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

Chapter 720: Oil Boom and Technology Putting People First
When Adams talked about the forced demolition of the school and football field he sponsored, his eyes turned red. Not only did the school and football field in his hometown get demolished, but his ideals were also shattered. Since then, he has brought all his parents and relatives to Dahan.

Fabius looked guilty and said, "We didn't do enough. I apologize to you on behalf of Rome."

Although he did not know the specific circumstances of this matter, he knew the situation in Adams' hometown. After the Roman Pax Romana took power, the province of Gaul established itself as a major agricultural province, producing various agricultural materials for the entire Rome and exporting them overseas in exchange for machinery for industrial development.

The northwestern part of Gaul has flat terrain, fertile land, a temperate maritime climate, and many rivers for irrigation, making it naturally suitable for agriculture. After decades of development by Rome, Gaul has become Rome's granary.

The southeastern part of the Gaul province is a hilly area with a warm and dry Mediterranean climate. Rainfall is mainly concentrated in spring and autumn. Such precipitation distribution is conducive to the growth and maturation of grapes and is most suitable for growing high-quality grapes. A few years ago, Rome experimentally sold a batch of wine to the Han Dynasty, which was warmly welcomed by the Han Dynasty. Although the taste is not as good as the Western Region wine, it is also a top-quality wine of the Han Dynasty.

The popularity of Roman wine in Han Dynasty inspired the Roman elders. Five years ago, this place was designated as the grape planting base of Rome. After that, the vineyards in southeastern Gaul expanded rapidly, and the area increased more than 10 times in a few years. It seems that Adams' hometown was forcibly demolished at that time.

Although Fabius apologized, he did not regret it. Now, the grain exported by Rome every year exceeds 10 billion coins, and the value of wine exported to the Han Dynasty exceeds billion coins. Agricultural exports have become one of Rome's pillar industries.

Adams shook his head and said, "I learned a saying in the Han Dynasty, that a grain of sand in the era will become a mountain when it falls on ordinary people. I am no longer in Rome. I just hope that you, the senators, will think more about the citizens of Rome when formulating policies."

Then Adams left.

Compared with Searle and Adams, the international students in Rome are the most simple. Some ambitious international students said that they would definitely return to their home country after graduation, while some other international students are worried about their employment environment after returning and whether they can put their knowledge into practice.

Others simply stated that they could only realize their life value in the Han Dynasty, but they would always be Romans, and when the time was right they would return to Rome with what they had learned.

Fabius could only try his best to persuade these international students to return home, telling them that the country was also making progress and they should develop together with the country. But for those who wanted to stay, he could only wish them to get a good job in the Han Dynasty.

In addition to Fabius who was trying to recruit talents and lift the ban, other countries were also trying to gain benefits for their own countries.

Chiron, the current archon of the Seleucid Empire, found Liu Ruyi and asked him to help the Seleucid Empire purchase oil refining equipment.

Liu Ruyi was surprised and asked, "The Seleucid Kingdom has oil fields?"

Qi Lun said, "An oil field was discovered not long after you left. But I didn't have the money at the time, so I couldn't develop it. The oil market has been getting hotter and hotter in the past two years, so we want to develop this oil field to solve the country's debt."

Not long after Liu Ruyi left the Seleucid Empire, their exploration team discovered oil. However, the oil field was too remote, making it extremely difficult and costly to develop.

Seleucus owed a large amount of foreign debt and had no ability to develop the oil field. In addition, due to the rapid popularization of electric lights at that time, the oil market was extremely sluggish, so the Seleucus top brass gave up the idea of ​​developing the oil field.

However, since the rise of the automobile industry, global oil consumption has increased rapidly, with an increase of 20% to % almost every year. This year, the global oil consumption has exceeded billion barrels, and the output value of oil has officially exceeded billion yuan, officially becoming the blood of the industrial system.

The world's oil consumption exceeds its production, and the price can no longer be suppressed, breaking through 50 cents per barrel and still growing slowly. Oil has begun to become a kind of black gold and a symbol of wealth.

