I'm really not doing business

Chapter 747: Market for technology? Peaches can’t grow on a pear tree
Wang Chonggu highly advocated the theory of contradictions. Although he himself was an authoritarian worshiper, he hoped to establish a complete bottom-up supervision system in government-owned factories. The spear and the shield can only be reconciled through repeated conflicts. When the old contradictions are resolved, new contradictions will arise. It is not sustainable to rely solely on wisdom from top to bottom.

But the first exploration ended in failure.

Wang Chonggu looked a little lonely. This failure was a huge blow to him. He showed a conservative side in the exploration of the system. The people he chose were all old employees of the factory. There were more than 30,000 craftsmen in the government-owned factory, and they were not built out of thin air, but gathered together bit by bit. Today, the huge industry with 400,000 people gathered here started out as a vacant lot.

In the very end, he gave the seventy-four organizers of the gamblers twenty silver coins as a settlement. After all, the bills had not been settled yet, so it was considered an attempted crime. Otherwise, the case would be brought to the Shuntian Prefecture government, and there would be some turmoil in the court.

"Sometimes, people will go their separate ways as they go along." Zhu Yijun walked up. He originally came to watch the fun, but instead of seeing the fun, he saw a lose-lose situation in the process of institutional exploration. Wang Chonggu's institutional exploration failed, and the craftsmen were expelled from the government factory.

The labor remuneration in the state-owned factories was not very high, but the children could attend the third-level school in the state-owned factories, which was a rare benefit in the world.

There was not much Zhu Yijun could do. He could only comfort himself. Even though the Great Light Cult repeatedly portrayed the emperor as the embodiment of wisdom, and even though the identity of the Emperor of the Great Ming Dynasty itself was a divine destiny, Zhu Yijun never regarded himself as an omniscient and omnipotent god.

He does have some ideas for exploring the system of government-owned factories, but if he interferes, it will be counterproductive. On the road of exploration, many experiences are bloody lessons. Without experience, there will be repetitions in the future.

There is no way to avoid every pit on the way forward.

"Young Master Huang." As soon as Wang Chonggu saw His Majesty's attire, he knew that His Majesty was playing role-playing again. His Majesty has been playing this game for so many years and is not tired of it. It's like everyone in the Woolen Official Factory knows you as the emperor.

Zhu Yijun waved his hand and said with a smile: "Let's go for a walk."

"There is an assertion in class theory. I initially disagreed with Yuanfu's decision. Yuanfu said that class is a general term for social status, economic status and political status. There will definitely be individuals who betray their class, but there will absolutely be no collective that betrays their class." Wang Chonggu summed up his experience of failure.

Wang Chonggu felt that this statement was too decisive. How could it be possible that only individuals betrayed? However, practice poured a bucket of cold water on Wang Chonggu's head.

Wang Chonggu sighed and said, "I gave these union bosses power, which actually gave them a higher political and economic status. The union bosses broke away from the original craftsman class and became the oppressors of the craftsmen. Even if there are a few people in the union who are unwilling to go along with the crowd, most of them feel that they have become noble."

"What did they do?" Zhu Yijun looked at the craftsmen coming in and out of the official factory, looking left and right, looking around with curiosity, while communicating with Wang Chonggu.

Wang Chonggu shook his head and said, "These selected bosses swore to me on the first day that they would work diligently and conscientiously. On the third day, these bosses started to be lazy. Bosses also have to work."

"I saw it. They were like the local gentry, swinging invisible whips to beat the craftsmen, forcing others to do the work that should have belonged to them. I gave them the whips because in the eyes of the craftsmen, these big bosses are the confidants of me, the general manager, and ordinary craftsmen cannot afford to offend them."

"From the seventh day on, these bosses stopped working completely. On the twentieth day, they started forming cliques in the factory. People are like this everywhere, but what they did was particularly excessive."

"It's strange, it's really strange, they weren't like this before."

In fact, it is not surprising at all. The Ming Dynasty discussed this very clearly. It is a typical example of power alienation. When people gain power, they will be influenced by power.

Wang Chonggu described it in great detail. These big bosses who joined the union not only formed cliques within the union, but also outside the union. Anyone who did not join their small group would be excluded. In addition to being excluded, they would be assigned heavier tasks to make things difficult for them. Soon, people in the state-owned factories all joined various factions.

Production efficiency began to decline, although only a little, but what worried Wang Chonggu was that he felt the resentment among the craftsmen and their hostility towards each other.

Originally, the state-owned factory had a highly closed production model and offered very high welfare benefits, so the craftsmen were relatively peaceful. However, once the union emerged, the peace of the past was gone, and quarrels began, with endless arguments.

