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

Chapter 589: Are the People Worthy of Paying Tuition Fees and Steam Battleships

October 35, 10th year of the Han calendar, Saturday, Chang'an City, Yangshu Community.

District head Liu Heng held a loud speaker and shouted to the residents in the community square: "Tomorrow our community will form a residents' committee. Everyone come and vote. This is a matter that concerns everyone's interests. The residents' committee will be responsible for collecting the property fees of our community. These fees will be used to repair roads, houses, public facilities in the community, hire security personnel to guard the community, and the cost of cleaning the community."

An old man said, "Weren't these collected by the district before?"

Liu Heng said: "In the future, we will change to a property management model, which is equivalent to everyone hiring a housekeeper and servants. The housekeeper will help everyone manage the property, which is where we live, and the servants will be responsible for cleaning the community and maintaining the community's facilities. Everyone living in this community is the master and can supervise the servants' work. Do you think this model is better?"

"This is for both the housekeeper and the servant. How can we ordinary people use it? Isn't this something only for masters?" An old man hesitated.

Liu Heng smiled and said, "Hasn't our Han Dynasty always been creating new history? Can't the common people manage their servants? How many officials in our Han Dynasty came from the common people? If the common people can become officials, can't they manage themselves?"

"What District Chief Liu said makes sense. It's best to do things on your own. If you manage the community yourself, the property fees can be reduced."

"Butler and servant?" Xu Aimin looked strange. His father seemed to be full of energy after retirement. It was said that he was conducting research in Chang'an City during this period.

Yes, after Xu Fan retires, he plans to set up a grassroots organization in Dahan. It just so happens that the new residential area in Dahan has just been built, and if policies are formulated at the beginning, a lot of trouble can be reduced. He plans to leave a better grassroots organization for Dahan, which can also be regarded as an organization for the people to protect themselves.

Even in the so-called atomized society of later generations, ordinary people still need organizations to safeguard their interests. Just look at the hot spots on the Internet. Those who suffer losses are not those who have no power. As far as Xu Fan remembers, this aspect has been done very poorly. This is consuming the prestige accumulated in the past. Now many people are looking for forces that can protect themselves.

If you cannot meet the people's needs, then they can only look for organizations that can meet their needs. Therefore, clans will rise again, and churches will proliferate in the urban and rural fringe areas.

In Xu Fan's opinion, instead of letting these monsters occupy this position, it would be better to find a way to establish an organization that allows the people to organize themselves and help each other.

Xu Aimin looked around Liu Heng and saw his father. Xu Aimin brought Liu Chang to his father.

"Father." Xu Aimin said.

Xu Fan smiled and said, "Why are you here if you don't want to entertain those princes? You should meet more with Han Xin now. Although he only fought one battle in the desert, he has summarized a lot of experience and technology in the use of muskets and artillery. For our Han army, this is extremely valuable experience. After it is popularized throughout the army, it can quickly improve the combat effectiveness of the army."

All I can say is that Han Xin is worthy of being Han Xin. Even though he only fought one large-scale war, his insights into firearms and artillery and his use of them surpassed the vast majority of military generals in this world.

Of course, there are more than just Han Xin's family in Chang'an, there are also princes from other regions. Although the princes' meeting is over, the princes of the Han Dynasty have not left Chang'an City. In fact, most of the princes will stay in Chang'an for two or three months and will not leave until after the New Year. Xu Aimin, the new emperor, naturally has a good exchange with these princes.

Xu Aimin asked, "What do you think of my son's affluent society, father?"

Xu Fan gave a thumbs up and said, "The disciple surpasses the master. Your father has never thought about the affluent society you mentioned. In this respect, you have surpassed your father."

This is not Xu Fan praising his son. He really had never thought about this. Xu Fan is a great man standing on the shoulders of modern society. What he has done in the past 30 years is nothing more than copying what he has in another society to the Han Dynasty.

