Lu Ming

When Fang Tangjing heard this, he suddenly laughed, and then stretched out the folding fan in his hand to draw a circle: "So, this field can also be bought and sold?"

While Lao Hai was talking about the mountains all the way, the carriage had already driven out of the cement road in the residential area and diverted to a lower-grade cinder road.The buildings on both sides of the road have also changed from a neat community to a green carpet of farmland, stretching as far as the eye can see.

"Hahaha." After listening to Fang Tangjing's question, Lao Hai also laughed out loud - but there is no one who comes to charter a car wearing a long robe who doesn't care about the land, and this Master Fang today is no exception.

"Can buy and sell, can buy and sell!" Lao Hai looked ahead at this time, hiding his strange smile: "One mu only costs five taels of silver, and [-] mu... well, that's called... yes, Selling starts at one square kilometer! They are all contiguous!"

"Huh?" Hearing what Lao Hai said, even Master Bu, who had been turning his head to look at the scenery, was moved.Fang Tangjing, who was equally astonished, also asked what the master was thinking in time: "Really? Selling in pieces?"

I can't blame the master for being moved.You must know that what catches everyone's eyes now is the endless "cooked fields".Even if Master Bu and the others were sitting in the carriage, they could still see all kinds of crops growing in these fields, as well as the silver-thread-like canals weaving in the flat green carpet, and they could see the flashes from afar.

This kind of cultivated farmland is not wasteland. If you can really buy [-] mu, for a Fujian master from eight mountains, one water and one field, it will be a family heirloom!At this moment, the deep-rooted landlord gene buried in the blood of the scholar-official broke out instantly, telling the owner of the body with great hunger and thirst: buy land!buy land!

"There is a detailed land plan on the wall of the district government hall, you can go and have a look." Lao Hai turned his head and said something, and then turned his face back into a smirk: "However, this land cannot be transferred when it is bought. Yes, only your own family is allowed to farm!"

"Ah!" Master Bu was taken aback when he heard this, and could no longer pretend to be reserved, he opened his mouth and asked, "Why are you not allowed to transfer tenants?"

"The general refuses, saying that the tenants have taken up the employment quota." Lao Hai pointed at the top of his head joyfully, and then said: "Why do you hire tenants to do things that can be done by one family?"

"Nonsense! How can one family manage to grow this thousand and five hundred acres of land?" Master Bu was furious at this moment.

"Hahaha." Lao Hai didn't turn his head this time, he was afraid that the mockery on his face would be seen by Master Bu: "It can't be planted elsewhere, but the general can manage it!"

Speaking of this, he stretched his neck to look around, then pointed to the distance and said loudly: "Masters, let's see what that is?"

After hearing the sound, Master Bu looked around and found a small spot emitting black smoke in the field far away.

"Drive!" Lao Hai, who was in a good mood, stopped talking at this moment, but shook the belt and rein vigorously in his hand, and the two docile Dian horses accelerated accordingly.After the carriage ran on the cinder road for about 10 minutes, Master Bu and the others finally saw the small black spot that was smoking clearly.Of course, before and after approaching, that small spot had turned into a big iron bull spewing black smoke.

"Woo..." Lao Hai slowly slowed down the speed of the car at this moment, and drove the horse to a gazebo by the side of the road.After stopping the car, he first put the material bags on the two horses, and then took out a folded canvas bucket to go down the ditch to fetch water for the horses.

At the same time, Lao Hai pointed to the working tractor and said, "Masters, that is a big machine that plows thousands of acres every day. You might as well go and have a look."

Before Lao Hai could finish speaking, Fang Tangjing was already making preparations for going to the fields.He quickly took off the newly purchased Fuguiniao leather shoes, then took off the Playboy socks, tied the robe around his waist, jumped out of the car with bare legs, and quickly stepped on the roadside ridge.

However, he was not the only one who jumped onto the ridge with bare feet: Mr. Bu.

Traditional scholar-bureaucrats are quite strict when it comes to farming.As the spokesperson of the landlord class, there are almost no scholar-bureaucrats who do not understand farming.Up to the court, down to the prefectures and counties, even the Qing literati who recited poems and painted paintings, also had no little white in terms of farming.

So when the two masters saw the big iron ox slowly approaching from the front, they quickly took off their shoes and entered the field.

