Wednesday morning at 9:00.

Zhang Qijie came to his factory early, with a newspaper under his armpit, and his expression on his face was both excited and a little nervous.

As Fang Bingsheng said, the "Song Royal Palace News" suddenly issued an additional issue on Wednesday. This issue of the newspaper was so shocked that Zhang Qijie didn't even eat a bite of breakfast: the emperor actually mobilized the subjects across the country to pray for the election! The time is from 9:00 to 10:30 am next Monday!

He also proposed two new terms that were unprecedented: "Sai Son" and "Son De". It was only the first time that Zhang Qijie realized that the Western learning thing he did was Sai Son.

Entering the factory gate and stepping on the stone road, Zhang Qijie walked forward with a three-story factory building built by himself. He could hear the "buzzing" sound of machinery operation in his ears, as if he was strolling in warm water. The black smoke in the chimney behind the building was rising, and it soared into the sky in the windless day. That was the heart of the factory: the steam engine;

Today, there were a lot of idle people in the open space between the factory and the gate, mostly poor people with frost on their faces and patches on their bodies. This long dragon was lined up from the cottage on the left, and that was the applicants who came to queue up early before dawn today.

Although the notice posted outside is to recruit handymen, not serious workers, and the monthly salary is only three yuan, it is also an amazing job to work in a few Western factories in this small county, so the front of Longchuan Textile Factory was immediately overcrowded.

Seeing so many people applying for the job, Zhang Qijie was in a better mood. He recruited ten people yesterday afternoon. Although hundreds of people came to apply for the job, the conditions were too high: not many people over the age of 25 who could read.

Because 25 to 15 years ago, this place was still the Qing Dynasty, and the Emperor of Hai was not yet in Guangdong, so who would vigorously promote printing and simplified Chinese characters?

"Boss Zhang, I heard that the whole nation is asking for prayer, just for your election. I wish you a victory." An old cleaner who was cleaning the road with a bucket raised his head and smiled at Zhang Qijie.

"Thank you! Lao Wang! Remember to attend the prayer on Monday! Let's call on God to bless the Song Dynasty!" Zhang Qijie nodded with a smile.

When entering the tall factory, Zhang Qijie would not go directly to the office as usual, but first inspected his own machinery and equipment. He only saw that dozens of machines in the factory were already running, and the sound of the machines was deafening. The workers in front of him were working diligently. Zhang Qijie murmured with his hands behind his back, "This is my son Sai. It's amazing. Oh, no, they are all imported machines from the West. I'm counting as a nephew. I didn't expect that I would adopt another son, ha."

When I left the factory and walked into the corridor of the management area, the accountant at the door of the office was laughing at his young assistant: "What do you think you are happy about? You just thought you could have a half-day holiday on Monday and let you go to play, right?"

Seeing that Zhang Qijie was coming, the accountant quickly bowed and said with a smile: "Today the children in the factory are all very happy. Next Monday, they all thought they would have to have a half-day vacation, so they all came to ask me if I would have a holiday? What should I do next Monday? Christians go out and non-Christians are on duty?"

Zhang Qijie smiled. If it were on weekdays, he would definitely agree with the old friend's statement. After all, the factory cannot be stopped. After a long time, it would be hundreds of oceans. But isn't he running for the election now? He is facing strong competitors, so he is focused on the election. He thought for a while and said, "If the whole people pray, they have to go. We are not sincere in starting work, so we can't do it. We are loyal to the emperor and patriotism. We will stop work for half a day on Monday morning and resume work at 12 pm."

Before he finished speaking, Zhang Qijie saw the three or four apprentices behind the accountant laughing. He shook his head and said, "Oh, you guys, don't be happy when you hear about the holidays. You must love your job."

The accountant quickly agreed: "That's right, if I don't come to the factory for a day, I can't hear the buzzing sound, and I can't smell the coal smoke from the steam engine, I will feel uncomfortable all over. If it weren't for praying for the whole people, I would have really wanted to stay at my post!"

After saying that, he laughed again and asked Zhang Qijie: "Boss, are you considered a foreign brother Sai's nephew's father? So many Sai's nephews are kept in the factory."

A young man behind the accountant interrupted, "I've read the newspaper too. There are three emperor cars in our factory. Isn't this just a son? Our boss is also a son's father."

Zhang Qijie burst into laughter.

In the office, he turned around and didn't even sit on a chair, so he ran to the reception room to see the factory school again.

The reception room was renovated at noon yesterday, all the furniture was moved out, a bench was moved in, a simple table was built, and blackboards were hung on both ends, turning into a classroom.

Twenty or thirty young men and middle-aged men were like their sons staying in the Presbyterian elementary school. They were placed in front of them with sand and soil, holding branches in their hands, and occasionally pressed on the blackboard to practice words in the sand. They were either frowning or focused or looking around and listening to the two teachers teaching the lessons.

The teacher in front was writing "God created the world..." on the blackboard, and the teacher behind the teacher was a row of Arabic numerals.

These people are factory workers, and four or five are handymen recruited yesterday. They are all very knowledgeable. Zhang Qijie wants to spend a few weeks to get them out of blindness quickly and get voter qualifications.

Compared to "students", it is difficult to find and teach, but it is much more convenient for teachers.

Mayor Liu Guojian didn't know why, and he didn't want teachers from various churches to leave the city and go to the countryside during the election. It is said that he hoped that they would hold the "God of Evangelism" event in the county during the election. This made Zhang Qijie convenient, so he directly found a few Presbyterian primary school teachers who were fine for the time being and invited to the factory to start cultivating votes.

