Chapter 247 Street Lights In Yangzhou, the official road is Fusheng and Zhang Qiming were heading towards Jicheng, the official road they took was all black. The official road was also wider than that of Xuzhou, and could accommodate two carriages crossing each other. There was an endless stream of people coming and going on the official road, including caravans, pedestrians, and travelers. Outside some towns, there are even traffic jams due to too many vehicles. Passing by a small town, Fusheng was surprised to find that there were no beggars, no thugs, and there were even women walking in groups on the streets. In Picheng, even fifty-year-old ladies can be harassed. Even though it was a small town, it was very clean. The neat and flat, dark streets made Fusheng feel like he was in another world. There were red slogans painted on the walls on both sides of the street. "Unite as one and build a new home!" "Oppose all oppression and overthrow all oppression!" "Have more children and plant more trees!" "Strive to realize the goal of land to the tiller!" "Eradication of illiteracy begins with ourselves!" It was at this time that Fusheng noticed that some of the characters in Yangzhou had many strokes omitted compared to the commonly used characters in Buddhist scriptures and Picheng, but he could still guess what the characters were at a glance.
"Donor Zhang, this simplified character is great!" said Fusheng. "Oh, this is the characters used in Yangzhou. It is much easier to write." Zhang Qiming said, "In the words of the dean, it lowers the threshold for literacy and accelerates literacy." "Indeed!" Fusheng nodded. Only when he was reciting scriptures did he realize how painful it was to learn to read. Then a scroll of scriptures is filled with densely packed words in squares. It’s so dense and close that it’s uncomfortable to look at. "What is literacy?" Fusheng said. Who are the blind? Why do we need to scan? "Literacy is about making most people recognize a few hundred common characters and be able to write and recognize their own names," said Zhang Qiming. “Huh?” Fusheng was surprised. He said, “This…how much does this cost…” He wanted to ask how much it would cost, but then he thought, this is not about money. Instead, it requires organizational skills and the execution ability to carry out such things. "We have implemented it in Yangzhou for several years, and the effect is quite good. The world of tomorrow can't be full of illiterate people who don't even know their own names!" said Zhang Qiming. Not only do they not know their names, some of them can't even read the martial arts secrets. But aren't there many people in the martial arts world who don't know their own names? This...isn't this the norm in the martial arts world? You actually want to do such a thing? By seeing the big picture from the small, he knew that Yangzhou was indeed different. What is even more different is the appearance of Yangzhou people. It's not about appearance, but something inside. It is not the kind of servile, numb and dull attitude of Picheng, but an equal attitude, full of confidence and hope for life. Yes, hope. He felt hope from the people on the roadside.
This is something he doesn't have. After two days' journey, they were almost reaching Jicheng. The closer they got to Jicheng, the more crowded the city was, and there were many things Fusheng had never seen before. For example, near the Jicheng Wharf, not to mention the various strange sailing ships, there are many rails and handcarts next to the wharf, as well as huge smoking chimneys. The handcart looked two or three people tall, and was made of steel, like a steel monster. Behind the handcart were several boxes of goods as big as small houses, all running on rails, and pushed by Qi Hai warriors. When the handcart started at first, it was moving slowly, but then it became faster and faster like a galloping horse, and soon it disappeared with several boxes of goods. "That's..." Fusheng felt that the world here was different from Xuzhou. "That's a hand-cranked cart, but we generally call it a rickshaw, after all, it's pulled by people!" Zhang Qiming said, "This is already the fourth generation of rickshaws. At the beginning, rickshaws could only pull one board of goods." "Why is that chimney so big?" Fusheng pointed to the huge chimney in the distance that was so big that it took ten people to hug it. "That's the chimney of the steel mill. It's normal for it to be big. But the dean thinks it's too small." Zhang Qiming shook his head and said, "We now produce more than 50,000 tons of crude steel per year." "One ton is two thousand kilograms!" he added. "So many!" Fusheng was shocked. Fifty thousand tons is ten million kilograms! This is just one year's output. Zhang Qiming said: "The dean just said that you will know it later. More than 50,000 tons is simply a figure not worth mentioning." As he approached Yoshi City, Fusheng saw only wide streets and no city walls at all. People coming and going have smiles on their faces, and it seems like they are in a different world from Picheng. After entering Jicheng, Fusheng was so shocked by the street lights in Jicheng that he was speechless. "You just said, this thing will glow at night?" Fusheng said as he looked at a lamp with a glass cover hanging on a wooden pole about six or seven meters high. "Yes, this is an electric light. It's only in this area and is still under testing. It does light up at night, but it breaks more often." Zhang Qiming said, "It's mainly due to problems with the insulation layer and the transformer. The current materials are not mature enough." Fusheng didn’t understand what Zhang Qiming meant by the second half of his sentence, but he knew that this thing would indeed light up at night! What does it look like when it lights up at night? Fusheng decided to come and have a look in the evening. "Come on! I'll take you out for dinner first, and then arrange for you to stay at my house. I'll introduce you to the literacy center tomorrow. There's no one at home anyway." Zhang Qiming said. His home is an ordinary room in a five-story building, about 60 to 70 square meters, which was allocated to him after he started working for two years. The place to eat is in the alley next to the building. As soon as you enter, you can smell the aroma and the variety of food opens Fusheng's eyes. The two of them ate a few bowls of noodles and their mouths were filled with the delicious taste. The noodles smell so good! After finishing the meal, Zhang Qiming said, "Since I'm back, I'll report to the dean. I don't know when I'll be back in the evening, so you don't have to be polite. There's a faucet with hot water in the room!" The steel plant has a large amount of waste heat, which can be used to provide hot water for people in this area. Any farther than that won’t work. After explaining everything to Fusheng, he hurried away with the diary he had completed a few days ago.
Fusheng did not touch many things in the house. He just sat there looking out the window. He was waiting, waiting for dark. It was finally dark. Fusheng followed his memory, walked out of Zhang Qiming's house, and came to the place where there were street lights. The street light seemed to be out of order. Several people in blue clothes were tinkering with something and recording something around one place. Fusheng just watched quietly from the side. After a long time, the lights on the surrounding roadsides suddenly lit up. It's that kind of yellow-orange, warm light. The lights dispelled the darkness and made the place as bright as day. Fusheng just stared blankly at the lamp in the darkness. I watched it for a long, long time. In 1788, Britain produced 68300 tons of pig iron! More than tons is not a small amount.
(End of this chapter)