The Great Industrial Ming Dynasty Started from Beiping

Chapter 491 512 'Mr. Huang's' train trip
"Mr. Huang, the tickets have been bought."

Jiangning Railway Station.

In the waiting hall, an old man and a man, who looked like followers, were sitting on long wooden chairs, holding three train tickets in their hands.

The train ticket said Jiangning to Guangde, steam engine train No. [-].

soon.

The staff on the platform came and shouted loudly, "Steam engine train No. [-] has arrived. Passengers who need to get on the train hurry up and get on the train."

Each station has different modes.

For small stations, passengers will go directly to the platform to wait. Although the train stations around Yingtianfu have only been open to traffic for a few months, their usage rate is completely different from other places.

There were quite a few people who had clearly written the train tickets in their hands, but still got on the wrong train, so the position of station announcer was promoted.

'Mr. Huang' stood up, the junior next to him took the ticket, and the three of them queued up as usual, as if it was a normal thing.

It's an ordinary thing indeed.

Both squires and ordinary people queue up here, enter the platform after passing the ticket inspection, and then continue to check in at the platform.

'Mr. Huang's' followers and juniors closely guarded 'Mr. Huang'.

There were also many people wearing various clothes in front and behind the queue, and the ticket inspectors at the platform couldn't help but mutter.

"There are particularly many passengers on this line today."

"Passenger usage is increasing every month, which is nothing surprising."

Chatting while working.

The people in the queue only care about rushing to the platform, and no one cares about anyone else. Some are carrying burdens, some are carrying sacks, and some are carrying boxes.

The identity of each person can be distinguished from the different clothes and manners.

Whether they work in shops that rely on small-scale commodity circulation on the railway, or they are day laborers at the docks, or they are ordinary people visiting relatives, or they are scholars, or they are local squires, etc. Each status is very different.

Having specially bought a steam engine train ticket, 'Mr. Huang' got into his seat very smoothly.

"Squeeze what?"

A man yelled.

"I'm offended, but I'd like to thank Haihan." "Mr. Huang"'s junior apologized.

Several men in the surrounding area quietly came closer, ready to be on guard against any accidents.

The man was stunned for a moment, not expecting that the other party would take the initiative to apologize. Then he looked at the old man he was protecting, who looked to be around seventy years old.

The man said nothing, put away the dissatisfaction on his face, carried his big sack and went elsewhere, looking for his seat.

Seeing that the man was gone, many people around him resumed their normal actions.

"Mr. Huang, our seats are here."

The entourage found their seats, 'Mr. Huang' and his juniors walked over, and the window seat was given to 'Mr. Huang'.

The seats are facing each other.

There is an aisle in the middle, and there are two rows of seats on both sides, which is equivalent to four seats in one stall, and the two stalls on the left and right are eight people, for a total of 72 seats.

"Uncle, there is a seat for outsiders."

"Good."

'Mr. Huang' looked out the window with curiosity. There were still people coming in on the platform, all kinds of people.

'Mr. Huang''s juniors know that 'Mr. Huang' will not blame.

Originally, one of their own people would buy the remaining seat, but it turned out that it had already been sold. When he was thinking about whether to use his power, he had an idea.

really.

Not only did 'Mr. Huang' not blame him, he also looked very satisfied.

Soon.

A man came to the remaining aisle seat. He was wearing a long gown and a pair of glasses, and he was walking hard with a box in both hands.

"let me help you."

"It's heavy."

"Yo, so heavy."

The attendant of 'Mr. Huang' really didn't expect it. He originally thought that the man was a scholar and had a delicate body, but he didn't expect that the box was really heavy.

"What's in it?" the attendant asked lightly, stuffing the other person's box under his seat to block the scholar.

"They're all books."

The scholar smiled and thanked the other party. After hearing this, the other party went in and gave up his seat to the scholar.

As most people sat in their seats, instead of being quiet, the carriage gradually became noisy.

People in each booth chatted.

Those who are outgoing don't care about their status or lack of status.

Wonderful stories from all over the world appear in this small carriage, and even the most introverted people will prick up their ears and listen with interest.

In such a small carriage, it seems that the whole world cannot escape, and names appear one by one in every corner.

The scholar has a quiet temperament, but the booth he is in is too unique.

The three of them were silent and looked very different from the people in the carriage. As a result, he thought too much, and the oldest one listened for a moment, as if he had just discovered him.

"Sir, what's your surname? Where are you from and where are you going?"

"Mr. Hui, my surname is Chen. My ancestral home is Jiangxi. I now live in Peiping. I am going to Zhejiang." The scholar said politely.

"He's from Peiping."

"Beiping is a good place."

"My surname is Huang, and I am seventy-one this year."

"Yo."

"You live a long life, but it's not good for you to go out to other places at such an old age. What does your family do?"

Before the scholar could answer, the person next door came uninvited.

'Mr. Huang' also has a familiar temperament, and he became the most handsome old man in the carriage with just a few words.

Things that fly in the sky, things that swim in the water, things that crawl on the ground, the customs and customs of various places, and local stories, "Mr. Huang" talks about them one after another.

Finally, the topic was brought to the scholar by 'Mr. Huang'.

"The tallest building in Peiping has thirteen floors. Including the clock tower and water tower, it is close to [-] feet. The huts inside are flushed with water, otherwise the traditional huts would be so smelly." "The main roads in Peking City are There are railroad tracks, horse-drawn trains are used, and the first steam engine bus was built. It initially carried [-] people, but now it can transport more than [-] people in a sit-and-stand mode."

