Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1893 Landing and Modernization

On February 1684, 2, an unexpected heavy snow covered the entire Shandong Peninsula.

Under the influence of this bad weather, the originally prosperous short-distance transportation industry suddenly died down. Many coachmen stopped taking this kind of business that might damage their vehicles but received little business. Parked on the shore or in the dock, traditional transportation practitioners are suddenly idle in the face of natural disasters and enter a cat winter state.

However, the traditional transportation industry fell silent, but the modern transportation industry stepped up.Just this morning, a steam train puffing out black smoke came from Taocun and Laiyang in the north, and then stopped at Jimo County Railway Station.Here, the train unloaded a large number of fur goods, daily necessities, wine, livestock and other commodities purchased from the north, and then loaded the entire [-] tons of flour, intending to transport it to the terminal station of Jiaozhou Port.It was a pure consumer city, with a large number of troops, officials, technicians and businessmen stationed there. Almost all of the daily necessities were imported from surrounding counties—mainly Jimo and Laiyang counties—whether it was grain, fruit, or meat. This is true for vegetables, vegetables, or whatever.

In the past, Jiaozhou began to hoard a large amount of materials two months earlier. Bulk materials such as grain, fish, cloth, daily necessities, and even weapons and ammunition were transported to Jiaozhou City sequentially by mules, carts or boats.Every time at this time, the business district outside the Jiaozhou Fortress will usher in a wave of explosive prosperity. Various merchants, coachmen, and laborers come here in an endless stream to trade and consume here, which has severely stimulated a wave of local economies. , Tax officials often collect taxes until they are soft-handed, and their mouths are grinning from ear to ear.

The reason why Jiaozhou City began to hoard a large amount of supplies two months in advance is actually very simple. It is to prevent traffic inconvenience caused by the arrival of bad weather-such as the current heavy snow road closure-so that a large amount of supplies cannot be transported into Jiaozhou City in time. Affect the lives of its residents and many of their families.

But now this problem seems to be completely resolved!After the completion of the Jiaoyan Line Railway, the Star of La Plata train can transport more than [-] tons of various materials from Yantai to Jiaozhou within two days, which is extremely fast!Moreover, this kind of railway transportation is not greatly affected by bad weather. It can be done in strong winds, heavy rains, and heavy snow weather-well, this is a bit of a bragging, and it will not work if the snow is too heavy-the adaptability is better Compared with other modes of transportation, I don't know how much better it is!

Therefore, after the opening of the Jiaoyan Line Railway, the horse-drawn cart merchants and mules and horse teams that ran long-distance transportation between the two places basically gradually began to fade out of people's sight. Short-distance transportation between towns and villages.That is to say, these people wait at the railway station on weekdays, and when there is a train unloading, they swarm on it, transport the unloaded various materials to other villages and towns far away from the railway line, and at the same time transport the goods of these villages and towns to the railway station for sale to Business owners out there to make some profit difference.

There is no doubt that this is an old business model that has been changed by modern new technologies.Before the construction of the Jiaoyan Line Railway, let alone Denglai, in the entire land of China, there was such a transportation mode with extremely fast transportation speed, strong transportation capacity, and low influence of natural factors?No!This is a force exclusive to modernization and industrialization, and it is impossible for an agricultural society to exist!Therefore, when the railway, a transportation artifact, was humming and roaring to transport materials on the land of Denglai, practitioners in the traditional transportation industry were defeated one after another, and had to find other ways to survive and avoid competition with the railway, because There is no chance of winning that way.So you can see that they are scattered along the railway line, acting as a link between distant villages and stations, and enhancing the radiation capacity of the Jiaoyan Line Railway in a disguised form. This is the choice of the market, and it is also a sign of the progress of social productivity.

Of course, the counties along the Jiaoyan Railway have been changed, and it is not just these transportation practitioners?You must know that under the continuous influence and propaganda of the East Coast people for many years, even some traditional social elites in the land of Denglei have been changed to a considerable extent.For example, in Jimo County at this moment, in this city governed by the servant general Chen Quanzhong, some traditional intellectuals who remained have gradually changed their minds and opened many so-called new schools.

