From Chief to Ball

"Think about it! Suppose you were a small bourgeois spinner, the big factories were curtailed, we had guilds, the price of yarn remained the same, and we lived as before. And, except for the work , we still have the personality, dignity, and glory of petty bourgeoisie. We can start from the lowest guild members and improve step by step. Those titles are not only what we eat, but also the honor of our labor ——And now, what is labor? People have been alienated into the power of labor, just in exchange for money, and their individuality and dignity have been eliminated!"

The people on the stage tried their best, shouted for dignity, and promised the future.The people in the audience shouted frantically, supported, and raised their fists high.

"Citizens! We will send people to the council of the capital to petition, and ask the king to protect our interests, and ask the king and the big family to curb these profit-seeking capitalists!"

"Citizens! We want the king and the noble family to be the arbitrators between us and those big factories, and let them protect weak people like us!"

"Citizens, we want to take back our dignity, take back our glory, and fight for our future! Just like Labor Day in November, aren't we laborers?"

"Now! Let us take the first step towards a better future! To smash the machines that kill! To smash the machines that will drag us all into ruin and poverty! To smash the machines that alienate us to labor The machines of the slaves of money! Go smash the machines that make us lose our dignity! Go smash the machines that divide the people of our country into property owners and laborers!"

"Return to the patriarchal clan! Rebuild the guild! National legislation regulates production! Return to tradition! No more divisions! Give back my personality! Give me back my dignity! Give back my essence!"

The organized petty bourgeois on the verge of bankruptcy, agricultural employees, small industry spinners, small pottery workshop owners, or other small citizens of all kinds were incited, shouted slogans, and started the so-called " Marching with dignity" marched toward the upper reaches of the Min River valley and along the canal where hydraulic workshops and factories with meticulous division of labor were densely populated.

The threatened northern big families and hidden nobles acquiesced in this action, strictly forbidding the soldiers to suppress it, saying that this is the choice of the Chinese people themselves, and let the Chinese people solve it by themselves, which will cause internal conflicts and bloody cases to facilitate control and division. .

The "Minben Romantic Society" split from the Progressive Alliance has learned organizational skills and organized its own picket team - to ensure that citizens only smash machines and not people, and do not kill or attack people, and find out suspicious elements who may have mixed in. .

Chapter 1 The Protagonist and Supporting Actors

When the "March for Dignity" was launched, the Progressive Alliance had not yet disbanded, and all parties involved had a discussion about whether to support it.

If this kind of thing wants to go smoothly, it needs financial support. When it became an alliance, it left a part of the funds for public activities. The use of these funds needs the support of all parties.Originally, these funds were used to do some definite things, such as vaccination, without any political conflict of interest, and definite things that were beneficial to everyone.

Regarding this activity, many organizations in the Progressive Alliance disagree, especially there are formal quasi-party organizations that represent the interests of the emerging bourgeoisie and overseas trade.

In Min County at this time, the Mo party is not the protagonist, and it is impossible to become the protagonist.Just like these things, it is destined to be the emerging bourgeoisie and those small farmers and small bourgeois who have been hit.And for a long time, these people are the main force on both sides of the whole social change.

However, the Mexican party is an important supporting role. Its interests have nothing to do but if you want to make troubles, it is best to get the support of the Mexican party: the party has abundant wealth, rich financial resources, sufficient influence, and a large number of miners, dock workers, canal helpers, and A top-notch propaganda department and party-controlled newspaper.

With the changes of the times and the continuous splitting of the original organization, from the initial charitable party or good people's party for the whole people, it has become an organization that represents a certain class and has its own interests.

So this "March of Dignity", which is nominally out of compassion and morality, did not vote in support of the decision to use the common assets of the Progressive Alliance.

Before this, they were arguing with each other in the newspapers and seizing the leadership of the bottom. What loopholes have been found by the other party.

When an organization has its own ideology and interests, it is like a child growing up without its parents. Although it is still naive in some places, it continues to grow and mature in its naivety.

