"We want jobs, we want lives!"

"We can't let the steam engine smash our jobs anymore! Ban the steam engine! ”

"Your Majesty is gracious, the court is gracious, shut down these harmful factories!"

Thousands of ragged weavers gathered together and surrounded the Shengyuan Weaving Factory, or the Shen Family Weaving Factory, the source of this incident, they were all relatively old, and many of them were elderly, but everyone did not care about these at this time, they roared loudly and moved towards the factory.

However, only a moment later, a large number of weavers poured out of the factory, also with clubs in their hands, and under the leadership of some fierce guards, they directly blocked the gate of the factory, their expressions were complicated, but their steps were equally determined.

A strong man with a shaved head squeezed through the crowd, and he walked towards the factory gate with a slight coldness on his face, and a long musket in his hand, and walked towards the weavers step by step.

The weavers looked at the figure of the strong man, and then at the musket in his hand, but they couldn't help but retreat to the rear, and they began to whisper among them, and even secretly called the strong man's nickname, Tie Erniu, this person was a local

Tie Erniu looked at the weaver who was slowly retreating, but he spat in the palm of his hand fiercely, and said disdainfully: "A group of egg-like eggs, grandpa is standing here, see what tricks you can come up with!" When the GIs arrive, you'll all have to be beheaded!" ”

When the crowd heard that a soldier was coming, there was an uproar, and the faces of the weavers behind them suddenly showed a little fear, they dared to come to make trouble in the factory, and they were completely forced to helpless, and they felt more or less that this was just a place for those merchants, but they didn't expect to be hooked up with the imperial court.

It's just that everyone hasn't retreated, if they just leave, I'm afraid that next time they won't be able to gather people to come, and then they will be beaten upside down, so the two sides are so deadlocked, it seems that there are some taboos on both sides, and no one dares to do it first, but the scene is becoming more and more tense.

At this moment, Shen Weijun, the eldest young master of the Shen family, was standing in the small building of his factory, looking at everything that happened at the gate of the factory through the glass, with an indifferent expression.

"These untouchables have eaten the bear's heart and leopard guts, and now they all dare to crash into the factory, if the eldest young master doesn't let me take people down, I will have to beat these bastards here sooner or later. Let them dare to come to our factory! ”

Chunsan stood aside cautiously, but he said some cruel words in his mouth, the flesh on his face swayed, and the whole person seemed to be a lot fatter than five years ago.

Shen Weijun still seems to be the same as he was back then, but his eyes are full of sophistication and maturity that he didn't have back then, he stood by the window, quietly listening to the noisy sounds, and didn't pay attention to Chunsan.

Seeing that his young master didn't speak, Chunsan's voice naturally became smaller and smaller, he didn't dare to continue to say it below, and the whole room instantly fell into silence, but the cold sweat on Chunshan's face kept flowing down.

"Did you send someone to the police station to report the crime?"

Shen Weijun finally opened his mouth, he asked, walked to the desk, opened the drawer inside, and took out a stack of documents from it, on which were densely written fly-headed letters.

Chun San hurriedly wiped the cold sweat on his head and said in a low voice, "Young Master, I have already sent someone to the police station just now...... They...... They should be there right away. ”

Shen Weijun didn't seem to hear it, he slammed the document in his hand on the table, and the snow-white paper was suddenly scattered all over the ground.

"What do you eat? When you shouldn't have invited the police, you had to invite someone to come, and something happened, and now you are asked to call the police earlier, but it is so late, what kind of pig brain do you have? ”

Shen Weijun's face suddenly turned red, and he roared in a low voice, "Do you know how much I have to pay to cover things up this time?" But now that things are getting bigger and bigger, how will it end? ”

"Young Master......." Chun San muttered, he was originally a servant-born character, but he had just learned some ability to do things a little bit with Shen Weijun this year, but after all, he had no eyesight, so that he was in such a passive situation now.

Shen Weijun sighed softly, he bent down again to pick up the papers, but at this time, there seemed to be a commotion outside the factory, which made him stand up again and look out of the door, but just this glance made him no longer have the strength to stand.

It turned out that at this time, many soldiers had come from outside the courtyard, they were dressed in neat military uniforms, carrying muskets, and began to enter the factory in an orderly manner.

