From Chief to Ball

"If it was masters and slaves in the past, in the future, at least in Xinhua City, we will try a new way of exploitation, which I call landlords and farm laborers or small farmers."

"What our generation needs to do is to produce more ironware, breed more cattle and horses, and attract more people to come to us. If our 20 to [-] people do not increase, we can have about [-] non-Chinese people People, and they will not resist, they can pay food, and they will learn our language, forget their customs, and even arm them when needed, and let them go to war, only need to promise a small piece of land - who dares to let slaves Take up arms? But they're different."

"As for the fact that the land is empty and cannot be planted without reclamation, why are those mountains, rivers and wastelands ours? This is the same as why slaves belong to their masters. It's just a lie. It's just that we are more fertile than other cities. Well, we only need land, and the rest are still people. Out of tens of thousands of people, there are always three or five who have bought more land through hard work. This requires a lot of publicity to let those who rent and plant land see I hope. At least I can have five or six acres of land, and I can work as a part-time worker when the farming is busy to subsidize the family."

"Then it can be seen from this. Whose interests will Xia Guo protect in the future? Of course, it is to safeguard the interests of our people. In other words, we must maintain the system that the land is owned by a certain person. The yin and yang of the land are no longer masters and slaves, but those with a lot of land and those with no land at all.”

"We must resolutely oppose slave owners. Slaves are privately owned. Who will pay taxes to the country?"

"In the future, we will sit on the side of the big landlords, unite those self-cultivating farmers who can cultivate themselves for self-sufficiency, and bind those who have less land to the land. Because our countrymen can become landlords, and some others can also become landlords, so This is our ruling class, who is not defending them?"

"In the future, we will conquer Dongyi with the slogan that the tiller owns ten acres of land and the state provides iron tools for rent. Let the slaves and the lowest-level Chinese stand on our side and drive away those Dongyi who have mastered culture and etiquette. My dear ones. We want to say that we are here to save them, not to punish them. To save all peoples and slaves from fire and water, this is what we have to believe in.”

"Although we all know that it's just a better-looking and better-sounding method of exploitation, but if we don't believe it, how can they believe it?"

"What's the advantage of this? The advantage is that there is still a lot of land. When the population is too small for us to count, their resistance will be less. There is a lot of land suitable for reclamation. At least 700 years will give us children. Except for foreign enemies, there is no internal disorder that can overthrow Xia. But if slaves are used all the time, the six to seven hundred years may not stop, and the slaves will rebel one after another. You can ask He, Ze and others here about this. Already done it."

"Another advantage is that the hatred between ethnic groups will be transformed into hatred between classes, and Dongyi will be disintegrated and no longer a whole. What we want to oppose is only Dongyi's relatives, not to capture all Dongyi people Be a slave. Relatives and nobles will be wiped out, because they master the culture, which is the foundation of Dongyi today. And we will have hundreds of small officials who have grown up in a few years. We don’t need those relatives and nobles of Dongyi to help us manage the tribe. We have our own methods and our own officials, so their cultural legends will not be left behind."

"We are not good people, but compared to slave owners, we are better than them. Now it is not to see who is better, but who is not bad. Thanks to the cattle and iron tools, we have a little better than them ability."

"We don't ask about heaven and earth, we only ask about the world. Naturally, we don't need to use the excuse of heaven and earth to attack. Our reason is to let more people live better than they are now. Can we do it? Yes, because those slaves There is nothing, let them have a little land of their own, it is better than before, do you need to ask heaven and earth?"

"During summer plowing this year, I will get a batch of slaves who escaped from Dongyi City from Xinhua City and send them back to Yucheng."

"What you have to do is to count and calculate how much land they have at least so that they don't starve to death. Calculate what kind of tax we levy and when we mobilize them to do labor so that they can accumulate for seven or eight years before they can afford their own Iron farm tools, too many years and they will lose patience and see no hope. But at the same time, they can't let them have so much land that they don't have time to work for us when the farming is busy, but it won't make them feel worse than being a slave bitter."

"This requires a strict calculation. You have to send people from all departments to calculate it and deeply understand the boundaries. It can't be too strict to make them resist, and it can't be too loose to make them busy with their own things all day long. It's all too busy."

"This matter is not only related to the income of the public property, but also determines the policy when attacking Dongyi later. It can also let you understand the method of managing taxes, not a method that is determined by shooting your head. Your calculation method after statistics, The ideas and why they are done in this way must be written down, and then compiled into a book, handed down to future generations, as a textbook for the next batch of officials."

