Go to ancient times and engage in construction

After talking about his ideals, Zheng Yuming slept soundly at night, and when a white light appeared in the eastern sky, he still woke up immediately.He was the only one lying on the summer mat, touching the bamboo mat beside him, it was still a little warm, Chu Zhaohui had just left.

Zheng Yuming snuffed out the mosquito-repellent incense, rolled up the bamboo mat and put it in the attic, went to the second floor to wash his face and brush his teeth, changed into a set of summer clothes made of Nanbu cotton cloth and went downstairs.The drainage system of the bathroom in the villa can be used, but there is no running water. The water used for washing is well water. Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui will bring a bucket upstairs every day, half of which is used for flushing the toilet and half for cleaning.

There were very few managers who came to report to Zheng Yuming this morning. Before the sun jumped out of the horizon, Zheng Yuming and Huo Sizhong rode out of the valley to Nanbu.Arriving at Nanbu, the hour hand of the watch in Zheng Yuming's pocket just pointed to six o'clock.There are too few clothes to wear in summer, Zheng Yuming's watch is no longer worn on his wrist, but in his pocket, and he takes it out to look at it when he needs to know the time.Out of habit, Zheng Yuming still likes to use the 24-hour timekeeping in the original time and space, but he only needs to convert it when talking about the time with the villagers.

Before the village of Nanbu became the territory of Zheng and Chu, the villagers were very hardworking. Now that the owner has changed, the villagers are even more hardworking.The original hard work was to not starve to death, but now the hard work is to live a better life.

After the big wheat was harvested in May, Zheng and Chu did not collect any taxes, and the grain received by the villagers was enough for them to eat and live.There are textile factories, brick kiln factories, pottery factories, iron factories and woodwork factories in the village. Many of these factories need workers, and the remuneration is very good. Especially the women who work in the textile factories can earn as much as hardware for a month. This salary can feed a family.As long as one member of a family works in a factory to earn wages, they can buy items that were not expected before.Especially after the brick kilns fired bricks and tiles, all the villagers hoped to transform their houses into spacious, tall and strong brick and tile houses.

The elderly and children of Nanbu Village are all counted in it, and the whole village does not have 2000 thousand people. There are only more than 800 laborers who are eligible to enter the factory. These initial factories have recruited more than 400 people. A lot of farmland is very difficult, not to mention that the wharf still needs a lot of coolies. Today's Nanbu wharf has three times the transportation volume compared to two months ago, and the number of businessmen coming to Nanbu from other places is increasing every month.After only three or four months of development, Nanbu is facing a labor shortage.

Tian Hu and Tian Bao came to Nanbu to work in early March. At the beginning, they built water conservancy projects. After the water conservancy was completed, they participated in the construction of brick kiln factories. Relying on this hard work, I survived the sluggishness of spring and summer.

There were several rains in April and May in the Dacheng area, which eased the local drought. If the landowner on the back slope is a feudal lord like Zheng Chu who doesn't like the little tax, the harvest in the field can still make Tian Hu Tian Bao A family makes a living.However, the landlord had no choice but to follow the Lord of Ulsan to reduce the tax last year, and felt that the loss was not small. This year, because of the good harvest, the Lord of Ulsan did not reduce the tax. Of course, the landlord was unwilling to take the initiative to sacrifice his own interests.After the villagers of Houpo Village hand in their grain, only one-fifth of the villagers have leftover grain, which can last until the second half of the year when the grain is harvested.

The Tian family brothers who had worries about the future continued to work in Nanbu to earn food, and many young and middle-aged people in Houpo gradually followed to Nanbu to work.Zheng Yuming is very happy to see this situation.After the harvest of spring grain, the supply of goods in the slave market in Dacheng has decreased sharply. As long as the refugees from all over the country have something to eat, no one wants to leave their homeland and sell themselves as slaves. Nanbu and the valley will face the problem of labor shortage, and there will be an influx of young and middle-aged people from surrounding villages. , Just to make up for the labor shortage in the development of Nanbu.

In order to attract the villagers of Houpo Village to work in Nanbu, Zheng Yuming set a salary standard for them. If they work as porters at the dock, they can earn 3 or 4 gold a month. If they work in other places, their monthly income will not be less than 2 gold. .As for the textile factory with the highest salary, Zheng Yuming did not use female workers from outside Nanbu Village. Firstly, the textile technology must be kept secret, and secondly, the scale of the textile factory is not too large. All the women in Nanbu’s own village cannot be resettled there. The women hired by the textile factory ran to everyone in Wu every three days to find Wu Da's wife and asked to enter the factory.

