Chapter 252: Young Master Jiangning, in a Brown Fur Coat
Chapter 252: Young Master Jiangning, in a Brown Fur Coat (Part 2)
Jiangning Prefecture, Yihetang.
From the year Xu Qing was reborn, he consciously let Yihetang adopt local and foreign orphans.
So far, it has been five years since Xu Qing was reborn. In just over two months, it will be six years.
When he was reborn, the bronze mirror judged that he would only live for three years. Later, he gained some holy energy, which extended his life twice, each time by about a year.
The seventh day of the seventh month of this year is the lifespan limit determined by the bronze mirror and it can no longer be extended.
Two major wars took place this year.
The first was the Battle of Changbai Mountain, and the second was the Battle of Taihe Mountain.
The Battle of Taihe Mountain took place not long ago.
The two world wars basically laid the foundation for the future world order.
It is now the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. After the twelfth lunar month, it will be the new year soon.
The orphans in front of us are all from the first batch of orphans adopted by Yihetang. They are both boys and girls, and they have basically learned to read and write. As for more advanced knowledge, it depends on talent.
However, there are many opportunities in Jiangning Prefecture today. As long as you can read and write and endure hardships, supporting yourself is not a problem. If a man is diligent, he can even marry a wife and continue the family line.
As for girls, they all learned needlework and literacy in Yihetang, and since they were born in Yihetang, they could be considered members of the Xu family, so it was no problem for them to marry into an ordinary family.
But today they all gave up the chance to be ordinary people.
In a sense, they were all Xu Qing's own children. Xu Qing did not sign a slave contract with them, but he also promised in advance that he was willing to give them freedom.
These are the people who choose to stay.
In terms of loyalty, it goes without saying.
If they stayed, they would have to help Xu Qing do some difficult tasks that tested his willpower, and they might not even get any rewards.
Because Xu Qing wanted them to enter all walks of life and become his eyes and ears.
In fact, there is an invisible test among them, which is whether Xu Qing can enter their dreams.
Therefore, after these people dispersed, the one who could really let him enter the dream was the hidden chess piece that Xu Qing really cared about. Compared with ordinary people who were favored by Xu Qing, these orphans were more likely to "never forget" Xu Qing.
This is also related to the fact that Feng Wu often stepped forward to show favors to Xu Qing.
Xu Qing didn't have much time, so most of the time it was the mistress Feng Wu who came to establish contact with the orphans of Yihetang on Xu Qing's behalf.
In a sense, Feng Wu is the "Empress Lu" who helps Xu Qing stabilize the internal situation. Her background and skills help her accomplish this task.
Su Lianqing is more inclined to be "Chen Ping", who specializes in handling secret matters for Xu Qing. Secret matters are often seen in history books, specifically referring to some secret matters that cannot be told to others, and are often related to political conspiracies.
Therefore, Su Lianqing's ecological niche is very close to "Chen Ping".
As for Xu Qing's external "Xiao He", it was naturally Yan Shan.
Xu Qing raised his glass and said goodbye to the orphans.
“I hope everyone will be healthy and live a long life.”
After a separate farewell banquet, every orphan who attended the banquet entered a new stage of life. The oldest of these people was only fourteen or fifteen years old, and the youngest was only eleven or twelve years old.
Of course, men and women in the folk get married early, and people as young as fourteen or fifteen can become parents.
In fact, there was already some phenomenon of employing child labor in Southern Zhili.
Because fairy coal was popular, some wealthy families needed people to clean the soot from their chimneys. Adults were not physically fit for this kind of work, so poor families would let their children do it.
After hearing about this, Xu Qing reported the harm of this matter in the newspaper and strictly prohibited the use of child labor in Jiangning Prefecture.
But in reality, this kind of thing is difficult to prevent.
In order to sell more coal, coal merchants often promote the advantages of fairy coal and deliberately ignore its disadvantages.
Even if ordinary people know about this, they are still willing to exchange their bodies for money in order to make a living.
It's better than selling children or even eating one's own children in a famine.
"There was a great famine and people were eating each other." That was truly tragic.
For many ordinary people, being able to earn money by working hard, buy some property, have children, and carry on the family line is like the legendary "World of Yellow Heaven".
Xu Qing also knew that it was useless to just shout slogans. He could only accept these problems and solve them in the process of continuous development. Then new problems would arise. This cycle would repeat itself, and history would advance in twists and turns.
On the other hand, the productivity of the Dayu Dynasty was actually much better than that of the Middle Ages, but the population was also several times larger.
Population is wealth when it is utilized well, but becomes a burden when it is not utilized well.
