Chastity Layman

Bashang, a highland in the southeast of Chang'an, has a unique terrain and a military strategist. Two rivers on the east and west sides flow between Bashang Plateau, and Bailu County is located on the plateau.

There are many such plateau terrains in Guanzhong, especially in the northwest of Guanzhong.

"Didn't you say you were here to fish? Why did you come here?"

The plateaus along the way are all gentle slopes, and the weather is fine. From the high plateaus, you can already see Chang'an City dozens of miles away.

The plateau has completely different customs and customs from Chang'an City, such as cave dwellings, which cannot be seen in Chang'an City, and are rare in the Guanzhong Plain. But on the plateau, cave dwellings are a very common way of living.

There is a lack of water on the plateau, so the income of the people is not high. They belong to poorer areas and have no money to build houses. Come warm.

Only those old and wealthy landlords will build more luxurious cave dwellings, even using bricks and other methods.

Ma Zhou discovered for the first time that the brilliant city of Chang'an, standing high and far away, actually looked very small.

"I like this place. I can have a panoramic view of Chang'an. The loess is very yellow, but it is also very simple. It reminds me of my hometown."

Qin Lang smiled, "Standing on this plateau, is it similar to Leyouyuan in Chang'an City? It's just higher than Leyouyuan, and you can see farther. Leyouyuan can only earn half of Chang'an's income. Here, you can have a clear view, and you can stay away from the hustle and bustle of the city."

He took Ma Zhou all the way forward, and came to a place. In front of him, there was actually a large courtyard.

The white walls and green tiles turned out to be a completely different architectural style from Guanzhong and Yuanshang, standing there like a mirage.

"Do you like this style?" Qin Lang said proudly, the Qin family's glass workshop was actually built in Bailuyuan, Bashang.

In recent years, many clever apprentices picked by the Qin family from all over the world have gathered here, as well as many experienced old craftsmen. The glass industry is getting bigger and bigger, and other industries of the Qin family have also expanded rapidly in recent years.

Qin Lang is no longer satisfied with poaching people from other families, and it is not easy to do so. After all, in the past, the Qin family's industry was small, and as long as the treatment was good, it was still possible to poach people. But now the Qin family's business has become a giant. People can no longer feed themselves.

The Qin family began to train themselves.

This micro-style building was designed by Qin Lang himself. He traveled to Huangshan, Wuyuan and other places in his later life, and he was very fond of the old Huizhou-style buildings there.

The horse head wall, the small green tiles, and the overall layout are always exquisitely conceived, natural and decent, and the emphasis is on the mountain and the situation. In terms of plane layout, the scale is flexible and endlessly changing. In terms of space structure and utilization, it is rich in shape and full of rhythmic beauty.

Not to mention its comprehensive application in sculpture art, it is the pinnacle, and the auxiliary stone carving, wood carving and brick carving are integrated.

Hui-style buildings are just like Jiangnan women, small but delicate, full of charm, especially in Guanzhong, in places like Bailuyuan, compared with the roughness of Guanzhong, the elegant style is more prominent.

Qin Lang led Ma Zhou into these courtyards.

Ma Zhou was amazed again and again.

"Story-level courtyards, high ridges and eaves, winding paths and outlines, pavilions and pavilions are so harmonious and natural when combined together. The whitewashed walls, green tiles, horse-head walls, these bricks, wood and stone carvings are natural, and you are so silent. Xiang made a Jiangnan garden here?"

"Is this your new courtyard?"

Ma Zhou became a little jealous. He wasn't jealous that Qin Lang was rich, but he was jealous that Qin Lang could enjoy such elegance.

"This is my new Bailu Technical School!"

Ma Zhou was puzzled.

"Bailu Technical School, isn't it a school, why isn't it called an academy?"

"Because this is a school dedicated to the children of the common people, teaching them business skills. It does not learn the ways of sages, classics and history, but technology. All kinds of crafts and skills, agriculture, industry, and business are all taught, but the way is not taught. .”

Now Ma Zhou was even more puzzled, "Why?"

"Because not everyone in the world is as capable as you, nor is everyone as lucky as you. How many children from poor families can read? It is a chance for a scholar to become an official through the imperial examination, but in fact, if you want to support a scholar, it is not enough without a hundred acres of land, and the vast majority of common people's homes cannot support a scholar for a long time."

For the vast majority of people, the dragon begets the dragon, the phoenix begets the phoenix, and the son of a mouse can make holes. What is the occupation of the father will be the occupation of the son in the future. The father was a mason, and the son would be a mason, and the father was a farmer, and the son would only be a farmer.

It is almost impossible to cross classes, and it is extremely difficult to cross occupations.

People work hard all year round, just for the scraps of silver, but the money they earn comes in with their left hand and out with their right hand. It is extremely rare to be able to barely maintain food and clothing for a family, let alone have spare money or energy. to do something else.

Any disaster can overturn a family.

"Bailu Academy can teach literacy, arithmetic, and various skills. Every student is selected by the Qin family from apprentices recruited from all over the country. Once they are selected, they will be required to sign an employment contract with the Qin family. Contract. After signing the contract, the Qin family will pay to send them here to study, assign them to learn different skills according to their talents, and then assign them to various workshops or caravan shops after graduation in the future."

