Chapter 1518, it's not the chaos, it's just that the workers want wages
When Nanjing was in chaos, Wang Shouren, the chief envoy of South Zhili, was inspecting here in Songhu.
"Songhu has changed so much~"
"When I first came here, it was still a mulberry field. In a blink of an eye, it turned into a high-rise building and a huge industrial area."
Wang Shouren stood on a high-rise building in Songhu and overlooked Songhu.
The changes in Songhu in front of us are very big. It can be said that it is changing with each passing day. There are a large number of factories and workshops, spacious cement roads extending in all directions, and a large number of ships moored at the docks on both sides of the Huangpu River. It is very busy and prosperous, especially
The Chinese New Year is coming soon, and a large number of factories here in Songhu have paid workers a year's wages and year-end bonuses.
The workers who had a lot of money in their hands naturally wanted to make a lot of purchases when they went home to celebrate the New Year, so that the streets in Songhu were full of people, and the business in many shops was very booming.
"If Jiangnan wants to develop, it should learn more from Songhu."
"Attach importance to industry and build more factories and workshops, so that it can develop rapidly."
Wang Shouren is very aware of the power of factories. A small factory can provide jobs for thousands of people and create huge wealth.
Not only can the court collect a large amount of tax revenue from it, but factory owners can also get huge profits, and many workers can also get considerable remuneration, which is much better than farming in the countryside.
"Yes, yes, we must seriously learn from Songhu, pay attention to industry, and build more factories~"
Wang Shouren was surrounded by many officials from prefectures and counties, and they all nodded after hearing Wang Shouren's words.
At this moment, an official hurriedly came to Wang Shouren's side.
"Sir, something big has happened, something big has happened~"
"A large number of rioters appeared in Nanjing. Hundreds of thousands of rioters were smashing, looting and burning in Nanjing. A large number of factories, shops, etc. were smashed and looted."
The visitor didn't even have time to take a breath and hurriedly reported the report.
"What?"
When Wang Shouren heard this, his eyes widened immediately.
I have just left Nanjing, and something like this happened in Nanjing. How is this possible?
You must know that Nanjing has always been very prosperous and prosperous, everything is in order, and the work related to the New Year is very properly arranged. Now that the New Year is about to come, something like this happened.
"Let's go back to Nanjing immediately!"
Without any hesitation, Wang Shouren hurried back to Nanjing.
The four-wheeled carriage Wang Shouren was riding in was racing rapidly on the road to Nanjing, and he was feeling anxious.
"What exactly is going on?"
"Such a thing could happen."
Wang Shouren frowned and thought quickly. He had been working in South Zhili for many years and knew the situation in South Zhili very well.
The land south of the Yangtze River is prosperous and prosperous. It is absolutely impossible to say that there will be chaos and rebellion. What's more, the weather has been smooth in the past few years without any disasters. Logically speaking, it is absolutely impossible for large-scale chaos and rebellion to occur.
"There must be something going on~"
"Are those people causing trouble?"
Soon, Wang Shouren thought of a possibility. Perhaps it was most likely that those who wanted to get him away were causing trouble behind the scenes, which led to the current events.
Almost at the fastest speed, Wang Shouren returned to Nanjing as soon as possible.
As soon as Wang Shouren returned to Nanjing, before he could take a breath, many officials in Nanjing hurriedly found Wang Shouren.
"Sir Wang, the whole of Nanjing is in chaos, complete chaos. Hundreds of thousands of rioters are beating, smashing, looting and burning wantonly. This is a premeditated rebellion and we must immediately request the imperial court to suppress it!"
"Yes, Mr. Wang, we must immediately dispatch an army to suppress it~"
"We have jointly submitted a letter to the Emperor to explain clearly the situation in the south of the Yangtze River. I believe that the imperial court will soon send a large army to suppress it. The most urgent task is to close the old city of Nanjing and carry out strict defense to prevent the rebellion from coming in.
"
"Yes, yes, once the mob breaks in, we and other officials will surely die."
