Ming Zhengzhi, I am Zheng Kezang

After inspecting Huaibei's defense, Zheng Kezang crossed the Huaihe River to inspect the mining of Huainan coal mines.Huainan Coal Mine mainly produces main coking coal, lean coal, lean coal, fat coal and thermal coal, but in this era, it is not possible to use quantitative indicators to distinguish various types of coal and classify them for various purposes.

In order not to let steam coal affect the smelting of coke, Zheng Kezang only ordered to roughly distinguish the types of steam coal that are obviously steam coal according to the coking results. As for lean coal, lean coal, fat coal, main coking coal, and 13 main coking coals After further identification, fortunately, these coal types are suitable for coking, so they are included in the ranks of coking coal and used by government-owned smelters.

However, Zheng Kezang did not specifically look at these different types of coal. The reason why he came to Huainan Coal Mine was mainly to see two highlights.One is the application of pit tracks, and the other is the role of steam pumps in mines.

Needless to say, the mine track, this application not only greatly improves the efficiency of coal transportation, but also reduces the workload of miners and reduces the damage to their health.As for the steam pump, it revitalizes the previously unused mines, improves the utilization rate of the mines, and makes mine operations more profitable.

The main inventors of the steam pump were Thomas Newcomen and his assistant Langley, an engineer invited by the Gezhi Institute from England. As for the other inventor of the steam engine, Thomas Savelli, although he was moved by China's huge funding, he eventually Considering that the journey was too far away, he did not come to Huaxia. [

After Newcomen arrived in China, he copied his design in England within three years, and then invented the atmospheric steam engine based on the original design. Of course, the atmospheric steam engine is extremely primitive, so with the participation of Chinese craftsmen, the subsequent The improved Vulcan-style steam engine adopts the rotary motion program of flywheel, crankshaft, and connecting rod, thus saying goodbye to the original reciprocating motion method, making the steam engine more efficient and occupying a smaller mechanical footprint.

Although Newcomen and Langley won the titles of Founding Marquis and Founding Son respectively, and the Chinese craftsmen who assisted were also rewarded, but Zheng Kezang, who has a memory from another time and space, did not get mny because of this, so the inner court was very happy. Spyker's reward was issued soon, and Gezhi Institute was required to further improve the thermal efficiency and maintenance performance of the steam engine.

Just as Zheng Kezang was looking at these steam-breathing monsters and wanted to steam more riveting steel, a bad news came: "Suzhou kickers called a break (strike), what is going on? The Northern Expedition urgently needs to raise funds. This Who is pulling my hind legs at this time!"

Zheng Kezang had an intuition that the north side had done something wrong, so he immediately ordered the Ministry of Defense and the Department of Military Law to investigate this matter.

A few days later, he arrived in Anqing, and a detailed report came: "My Majesty, the Suzhou kicker is mainly due to economic disputes."

Zou Shuying, who is in charge of the Military Law Department of the Privy Council, reported in the original: "The so-called weaving craftsmen are actually workers who weave and dye cloth. These workers are also known as kick craftsmen. According to the records of the Suzhou weaving factory in the Qing Dynasty, there were 30 kick shops in Suzhou in the 8000th year of Kangxi, [-] yuan for kick stones, and more than [-] kick craftsmen. According to the Yantie Yamen The Suzhou Industrial and Commercial Institute reported that as of June this year, the number of kick shops had increased to [-], and the number of kick craftsmen exceeded [-]."

Zheng Kezang listened quietly, and then heard Zou Shuying continue: "Most kickers are hired by foremen from Jianghuai and West Zhejiang. For each piece of cloth dyed, kickers can only get more than [-] cash. In Dasheng, the export of cotton cloth has increased sharply, and the income of the weavers is also guaranteed, but the hard work is not commensurate with it. Therefore, the weavers often ask for an increase in remuneration, but the cloth merchants think that they have agreed on the price with the foreman and the foreman. The trotters don’t ask their owners for a raise, and the cloth merchant’s request for a price increase is unreasonable and unreasonable, so they are unwilling to meet the demands of the trotters. Since the requirements cannot be met, the trotters all agree to strike and call for a break.”

"Is it just a strike?" Zheng Kezang interrupted suddenly. "Who is it that smashed the market and attacked the government!"

Zou Shuying responded respectfully: "What the Holy Majesty said is very true. The kicker used the Suzhou Industry and Commerce Institute as an excuse to favor large cloth merchants to attack the government, but he was suspected of causing trouble. It's just that the export of cotton cloth is related to the court's profits and taxes, so it is not good to delay it in the future. go down"

"Okay, Zou Qing, this is not your business." Zheng Kezang taught coldly. "Let's get back."

Zou Shuying was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat, and hurriedly knelt down and resigned. When he retreated, Zheng Kezang narrowed his eyes and thought for a while: "Threats, Suzhou is not the only place that produces cotton cloth in the world. Besides, the thing I am most afraid of is threats."

After murmuring a few words, Zheng Kezang ordered in a loud voice: "Come here, let the Ministry of Punishments thoroughly investigate this matter, and arrest the foreman behind the instigation."

Zheng Kezang understood very well that Zou Shuying only half-spoken a few words. It is true that the wages of kickers are low, but did kicking not make money?Didn't the foreman get a share of it?Obviously, only the last link in the whole story was exploited. As for the others, not to mention whether they were full of money, but at least they had a good life.As for the trouble that the kickers did not bargain with their employers and foremen, but instead went to cloth merchants who were out of reach, the black hand behind it was no longer discernible.Therefore, it takes seven inches to hit a snake, and these people must not let it go.

