I'm really not doing business

Chapter 919: The fate of the vassal people is not their own, their destiny depends on others
Since its establishment, the Shanghai Machinery Factory has been like a person with original sin, becoming the other side of the Beiya Xishan Coal Bureau, telling the Ming Emperor that without supervision and after power got out of control, the official factory would be a place where a pound of coal could be sold for 200 wen.

After the imperial guards entered the Shanghai Machinery Factory, the problems they found filled the emperor's desk.

The problem was so serious that it had to be completely disbanded.

The tax inspectors were ordered to check all the accounts of the government-owned factories. The biggest problem they found was bad debts.

The bad debts here include two aspects, expenditure and income.

Yao Guangqi became the magistrate of Shanghai in the ninth year of the Wanli reign, and the Shanghai Machinery Factory was established in the tenth year of the Wanli reign. However, the unpaid raw material debts of the Shanghai Machinery Factory in the tenth year of the Wanli reign alone exceeded 17,000 silver coins.

The government-run factory had unpaid debts for raw materials for more than a year, amounting to more than 120,000 silver coins.

Debts that are not settled for more than one year are generally deemed to be uncollectible.

In other words, the merchants who supplied coking coal, steel, wood, earth and other raw materials to the Shanghai Machinery Factory were basically owed money. Since it was a business for the imperial court, these merchants had no choice but to continue supplying. They were really like a dumb person eating bitter herbs, unable to express their grievances.

The reason given by Shanghai Machinery Factory was that the payment had not yet been received.

In addition to producing iron horses, the Shanghai Machinery Factory also produced plows, rakes, sickles, mills, hoes, hoes and other farm tools. On the books, there was a deficit of more than 140,000 silver coins for these farm tools.

The reason given by Shanghai Machinery Factory seems reasonable. If the downstream does not give money, they cannot give money to the upstream. It seems to be a typical triangular debt problem. As long as the deficit is recovered, the debt can be settled.

But is this really the case?
The tax inspectors checked the accounts and found that the deficit was not a deficit. The deficit of 140,000 silver coins consisted of several parts. 70,000 silver coins had been settled, but not in the accounts. That is, the payment for the goods had been paid to the machinery factory long ago, but it was not in the accounts. The money had been taken away by someone to enrich himself.

The deficit of 40,000 silver coins was caused by a wrongdoing, but no one was responsible for the debt. No one was responsible for the debt, which meant that no one could be found to repay the overdue payments. Or, from the very beginning, someone had been using the public funds for personal gain, finding brokers and compradors outside the factory to set up a scheme, and then disappeared without a trace after getting the goods and distributing them.
The above two parts of the deficit were made by the factory's co-director, agent and general manager, and the remaining 30,000 silver coins were made by the craftsmen in the official factory themselves. The top beam is not straight, and the bottom beams are crooked. These co-directors, agents and general managers made a lot of money, and the craftsmen below naturally made a lot of money.

The deficit of 140,000 silver coins was only the deficit of goods shipped out of the factory, but the loss of assets in the government-owned factory was also shocking. It was not a waste at all, but a crime.

It is simply appalling that the production tools that have been used in Beiya for more than ten years have to be replaced every month or even every ten days in Shanghai Machinery Factory.

The Shanghai Machinery Factory had been in operation for seven years, and some people had not shown up for work for seven years but were still receiving salaries. Moreover, three seven-year-old children were being treated as skilled craftsmen.

There were countless such phenomena. In just eight years, the Shanghai Machinery Factory suffered an overall deficit of up to 430,000 silver coins.

In addition to the deficit in silver, the overall atmosphere of the state-owned factory was corrupt. There were more than 40 gambling houses of various sizes in the state-owned factory. The Legislative Office originally tried to crack down on it vigorously, but was resisted by the craftsmen. Finally, the Legislative Office also began to collude with the crowd.

Zhu Yijun held the case file and said, "Shanghai County Government, Songjiang Prefecture Government, Ministry of Industry, and the Cabinet have all noticed the chaos at the Shanghai Machinery Factory. As the deputy assistant minister, Wang Chonggu sent master craftsmen to the machinery factory three times, but failed to solve the problem and was even forced to leave."

Zhu Yijun had a 270,000-word rectification plan in his hand, which was written by three great craftsmen who came to Shanghai from Beiya. If it could be implemented, the Shanghai Machinery Factory would not only be able to revive, but it could even become the largest machinery factory in Jiangnan. But the final result was that the great craftsmen were squeezed out.

