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

Chapter 604: The Roman Pax Romana and the Northward Movement

Laudius took out a bunch of blueprints and handed them to the blacksmiths, saying, "I want to make this kind of parts, and the tolerance of each part cannot exceed three millimeters."

The blacksmiths looked at the drawings. They did not recognize the Chinese characters on them, but they did recognize the numbers. These were Han numerals. In order to facilitate recording and calculation, the Romans also abandoned traditional Roman numerals and used Han numerals. Especially for blacksmiths like these, they did not have to write, but had to record numbers, so they learned Han numerals.

Of course, this is also related to the promotion of the Han Dynasty. Xu Fan formulated the metric system not to allow the Han Dynasty to use it alone, but to make this system a global standard. After all, globalization requires a set of globally formulated standards.

The blueprint Claudius gave was not something rare, but one of the three most popular items for marriage in the Han Dynasty: a sewing machine.

After returning to Rome, Claudius realized how big the gap was between Rome and the Han Dynasty. Sewing machines were extremely popular, if not necessarily owned by every household in the Han Dynasty. However, he could not find many such machines in Rome.

Later, after their investigation, they found that there was almost no market for sewing machines in Rome. The clothes of the nobles and senators were basically custom-made by private tailors, and these private tailor shops did not require much efficiency to make a profit.

The Roman common people might have this demand, but the price of sewing machines increased several times after they crossed the ocean to Rome. They could not afford a sewing machine that cost tens of thousands of coins. With this money, they might as well let their wives make clothes. As far as he knew, only a few hundred sewing machines were sold in Rome every year.

After Claudius and his companions returned to Rome, they decided to change the backwardness of their homeland. They formed the Roman Maison, and the members of the Maison promoted Claudius as the elder of Rome politically.
But if an organization wants to survive, it must have financial income. Although the Great Han Translation Institute also has some income from printing books, because they also have to print books in the Great Han language and distribute them to Roman citizens for free, the translation institute barely breaks even.

How to make money? This became the first problem faced by the Roman Pax Romana since its establishment. They took out the latest edition of the encyclopedia they bought in Dahan, found the blueprint of a sewing machine from it, and planned to build a sewing machine factory in Rome to produce sewing machines as the organization's source of income.

"Venerable, it is not difficult to make the parts of a sewing machine, but it is somewhat difficult to make every part identical with a difference of no more than 3mm, especially since almost every part is different. You might as well let each of us build a sewing machine individually. We all have our own way to make up for the tolerance, which would be better." John, the blacksmith, said with difficulty.

Claudius asked, "Can you build a sewing machine?"

John the blacksmith said, "It shouldn't be difficult to make it according to this blueprint?"

The other blacksmiths also nodded. Although it was difficult for them to make parts according to the drawings, it was not impossible.

Claudius continued to ask: "A sewing machine from Han costs about 3 Han coins. If you can build sewing machines, why don't you change your business to manufacturing sewing machines?"

John, the blacksmith, said with embarrassment: "This is the first time we have seen the blueprints of a sewing machine. However, even with the blueprints and sufficient parts, it will take about half a year to build such a sewing machine."

"I can do it faster, but it will take at least five months," said a blacksmith named Anthony.

"If I could have two apprentices, I could probably build a sewing machine like this in three to four months if I work hard," said the blacksmith Polo.

"You spent so much time on this, can you make the cost of sewing machines lower than Dahan's?"

There was silence at the scene. The longer it took, the higher the cost would naturally be.

"The sewing machine I want to build is cheaper than the one made by the Han Dynasty. A sewing machine that costs 3 coins is too expensive. The citizens of Rome can't afford it. I want to make a sewing machine that costs less than 1 coins."

John the blacksmith shook his head and said, "A sewing machine has dozens of parts, and each part is extremely difficult to manufacture. It is very difficult to make it for less than 1 coins."

Claudius said: "In the Han Dynasty, the price of a sewing machine is about 5000 coins. The cost of making a sewing machine will not exceed 3000 coins."

The production cost made the blacksmiths on the scene feel embarrassed. John said with a bitter face: "Elder, you also said that it was a big man."

Claudius said, "What the Han can do, you can do as well. The reason why the Han can reduce costs to such a low level is because of their streamlined production method. Each craftsman only makes one part, and the tolerance of each part is extremely small. Secondly, they use various machine tools. I can help you solve the problem of machine tools. What you need to do is, can one person produce one part, and can the tolerance be within 3mm?"

John said, "If we can really get Dahan's machine tools, we can do it too."

"Okay, I hope everyone will work hard and together we can build a sewing machine that belongs to Rome."

Then he held up the pile of drawings and asked, "Does anyone recognize the Chinese characters on them?"

The hundreds of blacksmiths at the scene fell silent again. Only one blacksmith named Polo asked, "Does the Han number count?"

Claudius glared at the blacksmith unhappily, and then continued to ask: "Please raise your hands if you can read Roman characters."

In the end, among the hundreds of people, only John the Blacksmith raised his hand.

This scene made Claudius feel helpless. There were very few people who could not read in Chang'an, but there were not many people who could read in Rome.

