After all the helmets were put on their heads, Li Yobu carefully checked them one by one to make sure that no one was not wearing one, and then led them into the workshop.
A complete steel plant is generally divided into four parts: ironmaking, steelmaking, continuous casting, and steel rolling. In fact, there should also be coking, but Yunxi doesn't know about coking, and is asking the workers of the steel plant to study it. Nowadays, refining steel is all
Use charcoal, so there's no need for this step.
Yunxi first came to the iron-making workshop. This step is the blast furnace iron-making that many people are familiar with. Yunxi saw a two- to three-foot-high blast furnace standing a dozen feet away, and many workers were busy beside it.
"Hey!" There was a sound of inhalation behind Yun He. To the officials who followed him for inspection, the appearance of this blast furnace was too strange, like an enlarged bottle with a handle. "Why do you put this in the air?"
Is the blast furnace built like this?" Someone asked Li Yobu. Seeing Yunxi waving his hand, Li Yobu seemed to agree, and hurriedly walked to the man to explain.
Yunxi looked at this blast furnace and felt very nostalgic. He remembered the blast furnace in the factory that his father often mentioned when he was a child. Of course, the one in front of him was just what was commonly known as an 'earth blast furnace' in later generations. It was much bigger than the one in a real steel plant.
Blast furnaces are very different, not only in terms of production capacity and iron ore utilization efficiency, but also in appearance.
But Yunxi still felt a sense of familiarity. After all, this was a blast furnace. The operating principle of the blast furnace was the same as that of modern products.
"Your Majesty, this is the blast furnace for making iron. The method of making iron is...; this can produce fifty dan of iron per day. The entire steel plant now has twenty blast furnaces, with a total production of one thousand dan per day."
Li Yobu answered the man's question, walked to Yunxi again and introduced him.
"One thousand shi?" Li Bo was surprised: "One thousand shi per day, doesn't it mean that 356,000 shi can be produced in one year?"
"It's not much." Yunxi said. Three hundred and fifty-six thousand dan is just over 21,000 tons. To him, it is not as much as the output of the factory where his father worked in his previous life in one hour.
Of course, Yunxi also knew that the total output of iron in the country in the late Hongwu years was less than 100,000 tons. A steel plant built in the first year of Jianye could reach one-fifth of that in the late Hongwu years, which is already a lot.
"Your Majesty, new blast furnaces can still be built in the iron plant, but it is difficult to increase the supply of iron ore, so the current output is maintained." Li Yaobu said again.
Yunxi nodded and walked around the blast furnace again. Seeing that every worker was wearing a helmet, he stopped looking and went to the next workshop.
Then there is the steelmaking workshop. If ironmaking is still relatively simple and can be completed by small private workshops, steelmaking is already high-tech in this era. Not to mention that it is difficult for small private workshops to make it, even large steel plants cannot.
It is easy, and because the cost and price of steel in this era are high and the consumption is very small, few people make steel. In the past, there were only a few steel-making furnaces in this factory, and most of the molten iron was sent directly to the furnace after it was released.
In the continuous casting workshop, iron blocks of uniform specifications were smelted and sold to the people by specialized departments. A new steel-making furnace was added after Yunxi proposed to equip the army with helmets.
"Your Majesty, the steel-making workshop can refine 200 shi of steel a day and 72,000 shi a year." Li Youbu said.
Next is the continuous casting workshop. The continuous casting workshop is to turn the molten steel produced in the steelmaking workshop into steel billets. Of course, now it is also responsible for turning the molten iron into iron billets. This step is very important. Just return the molten iron. A little problem is not a problem.
If the molten steel is not refined well, the resulting steel will be substandard and will have to be remanufactured.
The last workshop is the steel rolling workshop. The steel rolling workshop is to roll steel billets into steel of appropriate specifications. However, this workshop caused controversy when it was first established, because ordinary people basically did not buy steel, and all steel was consumed by the imperial court.
, especially the army.
That's it for other yamen. The Governor's Office of the Fifth Army and the Ministry of War believe that their own handicraft workshops have the ability to refine steel and do not need the final rolling of steel by the steel plant. The yamen of the Ministry of Industry are weak, and the Minister of Finance is not willing to let such a 'little thing'
After arguing with the Ministry of War, the steel rolling workshop was almost cancelled, but after Yunxi learned about it, he forcibly suppressed the Ministry of War and the Fifth Army Governor's Office before establishing it.
