I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 929 Nothing is taken for granted in this world
10:40 AM Standard Time.

The train slowly pulled into Tianjin Station on time.

Since the advent of the wired telegraph, when a passenger or freight train passes a station, the dispatching room of that station immediately sends information to the rear station through a dedicated railway line, and the information arrives instantly.

That’s right, there are currently two sets of Daming telegraph lines.

One is the wired telegraph line of the Telegraph Bureau directly under the Ministry of War, and the other is the internal line of the Railway Administration itself.

Civilian cables are laid on wooden poles beside railways or straight roads, while those for railway interiors are laid in cement pipes on the roadside.

The lines and power supplies are independent and do not interfere with each other.

It was Zhu Yijun who initially advocated the implementation of this policy, refuted the "wasteful" arguments of some ministers, and insisted on doing so.

First of all, we should avoid the conflict between civil and railway lines.

Second, ensure there is redundancy and backup.

If there is a problem with the civilian equipment, the railway equipment can still be used. Conversely, if there is a problem with the railway equipment, the civilian equipment can still be used as an emergency measure.

After the railway was equipped with wired telegraph, the dispatching level was immediately raised to a new stage, and the punctuality rate was greatly improved.

Besides, this is the emperor's special train, and the Gyeonggi Bureau will do its utmost to ensure its safety and punctuality.

Hebei Governor Liang Yuanbao and Provincial Governor Li Si greeted him on the platform.

As we can tell from his name, Liang Yuanbao is the son of a merchant. He initially followed his father in business and was one of the first group of people to join Yang Jinshui, along with Hu Ruguang, Pan Yinglong and Liu Yupu.

However, he was only a student, lacking a lot of experience and knowledge. However, he was diligent and attentive, with a similar character to Nangong Ye, and had strong execution ability.

Along the way, he was invited by Hu Ruguang to serve as his deputy to help him revitalize Hebei's economy.

Now he has finally become a high-ranking official, the Governor of Hebei.

Li Si was a Jinshi in the 41st year of Jiajing, and was also an early disciple of Li Zhi. After several trials and tribulations, he also reached his current position.

The southern tour plan was jointly formulated by Feng Bao, Yang Jinshui, Song Gongliang and Liu Yi.

They took a train south in the first month of the year, secretly surveyed each station on the spot, and drew up three plans, with three alternative "stations" for each station, which were finally determined by Zhu Yijun.

Zhu Yijun called Liang Yuanbao and Li Si into his carriage, had a detailed conversation with them for two hours, and then invited them to have lunch together.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, Zhu Yijun, who had taken a short rest, began his inspection with Zhu Xuanni and four others, as well as Zhang Siwei and other entourage, accompanied by Liang Yuanbao and Li Si.

The first stop is the Tianjin Thermos Bottle Factory.

Zhu Yijun inspected Luanzhou three times. The farthest one was in the eighth year of Wanli, when he went to Shenyang along the newly built Qinshen Railway.

He first inspected Fushun along the newly completed western section of the Shenji Line (Shenyang to Jilin), and then inspected Anshan along the newly completed northern section of the Shenjin Line (Shenyang to Jinzhou).

That was the second heavy industrial base of the Ming Dynasty, which was vigorously developed by the cabinet after the fifth year of Wanli, with Fushun and Anshan as coal and iron bases and Shenyang, located between the two, as the manufacturing center.

Since Zhang Juzheng, the cabinet has also inspected Luanzhou, Tianjin and other places many times.

There is already a complete reception process.

Zhu Yijun and his entourage, dressed in simple clothes, either business uniforms, work clothes, or Shanghai clothes, walked into the heavily guarded thermos factory one after another.

Today, not only the local guards and army field troops were dispatched to Tianjin City and the factories and mines to be inspected, but also the Marines near Dagu were called in.

Some of the thermos bottle factories were on alert.

Their sky-blue uniforms, the Type 02A helmets they wore, and the Type 07B rifles they carried on their shoulders made it clear at first glance that they were different from the army and the guards.

Almost all of the factories and mines in the Ming Dynasty were carved out of a template. There was an open space at the entrance, surrounded by trees and green belts, and on the left and right sides were cultural windows and educational windows.

Zhu Yijun and his group first walked to the cultural window on the left and looked at the propaganda posters above.

The paper is snow-white, the ink is brand new, and you can still feel the ink with a light touch.

