"Father, how many gold coins did you spend on this carriage?"

As dusk fell, after a lively day, Feng Bingwen finally found some peace and quiet in the Feng residence. He circled a cast iron carriage, then looked up and asked a wealthy young man standing beside him who seemed a little out of place.

It was none other than Feng Zichuanfeng, the filial son who had returned to his hometown in glory. He was dressed in fine silk and brocade, wearing a hat adorned with red tassels and precious ornaments, with a white jade ring at his waist, a sword on his left, and a brocade sachet on his right. He truly looked like a man of great wealth and honor.

"Not much, fifty gold coins!"

Upon hearing his son's question, Feng Zichuan, whose buttocks bore several unsightly footprints, grinned smugly and gestured, his words conveying an air of having gained an advantage.

"How many?"

Before Feng Bingwen could say anything, another loud and clear voice, brimming with barely concealed anger, rang out from the courtyard.

"You spent fifty gold coins on this lump of iron?"

"Father, let me explain!"

Upon hearing this sound, Feng Zichuan was startled and turned around. He immediately saw his father, who had just reprimanded him, standing at the moon gate in the courtyard, his thick eyebrows furrowed, and the anger that had just subsided seemed to be surging up again.

"What's there to explain? Fifty gold coins? How rich have you become? You don't value money at all. Do you know how much my monthly salary is?"

“I know, five silver dollars.”

Feng Zichuan knew that his father had been teaching at the county school since he could remember. However, his father's salary was only three silver coins at that time, and it had only increased to five silver coins in the past twenty years. In terms of stability, it was truly unparalleled.

"You know? You know and you still squander money like this? It would take me seventeen years, even if I didn't eat or drink, to save up fifty gold coins, and you just bought an iron horse? What's the use of that?"

Feng Lingjun couldn't understand why a single gold coin could buy a nag used for grinding grain and plowing fields, while two or three gold coins were enough to buy a good horse that could go to war. Only warhorses that could be armored cost more than ten gold coins.

This iron horse is decent, but it only works tirelessly, enough to pull a cart, not run. Why is it worth fifty gold coins? If you just bought a slow horse, how much would the fodder cost?

"Father, this is an iron horse that the Mo family's mechanical hall has opened to the public. It is sturdy and durable, and can be used for a hundred years. You don't need to take care of this iron horse as carefully as you would a horse. Even if it gets soaked in water or burned by fire, it won't matter and you can still use it."

Hearing his father's reprimand, Feng Zichuan was very unconvinced. In his view, this was something that could change the lives of the people of the entire Daqian Dynasty.

It can be bought for fifty gold coins, which is considered a great value for money. It was only recently launched, and many old-fashioned people lacked foresight, which is why the price was set so low.

"A hundred years? Hmph, you call yourself a businessman? Just because someone says you can live for a hundred years doesn't mean you can. I could say I can live for a thousand years, is that even possible?"

Seeing his useless son still daring to argue with him, the old man was furious. Feng Bingwen, who was standing next to him, twitched his eyelids, but hesitated to speak.

“Dad, this is made of iron, there isn’t a single piece of wood inside. I can pass it down to my grandson and my great-grandson.”

"So what if it's iron? If it gets wet, it will still rust. As for wood, it takes a hundred years to dry and a thousand years to wet."

"Neither dry nor wet for more than half a year."

Feng Zichuan's casual remark immediately enraged the old man, who snapped a dead tree branch in half and rushed towards Feng Zichuan, ready to teach his argumentative son a lesson.

Feng Bingwen watched the father and son fleeing around the carriage without saying a word. This was not something he should get involved in. He took a few steps forward and carefully examined the carriage, which gleamed with a cold metallic luster.

He wasn't just looking; his powerful spiritual sense swept over the tall, mighty iron horse, penetrating it and scanning its internal structure inch by inch. However, when he reached the core, Feng Bingwen, as expected, discovered the object he had anticipated.

Sword Comes

"Father, can this iron horse really keep moving without eating or drinking?"

Feng Bingwen turned to look at Feng Zichuan, who had been pinned down by the old man and whose face was even covered in dust and grass clippings, and asked.

It's pitiful, really. Feng Zichuan is only in his early twenties, full of vigor and in the prime of his life, but his strength is no match for the old man who is over fifty.

The twenty-year-old was being pinned down and tortured by the fifty-year-old man. Although he dared not resist, the previous attempt to escape had already proven that he couldn't outrun the man even if he tried.

"Of course not."

Feng Zichuan, who had already been hit a few times by the old man, stood up with a grimace, straightening his disheveled clothes as he answered his son's question.

"It mainly relies on graphite."

"Inkstone?"

Feng Bingwen, who had actually seen the Iron Horse Energy Core, pretended not to know. He watched as his father excitedly walked to the back of the carriage, lifted a sealed iron box at the rear of the carriage, and took out a palm-sized, pitch-black cube-shaped brick.