As the iron ox approached while roaring and smoking, Master Bu finally saw the mystery of this thing clearly.The driver's cab with a large pane of glass, the driver inside, and the cylindrical gas stove behind Tie Niu, Mr. Bu had already seen these on the machines at the dock, and these were not unexpected.

The only thing that the master didn't expect was the long steel plow behind Tie Niu.

The steel plows are arranged horizontally, and there are big shiny coulters at intervals on the long plow body.Then, while Master Bu was stunned, the field in front of him was easily rolled up by the row of coulters, with no effort at all.

The tractor dragged the long plow and turned a huge bend in front of Mr. Bu, then plowed the field all the way to the distance.

After Master Bu stood at the top of the field and watched the iron ox go away, he murmured, "I'm afraid it's true when I say it's plowing thousands of mu every day!"

Fang Tangjing nodded solemnly at first, then he took a few steps forward, squatted in the field plowed by the iron ox, stretched out his arm and tried to insert it into the furrow: "This should have half an arm in the ground, What a deep plow!"

"Well, it goes deep into the ground, and the crops are less diseased. What a powerful iron ox!" Master Bu, who was following up, grabbed the field and looked at it: "The soil is not good, at most it can be regarded as Zhongtian."

After throwing down the clod and standing up, Master Bu turned his head to look around, and then he said with emotion: "Including this canal, it may be worth the price of going to the field!"

...Master Bu, who was thoroughly slapped in the face by Tie Niu, finally went to the ditch to wash his feet, and then returned to the carriage.

At this time, Master Bu's attitude became much gentler.Not only did he ask Bu Mo to take out the newly bought Yellow Crane Tower for Lao Hai to smoke, he also took out orange soda for him to drink.

After that, the master heard the follow-up: this big iron ox can plow the field with a plow, and when the crops are ripe, the big iron ox can also be hung with a special "hob" for harvesting crops, which can plow the fields day and night. Hundreds of acres of rice were brought down.

Next, Lao Hai enthusiastically gave the master a popular science about threshers and other agricultural equipment.

Master Bu finally believes now: there really is a family in this world that can plant a thousand or five hundred acres of land.

Chapter 367

After watching the big iron ox and resting his horses, Lao Hai led the masters to continue driving to the depths of the farm.

After a few kilometers, the cinder road gradually turned into a dirt road, and the road surface became bumpy.However, this bump is really nothing compared to the official roads of the Ming Dynasty. Under the rule of Chuanzhong, even the dirt roads in the countryside were run over by road rollers, and the smoothness was in accordance with the construction standards of later generations.

The carriage stopped and stopped along the way, giving some people enough time to investigate.But in the farms of the crossing people, Master Bu gradually discovered more places that were different from those in the Ming Dynasty.

First and foremost is the irrigation system.Looking at the deep canals that have been plastered with cement, the finely crafted gates, and the machine that can continuously lift water from low places to high places with black smoke, Master Bu's eyes seemed to be like To spew fire.

You must know that the best paddy fields in Fujian are nothing more than some irrigation canals along the banks of streams and rivers. If it is farther away, even big families cannot afford to build canals extending in all directions.So once there is a drought year, the farmer has to work hard for the whole family-carrying water to the field one by one, a drop in the bucket, a drop in the bucket.

So today, when Master Bu stood at the edge of the field and looked at it, he was always filled with emotion.He heard from Lao Hai that the endless cultivated fields and cobweb-like canals in front of him were all built by the General's Mansion in recent years, relying on those mechanical iron tools similar to the big iron ox - if there is a plow, there will naturally be a digger. His.

At this moment, if you use the so-called "exotic skills" to despise those works of art, Master Bu himself will not be able to convince himself.

Before this, whether it was the wharf machinery and huge ships, or the bright street lights at night, Master Bu could still use his "extraordinary skills" to ostrich a wave, seeking psychological comfort.However, when the tens of millions of acres of paddy fields that are the foundation of scholar-bureaucrats were placed in front of him, Master Bu could no longer find an excuse.

Last year, there was a severe drought in southern Fujian. When Xiong Wencan issued an official document requesting the governments from all over the country to send hungry people to Taiwan, Master Bu scolded Xiong Wencan in his flower hall at that time——could so many refugees be fed in such a place?I'm afraid it's not to grab the food of the savages?

But today he understands everything: Xiong Wencan has indeed saved many lives, just look at the boundless farmland.

So Master Bu is in a very complicated mood right now.

