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

Chapter 437: Industrial Upgrading and the Barren Shangjun

Chai Wu continued, "Let's talk about the second thing today. The court has issued a decree to equalize wealth. All counties and prefectures in the world must double their minimum salary within five years according to the local minimum salary standard. The minimum salary must increase by more than 5% every year. Take our Yanmen County as an example. The county governor has inquired and found that the minimum salary standard is about 500 coins."

After saying this, Chai Wu shook his head and said, "The salary of female workers in Chang'an City can reach a thousand coins. Are the female workers in Yanmen County worse than those in Chang'an? Their salary is actually half of that."

The textile owners in Yanmen County secretly thought that they were not as good as others. They were all so stupid that it took a month just for training. Of course, they didn't dare to say these words openly.

"500 coins increased by 600% is 600 coins, which means that this year the minimum salary standard in Yanmen County must reach coins. This is a mandatory measure of the court. If the salary you hire for craftsmen is lower than this line, it is illegal and the court will punish you according to the law."

"I hope that you are all law-abiding citizens. After the introduction of the Equal Wealth Law, people all over the world are watching this matter. I don't want to be the first one to be laughed at by the world for being stingy and greedy. So please don't make it difficult for me."

The workshop owners immediately said, "We naturally don't dare to make things difficult for the county governor. When we go back today, we will raise the salaries of the craftsmen."

Chai Wu looked at Kuai Che and smiled, "Our Yanmen County is also a place of outstanding people and beautiful scenery. The richest businessman in the Han Dynasty was in Yanmen, which shows that our Yanmen is not worse than Guanzhong and Central Plains. What the workshop owners in Guanzhong and Central Plains can do, I think you can do it too."

Seeing Chai Wu staring at Qin Bo, he cursed inwardly. Ever since he called himself the richest businessman in the world, nothing good has happened to him. Now there are Han officials staring at him everywhere, waiting for him to make a mistake so that they can kill him.

Kuai Che smiled and said, "What the prefect said is right. After I go back, I will raise the salary of the craftsmen to 700 coins, and donate a batch of machines to help the prefect establish a textile technology college. The low salary of female workers in Yanmen County is also due to their poor imitation technology. If they improve the textile technology, it will be a win-win situation for us to increase their salary."

Upon hearing this, Chai Wu laughed out loud and said, "This is the demeanor of the richest businessman in the world. The emperor often teaches us that being rich alone is not considered rich. Only when everyone is rich is it considered rich."

Kuai Che's flattery made Chai Wu feel very comfortable. Yanmen County was close to the desert and it was a semi-pastoral and semi-agricultural country, so the local wool raw materials were very abundant.

After Chai Wu became the governor of Yanmen County, he was eager to build Yanmen County into a textile center in the north, just like Sanchuan County. However, Yanmen County also had a huge disadvantage. Because Yanmen had no textile tradition and a large number of Huns were absorbed as civilians, the textile technology of local female workers was not as good as that of Linzi, Sanchuan County, Shu County and other areas with textile traditions.

Therefore, even though Yanmen has sufficient wool raw materials, the quality of cloth produced in Yanmen County is not very high due to the difference in skills of female workers. There is basically no market for high-end cloth in Yanmen County, and it can only compete with the textile bases of various counties in the world at the low end. The cruelty of this internal circulation is imaginable.

In order to improve the defects in the textile industry in Yanmen County, Chai Wu recruited more than a dozen highly skilled female textile workers from Linzi as teachers and opened a textile technology school in Yanmen County to teach the female textile workers to improve their textile technology. He hoped that the cloth from Yanmen County could become a signature specialty of the county like Shu brocade.

On January 8, the 15th year of the Han calendar, Luoyang City, the prefectural governor's mansion

Chen Rui, the governor of Sanchuan County, also summoned the local workshop owners and told them the court's order. Because Luoyang's business atmosphere was open, the relationship between the workshop owners in Sanchuan County and Chen Rui was relatively closer.

