Chapter 324 — Gaosong's Vision
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
Gao Yang had many thoughts in his mind, yet he found it very hard to make those around him understand all of them.
He wanted to change this world, to build a new order. Though at first he had merely wanted to survive in this world, that intention had gradually shifted as he lived here longer. But how easy was it to change the world?
Even looking only at tiny Ansu, he could see in this kingdom a mighty inertia accumulated over seven hundred years—the inertia of the landed nobility, the inertia of the common folk, the inertia of the social system. Everything in this country was built upon the old order, and unless that order changed, nothing would change.
He had indeed carved out a domain of his own, establishing Cecil Territory and an entirely new social order upon this land at the far southern frontier, but in truth even he knew this was only a beginning. He could draft new laws, could use arcane technology to advance the forces of production, could assemble a more advanced administrative team and implement more scientific and rational territorial management—but all of this was merely "surface" work.
Whether it was those who administered the territory or those who were administered, barely a year ago they had all been members of the traditional Ansu system: petty merchants, impoverished scholars, ordinary commoners, even serfs and slaves under the rule of the traditional landed nobility. They could indeed obey Gao Yang's commands now and do what he required of them, but in their bones they had not changed. To them, the new laws and new order of the territory were merely another lord's another set of rules. They knew what to do, but many of them did not really know why they did it.
So long as people's minds remained unchanged, every change could only be temporary, and the dividends brought by industrialization would be vastly wasted because of the limitations of "people." Gao Yang knew this deeply, which was why he had to impose education upon the territory by force—especially compulsory education for minors. He had not only ordered cultural classes in reading and writing to be established in the schools; he had in fact also introduced general education on the structure of the kingdom, the history of nobles and commoners, the laws of social resource distribution and their rationality. All of this was his effort at ideological cultivation.
It was easy enough to bring a new batch of machines into the territory, but to enlighten the minds of the people of this age was very hard. Those serfs and slaves who had nothing and had been oppressed so long sometimes even resisted it. They had already accepted and adapted to their fate, even identified with the rules of the entire Ansu system. If you told them that lords and slaves flowed with the same blood, they would even think you a heretic, beyond all reason. Yet this was not because they were ignorant and benighted—it was because this age had forcibly twisted them into such a shape.
Sometimes Gao Yang also wondered whether the new order, new laws, and new ideas he was pushing forward so vigorously were too rash. But one thing he was clear about: the magic tide would not wait for anyone, and the war between Typhon and Ansu would not wait for him either. The more he understood the current situation of this world, the more he felt that time was insufficient, so he had to strive to push every schedule to its fastest. Were it not for the two sharp swords of the magic tide and the war hanging over his head, why would he need such urgency?
For a time Gao Yang sank into a daze of reflection, until Rebecca's voice roused him: "Ancestor, what are you thinking about?"