C144 (1/2)

Chapter 144 - Hard Change

In 1865, the whole of Asia was still ruled by traditional forces. Although the Western Powers had shown its muscles to the countries of Asia countless times, the inertia power that lasted for thousands of years was still unbreakable.

In the real history, Japan was ultimately the first person to eat crabs. However, with Xiao Letian, the disrupter, joining the battle, the Ryukyu, who was initially destroyed in history became the vanguard of Asian change. Industrialization and the dawn of modernity have come to the fore over all nations.

Xiao Letian was now the benefactor of millions of citizens in the Ryukyu. He was also the most powerful official in the imperial government of the Ryukyu in the past few hundred years.

He firmly grasped the heart of the army, the hearts of the people, and even the hearts of a hundred officials in his hands. This allowed his reform plan to proceed exceptionally smoothly. The Letian Firm lent the money to the Ryukyu Kingdom one by one to become his national debt, and Xiao Letian spent all of the money on it.

Ten new schools had already been established on the ruins. Ten schools of Ryukyu with a population of a million were enough to cover the entire population. Scholars who were proficient in Chinese were also invited by Xi Yang. In the fall of 1865, Ryukyu Kingdom was the first to start bilingual education.

Xiao Letian had even enacted laws, setting the official language of Ryukyu to be Chinese and English, and enforced compulsory education. Xiao Letian had already calculated a long time ago, that these ten schools wouldn't even have much money left. Carrying out basic education of 300,000 hawks a year was already plenty, this little money was truly like a drizzle to Xiao Letian.

Education was the foundation of all reforms. Without high quality workers, industrialization would not be able to go deep, so ten schools teaching young people during the day, while at night, they would open night schools for literacy. Even Xiao Letian would personally give lessons, which caused a small sensation in the Tyrant City.

With Xiao Letian taking the lead to demonstrate, the learning spirit of the entire Ryukyu soared. Furthermore, Xiao Letian had promised these people who had studied before to give priority to employment, this made the citizens even more crazy.

Not only was it his first education, Xiao Letian had also invested a lot of money into that tyrant's Infrastructure. Right now, Xiao Letian did not care about money, as Ryukyu had already become his backyard, and was his sphere of influence.

I will clear out all the mountain peaks along the coast, and build them up on the Coiling Mountain Road. These mountain tops will be the future positions of the shore defense cannons. Xiao Letian had already thought about it long ago. He would spend a million gold to purchase heavy shore defense cannons from the United States and Europe. If Ryukyu wanted to develop peacefully, she would need to forge an iron hedgehog shell.

For the industrial zone to move to the central area of the island, it was best to hide in the mountains. Don't worry about the inconvenience of transportation, the first railway line in Asia would be built in Ryukyu, and then the industrial zone, warehouse district, dock area, and business district would all be connected by rail.

Not enough money? Everything that Xiao Letian was doing now was definitely a good deal that would earn him a hundred percent of money. Now that he wanted to lend Xiao Letian money, he had to wait in line even if he wanted to, and he heard that those Jewish merchants with keen sense of smell were also starting to move towards the Ryukyu. This was not a good sign, everyone had to get the biggest cake before these Jews arrived.

Xiao Letian couldn't even remember how much he spent in total, his preliminary estimate already reaching three million silver. A portion of it was the wealth of the Ryukyu Kingdom, while the other part was the loot from battle, and the cash from the Tanggu, so the rest was borrowed.

Three million had fallen into the Ryukyu, in just a short month, the entire city had become a huge construction site. All the ruins were bulldozed and replanned, and the roads were dug up to start building sewers and laying new roads. Public facilities such as police stations, fire stations, hospitals and schools are planned.

Not only that, Xiao Letian also built a large shipyard in the southern bay of the pier. Although he did not have any talents or equipment right now, it still could not stop Xiao Letian from planning ahead and building all kinds of Infrastructure to prepare for future.

Five years, Xiao Letian believed that in just five years, the Ryukyu would become the most civilized nation in Asia. Five years of time was enough for Xiao Letian to create a fleet that he could protect himself with, five years was enough for the Ryukyu to start producing a batch of factories, and most importantly, within five years of time, the Ryukyu would be able to nurture a large number of students and workers who had received systematic Western education.

The Ryukyu was already dancing under Xiao Letian's baton, but in the northwest of the Tanggu Hong Kong, the Great Qing's plans were running out of course. As the person in charge, Qing San Ye, who was worried about him, had a few strands of hair white.

Originally, Ma Bao's base position had become Fu Qing's walking stick. As the representative of the Industrial Zones, the citizens of the Tanggu had already started calling this place the messenger's office. The Qing San Ye had already become the official official in charge of the emperor's office, and was now the son of heaven, as well as the official in chief of the imperial court.

However, in these few months, the Qing San Ye did not have the slightest bit of arrogance.