Regarding agriculture and land, they insisted on the publicization of land, but also supported the commercial farms at this time - the seminar organization made a decision that small plots of land are a step backward, and domestic reforms can save a lot of things: to It is time to turn those private agricultural employees into state-owned or collectively-owned agricultural employees.As for the large amount of freed-up labor, you can choose to make a living in Great Deserted City and other places, where you can also build large farms.

Resolutely resist the idea of ​​re-dividing small pieces of land in this "March of Dignity".

In terms of handicraft industry, they came to the same conclusion as the "Minben Romantic Society". The internal logic of this kind of large factory system eventually collapsed, but the solution is not to return to the era when the state stagnated development and the guild system , but take another approach.

They also resolutely resist the statement about rebuilding the guild in this "March of Dignity".

The Mexican Party and the Minben Romantic Society are the two most forward-thinking organizations of this era. At least they have pointed out from their internal logic that the system will eventually collapse if this continues.The rest of the various organizations for the purpose of building an "ideal society" still pin their ideas on human nature, explain and criticize all these issues from the perspective of human nature and morality, but also pin all their futures on human nature and morality. On the one hand, from the perspective of internal logic, it will be over sooner or later; from the perspective of human nature, it is evil to continue like this.This is the biggest difference, the biggest gap.

As advertised by Minben Romantic Society, the people of the Mexican Party are in a painful choice.On the one hand, I am moved and sympathized with the increasingly difficult lives of tens of thousands of people, and even tens of thousands of people across the country, which will affect hundreds of thousands of people in the future;

In the same way, the future greatest enemies of the Mexican Party and the opponents of their propaganda are also in the midst of a painless but uncomfortable choice: the graves prepared by the Mexican Party for them will be hundreds of years later, and the pit will have to be They dug themselves; the graves dug for them by the Minben Romantic Society and those relics of the old days were in front of them.

The most bizarre scene occurred in the entire Min County.During the debate, the members of the Mexican party denounced the irrationality of the times, and made predictions about the ultimate self-destruction of this era of profit-seeking.The party who was reprimanded readily accepted it and said that everything he did was for the progress of the times, and the destruction of the future was in the future.

The two groups of people who had scolded each other the most, now silently shook hands behind their backs.The Mexican party does not need to express its support for the capitalists, it only needs to remain neutral, which is the biggest support for this supporting role at this time.

When the two protagonists are evenly matched, the protagonist is not as powerful as the supporting role.

At the internal meeting of the Progressive Alliance, members of the Mexican Party voted against the "March with Dignity" amid bursts of boos.This declared the Progressive League dead, and it was only a matter of time before it was formally disbanded.

To the surprise of the Mo Party members, Hu Lin, who had gradually tilted his mind toward them, voted for it, but the power of this vote was not great.The opposition of the majority prevents the Progressive League from using those public assets to support such activities.

After the meeting, Hu Lin, who had been depressed all the time, sent a personal letter to the members of the Mo Party.

The above is very short.

"I know my vote was wrong and pointless, but my conscience dictates it."

"You have theories, science, assumptions, future, facts, and reason. But do you... have a conscience?"

As a group of people who can see clearly, Hu Lin has long anticipated this failure: they may succeed in other places, but they do not have such an urgent motivation, so it is difficult to organize; in Min County they have an urgent motivation, But just because they are motivated proves that those people are more powerful, so it is impossible to succeed.

As he expected, this massive "March for Dignity" lasted for six days before being suppressed.

The people of the Mexican party remained neutral, and the solution they gave was to let those who opened factories pay [-]% of the special poverty relief compensation, and organize these people who could not survive to emigrate to other places.

Their neutrality made the group of people who are most combative and have experienced several struggles have no support, only psychological and verbal sympathy.

After ensuring the neutrality of the Mexican party and verbally agreeing to special taxes and fees for compensation for the poor, the capitalists, workshop owners, and maritime merchants in Min County united together at an unprecedented speed.

The newly established Coastal Bank quickly gave out a large amount of cash; hired rogues and company employees quickly assembled; speculators were warned not to take advantage of the chaos to disrupt the economic order of Min County; The order and normal life of other industries such as weavers and small weaving workshops kept them neutral; a large number of armed mercenaries of the company quickly withdrew from the sea, took off their uniforms, put down their muskets, and picked up sticks; The money invested in newspapers and public opinion spread rumors that the people of the Minben Romantic Society received Spanish pesos in order to destroy the country's industry, and claimed that their leader received [-] silver pesos from missionaries ...

