Great Qing Dynasty talker

Chapter 595 The Egg Logic Behind the Election~
The knights galloped on their horses, and there was a village every 5 miles, so they didn't have to worry about getting lost or missing anyone.

The immigrant settlements in Northeast China are like a Go board, well-organized and arranged.

Wu Ting had a plan.

Snowflakes were falling.

If nothing unexpected happens, Heilongjiang will start quick freezing the food in 10 days at most.

Winter here is no joke.

Waist-deep snow and severe cold of more than 30 degrees below zero can kill any unprepared creature. No one can carry out outdoor activities for a long time or over a long distance in Heilongjiang in winter.

Aihui City.

The 6th Corps of the Wu Army hibernated here, with sufficient food, warm clothes, quilts and fuel.

The same is true for Yaksa City, which is also on the same river bank.
The Cossacks stationed here received six ships of supplies from the Governor-General of East Siberia more than half a month ago and began to spend the winter in peace.

War? Or peace?
That's what the big shots in St. Petersburg think about.

The Cossacks only had to think about liquor, furs and women.

……

Inside the pass,

After the replanted autumn crops were stored in the warehouses, the farmers gained a great sense of security.

More good news followed.

Bang bang bang~
The master who beat the gong went to the countryside and shouted:

"Your Majesty is gracious and considerate of the people. Zhili, Shandong, Henan, Anhui, and Jiangsu are exempt from all autumn grain taxes this year."

"Your Majesty has ordered that each village elect a chief grain officer."

of course,

The Jiangnan region continued to collect full amounts of autumn grain.

This fully reflects the special logic of Jiangsu. Jiangsu's exemption of autumn grain has nothing to do with Changzhou Prefecture, Suzhou Prefecture, and Songjiang Prefecture?
The people in the south of the Yangtze River, who had never liked to suffer losses, had no objection to this, and every household calmly paid the full amount of imperial grain.

There is another new change.

Wu Ting implemented a more flexible money and grain policy in the four provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui, Guangdong and Fujian.

which is:
The people could pay silver or paper money instead of food, and the government had to accept it. Those who violated the order would be exiled to Annan.

……

The logic of the Wu court and the Qing court for exempting taxes and levies was different.

During the reign of Emperor Qianlong, he issued decrees to exempt taxes and levies many times. However, 7% of the exemptions were for the gentry, and 3% were for the common people.

the reason is simple,
In the countryside, the gentry have the final say.

Therefore, they would continue to collect the money, but instead of handing it over to the emperor, they would put it in their own warehouses.

Feudal era,

How many common people know what decrees the emperor has issued? It is still the gentry who have the final say.

Wu Ting's tax and grain reductions this season were real.

The reason is also very simple,
The civil service vacancies in the northern provinces are as high as 70%.

Most states and counties are in a vacuum state, with only a few soldiers stationed there to demonstrate their presence.

From this point of view,

Even if Wu Ting wanted to collect the autumn grain now, he would not be able to do so because he simply did not have the corresponding organization and staff.

Li Yu made the decision, if it is difficult to collect, then don't collect it.

……

For Li Yu, exempting one season of autumn grain from tax is a trivial matter.

The current food shortage is made up by imports. Rice produced in Tainan, Luzon, Annan, and Siam is shipped to Guangzhou Port in batches, so the food problem is not serious at present.

The most important thing is for each village to elect its own grain chief.

This is about reshaping the imperial character.

Thinking of this, Li Yu picked up a small hammer and knocked on the small copper jar in the corner of the desk.

The clear sound spread far away.
outside the door,

The guards' footsteps came closer and closer.

"What's your majesty's order?"

"Send 30 guards in plain clothes to various places in Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi and Fujian to see and hear about the situation of selecting grain chiefs in various places. No matter how bad it is, do not reveal your identity and do not interfere. Just report the true situation you see and hear."

……

At the border between Jiangxi and Fujian, the selection of grain managers was in full swing.

