Chapter Seventy-One: Economic Prosperity

With the continuous absorption of displaced people, the population of the entire Ansai County is now nearly 100,000. Of course, by the standards of the 21st century, this is just the size of a township, but at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the entire Yan'an Prefecture was barren and poor, sparsely populated, and the total number of men and women in the 19 counties of the three prefectures was only about 500,000, and 100,000 people was already the sum of the population of several counties. In fact, the population of Ansai is only more than 30,000 people on weekdays, which is still close to the capital city, relatively prosperous, if the north is close to the Great Wall of the county, there are only 2 or 3,000 households in the county, less than 10,000 people.

The fact that these many people were gathered in one place naturally put a lot of pressure on the government agencies in Ansai. Although Li Xianling prides himself on being a clean and capable person and loves the people like a son, he likes to be leisurely and elegant, and has always avoided mundane affairs, and he has to deal with a large number of criminal lawsuits every day that gives him a headache. Fortunately, the clan power was very strong in this era, and a large number of civil disputes were dealt with within the clan, otherwise just dealing with trivial things such as the death of a cow in the Li family and the loss of a pig in the Zhang family would add up to make him so busy that he vomited blood!

Rao is like this, between clans, as well as between regions of contradictions and conflicts still occur from time to time, coupled with the uneven personnel among the foreign refugees, and there are many disagreements with local residents, local residents in the street to scold poultry property by the homeless people to steal the matter of daily occurrence. Although Wu Wei's Ansai battalion was deterred here, and there was no incentive to compete for water, and large-scale turmoil and armed fighting could not be caused, but the continuous ordinary cases were also in the name of Qingming under the rule of Li County Order.

Li Xianling now trusts Wu Wei quite a lot, and he can't help but complain a lot when he chats. Wu Wei not only admired Li Chong's kindness to him, but also felt that the problem of the displaced people in Ansai was somewhat inseparable from him, so he couldn't let Li Xianling sit on wax alone. Although he is only a college student who has just graduated, the development of modern media is comparable to that of the late Ming Dynasty, and all kinds of newspapers and periodicals are overwhelmingly incompatible, plus he loves to watch American dramas, and he is related to the European and American legal systems, so it is natural that the jury system suddenly appeared in a small county in northern Shaanxi, China at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

Wu Wei did not come from a law background, and he designed a greatly simplified version of the jury system. In fact, it is very simple, that is, let the jury decide the case instead of the county order, so as to avoid the county order having to do everything personally. The patriarchs of the major clans or the chiefs of the armor form a jury. The members of the jury take turns to preside over the trial, and the verdict is voted on by all members of the jury, and the minority obeys the majority. All of them are disposed of by the people themselves, and have nothing to do with the government. Of course, if the parties are dissatisfied with the verdict or if it involves a serious murder case, the county government will still hear it as usual.

Li Xianling was very appreciative of the method that Wu Wei came up with, and he understood it as an expanded clan law enforcement with his insight. Originally, ordinary cases were handled by the clan itself, and the adulterer and adulteress were soaked in the pig cage before, didn't they notify the government? The reason why some things still bother my county magistrate is because they are beyond the scope of the clan and can't handle it on their own, and now I have this jury to solve this problem. Now, after this thing is done, you still have to continue to deal with it internally.

It's just that although this law is wonderful, after all, it is not in line with the style and cannot be proclaimed in the text, just as the clan judgment itself is not very in line with the provisions of the Ming Law. Therefore, there are still some places that need to be taboo, such as the jury's verdict cannot be called a verdict, but can only be called a mediation result, so it is purely a private mediation and has nothing to do with the government.

The jury system was very popular as soon as it was introduced, and according to Chinese tradition, it was not a good thing to go to the yamen to file a lawsuit against the official, and the reputation of those who often went in and out of the public gate was not good. In addition, the master in the middle often asks about black and white but asks about Kong Fang, which has a lot of disadvantages. In a small case, even the neighbors often have to testify on a jury, and the small people do not know how many of them have been ruined because of the lawsuit. With the jury system, the procedure is much simplified, and the interests of the jurors are complex, the power is decentralized, the bribery is not easy, and it is relatively fair. Li Xianling not only gained fame, but also relieved the pressure, and couldn't help but be impressed by Wu Wei, and secretly praised his knowledge.

It's just that there are tens of thousands of displaced people after all, and many of them are young and strong, and it is not easy to maintain the stability of such a large community. According to Wu Wei's view, the large number of unemployed young people in a place will inevitably cause social unrest, just like China's Xinjiang and Egypt and Libya in the Middle East, all of which are social problems caused by economic problems. Therefore, the jury system is only a symptom, and the key is to develop the economy, and finding something to do for these people is the real way to cure the root cause.

More than 2,000 young people were recruited before and after the Ansai camp, and there were also a large number of displaced people who depended on the Ansai camp. Because of the improvement of the environment in Ansai, there are no less than 3 or 4,000 people recruited by large local families to cultivate land from the displaced people, and nearly 1,000 people work in various families in the county. In addition, a large number of manpower was organized by Wu Wei to repair the water conservancy, and many of the materials such as pottery pipes, masonry and other materials required a large number of people to be mined and fired, and also absorbed a lot of labor. The largest number of displaced people was the land reclamation, and after several months of reclamation, it can be said that the results were remarkable. Although the winter wheat planted is a local variety, not a hybrid seed that yields thousands of kilograms per mu at every turn in later generations, due to the application of many new modern agricultural technologies such as soil fertilizers and soil pesticides, and the problem of water sources has been solved, it is not difficult to achieve a yield of 3 or 400 catties per mu next summer.