Wang Shouren looked at the officials in front of him coldly. Each of them had a very high rank.
Nanjing is very different from other places, because Nanjing was the capital of the Ming Dynasty at the beginning, but later moved the capital to Beijing, but still retained the six departments and other settings here in Nanjing, so Nanjing also has a complete set of teams
.
Of course, the officials assigned to Nanjing are all retired officials. The Minister of Civil Affairs in Nanjing has no power at all, only the rank.
Now they are all coming to my place in a swarm, each one seems to be more anxious than the other.
However, Wang Shouren noticed a lot of things on the way back. Nanjing seemed to be in chaos, especially the industrial zone. Many workers gathered in factories, but there was no so-called rebellion or fighting.
Smashing, looting, and burning did occur, but they were limited to some areas. Although it was also affected in many places, everything was in normal order.
This made Wang Shouren more certain that something must have happened, and it was definitely not a rebellion as they said.
"I just came back and I haven't figured out the cause of the matter yet. I will definitely make arrangements after I figure it out."
Wang Shouren did not panic, and the more this happened, the calmer he became.
After sending many officials away, Wang Shouren pondered carefully. He had a hunch that this seemed to be a huge conspiracy against him. If he didn't handle it well, it would be easy to lose his reputation.
My head needs to be moved.
"Hmph~"
"While I was away, such a big thing happened, and before the matter was clarified, I hurriedly sent a letter to the emperor. According to their style of doing things, it must be about chaos and rebellion."
"When this memorial reaches the emperor, the emperor will definitely be furious. Removing me from office is still a trivial matter. The key is that once the imperial army arrives here and suppresses it without knowing the specific situation, Nanjing will definitely be bloody.
It flowed into a river and killed countless people."
Thinking of this, Wang Shouren suddenly became anxious. He could foresee that the imperial court was already dispatching troops from all directions to Nanjing to suppress the rebellion.
"Sir, there is a letter from the capital~"
Just when Wang Shouren was thinking anxiously about countermeasures, a servant hurriedly took a letter and said.
"Bring it~"
Wang Shouren quickly took the letter and opened it quickly. In fact, he knew without thinking that this must be a letter written by his father Wang Hua from the capital, and the matter discussed must be about the arrangements of the imperial court.
"As expected~"
"Fortunately, it is Liu Jin who went south this time. If it were someone else, I would really be worried." spanstyle>Gu/spanstyle>
After reading the letter home, Wang Shouren's heart finally dropped heavily.
As expected, the emperor was very angry when he received the news, and he was quite dissatisfied with Wang Shouren, the chief envoy, who didn't know anything about such a major event.
Regarding the possible rebellion, the imperial court also made careful arrangements and sent Liu Jin, the Minister of Civil Affairs, to the south to take full charge of the overall situation.
"Come here, immediately secretly go to various places in Nanjing to investigate the cause of the matter."
"Send my order to the yamen in Nanjing. All police officers and police officers will immediately organize themselves and go to various neighborhoods and roads to maintain order. All those who smash, smash, loot and burn will be arrested immediately and severely punished."
"With my warrant, I will immediately go to the Nanjing camp and ask the Nanjing garrison to assist me in maintaining order in Nanjing."
Wang Shouren quickly made arrangements. The top priority was to stabilize the order and situation in Nanjing. Those people could not continue to destroy, loot and burn, and ensure the normal operation of various places in Nanjing.
Official duties, yamen service, and application for assistance from the garrison all fell within Wang Shouren's scope of authority.
"Come here, please put on plain clothes with me and go for an inspection."
After making careful arrangements, Wang Shouren thought for a while and decided to go and see for himself what happened.
Soon, Wang Shouren brought a dozen officials in plainclothes to the area of the most chaotic industrial zone in Nanjing, the Jinling Cement Factory.
The area around Jinling Cement Factory is indeed in chaos right now. A large number of workers have gathered together and are constantly smashing up the factory to vent their inner dissatisfaction.
