But for the indigenous people here in Nanbao. Circulation certificates are less attractive.
Indeed, now the whole of Lingao, and even neighboring Danzhou, Chengmai and even Qiongshan, know that this kind of circulation certificate is trustworthy. But for the people here, how can this thing be as real as silver and copper coins? In a place where there is almost no circulation of goods, paper money is simply out of reach.
Ye Yuming originally planned to use money to pay local workers' wages, but was firmly opposed by Cheng Dong and Yan Ming. The reason is that this kind of differential treatment of employees will seriously shake the confidence of employees in the mines in negotiable certificates.
To ensure that it can be accepted by the local people, it must be made "effective" and fully reflect its purchasing power.
As the project progressed, two main cadres of Dongmen Chuiyu and Li Mei came to Nanbao. Their activities were to replicate the successful experience of Dongmen City. Of course, there are not many local consumers in Nanbao, and they mainly target miners.
Dongmen Chuiyu first built a stone road outside the residential area and built the drainage ditch before starting to build a shop building. This kind of brick-concrete structure house is no longer a thing for Mei Lin and his construction team. There are many stones in Nanbao, so even a lot of bricks have been saved. In less than a week, the first house has been built. Completed. This is a long house with two floors. The interior is divided into rooms because of the use of external load-bearing walls. It is a truss structure, and the internal partition walls are all made of so-called lightweight materials to save clay bricks. This kind of house has little sound insulation, but the space is easy to divide and can be used for multiple purposes.
The limewash on the wall hasn't even dried yet, but the sign for the Nanbao Branch of the Women's Cooperative has already been hung up. Taking up five storefronts on the ground floor, bullock carts brought shelves, counters, well-trained female waiters and many goods. The cooperative sells and sells miscellaneous daily groceries and snacks such as cloth, silk, needlework, towels, wine vinegar, betel nuts, salt, and brown sugar. Li Mei originally wanted to import small groceries such as rouge and gouache from Guangdong and Macau, but the Finance and Finance Committee refused to issue her a silver usage certificate, so the proposal was abandoned and she had to rely on Mo Xiao'an's Ministry of Light Industry to produce them themselves. In addition, Li Mei also negotiated with Tiandihui, intending to serve as an agent for Tiandihui's agricultural supplies store and sell Tiandihui's seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and agricultural tools on behalf of Tiandihui. In order for Ye Yuming to agree, the conditions she offered were to waive all agency fees and sell at zero profit.
"Then how much money do you make?" Ye Yuming, who was walking with her on the Nanbao Town construction site, wondered.
"Agricultural materials will bring me customers. The cooperative does not intend to make money when purchasing agricultural materials, but just to 'bring business'."
When more farmers come to buy agricultural supplies, they will also buy other commodities. This is where the profits come from. Just like selling eggs at a loss in a large market, what you seek is popularity.
"You really know how to do business——"
"Where, I need help from you leaders." Li Mei smiled like a flower, "When your business trip is over, I will treat the people of Tiandihui to dinner as a reward! Several of your young comrades will go to the countryside to do some work Technical guidance is hard enough, not easy."
The purpose of opening this grocery store is to collect circulation coupons and make local people feel that the circulation coupons are useful and easy to use. Therefore, the cooperative does not accept copper coins or silver.
The Planning Commission also requires cooperatives to be responsible for purchasing local products, including homespun cloth, kapok, red and white vines, chickens, ducks, livestock and other local products. The Planning Commission actually does not lack these things. The main purpose of purchasing local products is to expand the use of circulating coupons. Another purpose is to expand trade with Li District - Nanbao Town is on the edge of Li District. With a stronghold like Nanbao Town, the connection between Chuanchuan Group and Li District has been greatly strengthened. For this reason, Mu Min specially sent Fang Jinghan here to serve as the local Li affairs clerk.
Li Mei also ingeniously provided "housekeeping agency services" in the cooperative - she found many local women who wanted to earn pocket money to clean and wash clothes for single miners. This service soon caused a scandal between the miner from Jiukuang and the eldest girl from Huaichun. This matter was easy to deal with: the mining office paid the bride price on behalf of the miner and helped the miner marry the girl back home, which was fine. It became a good story. As for the dowry money, it will be deducted from the salary in installments.
