"War is the continuation of politics." Wei Changrong gave Wang Mingshan and Pang Congcong a simple strategy lesson. The first sentence enlightened the two officials who had experienced the war but had not actually participated in the war.
Vézé's overall war strategy could be called wishful thinking, but from the perspective of the war itself, there was nothing wonderful about the strategy itself. At the end of the day, it was the two elements of raw material production and the new territory. Now that China had a large population and little land, the new territory could support a large number of immigrants.
"I used to think that the commander-in-chief was belligerent, but I don't think so anymore. Compared with external solutions to internal problems, the commander-in-chief actually paid more attention to the development of domestic productivity. Rather than saying that war was the commander-in-chief's way of solving problems. If the commander-in-chief was really a belligerent, he would not accept the British's position and mediation in the Dutch East Indies. That was a must. "Wei Changrong also made some arguments for Vézé.
As a man, Wang Mingshan agreed with Wei Changrong's point of view. Belligerence meant fighting first. Vézé avoided war after reaching the bottom line. This was not the choice of a belligerent.
Pang Congcong's thinking was different. If Vézé did not fight now, he would still fight in the future. Sooner or later, he would fight. Since fighting was inevitable, wasn't that belligerent? The difference between a hardcore and a non-hardcore was that Pang Congcong frankly expressed her opinion.
Wei Changrong did not care about Pang Congcong's doubts. He replied, "If we fight in the future, it will be because the balance of power between us and the British is advantageous to us. We can get more after fighting. This was calculating the benefits before choosing the war. It was not choosing the war before calculating the benefits. This was a completely different point. Moreover, the commander-in-chief mentioned some strategic issues that I don't understand, so I can't explain it to you. The general idea was that industrial society was about productivity. When there was excess productivity, it needed to be released, just like when the reservoir was full, it needed to be released. There were also some that were eliminated and lagged behind, just like when the reservoir needed to be cleaned. In short, it was quite complicated. The general idea is that foreign wars are a way to solve domestic problems, but the entire country doesn't exist for war. "
This set of strategic theory was too advanced for the people of the 19th century, and for the senior officials of China who had a relatively low level of understanding of industrialization, it was even more incomprehensible. The elimination of outdated production capacity, and the prioritization of new technology in war to promote industrial development — these theoretical frameworks were only discussed more systematically during World War II. For China, which had just started to industrialize, it was too advanced and too advanced. Even Wei Changrong could not fully understand it. In an era of absolute scarcity, the only people who could truly understand overcapacity were not geniuses, but weirdos.
During the few days on the train, Wang Mingshan and Pang Congcong had benefited a lot. The increase in their knowledge was only a small part of it. The broadening and improvement of their strategic vision was the most important thing. When a person looked at a problem from the perspective of the entire country, the original big problem often became not a problem, and the original small problem would become a big problem.
From a local point of view, the problem of the underworld was nothing more than a troublesome local dispute. But from a national point of view, it was a big problem of seizing the market. The national leadership was eroded at the local level. The local government might be able to accept it, but the national government would never accept it.
Wei Changrong had also stayed in Guangdong for several years, and his arrival shocked the entire Guangdong party and government department. After he took over the position of secretary of the Political and Legal Committee, he made a promise at the provincial party committee meeting that "no organized crime will be allowed to go against the national economic order."
The personnel transfer was not limited to Guangdong. Hunan's deputy director Zuo Zongtang was also transferred to Guangdong to take charge of the work of the publicity department, and his rank was also promoted to the director level. A director level official became a member of the Standing Committee, this could be considered to have shaken the Guangdong political scene. Everyone thought that he would be promoted to the deputy director level official soon. The director level official was the fifth administrative level, the deputy director level was the sixth administrative level, and the director level and above was the senior official of the country.
It was undoubtedly a very shocking thing that a demoted general had the opportunity to become a senior official. Other than Zuo Zongtang, the only demoted general who could become a member of the new government was probably Li Hongzhang, who had become a section chief in Anhui. Other than that, no former Manchu Qing officials could become a member of the new government's civil service, let alone become a member of the Restoration Party. Although director Zuo and section chief Li did not have high positions, their reputation was far above their administrative ranks.
Zuo Zongtang had a lot of Jin Liang's arrogance. Given an official position, he naturally let go of his work. He held a few meetings with comrades from the Party School and did a specific investigation. The official newspaper, Guangdong Daily, published a serial article titled "The market economy does not allow the underworld to monopolize".
The article used detailed data to analyze the prices of the four seasons in Guangzhou in the past five years, and clearly listed the time of the intervention of the market bullying. After comparing the data, there were clear signs of the price of the food. As the degree of the underworld's monopoly on the Guangzhou farmers' market increased, the price of the food continued to rise. With the stability of the underground order, the price of the food stabilized at a peak and was maintained.
