The more stable and prosperous a society was, the easier it was to form the idea that money was paramount, because the more prosperous a society was, the more abundant materials there were. There was only one way to obtain these materials, and that was to use money to buy them. If you had money, you could naturally buy the materials you needed. If you didn't have money, you couldn't buy anything, and it would be difficult to meet your needs. As a result, people naturally pursued money more, because money meant that they had all the material wealth. They could buy the materials they needed as much as they wanted and live a better life.
If you didn't have money, you wouldn't even have money to buy a ticket to go out, let alone a large number of materials needed for living. You could only stay in your own home, and your life would be quite unpleasant. Even if you had love, there was a time limit. When the passion subsided, many practical problems would emerge one by one, forcing people to pursue money. Only with money could you achieve everything you wanted.
In an era of scarcity of materials, money was relatively less important, because even if you had money, you couldn't buy the materials you wanted. Everyone dug for food in the field, ate the food they grew, and sold the surplus to exchange for salt, oil, farming tools, and clothes. The rest of the gold and silver jewelry were not considered by the farmers. They could live well without these gold and silver jewelry. These were not urgent needs, so naturally, no one cared too much about them.
But in an era of abundant materials, the situation was completely different. In addition to oil, salt, and clothes, there were many other necessities. For example, with the expansion of the range of activities, vehicles were needed. Work was too far away from home, so they needed to rent a house. The upgrade of social relations made it common to treat people to meals. Otherwise, it would be easy to be isolated by others. The education of the next generation required hard indicators such as school districts and houses. All of these required money.
In fact, the burden of raising a child was even more than raising dozens or hundreds of children in the previous era. In the previous era, children only needed to be fed. It was not a problem to raise ten or eight children. One more child was the same as having one more pair of chopsticks. In the era of abundant resources, it was obviously not enough to just feed a child. It also needed to invest a huge amount of money and resources in education and other aspects. Therefore, raising one child was already very tiring, let alone raising a few.
The Tang Dynasty was originally an era of underdeveloped materials. Most of the people in the Tang Dynasty were dutiful farmers. They worked at sunrise and rested at sunset. Generation after generation, they prospered and continued their bloodline. They didn't have high needs, and they didn't care much about the amount of money.
However, this situation was already changing. With Ang Lee's desperate promotion of industrialization, the materials in the Tang Dynasty were becoming more and more abundant. The scale of the cities was also expanding rapidly. In this case, the minds of the ordinary people were also changing. Although not all the ordinary people had changed, at least the ordinary people near the cities had changed. They became more fond of money and were no longer content with their lot. They watched the people around them go to the cities to work and live a better life and become richer. Therefore, they followed suit and chose to work in the cities, thus changing their poor appearance.
If everyone could improve their lives in this way, there wouldn't be any problems. The key was that the opportunities and rewards were not equal. Some people were doing well, while others were not. Even if they were all doing the lowest level of work, there were still some who could get a good reward, while there were some who not only didn't get paid, but even owed the shopkeeper a lot of money. In short, there were too many unequal things.
For example, if one worked as a dishwasher, some people could get paid on time if they met good people, but some people met bad people and had to pay a month's worth of compensation or even more if they broke a bowl. In this way, it was very likely that not only did they not make any money after working for a month, but they also owed the shopkeeper a lot of money.
The Tang Dynasty was also a place with laws. When people encountered injustice, they could report it to the officials. However, in some places, the officials did not care about these trivial matters at all. They even deliberately favored the rich. As long as enough bribes were given, the unreasonable would become reasonable. This made many ordinary people suffer.
After working hard for an entire year, not only did they not earn any money, they even ended up with a huge debt. This was truly a great tragedy. And such a thing could be said to be happening all over the Great Tang. Many black-hearted merchants would use all sorts of reasons to deduct the wages of the craftsmen, and some would even intentionally delay the payment. They had no conscience at all.