But then there were several affairs between miners and local married women, which made the local villagers furious - no one likes to be a cuckold.
At first I dared not speak out in anger. Later, when the elders in the village saw that this situation was really "corrupt", they jointly filed a complaint with the Mining Department to curb the trend. Ye Yuming stipulated that from now on, only women's cooperatives could be used to transfer clothes, and wages would be paid by the cooperatives. Generation, the two sides are not allowed to meet. As for cleaning, we have to wait until the miners start working.
Next door to the cooperative is an office of Delong Grain Company. This was established in consideration of the fact that there will be a large number of circulation coupons circulating locally, in order to ensure credit and ensure that holders of circulation coupons can be exchanged for food at any time in accordance with Delong's promise. Delong allocated 2,000 kilograms of brown rice to the local area as payment reserves. Storing a large amount of food will not cause a backlog or waste - miners have to eat in the first place.
Another task of Delong is to bear the "reasonable burden" of local collection, so that the villages in Nanbao area only need to transport public grain to Nanbao Town to complete the payment, eliminating the need to travel long distances to Bairen City Tired of traveling. It is a convenience measure.
Dongmen Chuiyu opened a miners' service agency here, mainly providing three meals a day to the miners - most of the miners have no wives, and no one to cook when they go home. The second floor is the cafeteria of the service club. In addition to selling a variety of simple meals, alcohol and cigarettes are also sold here. Cigarettes have been included in the list of monopoly products sold by the Planning Commission and are currently only sold in 100% of "state-owned enterprises", so they cannot be sold in Li Mei's cooperative.
The Miners' Service Society is actually the logistics manager of the mine. All logistical needs of the mine are taken care of by the service agency, including the management of prostitutes: most of the miners are single, with good physical fitness and strong sexual desire. If they are not given an outlet to vent their anger, they will inevitably cause a lot of troubles in the surrounding villages. Dongmen Chuiyu simply implemented the same "yellow ticket" system as in Dongmen City - he didn't even need to mobilize the prostitutes from Dongmen City to Nanbaolai - because he heard that the skin and flesh trade in Lingao was easy, as long as he received the You can do business peacefully with yellow tickets, and you don't have to be exploited. There are already many prostitutes from other places in Dongmen City, some even from the mainland. If doing business in Dongmen City is really unsightly, we might as well divert some of it to Nanbaolai.
Because it is stipulated that prostitutes who apply for yellow tickets must undergo a physical examination, and those with sexually transmitted diseases must be treated. As a result, Bairen General Hospital had to set up a sexually transmitted disease treatment center in a remote place. Everyone in the Ministry of Health was complaining - without qualified antibiotics, it is very difficult to treat sexually transmitted diseases. Pharmaceutical manufacturers have now produced some antibiotic sample drugs for clinical trials, but their efficacy is still quite questionable. For this reason, people from the Guangzhou Station were asked to kidnap many doctors from the Huali family around Guangzhou. Engage in integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine treatment.
"Although having prostitutes can alleviate this problem, it cannot solve it. In the long run, it may even be harmful." Wu De instructed Ye Yuming, "It goes without saying that there will be sexually transmitted diseases - the Ministry of Health's regular inspections and treatments are not powerful."
"So we still need to find them wives as soon as possible, right?"
"That's right. One is to encourage prostitutes to be good. The other is to establish social relations with nearby villages. Provide more food and drinks, host a market, and show a few movies and so on. Wait until the two are happy and have a happy life. Just cook the rice and it will be fine.”
“Would miners want to marry prostitutes?”
"When we reformed prostitutes, many prostitutes married workers. This approach should be feasible." Wu De said, "Of course we can also give some material encouragement, such as sending some silks and cloths."
"This time and space doesn't pay much attention to chastity and the like -" Ye Yuming still felt that this was outrageous.
