Chapter 219: People’s Desire (II)
Huo Chong did not feel anything wrong with Qian Qing's report. After putting down the report, Huo Chong continued to talk with Feng Yukuan about shipbuilding.
After listening to Feng Yukuan's description, Huo Chong tried to unify his recent news in this regard, "Brother Feng, the ships that Shandong can build are only 70 or 80 feet long, right?"
Feng Yukuan saw that Huo Chong was obviously dissatisfied with this, and sighed: "Brother Huo, to build such a boat, it depends on luck. Whether you can find good wood. If there is no good wood, it is hard to say whether you can build a boat of 50 or 60 meters long."
"If I can provide a 20-meter-long keel, I can build a big ship, right?"
Feng Yukuan shook his head helplessly, "Brother Huo, I know you are anxious. People say that you can't eat hot tofu in a hurry, don't be anxious. If you are anxious, you can get it out. I am more anxious than you."
"I'm not in a hurry. If being in a hurry is useful, I'll show you how to be in a hurry. I mean it. If there is a keel ten feet long, we can build a big ship, right?"
"Brother Huo, if you can really give me a keel that's ten feet long, I'll build you a big ship."
One zhang is about 3.4-3.5 meters. Ten zhang is 35 meters. In the Qing Dynasty, this was a top-level ship. Inland river ships are basically flat-bottomed, and there is no need to worry about strong winds and waves, so the keel requirements are not very high.
The sea is rough, so the bottom of the boat must be pointed. The requirements for the keel are very high. Only huge trees can make a super long keel. However, trees several dozen meters long are extremely rare in China, so it is not easy to find them.
After talking about the keel, Feng Yukuan talked to Huo Chong about steaming wood. Wood will deform, and the larger the wood, the greater the deformation. Steaming wood can make the wood usable in a short period of time.
Huo Chong didn't say much after hearing this. After reading the information about steaming wood, he certainly wouldn't let Huo Chong do the specific operation himself. But the technical points were probably not a problem.
After listening to what Feng Yukuan said, Huo Chong finally said, "Brother Feng, I also boasted before. So, let's build a 50-meter boat first."
Feng Yukuan heaved a sigh of relief. "Brother Feng, you are not trying to embarrass me by saying this. I have never sailed a ten-meter-long ship, let alone built one! A five-meter-long ship would take more than a year to build. During this year or so, we must not allow anyone to attack us."
"Don't worry, Brother Feng. I know where to build the ship. I have also decided on the location, which is in Jimo."
Jimo is near Qingdao. The Qing Dynasty ceded territory and paid compensation, which was humiliating. It allowed Germany to establish a colony in Shandong. The Germans occupied Qingdao and made Qingdao famous.
Jimo was built nearly 2,000 years before Qingdao became famous. When the six kingdoms attacked Qi, the prince of Qi fled to Jimo, and the doctor of Jimo went out of the city to fight and died in the battle. However, Jimo did not fall, which prevented the Yan Kingdom from destroying Qi.
Now Jimo County belongs to Jiaozhou of Laizhou Prefecture, and Jiaozhou has been occupied by Huo Chong. Now Jimo is under the jurisdiction of Qingdao area, instead of Jimo being under the jurisdiction of Qingdao in the 21st century.
Feng Yukuan knew that there was a huge bay over there with relatively calm waters, and that it was a place for shipbuilding, so he agreed.
Now that this matter had been sorted out, Huo Chong convened a meeting to discuss the latest land reform situation.
The land reform did not have the imagined scene of everyone responding to the call. The real situation was as Qian Qing saw in the local area: the local people knew about it and were very excited, but few people really invested in it.
"Sir... Governor, should we kill another group of gentry?" Hu Yue asked.
As soon as he said this, Gao Pang immediately cast an unfriendly look at Hu Yue. Huo Chong simply asked, "Gao Pang, what do you want to say?"
Gao Pang stood up and replied, "My Lord Commander, and all of you...comrades. If we kill the gentry, everyone will only know that we want to kill the gentry, and killing the gentry has nothing to do with the people. Of course, they will not stand on our side. Seeing that we kill people for our own selfish interests, they will only worry about when we will kill them. We want the people to stand on our side, not by scaring them."
Hu Yue raised his eyebrows, "We have done so much to save the people from suffering. How come they still don't know how good we are!"
Gao Pang shook his head. “I think the people know. If they didn’t know, how could they regard us as officials?”
"Ah?" Hu Yue was unhappy. "We beat the Qing government away, so of course we are the government! If they are not convinced, why don't we become the government and try it ourselves?"
This time, Huo Chong couldn't listen any more even without Gao Pang saying anything.
I have seen before that the Tianli Sect was so determined to believe that "if the emperor is killed, the leader of the Tianli Sect can become the emperor. Those who follow the leader of the Tianli Sect can be given official titles and be made dukes and marquises for generations according to the previous agreement."
Huo Chong felt that he had seen at least one of the biggest jokes in the world. He didn't expect that this was not a joke. What Hu Yue said was just an addition to the logic of Tianlijiao, that is, the Han regime had a strong military force that could suppress all those who dared to resist.
Such an idea is just to push the fantasy of theatrical level to the wild fantasy of the barbarians conquering everything by force. It is really hard to see any remarkable progress.
Waving his hand for Gao Pang to sit down, Huo Chong stood up and asked, "Hu Yue, based on what you just said, let's do a logical deduction."
When Huo Chong mentioned logic, many people at the meeting frowned. This kind of abstract logical thinking was too painful for everyone.
Fortunately, Huo Chong did not come up with extremely complicated logic this time. He just made a logical model based on what Hu Yue said.
"According to your logic, winning the war is right. If so, didn't the Qing Dynasty win the war? If the Qing Dynasty won the war, why did so many Shandong predecessors fight and die in the cause of resisting the Qing Dynasty? If the Qing Dynasty was right, did the Shandong predecessors all go wrong?"
After hearing this, Hu Yue dared not say a word. Shandong was extremely determined to resist the Qing Dynasty. The peasant uprising in Yuyuan, Shandong, in the late Ming Dynasty lasted for more than ten years and was not brutally massacred until the year when Shunzhi was about to die.
Although sixty years have passed, Shandong natives over their forties are still resentful about this and have no good feelings towards the Qing Dynasty.
Huo Chong's uprising in Shandong did not encounter any opposition from the people, largely because of this reason.
Because the logical form was simple and clear, everyone present also understood Huo Chong's criticism of Hu Yue.
Huo Chong continued, "We issued a manifesto saying that the Qing Dynasty led beasts to eat people. This is not just a random excuse. If our logic is the same as that of the Qing Dynasty, we are both leading beasts to eat people. The only difference is that the Qing Dynasty led a few dogs, and we led a large number of jackals and beasts, as well as demons and monsters. Because we won the war, we are not leading beasts to eat people? The Qing Dynasty does not regard itself as human beings, and it does not regard us as human beings. We have some backbone and should regard ourselves as human beings."
Hu Yue quickly said, "Sir, I was wrong. I just thought Brother Gao was just talking nonsense. He didn't accomplish anything, and I thought it was not authentic for him to say that. But I didn't think about what you said."
Since Hu Yue told the truth, the atmosphere in the conference room suddenly turned against Gao Pang. Everyone looked at Gao Pang with a strange look in their eyes.
