What Chen Shuren said to his opponent, Wen Guan, "all important matters concerning Fuji must be people-oriented" was not meant to be a show.
Because he knew that only literati could understand these literate words, but miners and coolies could not understand them at all.
These people will only truly agree with the ruler's benevolent government after they have actually benefited from it, and this requires the test of time.
Fortunately, the safety production measures advocated by Shen Shuren have had immediate results.
Originally, there were not 180 fatal accidents in Daye Iron Mountain every year? Considering that there are thousands of people working in mining in the entire Iron Mountain, it is not an exaggeration to say that one person dies every two or three days. Evenly divided, that is, each person has 100 deaths per day. The probability of dying in an accident is a few ten thousandths.
After only one week of implementation of the rectifications requested by Shen Shuren, at least no one died during this week. The miners also noticed this, gradually noticed this, and finally realized the benefits of safe production.
Moreover, other promises made by Shen Shuren were also fulfilled one by one.
For example, he said, "After changing the ramps and vehicles for transporting ore, the technology of the ramps and vehicles can also keep pace with the times and continue to be improved." This is actually done.
According to the original plan, in the first week it was only necessary to slightly level the slope, trim the pit wall, and test the effect. During the practice, it was found that this kind of rubber column drum was not helpful enough to improve efficiency, so everyone worked together to improve the efficiency. Adjust slowly in practice.
Finally, Shen Shuren allocated several thousand kilograms of iron and laid two circles of rails on a trial basis in the flat area at the bottom of the mine, with carts made of sufficiently round cast-iron wheels mounted on them. This gave rise to the "Rail Rail Push Mine" The prototype of "car".
In Western history, rails were used together with vehicles, and they were initially used to transport ore in mines. Later, with the advent of steam engines, trains were developed.
Therefore, the train carriage evolved from the mine track trolley. The only difference is the power source.
It was not difficult for Shen Shuren to come up with the idea of a mining rail cart, after all, he had watched so many Western movies and cartoons in his previous life.
When he first came up with this idea, he was opposed by his staff and associates, including Song Mingde. The main reason was that everyone felt that it was difficult for such a heavy cart to go uphill on the slide rails. Once the person pushing the cart was weak, it would easily slide backwards. When we got down, a big accident happened.
But Shen Shuren insisted on his idea and encouraged everyone to work together to find ways to optimize it, and then compromised on the final plan - "only lay rail tracks on the flat ground at the bottom of the pit, and did not pursue the use of rail mine cars to climb hills."
Because miners originally carried burdens and climbed the steps on the mine wall to transport ore, walking on the flat ground at the bottom of the pit was also very laborious. Now at least the labor of carrying heavy loads on the flat ground can be liberated, and the human and animal forces only need to focus on solving the problem of "climbing". Slope/Lift" problem.
As long as there is no drop in the track, the rail car does not have to worry about gravity slipping, and can take full advantage of the small friction between the rail and the iron wheel, which is conducive to pushing heavy goods with less effort.
With a cart on the rails, one person can push several kilograms of ore. It is very flexible and can be stopped at any time. The transportation efficiency is dozens of times higher than the original load.
After the problem is broken down in this way, various solutions to other inefficient links can be worked out together.
For example, Shen Shuren had been engaged in dock operation reform in Suzhou and Huangzhou for two years. The Shen family had sufficient experience in using cranes. Then with the emergence of railway tracks, some people thought of using cranes in conjunction with railway tracks. Lift ore between different layers.
Shen Shuren didn't even need to think about this matter. Lu Datou, the boss Qian who was sent to Chen Shuren and was in charge of Tieshan's security, came up with this idea.
Lu Datou also had the courage to come up with suggestions and suggested setting up squirrel cage cranes and treadmill cranes at the junctions of the mine pits. Who told him that he was a dock worker leader in Huangzhou last year and had personally experienced the Shen family's chamber of commerce carrying out dock work? After renovation, I also personally operated a squirrel cage crane to lift heavy objects.