It can be said that the Cabinet, the Ministry of Works, the Songjiang Prefecture Government, and the Shanghai County Government tried every possible method but still failed to correct the trend. Finally, Yao Guangqi presented a memorial to the emperor, requesting its complete dissolution.

If there is no reorganization or transfer, it will be completely closed and dismantled and rebuilt into a normal school.

A radical self-reform.

"Your Majesty, you have brought this upon yourself." Feng Bao could see that His Majesty was very reluctant and did not want to close down the Shanghai Machinery Factory, but things had come to this point and this piece of rotten meat had to be dug out so that new flesh could grow.

Zhu Yijun sighed, looked out the window and said absentmindedly: "I can compensate for the silver, and I can earn more if I lose it, but behind these 8,000 resident craftsmen are 8,000 families. What should they do?"

Feng Bao bowed his head again and said, "Your Majesty, the official factory is your official factory, and it is also the official factory of the craftsmen. When these crimes happened, they did not stop, report, or tell others. Instead, they covered up, condoned, and went along with the evil. This day is only a matter of time."

"Then let's implement it." Zhu Yijun's absent-mindedness was not because he felt sorry for the money, but because he felt that everything was beyond his control and it was a waste of time to persist.

"Feng Daban, go visit Wang Ci Fu on my behalf. He should be a little disappointed right now." Zhu Yijun sat up straight and asked Feng Bao to go see Wang Chonggu. Zhu Yijun gave a few instructions solemnly.

Since the Wanli Reform, Wang Chonggu has devoted himself to the Labor Party. Today, the Shanghai Machinery Factory can be said to be a great failure for Wang Chonggu and a huge setback for the Labor Party.

Feng Bao also said helplessly: "I obey your order."

When Feng Bao met Wang Chonggu, Wang Chonggu had lost his former sharpness. Even his body was a little hunched, and there was a hint of loneliness in the wrinkles on his face. The incident at the Shanghai Machinery Factory was a big blow to him. It was a major blow to his life and career. It was a major failure of the methodology he had been pursuing since the Wanli Reform.

"Wang Ci Fu, your majesty sent us to visit you. You don't have to worry too much. Some things are inevitable. It's either the Shanghai Machinery Factory today or the Yongsheng Woolen Factory tomorrow. You will definitely fall." When Feng Bao saw Wang Chonggu, he even felt that Wang Chonggu had aged a dozen years overnight.

"Feng Dayong." Wang Qian led Feng Bao to sit down, brewed some good tea for Feng Bao, and sat aside.

"In the book "Uprising", Xiao Zhao talked about the first contradiction and said: The vassal people have no control over their own destiny and their fortunes depend on others. They have been in the dust for generations and have never seen the sign of self-reliance. The plight of the people in Lin'an County, Zhejiang Province is also fully reflected in the government-owned factory. The crimes of the machinery factory are all due to this." Wang Chonggu leaned back in the chair, paused the crutch in his hand, and was a little angry.

Wang Chonggu's anger was somewhat complicated and a little lonely. He was angry at his own incompetence, angry at the incompetence of the craftsmen in the government-run factory, and angry at himself for not being able to see the crisis in advance.

"This is not the fault of the deputy assistant minister. He is in the North Yamen, not the South Yamen. The county magistrate is not as good as the current one. The general office and the joint office are rotten, so the whole government factory is naturally rotten. Didn't the deputy assistant minister say that? The corruption of the rule of law starts from top to bottom." Feng Bao comforted Wang Chonggu. Failure is shameful, but fear and retreat are even more ridiculed.

Discovering mistakes, admitting mistakes, and correcting mistakes are the essence of governing the country according to the theory of contradiction.

Shang Yang said: The reason why the law is not enforced is that it is violated from the top, which explains the reason why the rule of law is corrupted.

"Feng Dayang, why do you think the Xishan Coal Bureau, Yongding and Yongsheng Woolen Factory, Shengzhou, Womagang and Yongping Machinery Factory did not end up like this?" Wang Chonggu paused with his crutch again, his face becoming even more desolate.

Feng Bao thought for a moment and said, "Because the law is strict?"

Wang Chonggu pointed at himself and said, "No, it's because of me. They are afraid of me. I am a treacherous official with ruthless means. I will never give up until I achieve my goal. These government-owned factories are more like my life and property. They are afraid of me and my revenge. Therefore, they dare only do small things when they are corrupt and dare not do it to this extent."

