Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 306 Is Today a Day of Order or Chaos?
On the Han side, Qin Tianyi, Xu Xi, and others informed Xuan Chong's circle about the situation in Longzhou and specifically asked Xuan Chong for his opinion on "the Orks wreaking havoc in the north of Longzhou".

Xuan Chong: How can I see it? Because the people of the New World are outside the main continent, they always have a habitual feeling of "being an exception" when facing a global crisis.

This wasn't a one-off occurrence; it happened three hundred years ago during the massive cholera outbreak originating from the Indian subcontinent. Panic gripped all the nations of the continent. Even rival states secretly lobbied for medical professionals to exchange information. Only the people of the New Yin Federation believed they had escaped the old world, condemned by the gods, and considered the new world the chosen land. And the result? The most deaths.

When asked by his "classmates," Xuan Chong gave a neutral answer: Longzhou is a relatively young country.

Xuan Chong was unaware that his words resonated with Xu Xi.

In a conversation that Xuan Chong was unaware of, Xu Xi said: "Tsk tsk, looks like he knows how to be young."

Xu Xi is now 90% certain that Xuan Chong was a member of the First Red Dynasty, and Xie Ming, who is currently in Longzhou, is also a member of the First Red Dynasty.

History describes the First Red Dynasty as "young," because during the long imperial era, the power to interpret and implement the system was monopolized by the scholar-officials and the old merit group (the loyalists), which resulted in too many obscure and difficult-to-understand parts in the governance structure.

Therefore, when the Bloodfire Generation established their nation, they simply formatted the entire national system.

"Though Zhou is an old state, its mandate is ever new." The young people of the First Red Dynasty descended with a mission, possessing a vigorous and upward momentum. They are unwilling to admit defeat in the face of challenges, but they lack vigilance against the malice of the world. They always believe that if they are good enough, others will be better too, and that if they are kind and accommodating enough, other people they interact with in the world will become their comrades and fight together.

The flaw is that it thinks too highly of the barbarians, mistakenly believing that as long as one is above all others, one must have a noble mission for civilization, the nation, and the people, not realizing that "the barbarians having a ruler is not as good as the Chinese not having one."

Xu Xi glanced at the situation in Longzhou and said speechlessly: "Just like last time, they recklessly broke the rules, made a mess of things, and then forced a push in the end."

…The growth of “morality” among barbarians has its limits…

In 2109 of the Han calendar, Xie Ming and his team had a relatively good grasp of the Orks near the Earth Shield. This mining group adopted a "pigeon-catching" approach, carrying out an extermination-style capture of the few Ork growing areas on the northern rock plains that might produce large spore mushroom sites, and then using these areas for mineral extraction at a depleted rate.

However, since Xie Ming's joint mining company was a "spontaneous action" by local forces, no matter how well such a "spontaneous action" was carried out, it was still subordinate. It was not an auspicious sign like "the year of Jiazi brings great fortune to the world."

Therefore, in the eyes of the lords of the New Union Federal Council, the threat from the Northern Orks was not significant, because they had not exerted any effort and had left it to its own devices for a year without any major problems arising.

After learning that the Orks in the Earth Shield region didn't even have iron tools, the high-ranking officials of the New Yin Federation didn't take them seriously. These gentlemen, who were smoking cigars and drinking tea and coffee, believed that the Orks of Dragon State could not become as rampant as they were in the Old World!
The reason this land is so fertile is that the central "plains" are too large, so the people in different regions are scattered and unable to form a united force.

Therefore, within the Federation, the prevailing style of operation is "only seeing the thief stealing meat, but not seeing the thief getting beaten up."

Even some slave traders from Europe considered capturing some Okes in the north for domestication and sending them to cotton fields and mines in West Africa.

The wealthy merchants of Longzhou believed that they could use reliable methods of restraint (whips and shackles) to force Ouke to generate valuable social production value.

As for the serious warnings from a few organizations, such as the six reports sent by Jemint's company in the north, explaining that the Orcs of Dragon State might become extremely dangerous due to the influence of the Old World.

