Bringing the Railway to Daming

Liu Kuan and Lao Zhu did not live together. He took Zhu Huilan and Su Caiwei back to a villa of the Liu family in Suzhou, and then went to bed after washing up.

Silent all night.

The next day, Liu Kuan, Zhu Huilan, and Su Caiwei had just finished washing up and preparing for breakfast when Zhu Yuanzhang came to their door.

This person is clearly just here to freeload.

Liu Kuan was too embarrassed to send his father-in-law away, so he asked his servant to prepare an extra set of chopsticks and bowls and invited Old Zhu to eat with him.

After a light yet substantial breakfast, Zhu Yuanzhang paced back and forth in the courtyard, saying, "Liu Kuan, do you know what happened last night with that man with the mole collecting money?"

Liu Kuan shook his head, "I don't know."

Zhu Yuanzhang said, “We had the Embroidered Uniform Guard investigate, and that ‘head money’ was actually protection money—the young man with the mole was named Liu Haochun, the third son in his family, hence he was also known as Liu San.”

"This man's brother-in-law is the captain of the second team of the Suzhou Police Station, and he has quite a bit of power. Liu Haochun is idle and does no work, so he uses his brother-in-law's name to collect money from small vendors who set up stalls in the morning and night markets around the train station."

"Only those who pay will be safe, while those who don't will have their businesses ruined by Liu Haochun and his gang using various methods that aren't exactly illegal."

"For example, they might stand near someone's stall looking menacing, scaring customers away. Or they might deliberately bring flies and rats into someone's stall, falsely accusing the stall owner of eating unclean food."

Liu Kuan was not surprised to hear this—such people still exist in later generations. Although the Ming Dynasty has been much stricter in enforcing the law in recent years, it is certainly impossible to completely eliminate local ruffians and hooligans.

As long as there are people in society, these disgusting people will always emerge.

After regaining his senses, Liu Kuan asked, "Shouldn't Brother-in-law Liu Haochun know about him? Has he received any benefits from him?"

"I know, but as for whether he received any bribes, the Embroidered Uniform Guard is still investigating." Zhu Yuanzhang said, then looked at Liu Kuan, "What I want to say is that one Liu Haochun is nothing. I'm afraid there are more than one Liu Haochun in Suzhou, and there are similar local ruffians and gangs in other cities of the Ming Dynasty."

Liu Kuandao said, "The imperial court has always been severely punishing local thugs and other evil forces. Anyone caught will be exiled to the Western Regions, Luohuang, Beiting, Jilin and other places at the very least, and even exiled overseas in serious cases."

"But if there are still many such people, they must all be like Liu Haochun, with some connections in the government or some family background."

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded in agreement, then a cold glint flashed in his eyes as he said, "It seems that the officialdom of our Great Ming needs a thorough overhaul again."

At this point, Liu Kuan stopped talking.

Zhu Yuanzhang, upon learning that Liu Kuan and his wife were going to go sightseeing outside the city, was not very interested and left.

Liu Kuansui then took Zhu Huilan and Su Caiwei to visit scenic spots such as Dongshan and Hanshan Temple outside the city. After three days, they had roughly toured the mountains and rivers around Suzhou.

During these three days, the Embroidered Uniform Guard thoroughly investigated all the officials in the Suzhou police system. After understanding the situation, Zhu Yuanzhang could no longer tolerate it and directly sent a telegram to Zhu Biao, ordering him to send people to rectify the officialdom in Suzhou and, incidentally, to clean up those local ruffians and other criminal gangs.

For a time, the entire Suzhou prefecture's officialdom was shaken, and officials became extremely cautious in their actions, creating a sense of unease and fear.

The common people, however, were overjoyed. Although there weren't many thugs like Liu Haochun in Suzhou before, quite a few small vendors had indeed been extorted and bullied by them, and some had even lost their businesses and livelihoods.

Now that they have learned that these local ruffians have been eliminated by the imperial court, they are naturally very happy, and the morning and night markets in Suzhou are even more prosperous than before.

While officials sent by the imperial court were reforming the bureaucracy in Suzhou Prefecture, and while the officials of Suzhou Prefecture were launching a new crackdown on local criminal gangs, Zhu Yuanzhang, along with Liu Kuan, shifted his attention elsewhere.

Outside Suzhou city.

