Chapter 78: Advance
Apart from that minor incident of troublemakers in the tavern. The Ling River colony remained orderly.
The vast majority of people were immersed in the current prosperity. After all, those who wanted to do big things were always few; most people followed “Drink today, worry tomorrow.”
Most soldiers were calculating how much travel allowance they would get this time and how to spend it. After receiving silver leaves in the military camp, they immediately ran to the tavern to have fun.
Compared to haggling over “Blood Reward,” Wu Fei gave generous hardship pay to his “Hard Work” subordinates without any reluctance. By giving money, he stimulated more people to go south for the gold rush.
Regarding this, Xuan Chong (Wu Fei) deeply understood the way of mechanism units: funds for major projects cannot be stingy, but staffing quota cannot be given casually.
Currently, the “Blood Reward” issued by Wu Fei was like this: rank equals slave ownership rights. So the southern border slave industry is now the number one economic driving force. The military merit rank system is the current development cornerstone of the Lingnan and southern border community. Merchants must be suppressed by the military merit group.
On the planning blueprint in front of Wu Fei, fertile land, roads, fortress—each area required a large number of people to garrison.
Wu Fei mockingly asked the merchants in his mind: Even if I completely liberalize, would your industry and commerce come to invest in industry in this place divided by mountain ranges?
Note: In his previous life, there were merchants who personally claimed certain amounts were “small goals,” saying that even directly giving money (tycoons giving alms to beggars) was preferable to investing (bowing their heads for equal cooperation).
Over these years, Wu Fei had explored around Yongji Pass everywhere but never found large-scale open-pit coal mines or open-pit iron ore. Even though he wanted to start a steam engine production revolution, he was stuck at the very first step.
Wu Fei: So I have to implement the Qin law rank system, legally and compliantly control slave-keeping. As for the industrial revolution? Hehe~
…Instantly chickening out with modesty…
Xuan Chong: The industrial revolution still has to be done.
When saying this, Xuan Chong stood in front of the largest waterfall in the western southern border, watching Gongshu Wang debugging here the latest wooden ox and flowing horse train. The electricity towers on the distant mountain tops—no, Feng Shui arrays—were forming swirling clouds on the mountain tops.
So in a region with insufficient resources, where the geographical environment is not top-tier compared to the outside world, how to carry out the industrial revolution?
Xuan Chong, flipping through previous life materials, completed a summary of the rules and answered in the notebook: Very simple—strengthen centralization, concentrate the labor force of cattle and horses, and break through productivity through engineering infrastructure!
Xuan Chong had given up the steam engine route, but in the energy system, he was targeting Feng Shui.
In short, directly build dams and use the property of jade to store energy to complete energy gathering business.
In the radiation control area of Yongji Pass, Xuan Chong explored along the water veins in the mountain ridges, found multiple suitable waterfalls and places with large water drop differences, set up mechanism rooms, and obtained water energy through water wheels.
Then, large quantities of standardized cut jade were arrayed and inlaid on spirit wood, then connected with spirit silkworm silk, looking somewhat like certain lithium batteries from the previous life in parallel.
After these upstream jade mechanical energy accumulations were complete, they would flow downstream to deliver energy to the Fen Xing City factories, driving larger-scale industrial production in the plan.
…Besides resources, what are the necessary historical conditions for industrialization…
After a year of workshop technology exploration, Xuan Chong had proven the feasibility of using jade to store Feng Shui energy for production processing.
But after verification, it was determined: This energy development and application system requires large-scale labor, and this labor must be uniformly planned by the top structure and invested into construction plans.
Setting aside the unique industrial path of his own previous life camp—um, that development path where his previous life camp was too ferocious: industrial manufacturing was weak half a generation ago, but half a generation later proudly declared “Whoever claims to be the industrial crown, crush them” in a hegemonic way—was too unique and unprovable, so later backward forces could not learn from it.
And due to the principle of “not knowing the true face of Mount Lu because one is in the mountain,” Xuan Chong believed he also could not objectively summarize universal industrialization experience.
So now Xuan Chong was seeking answers from the rise of those maritime colonial pioneering groups and discovered a commonality.
This commonality was that after external plunder obtained massive profits, internally through a series of power reorganizations, the top structure gained the ability to centrally mobilize the “labor force group” for industrial development and complete accumulation.
In other words, the accumulation phase of “industrial development” all involved national-level centralized allocation of the “labor force group.”
