Therefore, the Tang dynasty prepared three meals a day for them, one in the morning, one at noon, and one in the afternoon. In the morning, they had to work for four hours, and in the afternoon, they had to work for six hours in the afternoon, so they had to work for ten hours a day. Although they could endure working for twelve or fourteen hours a day, Ang Lee felt that they should pay more attention to efficiency. It was too tiring to work for twelve or fourteen hours a day. After deducting the time for sleeping and eating, there was almost no time left. If this continued for a long time, the efficiency of the work would definitely decline, especially for the physically weak laborers, not to mention the half-grown children.
As the saying goes, everything is difficult at the beginning. In the early days, Ang Lee would go to the construction site to inspect it in person almost every day. At the same time, there would be more people at the construction site every day, especially the half-grown children. Many children under the age of ten also clamored to come to work. Their purpose was naturally to eat meat. Many children basically could not eat meat at home and could only eat it during the Spring Festival. As long as they came to work, they could eat meat every day. When the teenagers went back home and said that, the eight or nine-year-old children could not help but drool on the spot. Of course, some of these children were too young and might not even be able to handle half of the workload. As for the unqualified and too young children, obviously, they were not suitable to stay at the construction site.
"A lot of children have been added recently! They are getting younger and younger. Can they really work as half a laborer? "
Ang Lee, who came to the construction site early in the morning, looked at the group of children who were working and asked.
Chen Long smiled noncommittally and said, "The ones in charge of recruiting workers are the elders of the local families."
Ang Lee nodded with a smile. He naturally understood the trick. It was mainly the locals who were in charge of finding and arranging labor, while it was the petty officials of the Tang dynasty who were in charge of providing food. For the elders of these local families, even if the children could not do half a laborer, it was only the Tang dynasty that suffered a loss. Moreover, the Tang dynasty was so rich that they did not need to care about a few children's rations. They just wanted to let these children eat meat. As for whether they could work half a laborer, they just turned a blind eye. The Tang dynasty was a foreign power, so it would not care about them in this regard. These petty officials did not care too much about it. Anyway, it was just one more mouth to feed. It was impossible for them to make the Tang dynasty poor.
Of course, these elders would not go too far. They set the minimum age of the children at eight years old for boys and ten years old for girls. After all, even if they wanted to take advantage of the Tang dynasty, they could not go too far. Children who were too young would fall down when they walked, let alone work on the construction site. Children after eight years old, if they were stronger, could indeed do half a adult's work. Even among the children who were 12 or 13 years old, there were monsters who could work as hard as adults.
Although they were all laborers, there was still a gap between individuals. Some people were stronger and had more physical strength, while some people were weaker and did not have enough physical strength, so they would feel tired when working. The gap between the children was even bigger. Some teenagers were not weaker than adults, but their peers of the same age could not even do half a laborer's work. This gap was clearly visible.
Because Ang Lee personally appeared at the construction site, the laborers worked harder. Even the half-grown children worked harder under the urging of their parents. Ang Lee looked carefully for a long time. Although some of these children were weak, they were not weak at all. They were all quite serious, especially the few strong children, who worked as hard as adults.
"It seems that our reward system can still be changed. We need to set up more rewards for these children. A half-grown child works as hard as an adult, so naturally, they should be separated from the adults. Add more meat! Haha! "
Ang Lee said with a smile.
Among the three meals a day prepared at the construction site, except for breakfast, which was relatively simple and difficult to change, lunch and dinner were all big meals. They were all two meat dishes and one vegetable dish, as well as staple grains, plus a soup. If there was an extra meat dish, there would be two meat dishes and two vegetable dishes, which were of a higher grade. This was a reward for the laborers who worked harder, and also a kind of spur.
When the petty official of the Tang dynasty announced this decision in public, many of the half-grown children working excitedly, and those who were physically weak also worked hard. They also found that after several days of work and the support of better food, their strength had been significantly increased. The strong children became stronger, and the weak children became stronger.
After all, a person's strength itself was trained. If one ate more and worked more, one's strength would continue to grow. For adults, the growth might not be obvious, but for children who were growing, the growth in strength was very obvious. Therefore, the child stage was the key period for a person's strength to grow. For these children who came to work, this was not necessarily not an opportunity. They not only received food that was far more than what their families provided, but at the same time, they also received far more physical exhaustion than usual.
After observing for an hour, Li An walked towards a few children who were working. These children worked in groups of three and cooperated very well. Among them, one group in particular was the most outstanding. The three children in this group were a little plump, but they were not the obese kind. They were plump, and one could tell at a glance that they were very strong.
The three of them were about the same age, about 12 or 13 years old. From their faces, it could be seen that they should be a family. Two of them were twins, and the other was also a brother. Only biological brothers would look so similar.
Seeing Ang Lee coming, the three half-grown children looked a little nervous, but their pace of work was not slow at all. They still worked with ease, which made Ang Lee very satisfied.
"You three have done a good job. It seems that your progress is almost the same as adults. There will be two servings of meat for lunch."
Chen Long said.
The three children smiled happily, but they did not speak because they did not know what to say. They were still a little nervous. After all, they were ordinary people, and Ang Lee and Chen Long were important people at first glance.
Although the working time in the morning was four hours, they did not work continuously for four hours. Every half an hour, they had to take a break to let the labourers catch their breath. They could also drink some water or go to the outhouse next door to relieve themselves. They could also communicate with each other and come up with better working ideas.
Taking advantage of the break in work, Ang Lee walked over and chatted with several people.
"From the looks of it, these three must be your family's children! They look so similar. "
Ang Lee looked at a fat middle-aged man and said.
