In the grass hall, the summer sun shone through the glass window covered by light gauze, which should have been warm, but Li Xi and Li Xiangyu's hearts were blown by the cold wind.

"Rare people, Japanese prisoners, Nanyang natives, Kunlun slaves, and Tianzhu natives, these are all legal transactions, and the national law cannot take care of these outsiders. But the northerners, and even our Yinghua people, still have a large number of cases of slavery, and these things are only the tip of the iceberg when they are exposed......"

Wang Shishen was talking eloquently, he came with a stack of account books, involving the Anjia industry to buy and sell northerners as slaves, and the Dongguan Huaxing Silk Reeling Mutual Aid Association run by the Anjia side branch was a cover. In the name of recruiting workers, they kept going in and out of the northern labor slaves, and transferred to other industries and even the plantations in the South Seas. This stack of ledgers records the entry and exit of the Huaxing Silk Reeling Mutual Aid Society, which was the branch of the Triad in Yinghua. Because of the large business dealings with the An family, the triad ships directly to the deity.

The frequent population transfer of Huaxing Silk Reeling Mutual Aid Association has attracted the attention of relevant parties. However, because the procedures are complete, the government is estimated to have been punished, and it does not involve the countrymen or even the local people, so there is no detailed investigation. However, some newspapers did not give up, and this stack of ledgers was snatched up by the undercover agents sent by the "Orthodox" newspaper. Although Dark Fang was killed by the thugs of the Huaxing Silk Reeling Mutual Aid Association, the account book fell into the hands of the people and was then transferred to Wang Shishen.

The incident involving the settlement of the family has already made Li Shi's heart tremble, and the human trafficking that Wang Shishen mentioned is a big net, which has all the criminal behaviors that Li Shi originally thought were just scattered contacts, and the vague feeling before has also come true.

For most of the past six months, Wang Shishen has been deeply involved in preparing for the "Abolition of Slavery Law." He said that it is not just overseas. The mainland is also employing artificial slaves on a large scale, and a huge industry has been formed, which not only corrupts benevolence and morality, but also lays many hidden dangers for a country.

Li Xiangyu was puzzled and said that although the state had not enacted a special law on the abolition of slavery. However, the previous "Personal Life Law" has clearly stipulated that not only shall no Chinese people be slaves, but also no slaves shall be kept within the borders of the country. The personal deeds of the old dynasty have all been abolished, including the former Tan people, who are no longer slaves, how can there still be so many "worker slaves"? As long as someone tells the government. The owner of the property has to go to court.

Wang Shishen explained that the so-called "worker slaves" are just a metaphor, and they are indeed not slaves in the past. However, the "Personal Status Law" only set the spirit and abolished slavery, but did not set up a special French language to control the actual act of slavery.

It is easy for buyers and sellers to circumvent the Personal Status Law, and there are two main ways. One is a voluntary long-term contract, through explicit and covert terms. Let long-term workers only get a meager salary, barely able to survive. The contract period is ten or even twenty years, and all the most energetic years of the worker slave have to serve the industry, and the cost of repenting the contract is beyond the reach of any worker slave.

This approach is still scattered in the country. After all, public opinion in the country is very sensitive to the oppression of the countrymen, and the lawyers also like to use such things as a ladder to make a name for themselves, and to fill in the loopholes in the French procedures, so that the cost of the workers' slaves being powerless is even higher than the profits of the workers' slaves, so this kind of treatment is mostly enjoyed by the northerners.

Another avenue that has just emerged in the country is the "labor company". Such companies hold the personal freedom of the slaves by means of usury, and then "rent" them to the relevant industries, and the middle industry only pays the labor companies. In this way, the sin of direct exploitation of the slaves was avoided. The labor company is also legal from a legal point of view, and it has a loan relationship with the workers and slaves, and the specific oppression behavior is the work of the industry, which also avoids the supervision of national law.

Human trafficking organizations such as the Triad sold the northerners to the south, and labor companies such as the Huaxing Silk Reeling Mutual Aid Society were transferred to other industries, thus forming a chain of interests for the workers and slaves. According to Wang Shishen's investigation. At present, there are no less than 100 such labor companies in the country, and it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of northerners are trafficked every year. If you add in the number of foreigners who buy and sell overseas. The human trafficking industry in Britain and China involves more than one million people every year, and the "output value" is at least 10 million taels. …,

Li Xi also knew something about the "labor company" that took advantage of the loopholes in the law, but he thought that it was only a piecemeal operation, but he did not expect that because the north and the south joined hands, human trafficking had formed a big net by taking advantage of this loophole......

