Daming: The system rejected my request for salted fish

Chapter 963

After hearing Wei Wu's words, Qingxia knew that he had misunderstood.

But just as she was about to explain, she heard Wei Wu's question again.

"So, after you used Huang Tianfeng as an excuse, they started obstructing the road construction?"

"Ah."

Qingxia nodded in response, and then told the other party what he had done.

"Master, according to your previous instructions, we will recruit local people to work in every place we go when we build the road."

"It allowed the people to earn some extra money to support their families during their spare time, so after the construction in Changzhou Prefecture was completed, the previous workers resigned."

Hearing Qingxia's words, Wei Wu nodded. This was indeed the requirement he had set for Qingxia.

In fact, normally speaking, when a project starts, it is definitely better to use a group of people from beginning to end. After all, they will become more skilled as they do it.

But times are different. People in this era are not like those in later generations. Even if they cannot find a job, they will not starve to death.

If people in this era have no income, they will really starve to death, and winter is not over yet.

In this freezing weather, even wild vegetables are hard to find, so Wei Wu made this request.

Although the Ming Dynasty is moving in a better direction, this will take time, and the people at the bottom are still living a very hard life.

Wei Wu himself was not short of money, and when he became rich, he would help the world, thinking that any help he could provide would be beneficial.

It’s a pity that good intentions were exploited by evil people, but there is nothing we can do about it, it is unavoidable in any era.

While Wei Wu was thinking silently in his heart, Qingxia did not stop either.

"But when I tried to recruit workers, I couldn't find anyone. Even after I posted a notice, no one showed up to work."

"At first, I couldn't recruit anyone, so I raised the wages from 30 wen a day to 50 wen a day, and that's when I finally recruited someone."

"But the people we hired didn't follow the project requirements at all. By the time I found out, it was too late. The whole road had to be destroyed and rebuilt."

Hearing this, Wei Wu narrowed his eyes slightly and interrupted to ask a question.

"Is it someone they sent?"

"Yes."

Qingxia nodded grimly, then continued:

"Later I found out that these people were sent by them to cause trouble, and it wasn't that no one wanted to go to work."

"It's just that those who really want to work are threatened by the gentry and clan elders. If they dare to come, their whole family will have a hard time in the village."

Before, Wei Wu was still wondering how a state as big as this could not even recruit such a small number of workers.

Now after listening to what Qingxia said, he finally understood. It turned out that all those who wanted to make money were suppressed by the gentry and clan elders.

But this makes sense. The so-called gentry are either wealthy landlords or scholars with official titles and culture.

In a wealthy area like Jiangnan, there are almost such people in every village, and they have a high status when they are young.

When they get older, their prestige will also increase, and then they will become clan elders, so the only difference between gentry and clan elders is age.

Unless they don't want to live in the village in the future, everyone in the village must listen to them.

People of this class, even if they are not from the same village, belong to the same interest group and are most likely to gather together.

This is how the Kun Party, Qi Party, Zhejiang Party and Donglin Party in the late Ming Dynasty were formed in their initial stages.

At first, they were just local gangs, and then they united through academies, guild halls and other channels to form an interest group.

Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor, was quite powerful! He could easily raise his butcher knife and kill anyone, leaving heads rolling and blood flowing like a river.

But even he couldn't eliminate these factions. Now there are two factions in the court: the Huaixi Group and the Zhejiang East Group.

Although the situation in Jiangnan region is not as serious as that of the Donglin Party in later generations, the interests of the same class are indeed closely connected.