It was the first time for these people to receive such a thing since they were the central officials of the Xia Kingdom, but they also understood that some things can only be understood by doing it themselves to understand what kind of policy to formulate. After many things, Chen Jian will not take care of them. This is to hope that they will do more research.

But soon someone thought of another problem.

"Ji Xia, you said that yin and yang are reconciled, so if those who rent and plant land are yin, who are yang?"

"We are citizens of Xiacheng."

"But how to reconcile this?"

"Once those people become the people of the country, even if they are not the people of the country, they are still part of the country. The people of our country are another part. We just want to train our people to be landlords, and if possible in the future, they will be distributed according to their ranks Go around Dongyi and let them own hundreds of acres of land."

"At that time, those who rent and plant land will be opposed to the landlords...in fact, most of us are now in opposition. They have no power to oppose, so they have to turn to the state, hoping that the law can protect their taxation from being too heavy; while we Of course, the people of the country also ask us to help them suppress those who rent seeds."

"There is no conflict, no dissonance, everyone is happy and harmonious, what use is the country?"

"When one side is strong, suppress one side and support the other side, try not to let everyone go to the point where they finally pick up pickaxes and cut wood into soldiers, educate the people of the country to let them know the principle of harmony between yin and yang, and don't make a mess in the end. "

"Remember, we are not betraying the people of our country, but we are only thinking about the people of the country in the long run. If you get a hundred dollars a year, your head will be chopped off decades later; if you get fifty dollars a year, you will get hundreds of years...Of course after the election By."

"So the textbooks used by our officials must not only describe how the slave owners squeezed the slaves, but also clearly describe how the rent should be collected for the leased land, and the possible consequences of excessive rent collection."

"Understood, this is not a bad thing, and there is no need to be afraid. On the contrary, this is still a good thing. If the Chinese people don't know how to squeeze it, they can't squeeze it better in a planned way to the limit where they don't resist. It depends on how you do it. used."

"Even if they don't write it out, will they just close their eyes and wait to die when they are really forced to die? I don't think so. So it's better to write it out. If it is written out and passed on, it can be regarded as a wake-up call."

"If you don't write, it's like sitting on a pile of firewood and someone lit a fire under it, but you still think it's not there. Instead of watering it, you continue to pour oil. This is not a good thing."

The people are confused, some don't think so, some think it's unnecessary, and some are a little bit self-indulgent, thinking that the more stupid the people, the better, as long as some people are smart, otherwise it will be difficult to rule.Of course, there are also a group of people who agree with this very much.

Generally speaking, it is not difficult for them to accept these things. Many people have seen slaves resist and survive, so they are very confident in the system that Xinhua City will implement. A small piece of worthless land plus public property provides Farm tools and guidance can be exchanged for a large number of people, and it can also solve the shortage of labor in the busy farming season, and there is no need to worry about slave rebellion-style riots that shake the foundation.

The only worry is that doing so will cause dissatisfaction in other cities?They vaguely felt that when Chen Jian lured some relatives and heirs from the city to study in Yucheng Academy, distributed them land for slaves for military exploits, and gave them the easiest place to ambush on the other side of the river when they fought against Dongyi, and taught them how to fight and seize power. , train full-time private soldiers for them, and teach them how to manage fiefs and food towns... I'm afraid it's not out of the good intentions of the whole family.

Chapter 1 The first sheet of paper

After that high-level "court meeting", Chen Jian tried to let everyone deal with some simple things, and began to gradually let go of some powers and responsibilities.There is no need to worry about this. The Xia Kingdom is a chaotic system. It is not a pure-bred clan within five generations.

He not only needs to prepare a papermaking workshop, but also thinks about systematically cultivating a group of simple blacksmiths, and later added a loom with pedals and healds, all of which need to be worked out bit by bit, and he can only watch by himself.

In addition to blacksmithing, the other two things are not difficult.The difficulty of the papermaking workshop depends on what kind of paper you want. It is really difficult to make paper that is flexible, strong and white as snow, but it is much easier to make paper that can be written easily.Moreover, women can also do pulp fishing, and there is no shortage of manpower.

There is no technical difficulty in the pedal heald loom, it is just a matter of thinking. Turning the original manual separation of odd and even wefts into pedals can increase the weaving efficiency by two times. By the way, adding grates can also make the woven fabric Stronger and denser.This has already appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period of the previous life, and does not require too many mechanical principles.

As for the blacksmith industry, it can be regarded as starting from scratch. The iron smelting workshop has been built for a long time, but the train of thought is completely opposite to the normal historical train of thought. Jian took a shortcut and first made annealed malleable cast iron, and then he thought about using a blacksmith to forge wrought iron.

