In just half a day, the Jingyang Merchant Gang had already recruited more than 600 adult men. In addition to the more than 100 people who worked in the porridge factory before, the number of strong laborers has reached 800. Together with some women doing auxiliary work, the number of workers has exceeded 1,000, which is close to the scale of employment in a modern enterprise.

After lunch, Zhu Youzhen immediately announced: Project No. 5 and Project No. 6 will start immediately.

The No. 5 project is the river work to repair the Jing River and the excavation of aqueducts throughout the county. Now that the route of the canal has been determined, the task is made very simple. Zhu Youzhen threw in the 500 newly recruited workers, and sent 50 old workers to bring the old and the new.

Don't look at the lack of excavators and other equipment, but the enthusiasm of the workers is very high. In the past, they also had to sell coolies for the government, but it was all forced labor, and they couldn't get a penny. Nowadays, it is different, you will get a day's salary for one day, and there will be additional bonuses for working more.

And the importance of this aqueduct is well known to everyone. Who wouldn't want to bring water from the Jing River over and water their own fields that have been cracked by drought earlier? Therefore, everyone is wielding a shovel and working hard, and after a while, they are hot and sweating profusely. Some simply threw off their clothes, went bare-chested, and continued to dig under the scorching sun, which was already getting hot.

Zhu Youzhen was moved in his heart, and secretly thought that the Chinese nation deserves to be the most industrious and hard-working nation in the world! It is only because they have been exploited too harshly by the ruling class and harmed by the policy of ignoring the people for too long that the common people have gradually lost their vitality. Now I want to rekindle their enthusiasm and use my own hands to create a better life in the future!

After watching it for a while, Zhu Youjian saw that the project was progressing rapidly, especially the young man named Xie Sheng, who was even more than three or four people in his work, better than the old workers. He appointed Xie Sheng as the foreman of Project No. 5 and turned around to inspect the construction site of Project No. 6.

This No. 6 project is more important, and it is also the top priority of Zhu Youzhen's recent work, that is, the brick factory.

Zhu Youzhen wanted to build this brick factory for a long time, but he suffered from the lack of skilled craftsmen. Because this era is not like the previous life, the peasants have money, leisure and land, and they can do whatever they want. Since the Hongwu period, the imperial court has made a strict division of the household registration of the common people, divided into peasant households, artisan households, military households, and music households. The people of all household registrations can only do things indoors, and it is strictly forbidden to transfer households, let alone work in private.

A brick farmer like this one who burns bricks belongs to a kind of craftsman's household. They also have very little land, and they can pay no or less land contributions than farmers. But there was only one way for them to do it, and that was to burn bricks. Except for the brick households, the rest of the villagers will not do this kind of work.

Therefore, when he went to Jingyang County before, Zhu Youzhen had asked Sun Chuanting to count the brick households in the county. Since the beginning of the Wanli period, because the land annexation has become increasingly serious, many people have lost their fields and can no longer live, and have abandoned their households and fled, including this artisan household. There are dozens of brick households registered in Jingyang County, but Sun Chuanting spent a long time and only found one, the head of the household is surnamed Lu, an old man in his fifties.

And because Jingyang County has not built a project for many years, this brick household also exists in name only, and Lao Lu Tou has not burned bricks for many years. Zhu Youzhen was like a treasure, so he asked Sun Chuanting to prepare a few big cars and pull all the old and young people of Lao Lu Tou's family to Qinwangzhuang.

When he came up, he appointed Lao Lu Tou as the director of the brick factory, with a monthly salary of ten taels of silver, which made Lao Lu Tou smile happily, and vowed vigorously to make the brick factory run as soon as possible.

Since the No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 projects had already been completed, when there was no work to be done a few days ago, Zhu Youzhen instructed the workers to dig a big pit in the saline-alkali land. This is done in order to take soil and burn bricks, and secondly, when the water of the Jing River is brought over, it can also store water here to form a small reservoir. Now that the brick factory was in operation, Zhu Youzhen threw in all the remaining 300 workers. There are more than 100 veteran workers, and they are much more skilled than new workers.

At this time, Zhu Youzhen came to the construction site and saw that Lao Lu Tou was directing hundreds of workers to throw their arms and work hard, and the construction site was in full swing.

Lao Lu Tou himself led dozens of workers to build a brick kiln. To put it bluntly, this brick kiln is to dig a hole in the mound, and open a large hole in it to smoke and pass the chimney out of the hole. When the bricks are ready, they are moved into the brick kiln and stacked, the kiln door is sealed with mud, and then the fire is lit at the fire around the brick kiln, and the bricks are hardened by high temperature.

It's easy to say, but it's not that easy to do. The brick kiln was built quickly, but Lao Lu Tou anxiously said to Zhu Youjian: "Shopkeeper, a lot of firewood is needed to burn bricks, and I don't see any trees near us, how can this be good?" ”

Zhu Youzhen smiled and said, "You don't have to worry about this, look at what this is?" ”

As he spoke, he pointed to a large car next to him. Lao Lu Tou looked at the car and said in surprise: "What are these black stones for?" ”

"It's not a stone, it's called coal!" Zhu Youzhen couldn't help laughing.

