Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 458: Ask for a fourth rank, give a third rank

After years, the R&D department, which eliminated external interference, embarked on a path of rapid development.

First, a breakthrough was made in the wool spinning technology. The steam engine drove the textile machine, the wool weaving technology was successful, and the construction of a new factory began.

How to solve the problem of wool source? Of course, the solution is to take the road of sheep eating people, but it’s just sheep eating people on the grassland.

The Great Zhou is not Britain and will not use arable land to raise sheep. It only needs to reach an acquisition agreement with the various tribes on the grassland and exchange wool for supplies or silver dollars.

The envoy of the Chahar tribe from the Honglu Temple looked at the contract in front of him and could not believe his eyes. He repeatedly confirmed: "Master Mi, is this really the grace of the court?"

"That's natural. How can a mere wool fool you?" Mi Lai, a pragmatic man, spoke seriously, feeling a little uneasy in his heart.

The results of the early weaving attempts came out. The quality of the woolen cloth is very good and it has excellent warmth-keeping effect in winter. The soldiers of the Shenjiying who tried it on said that they no longer need to wear thick cotton-padded clothes in winter in the future.

The price offered by the R&D Department was one silver dollar for thirty kilograms of wool. As an official of the Honglu Temple, he couldn't work in vain, right? So, he offered one silver dollar for fifty kilograms.

Fortunately, it’s not too dark, at least it didn’t double the price.

The Chahar envoy, Gerile, rolled his eyes many times, and always felt that the so-called imperial grace mentioned by Mi was a bit like pie in the sky.

[The people of the Central Plains Emperor are pretty nice. ]

So what are you waiting for? Sign the contract now!
A contract for the purchase of 100,000 kilograms of wool per year was signed smoothly. Mi Lai turned around and went to the Khorchin tribe again, using the same rhetoric: the emperor's grace is great, and your blessings have come.

No need for 996, just fifty kilograms of wool can be exchanged for a silver dollar.

The Horqin tribe had no reason to hesitate. Where could they find such a good thing? They signed quickly, fearing that they would regret it in the future.

After securing a contract for 200,000 kilograms of wool per year from two tribes, Mi Lai went to Jia Lian with a smile on his face to report.

"Master Jia, thank you for taking care of us old subordinates. After discussing with our colleagues, we all agreed that you should take half of the extra 20 kilograms, and we will share the rest."

Jia Lian looked at the contract and didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but he couldn't ask him to sign it again, otherwise they would have no connection in the future.

"I don't need this little money. I am really grateful that my former colleagues still remember me. In this way, I will just take the five kilograms of benefits."

Five jin is already a lot. A woolen coat weighs only three to five jin. Jia Lian felt guilty about taking this money.

Mi Lai was not polite and thanked Jia Lian on behalf of his colleagues.

In this way, both sides thought the other side was stupid and both felt that they had made a lot of money, just like the process of a rabbit selling firecrackers later.

All in all, everyone is happy.

Jia Lian's mind was not on this, his mind was on the railway.

The first animal-powered railway has already started construction, and it is planned to be built for 60 miles, connecting the mines, coal mines and cement plants. As long as this is done, Jia Lian will move to steam locomotives next.

It can only be said that the Zhou Dynasty's technical officials and top craftsmen had excellent craftsmanship. Jia Lian proposed the idea and they were responsible for it in advance.

I would like to thank Henry for visiting and bringing the model of the steam engine. Based on this, we can use the lathe developed by the craftsmen to increase the power of the steam engine.

No matter what, you can't delay and you have to be quick. As long as you make achievements and see the benefits, there will be people who will follow you.

The only unfortunate thing is that it has not snowed since the beginning of the year. When we started construction in early February, the snow began to melt, which made the construction somewhat difficult. But this is not a problem. It is still the off-season for farming, so we should seize the time window for employment and strive to complete the project as soon as possible.