"So, the government-run factory system that I was so proud of was nothing but a fake."

This is the fundamental reason why Wang Chonggu lost his fighting spirit.

Before, although he was old, he was still full of energy. It was not until today, when all the problems of Shanghai Machinery Factory were laid out in front of him, that he realized that the systems he had carefully designed were bullshit! No! No!

He cited the government-owned factories as examples, saying that it was not the system that made them run well, but the people who made them successful.

"Just like when Yan Song was not too old to be in charge, the Yan Party was able to resist the invaders in the north and pacify the Japanese in the south. But after Yan Song grew old and Yan Shifan became the leader of the Yan Party, the entire Yan Party immediately became a disaster for the country. Yan Shifan demanded bribes from Prince Yu's Mansion, and the Yan Party, from top to bottom, could not do anything. In the end, they were defeated by Xu Jie." Wang Chonggu gripped the cane very tightly.

The downfall of the Yan Party was never because Xu Jie was so powerful. If he was so powerful, he would not have lay dormant for twenty years. It was the Yan Party that destroyed itself.

Similarly, Wang Chonggu sadly discovered that he was following in the footsteps of Yan Song. As he grew older and his energy declined, today's Shanghai Machinery Factory would be tomorrow's Xishan Coal Bureau, Yongsheng Woolen Factory, and Yongpingfu Machinery Factory.

"Hahaha, Wang Ci Fu is worrying too much." Feng Bao laughed a few times and said with a smile, "Back then, Altan Khan, the prince of the barbarians, repeatedly invaded the border. At that time, Wang Ci Fu reprimanded a group of scholars and officials in the court for talking nonsense without any concern for their backs. What did Wang Ci Fu say at that time?"

“Those who seek quick victory and those who seek quick defeat are the same, both are fools.”

At that time, the court was divided into two factions on how to deal with the issue of the Northern Barbarians, those who advocated war and those who advocated peace. The advocacy of war sought a quick victory, claiming to pacify Altan Khan in one year and to pacify the grasslands in three years, as if they were even more powerful than Emperor Chengzu Wen. The advocacy of peace, on the other hand, was clamoring to agree to the deal directly and settle the matter peacefully before the fight even began, which would only make the people suffer.

Wang Chonggu was the governor of Xuanda at the time. He wrote in a memorial that those who win quickly and those who lose quickly are the same kind of people, they are all capitulationists and fools!
Obviously, Wang Chonggu's discouragement at this time led to such a quick mistake.

"Uh, huh?" Wang Chonggu frowned and looked at Feng Bao, somewhat confused.

Feng Bao continued, "The disastrous consequences of the Shanghai Machinery Factory today are precisely because the system of the deputy assistant has not been implemented from the beginning, which has caused the machinery factory, which was already a mess, to remain a mess."

“Ten thousand men work together, and the most important thing is one, and in a government-run factory, that one is the system.”

Feng Bao thought that Wang Chonggu was a bit too pessimistic. The fact that Shanghai Machinery Factory had reached its current state actually proved the necessity of Wang Chonggu's system.

In the late Northern Song Dynasty, two thousand Song soldiers were chased all over the mountains and plains by twenty-seven Jin people. In the early Southern Song Dynasty, Yue Fei led eight hundred Beiwei soldiers to charge at Wanyan Zongbing's 100,000-strong army, and Wanyan Zongbing had no choice but to flee.

This is the difference between being organized and being disorganized.

A group of scattered sand cannot form a combined force, and an army that is like a group of sheep will not have any combat effectiveness. This also applies to government-owned factories and the various contradictions in returning farmland to the state.

"I am just a eunuch. This is all specifically instructed by His Majesty." Feng Bao explained that these words were not said by him, but by his master, the Emperor.

Wang Chonggu was in the middle of the situation and cared too much about the state-owned factory, so he couldn't see the full picture of the matter.

It is precisely because there is no institutional guarantee that the Shanghai Machinery Factory has ended up in its current state. If we talk about weak control, then the Womagang Mine is even less controlled by the court, yet it has not been corrupted. Instead, the system has played a role in providing a guarantee in the process of successive contradictions.

"Your Majesty, that makes sense." Wang Chonggu thought about it again and again and found that Your Majesty's point of view seemed to be more correct.

There was a village in Lin'an County called Zhangzhuang. In Zhangzhuang there was a landlord named Shen Jinhe, who was a well-known local bully.

