After departing from Gangneung, the iron boat went south along the river, and then turned into the Grand Canal from the river and headed north along the Grand Canal.

Three days later, the iron ship had left Huzhou territory and turned into the Luzhou section of the Grand Canal.

For Qi Xuansu, Luzhou is half a blessed land, and he started his "transshipment" here, but it is the first time to take the Grand Canal.

Today, the sun is shining, and the Grand Canal has been dredged and treated in recent years, and it is much clearer, and the river surface is dotted with stars, which is very beautiful. Willow Lake stands on the deck and looks out on both sides. From time to time, huge workshops can be seen between the fields, and billowing black smoke rises into the sky, like wolf smoke.

These workshops are all new things that have emerged in the past 100 years, mainly smelting steel, although buildings in various places are still made of masonry, stone and wood as the main materials, but firearms, ironclad ships need a lot of steel, there is a demand, these steel workshops came into being.

It is also a coincidence, whether it is firearms or smelting steel, they are all related to fire, but the great Xuan originated in the north, which is the virtue of water, which is "the coexistence of cold and hot".

Qi Xuansu stood next to Liuhu, also looking at the steel workshops that were spewing billowing black smoke, the northwestern states were vast and sparsely populated, slightly barren, and there were many mines in each state. The workshops are mainly concentrated in the east, and are divided into north and south. The Jiangnan workshop is mainly "light", and the workshop in Jiangbei is mainly "heavy", which is also the characteristic of Jiangbei.

About half of these workshops belonged to the imperial court, some belonged to the Daomen, and only a very small number belonged to individuals, and they were all powerful gentry and the like, and they were by no means ordinary people who could run them.

Qi Xuansu is not the first time to come to Jiangbei, the reason why he has not seen so many workshops before is because the location of the workshop needs to consider the cost of transportation, manpower, raw materials and other costs, so most of these workshops are close to the mine production area, densely populated towns, and convenient transportation hubs. The key is transportation, whether it is the transportation of raw materials or the transportation of finished products, it is determined that shipping is the lowest cost mode of transportation, nothing more than water transportation and sea transportation, so it is reasonable that there are a large number of steel workshops along the line of the Grand Canal.

The world was changing, and many of the gentry gave up the fields that had been passed down from generation to generation and began to get involved in commerce, some entrusting others to participate in maritime trade, and some becoming workshop owners. Workshops need manpower, and some of the people who have lost their land and the people of towns go into the workshops to work.

Qi Xuansu suddenly remembered the "dragon slaying technique" he had learned in the Vientiane Dao Palace.

Xuan Sheng once said that we often create something in order to solve a certain problem, or a rule, or a method, and when the problem is solved, the new thing we create, whether it is a rule or a method, will give birth to new problems.

The workshop is the best example, the rise of "business" and "industry" has solved some of the problems of "agriculture", and has given rise to new problems.

These workshops are not good workshops, although they shelter the people who have lost their land, and reduce the possibility of large-scale displacement and large-scale famine, but extreme fatigue and harsh environment will greatly destroy the body and mind, few people can live to the age of fifty, poverty and hunger are often around, if you don't work for a day, you don't have a day's rations, and if you don't work for a few days, the whole family will starve to death, in this case, many half-grown children have to go out to work early, and overwork will cause children and teenagers to die.

And that's not even counting the threat of disease, and although there is a Chemosis, the high fees are always prohibitive.

This is a grand proposition, and it cannot be summed up in a few words.

This is also one of the reasons why secret associations are so prosperous, people have to have thoughts, if they can't ask for it in this life, they can only ask for it in the next life or after death, and the various ideas preached by secret associations just meet people's needs for thoughts, even if this idea is false and can never be realized, there are still people who are crazy about it.

Daomen was not unaware of this, and there was a dispute between Xu Wugui and Xuansheng, the first generation of earth masters.

Xu Dishi believes that at the beginning of the dynasty, the officials ruled Qingming, and there was no one who did not care, and no one did not work hard, just because of the hardships and hardships at that time, and he could only find a life from ten thousand deaths. It gradually improved, and the court stabilized, but it gradually became lazy, and the minority became the majority, and then laziness became the norm, although it was vigorous, it could not be reversed, and it was difficult to remedy. Some are driven by the desire for meritorious deeds, and the party fights the same and different ways, and when the talent is gradually exhausted and it is difficult to cope, the situation becomes complicated.