"It's amazing, we just want to find the truth of forcing people to become prostitutes, but what we don't want to find is the truth of forcing people to be slaves."

Li Shi said this to Li Xiangyu, who also had fear and anger in his eyes, and the latter pursed his cherry lips and looked back at him expectantly, waiting for him to make a statement, just like Wang Shishen.

"This matter is also the aftermath of the currency reform......

Li Shi pondered for a long time before he spoke, he didn't respond positively, and first talked about the new currency system in full swing in the country. The "British and two" fiat currencies have been widely issued, because they tie together the financial credit of the state and the people, and the new banknotes are unhindered in the country. But with this comes inflation, and the prices of basic necessities are rising. Changmi one stone has risen by 50% compared with five years ago, and has rebounded to the level of one stone and one tael in the Yongzheng period. As a result, the wage of laborers has gradually risen, and the wage of ordinary cotton spinners in Jiangnan has reached more than two taels a month.

The industrial and commercial class, especially the emerging industrial class, under the pressure of the rapid increase in labor, on the one hand sought new technologies with the steam engine as the core to improve productivity, and on the other hand, also reduced labor under the existing conditions.

"The cause of abolition must continue to advance, but it is absolutely impossible to treat everyone equally inside and outside. If outsiders are not oppressed, domestic industry and commerce will fall in large numbers, and Nanyang and Western plantations can only succeed by relying on foreign labor slaves. ”

Li Shi repudiated Wang Shishen's radical line, and the Moxican Confucian Party he represented wanted to borrow the abolition of slavery and cultivate "benevolence". The so-called "heart of the world, the four seas of the world", both inside and outside. Yinghua Qingliu held high the banner of "benevolence-oriented", and wanted people to have no internal and external affairs, only to the domestic benevolence and foreign affairs, such as other matters are also attributed to internal affairs, both internal and external to morality, so that "Qingliu" can grasp the authority of a country by virtue of the moral high ground, this is a line to seize power through uniformity, not Li Xian's wishes.

Wang Shishen was not convinced: "But the distinction between inside and outside has to be calculated, and the northerners can't be classified as outsiders." The northerners are compatriots, and if they are also oppressed like this, it will not only be unbenevolent and righteous, but also ruin Your Majesty's great cause of recovering his homeland day by day. It will also corrupt the hearts and minds of the people in the country. The northerners with the same culture and the same clan can act arbitrarily, and the oppression of the poor southerners will also have less scruples. The minister knew that the labor company was not only trafficking in outsiders and northerners, but even southerners began to be coerced. ”

"There are people who have fallen into this big pit all the time. There will be no day of resurrection. Over time, it spreads to a country, and it is the trend of a chaotic country! ”

Wang Shishen said this in his mouth, and what he thought of in his heart was Zhu Yigui. The more Chinese people are harmed by the new world, the more harmful Zhu Yigui's remarks will be. The emperor's painstakingly managed pattern of authority. There is a danger of collapse.

Li Xian sighed in his heart, fortunately, there was no Northern Expedition yet, and he dominated the world. Although the northerners are compatriots, they are still only moral, not legal. At this time, Yinghua had recovered the whole land, the south industry and commerce were developed, and the resources and population of the north had become the object of exploitation. Even if there is a national law to support it, it is still inevitable that the north and the south will be separated. Twenty years later, there may be another abolitionist war that divides the North and the South.

Before recovering the soil, it was much more comfortable to face this problem. There are still a few years, on the one hand, to ease the hearts of the people in the north and south. On the one hand, it devours Tianzhu and transfers the harm of southern industry and commerce to Tianzhu as much as possible, and at the same time, there are still a few years to push up machinery and chemical technology and other technologies to accommodate new industries.

As for the current situation, let's drag it out if we can......