Zhangzhuang had a total of 2862 acres of land and people. However, when Shen Jinhe took over the family property from his biological father in the nd year of Jiajing, the family only had acres, which was only about one twentieth of the land in Zhangzhuang.

By the 14th year of the Wanli reign, when Shen Jinhe returned the land, he already had 2,000 acres of land and employed more than 20 long-term workers. During the busy farming season, he would hire more than 40 short-term workers. He also raised 12 cows, 20 horses, 120 sheep, and 20 pigs. Every year, he would hire five children to herd the sheep and cattle for him.

In Shenjinhe's imperial territory, there is also a winery. All the "extra" grain is used to make wine, and 6,000 kilograms of wine can be produced every year. These wines are loaded and sold to Lin'an County every year, and can be exchanged for more than 400 taels of silver.

Shen Jinhe was a stingy man who was reluctant to spend the money he earned. He buried all the more than 50 taels of silver in the backyard. The most money was lent to farmers who were in urgent need of money at a monthly interest rate of %. Within three months, he could collect one to two times the interest of the principal. If the farmers could not pay back the debt, they could only bring the land deeds, livestock, carts, and farm tools to pay back. If they still had not paid back, they would sell their children.

In Shen Jinhe's empire, there is a group of twelve servants. These servants are Shen Jinhe's biggest capital to do whatever he wants in Zhangzhuang. They are all gangsters and hooligans in the village. Anyone who dares to disobey will be beaten and scolded at the very least, and his legs and hands will be broken at the worst.

The Shenjinhe Empire, at most, had thirty people, including his son who had just learned to run and the landlady who was petty and responsible for loan sharking, while the oppressed people in Zhangzhuang numbered as many as three hundred and twenty.

The oppressed people are the absolute majority, while Shen Jinhe and his followers are the minority.

But Shen Jinhe can do whatever he wants.

The collapse of the Shenjinhe Empire came from Hou Yuzhao's personal handling. The return of land had been delayed. Hou Yuzhao wanted to know the reason. He went to Zhangzhuang in person and stayed there for three full months before he said:
The people who are dependent on others have no control over their fate, and their destiny is all dependent on others. They have been in the dust for generations, and have never seen the sign of self-reliance.

Can we really be our own masters?

Hou Yuzhao has extremely rich experience in farming and he has dealt with farmers the most. Most of the Han people in Liaodong are nomads and are quite tough. The answer to this question is very clear: yes.

But the people of Zhangzhuang did not know that they could do it, so Hou Yuzhao told them why they should do it, what they could do, and how to be their own masters.

This is the one that is most needed among ten thousand men.

These three questions are more important than each other. Hou Yuzhao used three volumes and twenty-six chapters to answer these three questions. The stance and starting point of his answers is that there is no difference between the landlords who rob the people of their food and the barbarians who rob the Liaodong camps and grass in the valleys every summer and autumn. They are all bandits who must be eliminated.

No matter what you do, you must find the backbone, this is it.

Feng Bao said sincerely: "It is the same with the government factories. The deputy prime minister thought that the evil spirits were afraid of the deputy prime minister, but I think what your majesty said makes more sense. The improvement of the system allows people to know what they should, can, and cannot do."

"Without the improvement of the system, people are turned into ghosts. If the system and laws are implemented, the evil spirits will be a minority, and the official factory will be fine. If it is like the Shanghai Machinery Factory, where the evil spirits are the majority, then no matter how good the system is, it will be in vain."

"Your Majesty is wise." Wang Chonggu's somewhat cloudy eyes slowly regained their former brilliance. A wise master always brings out a ray of light to guide people in the endless darkness when life is most confused.

"Then I'll leave. Your Majesty has brought some wine and food for the Second Assistant, as a banquet. They are all light food." Seeing that Wang Chonggu had regained his fighting spirit, Feng Bao stood up and said goodbye.

After Feng Bao left, Wang Qian said with a smile on his face: "Dad, you won't listen to a word I say. One moment the government factory is going to be ruined, and the next moment I am a sinner in the Spring and Autumn Period. I am worried about gains and losses, and I am in a state of panic all day long. Just because your Majesty says something, you will understand it?"

"Stop smiling like that! I didn't hear a word you said." When Wang Chonggu heard Wang Qian say this, he was so angry that he raised his crutch to hit him.

Wang Qian also advised him, but Wang Chonggu was old and his ears were sharp, which meant he was not willing to listen to the emperor's words. He had to listen to him, and after listening, he figured it out.

