Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 188 But Wants to Live in Pengying (4)

After finding suitable charcoal and ore, the next step is to determine the location of the iron factory.Chun Yuzhen brought a map, and the location of Shangpin Iron Mine is in Yulu County in the west of Chang'an, where the Wei River flows through the county.It takes about [-] miles to transport iron ore to the Weihe River by land. The ship goes down the river, passes through Chang'an, and then goes north against the Jushui River to Tongguan County, where the coal and lime mines are located.In order to use the hydraulic blower, it is necessary to build the ironworks beside Jushui.In order to minimize the distance for transporting coke by land, Zhao Xingde started from the point where the charcoal plant was located, and drew a vertical line towards Jushui. The intersection with the river is five or six miles away from Tongguan County.

Zhao Xingde pointed to this intersection with a pencil and said, "Build the iron factory at this location."

Chun Yuzhen nodded and said, "I'll bid for those two mine veins myself, and the land along the river is not expensive. But after buying it, you must first apply to the coordinating Cao and the local military government to transfer it to the chamber of commerce area before you can build it." Starting a workshop will take some time."

Zhao Xingde doubted: "But why?"

Chunyu Zhen said with a smile: "Our iron factory's technology is much better than that of his family's. If we don't build a closed workshop, I'm afraid some villains will try to steal the technology of coal-fired iron making. Seeing Zhao Xingde's suspicious look on his face, he explained, "Mr. Zhao doesn't know something. The so-called workshop is to build a wall to stand on its own. Without the permission of the master, it is a sergeant and an official." It is also forbidden to enter and disturb without authorization. But if it is not designated as a chamber of commerce area, no workshop can be built."

Zhao Xingde wondered: "Is the system of money for apprentices worthless?"

Chun Yuzhen said: "The system of apprenticeship money is only practiced in middle schools, and the 'treacherous' merchants in the Kanto don't care about it. They can learn the skills secretly and make iron in the Kanto." Considering that after the scale of iron smelting expands in the future, it may be sold to the Kanto, so it is natural not to let the Kanto businessmen steal their lessons.

Zhao Xingde nodded, and Chun Yuzhen said again, "Coalcoal ironmaking is no small matter. Apprentice money is just a small profit. When other iron factories are about to succeed in trial production of carboncoal ironmaking, we will go to the prime minister's office to register and collect apprenticeship money for 20 years. "Zhao Xingde was stunned, he didn't expect Chun Yuzhen to do so thoroughly in draining the technological bonus.

Seeing the change in his face, Chun Yuzhen was a little embarrassed, rubbed his hands and smiled and said: "In business, Mr. Zhao is a person who does big things, and I will arrange these small things, and it's right to keep them. To prevent leakage To reveal the secret, charcoal would rather use more coal than it can only be used for coking. I will arrange different groups of apprentices to do each process of coking and iron making. All the apprentices below will find refugees from the Kanto, and try it out for a month first. Then sign a 15-year long-term contract, if the contract expires and leave without authorization, each person will be compensated [-] Guan."

Zhao Xingde's heart moved slightly, and he wondered: "Such a long contract period and high compensation, do the government and the chamber of commerce care?" The Bianliang helpers earn only more than a hundred cash a day, and after 15 years of hard work, even if they don't eat or drink, it is difficult to make up enough. Five hundred guan liquidated damages.He doesn't know much about the market of Guanzhong Gongqian, but he thinks it's not too different.This made it impossible for any worker who signed a contract with the iron factory to switch to other employers within the contract period.Even if other ironworks imitated the technology, it would be difficult to train enough apprentices at once to overwhelm Chunyu Ironworks in scale.

Chun Yuzhen was taken aback, and asked back: "The iron factory pays taxes in full on time, and the government and chamber of commerce are too late to be happy. Why should they take care of it?" Seeing the look of disbelief on Xingde's face, he smiled, "Don't worry, Mr. Zhao. The self-government of chambers of commerce and workshops has been practiced for more than a hundred years. Each family has its own way of making money, and the government is determined not to control it. If it weren’t for this, how could so many Kanto people set up workshops in Guanzhong and The prices of mine veins, shops, and workshops have all gone up. The military government should ban merchants from the Kanto region." He paused, and angrily cursed, "These 'rogue' merchants!"

