Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 78 Progress
Aside from the minor incident of trouble at the tavern, the Lingjiang colony remained orderly.

The vast majority of people are complacent with the current prosperity. After all, there are always few people who want to do something big; most people live for the moment.

Most of the soldiers were calculating how much their allowance for this business trip would be and how they would spend it. After receiving their silver notes in the barracks, they immediately went to the tavern to enjoy themselves.

Compared to his meticulous calculations regarding "blood rewards," Wu Fei was incredibly generous with the hard-earned money he gave to his subordinates. He used these rewards to incentivize more people to seek their fortune in the south.

Xuan Chong (Wu Fei) is well aware of the ways of government agencies: funds for major projects should not be stingy, but staffing quotas should not be allocated indiscriminately.

Currently, Wu Fei's "blood reward" is structured as follows: a noble title equals the right to purchase slaves. Therefore, the slave trade in Southern Xinjiang is now the primary economic driver. The military merit-based nobility system is the cornerstone of the current development of the Lingnan and Southern Xinjiang communities. Merchants are thus subject to the control of the military merit group.

In front of Wu Fei's blueprint, there are fertile fields, roads, and fortresses, and each area needs a large number of people to guard it.

Wu Fei jokingly asked the businessmen: "Even if I were completely liberalized, would your industry and commerce come to this mountainous region of mine to invest in industry?"

Note: In my previous life, there was a businessman who claimed that certain amounts were "small goals" and said that he was unwilling to invest even if he was given money directly (a rich man giving alms to a beggar) (he bowed his head and cooperated on an equal footing).

In recent years, Wu Fei has been exploring the area around Yongji Pass, but has not found any large-scale open-pit coal mines or open-pit iron mines. Even though he wanted to carry out a revolution in steam engine production, he was stuck at this first step.

Wu Fei: That's why I'm going to implement the Qin legal system of nobility, legally and compliantly controlling slavery. As for the Industrial Revolution? Heh~
...instantly humbled...

Xuan Chong: We still need to carry out the Industrial Revolution.

As Xuan Chong spoke, he stood before the largest waterfall in western Southern Xinjiang, watching Gongshu Wang test the latest wooden ox and flowing horse train. In the distance, power towers—no, feng shui formations—were creating swirling clouds on the mountaintops.

So how can an industrial revolution happen in a region that is short of resources and whose geographical environment is not superior to that of the outside world?
Having sifted through his past life's data, Xuan Chong completed his summary of the patterns and wrote in his notebook: "It's very simple. Strengthen centralization, concentrate the labor of cattle and horses, and break through productivity through engineering and infrastructure construction!"

Xuan Chong has abandoned the steam engine route, but has set his sights on feng shui in terms of energy systems.

In short, they directly built dams and utilized the energy-storing properties of jade to complete the energy extraction business.

Xuanchong explored along the water veins in the mountains within the radiation control area of ​​Yongjiguan, and found many suitable waterfalls and places with large water drop. He set up a machine room and obtained water energy by turning waterwheels.

Then, a large number of standardized cut jade stones were inlaid in an array on the spirit wood, and then connected with spirit silkworm silk, which looked like the parallel connection of some lithium batteries in the previous life.

Once the upstream jade machinery has accumulated enough energy, it will flow downstream and deliver that energy to the Fenxing City factory, driving larger-scale industrial production as planned.

…Besides resources, what are the necessary historical conditions for industrialization?…

After a year of exploration in the workshop, Xuanchong has proven the feasibility of storing Feng Shui energy in jade for production and processing.

However, after verification, it was determined that this energy development and utilization system requires a large-scale workforce, and this workforce must be planned and implemented in a unified manner by the top-level structure.

Putting aside the unique industrial history of his own past life, well, the development path of the camp he belonged to in that past life was too fierce. A year and a half ago, industrial manufacturing was weak; and a year and a half later, he proudly declared, "Whoever claims to be the crown of industry, we will crush them." This domineering attitude was too unique to be proven, so that other later forces could not learn from it.

And because of the principle of "not being able to see the true face of Mount Lu because one is in the mountain itself," Xuan Chong believed that he was also unable to objectively summarize the universal experience of industrialization.

Therefore, Xuan Chong is now looking for answers in the rise of those pioneering groups that took off through maritime colonization, and has discovered a commonality.

The commonality is that after plundering foreign countries and acquiring huge profits, the top-level structure, through a series of power restructurings, has the ability to mobilize the "labor force" to invest in industrial development and complete the accumulation.

In other words, during the accumulation phase of "industrial development," the "labor force" was centrally allocated at the national level.

