Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 420 Newspapers
It's not that Yang Menglong doesn't know how expensive this iron-bodied copper-core rear-loading rifle is, he doesn't care at all, he destroyed ten high-explosive bombs for testing in one go, and wasted a whole 3000 taels of silver before he finally Satisfied, he left the arsenal humming a ditty, and rode back to the general's mansion. His singing, which sounded like ghosts crying and howling wolves, resounded on the avenue: "Gold is enough to defeat, gold is enough to defeat, gold is enough..." Shi Tianbao and Zaji Chong Weng's two unlucky children writhed their facial muscles and looked at the branch in their hands with a tangled expression, wanting to poke their ears so that it would be over...

Yang Menglong got back 100 million taels of silver and 10,000+ catties of brass from Denglai, which is really not bad money.This guy earns money and spends it even better. Although tens of thousands of taels of silver come into the account every month, he will be wiped out before the end of the month. I really convinced him!

Zhaji Chongweng couldn't bear the pain of the magic sound, so he quietly distanced himself from that bastard, and asked in a low voice, "Tianbao, what kind of song is your lord singing, it's so ugly!"

Shi Tianbao rolled his eyes: "How would I know! It's neither fish nor fowl, it's so ugly, it's a good thing he still sings so happily!"

Zhaji Chongweng said: "Exactly! All the 70-year-old witches there can sing better than him!"

Just as he was talking, Yang Menglong turned around and yelled at them: "Why are you running so far? Are there any guards like you?"

These two almost wanted to cry, so they rode forward helplessly, and continued to endure the torment of the magic sound...

After finally returning to the Yang Mansion, I happened to see the three beauties holding the textbooks and taking the two little boys, Xiao Jun and An Ning, into the carriage.He froze for a moment: "Why, are you all going to school?"

Xiao Yufang glared at him angrily and amusedly: "Principal Yang, don't you know that school starts today?"

Yang Menglong scratched his head: "School has started? So soon?"

Liu Ziyan groaned helplessly: "Sure enough, I forgot! Cheng Qi, we have to be careful, if one day he forgets our wedding date again, we will be miserable!"

Cheng Qi pouted and snorted: "The ghost will marry him!"

Yang Menglong chuckled: "I've been too busy these days, I forgot the start date... Anyway, I'm free now, so I'll go to school and give you a few lessons."

It’s okay not to mention it, but everyone remembered that this guy has the name of the principal and chemistry teacher, and he has never given a class to the students. Is there such an unreliable teacher! ?

An Ning clapped her hands and cheered, "Okay, okay, I want to listen to my brother's lecture!"

Yang Menglong said: "Okay, let's go!" Carefully carried the little one into the carriage, then sat in the driver's seat, waited for the three beauties to get into the carriage, raised their whips, and rushed towards the school...

At this time, two young people were walking around the streets of Wuyang.Both of them were wearing Confucian scarves and holding folding fans. They were tall, handsome, and personable.The wide and flat road outside the city of Wuyang County, the endless fields, the canals extending in all directions and the waterwheels everywhere gave them a big surprise. When they saw that the city was crowded with people, the shops were full of goods, and the novel-looking buildings sprung up. After popping out, I was surprised again. Such a prosperous place is rare in the north!What surprised them the most was that there was not a single beggar here!The white-clothed scribe pondered for a long time, and said to the blue-clothed scribe: "I didn't expect such a prosperous and stable place in the Central Plains, what a paradise! No wonder so many refugees flock here to settle down here! Brother Zi, Yang Menglong, the commander-in-chief of the Heluo New Army, is really not simple."

The scholar in blue sighed: "No wonder the teacher values ​​him so much. He is indeed talented. Brother Mi Zhi, what do you think it is?" Pointing at a small pavilion with a folding fan, he saw a large group of people gathered there. The scholar stood on a high place and was reading something happily, and everyone listened with great interest.The two young masters were curious, so they walked over quickly, separated from the crowd and squeezed inside to have a look. They saw several newspapers on the walls of the pavilion with some articles published on them.Take a closer look at, uh, "Nanyang Weekly"?God horse stuff!

The scholar was dressed in a bit of shabby clothes and looked quite downcast, but he was full of energy. He pointed to an article and read it to everyone: "Everyone read this article, it mainly talks about some basic techniques of cotton planting... how about this cotton?" , not what we planted before. This kind of cotton is imported from Taixi. It has stronger drought resistance, thinner and longer cotton fibers, and finer cloth. How to grow this kind of cotton? First, choose For planting, you must choose the best seeds, and you must never shoddy them. Secondly, you must plow deeply before planting, and use lime to kill insect eggs in the field. If the soil is stiff, don’t plant it first, and plant some alfalfa and soybeans. Such crops are raised in the field, and the soil is fine and soft before planting, so that there will be no leakage of water and fertilizer..." The two young masters frowned when they heard it in vernacular without any literary talent.Look at that article again, shit, it’s also written in vernacular, when to fertilize, when to get rid of insects, when to water, and it’s straightforward, without any literary grace, just the dry words and strings of dry numbers, Looking at it makes people not interested.But the peasants who gathered around to listen to the scholar reading the newspaper didn't think so, they were very excited to hear it.