He was pleased with the resettlement of hungry people and the reclamation of fertile land, but he also felt uneasy from the bottom of his heart: this kind of social production model in which one family can cultivate a thousand acres of land, and the rest go to workshops to work, far exceeds his. cognition.

The landlord thinking from the traditional farming society made him at a loss. Master Bu has already developed fear of this farm model that does not require renting, not to mention that these good fields are still controlled by a group of short-term people who can rebel at any time and have no respect for the court. In Mao Haikou's hands: Mr. Bu could faintly feel that this model is not good for scholar-bureaucrats, but he couldn't deduce the core principle of it, and the awkward feeling made him very upset.

……

Suppressing his boredom, Master Bu cheered up and continued to visit the farm.

Next, they saw two crops that were not available in Ming Dynasty: corn and potatoes.Lao Hai told the guests: Corn is actually sorghum, and potato is sweet potato. It is said that these are the seeds that the general bought from foreigners and promoted here.

As soon as he talked about sorghum and sweet potatoes, Master Bu had an idea of ​​these two crops.He even drew inferences from one instance and deduced that these two crops were coarse grains.However, when Lao Hai told the guest that the yield of potatoes can reach two to three thousand catties per mu, the master was still taken aback.

However, he has easily refrained from expressing his opinions now: the experience of being slapped in the face many times in the past two days tells Master Bu that nothing is impossible in this magical land.

The last stop on the tour is the farm's engine room and barn.

The machine belching black smoke could no longer surprise Mingren.Master Bu stood next to the big iron gate, watching the farm workers pour baskets of rice into the iron gate, and then the milled rice and rice bran automatically flowed out from the other end of the machine.

Grabbing a handful of rice to his eyes, Master Bu found that all the polished rice had full grains, and there were very few shriveled seeds.

"It's so well planted..." He walked out of the machine room desolately, Master Bu didn't want to explore the terrifying rice milling efficiency of these machines anymore.He waved his hand and said uninterestedly: "Go back."

This is the end of the chartered car work for the first day of the tour group.

……

Back in the bustling area, Master Bu sat in the dining room later that day, and slowly said to the waiter, "I want to eat some dishes made of corn and potatoes today, and I'll bring up everything I have."

So Master Bu ate Mexican tacos, pine nut corn, fried potato chips, and fried shredded potatoes that night.Probably because he didn’t eat enough, the next day before going to visit the factory in the kiln area, the master took a group to the stall downstairs to buy a bunch of baked potatoes... two for one person, you can’t eat it!

Feeling the heavy satiety in his belly, Master Bu sat on the carriage with a gloomy face, without saying a word.

After returning to the hotel last night, he had already figured out some things: Assuming that a family can cultivate a thousand acres of land, then this force can send most of the young and strong to fight at any time.

What's even more powerful is that while food is continuously being sent to the front line, the rear will not collapse.If the Ming Dynasty did the same thing...it doesn’t need most of it, just take one out of two cents, and the country will be finished, because there will be a large-scale famine in the second year.

What is even more frightening to Mr. Bu is, what do scholar-bureaucrats need to do to cultivate the fields like this?

Controlling the land, splitting it up and distributing it to tenants, collecting rent, and cultivating scholars is a set of cyclical procedures that have been used for thousands of years.

The tenants are not only the worker bees who provide nutrients, but in many cases, the tenants are also responsible for throwing their heads and blood. They are the most reliable human resources used by the landlord group to fight against natural and man-made disasters.

And if all the tenants went to work, and there were only a few families farming, what would the scholar-officials do?Having left the bondage of the land and had no concept of industrial society, Master Bu really couldn't figure out how to control the tenants.

Whether it is the power of the imperial family, the power of the gentry, whether it is the law of the ancestral hall, the public land and the family law, the various means used by these feudal landlords to control the tribe, every bit of it is based on the land, and is based on binding the tribe to the land.

And if one day breaks away from this restraint—in fact, someone has already seen this trend yesterday, then Mr. Bu will have no idea how to control those workers, because in his worldview, there is no such thing as capitalists at all. knowledge base.

But there is one thing Master Bu can feel instinctively: In any case, once this production method is spread in Daming, the roots of the gentry will be dug out——Master Bu can’t think of such a "dimensionality reduction blow" Noun, but he understands the truth.

