79: Chapter 79 Science and technology are the primary productive forces!

Zhao Fusu's late arrival wasn't to put on airs, but to invite Elder Mo, Elder Liu, and Elder Yang to the meeting.

For this meeting, Elder Mo, Elder Liu, and Elder Yang were the most important people.

From a young age, the phrase Zhao Fusu heard most often was: Science and technology are the primary productive forces.

Zhao Fusu personally inviting Elder Mo, Elder Liu, and Elder Yang was enough to show how much he valued them.

Without these technical talents, even if Zhao Fusu had the design blueprints for the Steam Engine, he would have no way to build it.

Without the help of the country's top technical talents, let alone a Steam Engine, he wouldn't even be able to build a blast furnace, much less fire Refractory Bricks, construct an open-hearth furnace, or handle coking and steelmaking.

For him, at most, he could clarify the technical principles, provide guidance, and invest some research and development funds.

Talent was what Zhao Fusu valued most and needed most.

This was also why he resisted imperial autocracy.

To consolidate its position, the imperial power engaged in obscurantist education, making the common people ignorant, numb, and muddled, living in utter humility.

After domesticating the people into idiots, imperial autocracy ensured their blind loyalty to the royal family and their endurance of landlord exploitation without rebelling.

How could such a system produce the large numbers of talents Zhao Fusu urgently needed to help him launch the Great Qin Empire's Industrial Revolution!

"Elder Mo, Elder Liu, Elder Yang, please take the seats of honor."

When Zhao Fusu asked Elder Mo, Elder Liu, and Elder Yang to sit at the conference table on the high platform, the expressions of the civil and military officials in the court all changed.

That was where the First Emperor sat; was it a place where mere craftsmen like them were qualified to sit!

"Today, you are the protagonists. There is no one more suitable than you!"

Zhao Fusu said with a serious expression.

"Paramount Leader!"

Elder Mo, Elder Liu, and Elder Yang were deeply moved.

They could feel that Zhao Fusu's words were not just polite formalities.

Being so highly valued by Zhao Fusu and given such high status, Elder Mo, Elder Liu, and Elder Yang were incredibly moved; they truly felt the sentiment of 'a scholar dies for the one who recognizes his worth.'

Led by Zhao Fusu, Elder Mo, Elder Liu, and Elder Yang walked up to the high platform step by step.

The civil and military officials in the court watched this unprecedented, world-shaking event.

Some officials with a keen sense of intuition could sense that the era was undergoing a transformation.

Technical personnel like Elder Mo, Elder Liu, and Elder Yang were about to ascend the high altar!

They would be highly sought after!

"Sit!"

Zhao Fusu had Elder Mo, Elder Liu, and Elder Yang sit down beside him.

The civil and military officials also found their seats and sat down.

The number of people attending this meeting reached a staggering three to four hundred.

Members of the National Congress, the Legislative Yuan, the Judiciary Yuan, military personnel, newspaper editors and reporters, Remonstrance Officials responsible for recording the meeting, and personnel from the Great Qin Empire's prospective bank.

These people formed the leadership team of the Great Qin Empire.

Zhao Fusu's purpose in gathering them together was to synchronize their thinking with his own by changing their perceptions.

Only by bringing their thoughts onto the same wavelength as his would they make progress.

Zhao Fusu only wanted people who were willing to progress.

If there were people among them unwilling to progress, it meant they were not qualified to sit here in this meeting.

"Science and technology are the primary productive forces."

Zhao Fusu's very first sentence, getting straight to the point, established the theme of the meeting.

"Our latest developed product, the steam thresher, has a threshing speed that far exceeds that of a flail."

"Correct!"

Just as Zhao Fusu finished speaking, Prime Minister Li Si said with a face full of excitement, "The threshing speed of the steam thresher is incredibly fast!"

Li Si was the one with the most right to speak.

After seeing the steam thresher, he was the first customer to purchase one.

"steam thresher?"

Because the steam thresher had only just been developed, most of the people at the meeting showed looks of confusion.

Li Si explained to them, "The threshing speed of the steam thresher is more than ten times faster than that of a flail!"

"What!"

Li Si's words shocked all the civil and military officials in the court.

What ancient emperors could give to their ministers was primarily grain and land.

They were all landlords with landed estates; they naturally understood agriculture.

The steam thresher being ten times faster than flail threshing—how could such a startling speed not shock them?

Li Si's next words shocked them even more.

"This steam thresher costs three hundred coins each. It only needs water and coal; once the coal is lit, it can rotate on its own."

"Farmers place the harvested millet ears on the spiked-tooth drum, and the rotating spikes knock the millet off the ears."

"In addition to the fast threshing speed, farmers don't need much strength to thresh the millet!"

"For one mu of millet, two farmers completed the threshing in just the time it takes for two sticks of incense to burn!"

"And that was because the farmers were unfamiliar with the steam thresher."

"If the farmers become proficient in using the steam thresher, their threshing speed will be even faster!"

If Li Si were to give it a rating, his rating for the steam thresher would definitely be a five-star review.

"For one mu of millet, two farmers completed the threshing in just the time it takes for two sticks of incense to burn?"

"This steam thresher is too fast!"

The three to four hundred people attending the meeting all let out gasps of admiration.

"To think such a divine tool exists!"

They couldn't help but exclaim.

Their views aligned with Li Si's; they all felt the steam thresher was a divine tool.

"It is indeed a divine tool!"

Li Si once again labeled the steam thresher a divine tool.

After seeing the high efficiency of the steam thresher in agricultural production, he couldn't wait to buy it from Zhao Fusu.

"Prime Minister Li Si, where can one purchase this divine tool you speak of?"

"I'm afraid such a divine tool must be difficult to produce!"

Quite a few people raised their own questions.

"That would require asking His Majesty the Head of State."

Li Si turned his gaze toward Zhao Fusu.

"Could it be that this steam thresher was also invented by His Majesty the Head of State!"

The civil and military officials in the court were all greatly shocked.

Is His Majesty the Head of State really this outstanding?

First papermaking, and now the steam thresher.

Every single thing is a divine tool, yet he could actually create two in a row!

Li Si smiled coldly.

These people's experience was still too limited.

What truly shocked Li Si was still that large Steam Engine with sixty-four horsepower.

The power it erupted with was equivalent to the horsepower of one hundred and twenty-eight horses weighing three hundred kilograms each.

Every time that steel behemoth roared, spewing white steam into the sky, it made the earth tremble as if there were an earthquake.

That His Majesty the Head of State could invent such a startlingly large Steam Engine was truly frightening.

Imagine if it were made into a chariot to charge through enemy lines on the battlefield; what flesh and blood could withstand its impact!