At the same time, under such circumstances, all kinds of things will inevitably happen. Some people take the opportunity to rob property, and there are also many things like treachery and robbery. After all, there has always been a lack of turbulent elements since ancient times.
"Give me my wages, give me my wages~"
"Shady boss, pay me back my wages~"
"All workers are one family and should unite to fight against the evil employer!"
"Unite as one and help each other in the same boat!"
Wang Shouren looked at all this with a stern expression, and soon heard a chorus of shouts, and saw a large number of workers gathering on the road, shouting as they walked around.
"Fellow, I just came to Nanjing from other places. What happened?"
Wang Shouren stopped a few workers and pretended not to know anything.
"Alas~"
"Don't mention it. We are all workers in the surrounding factories. We have worked hard for the factory for a year. Who knew it was the end of the year and they didn't give us wages."
"Even if we don't pay wages, they hire gangsters to beat us workers and make us continue to work in the factory for another year before we can get wages."
"We were so angry that we started fighting with them, and a lot of lives were lost. Now they are threatening to report us to the government, and they will arrest us all as rebels, and then the nine tribes will be killed or something."
"We are scared to death now, so we are all ready to unite and ask the government for an explanation. If we are really forced to do anything, at worst we will really rebel, and they will not even give us a way to survive."
The workers who were stopped had no choice but to express their sadness to Wang Shouren. All of this was forced by others.
"No one gets paid?"
Wang Shouren widened his eyes and asked quickly.
"Isn't that right? We are workers at the Jinling Cement Factory, and they are workers at the Jinling Textile Factory, as well as the glass factory and the car factory. We don't get any wages."
"On the other hand, in those factories run by the Yankees, they got paid very little."
Many workers also followed suit.
"There is such a thing, why don't you sue the officials?"
Wang Shouren frowned, thought for a while and asked.
"Some of us have become high-ranking officials, but those officials don't make decisions for us ordinary people at all. They said that these are matters between us and the factory owners, and they have nothing to do. Let us figure out our own solutions."
"Some people were beaten by government officials."
"The owners of those factories are so shady. They hired a lot of gangsters. When I went to ask for money, they beat us. Many people had their hands and feet broken, and some were killed."
"We really have no choice and we are really angry. How can there be such a reason in the world? We have worked hard for a year and can't get paid. We are beaten. Now they are saying that we are rioters and want to start a rebellion.
Well, many people were so frightened that they didn’t even want their wages and quickly went back to their hometowns.”
"Yes, yes, we have no choice. We don't have any money. It's such a winter and we don't even have money to buy food. If we go back, we will definitely starve to death or freeze to death on the road."
"What kind of world is this~"
"I really hope that the emperor can hear our words, make the decision for us, and ask the employer to give us the money, so that we will never come out to work again in the future."
The workers told Wang Shouren the pain in their hearts one by one.
"So that's it~"
Wang Shouren understood immediately.
"Let's go back~"
After figuring out the cause of the incident, Wang Shouren immediately returned to his yamen without stopping, and then quickly wrote a memorial to the emperor. He also wrote to Liu Jin to explain the situation in Nanjing and explain his next actions.
and reporting.
"Quickly, send this memorial to the capital at a cost of eight hundred taels~"
"This letter must be sent to Mr. Liu Jin Liu as quickly as possible. He should take the train south at this time and plan his itinerary in advance."
After Wang Shouren wrote the memorial and letter, he quickly ordered his cronies and confidants to handle it. He no longer believed in the ordinary officials and government servants here in Nanjing. This was definitely a premeditated conspiracy.
"Yes~"
When the confidant heard this, he also hurriedly went to deal with it.
Seeing his cronies leaving, Wang Shouren thought about it for a while, and then took out his pen and ink and quickly wrote a letter home to his father Wang Hua in the capital, explaining the situation to them, and at the same time making it clear in his mind his guesses and
Worried, I hope Wang Hua can help him stabilize himself in the capital so that he can have time to deal with it.
"It's not rioters, it's just workers who want wages?"
Two days later, Liu Jin received a letter from Wang Shouren on the train and immediately felt relieved.
