Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 791 No time for amazement, the Industrial Age is about to arrive.

In fact, Xia Lin didn't intend to care whether these kids were in early relationships. As for love, well, everyone has to go through this sooner or later. A short pain is worse than a long one, and a sharp pain is worse than a short one. Letting them experience the so-called bitterness of love in advance is not a bad thing.

Besides teaching students, he has another very important task to do: to conduct small-scale industrialization pilot projects.

He had already done a lot of groundwork locally, but the problem was that the current progress of industrialization was still very slow. The main reason was that apart from a few integrated factories built under Xia Lin’s leadership, such as cement, smelting, pesticides and fertilizers, most of the rest were still small workshops in a scattered manner.

His current goal is to bring these things together, to integrate, scale up, and improve the efficiency of multiple industries, so that more people can enjoy the convenience brought by industry and further reduce costs.

However, he also faces three major problems in promoting this. First, large-scale industrialization will inevitably compete with countless ordinary people for profits, because the same thing might cost three taels of silver in other countries but only one hundred coins after industrialization. This would lead to hundreds of thousands of people facing unemployment. This is the first problem he has to face.

The second problem is that the raw material market may not be able to withstand such high demand in the short term, which will cause raw material prices to soar for a period of time. The soaring raw material prices will also affect the livelihoods of many related industries.

Finally, there is the third and most thorny issue: the workers. The enclosure movement in the ununited Kingdom of Little Britain in the 19th century was incredibly bloody, even inhumane, and this is something we absolutely must not repeat.

Reform will indeed bring growing pains, but we must try to avoid them if possible. Otherwise, the hard-won foundation may collapse overnight, just like the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

At this point, Xia Lin's wisdom alone was clearly insufficient. He repeatedly said that he was only at the level of a county magistrate, and that he would be stretched thin if he went any higher.

Other issues include, but are not limited to, the quality of workers, public sentiment, and even individual ideology; these are all major problems that urgently need to be addressed.

Xia Lin was currently having a meeting with the heads of the Industry Bureau and the Science and Technology Bureau, while Li Chengqian and Li Zhi listened in and took notes. Xia Lin knew that these things would eventually be handed over to them, and they needed to have a certain understanding of all the procedures.

"The problem is now before us. The first issue is that with the construction of the industrial park, a large number of small workshops and handicraft workers will lose their jobs. Hundreds of thousands of mouths need to be fed, and there's a shortfall of tens of millions of taels of silver in industry. How are we going to fill that gap?" Xia Lin slammed his fist on the table, demanding, "I don't want decisions made on a whim. I want you to go through the motions, to put yourselves in my shoes and think things through. It's starting in three months, and you'd better give me a reasonable plan within those three months. Because the construction there can't wait for anyone. Please don't let my nearly 20 million taels of investment in the park turn into a pig farm, okay? I'm begging you."

None of the officials present spoke, simply because Xia Lin had given them a task that seemed almost impossible to complete.

This pressure is driving them crazy, because it seems to be another kind of unreasonable demand: "wanting the horse to run but not wanting it to eat grass."

No joke, this is far more difficult than an emperor ordering his subordinates to select twenty women more beautiful than Diao Chan, because beauty cannot be quantified, but here every mouth eating is the standard of measurement.

"Meeting dismissed."

Xia Lin picked up the materials and headed out, but none of the relevant officials left. They sat there, propping their heads up, and didn't utter a word for a long time.

At this moment, Li Chengqian spoke up: "Uncles and elders, may I have something to say?"

"Please speak, Your Highness." Many people stood up and bowed to him, saying, "We hope Your Highness can enlighten us."

Li Chengqian rose and returned the greetings one by one. After sitting down, he said, "Throughout history, the success of reforms has depended on whose share of the spoils will be taken away. In the past, reforms often involved dividing the people's profits. Countless officials' thoughts were nothing more than to make the people suffer. Yet, despite countless reforms, few have succeeded. Now, Lord Xia's meaning is very clear: we must not compete with the people for profits. But last night, I racked my brains but couldn't figure out how to avoid competing with the people. However, just now, I suddenly had an idea. I don't know if it's right or wrong, so I would appreciate guidance from my uncles and seniors."

