The People's Minds Gradually Open
The emergence of news undoubtedly accelerated the development of the Xia Kingdom's intelligence.
At first, only some educated people would listen to the news and learn about some of the policies of the Xia Kingdom.
But as radios became more and more common in people's homes, even ordinary people started to listen to the news occasionally.
News from the Xia Kingdom was quite simple, mainly reporting on the situation in various cities within the Xia Kingdom, major events that had occurred, or decrees issued by the Xia Kingdom emperor.
However, at first, the people were not interested in these things when they listened to the news.
Instead, some people noticed that at the end of each day's news broadcast, the weather forecast for the next day in the Xia Kingdom would be announced.
At first, no one paid much attention to it; they just found it novel and even a little funny.
Weather has always been one of the most unpredictable things. Although High Antiquity sages discovered some patterns in this world and summarized them into the solar term song.
But that could only predict the general weather for a certain period, so people didn't take the weather forecasts on the radio too seriously.
But as time went on, people gradually discovered that the weather forecasts broadcast on the radio were frighteningly accurate.
For city dwellers, accurate weather forecasts may not have a significant impact, but for farmers living in villages, accurate weather can play a decisive role in their annual harvest.
As a result, with the daily broadcast of the weather forecast, more and more people listened to it.
During that period, Yi Xuan even discovered that radio sales in rural areas surpassed those in cities.
As a result, more and more people are paying attention to the news broadcast on the radio.
People have gradually discovered the benefits that news brings them.
In the past, imperial edicts were issued through officials at various levels and then posted in various cities.
Ordinary people would glance at it as they passed by; those who didn't might never know the contents of the decree.
In some rural areas, no one even reads out the imperial edicts.
This made it extremely difficult to implement the imperial decrees, especially since lower-level officials sometimes outwardly complied but inwardly defied them.
Therefore, the imperial decrees often had little to do with the common people.
Now things are much better. With radio, people can learn about the government's policies every day through the radio.
The officials below no longer dared to outwardly comply but inwardly defy, or simply conceal the imperial edicts.
The atmosphere in the officialdom of the Xia Kingdom has become much more transparent and upright.
In addition to news programs, Yi Xuan also added many science popularization programs to the radio broadcasts in the Xia Kingdom.
For example, there are programs that teach people how to farm scientifically, how to raise pigs, or even how to get rich.
There are all sorts of forms.
People also choose the information they want to know based on their professions and apply the knowledge from the program to their work.
In this process, the people also came to understand a word: science.
In this way, the people's knowledge, which had been suppressed for who knows how long, was quietly opened up within the territory of the Xia Kingdom. The people frantically absorbed all kinds of knowledge through the radio, and the entire Xia Kingdom was immersed in an atmosphere of learning.
The group of people who benefited the most in the entire Xia Kingdom were Xia Kingdom scholars.
They broadened their horizons through the knowledge broadcast, and many even began to abandon their own classics and historical texts in favor of buying books on basic science from the royal shops.
They learned through the broadcast that the emperor was preparing to reform the imperial examination system, and that the classics, histories, philosophical works, and literary collections would no longer be the sole criteria for evaluating officials.
Of course, Yi Xuan's promotion of technology also accelerated as radio became more widely accepted by the public.
All sorts of strange and unusual things began to appear in the royal shops, following the precedents of the lighting system and radio. The people showed unprecedented enthusiasm for these new things.
This led to Yi Xuan's plans to promote the modernization of the Xia Kingdom falling short of the needs of the people. Yi Xuan felt this was completely absurd and even began to wonder if he had been too progressive in enlightening the people.
The common people, however, don't care about those things; they can still distinguish between what is good for them and what is bad for them.
Over the past few months, the changes in the Xia Kingdom have become evident. It can now be said that the will of the people is driving Xia Kingdom's rapid development, which has led to Yi Xuan becoming increasingly busy.
Although he doesn't need to do any of the work himself, he still needs to consider the overall planning. Otherwise, this kind of modernization construction could easily go astray if not handled carefully, and it would require a huge amount of effort and resources to correct it later.
As for Zhuo Ning, aside from resolutely carrying out Yi Xuan's ideas, he couldn't offer any other assistance.
This is where the limitations of his technologically barren land become apparent.
Fortunately, Yi Xuan had a good apprentice— Liang Shi.
Because Liang Shi's research on bioengineering had made a breakthrough, and further breakthroughs seemed far off, he put aside his work and came to the Xia Kingdom to assist Yi Xuan.
With Liang Shi's help, Yi Xuan was finally able to relax.
Meanwhile, now that controlled nuclear fusion has been achieved, the next step is to study the miniaturization of nuclear fusion.
Yi Xuan directly gave Liang Shi a guide to the future development of the Xia Kingdom and pointed out some points that needed attention.
After that, they fled the capital of the Xia Kingdom as if their lives depended on it, leaving Liang Shi, who was completely bewildered, holding the plan his master had just given him.
At the same time, Shi Zhenghao and Zhuo Ning, who were standing to the side, both revealed strange smiles.
Fortunately, as Yi Xuan's apprentice, Liang Shi, even if his skill level couldn't compare to Yi Xuan's, had already met the standard in terms of thinking and knowledge.
All that's left for Liang Shi is to follow Yi Xuan's plan step by step; it's not too difficult for him.
Therefore, after Yi Xuan left, the modernization of the Xia Kingdom did not stop at all; in fact, it accelerated even more than before.
All sorts of modern factories sprang up, and all sorts of modern products appeared in the homes of the people of the Xia Kingdom.
During this process, apart from Yi Xuan, no one expected that Fatty Lin would become the first beneficiary of the Xia Kingdom's modernization.
Because he controlled all the oil in the Xia Kingdom, and with the deepening of modernization, the uses of oil have become more and more diverse. It can be said that oil has become an essential commodity in people's lives.
Even if you don't have anything like Donkey-Killer in your home, many everyday items are derived from petroleum, it's just that ordinary people don't know that.
Seeing the profits from oil increasing every day, Fatty Lin finally understood why Yi Xuan had called oil "liquid gold."