On December 14th of the fifth year of Wucheng, Zheng Kezang returned to Wuchang. At this time, the trial results of the striker case in Suzhou had come out.The Jiangnan Provincial Branch of the Court of Grand Inquisition sent a jury to Suzhou to pronounce the verdict. The 11 people who were the leader and the [-] foremen who instigated behind them were exiled to Nanyang, and the rest were released.Immediately, the Yantie Yamen Suzhou Industrial and Commercial Office upheld the above intention and announced that the low wages of the smiths were the source of the disaster, and the peddlers increased the piecework wages of [-] yuan per horse, and the increased costs were borne by the peddlers and the foremen , and when negotiating with cloth merchants in the coming year, both parties will share.

The matter seemed to have calmed down like this, but on December [-], an edict suddenly came out from the palace to praise Guangdong's "East Family Travel" and "West Family Travel" systems, saying that it "does not share the worries of the emperor, and is a model for labor and capital." He also advised merchants and fellows all over the world to "follow it all."

As soon as the edict came out, there was a sensation all over the world. Those who didn't know wrote to Guangdong to ask what the "East and West Travel" system was, and then they realized that the so-called "Eastern Travel" was, as the name suggests, a trade organization of the capital, and the corresponding "West Travel" was of course workers. Formed labor guilds.However, "Xijiaxing" also has a trace of trade union nature. There are short-term unemployment relief, injury relief, Mengxue night school and other mutual aid and charity content. More importantly, Dongxijiaxing is also a platform for labor and management to negotiate salary issues.

So everyone understood that in this way, the government would break away from the confrontation between labor and management, and become the supervisor and final arbiter of negotiations between the two sides, without the risk of provoking civil uprisings; Going to the guild hall is much gentler than directly "walking together and calling for a rest" or even "gathering crowds to fight and rob", and it will not cause out-of-control conflicts that require government intervention to suppress.

On March [-]th of the sixth year of Wucheng, the Huaxia Yantie Yamen officially promulgated the "East and West Family Practice Rules" in the form of a departmental order, thus determining the basis of China's domestic commercial autonomy from the perspective of national policy, thus making civil society This policy of strictly guarding against death and strictly prohibiting "forming cliques for personal gain" in the past dynasties began to die out.

Of course, compared with the well-to-do Dongjiahang, the Huaxia government has stricter control over the Xijiahang, which is dominated by industrial workers. Jiaxing set up eyeliner to "clarify the root of the turmoil and prepare to eradicate it at any time"[

In addition to Yantie Yamen's "East and West Family Practice Rules", the tax department of Duzhi Yamen also banned the reappearance of contractors in Huaxia on the grounds that "the foreman takes jobs and takes points between them" on the grounds that they are suspected of evading national taxes. However, any employment of part-time workers is only allowed through the West Family Bank, and the list of hired workers must also be backed up and reported, except for apprentices.”

In order to avoid the shortage of labor due to the disappearance of the contractor, the Huaxia Academy also issued a departmental order based on Zheng Kezang’s suggestion to persuade Dongjiahang and Xijiahang to jointly establish industrial and commercial vocational schools, and regularly go to the countryside to recruit apprentices. , but you can also understand writing, arithmetic, know business skills, and think it is practical”

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It is precisely because of the Chinese government's liberalization of industry and commerce, as well as a series of supporting commercial policies, that by the end of the sixth year of Wucheng, Huaxia's merchant ships had already haunted North Korea and Japan, south to Java and Borneo, and west to Burma. , Tianzhu’s vast territory, coupled with the exchange of merchant ships from Thailand and the West, Chinese products have widely occupied the markets of various countries in the above-mentioned regions, and the export tax has more than doubled the land tax, which has become the source of the Chinese court’s Northern Expedition.

While the export tax is increasing rapidly, the domestic commercial market has also been significantly developed due to the beginning of positive population growth.

When Wucheng's six-year fiscal year ended, Duzhi Yamen was pleasantly surprised to get the first hard-won black letter.Although there are still a lot of debts to be made up, and although many provinces still have local finances, the financial improvement is already on the paper, and Zheng Kezang's second Northern Expedition has entered the countdown.

However, the past six years of Wu Cheng was not smooth sailing.In the middle of every year, Jiangxi’s land registration fraud case broke out. Unscrupulous squires bribed subordinate officials to modify the grade of farmland, and used the difference in tax bases between good land, cotton fields, and mulberry fields to seek huge profits. In the end, more than [-] people were exiled together. It can be said that it shocked the whole country. .

In August of the sixth year of Wucheng, the case of falsely registered Gongmin in southern Jiangxi was exposed. The local gentry who were greedy for profit bribed the inspection department and the officials of the Agriculture and Forestry Office, pretending to be non-gongmin land as Gongmin farmland, and evaded the land tax for seven years. .As a result, more than 350 local officials and gentry involved in the case were all exiled to Jinlan on the grounds of shaking the country.

The "Gannan case" once again sounded the alarm for Zheng Kezang, making him understand that everything he has worked hard to accomplish has just completed the first step, and it is far from the time when he will be released to Nanshan when he becomes famous.