency.

This caused widespread misery among the workshop craftsmen under the Mohist School. Although their salaries did not decrease, the pressure of their work increased dramatically.

At the same time, the content of Xu Fan's class spread quickly.

The Huang-Lao school headed by Prime Minister Zhou Zhang did not care at all and ruled by inaction, which meant allowing all forces to compete with each other. The one who could emerge from the fierce competition among all forces would surely be the strongest person in the world. The strongest person in the world would become the master of the world. This is the way of heaven.

Shusun Tong and others studied the emperor's lecture notes in depth, and also collected the emperor's previous lecture notes, and conducted in-depth thinking, believing that the situation the emperor described might really happen.

At this time they finally understood why the emperor had always supported Mohism but did not restrict the development of workshop owners, and even banned state-run workshops and suppressed private workshops. It turned out that the emperor had long seen that workshop owners would be the future masters of the Han Dynasty.

This discovery made Sun Shutong and others extremely excited, because the basic foundation of his Confucianism was these small landlords and small workshops, and this time they had bet on the right horse.

With this understanding, Shusun Tong found Xu Fan and said, "Your Majesty, you are the Son of Heaven, you should be fair and just. Your people are not just craftsmen, but also countless workshop owners. Now more than 50% of the taxes of the Han Dynasty are provided by various industries. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are the foundation of our Han Dynasty. You should also teach them a lesson to show fairness."

Xu Fan said: "Let me prepare the lecture notes for class for some time."

Shusun Tong said excitedly: "I obey your order."

After leaving the palace, Shusun Tong spread the news that the emperor was going to give lectures to them again, and all the workshop owners in the Han Dynasty were eagerly waiting.

Early morning of July 7th, Kuaiji County, Wuxian Wharf.

A huge group of people came here crying. They were the families of prisoners who were about to board ships to open up wasteland overseas. These people knew that once they boarded the ship, they would never be able to return to the Han Dynasty in this lifetime, so the atmosphere at the dock was unusually sad.

Reclamation Commander Pang Yuan looked at the miserable crowd and could only shake his head and sigh helplessly. He had sent tens of thousands of criminals out to sea, but he never expected that one day he would send his own people out as well.

Cao Xing, one of the group, pulled out a young man and said, "When you go overseas, do your job honestly and be a down-to-earth person. Don't be like your father, who destroyed his bright future and implicated his family."

The person he was pulling was Wu Xun, the eldest son of Wu Pan. He was studying in law school, and with his background, he should have had a bright future. But now his father was implicated, and his whole family would be demoted overseas, and all his future was ruined.

Pang Yuan also said: "Luzon Earl Chen Sheng is a good friend of your father. He will help take care of you. Just work under him with peace of mind. If you really build Luzon, it will not be much worse than the Han Dynasty."

Wu Xun forced a smile and said, "Thank you both uncles for your advice."

After Wu Xun and the others boarded the ship, Pang Yuan said with a serious face: "I have a hunch that more of my old brothers will be sent away in the future. The struggle in the Han Dynasty is getting more and more intense. I really don't know whether it is good or bad."

Wu Guang purged the Han officials in Hebei and arrested and tried thousands of them, resulting in 30,000 people being implicated.

Pang Yuan was not unfamiliar with such purges, but in the past they had purged Qin officials, the old aristocrats of the six kingdoms, and the powerful people of Qi. But this time, the butcher's knife was finally pointed at themselves.

Now he is the only one left in the Han territory, and any political fluctuations will inevitably implicate his old brothers.

Cao Xing said: "As long as we behave ourselves and obey your majesty's orders, nothing will go wrong. The emperor is not a bloodthirsty person. Even the nobles of Qin Li and the six kingdoms are willing to be given a chance to live, not to mention us old brothers."

Cao Xing then said angrily: "Wu Pan and Zhuang Jia are confused. If they really like money, they should tell the emperor directly. With the emperor's generous nature, he can give them territories, wealthy vassal states, and even a share of the glass factory.

