At this time, Yucheng was also loose on the outside and tight on the inside, Qiao Yu was very worried that the people of the League would take advantage of the opportunity of the people's march to blend in and take the opportunity to develop their power, but it seemed that the control was relatively effective, and the miscellaneous people had not yet made waves.

However, with the development of the Baolu Movement, Qiao Yu also had to unify the thoughts of his subordinates, and his heart was all in one place, so Han Yong, Wang Huai, Shi Yi and other people in the army, as well as several major businessmen from the Chamber of Commerce, were invited to Baifu, and everyone sat around and began to discuss how to deal with it.

For Qiao Yu's thoughts, Han Yong and the others still have some conjectures, but Wang Dongcheng and others are different, the first thing they have to consider is to keep the current family business and avoid losses in the turmoil, so Wang Gui asked first: "Shunqing, now that the Baolu trend has swept Sichuan, we can't stay out of it, there must always be a charter to deal with, I don't know what you plan?" ”

"Boss Wang is right, now it is said that the revolutionary party is making a lot of trouble in Xichuan, and the court does not know about the suppression, but I am afraid that it will make the revolutionary party really successful, which side should we bet on? Shunqing, you give everyone an idea! Xue Shan also said on the side that these big businessmen are different from officials, they have no loyalty to the Qing Dynasty at all, what they pursue is just the maximization of interests, and there is no difference between them and later generations in this regard, as long as there are enough interests, they can abandon the Qing court at any time.

Qiao Yu took a sip of tea unhurriedly and said slowly: "Everyone, if you want to find a way to deal with it, what we have to solve in front of us are two problems, one is to what extent the current situation will evolve, and the second is what kind of society we want, about the first point I want to say is that the road protection movement is together, Sichuan is boiling like soup, most of the new army in Sichuan was taken to Yungui by Xiliang, the current military strength is very weak, there is no strength to suppress it at all, and once the army of other provinces is used, it is inevitable that the revolutionary party elsewhere will rise up, Now the minds of the people in the world have changed, especially the gentry have begun to abandon the Qing court, as long as an uprising is successful, it will cause the overall collapse of the Qing Dynasty. ”

Although the people present also suspected that the Qing Dynasty was going to die, but it was not as clear as Qiao Yu said, so they all lowered their heads and thought about it, and they didn't pay attention to it in their hearts, and Wang Dongcheng said after a while: "Shunqing, you said that this revolutionary party will succeed, do we want to support the revolutionary party?" ”

"Boss Wang's question is the second question I want to say, what kind of country do we want, you have been running a factory for a while, I think you should also find the gap between us and foreign capitalists, we don't need to be attached to any force, but should let the world revolve around us, industrial society and agricultural society are completely different, we want to break through the blockade and suppression of the great powers, the development of industry, we can't do without the support of the political axe, I want to ask you with the chaotic organization of the revolutionary party, Whether the style of the gangsters can really protect the development of industry and commerce, in addition, many leaders of the alliance are entangled with Yueben, saying that he has always regarded China as a piece of fat, will he be willing to develop China's industry? In my opinion, they can't protect everyone's interests at all when they are in power, not to mention anything else, now that the Xichuan Revolutionary Party is booming, how many merchants and shops are forced to pay money, and everyone is just a treasury in their eyes. ”

Wang Gui pondered Qiao Yu's words carefully on the side, and muttered: "Then the Qing court is going to end, and the revolutionary party can't support it, so we have only one way to stand on our own?" ”

"That's right, it is to read independently, control the regime, formulate laws and regulations in line with the interests of industry and commerce, and escort the development of industry, since ancient times, Chinese businessmen have chosen a road of collusion between officials and businessmen to develop themselves, such as the famous Jin merchants, Hui merchants, it seems that this is a shortcut, in fact, we have to endure the endless blackmail of the imperial court, in the face of the influx of Western goods, there is no resistance at all, this road has not passed, now is the time for this change, we should fight, we should not look down on themselves, The capital controlled by us has exceeded 10 million, and there is also a new army, it is not enough to compete for the world, but it is still very promising to control Sichuan, so why bother to be small in a low voice! ”

Xue Shan was afraid of his thighs and looked very excited: "Shun Qing is right, in the past, everything had to be beaten by those dog officials first, and most of the heads were honored to those turtle grandsons, and now Shun Qing leads everyone to gain the power to control taxes, and our profits have increased by nearly two percent, but it is still inevitable to be restrained, we should be bold, and the heroes of the troubled times will rise in all directions, how can we fight the world with our strength!" ”

Zhang Fuxiang also opened his mouth to support: "What Boss Xue said is good, but I don't think we need to kill all sides like in the past, the revolutionary party does not want to establish the Republic of China, as long as we control the parliament, we can completely achieve the goal!" ”

Qiao Yu was very happy when he saw that the ambitions of these big businessmen were aroused, after all, it was very convenient to get things done with their support, but it was obviously not possible to simply control the parliament, neither Beiyang nor the revolutionary party regarded the parliament in their eyes, it was just a toy, the key was to have military power, so he said: "Everyone is right, but it is not enough to control the parliament, what if others do not obey the law?" Then we need to have the army in our hands, we have local administrative power, and if anyone dares to break the rules, we will oppose him! ”

Everyone discussed again, and finally unified their opinions, Wang Dongcheng said with a smile: "Shunqing, I'm afraid you have already seen this step, step by step, it's all in your calculations, now we are all tied to your chariot, and we have to point to you for a good life plan, we will definitely fully support it!" ”

"Thank you for your trust, we have a few things to do now, one is that the original merchant group armed forces have been incorporated into the new army, and now we still have to re-expand, just wait for the time to become an official army, in addition, we have to take the local administrative power in our hands, only a few tax inspections are definitely not enough, we must completely cut off the claws of those dog officials, we can't give them a chance to exploit, and we also have to remove some unnecessary gold checkpoints!"

Lijin was originally the Qing court because of the rise of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, the original tax was simply not enough, so it had to increase the exploitation of the common people, and imposed a kind of tax burden, because of the way of taking one hundred draws, so it was called Lijin, and at the end of the Qing Dynasty, the tax was even heavier, and it had reached a tax rate of five percent or even ten percent, and it was the place of origin, transshipment, and sales all collected, and there were many privately added Lijin checkpoints, on average, there were even four or five tax cards between dozens of miles. On the one hand, the tax burden is extremely heavy, restricting commodity trafficking and pushing up prices, and on the other hand, because there are too many checkpoints, it also seriously affects the speed of goods circulation, which is a ruthless destruction of the newly developed commodity economy.

Especially after Yucheng became a commodity manufacturing base, this restriction is more obvious, cloth, matches, etc. belong to department stores, often to the outside traffic will increase the cost of more than double, or even more, seriously weakening the price advantage of the product, Qiao Yu obtained the tax supervision right before is actually mostly for this kind of indiscriminate collection of gold situation, some checkpoints have been canceled, but there are still scattered tax cards all over, everyone heard that Qiao Yu was ready to start on the gold, naturally they were very happy, and applauded.

At this moment, Wang Tianhe suddenly walked in and handed over a piece of information to Qiao Yu, Qiao Yu opened it and looked at it, and immediately frowned, he was about to do something to Li Jin, but he didn't expect someone to hit the muzzle of the gun, and it was given to himself to kill chickens and monkeys.

Qiao Yu shook the note in his hand: "Everyone, the tax supervisor we sent to Dazu County was killed, and the tax supervisor of several other counties was injured, this is a provocation to the Yucheng Chamber of Commerce, and they must pay the price!" ”