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

Chapter 447: Keep your feet on the ground and look up at the stars

After the meeting, Zhuo Hong took a few Han officials to the Second Industrial Textile Zone to inspect the progress of the construction site.

"Your Excellency." Dong Yu, the supervisor of the Second Textile Industrial Zone, came to greet him wearing a rattan hat.

"How long will it take to complete the construction of the second textile industrial zone?" Zhuo Hong asked, looking at the ground with thousands of ravines and gullies.

Dong Yu immediately replied: "The sewage ditch and drainage channel have been built. It will take at most four months to complete the infrastructure construction of the second textile industrial zone, and then hand it over to the textile workshop for factory construction."

Zhuo Hong asked as they walked: "Time is too slow, can we speed up the process?"

Even if we wait for four months, we still don’t know how many workshops will be lost.

Dong Yu said helplessly: "This is because we are already working day and night. The workers almost work until dark every day. We can't ask the craftsmen to work overtime. If we want to speed up the progress, we have to recruit more craftsmen, but this way we can't keep the cost down."

Zhuo Hong said: "Recruit more farmers from Shangjun. They have lower salaries, fewer requirements, and are more hardworking than the people in Guanzhong."

At this moment, Zhuo Hong suddenly heard a voice saying, "Brother Song Yan, you live in the worst condition in the entire Gaoling County. Don't you want to change this? Only by striking for your rights can you change this. God helps those who help themselves. You must learn to fight for your rights."

Xu Aimin was unwilling to accept the failure of his first social practice. After regaining his confidence after a night, he ran to the construction site again, trying to persuade Song Yan and others to fight for their legal rights.

"Why are you so stubborn, kid? I've told you many times that we came to Guanzhong to make money, not to cause trouble. If we hold a demonstration, we can still do our job in Gaoling County, but we will displease the local county magistrate. I'm afraid that none of the villagers will have such a good job in the future." Song Yan was unmoved.

But Zhuo Hong was furious when he heard this. He was still complaining about the slow progress of the project. Someone actually wanted to instigate the craftsmen to go on strike and affect the progress of his second industrial textile zone. He was immediately furious and wanted to find the person who caused the trouble.

He had only taken a few steps when he was stopped by a man. He shouted in astonishment, "Chen Weiwei, why did you come to our small county? Why didn't your men come to report?"

The Chen Weiting that Zhuo Hong mentioned was the Weiwei, who was originally one of the Nine Ministers of the Han Dynasty and was the emperor's guard. However, after the Han Dynasty, the Weiwei began to be downgraded from the level of the Nine Ministers to a department of two thousand stones of the Han Dynasty. Although his status declined, his importance did not change.

Now the Weiwei is a department directly under the emperor and is only responsible to the emperor. The emperor's confidants have always served as the head of this department. At first, Chen Sheng, the emperor's uncle, served as the Weiwei. After Chen Sheng became a fiefdom, Chen Zhen, an old man from Youyang County, served as the Weiwei.

Although many people nowadays readily claim that they are the emperor's disciples, Han officials like Zhuo Hong understand that the emperor's real disciples are only the 23 students taught in the Chen family back then, and Chen Zhen is one of them.

Zhuo Hong looked at Chen Zhen with envy. Chen Zhen was only in his early twenties, but he was already a high-ranking official with a salary of two thousand stones. With his status as a disciple of the emperor, he would at least be one of the Nine Ministers in the future. If he was luckier, he might even be one of the Three Dukes.

It was a blessing for him to become a prefect of two thousand stones before his retirement, but he could only envy Chen Zhen's opportunity. There was nothing he could do about it because he followed the right person.

Chen Zhen pointed at Xu Aimin who was not far away and whispered, "That's the prince. His Majesty asked the prince to do social practice. County Magistrate Zhuo, please don't interfere."

Zhuo Hong looked at the child not far away in astonishment. He couldn't understand why the prince suddenly appeared in his territory? And it seemed that he was going to deal with him. Thinking of this, Zhuo Hong looked panicked.

Chen Zhen knew from his expression that he had misunderstood, and said calmly: "Don't worry, the prince is not targeting Magistrate Zhuo, you just need to pretend that nothing happened."

