Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 543 Slavic artifact!
Guo Kang was not too surprised by Theodora's statement.

"If you don't support me, who else can you support?" He smiled and said: "No one else can make this decision. The current factories and workshops are all designed by me. You can find the whole of Rome, and even the whole of Europe." Why don’t other people in charge come to invest?”

"I originally only got along with a few children of the Zhu Kingdom that I wanted to get to know, and I had very little contact with other elders and senior officials. My mother would sometimes nag me, saying that if I don't interact with them for a long time, why would I? Work in the imperial court. But you see, after the results are achieved this time, the entire upper class of Dadu is eager to come to my house. Isn’t this because they have taken a fancy to these plans of mine? "

"It can be seen that in today's world, there are many people who want to invest, but there are very few reliable projects." He sighed: "At this level, it is enough to attract a lot of people."

What he told was actually the truth, but Theodora didn't look very happy. The two argued for a while, but Theodora couldn't resist him and started to make moves again.

After a while, Wu Han came here with a pile of documents from Lama Wang. Looking around, I found Theodora was still in the corner, pressing Guo Kang against the wall, wondering what she was doing.

Wu Han was confused for a moment and couldn't figure out what they meant. He stepped back and hesitated whether he should say hello. However, Theodora noticed him keenly and quickly turned around and asked, "What's the matter?"

"Oh, I'm fine. Master Wang is in trouble." Wu Han explained: "His public activities are over, but there are still some guests who want to ask Mr. Guo for details."

Theodora then let go of Guo Kang. Guo Kang didn't have time to complain, so he hurriedly adjusted his collar and followed him to Lama Wang's office. Theodora also followed behind, minding her own business.

"Aren't there any activities over there?" Guo Kang asked.

He thought wildly for a while and came to the conference room on the second floor. A large group of people had gathered here, and they were asking endless questions around Lama Wang, pestering him so much that they were all a little confused.

The next meeting was to introduce his plan to most interested upper-level people and ask for their support in all aspects. It can be said that this is the real highlight of today’s “fundraising”. On this occasion, Theodora probably wouldn't be able to help much if she went there. Because her family has already taken a stand if it is time to take a stand.

Guo Kang was actually not ready yet. He was suddenly asked to talk and didn't know where to start. However, under the support of Wang Dalai Lama and others, he was still pushed to the front of the crowd and faced their problems head-on. But fortunately, everyone is actually more anxious than him, and they are all eager to understand the situation.

"To put it simply, the biggest difficulty in the development of the Ross area is that their starting point is too low. That place is so poor and backward that it is so shocking that the people of Romania may not know it if they have not been there in person. It’s so imaginable. Not to mention all of you who have a better environment around you." Guo Kang said:

"Mr. Guo, our Black Sea Chamber of Commerce is very interested in your plan." A middle-aged man said first: "If we can open up such a vast rear area, we will definitely support it. But I don't know, what do you need us to do?"

Seeing him walking in, Lama Wang in the crowd also said quickly: "Just in time, he's here. Let me ask him to introduce him."

"That's it... don't worry, everyone." When they said this, Guo Kang knew: "What we need here are actually two things: people and iron."

"We fellow Georgians also hope to join this plan." Another old man wearing a big hat also echoed: "If there is any need, please give us orders directly. Our hometown association has reached an agreement and will We will use our financial and human resources to help.”

Guo Kang was quite suspicious of this, but Theodora didn't know why and insisted on following him.

He walked over curiously, said hello to Qiao Feng who was right next to the door, and asked specifically: "Where is your sister?"

"She doesn't even have one." Guo Kang was a little surprised: "The quota is so tight this time?"

"Yes, many people can't even ask for it," Qiao Feng said.

Guo Kang looked around and found that there were indeed not many people running here. In addition to some elders who have met a few times, there are also many unfamiliar people, whether they are rich people or officials in the city. Taking a closer look, even Sun Shiwan and Qiao Feng were here.

"Can you tell me more about it?" someone asked with interest.

Guo Kang can understand this. But Theodora had already followed, urging him not to delay. Guo Kang didn't say much, nodded to the people around him, and continued walking forward.

"She couldn't come if she didn't receive the invitation." Qiao Feng said, "But she specifically asked me to convey her greetings to you, and said she would come see you again if she had the chance."

"Mother will manage. I am free today," Theodora said.

"I have consulted many people about this, including the new prime minister Bu Xianggong who once presided over the water conservancy project in the Xiaobei area. He told me that in Romania, what we do is generally to promote more advanced agricultural technologies and strengthen the local foundation. Facilities need to be upgraded. Although in many places, production technology lags far behind that of the Central Plains and Greece, it is basically still in the category of 'utilization, transformation, and upgrading'. In the land of Russia, there is basically no existing infrastructure. Everything, almost, is made from scratch.”

"The situation of the local people is very bad. Their villages are very small, usually only four or five households, and the most are only about ten households. They are incomparable to our farms. This is because the area is vast and sparsely populated, and the population itself is small. Very limited; their farming methods are also very backward and require a lot of land to support such a small number of people. If too many people gather too far away from the fields, then the village will be meaningless."

"Because there are too few people, these villages are both fragile and backward. With this small number of people, it is impossible to build water conservancy projects, and it is difficult to even transform the surrounding forest land. They also lack construction and logging tools, because the same is true in the villages. There is a lack of craftsmen engaged in handicrafts." He explained: "Due to backward technology, the number of professionals they can support is also limited. Therefore, craftsmen such as blacksmiths and stonemasons can generally only be found in central towns. The lack of professional craftsmen has led to them Lack of tools makes it impossible to improve production efficiency. The people and iron I am talking about are these two aspects." "Then why don't they try to change this situation?" The Greek rich man who just asked the question asked: "If you don't have the skills, you can start from Bring it in from the outside world. We can sell these things to them."

