Luo Jian did not go back to Yangzhou with Shi Kefa, he stayed in Guazhou for another two days, except for finding time to continue to lecture to everyone, he basically stayed in the shipyard for these two days.

Pour all the power of Yangzhou to build a battleship, the speed is indeed very fast, the battleship is the same every day, and in another ten days, the steam engine will be installed, and after the installation of the steam engine, the second and first decks will be built, so that the battleship is not far from being completed and launched.

The Wuhu Iron and Steel Works has begun to deliver steel to Guazhou, and the artillery factories have begun to cast guns for battleships.

Luo Jian saw that everything was going smoothly, so he decided to go back to Yangzhou.

With the guards, along the road paved with cinders, Luo Jian quickly returned to Yangzhou, but saw a person kneeling at the gate of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, and the guards didn't care about him.

Luo Jian turned over and dismounted, looked down at the person kneeling at the door, and saw that this person knew that it was the fat shareholder of the glass factory who had withdrawn.

"The Metropolitan Governor, the little rat is blind, I beg the Metropolitan Governor not to care about the small faults, please give the small one another chance." The fat man kept kowtowing, and said as he kowtowed.

"Get up and speak, don't you know that I hate people kneeling the most? Hasn't Yangzhou abolished the ritual of kneeling? Luo Jian said with some disgust.

"What's wrong with you? What chance do you want me to give you? Luo Jian looked at the fat shareholder who had already stood up and asked.

"The small one has no eyes, and the small one doesn't ask the governor to let me re-enter the shares, and the small one wants to make an appointment with a few more merchants to build a glass factory in Huai'an, and ask the governor for permission!" The fat shareholder said what he meant.

"I don't count this if I say it, the board of directors has to say it, you don't have to look for me, you go to them." Luo Jian said very simply.

"The Grand Governor, the little one begs you, they don't agree, and the little one has come to ask the Grand Governor." The fat shareholder was going to cry out loud when he said it.

"Don't say that I don't count this matter, even if I have the final say, I won't agree, how can people who can't share hardships be business partners? Think for yourself! After speaking, Luo Jian went directly into the mansion and no longer bothered with the fat shareholders.

Just walked into the hall and saw a person kneeling in the room, Luo Jian felt so strange, how did he meet someone who likes to kneel today?

When I looked over, the kneeling person was actually Sun Laiyue, the director of the glass factory.

"Get up and speak, why do you kneel?" Luo Jian said.

"Just let him kneel! It's infuriating! Liu Lan walked down from upstairs and said, Princess Zhu Yujiao was still following her.

"What the hell is going on?" Luo Jian was even more strange.

Liu Lan told Luo Jian about the past two days.

It turned out that Liu Lan saw that the merchant ships had returned from the sea, and the various manufacturers had benefited a lot, so she took Zhu Yujiao to various factories for interviews, but she didn't expect to see the most unwanted things in the glass factory.

The management of the glass factory is strict, this Liu Lan has long known it, but what she didn't expect is that the glass factory treats workers not only strictly, but also harsh is not enough to describe.

Some time ago, the manufacturers promised not to reduce the wages of the workers, the glass factory only lasted for ten days, and then slowly lowered the wages of the workers, and it had been reduced by nearly half on the day of the interview with Liulan, which is not counted, although the outside of the factory is bright, but the environment inside is very bad, the workers are working in the dusty workshop, and there are no protective tools such as gloves and masks, let alone work clothes.

Luo Jian's request for literacy night schools in various factories was abolished long ago because workers had to work overtime overnight.

According to what Liu Lan learned, the glass factory still laid off hundreds of workers during this time, most of them were already in very bad health, according to what Liu Lan learned, it was basically determined that it was pneumoconiosis, and these workers had nothing more than a penny except for the salary of the month, so they were directly driven out of the factory.

"Smack!" Hearing this, Luo Jian was so angry that he slapped the table, scaring Sun Laiyue so much that he almost fell to the ground, and Zhu Yujiao was also startled.

"Tell me, how did I explain it to you in the first place?" Liu Lan was so angry that she pointed at Sun Laiyue and kept scolding.

"Metropolitan Governor, Miss Liu, I don't want to do this, it was good at first, but then these shareholders came to the factory and said that I was too loser, and they wanted to remove me as the factory director, and then it slowly became like this." Sun Laiyue said with some grievances.

"You, I don't want to see you again!" Liu Lan pointed at Sun Laiyue and shouted.

"You go first!" Luo Jian calmed down and thought carefully for a while, and let Sun Laiyue go.

"Liu Lan, calm down first, we can't just come forward in this matter, we have to find another way to solve this problem, is there no union in the factory?" Luo Jian asked.

"Where are these in the factory now? By the way, you said the union, Brother Luo, I have an idea, you have to support me. Liu Lan remembered something and said to Luo Jian.

"Oh, what an idea, I definitely support it if it is reasonable." Luo Jian said with a smile.

"I'm going to organize a workers' strike! However, during the strike, the workers' salaries will be paid to them. Liu Lan said.

When Luo Jian heard this, he thought carefully for a while, and said, "I have to discuss this with the overseer, I guess it doesn't cost much, right?" ”

"Look at your stinginess, or I can do it myself, but we have to form a system, I think it's okay to do this, right? We applied for a strike, and asked the government to come forward to review, and if the review can strike, the government will provide support, do you think this is feasible? Liu Lan glanced at Luo Jian with disgust, and then said.