"I understand!" Zhuo Hong could only carefully lead his men away from the construction site.

After Zhuo Hong left, Xu Aimin also left disappointed. Song Yan didn't want to go to the demonstration at all. No matter what he said, he remained unmoved and instead continued to lay water pipes here.

On the other hand, Zhuo Hong's heart was beating wildly after he arrived at the government office. The prince came to his territory, and he couldn't really pretend that he knew nothing. So after returning to the county government office, Zhuo Hong sent his men to find out the whole story. The matter was not complicated, and his men asked a few craftsmen to understand the whole story and report it to Zhuo Hong.

Zhuo Hong knew this and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The prime minister gave the prince a social practice class, but the prince came to his own territory to practice it, and he wanted to learn the way of the Mohist master. He started with a demonstration, trying to fight for good food and housing for the Shangjun farmers working in the second industrial textile zone. In Zhuo Hong's opinion, this was just the prince's child playing house.

Zhuo Hong thought for a moment and asked County Magistrate Lu Shu, "Are the food and living conditions of the craftsmen in the Second Industrial Textile Zone very poor?"

Lu Shu came up immediately: "There are enough rice packs every day, and one or two vegetable soups. This is not a bad meal. County Magistrate, you should know that there are many people who eat two kilograms of rice in one meal. Farmers have this characteristic and have big appetites. As for accommodation, you also know that they have to return to their hometowns after work. The county office cannot build houses for them to live in. They can only build shacks nearby at the construction site. After the construction is completed, they can just dismantle the shacks. This has been the standard for several years."

Zhuo Hong said, "We need to find a way to improve the living environment and food for the craftsmen. The work on the construction site is all hard physical labor. Without oil and water, the workers will not have the energy to do their work. We need to add one meat meal a day and one egg in the morning. Living in shacks all the time is not a solution. We need to find a way to build a few tents for them to live in."

Although Lu Shu didn't understand why the county magistrate did this, he still nodded and said, "Yes!"

On the other hand, Xu Aimin gave up the idea of ​​organizing Song Yan and others to march and demonstrate, but he did not leave Gaoling County, and continued to visit other places in Gaoling County. He saw the crowded textile industrial area in Gaoling, and also saw the snack carts near the tracks that were as numerous as flocks of birds. Whenever a train or a railway carriage stopped, these people would swarm up and hold up their food. Although Gaoling County was small, it also had its own prosperity.

June 15th, Gaoling County, Gaosheng Inn.

Xu Aimin and his colleagues recorded everything they had done in Gaoling County over the past few days in their social practice assignments, and then prepared to return to Chang'an City.

The hero sighed and said, "We obviously want to help them so much, why don't they want our help?"

Yingxiong still felt it was a pity. He had heard that marches and demonstrations in Guanzhong were the most fun thing, but he had never encountered one. He originally wanted to organize one himself, but no one listened to them.

Chen Mai said calmly, "This is normal. As long as they are not stupid, they will not listen to the advice of four children. Not to mention that farmers are much less organized than craftsmen. Now there is no core to organize them. Naturally, they are scattered. Even if they have ideas to improve their lives, they will not listen to us."

Zhang Piqiang said calmly: "I think the court should pay more attention to the rights of farmers working like this, and even the Mohists should pay more attention to them. The workshop owners don't talk about morality, they talk about real interests. Now these workshop owners are forced by the court to increase the wages of craftsmen, they will definitely not be willing. They may even try to overturn the law of equal wealth."

"And these farmers are their best weapon. With a salary of 500 coins, they can't even recruit an apprentice in Guanzhong, but they can make the farmers in Shangjun grateful to them. Now that Gaoling County Magistrate employs them, the workshop owners in Guanzhong know that there is such a group of cheap and honest farmers to exploit. Do you think these workshop owners will still hire craftsmen?"

Xu Aimin was shocked and said, "This is a huge loophole in the imperial decree. We can't let those unscrupulous businessmen succeed."

Then he picked up his pen and wrote down all of Zhang Piqiang's previous speculations, and reminded the court to take them seriously.

