My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 594 The tree wants to be quiet but the wind doesn’t stop
After listening to the statements of the Jiangzhou people who came to perform labor to earn money, Deng Zhi had a refreshing understanding of how difficult life was under the rule of Zhang Song and Zhuge Liang.

He was afraid that this was an isolated case, so he secretly observed for a while and asked several groups of people in different time periods. If someone thought he was too annoying or was too tired to bother with him, Deng Zhi would give them a few copper coins as a token of sympathy.

As a result, the opinions I heard throughout the morning were almost the same. They all felt that life under Liu Zhang's rule was difficult and far worse than making a living in the territory controlled by Zhuge Liang.

Of course, in addition to these resentful words, Deng Zhi also captured two additional types of useful information.

First, he keenly discovered that Zhuge Liang's corvée labor scale planning seemed to be carefully designed. The number of people to be used in each stage did not seem to be decided on a whim, but was carefully calculated and then dispatched.

The scale of employment takes into account both the actual needs of the project and the degree of surplus labor of the local people in Jiangzhou in different months. It seems that it can always ensure that "the number of people who come to apply for labor service at any time is always just slightly more than the current number of people needed. It ensures that everyone needs to scramble for work, but the competition is not too fierce, and they can get their turn after waiting in line for a few days."

Deng Zhi was not a time traveler, and it was impossible for him to know the economic concept of "hunger marketing" in later generations. But he simply observed that Zhuge Liang's scale of personnel deployment just made it possible for the discussion and dissemination of his reforms and good governance to be as large and spread as quickly as possible.

After all, if it is too easy to get, people will not fight for it, nor will they discuss or gossip about it. It is more likely that people will think that the wages are too low, and they will not be satisfied with "the government uses the money paid by those who pay for exemption to work" and then some people will ask for a pay increase. Once this loophole is opened, the government is no longer an intermediary platform, and it is difficult to convince the public whether it should pay more or less. Doing this from the beginning is definitely not conducive to the stability and seriousness of the new law.

The purpose is to make job opportunities a little more difficult, so that they are not easily accessible. After returning, these villagers will brag to their fellow villagers who have not yet come, "It is not easy to get the opportunity to work for Zhuge Lingjun. I also went there in advance, registered and queued up, so I can get work next time." Then everyone will subtly think that they should get that much money for working, and will not think too much about it.

In the Han Dynasty, when communications were primitive and backward, people had to rely on word-of-mouth communication to allow the general public to quickly understand the new laws.

Moreover, Zhuge Liang did all this so inconspicuously that people would not notice that he was engaging in "hunger marketing".

Because the task of building an inland port, especially on the Jialing River, requires more corvée labor as winter approaches, while there is not much work in the autumn.

As mentioned above, the water level of the Jialing River drops sharply every winter. Those who have been to Chongqing in winter know that in winter, only the core channel of the Jialing River, which is several dozen feet wide, has water flowing, and large stretches of rocky beaches on both sides are exposed.

Therefore, the most labor-saving way to repair the trestle facilities used in summer and autumn is to repair them in winter, so that the laborers do not need to go into the water and can work directly on the pile of rocks, which greatly reduces the difficulty of construction. Therefore, the most manpower is used in winter, and we must seize the golden period when the water level is low to rush the construction period.

The supply side of corvée labor is a perfect match for the manpower needed to build the port.

Before the autumn harvest, Zhuge Liang had few employees, and because of the busy farming season, few people were able to apply. Only a very small number of extremely poor households with very little land could spare time to work part-time during the autumn harvest, because there was really not much farm work to do. So the number of employees was just slightly less than the number of applicants.

After the autumn harvest, the labor supply increased, and Zhuge Liang's labor demand also increased synchronously due to the drop in the water level of the Jialing River.

The demand side is always slightly lower than the supply side. This not only allows the people to roll moderately, increases the popularity of topics, but also maintains the prestige of the new law and the price of labor, which is much smarter than Shang Yang's moving trees to establish trust.

But all of this is invisible to outsiders who are just watching the fun, and everything is planned invisibly.

Most people can only understand the results, and then sigh, "Zhuge Liang is so lucky. No matter what he does, there are people who cooperate and support him. No matter what he does, the people are willing to respond to his call. Whatever price he offers is the price."

