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

Chapter 641, Mohist Supervisory Team
January 47, 7st year of the Han calendar, Chen County.

The philosophers, led by Jia Yi, entered the major factories in Chen County to observe that the most basic organizations in Chen County society were factories. In addition to production in the factories, craftsmen also organized their own lives.

Because the eight-hour work and two-day-off system is strictly implemented, and various annual holidays are also strictly implemented, the craftsmen in Chen County have plenty of spare time.

This is a surprising discovery of all the scholars. Although most of the craftsmen in Chen County spend their time watching operas and listening to storytelling, many craftsmen form interest groups in their spare time to do what they like.

Some people who like sports will form football teams or cycling teams. Many craftsmen will go to Mozhe's technical schools to improve their professional skills. Some people who like adventure will even form hot air balloon expedition teams.

Zhang Mu sighed and said, "The craftsmen in Chen County are too lax and too rich. They can even afford luxury goods like hot air balloons."

Their group arrived at the hot air balloon base in Chen County, where there were dozens of hot air balloons of all sizes. The small ones could only lift a sheep. A group of young craftsmen who had just reached adulthood screamed and cried when they saw the flying sheep. The poor sheep hanging in the air could only bleat for help.

The larger one can carry several people. This type of hot air balloon flies very high, and you can see a fire snake spewing out from time to time.

These hot air balloons were not officially formed by the Han Dynasty, but were interest groups formed by people in Chen County who were interested in hot air balloons.

They could hear the craftsmen below the balloons excitedly discussing how high the balloons should rise, how far they should fly, and what safety measures should be equipped. From these conversations, they knew that the balloons belonged to these craftsmen.

In the Xiongnu Kingdom, a hot air balloon cost hundreds of thousands of coins, and only the Xiongnu's professional artillery battalion would be equipped with two, which were specifically used to scout the battlefield situation and guide the artillery's attack targets.

Jia Yi was a little surprised and pointed at the small black spots in the sky and asked, "Are those birds of prey? How can they be so big?"

At this time, the craftsmen around were cheering for the black spot in the sky, and some even chased after it.

The black dot was circling and descending. They could see clearly that it was not a bird of prey, but a man-made flying machine. There was a man sitting on the machine, waving to the crowd on the ground.

"Is this the wooden bird made by Lu Ban?" The philosophers were all stunned. They knew the principle of hot air balloons flying, which was just the principle of density, but this machine was made of wood, so how could it fly?
Jia Yi and his team found a local craftsman and asked, "What was that flying machine just now?"

The craftsman smiled and said, "That's called an airplane. It was invented by Chen Xuan and his friends. Their interest group is full of rich people. They spent millions to build this airplane. I can't compare to them."

Jia Yi nodded in understanding. It turned out to be Chen Lei's grandson. Chen County was the birthplace of the Han Dynasty. Among the aristocratic groups of the Han Dynasty, Chen County had the largest number. Although those great aristocrats had been enfeoffed by Xu Fan, there were still many small and medium-sized aristocratic families left here.

A country's system will lead its upper class to make different choices. For example, the Western Han Dynasty was a military empire, so the nobles of the Western Han Dynasty were generally proud to join the army and make achievements to bring honor to the family. Or in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the classics were passed down from generation to generation, and the children of the family had to study the classics of their family.

The current Han Dynasty is completely different. Although it is also a military-based country, it has almost no enemies. Therefore, in the Han Dynasty, except for a few military nobles who retain the tradition of martial arts, most nobles choose to let their family children enter various universities.

Mozi Academy is also one of the mainstream choices for many nobles. The number of nobles enfeoffed in the Han Dynasty has been decreasing over the years, and most of them are craftsmen who have invented inventions that benefit the world, so the noble children of the Han Dynasty like to invent. At the same time, they also have enough financial and material resources to make these inventions.

Zhang Mu asked: "Why can this kind of plane fly? This thing looks quite dense."

