Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 245: A Moral Cloak

The weather was bad, hot and stuffy, and seemed to foreshadow a violent storm.

Jia Lian walked out of the office, stood on the steps and looked at the officials in the yard with a painful expression.

"How did the R&D Department come about? Whether you know it or not, I will explain it to you, lest you be punished without instruction."

The opening remarks are a bit scary, mainly because Jia Lian is really notorious among the officials in the capital.

A person who is not corrupt and works hard is labeled as notorious, which shows the current environment in the capital.

Some officials at the scene were sweating profusely, some pretended to be calm, and some even felt weak in the knees and needed help from their companions.

The officials present knew best what they had done. If it was another government office, there might not be any splash at all. The phrase "officials protecting each other" is not just something to be heard, it is actually practiced.

In the Great Zhou Dynasty, only those who passed the imperial examinations were qualified to become officials. Apart from the special examinations, an average of more than 1,000 juren and 150 jinshi were produced every three years. This number of people was extremely rare in the country with a population of over 100 million.

Once these people entered the officialdom, they naturally protected the collective interests. According to the laws of the Great Zhou Dynasty, Juren could be exempted from corvée and 400 mu of land tax. Their families were also protected. In order to avoid corvée and land tax, many villagers entrusted their property to Juren, and even sold themselves into slavery.

What is corvée labor? In layman's terms, it means bringing your own dry food to work for the government. Since the treatment of corvée labor varies in each dynasty and even in different periods of a dynasty, if we break it down a little, different officials give different treatments. The Zhou Dynasty stipulated that corvée labor required a certain amount of food to be supplied every day, because most of the work involved heavy physical labor. Why did the people still want to escape?
First, the men in the family were doing corvée labor, and the women, children, and the elderly who stayed at home were easily bullied. Second, if you were unlucky and met a corrupt official, you had to bring your own dry food. It was not that the court did not allocate food, but that it was embezzled. The people had no channels to make a move, and if they wanted to leave the county, a road permit would make it difficult for them to move.

I say this just to explain a point. The treatment of officials in this era also proves that the conscience of the social elites is not superior. Their treatment will not improve just because they are more educated. Everyone is well-read, but few people do things according to the teachings of sages.

Jia Lian briefly explained the origin of this Research and Development Department. The general meaning was that, because a new type of musket was developed, His Majesty issued an order to retain the original participants and set up a separate department to develop weapons.

"Your Majesty's painstaking efforts are not understood by your colleagues. I have looked at the roster. There are six principals, all of whom are part-time. There are 103 officials from the seventh to ninth ranks, and only a dozen of them are part-time and show up. The rest are just taking salaries without showing up. Is this how the Ministry of Works, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Ministry of Revenue work for Your Majesty? A newly established government office has become a place where people are paid without doing anything? I know in my heart that if I didn't have some confidence, I wouldn't dare to come here to collect salaries without doing anything."

After these words were spoken, the atmosphere in the venue became more depressing and everyone's face changed.

In the eyes of everyone, Jia Lian is an extremely unruly person. These are what people said off stage. How can you bring them up on stage?

But some people can break the rules and are not restricted by them.

Jia Lian said, what a coincidence, I am a person who is not bound by rules.

These people had the courage to draw a salary without doing any work and the courage to spread rumors and slander behind people's backs, but not even one of them stood up against Jia Lian.

For this reason, Jia Lian felt deeply sad, and he thought that a few brave warriors would come out to fight.

"Okay, I have finished what I want to say. Everyone, go back and think carefully about what to do next. I hope to see your answers tomorrow. Finally, I want to emphasize two points. All the money borrowed from the R&D Department's account must be returned by noon tomorrow. From now on, as long as I am in the capital, I will be here to manage the R&D Department. Everyone, please respect yourselves. To be honest, I really don't want to tear our relationship apart."

After Jia Lian finished speaking, no one moved. Jia Lian looked around silently and turned back to the office.

After the door was closed, the officials at the scene dispersed collectively, and the voices gradually became louder.

There were all kinds of discussions going on, and I didn’t dare to say anything in person, but now I’m quite brave.

The window suddenly opened, revealing Jia Lian's face, and he yelled at everyone, "Get out!"

Just like a lion's roar, everyone fled in a panic, and several shoes were lost.

The roar was accompanied by a series of thunders, followed by a breeze, and then a howling gale. Raindrops as big as beans fell on the ground, quickly from sparse to dense, and finally shrouded the capital in rain and fog.

