"Although you are young, you are a talented person. In less than ten days, you actually forged 50,000 waist knives, which once again opened my eyes. The last time you asked me to do that was when you were building cement roads.
I was surprised. It has only been so long before I see you in a new light again."
Han Du felt a little embarrassed when he heard Xue Xiang praising him so much, so he could only say: "My lord, you are so complimentary. I am just doing my duty well."
Xue Xiang smoothed his beard and looked at Han Du with smiles in his eyes. "What a good duty. When others say this, I think they are arrogant. When you say this, I think you are humble."
this?
Seeing Xue Xiang praising himself like this, Han Du felt a little embarrassed.
Is it too much to praise yourself like this?
"Young people should be energetic and enterprising, but what are you doing timidly? Look at the things you do one after another, including making cement and making steel. If an ordinary person could have made one, he would have done it long ago.
You are so arrogant. What are you afraid of?"
As Xue Xiang walked, he scolded Han Du.
"What am I afraid of? Of course I'm afraid of Lao Zhu's butcher knife." Han Du complained in his heart. You know, up to now, he has still made meritorious service, and Lao Zhu has not taken back the knife that Lao Zhu put on his neck.
Under Lao Zhu's nose, if you don't keep a low profile, do you want to die?
However, Han Du did not dare to say this to Xue Xiang, so he had to laugh and said: "What the boss said is, kid, be more careful in the future."
Seeing Han Du's correct attitude and sincere tone, Xue Xiang nodded with satisfaction. "But sometimes, even if you do something right and the more you do, you may be more wrong in the eyes of others."
When Han Du heard this, the smile on his face stiffened, and he asked in confusion: "What do you mean, sir?"
Xue Xiang observed the change in Han Du's expression and chuckled: "Don't misunderstand me, I don't have any ill intentions, I'm just sighing."
Looking at Han Du slyly, Xue Xiang explained: "I heard that you pay salaries to your craftsmen and provide them with a meal every day?"
"That's true." This was originally public information from the Baochao Judicial Office, so Han Du naturally had nothing to hide.
Xue Xiang didn't say anything about this and continued to ask: "In your opinion, craftsmen are also important?"
Han Du was silent.
He didn't know why Xue Xiang asked like this, or for what purpose he asked him like this, and he felt it was difficult to answer.
Xue Xiang waited for a moment and saw that Han Du had no intention of answering his question, so he continued to explain: "Don't think that you are the only one who values craftsmen. I am not bad at it either. When I faced the emperor, I never flinched."
Han Du understood that Xue Xiang was talking about how Lao Zhu wanted to kill the craftsman, but he dissuaded him and saved thousands of people.
After thinking for a while, Han Du finally expressed his thoughts.
"The lower official believes that craftsmen are very important, at least they should not be inferior to scholars."
Xue Xiang's eyes suddenly lit up, Han Du's words came to his heart. He used to value craftsmen, but he never thought that craftsmen should be as important as scholars.
He was eager to know the reason why Han Du thought so, and quickly asked: "Why do you say that?"
Seeing that Han Du had spoken openly, he no longer kept secrets. "The ambition of every scholar, whether he is still studying or has become an official, is that he hopes to be able to rely on his own strength to
Making the country prosperous and the people strong can benefit one party."
Xue Xiang is a scholar, and Han Du is also a scholar. He also fully agrees with what Han Du said.
"Are these wrong?"
Han Du shook his head and continued: "There is nothing wrong with having ambitions. But you should know that ambition alone without the means to realize your ambitions is not enough. If you have the opportunity, you can ask those who are still taking the exams for academic achievements.
People, if you ask them what kind of ambition they have, they can talk about it for days and nights, but if you ask them what means they use to realize their ambition."
At this point, Han Du paused and said, "Believe it or not, sir, it would be difficult for a hundred people to find one or two answers that you think are reasonable. Those are the people who write a thousand words but have no idea."
Xue Xiang frowned tightly. After listening to Han Du's words, he spoke after a long time, "Why is this happening?"
Why else?
Isn’t this caused by the social atmosphere? Everything is low-grade, only reading is high-grade.
Han Du just read two lines of poetry, "The book has its own golden house, and the book has its own beauty like jade."
Xue Xiang understood instantly.
But he was still a little confused as to why Han Du valued craftsmen, "Then why do you treat craftsmen so favorably? You can know that there are many people in the court who are dissatisfied with your move."
Han Du gave Xue Xiang a strange look and asked: "Then the old man used to remonstrate with thousands of craftsmen in front of the emperor. Why?"
Xue Xiang was suddenly speechless.