At this time, the waiter suddenly knocked on the door and said, "Four young masters, there is a migrant worker outside, saying he is here to look for you, four young masters?"

"Migrant workers?" Sixiao was stunned at first, not expecting anyone to know them in Gaoling County, and then he immediately thought it might be Song Yan. So Xu Aimin said, "Please come up."

Sure enough, the migrant worker who followed the guy up was Song Yan.

He looked at Xu Aimin and the others and said excitedly, "Thank you four gentlemen for helping farmers like me. I have no way to repay your kindness. I thought that you four gentlemen are all scholars, so I sold four copies of "The Biography of Three Heroes" as a thank you gift. I hope you like it."

Xu Aimin was stunned and asked, "What do you mean by helping you farmers?"

Chen Mai and the other two looked at each other. They had been wandering around Gaoling County all this time and had not helped Song Yan and the others at all.

Song Yan said excitedly, "Not long after you left, the county government upgraded our food. Now we can have a meal of meat and a chicken every day, and the shacks we live in have been turned into tents. We don't know anyone else in this county except for a few young masters. If this wasn't done by you, then who did it?"

Song Yan left the inn after leaving four copies of "The Stories of Three Heroes", leaving the four children looking at each other in dismay.

Xu Aimin thought for a moment and said, "Could it be that the magistrate of Gaoling County had always wanted to improve the lives of farmers, and we just happened to run into him?"

Chen Mai and Zhang Piqiang sneered, "How could such a coincidence happen? I am more willing to believe that the Magistrate of Gaoling County accidentally knew your identity, the Crown Prince, so he tried to please you in this way."

Xu Aimin sighed and felt that this was the most reasonable guess. He said disappointedly, "We'll still go to Chang'an City."

On the 17th day of the sixth month of the 16th year of the Han calendar, in Chang'an City, Yan Palace.

"Someone is back!" Xu Aimin shouted when he saw his second brother, third sister, fourth sister, and fifth brother.

Since they settled in Chang'an, Xu Fan's descendants have been born continuously. Chen Xiu also has a sense of crisis, and she does not want to share her husband with other women. But she also understands that the Han Dynasty needs enough heirs to maintain stability, so she has been pregnant continuously over the years, basically one every two years. With the knowledge of fertility brought by Xu Fan from the future, plus a bit of luck, all five children born by Chen Xiu to Xu Fan were born naturally, without so many bloody things like those on TV.

(I am here to tell you as a person who has experienced this, childbirth is really not that dramatic. My first child came in the second month after I got married, and I was caught off guard. Then came the second and third, and there were no setbacks in between. So don’t say anything more, there is no such thing as such good luck. The misfortunes you see are all made up by screenwriters.)
Several people immediately surrounded him and shouted happily: "Brother, did you bring our gifts?"

Xu Aimin took out a few wooden swords, slingshots and some porcelain dolls from his bag, which attracted all the attention of his younger brothers and sisters, and they started to divide the toys among themselves.

Xu Fan smiled and asked, "What about the social surveys these days?"

Xu Fan didn't care about his son's opinion. He just wanted Xu Aimin to have more contact with the people and the ground, so that he wouldn't be born in the deep palace and raised by women. A monarch like this would either be a tyrant or a puppet.

Xu Fan would not let Xu Aimin become a wise ruler with extraordinary talent, but it was enough for him to have a normal person's outlook and know that an egg is not worth fifty taels each.

After Xu Aimin came back, he told Xu Fan everything he had seen and heard in Gaoling County. He said aggrievedly, "The farmers in Dahan are too ignorant. We want to fight for their interests, but they don't even dare to hold a demonstration."

Xu Fan said: "This is their instinct for survival over thousands of years. Farmers have always been on the brink of life and death. If they make a wrong choice, their whole family may starve to death, which makes them afraid to take risks. They will not actively resist the existing system unless they are forced into a desperate situation. Of course, the fact that no one organizes them is also an important reason."

"The power of one person is limited, and a group of people is just a pile of loose sand. But if there is a strong organization that can organize the people and make them united, they will burst out with infinite power to destroy any enemy."

Xu Aimin said: "My father organized the farmers and overthrew the tyrannical Qin Dynasty."

