Chapter 157 Iron and Fire

After the iron ship departed from Jiangling Prefecture, it sailed south along the Yangtze River, then turned from the Yangtze River into the Grand Canal and sailed north along the Grand Canal.

Three days later, the iron ship had left Huzhou and turned into the Luzhou section of the Grand Canal.

For Qi Xuansu, Luzhou was half a blessed land. He started his "transfer" from here, but it was his first time to travel along the Grand Canal.

Today was sunny. After several years of dredging and management, the Grand Canal was much clearer, and the river surface was dotted with stars, which was very beautiful. Liu Hu stood on the deck and looked at both sides of the river. Huge workshops can be seen from time to time between the fields, and billowing black smoke rose straight into the sky, like a wolf smoke.

These workshops are all new things that have emerged in the past hundred years, mainly focusing on smelting steel. Although buildings in various places are still mainly made of bricks, stones and wood, firearms and ironclad ships require a lot of steel. There is demand, so these steel workshops came into being.

It is a coincidence that both firearms and steel smelting are related to fire. However, the Great Xuan originated in the north, which is the virtue of water, and is exactly "cold and hot coexisting".

Qi Xuansu stood beside Liuhu Lake, also looking at the steel workshops spewing out billowing black smoke. The northwestern states are sparsely populated and slightly barren, and there are many mines in each state. The workshops are mainly concentrated in the east, and are divided into north and south. The workshops in Jiangnan are mainly "light", while the workshops in Jiangbei are mainly "heavy", which is also a feature of Jiangbei.

About half of these workshops belong to the court, some belong to the Taoist sect, and only a very small number belong to individuals, who are also powerful gentry and cannot be operated by ordinary people.

Qi Xuansu was not the first time to Jiangbei. The reason why he had not seen so many workshops before was that the location of the workshop had to consider the costs of transportation, manpower, and raw materials, so most of these workshops were close to the mine production area, densely populated towns, and convenient transportation hubs. The key is transportation. Whether it is the transportation of raw materials or the transportation of finished products, shipping is the lowest-cost mode of transportation. It is nothing more than water transportation and sea transportation. It is reasonable that there are a large number of steel workshops along the Grand Canal.

The world is changing. Many gentry have given up the fields passed down from generation to generation and started to get involved in commerce. Some have entrusted others to participate in sea trade, and some have become workshop owners. Workshops need manpower. Some people who have lost their land and people in towns have gone to work in workshops.

Qi Xuansu suddenly remembered the "dragon-slaying technique" he learned in the Wanxiang Taoist Palace.

Xuansheng once said that we often create something, a rule, or a method to solve a problem. When the problem is solved, the new thing we create, whether it is a rule or a method, will give rise to new problems.

The workshop is the best example. The rise of "business" and "industry" solved some of the problems of "agriculture" and gave rise to new problems.

These workshops were not good workshops. Although they took in the people who lost their land and reduced the possibility of large-scale refugees and large-scale famine, the extreme fatigue and harsh environment would greatly damage the body and mind. Few people could live to the age of fifty. Poverty and hunger were always around. If they did not work for a day, they would not have food for the day. If they did not work for a few days, the whole family would starve to death. In this case, many half-grown children had to go out to work early, and excessive fatigue would cause the death of children and teenagers.

This does not include the threat of disease. Although there is a Huashengtang, the high fees are always prohibitive.

This is a grand proposition that cannot be summarized in a few words.

This is also one of the reasons why secret societies flourished. People need to have thoughts. If they cannot get them in this world, they can only ask for them in the next life or after death. The various concepts promoted by secret societies just meet people's needs for thoughts. Even if this thought is false and can never be realized, there are still people crazy about it.

The Taoist sect did not expect this. The first generation of geomancer Xu Wugui and Xuansheng had a debate.

Xu Dishi believes that at the beginning of a dynasty, the administration was clean and fair, and no one was not attentive to anything and no one was not working hard, just because it was difficult and hard at that time, and they could only find a life from a thousand deaths. Then it gradually improved, the court became stable, and people gradually became lazy, the minority became the majority, and then laziness became a trend. Even with great efforts, it could not be reversed and it was difficult to remedy. Some were also driven by the desire for achievements, and the party united to attack the dissidents. When the talents gradually became exhausted and difficult to cope with, the situation became complicated.

Just like a cake, you can eat 60% at the beginning, then only 50%, and finally only 30% and 20%, which is difficult to maintain.

