Chapter 376 The lonely civil servant
Zhao Wenhua did not know at this time that the Supreme Emperor Zhu Houzhao had instructed Emperor Zhu Zailei to replace him from his role in the construction of the military base for the war to destroy the Japanese.
Despite this, he is already very bored now, especially when he sees Qi Jiguang, Tang Kekuan, and Hu Zongxian playing tricks on each other, he feels even more indignant. This is not the result he wants to see.
The current Ming Dynasty is rich. As a central empire, even the common people can still eat meat for every meal and play music every night. Not to mention that as senior officials of the empire and the emperor's personal soldiers, their lives will naturally be more generous.
Although this time Qi Jiguang and others went to sea to exterminate the Japanese, it was not a good job such as patrolling, but the daily march was not as good as the Ming army before. In addition to military rooms, there were also ready-made There are wine bars, theaters, restaurants with various cuisines, and hospitals.
After all, the Ming Dynasty is different from the past.
In today's era, human life is certainly not worthless. Even because of the affluence of life and the improvement of education level across the country, human dignity has also improved a lot. In the past, it was enough to feed people, but now it is not enough to feed them. , but also to make them feel that they live with dignity, and it is precisely because of this that more and more people in Ming Dynasty began to accept the idea of equality for all, and even regarded this as a natural right of human beings, that is, human rights.
Because of this, even the military must start to improve the treatment of officers and soldiers, not only to make them fed and clothed, but also to make them feel at home and respected.
The Ming Dynasty has plundered foreign countries for decades, and the huge wealth accumulated has been fed back to the people, which has improved the people's living standards and ideological level. They have gradually regarded themselves as the masters of the country. Even the army has begun to advocate equality between officers and soldiers. After all, now The young soldier is said to have graduated from a junior high school. It is okay to make him obey orders, but it is naturally not possible to treat him as a slave.
Of course, for many people who still have nostalgia for the hierarchical society before the Ming Dynasty, it is naturally difficult to accept such a phenomenon. Zhao Wenhua is now very uncomfortable with these soldiers wandering around in front of him without kneeling and kowtowing. The scene, especially when these soldiers took the initiative to salute and say hello, he had to return the salute, which made him extremely uncomfortable. He thought that if it were in the past, why would I, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, have to return the salute to you Qiu Ba.
Although Zhao Wenhua was depressed, he also knew that the entire Ming Dynasty emphasized equality for everyone, so he could not go against the general trend, so he could only appear not to be angry on the surface. In order not to salute the people who were marching in the army that he despised, even when eating I just sat in a secluded corner and ate alone.
But after a few days on the train, Zhao Wenhua didn't want to be so lonely with no one to talk to. At this time, he happened to see Hu Zongxian coming. Although he was a little dissatisfied because Hu Zongxian didn't cooperate with him to instigate the relationship between Qi Jiguang and Tang Kekuan, he even complained about it. I wrote a small report about Hu Zongxian to Xu Jie, but now that Hu Zongxian was considered an equal civil servant, he still warmly stood up and handed over his hand:
"Hu Jinglue, you still need to eat. Remember to eat here after you finish your meal!"
Hu Zongxian nodded, and hurriedly asked the chef in the restaurant to prepare some vegetarian dishes and a bowl of millet porridge for him, and then walked towards Zhao Wenhua. Walking in the aisle, Hu Zongxian, like Zhao Wenhua, also met many officers and soldiers who came to the restaurant to eat. The officers and soldiers saluted him, and he returned the salute one by one, holding a dinner plate in one hand. He also smiled and asked some people how they were eating.
"Hu Jinglue, you are a Jinshi, why should you be enthusiastic with these people? Just nod." Zhao Wenhua said and asked Hu Zongxian to sit down in front of him.
Hu Zongxian was about to sit down when he heard someone shouting from behind: "Hello, Qi Shuai! Hello, Tang Shuai!"
Hu Zongxian looked back and saw that Qi Jiguang and Tang Kekuan had indeed come to the restaurant at this time, and they also greeted the officers and soldiers first.
Seeing this, Hu Zongxian also went to say hello, and then directly sat with Qi Jiguang and Tang Kekuan on the left side of Zhao Wenhua by the window. He sat with several non-commissioned officers, eating and talking, laughing from time to time.
Seeing this, Zhao Wenhua had no choice but to sit back and eat the food alone. For a moment, he felt very lonely, and naturally he felt even more depressed.
In short, Zhao Wenhua is very uncomfortable with a society without hierarchical order. The only thing that can make him feel a little bit superior is when he is inspecting the project. After getting off the train and arriving at the military port before going to sea, he looks at these workers who are building a military camp for the army. With a low eyebrow and a submissive look, Zhao Wenhua finally realized what it was to be an official.
