Jianxinzhai is a separate open space with high walls.
Gao pragmatic stood in front of more than a dozen busy craftsmen, watching them work motionlessly, with no expression on his face, no emotion or anger at all.
What are these craftsmen doing?
If there are future generations here, they will definitely be able to see some clues from the piles of raw materials piled near this empty space.
A total of four materials are piled here, namely limestone, clay, coal and iron ore powder.
In addition to the raw materials, there are also some equipment that cannot be seen elsewhere. The largest and weirdest among them is a very weird kiln - a cement kiln designed and built under the command of Gao Pragmatic himself.
This so-called cement kiln is more than a hundred times simpler than the advanced cement kilns of later generations. It is neither economical nor durable to use, let alone environmentally friendly. From a high pragmatic point of view, this thing is better than the disposable ones of later generations. The equipment is so powerful that it will only be banned and seized in the 21st century.
There was nothing that could be done about it. After all, Gao Pragmatic was a liberal arts student. If he hadn't relied on a little knowledge from his previous work, he wouldn't have been able to build this semi-finished product—no, semi-waste product—cement kiln.
Now, although the tools and equipment were extremely primitive, considering the current level of productivity, he had to hold his nose and accept it. Anyway, if he could get the cement out, he would be done.
As for other things, such as poor quality, high cost, high pollution, etc., don’t think about it for now, lest you piss yourself to death.
It is not difficult to make home-made cement, but it is for the productivity of future generations. It is not easy at all now. Gao Pragmatic started preparations last year, and it was only now that he managed to build all the tools and equipment, and started from Wei Hui mobilized a group of servants to start trial production.
This group of servants were selected from last year's refugees and had already signed a deed of sale. In theory, they all had high surnames and were our own people who could be used with confidence.
Gao pragmatically transferred more than 300 people from Wei Hui Mansion to the capital this time. A small part of them were craftsmen of various types, and the majority were children and teenagers of three different age groups, seven to eight years old and nine to nine years old respectively. When they were ten, eleven or twelve years old, the first purpose of the trial-produced batch of cement was to build schools for them.
Of course, it is definitely not a school that teaches the Four Books and Five Classics.
Gao Pragmatic has already thought of a name for this school that is still under planning, and it is called Jinghua Craftsman School.
This name is very tacky, quite tacky, and not classy at all.
However, Gao pragmatically knew that in this era, a school that planned to teach mathematics, physics, and chemistry in addition to elementary education must not be popular. It must be vulgar, even vulgar to the point of being intolerable.
If he dares to name this school something like "Gewu Academy", it will definitely attract attention, and then all kinds of troubles will ensue.
The name Jinghua Craftsman School is very subtle. First of all, it means that this is just a small school in Jinghua's own family. In the eyes of outsiders, it is at best the level of ethnology.
In addition, being called a craftsman makes it even less worth mentioning. It obviously doesn't teach any advanced knowledge, maybe just some things like carpentry and masonry. Calling it a school is just a little bit... It is an insult to politeness. No one, no matter civil servants or military generals, would be interested in such a shabby school.
"Young Master, the cement trial production has been successful!" Shen Li'an, who was transferred from Sanshen Garden to work as the housekeeper of Xinzhai just before last year, ran over happily to report the good news.
Gao Pragmatic can understand why Shen Li'an seems to be more excited than he, the instigator. After all, Wei Ximin and others were reused. He, the internal steward who controlled the financial power of Sanshenyuan, was almost reduced to a peripheral person. There will definitely be an emergency. Feeling, now that we have finally accomplished something important to the young master, how can we not be excited?
Gao Pragmatic didn't even care about spending money, and naturally he didn't care about verbal praise. He would say one compliment after another, making Shen Li'an's face glow with praise. He wished he could dig out his heart and swear to swear that the eldest young master would follow his lead for the rest of his life.
After seeing the trial product, he asked the craftsmen to try to build a small wall. He told them that the wall should not be exposed to rain and that he would come back to see the effect in a few days. Gao Pragmatic took the people back. Went to Shouxin Tower.