Now they are doing such corrupt things. Don't they know that this is what the emperor hates the most? Not only are they courting death, but they are also implicating countless of their brothers. They really deserve to die."

Pang Yuan nodded in approval. The emperor was indeed a benevolent man, and he rarely killed even his enemies. He heaved a sigh of relief when he thought of this. With the emperor around, even the most intense struggle had a bottom line.

He looked at Cao Xing and said, "You need to be more careful. A mountain of gold flows through your hands every day. Don't just reach out and take it."

Since its establishment, the Han Customs has quickly become one of the main pillars of the Han Dynasty's finances. Its share has exceeded the salt tax, and the annual customs revenue exceeds 20 gold, and it is still growing rapidly.

Cao Xing said coldly: "I am a marquis of the Han Dynasty. I can't spend all the rewards for meritorious officials every year. Why do I need to do anything crooked?" "It's best if you can think like this. When you can't help it, think about Wu Xun and others. Don't implicate your children and exile them overseas. I don't want to send you to Shanghai ship."

Wu Xun and his group of over a thousand people boarded a ship and set sail towards Ryukyu.

There were a total of 5 transport ships, carrying the families of the prisoners, as well as a large amount of food, cloth, bricks and other goods. They stopped briefly at the Ryukyu Wharf to replenish water, and then headed directly south to Luzon Island, where they sailed for half a month.

August 2, Luzon Pier.

After the transport fleet arrived at the Luzon port, it dropped anchor.

People from all around the town flocked to the dock, warmly welcoming the team.

Because there are too few fleets willing to come to Luzon, except for Luzon's own fleet, there are almost no specific ships coming here. The reason is very simple. Luzon does not have the previous specialty products, and it costs a lot for ships to go out to sea. If there is no sufficient profit, it is impossible to make a profit.

Naturally, not many people would risk losing money and dying to come to Luzon.

Chen Sheng, the Earl of Luzon, excitedly asked the captain, "How many people and supplies did you bring this time?"

The captain said, "I brought thousands of immigrants with me, but five of them couldn't stand the waves. They are in very poor health now and need medical treatment."

"We brought 1 dan of grain, 3000 bolts of cotton and linen, 20 red bricks, five cannons, ten mortars, thousands of swords and weapons, 200 suits of armor, 1 farm tools, and dan of other goods."

To be honest, even the captain was astonished by such a huge amount of cargo transportation. The Han Dynasty enfeoffed 17 princes in Southeast Asia, and it was already a lot for the other princes to transport half a ship's worth of cargo at a time.

Then they had to find a way to collect resources on the island and transport them to the Han Dynasty for sale. In half a year, they could only barely build a village-level reclamation site. Each time, the teams of these princes had to take a detour to the Spice Island to use spices to subsidize the construction costs.

The Earl of Luzon bought five sea ships at a time and more than three million coins worth of goods every month to transport goods between Dahan and Luzon Island. In less than half a year, he spent 3 million coins to build Luzon City.

Not far away, you can see a new town with brick walls, stone roads, farmlands and windmills all around, and some chimneys towering into the sky. It is obvious that the Duke of Luzon has even built a blast furnace.

There is a rumor that the queen gave Earl of Luzon 10,000 gold coins to support him in establishing his country. Now it seems that the rumor is true.

Zhao Gao, the Prime Minister of Luzon, asked: "How many scholars and craftsmen are there among the immigrants?"

The captain said: "These people were originally the family members of Wu Pan and the family members of the Han officials in Handan. Because Wu Pan was corrupt, he was hanged by the emperor, and his family members were exiled. Wu Pan's subordinates were also implicated. This time in Hebei, the number of Han officials and their families exiled exceeded 3."

The captain then told Chen Sheng what had happened in the Han court during this period.

After hearing this, Chen Sheng sighed and said, "Brother-in-law has treated them so well and given them everything he could, why are they still not satisfied?"