Britain was a land of sheep eating men, creating famine and turning bankrupt migrant workers into slave laborers! The efficient factory owners' council system replaced the incompetent feudal lords, driving slaves into factories for unified management.

The United States imported various immigrants from abroad, who became a source of labor dividends. Oligarchic trusts then negotiated and established effective centralized power to manage the serfs.

Prussia and Lucia already had a large number of serfs. After their reforms, they integrated the serfs who were originally under the control of the nobility into serfs who could be mobilized by the whole country.

Therefore, student Xuan Chong (Wu Fei) stated: In the true history of the West, slavery was not an obstacle to the Industrial Revolution at all, and democracy was not about giving all slaves a voice. Their historical trajectory was that they established centralized power through reforms, coordinated the allocation of labor, and implemented scientific and institutionalized management of the entire nation's workforce.

So-called democracy is actually a system in history where the supreme power of the king was negotiated and transferred to the lower-level slave owners in order to better unify and allocate labor, thus completing the aggregation of labor.

Many later progressive forces learned all the parliamentary wrangling methods of the aforementioned pioneering forces, but due to the lack of a central unified labor management element, they all failed and were unable to enter industrialization.

The East learned from all the failures. Finally, they succeeded in the road test.

Therefore, the students began to fill in their answers...

After copying the above elements, Wu Fei began to incorporate the Qin legal system. He then used this system to guide the development of industry and commerce.

First, we need to identify the factors that hinder industrial development.

Wu Fei concludes: In foreign trade, if only merchants have the funds to purchase slaves, the nation's industry will not be able to thrive. This is because wealthy merchants and powerful families do not centralize their use of slaves; they simply keep slaves privately and seize farmland.

The Eastern dynastic cycle provides numerous examples: during the rise of a dynasty, the stronger the meritorious officials who participated in the distribution of "slaves" due to their contributions, the more likely the dynasty would become increasingly powerless in the middle period.

The Eastern Han Dynasty is a prime example. Liu Xiu did not kill his meritorious officials, which earned him a good reputation. As a result, after the first two emperors, imperial power became that of a puppet.

The Ming Dynasty is the second example. However, Zhu Yuanzhang was much more ruthless, slaughtering all the founding heroes and curbing their deep ties with the landlord class in Jiangnan. Otherwise, the Ming emperors' later reigns would not have been much better than those of the Eastern Han Dynasty. Even so, the Ming Dynasty was still unable to mobilize grassroots forces in the mid-to-late period and eventually died in poverty!
Therefore, Wu Fei decided to establish controls over slaves within the existing Qin legal system, insisting that only those with military merit and noble titles were eligible to own slaves. If merchants wanted to purchase slaves as laborers, they could only do so through a special channel opened by the general's mansion.

In Fenxing City, a "slave labor trade" market opened. Most of the local powerful families were stunned for a moment after seeing the trading rules of this market, then laughed, and then scoffed and left.

Some aristocratic families came with great enthusiasm, then left after mocking the samurai family's unrealistic ideas.

Because the conditions were too harsh, the right to own slaves was obtained through military merit titles, and then a shareholding committee was established to assess the slave production situation. If the production was insufficient to distribute dividends, then the program would end.

The Lingnan aristocratic families have been discussing this extensively.

Wu Fei knew perfectly well what they were discussing. He wasn't even interested in the details.

Because his method of slave trading completely failed to meet their needs. What did they need slaves for? To cultivate local farmland and then train domestic slaves to plunder local resources. Slaves were tools that could be discarded after use.

A committee to oversee it? What a joke!
But it's no joke; they have no choice but to accept it. In Fenxing City, Lingnan, and other places, multiple factories have begun to be built.

…Mechanical gears and violent machinery gradually synchronized. …

After the Lucky City Exchange also appeared, Wu Fei borrowed twenty years' worth of annual fees from various families through the Wu family channel, directly bought a large number of slave usage rights from the committee, and then sent them to the Fenxing City factory.

The committee obeyed the General's Mansion, and the Wu family was Wu Fei's clan. In this day and age, clan members could not act as compradors, so they could only manage as trust oligarchy.

In the 32nd year of the reign of Emperor Xu Tian, ​​a highly centralized system for managing surplus labor was formed.

The factory trust will act like a pump, constantly draining the local power base of various families.

This thing would have been a perfect "Hey, Wu Fei!" in the early 20th century!

…The confrontation between reform and conservatism thus began…

A heated debate arose among various schools of thought in Lingnan regarding the issue of "governance".

In the academies, which were only accessible to sons, young men began to engage in "political discussions," shifting the focus from "education" to the merits and demerits of the "prefecture-county system." The discussion quickly spread to various scholarly circles in the southern border regions.