At this point, Wang Chonggu began to regret it.

"What happened next?" Zhu Yijun stopped and watched the craftsmen pull the freshly cleaned woolen cloth into a hand-cranked cylinder. Then some of the knotted woolen cloth went in from one end and out from the other, becoming visibly fluffy.

The Ming Emperor found it very magical. What was even more magical was that on the other side, there was a cylinder driven by an iron horse doing the same work.

As the production of iron horses increases, some highly repetitive tasks are being replaced by machines.

"Later, these big bosses started to collect monthly silver." Wang Chonggu said with a painful look on his face: "They really didn't do this before, but since they became big bosses of the union and had this status, they changed. They asked everyone to pay one penny of monthly silver."

"It was my fault. I overestimated the overall situation of the government factory."

Wang Chonggu knew that he had made a mistake in wishful thinking. There were not many educated craftsmen in the government factories. At the very least, everyone was a brick of the Ming Dynasty and no one was more noble than anyone else. This point was not widely recognized.

In fact, in the eyes of the craftsmen, Your Majesty is the boss, Wang Chonggu is the chief shopkeeper, and they are the emperor's household slaves. It was Your Majesty who took them in when they were desperate, provided them with a livelihood, and allowed them and their children to survive, and to live decently.

This idea is very common.

The conflict between the power of the monarch and the power of ministers has been a very difficult contradiction to reconcile since ancient times. In the Ming Dynasty, the vast majority of ministers were scholars. Some of them were even arrogant to the point of ignoring the imperial power, and Wang Chonggu himself was an usurper.

He underestimated the terrible impact of the Ming Dynasty's strict hierarchy. He asked some craftsmen who were oppressed and forced to pay monthly wages. These craftsmen did not dare to express any complaints, even though anger was already filling their eyes, because in their opinion, this was justified.

Without the emperor and the vice minister to run this factory, where would these craftsmen go? Your Majesty and the vice minister just want a little money from them.

Most of the craftsmen who paid their monthly silver had only one thought in their minds, that is, the money would eventually be given to Wang Ci Fu, or even the emperor.

Wang Chonggu, who is familiar with the production diagram and the labor theory of value, deeply knows that labor is valuable, labor is rewarded, labor rewards gain economic status, and economic status determines social status. Therefore, labor makes people free.

Without labor, there is no freedom.

The craftsmen have shackles in their hearts, which come from the kindness of the emperor's subordinates, from their hungry children, and from the smile on their wives' faces. The heavier the shackles on the craftsmen, the more they dare not resist. Even when facing craftsmen who are just like them, they dare not think of resisting.

Confucians use literature to disrupt the law, and martial artists use knights to break the ban. Only by reading can one understand clearly that everything one gets is not the emperor's favor, but the reward for one's own efforts, because the Ming Dynasty, which had just abolished the slave system, did not have a consensus on the labor theory of value.

In addition to the general lack of education, the material resources of government-owned factories were not yet rich enough.

"At least all the government-owned woolen factories must be transformed into mechanical workshops to have this foundation. I have thought this matter too simply, Your Majesty, it is my fault." Wang Chonggu explained another condition for the establishment of a trade union, which, in addition to universal education, is the material foundation.

The construction of the trade union system can only be completed when productivity is further improved, profits increase, and craftsmen receive more generous labor remuneration.

Even in the official factories of the Ming Dynasty, there was still a general consensus that sons were favored over daughters, such as drowning baby girls and women's virtue lies in their lack of talent. This was because the wealth in the hands of the craftsmen was not enough to make them agree that having a boy or a girl was the same. A typical example was that Liu Qinniang adopted a boy.

To change people’s general consensus, we need to have sufficient material wealth so that they don’t have to struggle for a living, only then can fundamental changes be achieved.

"Is Wang Ci Fu going to give up?" Zhu Yijun asked curiously. After experiencing this failure, would Wang Chonggu give up this idea?

Wang Chonggu said very firmly: "No! Your Majesty, this is the most important step in the exploration of the official factory!"

"To obtain sufficient economic and social status, political status must be granted. This is the general principle of the struggle. If the craftsmen are not given a political status that matches their status, the official factory will inevitably fail. This road will not last long, and even if the minister dies, the official factory will fall apart."

Wang Chonggu was anxious. He desperately wanted to leave something behind for the world. The older people get, the more they fear death. Instead, they fear that their lives have no meaning. His anxiety was that the official factory would fail, so he made attempts and explorations.