The only trouble was the land acquisition. Jia Lian acted like a gangster and used the land first, no matter whose it was. When the landlord came to talk, Jia Lian would pay according to the market price. If the landlord did not want money or did not want to sell the land, he would arrest the landlord first. When the landlord's family came to redeem the landlord, he would scare them first and then make them sign the contract. The landlord would definitely not lose money, but he was very resentful.

Of course the landlords were resentful, but the ordinary people were not. Not only were they not resentful, they were quite happy.

Working on the construction site is paid, ten cents a day, with two meals a day. Where can I find such a job? At this time, before the spring ploughing starts, isn't it better to come out and earn money than to do nothing?

Wages were settled on the same day, and every day one could see horse-drawn carriages coming out of the bank, carrying baskets of copper coins to the construction site.

You can't just do whatever you want when working on a construction site. Anyone found cheating will be fired.

Because you are constructing in a plain area and there are no rivers along the way, the construction can be completed quickly. The planned construction period is five months, which will definitely affect spring ploughing.

But there is no other way. During the spring ploughing, the progress can only be slowed down. Therefore, more work must be done as soon as possible before the spring ploughing.

In fact, this is a simple railway. If it were modern, the construction would not be difficult at all. But in ancient times, the construction was still quite difficult.

Jia Lian has been keeping an eye on this matter for some time. Every day when he arrives at the construction site, he sees people busy everywhere, transporting earth, leveling the road with huge stone rollers, and laying rails.

This is really a railroad track, not steel. It's not that Jia Lian wanted to cut corners, it's really made according to the requirements of I-beams. At present, Zunhua has not solved the process, let alone the production capacity.

All I can say is that wishes are beautiful, but reality always finds ways to hit people!
There was nothing that could be done about it. The sales of cement were so good that without saying anything, the emperor placed a big order, requiring all the main roads in the capital to be hardened.

This is a project that facilitates the people and also benefits the people. It aims to provide a place for the idle labor force in the capital to work and earn money.

This project is not just about hardening the road surface, but also about clearing the sewers and rebuilding the drainage system.

How should I put it? The geographical environment of Beijing determines that once it rains heavily, there will be flooding everywhere. If we do something, we can better cope with the difficulties. At least under normal circumstances, the flooding will not be too serious.

Other ministries of industry can do the project, but the problem is that the Ministry of Industry is really not able to do it now because there is no cement. The emperor was also partial and directly gave the project to the R&D Department.

The R&D Department could only expand the size of the construction team. In addition, the newly built factory needed to recruit workers. By the middle of the year, when a new round of expansion was completed, the number of employees in the R&D Department, including the engineering team, was nearly 100,000.

This is really a behemoth. In order to protect his own interests, Jia Lian also set up security teams in various departments. Although they are not equipped with firearms, they are all set up in accordance with the military. There are not many people, only more than a thousand, but daily training has been going on, and at a critical moment, a thousand people can be pulled out.

Running a factory requires organization, and running a project also requires organization. One of the characteristics of industrialization is to organize people.

When people are not organized, they are just a group of scattered sand. Once they are organized, they may be issued weapons and become an army the next moment.

After inspecting the construction site, Jia Lian returned to the city and went to the cabinet and found Zhang Tingen.

"If you have something to say, please tell me. I'm very busy!" Zhang Tingen was really rude when he saw Jia Lian. When Jia Lian had nothing to do, he would never come to the office to find him.

"Then I'll be frank. The level of the R&D Department is too low. Please bring it up at the cabinet meeting." Jia Lian stated his purpose straight away. Zhang Tingen stopped what he was doing and looked at him and said, "Tell me more about it."

Jia Lian had a written report and handed it to Zhang Tingen.

Unexpectedly, Zhang Tingen said, "Put it down. Just tell me directly. Get a general idea first, and I will take a closer look at it later."