Wu Da's wife is now the supervisor of the textile factory.Wu's wife learned from Zheng Yuming that the textile factory would be expanded in two months. By then, all the women in Nanbu Village would not be able to meet the production needs. After two months, I can also earn hardware every month, and become a textile worker who only goes to work at home and doesn't have to do any housework.Women textile workers spend twelve hours in the factory, of which only half an hour is for meal breaks, and the remaining eleven and a half hours must be spent on the machines.The female textile workers are very tired when they go home. Because of their high income, these female workers are not allowed to do anything by their families after get off work, and they can enjoy the treatment of eating and opening their mouths when they get home.

Zheng Yuming set up his office in the textile factory for the time being. A high wall has been built around the textile factory. To get to the textile factory from the village, one must go south along the pier embankment. When Zheng Yuming and Huo Sizhong passed the pier on two white horses, the pier There are already ships unloading, and the Tian family cousins ​​are carrying straw sacks there.Cotton and hemp silk are contained in straw sacks, which are raw materials needed by textile factories.

"Morning, my lord!" Tian Hu saw Zheng Yuming's white horse riding over, immediately put the straw bag on the ground and saluted.Because of these two benevolent people, his mother didn't give him a gift, and the whole family could have enough to eat. Tian Hu, who was grateful, always rushed to salute Zheng Yuming whenever he saw him.

"Morning, Tian Hu!" Zheng Yuming nodded towards the young man from Houpo. It took more than an hour for Houpo to walk to Nanbu. Afterwards, I went back under the moon, and my daily lunch was dry food made by my mother at home.Looking at such young people who are willing to endure hardships and stand hard work, no one would have imagined that they would take risks to rob.

"My lord!" The ship owner who was standing on the shore supervising the handling of the coolies hurried over. "My lord, please stay!"

"Dong Qi's family, what's the matter?" Zheng Yuming reined in the horse, he knew the owner of the ship.

The owner of the ship is from the state of Chu, and he is a cotton dealer. He makes a living by buying green cloth from Dacheng and selling it back to Chu to earn the difference. Since Wu Mu monopolized the cloth business from Nanbu to Chu, his green cloth sales business When things plummeted, compared to high-quality Nanbu cloth at the same price, everyone in Chu would abandon green cloth and choose Nanbu cloth.The peddler's cloth business came to an end.

"My lord, the price of cotton and linen in Chudi has risen. If it continues to rise, the villain will no longer be able to buy cotton and linen for adults." The owner of the surname Qi was full of sorrow. Chu came back with a full load of cotton and linen raw materials. After inquiring about the cotton and linen prices in the two places, the merchant surnamed Qi was overjoyed. According to the difference in the cotton and linen prices between Chu and Wu, he went back to Chu to buy cotton and linen and sold them to Nanbu Bihe. The profit of green cloth is huge, this news to him is like another village.

The booming cotton and linen raw material business has only been in business for two months, and the cotton and linen in Chudi has increased by one-fifth in the past half month. Such an increase will almost wipe out the profit margin of cotton and linen raw materials.

"Is the price of cotton and linen so high recently?" Zheng Yuming stopped buying cotton and linen in Dacheng after the supply of cotton and linen in Chu State for the production of textile factories, so that the price of cotton and linen in Dacheng returned to its original position.Zheng Yuming did not want to stimulate farmers in Dacheng to cultivate cotton and flax.

"It's very fierce now. When the new cotton and linen come up, the price will not fall to the original position." Because of the textile technology, the cotton planting area in Chudi is not much, but the flax planting is more extensive.

"The price increase in Chudi this time will be borne by the weaving factory. You will still purchase cotton and linen raw materials for Nanbu in the future. Nanbu will not let you suffer." Zheng Yuming pondered for a while, and decisively raised the purchase price. The cotton and linen in Chu State rose. The price is not a bad thing. Seeing that planting cotton and linen is very profitable, Chudi will expand the planting area. Zheng Yuming is happy to see this situation.The profit of Nanbu cloth is against the sky, and it is okay to quadruple the raw materials.

"Thank you, my lord! The younger one must buy more raw materials for the lord." The owner of the boat surnamed Qi narrowed his eyes with a smile, and his profit came back.

