Chapter 1154 Postscript 10. What are those officials fighting for?
Chapter 1154 Postscript 10. What are those officials fighting for?
Today's larger newspapers are basically ten-day newspapers, two-day newspapers and monthly newspapers.
They set up headquarters in one city and branches in other cities. They first designed a fixed layout structure, and the newspaper headquarters edited the content of the manuscript, then transmitted the manuscript to the branch via telegraph, and agreed on a time to print and sell it together.
Although the cost of transmitting manuscripts by telegraph is high, it is not a problem as long as the sales volume increases, and long-term cooperation with the telegraph office has benefits.
The real disadvantage is that telegrams cannot be sent with pictures.
Therefore, any news with pictures is either printed by the newspaper headquarters or sent to the branch manually!
The "Yi Bao" article reporting on child labor in coal mines in Shanxi was obviously carefully prepared for a long time. Even before the relevant inspection team went to Shanxi, the cartoons and illustrations had already been sent to the provincial branches, otherwise it would have been too late.
In the second half of the article's publication, the public opinion war finally broke out, and many newspapers fought back.
But the counterattack was not strong enough, and even seemed a bit like asking for peace.
Because the "Yi Bao" article occupies Confucian principles and moral high ground, and has the support of the imperial court behind it.
How to counter this?
One angle is to gain sympathy through child labor itself. It is claimed that if the mines and factories do not employ child labor, the family's income will drop sharply, and eventually the whole family will fall into starvation and poverty.
One way to complain is from a technical perspective. For example, take a mine as an example. The underground tunnels of deep mining are very narrow, and only child workers can enter and exit quickly. This has a natural advantage over adult miners.
Even the counterattack articles, while asking for peace, also have a hint of threat.
They pointed out that if child labor was not used, the costs of major coal mines across the country would inevitably skyrocket, and it would also lead to massive production cuts.
At that time, coal prices will also rise. Even if coal mines suddenly reduce production, they may not be able to buy coal at high prices. People in big cities will be short of coal, and countless factories will also be short of coal. Not only will it be more expensive for people to buy coal,
Cloth and iron will also be more expensive, with all kinds of negative consequences.
There are many counterattack articles of this kind, and there are equally many supporting articles.
The supporting articles, like the Yi Bao article, basically discuss it from the perspective of Confucian justice and morality. Only a few newspapers say that child labor has taken away the jobs of adult workers and caused a large number of children to die prematurely, become disabled and sick.
"Isn't it a wonderful quarrel?" The second brother Xie Kan is a fun-loving person, and he often watches the fun and doesn't think it's a big deal.
Xie Yan asked: "Why are they noisy?"
Xie Kan said: "We are arguing about whether to abolish child labor."
"I mean the deeper reasons." Xie Yan said.
Xie Kan replied: "The underlying reason is naturally the public opinion war over the reform."
Xie Yan asked again: "Why do we need to change the law? I mean, why do so many officials want to change the law? What is the fundamental conflict of interest between the officials who support the reform and those who oppose the reform?"
Xie Kan was dumbfounded and started to think.
In Europe, the contradictions and conflicts between the feudal landlord class and the emerging bourgeoisie are very obvious.
First, the bourgeoisie needs to hire workers for production, but the initial population shortage must drive farmers into the city, which takes away the population resources of the feudal landlord class.
Second, when the bourgeoisie no longer lacks population resources, they need to obtain greater political and economic power. And these powers are often in the hands of feudal landlords (big nobles).
However, these two contradictions do not seem to be prominent in today's Ming Dynasty.
The population of the Ming Dynasty exploded. Landlords had no shortage of tenant farmers, and capitalists had no shortage of workers.
The capitalists of the Ming Dynasty have long been integrated with some bureaucrats, and they seem to have no shortage of political and economic power.
So, what exactly is the conflict now?
Why are the two factions fighting?
The struggle was so fierce that they killed the entire first three rows of the court?
Xie Yan really couldn't understand.
Another day passed, and my father did not go home for dinner. He was so busy that he could only entertain himself at the Yamen.
Xie Yan took advantage of the night to cool down and read by light in the study room shared by the three siblings.
He was already familiar with all the mathematical symbols to be tested in the government examination, and made a comparison table of two mathematical symbols of space and time.
At present, the physical symbols are almost sorted out.
Xie Yan discovered that the chemistry of this space-time is seriously behind mathematics and physics.
In his later years, Emperor Taizu already proposed that all things are composed of particles, and these particles can be combined and subdivided.
But this theory of Taizu was just a conjecture at the time. Many people believed it, but even more people didn’t.
After more than a hundred years of development, Taizu's particle theory gradually became widely accepted. Some clan members even took out a periodic table of elements, claiming to be a relic passed down by Taizu - this periodic table of elements is considered by many chemists to be the
Counterfeit.
In addition, chemists who accepted particle theory formed more than ten factions, large and small.
One of the mainstream schools believes that the two qi of yin and yang evolve into various homogeneous particles, and the combination of homogeneous particles becomes certain elements and substances.
They firmly believe that compounds are also certain elements composed of single-particle particles. For example, purified salt is a salt element composed of salt particles. Except for salt elements and salt particles, other original particles and elements no longer exist. Moreover, whether the two gases of yin and yang evolve into homogeneous particles, or whether the homogeneous particles combine to become elements, they all rely on the power of static electricity.