Therefore, vigorously developing industry and commerce can solve some of the problems, but if we want to solve them fundamentally, outward expansion is inevitable.
In a world where the strong prey on the weak, the only way out is to expand outward or to consume oneself internally.
The Central Plains civilization was the result of expansion.
Etiquette and laws are necessary for stable rule and to expand territory, but in fact, they have always been in our bones.
From top to bottom, the people of Dayu all love to farm, grow, and expand their family business.
It seems that Taizu of this dynasty designed many unreasonable systems, but if we change our perspective from that of the landlords, they are very reasonable.
This kind of thinking is from top to bottom, and the existence of a large number of landlords will lead to an aggravation of the problem of land annexation...
Xu Qing is trying to reverse this trend.
He has done a lot of groundwork and has some foundation in place.
With long-term subtle influence, you can always achieve some results.
In Xu Qing's view, if the reform is to be successful, the key is to cultivate new interest groups. Without these foundations, the demise of the regime is inevitable.
Saving the world is just a slogan. Only by winning over a small number of people, forming a new interest orientation, and competing with the original meat-eaters for profits can we truly benefit the world.
Only struggle can bring benefits. Any other schemes are just icing on the cake and cannot touch the root.
After the Battle of Taihe Mountain, most of the gentry in the world would stop their activities for a while.
But in a sense, Xu Qing and the old emperor formed the dual giants of the Dayu Dynasty.
Because in today's world, the only person who can truly compete with the old emperor is Xu Qing.
Xu Qing's construction of the temporary palace was undoubtedly a gesture of goodwill to the old emperor.
However, the king and his ministers need to have another secret meeting to reach a new consensus.
If the two cannot reach a consensus, the world will surely be in turmoil.
The gentry all over the world also hoped that the two would be at odds with each other.
Xu Qing dealt with the orphan's affairs and came to Yingtian Prefecture.
...
...
"Young Master Jiangning, here in a brown coat."
This is an article written by the Jiangning Weaving Factory itself and published in the most influential newspaper in Southern Zhili today.
With Xu Qing taking the lead, official and private newspapers in Nanzhili developed rapidly.
In fact, since the Song Dynasty, the newspaper industry has been developing among the people. In today's era, there are many tabloids, some eye-catching tabloids, and serials such as Dengcao Monk...
However, the emergence of Xu Liushou greatly increased the influence of the newspaper industry.
Some wealthy and powerful people took the lead in transforming some tabloids into regular newspaper offices.
In short, the occupation of public opinion is an activity that the gentry and nobles have always been very enthusiastic about. After all, there is no need to die for verbal attacks!
Moreover, every person in the Dayu Dynasty had a desire to govern the country, and in ancient capitals like Yingtian Prefecture, they had a strong mass base.
Nowadays, many scholars and elegant people in Yingtian Prefecture would even stay up all night in brothels and pleasure boats to discuss current affairs, causing the beauties around them to stay up all night as well.
Some high-end pleasure boats have to give their courtesans lessons on current affairs, otherwise, they will not be able to keep up with the times and will easily be abandoned by famous celebrities.
Without the promotion of famous celebrities, one's value will drop quickly.
Moreover, the tuition fees for current affairs courses were very expensive, which really gave some upright civil officials who came to the six ministries of Yingtian Prefecture for retirement an opportunity to earn extra money.
They also often used teaching as an excuse to export their own ideas and secretly attack the old emperor and Xu Liushou.
Some people say that Xu Liushou is the old emperor's illegitimate son or illegitimate grandson, and it is well-founded.
Some people also say that Xu Liushou rose to power by relying on gigolos.
In short, focus on attacking the despicable aspects and throw mud on people's personal morality.
But these dirty waters can hardly tarnish Xu Liushou's glorious image.
Because in the twelfth lunar month, Xu Liushou, dressed in plain clothes, personally participated in the construction of the Yingtianfu Palace. He lived and ate with the laborers and servants who built the palace, and truly fell into the grassroots.
Since Xu Qing lived and ate at the construction site of the palace, the food quality in the palace increased visibly.
Xie Quan even promoted this in the Daming Daily.
"The young master of Jiangning came here in a brown fur coat" is a paraphrase of the line "He came here without clothes or shoes, in a brown fur coat" from the Tang Dynasty legend about the bearded guest.
"裼秋" refers to exposing the outer garment to reveal the gorgeous fur clothing underneath.
This is not in line with Xu Liushou’s core idea of penetrating into the masses.
The term "brown fur coat" comes from Zhuangzi's evaluation of Mohists: "Most of them wear fur and brown clothes."
