I, Altria, only want to rule China.

What a pity! Even if you shamelessly plagiarize the daily newspaper of my Wu country, what you do is inconsistent with what is in the newspaper. The more you brag about yourself, the more severe the backlash will be!

When she was working on launching the Wu State Daily, Leah was not without some concerns that the Song State would follow suit. After all, the purpose of a newspaper is there and anyone with a discerning eye can see it.

It is true that newspapers do play a big role, but we also have to consider who the ultimate target group is. Otherwise, how can we say that brains are good things?

Of course, the reason for this situation may also be that people in Song State have always believed that newspapers are for scholars.

After all, purely from a superficial point of view, newspapers are indeed for officials, scholars, and local gentry to read, because the illiteracy rate among the people is there, and most ordinary people are illiterate, so even if you give them newspapers, it will be of no use.

Anyway, since I can't read, it doesn't matter what I see.

At the same time, for officials, scholars, and local gentry, the truth or falsity of the content in the newspaper is not very important. What is important is whether it is beneficial to them.

If we look at it from this perspective alone, then the newspaper produced by the State of Song was undoubtedly extremely successful.

Because officials need a master who is not so wise and powerful, scholars need an object of loyalty, and local gentry also need an emperor who can protect them and allow them to gain some advantages.

The image of the emperor portrayed in this Song Dynasty Daily is very consistent with the image of the emperor imagined by officials, scholars, and local gentry.

But who said that the target audience of newspapers are officials, scholars, and local gentry?

Although the newspapers that Leah made were printed in large quantities before being distributed, after Leah opened the school, although it was not possible to achieve literacy for all students immediately, many children had already learned to read.

These literate children can take the newspaper and read it to the illiterate people at home, so that everyone will know what is going on.

Unlike the Song Dynasty, which was full of nonsense, the newspapers in Liya were all written in plain language. Even a semi-illiterate person could understand it by guessing, and illiterate people could understand it.

Therefore, people will buy Leah's newspaper, and she will not lose money even if she distributes it.

And what about the Song Dynasty?

After publishing a few articles, they found that the people were not buying them. Instead, the people were enjoying reading the Wu State's newspapers.

Because what Wu wrote was true enough, unlike the false propaganda of Song.

Although they have not been to school, they are not stupid. To know whether their lives have improved, they can look at how many days the rice in their homes can last.

After the people of Song State read a few articles, they found that the people did not buy it at all. After investigating by pretending to be ordinary people, they quickly realized the seriousness of the problem.

It is easy to gather craftsmen who can make newspapers and people who can write articles, but these articles are so false and exaggerated that even ministers like them have no intention of reading them. Do they want to muddy the waters?

Then I can only laugh!

Therefore, the more the Song Daily praised His Majesty the Emperor, the more disgusted ordinary people became.

The result is that it cannot be said that no one reads the Song Daily produced by the Song State, but the number of readers is very small. It is estimated that it will be declared unpopular in the near future.

After all, the people were starving to death, so where would they get the money to buy newspapers? Besides, the newspapers boasted so much, who would be crazy enough to read such things?

If the newspapers above wrote about what the future emperor would do and how he would make the people live a good life, then everyone would have something to look forward to. But in the end, they were all praising the officials and the emperor. You should read it yourself!

On the other hand, as Leah reformed the land, the pressure on the people was relieved by more than half. In addition, the Leah plow she invented allowed the people to reclaim many large tracts of farmland, which greatly increased grain production.

Apart from farming their own land, they don't have to do anything else every day, so they have more free time, and when they are free, they are naturally willing to listen to what is reported in the Wuguo Daily.

A lot of national affairs are written on it, which are Her Majesty the Queen's vision for the future, how to make people's lives more prosperous, and then realize it step by step.

Whenever ordinary people see various new and interesting things being reported and written about, they will let out a small exclamation.