Jia Lian had to start with the workshops. Excluding the original military factories, the existing workshops have added glass, cement, coal briquettes, wool textiles, and soy sauce factories. The size of the engineering team has quadrupled and is still expanding. Not counting temporary workers, there are 50,000 regular workers, and including temporary workers, there are 100,000. Not to mention, there are 40,000 people working on the railway construction site every day, and at least 3,000 people working on the city projects every day. They are busy everywhere.

It can only be said that many current projects can only pile up manpower, especially the work such as earthwork, which requires more concentrated manpower.

"I plan that the person in charge of each factory will be at least a fifth-rank official. The original R&D department was headed by students, and their job level in the R&D department was a fifth-rank doctor. Now it is obviously not suitable, there are too many people. At least the rank should be raised to the fourth rank, so that the people below will have a sense of purpose in their work."

After hearing Jia Lian's words, Zhang Tingen rubbed his brows with a headache and sighed, "Do you know that from last year to now, you have poached at least thirty people from various government offices. The Ministry of Personnel has said many times that the Minister of Personnel should be you, Jia Lian."

Jia Lian sneered, "Master, these talents were just hardworking oxen in their original offices. There was a seventh-rank official in the Ministry of Works who had been there for eight years. He was almost forty years old and still a seventh-rank official. In the daily work of the government, the people who work there don't get promoted, and their salaries are not much. The gray income is just a little bit of oil and water. This person went to the Research and Development Department and became the head of the department, a sixth-rank official. Liu Chuan, who invented cement, had not moved from the Ministry of Works for five years. When he came to the Research and Development Department, his commission from cement alone was over a thousand taels a month, and he was already a fifth-rank official. They are unfair in their work and can't keep the talents who work, and they still have the nerve to complain? If you have the guts, say it in front of me, and I'll slap him in the face."

"Really? Pan Jixun, Lord Pan also said, I'll call him over, can you beat him for me to see?" Zhang Tingen directly hit him in the face. Jia Lian was speechless when he heard it, and laughed twice: "This won't work!"

Zhang Tingen then asked, "What's your last name? Look how crazy you are! Do you still remember your last name?"

Jia Lian remained silent, a silent resistance.

Zhang Tingen scratched his head. Since he became the Prime Minister, his hair has been falling out a lot. He couldn't help but sigh, "My white hair is getting shorter and shorter. I can hardly hold a hairpin! I haven't been the Prime Minister for half a year, and I have aged a lot."

"Teacher, please take care of your health. Don't learn from Zhuge Liang, who would exhaust himself to death." Jia Lian quickly showed concern and flattered him calmly.

"Don't compare me with Zhuge Liang, I'm afraid it will shorten my life!" Zhang Tingen quickly said modestly, not everyone dares to compare themselves to Zhuge.

In history, there seems to be only one person who dared to compare himself to Zhuge Liang, and that person called himself Jin Liang. He was also a remarkable figure, without him the Western Regions would have been lost.

There is also a Little Zhuge, which is a nickname given to him by others. The presence of the word "small" reduces the value of the name a lot.

Both of them are modern figures. People in ancient times had even greater respect for Zhuge Liang. Let alone comparing them, even having any connection with them would be considered blasphemy.

In any case, Jia Lian succeeded, and Zhang Tingen felt better. After all, Jia Lian compared him to Zhuge Liang. What a good student he was, and he viewed himself in that way.

"Alright, I'll bring up your matter at the cabinet meeting and see if it works."

Although Zhang Tingen did not make any guarantees, the matter was basically settled.

But before that, Zhang Tingen went to see the emperor and talked about this matter in person, so as not to launch a surprise attack at the meeting.

Emperor Chenghui was a little hesitant after hearing this and asked, "Do you think it's appropriate, my dear?"

Zhang Tingen said, "According to Jia Lian, the R&D Department is now a huge entity and needs to be taken seriously. It is really inappropriate if it is still a fifth-rank government office. In my opinion, it is more appropriate to raise it to the fourth rank, on par with Shuntian Prefecture."

