Wang Yiqi, who was standing in front of the polling place, was still undecided, and as a peasant who had no desire to discuss politics, the only reason he came to vote every time was to pay a fine for not coming. The county said very politely, knowing that many people have no money, but the county can pay the fine first, and then accrue interest until the county thinks that you have the money to pay back, and then go to the criminal officer to see you. The voting law is very clear, as long as you get the ticket that belongs to you when you vote and sign it, it doesn't matter if you tear it up on the spot, but if you don't sign or find someone to do it for you, you will be fined.

Isn't it just a trip, Wang Yiqi decided to go to the polling place to nip in the bud possible profits. Not long ago, a good counter-example came out in a neighboring village: Zhang Fengshou, an extremist in this group, who is not interested in political extremism, is the pillar of the family, and his family has many children and is poor, and he has not been going to vote for several years, and the county has no problem with him. Not long ago, his eldest son went to Guangzhou to work and earned a lot of wages, and this time he went home for the Chinese New Year and brought a lot of things to the county...... Then the county came to the door and declared to his eldest son that he would go to the Yamen with Zhang Fengshou to ask for an explanation - the evidence of the crime surnamed Zhang was conclusive, and if the county was more serious, he would have to go to prison for a month or half a month. It's New Year's Day! I have to say that the county will pick the time, and in the end, his eldest son confessed to paying the fine plus interest for his father in the past few years.

As when he walked to the polling place, he had to stop and listen to what the other faction had to say – anyway, he had gone the way, and it would be in vain not to listen. The ticket that took such a trip to get it, of course, will not be torn up. Except for the Kuomintang, the Labor Party, and the Donglin Party, there is no need for the other parties to listen, and Wang Yiqi has been in this kind of situation before, and he has heard people talk about it wildly, but except for these three parties, no one else has ever been able to elect the county magistrate.

The Donglin Party elected the one who claimed to collect less taxes, and spat at the current Labor Party county magistrate for his great success - Zhang Fengshou likes to hear this, although the tax collection in the past four years has been much less than before, that is, after the war began again, but it is still much stronger than when the county magistrate was not elected, but no one and no one can get by, and the more he can stay, the better.

The Kuomintang candidate patted his chest and promised that more schools would be built, and more money would be allocated from the county to the school to invite Mr. from Guangzhou, so that the children could know how to read and learn arithmetic in their spare time - Zhang Fengshou also liked to hear this, but now the school is too crowded, and it is too far away from Zhang Fengshou's village, and the gentleman is not enough, and when he signed up for his son, the school asked him to line up first, and he has not been in line for two years.

The old county magistrate said that he would work hard to control the water, and warned everyone that if the county magistrate is changed now, then the road that has only been repaired half of the road may be stopped - this also makes Zhang Fengshou worried, recently there are more and more people who go to Guangzhou to work in the countryside, and he has been nagged by his mother-in-law this year, and plans to do some short-term work to earn some quick money.

Zhang Fengshou did not know how to read, and he had never left his hometown for more than 50 miles, and in the eyes of the elite group of any era, he undoubtedly belonged to the big livestock group. It is also true that the lack of education and knowledge makes it difficult for Zhang Fengshou to weigh the longer-term interests, and now he is caught in a deep contradiction, hoping that his son will be able to go to school and see the canals and roads repaired as soon as possible - what makes Zhang Fengshou feel most sad is that he can only choose the same.

"It's driving people crazy." Zhang Fengshou looked at the ballots in his hand and it was difficult to choose, he glanced around, and many men who were dressed similarly to him also frowned, and fell into contemplation one by one.

Not far away, a man crouched on the ground, took a die from his pocket, threw it into the air, and after the dice landed, the man stared at it carefully, and then quickly made a decision on the ballot.

"It's a good idea." Zhang Fengshou took one last look at the three county gubernator candidates who were still chattering, and whoever was chosen looked similar, Zhang Fengshou walked towards the man with dice.

……

"Can General Xu imagine?" The King of Liao angrily waved his arms in the air, and shouted to Xu Ping with an angry face: "The Duke of Qi actually rules the world with the merchants, and the merchants!" ”

Xu Ping looked at Wu Sangui with some surprise, after today's greetings, the two had been talking happily, but as soon as the political situation in the south was mentioned just now, the King of Liao suddenly became excited, so excited that he couldn't continue to sit on the chair, so excited that he danced his arms violently in the air, and was so excited that he turned quickly in the room.

