Chapter Ninety-Three: Taking Over the Smelter

The three days were fast in coming, and it was time to take over the smelter. In the past few days, Li Dong and others have been busy with their feet in the back of the head, and I always feel that there is something unprepared. This scene reminded Zhang Zhimu of the scene when many people were busy getting married in his previous life. When preparing for the wedding, I always feel that there are still things that I am not ready for, and until the wedding is over, there are also things that are not ready.

According to the agreement, today the people of the palace and the people of Yaogang will meet together in front of the east gate of Xiurong City, and then go to the smelting factory together.

When Zhang Zhimu came out of the house, he saw that Liu Yun and Liu Chenghuang had already led five hundred cavalry, and the men and horses were waiting neatly on the side of the road. When I saw that these people were eating well these days, they were all red. All of them were dressed in new clothes, and they looked like they were strong. But Zhang Zhimu muttered in his heart. If this is the case, we go to see the people of the palace, and they go back and say that we have such soldiers, then we are not trying to rebel or rebel. Thinking of this, when I talked to Chen Yufeng, Chen Yufeng also felt the same way. Let Liu Yun take a hundred people to walk first and follow first, and the others are here to standby. See how it goes, and then let the others know what to do next.

Zhang Zhimu led people to the east gate of Xiurong in advance. After waiting for a while, more than 20 people from the palace rode out of Xiurong City. The adult who led the team was surnamed Song. After greeting Lord Song, Zhang Zhimu said: "Lord Song has been working hard all the way. Why don't we take a four-wheeled carriage together and go to the smelter together? ”

"Haha, I've long heard that there is a four-wheeled carriage in Yaogang, and it is said that it is more comfortable to sit on than to sit on a dragon chariot. Today, I will take this four-wheeled carriage by the light of Zhang Yishi. Master Song, said with a smile. As soon as someone next to him took a hand, Lord Song raised his leg and got into the carriage. Lord Song, who had just gotten into the carriage, was startled. I felt that the carriage was a little unstable, and I felt that my feet were shaking. I sat down and felt like I was sitting in a pile of cotton. Startled, his forehead was a little sweaty.

"Lord Song, it's good for you to get used to it. Riding in this car is much more comfortable than riding a horse and riding a sedan chair. Zhang Zhimu then got into the car and said to Lord Song with a smile. Then he said to Li Jing, who was driving the car in person: "Let's go." Today, Li Jing pretended to be a coachman and drove the car, so that he could be closest to Zhang Zhimu and react as quickly as possible when something happened.

When the car walked up, Lord Song knew that this four-wheeled steel spring carriage was not in vain. Because the whole carriage sits on a steel spring, and there are two small wheels in front, the ups and downs generated by the horses when they step cannot be transmitted to the carriage, so the car walks very smoothly, and the seat of the car is a spring sofa, which is more comfortable to ride. And the exquisite decoration inside and outside the car made this adult feel even more admired. Keep saying, "Good, good." That's nice! ”

Zhang Zhimu, who was sitting next to him, thought to himself, you will listen to me when you get into my car.

Lord Song said: "Zhang Yishi, the good name of this car is spreading everywhere, and it is really very comfortable to sit on it today." When he came, the prince said that when he came to Xiurong, he must cooperate with Zhang Yishi, the great benefactor of our Shanxi people, and handle the handover of this smelting plant well. And repeatedly instructed that now every penny, grass and tree of this smelter is yours Zhang Yishi. When I arrive at the smelting plant, I will do my best to do things well according to the instructions of the prince, and never let down the prince's trust. We will also try to provide you with convenience. When the handover is over, as soon as you and I sign the pledge, the matter will be over. ”

Zhang Zhimu knew that this King of Jin was confused, but these people below him were not necessarily confused. Many people must know that Zhang Zhimu bought this smelter and took a great advantage, and it was inevitable that he would spend some silver to deal with these little devils when he handed over the smelter, and he was already prepared. So he directly took out an ingot of twenty taels of gold and said, "Lord Song, I can get to this day, and I am definitely a reasonable person." It's my honor to meet you here today, and after this thing is done, you will have to say a lot of good things for me in the future. I'm going to the smelter soon, so I'm not going to be polite to you. This is a little bit of my heart, please accept it. Regardless of whether this means more or less, please give me a face and accept it first. In the future, we will come to Japan for a long time. ”

This Lord Song took the gold and knew that it was two catties. The heart said, no wonder it is said that the merchants have silver, and as soon as they make a sale, it is a large ingot of gold, and this merchant not only gives the gold really, but also speaks well. However, he still had to be polite, and said: "Zhang Yishi is polite, I can have this errand to help you a little, this is the grace of the prince, and I should try my best to do it well." ”

With this ingot of gold as the foundation, Zhang Zhimu and Lord Song became closer and closer the chatter, and almost became friends.

