From Chief to Ball

They didn't even think about a more important issue-the questions and doubts about prices and prices are still hanging on the walls of the red brick building. Some people really started to think about the two seemingly simple words of economy.

The ships entering the port for several days in a row finally attracted the attention of speculators, but the matter has come to an end, if they stop at this time, all previous efforts will be wasted.

Even if you vaguely feel that something is wrong, you still have to persevere, or you will lose completely.

In order to make the people in the city more panic, and to make more money to sell the grain, the speculators sent someone to use tung oil to secretly set fire to the warehouse where they were hoarding grain one day.

There was not much grain inside, but a violent fire started in the morning, burning half of the sky red. Everyone in Mincheng knew that the grain merchant's warehouse was on fire, so they panicked even more.

There is something to be said for lighting the fire in the morning.If the fire is lit in the morning, the fire will appear very large and easy to attract people's attention.At night, the fire will be even bigger, but some people may risk their lives to go in and carry food outside, and they will not be able to take care of it when it is dark, and if it burns in the middle of the night, many people will not be able to see it.

It's just that the speculators didn't know that Chen Jian had prepared a lot of grain, and he had calculated the time difference early to spread rumors about the grain price increase in Mincheng in the upper reaches of the Min River and neighboring counties.

On the one hand, there are rumors, and on the other hand, the people sent by Chen Jian purchased grain on a large scale there, and even unloaded expensive goods such as precious glassware, steel ingots, and alkali, and stored them in nearby counties or at the mouth of large rivers. on the pier.

The merchants knew very well that if nothing happened, they would not be able to make a lot of money by transshipping grain like this.Especially compared with things like glass, if merchants can give up business like glass and transship grain, it will obviously be very profitable.

Furthermore, Chen Jian's business company is no longer limited to a small Fujian county. From fiberglass ingot cement to photography and cotton gins, which spread later, they are all well-known in the big cities along the coast.Such trading companies have all gone to transship food, and something must have happened in Mincheng. If the news comes, the day lily may be cold.

Speculation is inherently risky. Chen Jian made a time difference. After this time difference, speculators from other counties and counties who were instigated by him followed him for about ten days, and transported a large amount of grain to Fujian City—once they arrived in Fujian In the city, there is only one way to sell it, and it is even more uneconomical to transport it back.

Chen Jian's own capital has too many things to do and is too scattered, and some reserves must be reserved to deal with emergencies.Therefore, in the matter of grain, he can only make a small profit, while maintaining the price stability of Mincheng. To defeat the grain speculators in Mincheng, he still needs to rely on the capital of other merchants.

On December [-]th, Chen Jian had already made a fortune through grain speculation, and he could have continued to make a few more days, but he didn't.

The previous investigations at the grassroots based on places like grocery stores and soy sauce shops have once again played a role, and the control of the Mexican Party over the grassroots is vividly reflected.

When prices soared, many people at the bottom did not choose to ask the officials, but went to the places where the Mexican Party was active to ask for an answer. By the way, they asked these people for their opinions, or asked them to borrow some money to buy food...

This is a small matter, but hidden behind this small matter is a great event.

On the one hand, before announcing that the city-wide petition had taken place, Chen Jian, through the grass-roots organization, went door-to-door to tell them not to buy food until the five or six days of food stored in their homes were exhausted.There will be food, and everything will turn around.

The trust accumulated before can be supported for three days, which is already a remarkable level of trust at the grassroots level.

On the other hand, after the whole city knew the cause of this incident on the 21st, all the food that Chen Jian bought enough for the bottom of the city for five days entered Hong Kong, and a large amount of grain transported from the upper reaches of Mincheng also quickly entered Mincheng.

The Central Party Headquarters of the Mexican Party mobilized the dock workers who had controlled the basic market. According to previous statistics, they delivered food door-to-door, and guaranteed that there would be a continuous flow of food.

Instead of selling, they ration and deliver. After the normal grain price stabilizes, the money will be paid, and the grain price will definitely stabilize within ten days.

The five-day amount is exactly the amount of grain stored by the citizens, which is a kind of psychological comfort.

