I'm really not doing business

Chapter 817 Lack of Confidence and Effective Means

Wang Jiaping's ideas coincide with Wang Qian's ideas, and running water never stagnates.

You know, the reason why those private trading fairs with very high thresholds constantly clamored for officials to ban the short-selling of Yanxinglou Trading House was to keep the power of short-selling in their own hands, rather than really working for the interests of small households.

These private trade fairs are not run by people of high moral standards and are not run by good people. They have their own purposes in stirring up such public opinion.

Private transactions can be carried out through secret operations to borrow and lend valuable instruments, and they can even work together to manipulate the market.

Ordinary small households simply do not have the ability or channels to borrow these valuable tickets. As a result, only private transactions can short sell, and ordinary small households can only be harvested.

These private trading fairs are essentially seeking the privilege of only being able to short sell for themselves, rather than for the so-called small households.

In the struggle volume of the third volume of class theory, it is made very clear that economic status determines political stance, and the weak economic status of small households will put them at an absolute disadvantage in the game, which cannot be changed by any system.

No matter where small households are, they cannot escape the fate of being harvested.

Therefore, Wang Qian chose not to stop short selling in order to maintain the market's pricing power over Minfang, forcing Minfang to operate properly and ensure substantial profits and dividends to maintain his own worth. Garbage should be piled in the garbage dump.

The same principle applies to what Wang Jiaping said: running water does not rot and door hinges do not rot.

The official factory led by Wang Chonggu was a highly closed system. This was not because Wang Chonggu was incompetent, but because the official factory system was the resident craftsman system of Emperor Chengzu Wen, and it was not even modified but was implemented directly.

The system of resident craftsmen is itself a highly closed system of bloodline inheritance, which can cause obstruction.

This kind of closed system certainly has its advantages, that is, Wang Chonggu has the final say. At this time, as long as Wang Chonggu wants to do something, he can do it with all his strength. In short, this highly closed system can clench his fist and hit people.

But the disadvantages of doing so are obvious. Under a completely closed system, the production relations of the craftsmen are still based on strong personal dependence rather than freedom.

Wang Chonggu wanted to form a trade union and build a complete bottom-up supervision system, which in itself runs counter to the authoritarian system of one-man rule.

Wang Jiaping's memorial mainly considered five aspects: dynamic rotation, salary and security, supervision and checks and balances, production promotion, autonomy and official governance.

"If the state-owned factories can accept the supervision of the court, then the trade union will have some ways to go. The trade union management needs to have complex personnel. It cannot be composed of only craftsmen or only people from the government office. In this way, one-third will be representatives of craftsmen, one-third will be concurrent clerks, and one-third will be people from the court." Wang Jiaping talked about dynamic rotation.

If Wang Chonggu can accept that government-owned factories are more open and no longer completely closed, then he can achieve something.

Wang Chonggu kept rubbing the fingertips of his right thumb and asked, "Your idea is very good. The corruption of the rule of law always comes from the top down, and rarely from the bottom up. In other words, if you can control the management of the trade union, you can control the trade union."

"You go on."

Wang Jiaping leaned forward and pointed to the memorials, saying, "The term of office shall be changed every four years, and twice at most. No matter what the reason, the manager of the government-run factory labor union shall not stay in office for more than eight years, and shall not be reappointed. If he stays in office for too long, he will form a faction."

"And we need to implement a recusation system. If one person in a family is in a government-run factory union, they cannot be in charge within three generations."

Among the five major aspects, the first one is dynamic rotation, namely: the workers' union will be divided into three parts, one is the leader of the skilled craftsmen, one is selected from the clerks who are in charge, and one is selected from the court officials who are advisors; they will be replaced every four years, and can be reappointed at most. Any deacon of the workers' union in government factories shall not serve for more than eight years, and shall not be allowed to get reappointed. Staying for a long time will inevitably lead to party persecution; the law of avoiding relatives shall be implemented, and if there is a person in charge of the workers' union in a family, he shall be forbidden from being involved in key management within three generations.

Wang Chonggu stopped rubbing his fingertips and asked, "You said it very well. Running water does not rot, and door hinges do not rot. It does make sense. So what about salary guarantees?"

