Tang Dynasty Xie Lu Lang

Chapter 360 Morally intolerable, evil must be eradicated.

As it turns out, there is no such thing as a spineless scoundrel who can't be beaten.

Zhang Dai knew what a vicious fellow Yan Wu was, so he didn't treat him like an ordinary child and really went all out when they fought.

"Senior Brother Zhang... Waaah, I was wrong. Teeth are for eating, not for biting people... My wife, I was wrong, I'm so sorry, please, please save me!"

Yan Wu was initially as tough as an ox, but after being slapped several times on the buttocks, his cheeks twitched in pain. He quickly lost his previous bravado, and then loud, painful slaps followed one after another, making him cry out in agony.

Seeing that the servants around him were all cowering and dared not step forward, he finally realized that he was really in great danger. He could no longer hold back and began to cry and beg for mercy.

Even though the boy had started begging for mercy, Zhang Dai still hit him a few more times until he felt his knees getting warm. Only then did he lift the boy up and put him aside. Looking down, he saw that his clothes were soaked. The boy had actually peed himself from being beaten!

"Waaaaah, Father, Father, save me! People are going to be killed here! Senior Brother Zhang is going to kill me..."

After being released, Yan Wu still felt a burning pain in his buttocks. He lay on the stone steps with his little bottom sticking up, covering his face and sobbing. He also took his anger out on the servants: "You thieving slaves, you didn't come to save me! I'll kill you all!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Dai's eyes turned cold again. Other children might just be throwing a tantrum, but this kid had the audacity and ferocity to put his words into action.

He looked around and found a vine, then pointed it at Yan Wu and shouted angrily, "Stand up! What did you just say? Who are you going to kill?"

Upon hearing the terrifying voice, the boy jumped to his feet on the steps, tears welling in his eyes as he shook his head repeatedly, saying, "No, I didn't say that... Senior Brother Zhang, please, don't hit me... I was wrong, I know I was wrong!"

"Now that you've entered my household, you must abide by my rules! I won't be able to take you away until I've disciplined all your bad habits! My household has punishments and rewards; you'll be punished for doing wrong and rewarded for doing good. Do you understand?"

Zhang Dai pointed at the boy again and said in a deep voice, his expression naturally very serious.

"Listen, listen carefully... I don't want punishment, I want a reward! Senior Brother Zhang, what did I do wrong, what did I do right? Waaah, my butt, my butt hurts..."

No matter how fierce this kid was, he was only three or four years old. Faced with the absolute difference in strength, he no longer dared to provoke Zhang Dai. He covered his little bottom with both hands and said sadly.

Although Zhang Dai had physically punished the boy, he was completely clueless about how to raise children and didn't know how to discipline them.

He pondered the content of early childhood education for future generations, then went into his study and began to write: "My mother gave me life, my father raised me, my father's father is my grandfather, my father's mother is my grandmother..."

The paper, several hundred words long, described all the human relationships, including parents and relatives. Then Zhang Dai came out with the paper and, considering that the boy might not be literate, handed it to a servant of the Yan family and instructed, "Teach your son to read this. If he can read it fluently, both master and servant will be rewarded!"

After giving these instructions, he ordered his family to prepare several rooms in his residence to house Yan Wu and several of Yan's servants.

Yan Tingzhi didn't just send his son over and be done with it; he also sent over a thousand strings of cash and silk, more than enough to support Yan Wu and his servants for several years.

Zhang Dai did not refuse. If he could really teach Yan Wu well, the help he would bring to the Yan family would be immeasurable by money.

After arranging things for Yan Wu, it was already morning. Then a servant came to report that someone from Luoyang had arrived in the capital and had been led to the front hall.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Dai was overjoyed and quickly went to the front hall. There were more than a dozen people sitting in the hall. When they saw Zhang Dai, they all stood up to greet him, calling him "Master" and "Lord".

These people were all personnel previously assigned to Guandong, including Zhang Dai's cousin Zhang Yu, his disciples Zhang Yi and Liu Congyuan, as well as Nan Jiyun, and so on.

"I thought you wouldn't be coming to the capital until next month, but I didn't expect you to arrive so soon. You must have had a long and tiring journey."

Zhang Dai strode forward, first grasping his cousin Zhang Yu's arm, then nodding to everyone and saying with a smile.

"A slow journey only means more hardship along the way, and the food and lodging are unsatisfactory. It's better to arrive in Chang'an sooner. You, Sixth Master, will surely treat us well and comfort us after our hard work. I encouraged everyone with these words on the way, and everyone has decided to travel as fast as possible to reach the capital!" Zhang Yu said with a smile, and the others nodded in agreement, saying, "We are all looking forward to your guidance, Sixth Master, to explore the pleasures and entertainment of the capital!"

"What's the big deal? Let's go inside and rest for a bit, and then we'll move on to another venue this afternoon!"

Hearing them say this, Zhang Dai laughed heartily and then beckoned Ding Qing over, instructing him to arrange a venue for an art gallery in Pingkang Ward.

After everyone entered the hall and took their seats, they began to report to Zhang Dai on the operation and management of various personnel arrangements in Guandong over the past period of time.

