Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 397 Ideal
"Whoa", a middle-aged coachman in a white short shirt sat in front of the carriage, pulled a thick and long rein in his hand, and stopped the carriage steadily outside Guanghua Gate.

"Gentlemen, we have arrived at Chang'an City. After entering Guanghua Gate, walk three to five miles north and you will reach the Imperial Palace."

The middle-aged driver turned around and said with a smile, "Large three-wheeled carriages are not allowed to pass through Chang'an City, so today I can only take you three to Guanghua Gate. Gentlemen, please bear with me."

"The city isn't far, so it's okay for us to get off the bus and walk over."

The curtain was drawn, and Tang Jingsong and two men in their twenties got out of the car. They took out a few banknotes and said, "The fare for three people is one dollar and fifty cents. Please keep it, master."

"Hey, thank you, gentlemen. Here is your change."

The driver's face was wrinkled, and he took out two dimes from the cloth bag around his waist and said with a smile, "Not more, not less, just two coins. Please keep them."

"No need for change. The driver is a good driver. He didn't let the three of us suffer from the bumpy ride. Please keep the two dimes."

"Thank you, sir."

Seeing that the three people opposite him were all well-dressed and did not look like people who were short of money, the middle-aged driver happily put the two coins back into the bag with a smile on his face.

"Don't be afraid of being laughed at by the three gentlemen. I have been in South America for seven or eight years. At the beginning, I worked in a state-owned farm. After four years in Jianye, I completed my two years of compulsory labor and came to Chang'an City with more than 20 familiar colleagues to make a living as a cart driver. After four or five years in Chang'an City, my colleagues have found ways to make a living one after another and switched to other businesses. I am the only one who is still driving carts back and forth within a hundred miles of Chang'an City.

Alas, I didn’t learn any skills to rely on when I was young, and now that I’m approaching middle age, I’m still driving a horse-drawn carriage back and forth like I did a dozen years ago.”

"Driving a horse carriage is also a skill. I see that the master has superb driving skills. With this skill, it is not easy to become rich, but it is not difficult to make a living in the prosperous capital."

Tang Jingsong had nothing to do, so he just chatted with the other party for a few more words.

"It's not difficult to earn enough money to eat, but it's much more difficult to save up enough money to find a wife."

The driver shook his head with a look of shame on his face.

"After the Spring Festival, I was thirty years old, and all the money in my family was only three or four hundred Han yuan, which was far from enough to cover the expenses of marrying a wife.

The business of driving a coach is getting harder and harder. I was lucky today and met three gentlemen who took care of me. I got a big order, but after the Spring Festival, the number of people traveling to and from the capital will return to normal, and it will be difficult to make money then."

"Why is that? According to my observation, the wheels of the carriages traveling to and from Chang'an City have all been replaced with rubber pneumatic tires. With these pneumatic tires, the carriages are less bumpy when driving and travel faster. Compared with the previous wooden-wheeled carriages, shouldn't the pneumatic tire carriages be more popular? Why is the carriage driving business not doing well?"

A young man next to Tang Jingsong asked.

"What the young gentleman said is right. Since the rubber pneumatic tires were replaced, driving a rickshaw has indeed become much more convenient and faster than before. However, because the threshold for driving a rickshaw is low and it does not require very sophisticated skills, hundreds of new immigrants enter the rickshaw driving industry every year. They have just arrived in the mainland and are used to the hard life in the Far East. They are able to endure hardships and are willing to work hard to attract customers. Therefore, compared with them, the old rickshaw drivers who have stayed in the mainland for seven or eight years or four or five years have some savings at home and are less motivated to make money. When it comes to attracting customers, it is difficult for them to compete with the new immigrants."…………

After finishing the conversation with the coachman, Tang Jingsong took the two young men and first booked a banquet in the inn in the city. Then the three of them sat together, eating and discussing what they saw and heard along the way.

“Jifu, Linshu, how do you feel about the journey?”

Tang Jingsong sat at the top seat and asked with a smile.

"The country is peaceful and the people are prosperous. Compared with the miserable lives of the people in the Central Plains, the South American Han Kingdom can be called a paradise on earth."

