As soon as he returned to Dayao, Ren Baqian was so busy that he even put the wedding in two months at the back of his mind.
After all, many things could happen in a year.
Not to mention Dayao, which was gradually developing.
The current situation of the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Commerce, the gradual recovery of Tianjing Basin, the promotion of the Embroidered Uniform Guards in the Rearguard Commandery, the situation of the captives who were building roads, and the many students in the academy. Although there were robots as teachers this year, there were still some gaps compared to humans. The first batch of students who could graduate in three years would take six more months to graduate.
Not to mention the Yun Nation, which had just been annexed. This was an entire country that was about 60 percent the size of Dayao, with more than 400 cities, countless villages, and a population of 70 to 80 million.
At present, this country was still ruled by Zi Donglai's military force, the warlords who had surrendered, and some of the people of the Yun Nation who had sought refuge with them.
Ren Baqian didn't know what those people would turn the Yun Nation into, but one thing was certain: it definitely wouldn't be what he wanted.
Therefore, he needed to spend a lot of time to understand all aspects of the Yun Nation and then make suggestions to the empress.
Although it was a suggestion, it could basically be implemented.
After all, the empress had no experience in occupying a country, and even the big shots in the court didn't have any.
Although Ren Baqian didn't have any experience, he had at least eaten pork before. In addition to his experience in Tianjing Basin, he also had thousands of years of history on Earth.
At present, even the national sentiments of the two countries weren't an important issue. The most important thing was to promulgate a series of regulations to stabilize the Yun Nation and design a new system for it.
For example, the Yun Nation would be set up as a protectorate with several prefectures under it. Each city would still be managed by the warlords and given orders by the protectorate, allowing the people of the Yun Nation to manage themselves. However, the military and the government had to be separated. In addition to the 500 aboriginal soldiers stationed in each city, there would also be city guards of varying numbers. The city guards would no longer be the private army of the warlords, but a separate department … There were a series of new policies.
As for the opinions of the warlords, they could choose to say no, but they needed to test whether their necks or knives were harder.
Although this would cause a certain amount of panic and chaos, the Yun Nation was too big. If they wanted to quickly pull the Yun Nation into Dayao's orbit, this could only be done this way.
These days, these matters occupied a lot of Ren Baqian's energy. In addition, he was also busy with the new thermal power plant and light bulb factory.
Neither is difficult.
Sometimes, Ren Baqian even thanked the heavens for being able to travel back and forth.
In the construction of technology, no matter what problems they encountered, they could always find the answers and solutions when they returned to Earth.
The new power plant was located in the west of Lan City. It was only five kilometers away from Lan City. After its completion, it would provide Lan City with enough electricity for its current needs.
As for the light bulb factory, it wasn't too much trouble. Although he hadn't found the tungsten ore yet, he could still use carbonized bamboo. The only problem was that it consumed too much electricity and had a short duration. A single bulb could only be used for four months.
For other transmigrators, this would be a good choice.
However, he had a better idea, which was to bring back tungsten wire from Earth …
After all, the consumption of tungsten filament used for light bulbs was very low. Ren Baqian could bring back a ton of tungsten filament from one trip, which was enough to make hundreds of thousands of light bulbs.
All that was left was to slowly search for tungsten ore or a substitute for tungsten filament.
The glass was not a problem. With the tungsten wire, all that was left was to inject nitrogen.
Before the wedding, Ren Baqian was confident that the entire Lan City would become a sleepless city.
During this period of time, he didn't even have much time to have lunch with the empress. Every day, someone would send the bento made by the imperial kitchen to the school. After school, he would have to go and do the next thing after eating the bento.
Fortunately, after more than half a month, Ren Baqian finally finished dealing with most of the piled up matters and had some free time.
The first thing he did when he was free was to go to the Zhang family, a family of craftsmen who had surrendered before the attack on the Yun Nation.
"Greetings, Principal Ren!"
After receiving news of Ren Baqian's arrival, almost all the higher-ups of the Zhang family were waiting at the door and gave him the highest treatment.
Currently, Ren Baqian had many other identities, such as the head of the Ministry of Commerce and the chief of the Rearguard Commandery. However, the most well-known ones were the principal of the Black Bamboo Academy and the future prince consort.
In addition, Ren Baqian also had a more important identity in their eyes.
Whether it was the precision clocks, the powerful cannons, the running steam trains, or the legendary power plant, all of these represented that Ren Baqian had a lot of knowledge in his mind.
Not to mention, he had defeated them in brewing, dyeing, forging, and so on.
