Chapter 643: The Library

After the successful development of the steam engine, Ren Baqian directed the students to work on the deceleration and braking systems. He went to the empress to ask for steel.

The next goal was to build a circular railroad track with a diameter of 400 meters outside Lan City.

Just building a train that could run wasn’t enough because the load factor, speed, and other aspects needed to be tested.

It wasn’t currently possible to build a long railroad track since Dayao wasn’t rich in iron resources. Thus, a circular track was the best choice in this situation.

However, what Ren Baqian wanted was a rail that required 50 kilograms of metal per meter, which was equivalent to 100 kilograms for the two rails of the track. The circumference was 1,300 meters for a railroad track that was 400 meters in diameter. Therefore, 130,000 kilograms was required.

This was an astronomical figure and was equivalent to Dayao’s total mining output for the last three years. Such a figure was expected to cause intense reactions, and there would inevitably be some arguments that flared up in the imperial court over the next few days.

Although the output of the iron mine at Damo Mountain was 900,000 kilograms and this level of production was only possible due to Ren Baqian’s efforts, the shortage of iron in Dayao was too great. The aboriginals were also skeptical of the contraption being made at the school. If it was 10,000 or 20,000 kilograms, everyone could close one eye, but for 130,000 kilograms, they would argue and debate for a long time before deciding on this matter.

In other words, it could be said that a lot of bricks were wasted while deciding on this issue.

The empress was growing to like bricks more and more. Ever since she found this magical weapon, she had never missed her target and enjoyed using it very much.

These days, the empress used about one cartload of bricks every week, and the consumption rate was still rising.

Besides iron ore, manpower was also needed. Ren Baqian instructed Tong Zhenye to make abrasive tools to grind the rails into shape and requisitioned 1,000 people from the captive camp to lay the trackbed with gravel, put the, and lay the rails.

It took 20 full days to put the railroad ties in place. After that, they proceeded to lay the rails.

Ren Baqian hardly had any time to rest during this period. On one hand, he was planning to expand the academy, while on the other hand, he was building a library for the Black Bamboo Academy. The library was the first in Dayao and was called the Cangshu Pavilion.

After all, Ren Baqian still had many secret books, and it would be a waste to let them get moldy. Plus, there was no harm in letting these students read them.

The library was constructed over more than 20 days. It was an ordinary brick building with three levels and was about 400 square meters in size. Inside were wooden shelves, tables, and chairs. As there were no other decorations, it looked simple and crude from the outside.

However, this library was priceless to Dayao.

Many senior court officials owned around ten books. At most, they owned hundreds of books. As for the ordinary citizens, they were even worse off.

Ren Baqian put tens of thousands of books in this library that covered all kinds of topics. This was beyond comparison to others and impressed everyone.

The third level contained various secret manuals taken from Tianjing Basin as well as some less important texts about martial arts that belonged to the empress.

Although these books weren’t that important, they were considered good books to the ordinary citizens.

Although the aboriginals had very great potential, they had the same problem as the ancient people of China—they found it difficult to acquire knowledge, especially knowledge about secret martial arts.

On the one hand, these secret books in the library could serve as a reference for the students, whereas on the other hand, they could benefit many ordinary citizens.

On the second level, there were professional books that Ren Baqian brought back from Earth, including physics, chemistry, manufacturing, Western medicine, commerce, and even the Analects of Confucius and the Book of Dao by Lao Zi.

As for the first level, it contained some miscellaneous books, but it was these books that kept the students stuck here.

The books in the library could only be read in the library by the students and couldn’t be taken out.

This, however, didn’t curb their enthusiasm. When the news came out that a library was being built, many students came to Ren Baqian and inquired about it since they were looking forward to its opening.

The news spread outside the school and reached the ears of some of the court officials.

The had students waited for more than 20 days and rushed in on opening day.

Many students, especially those from a commoner background, rushed to the third level to read the secret manuals because they found them to be useful.

