On the eighth day of December, the sky was gloomy on the Chengdu Plain.

In front of the field of vision, the extended official road passes through the lead-gray wilderness. In a village on the roadside, villagers in the off-season are walking in groups through the country roads to attend classes in nearby school sheds, or

They were practicing formation on the threshing floor.

Near this end of the field of vision, a dozen large vehicles were being repaired near the hillside next to the road. Someone was banging on the broken wheels. Ning Yi stood on the hillside, stretched his body, and looked at the scene in the village in the distance for a while.

Frowning and silent.

For him, it was truly a wonderful feeling.

"...If this matter is finally accomplished, the Chinese army can compete with the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors." Next to him, a Taoist priest with a horse-like face was walking over with a few newspapers, looking at Ning Yi's eyes, and said: "Mr. Ning must be

It’s quite emotional.”

Although he has always considered himself easy-going, he has had a lot of misfortunes in the past ten years. When he was in the Secret Investigation Department, he became a public enemy of the Green Forest people. After the regicide, he was assassinated all the year round. As a result, Ning Yi's security work has always been

The most important thing. Being able to easily approach Ning Yi and talk casually in such a camp is enough to prove that this horse-faced Taoist priest has a high status in the Chinese army. This is the veteran figure of the Chinese Army Research Institute, Gongsun Sheng.

.

After Liangshan was destroyed, some of the people above him were beaten down and others surrendered. Gongsun Sheng was a Taoist priest who was not too indifferent. At first, he was half-coerced and half-recruited, asking him to pass on the gunpowder technology he had to a group of apprentices.

Later, the cooperation between the two parties was good. Ning Yi always treated the technical staff generously, and his various whimsical ideas and designs made Gongsun Sheng happy, and he joined the team completely.

He worked as a demon in the past and got through society. He had a flexible mind and could understand many ideas by analogy and understand the spirit. He had also practiced martial arts for many years and was in excellent health. He was still energetic and radiant all year round. He has been in the Chinese army for a long time.

He is the most useful tool. Ning Yi has always supported such a good employee like a father. At this time, he saw that the newspaper he was holding mostly published news about land reform. Obviously

The old Taoist in front of me is also rejoicing in this earth-shaking innovation, which is quite rare.

The land reform began at the end of October of this year, accompanied by uproar. As of early December, the first batch of farmers who had completed the teaching and passed the "examination" had been successfully assigned their fields. Due to the wrangling situation in various places,

They are all different. There are not many such people at present, but the whole thing has been published in the newspapers and spread among everyone.

"Mr. Gongsun also said that you must eventually succeed. In fact, throughout the ages, power has been used to divide the land. Anyone who wants to can do it. Even Liangshan back then had to force people to divide the land.

No one dares to say no even if it is placed on their neck. But the problem is that after the land is divided, the means of production in people's hands must still be land, not violence." Ning Yi smiled with a complicated expression, "We are now

If you rely on violence to divide the land, then you have to worry about the real problems."

Gongsun Sheng has not been very interested in politics in recent years. What he expressed just now was simple joy. At this time, he frowned slightly in thought. Ning Yi twisted his body with his hands on his hips: "Actually, I'm not really sighing... I

Thinking about the carriage."

"……ah?"

"The carriage is not good enough, I almost fall apart..." Ning Yi, who has been traveling around since the beginning of the land reform, sighed and pointed forward, "In the future, we will collect the land, with Chengdu as the center. This will In a circle, the rail carriages are built along the official roads, drawing a big circle, which is Chengdu's third ring road. The first batch of villages to carry out land reform will be the first to become rich. This is one of the serious things to do."

He paused and said, "But as for the rail carriage, the wooden rails cause a lot of wear and tear. If it is not a place with particularly intensive business flow, it may not be cost-effective to maintain. Moreover, it relies on plain terrain, so its practicality in the future will not be widespread. At present, it is only It can be regarded as a large-scale experiment of rail cars. What I mean is, Mr. Gongsun, the manufacturing of the steam engine prototype at Gewuyuan is the key point. Only when artificial power sources replace livestock will it really become the beginning of a new era in the future. The kind that can be compared with the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors' Discussing Gong. I have a lot of things going on here recently, and I don't go to Gewüyuan that frequently. You have to help me keep an eye on it, and don't let those people blow me up like Lin Jingwei again. "

Based on the boss's instinct, he gave Gongsun Sheng some chicken blood.