Because newspapers often contain things that people have never seen before, and these things are closely related to the future lives of the people. It can be said that the people look forward to the daily newspaper of Wu State every week.

Two completely different reactions reflect two completely different mentalities.

Slaves and masters.

Slaves only care about how to survive, and the longest-term thought is what to eat next. But the master will worry about whether his land is well planted, whether the livestock are well fed, and whether the chickens and ducks are well fed.

As time went on, the difference between these two mindsets became more and more obvious.

The people under the rule of Song State were more accustomed to bending over, while the people under the rule of Wu State had already started to live a life of walking with their backs upright.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that the people on Leah’s side are completely satisfied with her existence, and they will occasionally curse her.

After all, they've been used to being blind all their lives, and now Leah has to come out and demand that everyone learn to read and write. What's going on?

Does that mean that illiterate people cannot farm? Although it is indeed difficult for the agriculturalists in the court to produce something without knowing how to read, they are all in their forties or fifties. Do they still need to learn to read?

Moreover, the learning of characters is done by my own children and grandchildren after they have learned them in school. I am asking my father to learn from my son. Isn't this embarrassing?

Of course, although everyone was cursing, they also knew that Leah’s intentions were good and they were just complaining a few words, not really cursing her.

Of course, although Song Guo did not achieve his goal, Leah was not happy at all because someone copied her newspaper without paying copyright fees.

Since she was not very happy, she had to think about how to make the people of Song State unhappy with her. So after thinking for a while, Liya summoned a group of ministers and asked them to give her some advice.

When the ministers summoned by Leah heard that Leah was going to make trouble for the State of Song, they began to have new opinions about her.

Chapter 118 Steam Engine

Although Leah has always advocated that the clothes you wear on a daily basis just need to be clean and the meals just need to be filling, she is also extremely generous and polite in her treatment of both the common people and her subordinates. She is truly a wise ruler.

Although Leah is a wise monarch, she is still a woman after all. It seems that the stinginess of women is inherited by her. I must not let her think about me in the future.

"Your Majesty, although the Song State is very shameless, not only stole your idea, but also bit us back. However, our country is currently unable to send troops. I think we should just forget about this matter for the time being?"

The ministers thought about it and felt that there were no good ideas.

Generally speaking, they would fight when they were unhappy, but the problem was that they did not have the ability to fight now. They could only wait until they had sufficient firearms and ammunition and the autumn harvest of grain was in before they could attack the shameless and despicable State of Song.

"But I'm still unwilling to give up. Today you must come up with a way to disgust the Song Kingdom!" Liya frowned. She was still unwilling to give up and couldn't bear this loss!

"Your Majesty, I have a good idea." At this moment, Morgan on the side spoke.

"Oh, does my queen have any good ideas?" Upon hearing this, Leah looked at Morgan in surprise. It seems that her family is still reliable!

"Your Majesty, do you still remember the rebellion of the people in Song State? I remember you said before that those rebellious people were just ordinary people and did not know the art of guerrilla warfare. I think you can send people to contact them and send a few generals who know these things to teach them. What do you think?"

Morgan smiled slightly.

Leah's eyes suddenly lit up when she heard this. Morgan's idea was indeed a good one, and she nodded immediately.

"Queen, you are right. If we send people to contact those people, we can train them to be our spies. As long as they keep making trouble in Song's territory, Song will not have a good life!"

Then Leah looked at the ministers again and sighed:

"You, my dear ministers, are so many, but you are not as good as my queen. When you go back, you should read more books. Don't just know the Four Books and Five Classics all day long and turn a deaf ear to other books. As a result, when things happen, you can't think of anything."

"Yes, Your Majesty is right." The ministers nodded in unison.

Although the Confucians wanted to say something, they had no good ideas, so they could only swallow their words.

After finishing this, Liya cast her eyes to the ministers below and asked: "What is the situation in Shandong and Hebei now? Have they learned from our Wu Kingdom? Do they have any thoughts of surrendering?"

