Chapter 170: Chatting Freely

Ren Baqian went to rent a car after they left the beach. After which, they went to the supermarket, bought a lot of stuff that could be used for a barbecue and loaded it all into the car.

Soon after, with the empress beside him, he aimlessly drove straight ahead on the highway. The wind blew into the car, playing with the empress’s hair from time to time causing it to brush against Ren Baqian’s face.

Sunshine, beaches, open highways, and traveling aimlessly.

This was the life Ren Baqian dreamed about.

After switching on the car’s sound system and pressing a few buttons, the car was soon filled with lively music.

“When wearing a flowery shirt, you need to be accompanied by a ukulele,

otherwise, you will look like a homeless brother.

When wearing a suit jacket, remember to have a female partner,

otherwise you will look like a parking attendant…”

[Lyrics from Jay Chou’s song “Ukelele”]

With one hand on the steering wheel gently tapping to the beat, he occasionally turned his head to catch a glimpse of the empress sitting beside him.

“How long will it take for Dayao to be like this?” The empress thought for long time before asking. She clearly felt more joy and satisfaction here when compared to the fast-paced life in the city.

“Science and education are the foundation of everything here—social development cannot proceed without them.

Although there is a disparity between the poor and the rich, whereby the wealth of the rich is almost equivalent to the nation as a whole while the poor have trouble getting enough food, most of the ordinary people can satisfy their basic material needs. This is possible because materials are abundant and their prices are very low.

Progress in science and technology is a precondition for achieving these goals. It does not depend on one or two people, but on the education of most of the people. The commoners do not only just hunt and farm, but contribute to the country.

In this world, for example, children begin to study from age eight till they are sixteen or seventeen in high school. After graduating from high school, they will enter university and some even obtain a master or doctorate degrees. The minority only study for nine years. Most study for sixteen years, and some, for more than twenty years.

This level of education allows everyone to have a considerable understanding of the world.

Every year, about seven million students, with sixteen years of education, graduate.

After going through school, these people influence all aspects of society, innovate, and made advances in science and technology.”

Once again, the empress was stunned by the figures Ren Baqian mentioned.

Dayao had in total roughly less than forty million people, and yet, in this world, there were seven million graduates with sixteen years of education annually.

If she did not personally come to this world, it would be very difficult for her to believe such astonishing numbers.

Having been here twice, she felt the things she saw were real, and anyway, the person by her side had no reason to lie to her.

In addition, from what she had seen these few days, the people in this world were physically frail, incomparable to the aboriginals. But, in term of verbal skills and sensory perception, they were way better than the aboriginals.

“Zixiao, pardon my blunt words, in Dayao there is basically no fundamental education. Also, it is still in the primitive stage of farming and hunting.

The minority that has received education are the children of the court officials. They might do well in their positions, such as the six departments of the imperial court or other similar positions, but it would be very difficult to advance science and technology in the decades or even centuries to come.

The portion of ordinary citizens receiving education is probably not much, but, if there’s enough to form a pool of talent, these people can gather together and can potentially change one country or even the whole world.

The most important point of this was that they had gone through education and gained knowledge as well.

Over here, we have three phrases: knowledge changes fate, knowledge creates wealth, and knowledge is power.

The strength of a man is limited to maybe fifty kilograms or even five hundred kilograms, but, mechanical power can be a hundred or even one thousand times stronger than that. A job that required one hundred people can easily be done by machines.

As long as there is knowledge, enough power could be harnessed or generated.

One example is this car.” Ren Baqian patted the steering wheel.

“For example, as mentioned earlier on, airplanes can ferry people and fly through the sky, rockets can send people to outer space, and none of this can be done by relying physical human power alone.”

“What do you all study?” The empress asked.

“Many things, it is all encompassing. Before high school, it is basic education and the contents are the same. It includes mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, language, and history. After high school, it is up to the individual’s choice of learning direction.

Those who study physics and chemistry, discover the rules of the world through research and learn how the composition of matter changes the properties of materials.

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Those who study medicine, become doctors and treat sick people after completing their course of study.

Those who study agriculture, will teach others how to achieve higher yields from their crops and do research to produce higher yielding crops.

As for those who study mechanical engineering, they are able to design machines to replace manpower, with a machine doing the jobs of tens or hundreds of workers. The automobile, the airplane, and other such machines are examples.

Those who study music, compose music that entertains people, just like the song you are listening to now.

Those learning architecture, specialize in designing and building different types of buildings and structures. Those high-rise building you have seen are their contributions.