Gongsun Sheng nodded in agreement.

"...On the other hand, shellac is a problem. This thing will be widely used in the future, not only in wires, but also in the shock absorption of carriages. The spring washers made in the past are one aspect, and the connection If you can use something elastic like shellac to wrap a circle under the wheel, we will call it... a tire. The bumps of the carriage will be small, and the upper frame will wear less. No matter it is carrying people or cargo, it will also They can all run faster. But the current output of this thing is too small. If it needs to be increased, the Institute of Geosciences and the School of Chemistry should also pay special attention to talents in this field..."

The winter was gloomy, and the sky in the distance seemed to be raining, so Ning Yi kept talking to Gongsun Sheng about these things. Over the years, the Gewuyuan as a whole was an institution managed by Ning Yi personally, and under Ning Yi, there were only Lin Jingwei and Gongsun Sheng. Waiting for a few people to be able to manage the overall situation, now that Lin Jingwei is injured and recuperating, Ning Yi also has more things to do. As the new year is approaching, he can only give a rough explanation of his future plans to the others.

Of course, there are some things that he cannot say.

For land reform to replace rural sages, the prerequisite is that the central government must have the ability to manage local areas, and the prerequisite for this management ability is the high-speed transmission of information. The high-speed transmission of information requires telegraphs, telegraphs require electricity, and the development of electricity requires Insulating skin, and the insulating skin requires rubber.

Rubber was something that was introduced to Asia only after the Age of Discovery. Currently, it probably does not exist in the entire Eurasian continent.

In principle, the manufacture of electricity is very simple. However, Ning Yi searched for a substitute for rubber for a long time and only found shellac. This stuff is also called shellac, which is something that lac insects secrete after absorbing resin. Now it is considered a kind of dye, and some are also used in traditional Chinese medicine, but in general, the output is scarce.

Insects are used to absorb resin and then secrete lac... Compared to the amount of rubber material required for the entire industrial revolution, driven by capital demand in the future, lac bugs may become an economic insect of the same weight as silkworms. The entire south, including Dali, and even the entire Southeast Asia, may become colonies producing lac.

Thinking about the future where lac bugs will be everywhere, Ning Yi felt that this future was a little scary.

If we fully support Junwu in the southeast to advance the great navigation technology, I don’t know if it will be possible to complete the great voyage and retrieve rubber trees from South America in the next 30 to 50 years...

Of course, such an imagination is too advanced and belongs only to Ning Yi's personal happiness. While he stretched his body, he chatted with Gongsun Sheng about the future. At a certain moment, a horse suddenly passed through the official road where a small number of merchants were walking.

Come to the convoy camp here.

It's urgent information from the Secretariat.

When Ning Yi was away, this kind of information that needed to be sent alone was naturally important, but it was not considered confidential at the moment. After a while, with Ning Yi laughing, the information was passed to Gongsun Sheng, and then to others. This

Some of the people who followed Tian knew about the major event that happened in Bianliang not long ago.

"Zou Xu made a mistake." Ning Yi said with a smile, "I moved so slowly that I handed over two more goods to Liu Guangshi, and now they all belong to this guy."

Gongsun Sheng, who was about to leave at the side, frowned and came over again: "The current situation in the world has changed drastically. I'm afraid there will be chaos in Chengdu next. Wouldn't it be better for Mr. Ning... to go back and take charge?"

Since Ning Yi ran out of Chengdu and traveled around, similar advice has been given to the team many times. Gongsun Sheng is telling the story again. In fact, he had been wandering around the world in his early years. At this time, he talked about "the world is big."

"Change", there was still a vague feeling of "demon way" guiding the country between his eyebrows. Ning Yi looked at it brightly, laughed dumbly, and naturally did not express the thoughts in his heart.

"...There are no big changes in the world. Just small things." He said, "Let's just do our best."

The clouds in the sky were still flowing, the fields were gray, and in the distant villages, the course on land allocation was still going on. After a while, the fleet was repaired. When Ning Yi boarded the carriage and announced the departure, Hong Ti also came over

, she also knew what happened far away in Bianliang, and said with a smile: "They said you don't want to go back."

"The elopement should look like an elopement." Ning Yi held her hand and smiled. After a while, he opened the curtain and looked at the scenery outside, and whispered, "I always feel that one day, sooner or later, we will be imprisoned.