The Qin family got loyal and stable craftsmen and management, and those children who learned the skills could get better treatment, a win-win situation for both parties.

"Some people will specialize in arithmetic here, and when they go out in the future, they will become accountants, cashiers, or learn to drive and steer a boat, or learn manufacturing, or learn management. They are all targeted training."

Ma Zhou was deeply shocked. He never thought that such a school existed.

Scholars look down on industry and commerce, and look down on strange skills and ingenuity, but not only technology is inseparable from these, but economic development is also inseparable from them.

The tradition is that the master guides the apprentice, carefully selects the disciples, one-on-one teaching, one day as a teacher, and a lifetime as a teacher. It takes a long period of apprenticeship, and then a long period of apprenticeship, until the time when you can truly be independent , basically the master is also old.

No one will easily teach their own skills to their disciples. Even if they teach, they must always hide some tricks to prevent the master from starving the disciples to death.

Therefore, in the folk, even if you want to learn a craft, it is not easy.

He often starts apprenticeship at a young age, and the apprenticeship period is at least ten years. During these ten years, he is almost like a servant, not only learning art, but also doing various chores. At the end of the apprenticeship, there must be at least ten years as a buddy, and he can only receive a little wage to help the master work.

For ordinary people, the cost of sending a child to learn art is actually very high. The child is like giving away to someone else. It may take ten or twenty years before they can return to the family and honor their parents. It is actually not much different from sending a child to a monastery to become a monk.

The imperial court is Guozijian, and there are four schools, Chongxian Hall, Hongwen Hall, prefecture schools and county schools in various places, famous families and family schools, but learning is not something that ordinary people have the opportunity to get in touch with these days. It's easy to get in touch.

Although paper, ink, brush and inkstone and books are now much cheaper, they are still very expensive. A book may cost more than ten mu of land a year. A pen may cost several dans of millet.

The Qin family needed more craftsmen, and they couldn't be satisfied with the traditional apprenticeship model of masters. With the expansion of the industry, too many people were needed, so they could only break the old rules.

The White Deer Technical School is Qin Lang's idea, a world-shattering pioneering work, a lot of money to invite many experienced masters from all walks of life, old craftsmen and old stewards, let them teach in batches, train in batches, and then assign them.

As long as they are selected, after signing the contract, they can start receiving wages during the apprenticeship period. Although it is not too much, their daily food, clothing and accommodation are all covered by the Qin family, so this wages can already be taken home as a filial piety Parents, subsidize the family.

With the increase year by year, this salary is getting more and more. When they are officially assigned to work, they will be able to get a much higher salary than ordinary people with their own skills.

From an apprentice to a skilled worker, it takes as short as three years and as long as five years, which greatly shortens the time. After arriving at the post, you can learn while doing it. The Qin family not only set twenty-nine grades for all the stewards, but even all the workers also had grades.

Different grades, different wages, technical improvement, or management ability improvement, the grade can be improved, and the wages can also be improved.

"Your idea is so strange, you actually built such a beautiful academy for your apprentices and fellows!"

"It's a technical school, not an academy. If I call it an academy, I'm afraid countless famous families will come to scold me. I don't dare to insult gentlemen!" Qin Lang laughed.

Ma Zhou was in a complicated mood.

"The courtyards of these houses are really beautiful. It would be great if this place could be turned into an academy, where hundreds of thousands of students would recite the books of sages."

Qin Lang chuckled, "How many schools read the books of sages? Chang'an Guozijian alone has 8,000 students, and Luoyang, the eastern capital, is also planning to build a new Dongdu Guozijian, which will recruit thousands of students. Let alone more than 300 states and more than 1,000 counties in the world, there are government schools and so many students? But there is not a single specialized technical college."

"No matter how many schools there are in the world, few are truly open to the children of the common people. This Bailu Technical School will be a change. This is the first technical school. I will build more technical schools in the future. I will have It has its own specialized mining and metallurgy technical school, which teaches mining and smelting. There will also be a specialized manufacturing technical school, which builds cars, ships, and agricultural tools. Animal Husbandry Technical School..."

Ma Zhou was stunned.

There are more ordinary people in the world, not those high-ranking gentry families, so what if the imperial court opened the door of imperial examinations, thousands of troops and horses, single-plank bridges, Jinshi subjects that take three years, how many can be recorded in one subject, and how many are? How many descendants of the noble families or bureaucratic and powerful landlords can break through from ordinary people?

For ordinary people, the real thing is to learn the craft, and with the craft, they can have a meal wherever they go.

Just farming with the loess facing the sky and the back facing the sky can only solve food and clothing, and it is impossible to become rich. It is a fact that only farmers who have learned their skills can live a good life. Even in later generations, farmers have to go out to work in order to build a new house and marry a wife. Few of them can save money by farming alone.

Of course, it would be of great benefit to Qin Lang to take this path. Capitalists are also unprofitable, so high investment naturally expects high returns!