Xu Fan was restricted by the limitations of later generations and was not sensitive to the changes in the Han Dynasty society. After 30 years of hard work, the Han Dynasty was still not the same as his hometown. On the contrary, Xu Aimin personally experienced the drastic changes in the Han Dynasty, and could look forward to the future of the Han Dynasty and knew that the Han Dynasty should set the next goal to move forward.

Xu Aimin continued, "I want to use the profits from the Shaofu to help the people of the Han Dynasty and solve the difficulties they encounter in life. I want to truly take from the people and use it for the people. But Pijiang and the others don't seem to agree. They say that this matter should be done slowly. But I know what they mean. Taking it slowly means that I want to slowly give up this idea."

Xu Fan was surprised and said, "Your idea is very groundbreaking. Although it is very bold, it makes sense from the perspective of reason and law. The factory of the Shaofu originally belonged to the people of the Han Dynasty. It is only natural that the profits should serve the people of the Han Dynasty."

He really had never thought about this, and after hearing it, he agreed very much. You always talk about six social insurances and two funds, and mobilizing trillions of funds. I, the common people, can't spend a few dollars here. It's okay not to issue it, but you always say it's the Shaofu's factory. This makes people feel sick. You didn't get any benefits, but you have to bear a lot of responsibilities. Even if you are a nominal shareholder, you should at least give a few hundred yuan in benefits.

Xu Fan also understood that doing so might require paying a lot of tuition fees, but these things originally belonged to the people, and it was not very reasonable to ask the people to pay for them!

You have no reason to pay tuition. Why do you use other people's things to pay your own tuition and not allow people to pay their own tuition?

Why can you pay the tuition fees, but ordinary people cannot? What kind of logic can justify this?

Therefore, Xu Fan agreed very much with Xu Aimin's idea. Everyone has gone through this process. After the people have paid tuition fees several times, they will naturally accumulate experience and know how to manage the Shaofu.

Xu Aimin smiled happily when he heard this. He still hoped to get his father's approval. Then he told his father all the contents of the affluent society.

Xu Fan warned: "It is not wrong for you to build a prosperous society, but you must not forget to develop productivity. Just relying on the original distribution of wealth, no matter how you divide it, the total amount will always be the same. It is impossible for the income of farmers to soar from 3 coins to 6 coins.

Only by developing production, increasing the wealth of the whole world, and then on this basis, making reasonable distribution, can we truly realize a prosperous society. As far as your declaration is concerned, there is less talk about developing production. You just talked about increasing the number of machines in general, but didn't say how to more than double the wealth of society. Even if you want to double the wealth of farmers, you have to double, triple or even more the wealth of the whole world to do so. Production and distribution are two pillars, neither of which can be lacking. You also need to formulate a plan for the development of the Han industry as a whole to improve the production efficiency of the Han Dynasty and create more wealth.

Xu Aimin nodded and said, "I understand, kid."

On January 36, the 1th year of the Han Dynasty, at the Wuxian Military Wharf in Kuaiji County, Zhang Pijiang spent the New Year in Chang'an City, and then began to head south to prepare to return to Ptolemy State by land and sea to take up his post. He was on the new 21-ton main battleship of the Nanyang Fleet, the Dawei-class battleship.

However, the Dawei-class battleship surprised Zhang Pijiang because he could see the cold light reflected on the planks, and there was also a huge chimney on the ship.

"You have inlaid iron plates on the outside of the battleship and put a steam engine on it?"

The Han Dynasty did have steamships, but most of them were used on inland rivers such as the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, and a small number were used at the Han Dynasty's coastal docks. The main reason for not engaging in ocean trade was that the combustion efficiency of steamships was not high. It was easy to burn out coal halfway during ocean trade. Moreover, there were few special coal storages at the major docks of the Han Dynasty, which could not effectively supply steamships. The infrastructure had not kept up, so ocean trade was still mainly based on sailing ships.

But the efficiency of steamships is obvious. They are much better than sailing ships that rely on the weather, and their speed is much faster. Therefore, the Han Dynasty court has begun to work hard to change this. They have been researching more efficient steam engines and installing them on ships, and there are also special coal storages at major docks.

