I'm in the Red Mansion

On the next day, many ministers could not wait to ask the emperor whether it was possible to install similar lights in their houses.

The reason why these people asked the emperor was mainly because they currently did not know who was in charge of this matter.

Originally they wanted to look for the Ministry of Revenue, but it turned out that the officials of the Ministry of Revenue were looking for relevant departments themselves.

After searching around, I still couldn't find out which department was in charge.

Then they had to find Jia Cong.

After hearing this question, Jia Cong couldn't help but laugh.

It’s no wonder they couldn’t find it, because there is no such department at all, where could they find it?
It is not too late to set up this department now.

So, next, Jia Cong planned to set up another Ministry of Electric Power.

This department is also independent of the three provinces and six ministries and is directly responsible to him.

As for the Minister of the Ministry of Electric Power, Jia Cong planned to select an outstanding person directly from among the disciples taught by Johann Adam Schall von Bell, who were also people who studied electricity, to take the position.

Moreover, all future appointments in the entire Ministry of Electric Power can be made from newly graduated students.

The original three provinces and six ministries continued to recruit candidates from the old imperial examination system.

Newly established departments can promote students with new academic graduates.

In this way, the new learning will gradually be able to compete with the Four Books and Five Classics.

In this way, the status of new studies can be further enhanced.

As more and more people learn new things, sparks of thought will eventually emerge.

Of course, it is not the right time yet, and there will definitely be reforms to the imperial examination system in the future.

However, this kind of thing cannot be rushed and needs to be done step by step.

After all, governing a big country is like cooking a small fish, and it requires gradual progress.

Therefore, under Jia Cong's instructions, the Ministry of Electric Power was formally established.

Of course, today's power sector is still very rudimentary, with only a few officials in total.

To be precise, there is only one minister and two deputy ministers, and the rest of the staff are borrowed.

Because the scientific research department is seriously short of staff.

Even these three people, Johann Adam Schall von Bell was unwilling to let go.

Therefore, even if Jia Cong gave the order, Tang Ruowang was only willing to let the three of them go at most.

In desperation, Jia Cong had to temporarily borrow the staff from the scientific research department, and then wait for them to train available talents quickly.

Fortunately, the entire Ministry of Electric Power only needs to be responsible for the affairs of the capital at present.

After all, electricity is only available in Beijing at present.

Soon, the first electric power station in the capital was officially launched.

Anyone who wants to install electricity at home can apply here.

However, because it was just the beginning, there were so many applicants that you had to queue up.

It’s still okay for those who registered early, but for those who registered late, the queue has been postponed to a month later.

There is no way, the entire Ministry of Electric Power is seriously understaffed.

Now they are recruiting people, and all the recruits are outstanding new students.

And they were promised that once they became masters and were able to work independently, their wages would be greatly increased.

You can even become an official directly.

And these new students who were recruited all knew what was going on.

The Ministry of Electric Power had just been established, and they were the first batch to be recruited.

As long as they study hard, they will definitely have a future after they become masters.

Electricity is currently only being promoted in the capital, but it will surely be promoted throughout China in the future.

When branches are established in other places, should we send veterans to give instructions, to help lead, or even to take charge of the work?
Therefore, this group of people probably hold official positions of varying degrees.

As for how far they can be promoted in the future, it depends on their personal opportunities and efforts.

Therefore, every one of the first batch of interns recruited is studying hard, and every one of them is extremely diligent and hardworking.

From the beginning, they started to roll up.

Since then, more and more families in the capital have installed electricity at home.

If your family has a little status and you don’t have electricity in your home, you would feel embarrassed to say hello to others when you go out.

However, installing electricity is not cheap.

Not only do you have to pay an initial installation fee of five taels of silver, but you will also be charged according to the number of meters of wire used.

For a large mansion like the Mansion of the Duke of Rong or the Mansion of the Duke of Ning, several hundred taels of silver would be necessary for the electrical wires.

Electricity is really not cheap. I heard that it costs fifty cents per kilowatt-hour.