Qiuhe is a coarse linen garment!
Connoisseurs who know the goods will naturally understand Xie Quan’s sophisticated writing style.
I secretly used Xu Liushou to compare him with the Young Master of Taiyuan.
Who is Prince Taiyuan?
That was Emperor Taizong of the previous dynasty, the founder of the Xuanwu Gate Law of Succession.
As we all know, Xu Liushou is also the descendant of Xuantian Shenglong Dao. Xuantian Shenglong Dao refers to "Xuanwu".
This was a show of strength to the central government, demonstrating that Xu Liushou was powerful and had the demeanor of a great general. The cost of dealing with Xu Liushou would be very high.
On the other hand, deliberately writing it as "brown fur" implies that Xu Liushou has the indifference of a saint, and it is okay to wear plain clothes, mainly for the sake of saving the world. Of course, if we force an interpretation, the ancient saints also often worked in plain clothes.
Emperor Shun was a farmer, and the people around him followed him to farm. As time went by, they eventually drove Emperor Yao off the throne!
This is what everyone expects.
This article is soft yet hard, and hard yet soft. It is truly a rare high-quality article.
Otherwise, if Xie Quan and Xu Liushou had not been in the I Ching Room of the Yingtian Prefecture's provincial examination, the top scorer of that provincial examination would have been Mr. Xie Quan!
...
...
"Duke, have you read Xie Quan's article? I'm afraid there will be something interesting to watch." The head of the Wang family has been in closer contact with Duke Wei recently.
There is no way. The more powerful the old emperor is, the more these big families need to stick together for warmth.
Over the past two hundred years of the Ming Dynasty, many large families have fallen.
Let alone the involution of the lower classes, aren't those in the upper classes also involutionary? If they are not careful, they may fall down the social ladder.
If there is any difference, it is that one suffers in heaven and the other suffers in hell.
What difference does it make? Buddhism said it so well, all living beings suffer!
All beings are equal, and all will die.
Although the process of death is not equal.
Just ask whether the results are fair!
Duke Wei frowned, "My brother, you still underestimate Xie Quan. He is just speaking for Xu Gongming and is clearly trying to reach a consensus with the old emperor."
Duke Wei had a long history of fighting against Xu Qing, so he could naturally see the ins and outs of the situation.
The term "zui dui" also became popular in Jiangning Prefecture.
Afterwards, Duke Wei told the head of the Wang family about Xu Qing’s operational philosophy of “seeking peace through struggle”.
Otherwise, Duke Wei wanted to pay Xu Qing's tuition. If he were to go back to ten years ago, with his current level of struggle, he would be the true King of Southeast!
It’s all thanks to Xu Gongming’s good teaching!
Patriarch Wang understood it immediately. He said, "I have also vaguely felt this concept before, but it was not as concrete as what the Duke said."
Duke of Wei: "You should read more about the theory of standpoint and contradiction of the Fushe Society. It is full of wisdom. If you say Xu Gongming is a saint of the time, I will accept it from the bottom of my heart."
In fact, in his opinion, this is the most disgusting thing about Xu Qing.
In fact, many of the means of struggle are the unrevealed secrets of the aristocratic families who monopolize official promotion. But Xu Gongming just made them public. What does he want to do?
Are you dissatisfied with the game's low difficulty?
The key point is that Xu Qing has now become a game rule maker. These things are only used by Xu Qing because he thinks highly of you. If you make him angry, he will simply overturn the table.
Who except the emperor can suppress Xu Gongming?
The key point is that the emperor has no motivation to deal with Xu Qing now.
The world belongs to them, the royal family. Who would feel sorry if it was smashed to pieces?
Xie Quan hinted at Xu Qing's identity and power simply to emphasize this point and to show it to others.
After understanding this, Patriarch Wang couldn't help but say dejectedly, "Could it be that we can only bow down and obey?"
Duke of Wei: "If you ask me, the Great Yu Dynasty must have an emperor. Even if the dynasty changes, there still needs to be an emperor. They are all subservient to others, so what's the difference? You should admit defeat when you should."
Does Patriarch Wang know that it can be the same?
They all kneel down, but there are also distinctions among domestic servants.
Of course, your Duke of Wei's Mansion doesn't care and has been flirting with Xu Gongming for a long time.
The problem is that his Wang family cannot get on this ship and is forced to compete with Xu Gongming.
This is also the way for the Wang family to survive.
If he goes against Xu Qing now, he can get the emperor's secret support. If he sides with Xu Qing, he will not only fail to enter the core layer, but will also be disciplined by the old emperor.