Well, summer is here and the seaside is a bit humid.

Everyone understood each other tacitly and looked at it with great interest.

After reading several pictorials, Zhang Siwei praised them highly, "Good, well written. Your Majesty, this thermos factory has put a lot of effort into the cultural window.

These propaganda posters are easy to understand, with simple and clear pictures and words that are clear and concise. Even people who are not very literate can understand them easily. Some of them advocate breaking the bad custom of favoring boys over girls, popularizing legal knowledge, emphasizing safe production, and respecting the elderly and loving the young.

Your Majesty, I think they have done a very good job and are a model for the construction of a new civilization in factories and mines."

Zhu Yijun nodded, which was rare. "That's right."

It’s just a show-off project, so what if it’s just superficial work!

Some things must be done. Over time, through what people see and hear, their thoughts will be shaped, and their subconscious will tell them what is true, good, and beautiful and can be done, and what is ugly and illegal and cannot be done.

Perhaps many workers will look at it with disdain, what a joke.

But if you look at it every day and go over it in your mind every day, it will form a steel imprint over time.

So it must be encouraged.

A word of praise from above will make the people below keep doing it for a long time.

The factory manager who was accompanying the introduction was so happy that his face was about to break from laughing.

Everyone turned to the right again.

The two billboards on the right are the commendation and criticism lists.

The commendation is inside. Today's outstanding model is so-and-so from workshop.

Today, the factory discipline inspection department conducted a routine inspection and found that someone in a certain workshop was late and someone in the workshop was smoking illegally.
How much is the fine respectively?

After many investigations, Zhu Yijun deeply felt that the people of Ming Dynasty were generally lazy due to the influence of the old small peasant economy. To put it bluntly, they were unorganized and undisciplined.

It is often a difficult problem for these people to strictly follow the factory's work and rest schedule and observe safety production discipline when they enter the factory. Zhu Yijun turned to Zhang Siwei and Pan Yinglong and said.

"If we rely solely on monetary rewards, things may get worse. Some workers may be greedy for credit and take risks in order to get rewards, which may seriously violate production safety discipline.

However, if punishment is relied upon without reward, many workers will become irresponsible and will just muddle through as long as they don't make mistakes.
In order to increase worker enthusiasm and improve production efficiency, factories across the country are actively exploring.

However, the factory in Luanzhou is still leading the way.

The three major manufacturing bureaus of Kaiping, Yongping, Lulong and Luanzhou, as well as the Gyeonggi Shipbuilding Bureau, jointly with professors from the Management Department of the School of Economics of Peking University, established the Institute of Industrial Management, which specifically conducted research on how to improve production efficiency.

The Manufacturing Bureau and the Shipbuilding Bureau provided actual research objects, and professors from the Management Department of the School of Economics of Peking University combined theory with practice, conducted a variety of experiments for comparison, and obtained actual results and data.

Great results
The magazine "Industrial Management" is a journal of the Institute of Industrial Management, which specializes in publishing relevant research results. You can take a look at it."

Zhu Yijun pointed at the director of the thermos bottle factory and said, "You factory and mine managers should be more worthy of attention."

Yang Jinshui said, "Your Majesty, the Ministry of Finance has signed an agreement with the Institute of Industrial Management to start an industrial management training class and organize managers of holding companies to participate in the training."

According to Zhu Yijun's deployment, the Shaofujian is also gradually being reformed.

It now has two responsibilities. One is to purchase items used in the palace, and this authority is under the charge of the newly established Imperial Bureau.

They obtained the lists of materials needed for the palace every year, every month and every day from the six bureaus and one department, and then held public bidding, inviting qualified companies to bid.

During this period, an evaluation committee will be responsible for the review.

After the materials are put into storage, they are inspected and accepted by the Imperial Household Bureau and six bureaus and one department, and then transferred to the inner treasury of the palace.

The Audit Bureau of the Shaofujian was responsible for the audit from beginning to end. After the tender was delivered and accepted, it would be audited again and handed over to the Shaofujian Duzhi Bureau for payment.

During this period, Zhu Yijun would entrust the Censorate to organize mid-year and year-end audits.

The procedure is cumbersome, and although it cannot completely eliminate malpractices such as favoritism, corruption, and manipulation, it is much better than the previous extensive procurement model.

