Zhu Ci continued, "Aside from the two items mentioned above, there is also the matter of housing. Our factory area is large enough, but since the factory is newly established, everything is being kept simple for now. Therefore, your dormitories are currently communal bunkrooms. Later, we will build houses in the surrounding area. These houses can be allocated to excellent employees free of charge, though they do not come with land deeds. Once an employee retires or passes away, the house must be returned."
Once he finished speaking, the refugees' emotions could no longer be suppressed.
Food, clothing, shelter, transportation—aside from the last one, the factories had solved the first three. Could there really be such wonderful things in this world?
With these three things taken care of, those previous strict regulations didn't seem like much anymore.
They had no shortage of food, clothing, or shelter, they had no friends or relatives left outside. Or rather, even if they did, most of them were basically right here, so there was no reason for them to leave.
Zhu Ci was also helpless. If he could, he would much rather have these people sign a non-disclosure agreement, but the problem was that most of them were barely literate; they likely didn't even know what a non-disclosure agreement was. If he wanted them to understand the consequences of speaking recklessly, he would first have to lecture them every day, second, he would need to provide an example severe enough to teach them a lesson.
Everything is just getting started, he really couldn't be bothered to waste the effort; he might as well just keep them all locked together so they wouldn't go out.
At this stage, it is enough to just ensure these people are well-fed and warmly clothed. As for the next stage, like starting families.. we'll see when the time comes. In any case, their future partners will have to be from within the factory.
It could be said that this factory is like a small village.
It was just that this small village was currently a bit shabby; with only fifty people in total, Zhu Ci felt a bit stretched thin trying to select people from this group to manage discipline, logistics, sanitation.
Forget it, everything is in its infancy; we'll just have to make do.
Zhu Ci led them all the way to the factory area, which appeared quite primitive in Zhu Ci's eyes.
The roads were all dirt paths, the workshops and dormitories were all mud-brick houses. There was virtually no greenery; aside from its size, the place was dilapidated everywhere.
However, as he frowned, he turned his head and saw those refugees looking around one by one with excitement, as if they had arrived in a new world.
Zhu Ci turned to look at them and said, "Oh, right, I forgot to mention—I have a flaw where I can't stand filth. From now on, you should first get yourselves cleaned up. There are new work uniforms for you in the dormitory, the bathhouse is over there. There is firewood and coal, so go boil water and bathe yourselves. I won't charge you for today, but after today, there will be a fee if you want to use the bathhouse. Don't worry, it won't be too expensive. Now, go on."
In fact, even if he hadn't said anything, these refugees wouldn't have gone to put on new clothes while being so filthy.
Zhu Ci did not assign any tasks; he simply stood on the only two-story building within the factory area to observe these refugees.
When people gather in a crowd without a leader, someone capable of leading them will naturally emerge. This person isn't necessarily the strongest or the most educated, but they are certainly the most quick-witted, resourceful, independent-minded.
If everyone was well-acquainted, their character shouldn't be too different.
As expected, people immediately stepped forward to begin assigning tasks—fetching water, chopping wood, boiling water, even helping each other clean up.
Although there were only fifty people, the factory area had become quite lively.
After observing everything, Zhu Ci prepared to select five people from within to form a patrol team, responsible for enforcing discipline and patrolling the surroundings for any suspicious individuals.
Another four people will be selected to take turns guarding the main gate; if even one of them runs off, they can expect to be punished. Two more people will be assigned to guard the warehouse.
There were also the selection of people for the kitchen, the allocation of various workshops, so on.
It took five days of dealing with these trivial matters to finally get everything sorted out, these refugees finally began to look somewhat human.
While assigning specific tasks, Zhu Ci was surprised to find that among these refugees, there were actually several artisan households, including carpenters, masons, so on, but unfortunately, the blacksmiths he wanted most were not among them.
Thinking about it, blacksmithing was a profession that relied heavily on experience, skills were not easily passed down; one had to become a blacksmith apprentice to learn.
