Chapter 226: People’s Desire (IX)
Gao Pang sat outside the ancestral hall of Mr. Zhang in Qingzhou, looking at a group of Zhang people shouting loudly, asking Mr. Zhang to let the water source be released for everyone to use.
Before attending the meeting, Gao Pang followed the instructions in the cadre training manual and walked around the area for two days, looking at the water sources, mountains, forests, and fields.
Gao Pang was exhausted after seeing the whole journey in a hurry. But the harvest was beyond his expectation. He listened to the people with the same surname Zhang forcing Mr. Zhang in Shandong dialect. Although Gao Pang could not understand Shandong dialect very well, he understood the people's needs.
The best irrigated land was controlled by the masters, and even the land cultivated by the same clan members was dependent on the weather. In the past, the people could only depend on the weather. Now Huo Chong suddenly used many strange machines that could vibrate and rotate to pump water, which completely solved the difficulty of the people in pumping water.
Without even asking, Gao Pang knew what the people were thinking. Since the physical work could be solved by these machines, the farmers' idea was super simple and clear: Master Zhang had to hand over the water source he controlled.
Gao Pang thought that things had come to this point, wouldn't it be better to just hand over the water source honestly and readily? But Gao Pang found that while he could understand the people's thoughts, he could not understand the gentry's thoughts.
Master Zhang hesitated and made excuses. He talked about family ties and historical origins. From what he said, he probably wanted to start from the beginning of the universe by Pangu, and talk about it for at least a few days. Gao Pang even suspected that if possible, Master Zhang could probably talk like this for several years.
Anyway, apart from agreeing to the people's demands, Master Zhang kept talking nonsense. Even Gao Pang heard that when he wanted to yawn, some people shouted, "Master Zhang, what do you want?"
"You used my water..." Mr. Zhang tried to say.
Halfway through his words, the militia captain stood up and shouted, "Wait!"
The shout was so loud that it immediately attracted everyone's attention. Even Mr. Zhang stopped and looked at the captain.
The captain shouted: "I have seen your fish scale book. The water comes from the government land. When did it become yours?"
Master Zhang was shocked and said quickly, "Brother, we are in the same group!"
"Who the hell is in the same group with you? I am in the same group with you guys!" The captain directly retorted. After that, he stood in front of the people and shouted, "Everyone! The water belongs to the government. The government sent me here to help you guys! Follow me, let's dig ditches, divert water, and irrigate the fields!"
After that, the captain strode towards the water source and shouted, "Who wants to follow me? Let's go now!"
Regardless of whether anyone followed him or not, the captain headed straight towards the water source.
Someone in the back immediately stood up and followed the captain. Seeing someone taking the lead, the other people stood up one after another. They were afraid of being left behind, so they hurriedly followed.
After a while, only Master Zhang and his family were left in front of the ancestral hall. Some were angry, some were irritated, some were scared, and some were confused. Their expressions were different, but they all looked helpless.
After fully appreciating the appearance of these people, Gao Pang stood up and went to the people. Instead of looking at this group of gentry who were completely left behind, Gao Pang wanted to see what the people who followed the Han regime would do.
Gao Pang had only seen such words in history books, but he never thought that he would be able to witness it with his own eyes one day.
In front of the Gao Family Ancestral Hall, which Gao Pang could not see or know, Mr. Gao's face was even uglier than Mr. Zhang's. When the people learned that the water source was not from Mr. Gao's family, they immediately followed the captain. When some of the Gao family members passed by Mr. Gao, they remembered that they had carried water for Mr. Gao's family to irrigate the land in the past two days. They spat in front of Mr. Gao and shouted, "Shame on you!"
Mr. Gao was so angry that his face turned green. The young and energetic young man in his family had never been so angry before, so he rushed over to fight the man. Other Gao people who had also been pissed off by the water diggers rushed over to join the fight, and for a while, everyone was fighting.
However, this fight was not a fight to the death between people with the surname Gao and people with other surnames , but a fight between the poor and the rich among people with the surname Gao.
After all, the poor people outnumbered them, and when the captain came over to stop the fight and separate the people, the people in Mr. Gao's family were beaten up a lot, and most of these attacks came from the poor people who were practicing Taiping boxing on the side.
The young man from Master Gao's family pointed at the poor Gaos who seemed to be indifferent and angrily shouted, "You followed the rebels, and sooner or later you will be cut into pieces!"
As soon as these words came out, the captain was so angry that he kicked the man from Master Gao's family and made him retreat several steps and fall to the ground. Master Gao knew that his family had said something wrong. If this was said at home, everyone would be happy. But if it was said in public, it would be fatal.
No longer pretending to be a bachelor, Mr. Gao quickly stood in front of the captain and begged with a sad face.
Fortunately, the deputy captain remained calm and took the captain away for fear of killing someone. The poor people followed him as they were anxious to water the fields. Seeing his relatives groaning in pain on the ground, Mr. Gao was filled with boundless anger. He only hoped that the cavalry of the Eight Banners of Mongolia would appear immediately and kill the militia captain of the Han regime, along with all the poor people with or without the surname Gao!
If such a situation could occur, even if Mr. Gao was hacked to death, he would not feel disappointed.
Let this world without justice be destroyed!
However, despite the injustice of the world, the Mongolian cavalry never appeared. Instead, the poor people built canals and even dams to divert all the river water to irrigate the land that the poor people depended on for harvest.
If Mr. Gao hadn't hired people to water the Gao family's land a few days ago, the Gao family's fertile fields on both sides of the dried-up river would have been out of water!
Similar news came from every place. Without exception, the poor followed the Han regime, which could provide irrigation. Even the people who had no interest in the Han regime before showed enough determination.
Huo Chong had seen a lot of human greed and the darkness of human nature. However, Huo Chong had only heard of this kind of thing that met the needs of the general public, and had thought about trying to do it once through a project.
However, in the 21st century, whenever you feel that you have made a groundbreaking breakthrough in a certain technology, there is always only one reason: you have not read enough literature.
However, in 1728, Huo Chong was finally able to make full use of the knowledge he had mastered to truly realize the people's desires that they could not even imagine in that era.
The feeling was so good that Huo Chong even felt the urge to sing the Internationale.
Making flash caps and refining tannins are just satisfying Huo Chong's personal needs. When technology finally allows millions of people to feel the changes and enjoy the benefits, this kind of satisfaction is really very pure.
After closing his eyes and enjoying this self-contained mood for a while, Huo Chong opened his eyes.
Now that things have come to this, the next thing to do is very simple. During the slack season this year, we will recruit as many good sons as possible to join the army and expand the army. After the autumn harvest, we will expand our territory to the south.
The sooner the end of the Qing Dynasty comes, the better it will be for China!
