Steel Dynasty - Chapter 58

[Chapter 58 Work Point System]

Five days later, a set of sophisticated ox-powered rollovers was completed in the Equipment Department.

Pang Yukun was dumbfounded when he saw the rollover in Xiao Ming’s mouth. At this time, the rollover driven by three gears of different sizes, pulled by a cattle, continued to transport water from the Xiaoqing River to the shore.

And because it was pulled by two cows, Xiao Ming said that the tracks were very wide, and the water tank on the tracks was also very deep. It could lift a large amount of river water at one time, which was several times more efficient than any waterwheel he had ever seen.

Pang Yukun came from a scholarly family, and his ancestors were officials. However, he was just a minor official in the county and could not be considered a wealthy family.

He studied poetry and books diligently since he was a child, followed the instructions of his ancestors, and took it as his duty to assist the Ming Dynasty and stabilize the country.

After working as a public official in Chang’an for ten years, his expectations gradually turned into disappointment.

Today, the officialdom of the Great Chongqing Kingdom is controlled by aristocratic families. If officials without backers are not attached to a prominent family, they will have no future. Even if they have the talent to manage the world, they will only be placed in dispensable positions.

Although emperors in the past dynasties did not kill Yan Guan, the status of Yan Guan is not as good as before. In the past ten years, although he worked hard to raise hundreds of ills, he was either blocked by the courtiers or ignored by Xiao Wenxuan.

The cliques among the courtiers and the weakening imperial rule of the Chongqing Kingdom made him gradually realize that the Chongqing Kingdom was rapidly declining under the parasitic disease of the powerful gentry.

In order to enjoy peace, under the increasingly intensified plundering of the northern barbarians, there was a sound of peace and tribute in the court hall, and the annual tribute was increased every year in exchange for temporary peace.

But even so, in addition to abiding by the agreement and not aggressively attacking the country of Chongqing, the barbarians still carried out plunder at the border every year.

With all these factors, coupled with the increasingly fierce dispute between the princes, Pang Yukun seems to have seen that in the not-too-distant future, the Kingdom of Chongqing will be torn apart like the Kingdom of Dai in the past, with wars rising everywhere.

At that time, the powerful barbarians who have risen will probably send their troops southward and destroy the Han people’s eternal foundation amidst iron hoofs and fierce fire.

For this reason, five years ago, regardless of the danger of his life, he denounced and screamed in the court, trying to wake up the emperor and his ministers who were intoxicated in the prosperity, but what he got in exchange was just a paper order to follow the vassal of the King of Qi.

After five years in Qingzhou, he thought his heart was dead, guarding a naughty prince just waiting to thank him and return to his fields. But now, he suddenly felt that the extinguished fire of hope in his heart seemed to be glowing with sparks.

“Even if Dayu cannot be saved, perhaps this corner of Qingzhou can be saved.”

Pang Yukun looked at Xiao Ming. He could see the changes in the King of Qi in the past two months. If the King of Qi really changed his temper, what would happen to him? A wise master, thinking of this, he couldn’t help but nodded slightly, with a smile on his lips.

“Pang Changshi, now you can be trusted.”

Xiao Ming turned around and saw Pang Yukun looking at him with a smile. He felt as if he was being stared at by an old glass, and he couldn’t help but feel a chill in his back.

Pang Yukun came back to his senses and said with a smile: “Your Highness is a talented person, I have lost. If this kind of ox-powered rollover is promoted in the fiefdom, it will be extremely beneficial to the recovery of farming.”

In order to watch the novelty of ox-powered rollover, Aster and Pothos also followed.

The two of them were watching with gusto, when Lu Luo whispered to Zi Yuan: “Sister, Pang Changshi seems to laugh a lot more than before.”

Zi Yuan rolled her eyes and said with a smile: “This is a good thing, it is better than being gloomy all day long. “

Lian Qiang, don’t you see?” Pang Changshi seems to be more tolerant of His Highness and is devoted to assisting His Highness in handling the government affairs of the fief.”

Lu Luo shook her head, really not understanding Pang Yukun’s change.

But she was a child at heart, so she pulled Zi Wan around Niu Liquan and looked at it.

Pang Yukun returned to normal, and Xiao Ming said: “Next, the Equipment Department will focus on producing this kind of bull-powered rollovers and strive to provide this kind of rollovers to every state and county. However, the number of craftsmen in the Equipment Department is limited, which is a drawback.”

Xiao Ming Now we are talking about practical problems. He has a lot of skills, but there are too many restrictions on starting from scratch. The number of craftsmen is the most serious problem. If he wants to expand the scale without automatic machinery, he can only rely on the number of people to make up for it.

And this is his scarcest resource.

“Your Highness, I have an idea. Now Your Highness is too dependent on the craftsmen in his own workshop. But Your Highness, don’t forget the people on the land. Why don’t Your Highness assign the construction of waterwheels to various states, counties, or even production teams. In this way, In just a few days, there will be waterwheels like this everywhere.” Pang Yukun said.

Xiao Ming suddenly realized that he had made a mistake, which was to take care of everything and ignore the common people’s labor force.

He is now the top manager of the fiefdom and can organize the people to build the fiefdom. Although he established a production team, he neglected one thing: east-west work points.

However, Xiao Ming’s work points at this time are different from modern work points. Modern work points are collective work points, but now everyone in the production team has his own farmland, and now it is a cooperative model.

He proposed that this work point was the reward for the people’s extra work. This reward would be recorded in the production team. At the end of each year, these work points would be exchanged for food, cloth and other things.

Thinking of this, he talked about it with Pang Yukun.

In order to appease the people, he exempted them from three years of corvee service. However, except for the busy farming season, the people were free. At this time, the work-point system was established, which provided the people with an opportunity to make extra money.

Work points can be obtained for participating in additional construction activities. In this way, he can make full use of the labor force on the fiefdom, and it is still cheap labor force.

When the new management system of work points was proposed, Pang Yukun nodded frequently. The corvee was too rough, which was not conducive to gathering people’s hearts. The work points system proposed by Xiao Ming will certainly be welcomed by the people.

“If the work-point system is implemented, the people will definitely be grateful to His Highness.” Pang Yukun said.

“I hope so.” Now Xiao Ming’s position is destined to control the hearts of the people. Only by gathering the hearts of the people can he, the vassal king, sit firmly in the fiefdom.

As for the money to pay for work points, Xiao Ming never thought of plundering it from the people. From the beginning of the establishment of the Chamber of Commerce, he set a strategy of rejuvenating the country through commerce and industry.

Now the people on the fiefdom only need to engage in agricultural production with peace of mind and cooperate with the construction of infrastructure in the fiefdom. Of course, the most important thing is to support him.

We discussed the strategy of delegating the construction of Niuli rollovers to states and counties, and allowing the states and counties to send people to study. The matter of popularizing Niuli rollovers was finally successfully resolved.

However, Xiao Ming never misses any opportunity to make profits by monopolizing technology. He deliberately designed this hydraulic overturn to be complicated.

This requires a key component on every Niuli rollover, a metal rolling bearing.

(End of chapter)