Chapter 73 Boya Ziqi—A Forgettable Friendship

However, Cheng Nuo was not idle in the next few days, following Zhang Jian to visit various schools he organized.

It would have been better not to visit. After the visit, I found out that this old gentleman has now run dozens of schools. In addition to Tongzhou Civil Normal School, there are also

Normal training center, Category B primary school teacher training center, Normal training center for the blind and mute, Dongtai Muli Normal School, etc.

In addition to ordinary schools, it also strongly promoted vocational education. It successively opened a jacquard hand-weaving internship, a metalworking internship, a knitting internship, a dyeing laboratory, etc., and later gradually transformed it into a professional university.

The later Suzhou Tong University was founded on the basis of the merger of the Textile University, the Agricultural University and the Medical University.

When the two came to Tongzhou Women's Normal College, Zhang Jian couldn't help but introduce: "The indispensable part of national education is the establishment of normal schools. The indispensable part of national education is the establishment of teachers. The indispensable part of national education is the establishment of teachers, and the establishment of women's normal schools is the indispensable part of national education."

Now it seems that the school would be better off just like Professor Cheng and banning girls."

In fact, Zhang Jian's initiative to educate both men and women has a relatively long history, but at the beginning, it was simply because of the need for women to teach in kindergartens that he slowly opened a women's normal school.

However, a gentleman always talks about his achievements but not his heart. No matter what, he is already ahead of most people in this era in terms of education.

Cheng Nuo praised highly: "For enlightening the people's wisdom and clarifying justice, there is no reason to sacrifice education. As far as Tongzhou education is concerned, Mr. Zhang has made great contributions."

"This is the tree I planted myself. I didn't expect it to be so thick." Zhang Jian smiled and stroked a tree at the school gate: "Industry-based rejuvenation of the country should also start with benefiting one party. Thanks to the great achievements of college students,

The factory and Dasheng No. 2 Factory have some surpluses in recent years, otherwise they really wouldn’t be able to afford these schools.”

Cheng Nuo raised his head and looked up. He couldn't see the top even if he was so close: "It takes ten years to cultivate trees and a hundred years to cultivate people. It does cost a lot in the long run. The male and female schools have separate teachers and overlapping teachers. From a certain point of view, it is really a waste. If it can really be merged, it will be a waste."

It can draw on each other's strong points to compensate for its shortcomings, and balance yin and yang."

"What Professor Cheng said is absolutely true. Zhang will reconsider it privately."

After the visit to Tongzhou Women's Normal School was completed, Cheng Nuo gave more or less some of his suggestions while learning about his experience in running a school. The educational trip came to an end for the time being and he headed for his industrial base.

But this time, the start was not so smooth.

On the beach, a group of cotton farmers were shouting around a young man, holding his arms to prevent him from leaving.

Cheng Nuo and his followers quickly stepped forward and pulled away to prevent the situation from escalating.

"Everyone, don't do anything. Stop arguing. Let's tell each other what happened."

One of the leading cotton farmers stood up with an angry look on his face: "Okay, let's bring some help. It just so happens that we have a lot of people and we are not afraid of you. Even if Mr. Zhang comes, we still have to give an explanation."

The people below also started to boo, "That's right, we won't leave without an explanation, and it will be the same when Mr. Zhang comes!"

Zhang Jian pushed aside the entourage who was protecting him and stood up at the right time: "What's wrong? If you have something to say, tell me. I, Mr. Zhang, am right here. If you have anything to do with me, come to me. Don't embarrass that child."

The people who were originally very arrogant immediately lost their momentum when they saw the real person. You pushed me, I bumped into you, and no one dared to stand up again.

In the end, the leader stepped forward, bowed, and bravely said: "Mr. Zhang, you and your fellows have reclaimed this land, and it has watered everyone's sweat. We should also be grateful."

You are the one, and all the cotton I planted has been handed over to you, but this year”

"Go on, but what happened this year?"

The leading cotton farmer swallowed his saliva and continued: "But this year it's April, which is when cotton is sown. The factory suddenly informed us that there are not enough new seeds this year, and we are asked to use the old seeds. How can this be done? Harvest

Unfortunately, it will be May soon, so we are in a hurry."

As the cotton farmer said, this large beach at the junction of Tonghai and Hai was originally just a piece of wasteland. After hiding the value behind it, Zhang Jian set up a Tonghai Reclamation and Animal Husbandry Company to reclaim this land.

However, because the area of ​​​​the land was so large, it was difficult for Zhang Jian to have enough manpower to meet the requirements, so he used the method of "recruiting tenants" to hire a large number of laborers for reclamation. He only needed to pay a deposit of 6 yuan per mu of land, and Zhang Jian received 4 yuan as the income.

The tenants took 60% of the land, and an area of ​​200 miles was turned into fertile farmland.

In order to increase the yield of cotton on this land, they specially introduced high-quality seeds from the United States for promotion. Afraid of the concerns of cotton farmers, they signed an agreement stating that the output would be estimated based on cotton. If the yield of foreign cotton is lower than that of local cotton, the output will be calculated as local cotton.

If the price is higher than that of local cotton, the price will be based on the actual output of foreign cotton. But in general, the cotton produced by the company is exclusively sold to Dasheng factory and cannot be sold to others.

After years of development, cotton farmers have enjoyed the benefits, and seeds only recognize foreign cotton.

