nucmednet Chapter 54 Building a New City
Chapter 54 Building a New City
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While waiting to build a few more voyage ships—since he couldn't be idle anyway—Liu Ye began planning the construction of Lingao New City and the school. He had been pondering this plan for a long time.
The main purpose of building the new city is to create a sense of belonging for the entire system and increase cohesion: the craftsmen live in simple dormitories in the factory, and even if they are renovated and reinforced with cement, it is still not their own home. Even if they receive good wages, they lack a sense of belonging.
Chinese people have always valued the concept of "home." Whether they are factory workers or office workers, they will return to their hometowns during holidays. No matter how prosperous Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, or Shenzhen are, they are not their true home. If a new city is built, allowing the craftsmen to settle down permanently in Lingao and spread their families, they will not think of leaving.
Aside from that, if there was any selfish motive, it was that he and Liang Xiaoming had a sentimental attachment to the future; cement and concrete buildings could at least bring back a bit of the feeling of a modern city.
He called everyone to a meeting to discuss the construction of the new town. How the new town should be built, whether it needed city walls, how much land it should occupy, and what to do with the current county town were all questions that needed to be addressed by soliciting everyone's opinions.
Before the discussion, Shi Ying showed Liu Ye a sample of rattan armor—this was something Master Liu had instructed him to do.
Liu Ye picked it up and examined it closely. It was a half-body armor made of rattan, similar to a vest, but with shoulder guards. It could be slipped on like a vest. It was quite light in his hand, much lighter than the cumbersome chainmail worn by soldiers.
Quartz explained, “The rattan armor soaked in tung oil is not only strong but also resilient, making it impervious to ordinary swords and knives. When an arrow strikes the armor, if the arrowhead lands precisely in the gap between two rattan vines, the vines will trap the arrow, rendering it immobile. If the arrowhead hits a vine, the tung oil soaking will cause the arrow to slide to the ground. However, making a suit of armor with tung oil takes too long. Although we have simplified the number of soaking times and the duration, it still takes at least two months. This sample has not been soaked in tung oil; it's just for you to see what it looks like.”
Liu Ye nodded: "Very good. This kind of armor is very lightweight, and two months is acceptable. Make several hundred sets according to the design of this rattan armor, and make sure that every team member can be equipped with it."
After examining the rattan armor samples, we got down to business: building the new city...
Yan Guang asked cautiously, "Rebuilding a city not only consumes a lot of manpower and financial resources, but also takes a long time. When will it be completed?"
Liu Ye laughed and called on Li Ergou to answer.
Newly appointed contractor Li Ergou concealed his smugness and said, "Mr. Yan, there's something called cement. When mixed into a thin paste, it can be used to build walls and houses. It dries very quickly, and once dry, it's harder than stone. Building with cement is several times faster than the old methods. Factories and dormitories are all built with this stuff now."
Yan Guang usually advised Liu Ye, emphasizing strategic planning and rarely focusing on technical aspects, and he didn't know much about cement. He exclaimed in surprise, "Such a miraculous substance exists? Is it difficult to refine? Are the materials readily available?"
Li Ergou replied, "The materials are everywhere, just limestone and soil. The refining process is also very simple. Just burn it into a paste and then mix it with water."
Upon hearing this, Yan Guang suggested to Liu Yennan, "In that case, a new city can be built, and the county seat can also be included, thus completely swallowing up Lingao County."
Shi Ying was also present. He hesitated for a moment before asking, "If we annex the county town as well, won't that anger the higher-ups?"
Yan Guang laughed: "What can the higher-ups do if they're unhappy?"
Quartz fell silent; he lacked the confidence to answer the rhetorical question. Indeed, what could he do about his discontent? Send troops to attack? The outcome would be obvious.
Yan Guang added, "Indeed, we don't need to be too aggressive right now. It's fine for the city to include the county seat, as long as the county government is retained. This will also save face for the government."
Li Ergou asked, "What about the people in the county town? Would they agree?"
Lin San stepped forward and said, "If you disagree, then let the county magistrate intervene. I guarantee no one will make a fuss."
Liu Ye agreed with this point: "As long as the people believe that being incorporated into the new city will provide them with the protection of the guard team, there shouldn't be any major problems."
