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

Chapter 801 What's the point of coming here?

Xia Lin had little time to rest; he had too many things to deal with. The main problem was the constant stream of issues in the research and development of new things. After all, as long as the blueprints were accurate, there weren't many problems with those bulky, crude things like trains. But there were other issues that weren't so simple.

For example, electricity.

Electricity is something everyone is familiar with. Even before basic industries reached that level, it wasn't difficult to create it from scratch. But problems arose when the decision was made to deliver it to every household as an accelerator of civilization.

As we all know, generating electricity is easy but storing it is difficult, and increasing voltage is easy but stabilizing it is difficult. For example, the Jiangnan region has abundant water resources, so hydropower is naturally the main source of electricity. However, hydropower also has its problems. It is heavily dependent on the climate. During the dry season and the wet season, the speed of the turbine is significantly different, which means that the voltage problem is difficult to solve.

And that's what Xia Lin needed to be involved in designing.

“We need to dig an artificial lake in this area,” Xia Lin marked on the map. “At least seven.”

At this moment, a student asked curiously, "Headmaster, this is halfway up the mountain. Are we going to flatten it?"

"Correct."

Xia Lin's affirmation caused everyone present to gasp in surprise. Leveling the mountain to store water—putting aside the amount of work involved, what was the point of doing this?
"Quiet down, everyone." Xia Lin coughed. "This is called energy storage. Everyone here should have studied physics, right? The term energy storage shouldn't be hard to understand, right? Electrical energy is actually a very special thing. Unlike chemical energy, which can be stored in the form of coal, charcoal, wood, or even alcohol, it can only be converted in other ways. In addition to energy storage, these artificial lakes also serve to stabilize voltage. For example, during the high-water season, the water flow is fast, and our turbines generate surplus electricity. We can then pump this excess electricity up the mountain to complete the energy storage."

As soon as he said that, someone immediately realized: "When the dry season comes, can we release water from these reservoirs to make the turbines generate electricity more stably?"

"Yes, besides that, there is another advantage to this kind of energy storage, which is that we can directly use the energy accumulated by the terrain to ensure the water pressure of the tap water. In this way, we can solve the previous problem of tap water pressurization in the future."

Xia Lin's method is one that many impoverished and remote areas will use in the future. This seemingly impractical method is actually a gift from God. The reservoir on the mountain can be used for energy storage and power generation as well as for pressurizing tap water, achieving two goals at once.

With the potential energy generated by the natural drop in elevation at high altitudes, the water pressure is more than sufficient to support the planned use of tap water in large urban areas.

The thought of having clean water just by turning on the tap and bright lights as soon as she got home filled Xia Lin with anticipation.

What is the biggest dream of a time traveler? Xia Lin doesn't know about others, but he just wants to live a life where he can turn on the air conditioner in the summer, have heating in the winter, drink a bottle of cola when he has nothing to do, and preferably watch TV.

Xia Lin was in his thirties, and half of his life had passed. In the past half of his life, he had lived a magnificent life, doing things that others could not do in several lifetimes. In fact, he had already reached the pinnacle of power. A normal person would have already conquered the country, unified the world, and sat on that golden throne.

But he refused, because that wasn't what he wanted. He had two goals in life: one was to drink a proper Coke in his lifetime, and it had to be an ice-cold, pure sugar version. The second goal was to prevent as many foreseeable disasters as possible for his descendants.

The second is ideals. After all, the future is too unpredictable. If something unexpected happens, then ideals can be abandoned as they please. But the first one is something that must be achieved. What was it like when the People's Republic of China was founded? The illiteracy rate was even higher than it is now. In just a few years, it has spread globally. Is it really that difficult for him to want a sip of iced cola?
"Chen Fei," Xia Lin called out, looking up, "Settle the score!"

Chen Fei, who was standing nearby, immediately picked up his abacus and started calculating rapidly. The only sound in the room was the crisp sound of his abacus. In the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, he said, "Headmaster, the accounts are in. The materials and labor for the seven artificial lakes will cost 18.5 million taels of silver. If we increase it to nine, we can reduce the price to around 2,000 taels. Nine would be more suitable, but that's probably not possible now because the railway's consumption is too high. We can only dig out one or two to test first. I think it's safer to dig out two for testing first."

"Then I'll leave this matter to you. How long will it take at the shortest?"

Upon hearing Xia Lin's question, Chen Fei, the aloof senior student whose face was never expressionless, lowered his head and continued typing away on the keyboard.

“We have three options to choose from. If we gather 30,000 people, it will be very efficient, but it will be twice as expensive as the normal model, costing nearly five million taels for three months for one lake.”

"What about a month?"

"Seven million." Chen Fei raised his head, still expressionless. "That's a bit too expensive. Does the headmaster still need to consider it?"