The director of the textile industry complained bitterly, "If it is a decree issued by the court, we naturally dare not violate it, but my salary in Luoyang is already high. If I double my salary, I am afraid it will affect the competitiveness of my Sanchuan County textile industry. After all, we only have the advantage of convenient transportation. The raw materials are strong in the north, and the technology is strong in Guanzhong and Chen County. Especially recently, the court has developed a steam textile machine. The merchants in Sanchuan County are not as good as those in Guanzhong in steam textile machines. If this situation continues, I am afraid that Luoyang's status as a textile center will be lost."

Chen Rui said with a sullen face, "The decree of the court must be obeyed. There is no room for negotiation on this point. Don't think about escaping. We Han people like to use the method of killing chickens to scare monkeys to deter people from the world. Now the law has been formulated and promulgated. The Imperial Censorate and the Supreme Court are waiting to catch a few fat chickens as examples to deter workshop owners from the world. If you are really caught and made into examples, this prefect can't save you. But I also know your difficulties. As long as it is within the legal scope, I can help you solve any request you have."

Ren Ming glanced at each other and said, "The biggest problem now is the new textile machines. We can't compete with Guanzhong and Chenjun. It is said that Guanzhong has more than a thousand steam textile machines, and Chenjun has more than 800, but we don't even have 500 in Sanchuan County. What's more important is that the merchants in the two places exclude us. The steam machines we buy usually have to wait for half a year before they can be shipped, while their local merchants can ship them in a month. You know that the efficiency of steam textile machines is three times that of water conservancy textile machines. We can't even buy steam textile machines, so how can we compete with Guanzhong?"

Chen Rui asked, "Didn't I build a new steam equipment factory in Luoyang City?"

Ren Ming said helplessly: "Our skills are not as good as the craftsmen in Guanzhong and Chenjun. After all, these two places have been researching machinery for many years and have the support of Mohist Gongshu. Our masters have an advantage in making wooden tools, but we are not as experienced as Guanzhong in making steel tools like this. The efficiency of steam looms is slightly lower, which will affect the efficiency of our looms."

Why would they buy others' when their own products are more useful? The key point is that their own products are of poor quality and have low production capacity.

Chen Rui continued to ask: "How do you want this county governor to help you?"

Ren Mingxi said happily: "I only ask the governor to help invite a few Mohist masters to guide us."

Chen Rui said: "Okay, I will help you solve this matter."

Wu Yande continued, "Now more and more machines are being converted from wood to steel. Steel mills and machinery factories are becoming more and more important. If Sanchuan County does not have a steel base, production will be controlled by others. The situation like what happened this year will happen again. Please find a way to let the court build a steel base in Sanchuan County with steel mills, machinery factories, and steam equipment factories as the center."

Chen Rui said with embarrassment: "The focus of the court's finances is now on infrastructure and people's livelihood. In addition, the Han Dynasty already has six major steel centers. Building a steel center in Sanchuan County requires too much investment. It does not conform to the court's policy orientation in recent years. Even if it is proposed, it will be difficult to pass."

Wu Yande said: "If the court has no money, we are willing to invest in building a steel industrial zone in Sanchuan County. We only ask the governor to ask the court for help to support our steel masters and craftsmen."

Their truest idea is to build a steel center in Sanchuan County. Compared with workshop owners in other places, Luoyang has been the economic center of the world for hundreds of years. The local business atmosphere is open, and the workshop owners have accumulated more wealth.

The industrial crisis of the past two years made them realize that the textile industry in Dahan was about to be saturated, and it was very difficult to make 30% to 50% profit as before. The workshops with sufficient accumulation and foresight have begun to look for emerging industries to continue to maintain their capital appreciation.

After selecting and selecting, these people found that during the last capacity crisis, the steel industry in the entire Han Dynasty was the only industry that was not affected. In fact, due to the subsequent work-for-relief program, the court built 2000 miles more tracks than originally planned, and the steel industry's profits actually soared.

