"Secretary Yuan, I've already screened these documents. There's a special list of Koreans with poor backgrounds. There's also a large list of suspects who colluded with bandits outside. I think we need to observe them for a certain period of time to screen them out. " When Wang Shizhen placed a few thick dossiers in front of Yuan Weiting, she explained to him the reasons for separating the dossiers.
Yuan Weiting was a little distracted. Hearing the words "poor backgrounds" always made him feel a little emotional. The Yuan family's background was not just average, but extremely poor. Yuan Weiting's uncle, Yuan Jiasan, was a Jinshi. He had fought with the Taiping army, the Liberation Army, and the Nian Army. After the establishment of the Min dynasty, the Yuan family naturally belonged to the ranks of "political pariahs". There was absolutely no chance for them to make a name for themselves.
The Yuan family's land was divided, so they could only farm on the land that was left for them. Yuan Weiting didn't know about the "political pariahs" until he entered the cadre school for further study. Seeing the terms with his own eyes, Yuan Weiting realized how lucky his family was. When China invaded Alaska, a cadre visited the Yuan family and asked if they were willing to serve the country.
The cadre didn't hide anything about the hardship in Alaska. Yuan Weiting was the only one who went north with his uncle. Yuan Weiting still remembered the winter essentials that the cadre on the ship repeatedly told him when they went north. For example, he had to wear gloves to touch ironware in winter. Yuan Weiting was still small when he arrived in Alaska. Children were very hot. He tried to grab the iron bar, but his hand was frozen on the iron bar. His uncle scolded him while pouring warm water on the iron bar. When he finally got rid of the iron bar, he only lost a layer of skin.
In a harsh environment like Alaska, there was no distinction between good and bad people. If you didn't follow the army and work hard, you would die in the ice and snow. At the same time, the people who were tempered in such an environment were not ordinary either. Yuan Weiting started serving in the Alaska province at the age of 15. In an environment where he couldn't go out for half a year, he studied hard with other ambitious young people. At the age of 18, he retired with excellent high school examination results and an excellent military record. He was finally able to return to Asia to work. At this time, his uncle died of illness and his remains were buried in the cemetery in Alaska. Under such harsh conditions, his uncle spent more than half a month in the hospital due to kidney failure before he passed away. He did not die because he was sick and abandoned.
Back in Asia, Yuan Shikai would sometimes be too tired to sleep, so he would look at the night sky outside the house. But what he recalled was the scenery of North America. The ethereal aurora in the night sky, the blue sky during the day, and the mirror-like lake reflected the sky and forest. From afar, it was impossible to tell where the sky was and where the lake was. When troops carrying weapons passed by the lake, wild ducks, water birds, and even snow-white swans would be startled.
The scenery of his childhood home was already very faint in his memory. When he was a teenager, he followed the army from Alaska to the Mackenzie River, down south to the Great Slave Lake, and fought a brutal battle with the local British stronghold. Yuan Weiting also felt that those memories were starting to blur. What he could clearly remember was that he and a few hot-blooded comrades had heard that swan meat was delicious and tried to secretly catch a few to eat. But looking at the elegant and beautiful swans leisurely swimming in the lake with their clumsy gray furball-like babies, a group of people couldn't pull the trigger no matter how hard they tried. So they lay on the soft grass by the lake and watched the family of swans, chatting and eating canned fruit. Sometimes he really wondered if he had ever fought in North America, which was as beautiful as a fairyland and as cruel as hell.
Hearing Wang Shizhen mention "poor family background," Yuan Weiting remembered his shock when he saw the political untouchables regulations. After seeing the political untouchables regulations, Yuan Weiting realized that someone must have given the Yuan family a chance. Otherwise, the Yuan family would have been farmers in Henan for generations. Although he didn't know who gave the order, Yuan Weiting was still grateful.
