Chapter 36 Do every job well

The history books explain: The reason why Wang Shouren dreamed of the unlucky Wei Ningbo was because his fate was about to intersect with Wang Yue. It is said that after Wang Shouren passed the third exam, he finally ended his career as an unemployed youth. He visited the Ministry of Politics and Industry—as an intern, serving tea and water for leaders at all levels, writing manuscripts for leaders, and doing chores at home for leaders By the way, learn about urban construction, harnessing the Cao River, weaving in iron factories, farming money, planting trees... There are so many things to learn, so many.

At this time, the emperor sent an order to the Ministry of Industry, saying that the tomb of Bo Wangyue of Weining had been in disrepair for a long time, and there were countless mouse holes in it, so that the Ministry of Industry should consider repairing it. Didn't it say that Uncle Weining was a treacherous minister and was scolded to death?So why repair his tomb? It was the era of Emperor Xianzong Zhu Jianshen to say that Wang Yue was a traitor and scold him to death.Now history has entered the era of Emperor Xianzong's son Xiaozong Zhu Youtang, one emperor and one courtier, and each era has a political ecology of an era.In the Xianzong era, it was to kill Wang Zhi and scold Wang Yue to death in order to strengthen his own power.In the era of Xiaozong, it was necessary to elevate the ministers of the previous generation in order to demean the power of the ministers in the current court.

Repairing Weiningbo’s tomb is actually Emperor Xiaozong’s warm appeal to everyone: Intellectuals, go to the border to kill the enemy in blood. You kill the enemy and I kill you, and then my son will rehabilitate you. It’s not a joy. almost? Happy or not, I don't know very well, anyway, the Ministry of Industry is not very enthusiastic about this job, and the evidence is that this job was assigned to Wang Shouren. If the imperial court attaches great importance to this task, then the standards of the officials who will appear must be very high.Now only one intern has been sent, which is obviously perfunctory.

But this job was an opportunity for Wang Shouren. He immediately showed his special skills and performed them fiercely. This unique skill is called: operations research. The word operations research, which first appeared in 1938, is the use of modern mathematical engineering to rationally solve difficult problems in production and management, in order to achieve the optimal value with the lowest cost and the highest efficiency.And we say that the year Wang Shouren engaged in operations research was 1499. At this time, the term operations research had not yet appeared. Can a subject that has not yet been born be used hundreds of years in advance?

That’s right, a subject is first applied in reality, and then the norms for the actual application are formed, so that others can also use it. This process is called a subject.But before the emergence of this discipline, its laws and ideas existed objectively. Anyone, as long as they are willing to use their brains, can skillfully use these laws. With Wang Shouren's wisdom, it is really trivial to take and use the disciplines that have not yet appeared.In fact, the application of operations research in China is too old to say.Let’s not talk about things that are too long ago. Let’s just talk about the Northern Song Dynasty. There was a treacherous minister Ding Wei who was in charge of supervising the construction of the capital’s city gates. Go, and then transport the building materials from a distant place. The transportation of this material alone is a scary figure.In terms of financial expenditure alone, the huge Northern Song Empire could not afford to build a small city gate.

But this job fell into the hands of Ding Wei, so it was too simple. He first ordered the streets of the capital to be dug up to form a river, and the peasants would come in by boat to bring in the new building materials and remove the remaining bricks. The rotten tiles are transported out by boat, and when the city gate is repaired, the remaining earthwork materials are filled in the river and stepped on. Hey, it is a brand new street. The method used by Ding Wei is what Westerners called operations research hundreds of years later.Even the powerful minister Ding Wei can use this thing, let alone the sage Wang Shouren?

In Chinese history, there is a special category called Nengchen, ministers who are particularly good at working. All these people have a common characteristic. Although they have not learned modern Western science, they are the ancestors of Western science. They have no teachers. Mastered Operations Research independently. The operational research that Wang Shouren wants to use is better than Ding Wei, the power minister in the Northern Song Dynasty, and it is called Shiwu method.If it is called in modern language, Wang Shouren's method is modern engineering management.