Soon, someone on the first level found the keys to a new world.

“One… Piece?”[1.One Piece – a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda]

“Why’s it full of drawings? The drawings of this man are very strange…”

Half an hour later.

“This thing is interesting…”

One day later, a short student from the new class told Ren Baqian, “Teacher, I want to quit school.”

“What happened?” Ren Baqian was surprised. “Tell me about it anyway. I’m your teacher, and I may be able to solve your problems.”

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What Ren Baqian meant was that there weren’t many matters that he couldn’t fix in Dayao.

This youth was not outstanding in any regard, but Ren Baqian didn’t wish to see his students dropping out for frivolous reasons.

“I want to pursue my dreams!”

“…” Ren Baqian was puzzled. He wondered why the word “dreams” sounded so unusual when uttered by an aboriginal.

“I want to travel to the Yun Nation, go to the sea, and raid ships. I want to live like they do in ‘One Piece!'” the young man solemnly declared as he clenched his fist.

As Ren Baqian looked at his solemn face, his eyes twitched. Then, Ren Baqian silently took out a gun from the table, pointed it at the young student, and said, “I will give you another chance to rephrase your words!”

“I…”

Bang, bang, bang!

Sometimes life was interesting, especially when looking back at it after a period of time.

Many years later, this young man would become the admiral of Dayao’s navy. Ren Baqian found it interesting whenever he would recall the events of that day. Sometimes, the future of a man was decided by a small thought in his childhood.

At this point in time, Ren Baqian felt that this young man was interesting.

However, when he met another person the next day, he began to think that comics were highly impactful to students in this era who lacked entertainment. This influence was even greater than he had imagined.

When Ren Baqian arrived in class the next day, he felt that something was wrong. After searching for half a day, he finally found out what was wrong; several shiny bald heads.

It wasn’t uncommon to see bald heads in Dayao since the weather was hot and many people shaved their heads to save time.

However, there were significantly more bald heads in class today, and one of them greatly surprised him.

Below the bald head was a very beautiful face.

“Zhuo Hua, what happened to your hair?” Ren Baqian asked as he rested both hands on the table. The female aboriginals either tied their hair into buns or braided it, but she looked rather striking with her bald head.

“I suddenly felt like shaving it…” Zhuo Hua blushed and stammered.

“What in the world was your reason?” Ren Baqian felt uneasy and pulled a long face.

“It’s said that this will make a person strong…” someone beside her whispered.

Many students snickered.

Ren Baqian was dumbstruck.

“Please sit down. Do you think the stories in the comics are true?” Ren Baqian didn’t rebuke them but asked with concern.

“I believe they are! Such things must have happened in some corner of the world—otherwise, where did those stories in the comics come from?” someone said after standing up. He looked serious and was the same student from the day before who had said he wanted to live like they did in One Piece.

“I feel that it’s possible or even real. What if it’s real?” another person asked.

“Whether it’s real or not, it’s interesting either way, though I hope it’s real.”

Ren Baqian thought about the answers given by the students.

The impact of those comics was greater than he had expected.

These students had not been exposed to many things, did not have much entertainment, and had also never seen comics in this world before.

His original intention was for the comics to provide some entertainment for these students while also expanding their imagination. He never expected so many students to treat them as real.

People on Earth were exposed to various kinds of information from a young age and were able to distinguish between stories and reality.

Children on Earth might fantasize about being Ultraman, a Super Saiyan, a Monkey God, or one of the Calabash Brothers.

Ren Baqian himself had wanted to become the sixth brother of the Calabash Brothers when he was young.

These students had just been exposed to something new, and it wasn’t incomprehensible to him.

It looked like he needed to expose them to more information in order to hone their ability to distinguish fact from fantasy.

He might have to go and make a newspaper or something similar, for example, a Lan City Daily. It would train the students, entertain the residents of Lan City, and serve as his mouthpiece.

He used to focus on science and technology, but it was apparent that other topics aside from science and technology were still relevant.