C144

Chapter 144 - Hard Change

In 1865, the whole of Asia was still ruled by traditional forces. Although the Western Powers had shown its muscles to the countries of Asia countless times, the inertia power that lasted for thousands of years was still unbreakable.

In the real history, Japan was ultimately the first person to eat crabs. However, with Xiao Letian, the disrupter, joining the battle, the Ryukyu, who was initially destroyed in history became the vanguard of Asian change. Industrialization and the dawn of modernity have come to the fore over all nations.

Xiao Letian was now the benefactor of millions of citizens in the Ryukyu. He was also the most powerful official in the imperial government of the Ryukyu in the past few hundred years.

He firmly grasped the heart of the army, the hearts of the people, and even the hearts of a hundred officials in his hands. This allowed his reform plan to proceed exceptionally smoothly. The Letian Firm lent the money to the Ryukyu Kingdom one by one to become his national debt, and Xiao Letian spent all of the money on it.

Ten new schools had already been established on the ruins. Ten schools of Ryukyu with a population of a million were enough to cover the entire population. Scholars who were proficient in Chinese were also invited by Xi Yang. In the fall of 1865, Ryukyu Kingdom was the first to start bilingual education.

Xiao Letian had even enacted laws, setting the official language of Ryukyu to be Chinese and English, and enforced compulsory education. Xiao Letian had already calculated a long time ago, that these ten schools wouldn't even have much money left. Carrying out basic education of 300,000 hawks a year was already plenty, this little money was truly like a drizzle to Xiao Letian.

Education was the foundation of all reforms. Without high quality workers, industrialization would not be able to go deep, so ten schools teaching young people during the day, while at night, they would open night schools for literacy. Even Xiao Letian would personally give lessons, which caused a small sensation in the Tyrant City.

With Xiao Letian taking the lead to demonstrate, the learning spirit of the entire Ryukyu soared. Furthermore, Xiao Letian had promised these people who had studied before to give priority to employment, this made the citizens even more crazy.

Not only was it his first education, Xiao Letian had also invested a lot of money into that tyrant's Infrastructure. Right now, Xiao Letian did not care about money, as Ryukyu had already become his backyard, and was his sphere of influence.

I will clear out all the mountain peaks along the coast, and build them up on the Coiling Mountain Road. These mountain tops will be the future positions of the shore defense cannons. Xiao Letian had already thought about it long ago. He would spend a million gold to purchase heavy shore defense cannons from the United States and Europe. If Ryukyu wanted to develop peacefully, she would need to forge an iron hedgehog shell.

For the industrial zone to move to the central area of the island, it was best to hide in the mountains. Don't worry about the inconvenience of transportation, the first railway line in Asia would be built in Ryukyu, and then the industrial zone, warehouse district, dock area, and business district would all be connected by rail.

Not enough money? Everything that Xiao Letian was doing now was definitely a good deal that would earn him a hundred percent of money. Now that he wanted to lend Xiao Letian money, he had to wait in line even if he wanted to, and he heard that those Jewish merchants with keen sense of smell were also starting to move towards the Ryukyu. This was not a good sign, everyone had to get the biggest cake before these Jews arrived.

Xiao Letian couldn't even remember how much he spent in total, his preliminary estimate already reaching three million silver. A portion of it was the wealth of the Ryukyu Kingdom, while the other part was the loot from battle, and the cash from the Tanggu, so the rest was borrowed.

Three million had fallen into the Ryukyu, in just a short month, the entire city had become a huge construction site. All the ruins were bulldozed and replanned, and the roads were dug up to start building sewers and laying new roads. Public facilities such as police stations, fire stations, hospitals and schools are planned.

Not only that, Xiao Letian also built a large shipyard in the southern bay of the pier. Although he did not have any talents or equipment right now, it still could not stop Xiao Letian from planning ahead and building all kinds of Infrastructure to prepare for future.

Five years, Xiao Letian believed that in just five years, the Ryukyu would become the most civilized nation in Asia. Five years of time was enough for Xiao Letian to create a fleet that he could protect himself with, five years was enough for the Ryukyu to start producing a batch of factories, and most importantly, within five years of time, the Ryukyu would be able to nurture a large number of students and workers who had received systematic Western education.

The Ryukyu was already dancing under Xiao Letian's baton, but in the northwest of the Tanggu Hong Kong, the Great Qing's plans were running out of course. As the person in charge, Qing San Ye, who was worried about him, had a few strands of hair white.

Originally, Ma Bao's base position had become Fu Qing's walking stick. As the representative of the Industrial Zones, the citizens of the Tanggu had already started calling this place the messenger's office. The Qing San Ye had already become the official official in charge of the emperor's office, and was now the son of heaven, as well as the official in chief of the imperial court.

However, in these few months, the Qing San Ye did not have the slightest bit of arrogance.

"San Ye, don't worry, Mr. Xiao has brought back a letter. He will be back in half a month at most. When the time comes, he can help me check his pulse …" Manager Fan, who was in the great hall, frowned as he guided Qing San Ye. He did not expect that the moment he heard the name Xiao Letian, Qing San Ye's eyes lit up with fire.