The steam engine industry and the machinery industry, which are connected to the downstream of the steel industry, are both emerging industries that are developing extremely rapidly. It is impossible for the market to be saturated in a short period of time. The most critical ones are the steel industry and the connected rail industry.

The financial potential of railways is well known in the Han Dynasty. It is said that a piece of railway is worth a fortune. The Han Dynasty has also invested heavily in railways over the years, basically repairing more than 2,000 miles of railways every year.

The track also has a stronger military value. During the Battle of Mobei, a track connecting Guanzhong with Jiuyuan County was built, which allowed materials from Guanzhong to be transported to the border counties at a low cost. This enabled the imperial court to launch an expedition of 60 troops to Mobei.

Therefore, Wu Yande and his men understood that even for the military value of the track, the imperial court would definitely use the track to connect all 50 counties of the Han Dynasty and important vassal territories.

If the whole world were to be connected by rails, the Han Dynasty would have to build at least hundreds of thousands of miles of rails, which would be almost a lifelong business. As long as the Han Dynasty was still building rails, there would be a market for the steel industry. The most important thing was that the steel industry had high barriers to entry and strong technology. Now the investment in a steel plant would cost more than tens of millions of dollars, and ordinary businessmen simply did not have the ability to build a steel plant. They did not worry that the steel plant would be like a textile plant, with people flocking in and causing the entire industry to have no profit.

Therefore, after discussion, Wu Yande and his men decided to gather the strength of the merchants in Sanchuan County and build Shanchuan County into the steel center of the Han Dynasty, leaving a solid foundation for future generations.

Chen Rui said: "If you have enough money, I will report to the court and ask them to send a master craftsman over."

Wu Yande and the others were overjoyed and said, "Thank you, County Magistrate."

Notices like this were issued in all 50 counties of the Han Dynasty. In some places where the relationship between counties and workshop owners was good, they would remind them to abide by the law and not be used as an example by the court. If the relationship was average, they would be notified of the court's "Supplementary Provisions of the Craftsmen's Decree" and "Decree on Equalizing Wealth", requiring them to increase the salaries of craftsmen by % this year, and to at least double their salaries within five years.

For a time, the entire Han Dynasty's business community felt a little panic. The honest ones would increase the salaries of the craftsmen and renegotiate the contracts, but some people felt that the emperor was above them all, and there were so many workshops in the world, how could the court possibly manage them all? If they just refused to increase their salaries, what could the court do to them?

In early April of the 4th year of the Han calendar, the Han court dispatched nine inspection teams composed of the Chief Censor and the Chief Justice to inspect the implementation of the "Craftsmen's Law" and the "Equal Distribution of Wealth and Nobility Law" in counties throughout the country. These inspection teams inspected each county one by one.

As a result, workshop owners in 50 of the 32 counties of the Han Dynasty violated the "Craftsmen's Law" and "Equal Wealth". The inspectors punished thousands of workshop owners and imposed fines of 1.2 million coins. They also sentenced 120 workshop owners to fixed-term imprisonment of six months to three years for not complying with the "Craftsmen's Law", shocking the world.

The authority of the "Craftsmen's Law" and the "Equal Distribution of Wealth" was finally demonstrated. At least no workshop owner dared to openly violate these two laws.

On April 4, the 15th day of the th month of the th year of the Han calendar, in Yulin Township, Fushi County

Compared with the fertile Guanzhong, although Shangjun is also in Guanzhong, its terrain is full of gullies and ravines, with little rainfall and poor land.

If the people in Guanzhong are thinking about their children's education and how to make their families rich, the people in Yulin Township are barely making ends meet. If they encounter a drought, they will need help from the court. This is one of the poorest lands in the Han Dynasty.

The harvest in Yulin this year was neither good nor bad. In normal years, people could get by just fine because the Han Dynasty imposed little tax and no corvée. Local people could sell their labor and no one starved to death. However, it was still very difficult to live a prosperous life in this barren land. This year, with the arrival of farmers, new changes began to appear in Fushi County.

