After the Min dynasty's social security plan was announced, it was immediately sent to Europe at the highest speed. As usual, The Times was the first to report the official adoption of the Min dynasty's national backstop plan, and published the main contents of the plan.
The insurance created by German Prime Minister Bismarck once had a great influence in Europe, but it was mainly based on insurance. Although the coverage of pensions was getting wider and wider, Bismarck set the age to receive them after the age of 70. Based on the life expectancy of humans in 1890, most people had no hope of receiving a pension.
Now China's plan clearly divided three clear concepts: 'social security,' 'social insurance,' and 'social welfare.' The Times praised it and lamented, 'Britain is too careless in social management, and only knows how to grasp beards and eyebrows.'
The French reaction was equally fierce. According to the habit of more than a year, the newspaper first scolded the vicious China people, and then commented, 'Using food stamps to realize the operation of the social security system, although there are bound to be many problems, for example, there will inevitably be people selling food stamps. But the use of food stamps can minimize the occurrence of Jean Valjean's tragedy. '
The German newspapers remained silent for the first two days, but as other countries made a lot of comments on China's social security system, the German newspapers said sourly, 'China only knows how to copy Europe. Whether it is culture or system, what we see is plagiarism. This social security system, China is still copying the German system. It is too difficult to expect them to create anything original. '
Of course, the diplomats of the Min dynasty in European countries would not make any comments on this. Arguing with these foreign devils about the merits and demerits of policies would not arouse the interest of the diplomats at all, because the diplomats of the Min dynasty believed that the policies of the Min dynasty were definitely better than the policies of the Europeans. For example, now the Min dynasty was about to achieve the result of falling food prices by dominating North America, while the Europeans began to enjoy higher food prices day by day because of the war in North America. The problem of rising food prices directly led to more and more large cargo ships with the flag of the East African administrative region arriving at European ports, transporting either alfalfa or beef.
Wei Kun, the secretary of the three counties of Sudan in the East African administrative region, clearly felt that business had been much better recently. Ships from Europe came to Sudan to buy local alfalfa and corned beef. The climate in Port Sudan was very dry. After slaughtering the cattle, salt was applied, and very good corned beef could be made very quickly. Port Sudan had no shortage of salt.
At this time, some Italians were sitting in the conference room, giving a report to their new employer. It was evident that the Italians were not used to having so many officials listening to them at once, and that they stammered a little. Wei Kun, on the other hand, felt that these guys were not used to being forced to reveal their technical secrets. Italy was also a country with an ancient civilization. Just like China, they had the same 'ancestral craftsmanship' attitude.
"Master, look." It was obvious that the Italians did not like the idea of bringing a cow into the conference room to give a lecture. The craftsman who was giving the lecture frowned. "These are the marks left behind by mosquito bites. The wounds here are even festering. This was the mark of a cow scratching itself on a tree bark. And here, here, here … Alright, you can bring the cow out! "
When the cow was taken away, the craftsman breathed a sigh of relief. He pointed to two pieces of processed cowhide and said to Wei Kun and the others, "Master, look. The one on the left is a local cow from Sudan, and the one on the right is an Italian cowhide. You can see the difference. "
Wei Kun and a group of officials came over and looked carefully. Sure enough, they saw the problem. The surface of the Italian cowhide was smooth, and there were few signs of injury. The local cowhide of Sudan, on the other hand, was as scarred as the cow. Even after the craftsman's careful treatment, there was still a big difference. Wei Kun and the others were very clear about the price difference between good cowhide and inferior cowhide. The leather goods made by the Italian craftsmen were very famous in Europe, and the profits were also very high. However, the cowhide of Sudan could not be sold at a high price.
"How do we solve this problem?" Wei Kun asked straightforwardly.
"Master, in Italy, most of the cows used for leather are raised in the higher mountains. The temperature there is lower, and there are fewer mosquitoes. As long as there is no shortage of water, pay attention to bathing the cow. The cowhide can be of high quality. "The craftsman revealed the techniques he knew.
Wei Kun and the others looked at each other. Seeing that everyone agreed, Wei Kun said, "Alright. We will sign a contract with you. "
The Italian craftsmen showed a surprised expression. They did not expect things to develop to this point. At first, these people came to Africa to work because it was difficult to find a job in Italy. They saw the recruitment notice guaranteed by the Italian bank and doubtfully came to Africa to work. In the eyes of ordinary Italian craftsmen, Africa was still a barren land. Even if the people who ruled this barren land were the Chinese, it was said that the Chinese planted alfalfa and raised cattle in Sudan, and did a good job. The Italians still thought that it was still a barren land.
The psychological pressure of coming to the barren land to make a living was already great. They did not expect a group of Chinese officials to be in charge of the review. The Italians could understand that the Immigration Department was in charge of the technical review. According to the Italian tradition, it could only be described as outrageous. What was even more outrageous was that the questions asked by the officials were so sharp. They directly asked about the core technology that the craftsmen had mastered. After a lot of mental struggle, the craftsmen finally explained the key to the problem.