Emperor Sejong's daily clothes cost nearly ten thousand taels of silver. Who would dare to believe it?

For Zhu Yijun, no matter how luxurious a casual outfit is, it would cost less than 500 yuan.

In the past, the outer court complained every day that the palace was spending too much. It was not that the expenses were really high, but that there were too many people asking for money.

Another important responsibility of the Shaofujian was to manage relevant assets on behalf of the royal family.

It is now gradually becoming an asset management company, similar to BlackRock Group, with the main responsibilities being assumed by the newly established Asset Management Bureau.

It not only has functions similar to those of the BlackRock Group, but also bears the responsibilities of a sovereign fund separately from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, which is directly under the Ministry of Revenue of the Cabinet.

After the establishment of the Central Bank of the Ming Dynasty and the Bank of the Ming Dynasty, the original policy-oriented banks, Huijin Bank and Wells Fargo Bank, were gradually reformed.

Huijin Bank was changed to Huijin Bureau, becoming a "state-owned asset management group" directly under the Ministry of Revenue, while Wells Fargo Bank became the core industry of the Shaofujian Asset Management Bureau, through which it controlled many other enterprises in the Ming Dynasty.

Now the Ming Dynasty commercial banks include four state-owned banks, namely Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Minfu Bank, Communications Bank and Construction Bank, as well as eight private banks, namely Fuguo Bank, China Merchants Bank, Xingye Bank, Huifeng Bank, Ruixing Bank, Ping An Bank, Nanyang Bank and Dongfang Bank.

Zhu Yijun nodded with satisfaction. Yang Jinshui was indeed an old man who had followed him for many years. He was very sharp and could grasp the key points.

He turned to Xu Zhenming and Pan Yinglong and said, "Should we organize the cabinet as well? We should keep learning new things."

At present, 50% of the most profitable factories, mines, banks and other industrial and commercial enterprises in the Ming Dynasty are controlled by the Shaofujian, and 30% are controlled by the Taifusi.

Heavy industries such as machinery manufacturing and shipbuilding, the country's most important equipment, were all in the hands of the Shaofujian and Taifu Temple.

Xu Zhenming quickly replied: "I will send a telegram back to the capital tonight to convey the emperor's will to Prime Minister Wang and ask the Imperial Household Department to take action as soon as possible."

Xu Rudong is an honest man. The biggest advantage of an honest man is that he knows how to put himself in the right position.

Without going into the office building, Zhu Yijun and his party went directly to the workshop.

The core of the thermos is to use glass to burn a cylinder with an interlayer, and then use mercury and other chemical reagents to coat a thin silver reflective layer in the interlayer.

Finally, a steam-powered vacuum pump is used to evacuate the interlayer into a near vacuum. At the same time, the flamethrower softens the tail that is deliberately left and clamps them together to seal.

Check the quality and carefully install it into the casing and secure it.

The higher-end outer shell is made of stainless steel, while the more common ones are made of iron sheet or bamboo rattan. It is usually decorated with patterns and equipped with a cork. Finally, it is inspected and tested, and the instructions for use and certificate are affixed after passing the inspection.

Just pack it in a box and it can be shipped out for sale.

Zhu Xuanni and three other people were standing on tiptoe from a distance in the workshop, watching the bustling production line, and they were very excited.

It turns out that the thermos we use every day is made in this way.

Next we went to the enamel factory next door.

The enamel factory now not only produces enameled pots, pans, and bowls with iron sheet as core and enameled surface, but has also expanded to produce stainless steel pots and bowls, cloisonné products, and zinc-tin alloy products, adding the function of a hardware processing plant.

The production environment is also quite bad.

The heat is overwhelming, the dust is everywhere, and the noise is constant. People will feel very uncomfortable after staying in there for less than five minutes.

After the tour, everyone was sweating profusely.

Zhu Xuanni couldn't help but say: "We were sweating just by looking at it, and the noise inside made us feel upset. I don't know how the workers persisted for eight hours."

Zhu Yijun looked at her and nodded with satisfaction: "We are just here to visit, so we can't stand it for more than ten minutes. But they have to support their families, so they persisted for eight hours.

But we cannot take the silence of the majority of workers for granted. Nothing is taken for granted in this world!"

Zhu Yijun looked at everyone solemnly.

Everyone looked at each other, and those who knew him felt a little uneasy.

What big move is the emperor going to make next?

(End of this chapter)