Just Go Try It and You'll Know

Recruitment for railway construction projects across the mortal realm was launched through newspapers, open to every corner of the entire mortal population.

Though the news first spread by word of mouth, the recruitment notices in print and announcements that nations across the realm were beginning to build railways quickly reached even the most remote settlements of the mortal world.

"Village Chief, is that recruitment ad Big Hammer heard about in town from the papers real? Can I sign up?" In a tiny, out-of-the-way hamlet tucked in a remote small kingdom thousands of miles away from Xiushui City, a farmer with beads of sweat rolling down his face rushed to the village chief's home, only to find a crowd of young able-bodied villagers already gathered at the door.

The village chief, who had just returned from town, did not even pause to catch his breath after taking a sip of water before waving everyone over. "It seems real. It's not just in the papers, either—the yamen called me in first thing this morning to talk about it. They're hiring, but the first month is all training, you have to pass to stay on the job. Even so, that first month covers all your meals, and you get ten copper coins a day."

At his words, the group of young men started chattering among themselves.

Ten copper coins a day wasn't much. If you hauled cargo in the city and worked hard, you could make twenty or thirty copper coins a day easy, but that kind of work never threw in free meals.

Some of the men started thinking, it's only a month, might as well give it a shot. If they pass the training and get kept on, maybe they really can get those "employee benefits" the papers talked about.

But plenty of others were having second thoughts. A month of training only earned 300 copper coins, and they would be taking away a strong laborer from their own family farms. What if they failed the assessment and got sent home? They'd look like fools in front of everyone else who passed.

One man started counting on his fingers as he spoke. "Those employee benefits have to be fake, right? They say once you're a formal worker, you not only get one and a half taels of silver a month, all your meals paid for, two sets of new clothes a year, holiday bonuses for every festival, paid monthly leave, and annual time off. And when you turn fifty, you can... what was it again? Oh right, retire, and you get a pension after that, at least one tael of silver a month. Where in the world do you find a deal that good?"

"You missed a detail! That one and a half taels a month is only for the first year. They say your pay goes up every year after that, at least a hundred more copper coins each time!"

As soon as those words were out, some of the men who were on the fence because they didn't know all the details suddenly felt their resolve waver and their interest perk right back up.

Everyone turned to look at the village chief.

Meeting their eyes, the village chief coughed awkwardly. The truth was, he wasn't sure either. He'd lived decades, but he'd never seen, never even heard of a good thing like this.

So he just waved his hand. "How the hell am I supposed to know if it's real or not? The papers say it, and the yamen passed the orders down that way. Tomorrow, bailiffs will come by to register anyone who wants to sign up. Go if you want, but if later they shortchange you on your benefits, don't come crying to me. I can't fight that battle for you."

With the village chief being so noncommittal, everyone felt even more uncertain, but there was no more information to dig up, so they all headed home to talk it over with their families.

Truth be told, those employee benefits sounded like pure fantasy to the vast majority of the realm's lowborn people.

Teach you a skill, pay you, give you clothes, and keep paying you even when you're old and can't work anymore? That sounded like they had more money than they knew what to do with. The government had always only collected grain and taxes from them—when had they ever handed out money to ordinary folks before?

"Honey, do you think this is for real?" That night, families whispered to each other under the moonlight in their homes.

"Real or not, we'll find out if I go try it." The husband said.

"You're actually thinking of going?" His wife was taken aback. "What if it's a scam?"

"At worst, I waste a month or two of my time. But if it's real, and I get picked, our whole family will have a future to look forward to. Dalang is almost old enough to marry, Erlang doesn't even have a single proper pair of pants to his name, and your mom's been coughing so bad we can't even afford to buy her a decent prescription. We're stuck in this rut as it is. I'll bet a couple months of my time to fight for a better life for you three." The man had clearly thought this through already, speaking slowly to his wife. "Only thing is, once I leave, you and Dalang will have to pick up all the work at home."

His wife thought about how tight things were at home. Her heart was full of unease at the thought of him leaving, but what came out of her mouth was, "Fine, just stay sharp out there. We don't even know what kind of work they're gonna have you doing. If something feels off, come right back. We're struggling here, but we'll get by."

"Got it, I know. Let's get some sleep."

...

Conversations just like this played out in the homes of thousands upon thousands of poor families.

Some made up their minds to go for it, plenty others decided not to go for all sorts of different reasons.

Every day, all kinds of big and small events unfold across the world. Every moment, people make different choices, go through different twists and turns, and walk toward entirely different lives.

But during this first planned recruitment cycle after the Xiushui Railway General Administration was founded, this event was destined to be the most important turning point in that stretch of their lives.

Hundreds of people who responded to the recruitment packed their bags, left their homes, and set off for the training centers set up by regional railway branches across the realm.

The number of people trained directly by Xiushui City could never be enough to staff and oversee more than a thousand training centers spread all across the mortal realm. Their own trained personnel could only act as supervisors, stationed at each site to provide guidance and oversight.

But all the local officials and bailiffs assigned to the training centers had already been brought to Xiushui City for dedicated training beforehand, so the whole training operation ran relatively smoothly overall.

On top of that, the Lingxiao Sect would send their disciples to rotate through the training centers across different nations to conduct discreet inspections and checks.

All the funds and supplies for each regional branch were distributed on a regular, unified schedule by Xiushui City, and a dedicated financial supervision department was put in place to monitor exactly how those resources were being used.

In short, every department built around the Xiushui Railway Bureau was rapidly taking shape, powered by the extraordinary execution efficiency of Xiushui City and the Lingxiao Sect, as they coordinated efforts across all the various cultivation sects and mortal kingdoms.

Half a year went by, and Lin Xiao finally burned out on his monotonous daily loop of cultivate, do research, review important documents and reports, cultivate, do research, and decided to go on strike.

Their current research projects were still focused on developing technologies suitable for ordinary mortal people. After they got several initial breakthroughs, Lin Xiao said they shouldn't limit themselves to agricultural improvements—they also needed to dive into optimizing the production lines for trains and railway construction, as well as the tools used for railway maintenance.

Improving agricultural methods was essential to unlocking greater agricultural productivity. But once agricultural productivity was freed up, to further boost industrial productivity, upgrading production lines was equally non-negotiable.

And the technological innovations needed to push both of these lines forward relied almost entirely on Lin Xiao and Liao Pantu, of course, with additional input from the skilled craftsmen of the Lingxiao Sect and optimization suggestions from the Fanlong Academy.