Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 1517, it's not rioters, it's just workers who want wages

When Nanjing was in chaos, Wang Shouren, the governor of Nanzhili, was inspecting here in Songhu.

"Songhu has changed a lot~"

"When I first came here, it was still a piece of mulberry field, but in a blink of an eye it became a piece of high-rise buildings, a huge industrial area."

Wang Shouren stood on a tall building in Songhu overlooking Songhu.

Songhu in front of us has changed a lot. It can be said that it is changing with each passing day. There are a large number of factories and workshops, spacious concrete roads extending in all directions, and a large number of ships moored at the wharves on both sides of the Huangpu River. It is very busy and prosperous, especially The Chinese New Year is coming soon, and a large number of factories here in Songhu have given workers a year's wages and year-end bonuses.

The workers who hold a lot of money in their hands will naturally buy a lot of money for the New Year when they go home, so that the streets in Songhu are full of people, and the business in many shops is very hot.

"If Jiangnan wants to develop, it should learn more from Songhu."

"Pay attention to industry and build more factories and workshops, so that we can develop rapidly."

Wang Shouren is well aware of the power of factories. A small factory can provide jobs for tens of thousands of people, and the wealth created is huge.

Not only the imperial court can collect a lot of taxes from it, the factory owners can get huge profits, and many workers can also get considerable remuneration, which is much better than farming in the countryside.

"Yes, yes, we must earnestly learn from Songhu, attach importance to industry, and set up more factories~"

Wang Shouren was followed by many officials from prefectures and counties, and they nodded when they heard Wang Shouren's words.

At this moment, an official came to Wang Shouren's side in a hurry.

"My lord, something big happened, something big happened~"

"A large number of rioters appeared in Nanjing. Hundreds of thousands of rioters wantonly smashed, looted and burned Nanjing. A large number of factories, shops, etc. were smashed and robbed."

The visitor didn't even have time to take a breath, and rushed to report.

"what?"

When Wang Shouren heard this, his eyes widened immediately.

I have just left Nanjing on my front foot, and such a thing happened in Nanjing, how is this possible?

You must know that Nanjing has always been very prosperous and prosperous, and everything is in order, and the work related to the Chinese New Year is arranged very properly. It seems that the Chinese New Year is coming soon, and such a thing has happened.

"Go, go back to Nanjing immediately!"

Almost without any hesitation, Wang Shouren returned to Nanjing in a hurry.

The four-wheeled carriage that Wang Shouren was riding was galloping rapidly on the road leading to Nanjing, and he was very anxious.

"What exactly is going on?"

"Such a thing happened."

Wang Shouren frowned and thought quickly. He had worked in Nanzhili for many years and knew the situation in Nanzhili very well.

The land in the south of the Yangtze River is prosperous and prosperous. It is absolutely impossible to say that there will be riots and rebellions. What's more, the weather has been smooth and there has been no famine in the past few years. It stands to reason that it is absolutely impossible for large-scale riots and rebellions to occur.

"There must be something in it~"

"Could it be that those people are playing tricks?"

Soon, Wang Shouren thought of a possibility, perhaps it was very likely that those who wanted to get him away were behind the tricks that caused these things to happen.

Almost at the fastest speed, Wang Shouren returned to Nanjing in the first time.

As soon as he returned to Nanjing, before Wang Shouren had time to take a breath, many officials from Nanjing hurriedly found Wang Shouren.

"Master Wang, the whole of Nanjing is in chaos. It's completely in chaos. Hundreds of thousands of rioters are wantonly beating, smashing, looting and burning. This is a premeditated rebellion. We must immediately request the imperial court to suppress it!"

"Yes, Lord Wang, we must immediately dispatch an army to suppress~"

"I have already jointly signed a letter to the emperor to clarify the situation in the south of the Yangtze River. Presumably, the imperial court will send a large army to suppress it soon. The top priority is to close the old city of Nanjing and carry out strict defenses to prevent the rebellion from entering. "

"Yes, yes, once the rioters break in, we and other officials will surely die."

