From Chief to Ball

Gently parting the curtain, in the open space in the distance, someone was standing on a high place and shouting something, holding a loudspeaker with a tin coil.

His back was facing Chen Jian, but seeing that back was somewhat familiar, he leaned the carriage forward, jumped out of the carriage, and used the wide-eave rain-proof wet flint that was very popular at the time and was often worn by company mercenaries, A wide-brimmed felt hat covered half of his face.

Squeezing past the crowd who stopped and listened, although the voice of the speaker was a little hoarse from shouting for a long time, the corners of Chen Jian's mouth curled up slightly, revealing a smile.

Standing there and shouting loudly was Hu Lin, who hadn't seen him for many years, and was completely different from the depressed middle-aged man in the autumn rain in the capital last time.

He has a beautiful beard, and he no longer wears a long shirt, but a short brown cotton cloth.

Xu Shi came late, and when Chen Jian squeezed past, Hu Lin had stopped talking, and the audience below had already started to question.

"Mr. Zhu Gan, we all know what you said, but what can we do? Do you think that we as parents have the heart to let our children work in those workshops? But what can we do? Those workshops would rather have children than For us grown-ups with clumsy fingers."

"The children live a very hard life, but at least they can get a few copper coins to eat. Otherwise, they will go to the match factory run by the poor house, which is not as good as those spinning workshops. Look at those in the The jaws of the female workers inside are rotten, and a match head can poison a person to death, how long can we live in such a workshop?"

"My child was so hungry that he stole other people's things on the street and his fingers were cut off according to the law. Now he doesn't even have the chance to go to the cotton mill. You told us not to send the child there, so that Those workshops can only accept adults... We all know that if everyone is like this, it’s okay. But if I don’t send it over, others will, how can I know that others have not violated everyone’s oath?”

Another young man about sixteen or seventeen years old shouted: "Mr. Zhu Gan, what's the use of going to school? Can you get money or food if you learn to read and understand nature? If you work in a factory, will you give me a few more coppers if you know how to count?"

"You can't change anything, this is fate. Our life should be like this. You always talk about equality, but we don't like these things. All we want is a meal. Even if someone says let us be slaves, We are also willing, at least not to starve to death, right?"

While inquiring, a person squeezed past Chen Jianjian and asked loudly: "Mr. Zhu Gan, someone told us that if slavery is restored, our life will be better than it is now. The newspapers printed by those people Someone always reads to us about the benefits of being a slave. If everyone dislikes it, change it to a life-long and hereditary hired worker, so that at least there will be a job. Now everyone’s brains are messed up. Tell us about it This one."

"That's right, don't talk about how miserable child labor is, talk about these things. Some people say that those big families should be allowed to be officials, because they are rich, so they won't be greedy for ink. They say that all the suffering now is because of big families. Factories and those profit-seeking businessmen and big workshop owners, we should unite to maintain the governance of the big family, let the big family protect our interests, and fight those big speculators and big workshop owners, so that we can benefit..."

"You have talked so much, we think it makes sense, but we can't fill our stomachs. Is it that important to be a slave or not? Is it so important whether it is hereditary? Let me say that it is not as good as hereditary now, from generation to generation. It has been handed down from the family, at least their education is good and their morals are high, how can they be like these profiteers and those big workshop owners? Now we would rather go back to the northern nobles of Hou Bo to be serfs, at least we still have a piece of land ..."

"It turns out that when I was in the countryside, I read a novel. The life in the big farm is actually quite good. Even if I am a groom and servant, I can go hunting with the young master, and the young master is also kind-hearted and compassionate. And it's very fraternal, sitting on the hillside in the setting sun and singing with the maid girl..."

The endless questions kept coming out, leaving Hu Lin at a loss. When he was worried and didn't know how to answer, he looked down and saw Chen Jian wearing a felt hat in the crowd.

It was the first time that the two met again after several years, but when Hu Lin found out, Chen Jian lowered the brim of his hat and squeezed out of the crowd.

He stared blankly at Chen Jian's back and the carriage parked in the distance, and shook his head.The person next to him also noticed, and whispered, "That's Chen Jian?"

"Yes."

