Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 310 Hanbei
The development of Dongtu was accompanied by a task assigned by the imperial court: to settle the relocated herdsmen in accordance with the "established national policy determined by the deliberations of the officials."

When the Orks of the northern frontier imitated the "Inner Asian characteristics" and began large-scale nomadic life, the original shepherds fled south of the Great Wall and became refugees, causing serious security problems in the major cities of Yan and Jin.

In the Northwest Industrial City, the temporary tent area, reinforced with sheet metal and wood, is evolving into a slum-like state.

The refugees' belongings, which were originally just a few bundles, grew larger and larger as they collected iron buckets and tires from the local area.

The more property a migrant has in a region, the more difficult it is to move. Even though this property may consist of nothing more than broken bottles and jars, it is worth the enormous cost these people incur in their struggle against the governing body. One can see this in the elderly person's stubbornness regarding the collected junk.

The able-bodied young people among the refugees began to look for odd jobs or join small gangs.

Local officials have already submitted a memorial urging the swift relocation of these displaced people, providing them with housing and resettlement. Otherwise, delay could lead to unforeseen changes and a situation where the will of Heaven and humanity clash. The great chaos caused by "a one-eyed stone man" in the previous dynasty serves as a stark warning.

In the year 2110 of the Han calendar, Xuan Chong's mission was accomplished very well. The 900,000 relocated herders had settled down, and 100,000 of them had adapted to fishing at sea and were getting enough fish to support their families. This put most of the relocated herders at ease, and their resistance to operating ships in the port decreased.

During this transition from animal husbandry to fishing, a handful of people drowned at sea, but their bodies were all submerged.

After investigation, the imperial envoy of the Han Dynasty concluded that the "harmony between heaven and man" was excellent during the migration process, and no trouble arose. He also specially sent people to Beihuahai to investigate the animal husbandry and fishing business.

The imperial envoy leaned against the ship, holding something warm and applying frostbite cream, and bowed to Su Ming, saying, "What an eye-opener! What an eye-opener!"

Clearly, the scholars were very interested in the idea of ​​"cultivating" fish at sea. For thousands of years, "Sheji" (社稷) had been the absolute politically correct concept in the Han Dynasty. "She" (社) meant settlement, and "Ji" (稷) meant crops grown on the land. "Sheji" signified a group of people gathering together to figure out how to increase the production of grains from the land.

Mencius's ideal of benevolent rule is that there should be an abundance of grain, fish, turtles, and timber.

In the modern Han dynasty, those who passed the provincial examination (举人) began their formal careers, while those above them were required to perform tasks. Furthermore, all their accomplishments had to serve as strong evidence to support the "sayings of sages and worthies." Only then could they submit essays that qualified them for the imperial examination (进士).

In the realm of science and engineering, Xuan Chong naturally felt his previous life was more advanced, after all, "industrialization had even permeated the level of food delivery and meals," and "every ounce of labor from all walks of life was used for efficiency." "Steel and cement accounted for more than half of the world's total, and electricity for over 30%." However, such mobilization methods would be considered insane by modern Han Chinese, seen as "sacrificing the people's strength for efficiency."

However, in terms of literary style, the Modern Chinese version gave Xuan Chong a sense of solemnity, as if "the sage is not benevolent and treats the people like straw dogs."

The scholar-official class, such as the Juren and Jinshi of the present Han dynasty, may not understand class contradictions, but they value "stable property and stable mind" very much. When the country's resources fluctuate, they act as cautiously as "an old Chinese medicine doctor taking a pulse".

Just as the human body can exhibit symptoms like excessive internal heat and dampness, a group of people can show signs of opportunism, restlessness, and apathy.

An experienced traditional Chinese medicine doctor can determine a patient's condition by taking their pulse, and then prescribe the appropriate medicine. Similarly, officials and bureaucrats also used pulse diagnosis on those under their jurisdiction.

For example, they also have many ancient remedies for problems such as overpopulation and too many idle people in certain areas (low employment rate), such as providing work relief and severely punishing powerful and wealthy people...

The bureaucratic class of scholars all possessed data, and they were responsible for their writings.

