The academy has already gone on summer vacation, and the weather is very hot. The second brother Xie Kan plans to stay at home.
Officials also have a rest today, and there are only some hard-working people on duty in the yamen.
Xie Yiqin planned to take a rest for a day, but as soon as he got the new issue of "Da Ming Xun Bao", he quickly sat up straight and read the headlines carefully.
The headline on the front page is a major change of officials in Shanxi!
In Hubei, only the left and right chiefs and supervisors were replaced, and the three officials who resigned were not arrested. This can be regarded as a relatively gentle transfer of officials.
The situation in Shanxi was different. More than 30 people were replaced from top to bottom, and they were all captured by the commissioners of the Three Laws Department.
The Luoyang Forbidden Army was dispatched and sent troops directly to Taiyuan. Accompanied by the Shanxi General Soldier, they took away the Shanxi Capital Commander from the military camp.
Xie Kan lay down behind his father, stretching his neck and reading together: "Is it possible that such a big thing happened in Shanxi because of coal? The Prime Minister plans to completely control Shanxi."
"Look at the new officials at the back." Xie Yiqin said.
Xie Kan moved his eyes to the last two paragraphs and said with joy: "Uncle actually moved to Shanxi as an inspector!"
Xie Yiqin said: "I have to change the law even if I don't do it. Your uncle became a reformist, and I can only be a reformer from now on."
Xie Yan heard clearly and hurriedly came over: "Uncle, has he become a high official? Where does he rank in the official circles of a province?"
This kind of childish question only broke Xie Yan's mind, otherwise his father and brother would not bother to answer the question.
Xie Kan explained it, and Xie Yan probably figured it out.
Look at the headlines on the front page and the sub-articles on the front page. They are also big news.
However, the "Liang Zhejiang Commercial Daily" was sealed, and a lot of newspaper staff were arrested, with more than 40 charges. Also arrested were officials from the Zhejiang Third Division and the Municipal Shipping Division.
However, the chief official of Zhejiang's Third Division was only dismissed from his post and returned to his hometown, and even received a pension. It is estimated that there was some political deal involved.
Xie Yiqin analyzed it for his sons: "To be able to make the Prime Minister compromise must have something to do with the army. For the chief officer of Zhejiang's Third Division to retire safely, some people must have used the military's allegiance in exchange. In the past three years, it is estimated that they have been negotiating secretly. Otherwise, they have been secretly negotiating.
News in Zhejiang is no longer on the front page, it has to be on the front page.”
Continue reading the newspaper.
Xie Yiqin scanned the title and quickly saw important information——
The newly revised "Da Ming Code" (seventh edition in total) will be published soon and will be officially implemented on January 1 next year.
Among them, the "Gong Law" has been revised the most. In order to facilitate the understanding and use of the majority of officials and people, the "Da Ming Law·Gong Law" only contains programmatic clauses, and more legal orders and judicial interpretations are compiled into a separate "Industrial and Commercial Law".
The newly compiled "Industrial and Commercial Law" summarizes various industrial and commercial regulations from the Taizu and Taizong dynasties to the Dingtai period. The conflicting old regulations have been unified in the newly compiled "Industrial and Commercial Law". From now on, they can only be
We must also abide by the new Industrial and Commercial Law, and we must not continue to use earlier conflict regulations to resolve cases and conduct business!
Xie Yiqin said to his two sons: "In the past three years, apart from quietly consolidating military power, the Prime Minister has been busy doing these things. The newly compiled laws and teaching materials are their New Deal Programme."
Xie Kan muttered: "Will the new textbooks be used for next year's imperial examination?"
"We will definitely use new textbooks," Xie Yiqin said.
Xie Kan sighed, he was already busy.
I just hope that the new textbooks will be printed as soon as possible so that I can have more time to study.
Xie Yan was secretly having fun. He wanted to take the Jinshi examination anyway, and no matter how he changed the textbooks, he could not change the scientific formulas.
Xie Yiqin gradually turned to the science and education section of the newspaper, and there was indeed information on revising the textbooks: the new textbooks have been printed, and public schools across the country will adopt the new textbooks in the second half of the year.
The imperial court did not force private schools to use new textbooks, but those who failed in the imperial examinations would bear the consequences!
Newspapers and telegraphs were very useful to the unified dynasty, especially when promoting public opinion for the reform.
Of course, the premise is that the reformists completely gain power, otherwise newspapers and telegrams will be used by the opposition. In that case, the war of public opinion will definitely be extremely fierce.
It's great now that the Prime Minister has directly closed down the most influential private newspapers, obviously wanting to let the remaining private newspapers relax.
Cover your mouth, but not completely, because covering it to death would be unsightly.
It is best for newspapers with different positions to criticize each other, and the official newspaper has always had the upper hand. Through the war of public opinion, officials and people can understand why the reform was implemented.
"Ms. sir," the old housekeeper stood outside the study and knocked on the door. "The fourth son of the Zhong family, the eleventh son of the Cai family, and the fifth son of the Yang family came to the door in person to invite the two gentlemen to play Cuju. It was really hard to refuse on the spot. Now they are in the side
Drink tea and wait in the hall."
Xie Yiqin asked: "Have they been to the government office?"
The old housekeeper said: "I don't know."
Xie Yiqin thought for a while and said: "Tell them, the weather is hot and my two young men have suffered from heatstroke."
"Yes." The old housekeeper stepped back.
Xie Yiqin said to his sons: "This summer vacation, you should not go out."
Xie Kan was actually in the mood to joke: "It will be difficult to collect the industrial, agricultural and commercial taxes this year. I am afraid that my father will not be able to control the officials, so he will have to go to various places to be a tax collector himself."