This is the biggest disadvantage of old age. People are unwilling to listen to advice. Felipe led Spain to become the empire on which the sun never sets. He was once wise and powerful, but now he is very old and is increasingly unwilling to listen to others. He will listen to whoever makes him happy, even if he knows it is wrong.

If you listen to what you hear, people will listen to you. If you listen to what you hear, people will listen to you. If you listen to what you hear, people will listen to you. If you listen to people who listen to you ...

Wang Chonggu looked at Wang Qian and was so angry that he kept pounding his cane and said loudly: "Hurry up and read "Turnover" carefully from beginning to end, take notes and annotations, look at Hou Yuzhao, and then look at you, let alone Xiaozhao, do you have the determination of Yao Guangqi to cut off his own arm?"

"Useless thing!"

"Okay, okay, I'm useless. Other people's children are the most promising. Yao Guangqi is promising, and Hou Yuzhao is also promising!" Wang Qian waved his hands repeatedly and refused to argue with his biological father.

Wang Qian asked himself, he is not as good as the best but better than the worst. To be sure, he, Wang Qian, is much better than Yan Shifan. At least he, Wang Qian, is not greedy or corrupt, and is a plain-clothed censor!

Wang Qian really admires Hou Yuzhao. Hou Yuzhao's theory of standpoint is really unsolvable in Hou Yuzhao's logic. If the standpoint is wrong, the more right you are, the more wrong you are. If the standpoint is correct, being wrong is also right.

After establishing his stance, Hou Yuzhao made substantial progress in returning the land to Zhangzhuang. Among the three questions of "what to do", "what can be done" and "how to do it", the question of "how to do it" took up the most space.

After Hou Yuzhao arrested Shen Jinhe in Zhangzhuang, he began a public trial. He summoned all the villagers in Zhangzhuang and brought Shen Jinhe to the stage. He broke down Shen Jinhe's crimes one by one and told the people about them.

In the seventh year of Wanli, Shen Jinhe forced Liu Mancang's family of five to death because of usury.
In the ninth year of the Wanli reign, Shen Jinhe forcibly married Wang Laosi's daughter as a concubine. A few days after marrying her, the concubine died in Shenjiazhuang. Wang Laosi came to ask for an explanation and found that she had died in their cellar.
In the 12th year of the Wanli reign, the grandson of Old Man Zhang, a tofu-grinding farmer, urinated in a tree pit in front of Shen Jinhe's gate. Old Man Zhang was so scared that he went to Shen Jinhe's house and got his head bruised before he was let go.

All these evil deeds are exposed to the public.

The people may have been vassal subjects for generations and have never seen signs of independence, but this does not mean that the people are unaware that they have been humiliated, nor does it mean that the people have no resentment in their hearts.

Shen Jinhe was publicly tried and executed. A month later, the emperor reviewed the case for the third time and approved it. Shen Jinhe was beheaded in public, and all his running dogs were boarded on a ship in Ningbo and sent to Southeast Asia.

In order to destroy the old system and establish a new one, 11 households formed a li, and a li head was elected every year in each li. There were five li in total, and the fields in the village were divided into three parts and equally distributed to each li. The land was not returned to the farmers themselves, but became the collective property of the households.

Collective activities such as land reclamation, irrigation, dredging of ditches, etc. are all measured in li.

There is also a contradiction here. In every mile, every one of the 11 households wants to have more children.

Otherwise, if you have few children, you will be bullied, and if you are outnumbered, no one will listen to you. Therefore, after the land was returned in the 14th year of Wanli, in the 17th year of Wanli, all the more than 60 households in Zhangzhuang got married and had children.

Hou Yuzhao also saw the hidden dangers of explosive population growth. If there are really too many people, the only option is to export them.

In addition to the increase in the number of children, the biggest change is the road in Zhangzhuang Village. In the past, it was impossible to walk on it when it rained, but now it has a hardened road surface made of cement. It will still be muddy when it rains, but coachmen and farmers will no longer fight.

The emperor and the empress felt that the scenery of the south of the Yangtze River was familiar to them, but for the people living here, the plum rain days were moldy days. In addition to the mold, the biggest problem was that the roads were blocked.

The coachman waved the whip, and the mules and donkeys pulling the cart tightened the harness and used all their strength to pull the cart out of the mud. But after staggering a few steps, the donkeys slid back in, gasping for breath. No matter how the driver whipped the donkeys, they didn't want to move.