Ordinary people can afford electricity but cannot use it.

After a busy month, almost all the homes of high-ranking officials, nobles, landlords, wealthy businessmen in the capital had electricity.

Then, the entire capital city became even more magnificent.

Now, it’s not just the street lights on the main roads that are bright.

In the capital, lights were also turned on in a few homes.

Next, those businesses also started signing up to set up electricity.

The first to sign up were those in Qinlou and Chuguan.

Speaking of which, Emperor Jia Cong not only had never been to a brothel, he also extremely disliked them.

After ascending the throne, he once wanted to ban brothels.

However, he was dissuaded by all the civil and military officials in the court.

Jia Cong felt that this group of people must be regular customers of brothels.

Jia Cong also had another worry that such things would continue to happen in the future.

Especially in this day and age?
Even if you explicitly ban it, it will definitely appear in other forms secretly.

This kind of thing cannot be banned as long as there is demand.

And if it hides in the dark, it will be even more difficult to control.

In this case, it is better to put it in the open so that it can be more controlled.

Next, Jia Cong formulated some laws and regulations targeting brothels.

For example, these brothel girls have to have a limit to their daily work.

You must have a physical examination every six months.

If they want to retire, the brothel cannot refuse.

Those over the age of thirty-five were forced to become good women, and the brothel had to pay a severance fee of no less than fifty taels of silver.

There is also the most severe one, which is that people of good character shall not be forced into prostitution.

Once we discover that someone of good character is forced into prostitution, we will punish them severely and strictly, from top to bottom, and will not tolerate it!
These laws and regulations protect the rights and interests of brothel women in all aspects.

And what is protected is not only their rights, but also the rights of the guests.

There is also social stability.

After seeing these regulations, the civil and military officials were silent at first.

Then, a thoughtful look appeared on their faces.

They are smart people and can naturally see the deep meaning behind the emperor's formulation of these regulations.

The emperor cares about more than just the prostitutes in brothels.

However, all the girls in the brothel don’t think so.

They regarded the emperor as their greatest benefactor.

After these decrees were issued, every prostitute in brothels across the country would carve a statue of the emperor and worship it every day.

After hearing this, Jia Cong couldn't help but laugh or cry.

And in the imperial harem, from the empress dowager and the queen to the concubines, everyone praised her.

They all thanked the emperor on behalf of those women. After all, nine out of ten women in brothels were just helpless and pitiful people.

There was a brothel girl who wrote a poem: I weep for not following the three obediences, what use is this body to the human relationship. Although I enjoy music and singing every day, I always envy the thorny hairpins and cloth skirts.

You see, many of them envy the lives of normal people, but it’s a pity that they can never go back.

Therefore, Jia Cong followed them.

These brothels only open for business at night.

Before electricity was invented, they would decorate their buildings with gold and splendor.

Now that they have electricity, they naturally won’t let it go.

Therefore, after electricity was installed in the homes of those wealthy families, they immediately started applying.

Moreover, after they installed the electricity, they even covered the light bulbs with some transparent colored paper to make the lights colorful.

After hearing this, Jia Cong couldn't help but marvel at it.

They came up with this idea before colored lanterns were invented.

Therefore, we can see that we should never underestimate the wisdom of the ancients.

In addition to brothels and brothels, some other large stores also began to apply for electricity installation.

For example, all of the Xue family’s shops have submitted applications.

Some small shops are naturally reluctant to spend such a large amount of money.

However, they soon discovered that after other people's homes had electricity and their store had electric lights, the store became brighter.

Customers always like to shop in shops with brighter lights.

Naturally, the business of those shops without electricity was much worse.

Therefore, those small shops had to follow suit and apply for electricity installation.

Therefore, after March, almost all shops in the entire capital city were equipped with electricity.

At night, half of the capital city was lit up by lights.

However, ordinary people would naturally be reluctant to spend five taels of silver on the initial installation fee.

However, some families could not even afford five taels of silver.

And at this moment, the power department issued a new notice.

Starting today, there is no initial installation fee required for wiring.

