Chapter 124: The First Disaster Relief (VIII)
When Qian Qing decisively expressed her opposition to Lei Hu and accused him of following her, Huo Chong was surprised by Lei Hu's reaction.
"Miss Qian, I just wanted to follow you. We were both walking on the street at that time. Are you saying that I was going to do something bad on the street?"
Huo Chong was amused to see Qian Qing speechless for a moment. There were not many people in the Qing Dynasty who could have such shameless self-confidence. It required considerable self-confidence.
After laughing a few times, Qian Qing's face showed the grievance of a child. He felt aggrieved when his elders did not stand on his side. Huo Chong still cared more about his own people, but at this time Huo Chong really couldn't make a choice that was too biased towards Qian Qing. He could only put away his smile as much as possible, "Brother Lei Hu, don't bully a little girl. This is immature."
"Mr. Huo, I was the one who was beaten." Lei Hu also felt a little aggrieved.
"Forget about that. I can't bring it up again. Since you said that you only know how to keep yourself from being hungry if you are well fed, I guess you know the key points of disaster relief, right?"
Lei Hu replied: "I have read some books. The disaster relief described in the books is obviously different from Mr. Huo's."
"Tell me what the difference is." Huo Chong was ready to hear the scholar's thoughts. Seeing that Lei Hu was still standing, he pointed to the chair.
Lei Hu sat down carelessly, sitting upright first, and then spoke, "In the books I have read, disaster relief is to clean up the mess. Disaster relief is only done when it is necessary. I saw that Mr. Huo's disaster relief was combined with work-for-relief, which actually had the style of an official. I admire him very much. But I also want to ask Mr. Huo, does Mr. Huo really have such a large industry to do this? If not, wouldn't it be making wedding clothes for others?"
Interesting. Huo Chong was becoming more and more interested in Lei Hu. For so long, not many of his subordinates could ask decent questions. Lei Hu was the one who had used his brain to think about things.
"Yeah. I thought so when I was young. But I got confused later. The biggest confusion is that if you want to solve a problem, you have to have a way to solve it. Is this method to learn and imitate the means of solving problems by others, or to understand the nature of the world by yourself and finally find your own way to solve problems. Lei Hu, which way do you think you are?"
When Lei Hu heard this, he couldn't help but become serious. After a moment of silence, Lei Hu asked, "Excuse me, Mr. Huo, have you found a way to solve the problem yourself?"
"I'm on my way too." Huo Chong couldn't help but laugh. If you want to find a solution to a problem, you must first understand the world. Understanding the world is not an easy task. Huo Chong has just completed the initial model of constructing a world cognition system.
Lei Huteng stood up and answered solemnly: "If Mr. Huo is willing to teach me, I am willing to follow Mr. Huo."
"If you want to understand the world, you have to work first. You can never understand the world by sitting in your study and daydreaming. Are you willing to work hard and for the benefit of the people?"
Lei Hu looked stunned. After thinking for a while, he replied, "If Mr. Huo is willing to do this, I am willing to follow him."
Lei Hu is not the only new member. The number of farmers who have officially joined the Zhongfu platform has exceeded 40,000. Huo Chong had to order a comprehensive education. When the order came out, the young people were very excited. However, the numbers did not make the people at the headquarters happy. There were too many teachers needed, and even if all the staff were sent out, it would not be enough to meet these needs.
"Sir, do you really have to add math classes?" the second disciple Yang Wangfu asked tentatively.
"What's the point of just teaching them a few words?" Huo Chong insisted on his opinion.
The sixth senior, Wan Qian, who was in charge of intelligence analysis, also started to criticize her second senior brother, "Second senior brother, our department needs people who understand mathematics the most. If you don't understand mathematics and only know Confucius' sayings and poems, you won't be able to do your job here."
Yang Wangfu's fighting ability was no problem, and he had no problem dealing with people from the underworld. However, when he heard about mathematics, Yang Wangfu did not dare to argue with his junior sister. He lowered his head helplessly.
Wan Qian then looked at Huo Chong, "Sir, we don't have that many people. If there are 50,000 households in the future, we really won't be able to do anything."
"Haha." Huo Chong was amused. What does 50,000 households mean? That's at least 1.5 million people. If Huo Chong could directly control 1.5 million people in Shandong, the Qing court would have sent a large army to wipe them out long ago.
Should I say this? Huo Chong thought about it and decided to tell the young man about this matter.
In the distant capital, Yongzheng also saw the memorial about Huo Chong. However, the content in it obviously did not grasp the main point. Perhaps the person who wrote the memorial wanted to beat Huo Chong to death with one stick, and only picked out Huo Chong's "bad deeds".
He taught the poor to read and learn arithmetic. He made these people his assistants. Another thing was that Huo Chong made a lot of money by paying taxes and doing a lot of business, which corrupted the local morals.
Yongzheng quickly figured out what was going on. These people just wanted to kill Huo Chong and then divide up his wealth.
Yongzheng, who had rich experience in handling affairs, knew the ways of local officials. Officials made a lot of money while in office, and borrowed a large sum of money from the treasury to buy land. There was no shortage of officials in Shandong who owned tens of thousands of acres of contiguous land.
The memorial said that Huo Chong had tens of thousands of acres of land. Yongzheng discounted this number according to the nature of this group of people. As for the accusation that Huo Chong opened various workshops and used potatoes and sweet potatoes to make wine, Yongzheng just thought that Huo Chong's approach was very desirable.
Private brewing was prohibited during the reign of Emperor Kangxi, because brewing requires a large amount of staple food. If the food is used for brewing, what will people eat when disaster strikes?