In Baiyangli, Fushi County, this year, under the guidance of farmers, local people have planted soybeans, an economic crop. At this time, the bean sprouts in the fields are green, and the scene is full of vitality.

Yesterday, my kid told me that the farmer's opera troupe would come to Baiyangli. Thinking of the upcoming troupe, few villagers today had the intention to work seriously. Instead, they kept looking towards the village entrance. Although opera has already spread in Dahan and has been widely popularized.

But Shangjun was too barren, so barren that even the Han folk opera troupe was unwilling to come to this land. Only a few opera troupes that were struggling to make a name for themselves would come to this barren land.

But even these small opera troupes mainly performed in the county towns of the prefecture. There were only a few opera troupes that could come to Baiyangli. Only the opera troupes from the imperial court came once every six months to promote medical and health knowledge or agricultural knowledge. Only at this time would this barren land get a little spiritual food.

The sun slowly began to set, and suddenly someone at the entrance of the village shouted, "The farmer's opera troupe is here." It was like a thunderclap in Aries, and the villagers all rushed to the village entrance.

In the distance, a team of more than a dozen people slowly appeared in the villagers' sight.

When the team arrived at the village gate, the children in the village were already welcoming them happily.

Wu Yue laughed when he saw them and said, "Did you wash your hands clean? Are you hygienic?"

The children stretched out their hands and said, "Wash them clean."

Wu Yue saw their snow-white hands, smiled and took out a bag of rock sugar from his sleeve and gave one to each child.

Similar to later generations, the poorer the place, the more isolated it is. When the farmers first came to this land, they couldn't even believe that this was the territory of the Han Dynasty. These farmers' students had seen poor places before. There were also some poor mountainous areas in Guanzhong. They often went to these mountains to find ways to improve the lives of local farmers.

But the poverty of Shangjun reminded them of the situation before the founding of the Han Dynasty. Most of the people in Daqin lived in such poverty, but Shangjun was even poorer. However, they had been in Guanzhong for ten years and saw changes in Guanzhong every year, from not having enough food to having fish and meat, from simple shacks to small brick buildings. They watched Guanzhong change every year, and the people in Guanzhong lived better every year. They always believed that even if the people in the world were not as rich as those in Guanzhong, the difference would not be too big.

But the situation in Shangjun told them that many places in the Han Dynasty were still in a barren state, no different from the Han Dynasty at the founding period ten years ago.

The people here have not even learned the most basic knowledge of hygiene, or compared with the pressure of survival, hygiene habits are not worth mentioning. Wu Yue and other children from farming families can only use this method to strengthen their children's attention to hygiene.

The villagers looked at Wu Yue and laughed, "Master Wu, what opera did you bring this time?"

Wu Yue said loudly: "The Poultry King teaches you how to raise poultry."

The villagers were a little disappointed when they heard this name. They preferred to listen to stories like "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai" and "The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl".

What is there to learn about "Postpartum Care for Sows"? They don't even have pigs. What is there to learn about "Brothers and Sisters, Let's Farm"? It doesn't apply to them. The land in Shangjun is so barren that they can't produce much food no matter how much they farm.

But Wu Yue said loudly: "If you want to be rich among Aries, raising poultry is one way. We farmers will teach you step by step and provide you with poultry seedlings. As long as you are willing to learn, I can't say that you will become rich in three to five years, but you can definitely live a life with fish and meat every day."

Although Wu Yue spoke excitedly, few villagers were willing to believe him. However, watching the opera for free was a lively event for such a remote mountain village, and the villagers brought out benches from their homes.

Wu Yue and his companions also began to set up the curtain on the high platform. After an incense stick of time, the opera officially began as the villagers exchanged voices.

Although it was not their favorite opera, the villagers watched it with great interest, especially when they saw that the protagonist raised tens of thousands of poultry and said enviously: "If you eat three a day, you can never finish them all in your lifetime."

