Here in Taiyuan City, Taiyuan Colony, a colony of merchants from all over East Africa, Liu Dazheng and Li Bianxi, the governor of Taiyuan Colony, were chatting and laughing as they visited the textile factory here in the colony.
Li Bianzhi was Liu Da's senior in college. When Liu Da was a freshman, Li Bianzhi was a senior. They both met in college, and they later learned about each other's identities.
Although Li Bianzhi is very young, only in his early 20s, he is now the governor of the Li family's Taiyuan colony.
Of course, the main reason why he was able to become the governor of the Taiyuan colony at a young age was because he was the son of Sihai merchant Li Chunyang, and he was also the legitimate son. Therefore, like Liu Da, he was arranged to take over the family in Africa.
important industries.
The size of the Taiyuan colony is quite large. It is almost the size of a province in the Ming Dynasty. Although it cannot be compared with the United Western Trading Company, the Mystery Land of South Africa, and Ningguo, for ordinary colonies, the area of the Taiyuan colony is already considered large.
Not too small.
This was a colony that Li Bianzhi and his father Li Chunyang had spent a lot of manpower, material and financial resources to establish with great difficulty. It could also be regarded as the Li family's own small kingdom.
"After a few years, the senior's demeanor remains the same, and now he is the governor of this Taiyuan colony!"
Liu Da looked at Li Bianzhi next to him. He came here as soon as he graduated and became the governor in a few years. Although it was because of his father, his own ability was unquestionable. He was the governor when he was in school.
The man of the hour at Imperial College.
"Liu Da, please stop laughing at me."
"I have a terrible headache right now. This governor is really not that easy to be."
"After you go to the South African colony, you have to help me more."
Li Bianxi smiled bitterly and shook his head.
Although the area of our colony is quite large, its resources are relatively poor. No gold, silver, diamonds, etc. have been found. There are even very few elephants. There is no way to sell the ivory.
But these are nothing. The Li family is rich and the world is not short of money. What really gives Li Bianzhi a headache is that the development of this colony is full of difficulties, and it is too difficult to manage it well.
"Oh, what's going on?"
"I see that Taiyuan City is still very prosperous and lively, and the scale of this textile factory is not small. I'm afraid it would have to employ tens of thousands of people to run it."
When Liu Da heard this, he was immediately filled with doubts.
The size of this original city is not small, with a population of hundreds of thousands. It looks very prosperous and lively, and there seem to be a lot of factories here. The large factory in front of you needs at least tens of thousands of people.
of large textile factories.
"Alas~"
"It's hard to put it into words. It's all because my father was so soft-hearted and too kind at the time, and gave these Kunlun slaves the treatment of free citizens. That's why we are in today's predicament."
Li Bianxi sighed and began to slowly tell the story.
It turns out that when the Li family came here to build the colony, they faced a severe labor shortage. Therefore, on the one hand, they purchased a large number of slaves to build and develop the colony. On the other hand, they also focused on the local indigenous Kunlun slaves.
Li Chunyang believed in Buddhism and did not like killing, nor did he like too severe exploitation and oppression. At that time, he felt that these Kunlun slaves were very pitiful. They lived in primitive thatched houses, had no meal, and did not even have simple clothes to hide their shame.
.
Of course, the main reason is that they are interested in the labor force of local Kunlun slaves and want to make good use of the labor force of these Kunlun slaves.
So the Li family was one of many colonies, and one of the few vassal states directly gave these Kunlun slaves free citizenship from the beginning.
The original idea was to give these Kunlun slaves the status of free citizens, and then teach them the culture of the Ming Dynasty, so that they can become as diligent, practical, and hard-working as the people of the Ming Dynasty, and then teach them farming and other things. This colony will naturally be very
It will develop quickly.
However, the Li family was soon dumbfounded. These Kunlun slaves were simply too mud to hold up the wall. They were lazy and lazy. They mainly had food to eat. They were absolutely unwilling to work anymore unless they ate up all the food and spent the money.
Only then will they be willing to return to work.
As for learning, learn to be a hammer.
Even the simplest farming, the people of Ming Dynasty are very diligent in farming, working hard to cultivate, sow, fertilize, weed, harvest, etc., and take care of them carefully.
But these Kunlun slaves, no matter how they are taught, are still very lazy, and they are not willing to plant the land at all. Even if they plant the land, they simply scatter the seeds into the ground, and then forget about it, no matter how much harvest they get in the autumn.
How much? Anyway, as long as there is food today, it will be fine. As for tomorrow, we will talk about it tomorrow.
If there is no food, you can go to the Li family to get it and just go make a fuss.