"Please speak, Your Highness."

After pondering for a moment, Li Chengqian said, "If possible, could we take another path? If the people produce these things, then we won't get involved in that field. For example, if the people weave cloth with silk and hemp, we will weave cloth with cotton. If the people make porcelain, we will make pottery. There are countless professions in the world, and there are always some that the people cannot touch. We can simply avoid them."

At first, those present thought the young prince was talking nonsense, but as he spoke, they were all excited and slapped their thighs in admiration.

Yes! Just avoid it.

If the common people make porcelain, then they will fire, forge, and refine the clay; if the common people weave textiles, then they will gather together to cultivate mulberry trees and raise silkworms. By relinquishing the last link in the industrial chain, they can still make a great profit. When the common people can no longer afford to eat, but the market is not yet saturated, then they will have enough samples to analyze what the common people can and cannot do. With so many buyers in the world, how can one company possibly make all the money?

Everyone present was intelligent; their only worry was that they lacked the right approach. Now that the Crown Prince had suddenly opened up their minds, they immediately understood.

Instead of thinking about how to allocate resources, we should properly categorize the world into different classes so that we can be successful in everything we do.

That's why he's Li Shimin's most valued son. If it weren't for the Li family's bad reputation, he could have become a wise ruler. Now, his meticulousness and quick thinking are unmatched by his peers. A brat like Tuoba Shang is currently completely immersed in love.

Li Zhi relayed Li Chengqian's remarks to Xia Lin, who, after listening, laughed and said, "You believe Chengqian's idea was just a sudden whim?"

"Of course I don't believe it. My brother has been talking about the industrial park every day these days. Since we came back, he's been taking me around to visit places whenever he has free time. This is definitely not a sudden idea, but something he's thought about carefully."

Xia Lin nodded in satisfaction. He didn't expect a ten-year-old to have any profound insights, but he did need to be able to analyze simple problems through his own judgment.

"So what do you think of what he said?"

"It's alright, but it lacks some consideration. I think that while avoiding competition with the people is crucial, it's also essential to make things convenient for them. For example, workshops with fewer than ten employees could be exempt from taxes, those with fewer than twenty could receive appropriate tax reductions, and those with fewer than thirty could have their taxes refunded. Furthermore, workshops that have been operating for more than ten years could purchase a certain amount of raw materials at a 30% or 50% discount each year. This would truly benefit the people. However, there will inevitably be those who try to take advantage of this, so oversight is paramount. I do have some ideas, but I can't tell you yet, Father. I'm still too young; I need to listen and observe more before I can speak." "Haha, good, good, good. By the way, your sister Xiaowu brought you some food earlier. Go over there."

Upon hearing this, Li Zhi immediately got up and ran out, completely different from his wise demeanor just moments before. Xia Lin smiled, shook her head, and then also got up and went out.

He came to the little river bend where he used to live. It was still the same as before, except that the weeds, like his beard, had grown thicker and thicker with the passage of time. Boats occasionally glided across the water. He sat down, took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, and lit them. The spring breeze stirred the gentle and picturesque landscape before him.

In a daze, he seemed to see himself sitting here years ago, worrying about how to increase the population to ten thousand, which made him laugh.

But looking back, he feels even more anxious now than he did back then. Back then, he was just a young man who was venturing out into the world with sheer grit. Now, he has so many things to worry about.

Go into seclusion, and then wow the world with your amazing skills, let outsiders know what it means that they haven't even mastered the old technology yet, and their new technology has already iterated on.

The most interesting thing is climbing the technology tree. After all, after the first round of cultivation, everything is ready except for the final push.

He got up and went to the Science and Technology Bureau alone. Everyone in the bureau was very busy at the moment, and not many people even recognized Xia Lin. He opened his office, which was spotless but lacked a human touch. It must be because no one dared to work here after he left.

He sat down in his wicker chair, stretched his limbs, then took a deep breath and said, "Another beautiful day! Time to get to work!"