The craftsman said, "This is the same as why birds can fly. Birds fly not just by flapping their wings. At high altitudes, they mainly need to find air currents to fly. Although the two wings of an airplane cannot flap, as long as it finds an upward air current, the air can drag the airplane up. As long as it finds the rising air current, the airplane can continue to hover in the sky."

Jia Yi said: "In this case, the use value of the aircraft is not high. If it wants to fly, it must be done when the ground air rises, and it seems that it can only fly by chasing the air currents."

Jia Yi was an excellent student and had some basic scientific knowledge. After the explanation just now, he quickly understood the operating principle of the airplane.

"They are already making small steam engines. If you make them small enough and put them on an airplane, the airplane can fly under its own power."

These philosophers of the Hundred Schools of Thought were the most knowledgeable people. As long as they thought about it, they felt that this direction was correct.

Sima Hui sighed: "Chen County should be the place closest to the world of great harmony."

Chen Lei took the emperor walking on the bustling streets of Chen County.

Xu Aimin sighed, "I remember that about 20 years ago, I had just graduated from the academy. At that time, I was a minor official in the Ministry of Finance. I followed the Ministry of Finance to Chen County after the reform. At that time, I felt that Chen County had a complete system and was suitable for the development of the Han Dynasty. I was not wrong about this. In the next 20 years, many systems of the Han Dynasty were popularized in Chen County. Compared with Chang'an and Kuaiji County, Chen County has been able to develop rapidly, which is really not easy."

Chang'an City was able to concentrate the resources of the entire Han Dynasty, so it was natural for it to develop rapidly. However, Kuaiji County relied on the dividends of the great navigation and the convenience of the Yangtze River estuary. The Yangtze River alone allowed Kuaiji County to mobilize the resources of half of the Han Dynasty.

Only Chen County, although the birthplace of the Han Dynasty, is not geographically superior. However, it has always been in the top tier of the Han Dynasty, and the contributions of the Mohists and Legalists are unquestionable.

Chen Lei said proudly: "Although Chen County does not have an advantage in terms of geographical location, we Mozi keep in mind the teachings of the Supreme Emperor that technology is the primary productive force. Over the years, we have been working hard to improve the technological level of Chen County and never lag behind others. To improve the technological level, it ultimately comes down to the competition among craftsmen, because these craftsmen are the real front-line practitioners. They know where improvements can be made and which production lines have room for improvement."

Then Chen Lei said contemptuously: "Those who only rely on squeezing the working hours of craftsmen to improve efficiency, our Mo family is such a scab in comparison. If the front-line craftsmen have exhausted all their energy, what about them? They still have time and energy to improve themselves, how can they combine theory with practice to improve work productivity? In Chen County, the 8-hour workday is strictly enforced."

Even though the Han Dynasty had the "Craftsmen's Decree", overtime work could not be eliminated. The most the Han Dynasty court could do was to ensure that craftsmen received overtime pay.

Although Kuaiji County was a large first-tier county, due to fierce competition, overtime was a serious problem. For those factory owners, the cost of hiring an extra craftsman was far greater than overtime, so they would rather pay a little more for overtime.

But in Chen Lei's opinion, this kind of cheating behavior will sooner or later bring disaster upon itself. The craftsmen's energy is consumed in overtime work. Where is the energy and time left to enrich themselves? How can they improve the production line to improve efficiency?

After hearing this, Xu Aimin laughed and said, "There are hundreds of thousands of factories in the Han Dynasty, and most of them are just small workshops with the same quality. Those factory owners open factories just to make money. You think too highly of them if you want them to innovate in technology."

Chen Lei said: "Those factory owners may not care, but the court must care. The new blast furnace of Chenjun Steel Plant cannot be perfected by a master craftsman as the general commander. Instead, it requires thousands of workers on the blast furnace production line to grasp the details bit by bit and improve production efficiency to achieve the results that Your Majesty sees today."

After breaking through the 250-ton level, Dahan's blast furnace almost reached the bottleneck period of the First Industrial Revolution. Although there were further improvements later, it was difficult to achieve the leapfrog development like when the blast furnace was first introduced and its volume expanded hundreds of times in just a few decades.