If you want to delay, you have to appease Wang Shishen and make a plan. Li Shi said to Wang Shishen: "I have to look at this matter separately, the north and the south have joined forces to trade slaves on a large scale. You can't just cut on me Yinghua. The root cause of this matter was also in the north of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and Chen Wance's North-South Affairs Department was making preparations for the restoration of the land, and the Qing could consult with him to urge the Chinese people to examine the differences between the North and the South, so that the Chinese people could understand the harm of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. If the people's hearts can clarify the differences between the Manchus and the northerners, and then form a trend of pity for the northerners. I can stop this evil tide. ”…,

Wang Shishen bowed down in admiration, and the emperor's vision of this matter was really unusual. Starting from the hearts of the people and preparing for the return of the homeland, this tide can inspire the sympathy of the Chinese people for the northerners, and the industry and commerce have to be restrained under this tide. There is no need to directly attack one's own side, that is, industry and commerce, to curb the general trend of slave trafficking, which is also in line with the emperor's principle of governing differently from internal and external.

Li Xi continued, "The persecution of the Chinese people is the other side, this matter has national law, the secretary can use the power of the Eastern Court to beat the industry and commerce, and there is also a big lawyer, I think the lawyers will also be very interested in this kind of case that can eat meat from the industry and commerce......"

Li Shi pointed at Li Xiangyu, who nodded excitedly, the emperor's attitude was of course a good thing for the lawyers' association.

Wang Shishen asked with some hesitation: "Huaxing Silk Reeling Mutual Aid Association involves an family, Your Majesty ......?"

Li Xian said: "I said bluntly to you, the settlement family has made great contributions to the country, and in the years of the Heavenly King's Mansion, the An family not only did not enjoy profits, but also paid a lot to help me settle the Dingding, not to mention that An Wei had just died in the Western Regions. In the public, I can also forgive the guilty, and in the private, I have not mentioned this matter, and there are also my faults. I have to be held accountable. ”

Wang Shishen changed color slightly, frowned, and said: "Your Majesty wants to protect the An family, for fear of damaging the reputation of the Qing family......"

Li Shi shook his head: "I am not a cover, but a shelter, you can supervise the law and the court to handle this case, see how much responsibility the An family has, and then I will take it down again, even if I issue an edict, I will not retreat." ”

Wang Shishen pondered for a moment, and then bowed: "Your Majesty's move is to take care of both love and law, and the ministers are convinced. ”

Li Xian said in a deep voice: "I am not a pretentious king, I really ask for a name, and I can enforce the law impartially." I, the emperor, is no longer the father of the old world, but must have the responsibility of a mortal. Settle down in my kindness, meritorious service to the country, I will find a way not to hinder the law of the country. As for what damage to my own reputation, I deserve it. ”

On the one hand, Li Xiangyu listened quietly, her eyes flowing, full of admiration.

Li Shi arranged this matter, but a big stone in his heart did not land, pushing the Chinese people to re-examine the changing history of the Ming and Qing dynasties, which is a very risky action. When he returned to Jiangnan that year, when he was in Jiangnan to pay tribute to the martyrs of Jiangnan to resist the Qing Dynasty, he triggered a wave of hostility to the Manchurian bannermen. Fortunately, after the industrial and commercial boom, people's hearts were not in the changing times.

This movement of the hearts and minds was originally planned, and he must seek the support of the people's hearts and minds every day, and this movement is needed. It is a bit early to start this matter now, but it is not so, and the slave trade movement in the north and south will become more and more violent, and not only will the force of the rebound be more violent, but the industry and commerce will also suffer more fiercely.

It's just that the pattern of a country has been formed, and the hearts of the people in the country are no longer the objects that can be rubbed at will in the early years.

After Wang Shishen left, Li Xian thought about it and made a decision, and instructed Li Xiangyu, who played his little secretary again: "Go and recruit the bachelors of the Hanlin Academy, and then send letters to the heads of the colleges and the editors-in-chief of the newspapers......"

Bringing together the national policy advisory bodies, intellectuals, and public opinion circles to make this people's movement as controllable as possible is the best plan Li Xi can think of.

Just when Li Shi was recruiting people from all walks of life, in a teahouse somewhere in Tokyo, Zhu Yigui's voice echoed in the ears of the chief writers of many newspapers: "This is a great opportunity!" We need to set off a wave of people's hearts in the country and cleanse those evil and virtuous forces that are causing harm to the world! ”

And at the entrance of the Tokyo Law Office, a rich and noble son in a melon skin hat was talking to the newspaper writers around him with a red face, I don't know if he was too excited, or he was out of tune, and his speech was also reversed: "The eldest princess slapped the villain with her own hands, and the villain woke up!" The villain admires Daying, and can't wait to join Daying as a slave and a servant, it is the eldest princess who makes the villain II a man! The law of England is above, and the villain confesses! ”