Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 376: The Lonely Civil Servant

At this time, Zhao Wenhua did not know that the retired emperor Zhu Houzhao had instructed Emperor Zhu Zaile to replace him with his position in the construction of the military base for the war to exterminate the Japanese.

Despite this, he is now very upset, especially when he sees Qi Jiguang, Tang Kekuan and Hu Zongxian getting along so well with each other, he feels even more indignant. This is not the result he wants to see.

The Ming Dynasty is now a prosperous country. As the central empire, even common people can eat meat for every meal and have fun every night. What's more, as senior officials of the empire and the emperor's personal soldiers, their lives are naturally more affluent.

Although this time Qi Jiguang and others went out to sea to destroy the Japanese pirates, it was not a good job like patrolling, but the daily march was not like the previous Ming army where they just had to have enough food. In addition to rooms for military purposes, the entire military train also had ready-made wine tables, theaters, restaurants with a full range of cuisines, and hospitals.

After all, the current Ming Dynasty is different from the past.

In today's era, human life is certainly not worthless. In fact, because of the affluence of life and the improvement of the national education level, human dignity has also improved a lot. In the past, it was enough to give them a full meal, but now it is not enough to just feed them. They also have to feel that they live with dignity. It is precisely because of this that more and more people in the Ming Dynasty have begun to accept the idea of ​​equality for all, and even regard this as a natural right of man, that is, human rights.

Because of this, even the military must start to improve the treatment of officers and soldiers, not just to ensure they have enough food and clothing, but also to make them feel at home and feel respected.

After decades of plundering foreign countries, the Ming Dynasty used the huge wealth it accumulated to feed the people, thereby improving people's living standards and ideological levels. They gradually regarded themselves as the masters of the country, and even the army began to advocate equality between officers and soldiers. After all, most of the soldiers now graduated from elementary schools. It was okay to ask them to obey orders, but it was certainly not okay to treat them as slaves.

Of course, for many people who still have thoughts about the hierarchical society before the Ming Dynasty, it is naturally difficult to accept such a phenomenon. Zhao Wenhua is now very uncomfortable with the scene of these soldiers wandering around in front of him without kneeling or kowtowing, especially when these soldiers take the initiative to salute and greet him with a military salute, he has to return the salute, which makes him extremely uncomfortable. He thinks that if it were in the past, why would I, the Minister of Works, need to return the salute to you soldiers.

Although Zhao Wenhua was depressed, he also knew that the entire Ming Dynasty now emphasized equality for all, and he could not go against the trend. Therefore, he could only pretend not to be angry. In order not to salute the soldiers he despised, he only sat in a secluded corner to eat alone.

But after a few days on the train, Zhao Wenhua didn't want to be so lonely without anyone to talk to. At this time, Hu Zongxian happened to come. Although he was a little dissatisfied because Hu Zongxian didn't cooperate with him to provoke the relationship between Qi Jiguang and Tang Kekuan, and even wrote a letter to Xu Jie to report Hu Zongxian, but now Hu Zongxian was still an equal civil official, so he still stood up and bowed warmly:
"Hu Jinglie, you have to eat too. Remember to come to my place after you get your meal!"

Hu Zongxian nodded, and hurriedly asked the chef in the restaurant to prepare some vegetarian dishes and a bowl of millet porridge for him, then walked towards Zhao Wenhua. Walking in the aisle, Hu Zongxian, like Zhao Wenhua, met many officers and soldiers who came to the restaurant to eat. The officers and soldiers saluted him, and he returned the salute one by one with the plate in one hand, and asked some people with a smile how the meal was.

"Hu Jinglie, you are a Jinshi, why bother with these people? Just nod your head," Zhao Wenhua said and asked Hu Zongxian to sit down in front of him.

Just as Hu Zongxian was about to sit down, he heard someone shouting from behind: "Hello, General Qi! Hello, General Tang!"

Hu Zongxian looked back and saw that Qi Jiguang and Tang Kekuan had indeed come to the restaurant and were greeting the officers and soldiers.

Upon seeing this, Hu Zongxian hurried over to greet them, and then sat directly on the window seat to the left of Zhao Wenhua together with Qi Jiguang, Tang Kekuan, and several non-commissioned officers. They ate and talked, and laughed from time to time.

Seeing this, Zhao Wenhua had no choice but to sit back and eat his meal alone. For a moment, he felt very lonely and naturally felt even more depressed.

In short, Zhao Wenhua was not used to a society without a hierarchical order. The only time he felt a little superior was when he was inspecting the project. After getting off the train and arriving at the garrison port before going out to sea, looking at the workers who were building the military camps with their heads down and their eyes lowered, Zhao Wenhua finally understood what an official was.

