Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 706 Public Trial
When it comes to hiring people, of course you should hire your own people.

The Grand Secretary's power appears to come from the Emperor, but in practice, it depends on whether his subordinates obey.

Jia Lian's actions were not directed at the Governor-General of Liangjiang; rather, this matter was not something that had only arisen overnight, but rather the culmination of a long-standing conflict.

During a period of rapid and positive development for a country, it is essential to maintain social stability. Only in a stable social environment can a country develop in an orderly and steady manner.

The large-scale strikes and protests that broke out in the prefectures of Suzhou and Songjiang indicate that the Governor-General of Liangjiang failed in his duty, the Governor of Jiangsu failed in his duty, and the two prefects were not just derelict in their duties, but committed crimes!

The fact that Jia Lian didn't see any immediate action from the Governor-General of Liangjiang in his report suggests that he was still concerned about maintaining relationships within the officialdom. In that case, don't blame Jia Lian for being ruthless.

When the special train arrived at Pukou, only the Viceroy of Liangjiang was there to greet it.

After getting out of the carriage, Jia Lian asked rather indirectly, "Brother Kenan, what is the current situation? How is it being handled?"

Governor-General Feng Gan of Liangjiang understood the implied meaning and his expression changed slightly: "Reporting to Prime Minister Jia, the situation is basically under control. The local garrison has exercised restraint and has not clashed with the people."

Jia Lian sneered, his tone stiff as he asked, "Where are the prefects of Suzhou and Songjiang? Where is the magistrate of the county where the incident occurred? How did you handle it?"

His tone grew increasingly sharp, and Feng Gan understood immediately, cold sweat beading on his forehead as he said, "At the beginning of a popular uprising, the government should use appeasement measures and wait for the public's resentment to subside before making any decisions. This is the usual practice!"

What does this mean? It means that the people are in a great uproar, so everything is put on hold until the people's morale has waned, and then a strategy of divide and conquer is adopted to defeat them one by one.

This is the same old routine: when public discontent is boiling over, play dead! Drag things out and wait for the heat to die down. It's become a path dependency.

It's truly unusual for key government officials to arrive at the scene immediately after an incident to resolve the problem.

"Do you know how much tax revenue Suzhou and Songjiang Prefectures contribute to the imperial court every year? Do you know how much impact a one-day strike has on the income of local people? When the market is in chaos, people may go hungry if they have no work for a day."

Jia Lian's words were like a sharp knife cutting into Feng Gan's face. He was furious, but dared not retaliate, after all, this was the Grand Secretary. The fact that the Grand Secretary had personally intervened in the trouble in Liangjiang indicated that the matter was serious, at least in the eyes of the Emperor and the Cabinet. But Feng Gan couldn't understand why such a large-scale operation was necessary.
Seeing the silent Feng Gan, Jia Lian suppressed his anger and said, "Cross the river first!"

The new-style steamships were no match for the open sea, but they thrived in the Bohai Sea and inland rivers.

The small steamer, billowing black smoke, carried Jia Lian and Feng Gan across the river after a long wait. This thing was much more efficient than the wooden sailboat.

Jia Lian remained silent along the way, while Feng Gan frantically tried to find a way to salvage the situation. Although he didn't know Jia Lian's true intentions, he knew that if they couldn't get past this hurdle, their path to the cabinet would be cut off.

After landing and boarding the carriage, Feng Gan saw that there were only two people inside and whispered, "Prime Minister Jia, please point out any oversights I may have made!"

Jia Lian glanced at him calmly and asked, "Brother Kenan, how is this popular uprising different from previous ones?"

Feng Gan shook his head blankly, and Jia Lian sighed, "The root cause of past peasant uprisings was mostly the excessive exploitation of the people by the gentry, forcing them to have no way to survive, which led them to take desperate measures. This time, the parties involved in the uprising are workers and factory owners. In the past, the people were on the verge of death, and the uprisings were often accompanied by natural disasters, with large numbers of disaster victims like dry tinder ready to ignite. What about this time? There are no disaster victims, but there are still mass riots. Don't you think about why? What is the difference, what is the root cause? It's not that there haven't been worker riots before, but each time the scale was small. What about this time? Workers from all over the river, who were not related, are supporting each other."

Feng Gan felt an itch in his head, as if his brain was about to grow, but he was still in a daze and had not seen the final image.

Jia Lian initially had a high opinion of Feng Gan. Feng Gan had served as Governor-General of Liaodong, then Governor-General of Sichuan, and later Governor-General of Liangjiang. During his first two terms as Governor-General, he implemented the "reform of native chieftains and the establishment of a unified household registration system," achieving considerable success and demonstrating strong capabilities. However, this also led to path dependency. After a year as Governor-General of Liangjiang, he still lacked understanding of the local situation and applied past experience to address new problems, inevitably leading to issues.