"It's a good thing that my generation lives in a corner, it's not yet established, and a gentleman still has time..." Mr. Bu sat on the carriage, while watching the chimney area approaching in the distance, he secretly calculated.

The kiln area has now become a super business card of the Cao Group.

This is the same as the skyscrapers of Manhattan Island in later generations, and it is more convincing than any language to the people of the third world who go there for the first time.As for the factories that stood in the 17th century, the gap between them and the indigenous world far exceeds that of the third world in later generations.

After all, everything here is based on the industrial design in the era of big data. Even the production of a screw is coordinated by a computer. Sometimes even more like a myth.

Taking the carriage as an example, the high-end products made of shock-absorbing springs, light steel plates and bearing steering systems are bound to far exceed the clumsy antique products of the Ming Dynasty.

The technological content contained in this is actually too high to be priced, so the Ministry of Commerce does not need to set the price based on the apparent cost of the carriage. It only needs to set a price that ordinary people cannot buy according to the consumption ability of the local people: 600 for the local Two, in Hangzhou, it costs 1000 taels, and the exterior and interior of the vehicle will cost extra... You have to understand Lao Cai's consumer psychology.

The above is the reason why the country has never been worried about money: in the late Qing Dynasty, there was still competition among the big powers who dumped industrial products in China, and the industrial products in the country were the only ones, so "wearing expensive people" can do whatever they want Pricing, it can be sold globally, and there are no tariff barriers... Such a shameless company will be wiped out in future generations, and the boss will be shot!

……

The group of factories that spew out thick smoke and noise at all times is the source of wealth and power of the Traveling Kingdom. However, this way of producing wealth is very unfriendly to natives like Master Bu.

Under the guidance of a special tour guide, when everyone entered the first steel factory, no accident, everyone was frightened and dumbfounded: a huge hammer hit the red big iron block, sparks splashed, and huge Loud roar.Accompanied by the thick smoke and flames in the steel furnace, as well as the various automatic steel forming equipment that looked like a devil's prison, Master Bu couldn't stand it any longer, and fled the scene in a hurry.

The tour guide, who was already familiar with this kind of guests, took the master to several assembly line production workshops that were not so noisy.

In these workshops, the visiting group is an eye-opener: various metal parts slide off the conveyor belt like running water and fall into the finished product box below.And the glass bottles lined up were filled with orange soda one by one, and then smashed with iron caps.

People are different. Just as Fang Tangjing was happily scratching his head, Master Bu collapsed.

It was the nail production line that caused the master to collapse.

The nail production line in the kiln area is a little worse than that of later generations, and can only produce 500 nails per minute.And when Mr. Bu got a few large carbon steel galvanized iron nails as souvenirs, he unfortunately heard the following sentence from the tour guide: "In addition to iron nails, this production line can also produce arrowheads with slight adjustments." and steel needles."

The next moment, the monstrous silver swallowed up in the shopping malls on Chikan Avenue, the endless rice in the suburban farms, and the arrows and nails shot by the tenants as if covering the sky... These three illusions are intertwined , turned into dark clouds, covering from the sky, filling Master Bu's sight in an instant.

So Master Bu fell to the ground after yelling "Yeah".

Chapter 368 Reaction

The tour guides in the kiln area are very experienced in travelers who faint suddenly.Because the Ming people who lived in the rhythm of the medieval countryside were prone to problems when they first came into contact with various industrial shocks.In fact, after the recruited immigrants entered the steel factory workshop for the first time, many of them were so frightened that they peed their pants, became limp, and often passed out.

So seeing Master Bu unconscious, the tour guide hurriedly called everyone to carry him out of the workshop and put him in a cool place outside the door.In the next step, the tour guide stretched out two fingers to probe the master's neck. After finding that the pulse was normal, he lifted the master's chin slightly to keep the airway open.

Not long after that, the master woke up leisurely with a long sigh of "uh...".Opening his eyes and looking at the circle of faces above his head, Master Bu shook his head, then slowly sat up with the support.

"It's the old man who has a serious illness." After saying this in a hoarse voice, Master Bu stretched out his arms and said to the long follower: "Help me back."

A good industrial trip ended anticlimactically in this way.

The carriage immediately sent the master back to the hotel.On the way back, the master didn't say a word, and when he arrived at the hotel, he ordered his servants: go to the counter to book a ticket and go back to Fujian.Then the next morning, Fang Tangjing bid farewell to Master Bu and his party at Chikan Wharf.