However, these warnings were ignored, and other companies within the Federation became suspicious of their neighbors, believing that Jemint's company had discovered the value of Oak and wanted to monopolize it.

South of the Great Lakes, many companies began organizing expeditions to capture slaves to the north, much like the Europeans' transoceanic human trafficking in the past.

However, in this timeline, the indigenous peoples of the Americas did not become extinct. After rapidly entering the civilized era, they also inherited the slave-hunting "industry" of Europe.

This is because the region itself has a slave culture. The indigenous people of Longzhou are divided into dozens of ethnic groups from south to north, and they don't speak the same language. It has always been a game of capture and capture.

Even in the Xuan Chongyuan timeline, the "slave-hunting industry" that arose after Europeans arrived in North America was due to their increased contact with these tribes, which necessitated negotiations regarding the price of "slaves" in trade, thus giving rise to the slave-hunting industry.

…Longzhou is a relatively young country…

Five hundred years ago, during the period of great contact, the feathered serpent tribe in the east absorbed Han culture.

In this process, the Eastern Yin Dynasty, like the Xianbei and Xiongnu in Chinese history, learned etiquette and systems through books and quickly evolved into feudal groups such as the Northern Wei, Liao, and Jin dynasties.

In the midst of the global great geographical discoveries, which Longzhou refers to as the "Great Contact,"...

After Longzhou came into contact with the Han people, a hero named Kormon, later renamed "Jie Xinxuan," emerged, much like Aguda and Temujin in Xuanchong history. Jie Xinxuan absorbed Han officials who came from afar to establish a system.

After winning foreign wars, he no longer simply distributed the captured cattle, sheep, pastures, women, and slaves to his subordinates. Instead, he held alliances, bestowed titles, and then conscripted men from various tribes to gather an army under his command. He then used the army to forcefully suppress the chiefs of various clans and installed officials in charge of "water conservancy," "agriculture," and "taxation" within the controlled areas.

The dynasty established by Xie Xinxuan lasted for five emperors, but collapsed after about sixty years, with almost all members of his family being killed. The Xie family dynasty collapsed, but its legacy remains.

The various clans of Longzhou, having completed feudalization, could no longer return to their former nomadic state. Warhorses, agriculture, sericulture, canals—these things left over from the Han system—significantly increased their war potential. Longzhou experienced internal wars for about a hundred years before finally forming an alliance. One hundred and fifty years ago, the New Yin Federation was formed, but now chaos has re-emerged.

Modern historians of the Han dynasty are not surprised by this: the barbarians have no fortune of a hundred years, and the barbarians have a ruler, but it is not as good as the Chinese people perishing.

Interpretation: The barbarian tribes, even with a powerful, suddenly appearing ruler who forcefully suppresses other factions to maintain his rule, are less effective than the Xia people, who have temporarily lost their leader. This is because the Xia people have a moral compass, ensuring that the transfer of power conforms to ethical order. The barbarians, however, rose suddenly, and the principles of justice and integrity resided only in the heart of their ruler; with his death, his rule vanished.

The "basic moral" framework of a nation's power system is quite important. Xuan Chong argues that the modern Han dynasty is clearly very different from his own time and space; it maintains the "basic moral framework of the classical dynastic state" and has developed a legal system adapted to modern industrial society.

When the surrounding barbarian tribes imitated the Han dynasty, they were merely blindly imitating its ways. Without the support of a moral code, the law will be subject to all sorts of flexible and arbitrary judgments.

Sons killing their fathers, brothers killing each other, and friends being disloyal are all factors that lead to instability in the rule of core power, and these often happen in barbarian lands.

The families in Longzhou can only maintain their unity by keeping each other in check. Once a family starts to monopolize power and reaches the level of an "imperial family," power struggles between them will frequently occur.

Xuan Chong's views on this topic from a mathematical perspective after "foundation building" are as follows:
In Longzhou, if the main power in a province is distributed among ten families, then the province's decision-making will is as weak as Carthage's.

If power is concentrated in the hands of five families, then it is highly likely that they can maintain maximum efficiency in joint deliberations and remain in unison on decisions that benefit the group. This early Roman military aristocratic system is similar to the early Khitan alliances and the early Later Jin's Eight Banners deliberations.