What a fuck!
Duke Wei could naturally see the concerns of the head of the Wang family, but he decided to comfort his old friend. He was a double-faced person and needed to please both sides, so he could not give up the Wang family line.
Duke Wei now positions himself as a lubricant.
Nanzhili is so large, we can’t let the Xu family dominate it all.
Otherwise the old emperor would be worried.
But it is not good to create confrontation.
His Duke Wei's Mansion and Xu Qing have both struggles and cooperation, which is a good fit.
In fact, the Wang family could also do this job, but the Duke of Wei’s Mansion did it first, so the Wang family had no choice.
These are the valuable conclusions he drew from his careful study of Xu Qingfushe's theories.
Everything in nature has its own use.
The most important thing is to put yourself in the right position in time.
The Duke of Wei gave the head of the Wang family a good send-off.
Well, I have to go to my wife to pay my taxes. My main and private accounts are both useless, so I should create a new one before I get old.
"You and I are both mortals, born in this world; we work hard all day long, without a moment's rest..." Duke Wei hummed the folk sayings and idioms that came from Jiangning Prefecture, expressing his compassion for the world.
...
...
Xu Liushou is very energetic and doesn't feel tired after a day's work, but he always stops at the right time and lets everyone rest with him.
With Xu Liushou here, the food naturally improved.
People eat for food.
Once the food was good, the resentment among the laborers and servants dissipated a lot.
And they also realized that Xu Liushou was there to support them.
Otherwise, in order to rush the construction of the palace, I don’t know how many people would have died in the cold winter.
Now, at least everyone’s living conditions have improved a lot.
If Xu Liushou hadn't been here, their lives would be less valuable than animals.
Having said that, humans are the most useful animals. They have long endurance, can resist hunger, are obedient, and will not resist unless they have no choice.
So Xu Liushou joked that everyone came from the lower class and had "the innate holy bodies of cattle and horses."
Everyone found it funny and sad.
But Wenquxing is high above, and he is willing to be among the people, chatting with them, which makes everyone feel warm in their hearts.
Of course, if there is no charcoal fire around, it will definitely not be warm.
If you feel warm, it is the last breath of life, which is very dangerous!
The laborers who were recruited by the gentry to build the palace at this time all had extremely hard lives and no hope.
Xu Qing didn't dislike them, because as the current demon, he could dislike almost everyone equally. They were all the product of greed and desire, so what difference could there be?
Everyone is like this, it’s just a matter of degree.
Looking back at the long history, truly selfless people can be counted on one's fingers.
To dislike everything is the same as not disliking anything.
This work is a face-saving project, but also to gain a deeper understanding of the lives of the lower classes.
Xu Qing is now standing too high and has few opportunities to understand the grassroots.
"Don't be nervous, everyone. After the work is done, I will personally give you money, and each of you can take a piece of bacon back home for the New Year. And after chatting with me, you can brag about it when you go back. The head of your village may even say a few good words to you."
After these words, everyone burst into laughter.
Some people agree with it, while others are sincere.
In their opinion, Wenquxing is still a little childish, of course, he is not very old.
The atmosphere of the chat was generally relaxed.
Even if you say something wrong, people will just laugh it off.
Perhaps a noble person like Xu Liushou just treats us as ants and therefore doesn't care about us, but being able to chat with such a noble person is a blessing earned through several lifetimes, isn't it?
If ordinary people cannot associate themselves with powerful people, it will be difficult for them to soar to the sky in their lifetime.
Xu Qing was among the crowd, understanding their joys and sorrows. He didn't say any profound truths, and even gave sincere advice to people about saving money to go back and get married.
The final half-month construction period of the Yingtianfu Palace ended in a very pleasant atmosphere.
During this period, even many members of the Fushe Society came to work together.
This is a rare opportunity to appear in front of the chairman, so cherish it!
Ordinary people who can pass the examination to become a scholar are not stupid.
Whether you can become successful or not still depends on the support of noble people, it has been the same since ancient times.
It’s the same thing, how can working in front of a leader be the same as working hard on your own?
The key is that Xu Liushou is really willing to promote poor scholars.
After all, the Xu family has a small population!
This is Xu Qing's disadvantage, but also his advantage in attracting talents from all over the world.
The temporary palace was completed and the emperor's headquarters also arrived in Yingtian Prefecture.
This pair of emperor and minister, who have been together for thousands of years, will meet again!
The entire Southeast is paying close attention to this meeting.
Because the direction of the world's situation lies in the hands of these two people, the king and his minister.
(End of this chapter)