"Wang Ci Fu is only seventy years old. It is the right age for him to venture out!" Zhu Yijun once again encouraged Wang Chonggu to explore. This is a test that must be faced as the scale of the state-owned factory continues to expand. Overcoming it does not mean that the road ahead will be smooth. There are new contradictions waiting. Only by overcoming them can we face those new contradictions.

"Is Zhou Liangyin a member of the Jin Party?" Zhu Yijun suddenly asked.

Wang Chonggu bowed his head and said, "Yes, in the fifth year of Longqing, he worshipped Gao Gong as his master."

"His pilot project of elimination in Shanxi was successful." Zhu Yijun told Wang Chonggu the good news.

Nothing in the world can be achieved so easily.

After ten years of hard work and reclamation of wasteland, Zhou Liangyin finally won the emperor's forgiveness and got an opportunity. As soon as he took office, he streamlined and abolished bloated local government offices in Guangling County, Datong Prefecture. Zhou Liangyin encountered many setbacks and ended up in failure.

"He succeeded?" Wang Chonggu asked in disbelief.

"Tsk tsk, when I heard about it, I was as surprised as Wang Ci Fu. Guangling County, a county of 600 people, employed officials. In the tenth year of Wanli, as soon as he took office, he began to lay off officials, but no one was willing to work and the government office almost came to a standstill. He had to call people back. This time, it was Guangling again! More than half of them were laid off, and now there are less than people." Zhu Yijun talked about Zhou Liangyin's success.

Zhou Liangyin was about to give up, but the local gentry of Guangling County ran to Datong Prefecture to petition Zhou Liangyin for six or seven times, and Zhou Liangyin had no choice but to agree reluctantly.

At that time, Zhou Liangyin submitted a memorial requesting drastic cuts in Guangling County because it had reached a point where cuts had to be made.

When things went against his will, Zhou Liangyin realized that nothing could be done and gave up decisively. At that time, he had just been forgiven by the emperor and was unwilling to make a bigger mistake and cause the emperor to distrust him, especially to doubt his abilities.

But soon, local wise men and gentry discovered that the size of the clerks and yamen runners in Guangling County had expanded out of their control. The yamen runners, who had originally been controlled by the wise men and gentry, soon got out of their control due to the expansion of their size.

Once people have grown strong enough, they will never be willing to be inferior to others. In just one year, the number of yamen runners increased from 1078 to more than . Countless poor people and coolies went to these yamen runners. The yamen runners made up various reasons, demanded the collection of taxes, made their own rules, and levied taxes at will.

All the heavy taxes were levied on these masters. The local gentry turned to Zhou Liangyin for help. The original resistance turned into cooperation. The elimination of Guangling County went smoothly, reducing the population from more than 3,000 to less than 600. "Zhou Liangyin has started the elimination of the whole Shanxi Province. I hope he can succeed. Although this is not easy to do, it depends on human efforts." Zhu Yijun still held a pessimistic attitude towards Zhou Liangyin's elimination. Guangling County was special. It might not be successful in other places, but no one in Guangling County was optimistic about it. But Zhou Liangyin succeeded.

"What is this thing?" Zhu Yijun stared at the drum machine for a long time.

Wang Chonggu smiled and said: "Although wool washing can wash away most stains, it is still a bit dirty, and sometimes the accumulation and transportation of raw materials will make the wool become compacted, just like fluffing cotton, which needs to be fluffed before filling."

"At this time, this thing is needed. At the beginning, it was completely done by hand. Tearing apart the hair clumps, beating with wooden sticks, and loosening the bowstrings were all methods."

"Later, craftsmen invented this thing to speed up production."

The machine that the emperor was concerned about was officially called a loosening machine, while craftsmen called it a cotton fluffing machine. The rapidly rotating drum had barbs on it, which would hook down the compacted cotton and wool, and then rotate rapidly to shake off the remaining stains on the wool, making the compacted raw materials fluffy and easier to process.

There are countless such small inventions in woolen factories, all of which aim to speed up the process of turning wool into woolen cloth.

"Very good." Zhu Yijun did not go closer. If he went to watch the excitement, it might affect the craftsmen's production. So he watched from a distance for a while and chose to continue his inspection.

Zhu Yijun chatted with Wang Chonggu as they walked. The boy adopted by Liu Qinniang was taken back by his biological mother, and Liu Qinniang became alone again.

Liu Qinniang was an adopted child from an orphanage. Her nickname was Zheng San. Her father was a gambler who gambled heavily and never repented. He gambled away all the family property and also his wife, children and the elderly.

Before being sold, Zheng San's mother climbed over the wall and fled back to her mother's home, where she hid the rest of the time. The capital was the best place to be, and breaking into the house to rob people was disrespectful to the Shuntian government, so she hid there until the court abolished the slave status.