Just when the craftsmen were wondering if the officials could understand what they were saying, they received the results of the signing, which surprised them even more. In Italy, the government appointed officials were considered bastards. It turned out that they were good at nothing except ordering people around and imposing exorbitant taxes. In rural Italy and the south, 'You are the police, your whole family are the police' was a very vicious curse. Therefore, the craftsmen felt that there must be a big problem with this kind of signing. The craftsman who had just spoken glanced at the bank staff who had brought them here. Seeing that the bank staff did not look surprised, he felt a little relieved. Then he said, "Master, is there a mountain suitable for raising cattle here?"
Wei Kun answered readily, "Of course not here, but there is a plateau south to Ethiopia. The climate on the plateau is cool, and there should be fewer mosquitoes. I only knew that there were a lot of people raising cattle there, but now that you mentioned it, I know that there is a reason why there are so many people raising cattle there. "
Listening to Wei Kun's words, the craftsmen looked very surprised. The official who was in charge of the sultan was probably a prince in Italy, but the way he talked and behaved was not so much like an official, but more like a very shrewd and amiable businessman. This was because when ordinary officials encountered things that they did not understand or could not grasp, they would always show anger, and would not immediately solve the problem according to the craftsmen's opinion. The reaction of this master was no longer surprise, but abnormal.
"But …" Wei Kun continued. Hearing the interpreter say these two words that were obviously to make things difficult for them, the craftsmen felt a lot more at ease.
Wei Kun continued, "We can't send all the cattle to the mountains to raise. A large number of cattle have to be raised in the alfalfa area on both sides of the Nile River. Without these cattle, we can't use cow dung to fertilize the land. Also, we haven't built the railway to the Ethiopian plateau, so it's not convenient to transport alfalfa. Some of you must stay here and see if you can reduce the damage to the hide of the cattle in the plain area. Or find a way to improve the quality of the hide. "
After listening to this, the craftsmen did not know what to say, and some of them even felt that it was ridiculous to the point of wanting to be angry. A dignified local duke, a master appointed by the government, why did he pretend to be a worker? Could it be that such an official would personally work, or at least personally care about the lives of the laboring people and help them? If he could not do it, what was the point of saying that he really knew about labor? Let these poor laborers, including the craftsmen, sincerely work for the official?
So after the contract was signed, Wei Kun asked the craftsmen to go with him to see the cattle raising area, but the craftsmen were very unwilling. However, they had to obey the employer's wishes, and now the East African administrative region was the employer of these craftsmen. Feeling very unhappy, the craftsmen set off with Wei Kun and the others on the day of departure.
After seeing the team, the craftsmen were dumbfounded. They saw a group of black children wearing the same school uniform, led by attendants and maids, boarding the boat in an orderly manner. The craftsmen could not help but whisper. Traveling with children as attendants, these China masters' means of putting on airs were too strange.
In the end, when they arrived at the first inspection site, the group of children did not act as a team in the front, but followed behind the adults under the guidance of attendants and maids. Not long after, the group of children actually lined up to be taken to the fields and the canals to see rare things.
The craftsmen were stunned at that time. From what they saw, the group of children was not there to show off at all, but to inspect like adults. Could it be that the children were also masters? The craftsmen were puzzled, but they soon thought that it was impossible. Black people could only be slaves, which was a centuries-old habit of Europeans.
There were many mosquitoes on this farm. Wei Kun drove away the mosquitoes, and in his heart, he felt that this group of craftsmen was at least a group of masters. If it was Wei Kun himself, no matter how hard he tried, he could not think of the problem of mosquitoes causing the skin of the cattle to be injured. Of course, as for the solution to the mosquitoes, Wei Kun immediately had an idea. In China, there was a kind of insect cage, which looked like an inverted funnel on a cylindrical body. At the bottom of the cylindrical body, there was some food that mosquitoes liked as bait. The insects flew in through the holes, and when they flew out, many of the insects could not find the small holes and could not fly out. By killing the insects in the cage every day, it was very effective to eliminate the insects. Continuous for a few years, coupled with targeted killing of the insects in the breeding places, the number of insects could be very effectively controlled.
Hopefully, these black brothers could understand a little bit of their relationship with the country through participating in this insect extermination operation. Vézé was looking forward to it.
The Italian craftsmen did not know what Wei Kun was thinking. After seeing so many mosquitoes, they naturally knew that what they said was right. They also had some doubts that these East African China officials had really come to these villages to see, otherwise they would not have such an idea. Of course, what surprised the craftsmen was that in the African villages where mosquitoes were everywhere, there were a lot of cows. What surprised the craftsmen even more was the way the black Africans dealt with the cow dung.
Many of the greenhouses smelled bad. On the left and right sides of the greenhouses were two rows of flat beds, like a high ground after loosening the soil when planting vegetables. There were two rows of land in a greenhouse, and on top of them were fermented cow dung that was golden yellow. The Chinese officials introduced the situation. The earthworms ate the cow dung and excreted black feces. On the golden base of the bed of worms, there were spots of "freckles" until the whole "face" was occupied, which meant that they had finished eating. Generally, a bed of worms could be eaten for 40 days in summer and 30 days in winter. After eating one bed of worms, the earthworms would move on their own to another bed, and the bed that had finished eating only needed to be re-covered with "food". These earthworm feces were like fertilizer, regularly sprinkled into the fields. Every time the land was plowed again, a large amount of it had to be put into the soil.
