Before the meeting, there is a small ventilation meeting. This is a routine operation.
For example, the resolutions you see at company meetings are actually made in small meetings.
Different from last year, this year's Huaihai Navy Conference was larger than last year. Fortunately, a large auditorium was built here in Jiangning, which was enough to accommodate so many people.
The auditorium is a conjoined structure, built in a hurry and not very beautiful, but it is large enough to accommodate thousands of people.
The main reason is that its structure can spread the sound.
This is not the most important thing. The most important thing is that Huai Haijun has invented the loudspeaker.
Interestingly enough, the loudspeaker is a by-product of the telephone.
This telephone was a prototype made by Xu Shou on the ship.
After being sent back by the ship, researchers from the Electric Power Laboratory restored it.
Although the telephone has not yet been used, the large speaker made by amplifying the receiver of the telephone is already practical.
Although the sound amplified through the speakers sounds somewhat distorted.
Dong Shuhengheng’s originally magnetic voice became like a drake’s voice.
But this kind of machine that can make people's voices louder seems like an artifact to many people.
Preparations for the conference started half a month ago. In addition to representatives from various lines and departments, a certain number of mass representatives have also been added this year.
Tang Tao was a ceramic craftsman from Jingdezhen. He was good at painting, calligraphy and seal cutting, and was proficient in making porcelain. He was good at making blue and white porcelain, overglaze color, doucai, multicolor, plain three-color and various single-color glazed porcelain.
His grandfather was the famous Tang Ying. However, by Tang Tao's generation, he was no longer as good as his ancestors.
In addition, the imperial court's management of Jingdezhen has become increasingly chaotic in recent years.
The life of porcelain workers is becoming increasingly difficult. The eunuchs who manage official kilns collude with local officials to line their own pockets by shipping goods to merchants at low prices and then receiving kickbacks.
The income of the official kilns was decreasing day by day, and the kiln workers were often found faulty by the managers and their wages were deducted. Even master craftsmen like Tang Tao were not immune.
Craftsmen are scarce, and cultivating one requires huge resources. In the past, both official and private kilns would recruit them.
But now, Tang Tao and other craftsmen are being treated harshly in the official kiln.
There was once a craftsman who couldn't stand the oppression and ran away to work in a private kiln.
However, someone broke his hands the next day. From then on, everyone could only cry and swallow.
Later, the Taiping Army came, and many porcelain kilns were destroyed in the fighting. After the Taiping Army occupied this place, they sent people to manage the porcelain kilns.
However, the trade routes were cut off, and the products made in the porcelain kilns could not be sold. Craftsmen like Tang Tao could only take the rations given by the Taiping Army to cross the border and eat bran-thick vegetables.
After several years of hard life, Tang Tao felt that his descendants might as well go farming!
Isn't it true that someone like me, who has learned a craft all his life and spent so much of his family's resources, is living the life of an ordinary person?
It happened that under the Taiping Army, no one cared whether he was a craftsman or not.
Just when Tang Tao was about to give up his job, Huai Haijun drove away the Taiping Army and occupied Jingdezhen.
In one year, Tang Tao changed his boss three times.
Tang Tao didn't know Huai Haijun, but he knew Huai Hai Company because Huai Hai Company was a big buyer of Jingdezhen ceramics.
The reason why Huaihai Company is a big buyer is because they control Shanghai's export trade.
So Tang Tao decided to stay and have a look.
Sure enough, after the Huai Navy occupied this place, they sent people to take over the official kilns.
The steward sent by Huaihai Haijun was a steward from Huaihai Company. His name was Jiang Guangzao.
Jiang Guangzao used to be in charge of the porcelain trade with Jingdezhen, and he was very familiar with all the officials here, including even master craftsmen like Tang Tao.
Everyone here in Guanyao also knows this person.
As soon as Jiang Guangzao settled in the official kiln, he settled the wages owed to everyone for more than half a year.
