In May, the capital of the capital is full of mountains and flowers bloom.

Tongzhou, which is east of the capital, has always had a prominent position, especially now, there is a saying that one capital, two guards and three guards. In the entire North China region, the capital is the first, Tianjin is the second, and Tongzhou ranks third, even surpassing Baoding, the Hebei Provincial Government.

Tongzhou is located in the southeast of the capital, and is also the northern end of the Grand Canal of the Beijing-Hangzhou City and the east gate of the capital.

The population of one prefecture and three counties exceeded one million.

It connects to the capital in the west, to Tianjin in the east, and to Baoding in the south, and is located in the alluvial flood plain of Yongding River and Chaobai River. The terrain is flat. There are dozens of large and small rivers in the territory, and the canals are winding, like a dragon; the Chaobai River has thousands of blue waves, and the fisherman sings at night.

Nowadays, Tongzhou is not only a relay station connecting the capital, but also relies on transportation. Now Tongzhou is a light industrial base focused on building in Jingji.

It is also the core privy location of the reorganized cabinet's latest proposed Bohai Rim Economic Circle. At the latest cabinet meeting, the chief minister Yuan Jixian proposed for the first time the Bohai Rim Economic Circle was to develop. This Bohai Rim Economic Circle refers to a large area surrounding the Bohai Sea and some coastal areas of the Yellow Sea. This Bohai Rim Region is also the most important Gyeonggi area and the Gold Coast on the northern coast.

The Bohai Rim region includes the two direct-level prefectures of Beijing and Tianjin, as well as Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, Liaoning and southern desert areas.

It mainly takes Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei as the core, with the Liaodong Peninsula and the Shandong Peninsula as the two wings.

At the moment when the economy of the southern coastal areas is becoming more and more developed, the north, as the political and military center of the Han Dynasty, certainly cannot be backward. In order to develop the economy of the capital, the Bohai Rim Economic Zone jointly developed by the five provinces and two prefectures was finally established.

In the Bohai Rim economic development plan proposed by the cabinet, Tongzhou is an important link. Many cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, Tongzhou, Zhangjiakou, Tangshan, Qinhuangdao, Dengzhou, Qingdao, Yantai, Dalian, Lushun, Yingkou have been listed as the first batch of key development cities.

Each city has its own focus, such as Zunhua, the northeasternest part of Shuntian Prefecture. In the past, there was a very large-scale Zunhua Iron Factory. After the founding of the Han Dynasty, it focused on developing the coal and steel industry. Zunhua became one of the five major steel industrial bases in the Han Dynasty. In terms of scale, it was ranked before the four major steel towns in Hankou, Fengzhou, Foshan and Anshan.

Tianjin focuses on developing shipbuilding, export trade and shipping, while Tongzhou develops light industries such as transportation and textiles. Each city has its own focus. The cabinet will provide guidance and support in policy.

After the Bohai Economic Circle plan, the cabinet is also planning to build the Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone and the Pearl River Delta Economic Zone.

It can be seen that the newly formed cabinet is ready to let go of the big moves and comprehensively strengthen economic construction.

But at this time, a big time, a shoe factory in Tongzhou had a problem, which alarmed the emperor. Liu Jun even summoned important officials from the cabinet and Zhili Heshuntian Prefecture after the Dragon Boat Festival, and formed a huge inspection team to quietly descend to Tongzhou.

In just a few days, Liu Jun and a group of court and local officials inspected hundreds of enterprises in Tongzhou, spinning mills, weaving factories, leather factories, leather shoes factories, garment factories, and food processing factories.

Officials in Tongzhou have done a lot of practical things in recent years. They have established several brand new industrial parks and placed all related enterprises together, such as the shoe and clothing industrial park. There are not only shoe and garment factories, but also related tannery factories, midsoles, large soles factories, insole factories, shoelace factories, button factories, decoration factories, etc., which fully utilized their industrial advantages and formed an upstream and downstream industrial chain.

The government even organized many nearby people and supported them to establish many family processing workshops. It provided OEM production and external processing services for manufacturers, greatly helping factories with busy orders to solve some problems of insufficient labor.

However, many problems were exposed during the inspection.

