Southwest.

Chengdu.

Just past noon, the bright June sunlight fell on the tree-lined roads beside the Mohe Pond, the sultry air filled with the chirping of cicadas in late summer. Lin Qiu walked along the sparsely populated road towards the Fengyin Hall.

This day was June 12th of the second year of the Chinese Yuan Calendar, an ordinary day amidst busy work. Lin Qiu was thirty-one years old and one of the most brilliant young officers in the Chinese army.

He joined the Chinese army during the Xiaocang River period, experienced the first batch of young officer training, and went through battlefield battles. Because he was good at handling details, he joined the Secretariat, entered the General Staff, and was involved in the Intelligence Department and the Ministry of Commerce… In short, after the age of twenty-five, due to his active and open mind, he basically worked in the core departments directly controlled by Ning Yi, and was one of Ning Yi's most capable assistants for a period of time.

Although in the early stage of the army's creation, talents were mostly interspersed and mixed, and they were placed wherever they were needed, the experience of having touched on everything was still quite outstanding among his peers. In the later period of the Southwest War, when Ning Yi negotiated with Zong Han and Gao Qingyi on the front line of Shiling, the one who conveyed his will was Lin Qiu, who had an active mind and outstanding adaptability.

After the Chinese army defeated the Jurchens, it opened its doors to auction off technology and broaden trade routes, and he was responsible for several of the most important negotiation matters. After this matter was completed, Chengdu entered a stage of great development. He entered the Chengdu Bureau of Commerce at this time as a deputy director, responsible for the details of Chengdu's industrial and commercial development. At this time, the Chinese army's jurisdiction was only in the southwest, and the core of the southwest was Chengdu, so his work, in practice, was often directly responsible to Ning Yi.

After the establishment of the Chinese People's Government, Ning Yi had two offices in Chengdu, one was the chairman's office near the Chinese People's Government in the north of the city, mainly for meeting, gathering people, and centrally handling large-scale government affairs; and the other was the Fengyin Hall by the Mohe Pond.

Now the work distribution of the People's Government has entered a normal track. Ning Yi does not need to be stationed here all the time. He spends half of the year in Chengdu. If there are no major deviations in the itinerary, he usually goes to the government to work in the morning and returns to Fengyin Hall in the afternoon. Some things that do not require too many people are usually handled here.

There are usually other department heads working near Fengyin Hall, but it is basically not too noisy. Entering the gate of the hall, the spacious roof separated the summer heat. He passed through the corridor with ease and went to the waiting room for the interview. There was no one else in the waiting room. The secretary outside the door told him that there were two people ahead of him, but one had already come out and gone to the toilet.

The room in the side hall was spacious, but there were no luxurious decorations. Through the open window, the scenery of the flowers and trees outside was refreshing in the sunlight. Lin Qiu poured himself a glass of cold boiled water, sat on the chair and began to read the newspaper. There was no fourth person waiting for the interview, which meant that there were not many things to do in the afternoon.

Footsteps came from the corridor outside, it should be the first friend who went to the toilet. He looked up and the figure walking to the door also glanced over here, then came in, all acquaintances.

With a smile, Hou Yuanrong rubbed his hands, walked in and greeted: "Brother Lin, hehehehe..." For some reason, he couldn't help laughing.

"Yuanrong. Sit."

Hou Yuanrong was a few years younger than him, but his family was also an old member of the Chinese army, even belonging to the families of the oldest batch of soldiers. He spent most of his time working in the intelligence department after he came of age. Unlike ordinary colleagues working in the intelligence department, his personality was more lively, and he occasionally told some unreliable jokes, but he had never done anything bad, and he was considered one of the most trusted core backbones of the Chinese army.

"Hehe, Brother Lin." Hou Yuanrong sat down on the chair next to Lin Qiu, "Do you know what the most popular gossip recently is?"

Lin Qiu smiled and glanced at him: "I don't want to know."

"It's like this." Hou Yuanrong smiled, "Tell me, who is the most powerful person in our Chinese army? The one the Jurchens are most afraid of..."

"That should be me, right?" When chatting with this kind of guy from the intelligence department who talks nonsense, you can't follow his rhythm, so Lin Qiu thought for a while and answered seriously.

Hou Yuanrong ignored his rhythm: "It's Sister Juan'er."