When Wu Fei found out, it was already a month later, and Wu Fei was in Fenxing City at that time.

But Wu Fei still managed to figure out what these people were up to!
As a modern person, I've only read books on military theory, and my understanding of various classical texts is severely lacking, so I'd definitely be at a disadvantage in debates. But Xuan Chong, the gentleman from the previous life, possessed an unparalleled strategy for discerning information.

1. Before engaging in debate, first find out where the other party's "address" is. This will save you time and effort, and you will also understand what their "standard" is.

If the "address" is on the opposing side, don't waste your breath arguing, just start attacking! Because in this era of great competition, in the competitive manufacturing industry, there's no such thing as a "pure ideology"; everyone's vying for jobs. Behind every ideology lies business; ideologies are invented to glorify oneself and use double standards to denigrate opponents, so what's the point of arguing?
2. Figure out the opposing side's stance. If they are a minority who are self-serving, self-pitying, and obsequious to foreign powers, don't waste time; just criticize them. As for radicals and conservatives, even if their ideologies differ, as long as their stance is in the interests of their own industry group, there's not much to argue about; just seek common ground while reserving differences.

Xuan Chong was quite "conservative," but he also liked to unite with radicals.

Now, these young masters across from the southern border, spouting "divine words," have their "address" and "stance" crystal clear, without even trying to hide it.

Wu Fei's mouth stretched into a wide grin.

Wu Fei: "You're recommending people for filial piety and integrity, right? And you want to govern the country with benevolence? You want the General's Mansion to end slavery? Hahaha—"

Wu Fei: I have no interest in debating. Debating would be too verbose, and nobody would want to read it. I'll just get down to business. Watch me, Gentleman's Key!

…The far right has its own methods…

The day after the debate at the gathering, several prominent young men from the gentry ran into trouble.

One of them was drinking and spending the night at a brothel. The top hostess died, and he was suspected of a serious crime. He was put in shackles and imprisoned. Local officials went to the brothel for a surprise investigation and arrested all his accomplices, sending them to prison to "confess" how they committed the crime.

The other one got drunk and fell headfirst into the river, becoming a water ghost.

Another person overdosed on Wushi Powder at home and went insane. After going insane, he took a knife, arrogantly castrated himself, and lay in the market, bleeding profusely.

There were also all sorts of strange and bizarre things. Although in the Humane District, one could consult divination and ask about spirits and deities, it was clear that some people were controlling everything. The divination yielded no results.

Wu Fei's subordinates, including the section chiefs in charge of internal affairs, all reported these events to him accurately.

Following these frequent bizarre cases, General Wu Fei began to investigate them intensively, claiming that the evidence from these major cases indicated that remnants of the Gu Poison Cult from the Southern Frontier had infiltrated the interior of China, and that a heavy blow was necessary! (You ask what the Gu Poison Cult is? Wu Fei: I don't know either, but I need it to exist now, just like the United States in my previous life needed terrorists to exist in a certain place.)
Enraged, the general's mansion arrested a group of unfortunate men from the southern frontier, and then began a purge. They arrested a large number of idle young masters and retainers from Lingnan and sent them to be drunk and forced into prostitution.

Xuan Chong: This can be understood from the heated debates in the past life and the infighting within the Lighthouse Council. Why engage in this kind of debate when we're facing a war of words from afar? What are we debating? Since the final step is always to tear each other apart and then sling mud at each other, why not skip the fancy opening moves, strike first to break the opponent's defenses, and get it over with in one fell swoop?

A month later, Wu Fei recalled his actions and, feigning compassion, wrote in his diary: "Actually, the conflict isn't irreconcilable, but who told you you didn't encounter a good era? And my energy is limited, so I can only focus on military affairs. Therefore, in political matters, I can only focus on the big picture and let go of the small details, making things difficult for these ignorant young people who said the wrong things."

Having won numerous wars, Wu Fei certainly had the means to do so! The powerful families who stirred up public opinion this time never actually intended to force Wu Fei to back down; they merely wanted to use public opinion as a prelude to try and collude with the meritocratic faction within the military.

However, to the surprise of the various powerful families in the southern counties, they did not expect Wu Fei to launch such a massive attack all at once.

After a month of planning, the entire security bureau identified fifteen typical individuals on the list and then launched a sudden operation to brutally eliminate all fifteen of them, along with their accomplices, leaving them utterly disgraced.

As the military strategist said, it is best to launch an attack in one go and avoid piecemeal tactics.

When Wu Fei bypassed the debates and went straight to the military strategy system, a kind of "Wu-style terror" permeated all the aristocratic families. For a moment, Lingnan was speechless.

