"Your Majesty, please take a look. The large construction site ahead is the new factory area we are planning to build. The new factory area is expected to build 17 large-scale factories. These are the production factories for iron smelting, muskets, artillery, swords, gunpowder and other major ordnance. In addition, there are
There are thirty-three small factories, used to produce various supporting parts, as well as various dormitories, etc. The entire new factory covers an area of about 800 feet long and 200 feet wide, and is adjacent to Xijiang River in the south!"
Zhou Kesong, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, pointed to a large construction site in front of him and said to Li Xuan: "The construction of the new factory has just started not long ago and is still in the foundation leveling stage. It is expected that the construction of the first batch of factories will be completed in three months.
We will carry out small-scale production within half a year and strive to complete the construction within one year!”
It is 800 feet long and 200 feet wide. This area is almost larger than a small county town, but it is not okay if it is not this big, because according to the plan of the Ministry of Industry, the Zhaoqing Arsenal will be the first in the Tang Dynasty.
A large comprehensive arsenal.
The establishment of a large-scale comprehensive arsenal these days is almost the establishment of a complete heavy industry system. In the professional terms of later generations, it will include most heavy industries such as steel, chemicals, machinery manufacturing, and precision machining.
The Ministry of Works' plan for this is very large. It is expected that after the arsenal is completed, it will be able to accommodate at least 8,000 workers. Although any labor-intensive enterprise in the future will have thousands or even tens of thousands of employees, but
For the Tang Dynasty in the 16th century, a factory with 8,000 people was definitely a giant.
These days, many small counties only have a few thousand permanent residents, and those with more than 10,000 people are large counties.
Li Xuan looked at the busy construction site in front of him, nodded slightly, and then said: "Although the construction speed is important, we must also pay attention to the quality, and don't create a shoddy project!"
A shoddy project? This is not the first time Zhou Kesong has heard His Majesty say this. Naturally, he knows that when His Majesty refers to a shoddy project, he means poor quality.
He immediately said: "Your Majesty, please rest assured that the construction of this factory is the most important task of our Ministry of Industry at present. Not only the officials of the factory are watching, but our Ministry of Industry has also specially dispatched many officials here to keep an eye on it. It will never be done."
There is a quality problem!”
The Zhaoqing Arsenal is the Ministry of Industry’s first attempt to build a large-scale comprehensive arsenal. This arsenal is of great political significance. How many officials from the Ministry of Industry rely on this arsenal to get promoted, and people outside, especially
The officials in the Inspectorate also hope to catch a few corrupt officials and then be promoted.
This is a highly anticipated project, but even if the people from the Ministry of Industry have the courage to do such things, they would not dare to do it.
There are so many places where people are greedy for money, there is no need to go to Zhaoqing Arsenal to cause trouble!
The new factory building of the Zhaoqing Arsenal is far from being seen, and even the terrain is not completely flat now. Naturally, the focus of everyone's inspection is not the new factory area, but the temporary factory area.
Because the navy and army of the Tang Dynasty had a huge demand for all kinds of ordnance, especially guns and guns. Not to mention the military waiting to use them, Li Xuan also checked in every day. Therefore, even the new factory area has not been completed yet, but the Zhaoqing Arsenal has already
Construction started in temporarily requisitioned private houses.
Anyway, the industries these days are all handicrafts, even in the Zhaoqing Arsenal. There is no mechanical equipment at all. Whether it is muskets, artillery, or even iron smelting, everything is made by hand.
As long as they have simple tools, they can actually get started by giving them a shed!
Therefore, the most valuable thing in Zhaoqing Arsenal is not the huge factory building or the lack of equipment, but the people, to be precise, the skilled craftsmen.
After the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty entered Guangdong, as usual, craftsmen from all over the country were recruited immediately, regardless of whether they were recruited voluntarily or unwillingly.
Together with these newly recruited craftsmen and the craftsmen trained previously, the number of craftsmen in the Zhaoqing Arsenal has exceeded 300. There are also more than 1,000 apprentices and about 2,000 ordinary workers.
At present, some of these people have settled down and are involved in trial production, some are still settling in, and some are even on their way.
In view of the importance of these craftsmen, especially those skilled old craftsmen, Li Xuan also attached great importance to them. When Xingquan Mansion was attacked by the Huguang Ming Army, the Tang Dynasty immediately evacuated Xingquan Mansion.
The craftsmen in Quanfu are also based on this reason.
As long as there are these craftsmen and enough raw materials, the Tang Dynasty can rebuild an arsenal anywhere.
This is also the reason why the arsenals in Liuzhou and Wuzhou were able to put into production so quickly, while the Zhaoqing arsenal had not even completed the construction of the factory building and had already started trial production.
Because the key to whether the arsenal can be opened does not lie in the factory buildings and machinery, but in these craftsmen.
In addition to providing them with safety guarantees, they are also given relatively generous benefits. Their salaries are always increased by several percent based on the market price, and various incentive policies are provided.
