Linxia

Chapter 186, Peace

After some observation, Fang Lin thought the time had come. He sold the third and fourth volumes of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and because he donated 10% of the profits, this righteous act made him famous. Prefect Pu also sent people outside the city to tell stories of Romance of the Three Kingdoms to the disaster victims, which helped to win their hearts.

With the right time, place and people, they immediately began to prepare for the construction of the factory. Since the entry barriers to porcelain workshops and shipbuilding workshops were relatively high, they chose the weaving workshop, which was the easiest to enter, and also brought in Dong Zugao, Pu Zhifu and Xu Kuolao.

Dong Zugao, these had already been discussed before the other party left. The other party is the most important official background, and there is no need to say more about its importance.

Prefect Pu also has money to invest because of the dividends from the bookstore. As the prefect of Huai'an, the county magistrate is not as good as the current one, and the other party is extremely necessary. Only with the full support of Prefect Pu can the city stand firm under the pressure of the big families.

Mr. Xu Kuo, your share of the shares has been reduced this time, but it is still necessary to win over the other party. This era is complicated and it is not enough to just have official appearances. Some local tyrants, although they cannot accomplish anything, are easy to do bad things, and he needs to stop them.

Every profession has its own expertise. Although Fang Lin has attracted investment, he only grasps the general direction, system and strategy. As for the specific matters, he should ask professionals to handle them.

For example, the planning of factory construction, the food channels for workers' meals and so on, which ones are beneficial and which ones are pitfalls, these trivial matters, even Prefect Pu may not be able to help, so he had to ask Xu Kuo Lao to solve them all.

Then, he asked his aunt Sun Hongye to come over to cook, and also invited his cousin Ren Chang and cousin Ren Xiuer to join in.

A few days ago, Fang Lin took Sun Hongye and her mother back home and was seen by fellow villagers who had fled. When they returned to the outskirts of the city, the villagers asked about them and learned that they were relatives of Fang Lin's family. They all said that the old Ren family had become prosperous.

Isn't it? With the Fang family as a rich relative, Sun Hongye soon got the job of cooking in the workshop, making the villagers envious.

——As a cook, I can definitely eat enough, and I have some rights, and I can even take care of others. For example, how much food should I serve to others depends on my own opinion? My children are working here, so I can take care of them a little bit, so can I serve them more?
Don’t blame these people for having narrow vision. They all fled here due to floods. These days, they have been eating thin porridge with so much brown rice grains that you can clearly count them. For them, cooking is really the best job!
……

On this day, Fang Lin came to inspect, not only himself, but also found someone who was knowledgeable from another channel.

I have to say that Mr. Xu Kuo is quite reliable. The people he found are quite worry-free. After inspection, there are no problems with the factory planning, materials, etc.

Then, I went to the cafeteria to take a look.

——The canteen provides meals, not for Fang Lin’s purpose, nor does he want to make a profit from it. He is mainly afraid that the workers will go far away to eat in order to save money, and no one knows when they will come back, which will affect the construction of the workshop.

When I came over, it was just dinner time, and I saw my aunt Sun Hongye and other people in the cafeteria getting their meals.

Aunt Sun Hongye would give a little more food to people she knew well, but it wasn't too much. Everyone has selfish desires, and it's within the normal range.

On the other side, there is free soup, which contains some vegetable leaves and some leftover meat from the market.

——Fang Lin didn't want to make money from the canteen, but he wasn't running a charity either. He provided free soup because he was worried that workers who were doing such heavy physical work would be reluctant to eat because they were still thinking about making money and would wear down their bodies. Therefore, as long as you eat in the canteen, you can get free soup, which is also a small benefit.

The lady who was serving the soup had an extremely strong skill in shaking the spoon. Fang Lin watched from the side for a while and saw that she was adding more soup but was unable to get out a single piece of meat.

After watching for a while, Fang Lin came over and the people in the kitchen all greeted him.

It just so happened that there were fewer people around at this time, so I chatted with my aunt Sun Hongye for a while.

Sun Hongye said: "This free soup doesn't say how many times you can have it refilled. The workers get their food and eat it quickly. Then they come to grab bowl after bowl. One pot is not enough. They have to leave some meat to cook more... In the end, the meat is cooked until it becomes big and white, and some smart people leave it until the end."

Needless to say, there are some tricks involved, such as whoever has the best relationship may get the meat, etc.

Fang Lin listened and nodded slightly. It was obvious that the old lady's skill of shaking the spoon was trained in this way.

Sun Hongye hesitated for a moment, then said, "People in the kitchen would eat meat from the pot while cooking soup..."

