After returning to Huangzhou, Shen Shuren was still concerned about the final result of the Lijin reform in the capital, and when it would be possible to start the pilot in the southern provinces.

However, it always takes time for messages to be transmitted, and it is impossible for all parties to be so accurate. Zhang Huangyan has been acting for him for more than two months, and there are thousands of things waiting for Shen Shuren to accept, inspect, and hand over in Huangzhou, so he has no choice but to devote himself to his own job first.

Because the spring plowing and sowing season has passed, there is no need to worry too much about inspecting the agricultural production of various counties, and there is no need for Shen Shuren to persuade farmers anyway.

The day after returning to Huangzhou, he first plunged into the military workshop in Huanggang County, summoned Zhou Tiedan and other craftsmen to accept the results of weapon forging, and then looked at the actual equipment.

These tasks can be done in one day without leaving the county.

After more than two months, when he revisited the old place again, Shen Shuren could see at a glance that the environment of the military workshop had changed a lot. The grounds have been enlarged, and some places have been renovated to make them look less messy than they used to be.

Some relatively simple processing machinery has gradually become popular, far from dare not say, at least the existing technology mentioned in "Tiangong Kaiwu", even if it is not popularized before, no one in Hubei uses it, Zhang Huangyan has also allocated funds to get it.

For example, the last time Shen Shuren came, he saw Zhou Tieqian and others sharpening their knives with ordinary whetstones, holding weapons back and forth on the stones that had been sunken.

Nowadays, there are a number of grinding machines that use knotted pulleys to drive, with a pedal rotation mechanism like a bicycle at the bottom, and a grinding wheel at the top.

Although the whetstone and the foot-operated grinder can process the same things, and the quality will not be improved, the production efficiency is actually improved several times.

The technology of these things, in the middle of the Western Age of Discovery, after the popularization of lathes for processing wood, gradually evolved and deformed, and the people of the Ming Dynasty actually knew it. It's just that there is a lack of people to systematically touch the bypass to summarize "how many kinds of cutter heads and how many variants can be matched with pedal machine tools", or Song Yingxing summarized it a little and did not promote it.

Before Shen Shuren left, after inspiring them, Zhang Huangyan's execution was really good, and now that he has come back, at least he has popularized the equipment.

Shen Shuren himself was not surprised by this, but Zheng Chenggong, Yan Yingyuan, and Zhang Mingzhen, who were new with him, were amazed.

When they first arrived in Huangzhou, they were not familiar with the situation and their job responsibilities, so Shen Shuren took everyone to inspect them for a few days.

With this level of technology, there is no need for secrecy. Even if someone steals the school, it is the Han people who benefit. Shen Shuren wished that the military industry departments of the southern provinces of the Ming Dynasty would promote the pedal grinding wheel.

Shen Shuren found a capable apprentice of Zhou Tiedan, who was now in charge of sharpening the bayonet, and asked with a pleasant face: "How long can the sharpening process of these bayonets be shortened after the new method is adopted?" How long does it take to grind back and forth with a whetstone? ”

The blacksmith replied respectfully: "Lord Huifutai, if you want to polish it finely, you will have to grind it for seven or eight days, and this bayonet is no better than a kitchen knife, and the part that needs to be cut is very long, and you have to prevent each section from being sharpened to different depths."

This is still a requirement for a knife for ordinary soldiers, if it is a good knife for Mr. Qian, Mr. Zong, it is not too much to sharpen it for half a month. Now with this kind of grinding wheel for foot pedaling, the bayonet of Qian Zong can be sharpened in three days at most, and ordinary soldiers can be sharpened in one or two days. ”

Shen Shuren nodded with satisfaction, although the quality of the weapon has not improved, but the production efficiency has increased by three to five times!

Of course, this is only the efficiency improvement of the grinding link, and the other links of forging and discharging, as well as the ironmaking itself, cannot be so great.

All in all, it would be good if the production speed of swords could be more than doubled temporarily, and more efforts are needed to study and improve efficiency from every production link in the supply chain.