Zhao Xingde felt a little heavy in his heart, interrupted his words, and said in a deep voice: "Although the contract is signed, but to get the workers to return to the iron factory, they still have to pay generous wages for food and clothing. Don't do anything that would harm your morality." He thought for a while , and said, "Smelting iron with coal is very profitable. The wages for the workers should be twice that of other houses. In addition, the houses where the workers live must be spacious. Coal, you don’t need to save charcoal fire in winter.” He looked at Chun Yuzhen, and said emphatically, “These workers must not be used as cattle and horses. Take the long view."

Chun Yuzhen nodded, and said in a deep voice: "Mr. Zhao has a kind heart, I understand." He added, "To transport coal and ore, you can hire cars and boats at the beginning. After the business grows in the future, build a fleet for the iron factory And the fleet. In order to prevent other workshops and "treacherous" merchants from causing trouble, the mines and workshops also invited some retired sergeants to be the leaders of the guards, and bought some bows, crossbows, firecrackers and distributed them to the guards. You don't need to buy it, everyone has it..." Chun Yuzhen flipped open the small notebook he carried with him, and muttered, as if he was reporting the harvest to the old landlord.Although Chun Yuzhen has a simple and honest face, he is actually an extremely stubborn person. After verifying that coal can really produce good iron, he is very grateful to Zhao Xingde for giving him [-]% of the shares in the iron factory.Since he planned to work hard with Zhao Xingde, he put all the money he earned from casting cannons into the iron factory, thinking about building the factory, he was exhausted.In the past two months, in addition to selecting ore to test coke, these details of the opening of the factory have been carefully considered in his mind for a long time, all of which are based on safety.

On this day, Chun Yuzhen discussed with Zhao Xingde until dusk before leaving, and returned to Chang'an the next day to continue preparations for the iron factory. In the autonomous area of ​​the Chamber of Commerce outside Chang'an, many workshops were still rushing to work. Under the dim lights, they all looked haggard. , his eyes were so cloudy that he didn't look like a living person.The apprentices who had just stepped off the loom walked back to the low work shed with heavy steps. Some of the overworked ones fell on the haystack as if they were falling apart, and fell asleep.

Bao Qizhang was so hungry that his chest was pressed against his back, and he fell out of breath in the haystack, smelling a musty smell at the end of his nose. "When the sun comes out, we need to dry the quilt." Bao Qizhang muttered, taking a handful of damp hay and piling it up on himself.The so-called "drying the quilt" is nothing more than stacking hay in a place where the sun can reach it.The night air is cold, better than nothing.Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and he sat up abruptly. On the opposite side of the large soil bed, a black scorpion was sticking its head out from the crack in the soil, revealing half of its tail hook.

"Die!" The worker next to him who was disturbed by him murmured feebly.Guo Hong on the other side turned his head around and followed Bao Qizhang's gaze to see the scorpion.He also sat up quietly.

Bao Qizhang 'licked' his lips, and lightly took off his shirt, 'exposing' two rows of ribs.He carefully wrapped his sleeves around his left hand, picked up a pair of chopsticks with his right hand, moved his body slightly to the wall, held his breath, and suddenly stretched out his hand, the chopsticks clamped the fat body, the scorpion struggled desperately, and its tail The needle seemed to be going crazy, but it was barely two inches away from Bao Qizhang's right hand.Bao Qizhang pressed the scorpion on the bed with chopsticks, and pressed the scorpion's head lightly with his left hand wrapped in clothes, as if he heard a crackling sound, the scorpion's tail that was constantly dangling stopped moving, and he was relieved.

"Brother Bao, it's really you!" Guo Hong said with a suppressed voice, his eyes sparkling with excitement.

"There are shredded meat at night." Bao Qizhang grinned, carefully avoiding the poisonous tail needle, peeled off the scorpion meat with his fingernails, tore half of it and handed it to Guo Hong, who was about to stuff it into his mouth when he saw Guo Hong. He pulled him back and said, "Don't eat this raw, it will be soaked in porridge and eaten as a vegetable." He wrapped the other half of the scorpion meat in the folds of his clothes.