"Ha, he's a big shot now. He's a sailor and a big factory, and he has become a kind big shot and a model of morality by withdrawing his shares from Nanyang Company with compassion. Bah!"

Hu Lin frowned, and watched Chen Jian board the carriage from a distance. Before getting into the carriage, he obviously didn't know that Hu Lin was looking at him, but he took off his hat and bowed in Hu Lin's direction.

"He...he should still remember what he said back then."

As if to confirm, he repeated it himself, then nodded solemnly, and refocused on communicating with the people below who were often rescued by them, and took the trouble to explain over and over again the principles that sounded a bit profound.

……

In a dark corner near the old sewer drain in Mincheng, more than two dozen people in tattered clothes sat there, listening to each of them read a book that had obviously been circulated countless times, and the cover was worn out. book.

The title of the pamphlet is "On the Real Republic", no author, no one knows the author, but it must have been written by someone from a certain faction within the Progressive League, but certainly not a member of the Mexican party, because the book was circulated The craziest time of the year was when the March for Dignity began.

The young man who was reading obviously didn't know some characters, but it didn't prevent him from reading to the bankrupt citizens nearby or the refugees who came to the city from the countryside in an impassioned tone.

Different factions are using different methods and ideas to contact these people, but in terms of influence on these people, it is clear that the radical ideas of this faction are more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

When the young people read it with great enthusiasm, they stood up, waved their fists and read: "People of the country! Labor is everyone's right. Our dignity is obtained through labor. The life of relying on others' charity is sad and miserable and loss of life. human dignity.”

"Liberty is where there is dignity. When it comes to liberty, countrymen, we have to say that the republic is a prison today. Complicated and fastidious laws are supported by swords, prison locks, bars, and gates. Judges are jailers. , and the poor are prisoners.”

"We don't need a government, we don't need any bondage, we need real freedom. The basic element of freedom is the right to life, and only the common ownership of land can guarantee people's life. In the real republic we pursue, land and everything Natural resources are the common property of the society, we can freely use the land for production, and our life is guaranteed by the society.”

"When those blood-sucking big workshops leave the city, let those big landowners donate their land. We will form a family-based free village community for mutual benefit and help. Every family has enough to display their own labor to grow food land, a spinning wheel, ten acres of mulberry and cotton fields, self-sufficient, no need for those dirty big factories and big farms.”

"There is no law, no sheriff, no government, just scattered village communities. Everyone can be self-sufficient, then there is no need for any commercial behavior, and those big speculators who manipulate food prices cannot control it. Once such a society Realized, we will put an end to all commercial activities, and all businessmen will be punished with death.”

"Without commercial activities, dirty and sinful things like gold and silver have no meaning, and can only be used as home decorations."

"Our children don't need to do child labor, but rely on the public surplus food and handicraft products provided by various villages to establish social workshops. In the workshops, children have to learn and be familiar with various household labor, They can become important inheritors of family labor when they grow up."

"Of course, some social public welfare public officials still have to exist. In order to prevent corruption, we should let public officials change jobs every two years, and prevent them from working in any familiar position for three years, so that they You will not be familiar with the process of corruption. Everyone has the right to vote, and those who are morally exemplary and over the age of 35 have the right to be elected, and those elected are only public welfare positions.”

"All knowledge is useless and will only lead to the division of society. All the knowledge we have now is enough for us to survive. Anyone who dares to study new machines will be sentenced to death."

"The land is owned by all the people in the country, and all the land is divided equally. Destroy all large workshops and factories, and anyone who dares to hire others will be sentenced to death."

"Men of the country! Private property is the root of all evil, war, robbery, theft, and social injustice it brings. It divides the people of a country into different parties, classes, and is the root of all wars and bloody struggles. source."

"People of the country! It is labor that creates wealth. If a man does not get the labor of others, he will never accumulate hundreds or thousands of properties in a year; it is obviously labor with the help of others, but these properties are his own. If other people help him to work, then the property is his as well as other people's property; for it is his own and the fruit of other people's labor. But all rich people live comfortably, borrowing the labor of others, and not using their own. working and living."