Shen Shuren also employs people according to a certain pattern. Anyone who can help him with ideas will be rewarded regardless of his background and regardless of whether he is knowledgeable or not.
On the day he adopted this idea, he publicly summoned all the petty officials and assistant managers in the mine, announced a reward of one hundred taels of silver to Lu Datou, and praised him verbally.
I heard that when Lu Datou was a hardworking dock worker last year, all the miners present felt greatly inspired.
Even the miner leader Wang Tiechui, who was whipped by Lu Datou for complaining about the reform behind his back that day, felt a sense of pride that he felt the same.
There are several powerful miners who used to rely on their strength when they were miners to climb on the rubble piles on the pit walls as if they were walking on the ground. Now after the reform, they are "improving the safety factor of the new mines, and they can dig safely without being too strong in martial arts or physical strength." "mine" and felt that it had no use.
Seeing Lu Datou's deeds, they all thought: In the future, mining will not require people with good skills, so we can serve as soldiers for Lord Daotai!
Opposite the dock workers in Huangzhou Prefecture, just because they did a good job, followed discipline after joining the army, and fought bravely, they were able to achieve the rank of President Qian. Their ideas were praised by Lord Daotai personally in public. What a great honor it was!
Dock workers can serve as soldiers to kill enemies, why can't miners? I heard that when Grandpa Qi recruited the Qi family army, he specifically wanted miners and hunters!
Within a few days, many people with relatively superior physical strength and martial arts wanted to know how to join the army, because after Shen Shuren took office, he was indeed slowly filling up the number of people in the guard station left by Zuo Liangyu. , so it requires a lot of manpower.
After inquiring, the miners received very clear information: All miners are not allowed to leave until the Tieshan reconstruction project is completed, but those who perform well, work hard, and observe discipline during the reconstruction project can be selected to join the army after next year's spring plowing.
And from now on, your performance in mining projects will also be included in the points. After a winter of work, those with high points and good performance, as long as they pass the physical examination, may become officers directly after joining the army and supervise other miner recruits.
With this certainty, everyone finally started working hard like a chicken blood.
…
"Your Excellency is so benevolent and righteous. It is really unbelievable that you can reform and educate these ignorant people to this extent. It has never been seen before."
"Although no new craftsmanship has been used recently, the output of this mine has increased by several percent out of thin air. After an in-depth investigation, the official said that the craftsmen are working harder and harder, and everyone works hard with their lives. The master's skill in controlling the people, It’s truly extraordinary.”
After seeing that the mine reconstruction was progressing smoothly and that everyone was putting their lives at risk, the staff and assistant managers around Shen Shuren were also completely convinced.
Not only was Song Mingde convinced, but even the county magistrate Liu Minsheng, who had previously felt that "these illiterate roughnecks could not be reformed," changed his attitude 180 degrees.
This is called teaching without distinction!
However, Shen Shuren was not complacent at all. Before the results came out, he had already firmly believed that the transformation of the mining link would be a complete victory, so he had already invested his energy in the next stage of industrial transformation in advance.
In the past few days, he has been thinking about how to improve the iron-making process, and made some small optimizations in the furnaces and materials.
Faced with Liu Minsheng's praise, he just said lightly:
"The people can be successful, but we can't worry about the beginning. As long as we believe that what we do is beneficial to the people, even if the people don't understand it for the time being, we can implement it first. When they taste the benefits, they will naturally understand. This has nothing to do with What does it have to do with teaching without distinction?”
As soon as he said these words, Liu Minsheng was immediately speechless again, not knowing how to answer it at all.
He was originally willing to flatter him and felt that Master Daotai had done a good job in educating him.
"With education there is no distinction", that is what Confucius said in "The Analects of Confucius. Wei Linggong";
But Chen Shuren boasted that "the people can succeed, but cannot worry about the beginning", which is what Shang Yang said in the "Shang Jun Shu".
After all, Magistrate Liu is a student of sages. How dare he accept such rebellious and unethical remarks?
Chen Shuren was too lazy to talk nonsense to such a pedantic and useless person, so he directly told him not to disturb him. Today he would inspect and study the improvement of smelting furnaces with Song Mingde.