Another mainstream faction always believes that Taizu is correct, and particles can be freely combined or separated. Elements composed of the same kind of particles can also react with other elements, but what is reacted is not a new element. For example, purified salt,
It cannot be called a salt element, but a complex substance composed of different elements.
In the past two decades, the latter has gradually gained the upper hand.
They conducted repeated experiments and carefully verified and sorted out the suspected forged periodic table of elements.
Of course, there are also many consensuses between the two groups.
For example, they both believe that particles are combined and changed through static electricity. They both believe that ionic compounds (there is no such concept yet) are substances that are combined by electrostatics (the former believes that they are unstable new elements that only exist in solutions, and the latter
It is considered to be some kind of composite particle). After being energized, the electrostatic force is dissipated and separated into yin and yang particle states.
Due to the endless debates in the chemistry community, the textbooks did not know how to compile them. They could only list the consensus of the two groups as required content, and some appendices with disagreements were included in the textbooks for reference.
Xie Yan also compiled a comparison table tonight to sort out the physical symbols of the two space-times.
He briefly browsed the chemistry textbook, unfolded the paper and wrote the title of the paper: "Molecular Theory".
I only wrote the title, not the main text for now.
Because he has only read the chemistry textbooks for the imperial examination and does not know what the most cutting-edge academic achievements are at the moment, he must carefully check the chemistry journals in recent years.
He heard footsteps coming from outside, and the door to his father's study next door was quickly opened.
Xie Yan went over and knocked on the door.
Xie Yiqin was writing a letter to a friend. While studying the ink, he said: "Come in."
"Father." Xie Yan pushed open the door and entered.
Xie Yiqin warned: "It's very late. Reading at night will hurt your eyes. From now on, you should try your best to study during the day."
"Yes." Xie Yan responded.
Xie Yiqin asked: "Is there anything else?"
Xie Yan asked the same question during the day: why did the people in the court fight?
Xie Yiqin did not answer immediately.
After being silent for a while, Xie Yiqin said: "In the first ten years after he ascended the throne, the late emperor's administration was actually very gentle, and he was praised as having the style of Taizu. It was not until a major case in Guangdong that the late emperor became tough.
"
"What case?" Xie Yan asked curiously.
Xie Yiqin said:
"Several private banks in Guangdong have illegally obtained a large number of loans from Guangdong Baoquan Bureau. This kind of behavior existed before the late emperor ascended the throne. I don't know much about the banking industry and I don't know how they were deceived for nearly twenty years.
of."
"Later there was a big storm at sea. Nearly a hundred merchant ships were sunk, missing, and damaged. I don't know who started the rumor. One of the banks suffered a run. As one of the top private banks in Guangdong, it couldn't withdraw money in less than two days.
The money is coming.”
"There was a big commotion at the time, and the late emperor asked the Guangdong Baoquan Bureau to intervene to calm the trouble. As a result, as soon as the Guangdong Baoquan Bureau took action, it caused a larger-scale run, and even many merchants were eager to withdraw money. Even other banks in Guangdong
, also suffered a run.”
"The first batch of imperial envoys sent by the late emperor to investigate the case reported that the incident was caused by rumors spread by profiteers and traitors. Officials and banks in Guangdong did not commit crimes, but only committed some violations."
"At that time, there was a young official from the Guangzhou Shipping Department, perhaps out of selflessness or for other reasons, secretly sending a secret message to the late emperor. This person's rank was too low and he was not qualified to send a secret message. But he
We invited a scholar from the Royal Society to send a secret telegram to the late emperor through the scholar’s privileges.”
"This sealed message has been withheld!"
Xie Yan was extremely surprised: "Can the secret messages sent to the emperor be withheld?"
Xie Yiqin nodded and said: "The emperor has his own telegraph room, half of which are magicians and half are eunuchs. The magicians and eunuchs are supposed to supervise each other, but they actually teamed up to deceive the emperor."
"Has he been discovered by the emperor?" Xie Yan asked.
Xie Yiqin said: "One of the tricksters, because the case was too big and he became more and more frightened, he exposed the matter of secretly withholding the emperor's secret telegrams. The emperor was furious. Except for the one who stood up to expose, everyone else in the telegraph room was arrested.
They were tortured severely. Then they sent people to arrest the first batch of imperial envoys to investigate the case, and at the same time sent the second batch of imperial envoys to Guangdong."
Xie Yan asked: "What then?"
Xie Yiqin sighed: "Well, the case is too big and the implications are too wide. We must fight to the end. The official of the Shipping Department who sent a secret message to the emperor through a scholar suddenly contracted a cold and died. The weather in Guangdong was hot, and the body was quickly burned. Chapter 1
The second batch of imperial envoys went over and found only some minor problems. It took a full half a year to report to the late emperor that there were no major cases. Those officials in the telegraph room who were tortured to extract confessions were all killed and no one confessed. "
"The late emperor is not a fool." Xie Yan said happily.
Xie Yiqin said: "The late emperor must have been so frightened and angry that he pretended not to continue the investigation. Then, through the emperor's secret telegram, he transferred two thousand troops from the Yanran Protector's Palace and the Anton Protector's Palace back to Beijing.
The people who command the troops are all young acquaintances of the late emperor. These four thousand soldiers and horses have all become palace guards. The late emperor doesn’t even trust the palace guards anymore!”