Only those with strong mathematical and management coordination skills can see a little clue, but they may not be able to see it so clearly.

Although Deng Zhi was a practical man and had been an official for four or five years, he obviously did not have the ability to understand this.

He could now barely see some clues, thanks to the fact that he had been following Zhuge Jin as a subordinate for the past two years and had learned a lot from him.

The people who are around Zhuge Jin must be good at mathematics, which has become a practice in Situ Mansion. Those who want to work in Situ Mansion must have a solid foundation in mathematics and learn quantitative analysis when handling government affairs.

Originally, Deng Zhi was not good at mathematics, and he did not look at problems rationally and quantitatively. It was only after he came to Zhuge Jin that he realized his shortcomings. Over the past two years, he used his spare time to make up for it. Now he can finally see one-tenth or one-twelfth of the cleverness of Zhuge Liang's actions.

"The ingenuity of Zhuge Situ and Zhuge Lingjun's planning is really... not only difficult for ordinary people to achieve, but even difficult to understand. When I first saw their deployment, I didn't find it strange. If someone else were to do it, they would not be able to match it."

Deng Zhi finally couldn't help but sigh in admiration, but at the same time he admitted in his heart that it was impossible for him to fully understand Zhuge Liang's design.

If there is anyone in this world who can fully understand Zhuge Liang's mathematics and management coordination, it is probably only Zhuge Jin in person.

……

For example, I traveled and observed the old city of Jiangzhou south of the Jialing River for several days, and saw how enthusiastically the people of the old city of Jiangzhou responded to the call for labor and how well-organized the corvée management was.

Having seen enough of the people under Zhang Song's rule, like water flowing to the water, the people's hearts all turned to Zhuge Liang.

Deng Zhi, convinced, finally returned to Jiangbei.

He estimated that Zhuge Lingjun's reply to Situ should be ready soon. He also had to keep an eye on it frequently so as not to miss the above matters.

However, after returning to Jiangbei New City, he asked someone to pass the message, but was told that the reply had not been prepared yet. It seemed that there were still some difficult contents that needed to be discussed, and the person had no time to receive him.

Deng Zhi had no choice but to hang around for a few more days to see the people's lives in Jiangbei New City.

When Deng Zhi was bored, he suddenly remembered that during his days in Jiangnan, he heard the people in Jiangnan mention many times that the people in the new city in Jiangbei now have other jobs that can make more money during the slack season, so it is difficult to find people in Jiangbei to perform labor service, and they would rather pay money to avoid it.

Deng Zhi didn't understand at the time, so he asked them if there were any new industries in Jiangbei. Unfortunately, the poor people in Jiangbei couldn't give a specific explanation, only saying that several new brocade weaving workshops had opened in Jiangbei recently, both government-run and private, and they were recruiting local people as weavers.

The wages seem to be paid according to the amount of work done and the piece rate, but those who are quick and do more work can earn a lot more than the money for substitute labor, so those who are diligent and quick choose to work in the workshop.

"Now that I have some free time, I might as well take a look at the brocade weaving workshop in Jiangbei to see what is so special about it that attracts so many people."

Deng Zhi had no mission to begin with, so he left immediately. He quickly asked someone for directions and arrived at the largest government-run brocade workshop in Jiangbei New City.

This place was built only more than two months ago. It should have been built just after Zhuge Liang returned to Jiangzhou from Wuchang.

However, the workshop was strictly managed, and outsiders were not allowed to enter. Deng Zhi did not want to gain any connections, but just wanted to take a look, so he wandered around outside.

Just after turning a corner, he saw a government-run warehouse, which seemed to be selling Shu brocade produced by the weaving workshop in bulk to visiting merchants.

Deng Zhi was dressed fairly decently, so he walked in as well, pretending to be a merchant coming to purchase goods. He paid for some tea and watched other people trade.

After just a short look, Deng Zhi was shocked, because the Shu brocade sold in this warehouse was far beyond his previous knowledge.

"How can there be such a wide brocade in the world? Aren't all the cloth and silk in the world only one foot and eight inches wide? This one must be more than five feet, right? Wouldn't one piece be equivalent to three ordinary pieces?" Deng Zhi couldn't help but be shocked, because it was obvious at a glance that the Shu brocade in front of him was much wider than all the traditional brocades that had existed in the past.