Storytellers promote the story in teahouses and restaurants every day:
Each village grain chief could take 1% of the total grain collected as his salary. If the grain was not collected in full, the grain chief would not be held responsible, but only need to report the name of the defaulter and the reason to the county government.

However, the grain chief was responsible for the dryness of the imperial grain.

In addition, the grain chief is the baojia, and the grain chief is the official salt sales point of the village.

……

Yishui Village.

The threshing ground was crowded with people.

The magistrate put his hands behind his back and coughed twice:
"My fellow villagers, His Majesty has ordered that in order to ensure fair taxation in the future, the people of each village should elect a grain chief they trust."

"According to the 100 to 1 principle, your village has four candidates."

"Now, the head of each household takes a small wooden stick, then walks over and sticks the stick into the soil behind the person you want to choose."

"Time is short and the task is heavy. Let's get started."

……

The people, who were quite curious, lined up. Each of them took a small wooden stick from the basket, walked over and stuck the stick into the soil.

The four candidates sat on chairs with their backs to each other, blindfolded.

Half an hour later,

The process ended, and the magistrate coughed twice:
"Fellow villagers, come here and take a good look. Zhang San has the most sticks behind him, so Zhang San is elected."

"The term of office for grain growers lasts two years."

"If Zhang San does a good job in the next two years, you can continue to choose him. If he doesn't do a good job, you can choose someone else after two years."

……

Ershui Village.

The folk customs here are a bit cunning.

One of the candidates was called Li Si, who was quite smart. He delivered an egg to every household.

"My friend, this egg is for you. Choose me tomorrow."

"Hey, hey."

The honest fellow was bribed in this way.

then,

Li Si took over 8% of the village's wooden sticks and successfully became the village's grain chief.

……

The candidate from Sanshui Village found out about this inside information in advance.

Forced to roll up.

Wang Wu gave 1 egg, Zhao Liu gave 2 eggs, and Qian Qiyi gritted his teeth and gave 3 eggs.

Not surprisingly,

Qian Qi, who gave the most eggs, was successfully elected as the grain minister!
The folks in Sanshui Village are very simple and honest. They spread their hands and said: There is no way, Qian Qi gave the most eggs.

afterwards,

The unsuccessful Wang Wu and Zhao Liu went door to door asking for eggs, which caused their reputations to plummet sharply. This is a story for later.

……

The candidates from Sishui Village watched silently.

Eggs are king.

The raw egg rolls were turned into tea eggs. The number of rolls increased from 1 to 6.

As a candidate from a poor family, Sun Er was under a lot of pressure.

He thought about it for a long time and felt that his advantage was his honesty and his disadvantage was his poverty.

The other two candidates like to be sneaky and take advantage of others.

So he knocked on doors every day.

"My fellow countryman, if you choose them, you will definitely suffer a loss when paying grain in the future. They will definitely take advantage of you and make you pay more."

"I, Sun Er, am different. I have been honest and dutiful since I was little."

The honest fellow villagers were also in a dilemma and spread their hands:
"But I took someone else's eggs."

"It's okay, they still take their eggs and choose me! Who knows who chooses who, right?"

When the fellow villagers heard this, they thought it made a lot of sense.

then,

Sun Er was successfully elected.

The other two were furious and thought that Sun Er had borrowed money at high interest rates to send more eggs.

……

Wushui Village.

The small wealthy man Wang Shuiwang came up with a vicious plan.

Holding a wooden statue of Mazu, he delivered 10 eggs to every household, and then asked the villagers to swear an oath to Mazu on the spot.

"Tomorrow, I will definitely choose Wang Shuiwang!"

Directly weld all variables.

The small rich man Wang Shuiwang won smoothly.

……

Mazu is indeed powerful, but people’s brains are too flexible.

Liushui Village. Mr. Zhao Siye, who made his fortune by showing people the casinos in the county town, gave every household a pound of eggs. He also held up a wooden statue of Mazu and forced the villagers to swear an oath on the spot.

