Chapter 124 Well
It turned out that Franz did not take this matter very seriously. As the king of a country, Franz was busy with national affairs every day.
As for the education of little Rudolf, Franz still trusts his mother more, after all, he had gone through the same thing himself.
In fact, this is an irresponsible attitude. Some people may just want to make do. Maybe they don’t realize it, but it really saves trouble.
…
Poor little Rudolf fell into Ernst's clutches, and he didn't know what kind of life he would face next.
"Goodbye, sister. Goodbye, grandma!" Little Rudolf said goodbye to his two sisters (his biological sisters Princess Gisela and Karina) and his grandmother.
"Ernst! Rudolf will be handed over to you for a while. You must take good care of him and not neglect your studies." Queen Mother Sophie emphasized.
"Don't worry! Queen Mother, I brought Rudolf here so that he could receive a more complete and advanced education. He will also come into contact with outstanding aristocrats from various European countries." Ernst assured.
"Baby, take care of yourself!" Queen Sophie kissed Rudolf on the forehead and said goodbye.
"Let's go!" Ernst said to the coachman, who waved his whip and hit the horses' buttocks, and the convoy moved slowly.
As the carriage gradually disappeared from sight, Queen Mother Sophie came to her senses. She didn't know whether Rudolf's departure was a good thing or a bad thing, but it would only be three months, so it wouldn't be a big problem.
…
"Rudolf, what do you think of the scenery along the way?" Ernst asked Rudolf through the train window, looking at the fields flying past rapidly.
"Brother Ernst, yesterday was okay. The scenery outside is really something you can't see in the palace. It was very novel. But afterwards it was too tiring. I felt like my bones were about to fall apart." Rudolf complained.
Rudolf did this because Ernst took him by train to northern Germany.
As you can imagine, the comfort of steam trains of this era was very poor, and Ernst specifically ordered a hard seat carriage.
There were only Ernst and Rudolf in the carriage, as well as Ernst's team of bodyguards and assistants.
In fact, with Ernst's status, he could have ordered a premium box, where the conditions were very good, but the premium box did not have the flavor of the hard seat box in the green train that Ernst had traveled in when he was a child in his previous life.
Ernst also wanted Rudolf to feel the hardships of ordinary people's travel, these steam trains and bumpy railways, plus the hard leather seats, huge noise and a journey of more than ten hours.
Not to mention Rudolf, even Ernst felt very tired, but Ernst was reminiscing about the past, so he enjoyed it instead. Rudolf was miserable. From childhood to adulthood, he had never suffered such torture.
After more than ten hours of torture, the train finally arrived at its final destination, Berlin.
It was Rudolf’s first time going abroad, and seeing other capitals made everything here seem new to him. The atmosphere in Prussia and Vienna seemed more solemn and orderly, a feeling that could only be felt intuitively and emanated from the city itself.
Ernst prepared a complete education for Rudolf, and all his schedules were fully arranged, which of course was slightly different from what he had promised to Queen Mother Sophie.
In addition to all the courses he was supposed to take, little Rudolf also had to deal with the Prussian royal family, visit Prussia's industrial achievements, and for one month, he would be arranged to study at the Hechingen Military Academy.
Ernst focused on establishing a social education for Rudolf outside of the court education.
Just like in the past, many Chinese families actually lacked education, but school education made up for the lack of family education.
Good family education is definitely more advantageous than social education such as school, but many family educations fail.
Judging from Rudolf's experience in his previous life, his family education was definitely a failure among failures, so Ernst wanted to imitate the exam-oriented education in his previous life and force Rudolf to instill a set of normal thinking.
Birds of a feather flock together. Letting Rudolph come into contact with more outstanding people will definitely affect his future.
The advantage of exam-oriented education is very obvious, which is "competition". Rudolf was so competitive that he had no time to think or complain.
This is incomparable to the court education. The court education only serves Rudolf. All the court teachers revolve around Rudolf. Those court teachers only need to force knowledge into Rudolf.
With the exam-oriented education, Rudolf now has competitors. Ernst is ready to let Rudolf experience the horror of exams and the horror of competing with geniuses of the same age.
As for the exam-oriented education that erases nature and imagination, even if it is true, it will definitely not do any harm to Rudolf. Franz wanted to train Rudolf to be a king who can maintain the status quo, but it seems that Franz failed in his previous life.
Under the pressure of exam-oriented education, Rudolph can really make some close friends. Unlike those who actively curry favor with others, Rudolph's classmates will then all be brothers in distress.
…
February 10, 1868.
Just today, the East African Central Government issued a new document to the local governments, requiring them to dig wells throughout the East African colonies.