"Well, this method is good, but you can't use this method in the future, the relationship between those profiteers and the government is incomparable to the trade union, we have to avoid this, and think of a long-term solution. Let's do this for the time being, I'll go to the overseer to discuss it, and I'll give you an answer when I get back, how about it? ”

"Governor, I heard that you are still the largest shareholder of the glass factory? Are you going to do your own work? Zhu Yujiao asked curiously.

"Hehe, all my proceeds are used in Guazhou, do you say this is still my own? Princess? Luo Jian said with a smile.

"Don't the Metropolitan call me a princess, call me a concubine?"

"Okay, Yu Jiao, you follow your sister Liulan to do this, and you will grow up a lot." Luo Jian said with a smile.

Luo Jian smiled on his face, in fact, he was still very uncomfortable in his heart, more than 100 workers were pneumoconiosis, this disease was very difficult to treat in Luo Jian's time, with the current medical conditions, it was almost a terminal illness, thinking about the families of these workers, Luo Jian couldn't laugh anymore, hurriedly went into the house and washed it briefly and went out to find Shi Kefa.

Shi Kefa was also extremely surprised when he heard what Luo Jian said, and he got up and went out to rush to the glass factory.

"Brother Xian, what are you going to do?" Luo Jian asked.

"I'll take a look, these profiteers! If you don't clean them up, it's hard to solve the hatred in my heart! Shi Kefa heard that pneumoconiosis was almost a terminal disease, and said hatefully.

"Brother Xian, it's very simple for us to clean them up, but I don't think this is the solution to the problem, there will be more and more factories in the future, can we both be busy? What if the factory is thousands of miles away? Luo Jian said.

"Xinghua, what do you say? Is that the end of it? No, you must have a way, if you forget it, why are you coming to me? Shi Kefa looked at Luo Jian suspiciously.

Luo Jian said Liu Lan's thoughts again, Shi Kefa also lowered his head and thought for a long time after hearing it, and then said: "Okay, I support Liu Lan's approach, anyway, we are not short of money at present." ”

The next day, Liu Lan, who received support, took a group of people from the newspaper office to the glass factory, and these people went deep into the workshops, workers' dormitories and canteens, and even Zhu Yujiao joined the group.

Two days later, a report was handed over to the Dadu Governor's Mansion, and Luo Jian signed it and sent it to Shi Kefa's Mansion, and Shi Kefa signed it without hesitation.

On the third day, something happened that left all the shareholders of the glass factory dumbfounded.

All the workers in the glass factory stopped working, and banners were put up outside the factory that read: "We want to be safe, we want to be healthy", "Pay me back, ask for a salary increase".

At the same time, the Yangzhou Semi-Monthly also reported on the workers' strike at the glass factory, mercilessly lashing out at the businessmen's disregard for the workers' interests and exploitation, and even Shi Kefa published an article in the newspaper expressing his indignation at the merchants' disregard for the lives and deaths of the workers.

The strike of glass factory workers has caused a great sensation throughout Yangzhou, and its impact has far exceeded that of the fleet's return from overseas.

More than a dozen shareholders of the glass factory were completely shocked by what happened suddenly, and only two days later did someone come to Liu Lan and ask what to do about it?

Liu Lan told them that she couldn't control this matter, although she and the Metropolitan Governor were also one of the shareholders, they could only represent themselves, and what to do next depended on the decision of the shareholders' meeting.

Luo Jian did not attend the shareholders' meeting of the glass factory, and Liu Lan was present, but she only said one sentence: "The minority obeys the majority."

At the shareholders' meeting, there was a fierce debate, and the bookkeeper had already calculated the preliminary count of the taels of silver needed to agree to all the demands of the workers, and it would take about 200,000 taels of silver to solve the problem.

Hearing this figure, the shareholders were silent, which meant that each shareholder basically had to pay more than 10,000 taels of silver.

Liu Lan looked at it coldly from the side, looking down on this group of businessmen, everyone was smiling when they made a lot of money, and now they want to take out a part of it, which is as painful as cutting meat.

"We can't take this money, once we compromise, these workers will do it if they ask for it in the future, shall we agree or not?" A shareholder asked a question.

"If we don't agree, they won't start work, what should we do? The loss of this one-day shutdown is not small, this has been stopped for several days, and we can't stand it. Another shareholder objected.

"Miss Liu, can you talk to the workers, start work first, and we will solve the problem slowly?" Everyone knew that there was Liu Lan behind the workers' strike, and she said to her.

Liu Lan glanced at him, as if she hadn't heard him, and sat motionless in her seat, which made the shareholder feel bored.

No decision was made at the shareholders' meeting that day, and the workers' strike continued.

The strike lasted for seven days, and now the streets and alleys of Yangzhou City are talking about the strike of glass factory workers, and everyone is speculating about who will be the final winner.

The first to stand up is the shareholders of the glass factory, the strong pressure of public opinion has made them unable to raise their heads in Yangzhou, the economic loss makes them feel painful, the most unstable news for them is that the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion is about to organize a second merchant ship to go to sea.

The workers won the final victory, Luo Jian lost about 100,000 taels of silver in the process, Liu Lan calculated the account for Luo Jian, but Luo Jian didn't feel it at all, because although the silver was nominally his, in fact, there was never a tael of silver into the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion.

The dividends invested in the name of Luo Jian were invested in the steelmaking plant in the early stage, and now they are all invested in the shipyard, that is, the Yangzhou government, which has actually suffered losses.