Chapter 919 Kill (Part 1)
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Although the port was not opened for a long time, Shanghai has developed into the world's largest international city, integrating finance, trade, industry, news, and publishing centers, and every move has attracted worldwide attention. If it can successfully revolt here, it will have a very strong demonstration effect on all parts of the country.
Moreover, the conservative forces here are the weakest, accepting new ideas and new concepts the best, and having the largest urban class, which are all favorable conditions for the success of the uprising. Therefore, since the beginning of the year, the leaders of the Qionglin Party members and Taizhou Party members gathered in Shanghai, and secretly planned with several groups founded in various names in Shanghai.
For example, dozens of literary associations, such as "Hushang Cultural Society", "Xiyetang", and "Zhengji Society", are the strongholds of the Qionglin Party members, while the Taizhou Party members use "Sailor's House", "Veterans Association", and "Textile Trade Union" as their strongholds.
Because this is the traditional sphere of influence of the Qionglin Party members, the Taizhou Party members also recognized that Mr. Wenfeng, Sun Jian, was the leader of the uprising, and could basically obey the orders and cooperate with the Qionglin Party members to complete the preliminary preparations.
It is no surprise that the Taizhou Party members are responsible for the mobilization of grassroots people and their infiltration of the government troops. The Qionglin faction devotes all their energy to public relations with Shanghai gentry and businessmen.
Unlike the Changsha Uprising, which mainly relies on strong folk customs and clan unity, and brute force to tear apart the soft hinterland of the Ming Dynasty, the Shanghai Uprising is more difficult. The most important reason is that although Shanghai is emerging, it is too complicated. People from all walks of life and all walks of life have completely different interests. It is difficult to arouse everyone with a slogan or a goal... The biggest possibility is that I feel that I am motivated and everyone is excited, but when I get together, I see that there are only two or three kittens, and you are collectively put on a pigeon.
This is because Shanghai has actually formed a political elite that represents its own interests, which is the gentry and business group headed by the "Eighteen Corps". In Shanghai's political territory, there is a slogan called "Those who win the gentry and business will win the world", which means that the political orientation of gentry and business determines the victory or defeat and determines the fate of Shanghai.
The word "gentle merchant" can't be found even after reading history books. It was only innovated from the Southeast in recent years. Gentlemen refers to gentry, merchant refers to merchants. In original terms, two types of people, scholars, farmers, industry and commerce, one end and one end, and merchants are particularly despised by scholars. However, in recent decades, these two enemies have become relatives since they were infamous and called "gentle merchants". They have been frequently reported in newspapers, and citizens do not think that they are different. Even the most conservative Taoist priests just shook their heads and sighed, and gave a few complaints about "the world is getting worse" and let it go.
This is because in the southeast, social concepts are earth-shaking, and it is already very common for scholars to abandon their studies and do business, and they basically have the right to speak in all walks of life. For example, the mainstream industries in Shanghai are eighteen industries...such as silk weaving, cotton spinning, pearls and jade, foreign trade, grain, books, and medicinal materials, etc., and are basically gentry and businessmen who are both Confucian and businessmen.
Of course, the so-called "Eighteen Corps" has only turned around in recent years. In the past many years, the owners of Shanghai were financial capital and had no share of industrial capital. From this perspective, they had to thank Emperor Wanli. If there were no such devastating financial storm, how could the nine masters disappear? They still served tea and water and were destined to make a small life.
The bone-broken economic winter also objectively requires all walks of life to join forces to keep warm. In this financial crisis, the gentry and businessmen were naturally deeply affected, but they had factories, workers, and goods. These were capital, but they could not produce benefits for the time being.
More importantly, the debts and shareholders' equity that were pressed on them were also frozen, which allowed them to avoid being crushed by maturing debts and temporarily get rid of the control of financial capital... Various reasons have led to the unprecedented expansion of the strength of the business association, so these people have the opportunity to come out and hold on to the powerful.
However, gentry and businessmen have constant property and are afraid of destruction, so they are eager to eliminate the mining supervision and taxation, overcome the economic crisis, and do not want large-scale violence, nor do they want to be classified as a rebel. It is definitely not easy to convince these contradictory and hesitant guys.
Until the eve of the First Rebellion in Changsha, the King of the Ten Yuesuns Wang Yin convened the first gathering of the Eighteenth Guilds on the grounds of "consulting countermeasures and overcoming difficulties together". The meeting was held on Chongming Island, and the content was absolutely confidential. People can only see that after the First Return of the Eighteenth Guilds, their attitude changed significantly.