"I've seen what those merchants do! Sure enough, profiteers and profiteers, no businessmen, no businessmen, no businessmen! Wu Sangui told Xu Ping about a great deal of business practices he knew, in which businessmen colluded with the government to exploit workers, coerce and lure women and children into dangerous jobs, deduct their wages, and then kick the disabled workers away: "...... General, can you imagine this happening? Could it happen in broad daylight? ”

Xu Ping let out a long sigh, he could fully understand Wu Sangui's righteous indignation, and he could empathize with it.

"In Liaodong, there were once businessmen who came to buy ore, the most coal, and a lot of iron ore, in order to make black-hearted money, they let workers carry coal baskets on their backs, and drill into a hole that is not much bigger than a dog hole......" Wu Sangui compared the size of the hole in front of Xu Ping: "Crawl up more than ten or dozens of zhang, dig ore and then climb to carry these mines out, if you are not careful, the hole will be sealed, and no one in it can survive, but the black-hearted businessman does this in order to make money, They are reluctant to spend even a penny to make the hole a little wider! ”

"I really didn't think there would be such a thing in Liaodong!" Xu Ping knew that what Wu Sangui said was not a lie, but he didn't expect this kind of thing to happen in the Liao Domain, which he longed for.

"There are always some corrupt officials who will be bribed by these unscrupulous businessmen, and many times the hole collapses, and the people are buried in the mine, and the merchants will dig another hole as if they had nothing to do, and they will bribe the local officials, and if the family of the bitter lord is found, they will disperse it with the officials. And from among them, I singled out the people who took the lead in making trouble, and charged them with the crime of being carefully committed by the Ming court, saying that they were bribed by the Ming Dynasty to incite the people in Liaodong, and they also tried to deceive my hearing and hearing, and charged anyone who spread the news with the crime of plotting to subvert the imperial court and bewitching the people who did not know the truth to cause rebellion......"

"This should be a thousand cuts!" Xu Ping was furious when he heard this, and the tiger suddenly stood up from the chair.

"Yes, I severely punished these corrupt officials and rehabilitated the people who were convicted by them, but corrupt officials and corrupt officials are such a thing as inexhaustible and inexhaustible," Wu Sangui said hatefully: "Ming Taizu can't wipe them out by peeling the skin and filling the grass, the root is not here, because he can't condone the businessmen at all!" Because businessmen are meant to make black money, as long as they have money, there is nothing they dare not do, and as long as they have money, they can always find scum from the officials. ”

"Your Highness is right." Xu Ping couldn't help but nodded, what he saw and heard in Shandong confirmed the stories that Wu Sangui had just told.

"I have banned all commercial activities in Liaodong, isn't Your Majesty's ambition to let all the people live and work in peace and contentment, so that the people will not be oppressed by the officials, and they will not be wronged?"

Listening to Wu Sangui talk about the ideal of breaking into the camp, what can Xu Ping do except sigh?

"I don't believe what Taishi said, what Nanming is fighting in a desperate army, is dying and struggling," Wu Sangui's uprightness and bravery made Xu Ping secretly admire, only to hear the other party assert: "Huang Qubing sold the country and the people to the merchants in exchange for the throne, he knew that the merchants were far less shameless than the scholars, and they could oppress the people viciously, so he let the merchants do it, so as to obtain a large amount of money that the scholars could not extort for him, as well as the arms produced by the merchants for him." Dashun is in danger, the world is in danger, and the people are in danger! ”

"Your Highness thinks we will lose to Nanming?" Xu Ping asked with some surprise when he heard Wu Sangui use three consecutive shouts to emphasize the current sinister situation.

"We will definitely lose, because our officials in Dashun still have shame, and Huang Quzhi sold the country to some businessmen who have no humanity and no shame, yes, this is a traitor!" Wu Sangui shouted: "This king has ordered the mobilization of the whole Liao, I swear to die and fight the traitor Huang Quaisick to the end, Daming and Dashun are just the replacement of the mandate of heaven, it is the death of the country, but if we lose to Nanming, lose to Huang Quai, then we will die in the world, we will lose all the etiquette and shame, become inferior to beasts, and the people will live forever in dire straits." ”

Xu Ping suddenly remembered what Sun Kewang had said to him, Sun Kewang also commented on businessmen in this way, and what businessmen did in Shandong and Liaodong all proved the judgment of Sun Kewang and Wu Sangui.

