At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 424: Succession issues and redundancy caused by reclamation
After inspecting the blast furnace, Li Shang also visited the foundry and steelmaking workshops of the steel plant. These two workshops are the most profitable workshops in the steel plant. Now the foundry mainly helps the steam plant to cast various high-value parts.

Although the price of hundred-refined steel has been falling, due to the high casting cost, one pound still costs hundreds of coins.

The core components of various shaft rollers in the Dahan Carriage Factory are still made of hundred-fold refined steel. At the same time, the tool steels used in Dahan's various lathes, boring machines, and milling machines must also be special hundred-fold refined steel. These tool steels are more expensive, and the prices of many tool steels are equivalent to gold.

At the same time, the Han nobles' favorite armor, swords, and knives were also indispensable. The steel made from graphite crucibles had high practical value and a wide market, which kept the price of steel high, roughly the same as that of brass, and could still be considered a precious metal.

Later, Li Shang inspected the supporting facilities of the steel plant and the kindergarten attached to the steel plant. This was different from the kindergartens of later generations. All the children of the steel plant employees who were six months old and above were placed here. The employees here would take their children home after get off work. The kindergarten was mainly used to solve logistical matters for the employees and was a welfare benefit of the steel plant.

In addition, there are primary schools and middle schools affiliated with the steel plant. Bashang Steel Plant is really not short of money, with an annual profit of more than 100 million yuan, and is extremely willing to invest in its own offspring. These primary and middle schools have good facilities, many teachers, and the teaching staff is unmatched by even the schools in Chang'an City.

Li Shang had seen these facilities many times, so he was not surprised. However, he was shocked to find that the Bashang Steel Plant had even set up a school for steel workers, which housed several hundred teenagers aged fifteen or sixteen.

This made Li Shang speechless. In the counties outside Guanzhong, not even a county could have a school. How could a steel plant set up a workers' school? Li Shang could fully imagine how he would be criticized when this matter got out.

The poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer. The imperial court owes billions of dollars in debt and has to find ways to streamline staff and control expenses, but the steel mills are spending money recklessly and even set up technical schools.

Li Shang said angrily, "Hasn't the court repeatedly issued orders that workshops should focus on profit, and that money should be invested in production as much as possible, and less on supporting facilities?"

"The imperial court invests hundreds of millions of dollars every year in academies. You are crazy to do this. Even if you put all the profits from your steel plant into it, it still wouldn't be enough to cover the expenses of a school."

Master Craftsman Tian An immediately said, "We are a technical school. Our expenses are not as high as those of the imperial court. Moreover, these students are also working part-time while studying. The main purpose is to familiarize them with the technology and work processes of the steel plant and lay a solid foundation for these students to take over the work of the steel plant in the future. The cost is actually very low. The main cost is to hire a few teachers and build this school."

"It's not a question of whether to spend money or not, but whether to spend it. You are all aware of the situation outside. This year, in order to save money, the court has reduced 2 Han officials from the court to the local areas."

"The number of anti-corruption cases launched by the court is not as many as the number of Han officials streamlined this time. The Han officials are extremely resentful. The court has destroyed so many people's jobs, and you are still doing this. Do you believe that if any newspaper reports this, your career will be over? How come you don't have any political awareness at all?"

Tian An immediately explained: "My men had to do this to stabilize people's hearts."

Li Shang looked at Tian An hesitantly, not understanding what he meant.
Tian An said: "After the imperial court issued the order to cultivate land, most of the employees in the steel mills were in a panic and had no intention of working, because many of them had children who were adults or were about to become adults, but because of the economic crisis, they had not found a job yet."

"Originally, this is nothing. Our steel mill employees have high salaries and can afford to support their own children. After this period of time, it is the same to let them go out and find jobs."

“But doesn’t the Colonization Order say that any unemployed person could be selected to colonize the border counties?

These workers were worried that their children would be selected by the imperial court, so many of them approached their subordinates and said they wanted their sons to take over their jobs, in order to find a job for their children and avoid the reclamation order.

Li Shang said angrily: "You are simply ridiculous. The imperial court issued the order to solve the employment problem of young people, not to let you use this method to evade the imperial court's decree."