When Zheng San's mother left, she could not take her four-year-old child with her, so Zheng San was sold by his father. A child of that age could not be sold for much money. Zheng San was unlucky. He fell seriously ill just after being sold. The gambling house felt that they had lost money, so they threw him in front of the orphanage and left him to fend for himself.

It was also because Zheng San was lucky enough to survive that he was adopted by Liu Qiniang.

After the imperial court abolished the slave status of Zheng San's mother, she had been searching for her child. Her efforts paid off. After a year and three months, she finally found the child. Liu Qinniang couldn't bear to separate her child from his biological mother, so she returned the child to his biological mother.

"With Liu Qinniang's temper, she probably won't adopt another child." Wang Chonggu said with some emotion. Liu Qinniang earns a lot of money. When she gets old, the money she has saved will be enough to hire someone to take care of her.

"The envoy from the West said that Philip II wants to exchange markets for technology." Zhu Yijun talked about the requests made by the Western envoys and asked Wang Chonggu for his opinion.

Wang Chonggu said with a strange look on his face: "Your Majesty, the market cannot exchange technology, Felipe is a bit wishful thinking."

"Eh? Can't change it? Why does Wang Ci Fu say that?" Zhu Yijun was stunned and asked about the deeper meaning.

Wang Chonggu said with certainty: "When your majesty practiced calligraphy in the past, you relied on the accumulation of strokes, not on copying. This technique cannot be copied by copying. It is already amazing to be able to learn to be similar, but it lacks substance."

Wang Chonggu used calligraphy practice as a metaphor to tell the Ming Emperor that exchanging technology for marketization seems easy, but in practice, it will basically not succeed.

Wang Chonggu thought for a moment and continued, "This old master knows how to keep his secrets. Besides, the Ming Dynasty and the West do not speak the same language. The process of translating the Ming Dynasty's experience into Latin is inherently difficult. After all, the translator may not understand the meaning of those jargons."

"Well, even if we don't hide anything and really translate this, can they just copy it and succeed? There's a tangerine in the south of the Huai River and a citron in the north of the Huai River. Who knows what they'll end up with. A peach can't grow on a pear tree."

Legashi never translated any content related to steam engines because he knew very well that even if he translated it, it would be a mystery that no one could understand. Without such a broad foundation, it would be impossible to complete the construction.

Wang Chonggu does not believe that Westerners can replicate the Ming Dynasty technology by copying it, as the local environment and climate determine the local people.

"Okay, even if we in the Ming Dynasty are not secretive, their paintings are very similar, but there is still a problem. Can the cotton cloth produced in the West definitely sell better than the cotton cloth produced in the Ming Dynasty? If it can't sell better, all the initial investment will be wasted." Wang Chonggu talked about the biggest test of exchanging market for technology, market testing.

After overcoming various difficulties and gradually improving technology, we have finally completed large-scale production. Now we have to face the test of the market together with production sites with more mature industries and lower costs. This is the biggest difficulty for regions that are already at a commodity disadvantage.

Regions that have gained commodity advantages only need to lower prices slightly to make latecomers lose all their investments.

There is no warmth in the bloody struggle for interests, and in trade competition, there is no possibility that the other party will be kind.

"Uh..." Zhu Yijun stood in front of the mechanical workshop, and was stunned for a long time amid the roar of the iron horse before asking: "Is it really impossible to succeed in exchanging market for technology?"

"From a business perspective, the possibility of success is basically zero." Wang Chonggu did not make any assertions. Nothing in this world is so absolute.

However, from the perspectives of technology source, technology localization and market testing, exchanging market for technology is like flowers in the mirror and the moon in the water. If you really do that, the result is usually the loss of the market and the inability to build technology in your own country.

The road is walked step by step by oneself.

"What the Deputy Prime Minister said makes sense. I will take your advice." After Zhu Yijun figured out the key point, he said solemnly.

Zhu Yijun walked around the woolen cloth factory for a long time. Occasionally, he would stop some less busy craftsmen and chat about things in the factory. After walking around for almost an hour, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty ended his inspection and left the woolen cloth factory by car.

During the conversation with the craftsmen, Zhu Yijun learned about the resistance of the Ming Dynasty craftsmen to reading and literacy. The craftsmen always felt that it was completely unnecessary. Their lives were already foreseeable, and they were just craftsmen working in a factory. Reading and literacy was a complete waste of time. It was unnecessary for Wang Ci Fu to force the craftsmen to read. Instead of wasting time, they would rather educate their children.

