(Thanks to bv6579 and Zero Zero Kkexin for their support, thank you!) ）

Liaoyang Iron and Steel is the abbreviation of Liaoyang Iron and Steel Plant, this large steel plant was built in Liaoyang City, Liaozhou, Liaodong Province, because of its large scale, strong technology, so it is very famous in the Qin Domain, he built in the south of the outer city of Liaoyang City, on Jinshan Road.

In September of the first year of Guangming Dynasty, there were still some apprentices under the age of 18 and elderly people over the age of 50 who were still working here, because many young and strong men, most of whom were conscripted to the front, were either unity soldiers, village soldiers, or militiamen, and even many were conscripted to serve as transporters, and many were transferred to build roads and open mines. The workers were busy from morning to night, and the fifteen-year-old Gao Duo is now an apprentice in the factory.

Before he had finished processing the batch of forgings at hand, the old squad leader of the one-eyed veteran in his sixties had already thrown another bundle at his feet, and he wanted to pick up the horned hair embryos that had been burned to a snow-blue color, and then put them into the wide-open vice, which was full of iron, cast iron and steel, and if you wanted to deal with them, you had to work harder, and if you didn't want to rest, if you didn't work hard, you didn't want to get paid.

At noon, the workshop was suffocatingly hot, and the air was filled with dense metal powder, which made my throat itch. His hands were heavy and heavy, and his back and shoulders were filled with lead. He wanted to catch his breath, but he couldn't, the team leader was behind him. If you want to go to the toilet, it's not so easy. A shift of two hours, at most two times to go to the toilet, each time they have to wait for the wooden sign that says "untie" is not used, they have the opportunity to take the badge and replace it with the sign. Only those five minutes to go to the bathroom. in order to be allowed to temporarily put down the work in hand.

To the left and to the right are two young men of fourteen and fifteen, respectively. They are the same as him. They all fled from the Central Plains to the Qin Domain, and then arranged to come to Liaodong. Because their father was in the army, they were offered an apprenticeship in the factory. Although the apprentices in the steel mill are very tired, they have to work three shifts a day for six hours. However, for those newcomers who were originally just ordinary farmers, with no background and no education at home, it is a good thing to be able to enter the steel mill to learn a trade, which is a useful thing for a lifetime. Don't worry about running out of food wherever you go in the future.

The two young men were really tired, and they were just a little slower, and after a while, the team leader found out, and this veteran who was said to have been the captain of the gang shouted, "If you produce scrap and defective products!" He shouted as he waved his huge fists back and forth in front of their eyes, "Little bunnies, I'm going to teach you a lesson." ”

Gao Duo took advantage of this opportunity to hurriedly throw down the work in his hand like those young people with lively brains, and stayed motionless, just looking at the shouting team leader. Take the opportunity of his yelling to rest. Wait until the one-eyed old team leader finds out. He was so angry that he swung his fists even harder, and roared at everyone.

"Damn guys, you Lao Tzu are fighting on the front line, waiting for all kinds of equipment made in the rear, you are just sweating a little in the rear, but you Lao Tzu is bleeding on the front line. Do you know how many arrows and shells are consumed every day? How many knives and guns will be lost? You are lazy here, that is, to put your Lao Tzu in a dangerous place, don't you want your Lao Tzu to come back, damn little rabbit cub, if you don't want to, just hurry up, this month's highest yield, the most excellent performance, can get fifty catties of potato flour and ten catties of lard, damn it, even if you are the first in the team, you can get twenty catties of canned whales, if you want to get these, just work hard. ”

Hearing these rewards, a group of young people who were originally tired suddenly had a burst of light in their eyes. This is a lot of grain and oil, even if it is only the first in the team, twenty catties of canned whale meat, it is also very good. Since entering the first year of Guangming, the people of the Qin Domain have found that the original abundant food supply has begun to shrink, and now the average grain supply for a man in the prime of life is only two liters of rice, and the middle-aged men who have not become a young man are only one and a half liters, and the women and the elderly are only one liter. This is much less than the previous food quota, and even many non-staple foods are shrinking, and meals that lack oil and meat will only increase the amount of food. Especially for Gao Duo and his workers who live in a first-tier city like Liaoyang, there is no place to even plant and pick some wild vegetables, and they all rely on various tickets to eat and drink. They are all half-grown, eat poor old men, a bunch of children in the Gao Duo family, but only his parents have jobs, plus his apprentice's share, every day is porridge, and I can't see a little meat for a long time. This is a huge headache for their growing siblings.