Britain was sheep eating people, creating famines, turning bankrupt peasant workers into factory slaves! The efficient factory owner parliament system replaced the feudal lords with poor management abilities, driving the slaves to factories for unified management.
America bought various immigrants from outside, with immigrants becoming labor dividends. Oligarch trusts negotiated to form effective centralization, managing the serfs.
Prussia and Russia originally had large numbers of serfs; after reforms, they integrated the serfs under nobles into ones that could be mobilized by national power.
Thus, student Xuan Chong (Wu Fei): In real Western history, slavery was never an obstacle to the industrial revolution, nor was democracy about giving all slaves a voice. Their historical thread was forming centralization through reforms, coordinating labor allocation, and scientifically and systematically managing the entire national labor force.
So-called democracy was actually historically the highest centralization originally belonging to the king; to better unify labor allocation, it consulted and ceded some voice to the secondary slave masters below, completing the labor collection system.
Many backward forces copied all the parliamentary bickering methods of the above pioneering forces, but due to lacking the central unified labor management element, they all failed and could not enter industrialization.
The East ate up all the failed experiences fully. Ultimately, it tested out the path.
…Thus, the student began filling in his own answers…
After Wu Fei copied the above elements, he began implementing the Qin law system. Then, on the Qin law system, he guided industry and commerce development.
First, clarify the resistance elements of industrial development.
Wu Fei summarized: In foreign trade processes, if only merchants have large funds to buy slaves, national industry will not be nourished, because noble families and powerful merchants’ use of servant girls is not concentrated; they only privately hoard servants and forcibly occupy self-cultivating farmland.
The Eastern Dynasty cycle provided numerous cases: in the dynasty’s rising period, the stronger the meritorious officials participating in “slave” allocation due to merit, the more likely the dynasty weakened in the mid-period.
The Eastern Han Dynasty was a prominent example; Liu Xiu did not kill meritorious officials and earned a good reputation. As a result, imperial power became a puppet after the first two emperors.
Zhu Ming was the second example, but Zhu Yuanzhang was much harsher, slaughtering the founding meritorious officials, curbing their deep ties with the Jiangnan landlord stratum; otherwise, subsequent Zhu Ming emperors would not have fared much better than the Eastern Han, but even so, Zhu Ming was still unable to mobilize grassroots forces in the mid-to-late period and ultimately died poor!
Therefore, under the current Qin law system, Wu Fei decided to establish control over slaves, insisting: only military merit ranks qualify for slave-keeping. If merchants want to buy slaves as labor, they can only go through a special channel at the general’s mansion.
In Fen Xing City, a “slave labor trade” market was listed. Most local noble families were stunned upon seeing the trading rules in this market, then laughed and left sneeringly.
Some noble families came with great interest, then mocked the Wu Family’s wild idea and left.
Because the conditions were too harsh: obtain slave ownership from military merit ranks, then establish a share committee to evaluate slave production; if production is insufficient for dividends, it ends.
Lingnan noble families discussed this heatedly.
As for what they discussed, Wu Fei knew completely. He even had no interest in the details.
Because his method of slave trading completely did not meet their needs; what did they want slaves for? To farm local farmland, then train family slaves to seize local resources; slaves were tools to be discarded after use.
And have a committee supervise? What a joke!
But whether it was a joke was not up to them; in Fen Xing City, Lingnan, and other places, multiple factories began to be built.
…Mechanical gears and violent mechanisms gradually synchronized…
After the Lucky City exchange appeared, Wu Fei borrowed twenty years’ worth of annual money from various families through the Wu Family channel, directly bought large amounts of slave usage rights from the committee, and sent them into Fen Xing City factories.
The committee obeyed the general’s mansion; the Wu Family was Wu Fei’s imperial clan. In these times, if the imperial clan could not be compradors, they could only be trust oligarch managers.
In the year 32 of the Shu Tian Calendar, a highly centralized system for excess labor force formed.
And the factory trusts would act like pumps, continuously draining the foundational strength of various noble families in local areas.
This thing placed in the early 20th century would be a solid “Hi, Wu Fei!”
…The curtain was raised on the confrontation between reform and conservatism…
Multiple schools in Lingnan stirred up a storm of debate on the aspect of “governance.”
Young masters one after another, in academies accessible only to young masters, started “keyboard politics”; the core of discussion shifted from “education and indoctrination” to the advantages and disadvantages of “prefecture and county.”