After Zhu Yijun returned to Tonghe Palace, he continued to review memorials. Some censors had impeached Wang Chonggu. The trouble caused by the union in the government factory had apparently been heard by the censors. They had impeached Wang Chonggu, but they had to wait and see whether it would be useful.

[The matter has been handled properly, so there is no need to report it again.] Zhu Yijun approved this memorial.

"Uh... the customs in Southeast Asia are really puzzling to me." Zhu Yijun looked at Wang Jiaping's memorial with a very strange expression on his face. Recently, there has been a very strange evil wind in Southeast Asia. Zhu Yijun really finds it difficult to understand the mental state of these Southeast Asian natives.

There has been a trend of comparing wives in Nanyang recently. The comparison is about whose wife is more beautiful, and the standard of comparison is even more outrageous, which is to see whose wife can seduce more Ming Dynasty men.

Wang Jiaping said: If a barbarian has a wife who has an affair with a Chinese, we will prepare wine and food and let them drink and sleep together. The husband will not be surprised and will say to the neighbors: My wife is beautiful and is loved by the Chinese.

Zhu Yijun was dumbfounded, thinking that he had not read enough and had misunderstood the meaning. However, after reading Wang Jiaping's memorial, he realized the outrageous extent of this trend.

The Nanyang barbarians would send their wives to the ports to solicit business. Once they were noticed by Ming merchants and sailors, they would be brought to their homes, and the barbarians would prepare wine and food to entertain them. In addition to drinking together, they would also arrange for their wives to sleep with them. After the Ming people left, the barbarians would tell their neighbors that their wives were very beautiful and were especially loved by the Ming people.

A stone should also be placed in front of the door to record the number of people. The more stones there are in front of a person's door, the more popular his wife is.

"Well, I can't understand it either." Feng Bao had also read this memorial and was extremely shocked. According to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, if someone caught an adulterer or both of them, they would be beaten to death. It was all their own fault. Tang Zhihan was framed by Liu and was almost beaten to death.

But in Nanyang, one has to prepare wine and food for entertaining, watch his wife sleep with him, and show off everywhere. It is really very strange.

"Wang Jiaping said that the key is to serve the Ming people well, and then you will get some wealth." Zhu Yijun said in amazement.

The Ming people had to pay, otherwise they would be harassed. Most of the prices had already been negotiated at the port. Porcelain, pottery, ironware, floral cloth, colored silk, gold, silver, copper coins, glass beads, umbrellas and the like could all be used as payment, and these things could be exchanged for a lot of goods in the hands of the Nanyang barbarians.

People have died because of this, but the people of the Ming Dynasty were very vicious. If merchants or sailors disappeared for no reason, the guards of the Governor's Office would really search house to house for them, extort and kill them. They would be beheaded on the spot or sunk into the sea. This happened so many times that a strange industry formed around the port.

If the wife is pregnant with a child from a Ming dynasty man, the emperor will pile up the stones in front of the door, and will give birth to the child and raise him.

According to local people, children born are less likely to die and are smart. From the perspective of racial continuation, this is somewhat true. Because the Yi people are all tribes, it is inconvenient to travel and they are isolated for a long time, so it is inevitable that there will be close relatives. Children are really born with deformities and are prone to die.

It is said in "Guoyu": If a man and a woman have the same surname, their offspring will not be prosperous.

The reason why Wang Jiaping reported this matter was that many sailors who went to Southeast Asia to do business would bring back some women when they arrived at the place. Wang Jiaping asked His Majesty the Emperor whether these women should be allowed to enter the Ming Dynasty.

"If you have offspring, they will be allowed in." Zhu Yijun considered it and followed the old practice that had been implemented for a long time.

If the mother is a barbarian, the husband is a Ming, and the child is a Ming, the mother is still a barbarian; if both parents are barbarians and the child is born in Ming, he is still a barbarian;

"Your Majesty, battle reports, battle reports from the front line!" A Ti cavalryman rushed into the imperial study of Tonghe Palace and delivered the battle report from the Korean front line to the emperor.

Zhu Yijun stood up suddenly and noticed that it was not a good news.

"The Incheon landing failed." Zhu Yijun's eyes went dark. He calmed himself down, opened the sealing wax, read the battle report carefully, and then he breathed a sigh of relief.

The Ming navy launched a landing operation in Incheon, but failed. The reason for the failure was very simple. On the day of the landing, God was not kind to them and it rained heavily, so they had to retreat to Yizhou and Penglai, Shandong.

"I thought we had lost the battle. Let's make some more preparations and land again next time." Zhu Yijun sat down and gave instructions.

Victory and defeat are common in the military. If you fail this time, try again next time.

(End of this chapter)