The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 209 He is indeed a living saint
After the governor's office eliminated the rioters, it immediately hired a group of laborers through the trade union to clean up the bodies on the streets.

Many workers originally thought that this was a simple job, but they found it difficult when they arrived at the site.

There was a pile of corpses at the scene, a really messy pile, and most of them were not intact.

If a bullet hits the body, it will leave a bowl-sized hole on the north side, and the internal organs and minced meat will fall out.

If the limbs are hit, they may be broken directly, causing the arms and calves to fall off.

The laborers who cleaned up the battlefield needed to pick up a lot of body parts and flesh by hand.

Ordinary workers had never seen such a scene before, and many of them vomited while working.

"What's going on? How did it end up like this?"

"It's so disgusting. The muskets of the government are so powerful that they have smashed all these people to pieces."

"We... King Wu - Why didn't His Royal Highness the Crown Prince attack us? If this kind of gun is fired at the city wall, no one can stop it..."

"It was probably because His Majesty was in the city at the time."

The laborers picked up the bodies on the ground, muttering to themselves and vomiting, then piled them into the carriages of donkey carts and pulled them away to the mass grave outside the city to bury them.

On both sides of the street, some people received the news and looked out of the windows, looking terrified.

Some people tried hard to stay calm, but their hands and feet were shaking uncontrollably.

"They are all dead... Not one escaped, and their bodies were all smashed to pieces..."

"The weapons and firearms of the Wu Kingdom are truly terrifying. Is this the reason why they were able to complete the Northern Expedition in one go?"

"There's no way to fight this. Sending people to attack the government office is useless. Even adding thousands or even tens of thousands of people is useless..."

"So, why do you think the King of Wu compromised with the rebellious workers and issued an edict to appease them? Because he was weak and could be bullied?
"Why do you feel that the King of Wu is deliberately encouraging you to revolt so that he can give you official positions?
"So you think you can imitate the situation back then and place your guards in that union as officials? So that it will be easier for you to pass on information?"

"Don't you think that the King of Wu just wants to take advantage of his father and brother being in the city to deliberately gain a good reputation for being filial and brotherly?"

"Why do you think that just because the King of Wu appeased the rebellious workers last time, he will do the same next time?"

"Last time, the King of Wu was able to earn a reputation for filial piety and brotherhood. What can the King of Wu gain by issuing an imperial decree to pacify your servants this time?"

"Last time, if he had just fired a gun in the city, you could have used the opportunity to say that he didn't care about the safety of his father and brother. You could have said that he wanted to take advantage of the chaos to kill his father and brother. What else does he have to worry about now?"

"What's the point of you saying all this now? Aren't we at our wits' end and trying to save the situation? Tell me what we should do now?"

"What should I do? There is nothing I can do. Just wait to die."

"Your Majesty and now His Royal Highness the Crown Prince both apparently believe that since a workers' riot occurred in Yingtian Prefecture, everyone in Yingtian Prefecture is at fault."

"So now just move out of Yingtian Prefecture, and then punish us as a whole, and punish everyone in Yingtian Prefecture."

"Stop all orders from the imperial court, make us all bankrupt, and make all the workers unemployed."

"You now have only two options: either surrender and sell your assets and move away, or rebel and give it a try."

Some merchants in Yingtian Prefecture had originally considered the strategy of "taking a gamble". In fact, this attack on the governor's office was a typical "taking a gamble".

However, after seeing the power of the weapons of the Wu main force and the decisiveness of His Royal Highness the King of Wu - the Crown Prince, no one dared to think about it anymore.

So that afternoon, in various public and private trading markets in Yingtian Prefecture, a large number of factory and business owners began to sell their shares.

The stock market value of a company is not equal to the asset value of the company, but rather the market's expectation, or confidence, in the company's profitability.

When market confidence decreases, a company's stock price will also decrease.

Due to last year's workers' riots, market confidence in Yingtianfu has been declining due to the lack of sufficient new orders.

After the beginning of the 43rd year of Xianning, the stock market price of Yingtian Prefecture continued to decline.

But at least it has not collapsed, and the market still has a last glimmer of hope.

After the attack on the governor's office was suppressed, market confidence finally collapsed completely.

That afternoon, many shareholders had not completely given up their confidence and were still hoping to sell at normal market prices.

But they soon discovered that some people were only interested in selling, not the price.

The next day, February 3, the 43rd year of Xianning, stock prices in all walks of life fell to the bottom.

But no one was buying, everyone was selling.

The market already knows that the emperor and the prince want to punish Yingtian Prefecture, so naturally no one dares to take over.

Many factories and businesses are in debt, and have a large amount of raw materials and products that have not been sold. If there are no orders, they will continue to lose money.