It was raining heavily, but Jia Lian did not stay in the house. He immediately asked someone to get a straw raincoat and a hat, dressed neatly, and walked back to the Wucheng Bingmasi with an umbrella. At this time, Jia Lian had not eaten lunch and had no appetite at all.

The rain was so heavy that even umbrellas and raincoats could not protect against the wind and rain. When Jia Lian returned to the Wucheng Bingmasi, his shoes and the hem of his official robe were soaked, and after standing in the hall for a while, a circle of water formed under his feet.

The censors on duty came one after another, curious about Jia Lian's arrival at this moment. Normally, shouldn't he stay here to avoid the rain?
Jia Lian pointed outside and said to everyone, "It's raining too hard, it will definitely cause waterlogging. The Wucheng Bingmasi has been collecting a lot of money on weekdays, and we can't back off when it's time to work. Thank you all for your hard work. Go back and prepare. Let everyone be ready. After the rain stops, go to the streets and clean up the sanitation problems caused by waterlogging. Finally, I want to emphasize that you should prepare more quicklime and sprinkle it on the places where water accumulates, including the corners. Tell all officers and soldiers that the purpose of doing this is to kill the disease. Because waterlogging will bring out the disease hidden in the sewers, so prepare according to this requirement."

If we were to ask which government office in the entire capital city has the most combat effectiveness, it would undoubtedly be the Wucheng Bingmasi. The reason is simple: the treatment is good, the superiors are not unreasonable, and as long as you work hard, your living standard can be guaranteed.

The heavy rain lasted for an hour, which was a great relief for the capital city, which had not seen much rain since the beginning of the year. Most of the people living in low-lying areas were ordinary people, and the flooding first hit these people. Many people looked at the accumulated water in their houses and could only scoop water out with basins, and used all means to block the door threshold to prevent water from entering.

But how can I put it? In the face of the power of heaven and earth and the might of nature, the power of an individual is too weak.

As soon as the rain stopped, the people of the whole capital saw a strange sight. More than 10,000 soldiers from the Five Cities were mobilized. They walked through the streets and alleys in the low-lying areas, stepping on the knee-deep water. They set up keel water trucks to pump out water and drain the water. They promptly cleaned up the floating garbage and the fallen trees in the wind and rain, and loaded them onto trucks to transport them away. This was something that they would never have dared to think about in previous years.

Because in previous years, whenever there was waterlogging, the west of the city would be the first to be cleaned up, followed by the east, and the south and north would be left alone. Ordinary people could only rely on themselves and help each other to deal with the damage caused by nature.

Today was different. Everyone saw that the people from the Wucheng Bingmasi were carrying water wheels and pushing carts and running around everywhere.

Wherever there is waterlogging, you can see the flag of the Wucheng Bingmasi.

At first, some people said that they collected money. But ordinary people don't think so. If they collect money, they are collecting money from the rich. For ordinary people's gathering places, at most they enforce some hygiene requirements, and they don't collect a penny. At most, you have to do some work.

The government was mobilized, and the common people had their own ideas, especially when they saw Jia Lian, the young master, the top scholar, and the imperial censors, walking on the water in their straw raincoats. Countless people who only cared about their own business walked out of their homes with their tools to help the people from the Wucheng Bingmasi. The drizzle continued to fall, but it did not stop the enthusiasm of the people. They drained the water and cleaned up the garbage until it was completely dark, and then the crowd gradually dispersed. The people from the Wucheng Bingmasi finally evacuated with torches and lanterns. The next morning, the people from the Wucheng Bingmasi went out again, spreading lime in the waterlogged areas, cushioning with soil, and cleaning the streets.

The masters naturally wouldn't move, but the common people responded again and went to the streets to help with the work.

Amid the people's unanimous praise, the pride of the Five Cities Army reached its peak. It was a wonderful feeling.

What is strange is that the entire officialdom in the capital city did not say a word about the actions of the Five Cities Army.

Just ignored it!
In the past, some people would come out and say that the Five Cities Army was rampant in the capital and was making money by various pretexts.

This time, it is really as if this government office does not exist.

What's even more interesting is that in the wine shop and teahouse, some bastards in the yamen praised the actions of the Wucheng Bingmasi, gave them a thumbs up and said, "Really manly!"

From the imperial court to the marketplace, one incident was like a magic mirror, revealing countless ugliness before people's eyes.

Jia Lian’s thoughts on this phenomenon are very simple. I don’t care what you think. I don’t rely on you to get promoted or make money.

From the perspective of being an official, what happened to Jia Lian was not a good phenomenon. Being different and not sociable were never good words in the officialdom of the Great Zhou Dynasty. In private, there were many more unpleasant comments, such as flattering superiors, harming colleagues, bullying gentry, and so on.