A debate ensued regarding whether to build a city wall. Liang Xiaoming spoke first: "I think a city wall is completely unnecessary. The main purpose of a city wall is defense against enemies. In Qiongzhou Prefecture, we are the ones who fight others; who dares to fight us? It's pointless to waste time and effort building a city wall. Besides, we need to develop in the future and recruit more people. The new city will inevitably continue to expand, and without a city wall, expansion will be much easier. What use would it be to keep this little bit of wall in the county seat?"
This is typical modern thinking. With the advancement of technology, city walls are no longer sufficient to defend against increasingly powerful firearms. By the time rifled cannons were introduced, city walls had become completely worthless.
As a city grows, it inevitably expands outward with population growth and industrial development; the capital cities of later times are a prime example. However, if we were to follow the model of the capital city in this timeline, where a city wall stretching tens or even hundreds of miles would be constructed before the city itself is built, such a massive project would consume most of the manpower and resources. Even with powerful tools like cement, it would still take at least one or two years, during which time nothing else could be done.
The others couldn't keep up with his train of thought and remained hesitant. Lin Sanfa asked, "Master Liang, if the city walls were gone, putting aside the matter of fighting, what if an enemy or spies infiltrated? They could run in any direction. How would we capture them?" The crowd echoed his sentiments. In ancient times, without modern advanced detective technology, capturing criminals or spies simply involved closing the city gates and conducting a city-wide search.
Liu Ye praised, "Lin San's thinking is meticulous; this is indeed a problem. But think about it: if the city is very large, the person you want to capture can hide in any corner, and even if you close the city gates, it will still be difficult to catch them, and it will actually affect the entry and exit of everyone in the city. The solution is to make sure that the other party has nowhere to hide and will automatically reveal themselves."
Lin Sanqi asked, "What method can be so miraculous?"
Liu Ye smiled but didn't answer directly, saying, "You'll find out in the future."
A great invention from later generations was the household registration and ID card system. From the moment a person is born, through schooling, work, marriage, childbirth, buying a house, and buying a car, every step of their life is inseparable from their household registration and ID card. Under this system, nothing about a person can be hidden; even a man's extramarital affairs and how many times he has stayed in hotels can be clearly investigated.
Although the Ming Dynasty also had a Lijia system, it was too rudimentary and flawed from the time it was established.
The Ming Dynasty's founding emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang, initially established this system with the aim of creating an administrative organization that integrated tax collection and local administration. In its early stages, it played a positive role and contributed to the tax collection of the vast empire. However, after several centuries of development, by the late Ming Dynasty, it had become increasingly stagnant and largely defunct, mainly due to the rigid system's gradual disconnect from the ever-evolving socio-economic landscape.
As the gap between the rich and poor in society widened, the ability of each village to bear taxes and corvée labor varied greatly. In addition, land annexation became increasingly serious, and the imperial court's taxes continued to increase. As a result, the population and land began to move around constantly, and the distribution of people and land within the village naturally became spatially separated. This led to a situation where "the land of one village was scattered throughout the county, and the fields of the county had no fixed location." There were even many cases of people occupying land across counties, prefectures, and provinces. As a result, it became increasingly difficult for the village leaders to accurately grasp the population and property status of the people in their village.
By the late Ming Dynasty, the Lijia system's other function of maintaining social order could no longer be fulfilled as the system gradually disintegrated. In Guangdong, Fujian, and other places, clan organizations replaced this function of the Lijia system.
In comparison, while lacking modern high-tech tools like computers and nets, the modern household registration system, stripped of its tax and labor service functions, is far more sophisticated than the traditional village system. By registering all residents of a city according to their location, creating a household registration network, no outsider could hide—like a black bean mixed into a white grain of rice, the contrast would make it obvious. While the actual effect might not be so ideal, a gradual check based on household registration is far more reliable than a aimless city-wide search.
Since there's no need for defense or capture, the city walls can be abandoned. As Liang Xiaoming said, the city's future expansion will be unrestricted. Liu Ye and Liang Xiaoming share the same idea: they won't be satisfied with the size of a small county town. He wants to build Lingao into a large city with highly developed industry and trade in this time-space era.
The final plan for the new town was decided after everyone's discussion. The poor county magistrate was unaware that his county government office had been planned to be located in the new town, existing as a symbolic building, and his authority as the local official would be completely lost.