Chapter 880: Governing the country according to law

The important attribute of capital is that it is profitable, and who will do what is not beneficial? How many years later, the railway will be outdated in the developed countries of Europe and the United States, and no one will think about it now. The Ming Empire in this era, under the baton of Chen Xie, expanded and continued to expand in one posture. It's the best of times, but it's also a time of sin.

Compared with the railway industry of capital in the Americas, the enthusiasm of domestic capital for railways is still high. The Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway Project and the Longhai Railway Project are all from the private sector. There are also many branch railways that have been approved successively, and their funds are also from the private sector. Any railway must be under the unified planning of the state.

Just as this high tide was coming, the Liaodong Railway Group announced the opening of the Jinghan Railway, from Beijing to Hankou. At the same time, another puzzling announcement was made, the start of railway exploration work from Dihua to Xining. At this time, the domestic eyes found that in Dihua, an important town in the far west, a lone army existed, and the Anxi Governor's Mansion was actually established. That army was sent to the Western Regions, and no one expected that several years later, a piece of news would come back.

Why do you want to make this loss-making trade? The Liaodong Railway Group did not reply, nor did it have the obligation to explain. There can only be all kinds of speculation in the newspapers, and the Anxi Governor's Mansion is naturally reminiscent of the heroic style of the Tang Dynasty. However, times have changed, and now is the era of the sea. Many people have misconceived suspicions that that place will be a penal colony in the future.

is like a wave in the sea, this news flashed by, even the Liaodong Railway Group, it couldn't arouse everyone's interest. How to say this place, it is too far away, and there are many deserts. Gansu and Ningxia are already the frontiers of the frontier in people's memory. What is Dihua? I searched the map for a long time, but I couldn't find it. Anyway, those who have relatives in this team are still very excited. At least the state has not forgotten about those people, that's all.

The darling that attracts the public's attention is still North America. Even if there was a marquis on Dihua's side, no one paid too much attention to it. In the winter of 1675, in just three months, a wave of North American immigrants appeared. 100,000 immigrants landed in North America, of which only 30,000 were in the Ming Dynasty, 50,000 were Japanese immigrants, and 20,000 were North Korean immigrants.

Sending 100,000 people to North America in three months is a terrible thing, and it's winter. At this time, the most dazzling thing was not the North American railroad, but the steamship that proved its incomparable superiority. Orders received by shipyards. can be scheduled until the year after tomorrow. In this process, one of the stars that emerged was a steamship passenger company. What no one expected was that this passenger transport company was not the enterprise of the private boss, but a state-owned enterprise. All profits, in theory, are state.

This must have been put in the past, and there must have been people clamoring for profit with the people. But the newspapers now have a different story entirely. "Since the discovery of Jinshan in North America, immigrants have continued. However, it is inefficient. In more than ten years, there are only 500,000 immigrants. Now, as soon as the state-owned enterprises come out, the efficiency has doubled. It can't help but be thought-provoking. As soon as the article "Ming Pao" came out, some discussions related to the national strategic level were introduced. Now no one is talking about this matter of competing with the people, it is very simple, leave it to the people to do, you can't do it well.

Why is immigration efficient this time? Reflection ensued. The first is national policy, and the second is that propaganda is in place. Again, it's good preparation, and finally good transportation. Soon people dug up the obscure North Korean branch and Dongying branch of Dafa Bank, if it weren't for them as a guarantee and cooperated with the local department to subsidize the immigrant people, would the immigration efficiency be so high this time? Why can it be done in North Korea and Dongying. Can't you do it in Daming?

Some newspapers were more damned, directly writing that "at the grassroots level of the Ming Dynasty, some people have opposing views on immigrants and do everything possible to obstruct them." What is their purpose? "This is pointed at the big landlords, and the capitalists are all right, because they are also victims. Fast forward five years, and hundreds of battles for manpower in the southeastern coastal provinces have been dug up and sorted out and listed. In the end, a conclusion was drawn: everyone take a look, this is the landlords of the Ming Dynasty. During the years of the first emperor, there was a great drought for many years, what were these landlords doing? Ignoring relief, they raised the price of grain, annexed land, and wantonly stockpiled slaves. As a result, the situation in the country has deteriorated dramatically, and the number of displaced people has spread everywhere. On the contrary, industry and commerce played an important role at this time. A large number of landless people have a place to work and eat, which objectively plays a role in stabilizing the place.