Qiu Fengjia's face was filled with surprise and envy. After praising the South American Han Kingdom for a while, he also expressed his own opinion: "I just chatted with the coachman outside Chang'an City. I think the South American Han Kingdom is rich, but the people live a carefree life. Food and meat are cheap. They don't have to spend much energy to have a meat meal every three to five days. Such a comfortable life may lead to laziness and lack of ambition, which is not good for the future development of the country and the court."

"According to Ji Fu's opinion, what is the most appropriate way to implement the policy?" "I think that the South American Han Kingdom should follow the example of the Lucia Empire. The government should take over all the land left behind by the white people in Argentina and the uncultivated fertile land, and then grant different areas of land to officials and generals according to their meritorious service in previous wars.

As for ordinary overseas immigrants, the government can rent out unowned land and uncultivated land to overseas immigrants at low prices, and collect a certain amount of land rent and grain tax every year. In this way, new immigrants can get food to feed themselves through labor, and the central and local governments can also collect a large amount of land tax from overseas immigrants, which is beneficial to both the country and the people. "

"Ji Fu's ideas are exactly the same as the reforms carried out by the Lucia Empire. I believe you have learned a lot of information about the Lucia reforms recently."

Tang Jingsong guessed, thinking of the land system reform carried out by Tsarist Russia.

"Lucia is the largest country in Europe. I think there are many things worth learning from the Lucia Empire's reforms, especially the land system reform, which is very consistent with the current situation of the South American Han Kingdom."

"Has Ji Fu ever considered what these landless people would do if they did not have their own land for decades or a hundred years and the country was in turmoil?"

"As long as the number of immigrants entering is limited, the South American Han country is vast and sparsely populated, and the people don't have to worry about starving, there will be no people who risk being beheaded to rise up and rebel."

"Haha, Ji Fu, your idea was the most effective way to concentrate resources to develop the country 20 years ago, but it is no longer appropriate now."

He Ziyuan, who was sitting nearby and rarely spoke, drank a glass of strong liquor and said excitedly: "Industry, industry is the only truth for the peace of the people and the prosperity of the country! Any conservative, stubborn and backward ruling class will be vulnerable in the face of large-scale industry!
Brother Ji Fu! Do you know what the fatal flaw is in the Lucia reforms you approve of? "

"Please give me some advice, Brother Lin Shu."

“Industry is the only way for a country to become rich and strong, and education is the foundation for developing industry. In order to raise government funds, the Lucia Empire held the land that should have been distributed to the people, and then rented the land to squeeze profits from the bottom farmers.

I don't deny that the reform of the Lucia Empire is the easiest and fastest way to accumulate original capital, but it is also the stupidest way. The people are not cattle, sheep or livestock. The Lucia government can now sacrifice the interests of the lower-class people for the sake of industrial development. But in the future, the officials who rely on exploiting the interests of the people will intensify their efforts and force the lower-class people into a desperate situation. The tremendous power that erupts in despair will blow the entire Lucia Empire to pieces!

I never believed that officials who were born as scholars would have the integrity of saints. As long as they were given the opportunity, they would always find ways to squeeze benefits from the people. In the reform system of the Lucia Empire, do the landless people have any way to protect their own interests? No, not a single one!

The only way to protect the people's own interests is for farmers to have their own land, the power to control the land, and the power to speak out to the central government and fight back against corrupt local officials! "

He Ziyuan's young face showed a rare enthusiasm in this era: "It is completely impossible to expect those Eight Banners dignitaries in the Forbidden City to understand these principles. Only in the South American Han Kingdom, a new industrial country, can the great Han nation be revived again!"

"Lin Shu, you are still the same as in previous years. Your temperament has not changed."

