The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 647: The Prince's Journey to the West - I Come to Hebei Province
Asen now has his own team. Although his East Palace does not have the six generals of the crown prince, the other officials are already quite complete.

The system was similar to that of the Ming Dynasty, with one Chancellor (fourth rank) in the Chancellery to be in charge of the Crown Prince's political affairs.

Under the Chancellery, there are the Left and Right Spring Offices, and under the Left and Right Spring Offices, there are subordinate officials such as Shuzi, Yude, Zhongyun, Zanshan, and Xima.

The only difference from the Ming Dynasty is that the Prince's Left and Right Grand Secretaries in Dayu are not full-time but part-time.

Among them, the Grand Secretary of the Left Spring Office is concurrently held by the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet or one of the three higher-ranking Shangshu, namely, the Shangshu of Li, the Shangshu of Hu, and the Shangshu of Rites.

This ensures that the prince has a certain influence and a more comprehensive understanding of government affairs, making it easier to promote his subordinates to positions in government offices permitted by the emperor.

The Grand Secretary of the Right Spring Office is usually concurrently held by a senior military officer such as the Privy Councilor (Deputy Grand Commander) or the Marching Commander in the Five Military Commandery.

It will make it easier for the prince to understand military affairs and to mobilize the Beijing camp under the jurisdiction of the Five Military Commandery as the prince's escort team when traveling.

Under this arrangement, the Left and Right Grand Secretaries of the Spring and Leap Palaces had higher status and qualifications than the Chancellor of the Imperial Household, the head of the civil officials of the real Eastern Palace, which meant that they generally would not manage the daily affairs of the Eastern Palace.

Therefore, the functions of the Grand Secretaries of the Left and Right Spring Offices in the Ming Dynasty were concurrently performed by the Left and Right Shuzi. These two officials were the ones who actually managed and handled the affairs of the Left and Right Spring Offices.

This arrangement was also determined by the territory of Dayu.

If we follow the original model completely, it will be impossible to manage such a large territory.

It can even be said that even in later generations, it would be difficult for a regime to achieve in-depth management of such a vast territory, so the crown prince must hold real power and be in charge of all directions when necessary.

Correspondingly, the officials under the prince had to be greatly adjusted. They were basically idle positions such as teachers, secretaries, and housekeepers in the Ming Dynasty, and became officials in the government office.

Asen was so excited that he finished the list of officials who would accompany him on the trip in just one afternoon. He also selected several Hanlin scholars recommended to him by his father Mo Zibu from the inner court civil servants, and then selected 5,000 people from the left and right guards of the Shenwei Army of the Beijing Camp as guards.

However, his way of traveling is a little bit strange.

After leaving Beijing, the accompanying officials, including the two guards of the Shenwei Army, all got on the car.

Uh... actually it's not a car, but um, a thing that is difficult to evaluate in later generations. It's a bit like a train without a roof.

However, this thing does not require laying rails or anything like that, but instead confines the wheels to a track similar to the highways of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

That is to say, two long deep tracks about fifteen centimeters or even wider are built on the ground, mixed with concrete and cement to make them quite smooth, and then the wheels are put in, and then a steam engine is installed on the car to propel it forward.

Is this a steam locomotive?

"Your Highness, there are currently about fifteen steam locomotive lines running from Beijing to Handan.

The smaller ones can carry 15 tons, while the larger ones can even carry more than 50 tons. They can travel 25 to 30 miles in an hour, and consume about 350 to 650 kilograms of coal.

When Asen heard the report from his confidant, the Prince's Groom, who was also his brother Cen Xuannan, who had followed Wang Zhenyi to study steam engines in Guangzhou, a satisfied smile appeared on his face.

You have to admire the wisdom of the working people. At present, because steel is too expensive, steam locomotives can only be used on the most important roads.

For example, key sections of dozens or hundreds of kilometers include those from Beijing to Zhangjiawan Wharf in Tongzhou, from Zhangjiawan Wharf to Tianjin, from Guangzhou to Foshan, from Xialong County Port in Guangnan to the steelmaking center, etc.

However, the (steam) car made by Qian Duo and others was not very efficient because the steam engine was not very efficient.

The rubber trees had just been transplanted from South America to Southeast Asia with great difficulty. The patent for vulcanized rubber had been approved, but mass production had not yet begun, resulting in a lack of suitable tires for cars.

These two things have severely restricted the development of automobiles. Currently, they can only be used on a small scale in large cities such as Nanjing Yingtian Prefecture, Beijing Shuntian Prefecture, Songjiang Prefecture Jiading County, and Nandu Chengtian Guangzhou Prefecture.

It is a novel toy for the nobility, a luxury that is more advanced than a carriage, but it is not very useful in practice.

Just when the future of driven steam engine power seemed to have reached a dead end, a point of vanity and impracticality.

Almost at the same time, inventors in Jiangnan developed a steam engine that could be used on inland boats weighing dozens of tons, and built a large number of steam boats.

Northern Zhili came up with this strange thing with a very regular round trip, which is somewhere between a car and a train.

