Chapter 1218 The Empire's Sugar-Coated Bullets (Second Update, Please Subscribe)
What is civilization?
How does human civilization progress?
The former is difficult to give a standard explanation, but the latter is easy to answer - the progress of human civilization is based on communication.
Just as the exchanges between Eastern and Western civilizations led to the creation of Chinese civilization and European civilization, the Mayan and Inca civilizations, which had no exchanges with other civilizations, and of course the Bohemian civilization, remained in the Stone Age until they came into contact with modern civilization.
For the progress and development of civilization, communication is the basic prerequisite for progress.
When faced with vastly different civilizations, whether a civilization can learn with an open mind directly determines its future. This is why some civilizations are still in a state of disarray until the 21st century.
It is said that the sea is vast because it can accommodate all rivers.
If a civilization is like a clay pot that is not full of water, greedily absorbing nutrients from all sides, then its future is naturally limitless. If a civilization is given a boundary, then no matter how exquisite and gorgeous the pot is, once it is full, the water poured into it will always overflow, and its future will naturally have many limitations.
There are two ways to keep the jar filled with new water. One is to pour out some of the old water in the jar and then add new water; the other is to use a bigger jar to hold water. The former is a temporary solution, while the latter is a permanent solution.
If civilization wants to develop, it must constantly load new content and inject fresh blood.
As the ruler, Emperor Zhu of course hoped that the Ming jar would be as big as possible. However, what determined the capacity of the jar was not the will of the ruler but the "human heart."
The ruler may use the power in his hands to break the jar, but there is no guarantee that the new jar will be bigger than the old one. Perhaps the ruler can add a layer of gorgeous glaze on the outside of the pottery jar, but it may not necessarily change its boundaries.
Only with an open mind can one accept the essence of other civilizations. However, the subtlety of human heart cannot be easily controlled by power.
Fortunately, however, the Ming Dynasty, founded in the New World...is a country without historical burden.
Among its first generation of immigrants, not many were educated. After all, after the Taiping Army attacked the city, the first wave of people to be killed were scholars.
The immigrants who came to the New World were mostly just ordinary people.
The rules and customs accumulated over China's five thousand years of history, those traditional concepts, dogmas, norms and constraints are so vulnerable in the face of this survival.
At the same time, in order to survive, as early as the Nanhua era, they began to introduce a large amount of European intellectual resources - that is, modern scientific and technological civilization.
The impact of civilization may have brought shock to the immigrants, but in the face of such an impact, without the constraints of conservatism and heavy history, Western modern industrial civilization quickly merged with Chinese civilization on this land.
Moreover, the empire has always introduced intellectual resources from Europe and the United States with an open mind that embraces all.
There is a simple figure to prove this. There are now more than 50,000 experts and scholars from European and American countries living in the Ming Dynasty alone. They are either teachers and professors in universities or colleges, or engineers in factories and mines.
In order to be able to "cut leeks", the Ming Dynasty invested regardless of cost in introducing these talents!
Are these people “leeks”?
No, they are the seeds of civilization, and their arrival enriched the connotation of imperial civilization.
The territory of the empire has boundaries, but the civilization of the empire has no boundaries. Here, no matter whether one is Chinese or European, as long as he has talent, he will surely succeed.
In the 16th year of Shengde, the most famous scientist in the entire Ming Dynasty was not a Chinese scientist, but Tesla, a naturalized citizen.
He became famous for inventing radio broadcasting and the radio.
"Radio broadcasting is undoubtedly one of the greatest inventions of this century. It uses sound carried by radio waves and can be transmitted at least thousands of miles through electronic machinery..."
After the radio was demonstrated in public for the first time, when everyone was shocked and amazed that radio waves could carry sound, Tesla, as an inventor, finally stood before the emperor again. The last time was when he won the Young Scholar Award.
After Tesla walked into the palace with awe in his heart, to his surprise, the emperor discussed more topics related to his inventions with him.
"…At present, the cost price of each radio is about 180 yuan, and the market price is about 250 yuan. However, according to the company's estimates, after the annual production and sales volume reaches 10,000 units, the cost can be reduced by about 20%."
“Even if it drops by 20%, it’s still too expensive!”
Emperor Zhu said directly.
"What we need is a radio that's 90% cheaper than it is now!"
"What? How is it possible to reduce it by 90%? Our electron tubes cost several dollars each!"
Tesla was surprised.
In fact, he was able to invent the radio thanks to another invention of the empire - the vacuum tube!
More than a decade ago, the world's first electronic diode was born in the Imperial Central Laboratory. It has a detection function. This is the earliest vacuum tube, also known as the electron tube, and it is used in radio stations.
However, due to confidentiality and other reasons, the electron tube has not been further developed. It is only produced in the laboratory and used to manufacture radio transceiver equipment. After Tesla entered the Imperial Central Laboratory, he came into contact with vacuum diode electron tubes because of his work. When developing the radio broadcasting system, he added a pole - "grid" to the vacuum diode electron tube. After repeated experiments, he finally invented the vacuum triode electron tube. From the perspective of future generations, the invention of the electron triode can be regarded as the real starting point of the birth of the electronics industry. It can not only amplify weak signals, but also integrate the three functions of detection, amplification and oscillation.
This was also the basic electronic component for his invention of the radio.
"Electron tubes are not complicated. They are essentially the same as light bulbs. How much does a light bulb cost? The current high price is still due to the problem of production. As long as the production volume increases, the price will naturally go down."
Emperor Zhu waved his hand and said.
"You have to know that nowadays a cheap car only costs about 700 yuan, and a second-hand car can be bought for only 200 to 300 yuan. It is not cheaper than a second-hand car to buy a radio. Such a luxury is definitely not affordable for ordinary families. I think that in the future, the radio will be the most common household appliance, and every family will have one."
"Does every home have a radio?"
Tesla was surprised.
"How is this possible?"
"It's definitely not a toy for the rich, but what if its price drops from the current several hundred yuan to a dozen or twenty yuan?"
Who was the first person in history to lower the price of radios?
It was San Dezi. San Dezi attached so much importance to the promotion of radio because they discovered the propaganda potential of radio. With such a convenient platform, ordinary people can also easily listen to the speech of the head of state and the propaganda of San Dezi's policies and ideas.
Therefore, Sandezi tried every possible means to turn the radio, a toy for the rich that cost hundreds of marks, into an ordinary electrical appliance that cost thirty marks, and eventually it entered thousands of households.
Sandezi needed it for propaganda purposes, and Emperor Zhu also needed it for propaganda purposes. Of course, it was not for the purpose of "with a national radio, everyone can hear the voice of the head of state", but for everyone to hear the voice of the Ming Dynasty!
Daming needs to spread its voice to the world and tell the story of Daming well. As long as the story of Daming is told well, not only inventors like Tesla from all over the world will come to Daming, but ordinary people will also want to go to Daming and be fascinated by it!
Looking at the guy in front of him whose fame is second only to Edison in history, now Edison died in an accident, so what about him?
Tesla is the Edison of the Ming Empire. As long as he can achieve corresponding achievements, Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang does not mind making him the greatest inventor of the empire.
Uh...it seems that the greatest inventor of the empire is still me...
Thinking of this, Emperor Zhu couldn't help feeling a little melancholy. However, the price of this tube radio was a bit too high, which was not conducive to the Ming Dynasty's propaganda war.
The competition between civilizations, apart from scientific competition and military competition, what is more important is publicity!
Now that we have this magic weapon, radio broadcasting, we must of course make the most of its role.
No, I have to think of a way to maximize its value...
(End of this chapter)
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