To be honest, when he first came to Daye Iron Mountain to inspect, Shen Shuren thought about many possibilities:

Whether to improve smelting technology first, or to improve mining technology, or to find a way to optimize steel production from the perspective of solving the problem of raw material and fuel quality......

But I didn't expect that after walking on the spot, I finally started from the perspective of mine operating environment and production safety, and let people rectify what was unpleasant.

Even if there is a little cost to be invested, the output is not obvious, at least there is no immediate increase in productivity.

No way, in the final analysis, Shen Shuren's soul still came from the civilized society of later generations, and his compassion threshold was much lower than that of other scholars and doctors in the late Ming Dynasty.

He really couldn't bear to let him witness this kind of production environment where people would die every few days.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, scholars and doctors generally ignored the life and death of coolies, especially now that there are many displaced people, and cheap labor is grabbed - don't think it's an exaggeration, or a black Confucian scholar, which was a normal phenomenon at that time.

In later generations, the post-90s and post-00s generations have never seen a hard time, and they feel that the death of a person in the production process is a very serious matter. But in fact, this is the result of the country's vigorous efforts to produce safety after entering the 21st century.

As long as you go back a few decades to the 80s or 90s of the 20th century, it is normal for migrant workers to build houses at that time, basically after every building is built, and a few people die a little. Even if a migrant worker does not die after any real estate is built, the developer and the contractor can still be praised.

But this also led to the fact that many of Shen Shuren's rectifications were not only incomprehensible to the county magistrates and small officials at first, but even the miners who worked as coolies themselves did not understand very well.

……

"What do you think this new Daotai Lord wants to toss? We're tired and tired every day, and we have to build a ramp in the mine. Isn't dragging such a heavy stone stone to the ground more tiring than carrying the burden of ore? ”

"Who says it's not, if it's tired for ten days and half a month, it's just that, and it's over, so I can send an extra liter of potatoes and half a salted fish every day recently. The key is that after the ramp is repaired, in the future, we will transport ore every day and have to walk a lot of Pantuo Road, which is not an endless toss. ”

Two days after Shen Shuren ordered the rectification, hundreds of miners were working hard in the largest pit in Daye Iron Mountain.

On a freshly groomed gentle slope at the edge of the pit, three strong men with six feet tall and knotted muscles were pushing a stone stone to smooth the road.

There were a few shorter, more muscular men next to them, holding shovels and carrying earthen baskets.

When there are raised stones on the ground, dig them out, fill them in the low-lying places next to them, and then shovel half a spade to cover the pit left by the stones dug up, pat them with a shovel, and finally let the rocks run over.

And most of the people who work are complaining about the ungroundedness of the new Daotai adults, and they give everyone a whole job indiscriminately.

Among the strong men who pushed the stones, the one in the middle was also the largest, with a rough appearance, and a face as short as a steel needle.

His surname is Wang, Xinger, and he has no serious name, because he wields a good sledgehammer and smashes a steel drill, and is called Wang Tiehammer by the brothers.

He was in his twenties, and he had been digging here for six years since he went south to become a homeless man during the two Huai Rebellion in the eighth year of Chongzhen, and he didn't know how many of his frail homeless companions had died. is also because of his good physical strength and old qualifications, this group of hundreds of miners are faintly headed by him.

In the past few days, they have been treated well every day, with a little extra wages and a full meal, but when they think that they will have to walk every day to transport ore in the future, they are angry.

The work was very resentful, and the sound of complaining was inevitably louder, and it was heard by a supervising officer who was passing by to inspect. The officer was also a short-tempered man, and when he saw that someone didn't know what to do and slandered the Daotai Lord behind his back, he immediately took out his leather whip and whipped it over.

"I don't know what to do! Lord Daotai, this is for the sake of all of you to work and live, and you have added silver and food, what else to do? ”

This officer is the head of Qianzong Lu under Zuo Zixiong, he is still here to inspect Shen Shuren today, and Shen Daotai will arrive in a short time, he first brought his own soldiers to the scene to take a look, maintain order, but he didn't expect to meet someone who said bad things behind his back.

A year and a half ago, Lu Datou was just the head of the dock workers in Huangqikou Town, Qishui County, Huangzhou Prefecture on the other side, and he brought hundreds of laborers under him. Because of his strength and prestige, he gradually accumulated merit and rose to a thousand generals after joining the army.

But after all, he came from a humble background and was illiterate, and even if he was allowed to learn, he would learn very slowly, and it would be difficult to go up. At the beginning of this year, he was a thousand presidents, and now after fighting Erhe and experiencing several small battles, he is still a thousand presidents.

