After Zhang Renjun arrived in the Xia Empire, he participated in several negotiations, and successfully signed treaties with Portugal, Britain and Germany to recover the leased lands of Macao, Hong Kong and Jiaoao. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Under the introduction of Wu Tingfang and the Yuan brothers, he had a gradual understanding of the Xia Empire, and as he learned more about the Xia Empire, the more shocked he became, and he decided to postpone his return to China, conduct a comprehensive investigation of the Xia Empire, and communicate with the Xia Empire at any time about the handover of the Southern Xinjiang Special Administrative Region.

In Wu Tingfang's eyes, the royal family of the Xia Empire is a thrifty royal family, he introduced to Zhang Renjun, don't look at the Xia Empire is now rich, but its royal family is very thrifty, the entire palace is a gatehouse and a Shenwu Palace used as a façade to support the outside, its harem is very simple, a few lonely huts for the emperor, the queen and concubines to live, the entire palace building is not as good as a corner of the Xinhua Palace, not to mention the luxury of decoration, compared with the Forbidden City, it is heaven and earth. “

Zhang Renjun touched the white and long beard on his chin and said: "The founding of the Xia Empire is short, and it is already rare to be able to build such a palace, no matter how rich they are, it is impossible for them to compare with the orthodox Chinese with a history of thousands of years. “

Yuan Kewen said: "Uncle Zhang, you can't say that, although the palace of the Xia Empire is simple, the royal family bears the education funds, military expenses, scientific research funds and medical security for the citizens of the empire throughout the empire, and their frugality and wealth are what I admire and envy very much." They all implement free education in primary and secondary schools, free of charge, free of board, books, school uniforms, etc., and also have scholarships, while each student in the primary and secondary schools in the Chinese Empire needs to spend more than 100 taels of silver per semester, and the poor cannot afford to go to school, and this difference makes the gap between the two countries widen and widen. The heritage of the Chinese Empire is in eating, drinking, and having fun, and the heritage of the Xia Empire is in new technologies and new products. “

Yuan Keding said: "That's right, what I envy the most are the primary and middle school students of the Xia Empire, their free meals are better than what I ate at home, this gap is really too big." When these children grow up, their physical fitness and cultural level are definitely not comparable to the Chinese Empire, and the gap will only get bigger and bigger. “

The Xia Empire was praised by everyone for having little in the sky and nothing on the earth, it was simply a pure land on earth, Zhang Renjun decided to go out and see for himself, to observe the actual living conditions of the people of the Xia Empire with his own eyes.

After Wu Tingfang explained the situation to Hua Guoqiang, he reported to Zheng Daoyou, and then transferred a squad from the Shangjing Police Station as Zhang Renjun's escort, accompanied by Yuan Kewen, to begin a comprehensive investigation of the Chinese Empire.

Wu Tingfang was relatively old, and he had official business, so he was not accompanied.

Zhang Renjun and his entourage first went to Semarang City, and then to Surabaya City, both of which are coastal cities, with relatively convenient transportation, and these two cities have a relatively high status among the Chinese, and there have been Chinese working and living in these two places for a long time.

Everywhere he went, Zhang Renjun first visited several primary and secondary schools to see if their lives were really as enviable as everyone said.

Then go to the outskirts of the city to visit the local peasants, who were among the first immigrants from the Chinese Empire, to see how their lives differed from those at home.

Finally, he was to visit the factories and shops in the city to see how the workers and merchants were different from those of the Chinese Empire.

This time, no one interfered with his visit, there was no reception from local officials, and the guards did not prohibit him from traveling, but were only responsible for safety, or to solve problems when encountered, to facilitate his visit, and to ensure that everything he saw was true.

Whenever he went to a place, his first feeling was that it was clean, and he thought at first that only the ground in Shangjing was clean and the air was fresh, which was purely superficial, but he didn't expect it to be the case everywhere he went; Unlike Guangzhou, where he used to stay, there was garbage and livestock manure everywhere, and all kinds of strange smells wafted in the city.

The second feeling is that the people here are dressed relatively neatly, that is, they have patches, and they are very clean, and when people walk, they are holding their heads up, smiling, and full of life; Unlike the citizens of Guangzhou, who are unkempt, hunched over, confused, either frowning or with empty eyes, only foreigners, compradors, officials and others can be arrogant. What surprised him even more was that he had not met a single beggar or homeless person in the Xia Empire for a few months, it seems that the population of the Xia Empire is indeed too small, or he would not have immigrated from the Chinese Empire madly.

There is not much difference between the schools in the city and the schools in the suburbs in terms of building scale and equipment, and the food provided is similar, with milk, eggs, all kinds of meat, etc., and the staple food is rice, steamed buns, etc., the difference is only in the types of vegetables; The student cafeteria is very quiet, there are no loud and noisy sounds; Every student eats very clean and there is no waste; After eating, students will rinse the dishes, chopsticks, trays, etc., and put them in the designated place.