"Ahh Old Lu Tou exclaimed, "I've heard of coal for a long time, but I've never seen it!" These things are all for the use of rich families, how can I afford to burn bricks with a stinky brick? ”

Zhu Youzhen said proudly: "Open it up, you will know when you use it, coal is much better than firewood!" And burning bricks doesn't stink at all, if you want me to say, labor is the most glorious! ”

It turned out that Zhu Youzhen had already made arrangements for this fuel problem. He knew that coal mining had been started since ancient China, and the Shaanxi area was a rich source of coal mines. However, due to the backward mining technology and the lack of machinery and equipment, it relies entirely on manpower, resulting in a very low coal production, which has become a luxury that only high-ranking officials and nobles can afford. And ordinary people can only burn some hay and chop firewood.

But for large-scale production, firewood is not sustainable, and doing so destroys forests and exacerbates soil erosion. Therefore, Zhu Youzhen had already asked Li Zicheng to contact several small coal kilns for open-pit mining, and these days, in addition to grain, they are transporting coal one by one, and now they have accumulated tens of thousands of catties, which is enough for the brick factory to use for a while.

Lao Lu Tou was overjoyed, so he went to supervise the production of bricks, and Zhu Youzhen also followed. At this time, the remaining 200 or so workers were making bricks, which were first mixed into mud with soil and water, and then filled into the wooden brick molds provided by Lao Lu Tou. When the soil has dried, the bricks are deducted and dried in the sun.

The water used to make bricks was brought up from a well that Zhu Youzhen had raided in the past few days. The water was bitter and astringent, and it was not drinkable at all, but it was suitable for mud.

"You rabbit cub, how many times has Lao Tzu told you, you must mix the mud evenly!" Old Lu Tou shouted and scolded his son who was talking to the mud, "You kid is always lazy!" This mud is uneven, the brick mud is dense and uneven, and it will crack as soon as it is burned! ”

His son Xiao Lu has a monthly salary of three taels, but he is actually very hard-working, and he is already tired and sweaty. But when he was reprimanded by his father, he didn't dare to say a word.

Zhu Youzhen hurriedly persuaded: "Lao Lu, you let Xiao Lu do such a large workload alone, how can he stand it." Wouldn't it be enough to find a few more people to do it together? ”

Lao Lu looked embarrassed and refused to answer. Zhu Youzhen thought for a while, and suddenly realized, pulled Lao Lu aside and whispered: "This is a craft with mud, right?" Are you afraid that the craft will be learned by outsiders, and the apprentices will starve to death in the future? ”

Lao Lu was told the central matter by Zhu Youzhen, and his face was flushed, so he had to nod.

"Your concerns are not unfounded. It's completely understandable to think about the livelihood of future generations. Zhu Youzhen said solemnly, "But when you arrive at Qinwangzhuang, the craftsmanship of craftsmen cannot just be passed down from father to son." You have to take more apprentices, the more you get, the better! You can rest assured, once our workers are hired, unless you are too old to work, or you are not good at it, I promise that there will always be work to do, there will always be food, you don't have to worry about future generations! ”

"As for your disciple, it's not a white sect." Zhu Youzhen saw that Lao Lu Tou was still a little puzzled, so he smiled and said, "Teach an apprentice, reward ten taels of silver!" If you can teach a hundred apprentices, you don't have to do it anymore, you can retire directly, and get your pension money for nothing every month until a hundred years! ”

"Shopkeeper, this... That's not true, is it?! Old Lu Tou asked in disbelief.

"Of course it's true." Zhu Youzhen replied in an affirmative tone. In fact, he has long considered the inheritance of this craft and the retirement of workers. Especially in the inheritance of craftsmanship, there was no shortage of skilled craftsmen in ancient China, and the fine products produced by these craftsmen were simply ingenious, and some of them were difficult to imitate in modern times.

However, because the craftsmanship of craftsmen is only passed on to their own children and grandchildren, a craft will be lost if it encounters a slight accident. Therefore, Zhu Youzhen is determined to follow the practice of modern enterprises, no matter what kind of work, first train workers. Only with a large number of skilled workers can the things to be produced by themselves get rid of the limitations of small workshops and develop into large-scale production.

As for the retirement of workers, this is also a very important part of the employment system. Only by allowing workers to have no worries about the future can they completely get rid of their dependence on the land and complete their transformation from peasants to workers.

Of course, now Zhu Youzhen's financial resources are limited, and it is impossible to introduce a complete retirement plan, and it is only implemented for technical leaders like Lao Lu Tou, which is regarded as an additional reward.

But in the eyes of Lao Lu Tou, he can get silver without working, which is tantamount to having a knighthood. The status of the craftsman in this era was very low, and his income was even less, and he burned bricks for most of his life, but it was getting more and more difficult, and he couldn't even ask for a wife for his son.

But now that he is being used so much in Qinwangzhuang, he really feels like he has ascended to the sky in one step! Lao Lu Tou couldn't help lying on the ground, kowtowing to Zhu Youzhen like pounding garlic, and said with tears: "Shopkeeper, if I don't do a good job in the brick factory, if I can't teach a good apprentice, I won't be raised!" ”

Zhu Youzhen was also moved by Lao Lu Tou's simplicity, and said with tears in his eyes: "Do a good job, call me when the bricks are out, I want to see if our bricks are good or not!" ”