Cui Yu stepped forward and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, although we sent people to Shandong and Hebei to ask the two false emperors to surrender, they had no intention of surrendering and even beat our envoys out."

Liya nodded and said coldly: "Humph, I have already given them a chance. Since they are unwilling to surrender, after the autumn harvest is over, I will personally lead the army to attack them and completely destroy the Northern Wei!"

Upon hearing this, Cui Yu did not continue speaking on this matter. After all, these civil officials were all from the Northern Wei Dynasty. It would be better for them not to say too much on such sensitive topics, so as not to be accused by others.

After saying this, Liya said to a minister below: "Gongsun Zhi from the Ministry of Works, please step out."

"Your humble servant is here." When Gongsun Zhi heard the empress calling him, he responded immediately.

"Gongsun Zhi, do you have anyone who can build ships in your Ministry of Works now?" Before, Leah had always been on land and had little to do with rivers and the like, so she didn't have any big ideas about ships.

Now that she has controlled the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, she naturally has to develop ships as soon as possible, otherwise it will be inconvenient without ships when fighting against the Japanese pirates and some small countries in the future.

Moreover, she will have to send people to South America to bring back corn and sweet potatoes in the future, so she cannot do without ships. Both ships and navy can be put on the agenda now.

There are also many rivers in the south of the Yangtze River, and these large ships will be indispensable in the future.

"Your Majesty, not yet." Gongsun Zhi replied immediately after hearing this.

Upon hearing this, Liya said directly: "If there is no one, then go and recruit someone. Remember, I need a large ship that can sail safely even on a long voyage at sea. Got it?"

"I understand." Gongsun Zhi nodded.

"I have another thing here, called a steam engine. Take it and observe to see if you can make it." Leah said, looking at a maid.

The maid understood and picked up a plate covered with yellow cloth and walked towards Gongsun Zhi.

The way to improve a country's industrial level is to develop some mechanical devices that can replace manpower. After all, the efficiency of machines is much higher than that of humans.

Once efficiency is improved, production capacity will follow, and productivity will naturally increase.

However, if you want to make a mechanical device that can replace human labor, you must have an alternative energy source, such as electricity, gas, oil, etc.

But there is no electricity now, and the only lamp oil is even less effective, so the only thing we can use is the steam engine.

The steam engine only needs the pressure generated by the boiling of ordinary water to operate. Now she already has the glass and the sealing can be done well enough, so this thing should be able to be manufactured.

Gongsun Zhi turned over the yellow cloth and found a piece of white paper on the plate. After he turned over the white paper and looked at it, his face became more and more shocked.

The design of this steam engine is truly ingenious, and looking at the introduction of this steam engine, if it can really be produced, I wonder how much labor can be saved.

"With this design, I will definitely satisfy Your Majesty. But please give me some time. I need to study it carefully." After reading it, Gongsun Zhi put away the shocked expression on his face and said to Liya.

"As long as you can make this, it will be a great achievement!" Leah said with satisfaction.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Hearing what Liya said, Gongsun Zhi hurriedly bowed to express his gratitude.

Hearing that Her Majesty the Queen attached so much importance to this thing called a steam engine, the ministers were also very curious. They didn't know what this steam engine was and why Her Majesty valued it so much.

Of course, Leah values ​​this thing. The emergence of the steam engine is epoch-making and also represents the beginning of an era in which a country is moving towards industrialization.

Once the steam engine was promoted throughout the country, it would mean that China had entered the industrial age in the 5th century, which was 13 centuries earlier. It is terrifying to think about it.

Chapter 119: Half a Year in a Hurry

However, this is Leah's limit. The most she can do is to bring China into the industrial age. As for the more sophisticated machines that come later, she really has no way to do anything and can only rely on the craftsmen themselves.

It is hard for Leah to say to what extent the future will develop. It all depends on the collective wisdom of the craftsmen. At most, she can only come up with some ideas. Whether the craftsmen can realize them is an unknown.