If decision-making is made by two or three families, fierce factional struggles will occur within the group. If one family holds absolute power, we can see assassinations of Caesar and various betrayals. As for the larger national-level model, Xuan Chong has not yet compiled all the data and cannot determine its accuracy.

The founding of Longzhou was a grave mistake. Several attempts to establish a centralized government failed, each ending in collapse due to internal problems within the ruling families. Xuan Chong's understanding of this history is that Longzhou was likely in the early stages of the Five Barbarian Invasions. Only after the infighting had saturated the region and they devised a power-sharing system similar to the Guanzhong clique did it enter a more stable phase.

Xuan Chong was unaware that, in the eyes of Xu Xi and other people from the future, Longzhou's geographical conditions determined that it had no chance of re-entering the prosperous Tang Dynasty, and that its feng shui was destined to create a situation of "mutual destruction."

…seeing small gains…

In October 2109, a corporate expedition team of over a thousand people arrived by train.

These true cowboy adventurers, driving steel armored vehicles discarded by the military a decade ago, enthusiastically stormed into the northern part of the Five Great Lakes to capture the once-free Orc people.

At first, things went smoothly. However, the orcs were severely wounded by the dumdum bullets and lost their fighting ability. They were then tied up and stuffed into iron cages. As evening fell, Viking slaves and Kunlun slaves of mixed race, dressed in short skirts, rode on the backs of unique wooden bulls. As the bulls swayed back and forth, the dancers swung their shorts, receiving tips from the cowboys.

But then, just like in the Jurassic Park storyline, the expedition team suffered a complete disaster.

The armored train that was supposed to transport the orcs didn't arrive, and then a heavy rain started, preventing the orcs in each cage from being injected with anesthetic in time. Furthermore, the orcs worried that their telegraph equipment would be struck by lightning that night, so they collectively destroyed the cages.

To make matters worse, the orcs outside began to gather under the cover of heavy rain and launched a night attack. Gunfire erupted throughout the night, but in their fear, few bullets hit the orcs.

The orcs bent the double-barreled musket with their axes and bit the cowboy's neck with their teeth.

Finally, the Orks hoisted the cowboys' heads onto their shoulders and wailed with glee. The tattered cowboy outfits were then patched up by the Orks' magical craftsmanship and worn.

As for the armored vehicles brought by the hunting party, and even the overturned armored train, they were all taken away by the Orks, who rode on top of the vehicles wearing cowboy hats.

…untrustworthy…

Three months later, in January 2110, Xie Ming stood in front of the airship's circular glass window, looking at the increasingly smog-filled earth outside through his portable "cell phone zoom lens"—a small, supplementary function of his "extracurricular tool."

Xie Ming opened the "Gaode Map" app on his phone and selected the location of the Ice Heart Sea. He then turned on the camera and could see a pile of scrap metal on the Ice Heart Sea, with heat emanating from the remaining chimney structure. The Ork ocean vehicle was sailing through the waves.

Xie Ming's face was extremely embarrassed. These Ork beastmen had broken through the technological barrier and begun mining methane hydrate in ways that were difficult for Earthlings to understand. At the same time, they were building special, dilapidated equipment, creating huge fans to pump air into chimneys, and smelting steel on the seabed.

Meanwhile, the old warships they had obtained from the Federation were currently blocked at the entrance to the passage between the Ice Heart Sea and the Arctic Ocean by fortified bastions resembling piles of bricks and rubble. They couldn't get there.

If the Orcs are allowed to develop like this, all sorts of strange and unusual things will appear within a few months.

The Orks' heavy vehicles aren't necessarily internal combustion engines; they're also adept at breeding giant beasts. For instance, some giant whales in the ocean, under the "unknown principles" of the Orks' domestication, began to stay at their feeding spots. As they ate, they started to grow feet and turned into giant amphibians—and the Orks began to pile rocket launchers on their backs.