Xia Lin scratched his chin: "How much silver do we have available for expenditure in our accounts?"

Chen Fei, who was usually shrewd, capable, and didn't talk much, stopped at this moment. He tried to speak several times but ultimately didn't say anything.

"say something!"

"Six taels."

"That's about right, just one million taels short."

"Six taels, headmaster." Xia Lin was taken aback, his features immediately contorting: "How much?"

"Six taels! All our funds these days have been spent on the railway tracks. Each mile is worth nearly a thousand taels, and we need to lay nearly three thousand miles of tracks round trip. All our money is in there."

Xia Lin squatted down, took out a cigarette from his pocket, and took a puff with a worried look on his face: "Really out of money?"

"It's really gone."

So Xia Lin wrote a letter to Jinling City, and soon a message came from Jinling City. There was nothing special about it. Although it was two or three thousand words long, the core idea was just two words - no money.

Inside, Old Zhang earnestly said that with the current activities of opening up the sea, building ships, laying railways, and developing mining areas, they have accomplished in three years what others have achieved in thirty years, leaving behind a huge financial hole. If the silver mines in the East don't come by the end of this year, everyone will have to eat chaff and wild vegetables next year, and the salaries of officials at all levels in the Great Wei may not even be paid.

Seeing that this path was blocked, Xia Lin turned to write to San Niang, but San Niang's reply was exactly the same as Lao Zhang's. She meant that the Li Tang Dynasty was in turmoil, and the new Xianyang could not be abandoned halfway. In addition, she had lent Xia Lin a large sum of money to expand overseas a few days ago, and the debt had not been settled. She really had no money.

To be honest, Third Sister might be bluffing when she said she had no money, but Old Zhang was genuinely broke when he said he had no money. Even if Third Sister was bluffing, she must have had her reasons, since she was now the emperor and couldn't act as recklessly as before.

So it's not really a matter of blaming, but rather, where should this money come from?

“Actually, sometimes I really miss the old corvée system.” Xia Lin sat there looking worried: “Several million taels of silver is no small amount, it’s a headache.”

At this moment, Chen Fei, who was standing next to him, suddenly spoke up: "Headmaster, I have a way."

"You said."

He didn't speak immediately but started calculating on his abacus again, saying as he did so, "We can raise funds from the public for the first reservoir we build. Once completed, this dam can support the daily water needs of nearly 60% of the people in the main urban area. I'll cover the cost of the water pipes, and for the next ten years, all the residents of the city can have free water. What do you think?"

“No, if it’s free, someone will waste it.” Xia Lin waved his hand: “Forced contributions are also not advisable… Forget it, I’ll go all out tomorrow and become a beggar.”

The next day, Xia Lin personally went to the city gate, found a table and chairs, and sat down. In front of him was a donation box, and next to the box was a notice board that stated that Fuliang's finances were in dire straits, and the reservoir was in urgent need of seven million taels of silver. He hoped that everyone would generously donate. All donors would receive an IOU, and the donated silver would accrue interest of 170%.

Actually, he didn't have high hopes at first, because warlords and local officials had been doing this kind of blatant extortion of money from the people for ages, all the way into the year 2000. Now, his sob story was just an attempt to see if he could awaken the maternal instincts of people like Tang Bao'er and Dou Yazi.

But it was clear that these two women were heartless. As soon as they heard that there was absolutely no way they could make a profit from this stuff, they didn't spend any more money than buy five steamed buns for Xia Lin.

But the real surprise came about ten minutes after he went out to beg. The local people of Fuliang spread the word about Lord Xia begging at the city gate, and more and more people gathered around.

After learning a little about what had happened, they suddenly started taking out money, some as little as thirty or fifty coins, others as much as two or three hundred taels.

"Register! Please register!"

Xia Lin shouted until her voice was hoarse, but less than one in a hundred people actually registered. Whether it was an old man selling tofu on the street or a nouveau riche with a young woman in his arms and a protruding belly, most of them just threw down the money and left.

If staff members grab their clothes and ask them to register, they will try to break free.

At first, they used a box to store the silver, then they had to use a basin, and eventually even the basins couldn't hold it all, so they had to use a large vat.

As the sun set in the afternoon, Xia Lin began to count the amount of money raised that day with the students around him. Although everyone was exhausted and their voices were so hoarse that they could hardly speak, they had raised 7.62 million taels of silver in just one day.

Such a large sum of money was accumulated bit by bit by countless people, and fewer than a hundred people left their names and amounts.

While helping with the bookkeeping, Xia Lin sighed, "It's truly lamentable to have to use one's reputation to earn a living."

"Headmaster, I don't think so. What do you think should be the name of this first reservoir?"

“Let’s call it…” Xia Lin looked up at the azure sky: “Red Flag Reservoir.”

(End of this chapter)