"Grand Marshal, the army is about to go to sea. When will the funds for the new military camp arrive? The workers we have recruited have not received their wages yet."

Yuan Zhi, the deputy envoy of Zhejiang Coast Defense who was directly in charge of the project, took advantage of the fact that Zhao Wenhua, who was in charge of the project, came here and couldn't help but ask a question.

Zhao Wenhua couldn't directly say that he had misappropriated the money and invested it in a bank to earn interest and had not yet recovered it, so he just said: "The project funds have not been allocated yet. The court affairs are complicated, how can it be so fast? Let them wait a few more days, they won't starve to death anyway!"

"You don't know, Grand Marshal, that some of these workers are farmers from Henan and Sichuan who came here just to earn some money so they can go home to send their kids to college or get married. Now there's no work here, and they've already wasted a month waiting for their wages. If they continue to do this, they'll miss out on going elsewhere to make money, and by the end of the year they won't even have enough money for the trip, let alone support their families. If they delay any further, I'm afraid there will be trouble!"

Yuan Zhi had served as an official in the local government for a long time and was also a front-line official in contact with workers. He naturally knew that since the abolition of the road permit system and the opening of the Ming Dynasty to foreign trade, most of the workers employed by the economically developed coastal areas were cheap labor from the inland. These people did not have stable jobs and followed their fellow villagers and relatives to various provinces to find work. Basically, after finishing a job, they would go to another place to work. What they feared most was having no work or wasting time on work. After all, they only stayed away for a year, and they had to go back at the end of each year whether they had money or not. Once they were delayed because of non-payment of wages, trouble would arise. After all, these people were a group of fellow villagers and relatives, and it was easy for them to cause trouble. Besides, they were all citizens of the Ming Dynasty, not slaves bought from overseas and protected by law.

Zhao Wenhua naturally knew these principles, but he really couldn't express them at the moment. In addition, he instinctively thought that since these workers were all poor farmers from the inland areas and they all had low cultural levels, they seemed to be very obedient, so he said:
"Let them make trouble. Can they rebel? Nowadays, everyone in the world has enough food and clothing, and every family is well-off. A group of workers like them can't cause any big trouble! Besides, what are the police soldiers in your area for? If they want to make trouble, just drive these uneducated and low-class people of the Ming Dynasty back to their hometowns!"

Yuan Zhi had no choice but to nod and say yes, but he still had some worries in his heart. After all, the world today is not the same as before. These common people can be killed or beaten by court officials at will, and it is fine as long as it does not provoke civil unrest. Even if it provokes civil unrest, just lie that it is bandits causing trouble, and it will be fine if they are wiped out, and they can even get some benefits from suppressing the bandits.

But the imperial court had already announced during the Zhengde period that all banditry had been eradicated, and there is a consensus throughout the country now that bandits are mostly those who have suffered injustice. Even if local officials have eradicated the bandits, they will be investigated to see if they have forced the people to become bandits. Moreover, with the current level of education, even if these people are uneducated and uneducated, there must be well-educated relatives and friends among them. Even they themselves have more or less some social school culture or even elementary school education. If they come to Beijing to file a complaint, even if you keep your official hat, you will be charged with the crime of governing the local unrest and it will be difficult for you to get promoted.

As Yuan Zhi had expected, not long after Qi Jiguang, Tang Kekuan, Hu Zongxian, Zhao Wenhua and others arrived in Songjiang Prefecture, outside the naval port, workers held up banners that read "Give me back my hard-earned money" and shouted loudly.

The soldiers guarding outside the naval port did not dare to open fire. After all, they had received national and patriotic education from the court for many years, and had the thoughts and feelings of loving the country and their compatriots. They knew that those who were causing trouble were their compatriots, and as long as they did not have weapons to attack them, they could not kill their compatriots without permission.

Zhao Wenhua obviously underestimated the power of the workers in the new era. Seeing this, he was naturally panicked and angry, because now everyone could guess that this matter was related to him, Zhao Wenhua, because he was the Minister of Works in charge of the project. "Deputy Envoy Yuan, where are your anti-explosion police officers? Send them all over to drive these workers away! If this delays the court's efforts to destroy the Japanese, can you afford it?! This is really nonsense! If necessary, kill one or two of them! Report them for collusion with the Japanese!"

Zhao Wenhua became anxious and angrily shouted at Yuan Zhi.

"Grand Marshal, these are not white slaves or black slaves causing trouble. Sending out police soldiers will only backfire, not to mention killing people. Moreover, the emperor has already issued a strict order that anyone who kills his own people without reason will be dismissed from his post, regardless of whether he is right or wrong!"

Yuan Zhi said hurriedly with some embarrassment.

