Section 199: Zhang Ji and Lin Xianming

The closest to the two of them, a three-masted wooden-hulled battleship was being installed in the dockyard. Workers toiled on the scaffolding. The hull plates, which are bent into a certain arc by steam fumigation, are lifted in bundles by steam crane and sent to the various installation stations.

The battleship, made with steel ribs and a steam engine made with another space-time's advanced technology, will be the most powerful war machine on this plane.

On the largest slipway, the wrought-iron keel of another armed three-masted ship has been laid, and numerous cranes, propelled by gas engines, are moving the iron ribs closer to the assembly position on the keel. Workers wearing hard hats and busy back and forth under the command of the red and green xiǎo flags of the foreman, and the sound of trumpets and whistles came and went.

Zhang Ji was on the dock of Project 854, watching the progress of the ship's board installation project. He wears a blue sè labor cloth overalls and a rattan hard hat. In the entire Bopu shipyard, his position was the highest among the indigenous employees, and his title was that of shipbuilding technician - a title unique not only in the shipyard, but among all the indigenous workers, in contrast to Lin Xianming and Lu Youtian, who had migrated from Baitu together, were merely associate technicians. Of course, even an associate technician is remarkable, knowing that in the mechanical system, the indigenous workers who can be rated as "mechanics" can already walk sideways.

Although Zhang Jiji's culture is not high, he is extremely strong, especially has the ability of traditional Chinese craftsmen to never forget, and Wen Desi only needs to show him the details of the ship model. He will memorize many of the details. He doesn't understand the "why" of the design structure, but he can at least "know it" very quickly. That's enough for the patriarchs - after all, they now need very hands-on workers, not designers.

Zhang Jiji was originally a shipmaster, and after receiving guidance and education from Wen Desi and others in the past few years, especially after he learned a number of European ship styles and shipbuilding techniques, he became more advanced in shipbuilding. Became the most important indigenous jishu personnel in the shipyard. He was responsible for the final assembly of Project 854.

On the rails, the diesel locomotive pulled the flat car to remove the baskets of special nails and buckles for assembly. These were all manufactured in the metalworking workshop where Lu Youtian was the head of the workshop -- the standard parts factory in Lingao's industrial system did not produce these special parts, and most of the metal parts needed for shipbuilding were manufactured by the shipyard itself.

On the scaffolding, the workers draw the hoists on the scaffolding according to their training, and install the boat planks in the same way. Hammer. The sound of the drill comes and goes, and sometimes you can hear "xiǎo heart!" With this sound, a red-hot rivet would roll in the air and fly, and be firmly grasped by the riveters above with iron pliers, and the rivet hole was caught while it was hot, and was quickly fixed by the sledgehammer.

Other workers are busy twisting and sewing with a hún mixture of hemp silk, tung oil and oyster shell ash. The process is carefully calculated to ensure that production can be carried out with optimal efficiency.

Each shipbuilder is trained for 30 days, and they don't need to master much theoretical knowledge, nor do they need to learn any special crafts or have a very high level of understanding, as long as they can learn from the master. Such workers do not need to know how to build ships, they just need to know how to hammer nails, rivets, loading boards and twist seams. This greatly simplifies the training process for shipbuilders.

A whistle sounded - this was the whistle that was preparing for Jiāo's succession. Night shift personnel are marching into the workshop. It's time for Zhang Ji to get off work. But he did not plan to leave work - the work at the shipyard was unprecedentedly intense, and now there were six ships working on the slipway at the same time. However, there are very few mechanics who can serve as Jishu's instructors.