In this wave of wealth brought about by oil, the Huns benefited the most. They had been beaten half to death and even their country was divided.

Moreover, this was not the bottom line of the Huns' decline. The military system of the Huns was the same as that of the Han Dynasty. Those who could join the army were all from good families of the middle class or above. The death of tens of thousands of the Huns' elite soldiers in the Seleucid Empire was equivalent to severe damage to tens of thousands of the Huns' national pillars.

The post-war compensation and pensions took every last penny out of the Xiongnu treasury.

Having lost these elite Xiongnu warriors as the pillars of the country, the Xiongnu became plagued by numerous problems and became extremely unstable after the war. The contradictions between the classes were extremely sharp, so that the Southern Xiongnu Kingdom was on the verge of collapse and was on the verge of continuing to split.

In order to secure his throne as Chanyu, Yu Shan had no choice but to sell off the family business accumulated by his father over decades to wealthy Han merchants at a low price. He used the money from the sale to maintain the Xiongnu army and barely stopped the division of the Southern Xiongnu.

As a result, due to the rise of the automobile industry, the oil industry developed at an unprecedented speed. The oil industry of the Southern Xiongnu people revived and their income continued to increase. At the same time, new oil fields were constantly discovered in the country. Relying on this wave of dividends from the oil industry, the Southern Xiongnu Kingdom could earn billions of dollars every year. Its national strength recovered rapidly. Now it is on the offensive against the Northern Xiongnu and is showing signs of regaining its homeland.

The top leaders of the Seleucid Empire were a little dumbfounded. They watched their enemy decline, but it came back to life in just a few years and lived a better life than them.

Of course, there is the example of the Huns. The Seleucid Empire decided to develop the oil fields they discovered, but they soon encountered a big problem. The infrastructure construction of the Seleucid Empire was far inferior to that of the Huns. The location of the oil fields was relatively remote. If they wanted to develop the oil fields, they had to first build towns, railways, ports and other infrastructure where the oil fields were located. They also had to purchase machinery and train craftsmen. The investment was extremely huge. With the strength of the Seleucid Empire, there was no way to develop the oil fields. So Qilin and others thought of Liu Ruyi.

After all, Liu Ruyi and the Seleucid Empire have a long-standing relationship, and he hopes to see the Seleucid Empire develop well.

So he introduced Shi Hao, the general manager of the Han Dynasty's money bank, to the envoy and asked the two sides to discuss the development of the oil field.

Finally, after several rounds of negotiations, the two sides reached an agreement on a 3 billion yuan oil field development plan.

The two parties established an oil development company. The Development Bank was responsible for paying for the purchase of equipment and the construction of railway and port facilities, accounting for 51% of the shares of the company. The Seleucid Empire invested in the oil fields, railways near the oil fields, and ports, accounting for 49% of the shares of the oil fields. The two parties jointly operated the company and shared the dividends in proportion.

As soon as this agreement was signed, it caused a sensation in Kuaiji County, and everyone condemned the development of the money house for monopolizing the market.

Everyone can see the prospects of the oil field. There are only two or three million cars in the world now, and they consume more than 2 billion barrels of oil. If the number of cars in the world increases to 20 or 30 million, and even ships start to use gasoline, how big will this market be? 20 billion, 200 billion.

No one knows how big it is exactly, but everyone knows that this is a trillion-dollar market. Anyone who owns an oil field can make more money than owning a gold mine.

After all, gold mines require hard work to mine and refine, but as long as the oil wells are drilled, oil fields will produce a steady stream of black gold.

The Seleucids were not the only ones who wanted to develop oil fields. The Xiongnu also had this idea. The Xiongnu had a stronger industry and more oil fields, and they were more ambitious. The Xiongnu Chanyu was not satisfied with being just a supplier of the simplest raw materials. He also wanted to establish a petroleum-based chemical industry in the Xiongnu Kingdom. Zhang Mu, the prime minister of the Xiongnu, came to the Han Dynasty with a huge plan.