But what he said was indeed correct. With the improvement of the national education level, the idea of ​​equality for all has become a consensus. Of course, in the eyes of the Ming people at that time, white slaves and black slaves were not considered human beings, so they could accept the idea of ​​equality for all. But because of this, even the people at the bottom of the Ming Dynasty dared to fight for their rights and make trouble, and some even dared to say that the worst that could happen was to overthrow the court.

In addition, officials like Hai Rui, who served as censor in the Censorate and concurrently in charge of the Huang Ming Newspaper, proposed that once mass incidents occurred in the locality, local officials should be held accountable and removed from their posts regardless of the reasons. This led to a culture in the Ming Dynasty of helping the poor but not the rich, and helping the weak but not the strong. If this matter were to become a big deal now, the workers would be fine, but Yuan Zhi would definitely lose his official position.

Zhao Wenhua was also very depressed. He didn't expect that these people were so difficult to manage. He just wanted to delay paying his wages for a longer period of time, but he couldn't even achieve this goal.

Hu Zongxian just smiled when he saw this, then walked over and whispered to Zhao Wenhua: "Grand Marshal, civil affairs are never trivial matters. This is what the Prime Minister said himself. Since the wages are owed, pay them quickly, even if it's a loan in the name of the Infrastructure Bureau!"

Zhao Wenhua did not respond to Hu Zongxian's suggestion. He thought, "It's easy for you, Hu Zongxian, to say that if I borrow money in the name of the Infrastructure Bureau, how will I explain it when the Audit Office reviews it at the end of the year? Unless I borrow money in my own name, wouldn't that mean I have to pay for the court? Then wouldn't I be just eating the interest on the project money I lent out for nothing?"

Qi Jiguang was furious when he saw the workers charging at him without fear of the soldiers' guns. He was naturally angry at Zhao Wenhua. In his opinion, if the workers really started a riot, it would ruin his plan to destroy the Japanese pirates.

Qi Jiguang couldn't help but ask Zhao Wenhua: "Grand Marshal, what's going on? You didn't pay the workers?"

"General Qi, this matter has nothing to do with you. You don't have to ask whether Zhao has paid the workers. Now these workers have trespassed into the military camp. They are obviously Japanese spies who are deliberately causing trouble. As the commander-in-chief of the three armies, shouldn't General Qi order them to be shot?"

Zhao Wenhua instead questioned Qi Jiguang.

Qi Jiguang glanced at the workers making trouble outside and suddenly shouted, "Come, capture Zhao Wenhua, who is in charge of the base construction, and chop him off!"

Qi Jiguang's order really frightened everyone present.

"Did I hear it right? Marshal Qi is going to chop off the Minister of Works Zhao Wenhua on the spot?" Hu Zongxian asked himself secretly.

Zhao Wenhua was also shocked, and then pointed at Qi Jiguang angrily: "Qi Jiguang! How dare you! You are a crude warrior, how dare you kill me? I am the Minister of Works! An official of the imperial court!"

"Since I am now the supreme military commander in the war to destroy the Japanese, and since you, Zhao Wenhua, are currently working in the army, and according to military discipline, if you create conflicts between the army and the people and affect military deployment, the commander has the power to execute you first and report later!"

As Qi Jiguang was speaking, his two guards had already pinned Zhao Wenhua down. Then, Qi Jiguang raised his hand and drew out his command knife, and chopped it down directly, accurately chopping off Zhao Wenhua's head.

Then, when everyone was stunned and even the workers who were making trouble were speechless, Qi Jiguang came to the workers with Zhao Wenhua's head in his hand and said, "I have killed the evil official who owed you wages! Please go back. Deputy Envoy Yuan will pay you all your wages within three days!"

Qi Jiguang came to Yuan Zhi and said, "Deputy Envoy Yuan, follow me to get the silver dollars!"

"Yes!"

Yuan Zhi quickly agreed. As a civil servant, he felt the majesty of a military officer for the first time. Hu Zongxian was not much better. After a while, he came to his senses and murmured, "The world has really changed! Even a civil servant like the Minister of Works can be chopped off by a military officer for violating military law!"

The workers directly killed the general in front of them, a senior official in a red robe, to vent their anger, and promised to pay their wages within three days. Naturally, they had to disperse with gratitude. Not only that, even the officers and soldiers present were more in awe of Qi Jiguang. After all, they had seen Zhao Wenhua's arrogance. Now that Marshal Qi said to chop him off, it naturally proved that Marshal Qi still had the final say in the army.

Tang Kekuan couldn't help but secretly exclaimed: "Qi, you are awesome! When I led the army decades ago, I didn't dare to kill a civil servant! Let alone a second-rank civil servant!"

Thanks to the book friend 2017090513…… 100 Qidian coins reward

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(End of this chapter)