After saying that, he picked up a stack of drawing paper and started working. The first step was to complete the concept of the railway. Well, it wasn't actually that difficult, but it required a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources. But that didn't matter, he could first build a round-trip railway to Hongdu Prefecture.

As for the details, he has his own ways of obtaining them.

The parameters involved here are not many. Anyway, the design is ready-made. He just needs to transfer it over and change a few parameters. The most important thing is to first make a section to see if it is feasible. After all, in the era of wooden foundations, telling anyone that you can make a lump of iron travel a thousand miles a day is no different from sorcery.

Most of the people in the Science and Technology Bureau are young people who are not good at speaking. Even if they discover Xia Lin, they will not be very polite. At most, they will nod and greet him at lunch or chat briefly.

It's perfectly normal for tech people to not know how to talk, so Xia Lin didn't mind. And if he was going into seclusion, he should act like one. He handed over the construction of the industrial park outside to Li Chengqian for supervision.

It's not that no one questions whether a sixteen or seventeen-year-old can handle things well, but Xia Lin always replies to those who question him with, "I was only seventeen when I was in charge of setting up Fuliang County," leaving them speechless.

Yes, he was only seventeen that year.

Meanwhile, he and Li Zhi spent their days designing railway tracks and trains in the Science and Technology Bureau. As the saying goes, "like father, like son," which is quite remarkable. In the past, when Xia Lin was working on these things, he would always sit there alone, struggling to figure things out, without anyone to consult with. But many years have passed in the blink of an eye, and now he can discuss and verify things together with his son.

Li Zhi knew nothing, but precisely because he knew nothing, every question he couldn't understand reflected the thoughts of everyone. This actually saved Xia Lin from many detours, and Li Zhi's progress in this process was remarkable.

It can be said that the two of them explored and moved forward together, and it was not just Li Zhi who made progress.

Meanwhile, another person also made rapid progress during this period: Tuoba Shang, whose relationship with Zhang Jianzhi's older sister progressed by leaps and bounds. The Tuoba family's talent for romance was too strong, to the point that the dark-skinned sports student had now put on a school uniform and followed the little sister into the school. Although one of them was studying medicine and the other was studying engineering, the two schools were not far apart, and they would stick together whenever they had free time.

As for Xiao Wu and Zhang Jianzhi, they still attend classes during the day and play and study in Xia Lin's courtyard in the evening. Xiao Wu has become much more confident recently. Whenever he has free time, he makes various pastries by hand and brings them to the Science and Technology Bureau under the guise of feeding Mr. Xia to feed Li Zhi. At the same time, he also brings some news from the outside world.

The problem of her being harassed at school is no longer a problem, because Tuoba Shang went there. With his personality, he would be a big brother anywhere. Plus, he was generous and tall, so he quickly gained a group of followers who followed him. They even formed a "Fierce Tiger Gang," but the academy eventually ordered them to change it to the "Fierce Tiger Study Group."

But his reputation was still quite fierce. However, the Tuoba family bloodline still retained some chivalry, and his reputation in the academy was not bad. Because of him, there were far fewer bullying incidents. After all, no one could stand up to a dark-skinned sports student who was incredibly good at fighting but didn't study much and just acted as the disciplinary committee member all day long...

As the younger sister of the most muscular man in the academy, Xiao Wu was naturally safe from any harassment. Moreover, the incident had already spread throughout the academy, and it was known that the person who harassed Xiao Wu had his bullwhip cut off...

"It's done!"

On the last day before summer arrived, Xia Lin looked at the steam locomotive blueprints that he and his son had revised twenty-eight times. He slammed his hand on the table and said, "We can start trial production now!"

"Father, this is a huge piece of stuff weighing hundreds of thousands of kilograms. Don't you want to double-check the weight?"

"What's the big deal? Just build it first. We'll cover any losses." Xia Lin chuckled, holding up the blueprints, and then said to Li Zhi, "Come on, sign your name in the chief designer section."

"Father, you're cheating..."

"Forget about cheating, just sign it. If you don't live up to expectations in the future, your descendants will expose you for cheating. Don't blame your father for not protecting you then."

(End of this chapter)