For example, if these senior craftsmen can bring apprentices, they will be given an additional subsidy.
If you can come up with ways to speed up production efficiency, you will receive high bonuses. If you can make innovations, you can even be awarded an official position.
Nowadays, in the Ministry of Industry of the Tang Dynasty, many craftsmen have been awarded official status, and their grades are not low. For example, the chief engineers of several important departments of the Zhaoqing Arsenal, such as the chief engineers of the iron-making branch, muskets
The chief engineer of the factory is a craftsman, but now he has put on the official robe of the seventh rank.
For craftsmen who have been looked down upon for a long time, craftsmen can become officials. This is undoubtedly a great improvement in their social status.
In the Tang Dynasty, not only those who wrote well could become officials, but also those who did carpentry and blacksmithing well could still become officials.
As for being an official, this attraction to the Chinese people is boundless. For thousands of years, the Chinese people's dedication to being an official has never changed.
But for Li Xuan, giving them an official robe is actually nothing. He will not pay even an extra penny for it, because if he does not give them an official status, the salary they should pay cannot be less.
And another advantage of this is that in the future, some technocrats can be slowly selected from them, especially for a very professional department like the Ministry of Industry. It is actually very bad to use traditional officials, and they must be managed by technocrats.
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After visiting the temporary factory, we quickly entered the temporary factory and prepared to watch the trial production of Zhaoqing Arsenal.
Of course, the nature of the performance this time is relatively large, because all the people selected by the Zhaoqing Arsenal for trial production are master craftsmen at the craftsman level, and there are not even any apprentices.
In order to facilitate management, many craftsmen under the Ministry of Industry of the Tang Dynasty were also divided into levels, and various titles were given according to technical attainments, namely apprentice, then ninth-class craftsman, all the way to first-class craftsman. The higher the level, the higher the salary.
This level of craftsman has nothing to do with position or official position, but it is directly linked to salary!
In the Tang Dynasty, factory wages varied depending on the location. At the Zhaoqing Arsenal, an ordinary worker would be paid about one to two to five thousand silver per month. The income was not high, but it was not low either.
It can be regarded as an ordinary standard for the middle and lower classes of society.
An apprentice's monthly income is about two taels of silver. This income is not high either, because the groom's income is already three taels of silver a month. In the past, when Butcher Chen was killing pigs, his monthly income was about three taels of silver.
In recent years, there were many small vendors who carried goods and sold them in the countryside, and their income was about two taels of silver.
However, after the initial apprenticeship, the income will increase significantly when reaching the level of craftsman. Even the lowest ninth-level craftsman will have three taels of silver a month, as well as various benefits and benefits. Calculated every year, in fact, the annual salary can be
Almost fifty taels.
The higher the level, the higher the income. For example, a third-class craftsman's monthly income is more than 20 taels of silver, which is more than 200 taels of silver a year.
In the mid-Ming Dynasty, this income was truly high-income.
Even if it is not to become an official, but in order to earn a higher income, these craftsmen will try their best to improve their craftsman level!
At the moment, in order to demonstrate trial production in front of Li Xuan at the Zhaoqing Arsenal, not a single apprentice is used, only craftsmen are used, and the team is led by a third-class craftsman. There are not many craftsmen of this level in the entire Zhaoqing Arsenal!
The craftsmen personally built it, and both the quality and speed were naturally quite fast. Li Xuan nodded at every step.
When we get to the end, it’s naturally the assembly of the entire gun. Naturally, these parts used to assemble the first rifle cannot be produced on the spot today. In fact, preparations started more than half a month ago.
The reason is very simple, because the total production process of a firearm takes more than half a month. It is impossible for Li Xuan to see the whole gun from the first part, which will take more than half a month.
Woolen cloth.
In the hands of skilled craftsmen, a musket quickly took shape, and it didn't take long for it to be in Li Xuan's hands.
Although this newly assembled 2-year-old rifle was brand new, it had everything it should have. Li Xuan played with it carefully for a while, then handed it to a guard next to him and said, "Try two shots and try it!"
After the guard next to him took the gun, he quickly fired two shots. After the clear gunfire sounded, several bullet holes appeared in the wooden target in the distance.
The shooting skills of Li Xuan's personal bodyguard are of course not to mention, and for the purpose of testing, the wooden target cannot be too far away, only a few dozen meters, otherwise it would be impossible to test the accuracy at all.
If the target is placed a hundred meters away, even a sharpshooter will not be able to hit the bullseye. This exceeds the maximum hit rate of muskets these days.
Now that the target is concentrated within dozens of meters, this is already a very good musket. Li Xuan showed a satisfied look!
Then he turned around and said to everyone: "This gun is good. How much can it be produced in one month of trial production now? How much can it be produced after full production?"
Li Xuan doesn't care much about the quality of the muskets. Anyway, no matter how good the quality of the muskets these days is, the output is Li Xuan's biggest concern compared to the quality. There are a lot of troops on the front line waiting for the muskets!