Ang Lee was naturally very angry about this kind of social ugliness. However, this was also because the social development was too fast, and the construction of spiritual civilization could not keep up. The root cause was that the imperial court did not do a good enough job in some aspects. Therefore, promoting the construction of social civilization was an urgent matter.
If such illegal things were allowed to spread, it would inevitably shake the ruling foundation of the Tang Empire. When a large number of ordinary people began to be dissatisfied with their lives, the imperial court would face a serious crisis. In order to avoid a terrible crisis, it was necessary to solve all kinds of unreasonable things in the process of rapid economic development as soon as possible. It was necessary to pay special attention to these major events that might affect the continuation of the Tang Empire.
Economic prosperity did not represent the strength of an empire. The economic strength of the late Qing Dynasty was the highest, even surpassing the sum of all the great powers. However, when faced with the great powers, it was so weak that it could not withstand a single blow. It was simply too weak. It could not even be beaten by a great power. This was caused by the underdevelopment of science and technology. A country with a developed economy and technology would also face a serious crisis, which was the continuous widening of the gap between the rich and the poor. When the gap between the rich and the poor widened to a certain extent, the whole society would fall into terrible chaos. All kinds of crimes would spread at an extremely fast speed, which might shake the foundation of an empire.
Ang Lee's main task was to research and develop high-tech. Naturally, the management of the country was the responsibility of various officials, big or small. However, this did not prevent Ang Lee from paying attention to national affairs. For all kinds of unreasonable situations in the entire Tang Empire, Ang Lee wanted to know and provide reasonable solutions. His attention to these problems would not weaken Ang Lee's research in scientific research. After all, scientific research needed to be done step by step. It could not be rushed. The more anxious you were, the more likely you would achieve nothing. Ang Lee was very clear about this point. Therefore, Ang Lee was never in a hurry. Every research was carried out step by step. Anyway, he had a lot of time to do it slowly.
Just now, Ang Lee had heard the craftsmen talking about Wang Zhong, the Provincial Governor of Xia Province. He happened to pass by that place. However, these craftsmen were in the room and did not see Ang Lee. Even the low-ranking officials who scolded these craftsmen did not notice Ang Lee. However, even if Ang Lee passed by, he would not ask about these trivial matters. In order not to burden these craftsmen, Ang Lee quietly walked past them and went to the next workshop.
The Thousand Mile Sound Transmission Plan was the plan that the imperial court of the Tang Empire paid the most attention to. Everyone knew very well what this plan meant to the Tang Empire. Therefore, from the emperor to the ministers, everyone attached great importance to this plan and paid full attention to the progress of this research. They even went to the R&D Center from time to time to check on the situation and ask about the progress of the research.
Although for many ministers, they only came once every one or two months and the frequency was not very high, there were so many ministers in the imperial court. Today, they came to show their concern, and tomorrow, they came to show their concern. In this way, almost every day, there would be people coming to show their concern, which made the low-ranking officials in charge of receiving them very busy.
As the person in charge of the R&D Center, Ang Lee received the officials according to the situation. If he received every official in person, he would be exhausted to death, which would also interfere with his research. Only the highest-ranking officials and those whom he had a good relationship with would accompany Ang Lee and answer some questions about the progress of the research.
"Assistant Minister Li, the Right Chief Minister is here."
Ang Lee had just returned from several workshops when he heard the news that someone had come to visit.
"The Right Chief Minister? Didn't he just die? "
Ang Lee asked doubtfully. He had been in the north for more than a month and did not pay too much attention to the affairs of the officialdom, so he did not know that there was a new Right Chief Minister in the Tang dynasty.
The low-ranking official was startled and said, "Assistant Minister Li, the one who just died was Right Chief Minister Li, and now it's Right Chief Minister Yang."
"Yang Guozhong, he finally became Right Chief Minister."
Ang Lee said.
There was no one else with the surname Yang in the imperial court except Guo Zhong, so there was no need to guess.
"What about Wei Jiansu? Was he also promoted? "
Ang Lee asked.
