The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 594 Industrial Revolution, It’s Coming

"Your Highness, please take a look. This is a compilation of provincial data collected by the Imperial College at the Sanzhong Temple. While it's certainly not as detailed as the Imperial Court's, it's more grounded."

Wang Zhenyi took a stack of information and carefully explained it to Asen.

"I also made a table, and you can see from it that the further inland you go, the weaker the impact of the imperial court's new policies becomes.

Lingnan and Jiangnan have completely entered a new era. The rapid development of industry and commerce has made it impossible for the previous model of three or four officials, twenty or thirty clerks and yamen runners in a county to continue.

For example, in Foshan, if the previous organization was followed, there would be only more than ten officials assigned to the more than 700 large and small gun, hardware, textile and leather companies, and they would be unable to manage them even if they worked themselves to death.

Therefore, a large number of officials are needed to enforce the court's laws and regulations and collect taxes.

Then the model in which a scholar becomes an official and then, after three years, can pass the imperial examination to become a grassroots official is very suitable.

It is also correct that only graduates of the Imperial College can take the examination for the title of scholar.

Officials in Lingnan and Jiangnan could no longer become officials simply by reading a couple of sage books; they had to undergo an education at the new Imperial Academy.

In addition to being a famous mathematician and scientist, Wang Zhenyi actually also likes keyboard politics. Or, in other words, once people learn a little more knowledge, they can't help but express some opinions in these areas.

"Your Majesty is truly a genius, able to accurately grasp the speed and direction of development in Lingnan and Jiangnan, and always plan these plans a little ahead of time.

If so many imperial colleges had not been built back then, we would be in such a mess now because we don’t have enough talented people.”

Wang Zhenyi's face was full of admiration, and then she said to Asen: "But Your Highness, you should also note that this is in addition to Jiangnan and Lingnan.

There was only one Imperial College in Nanyang, only two in Huguang, one each in Shandong, Henan, Shaanxi and Sichuan, none in Hebei, Shanxi and Gansu, but five in Guangdong alone. The distribution was very uneven.

In Lingnan and Jiangnan, scholars have become officials, while in much of the northern region, the situation is still the same as it was during the Qing Dynasty."

Arsen sat upright, but his mentality was very relaxed. Here, he didn't need to be highly nervous as he did when facing his father, nor did he have the pressure brought by his mother's real desire for him to succeed.

Although he is the eldest prince, Asen feels that he is not happy because the pressure from his mother is too great.

He was trained as a future wise ruler since he was young, and his mother arranged a lot of things for him to learn since he was three years old.

Although his mother loved him, she hoped that he could become the crown prince, so she was usually too majestic and not kind enough, and almost never gave him a good face.

When Asen thinks of his mother now, the only memory he has is her stern face and the words that always urged him to make progress and study.

It wasn't just his mother who was like this. The palace maids around her were also like this. His mother was afraid that his first love would delay things, so she arranged for very strict maids in their forties to take care of him.

At this moment, suddenly there was an older sister who not only chatted with him very gently, but also treated him as an adult, or even a wise superior. This feeling made Asen unable to help but lose consciousness for a moment.

However, although he was thirteen years old, Asen was disciplined very strictly and never thought about matters between men and women. He just felt that it was very pleasant to get along with this beautiful sister.

"Yes, this is also what the emperor is most worried about. He even intends to donate the palaces in Shuntian Prefecture in Beijing to open several top-level imperial colleges. At least three imperial colleges are also planned in Xi'an and one in Lanzhou."

Feeling happy, Asen couldn't help but tell everything he knew, "But father said that the Imperial College must have corresponding productivity to match it.

North China, especially Northwest China, is still far behind. If we want to carry out educational reforms, then political and even productivity reforms must also keep pace."

Arsen rubbed his head a little embarrassedly. "This is a bit too profound. I don't quite understand it. It seems I'm still a bit too stupid."

"Productivity, matching." Wang Zhenyi muttered a few words. She had a vague feeling about what this was referring to, but it was only a preliminary feeling and she couldn't deconstruct and summarize the implied meaning.

"Your Highness is really too demanding of yourself. I don't really understand what this means."

"Ah, really?" Asen revealed his childish side and said happily, "It turns out that even a woman as talented as Sister Wang doesn't quite understand. I thought I was just too stupid, but it turns out that Father is just too far-sighted."

Wang Zhenyi smiled, then revealed an expression of admiration, "Of course. Your Majesty is a wise and powerful ruler, wise and powerful. Every word and action of yours is full of profound meaning."

In fact, if Wang Zhenyi thought about it carefully, she would understand the true meaning of productivity.

For example, the side-blown converter steelmaking process in which she was important participant, which is extremely similar to the historical Beisemeier process, is the result of research driven by productivity.

Even Mo Zibu had been wrong before. Based on his understanding of history, he thought that China's industrial revolution would break out in the textile industry like Britain's.

But in fact, it is not the case at all. The reason why Britain was able to explode in the textile industry was that there was a huge demand for the textile industry in Europe, America, and even those large European colonies that were still in the slave society or even primitive tribal stage.

At the same time, for Europeans, the textile industry can complete the closed loop of raw material production-processing-finished product dumping.