Just this one thing convinced everyone.
These craftsmen don't understand the nice words. Everyone just relies on their crafts to make money, because the craftsmen have no land and can only rely on their salary to support their families.
When everyone got the white silver coins, they felt at ease.
Tang Tao also gave up the idea of running away. Tang Tao felt that with his skills, he could make a living anywhere.
After Jiang Guangzao took over the official kiln, he transformed it into a company, and the original workshop management model also changed accordingly.
According to the original process, everyone is divided into workshops or work groups. Clay making, drawing, printing, cutting, drying, engraving, glazing, and kiln firing. Each process has a team leader or person.
The workshop director is in charge.
Tang Tao originally had to do all the engraving and glazing by himself, but now he was assigned to be in charge of the glazing workshop. As the name suggests, this workshop is only responsible for this link.
The work of glazing places high demands on the craftsmen's painting skills and calligraphy skills, and personal level directly affects the quality of the porcelain.
Tang Tao had a long history in this field and had profound skills. Jiang Guangzao also knew that he was good at this field in the official kilns.
Therefore, Tang Tao was appointed as the workshop director.
His salary has also increased, and now he never wants to leave because his salary is enough for the whole family to eat and drink.
However, everyone still has doubts about this kind of management model with detailed division of labor.
It wasn't until the company established a piece-rate wage system for ordinary craftsmen and the output of porcelain became higher and higher that Tang Tao discovered the beauty of this production model.
After some time, the company followed the Huaihai Company's model and graded master craftsmen and ordinary craftsmen.
Tang Tao was designated as a master craftsman, and it is said that his rank was equivalent to that of a county magistrate. Tang Tao's salary was improved again.
Having lived for more than forty years, Tang Tao has never felt that being a craftsman has such honor.
Moreover, the Huaihai Navy abolished the previous craftsman status, and Tang Tao's descendants could study and buy land like ordinary people.
These changes make the company's workers and craftsmen happy.
Just recently, the military government established a porcelain school in Jingdezhen.
Tang Tao was hired as a teacher, specializing in teaching engraving and glazing. Tang Tao once again completed a counterattack in life and became a teacher and educator. Of course, he still serves as the company's workshop director.
It's just that he no longer makes products on the assembly line.
The company became a studio for him, equipped with specialized assistants.
The products produced in his studio can be printed with his personal label, and each of his porcelain works is marketed as a work of art.
Of course he has to put a lot of effort into making it carefully.
Jingdezhen Ceramics Company also wants to build its own luxury brand.
Dong Shuheng was well versed in its profound meaning and had already taught it to his subordinates.
Porcelain itself can be used as a collection of art, of course the producer must be a famous artist.
If you want to make a famous person famous, you must first have real ability, and Tang Tao meets the conditions.
Secondly, he must have a family background that can be used for speculation. Tang Tao is the grandson of the famous Tang Ying, which is a point of speculation.
Thirdly, it is just a matter of building momentum. No matter what kind of entrustment is required, it is not difficult for a company with a background.
This is such an honorable thing.
Tang Tao was originally a craftsman who was about to change his career due to poverty.
Now, in less than a year, I have gained both fame and fortune, and I have the opportunity to become a master.
Tang Tao knew very well in his heart, who should he thank?
This time he came to the year-end meeting as the company's representative and manager.
The thing that Tang Tao thought about the most was to see President Huai Haijun with his own eyes.
What kind of person can build such an organization?
Even if everyone at the meeting supported the president's rebellion and proclaimed himself emperor, Tang Tao felt that he would support it without hesitation.
After entering Jiangning, Tang Tao and other representatives were arranged to live in a guest house.
There are many such guest houses in Jiangning City. It is said that many of them were renovated from former royal palaces.
No wonder Tang Tao felt that this place was like a mansion as soon as he entered. It was divided into small courtyards and most of the houses were converted into bedrooms. However, the original pavilions and rockeries in the mansion were still there.