"You are employed by our Roman Pax Romana. You work eight hours a day, have one day off a week, and get one meal a week. You get 8 copper coins a month. If you need to work overtime, you will get double the salary during normal hours, and triple the salary during holidays. Are you satisfied with this treatment?"

"Satisfied!" What else can I say about this condition? For these blacksmiths who have fallen into the abyss, this is simply a rope that pulls them out of the abyss.

"Blacksmith John, as the temporary factory manager, your salary is 800 coins. After three months, if I think you are competent, you can become the official factory manager and your salary will be increased to 1000 coins."

John said excitedly: "I will make a sewing machine for the senator that belongs to us in Rome."

Claudius, who was about to leave, thought for a moment and turned back to the blacksmiths and said, "You must come here every night for an hour of night school. If you can learn 300 words, I will increase your salary by 100 copper coins. If you learn 1000 words, I will increase your salary by another 100 coins."

These words immediately changed the faces of the blacksmiths present from bitter to smiling. With such a good thing, no matter how difficult it was to learn Roman letters, they would find a way to knock them into their heads.

In the evening, the members of the Roman Council gathered together.

Claudius was a little disappointed and said, "The level of education received by Roman citizens is not even as good as that of Han children. We have to learn almost everything from the Han."

After returning to Rome from the Han Dynasty, he witnessed the chaos within Rome and felt a sense of urgency. He was afraid that Rome would be abandoned by this era and eventually become like the natives of the New World, being completely assimilated and disappearing without a trace.

Fabius said calmly: "Isn't there an old saying in the Han Dynasty that well begun is half done, and now we have begun."

Cornelius said: "There is nothing here in Rome. This is also our opportunity. As long as we find a way to copy the Han Dynasty's machines to Rome, we can create a lot of wealth to support the organization's activities."

Aemilius said: "We must not stop advancing the northward movement. We in Rome are not only short of people, but also short of land. The northern territory is the key to our becoming a great power. Fortunately, the Roman elders have already clearly understood this. The obstacles to the northward movement will not be great, and most of the senators will support our actions."

But he frowned and said: "The only trouble is that the senators want the Gauls and Germans as slaves, and want to use the north to make up for the losses in the south. This is completely different from what we expected." The Roman senators still thought of the old ways, conquering local forces and selling the natives as slaves to make a profit.

But these students from the Han Dynasty did not want to follow the old path of slave economy. After studying in the Han Dynasty, they realized that the slavery system was an extremely inefficient system, whether politically, economically or morally.

More importantly, they had seen vast empires with populations of hundreds of millions. Rome, with only more than 30 citizens, seemed too weak to them. They were eager to expand the number of Roman citizens and civilians rather than add tens of millions of slaves.

Claudius said, "Let's first try to become the commander of the northward movement. Then the elders won't be able to make the final decision. Let's first think about how to make the Gauls recognize Rome's identity."

Yes, these international students wanted to assimilate the Gauls and Germanic peoples on the vast plains of Daqinzhou in order to increase the strength of Rome.

After all, the world is set by the strong. This group of international students studied in the Han Dynasty and learned how the Han Dynasty assimilated the Huns and the Qiang people. Even though the indigenous people of the New World were tens of thousands of miles away from the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty still created history, saying that these people were descendants of the Shang Dynasty and found the Han bloodline for these indigenous people.

Relying on this unique skill of creating history, the Han Dynasty occupied the continents of four continents. In comparison, the Romans spent hundreds of years and only barely occupied the Apennine Peninsula.

With such an excellent example as the Han Dynasty, they naturally despised slavery and hoped to learn the Han Dynasty's blood assimilation system.

Cornelius said: "We can learn from the Han Dynasty and make up a history so that the Gauls can identify with us, Rome."

He thought for a moment and said, "Both the Romans and the Gauls lived in Daqinzhou. Our ancestors should be the same. We can find a way to say that they were a branch of the Greeks. It was only because they failed in the struggle for hegemony in Greece that they had to flee to Gaul."

The countries in Daqinzhou are basically branches of Greek civilization, and all countries admire Greek culture, even the Gauls and Germans are no exception.

Claudius said: "The Germans and Gauls have no historians. We will try to find the history of Greece and compile bloodline genealogies for the Gauls and Germans."

Claudius thought for a moment and said, "You can also say that they are a branch of the Trojans. So many Trojans fled back then, and some fled to the north, eventually forming the current Gauls and Germans. This should be normal. Find a bard to spread our fabricated history throughout Daqinzhou. We must let the Gauls and Germans know that they are blood brothers with us."

The people of the Roman Council saw that Claudius was embarrassed and wondered if he had to go so far. You have to know that in the official Roman history propaganda, they fled from Troy to Rome, and the Romans are the descendants of the Trojans.

Fabius was a little worried and asked, "The Gauls and Germans don't look like us. Will they believe these fabricated stories?"

The Romans of this era had black hair, black eyes, and yellow skin, and looked more like the Han people, but of course their facial shape was more like that of Westerners.