The discussion quickly spread to various scholarly circles in the southern border.
By the time Wu Fei learned of it, a month had passed; at that time, Wu Fei was in Fen Xing City.
But Wu Fei keenly guessed what this group wanted to do!
As a modern person, the books he had read up to now were all military strategist theories; his understanding of various classics was very insufficient, so debating classics would definitely be disadvantageous. But previous life gentleman keyboarder Xuan Chong had an invincible information discernment strategy.
1: Before debating classics, first figure out the opponent’s “address,” so you can save time and effort and understand what their “standard” is.
If the “address” is an enemy camp, don’t waste tongue on debating classics; directly flame! Because in this era of great contention, under industry system competition, what “pure ideology” is there? It’s all about robbing rice bowls. All ideologies behind are business; ideologies are invented to beautify oneself and double-standard smear opponents, so why debate?
2: Figure out the opponent’s stance; if it’s self-interested, self-pitying pro-foreign minority, don’t waste time, directly flame. As for radicals or conservatives, even if ideologies differ, as long as the stance stands on the interest of our industry group, no need to debate much; seek common ground while reserving differences.
Xuan Chong was quite “conservative,” but also liked uniting with radicals.
Speaking of which, these “babbling” young masters opposite in the southern border now had clear “addresses” and “stances,” not even bothering to disguise.
Wu Fei’s mouth grinned into a flower.
Wu Fei: “Recommendation of Filial and Honest, right? And govern the world with benevolence. Make the general’s mansion end slave management? Hahaha—”
Wu Fei: No interest in debating; debating takes too many words, no one wants to read. I’ll just take action directly. Watch my gentleman keyboard.
…Far-right, with far-right methods…
Two days after the assembly debate, several famous young masters in scholarly circles got into trouble.
One drank flower wine overnight; the top courtesan accompanying him died, his suspicion was great, so he was shackled to jail. Local yamen runners raided the brothel, conveniently grabbing all his accomplices and sending them to jail to “confess” how they committed this case.
Another, after getting drunk, fell headfirst into the river and became a water ghost.
Another overdosed on five-stone powder at home, went mad, then wildly castrated himself with a knife, lying in the marketplace bleeding nonstop.
And various bizarre things; although the humane district could use Yao Calculation to ask ghosts and spirits, clearly some people had their hands covering the sky. Yao Calculation yielded no results.
Wu Fei’s internal department chiefs responsible for security accurately reported all these events to him without mistake.
After these strange cases erupted frequently, General Wu Fei began a major crackdown, declaring this series of major cases as remnants of the southern border poison cult infiltrating the pass interior, requiring heavy fists to strike! (You ask what poison cult is? Wu Fei: I don’t know either, but now I need it to exist, just like in the previous life how America needed terrorists in certain places.)
Thus, in fury, the general’s mansion had prefectural yamen runners arrest a wave of unlucky southern border folks, then began internal purge, catching a large batch of idle young masters and retainers from Lingnan and sending them to feed on Huangliang drunkenness, serving drunken service.
Xuan Chong: From previous life fierce debates and lighthouse parliament mutual tearing, it is known that when encountering remote verbal combat, why debate classics? Debate what? Anyway, the last step is always to tear faces and splash dirty water; skip the fancy openings, strike first to break the opponent’s defense, one step to done, isn’t that good?
A month later, recalling his actions, Wu Fei hypocritically recorded in his diary with cat crying mouse fake mercy: Actually, contradictions are not irreconcilable, but who told you not to encounter a good era, and my energy is limited, only usable on army affairs. So in political matters, I can only grab the big and let go the small, making these young people who spoke wrongly suffer a bit.
Wu Fei, who had won multiple wars, indeed had the capital to do so! And those noble families who stirred up public opinion this time actually never thought of forcing Wu Fei to yield; they just wanted to pave the way through public opinion and conspire with the military merit faction group inside the army.
But beyond the expectations of various noble families in multiple southern counties, they didn’t expect Wu Fei to come down all at once.
After a month of planning by the entire Security Bureau, they locked on fifteen typical names on the list, then suddenly acted, ruthlessly purging these fifteen people and their surrounding accomplices to utter ruin and disgrace.
Military strategists say: When moving troops, best to do it all at once; never use incremental tactics.
