Lu Ming

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 transport the hungry people to Taiwan, Mr. Bu scolded Xiong Wencan in his flower hall at that time——Can such a large number of 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.

But he has easily refrained from expressing his opinion 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 other end of the machine automatically flowed out the milled rice and rice bran.

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 dejectedly, 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 I didn’t eat enough, the next day before going to visit the factory in the kiln area, the master took the group to the stall downstairs and bought a bunch of baked potatoes for two per person.

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, it would not need most of the money, but only need to take one out of two cents, and the country would be finished, because there would 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, and it hasn't become a climate yet. A gentleman still has time." Master Bu sat on the carriage, while watching the chimney area approaching in the distance, he thought secretly.

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 consumption 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, It turned into dark clouds, covering the sky and filling Master Bu's sight in an instant.

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

(End of this chapter)