"Death of the country, death of the world." Xu Ping shook his head and let out another long sigh.

"Nanming must not be allowed to come back." Wu Sangui said again.

"Yes." Xu Ping couldn't help but nodded, although Dashun had a lot of disappointments, which caused him to be disheartened, so he was unwilling to put on the robe again, and was unwilling to continue to defend the court that regarded him as his father, but Xu Ping couldn't help but think: As Wu Sangui said, it is not meaningless to fight for many years, and it is worth fighting and defending.

In any case, Xu Ping didn't want to believe that his years of hard work were in vain, and the blood of his subordinates on the battlefield was shed in vain.

Xu Ping glanced up at Wu Sangui opposite, and said to himself in his heart: "At least there is still the Liao Domain, at least there are like-minded friends such as the King of Liao and the King of Jin." How could I be so confused, stupid and blind, that I should think that Dashun is not worth defending? ”

As if guessing Xu Ping's heart, Wu Sangui imitated Qi Guogong's speech on the day he opened the Qing Academy: "General, Dashun is resisting the darkest court in the history of China, and it is the hope of Chinese etiquette and shame, isn't it worth us to fight, defend, and bleed?" ”

……

"A gentleman can deceive him." After Wu Sangui returned to his post house, he said disdainfully to the cronies accompanying him: "Why didn't the Taishi and the cabinet even think of this? ”

Wu Sangui told his subordinates to get ready, and tomorrow he would join the other officials in congratulating Xu Ping on his determination to reap the robes.

The officers and men of the 7,000 Guards Battalion had arrived in Jinan, and they were waiting eagerly for Xu Ping to lead them on the journey again, and once again to repel the surging enemy. And Liu Zongmin's troops are also about to arrive, and they will go to the front line with the Guards battalion.

At the same time, He Feihu, who was far away in Jiangxi, also received an order from the Constituent Assembly, which, after careful consideration, decided to send another candidate to continue the work of reorganizing the army in Jiangxi. The Sixth Army, which had the "Parliamentary" Division and the "Constitution" Division, set out for Nanjing, and after this period of repair, the logistical supply work on the Nanjing front line was considerably improved, and the start of the next stage of the offensive was on the agenda. The plan included: conquering Anqing, Luzhou and other important cities that the Shun army was still holding, seizing all the Jiangfang forts to open up the Yangtze River shipping, occupying Nanjing to clear the forces of the Jiangnan Shun army, and waiting for the opportunity to establish a series of bridgeheads in the north of the Yangtze River.

The Constituent Assembly felt that the Northern Expeditionary Army had a good chance of achieving these goals, and they hoped that the Sixth Army would share some of the honor and merit.

"The general's work during this period has given us invaluable experience," Ren Hongcheng will not set off with He Feihu this time, and he also has the task of introducing the work to the successor officers: "It is also beyond my expectation that the constitutional division can complete the army so quickly, and now is the time to test the general's work." ”

He Feihu noticed that as before, Ren Hongcheng did not try to take any credit, although he did make a lot of efforts, but Ren Hongcheng did not mention anything about it in the report, but attributed it all to He Feihu and the officers at all levels of the two divisions. In this regard, Ren Hongcheng once explained to He Feihu: He doesn't need any such merits.

"Maybe General He will say that taking all the merits is synonymous with taking full responsibility," Ren Hongcheng smiled at He Feihu: "But the actual situation is: if General He wins, the Qing Yuan will not forget my experience; If General He fails, they will not forget that it will make the slightest difference whether I take credit for myself or not. ”

He Feihu nodded silently, if he himself really stepped into politics one day, as Ren Hongcheng suggested, then He Feihu's future would not be determined by these people who saw the report - the same party would remind voters of his merits; Just as a rival party is bound to remind voters of his mistakes.

"Congratulations to the general on his success and new contributions to the country."

"Doctor Ren waits for good news."

In February, the Parliamentary Division and the Constitutional Division crossed the border with Nanking in Jiangxi and entered the war zone, just as the south had just received information that Xu Ping had been appointed by Li Shun as the military commander of the Nanjing front and the Shandong region

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