Chenjun's 500-ton blast furnace was manufactured by thousands of craftsmen who improved the process bit by bit, so Chen Lei strongly recognized that craftsmen are the main force in improving technology.

Xu Aimin smiled and said, "You Chenjun has also built a super football stadium that can accommodate 6 people. Take me to see it."

Chen Lei smiled and said, "There are many craftsmen in Chen County, and many of them like football. The emperor also said that football can not only exercise the body, but also cultivate people's organizational ability. Although Chen County football team has not won many championships, in terms of football atmosphere, our Chen County is the best." After that, Chen Lei took Xu Aimin to the Chen County football field. Although it was not a holiday, or even after get off work, the stadium was still crowded. The two teams were not top teams, but the audience still cheered excitedly, and when a star player scored a goal, the whole audience cheered like thunder.

Chen Lei found a private room for Xu Aimin to watch the football game.

Xu Aimin smiled and said, "The atmosphere here is indeed not inferior to that of Chang'an City."

Then Xu Aiming observed the audience in the football field with a telescope. Although he also liked football, he was not obsessed with it. Rather than watching football, he would rather observe the people watching football.

Then he saw a surprising scene: a group of people wearing Mohist costumes were chasing several spectators.

"What's going on here? Catching fugitives, but since when did the Mohists also take on this function?"

When Chen Lei heard the emperor's words, he immediately found a telescope and looked in the direction the emperor was looking. Then he breathed a sigh of relief and explained, "Your Majesty, this is the Mohist Supervision Team punishing dishonest craftsmen."

"The Mohist Supervision Team?"

Seeing that the emperor didn't understand, Chen Lei explained in detail that six years ago, the emperor and Mozi held a meeting and said that the craftsmen in the factory were already slack and overstaffed. At that time, the emperor said that the Mohist School should not only protect the interests of the craftsmen, but also whip the craftsmen and force them to make more progress. So after the Mohist leader and the Mohist leader discussed at that time, they established an internal organization to punish and educate the corrupt elements among the craftsmen. This is now the Mohist Supervision Team, which is responsible for catching and punishing those vagrant craftsmen and those overstaffed craftsmen.

Hearing about this, Xu Aimin became interested and said, "Let's go and see how this Mohist Supervision Team monitors the craftsmen."

Then Xu Aimin walked out of the football field and quickly found the Mohist Supervision Team and the five craftsmen he had just seen.

"Mr. Lin Yumo, do you have any grievances against me? There are millions of craftsmen in the whole Chen County, and you just target me and arrest me." The captured middle-aged craftsman looked unconvinced.

The other four people, however, kept their heads down and whispered, "Lin Yumo, this is our first time skipping work. You must not tell my father, or he will beat me to death."

Lin Yu looked at these young men with a look of disappointment and said, "Don't you know who Tiezhu is? He is a rogue craftsman. You have a good role model, so why do you learn from him? Learning from him to work as a miner four or five times a month is like learning from him to be a blacksmith for five years, and still being a junior blacksmith."

Hearing this, Tiezhu was dissatisfied and said, "Lin Yu, you are slandering me. What is a migrant craftsman? If you say this about me, I will go to the Mohist headquarters to sue you. Others are afraid of you, but I am not."

Lin Yu said contemptuously: "Did I say something wrong? What time is it now? It's still working hours at the steel plant. You don't go to work at this time, but go to the football field to watch the game. You don't even work properly. If you are not a rogue craftsman, who is a rogue craftsman?"

Tiezhu was still unwilling to accept it and said, "Can you blame me for this? I have already asked the factory director to transfer me to the maintenance team, but the factory director did not listen to me and wanted me to work on the front line. He wanted me to be a slave of the steel mill, but my parents have already worked hard for the steel mill and even sacrificed their lives. The steel mill owes my family two lives, so it is their duty to support me and let me enjoy a good life."

Chen Lei, who was standing by and heard this, immediately became unhappy. He shouted, "Whose blessing do you want to enjoy?"

Tiezhu was surprised and asked, "Grandpa Factory Director, why are you here?"

