Mystery Makes Me Strong

Jia She's death was a funeral and mourning. After more than two months of tossing around, the two houses completely calmed down.

Taking advantage of this time, Jia Lian, Jia Baoyu, and Jia Rong's uncle and nephew had already started experimenting in Wang Xifeng's dowry village.

The industrial revolution requires the accumulation of talents, trial and error, and debugging. It requires a lot of investment in the early stage.

They went through Xue's channel and bought a steam engine from overseas.

Just as the other two were about to start looking for someone to mount the steam engine, Zhao Han had experience and stopped them.

She said: "We must first build a closed and soundproof house, and dig a smoke exhaust tunnel to discharge the steam and waste smoke into the nearby river ditch."

"What do you want to do? It's better to discharge it directly into the sky. You don't still worry about environmental pollution, do you?" Wang Wenwen asked strangely.

"Have you lost your knowledge? Do you know that the most direct resistance to industrialization by those old-fashioned guys is not that they offend their own interests, but that they offend Feng Shui." Zhao Han said to himself.

"Understood." Wang Wenwen recalled the history for a while, and suddenly figured it out. Yes, Dongzhou's industrialization was driven by aliens, and those who talked about Feng Shui were all dealt with.

However, where there are no aliens, steam will cause bad feng shui, but it has become the consensus of the people.

And they are really right. Wherever there are steam engines and large factories, people nearby often do not live past fifty and suffer from various diseases. No matter whether you are poor or rich, you will not be able to escape this fate.

The ancients may not know that it is caused by pollution, but they will habitually attribute it to Feng Shui.

Smoke, fire and noise, for them, are the most obvious evidence of broken feng shui.

"Yes, those ministers and nobles are afraid of these movements. The so-called dynasty hopes that the world will be safe and stable. No movement is best. Our place is lively and lively during the day and night, and it will definitely be taboo." Wu Shan Shan nodded.

"But in this way, there is a problem. The factory will be extremely hot, and it will be difficult to discharge the heat if it is closed and sound-proofed." Wang Wenwen said distressedly.

"How was the early industry in other people's family?" Wu Shanshan asked.

"Other families are led by the royal family, who take the lead in making money, and don't care about the living conditions of the workers, because the workers are farmers who have lost their land, and have nowhere to go except the factory." Zhao Han shook his head.

"Understood." Wu Shanshan was thoughtful.

Industrialization is formed by the accumulation of bones, and it absorbs more flesh and blood than all human activities.

But it is not like the feudal society, which absorbs flesh and blood like the feudal society, but after absorbing, there is no output, it just circulates indefinitely, what was a thousand years ago will hardly change after a thousand years.

"Of course we can't do this. As for the problem of hot and humid environment, it can be alleviated by reducing working hours, shifting operations, and underground ventilation."

"It is obviously costly to do so, and there is no advantage to traditional handicraft factories."

"Yes, so this is just a testing ground. If we really want to give full play to our advantages, we have to wait until the two of us are admitted to Jinshi and seek to be sent to a sea island to become a magistrate, and then lead these people to a big fight."

"That's it."

The three of them finished their discussions and began to find someone to build a factory building, fully enclosed, and dig a tunnel.

The craftsmen were given a fairly high amount of silver, and they used the children of the family to do these things, ensuring that no outsiders would know.

When someone asked, they said that they wanted to build a family tomb.

After Jia Amnesty's incident passed, a high wall was erected in Zhuangzi, and behind the high wall was a closed factory building.

A steam engine is housed inside.

Jia Lian used his own channels to go out and buy many half-grown boys and girls who were about to starve to death, and all of them signed death contracts.

It's the kind of contract that the owner will kill regardless of whether he is killed or not. He will sell it to the owner for the rest of his life, and he will be beaten and killed at will.

Generally, servants would not sign this kind of contract. What they signed were living contracts, and they could be released after a certain period of time.

And you can't be beaten to death casually, once someone sues the official, you have to spend money to settle the relationship.

As for servants with such a dead contract, the government will ignore it when they see the contract.

"Hey, there is a big advantage here. The labor is too cheap. No wonder they don't need industry, and they don't need to reduce labor costs. These people only need to manage three meals, and they will be pulled down when they are 2 or 30 years old." Zhao Han Looking at those timid boys and girls, they shook their heads and said.

"Yeah, manpower is worthless. If you have something to do, you can train people to be machines. Why do you need machines?" Wang Wenwen also sighed.

