Genius remembers in a second [Aishang Novel Network biquge.info] to provide you with wonderful novels to read.

After inspecting the defense of Huaibei, Zheng Kezhang crossed the Huai River to inspect the mining of the Huainan coal mine. Huainan coal mines mainly produce main coking coal, lean coal, lean coal, fertile coal and thermal coal, but in this era, it is impossible to distinguish different types of coal with quantitative indicators and classify them for various purposes.

In order not to let thermal coal affect the smelting of coke, Zheng Kezhang only ordered to roughly distinguish the varieties that are obviously thermal coal according to the coking results, and as for lean coal, lean coal, fertile coal, main coking coal, and 1/3 of the main coking coal, they could not be further identified.

However, Zheng Kezhang did not specifically look at these different types of coal, and the reason why he came to see Huainan Coal Mine was mainly to see two bright spots. One is the application of pit tracks, and the other is the role of steam pumps in mines.

Not to mention the pit tracks, this application not only greatly improves the efficiency of coal transportation, but also reduces the workload of miners and reduces the damage to their health. As for the steam pump, it revitalizes the previously unusable mine, improves the utilization rate of mineral deposits, and makes the operation of the mine more profitable.

The main masters of the steam pumping machine were Thomas Newcomen, an engineer hired by the Gezhi Institute from Inguili, and his assistant Langley, while Thomas Savelli, the other master of the steam engine, although impressed by the huge financial support from Huaxia, finally did not come to China because of the long distance.

After arriving in China, Newcomen spent three years copying his design in England, and then according to the original design, the atmospheric steam engine was extremely primitive, so with the participation of Huaxia craftsmen, the subsequent improvement of the Vulcan steam engine used a flywheel, crankshaft, and linkage to make a rotary motion program, thus bidding farewell to the original reciprocating motion mode, so that the efficiency of the steam engine will be higher, and the mechanical footprint will be smaller.

Although Newcomen and Langley were awarded the Founding Marquis and the Founding Prince of Merit respectively, and the Chinese craftsmen who assisted were also rewarded, Zheng Kezang, who had another memory of time and space, was not satisfied with this, so the Inner Court quickly offered the reward of the Founding Prince, so as to ask Gezhiyuan to further improve the thermal efficiency and maintenance performance of the steam engine.

Just as Zheng Kezhang was looking at these steam-spitting monsters and thinking about riveting steel steaming, a bad news came over: "Suzhou kicking craftsmen called for rest (strike), what is going on?" The Northern Expedition urgently needs to be funded, who is pulling my hind legs at this time! ”

Zheng Kezang intuitively felt that the north was making trouble, so he immediately ordered the Ministry of Justice and the Military Justice Department to strictly investigate this.

A few days later, he arrived in Anqing, and a detailed report came: "Qiqi Shengshang, Suzhou kicking craftsmen to rest is mainly an economic dispute. ”

Zou Shuying, who is in charge of the Military Law Department of the Privy Council, originally reported: "The so-called kicker is actually a worker who weaves and dyes cloth, and the workshop in which he works is called a cloth walker, because the action of stepping on the cloth is similar to kicking, so the cloth walker is also called a kicker, and these workers are therefore called kickers." According to the archives of Suzhou weaving in the Qing Dynasty, in the 30th year of Kangxi, there were 300 companies in Suzhou, 8,000 stones, and more than 9,000 craftsmen. According to a report by the Suzhou Industrial and Commercial Office of the Salt and Iron Yamen, as of June this year, the number of kickers had increased to 500, and the number of kickers exceeded 25,000. ”

Zheng Kezhang listened quietly, and listened to Zou Shuying continue: "The kicking craftsmen are mostly hired by the foremen from Jianghuai and western Zhejiang, and each piece of cloth dyed, the kickers can only get more than 100 yuan of income, although now the sea trade is prosperous, the export of cotton cloth has skyrocketed, and the income of the kickers is also guaranteed, but the hard work paid by the kickers is not corresponding, so the kickers often ask for an increase in remuneration together, but the cloth merchants think that they have agreed with the kicking line and the foreman on the price of goods, and the kickers do not ask for a salary increase from their own owners, and the cloth merchants ask for a price increase that is unreasonable. Therefore, they were unwilling to meet the demands of the kickers, and since the demands could not be met, the kickers met to strike one after another. ”

"Is it just a strike?" Zheng Kezhang suddenly interjected. "Who is it that smashed the market and hit the government!"

Zou Shuying replied respectfully: "What the saint said is very true, the kicker attacked the government on the grounds that the Suzhou Industrial and Commercial Institute favored the large cloth merchants, but there was a suspicion of chaos, but the export of cotton cloth is related to the profits and taxes of the imperial court, but it is not good to delay it indefinitely??????

"Okay, Zou Qing, this is not something you should ask." Zheng Kezhang said coldly. "Stand down."

Zou Shuying was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat, and hurriedly knelt down to leave, and when he retreated, Zheng Kezhang squinted his eyes and thought about it: "To coerce, the world is not the only place in Suzhou that produces cotton cloth, and besides, what I am not afraid of is coercion." ”

After muttering a few words, Zheng Kezhang ordered loudly: "Someone, the Criminal Department will thoroughly investigate this matter and arrest the foreman who instigated it behind it." ”

Zheng Kezhang understands very well, Zou Shuying only said half of what he said a few words, it is true that the salary of the kicker is low, but is it not that he makes money by kicking? Didn't the foreman get a share of the profits? Obviously, only the last link in the whole story was exploited, and as for the rest, not to mention whether it was a lot of brains, but at least it was a good day. As for the trouble of the kickers not to bargain with the employers and foremen, but to find the cloth merchants who can't be beaten by eight poles, the black hand behind them is no longer clear. Therefore, it takes seven inches to fight a snake, and these people must not let it go.