Wang Jiaping explained: "The government-run factory has three levels of schools, namely primary and secondary schools, and a school for craftsmen. The government-run factory provides three meals a day and also builds official residences for the craftsmen to live in. This treatment is already very good, and it must continue to maintain the enthusiasm of the craftsmen for production."

"But sometimes, there will be excess profits, that is, people continue to use the goods, so they naturally have to work overtime to rush the production. At this time, the distribution of excess profits must be distributed downwards at 70%, instead of the previous 30%. It can be used to innovate production tools, ensure production safety, or provide school meals and official housing. Of course, the most important thing is to reward fundraising."

"Only in this way can we achieve long-term peace."

This is the second part of the memorial, the part about wages: However, when there is a surplus in the market, it is because merchants have to work day and night to get urgent orders. At this time, the profits should be used to benefit the craftsmen: some should be used to cast new tools, some should be used to repair the security of the workshop, some should be used to increase the food supply and schools, and most importantly, to reward the diligent and skilled craftsmen with gifts to maintain their diligence.

Generally speaking, it means that there must be water in the fire extinguisher tank, you must play chess first if you want to win, and overtime pay must be given for overtime work.

The craftsmen worked overtime to speed up the completion, and the government-run factory made excess profits. However, the craftsmen did not receive more compensation, and could not even have two taels of meat added to their meals. How could the enthusiasm of the craftsmen, that is, their diligence, be guaranteed?

"What does this have to do with the trade union?" Wang Chonggu asked with a frown. No matter how you look at it, this one has nothing to do with the trade union.

"When it comes to the distribution of benefits, the trade union has to take care of it. The trade union's accountant will check the accounts together with the government-owned factory's accountant to ensure that 70% of the excess profits are distributed downward. The trade union must exercise its supervisory power. If embezzlement or corruption occurs, the court officials serving in the trade union will petition the Censorate to fight corruption." Wang Jiaping explained the reasons.

Wang Jiaping explained in detail where the union’s money comes from.

Regarding the distribution of excess profits, if the audit verifies that there is indeed no corruption, and the craftsmen are not getting the meat they should have eaten and the overtime pay they should have received, then after the investigation, 30% of the illegal gains of the corrupt officials will be confiscated and distributed to the trade union to maintain its operations.

Wang Jiaping explained his memorial in detail. The five parts were linked together, and each part supervised the other to ensure that the union could fulfill its duties: reflect the actual needs of the craftsmen, promote production, and prevent the various privileges caused by inbreeding in the union.

"Your idea is good, but everything depends on human effort." Wang Chonggu sighed and said, "No matter how well the system is designed, it still needs people to implement it. In this process, there will always be some people who will leave. However, the establishment and development of a system is never achieved overnight. It can evolve continuously amidst contradictions."

"Very good, you just happened to be back in Beijing, so I'll leave the affairs of the government-run factory labor union to you."

Wang Chonggu agreed to Wang Jiaping's "Five-Point Memorial to Open Windows and Break Barriers to Build the Workers' Alliance" and gave the task entirely to Wang Jiaping.

"Wang Ci Fu, I have a question. Please help me solve it." Wang Jiaping sat up straight. His expression was a little anxious and confused. His eyes were a little empty as he asked, "I have set up two iron smelting factories in Guangzhou Prefecture, and I found a strange phenomenon."

"We are not short of people. To be exact, we have many skilled craftsmen. The Iron Smelting Institute recruited 134 blacksmiths and more than 500 apprentices in just three days."

"We are not short of money. Yin Butang used the method of demolishing the door to force these powerful and wealthy people to donate to suppress the Japanese; Ling Butang used the knife in his hand to force them to donate to suppress the rebellion of the Yao people, and Luo Ding came for this; I went to Guangdong and Guangxi, kept silent and pretended to be confused, and they also donated."

"We are not short of money or people. We have everything. Why did the court abandon shipbuilding and iron smelting?"

After hearing this question, Wang Chonggu smiled with ease and said, "This is the biggest problem you will face in the future. How to properly handle the contradiction will be a great test of your ability."