At the same time, a large number of factories and businesses officially closed down.

The owners who had originally pretended to close their businesses to see the direction of the market also gave up any expectations and began to lay off workers.

The workers were also desperate. They began to truly believe that it was the minimum wage limit that caused the factory to close down and made them unemployed.

Many of the workers who once participated in the riots are now beginning to feel remorse and regret.

The entire Yingtian Prefecture was filled with grief.

Ordinary workers just want to survive and hope that the government can set up soup kitchens as they did during disaster relief.

But they soon discovered that the court had no such intention at all.

On February 4, the Governor's Office and the Governor-General's Office cooperated to reopen the original porridge stalls in and around Yingtian Prefecture.

But it is not used for distributing porridge, but for recruiting workers.

A southern investment company directly run by the imperial court recruited river engineers to dig channels for Hongze Lake and the Huai River to flow into the sea, to dig irrigation canals in Huaibei, and to repair the Yellow River embankment.

The monthly salary is three Wu Wang gold notes or five silver dollars, and food is provided.

This shows that the imperial court has no intention of rescuing the market, and is not even prepared to provide direct disaster relief.

They just provide jobs that were difficult to recruit in the past, jobs that can be done at any time, and support unemployed workers through work-for-relief.

After the news spread, expectations for the Yingtianfu stock market were completely shattered, and the prices of many stocks have fallen to a level that is better than nothing.

Now you only need a few hundred or even dozens of silver dollars to buy a large factory, but no one dares to take it over.

The factory not only has assets, but also liabilities. If it does not have large orders on hand to obtain sustained profits immediately and maintain the balance between load and assets, then taking over would be tantamount to seeking death.

Many people realized that if factories and businesses went bankrupt, money houses might not be able to recover their loans and might also go bankrupt.

As a result, many people went to the money houses to withdraw their deposits at the same time, causing a bank run.

The money houses that could have survived were forced to go bankrupt because they did not have enough quick-turnover funds and were unable to react in time.

Money houses, factories and businesses collapsed in a stampede-like wave.

Yingtian Prefecture is the commercial center of the Jiangnan region and also the commercial center of the entire Ming Dynasty. The stock market crash in Yingtian Prefecture will drive the markets in surrounding areas.

Yingtian Prefecture is the most dependent on imperial court orders, but other surrounding areas are equally strong, just slightly better.

So in the next few days, the markets in Suzhou Prefecture, Songjiang Prefecture, and Yangzhou Prefecture also collapsed rapidly.

A large number of factories and businesses closed down in droves, and countless workers lost their jobs at the same time.

The larger factories and businesses that relied on orders from the imperial court suffered the most losses and went bankrupt the more completely. On the contrary, the smaller factories and businesses that were originally at the bottom and relied on the local market were still able to maintain operations.

The industrial and commercial market in the Jiangnan region was already on the threshold of an economic crisis.

A large number of workers only had to work and had almost no surplus wages to spend, and a large number of factories relied on orders from the court and were forced to maintain high-speed operations.

A large amount of raw materials and products were piled up in the factory warehouse, waiting for the court to take them away for construction.

Now that the court's large orders have suddenly stopped, the economic crisis has broken out.

The attack on the Southern Zhili Governor's Office was like the fuse that triggered the economic crisis.

After this, riots of varying scales broke out in various places.

The businessmen who were about to go bankrupt instinctively made their last desperate struggle, buying off the unemployed workers and hooligans, bribing officers of the local garrison, and launching various forms of riots.

He fantasized that his confrontation could bring about the court's compromise.

But all they got was repression.

The main divisions of the Wu State and the auxiliary divisions trained in the north began to move south one after another after the New Year, and quickly suppressed the riots in various places.

All the officers and businessmen involved were beheaded immediately and displayed to the public. All the soldiers and workers involved were also forced to work as coolie river labourers without any wages.

Normally unemployed workers, as long as they are willing to work, can go to work for the Southern Investment Company to build reservoirs and canals in various places.

This is the simplest kind of work and does not require any additional special tools. It can be done with a shovel and a wheelbarrow.

If we calculate the income, it is not lower than before, but has increased a lot.

The imperial court was actually implementing a minimum wage of five silver dollars.

This work-for-relief solution avoided spontaneous large-scale gatherings of workers and large-scale rebellions by normal workers.

However, the dying struggle of businessmen is difficult to form a sufficient scale.

More and more people realize that if they accept their fate now, they can continue to live, but the result of being dishonest is death.

"The civil uprising in Yingtian Prefecture angered His Majesty and the Crown Prince, and also made them realize that the power of merchants was growing too fast and needed to be curbed..."

Most people analyze over and over again, but they can only get this result.

