Volume 4 is in the ascendant Chapter 515: Jiaozhou Gradually Settled
When the results of the academic examination were announced, each university prepared admission letters in a formal manner and sent them to every admitted student, which seemed very ceremonial.
Although it is not possible to manage household registration using the means of the information age, because of Chengji, household registration is recorded directly in Chengji Mansion.
Bai Tu also specifically explained that university admission is of top priority, and local officials should conduct a thorough comparison of identities and city girl information. If there is any fraud, severe punishment will be imposed!
Because the number of university admissions is limited, a large number of students fail and have to return home sadly, or prepare to change their path, or get ready for the next year - the academic examination is different from the imperial examination, which is held every three years.
The scholars who passed the exam were looking forward to the start of school in August with great joy. Their joy was no less than that of being on the list of the imperial examination!
After the academic examinations, the highlight of the Chu State was the imperial examination at the end of October.
The six ministries and one academy still set the questions separately. This time, Pang Tong even tried a last-ditch effort and included "selection of insulating materials" in the engineering imperial examination.
In Bai Tu's impression, the best insulating material is naturally synthetic rubber.
But that thing requires oil, which is not available in the Chengji world, and the substitute is naturally natural rubber, which has limited production.
With the industrialization level of the Chu State, as long as there is natural rubber, it is enough to get through the current stage. As for what will happen after that... Bai Tu can only say that children and grandchildren will have their own blessings!
After all, due to the disappearance of fossil resources and the existence of true energy and mental power, the Chengji world is destined to be unable to copy the development process of the world that Bai Tu is familiar with. Therefore... the benefits of the "hard drive" are also disappearing faster.
Of course, in reality, there are many small inventions that we didn’t have time to “point out” before, and at least the hard drive has the function of guiding the general direction, just like the “Qi machine”. The actual technology has nothing to do with the content in the hard drive, but it has taken the path that the steam engine in the hard drive has already paved.
However, even natural rubber is not something you can get just because you want it. Various types of rubber trees are not produced in the Han Dynasty, but only in the Golden State!
Naturally, "rubber trees" were one of Gan Ning's targets during this voyage.
However, considering that there is no civilization in South America at present, even if there are human tribes, they should be in a very primitive stage, without writing, and may not even have reached the Neolithic Age.
Therefore, it is still not easy to find rubber trees in a short period of time - it is much more difficult than finding crops such as corn.
After all, as long as we find the Mayans, we can find those crops, but as for the rubber trees... we have to go deep into the mountains and forests ourselves!
Gan Ning's stay time is limited, and he will find it sooner or later, but not necessarily this time.
If Gan Ning can bring back rubber trees this time and transplant them successfully, he can go to Golden State and have the second batch of pioneers collect wild rubber trees...
I believe that before long, all the industrial projects that Chu State needs to seal will be able to move forward, and even the ocean will not be able to block the voice of Chu State!
In addition, in Southeast Asia and the Qinling Mountains, there are also substitutes for substitutes...
Bai Tu had previously informed Shi Xie of the appearance of the ancient tabebuia tree, and suggested that it was a plant needed by the State of Chu, and ordered the Jiaozhou government to look for it.
But there is no news yet. After all, the ethnic groups in Southeast Asia have not yet used rubber. After all, in a narrow sense, the Guttapo tree in Southeast Asia is not considered a rubber tree...
The gutta-percha tree can also be used to extract a "rubber-like" substance, namely gutta-percha. In terms of quality, it is even better than other natural rubbers for making insulators and is the main insulation material for submarine cables.
However, the gutta-percha tree is not a true rubber tree. The yield of gutta-percha gum extracted from it is even smaller, and it does not flow out on its own. Therefore, it cannot be utilized by natural means, and naturally it is not used by indigenous people.
As for other natural rubbers, they are all varieties introduced from Southeast Asia - the local climate is indeed suitable for growing rubber.
Bai Tu didn't care and used the Gutapo tree to "deal with it" first. Although there was no time to plant it on a large scale, because the Gutapo tree had never been used before, its wild number in nature was enough to meet temporary needs.
As long as we pay attention to sustainable development and pay attention to planting while collecting, it will be fine.
However……
Before Shi Xie made a firm decision to surrender to Chu, it was obviously impossible for him to allow the Chu army to enter the country on a large scale. What? You are here to look for trees? Do you think I believe it?
There were a limited number of registered Han people in Jiaozhou, and the number of troops was small, but with Shi Xie's prestige in Jiaozhou, he was fully capable of mobilizing the various tribes of Nanyue to help in the war.
Although not that strong...
However, Jiaozhou's isolated location and road conditions provided natural protection, which made the State of Chu reluctant to engage in war, otherwise it would easily be trapped.
What's more, Shi Xie had been trying to make friendly gestures, but he had not made up his mind to completely surrender to Chu.
To some extent, the conditions offered by the State of Chu to Shi Xie were much more stringent than the conditions offered to him by Sun Quan in history.
There was no intention to retain Shi Xie's ruling power in Jiaozhou. At most, he would give Shi Xie some conveniences and preferential treatment in exchange. This is why Shi Xie was even a little "rebellious" at the beginning.
However, after Chu became more powerful, Jiaozhou did not "rebel" for long, and now it has been paying tribute year after year to show goodwill...
What the State of Chu had to do was to keep building roads towards him. When the roads reached his face, Shi Xie would have no choice but to surrender to Chu.