"Now, we are being driven from the countryside to the city, from the spinning wheel to the sewer. We don't even have the right to work, and naturally we can't have wealth, let alone freedom..."

Chapter 24 Dominance ([-])

Similar pamphlets were wildly circulated among those refugees and bankrupt petty citizens in various ways.

Compared with the ideas of the Mok Party, it is difficult for these lower-level people who have not been manipulated by big factory capitalism to understand at this moment, and they cannot empathize with them. However, these propagandas are more in line with their understanding of society at this time and their vision for a better society in the future. Pursue.

Anarchy, utopia, complete freedom, and a future of family workshops seem to be within reach. Even though they have realized that labor creates wealth, even if they have begun to criticize private ownership, they are standing on the side of utopia and family workshops. Building on the cornerstone to imagine the future.

It can be said that at this moment, in the leadership of these unemployed and bankrupt peasants at the bottom, the Mexican Party has suffered a complete defeat, and has become a role similar to that of the accomplices of big businessmen and workshop owners—part of the Mexican Party and the new machine. It is directly related to the promotion and use. People throw feces and stones in front of the Institute of Practical Technology every day.

Even though I have exhausted my tongue, those things are too complicated to understand. Where there are these things, people are full of realistic hope.

Regardless of the reality at this time or the vision of the future, these are reactionary and naive, but they are the most easily understood by the bottom of the agricultural era, crude and absolutely average ideas.

Big factories have killed small handicraft workers, new agricultural machinery has killed daily farm laborers, and land mergers brought about by rising cotton prices have killed small-scale self-cultivators. The helplessness and resentment against the evil and ugliness of reality and the rapid accumulation of wealth make these thoughts like a fire ignited in the grassland.

Those radicals and conspirators who believed that Chen Jian and the Mo party had betrayed their original oath began to move around.

The time seems to be ripe, the ideas have been enriched, the program has been spread, the experience of barricade struggle has also been learned before the split, and a new generation of radical young people has grown up...

With the aid of organized bailouts and propaganda, the growing discontent finally exploded.

But before the outbreak, the long-silent Mexican party seemed to have finally unified its opinions internally and began to exert its strength.And with a more complete, patched, and improved program, it attracted the support of a large number of people, including many parties that were separated from the Progressive Alliance and re-aligned with the Mexican Party this time.

More than a thousand unemployed and urban refugees were organized to petition the county council and the sheriff's office.

The content of the petition is very simple. It is hoped that the relief charity will be transformed into a county-owned factory, which will accommodate a large number of unemployed people and engage in construction such as road construction and river digging. expropriated by factories and large land operators.

Moreover, a very detailed analysis has been made on the content. The geographical location and labor costs of Min County have determined that the levy will not damage the competitiveness of Min County's industry and commerce, etc. according to a certain percentage.

This was a resolution that Chen Jian had voted on internally before leaving Min County, and there were many internal disputes.

Nearly half of the people think that this is meaningless, and it is impossible for the other party to agree, unless everyone who can influence the mobilization organization supports it, but this may lead to retaliation, and may even be banned from legality and forced to disband .Now the strength is still very weak. In such a transitional period, since we have confirmed that we have a short-term political alliance with the big workshop owners, we should not take the initiative at this time, but give up the leading power to those big workshop owners and big businessmen, and wait until it suits us. Action, this time should not cause a rift between the two sides.In a sense, this is an inevitable trend, and we should not interfere, but wait until large factories are generally established before mobilizing the ideas we pursue.

The other half of the people think that if they don’t do it at all, then they are sorry for their beliefs. Even if this is a solution to the symptoms but not the root cause, since the time is not yet ripe, why can’t they try it, at least with those various factions What about competing for the dominance of public opinion at the bottom?Besides, now is not the time to cure the symptoms, but the time when some people have begun to promote hereditary, big family rule, slaves and aristocratic fiefdoms. At this time, if we don’t help the bourgeoisie survive, when will we wait?Besides, political alliances are political alliances, so we don’t necessarily have to give up our independence. In that case, we will lose the most important support base. We have to understand who we represent.

In the end, the two internal factions took a step back, and the looseness and naivety began to show potential big problems after passing through the early stage of pure idealism.