"Ah..."

"The Jurchens are most afraid of Sister Juan'er."

"Why?"

"Ehehehehe, there's this thing..." Hou Yuanrong leaned over with a smile, "The year before last, during the Southwest War, it was in full swing. Ning Ji was helping in the general camp for the wounded. Later, the general camp was attacked by a group of fools who wanted to capture Ning Ji. When this matter was reported back, Sister Juan'er was angry. She said to Peng Yueyun, this is not okay, they are attacking children, then I will kill Zong Han's children too, Xiao Peng, you issue a reward for me, I want Zong Han's two sons to die..."

Hou Yuanrong's words echoed in the quiet hall: "The reward was issued, then what? Everyone knows... Zong Han lost the battle, didn't die, neither of his two sons escaped, hehehehe... Tell me, isn't Sister Juan'er the most powerful..."

Lin Qiu thought for a while: "You guys are so boring..."

"The Chairman himself made the joke, hehehehe... I'm leaving." Hou Yuanrong patted his arm, then got up and left. Lin Qiu shook his head with a bit of amusement. Theoretically speaking, discussing the gossip of the leader and the people around him is not a good thing, but in the past few years, the core level of the Chinese army were all friends who had starved and charged together, and they were not too taboo about these things, and Hou Yuanrong was not without self-awareness. Looking at his attitude in discussing this matter, it is estimated that it is already a quite popular joke in Zhangcun.

Since there were many times to meet, and even occasionally encountered in the cafeteria, Hou Yuanrong didn't say anything like "see you later" or "eat together" to be distant.

Not long after Hou Yuanrong left, the second interviewee also came out, who was exactly Peng Yueyun that Hou Yuanrong had mentioned earlier. Peng Yueyun was a seed left over after the destruction of the Western Army, young, loyal, and reliable. After the establishment of the People's Government, he also entered the intelligence department, but relative to Hou Yuanrong's responsibility for intelligence collection, collation, analysis, and organization, Peng Yueyun directly participated in the command and arrangement of the spy system. If what Hou Yuanrong participated in was considered backend work, Peng Yueyun involved the front lines of espionage and counter-espionage. The two had not seen each other for some time.

The two greeted each other with smiles and exchanged a few pleasantries. Compared to Hou Yuanrong's liveliness, Peng Yueyun was more stable. The two didn't chat too much. Considering that Hou Yuanrong was responsible for intelligence and Peng Yueyun was responsible for espionage and counter-espionage, plus what he was currently doing, Lin Qiu had some guesses about what would be discussed in this meeting.

After a while, he met Ning Yi in the lakeside room inside and began to report on the work that the Bureau of Commerce was going to carry out recently. In addition to the development around Chengdu, there were also issues regarding Dai Mengwei and the purchase of long-term contract workers from other places by some merchants.

"...Currently, many of these factories are privately colluding with outsiders, signing long-term contracts of twenty or thirty years, but the wages are extremely low... These people may become a huge hidden danger in the future. On the other hand, Dai Mengwei, Liu Guangshi, Wu Qimei and others are likely to have planted a large number of spies among these workers, who will cause trouble in the future... We have noticed that there are people in the newspapers now saying that the Chinese army keeps talking about respecting contracts, let's see when we will breach the contracts..."

"...Regarding these situations, we think we need to make preparations in advance... Of course, there are also concerns, such as if we cut off these unreasonable long-term contracts with a single knife, it may make people outside less active in sending people over. On our way out of Sichuan, after all, there is still a Dai Mengwei blocking the road. Although he promised not to block the business road, he may try his best to prevent the migration of population... So what we are currently considering is to first make a series of preparations to raise the bottom line, for example, for these workers who have signed long-term contracts, we can ask those factories to have some guarantee measures for them, so that they will not be exploited too much, and when there is enough groundwork, we will gradually squeeze the living space of these black-hearted merchants, anyway, in another year or two, whether we fight out or what, we shouldn't care about Dai Mengwei's little trouble..."

Regarding black merchants, long-term contracts, and even spies mixed among the workers, the Chinese army had already noticed this. Although Lin Qiu was assigned to manage commerce, his overall view would not weaken. Of course, at this stage, ensuring the interests of these workers conflicts with the policy of absorbing a large number of foreign labor. He also considered for a long time before he came up with some initial restrictive measures to lay the groundwork first.