"The court has put so much effort into this reclamation. In order to quickly set up a reclamation office, the emperor took the initiative to pay 3.6 million yuan in property taxes. The land reclaimed by the court reclamation army will be given priority to you, and we will also help you solve the problem of oxen, farm tools and food. So many farmers in Guanzhong and so many students from the academy have gone there, but you are just being pretentious and can't go!"

Tian An said helplessly, "My Lord, it's not that we want to disobey the imperial court's reclamation order, but we are the children of the steel plant workers. They grew up in Chang'an City and have only been to the fields a few times. They can't even tell the difference between wheat and rice. The imperial court asked them to farm, but they don't have the ability to do it."

"Moreover, the workers of the steel mill have gone through countless hardships and suffered a lot in order to build the Bashang Steel Mill. They built this steel mill brick by brick. They are all meritorious officials of our Han Dynasty. I can't let them be separated from their flesh and blood. I can only let them go to the steel mill first."

The subordinates also knew that this was not right. These young people were clumsy and could not do the work of the steel mill without a period of learning. However, many of the craftsmen who wanted their children to take over were the backbone craftsmen of our steel mill. Just this time, the children of more than a dozen craftsmen who built the new blast furnace had to face the problem of finding jobs. If we don't solve the worries of these generals, you won't be able to see the blast furnace that can produce 20 kilograms of iron at a time."

More importantly, the steel mill cannot do without them. In the past 10 years, the new blast furnaces in our steel mill were all developed by them. They are the best blacksmiths in the whole Han Dynasty. If they really withdraw, our steel mill will be forced to stop production. "

"In order to appease the backbone of the steel mill, I had to recruit these people to the steel mill as apprentices to learn first, and then take over the work of the steel mill after they have a certain amount of experience."

Even Li Shang didn't know what to say. The reason why Bashang Steel Plant could become the best steel plant in the world was because of these top craftsmen who kept researching blast furnaces with larger capacity and higher efficiency.

When people all over the world were still using 1-jin blast furnaces, Chang'an Iron and Steel Plant had already used a blast furnace that could produce -jin iron at a time.

Other places had finally developed a blast furnace that could smelt 5 kilograms of iron, and the Bashang Iron and Steel Plant then developed a blast furnace that could smelt 10 kilograms of iron at a time.

In the following years, the blast furnace of Bashang Iron and Steel Plant became larger and larger, increasing by an order of magnitude almost every two or three years. Until now, he could see a blast furnace that could smelt 20 kilograms of iron at a time.

To some extent, these master craftsmen who can independently develop blast furnaces are even rarer than these county magistrates. There are nearly 200 high-ranking officials at the county level in the Han Dynasty.

However, there are only a few dozen master craftsmen who can independently develop blast furnaces, and the master craftsmen of Chang'an Iron and Steel Plant are the best among these dozens of people, and their rarity is comparable to the nine ministers of the Han Dynasty. Just looking at the 20-jin blast furnace they developed this year, it can increase the turnover of Bashang Iron and Steel Plant by 2 million coins and the profit by more than million coins.

Li Shang said worriedly, "It is indeed very important to keep those master craftsmen, but it is also very dangerous for you to do this. This is like drinking poison to quench thirst. I have also listened to the industry class taught by the emperor. The competition among workshops in the industry requires less manpower to produce more goods, so that the profit per unit product is above the average. Only such workshops can survive."

"It's the same with steel mills. The reason why Bashang Steel Mill can make so much money is because our blast furnaces are large, efficient, and the cost of ironmaking is low, which is why we can make money.

The positions in the blast furnace factory are very specific. Now that you have added so many apprentices and so many supporting facilities that cannot increase the profits of the steel plant, the profits of the steel plant will inevitably decline. "

"You must have seen in the Han Monthly Report how many textile workshops went bankrupt this year. These county workshops had too many employees, which caused the profits of the workshops to decrease. When the economic crisis broke out, these workshops could not even pay the salaries."

"The local county magistrate still had illusions and handed over the workshop to the court, hoping that the court would help them solve this problem."

"But they never thought that the imperial court would sell off these workshops and give the vacated market share to more competitive workshops."

"The imperial court was very resolute in its attitude towards these backward workshops. They simply shut them down and handed the market over to workshops with better performance."

