These glass trophies were relatively small, much smaller than the trophies of later generations. Their shapes were not very similar to cups. They were only about three inches long and slightly thicker than a finger. The base was a wider hemispherical shape so that the trophies could stand upright.
Although the trophy was very small, there were many patterns engraved on it. There were also many characters of the Tang dynasty. In fact, it was just a five-word poem that encouraged children to learn.
It was somewhat funny that a sports trophy would be engraved with a poem that encouraged learning. However, the purpose of Ang Lee's large-scale production of such trophies was to encourage learning.
In the school warehouse in Chang 'an City of the Tang dynasty, there were many such trophies. Every time a cultural competition was held, the winning students would receive such trophies.
However, the trophies made by Ang Lee were not all so small. Some of them were larger or more exquisite. This time, the trophies he brought to the south were the smallest and most exquisite ones. He only brought a few hundred of them.
In an era where glass was not common, such a fully transparent trophy was very valuable. Moreover, it could be regarded as a handicraft, so it was even more valuable.
Ang Lee was willing to reward such a valuable item to the students who participated in the competition. This was enough to show how much importance he attached to these children.
Regardless of their academic performance, these children were very likely to become the pillars of Anshi County in the future. If he gave them some encouragement at this time, they would be grateful in the future and remember him forever. This was naturally a great thing for Ang Lee.
When these children held the glass trophies in their hands, they seemed to be particularly fond of them. They had never seen such exquisite handicrafts in their lives. Such a transparent glass trophy was a very rare item even in the Tang Empire. Everyone who received a glass trophy would regard it as a treasure.
Even the officials of the Tang dynasty were jealous. The way they looked at the trophies was somewhat strange. They probably felt that Ang Lee was too good to these children!
After the prizes were distributed, Ang Lee happily announced, "It's already noon. We can eat now."
There weren't enough tables and chairs in the cafeteria to accommodate everyone. Therefore, some of the students could only choose to eat in the classroom. Since there were no lack of tables and chairs, it didn't matter where they ate.
There weren't many types of dishes, but they were all extremely delicious. It was enough for everyone to fill their stomachs.
When the awards were being given out, the students who couldn't participate in the competition were still a little envious and unhappy. However, when they saw that there was delicious food to enjoy, they immediately changed their minds. Each and every one of them was beaming with joy, as if they had completely forgotten the loneliness and envy they felt just now.
Children were like this. As long as there was good food and drink, they would be very happy. They were less utilitarian and would not care too much for too long. Unhappy things would be forgotten very quickly. They were not like some adults who would keep brooding and even want to harm others in order to achieve psychological balance.
The feast was finished in less than an hour. The school was closed for half a day. After the meal, all the students left the school and returned to their respective homes.
Ang Lee also had to leave the school. Moreover, this was the last time he would enter the school. In the morning after tomorrow, he would leave Anshi County and head to the Persian Gulf. That place was the ideal place for the Tang dynasty's railway to reach the harbor. It was an area that must be occupied.
Ang Lee didn't know much about the situation there. Although he had already sent an advance party to investigate, the information he received was not much. Moreover, it was quite scattered. Perhaps because the journey was too far, the advance party couldn't find the ideal place that Ang Lee wanted.
This place was between the Abbasid Caliphate and India. It should be the border between the two forces. Occupying a base in this place and then building an important harbor was very important to the Tang dynasty.
This place was not very far from the Tocharian Empire, only a few hundred li at most. The Tocharian Empire had already begun to build a railway. They only needed to continue to extend it in the southwest direction to reach this harbor.
In this way, once the railway was built, the goods of the Tang dynasty from Anxi could arrive at the harbor within a few days. From there, they could be transported to the surrounding countries. This was very important for trade and circulation. It was also very useful for controlling the overseas countries. The Anxi army could use the railway to quickly enter the harbor and then take ships to reinforce the overseas provinces of the Tang dynasty. Thus, they could achieve their goal of controlling the entire world.