The fat middle-aged man quickly said politely: "Yes, they are our three children. They have nothing to do at home, so they came to work together."
"Well, very good. Your children are not different from ordinary adults. They can eat two servings of meat."
Ang Lee said the reward again.
"Thank you, thank you."
The fat middle-aged man said.
"Is your family all here?"
Ang Lee asked.
The fat middle-aged man replied: "No, our family has more than a dozen people. Those who can work are all here. There is an eighty-year-old grandmother and three children under the age of eight at home. "
"Well, the whole family is here to help the Tang dynasty build the railway. On behalf of the Tang dynasty, I thank your family."
Ang Lee said politely.
The fat middle-aged man said: "You're too kind. We are just ordinary people. We have work to do and food to eat. It's not a loss."
Obviously, this family was ordinary farmers. They had nothing to do at ordinary times except work hard during the busy farming season. In addition, they occasionally went to the mountains to chop firewood and hunt to make a little income to supplement their family. This time, they helped the Tang dynasty to build the railway foundation, which was not during the busy farming season, so they happened to be free. In addition, although they worked, they could get good food as compensation. It was not a big loss, but it was a little extravagant. If they worked for the tyrants, they would not get food, but they could get some money as compensation, which was not much different from the high-quality food provided by the Tang dynasty. Moreover, working for the tyrants would not allow the whole family to work together. Women and children were not allowed because the work was, after all, slow. No one was willing to let a slow person work here.
Naturally, there were people who suffered losses. For example, the hawkers who did business in the city could earn a lot of money by doing business, but working here only provided them with food. Naturally, they lost a lot of money. However, they had no choice but to come. With a large amount of manpower being transferred, these hawkers had no business at all, especially the snack business. There were almost no customers. Only high-end shops such as the teahouses could continue to operate. After all, the tycoons and merchants with reputations would definitely not do manual labor. Ordinary people would do manual labor, and they would pay. All merchants would more or less pay, and those hawkers who set up street stalls would obviously not be able to take out money. Coupled with the fact that they had lost their business, under the persuasion of the tycoons, they could only go and do manual labor.
These talented businessmen did not have good physical strength. Their work was far inferior to that of farmers, but after all, they could still work. The requirements for them were not high. If they could do 80% of the work, they would be qualified. For them, it was not necessarily not an opportunity to exercise their bodies. In fact, the peddlers also worked every day. It was just that their work intensity was not as good as that of farmers. Their physical strength was slightly worse, but they were much better than those big businessmen. Those guys were all domineering and powerless.
"Do you have any thoughts on the Tang dynasty's wantonly recruitment of laborers to build roads? Or, do you have any suggestions? "
Ang Lee asked.
The fat middle-aged man said with a smile, "I dare not, I dare not. I'm just an ordinary farmer doing some manual work. How dare I have any ideas?"
"Don't worry. I want to hear the truth. Say whatever you want. Don't worry."
Ang Lee asked again.
The fat merchant still shook his head with a smile, indicating that he had no ideas. He just came to work and had no suggestions on the current policies of the Tang dynasty.
Ang Lee tried to ask a lot of farmer laborers, but they did not have any ideas. They all said that they were just doing work. What ideas could they have?
When Li An asked the peddlers, it wasn't that they didn't have any ideas, but that they had too many ideas. Some suggested that working for ten hours a day was too tiring, and eight hours was enough. Some felt that working for free was too much of a loss. How could they only get three meals a day? At the very least, they had to spend some money. After all, they came here to work and delayed their business. To them, this was not a small loss. Even though they were helpless, they didn't feel very comfortable in their hearts.
Of course, there were also some who made other very unusual requests. Li An didn't know whether to laugh or cry at their reasons. This also allowed Li An to see that these hawkers were indeed businessmen. Every one of them was very slippery and constantly calculating. They were too utilitarian. They weren't as practical as farmers, nor were they as calm as farmers.
Ang Lee naturally would not easily agree to these requests made by these working peddlers. These requests were too many. How could he satisfy them? After thinking for a moment, Ang Lee stopped thinking about these things and let these peddlers be depressed!
In addition, after these days of punishment, the fifty ruffians and beggars gradually began to get on the right track. However, their work efficiency was still very low. They still acted shamelessly from time to time, but the progress was really quite obvious. Almost every one of them had made progress. Seven or eight of them had completely repented and could eat meat every day. This made Ang Lee very satisfied. Ang Lee believed that as long as the transformation continued, these fifty people could eat meat.
Although a small portion of the modifications had already been completed, the fifty or so people were still put together to work. They even had to eat together. As such, the ruffians who were eating steamed buns looked at their companions who were eating meat. Naturally, they felt very uncomfortable. It was not impossible for them to make changes under the influence of greed, and this was the effect that Li An wanted.
"Chen Long, is our braised pork not fragrant enough? There are still so many ruffians and beggars who are unwilling to work properly."
Ang Lee said with a smile.
Chen Long said helplessly with a wry smile, "The braised pork is really good. Even I am drooling when I smell it. The braised pork given to those ruffians is of the best quality and quantity. It seems that it is not that the rest of the people are not envious, but that their accumulated habits are too deep. It is too difficult to change. It needs more time to slowly grind. Anyway, this railway cannot be completed in a short time. There is plenty of time."
Ang Lee said with a smile, "That's true. I want to see how long these guys can endure. After a month, the transformation will almost be completed. However, this transformation is under the temptation of food. I am afraid that they will return to their original form in the future!"
For these ruffians and beggars, Ang Lee wanted to transform them well. These people were also manpower. If they did not dare to do anything serious, it would be a huge waste of manpower. Although the proportion of these people in the crowd was not very high, they were still a force. Transforming one person would increase one's strength.
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