"Article 13: Comprehensively improve the treatment and status of craftsmen, doctors and other workers. Any pioneer who invents and creates, or improves equipment, proposes theoretical basis for proof, develops prescriptions, treats diseases, etc. to promote the progress of the industry, will be rewarded by the state Confer titles and award medals.”
Technology is the primary productive force, but technology cannot be improved by Zhao Kuo alone. Even with the experience and vision of more than two thousand years later, Zhao Kuo can only provide some relatively simple things that can be tried out through constant trial and error.
Some of the other things he either hadn't seen before, or couldn't make after seeing them. Only with the wisdom of everyone in Zhao can we promote the development of the entire science and technology, including food production, allowing Zhao to feed more people and cultivate more talents.
The most serious constraint on the development of Zhao State now is nothing else but the yield per mu.
The yield per mu is low, and one household has to plant 100 acres to support the whole family. How can it be possible to plant so much land at once, so we can only plant according to seasons.
Spring wheat is planted in spring, winter wheat is harvested in May, millet and millet are planted, and rice is planted in paddy fields. Soybeans, barley, and sorghum are grown on relatively barren land.
After planting, the spring wheat is harvested. After harvesting the spring wheat, they are still busy picking mulberry leaves to feed the silkworms. Whether the children can get a new pair of shoes or a new piece of clothing in winter depends on the silkworms.
After the silkworms have finished their work, they will be busy harvesting millet, rice, and soybeans. After harvesting, they will plant winter wheat. After planting winter wheat, women will weave at home, while men will go to the mountains to chop firewood or plow the fields.
There is not much free time at all throughout the year.
The reason why Zhao Guo was able to recruit so many people to build roads before was because everyone had no food to eat and came to make ends meet. This is also the reason why Zhao Kuo paid the workers ten yuan in wages.
This price is higher than the salary of the lower-level officials. You can already buy two to three bushels of corn. If you don't eat it openly, it is enough to feed an adult man and two or three children. If you add a woman to help at the construction site, even the children There are relatively many, and it is not a problem to feed a family.
If you go to a restaurant built by the government, although it has vegetables and steamed buns, and the food is good, it is very expensive, and you will only have two yuan left in the end.
Zhao Kuo couldn't distinguish between those who had children to raise and those who didn't, but he couldn't ignore those children. He could only do this and let them choose on their own.
After the land is redivided and everyone owns the land, fewer people go to build roads. Generally, only people nearby participate, and those who are far away cannot pass.
Although building roads makes more money than farming, land is the foundation.
After that, Zhao Kuo cut the ridiculously high wages in half and returned to normal levels.
Under this kind of per-acre yield, people have to invest most of their time on the land, and the rest of their time cannot be far from their families due to transportation restrictions.
If it were not for the support of hundreds of thousands of captives, and unless Zhao State forcibly requisitioned the people, it would not have been possible for the official system to be spread to the county in ten years, not to mention five years.
"At the same time, the minimum salary for people with hundreds of jobs will be raised to the same as that of officials. And, from now on, whenever the salary of officials is increased, the salary of people with hundreds of jobs must also be increased, and the intensity must not be less than that of officials. This sentence must be legislated and engraved On the Xingding. People with hundreds of jobs can return home to take care of themselves from the age of fifty-five, and receive 60% of their salary every month until they die."
Under the official position, it is not easy to improve the status of Baigong. Zhao Kuo can guarantee that Baigong will be respected when he is alive, but he cannot guarantee it after his death.
It is very likely that workers without rights will not last long before they are completely trampled under the feet of the bureaucrats and become the object of ravage.
There are only two ways to change this situation. One is to give Baigong the power to compete with the bureaucracy, and the other is to change the perception of the upper management and make everyone pay attention to Baigong.
Zhao Kuo worked hard on both methods to protect Baigong by strengthening the Mohist family and the medical family.
There were noisy discussions below. Even if Baigong was not reduced to the lower class during the Warring States Period, it was definitely not considered upper class. No monarch had ever valued Baigong so highly and placed them alongside officials.
Some people even wanted to stand up and object, but when they saw Wei Wuji, Zhao Sheng, Le Yi and others in the first two columns, they could only remain silent.
Zhao Kuo can now announce that he has obviously convinced everyone at the top. As long as these people stand beside Zhao Guo, it will be useless no matter how hard they jump.
Moreover... at least one third of them are Zhao Kuo's diehard loyalists.
"Article 14: Adjustment of industrial planning in various regions... Men and women have great desires for food and drink. Only by allowing people to make more money can the country become better. However, due to insufficient productivity and inconvenient transportation, it is difficult for ordinary people to Stay away from home and go to work in the city to make money. Therefore, we must build small and numerous workshops in various places, and allow them to take some things home to make, so that they can make money in their hometown..."
Then, Zhao Kuo read out the industries planned according to different situations in different places in sequence, including ginseng, hawthorn, coal, and chicken farms in Shangdang... mature vinegar, coal, dates, red date wine, and sorghum wine in Taiyuan... persimmons in Hejian, Persimmon wine, aquatic products, dried fish, chicken, duck, goose...
There are also silk, mulberry, and mulberry wine available in most areas.
In the era when men farmed and women weaved, mulberry trees could be seen everywhere. In summer, they were full of black and purple fruits. Although they were delicious, they were not storage-resistant and would spoil soon after being picked.
Typical if you can't buy it, you can't sell it.
Making wine is different! It can not only save food, but also make more money, and people in Zhao like to drink, so as long as it is wine, they don't have to worry about selling it.
Anyway, Zhao Kuo discovered that wine is a good thing. You can make wine from anything. It doesn’t matter if fruits are difficult to store. If you make wine, it will be easy to store.
So Zhao Kuo opened wineries all over the country: red date wine, persimmon wine, mulberry wine, apricot wine...
I wonder if future generations will call Zhao Kuo the King of Wine or Emperor of Wine...
These industries were planned after field visits by many officials.
According to Zhao's population density and the scale of these small workshops, even if the land is free and the building materials cost only the cost, everything can be sold. Zhao Kuo speculates that only about half of the workshops can maintain a break-even.
This is still an ideal situation. The real situation may be worse, but he still insists on building.
Earning a thousand yuan a month and spending a thousand yuan, and earning 10,000 yuan a month and spending 10,000 yuan. Although there is not a dime left in the end, the standard of living is absolutely different.
The purpose of these workshops is not to make a profit, but to provide jobs so that everyone has something to do and make money.
Only when you can make money can you spend money, and only when you can spend money can the economy flow. When the economy moves, the country will naturally become richer.
Officials from various places below quickly wrote down that these can be used as political achievements in the future. If they do a good job, even if they cannot be remembered in history, they will still be recorded in local annals. This is also a great attraction for them.