When the two were talking happily in the car, Liu Yun came over with a horse. He said, "There is a wagon pulling a lot of things in front of us, and it is passing by. ”

Zhang Zhimu thought about it, the end of this road is the smelting factory, and this carriage pulls things out, this is what pulls me. He said to Lord Song: "This is my thing that is pulling out." The prince has already said that every grass and tree here, every cent and every cent is mine, and I may not be able to pull it. ”

Lord Song should be gentle and said, "Yes, you can't let them pull it." It's bold. Zhang Zhimu said loudly to Liu Yun outside the window: "Lord Song said that you are not allowed to pull things out." ”

Liu Yun went over and said to the convoy: "The convoy turns around and pulls things back." ”

The convoy had to turn around and go back. But after walking back for a while, two people in the convoy left the convoy and quietly ran into the bushes on the side of the road. Liu Yun had already looked at them. Send someone to get the two back. Zhang Zhimu and Lord Song also got out of the car, and brought the two of them to Zhang Zhi and Lord Song. The two of them hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed, saying, "My lord, spare my life, this matter has nothing to do with the two of us, we are just running errands." ”

After careful questioning, it turned out that Liu Baoxue, the mine manager in charge of the smelter, heard that the smelter had been sold. Wanting to take advantage of the chaos, he contacted several merchants and sold the iron in the vault at a very cheap price, and he was ready to swallow the money himself. Anyway, the new takeover took over such a large smelting plant at once, and he couldn't figure out how much iron there was more or less for a while. Today he sent two of his right-hand men to do this. I didn't expect to be met by Zhang Zhimu. When these two errand boys saw a group of adults in front of them stop the convoy and let the convoy go back, they thought that the matter had been revealed. The two quietly discussed, and felt that the situation was not good, so it was better to run. They thought someone was watching them. As a result, he was caught.

This Lord Song is still a fine person, so he immediately wrote a confession and asked the two to draw a charge. Then Lord Song instructed the people he brought: "When you arrive at the smelting plant, take down Liu Baoxue, the mine manager of the smelting plant, directly." ”

Before I arrived at the smelter, I saw that the sky in front of me was already gray, and a layer of dust had fallen on the leaves of the grass and trees on both sides of the road. It also reminded Zhang Zhimu of air pollution in his previous life. Unexpectedly, the air pollution problem began at this time. In the future construction process, we must make everyone aware of environmental protection. But it's hard to get people to accept this now, and there has to be coercive measures.

Liu Baoxue, the mine manager of the smelter, learned that a large group of people were coming, and he knew that it was someone who had come to take over the smelter. He knew that the superiors had not informed him in advance and that they were trying to carry out a surprise attack, and that they wanted the buyers to take over the smelter at once, so that they would not do anything. At this time, the mine manager Liu Baoxue didn't know that his two subordinates had already confessed him. I also thought that I was fortunate that I had to believe early, and I took the lead with clever means and left a hand for myself. But when he saw that the carriages he had sent out had returned, he felt that something was wrong. However, he could only kneel down to accept the officials sent by the prince's mansion.

He himself definitely didn't expect that after he knelt down, Lord Song, who came, didn't let him stand up by himself.

When Lord Song saw the director of the smelter kneeling in front of him, he shouted: "Bold dog official, dare to be bold and sell smelter items privately." Are you guilty? ”

The smelter's opinion has been revealed, but he knows that admitting it is a sin, and if he does not admit it, he may be able to deny it. I wanted to try it again, so I hurriedly said: "Xiaguan has always been law-abiding, and I don't know what sins there are." ”

Lord Song threw the confessions of the two in front of him. He picked it up and looked at it, knowing that the matter was irreparable, and his body collapsed on the ground and said: "I recruited all my tricks, but I am a ghost for a while, please be merciful." Lord Song said, "Take it down." ”

The people who came from both sides took him down first. The rest of the smelter didn't know what was going on, and they were all silent. It turned out that Liu Baoxue, the mine manager of the smelter, did not tell everyone after knowing the news that the smelter was going to be sold, because he was also afraid of chaos, but a few of his confidants knew about it.