Yuan Kewen explained: "Uncle Zhang, all schools are uniformly planned, classrooms, playgrounds, offices, desks, chairs and benches have strict equipment standards, and teachers are the same, and there are often exchanges between urban and rural areas; The student diet is a unified contract signed by the empire and distributed in a centralized manner, which avoids corruption, shortage, shoddy and other phenomena; Emperor Xia said that all people are born unequal, and what the empire can do is to provide the same ladder and the same opportunity for all the subjects of the empire, and level this inequality through personal efforts; Everyone is equal before the law, and the Chinese Empire cannot do it now. “

I visited several suburban villages, where the peasants' clothes were not much different from those in the city, and the expressions of the people were not much different, the family ate rice and white noodles, the vegetables were grown by themselves, and every family raised chickens, and some also had cattle and sheep; It is incomparable with the tenants and yeoman farmers in the country, and even the life of the small landlords in the country is nothing more than that.

Communicating with every immigrant, they said the same words, thanks to His Majesty the Emperor, thanks to the leaders of the Xia Empire, if the Xia Empire hadn't moved them here from the Great Qing Kingdom, they would have starved to death, and now their lives are beyond their imagination before, this is simply a paradise, children can go to school for free, the school is still in charge of food, and the money is not charged, the old and weak are not expensive to see a doctor, the rent for farming is not high, and there is a lot of income every year, but there is no exploitation of official errands, there is no oppression of the gentry, I really regret not immigrating earlier at that time.

Yuan Kewen explained: "Uncle Zhang, the land of the Xia Empire is state-owned, that is to say, all of them are owned by the emperor, these people only have the right to cultivate the land, there is no ownership of the land, each person is divided into 20 acres of land, and the land must be handed over after death, and it cannot be barren or bought; They don't pay much, large plots of land are cultivated by tractors, small plots of land are ploughed with oxen, irrigation is very convenient, I heard from the people at the agricultural station, in the future, the empire will invent rice transplanters, harvesters, threshers, all machines, then the peasants will be happier; None of this was something that the Chinese Empire could do. “

Zhang Renjun was stunned, he could still farm like this, and farmers could be so leisurely, how could he still be a farmer?

Yuan Kewen added: "Now that the rent has not risen, but the price of grain has doubled, their income will be higher, even higher than that of people in the city." “

"Where did all the money come from in the Xia Empire?" Zhang Renjun was puzzled.

"Uncle Zhang, when you look at the factories, shops and cargo terminals, you will understand, when we came, we went to the passenger terminal, not to the freight terminal, when you see that scene, you will be touched." Yuan Kewen said.

Later, we visited many shipyards, parts factories, cargo terminals, and commercial streets along the coast of Semarang.

Yuan Kewen said: "Uncle Zhang, processing steel into cargo ships, 100 yuan of steel can be sold for 1,000 yuan, is this faster than farming to make money?" If it is processed into warships, 100 yuan of steel can be sold for 10,000 yuan or even more, is it faster to make money? Recently, the Xia Empire has only sold warships worth hundreds of millions of yuan, and the Xia Empire can't be poor even if it wants to, which is incomparable to the Chinese Empire. “

Looking at the busy wharf, Zhang Renjun felt that the gap in his heart was too big, and compared with Guangzhou and here, it was the gap between the city and the countryside.

In Semarang, looking at the huge steel plant, there is a special railway line connecting the port and the factory, transporting the iron powder, pig iron and coal transported by ship to the factory, and the finished steel is transported to the port, and the ship is transported all over the world; Towering chimneys and billowing white smoke all indicate the prosperity of this place; The cement factories and glass factories with huge output have turned worthless stones and sand into real money; How much wealth will be created by huge textile mills, numerous shipyards, automobile factories, tractor factories, military factories, etc.?

Yuan Kewen said: "Uncle Zhang, just this steel plant has an annual output of more than 10 million tons of steel, how much steel does the entire Chinese Empire produce every year?" The larger the scale, the lower the cost, there are several similar steel factories in the Xia Empire, and the Xia Empire's money is created by so many factories, which is not comparable to the Chinese Empire. “

"Where did so many workers come from in the Xia Empire?" Zhang Renjun asked.

"Uncle Zhang, we just looked at primary and secondary schools, and there are a large number of technical secondary schools, technical schools and professional colleges in the Xia Empire, and there are a large number of people trained every year, even if they are in-service workers, they will often go to study classes to continue their studies and improve."

"Our Chinese Empire has also established a lot of national universities?"

Yuan Kewen said: "This is different, the universities of the Chinese Empire focus on cultivating masters of Chinese studies, and they are good at literature, history and philosophy; The salary of each master of Chinese culture is several hundred silver dollars per month, and in the Xia Empire, the salary of this kind of teacher of literature, history and philosophy is the lowest, and there is no so-called master of Chinese culture; In the Xia Empire, all first-class talents are engaged in business and factories, serving the family, second-rate talents in the army, third-rate talents in politics, which is just the opposite of the Chinese Empire, the first-class talents in the Chinese Empire are in politics, second-rate talents are in the army, and third-rate and fourth-rate talents are in business. Conceptual things cannot be changed in a short period of time. “

"Hey, no wonder Wenjue (Wu Tingfang's words) is reluctant to return to China after arriving here, even I like it here more and more, this gap is too big." Zhang Renjun said with emotion.

"Hey, all the students who come to the Xia Empire, if they are not studying at public expense, none of them are willing to go back, and the gap between the Chinese Empire and the Xia Empire will only get bigger and bigger." Yuan Keding also sighed.

"I won't visit anymore, and when I go back to Beijing, the more I look at the gap, the bigger the gap becomes, and I can't live my life." Zhang Renjun said. (To be continued.) )