Wars are fought with materials and logistics. The performance of the weapon has not been upgraded, and it can be popularized in large quantities, which is also a kind of combat effectiveness.

"How many new bayonets have we produced in the past two months? And how many more tomahawks? Shen Shuren turned around and casually asked Zhang Huangyan, who was accompanying him.

Zhang Huangyan said: "There were fifty blacksmiths here who were responsible for making knives and axes, and the rest had to be made into firearms. Recently, another group of cutlers was recruited, and the number of knifesmiths was increased to 80, and the division of labor was also divided according to the process, and the blast fire, iron bars, stacking, quenching, and grinding were divided into five links, and each of the five groups specialized in one of them.

According to the original construction method, each person can produce a knife in nearly half a month, thirteen or fourteen days. Now it takes up a total of six man-hours and a day. ”

The unit of "people and heaven" was invented before Shen Shuren left, which refers to the daily workload of each person. After a more refined division of labor, the amount of manpower in each link must be converted to facilitate scientific management.

From 14 days to 6 days, it is indeed a lot of progress.

Shen Shuren took the account book handed by Zhang Huangyan, which showed that an average of 74 people worked 71 working days, a total of 5,254 man-days, producing 650 bayonets and 150 long-handled tomahawks - long-handled tomahawks are more complex than bayonets and use more materials, so it takes 9 man-days to produce one.

At present, 800 of the 1,200 firearms soldiers of the Shen Army are equipped with bayonets and long-handled axes, which is just two-thirds of the equipment requirements of the bird and turtledove guns.

According to this progress, in about forty days, it will be possible to ensure that all 1,200 firearms are equipped with melee weapons.

The expenses shown in the accounts were also quite large, and the cost of steel, fuel, and other raw materials required for a bayonet was about seven or eight cents of silver. The blacksmith makes five axes a month, and the labor fee is worth five cents, almost one tael or three cents, and the axe needs about two taels.

Of course, this figure does not take into account the one-time fixed investment in the introduction of new machinery and equipment.

In order to upgrade the equipment of the workshop, the research and development of the grinding machine in the early stage also cost hundreds of taels, and there were defective products and losses in the trial manufacturing of the machine.

It's just that after these one-time investments are smashed, they can be exchanged for follow-up long-term benefits, and from then on, each bayonet can save seven or eight dollars of silver labor costs compared with the original old process.

If you build a thousand, the cost of scientific research and equipment will be recovered, and then you will produce more, and what you will save is a net profit.

After checking the accounts, Shen Shuren was very strategic in inspecting the work, and made important instructions in front of Zhang Huangyan, Zheng Chenggong, Zuo Zixiong, and Zhang Mingzhen:

"Today's accounts prove that our decision to switch to a new process for the production of bayonets and tomahawks is incomparably correct! Although it will be a lot of investment in the beginning, it will eventually bring long-term benefits! Improving skills, summarizing and inducting, and forming routines can lead to vertical arching. ”

"The Great Age of Genes"

If it weren't for the fact that some words were really not suitable for use, Shen Shuren would be eager to directly mention "science and technology are the primary productive forces".

It's a pity that the people of the Ming Dynasty did not have the habit of applauding after listening to the important instructions of the chief, and Shen Shuren could only barely listen to a few words of praise and enjoy it.

Among the people, only Zheng Chenggong's status is relatively detached, after all, he has a huge family power behind him, and now he has come to Huguang to be an official, which is only gold-plated, which does not mean that he wants to completely take refuge in Shen Shuren. So he is also more daring to ask questions and has his own thinking.

"Brother Shen, but if you do this, you don't keep it secret, and you have to 'summarize it into a document', the benefits will be learned by others sooner or later, and even take the initiative to provide convenience for others to steal learning." Zheng Chenggong put himself in his shoes.

The reason why the ancient Chinese were reluctant to write a book similar to "Heavenly Creations" to summarize technical experience was that they were afraid of stealing teachers. In an environment without patent protection, it is easy for people to cherish their brooms and hide some advanced gadgets and eventually disappear.