She looked at Fang Lin carefully, and seeing that Fang Lin was not angry, she continued, "On the first day Aunt Zhao cooked soup, he ate so much that his stomach was bloated and he was too full to work. We stopped him, otherwise if he had eaten any more, he would have died of the fullness and caused a loss of life! In this day and age, so many people have starved to death, and many people have never had a full meal in their entire lives..."

Fang Lin was listening with a slightly frown on his face, but as he continued listening, he felt that he was just a poor man and found it funny. However, as he laughed, he could not laugh anymore at the end and could only sigh.

……

Because 10% of the profits from the third and fourth parts of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" were donated to help the victims, Fang Lin had a very good reputation among the victims. Prefect Pu also found someone who could read "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" to read to the victims.

In the minds of the disaster victims, there is a natural filter for them to think that someone who can write such a good book is a good person.

This was verified when a small number of disaster victims went to work under Fang Lin to build a factory. The wages he offered were higher than those in other factories.

——In fact, this is because building a factory is heavy physical work, but these disaster victims don’t care. For them, as long as they have enough money, they are not afraid of the hard work.

Then there's the reputation of the free broth, because some workers were proud of it and boasted about it, and the word spread, and it became more and more outrageous, and now it's like eating in is free.

Due to various factors, disaster victims who wanted to work flocked to Fang Lin's side, and even showed a siphoning trend to other factories in the city. Some of them withdrew from other factories in the city and jumped over... Under such circumstances, the progress of factory construction was greatly accelerated, and the time was shortened by more than half than expected.

At the same time, it also attracted the attention of big families in the city such as the Gu family, causing some dissatisfaction among them.

……

Gu family.

As one of the largest families in the city and the owner of Rongxin Trading Company, the family has many weaving workshops, shipyards, etc., and is in great need of labor. The duck knows first when the water in the river warms in spring, and they are the first to feel the impact of Fang Lin, the catfish.

"Master, Young Master, recently a lot of our workers have been robbed. We originally planned to recruit more people and expand production while the disaster victims gathered, but now it seems that it is not going to work." Butler Chang said. "The big families in the city have a tacit understanding with each other. Who else dares to be so bold? My Gu family suffered a lot because of the "Strange Field Case", but it is still the top big family in the city. Who dares to stroke the beard like this?" Gu Shiyu slammed the table and said coldly.

Gu Tongren glanced at his eldest son. His eldest son was brave and daring, but a little impulsive: "Yu'er, sit down. What is the other party's background?"

The latter sentence is obviously directed to the person in charge.

"It's Governor Fang, Prefect Pu, the newly crowned number one scholar Dong's family, and Mr. Xu Kuo, the wharf owner. They have joined forces to build a weaving workshop, and Governor Fang is the apparent leader," replied Butler Chang.

"Mr. Xu Kuo from the dock is fine, but are the governor Fang, who caught His Majesty's eye, Prefect Pu, and the newly crowned number one scholar Dong also involved? This is going to be a bit troublesome." Gu Shiyu said, frowning deeply.

"Tsk tsk, the new number one scholar, the prefect, and the dock master Xu Kuo, this is all complete! That Fang Zhenfu is not simple either, not only has he caught the eye of His Majesty, I heard that he seems to have a very good relationship with the Fan family in the city."

Gu Tongren said: "With this background and connections, many underhanded tactics cannot be used."

"However, based on his background alone, it is impossible for Governor Fang to just snatch the person away, right?" he asked pointedly.

"Master, it's like this. Because of the book Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the governor Fang is very famous among the victims. Of course, fame is just fame, but the key is that he pays more than we do. And he also gives us free broth, which has been spread as free meals..."

"How ridiculous! Full wages and free broth... treating those peasants so well, what evil intentions does that Fang Zhenfu have!"

If there was no such thing as "malicious salary increase" in this era, Gu Shiyu would have probably directly put the blame on them: "It's obvious that harmony brings wealth, but how can we make money if his family does this?"

In fact, Fang Lin did not really "intentionally raise wages", he just kept the wages at the same level as before the disaster. It was just that families like Fan, Ma, Shao, Duan, etc. took advantage of the floods and the large number of disaster victims in the city to rob and lower the wages.

In other words, it was not that Fang Lin did a great job. He just did his duty and then, by comparing himself to the worst, he inflicted a critical blow to the Fan family, the Ma family, the Shao family, and the Duan family.

"That makes sense. Harmony brings wealth. We are all decent people, and fighting and killing is not good. So, find someone to talk to that governor Fang about peace. If he is willing to listen and correct his mistakes, then we can all get rich together. If he doesn't listen, then we are not giving him face. We should unite with the Ma family, the Shao family, and the Duan family to give him a warning."