However, in China, the textile industry had been developed for thousands of years and was already very mature. The people were relatively affluent, unlike Europe, where there was a huge demand for the rags woven on the spinning jenny. For example, when Mo Zibu brought the spinning jenny as a weapon of mass destruction, textile workers in Jiangnan were extremely disdainful of it.

They believed that the emperor must have been deceived by the English. They felt that the cloth woven by such machines was so rotten that even dogs wouldn't wear it. Not to mention in China, it couldn't even be sold in Japan and was completely worthless.

At the same time, the number of weavers and the quality of their labor in Jiangnan alone far surpassed the whole of Europe, so China did not need this kind of thing at all.

You want to produce more cloth, right? That's an easy problem to solve. As long as there are enough mulberry fields, there will be no shortage of weaving machine operators. You just need to hire one more person to work. There's no need to do this kind of thing that quickly weaves rotten cloth.

The abundance and high quality of China's human resources completely surpass the so-called spinning jenny.

Mo Zibu could never have dreamed that China in this era also had a demographic dividend, and that this dividend could even outperform the machines of the time.

Therefore, productivity determined that China's industrial revolution was destined not to occur in the textile industry, but in the steel industry.

Because China's biggest problem at this time was not how to find the source of raw materials, then weave more cloth, and finally dump it, using such a closed loop to make money.

Rather, the question is how to quickly transform the vast tropical rainforests in Southeast Asia into fertile farmland, and how to quickly establish effective water conservancy facilities in Southeast Asia.

How to conquer and domesticate the indigenous people of Southeast Asia in large numbers and turn them into semi-serfs at the lowest cost, how to quickly recover the vast lost territories in the northwest, and how to carry out large-scale development in Sichuan and the northeast.

All of this requires a large number of high-quality iron tools, not just agricultural tools. Cutting down tropical rainforests, building water conservancy facilities, etc. all require a large number of fine steel tools.

The latter required a large number of high-quality swords, armor, and muskets. Only with a cliff-like lead in weapons could even the weakest Chinese colonists be able to defeat the indigenous people and quickly complete the conquest.

And all of these are produced by steel companies.

So now in China, the demand for steel is simply boundless. All steel companies are making money, and steel-related companies are also making money.

Funds from the entire society were pouring in, which led not only to folk craftsmen improving traditional steelmaking, but also many large steel companies continuously investing funds in the Imperial College, with a huge amount of sponsorship pouring in.

Therefore, with the rapid development of the steel industry, China's industrial revolution will inevitably break out in the steel industry.

"Boss, the carriage has been arranged. We will go to Halong Port immediately."

If you really want to observe the effect of the measured blowing furnace steelmaking method, you can't do it in the laboratory, but you must go to the steel plant and test it for several days to verify its authenticity.

In the morning, Asen smiled and said to Wang Zhenyi that he wanted her to take him to see the steelmaking process, but it was just out of respect for the developer.

Halong Port is the largest coal and iron base in Lingnan, located in Halong County, Quang Ninh Prefecture, Quang Nam Province, which is where the Hongji Coal Mine in Vietnam is located in later generations.

Here is the entire Lingnan, and even the largest open-air high-quality coal field in the entire Nanyang. Located in the Red River Delta, it has no shortage of manpower and a very sufficient supply of food.

Across the sea is the Hainan Island Tiandu Iron Mine, which has a reserve of only 6 million tons but is of the best quality in China, possibly the only one of its kind.

The straight-line distance between the two places is only 270 kilometers, and both are on the coast, so they can be transported by sea, which is very convenient.

Due to various unique conditions, this small place located in the Red River Delta of Guangnan Province became the best coal and iron base in China before the Benxi-Fushun coal and iron base in Liaodong was established.

"Uncle Liu, please don't call me that. I can't stand it." As soon as Asen saw the person coming, he waved his hands quickly, because the person who called him boss was Liu Zhisan, the CEO of Fuxing Company.

This man was born in Mingxiang, Hoi An. He followed the emperor when he started the rebellion eighteen years ago. Although he did not make many contributions, his hard work over the years was not something Asen could order around.

Liu Zhisan laughed heartily, feeling very pleased. He had also come here specially from Halong Port.

At that time, the largest steel enterprise in Halong Port was affiliated with Fuxing Company. Without the emperor's order for him to come to greet him, even if Asen was the eldest prince, he would not be able to drive the system of Fuxing Company.

"Sister Wang, let's go together. You are more familiar with the Fuxing Huang'en Steel Plant than I am. You can tell me more about it."

Wang Zhenyi didn't expect that Asen would invite her first in front of so many people, and she immediately agreed with a blushing face.

Just at this moment, Ye Xianyang, who had just retired from the army and became the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi, came over and saw it, and a playful smile immediately appeared on his face.

He asked Wang Zhenyi to recognize him as her godfather because he knew that the emperor particularly liked talented women who were familiar with new knowledge.

He was also looking for an opportunity to recommend Wang Zhenyi to the emperor through Concubine De, but now it seems that is no longer necessary.

The future Imperial Noble Consort is not bad either, but as for the Empress, it is definitely impossible. The Wang family is too weak, and it is difficult for it to be recognized by the Jiangnan gentry and wealthy merchant group, and the Lingnan meritorious officials group will certainly not recognize her.

(End of this chapter)