Chapter 112: A Visit to Fangcao Academy—Technology is the Primary Productive Force

What amazed the visiting group the most was how the full-time Yuanlao at Fangcao were busy from morning to night, with hardly a moment’s rest. Of course, every single one of these Yuanlao teachers had a particular fire in their eyes when they looked at the students, especially the female ones.

“For people as wealthy as the short-haired ones to still teach with such tireless diligence is admirable. We are far from their match,” Liu Dalin remarked to Wang Ci with emotion. Anyone would have to admire such a spirit of dedication to education.

“It’s just that what the Australians teach is entirely divorced from the righteous path of the sages. As the saying goes, if the path is not righteous, the more one learns, the more reactionary one becomes!” Wang Ci said, showing off a phrase he had picked up from attending classes over the past few days.

Jinshi Liu stroked his beard, closed his eyes, and pondered for a moment before speaking. “What the Australians teach, though not the books of the sages, follows the way of the sages. An ancient Australian sage said, ‘All roads lead to Chang’an.’ We cannot cling to the old ways without adapting. This Lingao, this Hainan, the people live and work in peace and contentment—is this not a rare, well-governed age?”

Wang Ci was unconvinced. It was true that the Australians’ methods of governing the people and managing finances were unparalleled in the world; perhaps even the sages reborn could do no better. But he felt it was all too heretical. Did providing the common people with tangible benefits equate to implementing the teachings of the sages? If the Australians could govern the populace without the sages’ teachings, then what need was there for scholar-officials?

A chill ran down Instructor Wang’s spine. He stopped arguing and walked away alone, dejected.

At the repeated request of the visiting group, they were finally granted permission to enter the library. The Fangcao library was of a limited scale—after all, there were only so many books that students at the primary school level could read. The educators of the Yuanlao Senate and Fangcao had a purely “materialistic” approach to student development. That is, the knowledge they learned, read, and mastered was heavily focused on practicality. Stories, fairy tales, and other staples of children’s literature were not published, except for a select few deemed to have “educational significance.” As a result, the variety of books that could be collected in the library was limited. Broadly speaking, apart from textbooks, political propaganda pamphlets, and various dictionaries, the collection consisted of a large number of popular science books.

Even so, the collection of twenty thousand volumes was enough to leave the visiting group dumbfounded. In an era with a backward printing industry, where books were few and expensive, having a few hundred or a few thousand volumes made one a great collector. A library of ten thousand volumes was something only the government or the imperial family could possess. For the Australians to equip a school with so many books in just a few years was enough to make them prostrate in admiration.

In the eyes of Hu Qingbai and Principal Zhang, this was nothing special. A national model high school with 42 classes was expected to have an average of 50 books per student. Even an ordinary middle school needed at least 10 books per student to meet the standard. Fangcao, as a comprehensive school from primary to middle school with two hundred classes and six thousand students, should have had at least sixty thousand books by the lowest standard—Lingao’s printing industry was not yet that formidable.

When they saw the vast hall with shelves packed densely with books, Liu Dalin was speechless for a long time. The entire collection of books on Hainan Island probably couldn’t match what was in this room. The group lingered for a long time, browsing through the books on the shelves. But they never looked for long before shaking their heads and putting them back. Except for a few, they found most of the books incomprehensible. Looking at the students reading diligently at their desks in the reading room, Instructor Wang suddenly felt like an illiterate farmer. So there was this much knowledge in the world, and he knew so little of it!

The “strange skills and cunning contraptions” of the short-haired bandits, which he had once scorned, were creating one miracle after another in Lingao, and he knew nothing about it. He couldn’t even understand the books when they were placed right in front of him. No wonder the Australians paid them no mind and took no precautions, letting them wander and observe as they pleased. At this thought, Wang Ci painfully put the book down, unable to read any further.

Huang Binkun flipped through many books in the library, but the result was still a great disappointment. It wasn’t until he came across a massive, multi-volume set titled “One Hundred Thousand Whys” that he felt he had struck gold. Of course, much of the content was still beyond his comprehension, but he could understand some chapters.

As he read, he discovered that the book’s content covered everything from astronomy to geography, a comprehensive collection of all kinds of knowledge. What was even more remarkable was that although the language was simple and the entries short, it explained various matters in a way that was easy to understand. Even he, a complete novice to “Australian learning,” could grasp some of it. He was overjoyed. Isn’t this the Australians’ secret manual? With this, the bandits’ secrets will be laid bare! At this thought, Second Young Master Huang’s breathing quickened, and he wished he had a pocket big enough to hide all several dozen volumes and carry them out.

However, the male and female administrators in the library kept a close watch on them. Huang Binkun looked for an opportunity for a long time but was unable to successfully steal the book. He could only put it back resentfully, pondering how he might devise another way to get it.

