Episode 10 "Bright World"

After Niu Zhongqing came out, he immediately called all the officials under him, and everyone worked together to raise money. Those who usually follow the penny are now bleeding.

As soon as several henchmen and subordinates heard this number, they all shouted first, shouting that this Master Mu is too dark, this is simply a robbery! No wonder it's called "Mu Laohu"!

But except for a few henchmen, the other officers in the factory who are not too close to him will be suspicious, and slowly begin to wonder if it is a trap set by Lord Niu, using this as a cover to extort everyone's money? Anyway, we can't ask Master Mu how much money he wanted.

Niu Zhongqing gradually saw suspicion in the eyes of these people. He couldn't care about the majesty of his superiors, so he stood up and shouted:

"Why, do you suspect that I lied to you? Tell you, I, Niu Zhongqing, swear to God here, 1.6 million, this is the amount that Lord Mu wants, if I, Niu Zhongqing, say a penny more, tell me to raid my house and destroy the door! …… Why bother? We've all worked together for so many years, and after this hurdle, we still have to work together, so why should I do this kind of thing for a few dollars? Look, look, in the morning, in order to enter the door of Mu Laohu, I gave away my jade brand of more than 2,000 oceans as a door bag! …… Why bother? ”

As soon as he said this, several of his henchmen and subordinates echoed and sighed, and although the rest of them did not believe it immediately, they did not write their doubts on their faces.

A group of officials immediately began to discuss how to make up the money. These people caught the most, that is, the factory director Niu Zhongqing. But although he has a lot of wealth, most of them have already bought real estate deeds, and now the "living money" in his account is only more than two million. Of course, even if he can take the money alone, he absolutely does not want to. Then he would have fished for nothing for so many years.

Niu Zhongqing was the first to cry poor. As soon as he cries poor, the people below must be poorer than crying. As a result, after some discussion, only more than 400,000 yuan was made. That's not far from it.

Niu Zhongqing saw that it couldn't be done, and took the lead in taking out 300,000 yuan. Then the following dozen officials also reluctantly made it difficult, and each of them added a few more, bringing together more than 900,000. This adds up to only 1.3 million. It's 300,000 short of 1.6 million.

However, no matter how much they mobilize, no matter how they are reasonable, emotional, and good, no one is willing to come up with another piece of money.

There are 400,000 left, and it is definitely unrealistic to let Niu Zhongqing pay it alone. It was worse than peeling his skin. 300,000 oceans is enough for him to work hard and greed for half a year.

Just when the "donation" was at an impasse, a confidant proposed:

"My lord, this is our factory's business, just we bleed, should we also let those workers bleed?"

As soon as these words came out, there was silence on the spot. Everyone is thinking, those workers only earn one or two oceans a month, how can they bleed?

The henchman continued:

"My lord, there are more than 10,000 workers in our factory, and our annual salary is more than 100,000 yuan. Now the second half of last year has not been paid, and the salary for this year is still in our hands, adding up to more than 200,000 yuan. Even if they voluntarily donated these 200,000 to support the imperial court's expansion of military production, there will be more than 1.5 million if they add it, and the remaining tens of thousands, let's just make it up, how can we not make up 1.6 million! What do you say, sir? ”

When Niu Zhongqing heard this, he was a little moved. He also knew that his subordinates often deprived workers of wages. He didn't like that little money himself, but his subordinates did it, and he didn't stop it, and those workers didn't make any trouble.

But this time it seems to be a bit big, more than 10,000 workers in the whole factory, a year and a half of wages, and all of them are deducted, will there be trouble?

Unlike him, his subordinates agreed, and everyone happily urged him to do so. This arsenal is like a shrunken Qing Dynasty, these officials are the rulers, the workers are the common people, and the soldiers are the organs of violence. It is common sense that the common people of the Qing Dynasty are like a flock of sheep, swallowing their anger and accepting it. It's the same both inside and outside the walls of the arsenal.

Ordinary people, as long as they have a little way to live, they will not get up and make trouble. Although the wages were "voluntarily" donated, the factory still managed to eat and live!