After watching the ship go away, Fang Tangjing, who was standing by the Taijiang River and waving his folding fan, finally shook his head helplessly.In fact, Fang Tangjing was very clear about Master Bu's every move, including a series of psychological changes after he arrived here, and why there were such changes.

As a staff member and scholar of the gentry family, Fang Tangjing has seen too many "hardcore gentry" like Mr. Bu.

In the late Ming Dynasty, although the morality was declining and the world was no longer, a large number of scholars began to talk about money, wealth and property; but there were still many gentlemen who abided by the principles of Confucius and Mencius and acted upright and old-fashioned-Master Bu was a typical example.

So Fang Tangjing could understand Master Bu's dislike for all kinds of things in this place all the way.Fang Tangjing could even guess the reason for Mr. Bu's fall yesterday. It was just that he was frightened when he saw that the Cao family had money, food, armaments, and strong men.

However, understanding belongs to understanding, as for the others... that's all.Putting aside the little contempt in his heart, he, Fang Tangjing, a scholar, is not qualified to control Master Bu's madness.Now that the master is going to leave, he can't stop him, so he has to send it off respectfully.It's best to leave, Fang Xiucai still has things to do, time is tight!

……

As the saying goes, the same rice breeds the same people, and this situation is very obvious in the industrial tour of the kiln area.

Whether it is a farmer in Muna, a shrewd businessman, or a stubborn gentry like Master Bu, in short, the travelers found that as long as these Ming people visited the kiln area, they would definitely react in various ways.

These after-the-fact reactions, like Master Bu, became more stubborn and "anti-Cao", but more Ming people were shocked by the mighty power of industrialization, and thus became more inclined to cross the forces and willingly obey. I am happy to communicate and hope to get a share of this industrial power.

Therefore, all the people across the time have been strongly supporting the industrial tourism project in the kiln area. This kind of real shock, the effect of transforming the Ming people far exceeds the inciting effect of words and language.

As for people like Master Bu... To be honest, the rulers of the empire didn't take them seriously at all.Every social change will create trendy people, and it will also produce old people and young people, which is inevitable.Master Bu's energy is far from enough to worry about.

Let's put it this way: If Chongzhen and his ministers are going to visit the kiln area tomorrow, the people who travel through will not only warmly welcome the guests, but also respectfully send the emperor back to the court after the visit.

... A few years have passed, and now is not the time for the gang to land on Dayuan Island tremblingly.

Just like the American emperor who was the most powerful in the world in the 80s and [-]s, the Transit Empire, which already possessed all-round economic, political, technological, and military advantages in this plane, is now full of self-confidence, and has no fear of the prying eyes and hostility of the natives.

No matter what means the natives use, even if Chongzhen and Jiannu join forces to kill millions of troops tomorrow, all of these will be strangled and crushed in front of battleships, giant cannons, breech-loading guns, chemical fertilizers, and electronic night vision devices.

So Master Bu left, gently, without taking a single cloud.The bustling Chikan Wharf is still crowded with people, and the roaring kiln area is still spewing out huge amounts of wealth. No one cares what kind of conspiracy and unwillingness Master Bu took away.

As for Comrade Fang Tangjing... this not-so-scholar, a staff member who relies on his intelligence and handsome looks to mix up with the society, he still has a lot of things to do that his boss told him to do.So he will not return to Fujian this time, and when everything is done, he will board a passenger ship to Hangzhou and sail directly to his hometown.

After seeing off the master, Fang Tangjing turned around with the servant and went back to the kiln area.

Unlike Mr. Bu, Fang Tangjing was just a low-ranking scholar with a mediocre family. In the first half of his life, he didn't feel much grace from the emperor, nor did he enjoy any rights. The core is very soft, and it is not actually a member of the ruling class.

So Fang Tangjing made no secret of his interest in Dagongfang.He has no historical baggage, he likes these exquisite machines, and he can feel the huge power behind these machines that can change society... The most important thing is that he not only does not reject this power, but also wants to benefit from it.

In addition, even if it is only for work needs, it is his duty to accept new things-the staff need to keep abreast of all kinds of new information in society so that they can provide opinions and suggestions when the boss needs it.

So in the next few days, Fang Tangjing spent time in the kiln area.

He not only visited all the factories that allowed tourists to enter one by one, but also seized every opportunity to consult with the tour guide, trying to figure out the working principle of these machines.