It's like a northerner who has only seen rats as big as fists, and suddenly sees rats bigger than cats when he goes to Guangdong for the first time. How can he not be shocked? The visual impact is too direct.

People in later generations may not understand this, but the textiles of the Han Dynasty were actually only one foot and eight inches wide.

Because textiles of this era were limited by the manual shuttle method. When weaving, the weaver had to switch her right hand to the left, step on the pedal, and then switch her right hand to the left hand. If the cloth was too wide, the hand would not be able to reach under the warp of the cloth. The width of the cloth could not exceed the sum of the lengths of the woman's two forearms.

(Note: I will not explain this point any further, and will also briefly describe how Zhuge Liang solved the problem later, because I have already written about it in the previous two books, and I cannot waste words to be worthy of my old paying readers.

If you don’t know how narrow the textiles were before the Song Dynasty, you can go back and look at the screenshot of the Easter egg chapter in Chapter 1 that explains “天取/時取/土取”. In the old version of the TV series “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”, in the stills of the three visits to the thatched cottage, the three things hanging in Guan Yu’s hand that everyone mistakenly thought were “thermos bottles” were actually brocade, which was actually a gift from Liu Bei. Ancient brocade was that narrow.)
Deng Zhi had no idea what technical means Zhuge Liang used to achieve such a miraculous result in just a few months, making the satin woven on the loom several times wider.

He really wanted to find out, but how could such a secret be discovered?

The clerk in charge of this government-run warehouse would just tell everyone with a cold face not to ask questions that they shouldn't ask, and that they could buy it or not, because this kind of wide Shu brocade would sell well anyway.

Finally, there was another group of local Shu merchants from Zitong who bought a large amount of goods. They seemed to be planning to go all the way from Fu River to Jiameng Pass, then take the Jinniu Road and Chencang Road by land, and sell them to Guanzhong to Zhong Yao and Ma Teng.

Seeing that he had bought a lot of goods, the shopkeeper reluctantly answered a few of his questions: "This kind of brocade is naturally woven by the new loom that Zhuge Lingjun asked skilled craftsmen to build. How wonderful this thing is, how could the world predict it? Don't ask questions that you shouldn't ask!

The weavers in this workshop cannot see the whole picture of the loom while they are working, as the key points of the mechanism are all blocked. No one in this land of Shu can imitate it!

But you can rest assured, the court will officially sell new looms in the future, and as long as you pay the money, you can run your own weaving workshop. Now in Jiangzhou, there are already two small weaving workshops opened by local wealthy families, both of which have been specially licensed by Zhuge Lingjun. "

"You don't know yet, do you? I heard that this new loom was made by Zhuge Lingjun's wife, Huang. Anyway, it's amazing."

Because Deng Zhi had no money to purchase goods, he was politely sent out after listening to a few words and was unable to find out any more information.

All he could remember was that this new brocade was really decent, and he heard that the weaving speed was only slightly slower than the original narrow loom, but the width was three times wider. Wouldn't that mean the weaving efficiency was at least doubled?

This thing was actually thought of by Zhuge Lingjun's wife Huang Yueying. It really is true that women are as capable as men.

How could Deng Zhi know that the idea of "increasing the width of the loom" was actually brought up by Zhuge Jin and Zhuge Liang when they met after the Battle of Hanzhong against Cao Cao last year. They talked about the economic construction work in the next few years and the construction and control of Shu. They talked about Shu brocade and Zhuge Jin mentioned it a few times at that time.

Of course, Zhuge Jin mainly made use of his advanced knowledge, so that if Zhuge Liang had the energy to tinker, he could work towards "increasing the width of textiles". He also mentioned that "the main bottleneck restricting the width of weaving today is the shuttle throwing method and shuttle throwing distance."

In the modern textile industry of later generations, of course, the flying shuttle was used to complete the wide-width shuttle, with a long travel distance and high speed. However, Zhuge Jin knew that the flying shuttle might not be manufactured in this era, and he did not understand the detailed mechanical structure, so he only mentioned the needs and directions, without involving specific technologies, so as not to limit others' thinking.

Of course, Zhuge Liang was not good at textile machinery, so in the end, this thing was actually made by Huang Yueying.