As he was thinking, he saw a student reading and scribbling in a small notebook. An idea sparked in his mind. Since copying was allowed here, he just needed to have Huang Ping come and copy the books. If one person wasn’t enough, he could just send a couple more boys to study here.

That evening at dinner, Wang Ci was queuing for food in the cafeteria. As usual, he got a portion for Jinshi Liu Dalin as well. The visiting group ate for free, but their meals were the same as the students’ and faculty’s, with no special treatment.

The two sat down to eat. “Mr. Liu, these past few days have been truly eye-opening and enlightening. The Australians are truly extraordinary people.”

“The Australians are indeed very talented and intelligent,” Jinshi Liu said, knowing Instructor Wang had more to say. He gave a perfunctory reply and waited for him to continue.

“The Australians’ wealth is their foundation! Sir, look at this school, the magnificent buildings, and that library with its countless thousands of books. And this food! We have meat and vegetables at every meal, and all the refined rice we can eat. Our dynasty could never achieve this. You may laugh, sir, but when the Australians hosted us last year, the food was a feast of delicacies from land and sea. I, your student, almost swallowed my own tongue, hehe.”

“Do you still believe, sir, that the Australians can achieve all this just because they are wealthy?”

“Headmaster, there are too many people here, and the walls have ears. Why don’t we continue this in our dormitory?” Wang Ci said, seeing that Liu Dalin was about to launch into a discussion. Fearing they would be overheard in the cafeteria, he knew this place was different. It was full of Australian students. One wrong word, and the only Jinshi in the history of Lingao County could be doomed forever.

But Liu Dalin waved his hand. “Hehe, no matter, no matter. It is precisely because of the noisy crowd that the Australians’ secret listening devices will not work.”

Instructor Wang said, “If wealth is not the foundation of the Australians, why do they work so tirelessly to accumulate it, not only for the state but also being so frugal in their own consumption…”

“Accumulating wealth is for the state’s use,” Liu Dalin said, word by word. “From ancient times to the present, dynasties have collected taxes, promoted industry and commerce, and opened up sources of revenue to ensure the state’s coffers are full. What the Australians are doing is no different. But their foundation does not lie here.”

“Please enlighten me, sir.”

“Sir, please consider this. Lingao was established as a county during the Tang Dynasty, some eight or nine hundred years ago. In all these centuries, besides some increase in farmland and population, how much has changed between the Ming and the Tang? Mr. Wang, you have read the ‘Gazetteer of Hainan’ and our county’s own gazetteer, so you know.”

“Yes, our county is after all a small, remote place, and with the Li people causing trouble, it has not been easy to maintain the current situation.”

“Exactly. Since the county’s establishment in the Tang, we have only managed to develop this little. Why is it that as soon as the Australians arrived, there has been a change unseen in a thousand years?”

Wang Ci had not thought about this question in detail. The most profound impressions the Australians had left on him were “extravagance” and “the ability to make money.” He believed that many things were possible for them simply because they could make money, pulling out a continuous stream of funds and provisions as if by magic.

“It is naturally because the Australians are good at making money,” Wang Ci said. “Many benevolent policies that the county wishes to implement are not done, simply because there is no money and no grain. It is difficult to act.”

“Hehe,” Liu Dalin smiled meaningfully. “Let’s not talk about that for now. If they are good at making money—why can they make more money than others? Is this not still Lingao County?”

This question left Instructor Wang dumbfounded. He had always felt that the short-haired bandits were exceptionally good at making money, but he had never thought about why.

He pondered for a moment before replying, “The Australians have all sorts of secret techniques…”

“Exactly!” Liu Dalin clapped his hands in approval. “Mr. Wang is correct. The Australians can make more money than others because they have secret techniques that others do not.” He continued, “In local farming, one strong laborer with one ox can manage about twenty mu of land, and the yield is only a little over a hundred jin per mu for the whole year. Look at how the Australians farm. One person with horses, oxen, and those unknown iron contraptions can manage a hundred mu of land, yielding one or two thousand jin per mu a year. That is the difference!”

Wang Ci was suddenly enlightened. He nodded and said, “Headmaster is right. It’s not just farming. The Australians do everything more and better than the local people…”

“Correct,” Liu Dalin said. “It’s not so much that the Australians are good at making money, but rather that they can produce more grain and cloth. Moreover, they have secret methods for building roads and ships. They build roads quickly and ships large. When goods are scarce, they can be transported from afar. When there’s a surplus, it can be sold elsewhere. By balancing supply and demand, they prevent the price of grain from falling and hurting farmers, and they prevent all goods from becoming exorbitantly expensive. With such methods, how could the Australians not be rich!”

“The Headmaster is right!” Wang Ci nodded repeatedly, excited. Although Jinshi Liu’s analysis was simple, it was extremely clear. He had thought about this principle before, but never with such clarity. That’s right. The reason the Australians could bring about a change unseen in a thousand years was precisely because they possessed all sorts of “secret arts” and a “productive force” that the locals could only look up to in awe.