Zhu Ci simply had these craftsmen serve as workshop leaders for the time being, letting them lead people to manufacture various components by category.
Currently, the firearms being produced in the factory are primarily made of bamboo and wood; even the arrowheads are temporarily made of bamboo.
He first had someone make a set of original Single-shot Rockets according to the existing blueprints, then took them to test.
Well, it turns out there is a reason why the Great Ming doesn't use rockets very often. These rockets are completely unusable in windy conditions, especially against the wind; if the wind is even slightly strong, you have no idea where the rocket will fly, it might even fly right back at you.
During the experiment, Zhu Ci was indeed experienced; seeing that the rockets were heading in the wrong direction, he bolted and ran for his life, completely disregarding his image—his life was more important.
Fortunately, he didn't bring anyone with him, otherwise his persona as a calm and composed strategist would have completely collapsed!
However, after Zhu Ci returned, he still rewarded the workers with a meal of meat soup. The issue with the rockets was a design problem, it was already difficult enough for them to fully replicate them.
Of course, he could only afford to provide a single meal of meat soup; anything more was impossible, as meat was outrageously expensive in this era.
After he had gone to such great lengths to establish three factories, he finally felt the sting of poverty; if he continued to be so extravagant, he would truly end up leaving his family with nothing to eat.
He still needed to save money to give the children at home extra meals, so the workers.. would just have to endure it for now.
Even just a single bowl of meat soup was enough to make many people feel deeply grateful.
Listening to the lively cheers and laughter from outside, Zhu Ci smiled faintly and continued to lean over his desk, writing the improvement plan.
Sigh, I must say, he feels more relaxed writing these things at the factory; aside from being wary of that bunch of traitors back home, it's mainly because his handwriting is truly a bit embarrassing.
He has practiced, but practicing calligraphy requires painstaking, long-term effort; it is impossible to make rapid progress in just a few months, not to mention he doesn't have much time to practice.
The factory is a good place; no one there can read, so even if he writes like he's drawing talismans, no one will notice anything is wrong.
If it weren't for the inconvenience, he would even want to get some charcoal pencils to write with; he still found writing with a brush to be awkward.
Zhu Ci wrote down a whole bunch of improvement plans for the Single-shot Rocket, which ultimately boiled down to just six points.
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Author's Note: Zhu Ci: It's all the fault of that昏君 and those ministers, they don't know how to improve the rockets! A grumpy kitty with messy black hair. jpg
Next update at 12:00 PM~
Chapter 48
The most important thing for improving the rocket is to eliminate that damn long balancing rod.
This thing was originally intended to balance the body of the Single-shot Rocket, but the problem was that during use, the long rod would wobble during flight, making it impossible to correct the thrust eccentricity.
Secondly, there is modifying the structure of the rocket body, installing inclined tail fins, adjusting the center of gravity.
The modified single-shot rocket now had a shape with the arrowhead at the head, a spindle-shaped wooden tail skirt at the rear, four tail fins.
Each fin was tilted at an angle of five to ten degrees relative to the shaft's axis, with all fins oriented in the same direction and pressed tightly against the tail skirt.
Angled fins serve as the design foundation for modern rockets and projectiles, they are also the easiest feature to implement.
However, simply modifying this would not be enough to achieve the goal; the center of gravity also needed to be adjusted. A bit of weight had to be added to the front to ensure the center of gravity was located in the first third of the rocket, which would at least provide some degree of flight stability.
In addition to this, Zhu Ci also made slight adjustments to the nozzle, creating a slanted cut directly at the bottom of the powder tube. This would allow the escaping gas to exert lateral force on the rocket body, assisting its rotational launch.
All these modifications seemed effortless, yet achieving the desired results was no easy feat.
At least Zhu Ci spent half a month squatting at Xinghuo Factory before he could finally call it a success.
Mm, on the day of the test, he still didn't bring anyone with him, he was quite clever to climb directly up a tree after lighting the fuse.
Fortunately, the result was not bad; at least it met his expectations.
Zhu Ci patted the grit and dirt off his clothes, looked at the large crater blasted in the distance, let out a long breath.