"Da Sikong, this army is about to go to sea. When will the money for the new military camp project arrive? The workers we have hired now have not received their money yet."
Yuan Zhi, the deputy envoy of Zhejiang Haiphong Road who was directly responsible for the project, took advantage of Zhao Wenhua, who was in charge of the project, to come here and couldn't help but ask.
Zhao Wenhua couldn't directly say that he misappropriated the money and invested it in a certain bank to earn interest, but it has not been recovered yet. He only said: "The project funds have not been allocated yet, and the affairs of the court are complicated. How can we let them do it so quickly?" If you wait a few more days, you won’t starve to death!”
"What Da Sikong doesn't know is that some of these workers are farmers from Henan and Sichuan. They just want to earn some money and go home to send their children to college or marry their own wives. Now there is no work here. They are here for By the time the wages come down, they have already been playing in vain for a month. If they continue like this, they will delay these workers from going to make money elsewhere. They may not even be able to raise the travel expenses when they return home at the end of the year, let alone support their families. If it continues, there will be trouble. Get up!”
Yuan Zhi has been a local official for a long time and is the first-line official in contact with workers. Naturally, he knows that since the Ming Dynasty abolished the road guide system and opened up overseas trade, most of the workers in economically developed coastal areas are cheap workers from the inland. Labor force, these people do not have fixed jobs. They follow their relatives and friends from the same hometown to find work in various provinces. Basically, after finishing the work in one place, they will go to another place. What they fear most is not having any work to do or being delayed in their work time. After all, they can only stay outside for one year. If they have money or not, they must go back at the end of every year. Once they are overwhelmed because of lack of wages, something will happen. Trouble, after all, these people are a group of relatives and friends from the same hometown, it is easy to cause trouble, and they are all citizens of the Ming Dynasty. They are not protected by the law like slaves bought from overseas.
Zhao Wenhua naturally knows these truths, but he really can't express them now. In addition, he instinctively thinks that since these workers are poor farmers in the interior, and seeing that these people are all of low cultural level, they seem to be very poor. With a submissive look, he said:
"Let them make trouble. Is it possible that they can rebel? Nowadays, everyone in the world has enough food and clothing, and every family is well-off. Even a group of workers can't make a big splash! Besides, how many policemen do you have left in your local area?" What are you doing? Just drive these uneducated and low-class citizens of the Ming Dynasty back to the countryside!”
Yuan Zhi had no choice but to nod his head and said yes, but he still had some worries in his heart. After all, the world today is not the same as before. These common people were killed and beaten whenever the court officials said. As long as they did not provoke a popular uprising, it would be fine. As long as the civil uprising is falsely claimed to be caused by bandits, it will be fine. If it is eliminated, it will be fine and it may even gain some function of suppressing bandits.
But now the imperial court has already announced the eradication of all banditry during the Zhengde period. Now the whole country has reached a consensus that most of the bandits are caused by the injustice of the people. Even if the local officials suppress the bandits, they will be investigated to see if they have forced the people to become bandits. That's right, and with the popularity of education nowadays, even these people are Without education or knowledge, some of their relatives and friends must have read books and drank ink. Even they themselves have more or less sociological education or even elementary and middle school education. If someone comes to Beijing to complain, you will not be considered. Even if Wu Sha Mao is retained, he will be blamed for rectifying local unrest and will be unable to be promoted.
Sure enough, as Yuan Zhi expected, not long after Qi Jiguang, Tang Kekuan, Hu Zongxian, Zhao Wenhua and others arrived at Songjiang Mansion, workers outside the military port put up a banner saying "Repay me my hard-earned money" and shouted loudly. .
The soldiers guarding outside the military port did not dare to shoot. After all, they had received ethnic education and patriotic education from the imperial court for many years, and had the thoughts and feelings of loving the country and caring for their compatriots. They knew that the troublemakers were compatriots, as long as they did not attack with weapons. I, I cannot kill my compatriots without permission.
Zhao Wenhua obviously underestimated the power of workers in the new era. Seeing this, he was naturally panicked and angry, because now everyone can guess that this matter has something to do with him, Zhao Wenhua, because he, the Minister of Industry, is in charge of the project. "Deputy Ambassador Yuan, where are your police explosion-proof police officers? Send them all to blast these workers away! If this delays the imperial government's mission to eradicate the Japanese, can you afford it?! What a nonsense! If necessary, kill them One or two of them were reported to the police for treason!”
Zhao Wenhua shouted angrily at Yuan Zhi with a red face and an angry voice.
"Da Sikong, these are not riots between white slaves and black slaves. Sending out police soldiers will only be counterproductive, let alone killing people. Moreover, the emperor has already issued a strict order. Those who kill people in the country without any reason should be dismissed from their posts without asking whether they are right or wrong. ! ”
Yuan Zhi said with some embarrassment.
