A small soldier of the frontier army in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 744 This is the devil
With inexplicable thoughts, Li Banghua and others arrived at the bank of the Yang River. There used to be a small stone bridge, some pontoon bridges, ferries, etc., which used to communicate on both sides of the river. Now the main official roads have been replaced by some big stone bridges.
This kind of water and land hub is often a place where merchants come and go, and where merchants gather. The two sides from the Acropolis to the Zhoucheng are no exception. All kinds of vehicles and horses come and go, forming quite prosperous towns by the river. .
Li Banghua took a look and saw that there were many kinds of goods. Those who came from the other side were mostly cloth, ready-made clothes, iron nails, briquettes, furs, various ironware, various meat products, and local goods called meat pots, etc. And so on, and even various waterwheels, handlooms, spinning wheels, twisting machines and other things were brought in.
Those transported across the shore are mostly fur, ore, cotton, tea, sugar, salt, tung oil, raw lacquer, coal, bamboo and wood, and other raw materials. The small towns on both sides of the river are full of boats and horses, and are very lively.
Li Banghua has heard more or less that Wang Dou refers to the goods on the other side as "industrial products", which are all processed and manufactured by various factories, while these goods on the other side are called "raw materials". A hundred flowers bloomed, and various towns continued to form.
For example, Shunxiang Fort, Huiyao Fort, and Heishan Fort in Baoan Prefecture are famous places where eggs, poultry, meat, and meat porcelain jars gather.In the Zhoucheng area, various factories gather, most of which are mainly processing.Near the Security Guard City, Podomi Town, and the side of Yongning City, is a famous fur gathering place.
Around the town, there are quite a lot of iron factories, coal factories, iron nail factories, more and more factories related to coal and iron are built, mining teams, blacksmith teams gather around, and related towns are formed one by one, where merchants buy and resell People from other counties flock to Tao.
These towns basically don't have city walls and fences now, and there is no need for such protection in the towns, which also shows the peaceful scene of Xuanfu Town.
But Li Banghua always has a feeling of anxiety. More and more able-bodied workers are gathering in Xuanfu Town. What if they riot one day?
In particular, if this kind of scene spreads to the rest of the Ming Dynasty, it will be a disaster. The environment of picking chrysanthemums for thousands of years and seeing Nanshan leisurely under the eastern fence will no longer exist.
He and Ma Guoxi waited to cross the river. Before arriving at Zhoucheng, they passed through several towns where ironware was made. Plows, hoes, kitchen knives, and hammers were only for leisure, and knives, axes, etc., were also full of carts. Come on, there are even shackles, handcuffs, and iron collars, and I don't know what to do with them.
There are also countless kinds of metal utensils, many of which Li Banghua can't name, but the sound of Ding Ding Dang Dang can be heard endlessly, and the noise is soaring to the sky.
It seems that iron nails are very popular. Li Banghua has heard that the officials of Xuanfu Town are now the biggest procurement target, and the annual demand for iron nails is astronomical.
Seeing that it was profitable, many businessmen engaged in this industry one after another. Even the residents of Baoan Prefecture bought iron materials one after another to start work.
Some of them adopt the family decentralized management method, that is, distribute the iron bars to the nail makers, and they process them at home, and then take them back and ship them out for sale. This method is very familiar to Li Banghua. Thinking about the current textile industry in Jiangnan, many Don't people adopt this method?
However, more people set up factories and concentrated their work. They hired more than a hundred people casually, and there were many young and strong men. Li Banghua was even more shocked.
Before reaching the foot of Zhoucheng, he was extremely tired.
What you can see is the stink of copper, and what you hear and hear is all about business.So-and-so, made money again, so-and-so invested another 1000 taels of silver, opened some kind of factory, and made a lot of money, I'm really envious.
Many people read commercial newspapers, and there is an impetuous smell in the air. Every bustling town is like a nest of devils.
Li Banghua knows that everyone in Baoan Prefecture is rich, so he has spare money to run a commercial factory. Although he employs many people and solves the problem of food for many people, he always feels that if it goes on for a long time, what these people bring is very likely to be demons. .
According to what Ma Guoxi told him, despite Wang Dou's repeated orders, the owner of the factory must guarantee the salary when hiring workers, the dangerous industry, the casualty rate must be controlled, and the daily labor hours must be how many hours.
However, the prohibition has been repeated repeatedly, and there are always people who violate it and brutally squeeze workers for more profits.
The government's requirement is that you have to rest at [-]:[-] pm and do not work overtime at night, but there are always "smart people" who find loopholes. It is okay not to work overtime at night, but can I start work earlier?It's still daylight, so it's actually daytime, right?
Also, in fact, I did not force the workers to work overtime voluntarily in order to earn more money. How can you blame me?
You ask for a guaranteed salary, but the more people need to work, the higher the salary, the less recruits?Is it just watching others starve and have no food to eat?This is against the teachings of the saints!
How much must the casualty rate be controlled at?How can this mining and blacksmithing be avoided? It is really difficult for our family.
Many people also prefer to hire women and children, because they require lower wages. Xuanfu Town requires this and that, and the cost rises again and again. Come on, let’s go outside the town to set up factories, as many refugees and hungry people as they want, even There is no need to pay wages, just a meal.