We eat together in the cafeteria. After eating, everyone walks around the garden together.
Depending on the size of each house, there may not be the same number of people living there.
Including him, there were three people in the room where Tang Tao lived.
The other two people, one was an old man named Zhang Wu, and the other was a middle-aged man who had returned from Nanyang. This man was the director of a farm named Yang Guangquan.
After walking around for a while in the evening, the three of them went back to their rooms. There was no entertainment at this time.
It was so early and everyone couldn't sleep. We didn't know who was the initiator, so we just chatted together.
"Old Yang, where did your farm come from?" After all, Tang Tao was a craftsman and a man of culture. He was a craftsman who could not have learned calligraphy and painting since he was an elementary school student. He was an illiterate man.
Tang Tao, who considered himself a cultural person, felt that he should be the first to open the topic.
"Our place should be considered to be in the north of the Johor Sultanate. I can't say which country it is from. There are some indigenous people around the farm. They are actually savages. They seem to have no country, only their own tribe. But it is the sphere of influence of the British.
But the British don’t care too much. They don’t have many manpower and can only manage the surrounding areas of the Lion City.”
"That must be dangerous, right?" Tang Tao asked again. Everyone was interested in foreign things. The old man Zhang Wu also listened with his ears pricked up, as if he was hearing something new.
"At the beginning, the natives would come to steal things. Later, we killed all these natives and captured a group of people to help me cut down trees and build roads."
"You don't know, the first people we went to our overseas farms were militiamen, and everyone had a gun. As long as we didn't go into the woods, these natives couldn't hurt us at all."
…
Tang Tao and Zhang Wu both listened with rapt attention, especially when it came to catching the natives, they actually felt a sense of pride in their hearts.
"Do you know how much land our farm currently has?" Yang Guangquan said, pretending to be mysterious.
"How much?" Both of them were curious.
"Fifty thousand acres."
"so much!"
"This is just a paddy field. We also have hundreds of thousands of acres of rubber forests and orchards!"
"A farm in our hometown in Dongtai only has 20,000 to 30,000 acres of land. Your farm is more than a dozen domestic farms." Zhang Wupa counted with his fingers for a long time.
"Oh, Lao Zhang, you are from Dongtai, which is where the president started." Both Zhang Guangquan and Tang Tao looked at Lao Zhang in surprise.
"I used to live on the farm in Xinghua. I was a refugee from Anhui who had no choice but to seek refuge in the Huaihai Navy. Later, I took the initiative to sign up and go to Nanyang, so I know about the farm in Yangzhou."
"There are wild lands everywhere in Nanyang. As long as they are cultivated, rice can be grown three seasons a year. However, the weather is too hot, unlike here in China where the winters are warm and the summers are cool. There are only rainy seasons and dry seasons."
…
Tang Tao is a great craftsman and Yang Guangquan is a farm director. So what does Lao Zhang do?
Both of them looked at Lao Zhang.
"Lao Zhang, how were you chosen to come here for the meeting?" Tang Tao asked again.
Lao Zhang seemed a little embarrassed when he saw the two people looking at him. Among the three, he was the only one with the most ordinary identity.
"Old man, I am a salt handler. Now I work in the salt field. What I mainly do is observe the brine."
"You may not know that there are many processes involved in drying salt. When the brine is dried to a certain level, it must be placed in the next salt field..."
Lao Zhang talked endlessly about his salt-drying skills, but to be honest, neither of them knew much about it.
Lao Zhang talked about loneliness...
Suddenly, Lao Zhang changed the topic and continued: "But this is not the reason why I came to the meeting."
Although Lao Zhang is uneducated, he is quite good at whetting people's appetites.
Seeing both of them looking at him curiously, Lao Zhang continued proudly: "I'm here this time because, old man, four of my five sons are serving in the army. The county magistrate said that the president would personally give it to me.
It’s time to award the award! I didn’t expect that I, old man, would be here today.”