Niu Zhongqing originally felt that he couldn't afford to force more than 10,000 workers to be anxious for more than 200,000 oceans. But he thought for a while, what if the workers were in a hurry? Can't be how. It's nothing more than putting up with it. can't help but commit suicide, anyway, the Great Qing Kingdom is a place where they can redress their grievances. Three-year-olds know this. Surely there is no worker who wants to rebel for a year's wages.

"Whoever doesn't want to be dissatisfied with the court," Niu Zhongqing also made up his mind, gritted his teeth and said, "It's slandering the court, and it's the heart of Nanming." ”

Even if the workers make trouble, they can be caught, dozens or hundreds. If they are caught, they can also let their families send money.

In this way, the officials were happy. More than 200,000 oceans are considered to have saved them.

……

In the evening, when the Arsenal was open, the workers' canteens were as usual crowded and noisy, with foul mouth, swearing, laughing, and the sound of tinkling local lunch boxes. Everyone was lining up, pushing and shoving.

Vegetable wotou, porridge, pickles, this is the general standard of living of the workers of the Qing Dynasty.

But somehow, gradually the cafeteria fell silent. A soldier with a gun on his back stood in the middle of the hall of the cafeteria, holding a piece of paper and reading something.

The canteen was very large, and the sound could not be heard far away, and the workers were staring at each other and quietly asking each other. However, the deathly silence soon spread from the center to the entire cafeteria. After being completely still, only the last words of the soldier were heard:

“…… I guarantee that I will never turn back. ”

Then the soldier shook the paper and said in a loud voice:

"Okay, that's it, I'll give each of you one at once, sign it and collect it...... No one can fail to sign it, and no one is allowed to sign a fake name...... I'll tell you, these tricks don't work! If you don't sign it, your wages won't reach you...... You're still against the imperial court...... Why bother? ”

The cafeteria was even more silent, and no one spoke. The large canteen of one or two thousand people seemed to have no one at the moment, like a large morgue.

"Your salary won't reach you", everyone heard. Based on a lot of experience, everyone understands what is going on. I have to volunteer again.

"Dang Chang Chang", out of nowhere, a lunch box was thrown on the table, especially loud in the silent canteen.

Everyone looked in that direction, and the soldier looked in that direction, frowning:

"Who? What's wrong? If you have any dissatisfaction with the imperial court, stand up and say. The old man fell and smashed, who did he show it? ”

A young man's face flushed, and his chest and shoulders fell together in anger, but he did not dare to stare at the soldier, only at the table in front of him. An older worker next to him kicked him in the foot.

"I ...... I accidentally took the lunch box off......"

The young man suppressed the breath in his chest and said stubbornly.

……

A dozen soldiers entered, one of them holding a knife print. This is the "guarantee certificate" that has just been printed in the factory this afternoon, and each one is the size of eight sheets of paper, a total of more than 10,000 sheets. Here are more than 3,000 of them.

The vellum paper cover was torn open, and a dozen or so soldiers each held a stack of them, shuttled between the workers' tables, and quickly handed them out.

There are more than 3,000 people in this canteen, and if you move slowly, you will have to send it to the Year of the Monkey.

But the atmosphere in the cafeteria began to change wrong.

There were exclamations in all directions, and after many workers saw the "guarantee letter" in their hands, they immediately threw it away as if they had been bitten by a snake, as if they were afraid of being involved with themselves.

But many more workers cling to the "guarantee" and stare intently and greedily, for fear that the next second will be taken away.

The dozen or so soldiers began to focus on their heads and distribute them, but then the sounds around them became more and more wrong, and a sound kept coming into their ears, and they looked around in astonishment, and cold sweat oozed from their bodies.

"Bright World! …… Bright World! ……”

"Bright World ......"

There was a lot of noise in the cafeteria.

The leader of the soldiers quickly grabbed one and saw what kind of "guarantee" it was, but a newspaper with eight pages, densely covered with lead letters, full of pictures and texts, and four big characters on his head

"Bright World"

The following is the sub-standard in small print: Daming "Bright World" Weekly, Jiangbei Edition, No. 328.