"People get up in the south of Beiping City in the morning and take the bus to work in the north of Beiping City. On holidays, they go to the east of Beiping City to play, and there are also games in the west of Beiping City. Because there are many large mines in the west of Beiping City, people in the mines play football a lot and the competitions are fierce. , people like to go and see it.”

"In Peiping, those who are most envied are those who farm."

As soon as the scholar said it, people began to doubt it.

"This gentleman is really good at lying. There are still people in the world who envy farming."

"It doesn't make sense."

When people look at each other, the readers become anxious.

"Beiping implements a large-scale well system, mainly military households. The average farming households are military households with an average of [-] acres of land per household. Ordinary people are not qualified to farm."

"Wouldn't that mean he becomes a landlord?"

Someone said in surprise.

"They are not landowners. They farm their own land."

“How can one family cultivate a hundred acres of land?”

"Beiping is mainly wheat-based. There are sickle carts for sowing, seven-legged columbus carts for harvesting, hand-cranked fan carts for shelling, water rice hullers for shelling by water conservancy, etc., as well as chemical fertilizers and pesticides."

The scholar talked about Peiping's agricultural model, which made people marvel.

"There are so many appliances that are not cheap."

"How can ordinary people afford it?"

People shook their heads.

The scholar smiled and said: "This is the benefit of the large-scale well system. It increases people's income and creates a demand for the use of machinery. Therefore, there has been a great development of agricultural machinery."

"Think about it, if a family only has a few acres of land, or more than ten acres of land, and can cultivate it by manpower, who would be willing to buy machinery? Even if they want to buy it, they can't afford it."

"The north is different from the south."

A squire said: "Back then, the population of Beipingxing Province was less than 200 million, which was still the number of people who had immigrated from all over the country for many years."

"So there is a lot of open land in the north, but not in the south. The south has a large population but few acres. How can we implement a large-scale well system."

The scholar pushed up his glasses on the bridge of his nose and disagreed with the squire's statement.

With the conversation here, more and more people gathered around.

That's how it is on the train, nothing changes.

It was not until the rise of faster and more efficient ways of communicating information that this custom changed.

"Industry is fine. Develop industry and draw more people into industry. If there are fewer people farming, more fields can be allocated."

The scholar's statement did not convince the people in the carriage.

Because they haven't seen it.

It's like saying there are no gods in the sky, because people have never seen it and they can't understand why there are no gods in the sky.

'Mr. Huang' interrupted.

"Mr. Chen goes to Zhejiang to teach?"

"Yes, every provincial government has to open a school. Peiping fired many people, and I was assigned to Zhejiang." The scholar laughed.

Speaking of teaching and educating people, the scholars became interested.

His face was full of admiration.

"Our ancestors are developing in every generation, such as the development of pronunciation and mathematics. There is a line to follow."

"The first ancestors, they didn't know what the countless 'grasses' in the world did, which ones could be eaten and which ones couldn't be eaten, which ones had high yield and high value, and which ones had low yield and low value."

"So the ancestors of Xia, Shang and Zhou tasted hundreds of herbs, and in the Qin and Han Dynasties, they separated hundreds of grains. Then the ancestors of the Sui and Tang Dynasties determined the five grains. The ancestors of the Song Dynasty established the rotation of rice in the south and wheat in the north. Agricultural roots.”

"Just like astronomy, astronomy is developing in each generation and becoming more and more accurate. From the year difference of one month to the year difference of ten days, in the Ming Dynasty, the year difference is already one day."

"Is our Ming Dynasty calendar inaccurate?" people said in disbelief.

"The technical newspaper has already said that our Ming Dynasty's almanac differs by one day every year." The scholar laughed: "But now that the error has been discovered, a more accurate almanac will soon be available."

If Zhu Gaochi were here, he would know that the new calendar of the Wanli period came out 200 years in advance, and the error was reduced to one hour a year.

This calendar appeared exactly in the Western calendar newly formulated in the West at the end of the [-]th century.

Some people explain that it was invented by missionaries in the Ming Dynasty.

So think about it from another perspective, the Western calendar capabilities are not as good as a few missionaries. They need to travel thousands of miles to the Ming Dynasty and then invent a new calendar.

The accuracy of the calendar can represent the height of the comprehensive civilization level in mathematics, astronomy, navigation, applied technology, etc.

There are extensive written records of the changes in the Chinese calendar and the improvements in each period, including detailed data recorded by astronomical observations.

Precisely because there are a large number of written records, after the wash of time, some records are still preserved to later generations.

The West has been using the calendar from thousands of years ago.

For example, when Matteo Ricci left Europe, European astronomy was in a stage of "two nothings": no observatories and no astronomical observation data.

After arriving in the Ming Dynasty, he suddenly became a powerful astronomer.

The emergence of the new calendar at the same time in the West was a huge breakthrough all of a sudden without any detailed records. In short, there was no process, only results.

This is the importance of the right to speak.

If you don't occupy it, others will.

E.g.

Later generations' remarks were that the Han people only existed after the Yuan Dynasty. In the future, there may be no such thing as Han people, and it is just pieced together.

Don't think it's impossible.

The former statement would have also shocked people decades ago in later generations.

Another example is the very beginning.

People's consensus is that Wanqing mistook me for China.

In the end, unknowingly, it became the inevitable result of Chinese civilization.

This is the importance of the right to speak.

Why it becomes like this, you will understand naturally.

(End of this chapter)