The year before last, there were already special steamship routes from Dahan to Ryukyu Island and Ryukyu to Luzon Island. Steamships are extremely efficient, saving three times the sailing time. Last year, the major vassal states in Southeast Asia began to renovate their docks to adapt to steamship routes. This year, from the docks in Dahan to the major docks in Southeast Asia, Tianzhu docks, and even the docks in the Xiongnu Kingdom have begun to be renovated to accommodate steamships.

General Xu Lu said proudly: "This is a steam battleship that the court is experimenting with. After being equipped with a steam engine, the battleship has become faster and more flexible, and can easily seize the upper hand. It has also been equipped with 30mm manganese alloy steel armor. Except for the steel cannons of our Han Dynasty, the iron cannons of other countries and forces cannot penetrate its armor at all. Any enemy will not be able to escape once it is discovered. This is a perfect battleship. As for the power, there is no need to worry. Now all the countries in Nanyang have coal bunkers. As long as the battleship enters the port, it can quickly refuel, which can ensure its combat effectiveness in the Nanyang waters."

To Xu Lu, this new type of three-piece warship was indeed a perfect warship, taking into account speed, firepower and armor thickness. Relying on its technological advantages, it completely crushed the pirates' warships in three aspects. Those Black Pearls that were galloping in the Han waters had nowhere to escape when they encountered the Han warships.

Of course, Xu Lu also had some regrets. Such an advanced and powerful warship could only sail within the South China Sea for the time being. There was no other reason, but because the current steam engine was not efficient enough. While taking into account firepower, speed and armor, the sailing journey was not as long as that of a sailing battleship. As long as the sailing battleship had enough food, it could circle the earth four times. However, the range of this Great Crisis battleship was only 1000 miles. If there were no coal bunkers in other places for supplies, the combat radius would only be 500 miles. It was definitely a near-shore battleship. This was also her biggest regret.

Zhang Pijiang was surprised and said, "Your navy is really changing with each passing day. How long have you been equipping Overlord-class battleships? Now you have developed new Warring States-class battleships?"

Even without asking Zhang Pijiang, he knew that this battleship was very expensive, and the manganese alloy steel armor did not sound cheap.

Xu Lu said seriously: "The Han navy must ensure that it can suppress the enemy in any direction of the four oceans. Tactical training is one aspect, and powerful weapons are also an important prerequisite. The Han navy must ensure that its weapons are a generation ahead of the enemy."

Accompanying the great voyages was the great pirate age. Since the discovery of the Spice Islands, pirates have been a common sight on the sea. At first, there were only Han pirates, but gradually, Indian pirates, Xiongnu pirates, and Qinzhou pirates began to appear. Even the natives of the New World learned to be bad, and Mayan pirates appeared.

Moreover, it is becoming increasingly clear that the Han Dynasty is not an Anglo-Saxon pirate. The more such pirates there are, the more disadvantageous it will be for the Han Dynasty's overseas trade. Becoming the world hegemon must also assume the responsibility of the world police.

The large number of pirates in the four oceans became the biggest trouble for the four fleets of the Han Dynasty. They were invincible. The most important thing was that these pirates played guerrilla warfare with the Han Navy. The Han Navy was naturally stronger in terms of artillery and armor, but with more artillery and thicker armor, the warships could not be fast, and speed was the life-saving trick of these pirate ships. Now the pirates around the world can fire inaccurately and have thin armor, but they must be fast. These pirate ships have become Black Pearls. In order to deal with these pirate ships, the Han Dynasty created steam warships that were more than twice as fast as sea ships.

Then Zhang Pijiang boarded the Dawei-class battleship, but the result was hard to describe. Although the Dawei-class battleship was fast, the noisy sound of steam was difficult to isolate. Zhang Pijiang felt the steam engine roaring in his ears every day, especially in the dead of night. Moreover, the slight vibration caused by the steam engine was extremely uncomfortable, a bit like the building shaker in later generations. Zhang Pijiang, who was no longer seasick, became seasick for the first time and vomited to death.

Xu Lu could only explain to Zhang Pijiang awkwardly: "An experimental warship will naturally have defects, but as long as these problems are solved, it will definitely be invincible."