In the meeting hall of Kuaiji County Stock Exchange, many bigwigs gathered, and those who could sit here had a net worth of at least hundreds of millions.

All these people's eyes were eagerly looking at the Xiongnu Prime Minister Zhang Mu.

Zhang Mu threw out three documents and said calmly, "These are the three new oil fields discovered by our Xiongnu. According to the estimates of the explorers, the smallest of these three oil fields has 5 billion barrels of oil, and the largest has tens of billions of barrels of oil."

"This is the sincerity of our Xiongnu country. We are willing to share these three oil fields with you to jointly develop and make fortunes together." "Damn nouveau riche." This is the common voice of these wealthy businessmen at the scene. They are the first generation of the rich in the Han Dynasty. They have worked hard for almost their entire lives to be qualified to have a seat here.

But all their property is not as much as the three light documents on this table. It's simply unfair. The Huns were almost killed by me, but they came back to life.

Kuai Xu asked: "What do you need us to do?"

"My Xiongnu country plans to build a chemical base based on these three oil fields. It can also produce synthetic fibers, synthetic rubber, plastics and other chemical products. In short, the more technology and equipment you bring, the more shares you can get in the newly established oil company." Zhang Mu said calmly.

With the improvement of the chemical industry in the Han Dynasty, more and more products can be extracted from petroleum. The Xiongnu took a fancy to this industry, and they were unwilling to be just a supplier of raw materials.

These three oil fields were baits they threw out to attract Han merchants to invest in Xiongnu. The Xiongnu planned to build two chemical bases in Xiongnu Quanzhou Port and Xinyue Port. Although they had money, they lacked technology and chemical talents. The Xiongnu planned to open up the industrial chain of the oil industry through the construction of the chemical industry zone, and keep as much profit from oil in Xiongnu as possible, instead of just buying oil.

As soon as the Huns proposed their plan, the old foxes present understood what the Huns were thinking, but they still took the bait. If they didn't make money, they would not be qualified to stay here.

The Xiongnu had oil fields, which was the basis for cooperation. What made everyone present feel helpless was that although the Han Dynasty was rich in resources, it did not have much oil.

After the rapid development of the automobile industry, the Huns discovered several large oil fields every year. The growth rate of oil production capacity actually caught up with the growth rate of automobiles, maintaining the price of oil and preventing it from skyrocketing.

Everyone in the Han Dynasty was extremely envious that such a treasure land was actually occupied by the Huns. If it had been a few decades earlier, they would definitely have called on the court to declare war on the Huns and occupy this treasure land.

But now, in order to make money, everyone has no choice but to cooperate with the Huns.

While the Huns were raising funds at the stock exchange, Mei Xuan and Zhao Tuo also sent people to follow the Huns to raise funds to develop their own oil fields. For a time, this allied meeting was more like an oil conference. The Oil Bay area became the object of discussion and envy of all the people of the Han Dynasty. There were too many oil fields in this area, and it seemed as if all the oil in the world was concentrated here. Many people of the Han Dynasty began to complain that the court had suffered a great loss, as such a wealthy area was only exchanged for the rotten land in the south of the Yangtze River.

Even the Han newspapers began to pay attention to this area, reporting all kinds of legends, such as a local who took a hoe to dig in his own vegetable garden, and oil came out as soon as he dug the hoe, and then became a billionaire; a local villager dug a well, but instead of finding water, he found an oil well, and the whole village sold the oil and became millionaires.

This story was so bizarre that not many people would have believed it. However, the Xiongnu Kingdom was too far away from the Han Dynasty. In addition, oil was discovered from time to time in the area and was reported in Han newspapers, which led to the Han people having the illusion that the land was floating on oil.

The people of the Han Dynasty began to buy land in these countries in order to dig for oil on their own land.

March 63, 3rd year of the Han calendar, Kuaiji County, headquarters of the Global Alliance.