"I can tell you very clearly the reason behind this phenomenon. It is because of insufficient demand. The closed, self-sufficient, and low-frequency peasant economy does not have sufficient demand. Therefore, after the silver flowed into the Ming Dynasty, it was hidden in the pigsty instead of being invested in building workshops to seek greater profits."

"Some people are willing to do business that will cost them their lives, but no one is willing to do business that will only make them lose money. Because they can't make money, they are unwilling to invest. All this silver is like dead."

"Of course, the popular opinion that meat eaters are despicable and only know how to collect rent is, in my opinion, a very one-sided view. I can only say that the powerful and wealthy, the wealthy businessmen, and the local gentry are more willing to hoard silver and then use the silver to buy land and annex it. They are not only aware of collecting rent, but the world situation forces them to do so."

"Because other businesses have insufficient demand, they can't make money at all, but the Wanli Restoration of the Ming Dynasty stimulated demand starting with maritime trade."

"The second is the shortage of money. This is a commonplace problem, so I won't go into details."

The closed nature of the small peasant economy, the short-sightedness of meat eaters, and the shortage of money were the main reasons for insufficient investment and production in the past. There has been too much discussion about the shortage of money, so Wang Chonggu simply skipped it.

Wang Chonggu answered the doubts in Wang Jiaping's mind. It was not that the meat-eaters in the Ming Dynasty were short-sighted, but that without demand, there would be no supply. No matter how many talents or funds there were, a market without demand was destined to be stagnant.

This is the result of multiple influences of economic structure, culture, and system, and is also the main contradiction that Wang Chonggu has to face during the 15 years he has been in charge of the government-run factory.

But the contradiction that Wang Jiaping will face next is different from that of Wang Chonggu.

Wang Chonggu continued, “The contradiction you have to face is that while the currency is relatively abundant, the people lack confidence, and the court has no effective means to organize talents and maximize their capabilities.”

Wang Chonggu explored this issue from two aspects: lack of confidence and effective means.

Lack of confidence is a problem left over from history. What makes the court very embarrassed is that all the people of the Ming Dynasty, even the powerful and wealthy who have been hurt the most by Your Majesty, trust Your Majesty more than the court.

Your Majesty is a man of his words. As long as they follow your rules, the powerful will be able to follow the imperial court, make a fortune, and gain a reputation for being loyal to the emperor and the country. But if they insist on disobeying, your majesty's sword will not be at all harmful.

In the past, the imperial court broke its promises so many times that the people would rather believe in your majesty’s wisdom than in the imperial court.

This has created a very strange phenomenon. Unless there is an imperial decree, everyone is taking a wait-and-see attitude.

Some time ago, the news about the big gold mine in the Jinchi Governor's Mansion was everywhere. People were interested, but no one took action. It was not until the natural gold nuggets were exhibited in the imperial farm that people believed that this was true!
When an imperial decree was issued, the meat-eaters would try their best to get in. Without an imperial decree, no one would pay attention even if the court shouted at the top of its lungs.

Lacking effective means, resistance mainly came from the old literati, namely Confucian scholars. In order to completely monopolize power, Confucian scholars rejected any talents in science and engineering to gain political positions.

The official selection method was suggested by Wang Chonggu. The court took advantage of the situation and cut the Gordian knot by first making it a fait accompli and then using the game of struggle to implement the policy.

Even so, only the Ministry of Revenue and the Imperial University of Peking have carried out pilot projects. The policy is still being improved and there is still great resistance to its promotion.

In addition, there are issues of treatment and future. In order to recruit accountants, even the Grand Tutor Wang Guoguang personally stepped in and issued a ban, prohibiting talents from the Imperial University of Peking from flowing into the private sector.

This requires continuous improvement of the political system during development.

"Thank you, Mr. Wang, for your advice. It seems that the road ahead is long and difficult." After communicating with Wang Chonggu, Wang Jiaping realized that the situation he was facing was more complicated than he had imagined, and was far less simple than being a provincial governor in Guangdong and Guangxi.