After reading the cotton planting techniques, Xiucai drank a glass of water and continued reading.This time he was studying potato planting techniques, how to breed, how to kill insect eggs in the soil, how to transport and keep fresh, all detailed, but still lacking in literary talent.The blue-clothed scribe looked at each article, some were introducing some agricultural knowledge, some were job advertisements of a certain factory, some were the latest developments in the current situation, and the most amazing thing was that there was a column that actually showed price changes in surrounding states. , Where the price of food has risen, and where the price of silk tea has fallen, it is listed in a long table, what is the current price, how much has risen and how much has fallen, it can be said at a glance.The blue-clothed scribe was full of interest, while the white-clothed scribe became more and more bored. Taking advantage of the time when the scholar took a breath after reading the potato planting techniques, he bowed his hands to him and said, "This brother invites you!"

Seeing the extraordinary morale of the white-clothed scholar, the scholar didn't dare to be negligent, and hastily returned the salute: "Dare you ask your surname?"

The scribe in white said: "Your surname is Fang, the name is Zhi, and the word is secret. This is my good friend Chen Wozi. We happened to pass by Wuyang and saw Xiongtai reading newspapers here. Dare to ask what these newspapers are about. ?”

The scholar said: "Oh, this is a good policy introduced by Mr. Fang. Isn't there a department in Nanyang that specializes in researching various agricultural technologies? Every time they achieve something, Mr. Fang will have someone organize it into an article and publish it. He turned newspapers into newspapers and sold them at a low price, which was very cheap. However, because many people were illiterate and could not read newspapers, he allocated funds to build many newsstands and hired people to read them to the common people. In order to promote these achievements as soon as possible and benefit all people."

Fang Yizhi sighed: "This is really good governance." Looking carefully, he found that the printing quality of these newspapers was actually very good, although the fonts were small but very clear, he couldn't help becoming more and more curious: "How did this get printed? "

The scholar smiled: "Then we have to ask those skilled craftsmen who are responsible for designing the printing press."

Fang Yizhi lost his voice and called out: "Printing machine!?"

The scholar said, "That's right. It is said that the machine is driven by water power and typesetting with typesetting. The speed is very fast. Printing tens of thousands of copies a day is nothing but trivial matter..."

Fang Yizhi wanted to ask again, but someone was dissatisfied: "I said to you two scholars, can you wait until you finish reading the newspaper to say something? We still want to hear something useful!"

The scholar smiled apologetically, and said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" He turned his gaze back to the newspaper, cleared his throat, and continued reading: "Let's read this news again. What does it say? It says that the government and a dozen businessmen The jointly invested Nanyang Machinery Factory has been put into operation. Just yesterday, Nanyang Machinery Factory successfully assembled the first threshing machine... As you can see, as shown in the picture, the shell of the threshing machine is made of iron sheet, and the main body is A huge square open container, this one is a roller, does it look like a giant mace? Just step on the pedal, the metal rod will drive the gear, and the gear will in turn drive the mace As long as you put the wheat into the rod-shaped roller, the roller will knock the wheat grains off and fall into the container inside, which is very convenient!”

An old farmer looked at it carefully for a long time and said: "This machine is very convenient. We have always used cows or donkeys to pull the rollers for threshing. It is very troublesome and difficult to remove. It is much more convenient with this machine. Can it be bought?"

Xiucai said: "Of course you can buy it. The newspaper said that this kind of threshing machine will be put on the market in one month. Everyone can buy it. You can buy one for only three taels of silver."

There were no threshing machines in this era, so threshing was basically done by hand or with a roller. This was a very arduous job, and it often took a whole day to thresh the rice or wheat in one acre of land.If you are planting grains like Langwei Valley, you should be crying. That thing is nicknamed "Angry Bird", and the birds can't peck it. You can only use a knife to scrape it off one by one, and scrape it off one by one... ...Do you feel tired just looking at it?Everyone has been farming all their lives and knows how difficult this work is. They are naturally very happy to hear that there is a machine that can do this hard work for them.But some people raised objections: "In this way, those workers who earn their living by helping others to thresh the millet will have no food to eat?"

This is a big problem. Before every piece of machinery is put into use, it must be considered whether it will take away the jobs of ordinary people. If it will make too many ordinary people unemployed, it must be used with caution, otherwise good things will turn into bad things.But someone immediately retorted: "Can you earn a few days of food by helping others threshing grain? Why don't you find a way to find a more stable job... Besides, we also need to eat. Since a machine can I have already found ten workers to replace them, so why bother paying this money?”

The two scholars frowned when they heard this. How could they be so selfish?Just as he was about to refute, the street suddenly became commotion, and a large group of people rushed out of the city as if there was a rebellion, and shouted as they walked: "Master Yang is going to give a lecture, everyone hurry up!" The people who were listening to the scholar reading the newspaper in front of the newsstand ran away with a roar and joined the mighty procession.Fang Yizhi was a little taken aback, grabbed the scholar and asked, "What happened?"

The scholar said excitedly: "Brother, I don't know, our Lord Yang is going to school today! Hehe, he spent so much money to start the school, and he has the name of a teacher, but he has never given it to him. The student had a class, and everyone wanted to hear how he taught it! Would you like to go and listen together?"

The two young masters looked at each other and followed.Just watch the fun.

(End of this chapter)