Various grassroots organizations have a unified voice, dominate public opinion, condemn the actions of speculators, and return the sewage that speculators have poured on themselves.

People at the bottom know exactly who they should trust: on one side are speculators who keep raising prices, and on the other side are members of the Mexican Party who lend them food at a price equal to the population.

At the same time, two days ago, people from the Mexican party contacted the gang leader in Mincheng and told the leader that they hoped to fulfill their original promise.

Without saying much, the gang leader also noticed the problem, but he didn't expect it to be done by people like the Mexican Party. Only then did he realize that the energy of these people is far beyond his own.I can't afford to let Fujian City into such a mess.

Knowing the gap in power, some words are impossible to talk nonsense. In addition, the people of the Mo Party have given him enough face and reputation before. do it.

Under such circumstances, the gangster leader came forward and strictly prohibited theft and robbery within ten days in the gray area, and used the four hundred silver coins to distribute to his subordinates, and his prestige rose sharply for a while.

Therefore, before the hired workers came to Mincheng on the 24th, a very strange situation appeared in Mincheng.

The city looked depressed and in chaos.But the hooligans, blackmail, robbery and other things that are usually active almost never happened. It seems that even the prostitutes have become good and no longer shamelessly solicit customers.

The price of food in the city rose again and again, but the bottom class did not buy it. The speculators harvested the middle class, and Chen Jian harvested the speculators, and then passed on the hatred to the speculators.

On the night of the 24th, Mincheng was quiet and not chaotic. Grain ships from nearby counties had already arrived in Mincheng, and the price of food was dropping rapidly. The pickets maintained law and order on the street, and the petitioners slept quietly in tents. ;The city foxes and rats restrained themselves, hiding from the picket team, and at the same time complying with the demands of the leaders in the gray zone; The petitioners are full of sympathy; after the meeting with the senior leaders of the Mexican Party, representatives of industry and commerce expressed their willingness to be a mediator and support the petition request of the miners...

The old sheriff who always liked to hang out with each other had a word with the officials.

"Except for collecting taxes, the Mexican party has done everything we should do."

Those who didn’t understand thought the words were nonsensical; those who understood would let out a long sigh, either ashamed or surprised.

Chapter 153 Officials at the Turn of the Old and the New

The sentence that they have done everything they should do except taxation is certainly an exaggeration, but it is not nonsense.

The officials were frowning and couldn't even agree on basic opinions.

There is a majority of officials who disagree with the petition, and consensus can be reached on this point.However, the problem is that if you don't agree, what should you do next?This is the problem.

In addition to the strange price of goods in the city, all order still exists. Once the city is attacked, the order of the city will be completely chaotic.

Now only these employees are petitioning, and it can be seen that the other side is deliberately controlling their emotions and not expanding the problem.

This is gratifying, but also horrifying. It proves that the control of the people on the opposite side is far beyond the imagination of these officials.

Once the mob has discipline and is no longer a mob, it means that this group of people has become terrible.

Once the problem expanded, the scene from decades ago is in the history books.Are there dissatisfaction, and it is not limited to these miners and dock workers?The cottage industries squeezed by contractors and big businessmen are also dissatisfied. If this sentiment is stirred up, it will be an armed riot.

It can be seen that the Mexican party is working hard to stabilize food prices, and once it is unstable and incites emotions at the same time, it may be a storm like a raging fire—just blow the wind direction among the speculators in the council, and it will be inevitable. A big event is about to happen, and the public opinion has publicized that the government of Mincheng has completely fallen.

After the old sheriff uttered these words, he stopped expressing his opinions and wanted to seek the opinions of these officials.Anyway, he has reached the pinnacle of his political career as a sheriff, and he is already indifferent to this. The so-called no desire is strong, and when he has really reached the state of no desire, he can see it more clearly than when he was blinded by desire before.

When an enemy like Hou Boguo exists, the Republic must publicize the identity of the countrymen in order to obtain soldiers and combat effectiveness.However, once these things are preached more and the enemy does not exist, problems will arise. Especially when conflicts frequently occurred in the later period of the classical republic, the monarchy seems to have become the best way to solve the problem, and it is used as the bottom The buffer between the classical plutocrats and the reconciliation of the contradictions between the two, but before reaching this point, they were forced to the brink of the handicraft revolution and the age of great navigation.

