Chapter 309 Selecting soldiers and miners
Liu Bei called for his soldiers to come to help.
In the civilian camp, soldiers were traveling around, calling for miners.
The Minfu Camp is lively.
"I am a miner, I am a miner!"
"Me too!"
…
It was chaos, it was all chaos, the peasants were riding around the messenger post, scrambling to be the first, saying that they were miners, as if they were afraid of missing out on a good thing.
Damn it, something is going to happen.
The cause of the accident was also directly related to Li Mengxi. Before, Li Mengxi asked the civilians to make straw sandals and then took them.
The purpose of this move is, firstly, to make the people happy. Straw sandals cannot be exchanged for a few grains, but with this little grain hanging around, no one will beg for death; secondly, if only a thousand pairs of shoes are collected, the rest will not be collected.
, are all left in the hands of the civilians, so that the civilians have shoes to wear, and no one will go barefoot; the third is to use the straw sandals as a guide to convey a signal to the civilians, letting them know that the military orders are still required
It’s better to listen more. If you say to collect the straw sandals this time, there may not be any good things next time.
Therefore, Li Mengxi's act of actually exchanging grain for straw sandals when he said he would collect straw sandals is similar to Shang Yanggong's act of establishing trust by perching on a tree, and Li Mengxi's credibility was established.
It is human nature to be greedy for money and gain. When Liu Bei's soldiers sent an order to the whole camp, saying that they were looking for miners, many of them wanted to give it a try, thinking that if they got through, they could also get some benefits.
.
From a personal perspective, this should be considered a good thing. As soon as there is any military order, the civilians participate enthusiastically and their enthusiasm reaches the extreme. This state cannot be better.
Li Mengxi has not read "Ji Xiao Bing Shu", but he knows that General Qi Jiguang said that miners are the best soldiers.
But when it comes to selecting soldiers, if they say they want miners, well, so many people say they are miners.
Li Mengxi encountered trouble. The saying is easier said than done.
Li Mengxi didn't know much about the social status of the Han Dynasty, but no matter how unclear he was, he could still figure it out with his toes. How could the entire camp be made up of miners? In an agricultural society, how could the proportion of miners be so abnormal?
Some people are pretending to be miners, and Li Mengxi can probably guess the motives behind the people pretending to be miners.
I think General Qi Jiguang probably also encountered someone pretending to be a miner.
General Qi Jiguang selected miners and trained them into Qi Jiajun. Later, Qi Jiajun achieved outstanding results, and the court began to value Qi Jiajun. As a result, Qi Jiajun had no shortage of financial resources and military pay, so he was treated well.
Then, the Qi Family Army's treatment was very good. When recruiting troops, some people began to pretend to be miners, trying to sneak into the Qi Family Army and get the generous military pay from the Qi Family Army.
General Qi Jiguang must have encountered this kind of thing at that time, but how General Qi solved it is unknown.
Li Mengxi looked at the chaos in the camp from a distance and had a headache.
"What should we do?" Li Mengxi had no choice but to raise his head and ask Liu Bei for help.
Liu Bei laughed, looked at the people in the camp and said, "With such a huge crowd, there must be fakers among them. How to distinguish them, I don't know.
Xi'er, you are so smart, you might as well think of your own countermeasures."
The meaning of Liu Bei's words is very clear, that is, I can't help you, you can think of your own countermeasures.
Li Mengxi couldn't help but scratch his head.
Identifying personnel's identities should be what the police uncle is good at. Poor Li Mengxi doesn't know how to do anything.
According to Li Mengxi's usual method, for example, letting people make straw sandals and then using grain as a reward, but at this time, Li Mengxi didn't know how many hours of work it would take to make a pair, nor how to calculate the grain.
So, before issuing the military order, Li Mengxi quietly visited and found an old man who was skilled in knitting shoes. He secretly asked how long it would take to knit a pair. The old man didn't expect that much, so he directly told Li Mengxi what he needed to knit shoes.
of working hours.