Zhang Ji's does not have the consciousness that the worker is the master, but he has the most simple feelings of gratitude and gratitude. This is not just a material benefit - when he was in Baitu Village, the Lin family was also a guest to him as a shipmaster, but the respect and understanding he received here was not obtained anywhere. Zhang Ji is very clear: when it comes to knowledge and ability, the elders are a hundred times and a thousand times his own, but each of them is very polite to him, and when he speaks, he is invited to sit down, and some of the elders will give him cigarettes - this is different from the polite attitude of the Lin family back then, Zhang Ji is very clear: in the past, he relied completely on coercion in Baitu Village, once he is old and weak or has no Jishu secret, he will be useless to the Lin family, and all courtesies and material enjoyment will disappear.

And here he does not worry about all this. Australians not only did not unroften his jishu, but also constantly taught him new skills. And as long as he works hard, he will be paid well, and even if he is too old to work one day, the Australians will not abandon him - the Australians treat their men surprisingly well. There have been several casualty accidents in the shipyard, and the bereavement benefits are all preferential. Generally, those who are willing to reward a few taels of buried silver are considered kind-hearted lords, and Australians not only burn and bury silver, but also take care of the families of dead and injured workers, children go to school, the elderly give support, and those who are willing to work are given jobs. Even those who have been injured at work and are disabled are given some work as appropriate, so that they are categorically not displaced.

This kind of thing that Australians call "welfare" makes Zhang Machine full of trust in them. Willing to give all your strength and ability to do things for them.

Zhang came out of the watch room next to Dock Zero, which was built at the time, hence the name, and decided to go get something to eat first, and then see if there were any problems to be solved in the other slipways and docks.

The shipyard's canteen was a shed by modern standards, but for 17th-century workers, it was nice to have shelter from the elements. Rows of long wooden tables and windows selling meals gave many of the patriarchs a sense of familiarity. However, in terms of the variety of meals, there is no comparison with the 21st century canteen - there are so many of them, and they are not very colorful, and the protein is mainly provided by seafood, and jī eggs and ròu are difficult to see.

However, for indigenous workers, having enough brown rice to fill their stomachs is already a haode meal, and a little fish sauce and vegetables is a haode delicacy. Of course, the cafeteria is a little more elaborate than them, and it is very satisfying to have a little vegetables and fish for each meal.

All of the indigenous staff canteens under the Cross Group are not provided free of charge, but are subsidized by issuing a certain amount of food tickets every month, which can roughly ensure that they can eat enough to meet their physical strength and basic nutritional needs. Workers who need to eat better can buy additional meal tickets. All food tickets are valid for the current month, which is to ensure that workers can eat all the food in their stomachs, rather than buying it back and bringing it to their families. In the past, factories used to pay food money directly, but it turned out that most of the workers diverted the vouchers to subsidize their families rather than food. Malnutrition is a common occurrence.

Zhang Ji belongs to the high-paid class of indigenous employees - according to Du Wen's classification, he belongs to the "worker aristocracy" of Lingao, and Zhang Ji has no wife and children, only one single, and he feeds his whole family without hunger. Of course, in terms of eating and drinking, it is much more generous than that of ordinary workers.

Zhang bought a fried rice noodles with shellfish and vegetables, which are made with rice flour and sweet potato flour, fried over high heat, and look oily, and are the favorite meal of workers who lack oil and water on weekdays - but they are also the most expensive. Most workers are accustomed to buying cheaper Tommy noodles, which are much cheaper. He bought another bottle of kombucha, which was sweet and sour, and it was just right to drink after a meal.

Kombucha is a drink that indigenous workers rarely buy, and the canteen is mainly for the veterans who work in the factory. So every time Zhang Ji craned his neck to drink kombucha, it would attract a wave of envy from the workers - which also made him very proud.

Zhang returned to the table with a plate full of rice noodles - the portion of which weighed 250 grams. It is not enough for workers who are engaged in heavy physical labor. There are also many workers who eat half a kilogram or even a kilogram at a meal.

He saw Lin Xianming sitting at a table, eating a portion of brown rice, and the dish was just a vegetable. I couldn't help but be surprised. Lin Xianming is the chief carpenter of the shipyard, the title is deputy technician, the level salary plus the title salary, the income is less than his own, and his children are all adults, and his wife and children have jobs, so he will not save to this point.