The two looked at each other for a long time and suddenly burst out laughing in unison.
"Good, you are ambitious." Xue Xiang praised. At the same time, he did not forget to tell Han Du, "But then again, I couldn't bear to see so many people die because of some unreasonable things, so I did that. I really
I can't blatantly treat craftsmen like you. Because of that incident, I was always ostracized by the civil servants, who thought that I was willing to degenerate and walk with the craftsmen. I am old, and it doesn't matter to them anyway.
There is nothing you can do against me. But you are different, you still have to be careful."
"Thank you, Sir, for your concern. I understand. My father once told me." Han Du explained casually.
In fact, Han Du was even more indifferent to this.
So what if I exclude myself? It's just right that I don't have to look at anyone's face.
"Officials can manage the country, but they lack the means to truly make the country rich and powerful. Lower officials value craftsmen because only craftsmen can truly make the country rich and powerful."
Officials have always been able to serve only as managers, not as operators. If we want to make the country rich and powerful, we still need craftsmen to carry out specific operations. Otherwise, in the new era hundreds of years later, why hasn't the slogan "officials of a great power" been put forward?
Instead of proposing "craftsmen of a great country"?
"What's the reason?" Xue Xiang asked with interest after hearing Han Du's words.
Han Du thought for a moment and said with a smile: "Take the waist knives that the boss will receive today. Even if the Ministry of Industry had enough refined steel, how many craftsmen would it take and how long would it take to forge 50,000 waist knives in the past?
"
Xue Xiang knew this very well and blurted out: "One thousand blacksmiths, at least a month."
"But Xiaguan now only needs less than fifty craftsmen and five days."
Xue Xiang frowned slightly, and he also felt the difference. It's not that the craftsmen in the Ministry of Industry are not as good as Han Du's men. Of course, the enthusiasm of the craftsmen in the Ministry of Industry is indeed not as high as that of Han Du's.
.
The main reason is the huge gap brought about by changes in skills.
Han Du continued: "I have no other intention in using this example. I just want the boss to understand the importance of craftsmen. Craftsmen master skills, and innovations in skills will bring about earth-shaking changes. For example, take this example
For a waist knife, fifty craftsmen can complete in five days what it would take a thousand craftsmen a month to complete. This is equivalent to the fact that with the current skills, the other nine hundred and fifty people and twenty-five days can be completed.
With the savings, wouldn't these people be able to do more things in twenty-five days?"
Xue Xiang somewhat understood Han Du's words, but seemed not to understand them.
Han Du ignored him and gestured with his hands: "This is like a force. In the past, the force was small, so doing the same thing required a lot of manpower and a lot of time. But now after technological innovation, this force
To become bigger, it only requires a small number of people and a small amount of time to do it.”
Xue Xiang's eyes lit up, and he understood what Han Du meant.
"The lower official called this force productivity."
"What a name!" Xue Xiang suddenly interrupted Han Du. If you want to live, you have to produce. Naming it after productivity is the perfect fit.
Seeing that Han Du did not continue, Xue Xiang said sheepishly: "Continue, continue..."
Han Du continued:
"With strong productivity, materials will naturally be abundant. Now when Xiaguan is making tens of thousands of kilograms of steel a day, one kilogram will be sold for three hundred cents. When Xiaguan is making a million kilograms of steel a day, one kilogram will only be sold for three hundred cents.
Ten articles. Correspondingly, the imperial court now needs to spend several million guan to conquer the Northern Yuan Dynasty. By then, I am afraid that hundreds of thousands of guan will be enough for an expedition to the north. The imperial court's expenditure will be less, and the burden on the people will naturally be reduced.
"
"Originally, one person can only do the work of one person, but with the increase in productivity, one person can do the work of ten people, or even a hundred people. Think about it, sir, one person can be used as a hundred people, so
Once the country wants to make the country rich and the people strong, it won’t work.”
"Hahaha, well said, well said..." Xue Xiang sighed while stroking his hands. When he looked at Han Du, he no longer looked at the younger generation, but regarded him as an equal.
"Do you want to come to the Ministry of Works?"
Sooner or later, this position will be yours."
What?
Just make small talk, don't take it seriously.
I still have money to make, so how can I go to the Ministry of Industry?
If Lao Zhu knew about it, he would definitely scold you for not practicing martial ethics.
It's obviously a transaction, it's better for you to be old, now let's talk about feelings.
"This..." Han Du didn't know how to answer Xue Xiang.
Seeing Han Du's resistance, Xue Xiang didn't care. He patted his shoulder and said, "It doesn't matter if you don't come now. As long as you want to come one day, just tell me that I'm waiting for you at any time."