Then, Li Mengxi determined the "salary" based on the working hours of this old man who was very skilled in shoe weaving and after confirming it with Liu Bei, the master of straw shoe weaving.
This should be considered a form of commercial espionage.
Upon closer inspection, Li Mengxi is actually a very wretched person. The old man knows everything about you and what you say. After knowing the secrets of the industry, he immediately lowered the "wage" based on the hours required to make shoes, as low as a common man.
Even if they work overtime, they can't earn much more food. Because Li Mengxi uses the most skilled old craftsmen to set the wage standards, which means that the vast majority of people cannot keep up with the fastest speed.
Li Mengxi used this method before, and he figured out the technical details of weaving straw shoes without knowing anything about the relevant technology.
Now, when he encounters a problem, the first thing Li Mengxi thinks of is still the same method.
To distinguish which are real miners, right? Then find a real miner and ask him about all the details of mining. After saying hello, keep quiet, and then separate the people like interrogating prisoners, and ask and answer questions one by one.
Those who do not reveal the details of mining will be eliminated.
This method is feasible.
However, where to find a real miner, Li Mengxi was at a loss again.
Based on Li Mengxi's understanding of mining, mining is more tiring than ordinary farm work and exposes him to more wind and sun than farmers. Mining requires physical strength, so miners should be stronger, with darker skin and more calluses on their hands.
It's thick, it should be like this, Li Mengxi thought to himself.
Based on this standard of uncertainty, Li Mengxi left the field, walked into the crowd, and began to look around, trying to find the real miner who had been working for many years.
Industry was underdeveloped in the Han Dynasty, and there were not many shallow mines that were easy to mine, so there were not many mining sites.
More famous iron ore producing areas, such as Xuzhou, which produces good iron, and Longquan, which also produces good iron. There are iron ores, and the natural forging technology is more developed than other places. Longquan has been rich in magical weapons since ancient times, and this is the case.
Li Mengxi wanted to find the miners based on his two characteristics: strong and dark, but these two characteristics were too unclear. Aren't all the old farmers in the late Han Dynasty dark? Li Mengxi looked around for a long time, but still couldn't distinguish the miners.
Li Mengxi's first step in selecting troops came to an abrupt end.
According to the social structure of the late Han Dynasty, if it was not a mining area, there might be tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people in a county, and it was possible that there would not even be a single miner among them.
Nowadays, there are only a few thousand civilians in the army, less than 10,000, and the number of people is not large. There is a high probability that there is not even a single miner among them.
If the miners can't be selected, then they will be selected according to other criteria. When General Qi Jiguang selected soldiers, the citizens did not want them, the small businessmen did not want them, the small officials who nodded and bowed before everyone, and those with fair faces and tender skin did not want them.
After Li Mengxi thought for a moment, he issued a new order. He asked the people to stand in three columns according to whether they lived in the county or in the countryside, whether they were small traders, and whether they had ever worked as scribes or other small officials before.
None of these three categories apply, so stay in the fourth column.
After the order was given, the peasants moved slowly.
There were still a lot of people, and they all moved forward to join us.
Judging from the economic structure of the Han Dynasty, it is impossible to have such a long queue and all of them are small traders. However, it is undeniable that if a civilian husband is really a trader, then he must go back to the queue of traders.
In other words, the merchants' team must include real merchants, the clerks' team must have real low-level clerks, and the citizens' team must also have real citizens.
It is impossible for the people to be completely obedient, so they all want to try and see if they can get away with it.
People's hearts are like this, and no rules and regulations can solve the problem. This may be the so-called management cost.
The information between the upper and lower layers is not completely transparent, which makes management difficult.
When Li Mengxi passed by the group of citizens, he took a look and saw that this group of people was not wanted.
Passing by the group of small merchants and hawkers, Li Mengxi took one look and still didn't want it.
Chapter completed!