"This is the inkstone, which is said to have been developed by several great sages of the Mohist school. One such stone is enough for this iron horse to travel for three days and three nights without sleep, covering a thousand miles. And the price of this inkstone is only three copper beads."

"Three copper coins?"

This surprised not only Feng Bingwen, but also the old man who had previously thought his son was being reckless and wasting money. The reason was that the price was simply too cheap, affordable for any ordinary family.

"Is it really that cheap? Three copper coins are enough to travel a thousand miles a day?"

Although the old man was old-fashioned, he was not pedantic or stupid.

“Indeed, the Tiangong Pavilion, which the Mohists established in the prefectural city, was managed by a Mohist himself, who vouched for it to me.”

Feng Zichuan made a solemn vow.

“Mo Zhe, that incident is beyond doubt.”

Although Confucianism and Mohism were not on good terms, everyone generally respected the character of the Mohists. The old man had no doubts, but instead thought of other options.

"If this product were used in agriculture, the people of Daqian would no longer have to worry about hunger."

"Unfortunately, the price is too high."

Thinking of the price of fifty gold coins, the old man shook his head repeatedly. At that price, even if the entire family of five sold their belongings, they still couldn't buy an iron horse.

“Father, these mechanical beasts are only sold to itinerant merchants like me who travel far and wide and amass wealth from all directions. I heard from that Mohist that the Mohist school has specially developed a wooden ox for mulberry farming. It doesn’t have a price yet, but I estimate it won’t be too high.”

"A wooden ox? If the price exceeds that of a live ox, I'm afraid no one will buy it."

The old man still didn't realize what the appearance of the inkstone meant; his attention was drawn to the wooden ox that the Mo family's Tiangong Pavilion hadn't yet released.

But Feng Bingwen's gaze was drawn to the neatly stacked black blocks at the back of the carriage.

He picked up a piece and examined it closely. Priced at three copper coins, it naturally had no fancy printing, plain and simple. But such a small piece could enable an iron horse weighing nearly a thousand pounds to travel a thousand miles a day, and its significance was epoch-making.

If the government hadn't set the price at three copper coins to make inkstones readily available to the people, using the national treasury as a safety net, and if the production and manufacturing of inkstones could indeed be as cheap as three copper coins, then a completely new era would be on the horizon.

Inexpensive, simple, and mass-producible inkstones, if possessing all these characteristics, will lead to an explosive leap in the productivity of the Great Gan Dynasty.

He listened to the old man and his father's excited conversation, remaining noncommittal and not participating.

Although both the old man and his father had far more insight than ordinary people, they were still ultimately constrained by the times and their backgrounds.

In fact, it wasn't just them; even the Mohists who created the iron horse and wooden ox, according to Feng Bingwen, felt that their thinking was still limited. This iron horse, which was a one-to-one replica of a real horse, was enough to prove it.

It's completely unnecessary. Using the skeletal structure of an ordinary horse as a framework to design a mechanical beast is definitely not the best structure.

Another point is size. Since the frame is made of steel and metal, there is no need to be bound by the size of ordinary objects. It is entirely possible to create super-large mechanical beasts with a body as majestic as mountains.

Well, no, it's not that they can't create it, but rather that they haven't seen it yet. The Mohist school's lineage is even longer than that of the Confucian school.

However, the skills they possess are largely invisible and imperceptible to ordinary people. But this time, a revolution that will benefit countless people is about to begin.

Feng Bingwen realized this, as did his father and grandfather, and even many people in the county town who saw the mechanical beast today thought of it.

No one could imagine what kind of impact such a change would have. Feng Bingwen could barely imagine it, but he dared not predict what the final outcome would be, because there were immortals, saints, gods, and demons in this world.

Although it was hard to imagine what the future would look like, Feng Bingwen couldn't help but feel a sense of anticipation. Perhaps a world a hundred times better than the current prosperous era was about to emerge.

However, this transformation, which is aimed at ordinary people, is only just beginning to emerge, and it will take quite some time before we see clear changes.

For Feng Bingwen now, in the eyes of everyone in the Feng family, he should focus on one thing: the autumn imperial examination and the preliminary examination for children.

His father, having heard the news that he was going to take the imperial examination, risked being beaten and traveled a long distance home to see him off.

Of all professions, only studying is noble.

Although there were no such words during the Great Expedition, similar ideas were basically rooted in the hearts of the people. Participating in the imperial examination and obtaining official rank was the only way for poor families to turn their lives around.

While practicing martial arts and participating in the martial arts examinations could lead to upward social mobility, this was not an option for ordinary people. The saying "the poor study literature, the rich study martial arts" was not just a saying; money was an essential commodity.

Those who excel in martial arts have nothing to do with poverty. Even the greatest talent needs money to support it; otherwise, it's just a castle in the air, and all for naught.