It could be said that Ren Baqian was far ahead of them in all walks of life. If they were a family of craftsmen who controlled more than half of the 360 trades, Ren Baqian would be a grandmaster who was above them.
Furthermore, it wasn't just one trade, but many other trades.
In the eyes of the Zhang family, these things were more attractive to them than to the other princes.
This was because these things were also the foundation of their existence.
"Let's talk inside." Ren Baqian and the others entered the residence and could still hear the sound of smithing coming from the side courtyard.
"I heard that your recent results have been pretty good?" Ren Baqian asked with a smile after sitting down. Although he was here to see the current situation of the Zhang family, he was also very concerned about their progress in clocks.
Nowadays, the Zhang family would make some clock clocks every month and sell them in the stores of the imperial family, which was quite profitable.
After all, this kind of machine that accurately measured time was very attractive to anyone, especially those high-ranking officials in the imperial court.
If they didn't install glass windows, a set of glass cups, a clock in the living room, and some spices when cooking, how could they show their status? They would become a joke.
In just over a year, these high-ranking officials had become loyal customers of Ren Baqian's various products.
Not only did the Zhang family make clocks, but they had also been doing research and had achieved some results.
"Bring it to Sir."
Following the voice, someone quickly placed a fist-sized clock in front of Ren Baqian.
Seven or eight old men were sitting there stroking their beards with a proud look on their faces. Although the internal structure of the clock wasn't too complicated, it wasn't simple either. Limited by the current level of forging, it was only thanks to the skills of the Zhang family's craftsmen that they could shrink the clock to this size.
If it were anyone else, they would definitely not be able to do this.
Ren Baqian held the pocket clock in his hand and played with it. It was the size of a fist, two fingers thick, and the outer shell was made of metal. Except for the lack of glass, it was a qualified table clock.
Yes, the Zhang family used this as a pocket clock. This size was enough to carry around.
Nowadays, in Lan City, one could see the clock tower by looking up, but outside of Lan City, one had to look up at the sky to determine the time.
And with this thing, time was something that everyone could accurately observe.
However, in Ren Baqian's eyes, this was only a table clock.
If this thing was made more sturdy, it would be a good choice to place it on the chest as a heart-protecting mirror …
It was still too big.
"Well done. I hope you can make it smaller." After fiddling with it for a while, Ren Baqian handed the table clock to the guard and prepared to show it to the empress.
If it was the empress in the past, this thing might have surprised her.
However, the empress was now more experienced and knowledgeable.
It wasn't easy to surprise her anymore.
This made Ren Baqian feel somewhat regretful.
"Sir, we are working hard to make it smaller, but it will be difficult to achieve in a short period of time," an old man from the Zhang family said.
Ren Baqian nodded as he had expected this.
After that, everyone changed the topic. Ren Baqian learned about the current situation of the Zhang family. Currently, there were more than 1,000 members of the Zhang family in Lan City, which was already a large number.
After all, although there were 6,000 to 7,000 members of the Zhang family, many of them worked in businesses, horse and carriage companies, textiles, and other industries. At present, there was no use for them in Lan City, so they stayed in the Yun Nation to make things easier for the Rearguard Commandery.
The Zhang family's residence was next to Jing Street, so they wouldn't be disturbed by too many people.
The only thing lacking was that Lan City was relatively short of resources, which couldn't be compared to the prosperous Yun Nation.
However, with the inclusion of the Yun Nation, this aspect would start to improve.
"Sir, we want to make more contributions. The strength of the Zhang family isn't just in forging and manufacturing clocks." After explaining the situation, the Zhang family's tone changed.
"Of course, I'm not going to let so many of you idle here. In fact, there are a few places where you are needed. "Ren Baqian smiled. He had such a plan this time.
It was too wasteful for such a family of craftsmen to make such a small amount of things.
Hearing Ren Baqian's words, everyone immediately became spirited.
They had been in Lan City for a year and a half, but due to their status as outsiders, the Zhang family was still limited to this small area. This was really not what they wanted to see.
If this was the case, they might as well go to Great Xia.
After hearing Ren Baqian's words, they could finally get involved in more industries.
…
After explaining the arrangements for the Zhang family, Ren Baqian thought for a while and said, "By the way, the school will be recruiting students next year. If there are any intelligent children in the Zhang family, you can send a few of them to the school."
"The number of students won't exceed three."
The school couldn't always only have aboriginals.
Since he was going to recruit his disciple into the school next year, he might as well recruit a class.
In addition to the Zhang family, he could also recruit some from the Jing Tribe.
"Thank you, Sir." Everyone was delighted.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