"It's over...... It's really going to be over this time......."

Shen Weijun's whole body seemed to be a little weak, and he almost immediately thought of the day of the scholar turmoil, a large number of soldiers came out of the streets and alleys, and they took those soldiers away one by one, and the whole process was just like today, orderly but very ruthless.

That long-lost sense of powerlessness completely controlled Shen Weijun, and he collapsed on the chair all of a sudden.

..........

In the imperial study, Ning Yu looked at the letter presented by Xue Haiyun in front of him, and his heart was more or less mixed, but he was also a little relieved.

For the entire Dachu officialdom, almost everyone thinks that Xue Haiyun is an upright true gentleman, he is extremely upright, even if he is often ridiculed as pedantic, even if even Ning Yu has the idea of deposing him several times, but Xue Haiyun has never changed.

Finally, today, what Xue Haiyun did finally told Ning Yu a little, he didn't believe the wrong person.

"Your Majesty, Minister Xue Haiyun, although industry and commerce can strengthen the country, but the minister thinks that the flesh and blood of the people must not be watered, and I implore Your Majesty to issue a decree to restrict the industrial and commercial service of the people too much, and should set laws and regulations to stipulate the scope of the people's work, so as to achieve the progress of the people and the prosperity of the people."

In this book, Xue Haiyun did not demand the removal of the steam engine as before, but put forward a new proposition, that is, that the people were servants of industry and commerce, and that there should be a law to help them, and that all workers' working hours and job protection should be required, and that it was necessary to introduce an age limit for workers, prohibiting men under the age of 16 from entering the factory.

Seeing that this letter was not so perfect, Ning Yu was a little emotional, if the bills to protect the rights and interests of workers in later generations were the result of the perseverance of those workers, but now Xue Haiyun is really thinking about the people, when he realized that the country's progress is inseparable from the prosperity of industry and commerce, he did not try to reverse all this, but proceeded from reality to protect the rights and interests of workers as much as possible.

In fact, in later history, the process of industrialization in Britain was more cruel than imagined, more bloody than all written records, in short, the rise of the British Industrial Revolution was essentially based on the corpses of countless child laborers.

Before the Industrial Revolution in Britain, British workers at that time were mainly handicrafts, and the typical industry was the textile industry, and in the early textile industry, many handicraft families could not rely on plush weaving to support themselves, so they gradually became hired families of merchants in the purchase of raw materials, and in the primitive family production, children began to gradually join the labor.

Of course, during the period of family production, when parents arrange for their children to work, they will appropriately adjust the intensity and time of work according to the age of the child, so that this process is not so cruel.

However, during the Industrial Revolution, due to the large-scale application of machines, and the use of machines did not require excessive skills of workers, a large number of female and child laborers replaced relatively expensive male workers at lower prices, so the so-called apprenticeship system, which was mainly for children, became the de facto employment system at that time.

Secondly, when it comes to textile work, the main work is the wiring head, which does not require much skill, only a sufficiently flexible finger to do it, so that children are more suitable for this kind of work than adults, which makes a large number of children from parish apprentices and poor families enter the factory and become the main productive force.

Over time, child labor has grown to account for two-thirds or more of the factory workforce, and many children are so tired that they can't even take off their clothes, but the wages they receive are difficult to feed them.

Under this harsh working environment and oppressive management system, a large number of child laborers died in factories, and a large number of occupational diseases, resulting in the average life expectancy of child laborers reaching a ten-point level, which had to lead the British government to introduce the earliest labor law, the "Apprentice Health and Ethics Act", to protect the survival of child laborers.

In fact, even without Xue Haiyun's letter, Ning Yu is also preparing to introduce a labor decree at this time to protect the rights and interests of workers, but if this matter is done by Xue Haiyun, it is actually more appropriate, and his identity is more suitable to do this.

The reason is also very simple, with the gradual rise of industrialization, the power of industrial capital will also begin to play a role, and all the problems that arise in this process are essentially the reasons for the mismatch of the system, so Ning Yu hopes to start from the institutional side and guide the people to make their voices heard.

After all, no power in the world is created out of thin air, and only after a full struggle can it truly glow with strong combat effectiveness, and this is by no means something that Ning Yu's gift can bring.