In his previous life, Xuan Chong wrote articles in economics and social sciences, but these articles were written solely for the purpose of promotion, and he was irresponsible afterward. If these self-proclaimed intellectuals were in the modern Han Dynasty, they would be subjected to decades of verbal and written attacks by scholars.

For example, if the marriage rate in a certain region declines, and a scholar writes an article arguing that "women lack security and should have their ownership of joint property protected in marriage," and provides data, and if the region actually follows this data, the marriage rate continues to decline. This is no less significant in the current Han Chinese civil service examination system than an "industrial accident" in a factory in Xuanchong's previous life.

Once any field becomes highly specialized, the people within it will be extremely intolerant of any imperfections. "Authority" is earned through painstaking research.

Instead of simply shouting "it must be valued" and then using it to command the world.

After Su Ming saw off his fellow officials, Xuan Chong asked, "So? Will he come here to pursue his career?"

Su Ming said, "Yes, he is very interested."

Xuan Chong nodded: "That's good."

The East Library currently lacks senior social management talent to serve as officials.

A glass bottle of soda was placed in front of Su Ming. Xuan Chong said, "Come and try this. It's Arctic Ocean soda, and it's made here."

…from scholar to soldier…

The court's second objective in promoting Dongtu was to establish a secure industrial base nearby in the north, thereby developing strategic defense capabilities against the north. Dongtu, situated along the mouth of the Heiqiu River, served as a very safe strategic rear area should land-based geopolitical conflicts arise in the north.

The entire island was under the protection of a naval fleet. Large-scale industrial production took place here, and in times of war, goods could be transported to the mainland via the Kuroko River. In times of peace, the island could be converted for civilian use. Once the industry gained a competitive advantage, it could radiate influence throughout Japan and Silla.

A maritime power needs its own "Mediterranean," just like Rome did. The Whale Sea is now seen as the "Roman Inland Sea" in the East.

Once the Eastern Turks become a regional center like Rome itself, the geopolitical changes to the entire region will be earth-shattering.

For example, the northern and southern sections of Japan, each with its own "road to Rome," would become geographically connected independent regions, similar to Gaul and Spain.

In Xuan Chong's mind, dismantling Japan and dividing Silla were necessary.

Of course, the superior "geographical conditions" of the East need to be proven in terms of both economy and military strength.

The emperor gave Xuan Chong a year to reorganize his hometown. After the year was over, Xuan Chong himself would return to the battlefield.

After 2111 of the Han calendar, the imperial court ordered the Hanbei Protectorate to begin a large-scale mobilization of troops.

The first batch of recruits were mainly herders from other immigrant areas. In those areas, the "work-for-relief" strategy had failed, so "military-for-relief" was the only option. The grassland tradition was that when disaster struck, everyone was starving; you could not survive, but you could not be without work, and you had to lead everyone to find a way out.

We need to fight, and we need to win!

During the massive migration to northern Mongolia a year prior, the Dongtu region's successful resettlement fostered a harmonious relationship between the migrants and nature. However, the results in other regions were clearly unsatisfactory. Therefore, the imperial court decisively adopted a "hegemonic" approach towards those vassal states, revoking the preferential economic policies granted to vassal states such as Japan.

At the same time, the imperial court made further concessions to the Dongtu (Eastern Library). In the previous allocation of immigrants, the Dongtu had resettled nearly 30% of them; now, the imperial court was demanding that the Dongtu take on a larger share, while also providing more preferential economic policies.

The imperial court's order to Xuan Chong was: militarily, to form the Hanbei Legion to counterattack the Ouke. Troops would be drawn from the failed resettlement of herders in other regions. This was to ensure that these sources of unrest within the vassal states could be transformed into a single weapon, used to stab the Ouke from the north.

In Dongtu Yaoguang Port, in each of the large camps, the thousand men brought by Xuan Chong were wielding rifle butts and reprimanding their kinsmen, who had been separated from them a year ago, and who were now their colleagues.

Grassland culture is straightforward and direct; whoever does poorly has to suffer. Of course, this beating wasn't for nothing.

