Chapter 58: A major infrastructure move and the ship...
Wen Tao seemed to have some realization. After listening to Shen Zhiwei's words, she did not ask Shen Zhiwei's opinion again, but focused on looking at the students on the podium.
Students came up to the stage one after another, various ideas collided with each other, and then different sparks burst out.
Originally, Shen Zhiwei was worried that he would be bored just by listening to the students talk. After all, the students who had not yet graduated were far less knowledgeable and experienced than the teachers. Fortunately, this confrontational narration did not feel like a lecture, but rather like a debate, which added a lot of fun.
She lectured for two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. At the end of the day, Shen Zhiwei discovered many talented students and provided them with official positions.
The ancient version of BOSS Direct Recruitment.
When Shen Zhiwei saw those students saluting him, he was thinking that if there was a camera nearby, the scene would be even more like it.
So some things have not changed from ancient times to the present, for example, a good job is really hard to find, but elites will never lack job opportunities no matter what the external environment is like.
Shen Zhiwei was even more certain that she must complete the special events well and accumulate achievement points. If she really had to rely on achievement points to go home in the end, then she must save more and use the money to return to modern times.
This way she won’t have to live a hard life in modern times!
This debate competition officially made Jingchang Academy famous. Before, when Changzi decided to locate the academy in Jingchang, many people were still waiting and watching. They were all worried that Jingchang was not as good as Yongming City, that it did not have an atmosphere for academic research, and that it could not attract talented people from all over the world.
Now, Shen Zhiwei spent a lot of money for a lecture and built a large lecture hall where people can listen to lectures comfortably. He also went to the scene in person and invited students to serve as officials in the court. This gesture is more sincere than the previous gesture of the king of Bian State. He donated money, manpower and effort, and his desire for talents is so sincere. How can it not be moving?
So for a long time afterwards, Jingchang recruited people from all over the world. They gathered together just to get the opportunity to serve the king and realize their ambitions in officialdom.
This phenomenon is very good, but it also caused a lot of trouble.
Different places have different customs, and people in each place have different accents, accommodation habits, etc. If these people get together, friction will arise if they are not careful.
It takes time and space to adjust.
Jingchang City was originally very large, but it was still far from becoming a big city.
The original division of the market solved some problems, but it was far from enough. Shen Zhiwei had to expand the area of Jingchang City as soon as possible. Not only that, the academy also had to be expanded. The current academy could no longer accommodate so many students.
Shen Zhiwei looked at it for a long time, and finally came up with the ideas for city construction in later generations.
With residential areas as the center, various supporting facilities are built to eventually form population gathering areas, which are then divided.
Government offices, medical clinics, carriage companies for travel, grocery stores, grain stores, etc., commercial streets should be arranged near residential buildings, and urban greening should be done. Simple toilets can be installed in each house, sewer pipes should be laid, and central heating pipes should also be laid. Without water pumps, it is difficult to connect tap water to every household, so four or five wells should be dug in residential areas to ensure water supply for residents.
Once all this is done, it’s time to consider education.
If a person does not learn, he will not know etiquette. The etiquette here is not just etiquette, but also includes the propriety, righteousness, integrity and legal provisions that a person needs to know.
The school must be well-equipped and have enough teachers and students.
Teachers and students are a big problem, each with their own difficulties.
Generally speaking, the problem faced in setting up schools is that there are too many students and too few teachers, but in reality, it is very likely that there will be a situation where there are neither too many teachers nor too few students.
The lack of teachers is a rigid problem that cannot be solved in a short period of time. We can only hope that the pressure on teachers can be relieved after training more students.
The problem of not having enough students is a real one, which is that people are poor.
Shen Zhiwei could certainly implement nine years of compulsory education, but even with the nine years of compulsory education where the tuition was paid by the state in later generations, some students were unable to complete it.
There are many reasons for this reality, but it all boils down to one word: poverty.
Poverty is not a factor that can be solved by free education. Poverty is the bondage of the family to the individual. When a family is very poor, everyone in the family will have his or her own division of labor, and no one can escape from his or her role in the family.
It is useless to tell the poor how great the benefits of studying are. Only the big people will think about that. The poor just want to survive tomorrow.
After much deliberation, Shen Zhiwei decided to distribute some of the work in the embroidery workshop to various schools. After enrollment, students could take on some simple manual work and earn money based on their student status.
Each school will have a certain amount of scholarships. The assessment will be conducted every month and scholarships of different amounts will be awarded based on the ranking.