The textile factory located in the north of Nanbu Village is built next to the river. The source of this small river is the Nanshan Mountain in the valley.The textile factory has five large waterwheels and more than a dozen mud workshops filled with looms and jacquard looms. The female workers come to work at six o'clock every day.In winter, the working hours of female workers are shortened by two hours.The different working hours in winter and summer are determined by the lack of cheap lighting in this time and space.Textile factories cannot operate night shifts.

In the open space not far from the mud factory building, two rows of foundations have been laid, where a tall brick building will be built, and the future textile workshop will be moved into the brick building.The wall outside the factory building is made of blue bricks, and Zheng Yuming said that it will be expanded in the future, and the area of ​​the wall is very large.

In Nanbu Village, except for the wall of the textile factory, which is built of blue bricks, the only other places that use bricks and tiles are the iron factory and the wood factory. Zheng Yuming's office in the textile factory is still a mud house.The office of the textile factory is only temporary. In the center of the village, Wu Da has organized manpower to build a mansion for Zheng and Chu. It is estimated that Zheng and Chu's governor's mansion in Nanbu will be completed when the autumn grain is harvested.

Hearing the sound of horseshoes, Mrs. Wu's servant Peng Fu ran out of the reception room to open the door for Zheng Yuming.After the female workers entered the factory building at six o'clock, the gate of the textile factory would be closed tightly.

The textile factory is the most important tool for making money in Nanbu. At night, the village sent five people to patrol the factory on duty, and Wu Da even sent his family servant Peng and his wife to guard the door.

"Second brother, come and have some mung bean soup." Wu Da's wife stood in the office and waved to Zheng Yuming with a smile on her face. Wu Feng beside her poked her head from behind her mother and smiled shyly at Zheng Yuming, then came out to salute :"uncle!"

"Thank you sister-in-law!" Zheng Yuming took the mung bean soup from Wu's wife and drank it down, and patted Wu Feng. Wu Feng followed his mother to the textile factory every day, and Zheng Yuming taught Wu Feng how to read and count when he had spare time. "Where's elder brother?" Zheng Yuming handed the empty bowl to Mrs. Peng.

"Your elder brother went to the brick kiln factory early in the morning to watch the bricks being produced." Wu's wife answered Zheng Yuming and made a bowl of barley tea for Zheng Yuming.Wu Da is very concerned about the construction of the mansion of his two sworn brothers.

It has been five months since I met Wu and his wife. To this day, Zheng Yuming doesn't know what Wu's wife's surname is. Many people in this time and space often only have a surname and no first name.For example, Gongsun Carpenter only has a surname, because the industry is a craftsman, so the name is called a craftsman.As for women, most of them take their father's surname at home and their husband's surname at home.

Wu's wife is illiterate, but she knows numbers and has a strong memory. She manages the textile factory in an orderly manner.The textile factory has the largest number of workers, but its management is the best among several factories. For Zheng Yuming, Wu's wife is an unexpected management talent.

"Brother, don't be too tired. There will be more and more things in the future, so don't do everything yourself." Compared with his wife, Wu Da can only be a businessman, not a business manager. He likes to deal with big and small things together.

"Your brother feels strong now." Wife Wu couldn't help but pursed her lips and smiled when she thought of her husband.Every day before going to bed, Wu Da would talk to his wife about the family income.Wu Da holds shares in several factories in Nanbu. Today's textile factory has a monthly profit of 8 to 9 gold, and Wu Da can get 2000% of it, which means more than [-] gold per month.One month is Wu Da's income for the past ten years.

"In the future, the price of cotton and linen raw materials sent to the factory will be increased by one-fifth." Captain Xu will deliver the goods to the factory soon, and Zheng Yuming hastily told Wu's wife that the purchase price has increased.

"Should we still only buy raw materials from outside Wu?" Wu's wife looked at Zheng Yuming and hesitated to speak.

"Yes, the cotton and linen materials around Dacheng will not be accepted." Zheng Yuming nodded.

"Second brother, why are you willing to buy cotton and linen from other places at a high price, and not from the city?" According to Wu's wife's thinking, if cloth and silk are so profitable, all Nanbu villages should switch to cotton and linen.

"Nowadays there are always famines, and we have to take care of our stomachs first." Weaving is very profitable, but it stimulates Dacheng to grow cotton and hemp. It will be bad if there is no food. If there is any war or the surrounding grain-producing areas In the wilderness, Dacheng without food will only be the first place to collapse.

"Oh, that's it!" Wife Wu lowered her head in thought.She understood a little bit, but more still didn't understand.