Compared to this data, it was fully revealed that the underworld also forcibly prevented farmers from entering the city, bought farmers' vegetables at a low price halfway, and collected protection fees from various stalls, as well as all kinds of fees. The total amount of these fees was calculated, and every year Guangzhou residents had to pay tens of millions of extra expenses. This money did not enter the national treasury, nor did it benefit Guangzhou residents. Instead, it was taken by the underworld.
After this series of articles was published, it caused a huge reaction in society. Tens of millions of yuan was an astronomical figure for the ordinary people of Guangdong who had an annual income of less than a thousand yuan. If this money was in the hands of the state, it would be fine. However, this money flowed into the hands of the underworld's hooligan organizations, which was unacceptable to the masses.
As the communicators between the government and public opinion, the people of the National People's Congress were people who could speak for the government in the eyes of the ordinary people. The people of the National People's Congress asked the people of the National People's Congress to go and tell the government that these bad people must be severely punished. The people of the National People's Congress were now the workers and farmers' representatives. They were the cornerstones of the Restoration Party and the new government. Although they looked like they didn't have much power, a considerable number of them came from the army. Now, the cadres in the new government were basically from the army. Even if there was no system, the people of the National People's Congress could still speak to the government, and the importance of their words could not be underestimated.
"Director Zuo, I think you're stirring up conflict by doing this," the director of the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau said angrily at the meeting.
"Why do you say that?" Zuo Zongtang asked calmly. He was not even fifty-seven years old. Compared to the group of young cadres in the Liberation Army, he was definitely an old guy. An old guy naturally had the style of an old guy. Zuo Zongtang was calm and unruffled.
"What do you mean by writing that article? Didn't you write that there are people in the government who received money from the underworld, and that's why they don't care about them? We've been on the police force for the farmers' market so many times, and now it's all for nothing? " The director of the Public Security Bureau was in his thirties, and it was the prime of his youth. He could not accept being criticized like this, even if it was in the dark.
Wang Mingshan, Pang Congcong, and Wei Changrong did not say a word, as if the conflict in front of them was just a friendly chat. As a cadre who had been parachuted in, Zuo Zongtang did not even look at the three of them. He said calmly, "Whether someone received money or not, we have the results of our investigation and the list of names. We definitely can't blame them. We just did an investigation and wrote the investigation into a report … "
"You can't write a report without thinking! Moreover, you didn't write the report for the provincial party committee to see, but let the people talk about it. What are your intentions? " The director of the Public Security Bureau was a soldier, and obeying his superiors was the habit of the army. Being scolded by his superior was just scolding him, and it was an internal problem. However, being questioned and criticized by the people was a bad reputation. Zuo Zongtang put the blame on the Public Security Bureau, so he could not help but be angry.
"You mean I'm making up news?" Zuo Zongtang still asked calmly.
"You must be making it up!" The director said loudly without hesitation.
"Then let me ask you, have you seen the report?" Zuo Zongtang continued to ask.
"Why?" The director saw that Zuo Zongtang did not back down at all, and he became even angrier. "You're making it up, and you want me to read it? How can I continue to read it!"
"If you haven't even seen it, how would you know that I'm making it up? This doesn't make sense, "Zuo Zongtang continued to speak calmly.
"You …" The director of the Public Security Bureau did not expect Zuo Zongtang to play this kind of verbal trick. With such a logical deduction, the dignified director of the Public Security Bureau, who felt that he was full of reason, became an idiot who began to criticize the article without even reading it.
Zuo Zongtang was not happy because he cleverly suppressed the director of the Public Security Bureau. He continued to speak calmly, "This investigation was done by the Propaganda Department and the Party School together. The people who were questioned had detailed records, and there were signatures. We checked the contents of what they said, and went to the Public Security Bureau to verify it. We checked the police dispatch records and the interrogation records. We didn't believe any of the statements that only had one piece of evidence. If you suspect that we're making it up, then point out where we're making it up. Please don't accuse us first. Only the Manchu Qing would do this kind of thing! "
The director of the Public Security Bureau felt that he could not argue with Zuo Zongtang. In fact, he already wanted to scold Zuo Zongtang for being a Manchu Qing's lackey. He did not expect that Zuo Zongtang would explain the process of his detailed investigation so clearly, and he even brought up the style of the Manchu Qing first. This made the director of the Public Security Bureau completely speechless.
The dissatisfaction with Zuo Zongtang was first expressed by the director's subordinates. When they pointed to a certain paragraph in the newspaper and scolded Zuo Zongtang for fabricating facts and slandering the Public Security Bureau, the busy director immediately became angry. He did not like to read the newspaper, and when many of his subordinates came to say such things, he would not read the newspaper in his anger. Knowing that someone was speaking ill of the Public Security Bureau, the idea of fighting back occupied most of his thoughts.
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