The conference was very successful. Thanks to the Roman chicken, countries around the world expressed their willingness to enact a series of laws to protect children and craftsmen, including the "Prohibition of Child Labor Law", "Craftsmen Protection Law", and "Eight Hours Work Law".

In this era, the industrial products of most countries were exported to the sea. If they could not enter the Han market, their fragile industrial system would directly lead to an economic crisis. Therefore, in order to gain more benefits, they had no choice but to agree.

In order to convince these vassal states, the Han Dynasty began to take representatives from these countries to visit the industrial zone in Kuaiji County.

Fabius and others were taken by Liu Ruyi to an industrial area of ​​small electrical equipment, including wires, light bulbs, sockets, electrical switches, air switches and other equipment.

"This is also a labor-intensive factory, and it produces some low-tech electrical appliances. However, the factory can implement an eight-hour work system and offer local craftsmen a minimum salary of 7000 coins. The Han Dynasty can do this by integrating the industrial chain. All the factories upstream and downstream of these electrical equipment are concentrated in this industrial zone. The farthest place is no more than miles away. Because it is close to the port, it can obtain the cheapest raw materials. It also uses the most advanced equipment of the Han Dynasty. In addition, with strict cost control, it can increase income while producing the cheapest electrical equipment."

Fabius and the others watched the big man's advanced electrical equipment. The copper wire was wrapped with a plastic material. At the other end of the machine, the wires were rolled into circles. After they were formed, a layer of film wrapped around the wires, and a circle of finished wires was produced.

Fabius inquired about the price of such a coil of wire, and to his surprise, the price was half that of the Roman wire.

Then they were taken to an electronics industrial zone, which had a much higher technological content. It produced phonographs, radios, wired telephones, and projectors, which can be found in many countries, but many of the electrical equipment were the first time they had seen them.

They saw new devices such as kettles that boil water automatically, washing machines that wash clothes automatically, and refrigerators that can store food for the first time.

Fabius even saw a very small device. He asked the master craftsman of the factory: "What is this device used for?"

The master craftsman said proudly: "This is the electric mosquito coil invented by our factory director. It heats the wooden stick with electricity, and then the stick siphons the medicine below to achieve the purpose of repelling mosquitoes. A small can of medicine can be used for a month. Compared with the previous mosquito coils, it is not only convenient to use, but also extremely cheap."

"What is the annual output value of a factory like yours?"

The master craftsman said: "Our electric mosquito coils are under patent protection. The electric mosquito coils produced by this factory are authorized to have an annual output value of 10 million."

This statement made the envoys of various countries gasp. It was a small number for most countries, but it was a huge fortune for an individual. Everyone was shocked that such a small factory could produce such a huge fortune.

Fabius also had some doubts as to whether Rome's policy was correct. Most of the electrical factories he visited had no technical difficulty. Even he, a layman with a little knowledge of electrical engineering, could see the principles at a glance and immediately copycat these products.

But such a simple product would not appear in Rome. The reason is very simple. Roman craftsmen generally work more than 10 hours, and some even work longer. Such long working hours consume all the energy of the craftsmen. Roman craftsmen have no time to learn and improve themselves, nor do they have time to engage in scientific research and innovation.

Even if he relied on scientific research and innovation to develop such a small electric mosquito coil, the patent he created would not be respected, but would be immediately copied by other factory groups and become their money-making machine.

Liu Ruyi said proudly: "We develop industry to serve people and make people's lives better. These electrical devices are machines developed to make people's lives better."

"But if we squeeze people into cattle and horses and machines, what is the meaning of the wealth produced by industrialization? It will only make everyone's life more miserable."

"That's why I, the Han Dynasty, can stop countries from falling into meaningless internal competition, and instead constantly improve people's lives. Only when the quality of life improves can more demands be generated and more industries be created, and these industries can bring more wealth. This is a positive cycle, and technology improves life."

The scene before them convinced representatives from various countries.

(End of this chapter)