They are also citizens of the Li family's Taiyuan colony. The Li family cannot care about their life or death. They can steal, rob or make trouble if they have nothing to eat. Therefore, the security of the Li family's colony is extremely poor and production is very unstable.
Not only did they not get any income from the colony, the Li family also needed to invest a lot of money in the colony every year. It became a useless piece of money. It was hard to give it up, but it was hard to give it up. They invested money in it every year and couldn't see it.
It’s really a headache to have any hope.
"...As far as the textile factory in front of us is concerned, if it were placed in our Ming Dynasty, it would easily earn dozens or millions of taels of silver this year."
"But you know, our factory doesn't make any money at all."
"Look at the Kunlun slaves working in this factory. They are all working as slaves and are too lazy to die. When there is someone to supervise the work, they still give you a decent job. If there is no one to supervise the work, they can just sit down and keep doing it.
chat."
Li Bianzhi pointed at the Kunlun slaves who were working in the factory and said helplessly: "I need to hire hundreds of supervisors in one factory to supervise their work."
"But even so, they always find various reasons to be absent from work, especially after their wages are paid. They often don't come to work for many days in a row unless they have spent all the money."
"This factory is often unable to operate. There are few people in this place and there are few people in that place. Today a group of people will not go to work, and tomorrow there will be a group of people without people going to work. It is simply difficult to operate."
"Originally, our family also took a fancy to the cheap labor force here. We thought that one or two taels of silver a month would be enough for the people here, and the cost of the cloth produced could be reduced a lot. In addition, the climate here is good and the land is fertile.
, whether you grow grain, rice, or sugar cane, you can develop very well."
"But who knew that these Kunlun slaves were absent from work every now and then, often not coming to work, and being lazy and slippery, the result was that the output of our factory was extremely low, and the efficiency was extremely low. Not only did the price of this cloth not decrease, it was actually higher than our local ones.
The price and cost of cloth are even higher.”
"It's not just this textile factory, it's the same in all other aspects. If we Ming people were to build a cement road, a few months would be enough. But hiring these local Kunlun slaves to build it would take a few months."
They can't even finish the roadbed well, and there's no hope of seeing the road completed until several years later."
While listening to Li Bianzhao's words, Liu Da also looked into the textile factory in front of him. He could see the Kunlun slaves in the textile factory chatting very lazily, and even sat aside directly. As for the work of the production line, it seemed that they were not doing anything at all.
It's not like it's any of their business.
Only when they see an overseer coming with a whip, they will work decently, but when the overseer leaves, they will immediately return to the same routine.
"Have you never thought about the piece rate system?"
Liu Da thought for a while and said.
"It's useless. It doesn't work for Kunlun slaves like them. The things in their envelopes are completely different from ours."
"They are very lazy. Even if they work on a piece-rate basis, they are unwilling to do more work. Many of them have already left before it is time to get off work."
"If they have money in their pockets, they can stay away from work."
"You have also seen the situation in Taiyuan City. You can see Kunlun slaves doing nothing on the roads everywhere, so we have no choice but to use zoning."
"We Ming people are divided into one area, and they Kunlun slaves are in another area. The area where we Ming people are located is clean and tidy, while the area where the Kunlun slaves are located is dirty and extremely messy."
Li Bianzhi shook his head helplessly.
"We really have nothing to do now. We have tried all kinds of methods, but they are of no use. They just can't hold up the wall with mud. The development of the entire colony is extremely slow."
"That is to say, we rely on the support of our Li family members. Otherwise, this place will soon return to the primitive tribal stage. They are not willing to learn or do anything at all. They would rather bask in the sun than work, and would rather go hungry.
I don’t even want to make money.”
"I have no money or food, and yet I reach out to our Li family for food. It is really speechless."
"Then why not learn from other colonies and demote these Kunlun slaves into slaves?"
Liu Da thought for a while and asked.
"It's useless. They are still as lazy as slaves. They can only rely on whips to drive them."
"We should have learned from the South African colony and directly killed or driven out all the Kunlun slaves who were unable to hold up the wall."
"Maybe it may be difficult at the beginning, but slowly and naturally it will get better and better. Now our Li family is in a dilemma."
"Using force to drive them away or killing them doesn't seem to work. Their numbers are much larger than our Ming people, and there is no rebellion or anything like that. But if this continues, there will always be no hope."
Li Bianzhi shook his head and said.
"I see. It seems that my father has clearly seen the true face of these Kunlun slaves from the beginning, so that's why he doesn't want these Kunlun slaves."
Liu Da understood immediately and understood why the South African colony did not want Kunlun slaves.