On a bustling street behind the Jimo Railway Station, there is a school said to have been donated by wealthy local households, called Qiuxin Academy, with about sixty or seventy students.The founder of this school was originally a well-known gentry in Jimo County, a family of poets and books, and a few gentry families that survived the catastrophe in the Second Mansion of Denglai.The head of the family is fifty-two this year, known as Li Yuanwai, and even served as Chen Quanzhong's staff a few years ago, and his reputation in the county is not low.

Such an intellectual who can be regarded as a model of traditional scholars, to be honest, originally had a bad impression of Dong'an.It was seen that he served Chen Quanzhong back then, and he was regarded as a member of the East Bank camp. However, as the East Bank people continued to rampage on the land of China, beating and killing, his national pride was also traumatized to a certain extent.And when this kind of trauma started to ferment slowly, Li Yuanwai, who knew he couldn't turn the situation around by himself, began to let go of many prejudices and began to introspect mentally.

After self-examination for a period of time, this Li Yuanwai made up his mind to open Qiuxin Academy in Jimo County, and selected "intelligent children" under the age of 15 from inside and outside the county to study economics, history, arithmetic, geography and other courses.He believes that people on the East Coast are too far ahead in terms of material technology and need to "learn from barbarians". However, Confucian classics cannot be discarded. Therefore, students in Qiuxin Academy must learn not only traditional classics and history, but also various so-called new ones. Learning is quite hard.

Li Yuanwai insisted that China wants to compete with the East Bank. This gentleman is a member of the East Bank camp, but his buttocks are on China's side. It has to be lamented that people from the East Coast who do not respect famous religions and do not learn classics are in China. How much hostility is received on the mainland-"It's not just buying armaments and guns, it's even better to learn from China and learn from the East." The train of thought is exactly the same, which shows that Li Yuanwai and those people are all the same, even though he once served as an official in the East Coast Servant Army.

There are still many people like Li Yuanwai in the east bank control area, especially in the two prefectures of Ning and Shao in the south.Because of the small damage since the end of Ming Dynasty, many gentry in Ningbo Mansion remained, and there were also many traditional literati.Some of them abandoned traditional Confucianism under the influence of people from the east coast, while others continued to adhere to traditional classics, at most making slight improvements to adapt to social changes.Of course, the largest number are still those who cooperate with the East Bank on the surface, but secretly still have an inexplicable sense of superiority, although this group of people has decreased a lot in recent years.

In the local area—including the neighboring areas controlled by the Qing Dynasty—some gentry found employment and opened many so-called new schools, seeking ways to deal with and even improve traditional Confucian classics in the face of drastic social changes.Under the banner of "cultivating outstanding talents for the imperial court", they reorganized and reformed the former academies, and began a difficult process of exploration.

Of course, the East Coast government also appreciates this kind of non-government self-funded schooling, and allocated some subsidies to prevent these people from losing too much.After all, no matter what their original intention of running a school is, their actions have objectively refreshed the social atmosphere and further cleaned up the remaining traditional feudal ethics in society. education system.This point is especially important in the face of the booming industrial and commercial situation in the Far East San Francisco—well, the Blackwater Pioneering Team is more military-inspired, and it seems that it can be removed, and everything there is invested by the government.After all, the development of the industry also requires a large number of talents. Although the talents educated by these schools have a narrow range of knowledge, the quality is much worse than that of schools run by the government, but at least they have a certain amount of new knowledge. people, that's enough.

In addition, in order to improve the overall productivity level of the society and create more wealth, the East Coast government also encourages qualified people from the private sector to run their own professional schools to quickly train more talents.For example, there is another school in Jimo County called "Liu Laogen Agricultural School". The government subsidizes the school building, teaching aids and other miscellaneous expenses. It is still very helpful to improve the overall farming level.