When the two of them heard this, they both understood that the Zhang family's contribution to the Huai Navy was really not small!
"Lao Zhang, you are so lucky." The two congratulated.
Zhang Wu himself is the fifth oldest, and he probably has many brothers, but he didn't expect that he also has so many sons.
I have to envy that some people give birth to children and reach the peak of their lives while giving birth.
"Before I came here, my wife worked hard with me for a long time, saying that she was the one who gave birth to our sons and she should be the one to receive the award. I gave him a lesson. When I sent a few boys to join the army, the old woman stopped me and said something.
'A good man should not be a soldier, a good man should not be hammered into nails', but now he is trying to steal the credit from me."
Both of them burst out laughing after hearing this. Zhang Wu also smiled proudly.
Lao Zhang recalled: "Back then, our president was a businessman who had just taken charge of the family business. He wanted to organize a group to suppress bandits. At that time, our family was in a state of poverty and could not even eat. You don't know that I had seven sons, two of whom were
One will starve to death."
The two of them said to themselves that this Lao Zhang is really very productive. No, it's Lao Zhang's wife who is very productive.
"At that time, the president was not well-known and came to our Zaohu village to recruit people. We thought, it is better to be a soldier and eat food than to be a salt soldier. The boss has been sick since he was a child and has bad legs, so he is not accepted. The other four are not accepted.
Unexpectedly, all of them were selected.”
"The president is a kind-hearted person. He immediately gave our family dozens of taels of silver as settling-in allowance. The four boys serve as soldiers and get a large sum of money every month."
"Later, the president was promoted and changed the household registration of all Zao households to farmers so that we could farm. Later, boiled salt was canceled and replaced with sun-dried salt. The land around the village that used to grow thatch and reeds was given to
Once the village is established, every household that cultivates it can be regarded as their own."
"Our family has also opened dozens of acres of land for the boss to cultivate. I have some skills in brine, so I was recruited into the salt factory and continue to work for wages."
"The family has money, land, and a new house. The lame boss finally got a wife. Several of the boys are in the army, so there is no need to worry about finding a wife."
"People used to dislike soldiers, but our soldiers in the Huaihai Navy are different. They are treated well, and their families are also treated as military dependents, and they can get tax deductions. There are many people asking for marriage!" But the third and fourth children are both officers.
If you don’t want to look for it in the countryside, you have to look for it yourself and let them do it, as long as you don’t beat the bachelor.”
…
The two of them did not expect that the honest-looking old man Zhang could be so talkative. It seemed that he often showed off his family affairs in front of others.
"Brother Zhang, you were really discerning back then." The two agreed.
"That is, when our president sent troops from Dongtai with more than a thousand soldiers, we knew that the president would surely rise to great heights."
"The President is an expert in military training. The four kids in my family all can't read, but they all learned how to read after being in the army for half a year. When I went home to visit relatives, I couldn't even recognize them."
…
With one echo, Lao Zhang's chatterbox came again.
Later, the three of them talked about Tang Tao. Tang Tao briefly mentioned his identity as a craftsman and emphasized that he was a teacher in the school. He got the admiration of the two of them. He turned out to be a cultural person.
Tang Tao was a good man and carried several small teapots he made with him. He immediately gave one to each of them.
This teapot is painted with colorful patterns. Although it is not big, it is very delicate.
The two of them thanked each other.
"Old Tang, you are so powerful. With your level, you must be a great craftsman. That is equivalent to a special-level technician, very powerful."
Everyone knows that in the factories and workshops under Huai Haijun, all technical workers are divided into grades. The best ones are special technicians, followed by senior, intermediate and junior, each divided into three grades.
Stunt mechanics are paid very well. This is not the most important thing. What is important is that their status is very high.
The Presidential Palace will give these people special allowances every year. Although it is not much, the honor is very high.
ps: It’s the end of the month, so you can clear your monthly tickets! Well, that’s it.