Chen Lei has been the factory director of Chenjun Iron and Steel Plant for ten years. If the time he spent as a craftsman is counted, he has been in Chenjun Iron and Steel Plant for almost 20 years. People like Tiezhu are Chen Lei's juniors, especially the second-generation factory workers like Tiezhu, whom he knows almost all of them.

Chen Lei said angrily, "Your parents were both excellent craftsmen in the steel factory. How could they give birth to a useless son like you?"

Tiezhu's parents were craftsmen in a steel plant. At that time, the safety regulations of the steel plant had not yet been fully established, and Tiezhu's parents were burned to death in a blast furnace accident.

The factory director at that time was Chen Lei. He felt very guilty about such an accident, but as long as heavy industry is built and innovation is needed, accidents are difficult to avoid. The initial industrial upgrading of the Han Dynasty not only swallowed up gold, but also swallowed up lives. Even in the light industry with high safety, the steam looms killed countless female workers. For this reason, Xu Fan also vigorously promoted new short hair styles for women and men, which were almost the same as those in later generations.

In this regard, Han people are relatively tolerant. No one says that one's hair and body are given by one's parents and should not be abandoned. In this way, Han factory owners have also found that short hair helps reduce factory accidents. You know, if a serious accident occurs, they will also have to pay compensation. If the machine is accidentally damaged, their losses will be even greater.

The people and craftsmen of the Han Dynasty also found that short hair was more conducive to their work, so they naturally ended this new reform. In this respect, the Han society was still very pragmatic.

Chen Lei took great care of these orphans. Not only did he arrange for people to take care of their daily lives, he also established a school for the children of craftsmen, found famous teachers to educate these children, and provided them with free tuition all the way to middle school. For the children of these factory workers who had learning talents, he would help arrange them to go to good schools. For those with poor learning talents, after graduating from middle school, he would arrange for them to enter technical schools and then enter steel mills. It can be said that his life was arranged properly.

Tiezhu has been under the control of Chen Lei since he was a child. Now when he sees Chen Lei, he is like a mouse seeing a cat and dares not refute at all.

Chen Lei looked at Lin Yu and asked, "How has Tiezhu performed in the steel plant over the years?"

Lin Yu said: "Tiezhu is often late and leaves early, and he also skips work to watch opera and football. He has become a key focus of our supervision team. According to the system, migrant craftsmen like him should be arranged to go to Lingling County for labor reform, but because he is the son of a hero, he has not been punished in such a severe way."

Tiezhu immediately retorted in a low voice: "I don't want to work in a steel mill. I can't use my talents there."

Chen Lei said angrily: "You are still a junior blacksmith. What earth-shattering talent do you have that cannot be brought into play in the steel factory?"

Chen Lei looked at the other four young men and asked, "What's going on with them?"

The four young men immediately said in panic: "This is our first time."

They also recognized that this was the old factory director, who was said to have gone to Chang'an City to serve as the Shaofu Ling. If their parents knew that they were caught by the old factory director, they would inevitably be given a lecture of love. They have not yet learned to live a shameless life like Tiezhu.

Lin Yu said: "From our records, Chen Shi and his team were indeed absent from work for the first time. Our inspection team has given them a warning."

It must be said here that any system is implemented by people, and human laziness is inevitable, so even in the Shaofu's factories and collective factories, there were cases of workers slacking off, and even cases of absenteeism like Tiezhu.

Therefore, the Mohist School set up a supervisory team to catch such lazy miners. The first two times were warnings, and the third time was sent to a technical school for three months of military management. During these three months, the salary of the craftsman was paid according to the local minimum standard. If the craftsman still did not repent, he would go to Wuling County and Lingling County in the name of supporting the border to help reduce the number of factories in the local area. Relying on this severe punishment system, the Mohist Supervisory Team had a great deterrent effect on the migrant craftsmen, of course, old-timers like Tiezhu were exceptions.

Chen Lei said sternly: "Hurry up and go to work."

The four young men fled immediately.

(End of this chapter)