However, regardless of whether he can be promoted again or not, Lu Datou, a group of officers who were born as dock workers, has absolute respect for Lord Daotai from the bottom of his heart, and knows that Lord Daotai is approachable and can understand the hardships of soldiers and laborers.

Now that they have arrived in Wuchang Mansion, why don't these miners know what to do?

On the other side, Wang Tiehammer was whipped firmly, and his heart was also furious.

With his skills, he could have been able to dodge, but he was pushing a thousand-pound stone stone, and he was afraid that if he let go, the brothers next to him would not be able to hold it and roll down the slope and crush people to death.

After being beaten, he reluctantly pushed the stone stone to the side of the slope to resist it, and then rolled up his sleeves and glared angrily. However, seeing that the other party was an officer, he didn't dare to make a mistake, he just glared angrily.

Lu Datou was not happy with him, and he didn't feel that he was at a loss, so he stepped forward to argue:

"Aren't you convinced? Lao Tzu beat you, did you still make a mistake? The world can't lift a single word. Lord Daotai is for your good, but you actually say people behind your back, not the husband's doing! ”

Wang Tiehammer took a sip and shouted loudly: "If you want to be reasonable, let's make it clear!" ”

The two were arguing, and suddenly there was a louder noise behind Lu Datou, and someone shouted for Qingdao, Lu Datou looked back and saw that it was Lord Daotai who had come, and he was also with Assistant Song-

This is the third time that Shen Shuren has come to inspect the mine, which shows that he attaches great importance to the rectification he proposed, makes a little deployment, and will come to see the effect every two days.

Lu Datou hurriedly stepped forward to plead guilty, saying that he had not done a good job of opening the way and maintaining order, and asked for punishment.

Shen Shuren waved his hand with a pleasant face, signaling that it was okay, and followed Lu Datou to Wang Tiehammer, and asked matter-of-factly:

"This official is Shen Shuren, what are your dissatisfaction with the rectification requested by this official? But if it makes sense, the official will adopt it, why bother talking about people behind his back, this is not the way of a gentleman. ”

Hundreds of miners on the left and right have never seen Shen Shuren, and they know Song Mingde at most, and they can't help but sweat for Wang Tiehammer when they hear this, afraid that he will be liquidated.

Wang Tie Hammer is also the head iron, it is all on this, he only briefly swirled his legs and stomach for a few seconds, and then he was not afraid again, and gritted his teeth and said:

"My lord! It's not that we don't want to work! It's really too much of a toss! There was no road in the mine, so we picked up enough two bamboo baskets of ore, picked up a flat pole, and stepped directly on the rocky slope next to it.

At most one or two hundred steps, the ore will be transported to the flat ground outside the pit. Although the road is dangerous, it is fast enough, and the overseer requires us to pick ten loads every hour, and we must pick up fifty loads a day.

Now the gentle slope has been changed, not allowed to climb the steep steps next to the rocks directly, although it is said that the cart can be pushed in the future, but it is all Pantuo Road, and it takes three laps around the entire pit to reach the top of the slope, adding up to two miles! That's more than five times farther than before! Even if the cart can be transported more at one time, several times more than carrying the burden, it is not much faster!

We have already estimated that only the thin man who was originally weak in strength, could not climb this steep slope, and had to make a detour, can be transported more and faster after rectification. We are strong and strong, and we can't climb the rocks like walking on the ground, and we don't need them at all! ”

Wang Tiehammer's complaint is not easy for laymen to understand at first glance. It turned out that in ancient times, the slope next to the pit was unregulated, and it was directly a natural pile of rocks, which naturally formed some steps.

This kind of road is difficult to walk, but for a strong man who can climb the steps with a heavy burden of one or two hundred catties, it is definitely much faster to climb the steps directly out of the pit.

According to the workload of the miners just mentioned by Wang Tiehammer, fifty loads of ore are picked up a day, each load is two baskets, and each basket can only hold one bucket of iron ore, which is ten stones and seven thousand catties a day.

(Note: The bucket is a unit of volume, not a unit of weight, so things with high density cannot be packed too much.) A basket of grain can pick five buckets, about 70 catties, and a bucket of iron ore has 70 catties)

This workload is equivalent to that of a courier brother in later generations, who picks 7,000 catties of goods from the bottom of a ten-story residential building without an elevator to the top of the building in 50 trips every day.

For strong men who are good at climbing stairs, of course, it is to save time by taking stairs, but for those who are physically exhausted, of course, it is safer to take winding mountain roads.

Shen Shuren immediately understood their appeal, for a person like Wang Tiezhu, who was gifted and physically strong, he really didn't take advantage of the improvement of the mine transportation environment, and wasted time.