Mr. Zhao Si dreamed of becoming an official all his life.

His rival, a fortune teller in Honmura, thought hard and finally came up with a good idea.

Taking advantage of the night, going door to door to explain:

"Mazu only blesses good people. You were forced to swear an oath by Master Zhao Si. Mazu knows everything. You can still eat the eggs, but don't choose him. Don't worry, Mazu won't blame you."

The fellow villagers spread their hands:
"What if Mr. Zhao Si comes to beat us up?"

"It's okay, just bite your tongue and throw the stick to him. There's no name on the stick anyway~"

The fortune teller is well versed in human nature, and the psychological pressure of the villagers disappeared.

The next day, the villagers gave the wooden sticks to the fortune teller.

Mr. Zhao Si only got 3 sticks.

After the official left, Mr. Zhao Si, with bloodshot eyes, held a kitchen knife and went door to door questioning everyone.

result,

The honest fellows bit it to death:
"I voted for you. I had one of the three sticks. It's the others who were too mean~"

Mr. Zhao was so angry that he stayed in bed for half a month. The darkest person in the world was not the crow, but his fellow villager.

……

Qishui Village.

The honest fellows followed suit.

They took the eggs from Zhou Ba, a gangster in the village, but threw the wooden sticks at a scholar who had better character.

Zhou Ba is a very evil guy. If he became the grain chief, he would definitely collect three or five more buckets of grain.

The eyes of the fellow villagers are sharp.

But the problem is, it's too bright and not even a grain of sand can be rubbed into it.

The result of selecting the grain chief: Zhou Ba, 0 wooden sticks.

Now we're in big trouble.

Zhou Ba held up a torch, cursing and crying:

"No one is as evil as you. You have no moral principles at all. How can people be so evil?"

"I'm going to make this clear today. If you don't return one egg, I'll set fire to all the houses in the village and die with you."

Faced with such an ending.

The fellow villagers were also quite embarrassed and returned the eggs awkwardly.

……

Bashui Village.

Too poor to play such a complicated game.

Try a different way of playing.

beat!
The four families in this village had always been at odds with each other, so they just started a fight.

After two hours of fierce fighting, the victorious clan leader became the village's grain chief.

The county magistrate was quite shocked when he looked down at the hundreds of people with bruised faces and noses. He lowered his head again and saw blood stains under his official boots.

He finally couldn't bear it anymore,
Shouting loudly:

"I am here. If anyone is trying to coerce and manipulate the selection of the chief grain officer, please speak up. I can make the decision for you."

silence.

The magistrate did not give up and asked someone:
"Are you alright?"

"My Lord, it's alright."

"Your arm is broken, are you okay?"

"It's okay."

The magistrate sneered three times and walked away.

Troublesome people, troublesome village.

If it weren't for the fact that His Majesty today advocates "ruling by doing nothing" and was worried about the impact on his own future, he would probably have to handle the case on the spot today and give the person a severe beating.

……

In the classrooms of the provincial schools, which are middle schools, the teachers clearly stated:

"Your Majesty has instructed that grassroots officials should remember to rule by inaction. As long as it is not murder, arson, robbery or kidnapping, don't interfere if you can, and don't interfere as little as possible."

"Being convicted for words, making groundless accusations, fabricating charges, and setting up a large-scale prison system will only harm your own future."

"After you take office, you can definitely cultivate some elegant hobbies, such as playing the piano, chess, calligraphy, painting, scientific inventions, horse riding and shooting, all of which are good."

At Dongshan Civil Service School,
Upon graduation, some graduates who were transferred to central and provincial positions after their local transfer period expired were informed:
“Governing by doing nothing is limited to local areas.”

“The central government must govern vigorously, govern far, govern carefully, and govern strictly.”

“The long-term strategy cannot be deviated or doubted in the slightest. If the big strategy is right, the details below cannot be deviated too much.”

