Chapter 835: The Bonus of War (First Update, Please Subscribe)
"…The Turkish army's frenzied attack was defeated in fierce hand-to-hand combat. Under the command of Captain Li Bin, the Russian and Bulgarian soldiers fought to the very end. Even after their ammunition ran out, they fought back with stones and the bodies of their comrades… In the end, they held out until Russian reinforcements arrived, and the Turkish attack was broken. They left more than 20,000 bodies at the Shipka Pass, and the battle was over…"
"Da Ming Daily" July 10, 1876 - Bloody Battle at Shipka Pass!
For the Ming Dynasty, the war in Europe only had a page the size of a tofu block in the newspaper. After all, for most people in the Ming Dynasty, Russia was too far away, so far away that they had never even heard of it.
If the commander of this battle had not been a Ming Dynasty officer, it might not even have received so much space in the newspaper.
Of course, the war still had an impact on the Ming Dynasty. For example, on May 1, the Russian ambassador and the Ming Dynasty signed an arms procurement contract with a total amount of 150 million rubles. According to this contract, the Ming Dynasty will export up to 300,000 rifles, hundreds of millions of bullets, and thousands of field guns and artillery shells to Russia. This is the largest arms order ever received by the Ming Dynasty. Although orders for field guns are mostly second-hand old-style recoil guns, they still keep the Ming Dynasty's arsenals extremely busy. Not only military factories, but even civilian factories have received military orders - to produce various parts.
The war machine of the Ming Dynasty was quietly running. For the workers of the Ming Dynasty, this was not a bad thing. As the workload increased, overtime pay also increased rapidly. For the workers, this was a good thing. Even though the war had just broken out, the industrial production of the Ming Dynasty actually increased slightly, which can be understood as a "war boom."
Apart from this, the war did not seem to have any impact on the civilian population. Not to mention the civilian population, even the Naval School went on holiday as scheduled in July.
Li Pingan has been greeting his neighbors since he got off the tram and entered the community. He was admitted to the Naval Academy last year and has long been known as a role model for his neighbors to educate their children. Although the Naval Academy is not a university, being a naval officer is also a very respectable profession.
"Mom, Dad! ... I'm back."
He pushed the door open, put his luggage by the door, and while changing his slippers, he leaned inside and shouted. His brothers and sisters must not be in the house - he is the eldest, and there are seven younger brothers and sisters. The eldest sister is married, and the second brother graduated from the apprentice school last year and went to work in the factory. Compared with living at home, he prefers to live in the dormitory. The other brothers and sisters are either in elementary school or junior high school.
His mother gave birth to another child last year, and he now has a little sister. Others say that his father is still strong despite his old age, but in fact, his father is not old at all, he is only forty years old.
"Yeah, I'm back safely, my child's father, I'm back safely."
When the mother came out carrying her little sister, her face was full of joy. Li Tieliang, who had just returned home, put the braised dishes in the kitchen and said to his son.
"You are so lucky, you must be smelling the Ma family's pig intestines!"
"Hey, Dad, if you didn't tell me, I really couldn't remember. What happened? Why did you think of buying braised food today?"
Although the Li family had seven children, their life was manageable. The house they rented had seven bedrooms. If it weren't for the fact that their father was unwilling to move, they would have moved to a new house with eight to ten bedrooms long ago. The rent was the same, 2 dollars a month.
In another world, such a large suite is called a large flat. To put it bluntly, the reason why the Ming Dynasty promoted apartments was for investment. Because there was almost no real estate industry in the Ming Dynasty, most of the public housing invested by the government or enterprises was rented to workers through long-term leases. After the lease expired for 20 years, the balance of one year's rent could be paid and the property was transferred to individuals. Neither the government nor the enterprises could profit from it. In order to save construction costs, multi-story apartments became the best choice.
In addition, the government provides childcare subsidies in the form of free milk and food stamps. Coupled with the fact that there is no tuition fee and free lunch, having children becomes a natural thing.
Any normal family has at least five or six children. More children means more blessings. This is not only a saying in the Ming Dynasty, but also a reality!
"If you want to buy it, just buy it."
Li Tieliang couldn't hide the smile on his face while he was speaking.
Li Pingan asked curiously:
"Mom, is there any happy event at home today? Why is Dad so happy?"
"Yes, it is of course a very happy event!"
Mrs. Li Liu put down the spatula and smiled so much that wrinkles appeared at the corners of her eyes.
"You don't know, your father's factory received a big order from the arsenal to provide spare parts to the arsenal. Originally, the factory only needed to work twelve hours, but now? It's a full sixteen hours. Although it's four more hours, the labor rate is calculated based on six hours. In the past, everyone was barely able to eat enough but not starve to death. Now, it's good. It's only been a week, and the boss said that he will increase your father's salary by three yuan per month, and the factory will provide three meals in the future! If you calculate it, your father's salary has almost doubled. How can he not be happy?"
Li Pingan was dumbfounded by his mother's words, and he said in surprise.
"Really? How come it increased so much? No wonder dad is so happy."
Looking back at the restaurant, my cheerful father took out a bottle of wine, which was just ordinary Victory wine.
The family's income increased, and Mrs. Li Liu was very happy.
"That's right! Your father's factory is not a big one. You should be thankful that you are not unemployed and have paid your pension insurance on time. Who would expect a salary increase? Now that we have received so many orders and the time is tight, the boss will naturally increase your salary."
After being happy, Li Pingan had a question in his mind. If ordinary factories like this received large orders from the arsenal, what about other factories? Why did the arsenal place orders with civilian factories? It must be because they couldn't produce enough orders!
Why is the Arsenal too busy with orders?
It must be related to the current war in Turkey. In addition to Russia, France and Austria-Hungary also purchased a lot of arms from the Ming Dynasty.
"Ping An, come here. You have a day off today. Come have a drink with me, your dad!"
Li Tieliang said with a smile on his face.
"You've grown up, and my second son has joined the factory. Our family is getting better and better... Well, with my skills, I can definitely make a lot of money during this good time."
Li Tieliang didn't have much ambition. He never thought about opening a workshop. He just wanted to earn more money through his own labor. In fact, if he wanted to make money, he could earn more money even if he opened a workshop.
"Yes, as long as you work hard, you will definitely get rich. Dad, I respect you. You have worked hard."
Although he had a smile on his face, Li Ping'an felt a little worried in his heart.
Is the war really that far away from the Ming Dynasty?
He didn't know, but he knew that once the war broke out, as a soldier, he would definitely be involved...
(End of this chapter)
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