The Italian craftsmen did not expect to see such agricultural methods in Africa. What surprised them even more was that those huge earthworms that would not continue to reproduce at an age were processed into fodder and fed to the cows. Looking at those large and strong cows with bad skin, the Italian craftsmen did not dare to guarantee that these earthworms were really useless.
At this moment, the little things that were taken away by the servants and maids to visit the earthworm feces production site. First, the little things chattered, then the servants and maids took out hand-drawn pictures of earthworms drawn by children and explained to the little things. Then, the Italian craftsmen heard the little things shout "earthworms" again and again. Only then did the craftsmen understand that those in uniforms were not servants and maids, but teachers of the school. These little Negroes were not page boys, nor were they young Negroes. They were students of the school, and they had come with the officers to broaden their horizons.
Looking at the village with mosquitoes flying everywhere, looking at the thatched huts, and the silly huge cows, the Italian craftsmen believed that this was Africa. However, they saw that every black person was wearing clothes that fit well and had shoes on their feet. There was also a group of black primary school students wearing school uniforms, following the teacher, looking at pictures and learning to recognize the world. The Italian craftsmen felt that the difference between this place and the Italian village was actually limited.
After walking through several villages, the Italian craftsmen found that the African villages were not only engaged in cattle breeding and earthworm breeding, but the relatively fertile land was also planted with large tracts of vegetables. There were broad-leaved vegetables and tomatoes, a vegetable that the Italians liked very much. There were also some vegetables that the Italians had never seen before. These dishes were in the lunch and evening meals. It was not the cooking style that Europeans liked, but the cooking style of China, and the taste was quite good.
It was already night when they returned to Khartoum, and the street lights were lit. The weather in Khartoum at the end of December was very pleasant. The wind was pleasant on the blue and white Nile River, and there were many figures on the river road by the shore. Looking at their pace, they were all calm. This made the craftsmen feel like they had returned to Italy. If it was only in the city, Khartoum could not be considered bad.
In the end, four craftsmen decided to go to the areas on both sides of the Nile River to participate in research to improve the quality of cowhide. Wei Kun was very satisfied with this choice. What made him even more satisfied was the decision he made to hire Europeans. East Africa was too far away for China. It was so far away that people did not refuse to use products from East Africa, but people did not think about coming to East Africa at all. However, to improve the strength of East Africa, a large number of talents were needed. It would take at least ten years for the African black brothers to educate the children to be able to use them. During this period, the human resources that he could use were only Europeans.
Wei Kun felt that his luck was good. East Africa had just been cleaned up, and the East African provincial commander, Wang Mingshan, was very supportive of Wei Kun's views, so Wei Kun could calmly implement his plan. If it was before, if Wei Kun wanted to use European labor, he would not even think about it. Moreover, Wang Mingshan's girlfriend was in the banking industry. With her mobilizing the power of the bank to come forward and recruit talents, Wei Kun could save a lot of effort.
Before Wei Kun could be too proud, a messenger sent a telegram. Resisting the weariness caused by exhaustion, Wei Kun took the telegram and read it. Someone still sent a telegram in the middle of the night. It was not a trivial matter.
Sure enough, the telegram was sent by the East African provincial commander and party secretary, Wang Mingshan. Wang Mingshan told Wei Kun that the war in Southern Africa was very fierce. The East African administrative region had received a request from the Madagascar military to send 30,000 black soldiers to participate in the war between the Zulus and the British. Wang Mingshan asked Wei Kun if the Sudan could mobilize so many troops to participate in the war.
Wei Kun's first reaction was to immediately refuse. At this time, there were about 25,000 black troops in the three counties of the Sudan and about 5,000 Japanese, for a total of 30,000. However, it was impossible for these people to go to Southern Africa to fight.
The local black people had no concept of country at all, so it was not a problem for them to fight near their hometown. But to go to a place far away where they could not even think of fighting, there was no need to count on their combat effectiveness. Rather than saying that the Japanese were an army, it was better to say that they were China's servants and tenant farmers. It was too difficult for them to expect the black brothers to master complex planting techniques, so now it was the Chinese who taught the Japanese agricultural techniques. The Japanese employees were stationed in various villages to let the black brothers see more advanced production techniques and let the black brothers who wanted to improve their productivity find someone to learn from.
However, Wei Kun's heart softened. He knew that the black brothers who could fight now had already reached the front line in Southern Africa. If he wanted to collect black brothers who could fight, only Wei Kun had a few on hand. Wang Mingshan was probably under a lot of pressure now.
But in the end, Wei Kun still decided not to help. He asked the messenger to write down his reply. "The Sudan's troops are only enough to protect themselves. There are no people who can be sent out."
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