Chapter 335: You Can Do Some Technical Work
Chapter 335: You Can Do Some Technical Work
Li Daoxuan thought carefully: “Alright, forget the transformation. But you need to upgrade the power system and steering system for me.”
Hearing him abandon the transformation, Cai Xinzi breathed a sigh of relief. The mushrooms he ate this time 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 meant he hadn’t 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.
“Old Cai, I also want to install some weapons on the ship model.”
“Of course we’ll install them,” Cai Xinzi replied. “We’ll arrange all kinds of hundreds-of-millimeter caliber naval guns for you. Torpedoes, missile launchers—whatever you want, you’ll get.”
Li Daoxuan: “I’m not talking about display weapons. I mean 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 meant 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 time. 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 becomes a flamethrower 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 message.
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 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 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 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 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 me during arguments, claiming I lived off him. Hah! Now he doesn’t dare say that!”
Another woman chimed in: “Mine 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!”
Other women joined in the laughter:
“Same here!”
“Me too!”
“Hahaha!”
“After earning money, the way he treats me is noticeably different.”
They laughed triumphantly, but three brothel girls present didn’t join the chorus. Though more capable than these village women, 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 women’s rights.”
Gao Yiye laughed: “I’m glad everyone feels this way. Just the other day, chatting with the Deity, He said: ‘Women hold up half the sky.’ We women shouldn’t entirely hide at home. 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 women hiding here gossiping, saying unkind things about our men… 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 men and women 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 women were hearing “the economic base determines the superstructure” for the first time. 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 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 wouldn’t only raise your social standing but also boost Gaojia Village’s productivity.”
The women 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-measured gunpowder cartridges wrapped in paper, engraving, printing books… indeed, there’s 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 artisans’ well. Who knows? Maybe one day, each of you will earn as much as any man.”