Xie Yiqin rolled his eyes at his second son: "After all, this is the territory of the Ming Dynasty. Do they still dare to rebel? You stay in the study to review your homework and are not allowed to step out of the backyard. I will go next door to talk to the prefect."
…
Xie Kan, Xie Yan, and Xie Wan, brothers and sisters, have been locked up at home throughout the summer vacation, and even their mother no longer goes out for activities.
You can only learn about what is happening outside through newspapers and periodicals.
"The weather is almost 40 degrees Celsius," Xie Kan said, exposing his chest and fanning frantically. The heat made the dog stick out his tongue. "I heard that there are electric fans in the palace, but I don't know when they will be widely available."
Xie Yan, who was reading a math book, suddenly turned around and was extremely surprised: "Electric fan?" Xie Kan said: "It's only available in the imperial city, but it's not popular in Luoyang. It seems to be encountering some difficulties."
As a civil engineering engineer, Xie Yan has some basic understanding of building hydropower dams. Small-scale dams can be built easily, but their power generation capacity is very limited, and slightly larger power generation dams require extremely tall buildings.
technology.
Extremely high technology, compared to this era, the current building materials are substandard!
The cement technology used in the Ming Dynasty is still at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century.
Portland cement has not yet been invented.
Moreover, when Portland cement was invented, its quality was extremely unstable and it was a niche product. It took decades of continuous improvement before it could be applied to buildings with high strength requirements.
Xie Yan asked: "Has anyone tried using coal to generate electricity?"
"I don't know." Xie Kan shook his head.
Xie Yan did not ask any more questions and would ask more slowly from now on.
Both brothers were too hot to be in the mood to study, so they lay down on the couch and took a nap, and called the maid to help fan them.
With the maid serving him, Xie Yan felt much cooler.
What a great day.
He does not have a high moral consciousness, nor does he have a high pursuit in life.
Just compared to the days when I was delivering food before time travel, where I suffered from the hostility from the platform and customers every day, now Renshangren's life is very comfortable.
If you haven't traveled through it yet, in such hot weather, you should run around under the scorching sun.
I drank Huoxiang Zhengqi water so much that I didn’t dare go to the hospital when I had a heat stroke. I had to rush to deliver food after taking a short break.
It's actually quite good to lie down and be a young master for the rest of my life.
Save the world and save the people? Love who and who!
In a daze, Xie Yan heard his little sister sobbing. He opened his eyes and looked: "What's wrong?"
Xie Wan handed over the newspaper: "These child laborers are younger than me. They live a very hard life."
The war of public opinion is coming.
Xie Yan took it and saw that it was the emperor who ordered more than a dozen officials who had returned to Beijing to report on their duties (those local officials who had just been dismissed), as well as some Hanlin officials and private scholars, to go to Shanxi coal mines to inspect.
This article was written by a great Confucian in an almost vernacular style.
It even comes with comics.
The heroine of the article is a 9-year-old child worker in a coal mine.
Why old child workers?
Because in her job, people usually join the job at the age of five or six, and basically retire when they are eight years old. If they are still working at the age of nine, they are naturally old workers.
She went down to the mine at 4:30 a.m. every day, and spent the next 12 hours squatting in the dark, narrow underground space, operating the mine trap valve in the dark to keep the mine air flowing smoothly and prevent the accumulation of poisonous gases underground.
The reason why such young girls are used.
First, because the mine tunnel is narrow and the place where the gas valve is installed is even narrower, even older children cannot do it.
The second reason is that girls are more careful than boys and are better able to endure loneliness in a dark and closed environment.
This little girl started working at the age of five and has been working for four years now.
She goes down into the mine at midnight every day and returns to the surface in the evening. During this period, no one talks to her and she can't see any light. She even dares not to speak out for fear that there will be innocent souls in the mine seeking her life. The happiest moment is when she returns to the surface.
She can sing the songs her mother taught her to reward herself.
Then it’s time to eat, sleep, and wait for the next early morning to continue working.
This female child worker is just a microcosm of the large number of child workers in coal mines.
Boy workers in coal mines are equally miserable because they do physical work.
Due to a combination of factors, the underground mine tunnels at this time were very narrow. Adult miners had to crawl in and out, which was very time-consuming going back and forth.
Therefore, the task of transporting coal in the underground mine tunnels was handed over to the male workers who were several years old. They were tied with ropes, belts, and harnesses, just like dogs pulling a carriage, crawling on all fours.
Transporting truckloads of coal.
If it dies, it will be thrown away like a dog.
Xie Yan, who thought about being a young master for the rest of his life, had a huge impact on his outlook on life after reading this article.
Especially those cartoons, which are obviously written by famous artists, can make people feel heartbroken just by looking at them.
The author of the article also asked the readers: "Do you know that the blood and tears of child laborers are contained in every coal used to boil water for cooking in our homes, to run machines in factories? It is so sad to write this. You and I were both born to parents.
People have the same mind and the same principle... If Taizu Taizong knew this, what should he do?"
The second brother Xie Kan woke up at some point, took the newspaper, read it, and said with a smile: "We're going to have a pen fight."
Xie Yan asked: "What kind of newspaper is this Yi Bao that publishes articles? It doesn't seem like an official publication, but my father has been subscribing to it."
Xie Kan explained: "Yi Bao was founded by a group of old academics. At first, it only published research articles on Yi studies, and also published some poems and scripts. I don't know when it started to criticize factories and steam engines, and it actually sold so much
It rose sharply and gradually became what it is now. They miss the Taizu and Taizong dynasties, and think that everything was perfect at that time, everyone lived and worked in peace and contentment, there was no much suffering, and even the illiterate people were morally noble."
Xie Yan scratched his head.
Using this kind of newspaper to kick off the public opinion war, are those in power in the court the conservatives or the reformers?