Gu Tongren slowly sat up, like a sleeping lion waking up, revealing a hint of his domineering attitude as the head of the Gu family and the owner of Rongxin Commercial Bank: "No matter how good Fang Zhenfu's handwriting is, he is just a novice in opening a factory. Even if we don't use those unpresentable means, we can teach him a lesson by joining forces with the Ma family, the Shao family, and the Duan family so that he will remember it well."

He did not mention the Fan family, because firstly, the Fan family is now focused on the perfume business and has not set up factories or done business overseas. Fang Lin's move did not affect the Fan family's interests. Secondly, the Fan family and Fang Lin have a good relationship. If he told the Fan family, wouldn't he be asking the other party to tip off Fang Lin?
……

On this day, Yang Zongyi, the Yang family's scholar, the Yang family member who cooperated with the Nanyang fleet came over.

"Mr. Fang, congratulations. The third and fourth volumes of Romance of the Three Kingdoms have been selling well recently and making a fortune every day. I, Yang, am really envious and jealous!" Yang Zongyi flattered enthusiastically.

In fact, officials who entered the government through the imperial examination system would look down on those who were given official positions like court painters without going through the imperial examination system. But no matter what, it was not something a juren could look down on.

——Just like an honorary professor at a university, no matter how he got the title, it is not something an undergraduate student can look down on.

"No, no, Fang is just selling books and writings to earn hard-earned money." Fang Lin waved his hand and said calmly.

"Your family's hard work fee is tens of thousands of taels of silver?"

The corner of Yang Zongyi's mouth twitched. Ever since Fang Lin invested in the Nanyang Fleet, he has been keeping a close eye on Fang Lin. He couldn't say exactly how much profit Fang Lin made from one of his books, but he could make a rough estimate.

But he is also a shrewd man. He endured the collision with the woodcutter and the judgment of Prefect Pu, which shows that he is worldly-wise and tactful. At this time, facing Fang Lin's pretense, he kept smiling: "Haha, everyone says that Lord Fang is modest. Today I see that he is indeed so."

"Well, I won't beat around the bush. I came here this time because the Gu, Ma, Shao, and Duan families asked me to be a middleman to mediate a matter..."

He mentioned the Gu family's plan to ask Fang Lin to reduce wages and cancel the free broth, and advised: "Master Fang, it's really unnecessary, because it's not worth it for those peasants to go against the Gu family, the Ma family, the Shao family, and the Duan family."

"That's it."

Fang Lin listened, agreeing with his words, but in his heart he felt it was ridiculous: "I just kept my duty and didn't want to exploit the workers, how could it be considered a malicious wage increase? As for the free broth, the cost is only two or three taels of silver a day, and only seventy or eighty taels a month, which is probably not even enough for a banquet for those big families. They are reluctant to give it up, and would rather spend money to find someone to mediate and ask me to cancel it, rather than follow suit... How can people evaluate this?"

'However, this is in line with the style of our Great Xia! In the past, some companies accused some foreign companies of malicious competition because they provided some basic benefits, saying that they maliciously raised workers' wages. Some people even said that high wages would make people lose their motivation to strive...'

If you kneel down and serve as a slave for too long, you will not be able to stand up straight; if you talk about the demographic dividend for too long, you will take low wages, long working hours and wanton exploitation for granted.

"If I don't give them face, the Gu, Ma, Shao, and Duan families will probably unite and use me to gain authority; if I give in, even if it's just to save face and get by on the surface, that'll be fine."

Fang Lin knew that there were intrigues among these companies. As long as he was not stubborn, he would not be humiliated by the other party in the first attempt when he just entered this industry, which would expose their ambition to sweep them out. It was highly likely that they would not be jointly targeted.

He made a plan in his mind: "The wages will be reduced to the same level as other factories, and the money saved will be used as incentives, more work, more pay. As for the free broth, it can also be cancelled, but the money saved can be used to increase the food portions and make it more affordable."

Yang Zongyi was quite happy to see Fang Lin agreed. As a peacemaker, he could gain face by reconciling both parties and could also gain a small favor from both sides.

"Haha, Lord Fang is wise. I will reply to them right away..."

"Wait a minute, Mr. Yang, please stay. I have another business to discuss." Fang Lin said suddenly with a deep look in his eyes.

He pretended to obey but secretly disobeyed. Seeing that there was no effect, the Gu family would probably not be satisfied. However, both parties had backgrounds and were wary of each other. The other party would not do anything excessive. In ordinary competition, there were only a few means, so they could prepare for a rainy day.

……

(End of this chapter)