Li Daoxuan thought carefully: “Alright, forget the transformation. But you need to upgrade the power system and steering system for .”
Hearing him abandon the transformation, Cai Xinzi breathed a sigh of relief. The mushrooms he ate this ti couldn’t 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 ant he hadn’t considered arming them. But a ship was entirely different.
Ships could be made large!
Equipping large weapons on a massive vessel beca an obvious idea.
“Old Cai, I also want to install so weapons on the ship model.”
“Of course we’ll install them,” Cai Xinzi replied. “We’ll arrange all kinds of hundreds-of-milliter caliber naval guns for you. Torpedoes, missile launchers—whatever you want, you’ll get.”
Li Daoxuan: “I’m not talking about display weapons. I an weapons that can actually fire.”
Cai Xinzi: “Pfft! I just thought the mushrooms weren’t that bad, but clearly, I was wrong. Go lie down properly. I’ll call an ambulance for you. Hang in there!”
Hearing this, Li Daoxuan laughed himself. Indeed, he hadn’t been clear, inviting Cai Xinzi’s sarcasm.
“I ant toy-like weapons,” Li Daoxuan explained. “Like mounting a small toy cannon on the bow that can shoot out plastic pellets. That should be possible, right?”
Cai Xinzi: “Oh, that’s easy. I can buy a small plastic-pellet cannon online and fit it onto the ship. Won’t take much ti. But… won’t your ship end up looking rather perverted?”
Li Daoxuan: “I like perverted toys.”
Cai Xinzi: “Fine, you said it. Then I could also install a lighter on the bow. Flip a switch, and it becos a flathrower ship.”
Li Daoxuan: “That sounds good too. Add it.”
Cai Xinzi sighed deeply: “I’m clearly a maker of high-end toys. Why does everything I build for you tend towards juvenilization?”
The call ended. Cai Xinzi went to work on the riverboat.
Li Daoxuan, however, was thinking that relying solely on toy weapons he provided wouldn’t 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 “Red Flag Cannons.”
Li Daoxuan shifted his focus back to the main fortress of Gaojia Fortress to find Gao Yiye to relay his ssage.
Yet, at a glance, Gao Yiye wasn’t 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 1000×600 ter field of vision encompassing the busiest and most prosperous part of Gaojia Village. It teed with energetic little people, n and won scurrying about freely. Finding one specific person among the crowd proved surprisingly difficult.
Finding a little person clearly required so skill.
He needed to think this through!
If Gao Yiye wasn’t 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 “Focus” function on the fabric shop. Hey! He found her.
Gao Yiye was chatting with a group of won inside the fabric shop.
Most were ordinary village won, the kind who rarely stepped outside their hos, hence limited in perspective and experience.
When Li Daoxuan’s “Focus” shifted over, he caught a village woman saying with a laugh: “Saint Lady, Chunhong, all thanks to this fabric shop you opened. I’ve earned a fair bit taking clothing commissions. That stubborn husband of mine isn’t making as much now. He used to look down on during argunts, claiming I lived off him. Hah! Now he doesn’t dare say that!”
Another woman chid in: “Mine too! At first, he forbade from joining the fun, saying a woman should just stay ho and serve her husband. When I pulled out pieces of silver I earned from tailoring… his expression! Hahaha!”
Other won joined in the laughter:
“Sa here!”
“ too!”
“Hahaha!”
“After earning money, the way he treats is noticeably different.”
They laughed triumphantly, but three brothel girls present didn’t join the chorus. Though more capable than these village won, they lacked the ordinary woman’s courage to hold their heads high. A deep-seated sense of inferiority kept them unexpectedly shy in this “conference on won’s rights.”
Gao Yiye laughed: “I’m glad everyone feels this way. Just the other day, chatting with the Deity, He said: ‘Won hold up half the sky.’ We won shouldn’t entirely hide at ho. We should bravely step out and contribute our strength. What was it called again… huh? What was it… I forgot.”
Li Dauxan laughed: “It’s called ‘liberating female productive forces.'”
“Ah, yes, yes! Liberating female productive forces,” Gao Yiye finished, then realized the Deity had joined them. Her cheeks flushed slightly. “Ah? Deity! When did you start listening?”
Li Daoxuan replied smiling: “Just the last few sentences.”
Gao Yiye felt a little awkward: “Us won hiding here gossiping, saying unkind things about our n… is that really okay?”
Li Daoxuan: “It’s fine. I didn’t hear anything unkind. You were just talking about perfectly ordinary things. The economic base determines the superstructure. Status between n and won is essentially decided by ‘who earns.’ 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, that’s perfectly justified.”
The won were hearing “the economic base determines the superstructure” for the first ti. It felt novel, yet upon reflection, wasn’t that exactly how the world worked?
Li Daoxuan continued: “Years of continuous warfare, rebel uprisings, militias fighting… all this ans fewer n and more won in villages and towns. Under these conditions, social productivity suffers. You won should bravely step forward now. Do so less physically demanding, technical work. This wouldn’t only raise your social standing but also boost Gaojia Village’s productivity.”
The won were astonished: “Ah? Besides weaving cloth and making clothes, what other technical work can we do?”
Li Daoxuan gently guided them: “Like papermaking, lamp making, preparing pre-asured gunpowder cartridges wrapped in paper, engraving, printing books… indeed, there’s much you can do, just as well as n. Have confidence in yourselves. Be brave. Step outside ho. Go sign up as apprentices at the artisans’ well. Who knows? Maybe one day, each of you will earn as much as any man.”
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