“Brother Kenan, the environment has changed, and so has the situation. Especially in coastal provinces like Liangjiang, a large number of factories have sprung up, bringing with them a large number of workers. Workers are different from farmers. Working in a factory requires a lot of cooperation between people, while farming is mostly done by individual households. Workers are more organized, more likely to sympathize with each other, and more likely to unite. Conversely, factory owners are the same; they are also more likely to band together, exploit workers, manipulate the market, and seek to maximize profits.”

At this point, Jia Lian sighed and paused. Feng Gan suddenly understood, like a bolt of lightning cleaving through the pitch-black night, revealing the earth.

"Suzhou Prefecture and Songjiang Prefecture deserve to die!" Feng Gan was also an extremely intelligent person. Once the underlying logic was exposed, he instantly understood everything.

Jia Lian sighed, “It’s not just a problem in Suzhou and Songjiang prefectures; officials across the country lack this understanding. The situation has changed. In the past, scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants were the lowest class. Now it’s different. Merchants are becoming increasingly powerful, and when they are suppressed by the government, driven by the desire for quick profits, they will inevitably resort to the simplest and most direct means of bribery. Most factory owners in the country are originally from the gentry; they have a long-term vision and will naturally support their political representatives. The historical precedent of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce has its reasons.”

Feng Gan understood Jia Lian's thoughts. Jia Lian had always advocated for a more relaxed environment for merchants. Now he realized that His Majesty and Jia Lian understood the true nature of merchants very well.

"This subordinate has therefore ordered the arrest of the officials from Suzhou and Songjiang prefectures, to await Prime Minister Jia's decision."

Jia Lian shook his head upon hearing this: "No need, let's go directly to Suzhou! Although Suzhou is not where the incident occurred, it has the largest weaving community there. Matters in Jiangnan often take place in Suzhou. If things are handled there well, things will be simpler elsewhere." This was not just empty talk; Jia Lian had always practiced what he preached.

Speaking of Jia Lian's governing philosophy, it is to support the development of industry and commerce and to provide a good environment for capital development.

However, when it comes to capitalists acting inhumanely, Jia Lian is absolutely ruthless.

The concept of moderation in Chinese culture did not arise out of thin air, but is the essence of the thought that governed the country for two thousand years.

The most important thing in governing a country is balance; once the balance is lost, problems are bound to arise.

Collective imbalances are a recurring theme throughout history, from feudal lords to powerful clans, from powerful clans to warlords, and from warlords to gentry. The result of this imbalance is the so-called cyclical pattern. Once any contradiction erupts, it becomes uncontrollable. The imbalance caused by the Zhou dynasty's enfeoffment system led to the Warring States period; the imbalance caused by the Qin and Han dynasties' prefecture-county system led to the Three Kingdoms period; the imbalance caused by the Wei and Jin dynasties' Nine-Rank System led to powerful clans and the Five Barbarian Invasions. The Sui and Tang dynasties were a continuation of powerful clans, and the imbalance led to regional warlordism. The Song dynasty's overcorrection and imbalance between civil and military affairs resulted in the collapse of China and the entry of foreign tribes into the Central Plains under a unified rule.

The Ming Dynasty initially did a decent job of centralizing power, but it eventually lost its balance, which benefited the Qing Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty took centralization to its extreme, suppressing public intelligence and implementing a policy of subjugation, with even more severe consequences.

In dealing with capital, Jia Lian also followed a moderate approach: to suppress it, but not to suppress it excessively. Using state-owned capital to check and balance private capital was also a moderate approach.

The doctrine of the mean in modern society.

They traveled non-stop to Suzhou, with Jia Lian even sleeping in the carriage. When the horse got tired, they changed horses; when the driver got tired, they changed drivers. In short, they traveled without stopping.

It was precisely to save time on the journey; otherwise, Jia Lian could have taken the waterway to Zhenjiang and then transferred to Suzhou, but that would have been much slower.

Thanks to the prosperity of Jiangnan in recent years, the local infrastructure has been well developed, and cement roads connect the cities, making horse-drawn carriage rides quite comfortable.

Upon arriving in Suzhou, before entering the city, Jia Lian ordered the banners of the Imperial Minister and Grand Secretary to be displayed, as well as the banner of Feng Gan, the Governor-General of Liangjiang.

Suzhou has a high literacy rate, so once this banner was raised, everyone who saw it knew that an important person had arrived. They naturally understood that the imperial court was very concerned about what was happening in Jiangnan, and that even the Grand Secretary had come in person.