So Yuan Weiting's heart softened and he couldn't help but want to ask if these people should be given a chance. But in the blink of an eye, Yuan Weiting gave up this idea. During the war, the Chinese Army had given the local Russians and British a chance, but this tolerance was often exchanged for deception and betrayal. Thinking of this, Yuan Weiting retracted his thoughts. Only then did he notice that when he was a little distracted, Wang Shizhen was looking at him with a sharp gaze.
Yuan Weiting said, "Chief Wang, since the higher-ups have agreed to our idea, it's up to us to put on a good show next."
Wang Shizhen still said in his usual calm tone, "His Majesty has been prepared for a long time. Secretary Yuan, haven't you noticed that His Majesty has been preventing us from getting involved in the food business? "
Yuan Weiting smiled slightly. "I've noticed this for a long time. His Majesty's candlelight illuminates thousands of miles. At the moment, the Korean royal court is only afraid of China, but the Korean people are envious of us. I hate the Japanese who bought Korea's food. "
Wang Shizhen nodded. "That's right. The Pyongyang Business Daily that we run has been strategically describing various business trends in Korea. I went to ask the editor-in-chief of the Pyongyang Business Daily a few days ago. The editor-in-chief said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs instructed them to do so. Since the people of Korea are living a miserable life now, we have to find a way to clean up China as much as possible. "
It was the Japanese who bought Korean food, and it was also the Japanese who caused the people of Korea to starve. This was the effect that China hoped to achieve. In fact, although this was the case, if the propaganda was not good, the enemy had enough opportunities to turn black into white and bite back. The lives of the people of Korea were so bad that they urgently needed to find a "culprit". As for whether the culprit was the real culprit or not, it was not certain. Even in a country like the Min dynasty that spoke the truth and spoke the truth, after 20 years of propaganda and education, the people's views on things were often absurd. Under the feudal system, the people of Korea knew that they were suffering, but it was asking too much for them to understand the reason for their suffering.
Both Yuan Weiting and Wang Shizhen could see that the central government actually had a plan in Korea, but the central government's energy was not focused on Korea at all. Both of them realized that as long as they could push the central government's previous plan one step further, not only would the situation in Korea be completely new, but their futures would also be turned upside down.
The railway workers' armed forces were built very quickly. In the current economic depression, the Korea Railway and Telegraph Company's behavior of never defaulting on wages for several years made this company accumulate a considerable reputation. It was very easy to recruit some of the family members of the Korea Railway employees. When the new employees knew that their work in the company was similar to guarding the house, they were actually happy. The income of the house guards wasn't low.
By March, the railway police expanded to about 3,000 people. They were assigned to various stations to guard the freight yards, warehouses, and also to guard the cars. In a month or two, they arrested seven to eight hundred bandits. These people were not sent to the government, but were transferred by the railway police to the railway procuratorate, the railway procuratorate prosecuted, and the railway court tried. The trial results were basically sent to the mines where the railway belonged to for labor reform.
There were iron mines in Hwanghaidao. If one wanted to export capital to Korea, the best investment was naturally the steel industry. China's steel output of more than 20 million tons couldn't meet China's increasing demand. Where would there be enough steel to help Korea with national construction? While Yuan Weiting and Wang Shizhen were working hard, Li Hongzhang was not idle. He contacted and made friends with the Korean eunuchs and Confucian organizations, the Chamberlain Mansion and the Kuizhang Pavilion. He paid close attention to the reaction of these two organizations to the Railway and Telegraph Company's actions.
The Chamberlain Mansion didn't have much reaction, but the Kuizhang Pavilion of the Confucian community had a big reaction. During the meeting, Li Hongzhang talked about the attitude of the Confucian people he had contacted. After Li Hongzhang finished, Yuan Weiting frowned and asked, "Director Li, are you saying that these people don't care that we have begun to exercise judicial power in Korea, but that our actions are not ruthless enough and not in line with the Confucian concept?"
Yuan Weiting had some family knowledge, but Wang Shizhen didn't understand what the Confucian concept was at all. So Wang Shizhen's question was more straightforward. "Director Li, does Korea really not care about what we do?"