When Wu Fei bypassed debating classics and directly applied the military strategy system, a “Wu-style terror” permeated over all noble families. For a time, Lingnan fell silent.
Everyone realized that the once seemingly approachable Wu Xiao Que was now one who killed out from mountains of corpses and seas of blood!
…Military strategists not only have attacks, but also alliances under the city…
After Wu Fei announced solving the demon cult major case, he immediately very open-mindedly invited each family for negotiations to discuss the “Recommendation of Filial and Honest” matter.
Each family dared not neglect, not even dare to conspire, because the messengers sent by Wu Fei wore military uniforms and stood directly at each family door waiting for replies.
Thus, in Lingnan commandery city’s most famous “Immortal Drunk Residence,” Wu Fei awaited representatives from various noble families. In front of the restaurant, Wu Fei shook hands one by one—no, made bows.
“Hello, Uncle, you look healthy!”
“Uncle Sun, you’ve come; I’ve been waiting for you, please sit, please sit.”
Wu Fei was still so humble, greeting every uncle and elder brother sent by the noble families, but the noble families also dared not act superior, all praising “the general treats the worthy humbly.”
Finally, the tea talk on the Recommendation of Filial and Honest with these “honored guests” began for Wu Fei.
On the Recommendation of Filial and Honest situation, Wu Fei proposed two key directives; the first was money.
Wu Fei astonishingly said: “Recommendation of Filial and Honest requires thirty thousand strings to be a pavilion chief in Lingnan, two hundred thousand strings to be a county magistrate! One million five hundred thousand strings to be a prefect! This money must be deposited in the local treasury; if one dies exhausted in office, the public treasury compensates double to wife and children.”
Wu Fei looked at everyone and slowly said: “Lingnan is poor and barren; if parents as officials cannot pacify the local citizens, how shameful is that?”
The above prices were patches Wu Fei announced to the army: thirty merit points for pavilion, two hundred merit points for county, one thousand five hundred merit points for commandery.
All clan representatives were silent! The smiling Wu Xiao Que so righteously and openly “selling offices and titles” was completely unimaginable to these scholarly families.
If not for the prior “Wu-style terror,” someone would definitely righteously scold now, but facing the killing intent-filled Wu Fei, these noble families didn’t know what to say.
Soon someone wanted to claim illness, but Wu Fei lightly tossed: “Gentlemen, I invited you to buy.”
This faint sentence was like thunder, reminding the noble families that Wu Xiao Que had another nickname in Zhu Prefecture, prefecture, Donghua Commandery, and other places: “Grasping Sparrow.”
Meaning, today’s selling offices and titles was not a question of whether these noble families thought it worthwhile, but if protection fee not paid, how many lives to lose.
The Sun family representative said: “My lord, our family circumstances are poor.”
Wu Fei looked at him: “Oh, family circumstances poor, then your family’s servants should be fewer than a hundred, farmland not over a thousand mu.” (Subtext: too many servants count as hidden households, too much farmland as tax evasion.)
The Sun family representative was immediately dragged back by his own family.
Another representative, the Lin family, said: “General, our family disciples are mediocre, no talent to recommend.”
Wu Fei hurriedly shook his head denying: “Don’t hide from me; your families have talents soaring to the sky, vermilion gates thick walls cannot conceal the brilliance; I linger outside admiring but cannot obtain. I don’t pick; if no legitimate sons, concubine’s sons also fine, even slave-born children I want. Here with me, heroes regardless of origin; as for southern border virtue, it is this—”
Wu Fei drew his treasure sword, stabbed it into the table, and slowly said to everyone: “This virtue best subdues people in the southern border; send ten, I guarantee to teach two.”
As for the fate of the remaining eight? In this harmonious meeting, Wu Fei didn’t want to say more; everything point to stop. Just didn’t want these noble families sending waste.
Wu Fei looked at these noble families and continued: “I have another condition: for all recommended filial and honest talents, you must promote them to your main clan branch; I am most filial, cannot bear wicked clans bullying filial and honest talents!”
Wu Fei sheathed his treasure sword dashingly: “I’ve said my piece.”
Next was Wu Fei toasting everyone…
This negotiation was very pleasant; each family agreed to Wu Fei’s Recommendation of Filial and Honest plan. No one drank a second cup of punishment wine.
…After the banquet…
The imperial court’s Secret Guard quietly sent the secret letter back to the North.