"The same goes for Bashang Steel Plant. If you keep increasing the number of employees, sooner or later Bashang Steel Plant will be unable to make ends meet. When that happens, don't expect the Shaofu to save you. The court will only sell the steel plant and give it to a more profitable steel company. By then, some of your steel plant's skilled employees may stay, but the rest will only become laborers repairing roads and paving the way."

After hearing this, Tian An remained silent. He knew that Li Shang was not threatening him when he said this, but that it was something that had actually happened.

This year's crisis caused hundreds of local workshops to go bankrupt, and all of them disappeared. The imperial court took care of these craftsmen and incorporated them all into the Ministry of Public Administration, where they became road construction workers, doing uninteresting work such as mixing cement and plastering.

Of course, if you don’t want to do these jobs, you can voluntarily resign, and the court welcomes these things.

Many of the original employees of the imperial court resigned voluntarily because they felt that being a road construction worker was too shameful, and more than half of them have now retired.

The steel industry is the top industrial jewel of the Han Dynasty. It is the industry with the highest technology content, the highest investment, and the highest profit in the entire Han Dynasty.

This year's economic crisis has affected most industries in the world, but has had little impact on the steel industry.

The employees in this industry can be said to be extremely arrogant, not to mention the employees of Bashang Steel Plant, who are even more arrogant because they are the most profitable workshop in the world. They go to Chang'an City in their work uniforms, and ordinary people would be in awe when they see the big words "Bashang Steel Plant" on their uniforms.

If the Bashang Steel Plant went bankrupt, Tian An was sure that his employees would not be able to bring themselves to build roads and lay plaster.

Half a day later, Tian An said, "This kind of thing will not happen in my Bashang Steel Plant. Our new blast furnace has been successfully developed, and the next step is to expand production. In half a year, the steel plant will need more craftsmen, and this group of apprentices will be trained and can take over these jobs."

Tian An thought about it and decided to focus on stabilizing the employees. The steel mill now had a profit of 5%, so it could afford to hire a few more apprentices. Not to mention that these apprentices could be used to expand production capacity, and the hidden dangers of the steel mill had been reduced to a minimum.

However, if it does not do so, the Bashang Steel Plant will not be able to stabilize its own business at all, and it may not even wait for the day of bankruptcy and liquidation. In a few years, it will be overtaken by other steel plants.

Tian An was also under great pressure. In recent years, there were more and more steel mills in the Han Dynasty. Ten counties in the entire Han Dynasty had built steel industrial zones. These steel mills were also putting pressure on the Bashang Steel Mill step by step, especially those steel mills that had risen from the private sector. In order to attract the court's craftsmen, those people dared to offer any conditions, including an annual salary of hundreds of thousands and dividends from the steel mills. As long as the court's craftsmen were willing to go, these could be obtained.

It was just that these master craftsmen wanted a stable life, so they didn't go to those private steel mills. The welfare benefits of Bashang Steel Mill for master craftsmen were not as good as those of private steel mills. If they couldn't even arrange jobs for their children, the steel mill might not be able to keep these master craftsmen. So Tian An could only take the initiative to reject Li Shang's kindness.

Faced with this situation, Li Shang could only shake his head helplessly. Although he was the Internal History Officer, the Bashang Steel Plant was a workshop directly under the jurisdiction of the Shaofu. They only had the right to collect taxes, but not the right to interfere with the operation of the Bashang Steel Plant.

But what happened today has aroused Li Shang's vigilance.

Will the same thing that happened at the Bashang Steel Plant happen in other workshops as well?
You have to know that the Bashang Steel Plant is large in scale and has high profits, so keeping a few idle people will not cause any problems in the short term.

But other workshops do not have the technology and physical strength like the Bashang Iron and Steel Plant, and really cannot afford to support many idle people.

The biggest difference between the Han Dynasty and the Qin Dynasty is that in addition to taxes, the profits of the workshops under the counties are also one of the important sources of income for local government offices.

Before the economic crisis, the income of many county workshops was equivalent to their tax revenue, but the tax revenue had to be paid as commission to the court, but these did not.

Therefore, all the prefects of the Han Dynasty attached great importance to the workshops of their subordinates. If the local county finances had a little surplus, they would rather tighten their belts to set up a few workshops.

(End of this chapter)