Wu Wei also ordered the "Rishengchang" commercial houses in various places to purchase a large number of various means of production, such as cotton from southern Shaanxi and Gansu, wool and cattle and sheepskin from the Kouwai Hetao, and miscanthus from Shanxi to be transported to Ansai, and organized the women among the displaced people to spin and weave cloth, and make leather fur with nitrate, so as to meet their own needs, the weather gradually turned cold, and tens of thousands of homeless people were mostly ragged, and there was a huge gap in the cold in winter. Originally, every household in northern Shaanxi had a textile loom, which was one of the symbols of the small-scale peasant economy, and the common people's housekeeping skills were even used in the production self-help movement in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningbo base area in later generations.

The only thing to worry about is that it is impossible to carry a textile loom with them during the flight, and the spinning machine is small and easy to make yourself, but the loom is really a large item in the small people's home, and it costs a lot. Since they are homeless people, they have no long things, and they don't want to settle here, so it is impossible for them to buy machines, so Wu Wei simply took on all the means of production. It's nothing more than a super workshop owner, and people in these years still have this knowledge.

He organized carpenters and blacksmiths among the homeless people to work day and night to make textile machinery, and the insufficient part was ordered and transported by caravans from all over the country, and several large factories were built near the wharf to place looms, and women were recruited from the homeless people to work in the factory. At this time, the folk customs of northern Shaanxi are conservative, and they do not regard women working in the workshop as a matter of course as they take for granted in the south of the Yangtze River. At first, the homeless people had the intention of waiting and seeing their female dependents to work outside, and there were many rumors of all kinds, and only when a few workers came back to tell the inside story did they dispel their worries and agree to send their wives and daughters to work.

It turned out that the factory area and the dock warehouse area were connected as a whole, and the management personnel were all the maids of Lord Wu, and there was no man. Outside the factory, there are many soldiers of the Ansai battalion who are responsible for the safety and security of the entire factory and warehouse area, but they are far from the factory, and Lord Wu strictly ordered them not to enter the female workers' area at will, and the violators will be severely punished. When the displaced people heard this, they were relieved.

Wu Wei introduced the three-shift work system of later generations, and let the female workers work in three shifts, working only four hours per shift, and the loom runs day and night. In this way, the health of the female workers is ensured, the production efficiency of the factory is improved, and more surplus manpower can be absorbed.

As for the spinning machine, which is small and lightweight, easy to operate, it does not necessarily have to be concentrated in one place, and at the same time, some women also have to take care of the elderly and children, or have to work in the fields, or middle-aged and elderly women cannot adapt to the high-intensity work of the factory, these people cannot go to work in the factory. In order to take care of their situation, Wu ordered the textile machinery to be registered and distributed to them, and they were to collect wool or cotton in the factory, spin it into yarn at home, and return it to the factory, and pay them according to the quantity and quality of the finished products. The date of delivery is not strictly stipulated, and more work is more rewarding, which is convenient for families with different situations to deal flexibly according to their own circumstances.

Similar factories were also established for the cutting of clothes and quilts, and the use of cow and sheepskin furs, where male and female workers were strictly separated, separated by high walls, and only vehicles transporting materials could enter and exit each other, and the management personnel were selected by Wu Wei from among his servants.

As the work was carried out, the production in the factory area quickly got on the right track, much faster than Wu Wei expected.

In fact, think about this is also a very normal thing, although the productivity at the end of the Ming Dynasty is not as good as modern, but the working people's hands-on ability is not bad, women have been used to spinning and weaving since childhood, all of them are skilled workers, and they can get on the job immediately. The same is true for making clothes and quilts, in ancient times, these things were self-sufficient, and women who didn't know these crafts were to be pointed at, and only a few rich families or bachelors would buy ready-to-wear clothes.

The same is true for the nitrate of cattle and sheepskin, but the conditions were not available before, and the folk mostly used plant ash and salt nitrate. Now there is "Rishengchang" from Shanxi and the mouth to purchase the best manganese salt, and high salary to hire master craftsmen to guide, nitrate out of the leather goods compared with the past, not only do not smell bad, but also light and soft, feel excellent, is really the best color.

As for the construction of the factory, most of the displaced people are manpower, and after receiving the many favors of Lord Wu, it is their duty to work for Lord Wu, and the salary is high, so everyone is moving forward. A factory can be built in just a few days, and it can be put into production immediately, which is much more efficient than that of later generations. As for the exterior wall bricks, roof tiles and other follow-up matters, while producing and perfecting, it is a year of great drought, and there is no risk of roof leakage.

The factory is strictly managed, and the entry and exit must be checked and registered, needless to say, this is also the management method that Wu Wei borrowed from later generations. In fact, he didn't know that the management of the weaving workshop in Jiangnan in this era was only stricter than this, even women had to be undressed for inspection, and of course, the inspectors were also women.

Ask for collection, ask for recommendation, ask for reward, Wuchang fish for everyone!