one
The first factory Tang Tong started was a match factory. Since everything was handmade, the factory was more of a labor-intensive enterprise, with a dozen mud houses and a staff of soldiers recruited from among the military households. With this scale, Tang Tong didn't think it looked like a factory at all. Instead, it looked like one of those unscrupulous workshops that produced counterfeit and shoddy products in later generations.
The craftsmanship of the matchboxes was not very good. There were twenty matches in a box. The Tang Dynasty style packaging was a bit sloppy. There was a picture of a beautiful woman washing silk printed on the front of the box, and a poem about washing silk was printed on the back, which was considered to be a bit pretentious. The price of each box of matches was also shockingly high, costing four copper coins.
Tang Tong's goal in doing this is to enter the high-end market first, and then expand to the mass market when the technology is mature and the scale is large. At present, this factory is not considered a factory in Tang Tong's eyes, but just a small workshop.
In the eyes of others, the Yiren Workshop has become a large workshop, which has given hope to all the people in the Weizhen Qianhu Office. Those who are recruited are paid six thousand copper coins a month for a trial period, which makes those who have not entered the factory jealous. This is what every household is talking about these days.
"Hey, my baby's father, don't you have a good relationship with your father-in-law, the husband? Why don't you go and ask him to let me go to the match factory? The monthly wage there is six hundred cents, which is not lower than the wage of a worker outside. I heard that after three months, the monthly wage will be one or two taels of silver. The work is light and there is no trouble. You are so stubborn that you don't know to go and ask your father-in-law." A woman was sitting at the door of her house and scolding her husband.
"What do you know, woman? Lord Yue didn't let us in because of us. Don't you think about what kind of person Lord Tang was in the past? People say that a dog will always eat shit. God knows what Lord Tang's intentions are." A middle-aged man squinted at the sun in the sky and said slowly.
"Bah, is that all you have got is intelligence and ability? You're still a dog that can't change its nature. The monks in the temple often say that if you put down your butcher knife, you will become a Buddha right away. Lord Tang has long been transformed into a Bodhisattva, and you still curse him like this. Do you have any conscience? Don't you think about it? Lord Tang has been distributing silver and food recently, and even hired teachers to teach the children. Is there any official in the world as good as our Lord Tang now?" The woman spat at her husband and scolded him even more harshly.
"I just said this once, and you've already said a lot to me. Mother, why are you in such a hurry? Didn't Lord Tang say that he wanted to open three oil factories and a duck farm? There are plenty of opportunities. Why are you in such a hurry? Let's just wait and see the situation first." The man frowned and muttered.
"Look at the situation. You say it's easy, but by then people would have earned several months' salary in their pockets." The woman glared at her husband, still very dissatisfied with her husband's disappointing attitude.
"Haha, Brother Man, what are you two talking about? You're arguing again." A man passing by made a joking interjection, but this caused the couple to roll their eyes.
"Go away, go away. Who are you quarreling with, Lang San? You are so proud now, aren't you? It turns out that your wife has joined the factory and will have a bright future, but you come to laugh at my wife and me." The woman was also very sharp-tongued and fought back with one word.
"No, no, sister-in-law, do you know the situation of my family? It's Lord Tang who takes care of us. It's because I'm incompetent and my family is so poor. Lord Tang feels sorry for my family, so why should I be proud? Sister-in-law, don't you think this is reasonable?" The passing man waved his hands and begged for mercy.
"Yes, now that your wife has a job, you will have a much easier life in the future. Your three children all have schooling, and maybe one of them will become a scholar in the future. Unlike my family, we can only wait for Lord Tang's support. My child is a little older and has missed the age to go to school. I don't know what he can do in the future." The woman sighed and said with some concern.
"Don't be anxious, sister-in-law. I heard that Lord Tang has already made arrangements. If the time comes, everyone will be able to join. For example, your son Manchen, Lord Tang will definitely make arrangements for him. I heard from Lord Zhao that Lord Tang will organize the military households in our Wei town into a new army, aged between seventeen and twenty-five. I heard that the military pay will be very generous. Isn't your son Manchen of the right age?" The man smiled, then looked mysterious and lowered his voice.
"Is this true or false? Did Lord Zhao really say that?" The woman stared at the man with wide eyes and asked in disbelief.
"Why would I lie to you, sister-in-law? You'll know in a few days. Brother Man, I have something else to do, so I'll leave first." The man raised his hand, said goodbye to the couple and left, leaving the couple to continue talking about this matter.
Regarding such matters, the discussions in each family were similar. Although some people took a wait-and-see attitude, most people still envied those who went to work in the match factory. Everyone was afraid of being poor, and when there was a glimmer of hope, their hearts, which had been numb from poverty, gradually became active again.
two
The person in charge of the match factory is Wuhu Yueyang. This man has some clever ideas and is also older. It is no longer suitable for him to lead troops, so Tang Tong arranged him to manage the match factory. Anyway, in this era, factory management is very simple, unlike in later generations where it requires so much knowledge. Wuhu Yueyang is capable enough for the job, and Yueyang is also very happy to manage the match factory. In his opinion, Lord Tang arranged him first, which shows his trust in him.
The so-called match factory operated in a modern, sequential production method, with each person only responsible for one step. Although it could not be like the assembly line operation of later generations, everyone got the hang of it very quickly. Some of the matches produced were stored in the military camp, and some were placed in the store opened by Chen Yuxian in the city. Tang Tong also found a few talented people among the military households to be salesmen. After personally teaching them sales lessons for a few days, he sent them to several nearby cities.
Tang Tong assigned four soldiers to be bodyguards for Chen Yuxian, escorting her back and forth every day. Tang Tong sent Yuan'er to study in the newly opened school. There were only four classes in this school, one class for girls aged seven to fourteen, and three classes for boys aged seventeen to twenty, thirteen to sixteen, and seven to twelve. Four scholars were invited to teach these people how to read. In order to make it easier for these children to learn to read, Tang Tong sorted out the pinyin literacy method used in later generations. Unfortunately, those scholars resisted this new method, believing that the ancestral method could not be changed. Tang Tong had to put the pinyin literacy method aside for the time being and deal with it later when he had the chance to find a scholar who was willing to accept new things.
Tang Tong's move completely changed everyone's view of him. No one called him a vampire anymore. In this era, for the poor, reading was an extremely honorable yet luxurious thing. Anyone with a little knowledge hoped that their children could read, because in this era, everything was inferior except reading.
When the matters at the match factory were almost settled, Tang Tong prepared a gift to visit his cousin Han Qing, the prefect. The gift included a few boxes of matches. Tang Tong's main purpose was not to sell matches, but to ask this cheap cousin for some craftsmen to help him make some production equipment.
What Tang Tong didn't expect was that his cousin, the prefect, gave him a headache.
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