He Ziyuan was a young talent that Tang Jingsong valued very much. Long before Tang Jingsong fled to Annan, he had admired his talent and knowledge. For this reason, Tang Jingsong specifically asked someone to invite He Ziyuan and another young scholar in the imperial examination, Qiu Fengjia, whom he admired very much, to the Han Kingdom in South America, intending to recommend them both to Emperor Li Mingyuan. However, seeing that He Ziyuan was as enthusiastic about the so-called large-scale industry and national rejuvenation as he was many years ago, Tang Jingsong couldn't help but wonder whether it was right or wrong for him to invite He Ziyuan to South America?
Unlike the radical and idealistic He Ziyuan, Tang Jingsong, while harboring a passion for serving the country, also possessed a smooth and flexible character. Under the influence of this character, after entering the officialdom of the South American Han Kingdom midway, Tang Jingsong's career became increasingly smooth. From a small bureau-level official in 1882, he gradually rose to become a deputy ministerial official and held the important position of Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Moreover, because the Minister of Foreign Affairs Hu Yaqi was too old and would retire next year, Tang Jingsong was very likely to defeat many competitors in the competition for the Minister of Foreign Affairs and obtain the high position of Minister.

Inviting young and promising talents to serve the country is a way for Tang Jingsong to strengthen his position in Li Mingyuan's heart. However, it is difficult for him to predict whether a group of idealistic young people will encounter setbacks in officialdom after coming to power, which will in turn affect his own career prospects?
People change with time. He Ziyuan did not realize that the idol who had resigned from his post in anger and fled to Annan would become sophisticated and smooth. Tang Jingsong also could not have predicted that his seemingly ordinary recommendation would
It changed the historical trajectory of a passionate young man and also enabled him to achieve even greater achievements in another land.

He Ziyuan was born on January 1865, 1 in Shunyulu, Xingwozi, Shima Town, Xingning City, Guangdong Province. In 23, when he was only 1881 years old, he participated in the Jiaying Prefecture Examination and won the first place in the first class. He was admitted as a student on government stipend and then went to Xingning County to perform his duties. In 1883, he was promoted to the position of inspector for "maturity, fairness, and excellent writing and morality" and was responsible for supervising the education work of the whole county. In March 1884, He Ziyuan set out from Guangzhou and traveled to the United States on a cargo ship at his own expense to investigate basic education and tea trade. At that time, the anti-Chinese trend was at its peak. 3 Chinese and their families were taken back to their homeland by the Han country. The to Chinese who chose to stay were bullied by white people in the United States. Witnessing the low status of Chinese overseas, He Ziyuan had the idea of ​​educational reform and national salvation.

In August of the same year, He Ziyuan returned to China by boat. The following year, he founded the first Western-style six-year "Yunandong Elementary School" in his hometown. He served as the principal and taught students personally, offering courses in Chinese, arithmetic, history, geography, drawing, singing, gymnastics, and labor.

In February 1888, Tongren School was founded. In May 2, Tongren School was reported to be teaching rebellious ideas and was closed by the Qing government.

In June, He Ziyuan felt that the country was weakening and the government was corrupt, so he contacted the anti-Qing organization in Guangzhou. In October, through the intelligence base established by the Han Kingdom on the mainland, He Ziyuan and his good friend Qiu Fengjia took a ship to South America and joined Tang Jingsong who was working in the Han Kingdom government.

After entering the Han Kingdom in South America, although the living standards of the local people were completely different from those in the Central Plains, what He Ziyuan was most concerned about was the impact of the industrialization of the Han Kingdom on their lives.
Pneumatic tires used in bicycles and carriages, Chinese-made films, cameras, and soda ash that were renowned in the Western world, and three state-owned shipyards on the Atlantic coast that were capable of building their own ironclad warships.
Witnessing the earth-shaking changes in society and people's lives brought about by industrialization, He Ziyuan increasingly regretted why he still had illusions about the Qing court and wasted his precious time on the Eight Banners nobles of the Qing court. Looking back now, his thoughts at that time were so naive and ridiculous.

We have seen the great achievements of industrialization, but also the side effects of industrialization, such as the gradual replacement of low-skilled industries such as horse-drawn carriage drivers, and the lack of competitiveness of carriage drivers and dock laborers, who had to lose their job opportunities to new immigrants because they could not read or write.
Although these phenomena have led to some social problems, these problems are within the controllable range, have little impact on the overall national industrialization development, and will not lead to drastic social changes.

(End of this chapter)