Korean agriculture could not provide stable employment and food for Korea, so the Korean workers working on the railway had to live on their salaries. In an agricultural country, because they had no livelihood, they had to work for others. It was very hard work and was considered a job with no status. In recent years, some of the Korean railway workers were finally willing to marry because they had been receiving a monthly salary for several years in a row. Over the past few years, the locals in Korea had learned that the boss of the railway was Chinese, not Korean.
If their salaries were reduced now, not to mention getting a wife, even their own lives would be a problem. There was no need for Secretary Yuan Weiting to deliberately encourage them. The Korean trade union representatives were all excited. Their first reaction was not to fight with Secretary Yuan Weiting, but to kneel on the ground and cry loudly, begging not to reduce their salaries.
Secretary Yuan Weiting looked at the Korean trade union representatives condescendingly. They were not elected because they dared to fight. They could become trade union representatives because they were obedient. After everyone cried for a while, Yuan Weiting shouted, "Stop crying! What's the use of crying? "
These words were not very effective. Other than begging, what else could they do?
Yuan Weiting asked the workers to get up and return to their seats. He asked, "If we don't lose anything on the railway, do you think we will still reduce your salaries?"
This question immediately opened the minds of the Korean trade union representatives. That's right! If they didn't lose anything, naturally their salaries would not be reduced.
Yuan Weiting continued to shout, "So what we need to do now is to organize and beat up those who steal our things. Only by beating up these bad guys can we make money. "
The reason was very clear and completely acceptable to everyone. The Korean trade union representatives quickly united their minds. Now they needed to use force to protect the fruits of the workers' labor.
While Yuan Weiting began to take the mass route and organize the workers' armed forces, Hou Renjie, the representative of the Ministry of Commerce in Korea, chatted with Wang Shizhen. "Xiao Wang, I heard that you were the top scholar in high school in Beijing. Why didn't you go to high school? Why did you go to the railway school?"
The 23-year-old Wang Shizhen could not help but sigh slightly. "My family is poor, so I can work faster if I go to the railway school."
Wang Shizhen's father was a scholar who was proficient in medicine and martial arts. However, his father and uncle died early, so Wang Shizhen and his widowed mother depended on each other. They lived in Ximen Li's maternal family in Zhengding City, relying on his mother to work in the textile factory alone. Wang Shizhen had been smart and studious since she was young. Although she did not come from a good family background, Vézé's "Political Untouchables" added that a scholar's family was already classified as a political untouchable, but orphans and widows did not fall into this category. Therefore, Wang Shizhen was able to get rid of this kind of blow.
After listening to Wang Shizhen's story, Hou Renjie sighed and said, "Life is like this. With your grades, it won't be difficult for you to get into a university. By the way, Xiao Wang, do you want to work for our Ministry of Commerce? "
Wang Shizhen was not surprised at all. He calmly said, "I've been working on the railway for so many years. I want to continue working on the railway."
Hou Renjie didn't quite believe this. Wang Shizhen graduated from Beijing Railway School at the age of 17 and had been working on the railway for six years. In these six years, he had worked in Korea for five years. Now, he had taken on a very important responsibility in Korea at a young age. If he succeeded, his future would be bright. As long as Wang Shizhen was willing, he would have the opportunity to further his studies in a university. Hou Renjie was now recruiting Wang Shizhen not because of Wang Shizhen's educational background, but because he appreciated this young man's unusual ability.
While the two were talking, the telegraph operator brought in a telegram. Wang Shizhen opened the telegram and read it, then handed it to Hou Renjie. On the telegram was a simple sentence, "Agree to the application for capital export."
Hou Renjie's face was expressionless, but his eyes were unusually bright. The Min dynasty had always been a commodity exporter. If they exported troops, they would have to occupy the land. But this time, something unusual happened in Korea. At first, Li Hongzhang wanted to stop the turmoil in Korea, so he proposed to set up a joint-stock enterprise with the Ministry of Commerce. This so-called joint-stock enterprise was actually the cooperation and struggle between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Commerce in Korea. Since it was impossible for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to get rid of the Ministry of Commerce, then they might as well cooperate with the Ministry of Commerce.
But the young people of the Korea Railway and Telegraph Company, which was under the Ministry of Commerce, came up with a new idea. They proposed the idea of capital export. The term capital export sounded very big, but in fact, it was quite simple. It was to invest in industry in Korea, and gradually control Korea through expanding industrial enterprises. There was an economic crisis in industrial countries, and economic crisis corresponded with economic prosperity. Agricultural countries didn't even have the qualification to have economic crisis, because agricultural countries were in crisis every day.
Floods, droughts, and exorbitant levies were the most common problems in pure agricultural countries, but this was not the worst. When commercialism began to rise in agricultural countries, an even greater tragedy befell them. When the feudal landlords still took on their social obligations, they at least paid grain. When the feudal landlords began to make money faster by trading, the feudal landlords began to refuse to take on the obligation to pay grain for their own interests. The general feudal obligations were divided into paying money and paying grain. After choosing the feudal obligation of paying money, the potential obligation of the landlords to provide grain to the domestic market was ruthlessly abandoned. After participating in the grain export, the landlords were not short of money. The country didn't seem to lose anything, but in fact, the country lost an important pillar.
Now Korea was pregnant with a huge crisis. Hou Renjie, the representative of the Ministry of Commerce, admired the patience of the Korean people. If the situation of Korea appeared in China, it would have already been full of fire. The salary of a Korean railway worker was less than one-fifth of that of China. If the salary was not so low, how could the Korea Railway and Telegraph Company bear the salary of the Korean railway workers when the Korean Royal Court was in arrears. The annual profit of the Korea Railway and Telegraph Company was enough to support this group of workers. For the landlords who sold grain overseas, the railway and telegraph were good helpers for them to sell grain. Just with these big customers, the Korea Railway and Telegraph Company would not lose money.
For China's capital, Korea's low labor force and relatively rich underground mineral resources were extremely profitable things. China had also considered the idea of using Korea as a dumping ground, but when they calculated the accounts, they found that the pure export of goods was not necessarily cost-effective. The profits of local investment were not small, and the economic development brought by the local industrial exhibition was also benefits. The most important thing was that Korea was too poor and had no purchasing power. If China made a move, it would be a situation of killing the goose that laid the golden eggs. Instead of making trouble to the point where the Koreans rose up against China, it was better to let the water go and raise the fish. At least it could let China profit in the long run.
In this report, Wang Shizhen made a lot of contributions, and Yuan Weiting also added a lot of things. Now that the report had been approved by the central government, although it was not known if the future would really be as everyone hoped, at least the people from the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Korea needed to rely on themselves to promote the whole plan.
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