Standing before a walled manor-style complex, Zhu Yuanzhang surveyed the scene and asked, "Is this the largest private silk weaving factory in Suzhou?" Liu Kuan replied, "That's right. According to the information I obtained from the Ministry of Works, this is the Wu Family Rongjin Silk Weaving Factory."

Zhu Yuanzhang asked, "How many employees does this silk weaving factory have, and how many steam-powered spinning machines has it purchased?"

Liu Kuan said, "If I remember correctly, Wu's Rongjin had more than 3,000 employees of various types and had purchased four silk reeling machines and eight silk weaving machines from the Beijing Machinery Manufacturing Bureau."

Zhu Yuanzhang narrowed his eyes slightly upon hearing this and said, "More than three thousand employees... managing them well will not be easy."

Liu Kuan smiled and said, "I came here today to see how Wu's Rongjin manages this factory."

In fact, the Ming Dynasty had government-run factories with thousands or even tens of thousands of employees as early as ten years ago. But precisely because they were government-run factories, it was easier to manage so many employees.

Private workshops are different.

First of all, the relationship between factory owners and workers is one of employer and employee, unlike the hierarchical relationship in government-run factories. Therefore, some management methods used in government-run factories are difficult for private factories to use.

Similarly, due to different relationships, some problems that do not exist in government-run factories may also appear in privately-run factories.

Zhu Yuanzhang also wanted to see how this privately-run silk weaving factory, which was said to be the best in Suzhou, was managed, so he waited patiently.

Before long, a group of people came out of the factory, led by a middle-aged man who looked like a wealthy businessman.

After the man came over, he glanced at Liu Kuan and Zhu Yuanzhang, and then said to the middle-aged man next to him, "The factory is busy with affairs, so please forgive the long wait for Master Zhang."

Master Zhang smiled and said, "It's alright, we are the ones who have bothered you. By the way, this is Master Huang, whom I mentioned earlier, and this is Mr. Liu."

When Liu Kuan and Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to inspect private silk weaving factories, they naturally couldn't do so in their public capacity—not only would that be troublesome, but they might also not be able to learn about certain situations.

Therefore, Liu Kuan had Zhu Yuanzhang use the power of the Embroidered Uniform Guard to find this "Master Zhang" as an intermediary and take him and Zhu Yuanzhang to visit Wu's Rongjin.

In their previous conversation, Master Zhang had mentioned that "Master Huang" was a retired official who had served for many years, while Liu Kuan was a well-traveled scholar. Now, after observing the two, Master Wu thought to himself: This old Master Huang gives off an even more intimidating aura than the Suzhou prefect; his official position before retirement must have been quite high!
He then smiled and led Liu Kuan, Lao Zhu, and their group into the factory for a tour.

"Please take a look, Master Huang. My family's silk factory is mainly divided into five parts. The westernmost part is the silk reeling workshop, the middle part is the silk weaving workshop, the southern part is the dyeing workshop, the eastern part is the material preparation workshop, and the northern part is the canteen and the workers' living quarters."

This silk factory was quite large. Led by Master Wu, Liu Kuan and Zhu Yuanzhang spent more than half an hour to tour the various buildings in the factory.

Liu Kuan discovered that the operation and management of Wu's Rongjin factory was quite sophisticated—they even had a dedicated management organization, which, although not mentioned by Master Wu, did exist and was located in the northern part of the factory.

In addition, Liu Kuan learned through inquiries that not all the managers of Wu's Rongjin were from Wu or his servants; several of them were capable people hired from outside.

This indicates that Wu's Rongjin has begun to touch the boundaries between family businesses and modern enterprises.

If Wu's Rongjin can continue to expand its production scale and recruit more employees in the future, it may truly become the first non-family-run private "enterprise" in the Ming Dynasty.

However, while recognizing the merits of Wu's Rongjin, Liu Kuan also noticed some drawbacks.

For example, Wu's Rongjin built workers' dormitories to facilitate the workers' work and shifts, but both the male and female employees' dormitories were large communal beds, which were quite narrow and cramped.

In Liu Kuan's view, compared with the Ming Dynasty's official factories of the same size, the living conditions of the workers at Wu's Rongjin were undoubtedly much worse.

And these are just the problems we can see right now; there may be many more hidden issues. (End of Chapter)