Although they did not dare to call for tax resistance and incitement alone, they adopted relatively strategic measures to encourage Shanghai citizens to oppose the mine supervision and taxation envoy. In the newspapers under their name, they boldly exposed the corruption, tyranny and tragic behavior of mine supervision and taxation envoys in various places; they reported on the severe famines in various places in the Ming Dynasty, especially in the southeast, and pointed out that many cities had lost all the bark and grass roots, and even had tragic situations of vegetation. The reason was not due to natural disasters, but also due to man-made disasters. The reason was not due to natural disasters, but also due to man-made disasters.
Once these scholars who are business-oriented and are experiencing the pain of the financial crisis have made up their minds, their political views are more radical than those purely literati. They keep publishing articles calling for the protection of private property, and suggesting to imitate Luzon to open a consultative parliament to listen to public opinion and establish a rational political system. Although they hate the levy of levy led by eunuchs, they do not blindly deny the commercial tax. Instead, they call on the court to establish the Tax Law on the basis of following the contract, determine the tax rate, and collect taxes reasonably and legally... Under the levy of levy of levy by the mine supervisor, this is already a huge concession.
However, these rational discussions with the meaning of concession and seeking peace will still cause persecution and suppression by Dongchang. In May, Dongchang launched a large-scale seizure operation, seizure all newspapers that promoted "reactionary remarks" and arrested hundreds of editors and editors.
However, the support of ordinary people gave the gentry and businessmen strong confidence. They said at various gatherings: "The newspaper is suspended, which means that the people's eyes are dug up, but we still have mouths, we still have to appeal and resist." The fact is true, there are no legal newspapers, but all kinds of flyers that don't spend money are flying all over the sky... And not only is the layout roughly the same as the original newspaper, but its propaganda style is also in line with each other, and because there are monks but no temples, the content is more radical and bold.
Some leaflets happily criticized: "Now the country is at risk, the people are about to die, and there will be a great disaster for the country to be destroyed. Who will do this? The evil court and the crazy eunuchs will be the crime of causing such evil phenomena. It is almost the best to be in the heaven's way."
Some articles even openly claim that China has been in a vicious cycle of standing still for two thousand years, with its national strength unpredictable and its nation is increasingly sluggish, and it is even caught up by the Thai country. The root cause is to dependent on the welfare and life of trillions of people on one family. The so-called wealth is only three generations, and prosperity is only a hundred years, and the successor of "why not eat meat" will definitely appear... This clearly points the finger at Emperor Wanli, who can cause a series of crises.
After the First Rebellion of Changsha, these leaflets even further demonstrated the justice of the uprising to the citizens, indicating that the uprising was for the people, with strict discipline, and was not a rebellion. It also reported that after the uprising in Changsha, the merchants and the people lived in peace and business without any hindrance. "All internal governance is extremely orderly, and all external civilizations are all civilized". It played an important role in promoting the uprising and eliminating the concerns of the people.
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The people in the East Factory were not blind and deaf, and they were trying their best to collect leaflets and track down the source. However, Shanghai was so big, the printing locations were flexible and scattered, and the protection of citizens was so exhausting. After the first rebellion of Changsha, Qiu Yi, the big rebellion of Shanghai Dongchang, realized that something was going to be bad. He decided to take the initiative first and seize all the gentry and merchants in Shanghai, so as not to repeat the mistakes of Changsha.
However, Shanghai is too big, and relying solely on the staff of Dongchang and the Tax Department is far from enough, so he found Lu Kun and hoped that the government office would send city defense troops to be responsible for the periphery, but Lu Kun refused on the grounds that he needed to ask for instructions.
Qiu Yi knew that Lu Kun was not the same group of gentry and businessmen, but the members of Jiujiu. In the upcoming showdown, Jiujiu had an ambiguous attitude and seemed to have no intention of participating, so Qiu Yi did not want to break up. After obtaining the promise that Lu Kun would never help the rebellion, he left the Shanghai government office... Without the butcher of the king, he had to eat a pig with hair, so he decided to do it alone.
Looking at Eunuch Qiu who was leaving, and thinking about the gentlemen and merchants who called the wind and rain, Lu Kun felt a soreness in his nose and almost burst into tears. In such a great era of storms, the nine masters actually shrank in the corner and watched others appear. The country has not had such a miserable life for two hundred years.