Earning 20 catties of canned whale meat is very tempting.

This kind of life, can't help but make him always recall the days when he first arrived in the Qin Domain, before coming, their hometown was in Caozhou, Henan, where was the hometown of Huangchao, as early as when he was a child, it was already very chaotic over there, across the Yellow River in the north of Caozhou, is the three feudal clans of Hebei that have always refused to listen to the imperial court, Caozhou has long been a place of thieves, the lair of salt dealers. At that time, there was either drought or flooding, and there were locust plagues every few years, plus military disasters and bandits, and life was much more difficult than now. Later, Wang Xianzhi Huangchao raised troops, officers and soldiers recruited the nest, and several sides fought in a big battle, and the soldiers were like bandits, and they couldn't get by there at all. The family, young and old, followed the displaced people all the way east, went to Dengzhou, and finally settled in Liaodong.

When I first arrived in Liaodong, my family divided the land, and there were not so many people in Liaodong at that time, and there was no such excitement. Their family of ten people was divided into 20 acres of Yongye field and 80 acres of open field, and his family had four adults, a total of 80 acres of land and 320 acres of open field, plus six unsuccessful ones were divided into half according to half, and 60 acres of Yongye and 240 acres of open field. In total, there are 140 acres of Yongye field and 600 acres of open field, which was unimaginable when he was in Henan. However, the land allocated by the family is some wasteland, and they have to be cultivated by themselves, and after reclamation, the fertility of these raw lands is not enough, and they can only be planted in rotation, and the planting is not closed for a year, and the yield is not high in the first few years.

Despite this, the family reclaimed the land with the cattle, horses, and farm tools rented by the government, and the government borrowed money to help them build a large yard. A fish pond was also dug at the entrance of the courtyard. Tired is tired. But there is a rush in life.

Later, Daddy was selected as a solidarity soldier. At first, I only went to train during the slack time, but gradually I was often called up, and sometimes I even had to transport baggage to the front, and gradually, I simply didn't have time to come back. Up to now, Gao Duo's father has not returned for three years, and has been running around all over the place, busy transporting various supplies. Even his grandfather. Two years ago, he was forty-eight years old, and he was also conscripted into the township army, and last year he was also conscripted to transport supplies to the Bohai Kingdom.

The family had relied on his father and grandfather to farm, but now that the two strong laborers had left, leaving his mother and his grandmother with a group of their underage children, it was impossible to cultivate so much land. Eventually, my father wrote to them to rent the family's land to the new immigrants, many of whom had to be resettled further north. Some refused to go, so they stayed. But those who stayed. But they could not get any land, so they had to work in the workshops and mines, or give them the early immigrants tenant land to cultivate.

After the family's land tenant was given to others, their family entered Liaoyang City, and their father asked someone to find them a few things. His mother and grandmother worked as a domestic servant for a school lieutenant in the city, his grandmother took care of the children, his mother cooked for his family, he worked as an apprentice in the Liaogang Iron and Steel Company, his sisters also went to a textile factory, and his two younger brothers were studying. Relying on the rent of the land in the countryside and the salary of working in the city, he can still live. It's just that now the grain is purchased by ticket, the food supply is tight, and their family is starting to have no enough to eat.

Many people don't understand, why is it so powerful, so invincible Qin army, but their life is getting worse and worse?

Gao Duo couldn't figure it out, and many of his co-workers couldn't figure it out, that their world was confined to small, simmering factories, most of them had little culture, even though the factories also had literacy classes in the evenings. But after three busy shifts and six hours, it was so late, and everyone had already fallen asleep as soon as they sat there, who still had the energy to learn to read and write?

