CHAPTER 1527: CHAPTER 1444: KNOWLEDGE CHANGES DESTINY

The large number of captured shells were used as blasting powder for mountain opening; although not ideal, they were sufficient in quantity. Boom after boom echoed through the Great Tang Empire’s newly occupied valleys.

Meanwhile, Tang Country’s engineers quickly arrived, joining the bridge construction efforts. Many bridges were erected, and temporary floating bridges gradually increased in number.

Following closely were schools, both for adults and children, established one after another. Many officials of the Great Tang Empire believed that knowledge changes fate, a truth proven through experience.

The speed at which the Great Tang Empire built schools was astonishing. They directly requisitioned the best local houses and handed them over to teachers responsible for school construction, letting them use them as they saw fit.

Before the real school buildings were completed, these former nobility residences were all used for teaching. Adults were gathered for night classes to learn various subjects, while children attended classes during the day to receive the Great Tang Empire’s education.

In summary, everything was put to use, treating these young teachers almost like workhorses. The labor laws of the Great Tang Empire didn’t really apply to these teachers, as they typically had to teach around 14 hours a day.

Children had to study various subjects, including mathematics and language, along with geography and history — especially history. Everyone needed to learn the history of the Great Tang Empire, from every detail starting with Brunas’ era.

In the evenings, the range of subjects taught by the teachers expanded. Adults learned more practical knowledge than children, using what they learned to earn a living and support their families.

Thus, teachers who taught the adults needed a certain level of practical skills, sometimes even demonstrating with tools how to use industrial machinery from the Great Tang Empire.

Ultimately, their efforts proved effective as many gained more lucrative skills, fundamentally improving local productivity.

The Great Tang Empire not only lacked workers but also skilled laborers. Every factory was hiring, all hoping to immediately acquire skilled workers ready for production work.

This employment shortage would not be resolved quickly, as the industrial level of the Great Tang Empire was still too low. Despite highly industrialized areas like the Zheng Region, Qi Territory, and Dragon Island, when averaged out with the newly occupied territories, it was nowhere near enough.

According to Tang Mo’s standards, currently, the Great Tang Empire was only at about Huaxia’s level in the 1980s, somewhat comparable to a certain big Eastern country’s third brother, hardly worth any pride.

He still had to continue increasing his industrial output, expanding production of various products to ensure the Tang Country people live more affluent lives.

The logic is simple: right now, ordinary people can’t really afford cars, television sets are far from being widespread, many regions lack electricity, and there are challenges with water supply.

Under these circumstances, the Great Tang Empire had a lot to accomplish, and only after achieving these goals would it, in Tang Mo’s view, have the capacity to continue annexing lands.

If one doesn’t ensure his own people are fed and leading good lives, no amount of raiding and pillaging other lands would end without a disastrous finale.

Beyond the workforce aspect, agriculture was even more of a focus for reform among the Great Tang Empire officials. According to the laws of the Great Tang Empire, all land belonged to the state, and citizens only had the right to farm it.

Hence the farmers of the Great Tang Empire only paid an agricultural tax, and additionally received "agricultural subsidies" provided by the Great Tang Empire. This was designed to offset the income disparity caused by the industrial-agricultural scissors gap, allowing farmers to achieve self-sufficiency.

Initially, none of the farmers understood what these changes meant, as they hadn’t yet reaped any benefits from this system.

The Great Tang Empire officials had to go door to door explaining the details to each farmer in the Qin Territory, Shu Territory, Chu Territory, and Dahua, calculating their payable taxes, and assuring them they only had one payment each year.

After repeatedly confirming that they no longer needed to pay any extra money to nobility or officials, and as long as they farmed on time under governmental supervision, they only had to pay less than a tenth of their previous taxes, gradually they accepted they were now Tang People.

Of course, they didn’t believe that once they paid their taxes on time in the autumn, they would receive "subsidies" larger than the taxes they paid. To these farmers, the idea that the state wouldn’t take a penny and instead give them extra money seemed like a joke.

And those Great Tang Empire agricultural department officials were disinclined to explain further; when the time came, they would directly count the money into the farmers’ pockets, and they would never doubt their identity as Great Tang Empire citizens.

Apart from these issues, the Great Tang Empire was undertaking a massive relief effort: over 4 million tons of grain would be sent to Tang Country’s new occupied territories to alleviate local famine.

The agricultural department officials of Tang Country arrived in these places with a large amount of seeds and farming knowledge to assist local farmers in restoring agricultural production.

Furthermore, 10 million pieces of various product goods were simultaneously sent to these regions to revitalize the war-torn local economies.

With this grain and these civil product supplies, local citizens could endure through the summer and return to normal harvests and lives in the autumn.

Mass amounts of candy, cigarettes, clothes, and other supplies could greatly enrich the lives of people in newly occupied areas, while radios and other products could nourish their spiritual world.

Under the subtle influences of what they saw and heard, locals would quickly come to identify as Tang People and recognize their new identity through ongoing benefits.

Soon enough, the people in these places would truly become citizens of the Great Tang Empire, simultaneously becoming part of Tang Mo’s power. This power, like a commanding force, would allow Tang Mo to mobilize tenfold or hundredfold human and material resources to wage that great unifying war across the Endless Sea.

In reality... another reason Tang Mo hadn’t continued expanding was that he hadn’t figured out who his products and ammunition could be sold to, should he truly unify the whole world.

If the world really unified, with the whole world under Tang Mo’s control and all territories belonging to the Great Tang... Then perhaps weapons would no longer be necessary?