Others specialize in language, cooking, teaching, repair, and all sorts of imaginable fields.

There are also many who choose to become teachers to teach what they have learned. Therefore, there is no shortage of teachers here.”

Ren Baqian parked his car on the roadside and proudly presented.

“Here, the brain is the most powerful, knowledge is everywhere and has the highest value.”

Of course, he selectively filtered some information.

For example, specialization in sports was left out as he thought it was hard for the empress to understand why anyone would want to learn how to run faster, jump higher, or jump further.

Topics like economics, politics and such were also hard to understand.

The empress heard what Ren Baqian said and looked into the distance.

She realized that what Ren Baqian just mentioned, was the greatest difference between Dayao and this world.

Seriously, anyone could be as great as a dragon.

“In that case, what do you propose to do?” the empress looked at Ren Baqian and asked. Her eyes were cold, but harbored some hope.

“The first priorities are the Mount Damo mine and the salt well. Then, we start work on educating the people. The aboriginals are very strong, but the power of the mind is much stronger than muscle power,” Ren Baqian immediately replied as he had already considered this matter long ago.

“One more thing to bear in mind is the remnant citizens of Hao Nation,” Ren Baqian said.

“In this world, there are 56 ethnic groups in China alone, with different habits and customs. But, they have merged together as members of one country and move diligently in the same direction, contributing towards the country.

The remnant citizens of the Hao Nation have been under the control of Dayao for seventy years, yet they never integrated into the country.

In reality, they are capable in many ways. The aboriginals are good at waging wars, but not in farming, business, manufacturing, etc. Thus, the remnant citizens of the Hao Nation are able to make up for the insufficiencies of the aboriginals.

There is no need to be antagonistic towards each other. In fact, both parties can collaborate. In your eyes, they may look very weak and can be wiped out with a single order. But, they were retained only because of the agreement signed earlier. However, they can become formidable too,” Ren Baqian continued.

Although he had never met any remnant citizens of the Hao Nation , the country had been destroyed for so long yet the aboriginals and these people were still hostile towards each other. So much so that guards were still needed to watch over them to prevent them from doing petty acts or staging a rebellion.

This was a total waste, a waste of military resources and also a waste of the potential productivity of nearly twenty million people.

If these people were liberated, imagine the amount of things they could do?

“They will rebel, even now, they are not hones,” the empress immediately said.

“They are like caged birds who cannot see any future. During the past seventy years, the aboriginals have not tried to integrate them, and as a result, they are all unsettled. But, this should not continue. If the Yun Nation, the Chen Nation and even Great Xia are conquered, don’t tell me you will find a place to confine them and always guard against them in case they stage a rebellion?” Ren Baqian said bluntly.

“I have never thought of conquering them. The late emperor did not have this plan either. Otherwise, the Yun Nation would have been extinguished decades ago. The aboriginals are understaffed. Many of them are still living in the mountains and not able to control such a large territory,” the empress explained.

“As such, it is too wasteful not to integrate them. If we can use them, the power of Dayao will not only double, but increase more than that. The people’s lives will also be much better than it is now. Aren’t you letting them manage themselves now? Why don’t you let them do more things?

I have mentioned this to Your Majesty before. It is completely possible to integrate them into Dayao as long as we weed out a handful of disloyal ones. Most people do not think so much and will accept it as long as they can live, work in peace, and see hope in their future. Strengthening their identity with Dayao will lessen their probability of rebelling. Even if they were to rebel, not many will follow, and it will not set off a storm.”

If Your Majesty still has some reservations, we can do it step by step and slowly integrate them into Dayao. The aboriginals only need to control some key places, and they will be unable to create any storms.

Several decades ago, the entire Hao Nation was defeated, what do these people need to worry about now?”

“The people in court will not agree.”

After Ren Baqian heard this reply, he could imagine the great resistance this proposal would meet in court. He had never considered himself as a reformer and said, “Do it step by step, let a small portion of dutiful remnant citizens of the Hao Nation leave and then see what kind of changes will happen.

A few hundred thousands of people will not cause any major impact, but the changes will be visible.”

“Do you have any ideas?” the empress inquired. She felt Ren Baqian was not saying nonsense and definitely had some solutions.

“I have a few, but, I’ll need to see those people in order to confirm them.” After all, Ren Baqian had never met any remnant citizens of the Hao Nation descendants before and did not know what the actual situation was like now. He could only determine which idea to use only after seeing what their lives were like.