The one-eyed old team leader also knew a lot of words when he was in the army, and he liked to go to the factory department to get those expired newspapers and come back to read them. As soon as there is any good news, he will always tell them as soon as possible, so they can often hear a lot of good news in the newspaper from the mouth of the old leader, such as some time ago, General Zhang Zimian broke through Yanmen Town, the hometown of the Shatuo people, and General Liu Xun Jincheng defeated the Hu people, and also killed a high-status Khitan. Another example is that His Royal Highness the King of Qin personally conquered Saiwai not long ago and annihilated all the Hu people who invaded the south in one fell swoop.

In short, the good news continues, the Qin army is invincible, invincible, His Royal Highness the King of Qin is wise, wise and decisive, and they have added the territory of Yanmen and Datong in the north of the generation. Moreover, it defeated the aggressive conspiracy of Shatuo and the Khitans. However, behind this continuous good news, Gao Duo felt the changes around him that the production tasks in the workshop were increasing, they had less and less time to rest, and more and more people were rushing to work, and although their salaries had not changed, their important materials such as grain, oil and non-staple food were becoming more and more tight. Some food began to appear on the black market, all kinds of things that could be eaten, but they were surprisingly expensive.

"What's wrong with us?" After two hours of busy work, at lunchtime, co-worker Xiao Yong was pulling porridge and biting on a miscellaneous grain nest, and asked the one-eyed team leader in confusion.

A group of teenagers looked at the head of the team, except for some technical personnel in the steel mill, most of the young and strong workers were transferred, and they have not returned yet. Now the factory is headed by these hairy boys and old immortals, who are doing the work of the former workers, but still receiving the wages of apprentices, and even their stomachs are full.

"It's only temporary." The old leader's words were a little weak, "You have also seen that we have won battles one after another, one victory after another, and the territory has been won one piece after another, and our Qin Fan is the most powerful." ”

"But we can't eat enough, and we work more and more." Gao Duo looked at the team leader with some excitement, "The land under my hometown, the grain harvested this summer, the county only left them a very small amount of rations, and then the rest was purchased. Our family's share of grain, the county grain station directly gave our family money, but what do we want money for, and we can't buy food. Now our family is relying on a little less and less food stamps, and our younger brothers and sisters can't have enough to eat. Team leader, I want to know what happened? Haven't we been victorious, aren't we getting stronger and stronger, why are the days getting worse and worse than before? ”

The old team leader was also very confused. He couldn't figure it out.

Then. A voice sounded behind them.

"Lads. This is only temporary. War is a great drain on our money, food, and supplies. But now, as you have heard and seen, the war has come to an end, and although we are still using troops in the northeast, at least we have secured our west and south sides, and we are only maintaining the northern front. We're going to have a lot easier. Don't worry, this will last a year at most, and by next year, we will be fine. Everyone gritted their teeth and persevered for another year! ”

Everyone turned around and found that it was a new deputy factory director of their Liaogang Iron and Steel who said this, he was only in his thirties and less than forty, with a resolute face, sharp eyes, and a regular military uniform without a badge and epaulette. The pulp is a little whitish. Wearing it on his body, it fits so well. He has more and more military temperament. One of his arms was empty, and he had no right hand. It is said that he was originally the commander of a township army, and not long ago he accompanied the king of Qin to the west, and in the battle of Baishuiluo, he showed bravery and made meritorious achievements, but he also lost an arm. Because of this, he was later arranged to retire from the army and become a deputy director of Liaogang.

Worker Xiao Yong plucked up the courage to look at the new deputy factory director, "Factory director, is this true?" If we hold on for another year, life will improve, my father and they will be able to come back, and they will be able to receive enough food to eat every month as before. ”

"When I was in Yanjing, I heard the promise of King Qin with my own ears, and now, I also promise you that life will improve in a year at most."