When going to school can make money, parents will be willing to let their children go out.
This is all Shen Zhiwei can do. With the development of society at this point, the common people in the city cannot even leave their jobs, let alone the villages below. Therefore, the establishment of schools does not need to take the villages into consideration at all.
At the same time, Shen Zhiwei relaxed the policy for villagers to relocate to the city. As long as they get a letter of recommendation from the village head or village elders, they can leave their original place of residence and settle in any city. The prerequisite is that they rent a house or own a house in the city and apply for a temporary residence permit.
Villagers who have stable jobs in the city and do not want to return to the village must move their household registration to the city and transfer the land use rights in the village to the government.
Shen Zhiwei wanted to prevent the emergence of small landlords from the root. A bunch of aristocratic families were already enough to give her a headache, and if a bunch of small landlords came along, she would not be able to survive.
Sometimes work can really make people overwhelmed. As soon as Shen Zhiwei started writing, she wanted to expand Jingchang. As a result, she wrote more and more. By the time she realized it, it was dark.
…
She actually worked for hours straight! From afternoon to night!
Tomorrow she must see where the sun rises.
Shen Zhiwei stretched and heard the creaking sound of bones being squeezed.
It’s over. You’re so young, don’t let yourself get a herniated disc.
Shen Zhiwei quickly got up and did a set of radio gymnastics. After exercising, she thought she was much healthier now, so she asked someone to prepare the food, as it was time for dinner.
After working all day, she won’t be working like this for the next week. Starting tomorrow, her working hours will be limited to two hours!
Shen Zhiwei clenched his fist and set a new work goal for himself, focusing on the idea that as long as he was comfortable, he didn't care about anything else.
The next morning, Wen Tao was called by Shen Zhiwei to work. When she saw the stack of papers, she had a bad feeling. After she opened it, her premonition came true.
There is so much to do, so much!
Wen Tao hadn't even finished reading the first page when he frowned and said with an embarrassed look, "Your Majesty, I'm afraid I'm not capable enough to take on this task. No one has ever built a city like this before, and I don't know much about city building."
Building a city is not a simple job that can be done with just a stroke of the pen and hiring people. It is not that simple from the perspective of site selection. If the location is not good, then when there is an earthquake or flood in the future, all the houses that have been painstakingly built will be destroyed.
Wen Tao really didn't know much about these things. She was only in her twenties this year, and it was already amazing enough that she could surpass most people in knowledge.
People have limited energy, and she is not good at this.
Shen Zhiwei was silent for a moment after hearing this, and she suddenly wanted to form a cabinet.
After completely giving up the main task, everything that Shen Zhiwei had previously rejected became something she was eager to do.
If the cabinet is formed, there will be all kinds of talents for Wen Tao to arrange. Wen Tao will definitely not shirk the tasks assigned by Shen Zhiwei, and she will arrange everything.
But it’s not possible, it can’t be formed because there are not enough people.
There are too few people!
"Jingchang City was expanded once twenty years ago. Your father seemed to be involved that time, so he should have some experience. Go back and talk to the Grand Tutor and find some experienced officials to help arrange this. You've seen how crowded Jingchang City is now. In the future, the number of people coming to Jingchang City will only increase, not decrease. We must expand the new urban area as soon as possible."
Shen Zhiwei really had no one to use, so this matter was handed over to Wen Tao.
Wen Tao had no choice but to agree, frowned and took the matter, then continued to read, and saw the regulations on the common people in the village moving to the town, as well as the establishment of schools and arranging repair work for students to earn subsidies. These two things made Wen Tao, a noble lady from a wealthy family, frown so hard that it could hurt someone.
Wen Tao really couldn't change her mindset. How could the common people in the village compare to the common people in the city? Most of the common people living in the city had ancestors who were nobles, but they fell into poverty and gradually could not even maintain their humble status, so they became common people.
The common people in the village had no surnames and had been commoners for generations. Asking them to move into the city sounded really hard for the nobles to accept.
Another idea is to let students take on work in embroidery workshops to earn money. Wen Tao doesn't understand. After sending the children to school, does the family still need a little money?
Seeing Wen Tao was silent and just frowning, Shen Zhiwei asked her, "What don't you understand?"
"Your Majesty." Wen Tao sighed and gently placed the paper in his hand on the table. "It's not that I don't understand, but I just don't know whether I should do this."
So far, every idea the king has put forward has been correct.
Previously, the king distributed land to the common people and exempted them from taxes, so that they had houses to live in. He also built kangs for the common people to survive the cold winter. As the common people gradually became richer, Jingchang became stronger.