Those "big brothers" from Dongtu Fishing Port would use copper-tipped leather belts to whip their impoverished fellow tribesmen who had been assigned to places like Japan and Silla during the day. At night, they would come to these tribesmen's camps and meticulously record their family circumstances in illegible handwriting.

The "elder brothers" would then use their "connections" to introduce their families to settle in the fishing port of Dongtu. This "connection" for resettlement came from the arrangements made at the pre-war meeting in Xuanchong.

Xuan Chong "trained" the thousand men he brought with him, telling them that when managing new recruits, they had to transfer the recruits' household registrations to their own community. Those who managed to transfer enough household registrations would be credited with a merit.

The "ways" to make a living were what gave Xuan Chong and his group the right to "speak loudly."

In nomadic cultures, a chieftain might beat and kick his sheep-like slaves, but he had to lead them to survival. In other words, whoever provided a way for a group of people to live could become the leader!

Although it was only for one year, the herders who were assigned to the fishing port earned their income by fishing.

Those who went to other places to farm and cultivate the land, as outsiders moving into new areas, encountered problems such as accents, and their work was not going well, so they resorted to alcoholism and beating their wives.

This is actually due to "cultural barriers." Other feudal states that received immigrants, such as the countries of Japan, already had their own established cultures in the "agricultural sector."

Once a region develops its own culture, no matter how small the original community was, the concept that "outsiders might take a slice of the local pie" will inevitably lead to rejection of newcomers. This xenophobia will spread like wildfire, infecting newcomers wave after wave, with early arrivals constantly looking down on those who come later. In Dongtu, however, a completely new fishing port community and entirely new industries have been established. They don't yet have the mindset of being local owners of the local pie; they're still in the stage of just arriving and creating their own. Now, they are accepting fellow villagers from their original cultural area, achieving a transformation of their original culture.

If they were to be placed directly in the factories of the local city of Dongtu, it would also create a "cultural conflict".

The court officials and scholars have now realized this problem after conducting on-site investigations and are preparing to let Xuanchong Dongtu's new "fishery" take on the task of absorbing immigrants.

Policies were issued to require that agricultural waste such as straw along the banks of the Heiqiu River be bundled up and sold to Dongtu as bulk commodities. At the same time, local propaganda subtly suggested that immigrants who had not integrated should try to find a way to make a living in Dongtu.

However, finding a way to survive requires hard work and sacrifice. Ethnic groups north of the Great Wall are highly patient and resilient in their struggle for survival.

…the neck twists to the right during Hell March…

An automated road-laying machine is laying steel rails on the frozen ground. The level of automation of this machine is clearly out of this era; and on the coastline, a 50,000-ton "sea bridge" bridging vessel is transporting a batch of equipment to the land.

This sea bridge bridging device was built on a special vessel during the Xuanchong era for landing on rebellious islands in the southeast. Theoretically, it could land on any shallow shoal. A metal bridge extends directly from the hull, connecting to the shore for unloading. It is now used for civilian maritime construction in Beihua.

Both the road pavers and these ships were provided by Linzu. Of course, Xuan Chong, a "torque" type dragon power user, played a crucial role in their design and development.

Ships bring equipment from the south to the dock every day, but if you do the math, you'll find that a lot of the equipment is actually taken directly from a local warehouse and isn't on the shipping bill.

To be precise, these devices were produced by Xuanchong using the "base vehicle" assembled from the Longli system. While the Orks were happily pondering, the "tech gurus" on Xuanchong's side were no less enthusiastic.

The Lin Group from the south dispatched over a hundred core members (non-Dragon Force users) to help Xuan Chong guard the base vehicle. They took paper and pens, along with a future modeling computer, and began simulating its mechanical transmission movements.

Inside this small base vehicle, as the ore is transported in, the machine instantly transforms it into an incandescent state. After the metal is extracted from the powder, the dust and residue are discharged, while the incandescent molten metal droplets are forged by the well-regulated explosive shock wave, kneaded and cut by the torque mold, and finally transformed into standard parts such as boilers, internal combustion engine cylinder blocks, crankshafts, and gears.

