“… The union representatives of these miners demanded that the working hours be 10 hours a day, and that working hours in excess of 10 hours should be counted as overtime, and that overtime should not exceed 4 hours per day and 10 consecutive days of overtime.

The owner of the mine shall pay a bereavement pension to the miners who have died, and the pension shall not be less than the wages of the workers for three years. In the event of a mining disaster, the mine owner must organize personnel to rescue, and cannot ignore the miners in the mine cave who still have a chance of survival...

Raise the food standard of miners to ensure that the daily ration of each person is not less than one and a half catties. No miner, whether private or government, should be paid reasonably, and the owner of the mine cannot refuse to pay the miner because he is a slave...

The total miners had to agree to the miners' guild to join the miners' guild. Finally, the court should promise that the workers involved in the strike will not be held accountable. Ling Yiqu finished reading, and the text of the conditions proposed by the workers in his hand was in his hand.

The officials in the Wenhua Hall were silent at first, but soon some officials jumped out and complained, "What is this union?" Why did the miners of the West Hill Coal Mine form such a thing? ”

"A few slave laborers dare to make such conditions to the imperial court, is it simply disrespectful and inferior..."

“… The imperial court must not agree to the conditions of these miners, otherwise in the future, the common people will follow the example and threaten the imperial court with trouble at every turn. ”

In addition to a few officials and leaders of the cabinet and the six ministries, one official after another criticized the miners.

Several officials from the south were the most severely criticized, and they almost demanded that the miners' conditions be rejected outright and then sent troops.

In addition to the fields, the families of Southern officials also drove slaves to run various industries such as textiles. If the miners' union had followed this kind of trouble, they would not have been able to drive their slaves to do things in the future, and therefore they reacted most violently.

Huang Liji was hesitant, and it stands to reason that he should oppose the demands of these undifferentiated miners. However, it is beneficial to be able to put an end to the incident of the Xishan miners' rebellion in this way, and to reduce the major incident to a small one, and to reduce the small to nothing, which is beneficial to the consolidation of his ruling position.

Seeing Huang Liji's ambiguous attitude, Zhu Youzhen coughed and expressed his attitude first.

"I don't think these conditions are so out of line, since you want to deal with this matter peacefully, you have to let people put forward conditions, let people put forward conditions, and then say that these miners are not distinguished from inferiority, this is a bit excessive.

Since last year, there has been no peace in the Gyeonggi area, and now that it can be resolved quietly, I don't want to make the city full of wind and rain again.

Besides, the Xishan Coal Mine produces nearly 600,000 catties of coal per day, and the loss is 1,200 yuan per day of shutdown.

What I mean by this is that negotiations can be made on the basis of these conditions. Mr. Huang, what do you think? ”

When Chongzhen's clear attitude and the question of the economic loss of the coal mine shutdown were raised, Huang Li, who was still struggling, suddenly corrected his mentality.

As the chief assistant of the cabinet, Huang Li knew very well that this year, all ministries implemented a new annual budget law, and each department set a standard for expenditure at the beginning of the year, unlike in the past, when it asked the emperor and the cabinet for appropriations after the fact.

Although the Cabinet has a contingency fund to deal with emergencies, it is not a lot when the treasury is empty.

With the emperor's explicit opposition, there was little chance of using the army to quell the rebellion, and even if the army was finally used, it was clear that the cost would have to be paid by the cabinet itself.

There are at least eight or nine months left before next year's budget, and if something happens in the next few years, the cabinet will be helpless again.

After Huang Liji reacted, he immediately seconded Chongzhen's proposal and supported negotiations on the conditions proposed by the miners.

The officials, who were still waiting and watching, also chose to support a peaceful solution after seeing that the emperor and the first assistant had expressed their attitudes one after another. The southern officials, led by the Donglin Party, lost their right to take the lead in revising the content of the consultations because their attitude was too intense.

After an afternoon of discussions, most of the conditions for the Xishan coal miners' resumption of work brought back by Ling Yiqu were approved, but the officials were unwilling to let go of the miners' leaders who caused the riots, insisting that they be severely punished.

Chongzhen thought about it for a while, and then decided to change the conditions of severe punishment of the ministers to a public trial of those who caused the miners' riots in Xishan.

Zhang Ruitu, who felt that the emperor's wording had other flavors, suddenly said in surprise: "Could it be that Your Majesty means that the people who caused the Xishan miners' riot are not only those miners?" ”

Zhu Youzhen did not answer, but glanced at the ministers standing in the palace, but asked Yuan Keli, the secretary of the Criminal Department, who had been silent, "Da Sikou, what do you think of my proposition?" ”

Since the Liu Hongxun incident, Yuan Keli, who had maintained a balanced relationship with the emperor, suddenly found that there was a gap between him and the emperor.

After Liu Hongxun left office, the presiding officer of the Central Court could not be determined for a long time, resulting in disillusionment among the officials in the Central Court.

The other two major institutions under the Criminal Department, under the management of Tian Ergeng and Yang Suoxiu, gradually took shape, and there was a tendency to resist Yuan Keli in the Criminal Department.

Yuan Keli naturally knew that if he couldn't bridge the gap between Shangtong and the emperor as soon as possible, then his criminal department secretary would be a little out of character.

