"Woo!"
Accompanied by a loud whistle, the steamer slowly started moving on the canal. Fangzheng stood at the bow of the ship and looked at the beautiful scenery in front of him. He could not help feeling as if he had transmigrated into a strange world.
Under Fangzheng's design and after more than a hundred years of hard work, the current Han Dynasty already had the foundation of an industrial society, including steamers, trains and airships.
China never lacked clever people. In fact, some people actually thought of using airships to open up air routes for transporting people and materials. Thus, the world's first state-owned airline came into being.
Of course, even though Fangzheng had changed this world beyond recognition, there were still some deep-rooted things that had not changed. For example, the people of the Han Dynasty all believed that their country was the central kingdom, the celestial kingdom, the center of the world, and that all other places were barren lands. They had no desire to explore the outside world.
Especially now that Fangzheng had industrialised the land, this desire had become even weaker. Think about it, you could take a train from one city to another quickly in the Central Plains, but there was nothing in the wilderness or the border areas. You had to travel around in a horse carriage. Not to mention, there were no complete educational facilities or medical resources. Who would be willing to go out and open up a new land for nothing?
This made Fangzheng speechless.
By the way, although there were people in this world who had tried to create cars, there was one biggest problem that had not been solved.
And that was the wheel.
The production of rubber was more difficult than Fangzheng had imagined. At least, with the current level of steam technology, it was still impossible to make formal wheels. The wheels used in modern "cars" were wooden tires wrapped in a thick layer of animal skin and then fixed with iron hoops. One could imagine how painful it was to sit on them.
Moreover, this world currently did not have the technology to miniaturize the internal combustion engine. Although China's ability to smelt iron and forge steel in ancient times was very strong, the materials needed for this kind of power system were not something that Fangzheng could accomplish overnight. So far, the steam power systems in this world were very large. Even the machines were super large. For example, the steamer Fangzheng was riding on and the trains were about five times larger than the "original" ones in the original world.
So, the automobile project was considered to have come to an end. Fortunately, the tank was finally created.
So now, Fangzheng stood on the deck and looked at the city on both sides of the river that was brightly lit under the night sky. He also saw a martial artist in a fluttering robe riding a horse through the street with a long sword on his back. The martial artist came to the side of the road and dismounted while sweating profusely. He then tied the reins to a stake next to him and quickly walked to a public phone booth on the other side. He pushed the door open and entered the phone booth to put in a coin.
At the same time, Fangzheng also saw a female ghost covered in blood staring at him from outside the phone booth. She was exuding great resentment. The martial artist was shouting something on the phone while tightly holding a talisman in his hand.
Finally, he seemed to notice something. He slowly turned his head around. When he saw the female ghost behind him, the martial artist's face turned pale and he screamed loudly. But soon, he grabbed his neck tightly and struggled as if he had difficulty breathing. Then, his body tilted and he fell into the phone booth, dead. The female ghost stood outside the phone booth with a sense of satisfaction as if she had gotten her revenge. Then, a light flashed beside her, and the Black and White Impermanence appeared out of thin air. They cuffed the female ghost and took her away.
"Sigh …"
Seeing this, Fangzheng could not help but sigh.
Tell me, is this Xianxia, Cultivation, sci-fi, supernatural, or Wuxia?
He himself could not figure it out.
As for the female ghost chasing after him, Fangzheng did not care about it. When he set up the Underworld of this world, he referred to his experience in the World of the Immortal of Sword and Fairy. In fact, the world was always unfair. Take modern society for example. There were often cases of teenagers under the age of 14 killing people and throwing away corpses. As a result, the law could not convict them because they were not old enough. They could only fine them and compensate them.
The masses would definitely be angry if they heard about this kind of thing. They would scold the law for being unfair, but the law could not do anything about it. The law protected the majority of people. It was impossible to kill them all for the sake of one in a hundred thousand minors, right?
But with Fangzheng, he had a way.
Yes, the law of the world of the living might not be able to do anything to you, but what could you do to deal with the world of the underworld? In fact, when setting up the system, Fangzheng combined the experience of his previous life and specially set up a system. If the criminal was severely punished by the law, then it would be fine.
But if the criminal took advantage of the loopholes of the law or used his wealth and status to reduce or get rid of his crime, then the underworld could take action.
The martial artist that the female ghost killed was one of them. As the saying goes, the cycle of heaven and retribution. The world of the living couldn't punish you, but the underworld could. From the evil ghost to the sudden death of the whole family, to the ending of the family line, to the shortening of one's lifespan … There were many ways for the underworld to retaliate against people.