There are also such special schools in the area under the jurisdiction of the Southern Pioneering Team, such as Sericulture School, Tea School (even a wonderful dialect school...), etc. The school buildings, teaching aids, and miscellaneous expenses are all borne by the government, and the teachers are experienced in the industry. People and students are mostly practitioners.Although the public teaching of the so-called "unique skills" of one's own is inconsistent with traditional Chinese cognition, and there is a lot of resistance, but with the government's strong promotion and heavy rewards, there will always be people who will teach this kind of knowledge.Even if the lecturers are not top-notch at the beginning, under the stimulation of generous tuition income, teaching bonuses (government subsidies) and huge social status improvements, there will always be top talents who can’t hold back and give lectures on stage. The promotion of the level of social productivity is undoubtedly immediate.

All kinds of schools have sprung up like mushrooms after rain, whether they are public, private, or public-private joint ventures, which have greatly promoted the development of society and served the gradual start and accelerated industrialization and modernization of the Far East San Francisco. The slogan on the outer wall of Jimo County Railway Station said, "Agronomy is the foundation of all industries, engineering is the door to all learning, mathematics is the root of manufacturing, and business is the plan for prosperity." Agriculture, industry, and commerce require a large number of talents, which cannot be achieved by the government alone.You must know that the Far East San Francisco is not a government with full functions. At best, its functions can be regarded as a castrated colonial government, and it also undertakes major tasks including military defense, intervening in the situation, collecting immigrants, etc., and it costs money. Capital, talent and technology are definitely not enough.

Compared with the control area on the east coast, the actions of other forces on mainland China at this time will be quite different.Take Shun Country as an example. Although the country's handicraft industry has developed relatively smoothly in recent years, the government has spent so much on the military that it is impossible to use the money for other things, let alone not having much awareness of this.And what about the folks?At present, the ideological debate has not yet been fully understood, so wait slowly.In Huguang, Jiangxi, Sichuan and other places, there are too many traditional literati. Even if the government on the east coast is thrown over there, I am afraid they will have to flee in despair, unable to reform.The transformation and baptism in the ideological field requires the perseverance of generations. In the late Qing Dynasty, China suffered unprecedented changes in 2000. Under the tremendous pressure of national subjugation and genocide, it took a hundred years to do painful reforms that touched the soul. Let alone mainland China today, I am afraid it will take the same or even longer time. You must know that the intellectuals in the late Ming Dynasty were also very depraved, such as Li Zhi and Gu Yanwu, who were criticized by scholars. come out.

Compared with Shunguo, the so-called New Deal of the Qing Dynasty was more forced by military pressure, so it was fully biased towards the field of military industry, and most of the schools opened were also related to this, only the schools run by some so-called enlightened gentry in the local area had other contents , but overall it is not climate change.It can be seen that the gentry in China have not yet felt enough pain that touches the soul. Without this pain, who is full enough to change the current order in which everyone can obtain great benefits?Impossible!

Some other small princes, such as the Li family in Guangdong, the Zheng family in Fujian, the Lu king in southern Zhejiang, and the Nanming dynasty, were not as good as the Qing and Shun countries on the whole, and there were not many new schools, except for a shipping school opened by the Zheng family in Quanzhou, Except for a language school opened in Fuzhou, the others have no awareness of this aspect. There may be some training institutions for training special talents such as military officers and craftsmen, but most of them are not systematic, and most of them are temporary. the effect is not very good.

Of course, these are all understandable. These regimes are either under great military pressure, or the regime is divided by warlords. If they want to invest in the education industry on a large scale, it is indeed too demanding.Take the two countries of Qing and Shun as an example. They are still engaged in wars of a certain scale in Jiangxi, Hubei, Sichuan and other places. The consumption is so great. The number of soldiers killed and wounded every day and the materials used are astonishing. numbers.I believe that before the war is completely subsided, it is probably unlikely that a large amount of resources will be invested in education and other areas of people's livelihood. This is almost inevitable.

(End of this chapter)