The scope of the crisis continued to expand, and soon it exceeded the scope of Nanzhili and spread to Zhejiang, Jiangxi and other regions.

Businessmen in Hangzhou seem unable to accept the reality.

A large group of businessmen in Hangzhou held repeated meetings, feeling that they should not be treated like this.

"In fact, Zhejiang can be considered as the fief of the King of Wu... His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

"Our Zhejiang business taxes have been supporting Australia's construction, and our products have been supplied to Australia..."

"The key point is, what does the rioting of the unruly people in Yingtian Prefecture have to do with the people of Hangzhou?"

"What happens in Zhili shouldn't affect us in Zhejiang!"

"We have to go to the capital to petition His Majesty and the Crown Prince to save all of our Zhejiang business community..."

After several days of complaining, Chen Weizhi, president of the Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce, took a boat north to Shuntian Prefecture as a representative to meet the crown prince.

Zheng Haikang, the Duke of Fujian, looked at newspapers and intelligence from all sides and couldn't help but sigh to himself:
"Your Majesty the King of Wu is reducing the power of the feudal lords... Taking action against large factories and businesses in the private sector is actually a form of reducing the power of the feudal lords?

"If this is completely accomplished, what level of authority will His Royal Highness the King of Wu have?

"All the world's manpower, resources, factories, and wealth are gathered in one person..."

The Duke of Min felt that if all the vassal states and merchants united, they might have a chance to compete with the central court.

However, the Duke of Min touched the Wu firearms given to him by his son, and finally gave up the idea of ​​taking any action.

“Maybe there’s a small chance that if I succeed I can keep my fiefdom and also get the support of some businessmen.

“But if you fail, you will die without a burial place.

"I should be content that I can seize the opportunity to let my son serve as a general under His Royal Highness the King of Wu instead of having his fiefdom reduced directly.

"Let's just sit back and watch the tides rise and fall..."

By May, the economic crisis had spread to Guangzhou Prefecture, and the scale of the crisis had basically reached its limit.

Guangzhou Prefecture originally had many local industries, and its products were mainly supplied to the private markets in Southeast Asia.

The Nanyang region is dominated by agriculture and has been basically unaffected by the industrial and commercial crisis.

However, before the Second Industrial Revolution, an economic crisis of this scale was already considered extremely large.

Without external interference, the industry and commerce in the core area of ​​the Ming Dynasty would exist in a half-dead state for a long time, forming a state similar to the Great Depression.

Unfortunately and fortunately, this crisis was triggered by someone, so someone will also take the initiative to support it.

In early June of the 43rd year of Xianning, the Southern Investment Company finally made a move to buy at the bottom.

Starting from Yingtian Prefecture, we acquired equity in major local factories and businesses at the absolute floor price.

All acquired factories and businesses will immediately receive orders from Northern Construction, and will also receive a minimum wage of three gold notes or five silver dollars.

The move by Southern Investment Company gave the market hope and confidence, and the stock market showed signs of improvement.

But this improvement was like a flash in the pan and soon fell again.

Only the Southern Investment Company can acquire bankrupt factories and, after the acquisition, revive them through official orders.

If private businessmen want to intervene and buy those factories that have accumulated a large amount of debts and a large amount of raw materials and goods, they will completely lose their last bit of capital.

As the factories and businesses controlled by the Southern Investment Company continued to pay wages, the workers had some savings and began to purchase personal daily necessities.

The status of small private factories and businesses has really begun to recover, and the entire market has really started to slowly pick up.

The former bosses, who no longer had much property, finally understood what the court had done after listening to the news from their former colleagues and partners.

"It's too cruel. The imperial court is really too cruel. The imperial court controls everything and leaves no way for the people to survive."

"Now I finally understand what our ancestors meant by competing with the people for profit."

"That was nothing before, but now this is the real competition with the people for profit, leaving only a little bit of residue for the people..."

"King Wu... the current prince is really amazing. It turns out that our investment and management over the years have been preparing wedding clothes for this living Lu Ban."

"How could we ever believe in him—believe he was a living saint?"

"He is indeed a living saint, and in business..."

"Since the prince returned to his native land, the country has indeed been prosperous in the past two years."

"The court has now begun to pay all workers at least five silver dollars in wages. For the workers, they are truly living saints."

"This is stealing the money that should have been given to us and buying off those unruly people and poor people."

I've basically recovered this morning, but I get a stomachache when I get a cold breeze, and I want to have diarrhea. But I still want to eat watermelon. There's still about 10 kilograms of watermelon in the refrigerator that I haven't eaten yet, but I'm afraid of a stomachache, so I only dare to turn the air conditioner to 30 degrees...

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(End of this chapter)