As soon as they arrived at Shouxin Building, they heard Gao Guoyan and Gao Xiaozhuang on the second floor seeming to be arguing about something. Gao Jinggong used gestures to stop Gao Mo from shouting. After listening carefully for a while, he found that as he expected, the two men were opening a ceremony for Jinghua. Equity disputes between the three major manufacturers.
Gao Pragmatic heard from their dispute that Gao Guoyan believed that Gao Pragmatic's equity distribution plan was very problematic - mainly because he was losing money.
Gao Guoyan’s point of view is that whether it is from the perspective of Gaowu Shi’s huge investment in the Qianxi Iron Mine, Kaiping Coal Mine and Kaiping Steel Plant, or from the future scale and expected benefits of the three major plants, Gao Wushi’s current allocation plan is It was because of the huge losses of our own family that we inexplicably gained a lot of weight from outsiders.
Gao Xiaozhuang's view is more upright: I will firmly uphold all the decisions made by the eldest young master; I will unswervingly follow all the eldest young master's instructions.
His reasons are also very simple. There are two reasons in total: the first one is that I, Gao Xiaozhuang, am a son of the Gao family and have always followed the eldest young master, so I do whatever the eldest young master says. There is no explanation for this; the second one is that so far, , the eldest young master has never made any wrong decisions, even decisions that seemed almost nonsense at first, turned out to be extremely wise in the end, so the eldest young master must have his own considerations, I didn't see it just because I limited ability.
After hearing this, Gao pragmatically doubted whether he should have asked Gao Xiaozhuang to lead the escort group in the first place. His style is completely "implement what you understand, implement what you don't understand, and deepen your understanding during execution." My personality God, this is a natural soldier material!
But after thinking about it, I forgot about it. Now Gao Xiaozhuang is doing a good job, and he is suddenly assigned to "lead the troops." He needs to be retrained. Ma Fang's side is easy to handle, but now Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng are on opposite sides. , it would not be very convenient to trouble Qi Jiguang at this time.
What's more, Gao Mo and Gao Jue were not bad at what they did, so they couldn't just jerk them off for no reason.
Gao pragmatic shook his head, threw these distracting thoughts out of his mind, walked up to the second floor unhurriedly, and silenced Gao Guoyan and Gao Xiaozhuang with a light cough.
The two of them turned their heads at the same time, seeing that Gao was pragmatic, and hurriedly walked over to greet him.
After all, Gao Guoyan and Gao Jingshi are cousins, and their identities are different from Gao Xiaozhuang. He took the initiative and said: "Pragmatically, you came just in time. I saw the equity distribution draft of the three major factories in Kaiping that you sent to Sanshenyuan yesterday. I will leave early this morning." I’m here to find you... I’m telling you, you’ve made a huge loss with this equity allocation method!”
"I know." Gao Pragmatic didn't seem surprised, and even blinked, saying: "Just from building the factory, recruiting workers, and putting it into production, according to this equity distribution plan, I will lose more than 173,000 taels of silver. "
Gao Guoyan didn't expect that Gao Jingshi had settled the account long ago, and was speechless for a moment.
Gao Pragmatic continued to smile and said: "And if my follow-up production plan can proceed smoothly, then in the future I will 'lose' at least 40,000 taels every year because of this equity distribution plan, and in about five years, even every year We will lose about 70,000 taels."
"You know everything?" Gao Guoyan was stunned at first, and then said angrily: "Then you still distribute it like this? Are you really using money as dirt?"
Gao pragmatic approached Gao Guoyan, put a hand on his shoulder, and comforted him: "Brother Sanhuai, don't worry, will I not take my own money seriously? I do this for a reason."
"I know that their status is very special, but no matter how special their status is, they cannot be used as money..."
"Hey, brother, you are wrong. Identity can really be used as money." Gao pragmatic smiled and pulled Gao Guoyan to sit down. He sat next to him and explained: "Brother, do you think, if I weren't Yuan Fu’s nephew, even if I made some money before, when I was in Henan last year, would the powerful gentry in Weihui Mansion be willing to lend me 300,000 taels without even saying a word?”