So he didn't blame the other party, but just calmly discussed in front of the miners: "You say so, the official doesn't blame you, but have you thought about it, how many people can there be in this mine, with your physical strength and muscles?"

This rocky pit wall is said to have steps to step on, but in fact, who knows if it is stable or not, and whether it will collapse? Let me ask you, last year, how many people died while climbing the pit wall to carry ore? Also, were any buried alive? ”

Wang Tiezhu was suddenly asked, and he had to admit: "This is not something we can know, we just have to work!" However, it is common for people to die in mining, and there are those who collapse and die in the mine if they don't fall to death, and they must not die every few days! ”

Faced with this problem, Song Mingde, who was in charge of management next to him, stood up, and he looked like a science talent who likes quantitative management, and the data is very sufficient:

"Lord Daotai, I know that last year, just climbing the slope to transport ore, at least seventy or eighty people fell to death, and no one strengthened the pit wall at all, all the stones left after ore mining, and the natural pile is what it looks like, and there are more people climbing the slope at most, and they step out of a road by themselves. When it rains one day, direct landslides are common.

The seventy or eighty I mentioned were still dead and could find the whole body, and they fell to their deaths. Last year, there were more than a dozen, but when they climbed the slope, the entire mountain collapsed, and they were directly buried alive and stoned to death, and no one deliberately dug them out.

In this line of work, when the ore is mined and the above is dug up, the bones will naturally be exposed, and there is no need to deliberately disturb the undead. ”

The miners at the end of the Ming Dynasty were really downbeat about life and death, and they were stoned to death by falling to death, where is it not buried? Since he was buried alive in the ore pile, he should have rested in situ. Digging and burying again is pure tossing.

Shen Shuren listened to this number, and then stretched out two fingers and poked Wang Tiezhu's chest to count:

"Did you hear that? You are powerful and steady, and you have worked for so many years without any accidents, what about those who are weak? You don't care if they live or die? How can someone like you have such prestige among these miners and make people obey you! ”

Shen Shuren's words also bought people's hearts, so he spoke with a full tone and a loud voice. Some of the other lean miners next to him were also a little moved after hearing this, and began to understand that Lord Daotai was for their good.

Shen Shuren also struck while the iron was hot and continued: "Besides, how do you know that the steps of this chaotic stone wall and the gentle slope of Pantuo must not be transported faster?

The wheelbarrow you use now can't fit several times, but the car can still be changed in the future! The livestock pulling the cart can also find a way to change! Maybe in the future, we will lay rails and push iron-wheeled cars on this Pantuo Road? Isn't it much easier? Is it possible to add a little more tenon to the rails to prevent the iron wheel cart from rolling back? As long as you use your brain, there is always a better way to go that way.

But you rely on your good physical strength, directly pick up the burden and climb the steps, but there is no growth, today you can pick 50 loads in three hours, and in a few years you will only pick less and less when you are old! The technology of carrying the burden will not progress either! The matching equipment can't be improved! The road is as far as the eye can see! Are you ready to carry the burden of transporting ore for the rest of your life? ”

A group of miners and management officials were shocked by Shen Shuren's down-to-earth words, and everyone was ashamed, and found that Lord Daotai was not so ambitious, but sincerely thought about their safety.

Some miners, who are less knowledgeable and less knowledgeable, have begun to kneel and cry.

"I heard that this Taoist is also a famous person in the world and a literary and opera star in the sky, and he can still do things so down-to-earth, and we can understand the truth if we don't know a single word. Originally, those dog officials, one was more arrogant than the other, their nostrils were facing the sky, and they couldn't understand a word of what they said. ”

Shen Shuren was also a little moved by these twists and turns, and walked to the edge of the pit alone, looking down at all this, if he was thinking.

Song Mingde followed beside him, tried every means to enlighten him, and said, "My lord, this kind of thing should be done step by step, so don't be discouraged. ”

Liu Minsheng, the magistrate of the county, was not far behind, and hurriedly followed the persuasion: "My lord, if you think about those coolies, they may not understand." If there are other improvements in the future, it is better to directly increase production and improve steel quality.

If you attach so much importance to the life and death of these coolies, they may not think of you. Besides, in this world, there are so many homeless people who can't eat, you can't use them all.

Every year, there are at least 100,000 young and strong refugees from Henan and Anhui who go south along the Han River from the north in Wuchang Prefecture, and they are going to die if they have no food to eat. ”

Shen Shuren's face turned pale: "What are you saying!" You still read the books of the sages! No matter how hard these homeless people lived in the north, they fled to Wuchang and wanted to rely on their efforts to eat here in peace, and they were the people of Wuchang Mansion!

The great things of the husband and the government must be people-oriented, and this man is mine, how can he be abandoned! ”