"That place is systematically backward." Guo Kang shook his head and said, "Not only is the situation among the people bleak, but the management of the local lords is also very inefficient."

"The production capacity of ordinary people is extremely low, and they are unable to open up land, mine minerals, and build water conservancy. This has led to their development being extremely slow, and they cannot accumulate enough reserves in the long term to achieve what we call 'upgrading.'"

"In order to obtain resources, local managers have to take away a lot of savings from the people. This makes it basically impossible for them to achieve technological progress on their own, because even if they have savings to buy tools and learn skills, they will be robbed by the lords first. Walk."

"And the people are not stupid at all. In this situation, everyone knows that it is completely nonsense to want to improve the production and living environment. As a result, they completely lost their enthusiasm and began to muddle along. In this way, their There is even less possibility of improving production capacity.”

"What's more serious is that it has fallen into a vicious cycle. Because the people are extremely poor and lack output, the lords must use greater efforts to plunder, and this plundering will destroy their ability to improve themselves. The result is that the entire Rus The earth has fallen into a state of long-term stagnation.”

"Let's put it this way." He thought for a while and gave an example: "Do you know grinding? It's the kind of flour grinding."

Everyone nodded.

"The climate here is suitable for growing wheat crops. To process these grains, mills are indispensable. Most of the mills now are disc-shaped and have engraved teeth. They are pulled by livestock or driven by wind. , water-driven, are all used by people." Guo Kang gave an example: "However, in some remote areas, local Slavs still use stone grinding discs and grinding rods."

"You may have never seen that kind of thing. It's just a flat stone as a cushion, put the grain on it, and then use a stone rod to roll and crush it repeatedly." He thought for a while and made a rough estimate: "This kind of thing is probably older than Yanhuang. It is probably a tool from the era of Chao and Shennong. But they are still using it until now."

"Ah? That's not it, why is that?" Many people couldn't understand.

"Because the tools are not good." Guo Kang said: "The disc-shaped stone grinding machine looks very simple, but it also requires a specialized stonemason to use iron tools to make it convenient. The grinding disc with grinding teeth is also a consumable. , need to be maintained. These are not easily obtained by the poor and isolated Slavic villages. Therefore, they can only use this processing method to grind them more easily."

His statement is actually quite conservative. The stone grinding discs and grinding rods are generally considered to be from the late Paleolithic Age or the early Neolithic Age, and are probably nearly 10,000 years old. He hadn't thought about how to describe this time in words that people of this era could easily understand.

The mythical characters of the Central Plains can be roughly compared. But if you haven’t attended a Chinese-style private school here, you probably won’t be able to understand this concept of time... After all, Europeans at this time usually believe that according to the calculations from the scriptures, the creation of the world has been about several thousand years. If they knew that the stone mills passed down by the Slavs from generation to generation may be older than the creation of the world by Heavenly Father, many people would go crazy...

And this thing will not disappear so simply. In the history of his world, some mountainous Slavs used this thing into the 20th century. This set of tools has been used from ancient times to the era of industry, steel and guns. It is the kind of thing that is "not far from ancient times" in the literal sense. It belongs to Kong Laoer and he has to exclaim when he sees it. Something really retro...

And that kind of turntable mill is actually not very "new". The first appearance of toothed stone millstones was in the early Han Dynasty, which may indeed be related to the widespread popularity of iron tools. Before that, people generally used pestles and mortars to process grains. Outside of China, the earliest millstones appeared in the western Mediterranean, and they spread quickly with the conquests of the Roman legions. Thinking about it, it should also be the result of tool improvements.

The older grinding tools are also much less efficient. Some people even believe that people in Egypt and West Asia would consciously add sand, gypsum and other powders to the grindstones to increase friction and improve efficiency. As for the gravel, if conditions permit later, just screen it out.

To be honest, this idea is scary. At least in Guo Kang's opinion, this kind of deliberate mixing of sand into flour is simply crazy. The Egyptians probably had to have strong mouths to be able to eat this thing. But having said that, when the tools are backward, sometimes you have no choice but to make this choice. Otherwise, I’m afraid no one will want to continue to use this kind of thing from the prehistoric era.

In many places in Europe, millstones are still monopolized by lords. It can be seen that this thing is far from being as simple as it seems. For the Slavs whose lifestyle is similar to that of ancient times, they really do not have such particular conditions.

Of course, this example itself is vivid enough. Everyone quickly understood what he meant and began to think about it. It's just that I don't know for a moment what they are paying more attention to.

"Those Russians, haven't you thought about this problem?" someone asked curiously.

"I've definitely thought about it. There are far-sighted rulers there, and they will also respond in a targeted manner." Guo Kang said: "Some powerful princes will forcibly intervene in agricultural production, consciously introduce more advanced technologies, and carry out among the people. Organization and promotion. In order to concentrate efforts, farmland is sometimes re-planned and these too scattered villages are brought together to facilitate management and organization. I heard that Riazan tried this way back then, and it did achieve good results. "

"But all of this requires a strong ruler. He must be able to control those ignorant and rude nobles, and also force these people who are accustomed to lying down to plant according to their own plans. It can be said that he is very dependent. The ruler’s own ability. Sometimes, such a person will leave some legacy and improve the local situation. But there are also many times, once the leader is lost, these changes will cease."

"Do you hope we can change this situation? So where should we start?" the audience continued to ask.

"It's what I just mentioned, human technology and the steel we produce." Guo Kang replied.

Isn't this nonsense - otherwise, would we still use Slavic ancient artifacts? In his mind, he muttered to this question that he asked knowingly.

(End of this chapter)