The flooding caused by the heavy rain did not cause much impact due to timely handling.

After the rain stopped, daily life in Beijing quickly returned to normal. People have always lived this way. At most, they complained that God was unfair! No one stopped their lives because of natural disasters. It's not that they don't want to stop, but they can't stop. What will the whole family eat if they stop?

In the Research and Development Department, Jia Lian sat in front of the hall early in the morning, silently looking at the yard outside.

The first official came in, put down a letter of resignation, and said goodbye. Then many more people came in one after another.

The pile of resignation letters on the table in front of Jia Lian gradually became thicker.

The content of my resignation letter is very simple. I am not suitable for R&D work, so I hereby resign. I hope you will approve my resignation.

There are people who are interesting, and there are people who are not.

Emperor Chenghui actually knew what happened in the R&D Department earlier. He just wanted to see how Jia Lian would deal with it, so he reminded this guy to go back and take a look. The Dragon Guards had been keeping an eye on the R&D Department's every move and reporting at any time.

Qiu Shian was serving Emperor Chenghui lunch while whispering reports to him as a side dish. Emperor Chenghui liked to listen to this and it was particularly interesting, just as the Wucheng Bingmasi had done something big but no one in the officialdom said a word.

"In the morning, Jia Lian received 89 resignations, and the money borrowed by the Ministry of Works was also repaid. There has been no movement from the Ministry of Internal Affairs for a while, and nearly a hundred people are drawing salaries without doing anything. The young master has offended a lot of people, and he has cut off their financial resources and killed their parents."

"Many officials are donated to become officials, and they are all relatives of officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Revenue, and the Ministry of Works. I have something to say, but the Ministry of Works cannot hold this accountable to Lord Pan."

Emperor Chenghui put down his chopsticks and said, "Am I so stupid? Stop talking! Keep talking."

Qiu Shian smiled and slapped himself lightly on the face a few times, then continued, this time talking about the discussions within the various government offices.

The collective fire was directed at two yamen, one was the Beijing Camp, which was the hardest hit area for people who ate empty salaries, and the other was the Dragon Guard. There were so many people who only went there to collect their salaries for 500 taels of silver. Xia Shouzhong had the most say on this issue. But how to say this? The civil service group would not bring it to the table.

Are the civil servants kind? No, they just don't dare.

The power of the Dragon Guards has been weakened for forty-five years since the Emperor was in power. The civil officials are happy to see the Dragon Guards eating empty salaries. If this matter did not involve the interests of too many people, this matter of compromise would not be brought up. Even if someone said it, they would be stopped by their colleagues at the first time. The Beijing Camp can say that the Dragon Guards are not good enough.

This is a tacit understanding.

The Dragon Guard, who was suppressed with great difficulty by the alliance with the noble group, dare not let it raise its head again. Letting the Dragon Guard rot is the best outcome.

As for why the Beijing Camp could be brought up, is there any need to ask? A civil official was doing the job of a military officer, so why would there be a reason?

Anyone with a bit of common sense can see that Your Majesty wants to reorganize the Beijing camp. Why can't the reorganization be led by the Ministry of War?
Looking through the phenomenon to the essence, things are nothing more than a struggle for interests.

It’s just that it’s covered up very well now, and one always stands on the moral high ground before speaking.

To put it bluntly, since the Hundred Schools of Thought, the struggle between Taoism, Legalism, and Confucianism during the Han Dynasty was all about discourse power, because discourse power equals interpretation power + distribution power. This logic is also very useful in modern times. Even though it is clearly sucking blood from you, you are still accused of being barbaric and backward, or that you have violated the rules-based international order.

Many countries in the world have knelt down, letting the vampires on them feast on them, and they have to bear the reputation of being backward. Because you are backward, you are sucked and harvested. This logic is so mysterious, I don’t understand, is there any inevitable connection between backwardness and being sucked? Isn’t Europe backward? Aren’t many developed countries also being sucked?
Any country that refuses to kneel down completely will be labeled with a negative moral reputation!
Let's put aside that logic and look at the essence of the problem. The fundamental reason for attacking you and dismembering you is that you have the foundation to threaten the so-called lighthouse, including population, area, resources, and other factors.

There is only one purpose, to prevent you from having the chance to become stronger and to completely dismember you.

It's just bandit logic disguised as morality.

The names on the roster were ticked off one by one, and there were still eight people less than two dozen, who were ignorant and had never been to the R&D department. These names were very interesting. Among them, there were three people with the surname Zhou!
(End of this chapter)