When it rained, the carts would get stuck in the mud, right up to the axles, and the mules and donkeys harnessed to the carts would be unable to pull them out.

When it rains, the drivers will avoid the potholes on the road and choose farmland because there are crops in the fields and it is not easy for the carts to get stuck. At this time, disputes begin.

In order to protect their crops, farmers would dig very deep ditches beside the road to prevent carts from passing through. The carts always carried wooden boards, which they laid on the ditches, allowing mules and horses to pass through the ditches unimpeded. Farmers could only dig deeper ditches, and cart drivers carried longer and wider wooden boards.

In short, as long as the rain stops, the disputes will not stop. In this kind of struggle in the fields, there is almost no winner or loser, and armed fights are common. As long as the rain stops, this struggle will continue. Since the invention of cars and fields, this struggle seems to have continued.

Such disputes on rainy days are quite complicated, because sometimes the rickshaw drivers are also farmers, and sometimes the farmers are also rickshaw drivers.

But Zhangzhuang stopped the dispute. What was the point of arguing? If they just made the road more solid, wouldn't everything be fine? They did it right away. They pounded the road in Zhangzhuang with cement again and again. It took only one spring to make it solid. Cars would no longer get stuck when it rained.

Starting from Zhangzhuang, hundreds of thousands of country roads in Zhejiang that were once so muddy, car-trapping, and as dense as spider webs have gradually become solid. On rainy days, coachmen no longer have to lower the boards into the fields, and farmers no longer have to dig such deep ditches.

If you look back, you will definitely wonder, why didn’t the people of Zhangzhuang think of repairing the road before? ! How could they be so stupid? !

Some people thought of it, but no one did it. Shen Jinhe would not use his own money to build the road. The one who was in trouble was the coachman, not Shen Jinhe.

The road is public, not private.

For the first time, the concept of "public" became so concrete among the people in the countryside.

In addition to road construction, the other thing is ditches.

Public trials, land distribution, village chiefs, land reclamation, road construction, dredging of ditches, guidance on farming and mulberry planting, tree planting, and school building were the specific practices of Hou Yuzhao.

Hou Yuzhao felt that this was not enough. He was afraid of relapses, so he wanted to stay in Zhejiang for another five years to do a "deep review" to ensure the thorough implementation of the order to return the land and to protect the results of the order.

“Old Zhao should join the cabinet. He can at least ensure that the Ming Dynasty will have twenty years of peace, even though he is a little weird.” Before Wang Qian finished reading, he felt that Hou Yuzhao was a wise minister. After he joined the cabinet, the Ming Dynasty would have at least twenty years of peace, which would be a blessing for all the people.

Hou Yuzhao was a good minister who brought the new and inclusive spirit of the Wanli Reform to the poor and laboring people.

Wang Qian thought of a person, Ma Yilong, the teacher of Grand Minister of Agriculture Xu Zhenming. Ma Yilong led the villagers to reclaim wasteland. After Ma Yilong's death, the land he led the villagers to reclaim was not annexed but destroyed.

The Ming Dynasty never seemed to lack such backbones, whether in the court or in the countryside. It seemed that because of these backbones, the Ming Dynasty, at the age of 205, could still be called the Celestial Empire.

The Han Dynasty has great power, and there are loyal and good people in every generation.

Wang Qian wanted to be the backbone, but he didn't know whether he deserved the title of backbone.

Wang Qian did not stay at home for too long as he had official business, so he went to the machinery factory and worked with Yao Guangqi to deal with the bankruptcy liquidation of the Shanghai Machinery Factory.

After the imperial edict arrived at the Shanghai Machinery Factory, the world fell apart for the craftsmen in the factory. Yao Guangqi acted decisively. He asked His Majesty to mobilize 3,000 naval forces to enter the factory, and used large fences to completely surround every place and began bankruptcy liquidation.

"This is the tree I planted back then. It has been eight years, and the tree has grown into a towering tree. Unfortunately, the factory is gone." Yao Guangqi was holding a camphor tree that he had planted himself.

The person who was most reluctant to leave Shanghai Machinery Factory was Yao Guangqi.

"Minister Yao, some craftsmen are occupying the factory and obstructing dismantling." A coastal defense inspector hurried over and reported that the dismantling of the official factory was obstructed.

Yao Guangqi took a deep breath and said, "Let's go and take a look."

(End of this chapter)