Wen Tao had heard the theory that the people are more important than the monarch, but there are countless monarchs in the world, but only the king has achieved this. The king also proved to her and the world that the people are more important than the monarch can indeed make the country strong.
But the people can't be so noble! Isn't the monarch a little too humble?
"Just do it. There's no precedent to follow. A hundred years from now, Jingchang will be the precedent."
Shen Zhiwei could feel Wen Tao's confusion and worry, which was normal. In this era, everyone was undergoing an unprecedented great change. Would they unify and embark on a path of stability and strength, or would they disperse from now on, like a line split into countless parts, each running towards their own future? No one knew which path they would take in the end.
Shen Zhiwei is confident in saying that we should learn from history because she has actually witnessed this period of history, and as a person in history, it is normal for Wen Tao to be confused.
In the end, Wen Tao accepted Shen Zhiwei's instructions and left with the stack of papers. She would communicate with officials from various departments one by one, distribute the matters, and let each matter be handled by capable people. This was her duty as the Prime Minister.
After Shen Zhiwei assigned the tasks, there was nothing else to deal with. Today's working time was controlled within two hours, which was perfect.
In his free time, Shen Zhiwei planned to go and see the shipbuilding, but he didn’t know what was happening with the ship.
As soon as summer began, Shen Zhiwei asked the shipbuilders to build ships. Now more than three months have passed, and the workshop has been working day and night, and has finally built two large ships.
The Hundred Craftsmen's Workshop is in the palace, but the shipyard is not in the palace, but near the East China Sea Salt Field.
There is no space in the palace that can accommodate such a huge ship. The coastline of the East China Sea is continuous, and it would be convenient and save trouble to cut off a small section and allocate it to the shipyard.
After a day's journey, Shen Zhiwei arrived at the shipyard the next day and saw the ship she had been longing for.
Compared with the previous ships, both ships can be considered large, but the second one is obviously larger, which shows that the shipbuilders' technology has improved.
The shipbuilder that An Jin found was named Yu. Like An Jin, Yu's parents were excellent shipbuilders, and she inherited their craft.
She was a woman, and when she got a little older, her master's family only wanted her to get married and pass on her skills to other shipbuilders. She was unwilling to do so, and was forced by her master's family. She had not built a ship for more than half a year. If the Bian Kingdom had not suddenly perished, she didn't know what would have happened to her. So Yu was grateful to Jingchang, and when An Jin said that the emperor of Jingchang wanted a shipbuilder to build a ship, she came without saying a word.
After she arrived, she began to take charge of the overall situation. With her around, the shipbuilding progress soared. Several ordinary craftsmen called by Tao worked for half a month, but their progress was not as good as what Yu could achieve in one day.
Shen Zhiwei looked around the two large ships again and again and liked them very much. These huge ships made of wood and iron would bring countless treasures and a brighter future.
"It is rumored that the Communist Party of China encouraged Huo Di to build a ship and presented it to the Yellow Emperor. Today, you have built a bigger ship. In the future, your surname will be Huang. You are a genius who is no less talented than the Communist Party of China."
Shen Zhiwei was really happy. She had wanted to give Yu a surname for a long time, but she couldn't think of a good surname. Today, she thought of the legend of Gonggu Huodi, so she gave her the surname Huang.
It's a bit hasty, but Yu is happy, Shen Zhiwei is happy, and everyone is happy, so this surname is not hasty at all.
"With a boat, Zheng will soon be able to go south. When Zheng returns, no matter what he brings back, you will be allowed to pick one first, Yellow Croaker."
"Thank you for the reward, Your Majesty!"
Huang Yu was so happy that he couldn't stop smiling, and quickly bowed to Shen Zhiwei to express his gratitude.
Shen Zhiwei praised Huang Yu a few more times, and then ordered someone to send gold cakes as rewards to Huang Yu and other shipbuilders.
Then Shen Zhiwei asked Zheng and his wife Shang De to hurry to the shore of the East China Sea.
The two men received the order and arrived soon. Shen Zhiwei then realized that Zheng had moved to live nearby for more than a month. These days, he and Shang De came to look at the ship and familiarize themselves with its structure when he had nothing to do.
They also led a group of soldiers to practice swimming nearby, which was a very simple naval training.
Shen Zhiwei didn't know about it before, but now that he knows, he is shocked.
She just said that her subordinates are extremely greedy. Zheng looked like an honest businessman before, but it turned out that he is also a greedy person at heart.
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