"Don't mention his name in front of me …" Fu Qing was so angry that his face flushed red, he was unable to say the latter half of the sentence. Actually, Manager Fan also knew what the Qing San Ye was angry about. Currently, the entire Beijing, TIANJIN Wei and the rest were all talking about it, saying that the Qing San Ye used his own sister as a red packet in order to get Xiao Letian's help. Otherwise, there wouldn't be any Industrial Zones present.

In the end, even the old farmers around the Tanggu knew about it. The Qing San Ye who had traded his sister for an official position became a celebrity in the Qing Dynasty.

The things that were worrying were not only these, the preparations for the Industrial Zones was also not going well. In Qing Dynasty's initial plan, it should be enough to grant over 1000 mu of land to Tanggu Industrial Special Zone, but later on, he asked Xiao Letian for advice and found out that even a small Steel plant in the Western Ocean would need around 400 to 500 mu, not to mention those machinery processing plants and weapons factories, 1000 mu would not solve any problems.

After discussing it over and over again, the Head Office finally decided to grant Industrial Zones five thousand acres of land. Furthermore, she gave Qing San Ye two hundred thousand taels of silver as starting funds.

Five thousand acres of land, of which the officials had confiscated more than two thousand five hundred mu of High Scholar Huang's land, this was without a single penny being spent. The remaining two thousand five hundred mu of land, including one thousand five hundred mu of land, could be expropriated from the's family.

As the Tanggu was located at the bottom of the ocean, although the land here was easy to irrigate, the salinization was very strong. In the Great Qing Dynasty, it was not a good land at all. The best watered land was only worth twenty taels of silver, so ten taels of silver would be sufficient for the rest of the normal fields.

A thousand mu of land was enough for Qing San Ye to pay twenty thousand taels of silver. However, San Ye didn't expect that no one would be willing to sell their land to a landowner after the latter went down to make contact with them. Someone even raised the price to four hundred taels of silver per mu of land.

At this time, in the countryside, the majority of the people who owned the land were scholars with high reputations. Elementary Scholars and High Scholars made up a large percentage of people, and even some farmers were affiliated with large families.

Countless yamen runners and clerks labored to spit, even to the point of being scared, they had only bought more than 200 mu of land from farmers. Even now, there were only 800 mu of land that could not be filled, the Industrial Zones's plan had been completely stranded.

It is not only the land issue that is difficult, but also the people's hearts. Ever since the official establishment of the messenger office in the Qing San Ye, strange rumors started to spread around the vicinity of the Tanggu.

The machinery of the foreigners was driven by the hidden demons. Every time the engine was turned on, it had to be sacrificed with the blood of children. What kind of westerner used the Iron Giant Spirit to destroy the earth's feng shui? In fact, Industrial Zones was just a prison, she would be a slave if she was caught, and if she was so tired, he would just throw it into the machine and burn it like firewood … With all the strange rumors and rumors, the messenger yamen had become the forbidden zone in the hearts of the commoners.

Of course the Qing San Ye knew who spread these rumors. Other than those who had nothing to do after eating their fill, who else would do such a thankless task?

"Manager Fan, you don't need to enlighten me, I understand … Right, how is your family now? How has Hu Niu been during this period of time … " Qing San Ye was very annoyed and quickly changed the topic, but it was fine if she did not say anything, but this statement made Fan Lian feel so much pain that she was about to cry.

"Life, this is all life!" Hu Niu's life is not so good, I never thought that this girl's life would be so bitter … "

Qing San Ye smiled bitterly and said: "I'm sorry, I did not manage my servant properly, but …" However, I really can't do anything about it now. Other than my sister stepping in, there really isn't anyone else who can deal with that old bastard … After all, this is the palace that is being guarded by him. "

It turned out that it was not only the Qing San Ye who was suffering, even the manager Fan Lian was sullen because Beijing had sent a butler and a group of maids to help him. He had already taken over Xiao Letian's backyard, and although the Qing San Ye was his nominal master, it was strange that the Qing San Ye was unable to order this butler to stay.

The Jiao Si Shu had been nicknamed the Jiao Si'er, Pickled Sugar. Ever since his grand father's generation was an outer sect steward of the Fuca's house, and with the growth of his family, he had started working alone from the Jiao Si'er generation. Of course, there were also reasons for the fall of his clan. However, ever since he had become an official in the Qing San Ye, when the Jiao Si Shu saw that there was hope for a new lease on life in the main house, he quickly used that little bit of lewdness that was plastered on him and started camping in the main house.

He did not know what Fu Hui was thinking about it, but she was actually sent back to the clan and was even given the position of an outer court housekeeper. This continued until half a month ago, when Xiao Letian's name resounded throughout the East Ocean, the Jiao Si Shu was actually sent to the Tanggu to serve Xiao Letian.

It was from that day onwards that Xiao Letian's inner chamber was completely thrown into chaos.