Liu Minsheng knew that he could not get any favors, so he quickly stepped down to relieve the embarrassment. He became increasingly confused about his immediate boss.
He couldn't help but secretly think to himself: "A few days ago, it was said that 'Fu Ji's important affairs must be people-oriented'. That was what was written in the "Book of Shu. Biography of the First Lord". Today it was said that 'It is good at Shen, the magic of Shang'. This is what was written in the Book of Wei. The description in "The Chronicles of Emperor Wu".
This Shen Daotai is really a man who is both good and evil, and is unfathomable. How can anyone in the world possess Liu Bei's benevolence and Cao Cao's magic?"
…
After driving away the mediocre people who were only interested in flattering others instead of doing serious business, Shen Shuren could finally concentrate on the next important thing.
He and Song Mingde had been thinking about iron-making stoves and techniques for several days, and now they finally had some ideas.
A while ago, after the rectification of the mine was just arranged, Shen Shuren went to war for the first time and inspected the ironmaking workshop. He felt a bit surprised and felt like he had traveled through time.
Although he had read Joseph Needham's "History of Chinese Science and Technology" in his previous life, he also knew that there were iron-making blast furnaces in ancient times (it is not the same thing as modern ones, and the process formula and structure are different, but at least they all have a relatively tall furnace cavity)
However, after observing the blast furnace of the Ming Dynasty up close and personal, Shen Shuren was quite surprised by its size and scale.
The blast furnace in Daye Iron Mountain is more than two feet high. It takes several days to produce a furnace of molten iron. The reaction speed is of course much slower than that of modern furnaces - if a modern blast furnace is faster, it can be completed in six hours. A furnace of molten iron has come out.
Shen Shuren was a liberal arts student in his previous life, and of course he didn't know much about the details of process structure. His understanding only stayed at the level of "History of Science and Technology".
So after observing for a few days, he found that he really couldn't improve the furnace structure and process, and he didn't understand it.
The only idea that can be thought of is to let the craftsmen find a way to make the furnace higher. Until modern times, the higher the blast furnace, the easier it is to react fully, which also helps to improve production efficiency and quality.
Shen Shuren didn't know exactly how to make it higher, but he could still do it according to the specified requirements. The specific methods could be discussed later.
Apart from asking the craftsman to build the height, the only thing he could think of was to improve the fuel - current blast furnaces still use charcoal as fuel, as well as coal.
Due to the inertia of time travellers, Shen Shuren of course recommended using coal, but Song Mingde and the craftsmen of the tube furnace persuaded him, saying that the molten iron produced from charcoal has fewer impurities and is more suitable for further steelmaking, while coal-based ironmaking is just a better choice. When coal is cheap, it can be dug directly and used, but the quality is not as good as that produced by charcoal refining.
When Shen Shuren first heard about this, he was stunned. After thinking for a day or two, he finally recalled that it was probably because the coal in the south was of poor quality and contained more phosphorus and sulfur impurities.
With the current war in chaos, it was impossible for him to use high-quality anthracite from Shanxi. Even if he could find it, it would not be possible with the transportation costs of the Ming Dynasty.
After much deliberation, a few days later, Chen Shuren suddenly recalled an idea: According to Joseph Needham's "History of Chinese Science and Technology", modern blast furnaces appeared in Europe in 1707. One of the main differences was that they switched to coke smelting. Steel.
Although the quality of coal in the south is poor, the coal can be smelted and incompletely burned like wood to burn charcoal, and then processed again to remove many organic impurities and sulfur-containing components, and then smelted with coke, which can be similar to the modern blast furnace. That makes sense.
Today is 1641, which is actually only 60 years away from 1707. At that time, there was no technological gap between the East and the West. Xu Guangqi and others had already translated and introduced Western technology, and they learned from each other's strengths and weaknesses.
Therefore, Chen Shuren does not need to worry about the structure at all. He only needs to understand the idea of changing the fuel, and the technicians can handle the rest by themselves.