Although this thing has many shortcomings, such as being unable to turn, easily damaged at high speeds, impassable on rainy days, difficulty draining after heavy rain, relatively high maintenance costs, slow braking, only one car per road, and impassable in mountainous areas.

Even plains in other places are difficult to use. Only places like the North China Plain, where the precipitation is not too high and the rivers are not too dense, can be used.

But even though it has so many problems, it still cannot conceal the benefits brought by this strange car.

Just based on the characteristics of a speed of 15 kilometers, a load capacity of dozens of tons, and the ability to transport day and night with caution, all problems are no longer a big problem.

Of course, Europeans have actually done this in history, but because their homeland is small, there is not much demand for this relatively extreme mode of transportation, and it was short-lived.

. . . .

This type of tram rattles and shakes while running, and is quite dangerous, requiring people to maintain the road sections at all times.

Not long ago, a front collapse occurred. The steam locomotive discovered it too late and was unable to brake, causing most of the passengers to fall from the car, resulting in dozens of injuries.

But Arsen couldn't help but stand up, his face, which was a little darkened by the black smoke from the steam engine on the front of the locomotive, was full of satisfaction.

As the crown prince, Asen believes that the greatest use of this thing is in military affairs. Even if it is not easy to use, it is still very good for mobilizing troops and transporting military supplies.

"Ah Zhen, this steam train has such a great effect. When the price of steel drops in the future, what a scene it will be like when steam trains are everywhere in China!"

Wang Zhenyi finally looked like a beautiful woman, which was very different from her previous fierce and thin image.

But even though she became the prince's bedmate, her situation did not change much, or rather, her situation became a little more difficult.

After all, at this time, it was still too shocking for the Crown Prince's woman, the future concubine, to openly give lectures and go to a place full of men to conduct research and inventions.

However, when Wang Zhenyi saw the appearance of the future steam locomotive from this steam car, she still felt that it was all worth it.

"I know you want to silence the gossips of the world by giving up your rank as a concubine. Mother must have put a lot of pressure on you. She is too conservative and old-fashioned."

Asen was very excited and took Wang Zhenyi's hand in front of dozens of people with great courage.

"But you don't have to be like this, you don't have to worry, because I'm here, I'll take care of it for you!
The more people in the world talk, the more you and I should set an example for the world.

In such a time of great conflict, some people still want to confine women to their homes, just like in the Qing Dynasty, and not allow them to go out of the house. This is wrong.

My father once told me that how could a mother who was submissive, illiterate, and had never seen the vastness of the world raise a man who would stand tall and proud for China?

I, Mo Zhousen, insist on having you be my concubine, insist on having you teach at the Imperial College, and insist on having you work at the Steam Engine Research Department of Yingtian Imperial City!"

Originally, Mo Zibu decided on the generation name for the royal family as Jiuzhou Chongguang and Shanhe Zaizhu, but Mo Zibu's grandfather was named Mo Jiu, so the character Jiu definitely could not be used, and they had to start directly with the character Zhou.

Asen's words made Wang Zhenyi intoxicated. The crown prince, who had just turned seventeen, showed his dominance for the first time after leaving his father's protection.

Asen said this because the first women's liberation movement of the Great Yu Dynasty was about to begin, but the reason might not be so lofty. This time, the promotion of women's liberation was not due to Emperor Mo's foresight or anything else, but was driven by tangible interests.

At this time, Dayu, including Zhanzhou (Australia), had an area of 25 million square kilometers. Even if we don't count Zhanzhou, which was basically not under control, it exceeded 18 million square kilometers.

Despite such a vast area, the population has only reached about 370 million after more than a decade of rapid development.

So now, the entire Dayu Dynasty is short of people everywhere, especially when going to Southeast Asia, Guandong, and the West (to Gansu, Qinghai, and the Western Regions), and they can no longer rely solely on men.

First, the earlier and more mixed-race children appear, the worse it will be for the main ethnic group. Second, if the situation of too many men and too few women in these three places does not change, there will be problems.

At the same time, the textile industries in Jiangnan, Lingnan, Huguang, Henan, Hebei and Shandong are all developing rapidly. It does not necessarily mean that female weavers in the textile industry are more efficient and skilled than male weavers.

Rather, most of the men who can enter textile factories have been employed, and only women have great labor potential to be tapped, and their wages are slightly lower than men's.

To put it bluntly, the imperial court needed women to come overseas, and the capitalists also wanted to have more sources of labor.

This conservative old way of confining women to the home has begun to seriously hinder social progress.

This is the naked reality. No matter whether it is a person or a group, no one will remember you when you are no longer useful.

But this is still much better than continuing to use Neo-Confucianism, which has been distorted since the Song Dynasty, and continuing to imprison the body and mind.

Of course, a big part of the reason why Arsen acted so tough, even a little eager, was that he had developed a rebellious mentality towards his mother.

The method used by Concubine Chen's cousin to educate her son was still too rough.

This left some trauma in Arsen's childhood. He felt that his mother was a little hysterical because she lacked experience and had not yet liberated her mind.

. . . .

The steam locomotive was bumpy all the way, and when everyone felt they couldn't bear it any longer, the journey came to a temporary end.