After sighing, the three first used the family to have children to establish a supervisory team, which is the basic management.

It is mainly to select people from the servants of Ningguo Mansion to work as supervisors.

"Remember, no matter what you see or do, you are not allowed to leak a word. If you leak it, be careful and pull out your skin!" Jia Rong said viciously.

Compared with Jia Baoyu and Jia Lian, he has one advantage. He is the speaker of the Ningguo Mansion and the head of the Jia family.

"Yes, Master Rong." All the supervisors said cautiously.

Now this one has fame and power in his hands.

After forming the supervisory team, he led the supervisory team to manage and train the newly bought No. 150 servants.

"This machine comes from the West, and it's something on a self-propelled ship. You don't have to worry about what it is, as long as you know that it can play the same role as a cow, horse, or water wheel. And it must be strictly in accordance with our compilation. Do it according to the operating manual, otherwise it will be easy to cut off a limb." Jia Baoyu said to the crowd.

"Yes, sir." All the servants said obediently.

Then the three of them took turns to train these workers according to the instructions that came with the purchase.

Truth be told, these guys are the best workers.

Because they have nowhere to go, they can only rely on these three masters for survival, so they have to force themselves to memorize what they don’t understand, and there is no possibility of slacking off at work...

That kind of person was directly pulled out and sold.

Who doesn't know that the Jia Mansion is a well-known charity family, and all the servants have made a fortune...

While training the workers, they used Xue's channel again and again to find top textile workers in the south of the Yangtze River, and began to use steam engines as power to transform the previous manual silk reeling machines.

Nowadays, the high-end clothes worn by wealthy families are basically made of silk, which is a high-end product in modern society.

But silk is very labor-intensive to make.

As for high-end clothes, they are all manually customized and embroidered in the later stage.

The three people want to carry out the process of industrialization, only in the supply of silk raw materials, it is impossible to do embroidery.

Only with enough silk production can we defeat others by cost.

After half a year of tossing, the first batch of silk was finally produced.

Raw materials were transported from the south and processed into silk in the Zhuangzi factory. The output was 10 times higher than that of hand-made silk, and the cost was 90% of the silk of the same quality.

Because manpower is too cheap, the biggest role of machines is to increase production. It is actually very difficult to reduce costs.

But with a large scale, the profit they need for a single piece of silk can be much less.

Others have to sell at twice the cost to meet various needs in other aspects, such as human relations and various management. These are not costs on the surface, but they must be paid.

And their size is ten times, so they only need to sell at a slightly higher price, and they will have enough funds to cope with turnover.

It’s like raising pigs. If you raise a pig in your farm, if you only earn one hundred yuan, it’s nothing for a year; I raise ten thousand pigs, and I only earn one hundred yuan.

This is the scale effect, which can reduce costs in disguise.

To produce one pen, the price will be unbearably high, but to produce one billion pens, each pen costs only a dime, and only a penny is enough.

It's just that the good times didn't last long. With a large amount of silk on the market, it was difficult to sell silk in Jiangnan.

Many handicraft factories have closed their doors.

What followed was a disturbance by the weavers.

Although the imperial court did not see steam engines disrupting feng shui, they could see unemployed weavers making trouble.

Then the imperial court ordered Jiangnan Weaving to deal with the matter.

"The market capacity is too small. How long did it take to sell before something went wrong?" Wang Wenwen suddenly had a headache when he saw the letter from Xue's family from the south.

"No, the market capacity is huge. We only produce such a small amount, which is not enough to hit the market. It's just that someone discovered our potential. This is an early response, and they are deliberately punishing us." Zhao Han said directly.

"Are they so responsive?" Wang Wenwen doubted.

"The gentlemen who lived in the eight seats in the court hall reacted very slowly, but the large private merchants responded very sensitively, because they greeted and sent them all the year round, and had to deal with various blackmails. Those who were slow to respond had long been eliminated." Zhao Han explained.

"So that's how they found out that someone was selling a lot. Although they can eat it, they know that if we don't stop it in advance, our scale will grow bigger and bigger, and finally we will completely eliminate them. These people are really not to be underestimated." .” Wang Wenwen said with a headache.

"Then what are we going to do?"

"Hey, these people won't play legitimate business competition with us, they will only let the officials and lords take action, and our channels will be cut off soon." Zhao Han predicted.

"Then what should we do?"

"Reduce shipments, focus on training workers, and wait until we are released as officials and preside over a place." Zhao Han said using previous experience.