"Master, someone from the palace came and told Wang Ci Fu to go to the front gate. His Majesty is furious!" The doorman rushed in and said in a panic, "The insider said that His Majesty is furious!"

"Your Majesty wants to kill someone, can I stop him? Why are you looking for me instead of Zhang Juzheng?" Wang Chonggu said in great surprise.

The doorman hurriedly said, "The prime minister has gone, sir. This is a criminal case." Upon hearing that it was a criminal case, Wang Chonggu's eyes went dark, and he took Wang Qian and Wang Jiaping and immediately went straight to the front gate building. In the car, he kept asking about the situation, especially the Tielin Army in the mansion.

There are 200 Tielin troops in Wang Chonggu's mansion. They are the Tiqi, who are specifically responsible for protecting the safety of him and his family. The emperor regretted the death of Wang Chongyi last time for a long time, thinking that he did not protect him well enough. But at that time, Wang Chonggu was still a traitor. Sending the Tielin troops would easily arouse suspicion among the emperor and his ministers.

Wang Chonggu's family paid blood tax for the Wanli Reform. Since then, he was no longer considered a traitor in the eyes of the emperor.

The situation was soon clarified. Wang Chonggu felt like the sky was falling. He just hoped that the emperor would not take his head to vent his anger in his rage.

Duntai Yuanhou and Haifang Patrol were the most dangerous scouts of the Ming Dynasty. The expedition team formed by Duntai Yuanhou found the Xianbei grassland when exploring northwards, and the danger of Haifang Patrol was no less than that of Duntai Yuanhou.

The families of Duntai Yuanhou and the coastal defense inspectors lived in Nanhai Zi, Daxing County. Every New Year, the Emperor would go there in person to inquire about them.

This time, the ones who got into trouble were the family of Nanhai Zi, and they were the descendants of the hero.

Jin Fugui, a patrol officer of the Nanyang Coast Guard who died in the war, had two children. Last year during the Spring Festival, the emperor personally visited their home.

The child's mother brought her two children to visit relatives in the capital, and a thief stole the carriage. If it was just the loss of some property, Your Majesty would not be angry, at most he would ask Shuntian Prefecture to investigate thoroughly.

But in the car was Jin Fugui's child, who had just turned three years old.

Qianmenlouzi is a common name, referring to Zhengyangmen. There are many shops on both sides of the street outside Zhengyangmen, and it is also the most prosperous street in Beiya.

On the east side of Zhengyangmenwai Street, there is a place called Luoshi Lane, which is a brothel street with heavy traffic and is as famous as Dongsi Hutong.

After the accident, the Wucheng Bingmasi immediately mobilized all the officers and soldiers to search the whole city. They found the lost vehicle and the thief in Luoshi Lane, and the child became a hostage in the hands of the thief.

When Wang Chonggu arrived, the imperial guards had already cleared the street, and he had no obstruction when he walked to the crime scene.

"I am the emperor of the Ming Dynasty. Give the child to me. I can agree to anything you want. I keep my word." Zhu Yijun's tone was very calm. He stood there with a majestic aura without being angry.

He was very angry, but did not want to irritate the criminal. Yin Zongxin could order the killing because it was a battlefield and here was the emperor's feet. There was still room for maneuver. The criminal was a thief, not a vicious pirate.

Zhu Yijun tried to keep his tone steady and said, "If you want to hurt the child, I will make your entire clan be buried with you. I promised Duntai Yuanhou and Haifang Patrol that I will take care of your wife, but if you let the child go, I promise not to embarrass you. Put down the knife, okay?"

No one would doubt that Your Majesty would execute the entire clan of a person. Your Majesty always keeps his word and never goes back on his word.

The case of Nanhaizi's family will be reported directly to the emperor, which is why His Majesty the Emperor arrived so quickly.

"I didn't know he was the descendant of a hero! I'm just a thief, Your Majesty, and I just wanted to steal some money, but he kept crying!" The thief was scared, he just wanted to steal money, and the car was parked on the side of the road and the coachman was not there, so he thought of driving the car away and selling it.

Who would have thought that within a quarter of an hour, the nine main roads were closed, the gates were shut, and the streets were full of officers, checking every household.