In this case, the mind is extremely confused.On the one hand, the remnants of advocating the citizenship of Chinese people decades ago have not been removed; on the other hand, the new ideology has not yet been established, and everyone is in a period of ideological transformation from top to bottom, and they are at a loss.

After a long time, Shi Ming, the commercial officer, finally said, "I would say that this is a rebellion. Those hired workers would never have done this if they hadn't been instigated behind them. As long as the ants are crushed to death by a wheel, the leaders Everyone was captured. Whether they were sentenced or hanged, these people naturally dispersed. Now in the city, where are the laws of the country?"

The judge frowned and said, "Even if they are rebellious, the problem is that there was a rebellion law when the country was founded. How can this be considered a rebellion? All government departments have not attacked, no officials have been killed, just a petition. "

The magistrate was very depressed. The old sheriff obviously wasn't prepared to take responsibility for this matter, and he couldn't afford it.If everything goes well, it's okay, but if it doesn't go well and the trouble becomes serious, will the higher-ups take the blame for them?Or will they use their official status to calm public anger?

Shi Ming snorted and said, "How can it be considered a rebellion? They are antagonizing mine owners and hired workers, which is inciting rebellion. They are all Chinese, but they want to artificially divide them into two sides and provoke conflicts. This is treason. Is there any problem with this charge?"

The judge shook his head and said: "Of course there is a problem. When the Northern Expedition unified the northern states, there were also 'martyrs'. Qi people thought they were Qi people, and Wei people thought they were Wei people. This was artificially instigated and propagated. If Marquis Qi fled and Marquis Wei surrendered, no one would believe in this kind of opposition anymore. But miners and mine owners are not opposed because you promote them, but are opposed regardless of whether you incite them or not. This is just telling the truth .If there is no Marquis Qi, there would be no Marquis of Qi State, and conversely, without the Mo Party, the mine owners and miners would still have conflicts. This kind of thing can deceive yourself, and those people who talk like a gun and talk like an arrow?"

These words were not his own thoughts, but the group of pens of the Mo party had written this matter clearly and plainly, for fear that he would be charged with treason.The judge felt that this group of people had already thought about the consequences before preparing to make trouble.It's okay to die, but it's impossible to die on the charge of treason. If you force this charge, you will be infamous decades or hundreds of years later.

There is no heaven and hell, only historical ink pens, and the magistrate does not want to bear such a reputation on his own.What's more, the sheriff who should bear the most responsibility didn't say a word, and wanted to push the problem down. Who would be willing to carry such a big pot?

Now this group of people is fairly honest, but once some things appear, they cannot be killed.There are quite a few radicals within the Mexican party. Once this incident turns into a violent shock, it is not impossible for those radicals to use mine explosives to kill themselves.

The magistrate thought of a perfect solution, that is, the higher authorities would characterize this matter, but they would not sentence those leaders to be hanged when they judged themselves, but would be exiled to the bitterly cold place in the extreme north.

As long as you don't do things in the place under your jurisdiction, and if you are exiled, it will not attract retaliatory attacks, which is the best of both worlds.But if the higher-ups don't do anything, and want to gain a good name for loving the people, but also want to pass the responsibility to the lower levels, then he will never touch this bad luck.

Shi Ming said again: "Anyone who makes trouble must want to get something for nothing, and they can all be thrown into prison for this crime. Besides, why do others become mine owners when they are rich, and they become hired workers when they are poor? It is because of laziness. According to the crime, Even if they don’t kill them, it shouldn’t be a problem if they are all sent to a poorhouse or sent to the army, right?”

Tax officer Zhang Yu said helplessly: "Brother Shi, the problem now is that if these people don't go back to work for a day, Mincheng will have no coal for a day. The problem now is to find a way to get them back to work, not kill them all. It's not enough to kill them all." At that time, if they killed them all or threw them all into the workhouse, who would do the work? And once this happens, what should these people do if they resist?"