Emperor Chenghui had other ideas, and after a moment of hesitation, he said, "At least a third-rank rank. Since he wants a rank, let's give him a higher rank."

"Your Majesty, do you mean to arrange a steady old minister to take charge of the R&D department? When the time is right, we should give him a warning?" Zhang Tingen seemed to be testing the waters, but in fact, his heart skipped a beat.

Is this a sign of trying to reach out to the R&D department?

"That's not good. Jia Lian is most afraid of someone telling him what to do. It will definitely cause trouble. The government office is still a third-rank official, with an assistant minister, but no one will be sent there. Jia Lian will be in charge."

Zhang Tingen felt jealous after hearing this. When His Majesty treated Jia Lian, the word "partiality" was written all over his face.

"This is not good. Jia Lian will not reach adulthood until the new year, and the third rank seems to be forcing things." Zhang Tingen felt that he should help Jia Lian to suppress his pressure.

Emperor Chenghui waved his hand generously: "He is originally a fourth-rank official. The remuneration owed to him has never been made up before, so I will make it up to him this time. If it is difficult to arrange for him in other government offices, then upgrade him to the Research and Development Department."

"In that case, I will speak at the meeting." Zhang Tingen had no choice but to agree and did not force Jia Lian.

Emperor Chenghui shook his head and said, "I will say it, and you will go and talk. They will definitely quarrel."

This really shows off the people in the cabinet. As long as there is an imbalance in interests, there will definitely be quarrels.

Jia Lian's original intention of getting promoted was to find a channel for promotion for the officials below. Once you get people here, you have to be responsible for their future.

Unexpectedly, he only wanted a fourth-rank position, but the emperor gave him a third-rank position.

After the emperor and his ministers discussed and decided, they held a cabinet meeting the next day, and Emperor Chenghui came straight to the point.

"My Lords, there is a report of the Research and Development Department on the table. I was shocked after reading it. In just two or three years, it has developed to such a scale. Jia Lian is a great talent. I have always been unconventional in employing people. As long as they can serve the court and get things done well, I will not hesitate to reward them. I plan to upgrade the Research and Development Department to the Research and Development Office, which is a third-rank official. Please discuss it!"

After Emperor Chenghui finished speaking, there was complete silence. Everyone except Zhang Tingen looked stunned. This was not without precedent, this was going to happen from heaven.

Originally, Jia Lian's rank of fourth rank was outrageous. If you look through the history books, how many people could reach such a high position at this age?
"This is inappropriate, isn't it?" Guo Yan said it reluctantly. He really had to say it.

Ning Ke also echoed: "It is indeed inappropriate."

Pan Jixun remained silent. He didn't know whether to oppose or support. He was a working person. He knew that Jia Lian had gathered a group of working officials. If these people followed Jia Lian, they would have a good promotion path if the R&D department was upgraded. Although these people defected, Pan Jixun still hoped that those who worked would have a future.

But Pan Jixun couldn't support it either, so he had to remain silent.

Lin Ruhai also fell silent. He was a little confused about what was going on and why Jia Lian had no idea about it beforehand.

In fact, Jia Lian didn't want to say it, because if he wanted to be promoted to the fourth rank, there would be no problem, as he himself was a fourth-rank official.

Therefore, there was no need to tell Lin Ruhai in advance. Who would have thought that the emperor would directly promote him to the third rank.

"After counting, Jia Lian came of age after the Chinese New Year. Looking through the history books, it seems that the only similar minister is Lu Mengzheng. It's not without precedent." Zhang Tingen looked through the history books for evidence, which was really painstaking. He didn't mention Gan Luo, that was a special case. After all, if we want to count, we have to start from the formalization of the imperial examination. Before the Song Dynasty, it was not considered a formal imperial examination.

Emperor Chenghui looked at everyone and said, "Vote!"

(End of this chapter)