But he is indeed right. With the improvement of national education level, the idea of equality for all has become a consensus. Of course, in the eyes of the Ming Dynasty of this era, white slaves and black slaves are not human beings, so they can accept human beings. People are equal, but because of this, even the people at the bottom of the Ming Dynasty dare to fight for their own rights and make troubles, and even dare to say things that could overthrow the imperial court.
In addition, when officials like Hai Rui served as the censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and concurrently managed the "Huang Ming Bao", they even proposed that once a mass incident occurred in the local area, they would first hold local officials accountable and remove them from office regardless of the reason. The Ming Dynasty has formed a culture of helping the poor but not the rich, and the weak but not the strong. If this matter gets serious now, the workers will be fine, and Yuan Zhi will definitely be in trouble.
Zhao Wenhua was also very depressed. He didn't expect that these people were so difficult to manage now. He just wanted to delay the payment of wages for a while, but he couldn't even achieve this goal.
Seeing this, Hu Zongxian just smiled, then walked over and whispered to Zhao Wenhua: "Da Sikong, civil affairs are not trivial. This is what Yuan Fu said personally. Since you owe wages, you should pay them as soon as possible, even if you are owed wages by the Infrastructure Bureau, Nominal loans are also available! ”
Zhao Wenhua did not respond to Hu Zongxian's suggestion. He thought that Hu Zongxian said it was easy for him to take out a loan in the name of the Infrastructure Bureau. When the Audit Office reviews it at the end of the year, how will he explain the loan? Unless you take out a loan in your own name, isn't this asking you to pay wages for the court? Then wouldn't the project money you lend out be worth the interest?
Qi Jiguang was furious when he saw the workers who were not afraid of the steel guns in the hands of the sergeants and were about to charge at them. He was naturally angry at Zhao Wenhua. In his opinion, if this really caused the workers to cause trouble, wouldn't it mean that He ruined his own mission to destroy the Japanese.
Qi Jiguang couldn't help but ask Zhao Wenhua: "Da Sikong, what's going on? You didn't pay the workers?"
"Qi Shuai, this matter has nothing to do with you. You don't have to ask whether Zhao has been paid. Now these workers are breaking into the military camp. They are obviously Japanese bandits who are deliberately making trouble. As the commander-in-chief of the three armed forces, shouldn't Qi Shuai order them to be shot?" ”
Instead, Zhao Wenhua questioned Qi Jiguang.
Qi Jiguang glanced at the workers making trouble outside and suddenly shouted: "Come on, take down Zhao Wenhua, who is in charge of base construction! Kill him!"
Qi Jiguang's order really shocked everyone present.
"Did I hear you correctly? Qi Shuai is going to kill Zhao Wenhua, Minister of Industry, on the spot?" Hu Zongxian asked himself secretly.
Zhao Wenhua himself was shocked, and then pointed at Qi Jiguang angrily: "Qi Jiguang! How dare you! You are a vulgar warrior, why dare you kill me, who is the Minister of the Ministry of Industry! The minister of the imperial court!"
"Because I am now the supreme military commander in the war to destroy the Japanese, because you, Zhao Wenhua, are now engaged in the military, and because of the provisions of military disciplines, you create conflicts between the military and the people and affect the military deployment. The general can kill first and report later!"
When Qi Jiguang was talking, his two guards had already held Zhao Wenhua down. Then, Qi Jiguang raised his hand and pulled out his command knife, slashed it down, and then accurately chopped off Zhao Wenhua's head.
Then, when everyone was stunned, even the workers who were causing trouble were stunned, Qi Jiguang came to these workers with Zhao Wenhua's head: "I have killed the evil official who owed you wages! Please go back, Deputy Ambassador Yuan will pay all your wages within three days!”
After Qi Jiguang finished speaking, he came to Yuan Zhi: "Deputy Envoy Yuan, follow me to get the silver coins!"
"Yes!"
Yuan Zhi hurriedly agreed. As a civil servant, he felt the majesty of military commanders for the first time. Hu Zongxian was not much better. After a while, he came back to his senses and murmured: "The world has really changed! Even the Minister of the Ministry of Industry is like this Even civil servants can be killed by military commanders for violating military laws!”
The workers vented their anger by killing the general in front of them, a high-ranking official in red robes, and promised to pay wages within three days. Naturally, they left with gratitude. Not only that, even the officers and soldiers present were even more fond of Qi Jiguang. They were in awe. After all, they had also seen Zhao Wenhua's arrogance. Now that Marshal Qi had cut him off, it naturally proved that Marshal Qi still had the final say in this army.
Tang Kekuan couldn't help but secretly exclaimed: "Qi, you are awesome! When I led the army decades ago, I didn't dare to kill civilian officials! Let alone this second-grade civilian official!"
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(End of chapter)