From now on, he could also be considered someone who possessed firearms; one had to realize that even the county's armory might not necessarily have firearms.
Regardless of anything else, when facing the Qing Army, unless Alna could know his exact identity and position and arrange for heavy troops to attack Xialiang, otherwise, the heavy firepower would be enough to ensure Xialiang's survival in the initial stages.
As for the future.. that will depend on how the situation develops.
Jiading will certainly be affected by the flames of war; the best way would be to organize and train militia units before that happens.
However, there aren't that many people in the village, so the best way to form a certain level of combat effectiveness might be to recruit refugees.
Unfortunately, Zhu Ci could not move just yet; the sudden appearance of an army in such a small place simply didn't make sense.
After Zhu Ci returned to the Xinghuo Factory, he felt refreshed and distributed bonuses to everyone, he also formed a production and experimental team.
This group was specifically responsible for following his footsteps in research and development, while the rest of the people continued to make single-shot rockets.
Facing the Qing Army, no matter how successful the modifications to the Single-shot Rocket were, it would be like adding a cup of water to a boiling sea; after all, they had obtained all the firearms from the entire Beijing Armament Bureau and the Wanggong Factory.
Among them, there was no telling how many Hongyi Cannons there were.
Of course, they wouldn't use cannons to kill mosquitoes, but when it comes to firearms, the more you have, the more secure you feel.
Which Chinese person doesn't suffer from a fear of insufficient firepower?
However, Zhu Ci was in no hurry to continue investing in the next type of firearm improvement. Instead, he took some time off to visit the Coal Production Factory and the Furnace Production Factory, then made another trip to the village.
He took a look at the Coal Production Factory's ledger and couldn't help but freeze for a moment. "Hmm? How come the sales have increased?"
After he finished speaking, he looked at Fu Chunsheng. Fu Chunsheng was the only literate person in this factory, so he was naturally the one in charge of bookkeeping.
In that moment, Zhu Ci even suspected whether he had cooked the books.
It was just that falsifying accounts was usually done to embezzle public property; theoretically, it shouldn't have come to that.. right?
Fu Chunsheng immediately explained, "Although the weather has warmed up, the amount of goods being supplied by the Water Dragon Society is increasing, it seems they have already started selling to the north."
The North.. Zhu Ci understood much better now.
Although the south has already begun to warm up, the temperature in the north should be a bit lower than here, so it is normal for there to be a demand for beehive coal.
After confirming that the Coal Production Factory was fine, he rode his little donkey leisurely back home.
When he arrived home, the children were reading, while Xia Lei was practicing his saber skills.
With just one glance, Zhu Ci knew that this person's saber techniques were quite profound, following a path of righteousness and ferocity.
To be honest, having someone like him at home made him feel much more at ease.
Fu Qiulu was overjoyed to see him: "Young Master, you're back!"
Zhu Ci handed the little donkey to Xi Ya, walked over lazily, said, "Yes, I've come back to see you all."
Fu Qiulu..
You sound like you're just visiting relatives. Isn't this your own home?
But it must be said that while Zhu Ci was away, everyone was very distracted; now that he has returned, it is as if they have a pillar of strength.
Fu Qiulu busily prepared bathwater, clean clothes, delicious food for him.
Xi Ya also followed closely, hovering around to show Zhu Ci the little wooden figures he carved, while Xia Lei.. Xia Lei wasn't that close to Zhu Ci, so he simply sheathed his blade and watched with eager eyes.
Even though there weren't many people, Zhu Ci felt as if he were being surrounded by an entourage.
It was as if they were truly a family.
After eating and drinking his fill, Zhu Ci went to see Qiu Jingfu.
After seeing Zhu Ci, Qiu Jingfu observed him intently for a long while before saying, "Young Master, you've grown thinner and taller."
Zhu Ci's eyes instantly crinkled with a smile upon hearing the second sentence: "Really? I've really grown taller?"
Qiu Jingfu smiled very benevolently, nodded, said, "He really has grown taller."