Xie Ming took a deep breath, knowing that there was no use in being anxious. A nation like the New Yin Federation never encouraged planning ahead. Even if someone was courting disaster and their condition became terminal, they would only use painkillers instead of seeking out the root cause.

Only when the Orcs grow to a certain size and fully invade the South will Jemint be able to establish "rules for regulating the Orcs" and gain national attention, and only then will the Federation release resources to Jemint.

Otherwise, Jemint's constant appeals would simply be seen by various factions within the Federation as a way to accumulate political resources.

Xie Ming opened his phone and tapped the most important part: the phone contacts. He looked at Xu Xi, whom he had labeled as "sly and wicked."

By this time, the address book already contained a series of numbers, including those of people who had traveled to Longzhou and Pengzhou, and even people from the present Han Dynasty.

Now, a new name has recently been added to his address book: Xuan Chong (Liu Haoxing). Xie Ming looked at this commander across the ocean, took a deep breath, and sighed, "We should cooperate."

…Phone ringback tone: Old Deng, are you there?…

Inside the factory, a piece of new material is being smelted in a red-hot furnace, followed by quenching. Metal immersed in chemical oils is flaming. Xuan Chong, wearing a protective mask, squats in the processing plant, taking notes with a pen and paper.

The first phase of heavy-duty agricultural machinery production has been completed. This is an assembly plant where key components are imported from the south, while non-critical parts, such as screws for fixing the machinery and low-tech items like the outer shell, are produced by local workers after being trained by technicians from the south.

Xuan Chong himself would not stop there. He organized a team of skilled technicians to disassemble the purchased engine and power pack, including the mechanical transmission parts, and to conduct a detailed study of the control circuits.

Of course, each of these items involved a whole thick book. It would take Xuan Chong decades to read it all by himself. He could only get a general idea of ​​the table of contents and then find those scholars who were dedicated to the study of things, assigning each of them a task.

Xuan Chong: First, we need to figure out which products our factory can manufacture with the technology, guarantee a high yield rate, and meet profit requirements, and which products we can't. And is the reason we "can't manufacture" products due to insufficient training of skilled workers or inadequate equipment? If we lack workers, I'll poach them from the factory in the south with high salaries; if we lack equipment, I'll bring it over.

Under Xuan Chong's insistence on taking things seriously, some young technicians recruited from the south also became serious, listing all the bottlenecks in the entire production chain and solving them one by one.

As a scholar who had passed the imperial examinations and was favored by the emperor, Xuan Chong could have easily imported the entire technology chain. However, he still wanted to acquire it himself. —Because if he simply imported it without proper authorization, who knows what problems would result in someone else leaving the entire industry behind?

Now, Xuanchong in the factory has also begun to develop some things on its own. Xuanchong has tested the mechanical properties of materials for all engines, including the chemical element ratio analysis of the materials.

However, in the process of "large-scale industrial production" without any cheating by Longli, how many times do ordinary workers need to perform cold forging, hot forging, and cutting when operating equipment in each process flow to achieve the indicators of a mature product?
Under the new culture of "workshop learning" maintained by the worker teams, various production technology details are summarized in the group study notebooks. Production is improving, and it is constantly improving.

In January 2110, Xuan Chong used his own "cheating" series of technology trees to barely produce a batch of products, making them indicator samples in the production process.

Xuan Chong's "cheating" was to pinpoint the problem in the product manufacturing process, specifically to understand the factors determined by "cold forging and hot finishing techniques." Because if a particular step were removed, the sample would fail to meet standards.

While studying processing techniques, Xuan Chong clarified many methods of crystal lattice formation through continuous cross-sectional observation. He also continuously recorded microscopic properties through numerous complex experiments.

After Xuan Chong gradually listed the problems, he immediately convened a meeting with people from each commune. Meetings might not solve the problems immediately, but a plan had to be drawn up. — Anything on the plan that he, as the leader, could handle, he had to handle on time.

The path of traditional industrial technology is extremely difficult, and the road to independent research and development is long.

Xuan Chong imitated the toad in the wishing well, opening his mouth to the sky and saying: "If only a 'big shot' could come and help me."

(End of this chapter)