However, the imperial court also knew that the people would be unhappy if they did not have wine to drink, so they did not prohibit the use of fruit to make wine. Huo Chong used new winemaking materials, and Yongzheng was very satisfied. The Shaodaozi was very uncomfortable to drink, but it was real wine. The production of potatoes and sweet potatoes was large, and it did not affect the production of rice and wheat.
What concerned Yongzheng were the "schools" run by Huo Chong. Huo Chong did not teach the Four Books and Five Classics at all, but only taught literacy and arithmetic. The accusation of being "good at learning astrology" had been investigated as early as the reign of Emperor Kangxi. If memorizing the "24 solar terms" and seeing the waxing and waning of the moon were considered astrology, Yongzheng felt that he could not do such a thing at all.
Although he wanted to put all these aside, Yongzheng couldn't let go of the name Huo Chong. While he was thinking about it, the eunuch came to report that Prince Yi Yunxiang had arrived. Yongzheng was delighted and immediately called in his favorite brother.
While waiting, Yongzheng thought of his younger brother, the Fourteenth Brother. The Queen Mother finally gave in and asked him to let the Fourteenth Brother go. This finally resolved Yongzheng's worries.
Yongzheng had never really wanted to kill his brother, he just considered imprisoning him. Since the empress dowager had already made her position clear, let the fourteenth brother guard the body of his father, Emperor Kangxi. If he could stay quiet for a few years and honestly admit his mistakes, he could be released. But the eighth, ninth, and tenth brothers must not be let go...
Just thinking. There was a sound of footsteps, and the eunuch led a tall and thin prince into the study. Yongzheng stood up and pulled his beloved thirteenth brother, not letting him salute. Yongzheng smiled and said, "Thirteenth brother, I have something that I can't let go of."
After hearing this, the Thirteenth Master stood up immediately and asked, "What does the Emperor want me to do?"
Seeing that his Thirteenth Brother was ready to solve the problem as soon as he heard it, Yongzheng felt even more comforted, "Thirteenth Brother, I have seen a thief named Huo Chong."
"Isn't he the one the emperor said could tell the truth and lies equally?" Old Thirteen had an impression of this. Anyone who annoyed Yongzheng would probably be punished. Huo Chong was an exception, Yongzheng was unable to punish him. But in Old Thirteen's opinion, this was also proof of Yongzheng's magnanimity.
"That guy is very cunning..." Yongzheng scolded the guy who he wanted to deal with but escaped because Kangxi unexpectedly came to Yongzheng's mansion.
Old Thirteen didn't know that Huo Chong dared to say in front of Kangxi that workshop owners like Huo Chong who focused on cost control could not be trusted in major matters, and that the workshops in the capital were the real power that the royal family could rely on. He was very surprised.
After listening to Yongzheng's criticism of Huo Chong, the Thirteenth Elder lowered his voice and said, "Your Majesty, if you want to punish Huo Chong, you might as well give him a real official position, wait for him to show his true colors, and punish him according to the law. If Your Majesty is just unhappy with this bastard, then just give him some face and issue an order to reprimand him. But what on earth is it about this guy that makes Your Majesty so upset?"
Yongzheng thought about it and realized that Huo Chong had not done anything unforgivable. It was just that Huo Chong was a rare person in Yongzheng's life who was proven wrong by Yongzheng. This guy who was out of Yongzheng's perception of the world was like an invisible thorn that pierced Yongzheng's heart. Once touched, he felt uncomfortable.
But Yongzheng didn't want to tell this to the Thirteenth Prince, so he told him about Huo Chong's school, teaching the children of the people various skills that they could use to make a living. After saying this, Yongzheng felt that he had grasped some kind of righteous light, "Since Huo Chong is running a primary school, why doesn't he teach the students openly and recruit apprentices for himself under the name of running a primary school."
The Thirteenth Brother already understood what his brother, the Emperor, was thinking. Now directly ordering Huo Chong to be arrested and imprisoned would mean nothing to the imperial power. Since someone was already so dissatisfied with Huo Chong, someone would definitely take care of the matter once the imperial edict was issued.
However, based on the Thirteenth Old Man's understanding of Yongzheng, the emperor would not get pleasure from such violent actions. What would make Yongzheng happy is that Huo Chong did something really wrong and was arrested with solid evidence. This can truly untie Yongzheng's knot. For those who did not do anything wrong, Yongzheng might not necessarily kill them.
Thinking of this, the Thirteenth Elder could only advise: "Your Majesty, Huo Chong is indeed cunning. There is nothing wrong . I'm afraid he wants to avoid suspicion."
"Avoid suspicion?" Yongzheng understood a little bit.
Old Thirteen explained. If Huo Chong opened a primary school, and some of its students really passed the imperial examination, many people would certainly say that Huo Chong was trying to repay his kindness. If he didn't teach these things from the beginning, and the children who attended Huo Chong's primary school grew up to be his assistants, no one would be able to criticize Huo Chong.
"With the wisdom of the emperor, he will surely see through the connection. The governors and governors below will not arrest Huo Chong for such a thing. It seems that Huo Chong has counselors around him to help him."
Hearing this, Yongzheng frowned. If Huo Chong was so cunning, it would be consistent with Yongzheng's impression of Huo Chong as a "gangster". However, this consistency in image made Yongzheng feel much better.
Since Huo Chong was a bad guy, there would be plenty of opportunities to deal with him in the future. Yongzheng discussed the matter of collecting the silver with the Thirteenth Prince.