"It seems that this is the only way to go."

Soon Jiangnan Weaving found out that the Xue family was selling a large amount of silk, and they called the shopkeeper of the Xue family to the Yamen.

Due to the face of the four major families, there was no difficulty, but a shipment quota was forcibly stipulated.

That is to say, no matter how much the Xue family produces, they can only sell this amount every year. If it exceeds this amount, they will compete with the common people for profit and cause trouble for the court.

Today's Xue family is different from the past. When Jia and Wang's family did not show up, they could only agree to it and watch a lot of money leak from their hands in vain.

To know that there are so many silks, selling them is money.

However, a treasurer of Xue's family approached Jia Lian in private and said that he could eat the silk, on condition that he would give him a 10% profit.

Jia Lian inquired a little, and it turned out that the other party was bought by a big sea trader and wanted to come to buy these silks.

Only then did Zhao Han realize that, yes, China and the West have penetrated into the Red Chamber long ago, and they are in great demand for Eastern porcelain and silk. For a long time, they have been in a seller's market.

That is to say, they can only get a small purchase quota, and they can only get trade opportunities by bribing local officials.

Until the invasion, the Eastern Dynasty was in an absolute surplus position relying on silk, tea, and porcelain, basically it could sell as much as it produced.

It's a complete seller's market right now.

This is unimaginable for the highly competitive buyer's market in later generations.

That being the case, they quickly adjusted their strategy and tried to smuggle the silk to those sea merchants.

Yes, maritime merchants cannot distribute goods at will. The imperial court clearly prohibits the random flow of goods, only opens a few external ports, and only allows specific merchants to come in and buy.

This creates a very strange scene in history.

Zheng Zhilong relied on the goods provided by land and traded with Siyang, earning tens of millions of taels of silver every year. At the same time, the Ming Dynasty was almost dying of poverty.

Guarding Jinshan Yinshan went to Meishan by himself.

Later, when the Qing Dynasty completely banned the sea, Zheng Chenggong could not get goods from the mainland, so he gradually declined, and finally his foundation was destroyed.

Later, with the help of overseas channels, the silk industry in Zhuangzili was finally able to expand unscrupulously, without worrying about the impact on the court and weavers.

It just expanded to a certain scale and encountered new bottlenecks.

Not enough coal...

Yes steam engine consumes a lot of coal every day.

It used to be purchased from nearby coal yards.

But now the scale is expanding, the roads are not good, and the coal field is also manually excavated. It is okay to meet the cooking and heating needs of ordinary people, but it is a drop in the bucket for factories.

Living needs and industrial needs are two orders of magnitude.

Then increase the price to buy.

Soon the owner of the coal farm complained that the imperial court had restrictions to prevent the gathering of too many miners, that is to say, the output of the coal farm was capped.

And it's artificially limited.

"If you have money, you are not allowed to earn it. Now I know how the feudal society hinders the development of capital." Wang Wenwen sighed.

"A large number of miners gather, so there is a natural basis for rebellion. The imperial court has always been strictly guarded. This is the reason why folks are often not allowed to mine. Sometimes it is loose and sometimes it is tight." Zhao Han also sighed.

If there is not enough fuel, if more purchases are made, there will be no coal on the market, and the price will skyrocket, which will attract the attention of the court.

"We still need to find an island, bring guns, and develop it freely. In this way, with the power of industrialization, an island can defeat an entire land." Wang Wenwen said bitterly.

"No wonder the teacher told us to transmigrate into men. Only men can go out conveniently. If Lin Daiyu and Xue Baochai were replaced, how could they do these things?" Zhao Han said.

"It seems that we have to lie dormant for some time. After three to five years, we will wait until we are admitted to Jinshi." Wang Wenwen said.

Zhao Han nodded.

Although it is possible to go out as an official by relying on the status of a scholar, there are too many restrictions after all.

Relying on the platform of the Jia Mansion, Jia Yucun, and his background as a Jinshi in two rankings, soon made his fortune.

two years later.

Jia Baoyu was admitted to the Beijing Normal University, and Jia Rong was also selected.

Later, Jia Rong did not continue the exam, but sought to be released, and finally found a county magistrate on a southern island.

The people in Jia's house were all indignant, thinking that it was someone in the court who was obstructing them and discriminating against them.

But there was nothing he could do, after all, civil servants were the most important nowadays, even Wang Ziteng had to behave with his tail between his legs.