Most importantly, the people of Suzhou had a very strong impression of Jia Lian. This man was no saint. In their memory, Jia Lian was not the kind of person who would ruthlessly harm ordinary people. On the contrary, he would harm officials and local gentry. That was not just ruthless, it was cruel!
When the people along the way saw Jia Lian's banner, their reaction was not fear, but cheers: "Jia Qingtian is here! The Grand Secretary is here! His Majesty has sent Jia Qingtian!"

The news spread like wildfire, and in a very short time, everyone in Suzhou knew about it. The common people were overjoyed, while the officials, gentry, and wealthy merchants were devastated.

The carriage went directly to the street where the governor's office was located, and the protesting people spontaneously made way for it.

Jia Lian did not travel by carriage, but dismounted outside and walked over, so that all the people could see clearly who was coming.

The guards in charge of security groaned inwardly, but dared not stop him. They could only do their best to stay by his side, ready to shield Jia Lian from bullets at any time.

Arriving at the main entrance of the yamen, with his back to the plaque proclaiming "Upright and Bright," Jia Lian raised a megaphone and addressed the crowd: "Fellow citizens of Suzhou, I am Jia Lian. In fact, I am a son-in-law of a Suzhou resident. Now that I am standing here, if you have any grievances, you are welcome to come and file your complaints at any time. However, I hope you will elect a few representatives to gather all your grievances together, so that I can address them more effectively and give you a satisfactory result as soon as possible. There's no need for everyone to crowd here and disrupt your lives. Is that alright?"

"Great!" Many onlookers cheered in unison.

Jia Lian smiled without saying a word, put down the trumpet, had someone bring over a stool, and sat down at the door to wait.

The onlookers could clearly see that Jia Lian sat alone in front, with the Governor-General of Liangjiang, who had also brought a chair to sit with him, and behind him a group of officials who were usually unapproachable, standing in a line trembling with fear. They wanted to go forward to speak, but were stopped by the guards.

Jia Lian picked up the megaphone, turned around, and shouted, "Everyone stand in line! Let the people of Suzhou see what their local official looks like!"

They sat there for about two hours, and the crowd outside the government office hadn't dispersed much, but representatives were elected—five people in total, including two female workers.

The representatives stepped forward as if to kneel, but Jia Lian stopped them directly: "You are the ones who have been wronged. How can an official of the court, who cannot stand up for the people, have the face to accept your kneeling? Don't you feel guilty? After this matter is settled, I will report to His Majesty that in the future, when the people have a lawsuit and see an official, they will not have to kneel."

Upon hearing this, two of the five representatives present knelt down and burst into tears.

Jia Lian remained silent and did not help them up, letting them cry until they were satisfied. After about half an hour, the two women stopped and slowly kowtowed to Jia Lian: "This humble woman kowtows to Your Honor!"

"Very well, I, Jia Lian, have accepted your gifts, and I will certainly stand up for you. Otherwise, I might as well give up this official position!" Jia Lian sat upright and did not move. Many things need to be changed, and it is not something that can be done overnight.

Two female weavers crawled forward on their knees, holding a thick stack of petitions to their foreheads. Jia Lian stopped his attendants from handling them, rising himself to take the petitions. In front of the onlookers, he read one of the petitions, then turned and announced, "Prefect Wu Jing'an of Suzhou, along with two women, Zhang Wangshi and Ma Hushi, representing three hundred female weavers, are suing factory owner Shen Qi for six months of unpaid wages. Not only did he refuse to pay the women's wages after they demanded them, but he also gathered thugs to beat them, resulting in three serious injuries and over fifty minor injuries. Prefect Wu has dismissed this case as the women's unreasonable demands and refused to accept it. Is this true?"

When Jia Lian spoke, all the people held their breath, and only Jia Lian's voice came through the loudspeaker.

Suzhou Prefect Wu Jing'an stepped forward tremblingly to answer: "In response to Prime Minister Jia, this is indeed the case. I have acted in accordance with the facts and in accordance with the law."

That one sentence ignited an uproar among the onlookers, who erupted in a cacophony of angry shouts. "You corrupt official!" "You corrupt official who took bribes, whose sons are born without an anus!" "XXX, you deserve to die a horrible death! May you be struck by lightning!"

Some people, in their anger, tried to move forward, but the soldiers maintaining order quickly stopped them. Jia Lian made a downward gesture, and the people immediately quieted down.

"Summon factory owner Shen Qi to the station!" Jia Lian shouted, and immediately a constable stepped forward to carry out the order.

About an hour later, a luxuriously dressed man was dragged to the scene by two constables. He was dragged because he was so frightened that he was paralyzed and unable to walk.

Jia Lian coldly stared at Shen Qi, the factory owner, who was sprawled in front of him. Hearing a cry of "Ouch!", he turned around and saw that Prefect Wu Jing'an had fainted.

(End of this chapter)