"Lao Lin, how do you eat this?" Zhang put the plate across from him and sat down.

"It's you," Lin Xianming was a little unscrupulous, as the chief carpentry foreman, he had a lot of carpentry assembly tasks recently, Lin Xianming, like Zhang Jiji, hadn't been home for several days, "It's a big burden." ”

"Let's laugh at it, your son and wife all have jobs and incomes, and it's enough to make money by yourself. What's the burden? ”

Lin Xianming sighed: "Who called me surnamed Lin?" ”

The clan activities of the Lin family have always remained active, and many poor immigrants surnamed Lin have also joined forces with the Lin family in order to covet the help in the clan. As a result, Lin Xianming, who is the patriarch, has a great financial burden.

Although he, as the patriarch, was able to collect some money from the clansmen to help the poor new clansmen, after the Lin family arrived at Bopu, his authority was not as good as before—he could no longer give an order to open a ancestral hall, arrest and beat the clansmen who disobeyed him, and beat them, punish them for kneeling, fine, or even directly execute them.

Although the current Lin clan still has frequent clan activities, after experiencing two dismemberments before and after, the cohesion is not as good as before. After losing a large amount of income and being included in the security system of Lingao, there is little left of the benefits that the clan used to bring to the clan in terms of economic benefits and security.

The distant branches of the clan who were light-hearted gradually denied the power of the Zhengfang clan - the resentment caused by the unfair distribution of interests of the Lin clan in the past gradually surfaced. In this way, if Lin Xianming wants to maintain the entire Lin clan, he will have to pay a greater price than before. The ancestor worship ceremony should be more solemn, and various activities in the clan should be more frequent; Almost all of the Lin clansmen in the newly united general need relief, but many of them are unwilling to pay out of their pockets to help them. To think that they have nothing to do with their own family at all is to unjustly waste money.

In the past, the expenses in the clan could be apportioned by each house, but now many clansmen refuse to pay or pay less, and the shortfall is equivalent to being filled by himself. On the one hand, the apportionment income is getting smaller and smaller, and on the other hand, various expenses have not decreased at all, but have increased. Lin Xianming's burden naturally became heavier and heavier.

Zhang Ji knows some of these things. In this regard, he has a bit of a taste of watching the fire from the other side. After all, in the past, Zhang Ji had a problem with Lin Xianming in the distribution of interests. But now he feels that he can see a lot more openly, and the two sides have generally cooperated happily in Baitu in the past.

"How's the credit?" Zhang Jiji pretended to care. In fact, he hates this so-called "nephew" the most. The arrogant and rude appearance of the eldest young master at the beginning made him unhappy all the time - although on the surface he has always expressed his love and tolerance for this "nephew" very much. But when it came time to evaluate the qualifications of shipyard workers, he did not hesitate to give Lin Gongli and Lin Gongxun zero points. At the beginning of the year, Lin Gonggong was relocated to Sanya, which made him secretly happy.

"It's very bitter!" Lin Xianming felt sorry for his son, so he couldn't help sighing, and then lowered his voice and said, "I heard that someone came back with a letter saying that many people died of malaria in Sanya. However, the project is progressing very quickly. ”

"You can rest assured. The credit is young and the body is good. ”

"That's what I have to think." Lin Xianming frowned, "Needless to say, he is an adult." It's the things in this clan that give people a headache. The sales are so big that everyone is refusing to pay for them - they are only concerned about their own homes. ”

"Lao Lin, what do you mean by saying that you are still working hard to support the clan? It's all up to you. Can you do it? ”

"Well, sometimes I don't think I can do it." Lin Xianming took a bite of boiled vegetables and chewed without appetite, "But our clan fled from Fujian to Hainan, and it was not easy to grow until now, so we are so unwilling." ”

"If you are unwilling, others don't care." Zhang Ji said, "Let's talk about the joint sect." And the people in your clan who can't fight at all have the same surname as 'Lin', and you get the monthly money for nothing - isn't this the time in Baitu back then, everyone received a salary to live, is it worth doing this? Do you owe them or do you want them to do something good? ”

Lin Xianming also found it boring, but he still adhered to the traditional concept of "the more people, the better".