Because currently there is only a 400-kilometer-long track from Beijing to Handan, and after Handan, we have to start walking again.

However, Asen also took this opportunity to see the most authentic folk life along the way.

In the fertile Hebei Plain, the Dayu court did not actually build many water conservancy projects.

Everything here is not much different from the Qing Dynasty, except that the people were given some land.

This was not because the imperial court was incompetent or did not know how to build water conservancy projects, but was intentional.

According to the strategy unanimously agreed upon by Emperor Mo Zibu and his court officials, a large number of small landlords with two to three hundred acres of land, several oxen and several horses should be cultivated in major provinces in the Central Plains such as Hebei, Henan, Shandong and Shanxi.

As for the others, they were all driven out to colonize.

Therefore, in Hebei, the upper limit of per capita land ownership was adjusted to 50 mu two years ago.

In this way, the land that a family of five can legally own reaches 250 acres. If the young couple has a stronger fertility, the upper limit will be even higher.

The effect of this policy was very obvious. As Asen saw a large number of bankrupt farmers selling their land along the way. They brought their children with them and were led by officials to the next colonization starting point like livestock.

Arsen felt a little uncomfortable, he raised his hand and pointed into the distance.

In the distance, an old farmer in his thirties, with his wife and five children, was walking forward with heavy steps.

The old farmer was holding a little girl who looked no more than five or six years old. Her hands were drooping and her head was tilted to one side. She didn't look well.

A short while later, Bozhi's brother, Cen Xuannan, who had gone to inquire about the situation, came back and reported, "They're going to Jilin. The little girl has a recurring high fever, and the officials are afraid it's an epidemic, so they don't want to take them with them and just let them follow behind."

"I'm afraid the officials are afraid of trouble and want the father to abandon his daughter, but the father refuses." Wang Zhenyi knows more about the lower classes than Asen, she sighed and said.

Asen opened his mouth and looked at the officer who was kneeling on the ground in the distance and was so scared that he was being questioned by an important person. He hesitated for several times, but ultimately said nothing.

Because although the official was cruel, he did not do anything wrong fundamentally. If the little girl really had some plague, she would definitely not be taken away.

"Master, my daughter is dying. Please find a doctor to see her. If she can still be saved, let her be your slave for the rest of her life."

Although Asen was not accompanied by the Crown Prince's guards, the hundreds of guards still demonstrated his extraordinary status.

The old farmer howled miserably from a few hundred meters away, and knelt on the ground with his entire family, kowtowed to Asen.

Asen turned his head away, unable to bear to watch any longer. He waved to a captain from the Chen family in Jiading to come over.

"Go and bring the girl over, and find a doctor in Handan City to see her. If she doesn't need to rest, get her some medicine and let her stay with her parents.

If she needs to recuperate, you can take care of her first, and when she recovers, send her to the East Palace to be a maid."

After saying that, Asen sighed and walked away, followed by a group of officials and guards.

"The father must have been desperate. If he had continued to hold his daughter, his entire family would not have been able to reach Jilin."

Asen inherited his mother's very emotional and compassionate character, so he felt very sad when he saw this situation, especially because it was caused by the court's deliberate inaction.

His subordinate, Dong Jiaozeng, the Left Secretary of the Eastern Palace Zuo Chunfang, quickly stepped forward to advise him, "Your Highness, this is the time of the Second Warring States, and everyone has their own difficulties.

For the sake of future generations, Your Majesty and the court spend tens of millions of silver dollars every year just to send millions of people out of Tangshan.

Everyone was gritting their teeth and insisting that the maintenance silver for officials above the fifth rank and the annual pension for officials above the earl rank had been in arrears for three years.

Moreover, in the countryside, farming is also a profound science. They are all farmers, and some people know how to farm. They can learn it at a glance and apply it to other situations, or even invent techniques without a teacher.

But some people just can't do it. They learn something eight times, but in the end they still don't know what to do. The more they cultivate the land, the harder their life becomes.

If this continues for 20 to 30 years at most, the former will become rich peasants and landlords, while the latter will become tenant farmers, or the kind that cannot even rent good land.

It would be great if the imperial court could suppress local tyrants and prevent them from using unconventional means to annex other local tyrants. It is impossible to support the latter and ensure that they can reap profits regardless of drought or flood.

Rather than letting them struggle in extreme poverty in their hometown, it is better to force them out as soon as possible.

Although they are not good at farming in their hometown, they are undoubtedly much more capable than the fishing and hunting tribes in the Northeast. This will not only help the court stabilize the border, but also at least help them accumulate some family property."

After hearing Dong Jiaozeng's words, Asen felt much better. "As expected, what the emperor said is all good advice. When prosperity comes, the people suffer; when decline comes, the people suffer.

The common people have never been free from suffering; when the country is prosperous, they suffer the toil of working like oxen and horses, and when it is declining, they suffer the pain of being cut in two with a single sword.

After sighing, Asen took a deep breath and said, "I hope that China can win in this world of great contention soon. If we can stand at the top of the mountain, the people will at least have a better life."

(End of this chapter)