These parts are then floated and assembled, and a tracked tractor is complete. Regarding mass-produced goods, Xuan Chong requires them to be in a finished product state, without any dragon force sustaining them. However, some "experimental weaponry" is quite absurd; its thirty-six artificial satellites, codenamed "Thirty-Six Sea-Stabilizing Pearls," are slowly orbiting the planet in three orbits: high, medium, and low.

The application of dragon power in Xuanchong has become a hot research topic among the craftsmen of the Lin Group.

In other words, the cheating ability of "torque" is no longer something that Xuan Chong thought of alone. With the rise in Xuan Chong's status, the Lin Group has now organized a highly confidential team to help Xuan Chong think about and optimize this "base vehicle".

This is the advantage of the Dragon Group and the Qilin Group over other superpowered organizations in the world. By defining superpowers as a "gift from ancestors" rather than a "free property" for individuals to squander, they have attracted more exceptional individuals to conduct research. This makes the development of superpowered individuals in the current Han Dynasty significantly superior to that of other organizations.

While researching how to improve the efficiency of Hanbei Dongtu's industrial production processes, the Lin Group team also helped Xuan Chong optimize his "cheating" production processes. For example, regarding the "10,000-ton roll-on/roll-off ship floating bridge wharf" on the shore, Xuan Chong hadn't noticed some key component specifications, but the manufacturing team pointed them out in detail.

Xuan Chong's "humility" was not limited to the technical team organized by the Imperial Ancestral Temple.

When facing the Grand Secretary of the Ministry of Works sent by the imperial court, whether he came from the south or the north, they were equally humble.

Every time he heard of a new plan for improving the project, he would immediately make adjustments; he was so teachable that the scholars of the mechanics institutes in the north and south praised Xuan Chong to Lord Lin.

Of course, this might be because the Grand Marshal, who squanders enormous sums of public funds, is now silencing dissent. As a result, everyone wants to humiliate him.

…Xuan Chong: So I'm being expected to achieve great things again?…

To wage war, one must first build roads. In 2111, the construction of the railway encircling Beihuahai began under the coordination of the Hanbei Protectorate, with the goal of creating a railway network around the Arctic Ocean.

On the map, the North China Sea resembles an inland sea, with a tiger's mouth formed between two peninsulas on its land edge, embracing this sea.

According to the Law of the Sea, this place almost became Russia's inland sea. As a result, various countries liked to fish here. But now, the current Han-Han fleet is dominant. After Xuan Chong started "fishing" here, the current Han-Han North China Sea Fleet transferred four cruisers and eight destroyers to Dong Tu to build the Beiyang Fleet.

This fleet, if placed in the south and encountering a battleship formation, would be doomed in no time; but in the North China Sea, it's a little tyrant. The naval gun support for the land means that even the occasional hundred-man squads of Oak crossing the Corpse-Horse Ridge can't cause any trouble.

Currently, the actual area under the jurisdiction of the Han Hai Protectorate is only near the coastline; because, judging from the map of the accumulated temperature throughout the year, only the area around the coastline has a temperature that allows humans to maintain a relatively high level of outdoor activity.

Xuanchong deployed fortresses along these coastlines. These fortresses were connected by rail and patrolled by armored trains.

The railway track width in this world is about 1503 millimeters. This is the width that has been slightly changed over the past two thousand years since Qin Shi Huang standardized the gauge of carts. In the previous world, it would have been somewhere between standard gauge and broad gauge.

The construction of the Huanbei Huahai Railway is quite challenging.

When Xuan Chong arrived at Fur Town in the Arctic Ocean, he discovered that all the houses there were half-embedded in the ground, much like the stubborn "blackheads" on the faces of the residents. This was caused by the nature of the permafrost.

The Han dynasty had indeed built a railway on the outer Xingguo Ridge, but the permafrost suffered significant losses due to foundation subsidence. While there were solutions to the railway foundation subsidence problem, the high cost deterred any government entity from operating such a "high-cost," "low-revenue" railway, and the technology remained shelved.

Xuan Chong, as the future ruler of Liao, is considering not only the current economic value but also the future strategic value, so these difficulties must be overcome regardless of cost. This technology has been restarted in the Imperial Ancestral Temple.