For example, ordinary factories have wages that are pressing workers. Most of them do not pay monthly, and some even pay once every six months, and only once a year. They also need to pay wages at the end of the year. The other is that they work overtime for a long time and most of them do not pay overtime. The wages are generally low, and workers have to work more than ten hours a day in the factory, and get up early and go into the dark, and the average salary is often less than three yuan a month.

There are also some problems. The government has not been able to provide more services to the east factories, such as the factory has good business, many orders, and wants to expand, but the funds are insufficient and need to borrow, but the bank has difficulty in financing, and even various approval documents. The official did not take the initiative to help the manufacturer solve the financing problem.

There are also many charges for government agencies, such as sanitation fees, security fees, patrol fees, inspection fees, etc., and the additional burden that manufacturers bear is very heavy. Even yamen often come to pay fines, and merchants sometimes suffer.

In the prefect's office in Tongzhou, Liu Jun and a group of ministers summarized the results of this inspection.

"The central and Tongzhou localities are positioned to develop light industry and transportation industries for Tongzhou. This is very accurate. It is backed by Beijing and Tianjin two large cities with a population of one million. It is surrounded by the Bohai Circle, the most prosperous circle in the north. Tianjin has great excellence in developing light industry and has excellent prospects. But there are many problems that you have ignored."

"This time, many workers lamented that money was difficult to make and work was too tiring. The boss always owed wages, low wages, and long working hours. The manufacturer kept complaining about employment, shortage of people, and lack of money. The government did not help with financing, and it was difficult to escape various approval documents. The yamen allocated various payments, and the fines were imposed, and the additional costs were very high."

"There is also the problem of triangle debt. The goods are sold for a long time, and the manufacturer owes the wages of material dealers and workers, forming a dangerous triangle debt relationship. Once something happens to one link, it will be dangerous upstream and downstream."

Liu Jun hopes that the officials in the central cabinet of the imperial court should not only look at the superficial data when formulating policies, but also look at the specific situation below. Local officials need to be more pragmatic, not only to act as good managers, but also to be a good participant.

"We need to change our work style now, and we also need to establish a law, a labor law, clarify the rights and responsibilities of employers and workers, protect the rights and interests of both parties, especially the rights and interests of workers. I hope that in this labor law, there is a clear standard for a minimum monthly salary, which stipulates that the working hours per day, and overtime pay exceeds the time, is considered overtime. There must be a clear standard for the minimum overtime pay per hour. Overtime work must be doubled during holidays. Workers' salary must be paid monthly, and they must not be deducted through excuses. Dangerous jobs must have pre-job training, and manufacturers must also purchase work-related injury insurance for workers in dangerous jobs."

"I suggest that the factory minimum wage starts from four yuan!"

"Every local area should set up a labor bureau and a trade union to provide protection for these workers' rights."

The officials present were shocked.

After the meeting, Yuan Jixian and Liu Jun had a separate conversation.

"If this labor law is implemented strongly, it will probably pour cold water on the current economic situation. The minimum monthly salary standard for four yuan is afraid that many small-scale factories, especially some small processing workshops, will probably not be able to open them."

Liu Jun said, "I know very well that businessmen make money by exploitation, but at the current price and living standards, the salary of four yuan per month is not high or even low. If a worker draws a dark brush and works for a month day after day, without even four yuan, life will be difficult."

Now is not the end of the Ming Dynasty. At that time, if I could have more than one or two silver dollars a month, my life would be pretty good. But now, four silver dollars a month. It is enough to support myself, and it would be barely enough to support my family.

"Does the teacher know about the wooden barrel?"

Yuan Jixian didn't know why the emperor suddenly mentioned the wooden barrel.

"A wooden barrel is made of many wooden boards, and how much water can be stored in the barrel is determined by these wooden boards. But if one of the wooden boards is very short, the amount of water is limited by the short board. This short board becomes the restriction on the barrel's water supply. Therefore, it can be said that a wooden barrel and a wooden board are not the long board, nor are the vast majority of wooden boards, but are limited to the shortest board."

"So we can say that the higher than the lowest board is actually meaningless. The more you get, the more waste it is. To increase the capacity of the barrel, what we need to do the most is to envision the shortest board, which is also an effective and only way."

A metaphor of a wooden barrel made Yuan Jixian understand it all at once.

On the surface, the emperor was talking about wooden barrels, but in fact, it was talking about national governance. For the country, the water in the barrel was the wealth of the country. Only when the country was rich could it be strong. However, if the country wanted to be strong, it had to rely on all classes of society.