Thanks to the heating up of increasingly mature fuels, the casting level of Chinese people is not bad, especially copper casting.But the level of forging and hammering is terrible, and there is hardly a qualified blacksmith who can forge.

Among the gifts he had prepared for the various cities were bronze Huomen guns, saying that the guns really flattered them.That is a cast copper pipe plugged at the back, and there are no bolts to seal the air, but a copper pipe that is directly poured and ventilated on one side.

It is heavy, of different calibers, cannot be aimed, and is not even considered an arquebus. If copper is replaced by bamboo, it will be a standard musket - put gunpowder in the bamboo, and poke a small eye in the back to ignite the same effect.

It has no actual combat value, but it can give an inspiration to the smelters and the leaders of the clans: there is another thing that may replace the bow and arrow, and it turns out that gunpowder may also replace the power to pull the bowstring.

This thing is useless to Xia Guo's army, but it is still very important as a gift. The chiefs of the clan in the city like weapons, so this thing can be regarded as a kind of weapon.

It is very possible to leave behind the simplest gunpowder army before death. Wrought iron is forged and rolled into the iron barrel, and a high-hardness scraper is made. These things can be made by hand at labor costs and time-consuming from.

Moreover, there is no heavy armor or shock cavalry in each city, so the line of spearmen can be relatively thinner, and there can be more arquebus troops, and the barrel does not need to be too long and the shooting distance is not too large. Tubes mean simpler fabrication methods and shorter cycle times.

The work of perfecting and improving is left to future generations. There is nothing that cannot be done until all conditions are ripe.

As for guns, it's simpler.Regardless of the cost, if bronze or brass is used, it can be cast directly.This is different from the situation in the late Ming Dynasty. The reason why the casting of cannons in the late Ming Dynasty is so difficult is because they are either defending the city or fighting at the army level. The caliber is large and the weight can be thousands of catties. It is indeed very difficult to make. .

The situation is different, so there is no need to apply mechanically.

For today's Xia Kingdom, a small, portable cannon that can move with the infantry is enough, that is, a large-caliber copper gun.Gunpowder was combined with copper and iron soon after the appearance of gunpowder, and all kinds of weird guns with bell mouth, bowl mouth, and popcorn pump styles appeared. It is this ridiculous attempt that makes artillery continue to improve.

Two or three catties of shells, six or seven centimeters of caliber, the whole cannon weighs four to five hundred catties, and four or five people can carry it up and run with a bundle of ropes or pull it by horses. The range is estimated to be only two to three hundred meters, but It is enough for this era-the enemy can't deal with chariots and cavalry if they don't line up. They like solid bullets very much. Two to 300 meters are already beyond the range of bows and arrows.

As for the kind of cannon that weighs more than a thousand catties, it is meaningless at this time when three to five thousand people can decide the fate of the ethnic group, and it cannot be built in a short time.And four to five hundred catties of cannons... the weight of one Simuwu Ding can be cast into four.As for blowing up the chamber, it would be a bit sad not to blow up the chamber yourself and wait until others have finished blowing up the chamber before learning it. There is no such thing as immortality.

Copper production today far exceeds coinage requirements because the population is small.Weapons like spears are made of cast iron, agricultural tools are also made of iron, and there are not many copper daggers. The cost of making cannons is still expensive but not unaffordable, and the quantity does not need to be too much.

Making guns, making guns, or even making paper, making characters, recording history, and legends are meaningless to the 36-year-old Xia Kingdom in the Chinese calendar.

For this reason, Chen Jian, after relinquishing part of his rights and the right to deal with daily affairs, devoted all his energy to the mold-making work of the smelting workshop. As for the paper-making workshop, he only briefly explained it occasionally.He still has a period of time before the alliance of various ministries will complete the summer harvest in June after harvesting the wheat.

The papermaking workshop now has a rough prototype, and the new hydraulic hammer and the woven bamboo mats for picking up the pulp are also ready, and the drying room has been completed early.

All kinds of plants and hemp have been soaked since winter, and all the impurities have been basically removed.

A few days ago, Li Heyi led people to put these messy materials into a large pot to cook, and added lime water or natural soda to remove the glue in the wood and grass.

It needs to be steamed for many days. After cooking, wash it with water again, wash off the impurities, cook it again, and finally smash it with a small hydraulic hammer or stone mortar.

As far as the stone mortar is concerned, there is also a simple machine, a wooden lever seesaw, a hammer for smashing raw materials at one end, and a person standing at the other end.A person stands on one leg and moves a little like a crutch, and the other end of the lever falls down by its own gravity, smashing the materials into pieces—this thing was not designed by Chen Jian, which is very gratifying.