I'm in a small courtyard. For the sake of the overall situation, I can't get out again, so I'll run around more while I'm free now."

"Isn't the matter between Zou Xu and that wife Dave really not a big deal?"

"Everyone should go to their proper places. There will be no surprises. It will not be in the way."

That's what he said, but after sitting in the car for a while, Ning Yi still took a pen and paper and wrote something down.

"To the General Staff: The Chinese army defeated the Jurchens in the southwest and gained a little reputation. Dai Mengwei stabbed him in the back twice, betrayed his companions, and was called a saint today. Now he falsely claims to have recovered Bianliang. What are the feelings of comrades in the army about this matter?

How to guide it, please discuss it with the responsible comrades as appropriate..."

"Code to Qin Shaoqian, He Zhicheng: As the new year is approaching, is the homesickness among soldiers even worse? I think a new round of registration can be carried out in the military to record the hometowns of all soldiers, and combined with the land reform situation, plan for the soldiers after returning home

, extremely looking forward to the division of fields and land, we launched a round of research and discussion. In the past two years, Sichuan and Sichuan have been peaceful and developed rapidly. There are more meetings and less fighting. We must be vigilant against the indifference of the army..."

"Send it to the Propaganda Department:..."

The clouds outside were low and heavy, making it feel like it was about to snow.

Ning Yi was writing at his desk while the carriage was crossing the plain.

****

"It's snowing."

December 11, Chengdu.

When Yu Hezhong woke up, he heard a woman's gentle voice.

He rubbed his forehead: "When is it?"

"We just arrived," the woman said.

"Ah...why don't you wake me up..."

"Why did I wake you up? You came to me again when I woke you up." The woman said, "You said you came over at that time last night. You didn't listen to me when I talked to you, and you fell asleep in a hurry.

I originally thought you were sleeping at sister Gao's place. When I saw you coming, I felt happy and wanted to say a few words to you, but you ignored me..."

In the midst of the chattering voice, the petite but sweet woman twisted the veil and was extremely gentle. In the past, this trivial voice often made Yu Hezhong feel good, but now he was upset and felt noisy for no reason.

, he wiped his face and looked for his clothes. The woman took the clothes to a chair in the room, collected the veil, and then slowly took them out for him: "Is something wrong?"

"No."

"If I don't have you, just stay with me. It's snowing outside just now. With the weather in Chengdu, it's hard to see snow all year round..." The woman said a few words in a broken voice, and then remembered something, "Oh, you went to bed when you came back last night.

Next, there is something I forgot to tell you. Mr. Yan came here last night. He seemed to be looking for you in a hurry and asked you to meet him if you have time today. I see him

It looks like something big happened, what everyone was talking about this morning... was General Liu killed?"

In the warmly furnished room, the woman's voice sounded casual, but Yu Hezhong, who was getting dressed, was suddenly startled and looked seriously at the petite woman.

During more than a year in Chengdu, his status rose, and he made two "confidantes" in the entertainment circle. The woman named Wei Rou in front of him looked petite and soft, and many times she even seemed innocent, but in fact she was

She was also a very famous figure in the romance field. She was called a famous prostitute in the past, but now she is also called a certain "everyone" in the social circle. The news of Liu Guangshi's death was so important that she mentioned it at this time.

It seems casual, but what are you actually thinking?

They have slept with each other many times in a year. After the other party got married to a "big shot" like himself, his daily behavior became more easy-going and homely. But at this moment, doubts flashed through Yu He's heart.

The woman's eyes were still clear. After asking casually, she wrung the handkerchief dry in her hands and hung it up on the wooden frame. She turned around, noticed his gaze, and blinked: "Look at me like this.

What are you doing..." Then his voice dropped slightly, showing some worry: "If Mr. Lang doesn't tell me, I can't ask. If General Liu is gone, are you... okay?"

Yu Hezhong was soothed by such worries, thought about it, and continued to get dressed.

"What's wrong with me, but Lao Yan and the others are in really big trouble this time."

His words and expression became calm.

After a while, Yu Hezhong got dressed, and had some breakfast under Wei Rou's service. During the meal, he tried his best to appear calm. When he was about to finish eating, he heard the woman casually mention

One sentence: "Then if something like this happens, should Mr. Lang take the time to meet Sister Li?"
To be continued...