My father is Jiajing

Chapter 255 Such great official authority

The Xishan limestone mine in the suburbs of Beijing covers a very large area, with several surrounding hills within its scope, and there are tens of thousands of limestone workers and prisoners working there.

The people who managed the workers and prisoners in this lime field were also officials sent by the Ministry of Works and the Dali Temple. Of course, the officials who could be sent here were almost all small officials, some of whom were not even allowed to enter the stream.

But this does not hinder the actual management of these minor officials. It can be said that these officials, who are not considered officials in Beijing, are the masters here. Their joys and sorrows can directly affect the lives and deaths of tens of thousands of lime workers and prisoners!

Of course, in order to prevent these officials from committing crimes and embezzling money, the palace would also send a eunuch to supervise the normal operation of the lime field and the financial situation that the palace was most concerned about.

However, most of the time, these eunuchs in charge would directly override the minor officials sent by the Ministry of Works and the Dali Temple, and actually have the highest management authority here.

Therefore, often times, outrageous corruption and abuse occur in remote places like these.

This is also a stubborn disease that feudal management cannot overcome. The root cause of this stubborn disease, apart from the evil of human nature, is the "official-oriented" and "superior to others" thinking that has existed for thousands of years.

Under the influence of this kind of thinking, as long as someone becomes an official, even if he is just a small official, as long as he has some power, there will always be some people who cannot help but regard themselves as the superior who can ride on the heads of others, and begin to control and oppress the people he can manage.

It is simply the evil of human nature that has been magnified to the extreme through power.

So sometimes Zhu Zaigui was also very angry, because some such self-righteous people would emerge in his Shunyi Industrial Park, and some of these people were originally poor people from the surrounding areas.

After they finally obtained a small management position in the industrial park through their diligent efforts and hard work, they seemed to have suddenly changed into different people, and started to boss their former co-workers around, as if they were really the bosses.

Faced with such a situation, Zhu Zaigui also deeply felt the importance of quality education and responsibility education.

So later, Zhu Zaigui asked Gao Gong to write a booklet, and then through lectures and group learning, he helped the workers and managers in the Shunyi Industrial Park to reshape their correct values.

Let them understand that power and responsibility have always been two sides of the same coin. If one only wants power but does not want to take responsibility, he or she is not a qualified manager.

Then Zhu Zaigui also creatively gave the small employees under his management some supervisory rights, and stipulated that a management inquiry meeting be held every month, allowing these managed workers to provide corresponding work opinions and work criticisms to their small management, thereby improving management methods and improving work efficiency.

After a period of implementation, although the current Shunyi Industrial Park cannot be said to be a pure land, it is at least much better than the previous rough and barbaric management.

It can be said that this was also a small attempt by Zhu Zaigui to adopt humanized management, and of course it was only limited to the Shunyi Industrial Park.

Because although this form of supervision from below also existed in the imperial court, it was only between officials and was not implemented in other places.

Therefore, for the sake of caution, Zhu Zaigui let the front-line management adopt this model in the Shunyi Industrial Park. As for the management of the middle and upper levels, it still adopted the original top-down vertical management model, and the superiors still had absolute authority.

Otherwise, with such a large industrial park and so many people, it would be really crazy to have such "humanistic" management. Based on Zhu Zaigui's understanding of human nature, the final demands of these people will definitely become more and more bizarre and unrealistic.

Therefore, Zhu Zaigui's attitude towards management remains the same as before: focus on the big and let go of the small.

Assign specific tasks to specific people, and do the key things yourself or pay more attention to them.

Anyway, you can't put everything in, and you can't put nothing in either.

It all comes down to finding a balance between the two.

When the internal management officials and garrison eunuchs of the lime field heard that the prince had arrived, they were all shocked and panicked, not knowing how to receive him.

Because as far as they know, no one so distinguished has ever been here.

Therefore, the entire lime field was in a state of panic, and everyone rushed to the gate to welcome Zhu Zaigui. "Your servants (ministers) greet the prince."

The garrison eunuch Wei Dahe, the clerk from the Ministry of Works who was in charge of the area, Zhang Enhua, another clerk from the Dali Temple, Liu Quande, and other managers of the lime field all knelt on the dusty ground with excitement and trepidation.

Zhu Zaigui looked at these people without showing any unusual emotions. He just said, "Get up."

Then he entered the limestone yard with Meng Chong, Teng Xiang, Si Hua and other guards.

Looking at the limestone field covered with gray, Zhu Zaigui couldn't help but want to cover his mouth and nose, but he finally held back.

After arriving at a relatively clean wooden house, Meng Chong hurried forward, wiped the stool with his sleeve, and asked Zhu Zaigui to sit down.

Zhu Zaigui sat in the main seat of the wooden house, looking at Wei Dahe, Zhang Enhua, Liu Quande and others who followed him in, and said, "Don't be so reserved, sit down and answer the question."

The three of them thanked him quickly and then carefully sat down on the small stools in the wooden house.

Zhu Zaigui looked at the three of them and asked, "You three are in charge of this limestone field, right?"

The three of them replied, "That's right, Your Majesty."

Then Zhu Zaigui asked, "Who among you three will make the final decision?"

The three of them looked at each other, and then Wei Dahe replied carefully: "It's my decision."

Zhu Zaiqi frowned slightly, "What do you mean by considered? Explain it clearly."

Wei Dahe, Zhang Enhua and Liu Quande looked at each other again, and then Wei Dahe replied, "I am responsible for the finance and supervision of the lime field, which is the most important position. Manager Zhang and Manager Liu are responsible for managing the craftsmen and prisoners in the lime field, and the other is responsible for the production and sales of lime."

When Zhu Zaigui heard what Wei Dahe said, he nodded and said, "The division of labor among the three of you is quite clear. Now, how much lime can the lime field produce in a day?"

Zhang Enhua, a minor official in the Ministry of Industry who was in charge of production and sales, replied: "Your Majesty, if the coal supply in Xishan is sufficient, we can produce at least one million kilograms of lime a day."

When Zhu Zaigui heard Zhang Enhua say that the lime production capacity was only tens of millions of kilograms a day, he felt that it was a bit too little.

These millions of kilograms may sound huge, but when converted into the measurement units used in later generations, it is only a few hundred tons.

If these hundreds of tons of lime were really used for the expansion of the capital, it would seem like a drop in the bucket.

Zhu Zaigui asked: "How many people are there in the lime field? Why is the output so low?"

Liu Quande replied: "There are 3,000 craftsmen in the limestone field, more than 5,000 prisoners, and more than 2,000 odd jobs in the surrounding area, almost more than 10,000 people."

Zhu Zaigui silently calculated that if there were 10,000 workers, the daily output of lime would be only over one million kilograms. Doesn't this mean that each person can only produce 100 kilograms of lime per day on average?
You should know that the production technology of this lime is not very high. It only requires a steady supply of limestone or other raw materials with high calcium carbonate content, and it can be obtained by calcining at a high temperature of 900 to 1000 degrees Celsius for a certain period of time.

But it is really unacceptable that this large limestone mine with 10,000 employees has such a low output.

To put it bluntly, if they were asked to pound limestone from the mountains all day long, one person could pound at least several thousand kilograms of limestone a day. However, their average daily output was only over 100 kilograms, which shows that either their work model or their management model is problematic.

Therefore, we need to sort out the problems carefully and see if we can maximize the lime production capacity here before the official start of the Beijing expansion.

Otherwise, due to the shortage of building materials, the construction would be stopped and started many times. How long will it take to complete the expansion of the capital?
(End of this chapter)