Li Hongzhang explained, "Of course they care, but the way the Confucian scholars think about problems is very different from us. As long as I say that His Majesty Vézé's order is still effective in Korea, they don't dare to argue with me on the basis of power. In the past few months, you have repeatedly gone to the yamen of Korea and asked them to solve the problem of bandits. They are also autonomous, and they haven't started to solve it themselves. They are also in the wrong. "
This answer was clear enough, but it was clear enough. Wang Shizhen still couldn't imagine what the Koreans thought. Li Hongzhang didn't play the feudal game of letting his subordinates guess. He gave Yuan Weiting and Wang Shizhen a small lesson about the feudal system.
The legal system of the Min dynasty determined that the judicial system itself was not subject to administrative interference. Even Vézé himself was under the law. Vézé obtained absolute power according to the law. In theory, as long as the National People's Congress could pass a resolution to take back Vézé's power, then Vézé would be nothing. But this concept didn't exist in Korea at all. The royal court of Korea was above everything in Korea.
After all, China had been unified for a long time, and China's history was unprecedented. In the system established by Qin Shi Huang, the ancestor dragon, the status of law was extremely important. "Law" was the most important pillar of the Qin Dynasty. After that, the Confucian scholars played the role of counter-revolution. In order to let the Confucian scholars gain a respected position, they put "reason" before law. The law had to be based on logic and reality, which was not the strong point of the Confucian scholars. Spittle flying everywhere, this was something that the Confucian scholars could easily accomplish.
Therefore, based on the materialist view of history, no matter how good the police and judicial system of the Min dynasty was, the upper class of Korea couldn't accept it. The reason why the royal court of Korea couldn't accept it was that the system established by the railway and telegraph companies was not controlled by the royal court of Korea. The Confucian scholars couldn't accept it because the system was too controllable. The path was too clear, and there was no room for them to talk nonsense.
At this point, Yuan Weiting and Wang Shizhen could still understand. Li Hongzhang was also a little gratified. After all, these two young people were not bad, and there was no problem with their comprehension. Thus, Li Hongzhang continued to talk in depth.
Even if the police and judicial system were used by the royal court of Korea. The royal court of Korea still couldn't accept a police and judicial system that acted according to the law of Korea. As long as the existence of the law enforcement system and its actions were not based on the law, then the law enforcement system was no different from the current system of Korea.
For the Confucian scholars, once the foundation of the judicial system was not the law, they turned to attack the efficiency of the system. Throughout history, there had been many cases of new systems being established. The origin of such a change was naturally that the current system could not solve the problems at that time. The driving force of such a change was a certain group of people in power who wanted to expand their own power, and the struggle between personnel power and administrative power. As for the result of this change, when there was no fundamental change in the social system, most of the changes were a political struggle that led to a huge waste.
Successful changes without exception were the old rulers toppling, and failed changes were the old rulers counterattacking and getting rid of the group that tried to change. The worst situation was that the reform group and the old ruling group were locked in a stalemate, and in the end, the other forces picked the fruit out of thin air.
After saying this, Li Hongzhang also felt a little exhausted. Even straightening out a small part of the political struggle required a lot of physical strength and energy.
Looking at Yuan Weiting and Wang Shizhen, Li Hongzhang asked, "Do you understand this?"
Yuan Weiting's eyes lit up, and he seriously replied, "Revolution is the result of a change in productivity."
Wang Shizhen replied, "This mountain looks higher than that mountain, it will definitely lead to tragedy."
Li Hongzhang only felt speechless. The conclusions of these two people were also based on the content of Li Hongzhang's explanation. However, what these two people said was far from the current situation of Korea. What was certain now was that these two young people didn't care about what the royal court of Korea and the Korean scholars thought.
However, Li Hongzhang was Li Hongzhang after all. He didn't think that there was anything wrong with these two people's considerations. The situation of Korea was getting worse and worse. The property accounts of the Korea Railway and Telegraph Company went through the Pyongyang Bank and Seoul Bank opened by China in Korea. Even if the royal court of Korea owed them wages, they couldn't get money from China.
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