But he didn't have time to be sad, and there were a few great gods waiting for his news behind him. He quickly packed up his feelings and walked towards the backyard of the government office.
Through the layers of guards, Lu Kun came to the study lightly, and the man in Confucian robe standing at the door bowed, "I'll let Brother Ziqian report..."
"No need, elders are waiting for you, go in." The eldest grandson of the Wu family, who is known as Brother Ziqian, is the eldest grandson of the Wu family, who is the leader of the Nine Universities. At this moment, he acts as the gatekeeper. You can imagine who there are people inside.
Lu Kun was a little nervous, tidy up his clothes, took a deep breath, and reported to the opposite side softly, then slowly pushed the door and walked in.
A lean camel is bigger than a horse, and the decorations in the study are luxurious but not tacky. Five chairs with red sandalwood cushions are sitting on five ordinary-dressed octogenarians, some are smoking, some are not smoking, and half-deadly sitting there without any anger.
Lu Kun did not dare to be careless at all, and did not raise his head, and bowed respectfully, "Boy Lu Kun pays homage to all the elders." Yes, these five half-dead old men are the five elders of the legendary Presbyterian Church of the Nine Universities, the real core figures of the Nine Universities.
"Get up..." The one sitting in the middle was Wu Fengyuan, the head of the Wu family. In the late Jiajing year, Shen Mo invited the heads of the nine families to gather together. He was also the executive member of Huilian, a young and powerful figure. Eighteen years have passed, and Wu Fengyuan has long given the position of the executive member to his eldest son, and retired to the Presbyterian Church, and has not been concerned about the world at will.
The other elderly people are in similar situations. If they hadn't been at this critical moment that was related to survival, they would not have come out of their nests and gathered in Shanghai.
After hearing Lu Kun’s report, Wu Fengyuan sighed softly: “It’s not good to be able to make the appearance.”
"Yes." Lu Kun nodded and replied softly: "But it is also a blessing to sit in the mountains and watch the tiger fight."
"This is not what the elite children of my nine families should say." Zheng Liren, the Supreme Master of the Zheng family, had a hot temper and said without giving face: "There is no pride at all, so why are you talking about revival?"
"Their generation is so bad." Wang Mengxiang, the Supreme Master of the Wang family, said sadly: "I am better. After all, I have opened up a desert in Nanyang. His peers, especially those born in the legitimate family, are still young in our difficult times. When they grow up, the years are so good. The business is going thousands of miles a day, and everyone in the circle is so popular. As a result, they are all confused and think that they are too capable. I am the best in the world. But when we let go, what will happen? They are all scams."
The reason why the nine masters fell sharply in the financial crisis and had no ability to resist is directly related to their over-obsessed with the magic of finance and their extreme despisation of the real economy for more than ten years. The young elites all admire Yin Ruohan's dazzling financial operations and believe that this is the magic hand that controls the world. As for managing the real economy, it should be the hard and tiring of ordinary people who flock to make a living... The two are as clear as the gentry and common people in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and are completely different.
When this generation took over the power of the family, they did not hesitate to liquidate the family's physical business, and only controlled the direction of the entire industry by controlling or holding shares, and no longer involved in the operation of a certain enterprise. The wealth of the nine masters did expand rapidly in this way - the deposits in the account reached astronomical figures, as well as massive commercial bonds and equity certificates...
No one denies that this is a real wealth. However, as soon as Huilian was banned and the financial crisis came, they found that they only had underwear left... The accumulation of two hundred years of aristocratic families disappeared in an instant, and they fell into a tragic situation that was pointed by thousands of people. Everything was a doomsday scene. This hit them too much, and their self-confidence collapsed, and they made repeated mistakes, which forced the old guys to come out again.
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"Remember, boy Lu," Wu Fengyuan said in a deep voice: "Our hundred-year-old families can even be traced back to the southern crossing of the Northern Song Dynasty. Over the past few hundred years, the disasters we have suffered are no more than now? But after the emperor changed three families, we are still here. What do we rely on for the lush branches and leaves? The foundation of the aristocratic family."
After hearing Elder Wu's words, Lu Kun felt a little bloody and his eyes were a little wet. The long-extinguished fighting spirit seemed to be back...
segmentation
Chapter completed!