Now that the emperor openly handed him an olive branch, Yuan Keli naturally grasped it with understanding, and he stepped forward and said: "The people know that everything has a result and must have a cause. These fanatics set off a riot of coal miners in Xishan, which is indeed an unforgivable crime.

But the root cause is not that these private miners were too mean to the miners in the past. In the past, even if you saw a stranger drowning on the road, passers-by had to help.

However, for the sake of a little money, these private mine owners ignore the lives and deaths of the miners who are killed, not only do not take measures to save people, but also do not allow the miners to save people spontaneously, which is really a loss of conscience and violates the ethics of the teachings of the saints.

Therefore, the minister thought that the root cause of this miners' revolt was not only the sin of a few lawless fanatics, but also the private mine owners who forced the miners to revolt, and should also be punished. ”

Yuan Keli's speech not only opposed the propositions of Huang Liji and others, but also deviated from the position held by the Donglin Party.

Han Yi and Qian Qianyi glanced at each other, and before they could think about whether to support Yuan Keli, Liu Zongzhou and Sun Chengzong had already stood up and supported Yuan Keli's proposition.

Liu Zongzhou was disgusted with both the disruptive miners and the brutal private miners, and therefore believed that both should be punished, while Sun Chengzong sympathized with the ordinary miners, believing that a public trial was at least more appropriate than conniving at the powerful behind the private miners to take revenge in private.

Ni Yuanlu, Huang Daozhou and others also stood up at this time, and some Donglin Party officials present had to adjust their positions.

After taking advantage of Yuan Keli's prestige and suppressing other voices in the court, Chongzhen finally got the result he wanted in the Xishan riots.

Zhu Youzhen looked at the officials below who echoed Yuan Keli, and said again: "The investigation team is responsible for negotiating a peaceful settlement of the incident, but distinguishing right from wrong and maintaining the law and discipline of the imperial court is the proposition of the Criminal Department.

After Liu Shilang left office, there was no one in the Central Court to preside over it. Although several candidates were recommended by all parties, I still felt that the opinions of the chief priest should be considered first in the personnel issue of the Criminal Department.

However, Ni Yuanlu, the editor of the Hanlin Academy recommended by Da Sikou, has no experience in asking cases in the past, and it may not be a good thing to preside over the Central Court rashly.

Now it is just taking advantage of the Xishan miners' riot to let Ni Bianxiu try his hand to see if the case he has decided can satisfy all parties, and then decide on the chief officer of the Central Court of the Criminal Department.

I suggested that Ni Yuanlu be temporarily transferred to the Criminal Department to be in charge of this case, do you have any opinions? ”

Huang Liji was quite angry, and after Liu Hongxun was driven out of the capital, he always wanted his cronies to take over the work of the Central Court to avoid a case similar to Huang Zongxi.

But unexpectedly, the emperor, who had always supported him in his fight against Liu Hongxun, actually changed his mind again. still elected a Donglin Party member to take over as the squire of the Criminal Department, so that the Donglin Party still maintains its influence on the Criminal Department.

However, by this time, the emperor had already grasped the overall situation of this meeting, and no one would want to confront the emperor and go against his will.

What's more, the trial of the Xishan case is not a good errand, if the case involves the powerful people behind these private mines, if the chief judge of today's trial is not good, he will become a prisoner who will be tried tomorrow.

In order to take over the vacancy in the criminal department left by Liu Hongxun, the Donglin Party members had no choice but to take it, but the non-Donglin Party members were unwilling to jump into this quagmire.

Zhang Yixian, Ling Yiqu and a Ni Yuanlu will return to Xishan Coal Mine with the reply of the imperial court, but this time there is no need to rush 100,000 in a hurry.

With the emperor's permission, the three of them prepared for one night in Beijing and set off tomorrow. And after Chongzhen disbanded the Wenhuadian Conference, he summoned Zhang Yixian again.

After Zhu Youzhen asked the celebrant to write an edict, he handed it over to Zhang Yixian and instructed: "When you go back this time, you see Tu Wenfu and tell him to ask him to gather those private mine owners and take advantage of this incident to unite these private mines in similar locations and build a joint-stock company."

The share capital of each joint-stock company shall not be less than 25,000 taels, and they shall enter into contracts with these companies for the production of coal, which shall allow them to negotiate the price once a year.

Those who agree to establish a joint-stock company to cooperate with Xishan Coal Company can provide preferential and preferential prices for railroad tracks, cement and other materials used in coal mines.

For those who are unwilling to establish a joint-stock company and do not agree to cooperate with the Xishan Coal Company, and the share capital is less than 25,000 taels, they will be asked to withdraw from the Xishan coal mining industry. ”

Zhang Yixian's heart suddenly rejoiced, this Xishan Coal Company is an industry run by the palace, and the emperor's words are tantamount to letting the palace control the coal mines in Xishan. Now it seems that coal mining is a more profitable industry than Huangzhuang.

Zhu Youzhen then stared at him and ordered: "But you also told Tu Wenfu not to act too blatantly, if I hear any rumors, I will not cover him." ”

Zhang Yixian said a little innocently: "But Your Majesty, these private mine owners have someone behind them, if they don't show the power in the palace, I'm afraid they may not be willing to give in?" ”