"There are many people, they are not bullied, and there are many people." Lin Xianming said.

"Huh." Zhang Ji laughed, "Lao Lin! Your brain is gone! There are many people, and it is in Baitu Village. Your family is now in Bopu, and you want to be big in Liliang, what are you going to do when Liliang is big? ”

Lin Xianming was taken aback, and immediately understood the meaning of his words. He suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.

"The government is the government, the clan is the clan, and the two are unrelated things. No matter how big the clan is, they don't dare not pay the imperial grain national tax...... How could the chiefs not understand this? ”

"To say you're confused is to be confused." Zhang Ji glanced around, "Think about it yourself, if the chief is really like you said, 'understand this reason', weishenme has given more than a dozen households in your clan, and all the credit to Nòng to Sanya?" You're still pulling people's heads all day long! I'm not trying to scare you—if you keep going like this......" he said, shaking his head repeatedly.

This sentence was like five thunderbolts, and Lin Xianming was stunned. After a while, he stammered; "Not really. I...... We...... Our Lin family has no dissent! ”

"Is there any, you and I don't count." Zhang Jiji snorted and ate fried rice noodles, smiling.

Seeing Lin Xianming leave the cafeteria in despair without even finishing his meal, Zhang Ji felt a little proud in his heart - you Lin Xianming, you should be dizzy when you are the patriarch! Australians are most afraid of clans. You still have to make a big deal about the Lin clan, Lao Tzu reminds you of the old feelings, otherwise you will be robbing the family and destroying the clan in the future!

When Zhang Ji and Lin Xianming were having this conversation, Lu Youtian was eating with Jiang Ye and the others at another table. According to the usual practice, there are generally 2~3 veterans with professional knowledge in each factory on night duty in the factory, so as to guide the work and solve the problem at any time. They usually live in the "veteran's office" in the special mén, and theoretically they also eat separately, but many people are troublesome and can't eat hot food when the veteran's canteen delivers food, so they simply go directly to the staff canteen to eat. It has invisibly shortened the distance between them and indigenous workers.

Lu Youtian was dressed in black overalls and covered in sweat - there was a furnace in the metalworking workshop, as well as forging, sand turning and casting. The indoor temperature is above 40°C at all times. Lu Youtian asked for a large plate of fried rice with vegetables and shrimp, and was gobbling it up while chatting with Jiang Ye and others about work.

"Chief Wen said that he wanted to wrap copper skin on the bottom of the ship, how did this copper skin come out? Hit with a hammer? Like knocking gold leaf? ”

"It's not a problem to have a rolling mill to make copper." Jiang Ye said, "It's just how to wrap it, I haven't figured it out yet." ”

Lu Youtian still couldn't figure it out: "The bottom of the ship is so big, how big should the copper skin be?" ”

At this time, Zhang Ji came over - there was a patriarch present, and he felt that he should come and say hello. The greetings have been decided, and several people continued to discuss the process of copper cladding at the bottom of the ship at the dinner table.

"I've seen the ship model of Chief Wen, and the copper skin is a xiǎo block and a xiǎo block with nails nailed to the bottom of the boat. The edges bite each other. Zhang said, "That should be fine." ”

Billy Zhou nodded: "I see!" However, the area of the bottom of the ship is not xiǎo. The consumption of copper skin must be indispensable. ”

"This is a matter for the Planning Institute, and I think there is always some reserve of copper." Jiang Ye drank a bottle of frozen kvass, "Besides, our rolling mill should be stronger than the British, and the rolled copper plate will be thinner." ”