"Factory director, we continue to win, why are we regressing in our days? Looking at the newspapers, other feudal towns are also fighting, they are much weaker than us, such as Chengde, Wei Bo, and the former Shatuo, Huangchao grass thieves, etc., how can they often defeat battles, but they have never had trouble? Or even sometimes the more you fight, the more you fight? ”

The deputy factory director looked at Gao Duo who asked the question and smiled: "This question is very good, our Qin Fan is under the leadership of King Qin, who is a wise, intelligent and benevolent His Royal Highness. Our Qin Fan is taking the road of sustainable development, pursuing that everyone has clothing, clothing, housing, food, young support, old support, medical treatment, children can go to school, adults have jobs, and the old people can be supported, and the pursuit is that the people are rich and the country is strong. Therefore, we have the order to equalize the land, the tax law to apportionment into the mu, the priority of education, and the guarantee of the government. All of these require a lot of investment, in order to make everyone live a good life. He paused, then continued, "As for the other feudal towns, what did they lose the battle for, but they didn't see the immediate defeat, and some even fought more and more? Don't they need logistics, no, they need it all the same. But why did they have nothing to do if they lost the war, but our lives have fallen when we have won the war? Because they are different from us, for what? I believe that there are also many people here who used to live in other feudal towns, and you know very well that in places outside the Qin Domain, your taxes are much heavier than here, and in addition to the two taxes, you also have all kinds of miscellaneous fees, and even the most bitter is Yao servitude. What's more, many feudal towns relied on plundering, looting, plundering and robbing the people's property and food to survive. ”

What are the consequences of that? The consequence of that is that the soldiers are like bandits, they catch strong men and forcibly enlist in the army, enter the people's homes to rob the grain, they do this just to catch the fish, to the end of the day, when the people are robbed, even the seeds are robbed, there is no more food, they even directly kill people to eat meat. And we can't do that, the Qin clan under the rule of King Qin, the Qin army under his command, will never be like this. Even if the situation was tense before, and the united soldiers were recruited, they were still paid, roads were repaired, and grain were transported, and the wages were paid the same. The same is true for the purchase of grain. It's true that there has been some regression in living standards today, but that's only temporary. Because of the previous wars on several battlefields, it was not necessary to deal with the invading enemy with all its might, in order to protect the people of the Qin clan from plundering and looting. But that was only temporary, everyone gritted their teeth, tightened their belts, and held on together. Because, our tomorrow will be better. ”

After saying this, Gao Duo and a group of apprentices nodded thoughtfully. Maybe it's really just temporary, it's true that the food is tight now, and the stomach can't be full, but looking back, it's much better than the days in their hometown of Caozhou before they moved here. When he was in his hometown, the government suppressed bandits and forcibly conscripted young and strong people to transport baggage, not only did they not get paid, but they also had to bring their own carts and horses and dry food. The family's food was forcibly requisitioned and taken away by the government, and they did not give money. At least, everything in the Qin army came according to the rules.

If you can get through this for a year, then stick to it.

"Factory director, I just received the news that the batch of workers in our factory who were originally called up will return to the factory today!" The young factory clerk trotted over to report.

The deputy director raised his eyebrows and said happily: "Are they all back?" ”

"It's just the first batch, and the next ones will come back in several batches, but I heard that they will all return before the year."

"Do you want to go again?"

"I heard that there is no need, and the mission will be over when I come back this time." Xiao Sun replied.

Gao Duo couldn't help but interrupt them, and asked excitedly: "Then did my father, grandfather, and their recruited Liaoyang unity soldiers and township soldiers also come back this time?" ”

Xiao Sun nodded, "Liaoyang's unity soldiers and township soldiers are also back, they are one step ahead of the workers of our factory, this will be estimated to be almost outside the city, Liaozhou's assassin history and according to the inspection envoy, defense made him carry out a welcoming ceremony, now many people have gone outside the city to wait to welcome." ”

The deputy director waved vigorously with his left hand and one arm, "Send a notice immediately, stop work this afternoon, and all the people in the factory will go outside the city to welcome these returning heroes!" (To be continued......)