Kunshan County, like Suzhou City today, is also filled with the sound of looms in thousands of households.

With the strong support of Mr. Zhao, and the great help of Jiangnan Bank and Jiangnan Textile, more than 200 textile factories have been opened in the county in the past few years. In addition to silk weaving, many upstream and downstream industries such as warp knotting, warp pulling and jointing, and flower picking have also sprung up like mushrooms after a rain.

Kunshan is adjacent to Suzhou City in the west, Jiading Prefecture in the east, Taicang and Changshu in the north, and Songjiang Prefecture in the south. It is located in the heart of the Suzhou-Songjiang area. The Wusong River and Loujiang River run through the entire area, and the river network crisscrosses and connects with various prefectures and counties, making transportation extremely convenient. When Mr. Zhao built the Zhaogong Dike, solved the century-old flood that plagued Kunshan, and controlled schistosomiasis, Kunshan County, which had gotten rid of its chronic illness, could finally realize its great potential.

In order to encourage the development of industry and commerce in the county, Mr. Zhao strictly prohibited clerks and ruffians from harassing merchants, and erected a monument to guarantee that in addition to the industrial and commercial taxes from the court, the county would not collect a penny more! He also strictly prohibited locals from bullying outsiders, and even prohibited clerks from harassing refugees, in order to attract outsiders to come and work.

Jiangnan Bank also actively issued low-interest loans to weavers. In addition to providing working capital for the purchase of raw silk, it also encouraged weavers to purchase more looms and expand production.

Jiangnan Textile not only signed exclusive sales contracts with weavers, but also provided them with operational guidance - mainly in accordance with the scientific management methods taught by Mr. Zhao in the executive class, to carry out comprehensive management reforms such as production standardization, piece-rate wage system, and functional foreman system.

This reform is particularly effective in the silk weaving industry, which is a highly technical and specialized industry. It can summarize and combine the experience and knowledge accumulated by weavers over the years with traditional skills, conduct analysis and comparison, and find out the commonalities and regularities.

Simply put, it is to replace experience with science, standardize tools, operations, labor movements, and working environment. Because only by implementing standardization can weavers adopt more effective working methods, thereby improving labor productivity and making fair and reasonable measurements of their work performance.

At first, the uneducated weavers were naturally reluctant to accept such cumbersome rules and regulations. However, Jiangnan Textile Company made scientific management a hard condition for production and sales, and Jiangnan Bank also stated that it would stop issuing loans to weavers who did not complete scientific management reform within one year. They had no choice but to learn how to collect and record traditional production experience, compile it into tables, and then summarize it into rules and regulations under the guidance of the instructors, and then implement them throughout the factory.

As a result, after a few months, the factories with thorough management reforms had a completely new look. Not only did the output of each worker increase greatly, but the quality of production also improved greatly. Not only did the weavers receive higher incomes, but their enthusiasm for production and improving technology also increased greatly.

Of course, the biggest beneficiaries were the weavers who owned the means of production… oh, yes, now they are called factory owners, who found that the income from each loom doubled. Although the weavers had to rest one day every eight days and their wages were doubled, they also made twice as much profit!

The power of example is infinite, especially when it comes to making money. After seeing the power of scientific management, this year all the spinning mills, weaving mills, silk weaving mills, printing and dyeing mills, jacquard mills, etc. in the county followed suit. Although there was no professional guidance and most of them were just copycats, there were some effects, at least the labor-capital relationship was not so tense, and the workers were in a mood to talk and laugh.

In the past, when the boss saw the workers laughing and going to the toilet, he thought it was a waste of time and would yell at them or even beat them up. Now, factory owners don’t care about that. They just need to complete the standard workload every day.

~~

In the south of Kunshan County, west of Jiufang Bridge, there is a small silk factory with twenty looms.

Each loom is ten feet long and seven feet high, and its structure is very complex. Under the control of skilled weavers, countless warp threads shuttle rhythmically between the machines, weaving silks of different colors.

On weekdays, the sound of looms in the workshop can be heard from far away.

But today, the workshop was completely silent, and all twenty looms stopped working at the same time. The weavers put down their work, gathered together in a gloomy mood, and discussed the incident that had made them panic.

"Boss, are our old parents really going to pass away?" The weavers were looking forward to the factory owner who brought them the bad news.

"It's probably true. The news has spread all over the street. Doesn't my brother-in-law work at Kunkai Company? I heard from their manager that the higher-ups have already held a meeting to discuss how to send off their elderly parents." The factory owner sighed with red eyes, "Oh, I couldn't sleep all night after hearing about this. It's a good thing for my elderly parents to get promoted, but I just can't bear to see them go..."

"Isn't this nonsense? Our old parents are our second parents, how can we let them go!" The weavers immediately felt like they had lost their parents and were extremely depressed.

Although Mr. Zhao had ordered his appointment to remain secret, the news that his parents were leaving soon spread quickly.