Judging from this document, East Africa is indeed backward, and digging wells should be a spontaneous act of the people in any country or region (except Africa).
What the East African governments deal with and do every day does not seem like managing a country at all, but rather like managing a large village.
Water resources were certainly abundant in the East African colonies, and villages and towns were close to water sources.
Why did Ernst launch a "well digging" campaign in East Africa!
This depends on the data reported by the East African government. Currently, the drinking water resources for East African immigrants mainly come from rivers and lakes.
The rivers and lakes in East Africa are not as clean as imagined. They are fine for agricultural irrigation, but when the rainy season comes or the dry season, many rivers and waters turn into yellow muddy water.
The situation in some rivers is even more exaggerated. Many hippos gather in the same section of the river, and their excrement directly pollutes the entire water area, even suffocating fish (it is said that they die from lack of oxygen).
Therefore, the water from rivers and lakes in East Africa is generally drunk after simple treatment, which is a mandatory requirement.
Generally, two sedimentation tanks are dug to simply filter the river water. If it is too turbid, some alum may be added and finally it is boiled for drinking.
In this way, the drinking water in the East African colonies was directly linked to the quality of local surface water. Even with simple filtration measures, many people still became sick or even died due to drinking water problems.
However, this is the case in most areas in this era, so everyone is accustomed to it. It is also common for some people to drink raw water directly from rivers and lakes to save trouble.
Therefore, every measure in East Africa was enforced compulsorily, and once found to be in violation of the regulations of the colonial government, punishment would be imposed.
All in all, East Africa currently lacks clean and safe drinking water. Ernst does not insist on comparing it with the tap water in his previous life, but at least it must reach the standards of well water.
Well water may face the risk of excessive bacteria, dust and minerals, but it is much safer than surface water from rivers, lakes and ponds, especially compared with many water sources in East Africa that often turn yellow.
Fata Village, Dodoma.
"The mud here is quite wet. Look around and you'll see that this is the area with the heaviest moisture," Jorah Mormont said to the people in the village.
As he spoke, he dug out a piece of soil from the ground in front of him with his hands, and also dug out a piece around it.
"Look, this piece of mud, when I pinch it, it takes shape; look at this piece, when I pinch it, it falls apart! So there is a high possibility that there is a water source under this piece of land." Jorah Mormont proved his guess.
Jorah Mormont was an immigrant from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a Serbian who had lived in Hungary before and had experience in digging wells, but it was just experience.
"Then let's try digging here first!" the German village chief made the decision.
So a group of more than a dozen villagers started digging here using tools. There were no advanced tools, just shovels and hoes.
The people in the village are responsible for preparing bricks, stones and rattan as the materials for the well walls.
Jorah Mormont was in charge of the main work. After digging about fifty centimeters, he began to build the well wall with vines and bricks, with the vines mainly used for stability.
After each circle was completed, Jorah Mormont and his assistants used short-handled shovels to dig soil along the bottom of the bricks, and the villagers on the ground pulled up the soil with wooden buckets tied to ropes.
It was getting dark. After working hard for most of the day, the well was gradually taking shape. We dug about ten meters, but there was still no water.
"How deep is it now?" asked the village chief.
Someone lowered a measuring rope along the mouth of the well, and the people at the bottom of the well pulled it.
"Village Chief, only four meters left to reach twenty meters!"
"Okay! Let's work overtime today to see if there is water. If there is no water after 20 meters, we will try again in another place tomorrow." The village chief set the tone.
At this time, Jorah Mormont spoke from the bottom of the well: "Don't worry, village chief. We will definitely find water if we dig a few more meters. The mud gets wetter the deeper we go. According to my previous experience in Hungary, water should have appeared after about ten meters. It seems that the land in Africa is somewhat different from that in Europe."
After hearing this, the group sped up their digging speed. Sure enough, less than a meter after Jorah Mormont dug a shovel, well water gushed out from underground.
"The water's out! The water's out!" Jorah Mormont shouted excitedly.
"Okay, pull him up first." said the village chief.
The villagers placed a simple ladder into the well, and Jorah Mormont slowly climbed up.
In this way, the first well in Fata Village was born.
Currently in East Africa, wells are mainly used for drinking water by residents, and one or two wells dug in each village are enough for the entire village.
As for agricultural irrigation, it is natural to use surface water from rivers and lakes, including livestock drinking water.
The development and utilization of water wells further improved the water safety of residents in the East African colonies and further reduced the living space of various diseases.
Before the construction of water plants began in East Africa, wells had always been the main source of drinking water for residents. Some of these wells served for decades before being slowly replaced by tap water. However, in some areas with extreme water shortages, wells will continue to play an irreplaceable role.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
