Chapter 247 Street Lights

In Yangzhou, officialdom is dark.

When Fu Sheng and Zhang Qiming headed towards Jicheng, the official roads they walked along were all black.

The official road is also wider than that in Xuzhou and can accommodate two carriages crossing each other. People come and go on the official road, and there is an endless stream of caravans, pedestrians, and travelers.

Outside some towns, there may even be traffic jams due to too many cars and horses.

Passing by a small town, there were no beggars, no gangsters, and there were even women walking together on the streets, which really surprised Fusheng.

In Picheng, even a fifty-year-old eldest sister would be harassed.

Even for a small town, it's very clean. The neat, flat, and dark streets made Fusheng feel like he was in another world.

Slogans with red letters were painted on the walls on both sides of the street.

"United as one, build a new home!" "Oppose all oppression and overthrow all oppression!" "Have more children and more trees!"

“Strive to realize land for the tiller!” “Eradicating illiteracy starts with ourselves!”

At this time, Fusheng noticed that some characters in Yangzhou omitted many strokes compared with the common characters in Buddhist scriptures and Picheng, but he could guess what the characters were at a glance.

"Zhang Donor, this word is so simplified!" Fu Sheng said.

"Oh, this is the word used in Yangzhou outside. It is much easier to write." Zhang Qiming said: "In the words of the dean, it lowers the threshold of literacy and accelerates literacy."

"Indeed!" Fusheng nodded. Only when he was chanting sutras did he realize how painful it was to read.

So a scroll of scriptures is densely packed with words written in square blocks.

It's thick and dense, and it's uncomfortable to look at.

"What is literacy?" Fusheng said.

Who is blind? Why scan?

"Literacy is to enable most people to know hundreds of common words and be able to write and recognize their own names," Zhang Qiming said.

"Huh?" Fusheng was shocked and said, "This...how much does this cost..."

He originally wanted to know how much it would cost. But when he thought about it, it wasn't about money.

Rather, it requires organizational skills and the execution ability to carry out such things.

"We have been implementing it in Yangzhou for several years, and the results are pretty good. In the future, everyone in the world cannot be illiterate, and they don't even know their own names!" Zhang Qiming said.

Not only did they recognize their names, some of them couldn't even read martial arts secret books. But aren’t there too many people in the world who don’t know their names?

Isn't this... the norm in the world?

Actually want to do such a thing?

From a small glimpse of the big picture, he knew that Yangzhou was indeed different.

What is even more different is the appearance of Yangzhou people.

Not in terms of looks, but something internal.

It's not like Picheng's kind of hunched over, numb and sluggish, but an equal attitude, full of...confidence and hope for life.

Yes, hope.

He felt hope from the people on the roadside.

This is something he doesn't even have.

After traveling for two days, they were almost at Jicheng.

The closer we get to Jicheng, the more bustling people there are, and there are many things that Fu Sheng has never seen.

For example, near the Jicheng Pier, not to mention the various strange sailing ships, there are many railroad tracks, handcarts, and huge smoking chimneys next to the pier.

The handcart looked two or three people tall and was made of steel, like a steel monster. Behind the handcart were several boxes of goods that looked like small houses, all running on the rails. The Qihai warrior pushed the handcart.

When the hand-operated cart first started, it was still slow, but then it became faster and faster, like a fast horse, and soon it disappeared with several boxes of goods.

"That's..." Fusheng felt that the world here was not in the same style as Xuzhou.

"That is a hand-operated rickshaw, but we generally call it a rickshaw. After all, it is pulled by human power!" Zhang Qiming said: "This is the fourth generation of rickshaws. At the beginning, the rickshaw could only pull one load. "

"Why is the chimney so big?" Fusheng said, pointing to the huge chimney in the distance where ten people hugged each other.

"That's the chimney of a steel mill. It's normal to be big, but it's too small for the president." Zhang Qiming shook his head and said, "We now produce more than 50,000 tons of crude steel annually."

"One ton is two thousand pounds!" he added.

"So many!" Fusheng was shocked.

Fifty thousand tons is ten million kilograms!

It’s just one year’s production.

Zhang Qiming said: "The dean just said that you will know in the future. More than 50,000 tons is simply a number worth mentioning."

Approaching Jicheng, Fusheng only saw wide streets and no city walls at all.

The people coming and going had smiles on their faces, and Picheng seemed to be in two separate worlds.

After entering Jicheng, Fusheng was even more shocked and speechless by the street lights in Jicheng.

"You just said, this thing will glow at night?" Fusheng said, looking at a glass-shaded lamp hanging on a six or seven-meter-high wooden pole.

"Yes, this is an electric light. This is the only one that exists, and it is still being tested. It does light up at night, but it takes more time to break down." Zhang Qiming said: "The main problem is the insulation layer and the transformer. The current materials are not very mature. "

Fusheng couldn't understand the second half of Zhang Qiming's sentence, but he knew that this thing would indeed light up at night!

What does it look like when it lights up at night?

Fu Sheng decided to come and have a look at night.

"Let's go! I will take you to dinner first, arrange for you to stay at my home, and then introduce you to the literacy department tomorrow. Anyway, there is no one at home." Zhang Qiming said.

His home is an ordinary room in a five-story building, about 60 to 70 square meters, which was allocated to him after he worked for two years.

The place to eat is in the alley next to the building. As soon as you enter, you can smell the fragrance inside. The various kinds of food open Fusheng's eyes.

The two of them ate a few bowls of noodles casually, and Fusheng's mouth was full of fragrance.

Noodles, so fragrant!

After eating, Zhang Qiming said: "Since I'm back, I'll report to the dean. I don't know when I'll be back in the evening, so you don't have to be polite. There is a faucet in the house with hot water!"

The steel mill has a lot of waste heat, which can provide hot water for people in this area.

It's not possible to go any further.

After explaining to Fusheng, he hurriedly left with the diary he had completed a few days ago.

Fusheng didn't move many things in the house.

He just sat there looking out the window.

He was waiting, waiting for dark.

It was finally dark, and Fusheng followed his memory and walked out of Zhang Qiming's house and came to the place with street lights.

The street light seemed to be out of order. Several people in blue clothes were tinkering around and recording something.

Fusheng just watched quietly from the side. After a long time, the lights on the roadside suddenly lit up.

It was a warm yellow-orange light.

The light dispelled the darkness and made the place as bright as day.

Fusheng just stared blankly at the light in the black light.

He watched for a long time.

In 1788, the output of pig iron in Britain was 68,300 tons! More than 50,000 tons is not a small amount.