Zhao Gao sneered and said, "The First Emperor gave all he could to the Qin officials, but you, my Lord, know how they served the First Emperor. Human greed is endless. As long as greed is present, conscience is gone."

"But this is a good thing for us. The family members of the Han officials are probably literate. When they come to Luzon, they can help us control more savages."

At this time, the new immigrants got off the ship and looked anxiously at the town not far from the pier.

There are city walls and roads, water wheels and fields outside the city. It looks like a small town in the inland of the Han Dynasty. This made the immigrants feel relieved. They thought they would come to a wild land, but the current situation is much better than they imagined.

Chen Sheng found Wu Xun and said, "I just heard about your story. Since the emperor has punished you, I will not punish you any more. You can live here in peace."

"promise!"

"What skills did you learn?"

Wu Xun said: "I studied Chinese law for three years in law school."

Chen Sheng said: "Then you can be a lawyer and handle the disputes among the people of Luzon."

"promise!"

Soon, an official from Luzon appeared and said, "Everyone come here to register and tell us your age and occupation."

The new immigrants could only line up in front of the official in fear.

"name?"

"Yu Ran"

"What skills do you have?"

"I went to school for a few years and learned martial arts at Mozi Academy."

"You are a talented person. Go to the copper smelting plant."

In this way, officials continued to screen immigrants, and the quality of these immigrants was very high. Basically, they were educated and had a skill. For the Luzon Kingdom at that time, each of them was a high-quality talent.

The people of other Luzon began to carry various supplies from the ship and load them onto carts, which were then transported back to the warehouses.

The old immigrants couldn't stop smiling when they looked at the new immigrants.

Most of the people who came in the first batch were young and strong men, and there were very few women. In order to solve this problem, Chen Sheng could only seek marriage alliance with the nearby barbarian tribe, spending food and cloth to let his men marry the barbarian women.

But how could the barbarian women compare to the Han wives, especially this group of people, most of whom were the families of Han officials, and their quality was among the relatively high in the Han mainland.

Zhao Gao discovered this situation and said to Chen Sheng: "I think the most important thing is to keep an eye on these new immigrants, otherwise there will be unrest."

After Zhao Gao reminded him of this, Chen Sheng angrily said, "What are you looking at? You are so rude. If you don't know, you might think that Luzon is a lawless country."

After being scolded by Chen Sheng, these people withdrew their gazes.

The transport team stopped in Luzon for 5 days. All the goods on the ship were unloaded by the people of Luzon and then sorted into different categories and placed in various warehouses in Luzon.

Then they transported 50-pound copper ingots onto the ship. There were tens of thousands of them, filling the entire transport ship.

Yes, Xu Fan treated his brother-in-law well. When he granted him a kingdom, he specifically chose Luzon Island for him and told him that there was a large copper mine on Luzon Island and asked him to find it himself. Of course, Xu Fan also agreed with him that the copper mine was a strategic resource and the court would get 70% of the profits.

At that time, Chen Sheng thought it would be very difficult to find a copper mine on a huge island, so he agreed without thinking too much, but he soon regretted it.

Compared to Peng Yue, who had been searching for gold and silver mines for more than a year but still failed to find any, Chen Sheng was extremely lucky. When he was trading with the savage tribe, he discovered malachite, and in less than two months he found a huge open-pit copper mine. Then, with the support of Xu Fan, he quickly built a copper smelting blast furnace in Luzon. Now the Kingdom of Luzon can produce 10 kilograms of copper every month.

The rapid development of Luzon was largely due to the support of the imperial court. The discovery of copper mines in Luzon made Zhou Zhang both surprised and delighted. In recent years, the economy of the Han Dynasty became more and more prosperous, and a money shortage had begun to sweep the people. The copper coins of the Han Dynasty were becoming increasingly difficult to sustain private transactions. The arrival of Luzon copper solved a major problem for the Han Dynasty court.

(End of this chapter)