This is the "heat pipe" technology. After the railway foundation is dug deep, asphalt insulation is laid at the bottom of the frozen soil, and then the foundation is backfilled. Heat pipes are inserted on both sides of the rails, "five meters underground and two meters above the surface". The heat pipes contain "liquid ammonia". The specific principle is that gaseous ammonia rises to the surface, cools and becomes liquid, and flows to the bottom. When the frozen soil at the bottom is heated, the liquid ammonia turns into gas and rises to the surface.

In its previous life, this railway was built on the plateau for fancy printing. Of course, the construction cost was extremely high! So much so that even the world's largest industrial nation, with its vast wealth, began to consider the economic benefits of "freight volume" on this railway and felt that there was no need to build a double track.

The reason why the Han dynasty did not expand such technology after the Han dynasty is also obvious. Before that, there was no "strategic opponent" in the north. As for the "southern plateau", the imperial army now holds India in its grasp and directly intervenes in the Ganges River estuary from the Bay of Bengal, interfering in its entire basin.

As early as 2110 AD, Dongtu began permafrost experiments, testing 28 types of railway foundations and using train locomotives to roll them back and forth.

After a year of testing, everyone found that the settlement was negligible, so they hastily applied the technology to the Hanbei Railway line.

…meticulous battlefield preparations, patiently awaiting the court's response…

Along the coastline, batches of steel rails and foundation materials were unloaded on the shore. Batches of heat pipes began to be transported to construction sites; these were infrastructure projects far more expensive than rails. In the future, Dongtu would have a dedicated factory to manufacture these products, reducing costs for use in broader infrastructure projects. But right now, all of this was being produced by Xuanchong's "base vehicles," like making sausages, three pipes per minute, 180 per hour, and 4,000 per day (Xuanchong's power still needs some recovery).

During this process, some Orks did try to steal the trash, but! After Xuanchong could hear the Orks' waaagh!, he deployed his fleet nearby in advance and blocked them with a barrage of artillery fire. By nightfall, the Orks were all frozen solid! It's worth noting that the Orks traveled such a long distance without any vehicles.

In the year 2111 of the Han calendar, Xuan Chong achieved a great victory of "killing 40,000 orcs" without much coordination. The orc corpses lying in the soil did not have a chance to turn into spores. The Lin Group's team collected all the frozen orc corpses and put them into the crematorium (Xuan Chong used torque to set up a filter screen at the exhaust port of the crematorium to filter the spores).

There was no sign of war breaking out on the railway construction site. The workers were wearing long sleeves and getting to work, while support teams were busy around them.

The safeguards here go beyond just food; they also include hygiene. In the Arctic Circle during the summer, the mosquito density is so high that you could practically eat meat with a single breath. All puddles along the railway tracks are covered with plastic sheeting and constantly eliminated using ultraviolet light and electric grid lights.

These migrants receiving work relief entered a phase of "silent obedience," much like the moment when the prestige of khans in history solidified.

In March of 2111, the Ministry of War also issued a circular requesting the requisition of military supplies. However, it lacked the official seal of the Ministry of Revenue indicating the transfer of military funds. This was essentially a blank IOU.

Just as some of the young scholars working with Xuan Chong at the Eastern Library were about to ignore it, Xuan Chong took the order, stamped it with his seal, made a copy, and sent it back to the Ministry of War.

In June, during the summer season, when supplies were being prepared to be shipped out of the factory, Xuan Chong, as the local governor, "acted expediently" and transferred these supplies, which were nominally owed IOUs by the Ministry of War, to the front line at Shihu Ridge. He then reported this to the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue for approval.

At this moment, the Ministry of Revenue quickly issued an approval document confirming Xuan Chong's transfer.

It is said that Lin Sima's faction attempted to gain something for nothing, but the prize they had just acquired was snatched back by Xuan Chong. On the contrary, the Ministry of War documents from Lin Sima's side defined all of Xuan Chong's military preparations as "certified by the imperial court."

Xuan Chong said to the person next to him, "When we're doing business in the north, the thing that makes us most suspicious is that we're 'arrogant and domineering.' So we must be careful about our interactions with the court. Now we have the approval documents from the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue, and all our subsequent actions will be carried out under orders!"

(End of this chapter)