"The so-called chastity depends on the social class." Wu De said, "The miners in this time and space are extremely poor, and their lives are in danger anytime and anywhere. If you can settle down and marry a wife, you will be very satisfied with a woman to take care of your life. How can he take care of so much! Even if he wanted to, they can't afford the three matchmakers and six appointments, betrothal gifts, and banquets."
"A poor man has no right to marry a virgin!"
"Haha, Xiaoye, let me give you an inappropriate metaphor: in another time and space, if you had tens of millions of possessions, of course you could be very selective when looking for a girlfriend. You should look at your appearance, your figure, and be very particular about it. It’s important to have the other person’s education, not a college degree, at least a bachelor’s degree, preferably a master’s degree. If you’re just an ordinary clerk, you won’t have to pay so much attention—right?”
"That sounds really heartbreaking -" Ye Yuming muttered, "Young men from nearby villages may have objections to social activities. The miners have lured away all the older girls."
"It's not as easy as you said. There won't be many such examples for the time being - now in Lingao, the working class has not yet become an enviable class. At least for the parents of girls, the father-in-law who is a miner has not yet become an enviable class. Parents are unattractive."
The rural clinic jointly operated by the Ministry of Health and Runshitang also came to this building, occupying two shops downstairs and three rooms upstairs. Amid the traditional playing of the wind and the sound of firecrackers, the Runshitang Nanbao Branch Clinic was opened. Liu San sent two pharmacy clerks to sit here and prepare some traditional Chinese medicine pieces and proprietary Chinese medicines for common diseases. There will also be medical staff from the Ministry of Health visiting once a week. Although this clinic is simple and primitive, it is the first time that the Nanbao area has a health service institution.
The entertainment life of the miners also came to mind: the Miners Service Society built a rugby field. This sport that requires minimal equipment has now become a sport promoted by the Cross-Travel Group everywhere. The rugby field is where games are usually played, and movies are shown here when the traveling film screening team comes. Xi Yazhou is very enthusiastic about this plan. Of course, he did not forget that Nanbao was a key facility that needed to be protected. Special military training was conducted for the miners, and they were equipped with standardized spears and sabers made by the machinery factory, plus rattan helmets. This miners' militia was not only capable of protecting themselves, but could also suppress riots when necessary.
Finally, He Ying also came here, mysteriously inspected a certain piece of foundation, and then occupied it - this was the future church.
The smooth mining of Nanbao Mining Area has eased the supply of minerals to Chuanchuan Group. Lignite, peat, gypsum, kaolin and limonite were continuously transported from Nanbao in four-wheeled trucks pulled by oxen. Even coal gangue and various miscellaneous rocks that cannot be used temporarily can be used in construction and road construction.
Kaolin was mined. It means that you can make your own porcelain. In the past, some special-shaped porcelain that Chuanhuan Group needed for industrial and daily use had been fired at export porcelain kilns along the coast of Fujian. Although it could generally meet the demand, transportation was troublesome.
One of the great gains Huang Tianyu gained from following Liu San to Foshan was the recruitment of many ceramic craftsmen. Although many craftsmen are old and weak, they have rich experience in making and firing porcelain. With such a group of people, the production efficiency of Xiao Bailang's ceramic kiln has increased by leaps and bounds. Many special-shaped and large pieces that were originally difficult to make can be fired. Made. But these are still just glazed pottery. Without kaolin, the glaze fabric for porcelain cannot be made.
The kaolin mined from Nanbao was crushed, cleaned and transported to the ceramics factory. Xiao Bailang gave the drawings of the flush toilet to several of his old kiln workers.
Several people looked at each other for a long time without saying anything. After a long time, the oldest kiln worker named Li Jinquan spoke:
"Chief, we've never done this before. We can do it if it's a big one, but there are still some holes in it, so I'm afraid we won't be able to do it at once."
"How long will it take to make?"
Several kiln workers put their heads together to discuss for a while, and it took two or three weeks.