Now I heard that the seeds will be out of stock and the harvest will definitely drop sharply. How can I bear this? I want to ask for an explanation immediately.

After Zhang Jian understood the meaning, he looked at the person in charge: "Xiao Li, tell me what's going on and why you need to reduce the seed quota. This is a major event that affects cotton production."

The person in charge hesitated for a moment, then approached and whispered: "Mr. Zhang, why don't we go back and talk. There are too many people here, and I'm afraid it won't be good to speak out."

"If there's anything else you can't say, let's say it here, in front of the villagers!" Zhang Jian stared, ignoring the pleading in the person in charge's eyes.

Seeing this, the person in charge shook his head helplessly: "Mr. Zhang, fellow villagers, it's not that I want to reduce the quota of foreign cotton seeds for everyone. In fact, there is not much inventory in the warehouse. I haven't been able to import much this year. Most of them are left over from last year."

Come down."

The cotton farmer was puzzled and asked: "I could import in previous years, but why can't I import this year?"

After thinking about it, Zhang Jian let out a long sigh and answered the question for the person in charge: "Folks, because the sea is not peaceful now, the ferry has been shortened by more than 70% compared to previous years."

Because of World War I, there was a shortage of manpower in Europe, so Britain and France tried to recruit workers from our country, and more than 100,000 people rushed to the mainland there.

But his mortal enemy Germany would not sit idly by and launched unlimited submarine warfare to attack ships indiscriminately, including many ships in China. The Gallic merchant ship "Ados" was sunk by a German submarine, killing more than 500 Chinese workers.

Now that the United States has declared war on Germany again, and the routes are full of murderous intent, it is only natural that the seeds cannot enter.

After promising to find a solution and increase the unit price, the cotton farmers slowly dispersed.

After sending away the entourage and the person in charge, only Zhang and Cheng were left nearby.

After finding a high place, Zhang Jian looked at the vast expanse of heaven and earth in front of him and said with emotion: "Xu weighed the trend of world trends and considered the suitability of local undertakings. It took several years of hard work to achieve this achievement. Now, due to foreign affairs, it is possible."

I am unwilling to be destroyed in one day, Professor Cheng, are you willing to help me?"

I roughly understood what the old man meant, and faced the breeze Cheng Nuo said: "The matter of seeds is imminent. I can understand Mr. Zhang's mood. It's just that a thousand miles cannot be accomplished in a day. Scientific things cannot be done by pulling seedlings to encourage growth. Sowing seeds this year must be done in a day."

It won’t bloom until next year or even the year after that, and the fruit will have to wait for a while.”

Zhang Jian laughed loudly when he heard this: "The Shanghai Flour Union can ask you to select and breed wheat, and we in Tongzhou can also ask you to research cotton seeds. As long as you agree, you can choose any farmland within a radius of two hundred miles, and the scientific research funds are entirely up to you.

It’s up to you.”

Afraid that the other party would think that he was talking nonsense, Zhang Jian then added: "Professor Cheng, we have subscribed to all the journals of your "National" magazine, and we will not miss every issue. Not only that, we will also use the knowledge above

Teach it to the villagers through the society. Tongzhou cannot be what it is today without your help."

Cheng Nuo also smiled after hearing this. This must be an exaggeration. "National" magazine has only published a few issues so how can it have such a big impact.

However, during this period of time, he also saw that Tongzhou had a faint tendency to be autonomous. The autonomous chief was not a local government official, but an old man in front of him who looked like he could be blown away by the wind.

Not to mention anything else, Tongzhou as a county at this time actually opened the first public museum-Nantong Museum before Peking. It has a complete teaching system from kindergarten to university, in addition to hospitals, nursing homes, and homes for the disabled.

, Qi Liang Prison, Jiliang Prison, Model Prison, and even charity organizations, and behind these are the shadows of Zhang Jian or the Zhang family.

If it weren't for the Anti-Japanese War later, Cheng Nuo would have even wanted to build a university, research institute, etc. directly here. The political and business environment would be much better than those in provinces controlled by warlords.

However, the matter of cotton seeds does not have much to do with it, so I can naturally agree to it.

Cheng Nuo nodded: "That's very good. When my trip to the south is over, we can arrange for manpower to come to support. However, with the momentum of Tongzhou, it is in line with the Confucian way of gathering, Chengyi, and Chengdu. Now it seems that it is also a model for the whole country.

Prototype.”

In a sense, Cheng Nuo wanted to learn from the Tongzhou model from the bottom of his heart. In the future, he would not be able to just build a school to develop his own business. It would have to be equipped with factories, hospitals and other infrastructure. The experience and lessons learned from it would be enough to benefit him endlessly.

Later, other people also realized the superiority of the Tongzhou model, and industrialists such as Rong Desheng and Lu Zuofu came to inspect it. Unfortunately, there was only one in Tongzhou. Zhang's imprint was too deep and it was difficult for others to copy it.

"From nothing, something comes from nothing, from a blockage, from small to large, and then spread to the whole province and even the country." Zhang Jian picked up a handful of soil from his feet and laughed heartily: "Zhiyuan, you are really like me.

My close friend is just like Boya Ziqi, why don't we become a close friend?"

The love for this land in his eyes cannot be faked, and Cheng Nuo was very excited: "How can I refuse Mr. Zhang's invitation?"
Chapter completed!