Xu Fan nodded and said, "That's right. I used the land to organize tens of millions of people who were dissatisfied with the Qin Dynasty. Only then did I destroy the tyrannical Qin Dynasty with a million soldiers in three years."

Xu Aimin hesitated and said, "Father, why don't you continue to organize tens of millions of people and lead them to achieve moderate prosperity and even universal peace."

Xu Fan smiled bitterly and said, "Because it is impossible. The difficulty of achieving universal peace is more than ten thousand times higher than destroying the tyrannical Qin Dynasty. I may not be able to see the true universal peace in my lifetime. Even if I can see the entire Han Dynasty achieve a well-off society in my lifetime, then my life will not be in vain."

Xu Fan's idea of ​​a well-off society is to reach the level of developed societies in the future. Technology may not be able to reach that level, but the living standard must be reached. If he is still stuck in the 996s in the Han Dynasty, his journey through time would be in vain.

If we compare this with later generations, I really don’t know which one is more difficult, but everyone always has a dream, and maybe after decades of hard work, it will come true.

Xu Fan said: "You can also participate in this year's Steam Expo as a volunteer. In Gaoling County, you can get in touch with the bottom of our Han Dynasty, and at the Steam Expo, you can get in touch with the future of our Han Dynasty. When you manage the Han Dynasty in the future, you must be down-to-earth and look up to the stars. Only by walking on both legs can you achieve a well-off society."

For the second Steam Expo, Xu Fan planned to run it like in later times, displaying all kinds of goods and technological products within the scope of the Han civilization together. This would not only strengthen the connections between the various vassal states, but also strengthen the sense of identity of the major vassal states with the Han civilization.

At the same time, all the imperial examinations and products of the Han Dynasty can be put in front of the people of the world to speed up the industrial development of the Han Dynasty. Only when there are enough industries to absorb craftsmen can the income of Han craftsmen be maintained at a relatively high level.

September 7, the 16th year of the Han calendar, Chang'an City.

The Second Steam Expo attracted hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world, making Chang'an City more lively than ever before. It not only attracted princes from all over the world to bring the specialties of their fiefdoms, but also attracted caravans from all over the world, even caravans from outside the Han civilization, to stop in Chang'an City and join in this prosperous era belonging to the Han Dynasty.

The Han Dynasty court prepared for this steam expo for more than half a year. In order to show off the wealth of the Han Dynasty, Prime Minister Xiao He accepted the advice of the master architect Tu Shenpu and designed a crystal palace the size of a palace using steel and glass as the main building materials.

This wonder indeed shocked the audience who came to Chang'an City. Outside the Han Dynasty, glass was still considered a kind of gem. When these Western Hu merchants discovered that the Han people had built a palace with gems, one can imagine how shocked they were. Many people saw the dazzling crystal palace in the sun and simply regarded it as a miracle. They knelt down and worshiped it continuously.

The people of the Han Dynasty were also extremely shocked when they saw the Crystal Palace. Although the price of glass has become extremely low in recent years, ordinary people can install glass on their windows. But in the hearts of many people, glass is a luxury. For the people of the Han Dynasty, this kind of shining building is not a miracle because they have seen many glass greenhouses, but it can be considered a miracle.

The construction of the Crystal Palace and its effect gave the three dukes and nine ministers of the Han Dynasty great confidence. Well begun is half done, and it was clear that this start of the Han Dynasty was extremely successful.

September 10th, the sixteenth year of the Han calendar.

The world-renowned Steam Expo officially opened, and the wares of the princes from all over the Han Dynasty were poured in. There was one thing that Xu Fan had not expected. He thought there would not be too many exhibits, but he never expected that the princes of the Han Dynasty did not give up this opportunity to show themselves. From machinery to wooden machinery, from cloth to ceramics, to tea, and even herbs, as long as they were special products of their country, the princes of the Han Dynasty brought almost all of them to this expo.

So compared to the first Steam Expo which had only a few steam engines, the second one expanded to an unprecedented number of more than 3,000 exhibits of various kinds, and a science and technology expo was turned into a shopping festival.

(End of this chapter)