The main leaders of the smelter were officials sent by the government, and were previously appointed directly by the Ministry of Industry. Now it's all under local management. In other words, it is now under the control of this Lord Song sent by the prince.

When Lord Song announced that due to the huge cost of the imperial court's suppression of bandits, he could no longer afford to spend money to support the smelter, and now the smelter had been transferred to Zhang Zhimu, a merchant in Yaogang, these officials, who had always had no worries about food and clothing and often had some extra income, had very complicated feelings. In fact, they had already prepared in their hearts, and the imperial court had not been able to pay the silver on time for a long time. It is only a matter of time before the smelter closes down, but I am still in a bad mood when it comes to the situation.

In fact, they are more concerned about their own way out. When Lord Song told them that there were two ways out, one was that Zhang Zhimu could stay here if he needed them, and the second way out was to go back to be a waitlist, and the court would arrange for them when they hired people. These people know that the only way out for them is for Zhang Zhimu to retain them. When you go back and wait for the court to have someone to use, etc., it is a nice excuse, but in fact, the court abandoned them and left them alone.

These people all looked at Zhang Zhimu with blank eyes, they had all heard of this kiln merchant, and knew that he had donated a lot of food for the hungry people in Shanxi. But he is a businessman after all, and how he arranges himself depends entirely on whether he is useful to him. Even if Zhang Zhimu took him in, it would be impossible to think about the kind of carefree life before.

In fact, Zhang Zhimu knows that most of these people are educated and capable, but in this environment where they don't want to do things from top to bottom, but just try their best to make money, they all have to go with the flow. How to make good use of these people and get rid of some of the bad habits they have cultivated over the years is a very important matter in the future.

After Lord Song finished speaking, Zhang Zhimu began to speak.

Zhang Zhimu said: "Ladies and gentlemen, it is because of your efforts that our current smelter can have such a scale. As the manager of this smelter, you are the pillars of this smelter, and you have contributed to the development of this smelter. However, this smelter can not continue to work today, and you also have an unshirkable responsibility. Now I'm here to take over this smelter because I want it not to collapse. If this smelter fails, there will be a lot of people without jobs, and many of these people who have no land will be left on the streets without food. Many of you will be out of work as well. But I also know that if I take over this smelter and continue to do it in the same way as before, I will not last long, and I will soon collapse it. So after I take over this smelter, there will be some changes. If it doesn't change, this smelter will still be a dead factory. I know that your primary concern is your stay. I would like to announce now that all the personnel in the smelter are welcome to stay if they wish to stay. At this time, many of these people below had much better faces.

Zhang Zhimu continued: "However, I will give a probationary period to those who remain, during the probationary period, we will examine the working ability and work attitude of everyone, and we think that those who are qualified will continue to be retained." You may have heard of our Yaogang Trading Corporation before. The treatment of our employees is higher than that of any other firm, and it is also higher than that of your smelter. Since this smelter is now a member of our Yaogang Trading Corporation. Then in the future, everyone will enjoy the same treatment as the employees of our Yaogang Trading Corporation. Then Zhang Zhimu talked about the treatment of the employees of the Yaogang Trading Corporation at all levels. When these people heard this, oh my God, this is more than being an official in the yamen, and there was a lot of buzzing discussion. Zhang Zhimu knew that his first axe was corrected, and the salary was the first, without this foundation, everything else was nonsense.

He went on to say: "In the future, the management personnel of the smelting plant will enjoy the treatment of intermediate cadres in the kiln gang, and so on. I now ask everyone to continue to perform their duties and stick to their posts, and cooperate with us to do a good job of taking over the work, which is also the time to see your performance. Now I will introduce to you our new director of the smelter, this person also went out of this smelter, and there may be someone here who knows him, that is, this Li Dong, the director of the smelter. Li Dong got up and greeted everyone. There are really people who know Li Dong below. They also greeted each other.

