Chapter 335: You Can Do Some Technical Work
The story starts in Chapter 330 of "The Great Ming in the Box": Li Daoxuan thought carefully: âAlright, forget the transformation. But you need to upgrade the power... Donât miss it!
Li Daoxuan thought carefully: âAlright, forget the transformation. But you need to upgrade the power system and steering system for me.âHearing him abandon the transformation, Cai Xinzi breathed a sigh of relief. The mushrooms he ate this time couldnât have been too potent. There was still hope for him.
Li Daoxuan pondered further. For previous projects like the sun chariot and small train, their limited usability and small toy size meant he hadnât considered arming them. But a ship was entirely different.
Ships could be made large!
Equipping large weapons on a massive vessel became an obvious idea.
âOld Cai, I also want to install some weapons on the ship model.â
âOf course weâll install them,â Cai Xinzi replied. âWeâll arrange all kinds of hundreds-of-millimeter caliber naval guns for you. Torpedoes, missile launchersâwhatever you want, youâll get.â
Li Daoxuan: âIâm not talking about display weapons. I mean weapons that can actually fire.â
Cai Xinzi: âPfft! I just thought the mushrooms werenât that bad, but clearly, I was wrong. Go lie down properly. Iâll call an ambulance for you. Hang in there!â
Hearing this, Li Daoxuan laughed himself. Indeed, he hadnât been clear, inviting Cai Xinziâs sarcasm.
âI meant toy-like weapons,â Li Daoxuan explained. âLike mounting a small toy cannon on the bow that can shoot out plastic pellets. That should be possible, right?â
Cai Xinzi: âOh, thatâs easy. I can buy a small plastic-pellet cannon online and fit it onto the ship. Wonât take much time. But⌠wonât your ship end up looking rather perverted?â
Li Daoxuan: âI like perverted toys.â
Cai Xinzi: âFine, you said it. Then I could also install a lighter on the bow. Flip a switch, and it becomes a flamethrower ship.â
Li Daoxuan: âThat sounds good too. Add it.â
Cai Xinzi sighed deeply: âIâm clearly a maker of high-end toys. Why does everything I build for you tend towards juvenilization?â
The call ended. Cai Xinzi went to work on the riverboat.
Li Daoxuan, however, was thinking that relying solely on toy weapons he provided wouldnât do. The little people needed to make weapons for their ships themselves. And in the late Ming era, the weapon for ships was, of course, the âRed Flag Cannons.â
Li Daoxuan shifted his focus back to the main fortress of Gaojia Fortress to find Gao Yiye to relay his message.
Yet, at a glance, Gao Yiye wasnât in the watchtower.
Where had the young lady run off to?
Li Daoxuan began searching everywhere.
Only upon looking did he realize the challenge. The box now had a 1000Ă600 meter field of vision encompassing the busiest and most prosperous part of Gaojia Village. It teemed with energetic little people, men and women scurrying about freely. Finding one specific person among the crowd proved surprisingly difficult.
Finding a little person clearly required some skill.
He needed to think this through!
If Gao Yiye wasnât in the watchtower, where would she usually be?
The fabric shop in the Gaojia Business Circle?
Li Daoxuan thought of this possibility and locked his âFocusâ function on the fabric shop. Hey! He found her.
Gao Yiye was chatting with a group of women inside the fabric shop.
Most were ordinary village women, the kind who rarely stepped outside their homes, hence limited in perspective and experience.
When Li Daoxuanâs âFocusâ shifted over, he caught a village woman saying with a laugh: âSaint Lady, Chunhong, all thanks to this fabric shop you opened. Iâve earned a fair bit taking clothing commissions. That stubborn husband of mine isnât making as much now. He used to look down on me during arguments, claiming I lived off him. Hah! Now he doesnât dare say that!â
Another woman chimed in: âMine too! At first, he forbade me from joining the fun, saying a woman should just stay home and serve her husband. When I pulled out pieces of silver I earned from tailoring⌠his expression! Hahaha!â
Other women joined in the laughter:
âSame here!â
âMe too!â
âHahaha!â
âAfter earning money, the way he treats me is noticeably different.â
They laughed triumphantly, but three brothel girls present didnât join the chorus. Though more capable than these village women, they lacked the ordinary womanâs courage to hold their heads high. A deep-seated sense of inferiority kept them unexpectedly shy in this âconference on womenâs rights.â
Gao Yiye laughed: âIâm glad everyone feels this way. Just the other day, chatting with the Deity, He said: âWomen hold up half the sky.â We women shouldnât entirely hide at home. We should bravely step out and contribute our strength. What was it called again⌠huh? What was it⌠I forgot.â
Li Dauxan laughed: âItâs called âliberating female productive forces.'â
âAh, yes, yes! Liberating female productive forces,â Gao Yiye finished, then realized the Deity had joined them. Her cheeks flushed slightly. âAh? Deity! When did you start listening?â
Li Daoxuan replied smiling: âJust the last few sentences.â
Gao Yiye felt a little awkward: âUs women hiding here gossiping, saying unkind things about our men⌠is that really okay?â
Li Daoxuan: âItâs fine. I didnât hear anything unkind. You were just talking about perfectly ordinary things. The economic base determines the superstructure. Status between men and women is essentially decided by âwho earns.â If you earn more than your husbands, support the family, or even lord it over them the way they did when they were the sole earners, thatâs perfectly justified.â
The women were hearing âthe economic base determines the superstructureâ for the first time. It felt novel, yet upon reflection, wasnât that exactly how the world worked?
Li Daoxuan continued: âYears of continuous warfare, rebel uprisings, militias fighting⌠all this means fewer men and more women in villages and towns. Under these conditions, social productivity suffers. You women should bravely step forward now. Do some less physically demanding, technical work. This wouldnât only raise your social standing but also boost Gaojia Villageâs productivity.â
The women were astonished: âAh? Besides weaving cloth and making clothes, what other technical work can we do?â
Li Daoxuan gently guided them: âLike papermaking, lamp making, preparing pre-measured gunpowder cartridges wrapped in paper, engraving, printing books⌠indeed, thereâs much you can do, just as well as men. Have confidence in yourselves. Be brave. Step outside home. Go sign up as apprentices at the artisansâ well. Who knows? Maybe one day, each of you will earn as much as any man.â