Upon hearing the news, the local gentry tried every possible means to find out more, and it turned out to be true. As soon as the document from the Ministry of Personnel arrived next month, the old parents would set off for the south.

Once the gentry knew about it, the whole county would know about it soon.

Now the people of Kunshan could no longer sit still. They panicked and dropped their work. They poured out of the spinning mills, weaving mills, silk mills, printing and dyeing mills, and jacquard mills and gathered on Yaqian Street.

Seeing the huge crowd outside the gate, ready to rush into the government office at any time, the doorman Yu Xu was so scared that he almost peed his pants and hurriedly rang the gong to summon the government officials to suppress the crowd.

"Are you blind?" It was the doorman, Uncle Yu, who remained calm. He snatched the club from his cousin's hand, glared at him and said, "Are you here to cause trouble? Didn't you hear the people shouting that they want to see their elderly parents?"

"What does that have to do with blindness?" Yu Xu muttered softly.

"You are blind. Didn't you see that they were excited but didn't throw away the garbage?" Yu Men said with an attitude of an experienced person, "Yes, garbage has been thrown on the ground for the past two years. Those things are no longer seen on the streets. Back then, Lin Pingzhi, the governor of Susong, was almost buried alive by the rotten eggs thrown by the villagers of Kunshan."

"There is also this section..." Yu Xu couldn't help but exclaim. He came to Kunshan too late, and what he saw were already neat houses and clean roads.

"Uncle Yu, are our old parents really going to abandon us?" At this moment, a neighbor saw Yu Xu and hurriedly called out loudly... The 'uncle' in 'uncle' is pronounced with the second tone, not the falling tone.

"Ah, is there?" Yu Men didn't dare to talk nonsense, he just laughed and said, "I'm just an insignificant doorman, how can I know about the master's affairs."

"Then please ask the old parents to come out and explain everything to us!" A young man shouted, "If the court really wants him to go, we will go to Suzhou and Nanjing to petition and make sure that the old parents stay!"

"Yes, we can't live without our elderly parents. Life has only been good for a few days. If a new corrupt official comes to power, we'll become beggars again!" The people beat their chests and stamped their feet. Their cries reached the sky and were heard even inside the government office.

"That's right. We only recognize our parents. If anyone dares to take his place, we will break his legs and drive him out of Kunshan!"

Zhao Shouzheng, He Wenwei and others were listening behind the screen wall.

"I'm not that bad, am I?" Old He was deeply shocked and was about to cry.

"They're talking about a dog official, why are you in such a hurry to get close to him?" Master Zhao scolded with a smile.

"But I have to take over the master's position." He Wenwei said aggrievedly.

"You're being pretentious. People may not know it's you." Zhao Shouzheng rolled his eyes at him, straightened his clothes, and was about to walk out of the screen wall.

"Where are you going, sir?" The three of them quickly grabbed him.

"Didn't you hear the people calling me? I'll go out and explain everything to them." Zhao Shouzheng said as a matter of course.

"Absolutely not." Xiong Xiasheng hurriedly advised in a low voice: "The people are too excited. They won't listen to anything the master says at this moment, unless the master says he will stay."

"How is that possible?!" He Wenwei said anxiously, "Well, I mean, the Lord came to Kunshan to be demoted, can he be trapped here forever?"

"Yeah." Bai Shouli blinked, hesitated for a moment and nodded. In fact, he wanted to say that it would be good for the adults to stay. We can still play mahjong together. Anyway, to him, there is no difference between the chief clerk and the county magistrate.

But it was very different for He Wenwei. In order not to offend the future master, Lao Bai still had to symbolically agree. But he couldn't be too enthusiastic, so as not to leave a bad impression on the current master.

"Well, what should we do then?" Not surprisingly, Mr. Zhao had no rules.

"It would be better for me to calm them down and persuade them to go back first. Then I can call together the village chiefs and the headmen, convince them first, and then let them help to appease the citizens." Xiong Xiasheng is very smart and capable, otherwise Zhao Hao would not have chosen him to accompany his father to take office.

"To be honest, sir, don't be upset. The reason why the citizens are so excited is that they are worried that the unreal good life in the past few years will vanish in an instant. As long as we prescribe the right medicine and eliminate their fear, they will naturally not hinder your future."

"Well said, I will help persuade them!" He Wenwei braced himself and wanted to fight for his dignity. "I promised them that Kunshan will never deviate from the master's plan. Is there any problem now?"

"Go ahead, but you have a foul mouth, so you'd better say less." Master Zhao nodded, and then gave He Wenwei another worried reminder.

"Uh, ah..." Lao He nodded helplessly. Actually, he knew his own faults, but he just couldn't change them. What could he do?

The two of them turned around the screen wall and came to the gate of the county government office. Xiong Xiasheng, the county police chief, was still very intimidating. As soon as he showed up, the voices immediately dropped by three points.

ps. Sorry, it’s the weekend, both of us were at home, crying and arguing, so I just finished writing now…