Before leaving the school, Ang Lee looked at the teacher who was sending him off and said, "Come, bring me the trophy case."
"Assistant Minister Li, there are so many trophies here. They must be very valuable!"
The teacher had never seen such exquisite trophies. He felt that it was too wasteful to give such expensive things to a child.
If they knew that these glass items were actually not much more expensive than sand, they would probably vomit blood.
"Education is the foundation of the plan of a hundred years. I'll leave the rest of the trophies to you. In the future, a cultural competition will be held every half a year. The winners will be given trophies, and the winners will also be given trophies. If there are not enough trophies, this official will send more to encourage the children to study and exercise. This is my ultimate goal."
Ang Lee said happily.
"Assistant Minister Li places such importance on education. We are really …"
Tears of gratitude flowed down. Some of these teachers were very old, but their ability to stir up emotions was not small at all. Their tears flowed down very quickly. It was truly amazing.
After leaving the school, Ang Lee saw that it was still early, so he went to the experimental fields. He wanted to take one last look at the crops in the experimental fields and figure out what plants were suitable to grow in the area and what plants could not.
The experimental fields were the best test equipment. Different crops were planted in the same experimental fields under the same conditions, but the results were completely different.
Some crops grew very well and could even be said to be lifelike. However, some crops grew very poorly. The leaves were all yellow and did not look very lively. Some crops even did not grow at all. The high-yielding crops in Chang 'an of the Tang dynasty could not grow at all in Anshi County. When the soil was dug up, the seeds were all rotten.
"You all see it, right? These are the seeds of different crops. I set up this experimental field to figure out what kind of crops are suitable to grow in Anshi County. Most of the people here rely on fish to survive. This is not very nutritious and is very detrimental to people's health. Moreover, the number of people that can be fed by fish is limited. It is more reliable to grow crops so that agriculture can feed more people. "
Ang Lee looked at the officials of Anshi County behind him and said seriously.
"Assistant Minister Li is right. If Anshi County wants to develop better, we must work hard to develop agriculture and animal husbandry. We will not slack off and will do our best to help the local people. We will let them master the techniques of agriculture and animal husbandry so that Anshi County can have more people."
Provincial Governor Chen took the lead to express his opinion.
The other officials also expressed their support, indicating that developing agriculture and animal husbandry was their duty and should be done.
In the later society, the performance of a local official was mainly reflected in the growth of the economy, the sanitation of the environment, and the reduction of the crime rate. There were no requirements for the population.
In the Tang dynasty, one of the most important criteria for an official's evaluation was the growth of the population. The greater the population growth under the local official's administration, the higher the score for his performance.
This was because the increase of the population in ancient times was interfered with by diseases and wars. In addition, there were many bandits and robbers who harmed the people. Therefore, the growth was very slow. It was very difficult to increase the population quickly.
Only when the officials worked hard and led the people under their administration to build irrigation works and suppress bandits and robbers could the people under their administration live a more stable life. After they had enough food and clothing, the population of the people under their administration could grow faster and better.
The size of the population also reflected the strength of an empire. Only when the population was large could the empire have the power to protect its vested interests. If the population was small, the empire would be easily annexed by foreign enemies.
Anshi County was an overseas territory of the Tang dynasty. It was also a part of the Tang dynasty. As the officials of Anshi County, they naturally had the responsibility to maintain the prosperity and stability of the area and try to increase the population as much as possible.
However, there was a famous saying since ancient times, "Those who are not of our race are sure to have different intentions." The feeling that outsiders gave people was always very unreliable, as if they had some kind of wild ambition.
For a long time before the establishment of the Tang dynasty, the land of Hua Xia was in an extremely chaotic era of the five barbarians. This era was the darkest era of the entire Chinese nation. The Han Dynasty, which represented the orthodox Chinese nation, was almost completely massacred. The lives of the people were very difficult.
It was because of this that the view that those who are not of our race are sure to have different intentions would be drawn in the day after tomorrow. In fact, it was also a kind of discriminatory view.