It's like a piece of bread, at the beginning you can eat 60%, gradually only 50%, and finally only 30% or 20%, which is difficult to maintain.

Greed is human nature, want to start from human nature to solve the problem, to achieve the world is the same, it is basically impossible, Confucianism in this circle for thousands of years, but also did not see the world peace, let alone see the people's hearts upward, but often people sigh that the world is declining, people's hearts are not ancient. So why is Taoism better than Confucianism's thousands of years? So we had to find another way.

Xu Dishi's method is very simple, that is, to make the cake bigger, so that this cake can feed everyone, then these contradictions do not exist, as long as the cake is big enough, the court is rich, the people live in peace, and the magnates can also enjoy the glory, this is about the prosperous weather, the world is peaceful.

Now it seems that Xu Dishi's method can only solve part of the problem, but not all the problems, no matter how big the pie is, it is still problematic if it does not change the way of dividing the pie.

It may take a long time and great change to change these problems, and we may fall into the trap of Confucianism again, going around in circles with no way out.

Qi Xuansu didn't think deeply, he could see some of the problems, it didn't mean that he could have deep empathy, thanks to the teachings of the Vientiane Dao Palace, he had a solid ability to survive in both troubled and prosperous times, he had experienced life and death, but he had not experienced real poverty.

Qi Xuansu's poverty is compared to the gentry, wealthy merchants, officials and magnates, and high-grade Taoist priests. Compared with ordinary people, Qi Xuansu, who is worth thousands of peace, is an out-and-out decent person. When he was at his worst, he could still get dozens of Taiping money, and he never worried about eating. Although there is one reason why he is one person who feeds and the whole family is not hungry, it is needless to say that the rivers and lakes are dangerous, and if he is not careful, he will die faster than those people who have been greatly devastated by life, and the vast majority of people do not want to live this kind of precarious life.

But then again, although most of Qi Xuansu's Taiping money came from the wrong way, it was cleaner than some gentry and the like.

In fact, Qi Xuansu has no great ambitions, he knows that he can't do this kind of thing to change the hearts of the people of the world, so he just wants to marry Zhang Yuelu, be promoted to the second grade Taiyi Taoist, and retire as a Taoist veteran with the name of a real person to enjoy Qingfu.

Just as Qi Xuansu was thinking about these things, there was a sudden sound of footsteps behind him.

The vigilance honed over the years made Qi Xuansu come back to his senses in an instant, turned to look, and protected the willow lake beside him without a trace.

Seeing the appearance of the person who came, Qi Xuansu couldn't help but be stunned.

It turned out to be an acquaintance.

Xu Kou.

Now Xu Kou has been promoted to the chief priest, in fact, he was a five-grade Taoist priest a long time ago, but because he tortured prisoners to death, he was demoted to a six-grade Taoist priest. Over the years, it has been rising and falling, the grade is not high, but the qualifications are old, so the promotion is the main thing, but it has not caused too much controversy.

However, Xu Kou was not dressed in Daomen's formal clothes today, but in civilian clothes, not like he was on official business.

Why is he here?

Qi Xuansu remained silent, just looked at it slightly, and then withdrew his gaze.

The reason why Xu Kou appeared on this ship can only be said to be a coincidence, and the order given by Zhang Yuelu was that after completing the set task, the principals would return to Yujing by flying boat.

After Xu Kou completed the errand at hand, he asked Zhang Yuelu through the "Signal Array" of the local provincial government, and wanted to take this opportunity to return to his hometown in Qizhou to visit relatives, Zhang Yuelu was not an unreasonable person, so he naturally agreed.

So Xu Kou first took a downwind boat from Shibotang to Jiangling, and then changed to a passenger boat to go to the Grand Canal, just in the same boat as Qi Xuansu.

When Qi Xuansu looked at Xu Kou, Xu Kou was also looking at Qi Xuansu.

Of course, he could see that this brother and sister were quite good, not to mention that the man was a little too much for him to see, the little girl walked and breathed, as if she was a congenital person, which was very amazing, and it was not common to put it in the Daomen. What's more, the man does not hide the "dragon handcuff" on his waist, and the bright ivory grip makes people dare not underestimate it in the slightest.

Xu Kou hesitated, clenched his fists and said, "Xu Kou." ”

"Little Yama?" Qi Xuansu smiled lightly.

Xu Kou didn't hide his surprise on his face: "Have you heard of me?" ”

Qi Xuansu nodded and said, "I once heard Qingluanwei's friend mention Brother Xu. ”

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