Then Lu Chengxiang, Li Dong and others went down to introduce and communicate with the managers of these smelters. Maybe these people in the smelter heard that they could keep it, and they made a good atmosphere for a while. Zhang Zhimu was also very happy to watch from the side. Lord Song said: "Zhang Dongjia is a big deal. Your cadres are better paid than many of our officials. Zhang Zhimu said: "Wages are not the same as wages. Your officials' salaries are very high. ”

At this time, an entourage brought by Lord Song came over and signaled to Lord Song. Lord Song said, "I still have some other things to do. With that, he got up and went out with the attendant.

Zhang Zhimu felt that this Lord Song must still be tired, so he got up and came out. At this time, Liu Yun approached Zhang Zhimu's side and said, "They picked out more than 200 prisoners and locked them together, not knowing what to do?" When Zhang Zhimu heard this, he said, "It's broken." These people may be put to death by them. "Because, the smelter under the care of the officials and soldiers, these important criminals of the imperial court can work here. If the officials and troops are withdrawn, these important criminals will be placed here, and the court will definitely not be at ease. Therefore, it is impossible for these people to be handed over to Zhang Zhimu and them to manage, and they will definitely be killed to prevent future troubles. Zhang Zhimu thought, these important criminals they want to kill must be people who are a threat to the Ming Dynasty, and they must all be useful people to me.

What to do, I can't do it hard yet. At this time, Zhang Zhimu saw Lord Song standing there alone, so he walked over and said to Lord Song: "My lord, every grass and tree here is mine, don't spoil my money." Lord Song said, "No." Then he said in Zhang Zhimu's ear: "There are more than 200 important prisoners of the imperial court who must be executed." The rest is yours. Zhang Zhimu said, "This prisoner is also silver." My lord must leave it for me. ”

Lord Song said: "It's easy to say anything else, but this thing can't be done." When I go back, the officers and soldiers here will be withdrawn, and if these important court criminals escape. You and I can't afford it. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Lord Song, this will not work, you see that it is useless to kill these people." Leave me a treasure that can give birth to silver. What about these men that I bought from you? The money I give will make you have an account for the upper and lower levels. ”

This Lord Song hesitated for a while. He thought to himself that in this year of famine, aren't there all the people, why did he buy these people? But it doesn't matter what he does, as long as he really gives me enough money, I don't care what he does. It's just that the gods who want to do this thing don't know it. In fact, there are not many opportunities for an official like him to get a lot of money, and he will not let go of this opportunity.

Seeing that he was a little hesitant, Zhang Zhimu said: "These people, one or two silvers per person." Adults look at how. God knows this, you know it, I know. Besides, in my hands, these people are silver in my eyes, and I will not let them run away. You can rest assured. ”

Lord Song said, "No. Two taels of silver for one person. Zhang Zhimu deliberately pretended to be poor and said, "Lord Song, you bully me." It's not over, I'll get it back from you in the future. After saying that, the two laughed and raised their hands at the same time to give a high-five.

Of these more than 200 people, many of them are very outstanding talents, and as a result, Zhang Zhimu bought them for two taels of silver. In fact, Zhang Zhimu has not seen more than 200 people, but if he is in a hurry. It is possible that Zhang Zhimu will spend twenty taels to buy them, or spend more.

Lord Song led Zhang Zhimu to a large fence made of wood. There is a group of prisoners in the black pressure here, and these prisoners are all skinny. But those who can persist in living here are those who are relatively strong-willed and tenacious. But Zhang Zhimu also saw that some people were no longer good. It's a little reluctant to stand. I thought that I had to hurry up and let Zhang Bingchen come over, these precious treasures must not be lost in my hands again.

In fact, these people, who have been detained here for a long time, have very sensitive nerves. At first glance, these people who were gathered together were all repeat offenders. I know that something must have happened, in short, it is more than lucky. I probably know that my time has come.

Lord Song stood on a high place and said to these people: "This smelter has been sold to this Zhang Dong family, and you important criminals of the imperial court should be executed today." But this proprietor has the virtue of a good life, and I think you are still useful. Spend a lot of money to buy you. From today on, your life is the Zhang Dong family. He will take your life when he wants. "Then Lord Song. Let Zhang Zhimu say a few words, Zhang Zhimu said no more. Zhang Zhimu thought to himself that if I finished speaking, the matter would not be done.