Greed is human nature. It is basically impossible to solve the problem from human nature and achieve world harmony. Confucianism has been going around in this circle for thousands of years, but it has not seen peace in the world, let alone people's hearts. Instead, people often lament that the world is going downhill and people's hearts are not as good as before. So why can Taoism surpass the thousands of years of achievements of Confucianism? So we have to find another way.

Xu Dishi's method is very simple, that is, to make the pie bigger so that it can feed everyone, then these contradictions will not exist. As long as the pie is big enough, the court will be rich, the people will live in peace, and the powerful will enjoy the glory. This is probably the atmosphere of prosperity and peace.

Now it seems that Xu Dishi's method can only solve some problems, not all problems. No matter how big the pie is, if the way of dividing the pie is not changed, there will still be problems.

If you want to change these problems, it may take a very long time and huge changes, and you may fall into the rut of Confucianism again, going around in circles and seeing no way out.

Qi Xuansu did not think deeply. He could see some of the problems, but that did not mean he could have deep empathy. Thanks to the teachings of the Wanxiang Taoist Palace, he had a solid ability to survive in both troubled and prosperous times. He had experienced life and death, but he had never experienced real poverty.

Qi Xuansu was poor compared to gentry, wealthy businessmen, officials, and high-quality Taoists. Compared to ordinary people, Qi Xuansu, who had a net worth of several thousand Taiping money, was an absolutely decent man. When he was in the worst time, he could still take out dozens of Taiping money and never worried about food. Although one of the reasons was that he was full and the whole family was not hungry, there was no need to say more about the dangers of the rivers and lakes. If he was not careful, he would die faster than those people whose bodies and minds were greatly destroyed by life. Most people did not want to live such a precarious life.

But then again, although most of Qi Xuansu's Taiping money came from shady sources, it was cleaner than some gentry.

In fact, Qi Xuansu didn't have any great ambitions. He knew that he couldn't change the world and people's hearts, so he just wanted to marry Zhang Yuelu, be promoted to the second-rank Taiyi Taoist priest, and retire to enjoy a peaceful life as a Taoist elder with the title of Zhenren. In the future, when the Golden Palace held a grand meeting, he could have a seat to listen, and his life would be perfect.

Just as Qi Xuansu was lost in thought about these things, footsteps suddenly came from behind.

The alertness honed over the years made Qi Xuansu come back to his senses instantly. He turned around and looked, and protected Liu Hu beside him without leaving any trace.

Seeing the appearance of the person coming, Qi Xuansu was startled.

It turned out to be an acquaintance.

Xu Kou.

Today, Xu Kou has been promoted to the chief. In fact, he was a fifth-rank Taoist priest a long time ago, but because he tortured prisoners to death, he was demoted to a sixth-rank Taoist priest. Over the years, he has been promoted and demoted. His rank is not high, but his qualifications are old, so his promotion to the chief has not caused much controversy.

However, Xu Kou was not wearing the formal attire of the Taoist sect today, but a casual dress, and he did not look like he was on official business.

Why is he here?

Qi Xuansu remained calm, just looked at him slightly, and then retracted his gaze.

The reason why Xu Kou appeared on this ship can only be said to be a coincidence. Zhang Yuelu's order was that after completing the given tasks, each person in charge would take the flying boat to return to Yujing on his own.

After Xu Kou completed the task at hand, he asked Zhang Yuelu through the "Xun Fu Array" of the local Daofu, wanting to take this opportunity to return to his hometown in Qizhou to visit relatives. Zhang Yuelu was not an unreasonable person, so he naturally agreed.

So Xu Kou first took the favorable wind boat of the Shibo Hall to Jiangling, and then changed to a passenger boat to go through the Grand Canal, just in time to take the same boat with Qi Xuansu.

When Qi Xuansu looked at Xu Kou, Xu Kou was also looking at Qi Xuansu.

Of course, he could see that the brother and sister were quite good. Not to mention that the man was a little hard for him to tell, the little girl's breathing while walking was like that of a congenital person, which was very surprising and not common in the Taoist sect. Moreover, the man did not hide the "Dragon Hand Gun" on his waist. The shiny ivory handle made people dare not underestimate it.

Xu Kou hesitated for a moment, clasped his fists and said: "Xu Kou."

"Little Yama?" Qi Xuansu smiled lightly.

Xu Kou did not hide his surprise on his face: "Have you heard of me?"

Qi Xuansu nodded and said: "I have heard friends of Qingluan Guards mention Brother Xu."