No one expected that this kind of thing would happen so suddenly, and the traditional Ming gentry, the inland areas were still the main force of the people. In recent years, grain prices have risen again and again, to a large extent, because these landlords have raised prices. As for the southeastern provinces, the reduction in grain production is due to the great development of industry and commerce, but they have not been picked up and scolded.

Another problem arose, the migration of a large number of people in the inland provinces was blocked by the local government and the gentry, and the whole country was aware of the newspapers and media. According to investigation, in Jiangxi Province alone, in the past three months, more than 10,000 people have been stranded by the local government.

After the news was poked out, more newspapers followed suit. Soon, more problems appeared, not only in Jiangxi, but also in the immigration offices in many inland provinces of the Ming Dynasty, and there was a serious phenomenon of not going through immigration procedures for the people. According to the statistics of the inland provincial branch of Dafa Bank, at least 100,000 Daming people have not completed the immigration procedures.

In the spring of 1676, a sudden wave of action against the landlords, gentry and bureaucracy came very quickly, and the initiators were the media. The current Ming Dynasty is not the last year of Chongzhen, newspapers are everywhere, and the era of the past when the remarks were in the hands of readers is no longer there. The discipline of media people is not much better than that of capitalists, although there is no paparazzi now, but the life of the people of the Ming Dynasty is there. Once the media really digs up, there's nothing they can't dig up.

More and more news has been stabbed in front of the world, just like the feminist trend set off by the newspapers back then, this time there has been a huge movement again. "A local official, in collusion with the gentry, refused to go through immigration procedures, and beat up the bank staff who came to ask for the project." "A certain gentry, forcibly detaining the people of the territory. Threaten that it is the law of kings. It was in the newspapers all day long, and all of a sudden, the representatives of the grassroots gentry of the Ming Dynasty became street rats that everyone shouted and beaten. In addition, the officials of those relevant departments were also found out and repeatedly scolded. At the height of the trouble, the immigration departments in various places were attacked by the people, and some local gentry did not even dare to leave their homes. In the face of this fire that is burning all over the country. The cabinet's response was surprisingly slow. It was not until the immigration office in Henan Province was burned down and there was a large-scale smashing and looting incident that the cabinet reacted.

The tide began at the end of the first month and continued until the end of March, when there were incidents of storming the immigration departments across the country, and there were more than 500 incidents of smashing the residences of the gentry. At the beginning of April, the cabinet finally made its voice heard, and the nation's major newspapers stopped the negative propaganda overnight. Publish the voice of Chen Xie, the prime minister of the Ming Empire. "The wave of collective incidents caused by the blockage of migrants that began at the end of the first month has intensified due to the inaction of local authorities. As a direct result, many immigration departments across the country have been affected and cannot work normally. It has seriously undermined and affected the normal legal order of the country, and the Cabinet of Ministers has demanded that all localities must immediately stop such acts. In response to the many times reported in the newspapers, the Cabinet will form an investigation team and conduct a rigorous investigation. If it is found that there is indeed a violation, it will be severely punished in accordance with the relevant laws. Finally, solemnly admonished the people of the Ming Dynasty. Daming is a country with laws, and no behavior can cross the legal red line. Violators will be dealt with in accordance with the law. ”

After Chen Xie's remarks were published, the cabinet immediately reacted, and the local government also responded one after another, and some localities even mobilized garrisons to maintain order. A person who thinks that the law does not blame the public, and the behavior of fishing in troubled waters, was punished first. Arrested by the local government. Thrown into prison and awaiting the trial of the law.