The low-ranking official replied, "Yes, Assistant Minister Li, Mr. Wei is now Left Chief Minister."
"Oh, where is the original Left Chief Minister?"
Ang Lee wondered.
"Assistant Minister Li, he has returned to his hometown and left the capital half a month ago."
The low-ranking official said.
Ang Lee nodded and said, "In just a month, the capital has changed a lot! There are so many changes in the officialdom. What else do I not know? "
The low-ranking official did not answer. Yang Guozhong was still waiting. Naturally, he could not continue to chat with Ang Lee.
"Right Chief Minister, congratulations on your promotion!"
Ang Lee said.
"Haha! What's the point of being an official? If Assistant Minister Li wants to be Right Chief Minister, it will never be my turn. It will never be my turn! Haha! "
Yang Guozhong said modestly.
Ang Lee smiled and said, "Right Chief Minister, what brings you to our R&D Center?"
"Well … I mainly came to see how far the Ten Thousand Miles Sound Transmission Project has gone. His Majesty is very concerned about it."
Yang Guozhong said.
Ang Lee nodded and said, "I understand, I understand. Not only His Majesty is very concerned about it, but everyone is also concerned about the Ten Thousand Miles Sound Transmission Project. All the officials in the imperial court come here all day, and there is not a day of peace. Research needs time. How can it be done overnight? It's still early. I'm afraid it will be very difficult to do it without half a year. "
Yang Guozhong nodded and said seriously, "Isn't that so? Assistant Minister Li has done his best. This is already the fastest progress. There is nothing to be anxious about. Now the telegram can be sent thousands of miles away. As long as we get more, we will be able to connect the capital with all the counties directly."
Ang Lee laughed and said, "Haha! It's still the Right Chief Minister who understands me! With the telegram machine, communication is no longer a problem. However, this is not something that everyone can do. Only people who have undergone strict training can use this machine. However, the Ten Thousand Miles Sound Transmission can directly communicate with people thousands of miles away. This is very easy and almost everyone can do it. Naturally, it is more attractive. Therefore, I can understand that His Majesty and the ministers are anxious. As long as it is possible, I will try my best to speed up. "
"Haha! That's good, that's good. By the way, I have something to discuss with Assistant Minister Li. "
Yang Guozhong said in a low voice.
"What is it? Just say it. "
Ang Lee said.
"It's about the machine that makes undergarments. There are some small problems. If it can be slightly improved, it may be twice the result with half the effort. This is the suggestion of the craftsman in my workshop. He did not dare to change it at will, nor did he dare to meet Assistant Minister Li. Therefore, I …"
Yang Guozhong said.
'Therefore, you shamelessly came to find me.'
Ang Lee cursed in his heart. He took the blueprint and looked at it. Indeed, there were some design problems with the machine. The suggestion of this unknown craftsman was very good and could indeed solve some very difficult problems. Ang Lee was very satisfied with this. He felt that this craftsman was a talent to be able to see the problems with the machine.
Of course, there were many problems that could only be discovered by a craftsman who was on the front line. As the designer did not need to operate the machine, it was easy for him to overlook many problems with the machine.
"Not bad, not bad. This place can indeed be improved. However, I have to think about how to improve it. Oh right, when the Right Chief Minister returns, it's best to call this craftsman over. I have to personally ask him about some of the details of the machine before I can determine how to improve it."
Ang Lee said.
This was equivalent to an order to leave, but it did not seem to be the intention.
"Okay, no problem. This person is outside and will be here soon. Haha!"
Yang Guozhong said with a smile.
Soon, an honest-looking craftsman was brought in.
"This lowly one pays his respects to Assistant Minister Li."
The craftsman said in a trembling voice.
"There's no need to be nervous. Your suggestion is very good. This official has seen it just now. There are indeed some problems with the machine and it needs to be improved. Come, come over here."
Li An asked the craftsman to come over and discuss with him how to improve the machine so that it could work more efficiently, thus reducing the energy consumption and increasing the efficiency of work.
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