After saying this, Liya said again: "I plan to establish the position of Jinyiwei."

"Your Majesty, I wonder what the Jinyiwei is and what its role is?" an old official asked.

"As the emperor's military agency, the Jinyiwei's main responsibilities are to engage in activities such as investigation, arrest, and interrogation. They also participate in the collection of military intelligence and the role of instigating enemy generals to revolt. They are directly responsible to the emperor and can arrest anyone, including royal relatives, and conduct closed interrogations." Liya explained.

The ministers below were shocked when they heard this. The Jinyiwei had too much power. What did the Queen want to do by setting up this department? It was obvious that she did not trust the officials. Otherwise, what was the purpose of the Jinyiwei?

"Don't worry too much, everyone. The innocent will be innocent. As long as you do your job well, not only will you be fine, but you will also be rewarded by me. So I hope that you can be a beloved official and not have anything to do with the Jinyiwei." Leah smiled.

Why did she set up the Jinyiwei? It's because the people under you are not doing their job well. The Wu Kingdom has just been established, and there are people who are corrupt. She will not agree to this.

She didn't know what the future of Wu State would be like, but during her reign, she had to make sure that the waters were clear and bright!

You want to make money from the Wu State, but it will cost me my interests. How can I agree to this?

In addition, Leah also promoted a lot of people from the Mohist and Nong families. These two families are what she needs most at the moment, and they can enable the Wu Kingdom to develop rapidly.

After doing all this, Leah dismissed the meeting directly.

Thus, the Wu Kingdom spent the past six months in peace, and nothing unpleasant happened during this period. It can be said that it was developing steadily.

The biggest change was in Chang'an City. In addition to the large imperial palace, the streets of Chang'an were all renovated after being planned by the Ministry of Works, and the houses were turned into cement houses with cement floors.

If an unfamiliar person comes here, he might feel like he has returned to the Republic of China era. The only downside now is that there is no electricity.

For this purpose, Leah has no good solution for the moment. Although she knows how to generate electricity, it is not possible now. Industrialization has not yet become popular, and it is still a long way to go to generate electricity.

Even if she developed electricity, she would not be able to promote it because it is very dangerous. Copper wire is easy to make, but the insulation layer of copper wire is difficult to make, so don't think about it for now.

Anyway, she is not in a hurry now. Other countries are still feudal societies, and it will last for thousands of years, so she has too much time!

Although Liya's side is developing steadily, over in Song State, the bad news is getting worse and worse.

I don't know when it started, but those local rebels suddenly became smarter. What made the Song State want to die was that not only did those rebels become smarter, but they also became more and more numerous and more and more difficult to deal with.

The ministers and emperor of Song thought about it and soon came to a conclusion that these rebels must be related to Wu State, otherwise how could they suddenly become so smart?

After all, what these rebels did was too similar to what the Empress Wu did in her early days. They must be wiped out, and wiped out quickly!

Otherwise, the Song Dynasty will become the next Northern Wei!

After all, the Northern Wei Dynasty was destroyed by the Empress of Wu State in this way. If they don’t want to follow in her footsteps, they must act quickly. As a result, these guys are like loaches and are difficult to catch.

Because these rebels would attack one place and then move to another, doing nothing but killing local officials and noble families, and then distributing food to the local people. After doing this, they would not stay in the local area and would quickly retreat.

It is no exaggeration to say that because of the existence of these rebels, many areas of Song State have become a mess. Once the government issues a warrant to arrest these rebels, the people will not only not help, but also cover up these rebels. It is really infuriating!

The ministers of the Song State knew very well that if they could not wipe out these rebels with lightning speed, more people would join the rebellion in the future. These rebels would attack and devour each other, and finally a true dragon would emerge to fight them to the death.

Of course, the most likely possibility is that the Song State will not be able to wait for that day and will be killed by these rebels first.