A trend begins abruptly and ends abruptly, but the afterglow is not short-lived, and it can even be said to be far-reaching. The first to be hit are the idle people in society everywhere. The behavior of these people fishing in troubled waters has been seen by the government for a long time. After the cabinet spoke this time, the arrest action was quick and crisp. Of course, local officials will not be soft on their official hats. The second is that some gentry of the Ming Dynasty were arrested pending trial because of illegal detention and lynching. Again, some officials were arrested for dereliction of duty or taking bribes, and among those arrested, there were some media people who took the opportunity to make waves, and they did something rather fucked up, and some of them didn't go out at all, and hid at home and made up a piece of news, which mixed up a lot of manuscript fees. Of course, this kind of rumor-mongering behavior must be arrested. What no one expected was that some business people were also arrested for manipulating collective events behind the scenes. Among those arrested, there were even several parliamentarians.

This result really shattered the eyes of the whole land, because it is all official news, and the authenticity is reliable. The wide range of strikes is really a problem that no one expected. So, what does the guy in the Ming cabinet who holds the actual power want to do?

The Daming Times, the mouthpiece of the Ming cabinet, published an article at the end of April with the title: Daming, a country ruled by law.

The core content of this article is four words: governing the country according to law. At present, the embryonic form of the separation of powers between the legislative, judicial, and administrative powers has emerged, and the three must not interfere with each other for any reason. No one in the private sector may violate the law for any reason, and the law is a red line and the minimum standard of an individual's code of conduct. No one is above or beyond the law.

This is the first programmatic voice issued by the cabinet since Chen Xie took office. At this time, people who have a little bit of brains have reacted. When incidents are frequent, why didn't the cabinet stop them in time? dragged on for two months, definitely not because I didn't want to care, but I was planning how to end up in the end. In the whole process, there are four kinds of targets that have been attacked: those who are unstable in local law and order (gangsters and hooligans), the grassroots traditional forces (gentry, clans, and grassroots officials) who have a certain social status, and the emerging forces (capitalists).

So looking back and thinking carefully, is it really just because it's illegal? Among them, the hardest hit are definitely the traditional grassroots forces, and as the biggest losers in this upsurge, is there no deeper reason?

Looking at the capital forces that have also been hit, they are actually the biggest gainers. After this turmoil, the mobility of the entire Daming personnel has been greatly activated. The bondage of land on people has been dealt a heavy blow, and the problem of labor required by the emerging capital forces has been greatly alleviated.

Why is this happening? To give a very simple example, a certain gentry in a certain place was arrested by the government, and the propaganda agency immediately followed up and told everyone why they were arrested. The natural advantage of this is to avoid larger group incidents. In the countryside of the Ming Dynasty, the clan is a great force, and it is nothing new for the whole village to resist the government's law enforcement. That's why there is a transfer of troops. Don't believe these words of any hard-working and kind people. As long as it is a human being, it is a matter of minutes to become a "Diao Min" for personal interests, and there is nothing to say about this, and there is nothing to blame. What the government needs to do is to try to be as fair as possible within the framework of the law. If you can't do it well, there will be more and more "Diao Min". If you are not righteous, how can you ask the people to abide by the law? How can you ask the people to cooperate with your work? Isn't that?

This event has been interpreted many times in subsequent history. There are various versions, the officialdom version is "the rule of officials", the folk version is "law", and historians have elevated it to "This is an epoch-making event, and the follow-up caused by this has laid the governing standards of the future state institutions of the Ming Dynasty." ”

In 1676, the Ming Dynasty began a comprehensive rectification in the second half of the year around the framework of governing the country according to law. The first to be impacted was the officialdom, and everyone in the Ming Dynasty was in danger. The anti-corruption department has attacked everywhere, arresting one by one, trying one by one, and sentencing another. At the same time, the tax department and the judicial department were not idle, and cracked down on the business community in Daming. The collusion between officials and businessmen, tax evasion, and tax evasion have become the focus of the crackdown. The tax department stood out in this process and became one of the most feared departments in the Ming Dynasty.

From an inconspicuous small department, the Ministry of Taxation has evolved to the point of talking about "tax". Such a department will definitely suffer a lot of impacts, but with the support of Chen Xie's cabinet, the tax department is invincible, and none of the people who are targeted can escape.

As a result, some people shouted "harsh government is fiercer than tigers", but these people were quickly arrested. The reason is to incite the people to resist the law! These people often have a high prestige among the people, and after they were arrested, they once again proved the majesty of the Ming law. (To be continued......)