On December 15 of the fifth year of Wucheng, Zheng Kezhang returned to Wuchang, and at this time the trial results of the Suzhou kicking strike case had already been released. The Jiangnan Provincial Branch of the Supreme Court sent a judicial team to announce the verdict in Suzhou, and convicted of kicking the craftsmen to strike and harass the market and storming the government, and 14 people and 11 of the foremen who instigated them behind them were exiled to Nanyang, and the rest were acquitted. Subsequently, the Suzhou Industrial and Commercial Office of the Salt and Iron Yamen announced that the low salary of the kicker was the source of the trouble, and that the kicker would increase the piece-rate salary of the kicker by 60 wen per horse, and that the increased cost would be borne by the kicker and the foreman, and that the two parties would share it when negotiating with the cloth merchant in the coming year.

The matter seemed to have subsided, but on 20 December, an edict suddenly circulated in the palace praising Guangdong's "East Family Tour" and "West Family Travel" system, saying that it "does not make the monarch share his worries and can be regarded as a model for labor and management" and exhorted businessmen and men all over the world to "follow suit".

As soon as the edict came out, the world was in turmoil, and those who did not know wrote to Guangdong to ask what the "east-west" system was, and then learned that the so-called "Dongjiaxing" was the peer organization of the capital, and the corresponding "Xijiaxing" was naturally a labor guild composed of workers. However, the "Xijia Bank" also has a hint of trade union nature, with short-term unemployment benefits, injury and illness relief, night schools and other mutual aid and charity contents, and more importantly, the Dongxi Family Bank is also a platform for labor and management to negotiate on salary issues.

As a result, everyone understood that in this way, the government would break away from the antagonism between labor and management, and become the supervisor and final arbiter of negotiations between the two sides, and there was a risk of provoking civil unrest if it did not work; As far as labor and management are concerned, it is much milder to go to the guild hall than to directly "call for rest in unison" or even "gather a crowd to beat and rob", and there will be no out-of-control conflicts that require the government to intervene and suppress.

On March 30, the sixth year of Wucheng, the Huaxia Yantie Yamen officially promulgated the "Code of Practice for the Eastern and Western Families" in the form of a departmental order, thus determining the basis of China's domestic commercial autonomy from the perspective of national policy, thus making the policy of civil associations, which was strictly guarded against and strictly forbidden to "form parties for personal gain" in the past dynasties, begin to disappear.

Of course, compared with the wealthy proprietors, the Huaxia government is more strict in controlling the Xijiaxing, which is dominated by proletarian workers, not only does the Yantie Yamen have public directors and supervisors in the Xijiaxing, but the criminal department will also set up eyeliners in the Xijiaxing to "clarify the source of the turmoil, so as to be ready to eradicate it at any time??????

In addition to the "Code of Practice for East and West Merchants" of the Yantie Yamen, the Taxation Department of the Duzhi Yamen also forbade the re-emergence of contract foremen in Huaxia on the grounds that "foremen are involved in evading national taxes and taking points from intermediaries", and "in the future, all hired partners are only allowed to be carried out through the Guò Xijia Bank, and the list of employees must also be backed up and reported, except for apprentices??????

In order to avoid a shortage of labor due to the disappearance of the contractor, the Huaxia School also issued a departmental decree according to Zheng Kezang's hint to persuade the East and West Banks to jointly establish industrial and commercial vocational schools, and regularly go to the countryside to recruit apprentices, "Although the cloud does not teach the sage, he can also understand writing, arithmetic, and know the skills of industry and commerce, and think it is practical ??????"

It is precisely because of the Chinese government's letting go of industry and commerce, as well as a series of supporting pro-commercial policies, by the end of the sixth year of Wucheng, the Chinese merchant ships have been infested in the vast area from Korea and Japan in the north, to Java and Borneo in the south, and to Myanmar and Tianzhu in the west.

While the export tax is increasing rapidly, the domestic commercial market has also been significantly opened up due to the beginning of positive population growth.

When Wucheng's six-year fiscal year ended, Duzhi Yamen was pleasantly surprised to get the first hard-won black letter. Although there are still many arrears to be made up, and although there are still many provinces in the local finances, the financial improvement has been put on paper, so Zheng Kezang's second Northern Expedition has entered the countdown.

However, the six years of Wucheng did not pass smoothly. In the middle of the year, the Jiangxi Tian nationality fraud case broke out, and the unscrupulous squires bribed the officials to change the level of the fields, taking advantage of the difference between the tax bases of the fertile land, the cotton fields, and the mulberry fields to seek huge profits, and finally took the next one and exiled a total of more than 400 people, which can be said to have shocked the whole country.

In August of the sixth year of Wucheng, the case of impersonating meritorious people in southern Gannan was exposed, and the local gentry who were lustful for profit bribed the officials of the Inspection Department and the Agriculture and Forestry Institute to pass off the non-meritorious land as the meritorious land, so as to evade the land for seven years. As a result, more than 350 local officials and gentry involved in the case were all exiled to Jinlan on the grounds of shaking the national capital.

The "Gannan Case" once again sounded the alarm bell for Zheng Kezang, making him understand that the one he had worked hard to accomplish had only just completed the first step, and it was far from the time to release Nanshan after becoming famous??????