Those who are tall are the nobles, officials, and wealthy businessmen who occupy the upper level of the country, and those shortcomings are undoubtedly the lowest-level people, that is, those ordinary civilians.

In the late Ming Dynasty, the wooden boards of wooden barrels were generally very short, and some were even short to the bottom of the barrel. Therefore, even if some were extremely long, it had no effect on the entire Ming Dynasty wooden barrel.

It can even be considered from another perspective. In fact, all wooden boards were originally sawed off a wooden board, but because the saws were long and short, they had long and short boards. The long boards were too long and short boards were too short, but in fact, the length occupied the long boards of the short boards and wasted resources.

"Water can carry a boat, but it can also overturn the boat. If it is replaced by this wooden barrel theory, the court needs to pay more attention to the shortcomings, that is, the rights and interests of the people at the bottom. If the people can eat a full meal, wear warm clothes, enjoy education, and have the opportunity to go to business to change their destiny. This means that the shortcomings are also being extended. If the shortcomings are extended, the wooden barrel of the Han Empire can hold more water and be more stable."

"Now the Han Dynasty has opened up countless territory, and the newly developed territory immigration and land reclamation has greatly alleviated the problem of land annexation. However, the Han Dynasty has a population of more than 300 million and still has a huge surplus labor force. If everyone only focuses on that little land, then everyone can only live a poor life."

"The court attaches importance to industry and commerce, supports merchants to open factories, trade transactions, and allow goods to be circulated. More surplus labor has the opportunity to work and can earn more money, while a rich commodity economy can also allow everyone to enjoy more commodities. This is a virtuous cycle. The more developed the commodity economy, the court can also impose more taxes in the process of commodity circulation and consumption."

"A large number of rural surplus laborers enter factories, which is a good thing and the general trend. However, we cannot let these people who have left the land become slaves to the factory owners in the end. Thinking about the previous dynasty, the land annexation was serious, and a large number of people became landless people. They could not find so many job opportunities now. They could only rent and farm for the landlords, or even become slaves. They could only barely feed and fed, but once they encountered famine and war, they could not survive. In the end, they could only take risks, either going up the mountain to fall grass or gathering crowds to rebel."

"Now a large number of rural surplus labor has poured into cities, factories, and concentrated in mines. This situation is much more sensitive than scattered in the vast rural areas. Once workers are too oppressed, if they are not good, something will be prone to happen, and then it will be extremely serious."

Liu Jun said these things not empty words, but serious.

In history, many rebellions were like conscripts who built the Great Wall, river embankments, and military rations. They were dissatisfied with the people of the court as if they were gunpowder barrels, but they got together again. Once there were too many people, someone would incite them to make a mess immediately.

In the industrial era, a large number of rural people flocked to cities and factories. They had low salaries, poor living, and hard work. After a long period of depression, if they encountered something that would explode, they would be out of control immediately.

All kinds of bourgeois revolutions and the like, didn’t they just arise under such circumstances.

Liu Jun didn't want to do his best to develop the economy, but in the end he got a group of greedy capitalists, and then forced countless workers to jump up and cause a revolution.

The French Revolution cut off the emperor's head. Even the British Parliamentary War also cut off the king's head.

For Emperor Liu Jun, the Han Dynasty had to develop the economy. Only when the economy was alive would the people live and the country be prosperous and strong. But he also had to prevent the emerging capitalists from expanding too much. When these big capitalists got up, they were born to be the enemy of feudal imperial power.

Those workers must fully protect their rights, otherwise they will also stand opposite the emperor in the end. Although there are many reasons for the demise of the Han Dynasty, one of them must be that many farmers cannot survive and rebel for many years, causing huge harm to the Ming Dynasty.

"Teacher, more and more factories have been established. Now some factories are workers, but farmers are just going to the factory to earn some money to subsidize their household income during the slack season. But in the future, more and more people will enter the factory to work, and they will completely leave their home villages, leave the land, and become pure workers. The number of these people will be huge in the future. How to protect the rights and interests of these people is actually our precautions before they happen and avoid many troubles in advance."

"After Beijing, the old minister immediately drafted the labor law and submitted it to the Senate for review." Yuan Jixian said.

Liu Jun nodded with satisfaction. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!