"The child is dead?" Zhu Yijun took a deep breath, his face as cold as frosty.

The thief quickly pulled the child in front of him and shouted, "No, no! I was annoyed by his noise, so I bought him a piece of candy and he was eating it."

"What are your conditions? Tell me." When Zhu Yijun saw the child eating candy, he breathed a sigh of relief. As long as the child was alive, everything would be fine.

Not only the emperor breathed a sigh of relief, but everyone present breathed a sigh of relief. The thief drove the cart into the wall of the neighborhood, and there was a big tree where he was standing, so no one could see the child's condition clearly.

Malt sugar is a bit sticky, and the three-year-old child was picking his teeth, not realizing what had happened.

"Don't kill me!" The thief did not hesitate. He knelt on the ground and let the child go.

When the thief saw the real boss coming and making a promise, he immediately put forward conditions. He was scared, very scared.

The captain, the chief of the criminal department of Shuntian Prefecture, and the chancellor of Shuntian Prefecture all advised him to hand over the child, but the thief did not dare to hand over the child, as he was afraid that if he did, he would be pierced by thousands of arrows.

The thief took the hostage and demanded to see the emperor. He would only feel at ease if the emperor promised.

Xu Jue walked over, held the child in his arms and handed him to His Majesty. Zhu Yijun held the child and examined him carefully, making sure that he had no external injuries and was not frightened by the sudden incident. His attention was focused on the piece of maltose, and he felt relieved and handed the child to the mother whose face was covered with tears.

"Don't be careless anymore. A three-year-old child can't be left alone in the car." Zhu Yijun gave some careful instructions, asking Jin Fugui's widow to be more careful in the future.

Zhu Yijun walked up to the thief who was pinned to the ground, thought for a moment and said, "I am not happy that you stole things, and I am even more unhappy that you stole from the queen of heroes, but I am very happy that you did not touch the child."

"I promise you that I won't kill you, but will charge you with theft. Are you convinced?"

"I am convinced, I am convinced, thank you for your grace, Your Majesty!" The thief kowtowed continuously like a garlic hammer. It is said that Your Majesty has a bad temper and likes to kill people, but isn't this very reasonable?
"Look at you, a grown man with hands and feet, why don't you do something else but steal for a living." The reason why Zhu Yijun didn't kill him was very simple. After this case happened, as long as there were thieves or carnivores in the nine clans, they would not dare to make things too difficult for these descendants of heroes.

The preferential treatment after the heroes will only be for one generation, that is, their children, and it will not create a privileged class that inherits bloodline from generation to generation.

"Wang Ci Fu, you are in charge of criminal law. Our Ming Dynasty's capital is the best place under the feet of the emperor, but there are too many thieves here." When Zhu Yijun was about to leave, he criticized Wang Chonggu's work on criminal law.

These things were stolen from the descendants of heroes. One can imagine how many vagrants there are in this capital.

"Your Majesty, don't worry. In three days, the capital will be clean inside and out." Wang Chonggu said hurriedly with his head bowed.

Zhu Yijun nodded and said, "Well, it has to be done for a long time and continuously. It's not just the imperial court. Recently, the Nanyang Governor's Office said that the towns and villages of Han are short of people to fill the vacancies. The wealthy merchants said that the workshops are short of people. Even the local gentry said that there are not enough people to farm. Isn't this a lot of people?"

"The reason why the wanderers are wandering around is that they have nothing to do, but not all of them are lazy and like to eat. Most of them don't have any skills to rely on and don't know how to make a living."

"After we catch them, we'll force them to operate sewing machines! They'll learn to do some work and acquire some skills to make a living."

In a social order divided vertically by culture, customs, and language, the role played by these vagrants is to create mutual harm among the lower classes and intensify conflicts. They do not need to be dealt with. They are even an important tool to prevent the lower classes from uniting and pointing their guns at the predators.

But the Ming Dynasty was cut horizontally, and it was necessary to eliminate the vagrants. This elimination required both kindness and severity. It was necessary to kill people, physically eliminate the serious and evil criminals; it was also necessary to save people, and find a way out for those who had no skills and no connections.