“If you violate it, your future will be bleak.”

Therefore,
There was a huge deviation in the perception within the empire.

The people of the prefectures and counties are grateful to Your Majesty and believe that Your Majesty's benevolence and magnanimity are rare in ancient and modern times, and that You should be called "Emperor Wu Renzong."

The important officials of the central government and the governor dared not say a word.

……

For civil servants in each county.

Money and food are the only important things.

The magistrates in Category I areas are a little more tired and have to collect the full amount.

The magistrates in the second-category areas simply turned a blind eye and allowed the payments to be delayed.

Once the money and grain were collected, the Grain Agency immediately took over. The Grain Agency was a direct subordinate agency of the central government and had nothing to do with the local governments.

Criminal files? Too many of them are not highlights, but stains.

Literary inquisition? Wu Ting was not into that.

Corvée project? The Construction Bureau and the Water Conservancy Bureau were responsible for planning and allocating funds, and the county magistrate was just a contractor.

Disaster relief? That's half the job.

However, Wu Ting was not very active in disaster relief. If a farmer went bankrupt and could not survive, he would advise him and his family to immigrate to Southeast Asia.

Suppressing bandits and rebellions? That's serious business.

But the probability of it happening is too small.

There is no soil for rebellion now. Everyone's life is much better than before.

……

Autumn passes and winter comes.

People live and work in peace and contentment, preparing for the biggest event of the year - the Spring Festival.

In life, food and clothing are the most important things.

The empire's cotton textile industry had been growing explosively, turning the world's excess cotton production into a scarce commodity.

The price of raw cotton began to rise.

There are two main factors behind this:
One was that Wu Ting's purchases were too large. The other was the emergence of steam engines and cotton gins.

One helps the price increase at the source, and the other helps the price increase at the end of the source.

Mr. Watt finally developed an improved version of the steam engine. The front-page news in London praised the steam engine and said that a new era had begun.

Simultaneously,

It was secretly pointed out that the ally Wu State had already taken the lead in using steam engines and its production was far ahead.

The newspaper's starting point was good, but the result was bad.

The core force of the Whig Party, factory owners and gentry, seized this opportunity to mobilize public opinion. It started as a technical discussion, which later turned into a civilization discussion. They spared no effort to praise the light of civilization in the East.

Finally, the truth is revealed.

Direct public opinion toward the monarchy and George III.

Use the enlightened Emperor Wu to belittle the tyrannical George III.

……

The number of cotton spinning factories in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta has increased exponentially. In order to compete in output, the process flow of each factory is constantly updated and iterated.

However, I am still not satisfied.

Everyone is lamenting that the efficiency is too low and the production capacity is too low!

There is obviously a huge market, but we can only watch helplessly because we have no goods!

In Guangzhou City, several textile merchants met for morning tea.

"Old Yao, how many steam engines do you have in your factory now?"

"10 units, I'm going to buy 10 more."

"Forget it. The standard steam engines, which cost 100 taels each, have already been booked until the middle of next year."

……

One person lamented:
"The current market situation is that the factory can sell as much as it produces. Unfortunately, our production cannot keep up."

The vice president paused and said:

"Ten days ago, the governor's office informed the Chamber of Commerce that the imperial court had opened the Annan market with 10 tariffs. Our cotton cloth prices are very competitive, and we can make a lot of money if we go there."

"Five days ago, we received another notice from above, asking us to send dozens of ships of cotton cloth to the Northeast in the spring of next year. His Majesty personally drew the line, with Shengjing going to Guangdong, Jilin going to Jiangsu, and Heilongjiang going to Zhejiang."

silence.

Everyone looked sad.

“We still have to upgrade our machines and technology.”

"How? Where? The Chamber of Commerce has also placed people in the factories of the same industry in Jiangnan. We have mastered their new technologies."

suddenly,

Someone whispered:
"Do you think there's any use for kerosene lamps?"

(End of this chapter)