Wang Shouren looked at the officials in front of him coldly, all of them were of very high rank.

Nanjing is very different from other places, because Nanjing was the capital of the Ming Dynasty at the beginning, but later moved the capital to Beijing, but still retains the six ministries and other settings in Nanjing, so Nanjing also has a complete team .

Of course, the officials sent to Nanjing are all retired officials, and the Minister of the Ministry of Officials in Nanjing has no power at all, only their grades.

Now a swarm of bees all come to me, it seems that one is more anxious than the other.

However, Wang Shouren noticed a lot of things on the way back. Nanjing seems to be in chaos, especially in the industrial zone. Many workers gather here, but there is no so-called rebellion. Incidents of smashing, looting and burning did occur, but they were limited to some areas. Although they were also affected in many places, everything was in order.

This made Wang Shouren even more certain that something must have happened, and it was definitely not a rebellion as they said.

"I just came back, and I haven't figured out the cause of the incident yet. After I figure it out, I will definitely make arrangements."

Wang Shouren didn't panic, and the more this happened, the calmer he became.

After sending many officials away, Wang Shouren pondered carefully. He had a hunch that this seemed to be a huge conspiracy against himself. Heads have to move.

"Humph~"

"While I was not around, such a big event happened, and before the matter was clarified, they hurriedly wrote to the emperor. According to their style of doing things, it must be written about disorder and rebellion."

"This memorandum has been sent to the emperor's side. The emperor will be furious at that time. It is a trivial matter to dismiss me. The key is that once the imperial army arrives here and suppresses it without knowing the specific circumstances, Nanjing will definitely be bloody at that time. Flowing like a river, countless casualties."

Thinking of this, Wang Shouren became very anxious immediately, and he could have a premonition that the imperial court was already dispatching troops from all directions to Nanjing to suppress the rebellion.

"My lord, there is a letter from the capital~"

Just as Wang Shouren was anxiously thinking about countermeasures, a servant hurriedly said with a letter.

"Bring it~"

Wang Shouren quickly took the letter and quickly opened it. In fact, he didn't even need to think about it. It must be a letter from his father Wang Hua to him from the capital, and the things he talked about must also be about the arrangement of the court.

"Sure enough~"

"Fortunately, it was Liu Jin who went south this time. If it was another person, I would really worry."

After reading the family letter, Wang Shouren's hanging heart finally dropped heavily.

As he expected, the Son of Heaven was furious when he received the news, and he was quite dissatisfied with Wang Shouren, the chief envoy, who didn't even know anything about such a major event.

Regarding the possible rebellion, the imperial court also made careful arrangements, and dispatched the Minister of the Ministry of Officials, Liu Jin, to take full charge of the overall situation.

"Come on, immediately go secretly to various places in Nanjing to investigate the cause of the incident."

"Pass my order to a yamen in Nanjing, and all the arresters and guards will be organized immediately to maintain order in every block and road. All those who smashed, looted and burned people will be arrested immediately and severely punished."

"With my officer's warrant, go to the Nanjing camp immediately and ask the Nanjing garrison to assist me in maintaining order in Nanjing."

Wang Shouren deployed quickly. The top priority is to stabilize the order and situation in Nanjing, and not let those people continue to smash, loot and burn, so as to ensure the normal operation of Nanjing.

Official posts, yamen servants, and applications for assistance from the garrison all belong to Wang Shouren's purview.

"Come here, put on plain clothes with me and go to inspect it."

After finishing the careful deployment, Wang Shouren thought about it and decided to go and see what happened in person.

Soon, Wang Shouren brought more than a dozen officials in plain clothes to the most chaotic industrial area in Nanjing, and came to the Jinling Cement Factory.

The area around the Jinling Cement Factory is indeed in chaos right now. A large number of workers gathered together to vent their inner dissatisfaction by smashing the factory.

At the same time, under such circumstances, various things will inevitably occur. Some people take the opportunity to rob property, and there are many things like rape and looting. After all, there has been no shortage of rioters since ancient times.