Before this, the State of Chu was not prepared for a forceful attack, and naturally it could not bypass Jiaozhou and go to Southeast Asia to look for the Gutabo tree.
The same situation also applies to "Eucommia ulmoides".
Although the bark of the Eucommia ulmoides tree in the Qinling Mountains can also be used to extract gutta-percha, but... that is in the Qinling Mountains. To penetrate the auxiliary Han forces and face the threat from the Wei State is no less difficult than the navy exploring the Golden State.
Moreover, unlike the ancient tabo tree, if Shi Xie discovered the ancient tabo tree, given the current status and relationship between Jiaozhou and Chu, at Bai Tu's command, Jiaozhou would definitely collect raw materials continuously and transport them to Chu - of course, Chu would not rob by force, and assistance in terms of food and farm tools would be easy to provide.
But Qin Ling...
Even if Eucommia ulmoides could be found, it would not be possible to trade on a large scale. After all, once the princes discovered it, they would all "compete".
Besides, the rubber content of Eucommia ulmoides cannot be compared with that of real rubber trees. It can only be extracted from the bark and leaves and cannot be harvested every year by "tapping rubber".
What Bai Tu is most looking forward to now is the rubber from the Golden State. At most, the freight will be a little higher in the short term, but the output is more than enough to support the State of Chu.
As for now...
We can only watch Pang Tong pitifully research how to use oil-impregnated paper to achieve insulation and use cloth and threaded structures to achieve sealing.
…
The road construction project to Jiaozhou had a very high priority in the Chu State's road construction plan. Although its utilization rate is very low now, its priority is second only to the official roads between several important prefectures.
As the cement road got closer, the Shi family's attitude towards the State of Chu became more attentive and docile.
It has been a long time since I mentioned that I wanted the Han Dynasty to confer him a title...
From this point of view, the road built by the State of Chu was not a waste - although measured from the perspective of "road", the utilization rate of this road was extremely low, but in fact it played a role that tens of thousands of troops and several years of waste might not be able to achieve.
After all, Shi Xie was not an ambitious person and was very rational. He did not think that he could pose any threat to the State of Chu if he acted desperately.
If Jiaozhou was sandwiched between the State of Chu and other princes, there would at least be a chance to survive among the powers by using the art of strategy. However, the location of Jiaozhou... is completely under the "wing" of the State of Chu!
There is no room for maneuver if they want to attract other powerful enemies to contain the State of Chu...
Shi Xie is now old, nearly seventy years old, and... he does not see any outstanding talents among the younger generations, which has completely extinguished his desire to fight with the State of Chu. He just wants to seek more benefits for the Shi family.
Looking at the miraculous road surface of the Chu State that was "straight from the ground into steel" and had already been paved all the way, Shi Xie also knew that he didn't have much time left.
Moreover, the State of Chu just honestly built the road and did not mobilize the army, which gave Jiaozhou face and time to react.
This year was the second imperial examination of the Chu State, and Jiaozhou once again sent a key signal - Shi Kuang entered the Chu State to take part in the imperial examination.
Shi Kuang is the eldest son of "Shi Yi", the second most important figure in Jiaozhou. He is almost thirty years old this year, which is considered to be relatively old for the imperial examination.
As one of the core members of the Shi clan, Shi Kuang had naturally served in Jiaozhou long ago, and was even a prefect - although the registered population in the county was not as large as that of a county, he was still a prefect.
Shi Kuang came to the State of Chu to take part in the imperial examination, not because of his ability, but to show the attitude of the Shi family!
Although he was nominally a prefect, Bai Tu was very worried that he would fail the exam - it was not to the extent that he would fail completely, but for Shi Kuang's status, it would not be a good thing if he could not make it to the gold list...
If he really has the talent to be a prefect, there would be no problem for him to be on the imperial examination list, after all, it is just an imperial examination to select officials.
However, the problem was that the governor of Jiaozhou was very extensive in his governance. There were very few Han people registered in the province, and he generally focused on guidance and self-governance for the people of the hundreds of ethnic groups in Nanyue.
That is to say, they relied on both kindness and severity to make the hundreds of tribes pay tribute every year... The Shi clan had made great contributions to the education in Jiaozhou, but they were still far from "Sinicizing the hundreds of tribes". They were not like the Chu State, which had the courage to directly build cities in Shanyue and Wuxi.
Judging by the standards of the Chu State, this governor is not qualified in any way. If he can be reappointed to the second year, he will have to bring down the Minister of Personnel...
Moreover, in history, Shi Kuang not only had no opportunity to display his talents, but after the Shi family surrendered to Sun Quan, he and his father went to Jianye as hostages, and... he was extremely insensitive to current affairs.
After his cousin Shi Hui rebelled, Shi Kuang believed the evil of the general who suppressed the rebellion, Lu Dai, and tried to persuade him to surrender. However, after he succeeded, Shi Hui's family was destroyed, and Shi Kuang and his son were demoted to commoners...
For this reason, Bai Tu specifically instructed the Ministry of Rites to send someone to investigate Shi Kuang's background in advance. Fortunately, although he had little to show for his abilities, he had experience in governance, which was a great advantage among the scholars . And most importantly, the Shi family was a family that passed down poetry and literature, and Shi Kuang had a solid foundation in the classics.
If we ask the Ministry of Rites to relax a little, it won't be difficult to get the top scorers in the imperial examinations!
After all, it was the Shi clan who came to express their submission, so Bai Tu couldn't help but give them face...