Of course, Shen Shuren knew the pros and cons, and said righteously: "If the people of the world protect the interests of people with wonderful ideas, I can't control it." At least in the one acre and three points of land in Huangzhou, which I have the final say, I want to protect the interests of the whimsical.

Others want to learn, and even if they learn, I used it first anyway, and it formed a certain scale as soon as it came up, and the cost of studying and trying to lose money was also earned. It's not a big deal to use early to make an early profit, and to use late to steal cheaply. ”

Ordinary craftsmen can't do this, because they can't afford to make super profits in the first time after the new technology is created.

Shen Shuren has capital and can start and speed up quickly, so at least there is no need to worry about losing money in this regard - this is the same as the entrepreneurial logic of those who are not protected by law in later generations, relying on venture capital to throw money and quickly rush to occupy the position first.

The reason why so many Internet companies want to rely on venture capital to get off to a fast start at the beginning of the 21st century is because the law only protects patents, but does not protect business model innovation. Only the software code is protected, but the algorithm and design ideas are not protected.

Others can use a single sentence of identical code in accordance with the law, and come to copycat to imitate and implement your algorithm and design ideas, which forces those things that are not protected by law to have only one way out: "a quick sprint as soon as the secret is leaked".

Shen Shuren had never seen any storms, so he resolutely took the path of "others can copy it, but before they can react, I have at least given the capital back".

Without patent protection, you can climb the same technology!

In order to show his resolute attitude, Shen Shuren increased his reward after Zheng Chenggong's questioning.

He found the blacksmith who was in charge of trying to make the pedal grinding wheel, and asked Zhang Huangyan to calculate next to him how much work efficiency and how much labor was saved in the grinding process.

Zhang Huangyan quickly calculated: "The man-hours saved in the sharpening link account for about forty percent of the time saved by the whole knife." Converted, a knife saves eight dollars of silver and two cents, and the sharpening link saves three dollars and two cents. ”

Shen Shuren immediately made a decision: "Extract two percent from it, that is, for each bayonet made in the future, take out six and four cents of silver, and distribute it to the craftsman who tried to build a sharpening machine and summarized the use of the machine." At least three years of splitting.

Let them discuss and distribute each person's contribution and ideas in this machine, and if everyone is convinced, they will implement it directly, and if they are not convinced, they will leave it to the government to determine the size of their contribution. ”

Zhang Huangyan immediately calculated, and now that 800 weapons have been built, the manufacturer of the grinder can get a bounty of six taels or four yuan.

Although the money is not much, it is equivalent to the salary of a blacksmith for more than two months, but after all, it is a long-term income. In the next three years, the government will make more bayonets, and they will be able to pay more for each batch.

The blacksmith immediately knelt down to thank him, and said timidly that the main contributor to this grinder was still his master Zhou Tiedan.

Shen Shuren didn't do it, he took the initiative to ask Zhou Tiedan some questions, and emphasized that he should seek truth from facts, dare to innovate, and not be bound by his teacher. He knows that scientific and technological innovation is sometimes not done by a group of old men who are rigid and path-dependent.

Respecting the "craftsman spirit" is of course important, but it is even more important to dare to break the status quo.

Zhou Tie Dan didn't dare to rob the apprentice of the credit, perhaps because these craftsmen had never felt that the civil officials attached so much importance to them and inquired and analyzed them in such detail, and they didn't have the courage to talk about seniority for a while.

After some verification, Shen Shuren sent the silver to those who really contributed to research and development. A few blacksmiths held small silver pieces that they had in hand, which were obviously only one, two, taels, or even a few coins, but they were moved in their hearts and burst into tears.

This largest piece of more than two taels of silver was actually issued by the Lord of Futai after personally checking the accounts and calculating it himself.

Meaning and solemnity are by no means represented by silver itself.

"We have lived for most of our lives, and this is the first time we have seen a civil official settle accounts one by one for our little gadget. Shenfutai is really diligent and loves the people, and the mirror hangs high. ”