"Pay back my wages, pay me back my wages~"

"Black-hearted boss, pay me back~"

"All workers are a family, and they should unite to fight against the black-hearted boss!"

"Unite as one, help each other!"

Wang Shouren looked at all this with a stern expression, and soon heard a burst of orderly shouts, and saw a large number of workers gathered on the road, shouting as they walked.

"My fellow, I just came to Nanjing from another place. Is something wrong?"

Wang Shouren stopped a few workers and said as if he didn't know anything.

"Ah~"

"Don't mention it, we are all workers in the surrounding factories. We have worked hard for a year in the factory. Who knows that it will be the end of the year, and we won't be paid."

"It's fine if we don't pay wages, but they also hire local hooligans to beat us workers, and we need to continue working in the factory for a year before we can get paid."

"We were so angry that we fought with them and caused a lot of deaths. Now they are threatening to report to the officials that they will arrest us all as rebels and exterminate the nine clans."

"We're terrified to death now, so we're all going to unite and ask the government for an explanation. If we're really pushed, we'll really turn against each other, and we won't even be given a way to survive."

The workers who were stopped also helplessly expressed their sadness to Wang Shouren, all of which were forced by others.

"Everyone can't get paid?"

Wang Shouren widened his eyes and asked quickly.

"Isn't that right? We are workers at the Jinling Cement Factory. They are workers at the Jinling Textile Factory, as well as the glass factory and the car factory. We don't get paid."

"It's the factories run by the Yankees, and they get paid a lot."

Many workers followed suit.

"There is such a thing, why don't you sue the officials?"

Wang Shouren frowned and asked after thinking about it.

"Some of us have gone to high-ranking officials, but those officials don't make decisions for us ordinary people at all. They said that these are matters between us and the factory owner. They can't control them. Let us figure out our own way."

"Some people were beaten by the government's officials."

"The owners of those factories don't know how dark they are. They hired a lot of local hooligans. When I asked for money, they beat us. Many people had their hands and feet broken, and some were killed."

"We really can't do anything about it, and we are really angry. There is no such reason in the world. After working hard for a year, it's fine if we don't get paid, and we are beaten. Now we are still saying that we are a riotous people who want to start a rebellion. Well, many people were so frightened that they didn’t even want their wages, so they hurried back to their hometowns.”

"Yes, yes, we have no choice. We have no money in our hands. We don't even have money to buy food in this winter. If we go back this time, we will definitely starve to death or freeze to death on the road."

"What kind of world is this~"

"I really hope that the Son of Heaven can hear our words, make decisions for us, and ask the boss to give us the money, so that we will never come out to work again in the future."

The workers told Wang Shouren the pain in their hearts one by one.

"That's it~"

Wang Shouren understood immediately.

"Go, go back~"

After figuring out the cause of the incident, Wang Shouren immediately returned to his yamen without stopping, and then hurriedly wrote a memorial to the emperor, and at the same time wrote a letter to Liu Jin, explaining the situation in Nanjing and explaining his next actions and report.

"Hurry up, send this memorial to the capital with [-] taels of rush~"

"There is also this letter, which must be delivered to Mr. Liu Jin Liu as soon as possible. He should take the train to go south at this time, and he must calculate his itinerary in advance."

After Wang Shouren finished writing the memorandum and letter, he also hurriedly ordered his cronies and confidantes to do it. He no longer believed in the general officials and yamen servants in Nanjing. This was definitely a premeditated conspiracy.

"Yes~"

When the confidant heard this, he also hurried to go to deal with it at this time.

Seeing his cronies leave, after Wang Shouren thought about it, he took out his pen and ink and quickly wrote a letter to his father Wang Hua in the capital, explaining the situation to them, and at the same time clearly expressing his guess and thoughts in his heart. Worried, I hope Wang Hua can help him stabilize in the capital first, so that he has time to deal with it.

"It's not rioters, it's just workers wanting wages?"

Two days later, Liu Jin received a letter from Wang Shouren on the train, and he immediately felt relieved.

(End of this chapter)