There are also people who secretly kidnap and buy people from outside the Great Wall to work in factories and mines. These people don't know when they died inside, and they are even exempted from pensions.
Things like this made Li Banghua hate him more and more, which was very different from the benevolent spirit of a saint.
In fact, he didn't know that the incident in Xuanfu Town was the result of Wang Dou's efforts to control it, if he looked at the world.
During the Industrial Revolution, the normal working hours in Western countries were 16 hours, and it was the blessing of Jesus to find a 12-hour working day. In 1812, the British Parliament investigated and was shocked to find that thousands of child laborers worked for 18 hours a day beside the spinning machine.
Plantation workers are described as "resurrected slavery", and the average annual death rate of coolies is 4.6%. Why are British commodities rampant around the world?Because the average life expectancy of their workers is the lowest, and the artificial squeeze has reached the extreme, and the rest of the countries cannot compete with them in terms of cost.
据伦敦一家经济杂志统计，在19世纪30、40年代，英国每年有1400名矿工丧生，利物浦工人平均寿命只有15岁。19世纪40年代，法国工厂工人的平均寿命不超过30岁。
In addition, the harsh working environment has caused various occupational diseases and infectious diseases to be prevalent among workers, such as silicosis, scrofula, rickets, typhoid fever, cholera, etc. Many people have deformed bodies due to long-term engagement in certain monotonous mechanical operations , and his health was seriously damaged.
Their wages are still very low. The monthly income of an adult male worker in France is not enough to buy a suit of clothes, and the daily income of a child worker is only enough to buy some bread for a living.
That’s why, in order not to be deducted from wages or dismissed, female workers continue to work in the factory after pregnancy until the eve of childbirth. As a result, miscarriages are often caused, and they even give birth next to the machine. After giving birth, they have to return to the factory to work all day .
The child laborers crawled and crawled in the tunnels to push the coal carts. Due to work-related injuries, they were often physically disabled, but they endured the dirty and dirty environment and worked hard day and night, making them all look skinny and pale.
So capitalism is by no means beautiful, and every dollar earned is shed with dirty blood. Wang Dou comes from later generations, and he has already tried his best to protect the rights of workers and let them have the right to choose with their feet. However, in the eyes of Li Banghua and others, They can't take it anymore, and if they know the details of the afterlife, they will go crazy.
As children of Confucianism, Li Banghua and others advocate a simple life, work at sunrise, rest at sunset, hear the chickens and dogs, the mountains and rivers are beautiful, and the rural scenery, how beautiful is all this?
Right now it's just a prototype, Li Banghua can imagine that in the long run, everything he hears will be full of bad smells, all kinds of evil deeds of merchants, monopoly profiteering, treachery, bribery and deceit, etc. Ugly phenomena will flood the town, and morality will be degraded in front of money .
What is particularly frightening is, what if the incident in Xuanfu Town spreads?The eternal teachings of the saints will be destroyed once.
In addition, the establishment of a factory will inevitably bring pollution. Li Banghua has seen gray stones and coal dust everywhere in some places. He is also sensitive to notice that some streams and rivers have a tendency to become sewage and smelly water.
Right now there is a severe drought everywhere, and these water sources are not enough for people to drink and livestock, so Wang Dou just wastes it for nothing?
Is this the productive businessman Wang Dou mentioned?What it brings is filth everywhere, and people's hearts are twisted?
"This is the devil!"
Li Banghua could no longer hold back the anger in his chest, and shouted sharply.
……
Sitting in a restaurant, Li Banghua was still filled with anger, and Ma Guoxi beside him was also silent.
To be honest, he also felt that the situation in Baoanzhou was wrong, but he didn't know how to deal with this problem.
At that time, he had also heard Wang Dou's class theory. As Wang Dou said, more industries and more classes were used to feed more people. He also felt that it made sense and was a good thing.
But I also know that things are far from that simple. For example, it brings management difficulties and a series of chaos, such as iron factories, mines, etc., like volcanoes.
Especially the miners, all of them are good and bad, and they are brave and ruthless. The Qi family army, which was famous all over the world in those days, recruited miners.There have been endless stories about miners fighting with weapons. The more these strong guys are in Xuanfu Town, the more troubles will arise one day, and Ma Guoxi will have a headache thinking about it.
Many factories are getting bigger and bigger, and there are hundreds of workers at every turn, which is also one of the sources of turmoil. Thinking about it makes Ma Guoxi stay away.
Wang Dou's method is to strengthen management, such as using employment certificates, using shelters, etc. Ma Guoxi still feels headaches. He is also a Confucian student, and he believes in the idea of ​​​​cleanness and inaction. What he desires most is peace in the territory.
Just like Yanqing City and Huailai City, Ma Guoxi is quite satisfied. The people here can live well.
In short, he didn't like everything in Baoanzhou either.
It’s just that these factories can indeed solve the problem of eating for many people, because these factories exist, the more businesses are attached to by all parties, and the towns appear one by one, which will bring more prosperity to businesses and allow more people to find jobs , Xuanfu Town developed faster, and then...
The ideas of all parties are in conflict, and Ma Guoxi has been in conflict.

(End of this chapter)