Claudius said calmly: "In Chang'an City, we have seen so many blond and blue-eyed people claiming to be Han people. In this regard, I agree with the approach of the Emperor of the Han Dynasty. Cultural identity is more important than blood identity. As long as he considers himself a Roman, Rome should accept him. Without the courage of a hundred rivers flowing into the sea, how can we Romans catch up with the Han Dynasty? Should we learn from those corrupt elders who always say that their family blood is sacred? The Han Dynasty has hundreds of nobles, and none of them did not work hard for this generation. Even the Han Emperor was just a teacher before the uprising."

Eventually the Roman Brotherhood was persuaded, and they launched a propaganda war before heading north.

Half a month later, the first sewing machine factory in Rome was born. The Roman brand sewing machines they produced were known as domestic products, filling the gap in Rome's sewing machine production. In order to give back to the citizens of Rome, each machine was sold for only 1 copper coins.

The riots a few months ago had set off a wave of nationalism in the Roman region, and the appearance of the Roman sewing machine further aroused the patriotic enthusiasm of Roman citizens.

Roman citizens who were able to buy and had the need to buy a Roman sewing machine bought one after another. Of course, the price advantage of domestic products at 1/3 was also the main reason why Roman citizens bought it.

The Roman senators who had obtained the agency rights had spent a huge price to obtain the agency rights for sewing machines, so they were naturally unwilling to lower the price easily. Instead, they promoted that Chinese products were high-tech products, and that Roman sewing machines were just knockoffs, inferior in quality to Chinese products. Citizens who bought these knockoffs would suffer losses sooner or later. The fierce commercial war represented by sewing machines was thus launched in Rome.

June 39, 9rd year of the Han calendar.

The Roman Senate finally made the final judgment on the Roman citizens who participated in the riots.

The citizens who participated in the riot were organized into two legions. They would take part in the northern expedition against the Gauls and use military merit to redeem their sins. The commander-in-chief of this northern expedition was won over by Claudius.

June 39, 9rd year of the Han calendar.

Tens of thousands of Roman legions crossed the Alps and entered the territory of Narbonne Gaul, starting the Romans' massive northward advance.

September 39, the 9th year of the Han calendar, in the territory of Yanzhou Military Governor's Office.

In the golden autumn of September, the wind blows the wheat waves. This year, the Yanzhou Governor's Office has obtained an unprecedented harvest. The average yield per mu of millions of acres of land has reached two shi, and the yield per mu of cultivated land generally exceeds three shi. The income from these grains has directly turned the once barren land into a rich land.

In order to rush the harvest, the Yanzhou Governor's Office recruited tens of thousands of civilians from the canal workers to help harvest the grain. The Han soldiers also had the tradition of helping with the harvest in autumn. The Yanzhou Governor's Office retained one battalion, and all the other soldiers went to the fields to harvest the grain.

Because the Han Dynasty paid enough money, the Ptolemaic laborers were very diligent even when harvesting in the scorching summer, and their efficiency was much higher than that of the Han soldiers.

This made Captain Liu Ruyi dissatisfied, so he immediately decided to have a harvesting competition with the local person with the fastest harvesting efficiency. The two of them would each occupy a wheat field, and they would have half a day to see who could harvest the wheat faster.

Then, the two began to compete amid the encouragement of everyone. At the beginning, Liu Ruyi had the upper hand relying on his great strength and speed, but he was not a person who lived in the countryside after all. Although he had had several harvesting experiences after joining the army, for the Ptolemy people who competed with him, spring planting and autumn harvesting were almost the most important things in their lives.

At noon, seeing that the other party had harvested 1/3 more than him, Liu Ruyi said helplessly: "Sobek, you win."

Suddenly, the people of Ptolemy cheered and the surrounding Ptolemaic people supported Sobek and worshipped him like a hero.

The Ptolemy Kingdom was actually very inferior to the Han Dynasty. Everything about them was so far behind the Han Dynasty. Now even a small victory like this would be enough to make them happy for a long time.

"It's time for dinner!" The stoker brought the food and everyone started to line up. After getting the food, they hid in the shade and started to eat.

Liu Ruyi came to Sobek and invited him to have dinner together. Liu Ruyi was a captain of the Han Dynasty, so the standard of his food was naturally much better than that of ordinary civilians.

After the two had dinner together, their relationship became much better. Sobek and Liu Ruyi introduced his family situation. His family was a commoner in the Ptolemy Kingdom, but according to his father, his grandfather was a descendant of a noble family, and the family was allocated a piece of land, but by the time of his father, the family began to decline, and the land was sold piece by piece to local nobles, and his family also declined.

But he said with pride that after three years of hard work, his father had redeemed the two pieces of land they had sold, and in another three years at most, he would be able to redeem all of his family's land.

His father had promised him that he would protect the family's land even at the cost of his life and prevent others from occupying it. He also let his two younger brothers study in the temple. After graduation, his two younger brothers might have the opportunity to become priests. If they really became priests, he would restore the glory of the family.

Then he told Liu Ruyi that he would go to the farmer's night school in the evening to learn advanced work experience. After completing the project, he would use the money to buy Dahan's farm tools and oxen, bring them back to his hometown, and then live a wealthy life there.

(End of this chapter)