It was also because of the "law enforcement" of the two worlds of the living and the dead that the present world was abnormally peaceful and peaceful. Although people who were haunted by the evil ghost could go to a Taoist priest to ask for a talisman or something, it was a matter of course to pay with one's life. The cycle of heaven and retribution was the truth engraved in this world by Fangzheng. It had the highest priority, and no one could escape it.
If those Taoist priests and the like wanted to help, they would only implicate them in a grudge and die a horrible death.
In fact, sometimes when Fangzheng was free, he also thought about how the outside world was now. The Xiongnu had been completely destroyed by Fangzheng, and even their territory was occupied. Now those criminals were most afraid of going to Siberia to plant potatoes.
But what about other places?
For example, Southeast Asia? North Korea? Central Asia? Europe? By the way, what was the situation in Japan now?
Fangzheng really wanted to go and have a look, but as the emperor, he could not leave at will. Although it was quite cool to start the Great Voyage Era with the power of the whole country, the current Han Dynasty had not expanded to the point where it could expand outward. But Fangzheng was not in a hurry for the next one or two hundred years. When the strength of the whole country rose, it would not be too late to expand outward.
This time, Fangzheng left the palace for a private visit. Well, to put it bluntly, he was sneaking out to have fun.
Even Qianlong could go to Jiangnan, why couldn't he?
The achievements he had made were enough to hang the emperor of the whole Qing Dynasty up and beat him up.
By the way, Fangzheng had also built the Grand Canal like Emperor Yang of Sui. Of course, he didn't need to hire countless laborers like Emperor Yang of Sui, and he even killed a large number of people to incur the wrath of the world. Otherwise, wouldn't industrialization be a joke?!
After the founding of the country, Fangzheng set up state-owned construction companies to be responsible for all kinds of infrastructure projects. Naturally, he did not need to recruit hard laborers to work for him like other emperors did. Even in this era, these construction companies had become popular in the eyes of many civilians. After all, it was infrastructure construction, so Fangzheng implemented the principle of an iron rice bowl. This also made the civilians almost want to break their heads to get a job.
What? You said to work hard? Isn't farming at home a form of hard work? It was only worth it to have an iron rice bowl!
And it was under such circumstances that Fangzheng's Grand Canal was built smoothly. It did not arouse any resentment from the people, nor did it cause any instability. Not only that, the canal built by Fangzheng was longer and wider than the one built by Emperor Yang of Sui.
So you see, climbing the technology tree was the first priority.
After all, not every emperor was like Fangzheng, who had a thousand years of patience to play with civilization.
This time, Fangzheng planned to go out and take a look at the border areas. On one hand, he could understand the situation of the people, and on the other hand, he could relax.
Of course, Fangzheng was not worried that he would meet Xia Yuhe by the Daming Lake.
He was not worried that one day Ziwei would come to him and recognize him as her father.
As for whether Fangzheng would encounter trouble when he left, he was not worried at all. Now that so many years had passed, everyone had already recognized Fangzheng as an immortal reincarnated from the Immortal World. There was no hesitation at all. After all, he sat in the imperial court every day for more than a hundred years. His appearance had not changed at all. Even if he did not want to recognize him, he had no choice.
Moreover, before he left, Fangzheng left a strand of his divine sense in the palace. If there was anything that he needed to decide, he would immediately return. Therefore, Fangzheng was not worried that he would bring any trouble or problems when he went out.
And the third reason why Fangzheng wanted to go out and visit incognito was that he heard from the four sacred beasts of Xiao Yao Palace that there were many strange monsters that came from the south recently.
They seemed to want to occupy the mountain and become the king. Therefore, Fangzheng had no choice but to go and see what the situation was.
It should be known that after Fangzheng "decided" that this world would have the characteristics of Xianxia, many of the originally special animals directly turned into monsters. For example, the four sacred beasts in Fangzheng's Xiao Yao Palace really turned into the four sacred beasts. In the mountains and forests, many animals also seemed to have gained intelligence because of this.
Of course, Fangzheng did not issue a decree that "after the founding of the country, no monsters are allowed to become spirits". However, he still ordered the monsters of Xiao Yao Palace to go around and capture those monsters that had gained intelligence. He specially built a force for them to manage these monsters.
Of course, Fangzheng could manage the monsters within the Great Han Dynasty. However, the monsters outside the Great Han Dynasty were not under Fangzheng's control.
Therefore, now that he heard that there were monsters from outside the Great Han Dynasty, Fangzheng naturally had to go and see clearly. There were monsters outside the Great Han Dynasty? Where did these monsters come from? Could it be that they were by-products of his Yin and Yang Division? If that was the case, he had to make a rule for them to prevent them from coming here and causing trouble.
Just like that, Fangzheng rode the steamboat all the way to Suzhou and Hangzhou.
(End of this chapter)
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