Workers in the workshop only eat two meals a day. Before going to work, they eat a dry meal, which is called "big food". This meal lasts for seven or eight hours. "After this meal, I will lie down for more than three hours, and then I will get up and go to work again.This is true day after day, 360 days a year.Many apprentices died of illness due to exhaustion, hunger and illness.Guo Hong is a man of seven feet, just at the age when he can eat. Although he was so hungry that his skin was high and his bones were high, he finally survived.Fortunately, Bao Qizhang is a capable person. This work shed is crowded, dark, damp and dirty. Over the years, many insects, snakes, rats and ants have been bred. Give some to Guo Hong to eat.

"Brother Bao, after earning enough money, I will go to Shishan to receive the grant of land in the future, brother, I will be with you." Guo Hong said gratefully.

"Brothers who cross the river together are welcome." Bao Qizhang smiled honestly, and counted the numbers with his fingers, "There are still two years left, and I can earn enough to go to Shishan." In this dark workshop, Shishan's grant field is the only sunshine.Although it is as ethereal as Xianshan Penglai.But it was clearly written in the small book of the workshop master accountant that a salary of [-] guan a year and [-] guan in five years was enough to cover Qizhang’s money for his wife and children in the Kanto region.

"I'll listen to you, Brother Bao." Guo Hong nodded, carefully hiding the piece of meat that was smaller than a fingernail.

There was an ear-piercing sound of bang bang bang outside. It was the sound of a big spoon hitting a tile vat. The workers lying on the earthen bed opened their eyes reflexively, and one after another fumbled for the short edge of the gap from the side of the bed hay. The bowl rushed out of the door.There was not enough porridge every night, and the workers who were late could only drink pot water, and the foreman cursed "slackers" as gifts.

Bao Qizhang and Guo Hong squeezed among the ragged workers, and after a short while, they snatched up to the crock pot where the porridge was distributed. Bao Qizhang raised the pottery bowl with both hands, his face was full of flattery, and he said with a smile: "Brother Qiu, don't be angry!" The 'color' is getting better." Qiu Liu'er, who was holding a big spoon in his hand, gave him a contemptuous glance, but still scooped up the thick bowl, sprinkled it a little, and slammed it into the seven-foot-trap bowl Inside, nunuzui, motioned for the next one.

After Bao Qizhang thanked him, he squeezed out of the crowd with Guo Hong, who was eating porridge, and squatted in a corner of the courtyard.Guo Hong scolded in a low voice: "Scumbags, things that work for tigers." Qiu Liu, who crossed the river with them, soon "licked" the foreman's ditch, and volunteered to abduct more Kanto fellows to this workshop to make cattle and horses .In the past three years, [-] or [-] people came through Qiu Liuguai, and five of them died. Qiu Liu was the foreman of these [-] or [-] apprentices, and he also took charge of the porridge distribution.

Guo Hong dared not speak out, but Bao Qizhang next to him didn't complain so much, he threw the piece of scorpion meat into the hot porridge first.He stirred the porridge with his fingers, 'dangling' two or three rotten vegetable leaves, and said in surprise: "Xiao Guo, have you noticed that the porridge this evening has become thicker and the vegetable leaves are fresher."

"Really?" Guo Hong asked suspiciously, for him, a bowl of porridge was far from enough to fill his stomach.He stared fiercely at the high walls of the square, and swore a poisonous oath that when the uncle had land grants and planted crops, he would only eat dry food and not drink dilute food for the rest of his life.The more he thought about it, the hungrier he became. He swallowed his saliva, took a sip of gruel, and closed his eyes to feel the hot food flowing from his throat to his stomach. This was the most beautiful moment of the day.

Bao Qizhang was not as impatient as he was, he first licked off the gruel attached to the edge of the broken bowl, and then took small sips of the rarely thickened meat and vegetable porridge.On the high wall of the workshop not far away, the moon was emitting a dizzy yellow light, like a pancake that was bitten by someone, and Bao Qizhang's face was full of longing: "The pancake baked by my mother is really delicious. "Under the dim moonlight, the corners of his eyes gradually had a faint reflection.