Zhang Dai's largest business in Guandong was naturally the Yizao Weaving Workshop. Although the disaster had passed, these workshops continued to operate and even hired more weavers.

"Now all the weaving workshops in various places are operating well. The weavers work in the workshops and the cloth they weave is more than enough to support themselves and also to care for the elderly and children. Some families of migrant workers from other prefectures have also come to settle here. Now, Weizhou and Bianzhou each have nearly 10,000 weavers, and the mulberry gardens they have built have exceeded 1,000 hectares. The other prefectures are also quite large-scale..."

In the latter half of the fifteenth year of the Kaiyuan era, the disaster in Hebei intensified. Although the imperial court urgently dispatched one million shi of rice from the Jianghuai region to the north for disaster relief, it still took time.

During the disaster, the weaving workshop system established by Zhang Dai undertook a great deal of relief work for women and children, saving tens of thousands of lives and making a significant contribution to helping the disaster victims in Hebei survive the disaster.

Sixteen years after the Kaiyuan era, the disaster situation eased, and the women and children who had been taken in gradually returned to their family life and production.

However, some soldiers from Henan and Hebei were assigned to border garrisons in places like Youzhou for relief efforts, and their families are still working in weaving workshops.

These soldiers who were sent north were often tenant farmers and itinerant merchants without any permanent property. After a full year of farming in Youzhou, they could be sent back to their original hometowns and given land there.

Therefore, after fulfilling their disaster relief mission, the weaving workshops today still bear the responsibility of helping these itinerant customers transition into ordinary land-sharing households. This large-scale, clearly defined division of labor in weaving workshops is far more efficient than small-scale production.

Some of the weavers who had previously received relief at the weaving workshops and had now returned to their families often gave up soaking hemp and spinning yarn at home, and went back to work at the weaving workshops after finishing their farm work. Some even stayed at the weaving workshops and used their wages to hire helpers to take care of farm work.

Therefore, after the disaster relief phase when they were unable to make ends meet, the profits of the weaving workshops have been gradually increasing. At the beginning of this year, the combined monthly surplus of weaving workshops in various places even reached more than 3,000 bolts of silk.

At a market price of 500 coins per bolt of silk, that's a profit of over 1,500 strings of cash, which adds up to 10,000 to 20,000 strings of cash a year. Of course, Zhang Dai invested over 200,000 strings of cash in total, and although it will be a long time before he breaks even, the rate of return is still quite astonishing.

"If you calculate it this way, the profits of the weaving workshops are far too high. Tens of thousands of weavers weave thread by thread, line by line, providing food and clothing for countless families. To enrich oneself at the expense of countless others is morally unacceptable!"

The textile workshops' generous returns were certainly due to their enormous scale, covering multiple prefectures and counties in Henan and Hebei, and employing tens of thousands of weavers. However, Zhang Dai was still somewhat dissatisfied.

He didn't build the weaving workshops for profit. He was also worried that if he focused too much on profits, it would encourage the managers of weaving workshops in various places to increase their exploitation and engage in some underhanded cost-cutting and efficiency-enhancing practices.

While it's true that any organization that has been operating for a long time will inevitably develop various problems, as long as supervision is strengthened and reward and punishment systems are strictly enforced, even if such phenomena cannot be completely eliminated, they can always be suppressed to a very small extent.

"When you return, you must also tell the managers of the weaving workshops that the purpose of building these workshops is to accumulate virtue and do good deeds, not to exploit and profit. The women and children who have received this relief in the past are grateful to us, and we accept it with joy."

At this point, Zhang Dai's tone became stern: "But if they change, and can't find food and clothing here, and start cursing the bad, then we must investigate thoroughly! Whoever spreads rumors about the countryside, once verified, I will not only take his life, but also skin his wife, children, and parents alive! Whoever eats unjust food, I will throw them straight into the Yellow River, and their bones and flesh will be fed to fish and turtles!"

Hearing Zhang Dai's fierce tone, everyone couldn't help but shudder. Even Zhang Yu, who was in charge of the matter, quickly stood up and said, "Sixth Brother, don't worry. We have all seen how hard those weavers work. In spring and summer, they are drenched in sweat, and in autumn and winter, their hands and faces are chapped. They work so hard to earn two meals a day. Who would dare to steal food? They would be worse than beasts! If there are such wicked people, there is no need for Sixth Brother to investigate. We will cut out our own hearts and bones!"

Everyone nodded in agreement: "Lang Yi is a man of great integrity who has performed such a virtuous deed. Anyone who dares to be greedy and ruin it will be our sworn enemy!"

"In the past, schools were only built in a few places in Zhengzhou. Now that there has been progress, schools have been built in other places as well. All the children of weavers and boatmen can attend the school, and those who excel in their studies will be rewarded!"

Zhang Dai thought for a moment and then said, "There's no need for the weaving workshop to be so bitter and resentful if they make money. As long as the profit-taking ratio is controlled, the profits can be reinvested in public welfare and education."

He was certainly not a saint who regarded money as dirt, but he had other ways to make money and didn't need to tirelessly squeeze profits from the warp and weft of those weavers. Anyone who tries to take advantage of the meager earnings of the common people is the most despicable of all!
(End of this chapter)