Gao Guoyan did not accept this trick, and said with wide eyes: "But you are borrowing it. No matter how much you borrow, you will always have to pay it back! This is different for them. You are giving them money, and it is not all at once. The thing is, keep sending it!”
Gao pragmatic shook his head and said: "Brother, this account cannot be settled like this." He sighed and looked into Gao Guoyan's eyes: "If I don't send this money, there may be big problems in the military industry and private sector. It’s not a good idea whether it can be run due to resistance. Think about it, we have spent so much money on the three major factories in Kaiping. If the private military industry cannot run it, how much will we lose every year?”
"Don't mislead me!" Gao Guoyan continued to open his eyes and retorted: "Our coal mines and iron minerals are beautiful and cheap, and we can't lose money even if we sell raw ore. Even if the ordnance business at the steel factory is gone, it won't be great. Steelmaking relies on iron smelting. We sell pig iron and agricultural tools without losing money. Although we are still losing money now, that is because you are constantly expanding production capacity and production scale. As long as you stop this senseless If we continue to expand, we can turn losses into profits next year! Be pragmatic, you can settle accounts, and so can I."
"I know, I know, there are few people in the world who can match my brother's arithmetic skills." Gao Pragmatic laughed at first, but then immediately stopped his smile and said seriously: "But why should I stop expanding production? Whether it is the Kaiping coal mine or Qianxi The reserves of iron ore in China are huge! Even if I expand production ten times more, I won’t be able to dig it all out in 500 years, so why should I waste it?”
Gao Guoyan was startled at first, and then said incomprehensibly: "If you can't finish digging, you can't finish digging. Anyway, these lands have been bought by you. It doesn't matter if you can't finish digging. Just keep digging for your son and grandson. Leave some." Isn’t it good to leave the property to the younger generations?”
Gao pragmatic rolled his eyes and thought to himself: It's over, this can't be explained. If I say that I firstly want to improve the combat effectiveness of the Ming army, and secondly, I want to use the demonstration effect to arouse the enthusiasm of the Ming Dynasty's elite to join industry. , I'm afraid my cousin will think I'm having a seizure.
But it was impossible not to convince Gao Guoyan. He was his cousin, not a servant. In theory, he could not order him, and he was the best candidate for the position of financial director, so there was no need to change him.
So Gao pragmatic thought for a while, and then said: "Brother, otherwise, you can solve two more questions: The first question is that we are just like you said, not to expand production, not to make ordnance, not even to practice. How much can we earn from steel every year? The second step is that we expand production and enter ordnance manufacturing. The output and sales will increase year by year in accordance with the scale I previously expected. According to my distribution plan, part of the profit sharing of those people will be removed. How much more can we earn every year?"
Gao Guoyan was quite confident in his arithmetic, so he closed his eyes and started doing mental calculations without saying a word.
At first, Gao Guoyan's expression was very calm, but slowly his expression began to change, and he became a little cautious. In the end, his expression finally became ugly, and it became increasingly ugly.
When Gao pragmatic saw him, he smiled and asked, "How is it?"
Gao Guoyan put his hand on his forehead, looked depressed, and sighed, but he still had to answer: "According to your plan, the first two years were not very good. Of course there was profit, but not much, because you had to give it to them." That part of the money, so it must be a loss situation, according to you it is a 'deficit'. However, from the third year onwards, the profits will start to become larger and larger, and will greatly exceed the plan of not expanding production... You win ”
"What's the point of winning or losing?" Gao Pragmatic waved his hand and explained: "Actually, this is the benefit of scale, the distribution plan for expanding production. Although I have lost money and given away shares for free, as long as my production scale It’s getting bigger and bigger, selling more and more products, and the money I can earn from it will also increase.”
Gao Guoyan nodded depressedly, but after thinking about it, he said unhappily: "But in this way, the money you 'give' to those people will also increase! This is all your money. Ah, these people are simply getting something for nothing, we are here working hard, but they are lying at home counting money!"
Gao pragmatic smiled and comforted: "Getting something for nothing? No, no, no, brother, they still 'worked'."