Having already received the news and made sufficient preparations, this "march of dignity" has no dignity at all.A fierce conflict broke out between the two sides along the Min River. A group of hired people disguised as hired workers stood guard at the gate of the spinning mill, shouting the slogan "We want to eat too", and fought into a ball.

It is conceivable that the military-style armed hired workers dealt with these machine-smashing demonstrators who were only supported by a small number of pickets.

Afterwards, one of the captured leaders was bought, and he wrote a confession: the smashing of the machine was ordered by the leader of the Minben Romance Society, and it is said that the leaders received Spanish pesos and so on.

A confession that began with rumors, the sheriff and other officials who had already been bribed quickly moved into action, sealed up the headquarters of the Minben Romantic Society, and captured most of the people in charge.

Soon, the evidence showed that the accepting of pesos was non-existent, but the matter of smashing the machine could not be blamed and must be placed on the heads of these people.

This matter has been resolved before the big families and invisible nobles above hoped that the matter would become a big deal.

More than 70 people were sentenced to imprisonment, hard labor or deportation by the judiciary of Min County.The Council of Min County has introduced the Machinery and Factory Production Protection Act at an unprecedented speed. Anyone who tries to smash the machine needs to be sentenced to two years of hard labor or choose to be exiled from the country-although it does not apply to the law before the legislation This action, however, set a legal condition for the subsequent suppression.

There is no excuse for any of the bureaucrats, hidden nobles or old-age political families in the capital city to make trouble, and the governor of Min County, Yan Yuanshan, is inevitably tied to this group of interest groups. Some of the political speculation behind him The family also began to put their treasures on the big businessmen and capitalists along the coast.

As a concession, Min County also issued a resolution on special factory compensation taxes and fees, as well as a brand new "Tropical Plantation Employment Case".

The former part of the money is paid by the factory, so that those who are temporarily helpless and impoverished because of the establishment of the factory go to sea to make a living. The main direction of flow is the Great Deserted City controlled by the Mexican Party.

The latter stipulates that when there are free laborers in the country, industries such as plantations must give priority to hiring free laborers in the country, and slaves are only allowed when the number of free laborers in the country is insufficient.And a special supervisory committee was set up to oversee this matter, but the legal wages of free workers in the same plantation were also extremely low, only slightly more expensive than slaves.

When the organizers were finally judged, the only one who defended those organizers was Hu Lin.He knew that this was a defense that was impossible to win, but he made up his mind to use the defense as a massive publicity.

Hu Lin has long been used to it by many people watching. It has been eight years since he met Chen Jian, and he has experienced too many major events to make him no longer that young man full of fantasy, but his conscience has not changed.It's just getting more and more depressed and can't find a way out.

Thousands of people were moved when they heard Hu Lin's seemingly defending propaganda, but it was a speech, but the outcome of the trial did not change.

"Everyone here, there are two types of robbery. One is fast, deadly, and obvious. The other is hidden, slow, and money-making methods to steal money from other people's pockets. Is it Is that reasonable? Does it make any difference?"

The person who refuted said indifferently: "Mr. Zhugan, the former is illegal, but the latter is not. Unless you overthrow the government now, or change the law at the National People's Congress, it is meaningless for you to say all of this. Reasonable and unreasonable Reasonable...just like taxation, I can find 1 reasons why it is reasonable, and I can find 1 reasons why it is not reasonable. But the most important thing is whether it is legal."

After this brief publicity, Hu Lin found the members of the Mo Party who were busy organizing a new batch of immigrants to the Great Deserted City.Looking at these original spinning handicraft workers and future farmers or people in other industries, Hu Lin asked the original comrades who received him: "They wanted an orange, but you gave them a peach. Their What about freedom? Do you respect the free will of man?"

"Zhu Gan, they originally wanted peaches, but they couldn't afford them, so they had to buy oranges. So this is freedom?"