"I obey your command and respectfully see your majesty off!" Wang Chonggu bowed again, and it was not until your majesty's carriage left that the Second Prime Minister of the Ming Dynasty stood up, his face as gloomy as water.

Just as Your Majesty said, there are too many homeless people in the Ming Dynasty. Those who need to be killed should be killed, and those who need to be rescued should be rescued. If they cannot be rescued, they should be sent to the Governor-General's Mansion in Jinchi, because they are most in need of manpower there!

Regardless of the impact of this very accidental case on others, for the vagrants in the capital, it was truly a catastrophe!

They had never seen such an efficient Ming Dynasty government!
Even some beggars living in bridge holes were caught and brought to the government office for questioning, even some stray cats and dogs were slapped twice, and even some old cases were declared solved because of this crackdown.

Within three days, all the vagrants in the capital were cleared out.

Zhu Yijun was very satisfied with Wang Chonggu's work and his high efficiency, so he issued an imperial decree to reward him and, at the same time, rejected the memorial of Wang Xiyuan, the Chancellor of Shuntian Prefecture, requesting retirement.

Zhu Yijun handed the approved memorial to Feng Bao and said, "The capital of the Ming Dynasty is changing with each passing day. Last winter, the population of the capital exceeded four million, and the population of Songjiang Prefecture was even greater than that of the capital, reaching as many as four and a half million."

"How to effectively manage such a large city is a huge challenge for any government office. This is not because Wang Xiyuan is incompetent."

"The case of stealing the hero outside Zhengyang Gate is a silhouette of the city's rapid development."

In this era of rapid change, the old production relations began to collapse under the impetus of the new policies, and new production relations were constantly being established. All the contradictions involved were tests for the Ming Emperor and the court.

"The principle that running water never rots has long been recorded in history. A deep lake may be deep, but without running water, it will eventually dry up. A huge ship may be majestic, but if it defends itself, it will wither."

"Looking at the government factories today, they are like a pond with nine locks and walls, with windows and doors closed. Even if they have a storage of ten thousand gallons of water, how can they last long? It is like a sacred pond that loses its spring veins, and the duckweed and algae will all be rotten; if the golden shackles are cut off from the key points, all the spokes will eventually collapse."

"This is not the fault of heaven, but the harm of obstruction." Zhu Yijun was reading Wang Jiaping's "Five Things to Open Windows and Break Barriers to Build the Workers' Alliance". After Wang Jiaping had an in-depth exchange with Wang Chonggu, he returned home to revise the memorial and signed it jointly with Wang Chonggu.

The drawback of state-owned factories is that their windows are closed. Wind and rain can get in, but court supervisors and auditors cannot. This is the biggest drawback of state-owned factories, so we need to build a labor union to open the windows and doors.

Zhu Yijun highly approved of Wang Jiaping's memorial, but he finally wrote one word in his comment: difficult.

"Tell Wang Ci Fu and Shao Si Kou not to be too optimistic. Their ideas are good, but I'm afraid they will be disappointed with this union." Zhu Yijun said helplessly: "In the end, it will probably become a place for nepotism to eat idle meals."

The imperial court has a large number of government offices that do not do their job and just eat idle food. These places are home to idle people with nepotism. If these idle people really enter the government offices with real power, it will only make things worse.

Zhu Yijun was not optimistic about the efforts of Wang Chonggu and Wang Jiaping. People are selfish by nature. Most people are like this. They want to cash in on any power they have.

"Your Majesty, the Jinchi Governor's Office has sent a memorial." The eunuch came in hurriedly. The memorials from the six governors-general's offices would be presented to the emperor for preview more quickly.

Deng Zilong mentioned a very interesting thing in his memorial. He found back the sword that the emperor had given him.

When the Ming Dynasty's Nanyang Navy arrived at the Jinchi Governor's Mansion, Deng Zilong showed his friendliness and traded his sword to the barbarians, but soon the barbarians attacked the Ming Dynasty's coastal defense patrol, which marked the beginning of the war.

(End of this chapter)