After inspecting four workshops, Yunxi praised: "Ambassador Li did a good job."
He had just looked carefully and found that the rules and regulations in the factory were very complete, and the workers implemented them effectively and in good order. He also learned that there had been no safety accidents in this steel plant for three months, and he was even more happy.
"The Ministry of Industry promoted Li Youbu, the ambassador of Meishan Iron and Steel Plant, to accept the appointment." Yunxi said. Li Youbu quickly knelt down.
"I have orally decreed that you will be given the deputy title of your camp and repair office, and you will receive the eighth grade of salary. I will also reward you with a piece of silk and satin for your use as a reward."
"Thank you for your kindness, Your Majesty." Li Youbu said happily. He didn't really care about being promoted to the eighth rank, but a piece of silk and satin was a great honor for him, whether for personal use or as a gift.
suitable.
After he stood up, Yunxi ordered again: "The scale of the steel plant needs to be expanded. Don't worry about the iron ore. There is iron ore in Meishan, and the reserves should be large. We just need to expand the production of iron ore."
"Your Majesty, there are currently 766 workers in this steel factory. According to the Shangguan's instructions, there are no former craftsmen. They are all recruited from farmers. Because the wages are high, there are many people applying.
.”
"But many people have worked in the steel plant for a while and are too busy to work anymore. The blast furnace in the steel plant cannot be stopped day and night. All workers have to work in two shifts. Every two days, there will be two afternoon shifts.
After dark, it was still very laborious, and people had to take turns to work the night shift. Many people couldn't bear it and quit. So it took four years to accumulate more than 700 workers. The steel plant has been difficult to expand, which is also related to the difficulty in recruiting workers.
." Li Yaob said.
Yunxi nodded. The steel plant is a modern factory. Although it cannot work at night due to night lighting problems, it only leaves people on duty to prevent the blast furnace from stalling. However, the management specifications are modern and in line with the requirements of a traditional agricultural society.
There is a huge difference. It is normal for many people to be unwilling to work in factories when they still have food to eat, even if they are offered high wages.
"But even so, we must pay close attention to training workers. If there are few people willing to work, then we can give them processing money."
He proposed to go to the canteen where the workers eat. Li Youbu was stunned and said: "Your Majesty, you just came out of the workshop and your body is covered with sweat. I thought that if you want the workers to see your Majesty's majesty, you should go first."
Take a bath."
Yunxi was not without suspicion, but it was really hot in the workshop. He was covered in sweat and even his shoes were soaked. Seeing that the skin of the eunuchs and guards following him were even red, he nodded in agreement. Li Youbu immediately agreed.
Lead them to the bathroom that they usually use when inspecting the workshop.
After a while, Yunxi took a shower, put on the regular clothes he had just worn, and led them to the cafeteria.
While listening, Yunxi walked to the canteen where the workers ate. It was not the time to change shifts at this time, so no one was eating in the canteen. Several cooks were washing and picking vegetables and preparing dinner. They saw Li Youbu bringing these many
At first glance, a man who looked like a big shot walked in, and he immediately knew that this was the 'higher-level leader who came to inspect' not long ago. He immediately put down the food in his hand, knelt down and said, "The common people have seen a few big shots." Occasionally, the Ministry of Works Yamen
Some people also came to inspect, but they didn't know Yunxi's true identity, so they were not afraid.
Yunxi smiled and said: "Everyone, please get up. There is no need to kneel down." He had no intention of revealing his identity to these ordinary people.
Seeing that this high official was very approachable, everyone became more relaxed and kowtowed again and stood up.
"What do workers eat on weekdays?" he asked again.
"Reporting to this gentleman, the factory provides workers with three meals a day, one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. The morning meal is fried dough sticks with eggs or noodles and eggs, and the lunch meal is pie, and they are eaten every two days.
Meat stuffing once, rice and rice at night, sometimes pig's trotters or chicken." said the leader.
"This food is very good." One of the guards murmured in a low voice. Of course, the food of their guards is better than this. If they are willing to eat meat every day, it is difficult for even the straight guards in the guard to eat meat every day.
There were very few eggs for breakfast.