Everyone realized that Wu Xiaoque, who used to seem easy to talk to, had now fought her way out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood!
…Military strategists not only wage war, but also negotiate surrenders…

After Wu Fei announced the resolution of the major case involving the Demonic Cult, he immediately and very openly invited various families to negotiate and discuss the matter of "recommending filial and incorrupt officials."

No one dared to be negligent, or even to collude, because the messenger sent by Wu Fei was dressed in military uniform and standing at each household's door, waiting for a reply.

And so, at the most famous local restaurant in Lingnan County, "Xianzuiju," Wu Fei waited for the representatives of various aristocratic families. In front of the restaurant, Wu Fei shook hands with each of them—no, he bowed.

"Hello, sir, you're in great health!"

"Uncle Sun, you've arrived! I've been waiting for you. Please have a seat."

Wu Fei remained humble, greeting each of the uncles and elders sent by the aristocratic families. However, none of the families dared to be arrogant, and all expressed that "the general is courteous to his subordinates."

Finally, regarding the matter of recommending virtuous and filial individuals for official positions, Wu Fei's tea party with these "distinguished guests" began.
Regarding the recommendation of filial and incorrupt officials, Wu Fei gave two key instructions: the first was to ask for money.

Wu Fei, never one to shy away from shocking words, said: "To be recommended as a filial and incorruptible official, one must have 30,000 strings of cash to become a village head in Lingnan, 200,000 strings to become a county magistrate, and 1.5 million strings to become a prefect! All of this money must be deposited in the local treasury. If an official dies in office due to exhaustion, the public treasury will compensate his wife and children with twice the amount."

Wu Fei looked at everyone and said slowly, "Lingnan is a poor and barren place. If our parents, as officials, cannot appease the people of this region, how can we bear it?"

The above prices, as Wu Fei announced to the military, were adjusted so that 30 merit points would be equivalent to a pavilion, 200 merit points to a county, and 1,500 merit points to a prefecture.

All the clan representatives were completely silent! The fact that Wu Xiaoque, with a beaming smile, was so openly and brazenly engaging in "selling official positions" was something these scholarly families could never have imagined.

If it weren't for the previous "Wu-style terror," someone would definitely be reprimanding him righteously now. But now, facing the menacing Wu Fei, these aristocratic families don't know what to say.

Soon, someone wanted to plead illness, but Wu Fei casually remarked, "Gentlemen, I'm begging you all to come and buy."

These seemingly casual words struck like a thunderbolt, reminding the aristocratic families of another nickname Wu Xiaoque had in various places such as Zhuzhou, Zhou, and Donghua County: "Scraping Sparrow."

In other words, the issue today isn't whether these powerful families think selling official positions is worthwhile, but rather how many lives they'll lose if they don't pay the protection fee.

The Sun family representative said, "Sir, our family is poor."

Wu Fei looked at him and said, "Oh, you come from a poor family. Then your household should have fewer than a hundred servants and less than a thousand acres of land." (The subtext was that having more servants meant you were hiding your household, and having more land meant you were evading taxes.)
The Sun family representative was immediately dragged back by his own family.

The other representative, the Lin family, said, "General, our sons are mediocre and have no talent to recommend us."

Wu Fei quickly shook his head in denial: "Don't try to hide it from me. The talents of all of you are soaring, your mansions are grand and imposing, yet they cannot conceal your brilliance. I linger outside, admiring but unable to attain it. I am not picky; if none of you have legitimate sons, then illegitimate sons will do, even sons born of slaves will be acceptable. In my eyes, heroes are not defined by their origins. As for the virtue of the Southern Frontier, it is this—"

Wu Fei drew his sword, planted it on the table, and slowly said to the crowd, "This kind of virtue is most convincing in the Southern Frontier. If you send me ten, I guarantee I can teach two of them."

As for what became of the remaining eight? In such a harmonious meeting, Wu Fei didn't want to say much, leaving everything at that. He simply didn't want these powerful families to send over their useless members.

Looking at these aristocratic families, Wu Fei continued, "I have one more condition: all those recommended as virtuous and filial scholars must be promoted to the main branches of our clan. I am a very filial person and cannot tolerate the wicked and violent families bullying virtuous and filial scholars!"

Wu Fei sheathed his sword and said nonchalantly, "I've finished speaking."

Next, Wu Fei toasted everyone…

The negotiations went very smoothly, and all the households were willing to support Wu Fei's plan to recommend filial and incorruptible officials. No one had to suffer a second penalty.

…after the banquet…

The imperial guards secretly sent the secret letter back to the north.

(End of this chapter)