Every time an outsider rebelled, the label of "those who are not of our race are sure to have different intentions" would be put on the label of "those who are not of our race are sure to have different intentions". However, if there was a traitor in one's own race, what would be said? Could it be that those who had different intentions were all outsiders? There would also be traitors in one's own race. Whether or not they rebelled did not have much to do with whether they were outsiders or not.
It was just that most people would be biased towards their own people and hate people who were not close to them. For example, they would feel that their own relatives were trustworthy and outsiders were unreliable.
However, in the end, this was not the case. There were many people who rebelled against their own race, such as the Sima family, who usurped the Cao family's country. Examples like the Nan dynasty could be found everywhere. There were even more people who killed their own flesh and blood. In the Black Tortoise Gate, there were even more cases of uncles seizing their nephews' country.
In short, whether or not they were reliable did not have much to do with blood relations. Whether or not they had different intentions did not necessarily have to do with whether or not they were from the same race.
However, in history, there were indeed many examples of outsiders rebelling and massacring many people in Hua Xia. However, to a large extent, this was related to ambition and benefits. Was there a lack of killings within the Hua Xia's own race?
In addition, in the dozens of races in later generations, didn't they all become one family? No one saw any disloyalty. This was also related to benefits.
The country treated these races well and gave them preferential treatment. They gave them food to eat, clothes to wear, and could live better lives. Naturally, they would support the government. The reason why many outsiders had the opportunity to rebel was because there were internal problems in Hua Xia. This gave these outsiders a chance to rebel.
As long as the Hua Xia Empire was not in chaos, the outsiders would never have the chance to rebel. Even if they did, there was no possibility of success.
Later Zhao's Emperor, Shi Le, was originally a slave of the outsiders. He also wanted to be a slave for the rest of his life. However, the heavens did not give him such a chance. In the end, he had no choice but to rebel and finally became an Emperor.
It was the Sima Clan's Rebellion of the Eight Princes that gave these foreign clans a chance. If the Sima Clan's Emperor was a capable person and not a fool, then there wouldn't be such a big disturbance. The foreign clans' small fries naturally wouldn't have the chance to rebel, and Hua Xia wouldn't have such a catastrophe.
In other words, as long as there was no big turmoil in the Tang Empire and the local officials could handle all kinds of things well, An Shi County would not have many problems. Even if the population increased by many times, it would never be a threat to the Tang Empire. This was because they would become the people of the Tang Empire.
This was also the reason why Ang Lee spent a huge amount of money to invest in the education industry. These 300 students could not be underestimated. They were seeds. In the future, the university would expand enrollment and there would be more and more seeds in the future. When these children grew up, they would unconsciously think that they were part of the Tang Empire because they learned a lot of historical and cultural knowledge of the Tang Empire. Thus, they would be loyal to the Tang Empire.
For example, the Xianbei people were one of the five barbarians. However, the Xianbei people appreciated the culture of the Han people very much and worked very hard to learn it.
As a result, the Xianbei people gradually regarded themselves as Han people and regarded the other ethnic minorities who did not learn the Han culture as ugly enemies. This was the best example. This was the charm of culture.
An outstanding civilization had the ability to conquer. It would unknowingly counterattack the civilization that invaded it, causing the invader to unknowingly become the victim of the counterattack. The Xianbei people entered the Central Plains and defeated the Huaxia people in terms of military strength. However, they soon regarded themselves as the Huaxia people and completely forgot who their ancestors were.
Although the Hua Xia people lost temporarily, the strength of the civilization allowed the Xianbei people to completely integrate into it. Since then, the Xianbei people had become a part of the Hua Xia people. The Xianbei people completely disappeared from the long river of history without a trace. In the identity cards of later generations, the Xianbei people could not be found at all. Everyone with the surname Xianbei had become Han people.
Of course, Ang Lee did not have so much time to explain his understanding to these officials. He only needed to order these officials to do what they were supposed to do.
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