Yun He didn't say anything, but just walked towards the kitchen. The man subconsciously wanted to stop him, but Li Youbu immediately winked at him: You are kidding, how can you stop what the emperor is going to do?
Yunxi walked into the kitchen smoothly, put on his gloves and rummaged around. After looking at it for a while, he said: "Ambassador Li, is what the man just said the truth?"
Li Yobu immediately knelt down and said, "Sir, when I inspect the canteen on weekdays, I always follow the regulations."
"But that's not what I saw." Yunxi sneered. When he was the emperor's grandson, he personally rectified the hygiene problems in the imperial kitchen for a while, and also learned about the general rules for storing ingredients in the kitchen at this time, and
What he saw just now was obviously not in line with what the man said. He immediately told what he knew one by one.
After hearing these insider words, the kitchen leader wanted to continue to quibble, but Yunxi said again: "You don't admit it? How about I call a few workers over for a confrontation right away?"
After hearing this, the leader knelt down to apologize. Yunxi saw that he was a high official, at least much older than Li Youbu. He called people to confront him. The workers dared to tell the truth; and workers are very precious now, and Li Youbu
Bu easily was unwilling to be fired, and they had complained about him for a long time. If they got the chance, they would definitely make it worse.
Although Li Yaobu was surprised that the emperor knew so much about the situation in the cafeteria, he kowtowed again and said, "I'm sorry for my poor inspection. Please punish me."
"This cook's family was exiled to the northwest. The other cooks will be inspected one by one and punished according to the amount of things they embezzled." Yunxi said very sternly.
It’s just that the oil for frying the fried dough sticks was not changed in the morning. There will be times like this in later generations. Although it is unhealthy, it will not directly lead to death. It’s just that the meat and eggs prepared for the workers are short, but even rice and noodles are not enough.
Much less. He took a cursory look just now and found that at least half of it was missing. In other words, they had embezzled half of it.
Li Yaobu was puzzled: many corruptions in the court were much bigger than this, and the final solution was to dismiss officials and serve the people. This small kitchen corruption only has a few hundred corruptions a year. Why is the emperor so angry?
Why? Not only him, but also the guards who followed Yunxi were a little surprised.
The more Yunxi thought about it, the angrier he became. He attached great importance to the workers in these steel plants. This steel plant was a modern factory, and although the management method used was still bureaucratic, it was also the management model of a modern factory——
Thanks to his father's work in a steel factory, Yunxi was familiar with the management of steel plants in his previous life, and he forcibly promoted new management methods - which in his opinion were more modern than the series of factories run by government officials and merchants built in the late Qing Dynasty.
.
Therefore, these workers who have undergone modern management are very important. Workers who have undergone modern management, even ordinary coolie workers, are much better than farmers and craftsmen in terms of organization, discipline, and compliance with rules and regulations.
Even stronger than most armies. Selected soldiers from most guard stations across the country may not be able to defeat these workers if they have comparable numbers and comparable weapons.
At the same time, although these workers have little knowledge, they will have many new insights from working in such a factory, and they are much more knowledgeable than farmers and handicraftsmen.
All these have led Yunxi to attach great importance to workers, especially now that the industry has only begun to sprout. These workers who have been cultivated with great difficulty are even more important, and their treatment is equivalent to that of soldiers on the direct guard. Now these people he values so much are fed
He was very angry that he was being deducted in this way.
"Ambassador Li, you can tell about such huge corruption just by walking around the cafeteria every day. How did you become the ambassador?" Yunxi asked again.
"I am guilty, please punish me." Li Youbu kowtowed. At this time, those people had been taken away, and he could call himself a minister.
Yunxi reprimanded him a few more times, and Li Bo advised: "Your Majesty, although Ambassador Li's supervision has been unfavorable, the steel output of the steel plant has continued to increase, and he has both merits and demerits. The Emperor thought that this was his first offense, so he reprimanded him,
It is better to allow him to perform meritorious service for his crime."
"For the sake of your diligence, I won't hold you accountable for your dereliction of duty this time. You can get up." Yunxi said. Although Yunxi felt that he was also corrupt, it is not easy to train a qualified 'factory director' these days.
Easy, but don't dismiss him easily.
'Let Jin Yiwei ambush a few people in the factory to find out what he usually does. I will make a decision later.' Yunxi thought.