These ideas had been submitted to Ning Yi before. Coming over today and seeing Hou Yuanrong and Peng Yueyun again, he guessed that he would also talk about these things.

Sure enough, Ning Yi specifically took out this copy of the black merchants from several documents, pressed it on the table and listened to his words, considering it for a long time. After Lin Qiu finished speaking, he put his palm on the manuscript, and after a moment of silence, he opened his mouth: "What I want to talk to you about today is this aspect. Your side is the big head... Go out for a walk."

"Yes." Lin Qiu stood up, but he was slightly puzzled in his heart. He had followed Ning Yi for so long and experienced countless major events. Even now, countless major events are taking place inside and outside Chengdu. Even if the problem of black merchants involves Dai Mengwei, and even involves contract issues, theoretically there are various solutions. According to Ning Yi's past style of doing things, he could make a decision in a few words. But looking at his expression at the moment, it contained a deeper level of prudence and vigilance.

Walking out of the room, Lin Qiu followed Ning Yi towards the lake. The sunlight cast shadows of the trees on the road, and the cicadas were chirping. This was an ordinary day, but even after a long time, Lin Qiu could remember every scene that happened on this day.

"There is one thing that I have been considering for a long time, and I still have to do it. Only a few people will participate. These words I say to you today will not leave any record in the future, and will not leave any trace in history. You may even leave a bad name. You and I will know what we are doing, but if someone asks, I will not admit it."

Ning Yi paused, Lin Qiu frowned slightly, then nodded and replied quietly: "Okay."

"For the matter of these black merchants, you should not curb them, but promote them."

"Promote..."

"For these merchants who have colluded with the outside world, I want you to grasp a scale, do not attack them for the time being, admit the validity of their contracts, let them earn the money they can earn. But at the same time, you cannot let them become rampant and bad money drive out good money, you must have some deterrence against them... That is to say, I want to form a black and white separation among these manufacturers, law-abiding people can earn money, and those with problems, let them be more crazy, I want them to exploit their workers more... Do you have any ideas on this?"

Lin Qiu lowered his head and thought for a moment: "It seems that it can only be...collusion between officials and merchants?"

"You can collect a little money." Ning Yi nodded, "There are two things you need to consider. First, do not stir up the livelihood of legitimate merchants, you still have to encourage normal commercial activities; second, you cannot let those merchants who take advantage be too steady, you also have to carry out several normal cleanups to scare them. Two years, at most three years, I want you to drive them crazy. The most important thing is to make their means of exploitation of their workers reach the extreme."

"...Dai Mengwei's people will take the opportunity to cause trouble..."

"We will also arrange people to go in, to help them cause trouble in the early stage, and to control the trouble in the later stage." Ning Yi said, "You have followed me for so many years, you can understand a lot of my thoughts. We are currently in the early stage of creation, as long as the battle is always won, the internal strength will be very strong, this is why I can let those people outside chat and scold freely. For these nascent capitals, they are profit-seeking, but they will be afraid of us. If you want them to naturally develop to the point where they are crazy for profit and the workers under them are living in misery, it may take at least ten or eight years of development, or even a few more conscientious officials, those workers who signed thirty-year contracts may be able to live their whole lives..."

"I don't want to wait that long. Two years, at most three years, I hope to stimulate resentment among these workers. Dai Mengwei and his people will of course assist us in causing trouble and inciting these workers. But in the later stage of the matter, our people must find a way out for them. I hope it is a march, not a large-scale riot. When they do such a thing, they will find that their struggle is effective, and we will correct the past unreasonable things... I want to use three years to establish the theory of 'civil rights' among the four classes in their hearts."

The sun fell, the lake was sparkling, the breeze was gentle, and the cicadas were chirping around. No one knew that such a conversation had taken place.

"Some people will die. In future records, it will be the people's active awakening and struggle that brought everything. You will not have credit, and even if you make a mistake, I may not be able to protect you. You can consider whether you want to take on this errand."

Lin Qiu considered it, weighed the practices involved, and the answer he gave was of course no suspense.

After Lin Qiu left, Shishi came over.

In the afternoon, they took some time out of their busy schedule to do some shy things, and then Ning Yi told her the outline of a story called "The White-Haired Girl"...