"It's just a play, you took it seriously. How could anyone in the world raise poultry with so many talented people?"

"There's an old saying that even if you have a fortune, the wool doesn't count. Why? Because poultry are prone to disease. We raise sheep and some of them die of cold in winter, not to mention poultry. If it were a drama, Yun Ye's family would have been ruined long ago."

After the opera ended, Wu Yue stood on the platform and said with a smile: "Just now I heard that many villagers don't believe in our farmer's opera."

The villagers immediately said, "Master Wu, you are a good man, but our entire Shangjun may not have so many poultry. How can we believe you?"

Wu Yue smiled and said, "The fire bed incubation method has a history of ten years in the Han Dynasty. Don't you know?"

"I haven't seen it, but I've heard of it. I think it's a scam."

Wu Yue said: "Seeing is believing, hearing is not. This is a famous saying. You haven't seen it before, so it's understandable to think so. But now my family has developed the technology of kang incubation in Shangjun, and even built a large breeding farm in Fushi County. You can see it when you go to the county seat."

Even though Wu Yue said this, the local villagers were still skeptical. They did not plan to go to Fushe County to verify it. Firstly, they did not have the desire to know, and secondly, they did not have the energy to go to the county seat.

Wu Yue suddenly smiled and said, "Since you all don't believe me, a farmer will treat you to a big meal so that you can see for yourself. Please move the tables to the drying yard."

The villagers were skeptical and brought out tables, chairs and benches from their homes. At this time, the farm children took out braised chickens, ducks and other poultry from their cages, as well as some salted duck eggs and other dishes. Dozens of chickens, ducks and hundreds of salted duck eggs filled the villagers' tables.

When these braised dishes were taken out of the cages, the fragrance spread for miles, and many people drooled.

"I said I smelled a delicious aroma. It turned out that the farmers had prepared so much meat."

The villagers wanted to go to the table immediately, but a voice scolded them: "Master Wu is a guest, but he has prepared such a good gift. How can you be so rude? You want the villagers in the surrounding area to laugh at us Aries for being uneducated."

The person who scolded was Bai Xuan, the head of Baiyang Village. He continued, "Each family should bring out three catties of white flour."

Then, under Bai Xuan's instructions, several families took rice wine, several families got some vegetables, and all the villagers in Baiyang took action, either contributing steamed buns or cooking. An hour later, there were more than a dozen tables of banquets with wine, meat, eight dishes and one soup in Baiyang.

Bai Xuan invited Wu Yue to sit in the seat of honor, and the elders in the village were also invited to sit with him. Bai Xuan toasted Wu Yue first, and then sat at the table and started eating. The villagers took the roast duck meat without hesitation and ate it. It was not easy to have such a sumptuous meal like today in a few years.

This noise made Bai Xuan feel embarrassed. He was about to scold them but was stopped by Wu Yue, who said, "Seeing them eat like this, I am also enjoying it."

Bai Xuan sighed: "You farmers are all capable people, but why did you bring so much food this time?"

Wu Yue smiled and said, "I'm being frank. This feast is extremely rare for Baiyang Village, but it's nothing in Guanzhong. The farmers in Guanzhong generally have richer festivals than this."

Bai Xuan enviously said: "Guanzhong is under the feet of the emperor after all, we can't compare at all."

He had also heard about the situation in Guanzhong, so he did not doubt Wu Yue's words, but he was at most envious and would not think that his own village would have such treatment.

Wu Yue continued, "I just want everyone to believe that the opera performed by my farm today is real. It is true that Guanzhong is rich, but where do all these poultry come from? They are poultry raised by the people of Guanzhong themselves. The kang hatching method and earthworm breeding technology have reduced the cost of raising poultry in Guanzhong by more than ten times. As long as you in Baiyang Village believe in our farm, you can live the life that the people of Guanzhong can live."

(End of this chapter)