"Okay, let's start with it." Xiao Bailang was not interested in making the toilet, and he didn't bother to ask. Simply leave it to the indigenous workers. Anyway, the experience of firing large-scale porcelain is definitely not as rich as that of the indigenous kiln workers of this time and space. But porcelain
On the other hand, Mo Xiao'an was very interested in this thing. He would check on the progress almost every day and come up with ideas from time to time. But he is a pure layman and has no use except to encourage the kiln workers.
But what came out after a few days of tossing was simply not the case. Obviously Xiao Bailang believes that the concept that the flush toilet is a more complicated large porcelain is inaccurate. Finally, I turned to the big library for help and looked for information.
After an investigation, I found out that the process of this sanitary ware is quite complicated, especially the glaze on the surface, which has a very high technical content. Travelers certainly don't need such a high-end surface glaze, as long as it can be kept clean and easy to wash.
Take the simplest sanitary ware manufacturing process as an example. Most sanitary ware adopts the injection molding process, and the most technically difficult aspect for Chuan Chuan Group is the procurement of special molds. The molding quality of sanitary ware mainly depends on the manufacturing level of the mold.
Xiao Bailang went to the machinery factory several times and made special sanitary ware molds in the factory. After the model is transported back to the ceramics factory, the gypsum is made into a slurry and poured into a fixed mold, and its gelling properties are used to slowly solidify it in the mold. After part of the water is evaporated, a plaster model of the product is made.
The blank is made into mud and then injected into the plaster model. The water absorption of the plaster model is used to absorb the water in the mud close to the mold wall to form a certain mud layer. Then the remaining slurry is poured out of the model and attached to the mold. The mud layer on the wall shrinks due to water drag and separates from the model to form a green blank, which becomes a semi-finished product.
The green billet is slowly dragged and dried under certain conditions. In modern factories, there are temperature-controlled drying equipment. In Lingao, only natural drying methods can be used. Allow air and wind to carry away moisture in a dedicated awning.
After the green blank is dried, the key process is glazing. The method of spraying glaze slurry is generally used in factories. This place did not have such conditions, so Xiao Bailang adopted the leaching method. Put the green blank on a special rack, soak it in the glaze slurry repeatedly until a layer of glaze is firmly hung on the surface. Not only the appearance of the sanitary ware is also glazed on the inside. The purpose of hanging glaze inside is not to look good, but to facilitate drainage and prevent dirt from adhering and condensing.
After the glaze is hung, it is fired in the kiln. The first finished product was fired quickly, but due to temperature control issues, the shape was somewhat deformed. After several improvements, a relatively acceptable product was finally produced. Li Jinquan was very puzzled when he knew that the thing they had spent a lot of effort to bake was actually a toilet - he really couldn't figure out why a toilet was so complicated and made of white porcelain. When Mo Xiaoan came to see the finished product, he mustered up the courage to bring it up.
"Because it makes money and it's clean."
Li Jinquan knows the meaning of cleanliness, but he is not clear about the concept of making money - how much can a toilet be sold for, no matter how well it is made?
"What's the most luxurious toilet in Guangzhou?"
This problem made the kiln workers look at each other. They lived in poverty, and most of them went directly to the streets or fields to solve the problem. It would be good to have a chamber pot at home.
Li Jinquan is the oldest and has more experience. He recalled that he had seen one about ten years ago in the sedan chair of a merchant who came to the kiln to see porcelain. It was red lacquered and gilded, and the white copper barrel hoop was polished brightly.
"That's it. As long as rich people pursue the enjoyment of life, there will always be endless pursuits. Since we can make red-painted and gold-plated toilets, we can also make them with white porcelain - in Australia, good porcelain toilets are worth a lot of money! " When he said this, he recalled the feeling of powerlessness he felt in a sanitary ware store of a famous foreign brand. A toilet was sold for 20,000 yuan - at that time, his annual salary was only 20,000 yuan.
"Young ones, I understand. It's just that-" One of the younger kiln workers raised a question. Since it is a toilet, why is it not sealed at the bottom, but has strange curved pipes? In this case, the dirt will flow out, so how can it be used? (!)! ~!