Those who had paid for the electricity connection could not help but curse.

However, they did not dare to cause trouble at the power supply station.

Because the power supply company is very powerful nowadays, if you dare to make trouble, they will cut off your electricity.

The Ministry of Electric Power was under the direct jurisdiction of the Emperor, and the officials of the Ministry of Electric Power were all promoted from the Ministry of Science and Technology.

They don't have any bureaucratic style and won't give face to anyone.

And there is a more important reason, they speculated that this order was most likely the emperor's intention.

Because although the emperor is a good emperor, he has been very supportive of the people since he ascended the throne.

He has done many things like robbing the rich and helping the poor.

This matter is most likely the emperor's doing.

We first coaxed these rich people into paying the initial installation fee, and basically recovered all the costs.

Then we will provide free installation to the people.

Therefore, although they were unhappy, they did not dare to cause trouble.

Without the initial installation fee, people in the capital also had electricity installed.

Although electricity is not cheap, you can just save some money at night.

At worst, just don’t use it for now!

Anyway, the electric rack is ready, so you can use it whenever you want. If you don’t need it, you can even not install light bulbs and don’t spend any money.

Therefore, almost all the people in the capital city have access to electricity.

There are very few families who have not applied for electricity installation.

And most of them are lonely elderly people.

Therefore, at night, the entire capital city was almost completely lit up.

This scene not only made the people feel spectacular, but also gave rise to a sense of pride in their hearts.

Even the civil and military officials who saw it felt mixed emotions and were deeply moved.

Perhaps this is what the emperor meant by the changes brought about by the new learning?

If it were the Four Books and Five Classics, even if you studied them for a lifetime, it would probably not bring about such changes.

Now we have trains and electricity, but who knows what new things will come out in the future.

It has to be said that the changes in China in recent years have made them shocked.

There is always a feeling of not keeping up with the times.

Now, the emperor has begun to make use of newly learned talents.

The newly established Ministry of Scientific Research, Ministry of Railways, and Ministry of Electric Power all employed newly trained talents.

I am afraid that in the future, more and more newly-educated officials will be promoted.

It is unknown whether the new learning will completely replace the Four Books and Five Classics in the future.

It's not just the Four Books and Five Classics, the ducks know first when the river water warms in spring.

Among the scholars, some people began to pay more and more attention to new learning.

As a result, the number of new students increased by 10% without anyone noticing.

However, the news that the capital had received electricity was heard all over the country.

Many places have also applied for electricity.

Naturally, the entire Chinese nation must have electricity.

However, this is still a huge project and cannot be completed in a short period of time.

Therefore, Jia Cong ordered the Ministry of Electric Power to start the selection.

Priority will be given to places near the capital, with suitable geographical locations and sufficient water conditions.

In the end, the second area chosen by the Ministry of Electric Power to provide electrification was the southern Beijing district.

Well, Beijing South District was the first place to have train access, and now it will become the second area to have electricity access.

Of course, nowadays, it is not only the southern part of Beijing that has trains throughout China.

Now the Ministry of Railways has built two more stations forward, and trains are running at these two stations.

With the opening of the train, the local economic development has been driven.

It is true that the whistle of a train brings in a ton of gold!

Nowadays, people along the entire railway line are eagerly waiting for the railway to be built to their doorsteps.

They all hope that this overwhelming wealth will fall on their heads in time.

Officials from other places were envious and jealous, and could not help but submit memorials requesting the construction of railways.

Just building a railway is a matter of a day or two.

And there must also be a sense of priority.

How many talents have been trained to build railways nowadays?
For other places, we can only wait.

After Jingnan obtained approval, it quickly began to build a power station.

And it's not just southern Beijing, two other regions have also started setting up projects and are preparing to start construction.

When every place starts to build a hydroelectric power station, it naturally needs to train a group of contract talents.

The selection criteria are all new students who have good academic performance.

The power sector is a standard, well-paid, stable job.

Therefore, the new learning became more and more popular. (End of this chapter)