However, Zhang Pijiang could no longer take the Dawei-class battleship, but instead stopped in his elder brother's country, Korea, and reunited with his elder brother Zhang Buyi for three days. He then took another ship of the South China Sea Fleet and spent two months to arrive at the Yanzhou Governor's Office again.

When Zhang Pijiang came to Yanzhou Governor's Mansion again after more than half a year, he found that the Governor's Mansion had changed a lot.

Yanzhou Governor's Office is close to the later Gou Dahu Kingdom. The environment here is not good even in this period of global warming. Although there are no large deserts, there are many Gobi Deserts. Only near the Mediterranean Sea does it rain and the land is fertile. However, its geographical environment is similar to that of Shangjun and Jiuyuanjun in the Han Dynasty. Before the Han soldiers came here, it was extremely desolate with only some nomadic tribes.

But now Zhang Pijiang found that there were lush wheat fields around the Yanzhou Governor's Office, which was particularly eye-catching in the desolate scenery around. In the coastal areas, the salt fields he had built had expanded several times, and he also saw some strange devices. There were pipes and containers, which looked like refineries, but seemed different. In the coastal areas, there were actually many things like fishing nets hanging in the sky.

"Ambassador Zhang, you are finally back!" Yanzhou Governor Ding He greeted him with a smile.

Zhang Pijiang pointed at the strange device not far away and asked, "What are these?"

Ding Hedao: "This is a device made by the Nong Family and the Mohist Family that can be used to draw water from the Han Dynasty. There is no river here at the Governor's Office. Although we can dig wells to draw water and solve the problem of drinking water, it cannot meet the irrigation needs. The Nong Family Master said that this approach can only destroy the local groundwater. The Nong Family Master and the Mohist Family Master have developed a method of using the sun's heat to make distilled water, as well as water-catching net technology. With these two sets of technologies working together, we can get nearly a hundred tons of fresh water for irrigation day and night, solving the local irrigation water problem."

The seawater desalination device in Yanzhou Dudufu is actually based on the principle of solar water heaters in later generations. The black heat-absorbing tube is inserted from the interface below the large ceramic evaporator, and the seawater is sucked through the siphon effect of the water injection port. The heat of the sun evaporates the seawater, and the steam flows through the collection pipe tightly attached to the top into the condenser that is blocked from the sunlight. In the arid area of ​​Yanzhou, such a desalination device can produce several tons of distilled water in a day, and Yanzhou Dudufu has built 25 large distillation devices.

The water-catching net was developed by farmers in the Western Regions to solve the local irrigation problem. It works better here than in the Western Regions because it is close to the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, and has more water vapor. The water-catching net device of the Yanzhou Governor's Office can catch more than ten tons of water every night. With this fresh water, farmers plant some drought-resistant plants and some pasture grass outside, and the inside becomes a vegetable field. The Yanzhou Governor's Office can now barely achieve self-sufficiency in vegetables.

Thanks to these advanced agricultural techniques, the farmers are worshipped as gods by local nomads. The water resources in this area are too precious, and the agricultural technicians who can obtain water from the sea are regarded as gods by the locals.

Originally, these nomadic people wanted to rob the Yanzhou Governor's Mansion. After all, this area was too poor and the local nomadic tribes could only rely on the mountains for their livelihood. They regarded the wealthy Yanzhou Governor's Mansion as a gold mine. However, they hit a wall. Hundreds of the herdsmen who came to rob were killed by muskets and artillery, and the remaining thousands were captured.

Based on the principle of waste utilization, Ding He used these captives as laborers and assigned them to farmers to help them build seawater conversion devices and water capture nets and reclaim fields. As a result, he was so shocked by the farmers' technology that he refused to leave.

Of course, one of the main reasons was that the Han people had three meals a day, a four-hour workday, and a salary of 4 kilograms of wheat for the prisoners. The treatment of the prisoners not only exceeded that of cattle and horses in later generations, but also exceeded their original living standards. So what was wrong with being cattle and horses for the Han people?

(End of this chapter)