Of course, the loom made by Huang Yueying did not have a flying shuttle structure, but it reached the technical level of the double wide loom in the late Southern Song Dynasty. It required two people to cooperate, one was responsible for pedaling the warp, and the other stood at the back of the loom at the warp opening to be responsible for throwing the shuttle.

Of course, in order to prevent the warp from opening too large or too long, Huang Yueying also improved the winding mechanism of the warp. In order to prevent the shuttle thrower from getting backache while standing, Huang Yueying also optimized the shuttle thrower's seat so that he could work while standing or sitting.

In short, many other small optimizations and supporting adjustments have been made, so that Huang Yueying's version of the double loom is more user-friendly than the double looms in the late Southern Song Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty, and it is not so tiring for weavers to use. There is no need to go into the specific technical details one by one.

Anyway, this thing could have been made by people in the Song Dynasty. This shows that it does not require any modern scientific and technological theories and can be done with just the ancient people's knowledge of science and engineering.

With Huang Yueying's ingenuity, and the fact that she learned more about mathematics and physics from Zhuge Liang in this life, and someone pointed out the contradictions and the direction of her efforts, it is not surprising that she spent half a year to come up with this thing.

But in the eyes of outsiders who were watching the fun, this was another miracle.

Zhuge Liang opened a large number of weaving workshops with new looms, which naturally absorbed a lot of surplus labor in Jiangzhou and Jiangbei New City, allowing most local people to find jobs and earn much more than the money required for corvée labor.

This year is the first year of the implementation of the Substitute Service Law. To correct a wrong, one must go too far. Zhuge Liang hoped that more local people would pay to be exempted from service so that the benefits of the new law could be promoted more quickly and thoroughly.

This is like someone giving you a pillow when you are sleepy, and everything goes perfectly together.

The local people can now earn money to recuperate and alleviate the aftereffects of the heavy burden caused by the Battle of Hanzhong last year.

The system of paying for labor service was quickly promoted, with an unprecedented level of public response and no opposition.

When the production of Shu brocade increases, it can be used as hard currency, similar to circulating currency. Moreover, this wide-width Shu brocade is only made in Jiangzhou, so it is very exclusive, which is more conducive to the regulation of hard currency.

At the same time, he used the money to hire the people under Zhang Song's rule on the other side of the river to serve and work. The people under Zhang Song's rule still remembered his kindness, and he won the hearts of the people, making the people of Ba County more inclined to Liu Bei between Liu Zhang and Liu Bei.

If a war really breaks out in Jiangzhou in the future, there will definitely be no people willing to help Yan Yan resist Zhuge Liang.

After Deng Zhi figured out all these aspects, he was overwhelmed by the admiration he received.

He silently took note of all these experiences and planned to report them to Situ after returning to Wuchang so that Situ would be fully assured.

After doing all this, a few days passed in a flash.

In the blink of an eye, it was the end of August. After Deng Zhi stayed in Jiangzhou for half a month, Zhuge Liang finally summoned him again and asked him to bring a secret reply letter to his lord and elder brother.

Upon meeting Deng Zhi, Zhuge Liang first exchanged a few polite words and then asked him about his recent trip to Jiangzhou, what he had seen and heard, and whether he had any suggestions.

Deng Zhi naturally said a lot of words of admiration with a sincere heart, saying that he had no suggestions at all: "Your Excellency is far-sighted and cautious in governing, but you can still achieve amazing results. I really admire you. Some government affairs may seem ordinary, but they are closely linked. They always take advantage of the situation and allow the people to naturally make decisions that benefit both the officials and the people. It is really amazing!"

Zhuge Liang waved his feather fan indifferently: "There is no need to say these clichés. Here is my secret letter to the Lord and the Minister of Justice. Don't ask what you shouldn't ask, and don't read what you shouldn't read.

After delivering the letter, the lord will have his own opinion. You just need to tell the truth and say that this letter was agreed upon by me and Shi Yuan.

This time, it's not that Shi Yuan is greedy for merit and reckless. He just has some excuses that come to his mouth, and he is afraid of hurting the hearts of the ambitious people in Shu. Just say this much, don't say anything else. Have you written it down?"

(End of this chapter)