Looking at the funny young and middle-aged people, Zhang Qijie seemed to be looking at his own army. Although he was relieved, the tension on his face did not disappear: because the opponent was too strong.

Yesterday, he wanted to cut off their iron river transportation to threaten them to submit. Although Zhang Qijie did not hesitate to break up and resolve the threat, he knew in his heart that the other party would probably not give up. They are rich and proficient in Western learning. Today, the Royal Daily wrote "Appointment to the People's Prayer" in the previous articles. The following is the notice and announcement of the Democratic Party, the first political party in the Song Dynasty. Just looking at the names of the well-known people involved, you know that the Democratic Party is simply a monster.

Zhang Qijie wanted to fight with the other party, and could only rely on the advantage of local tyrants and spend more money, and it would not be less money: he just said that he wanted to get votes by recruiting workers. Although the person who recruited was only three yuan a month, Zhang Qijie would not let them work in the past two months, but would completely get rid of their blindness, and each person would cost 6 yuan. Some of the workers in his hands were also trained for literacy, which means that there were fewer people working, and the output would decrease in the past two months.

There are production backbones who know the text and do not need training among the workers, but they are also promised: to register voters for me, vote for me, and after the matter is completed, a two-yuan bonus will be given;

How much money was thrown out without realizing it? The more Zhang Qijie invested, the more he felt that his money could not be wasted.

At this moment, a man ran over the corridor and shouted when he saw Zhang Qijie: "Old Zhang! Old Zhang!"

The workers in the reception room turned their heads and looked at the door. Zhang Qijie, who was standing at the door, quickly raised his middle finger and tucked it in front of his lips, meaning that he would not make noise. It seemed that the person was Li Guangxi. Zhang Qijie thought that he had discussed what opera troupe to hire yesterday.

Yesterday, they discussed that in order to fight against the fresh things brought by the Democratic Party from the capital, they could not only invite the Cantonese opera troupe, because Li Guangxi is very familiar with Huizhou City, and his housekeeper is also in Huizhou to find the opera troupe, and asked the housekeeper Wang Jieren to see if there are any foreign things from the Western city in Huizhou City, such as circus and magic. You can come and have a look.

But Li Guangxi ran over with a dongdong, not full of joy, but full of horror. He ignored Zhang Qijie's "Don't talk" gesture at all, and grabbed Zhang Qijie, as if he wanted to keep his body upright before he fell to the ground with exhaustion. He shouted: "What happened to Wang Yu's family!"

=====================================

At 9:00 on Wednesday morning, Wang Yu's family was as happy as Zhang Qijie.

He is interviewing a poor man who is applying for a handyman in a glass factory.

He didn't have to go to work because his family was in a side yard in the glass factory. Today, he saw a sudden addition of a royal newspaper calling on the whole people to pray, and the Christian was naturally happy. He believed that this election would be successful because God listened to the prayer, and the first four prayers of the sea emperor had the best results - the expedition was extremely successful, and the Song army's iron hooves stomped on Beijing again. In ancient times, the Qing Dynasty was destroyed; the sea emperor's children were all over the hall, and the queen was in good health.

Because of the same election tactic as Zhang Qijie, Wang Yu's family is also applying for handyman and literacy. He is over 25 years old and has a Longchuan civil certificate. However, his factory is much smaller than Zhang Qijie's textile factory, and there is no extra cadres in charge of the company can be used specifically for interviews and recruitment. Every time he recruits personnel, Wang Yu's family will personally interview and recruit.

Now that he heard the sound of the church bells in the distance ringing nine times, he handed the New Emperor newspaper in his hand to the young man who seemed very nervous in front of him, saying, "You say you can read, read this paragraph of 200 words to me."

At this moment, the gatekeeper of the glass factory hurriedly pushed open the office door and came in, shouting: "Boss Wang, there is a woman holding a child outside the door of our factory kneeling on the ground and crying loudly, saying that she wants to see you!"

"Hmm? See me? Why do you want my help?" Wang Yu's family was a little stunned.

He and the gatekeeper hurried to the gate, and saw a woman holding a child kneeling there on the street outside, crying loudly: "Boss Wang, my man did something wrong, please give me my husband back..."

Although there were not many people coming for the interview, there were seventy or eighty people at the door. Everyone gathered around to watch. The pedestrians on the street couldn't help but join in the fun together, and they had already surrounded the woman three circles inside and three circles outside.

"Who are you? Who is your husband?" Wang Yu's family ran over and asked with confusion on his face.

At this time, a thin man standing next to the woman kneeling on the ground, secretly looked at Wang Yu's family, kicked the woman's soles with his toes, and whispered: "This is Boss Wang."

It seemed that he had received the order. The woman held a cradle of a few months old baby and walked towards Wang Yu's knees on the ground, screaming: "Boss Wang, okay! If you let my man go, he will never dare to do it again."

"What's going on! Tell me!" Wang Yu's family avoided the woman's legs and saw that the man in the middle of the crowd who looked down but looked at him from time to time was in the same group as the woman. He ran up and asked the man.

The man sighed dejectedly and said, "Boss Wang, my name is Chen Ada. I am a cripple. I used to work in your factory a year ago and my leg was broken once. Do you still remember?"

Wang Yu's family was stunned for a moment and shouted, "So it's you, Chen Ada, of course I remember! Have you recovered from your leg injury? Is there not enough money? Is this your wife?"

Chen Ada shook his head and said, "Boss Wang, you are a good person. Not only do you heal my injuries, but when you fired me, you also gave me twenty dollars to heal my injuries. You are really a charity."

Speaking of this, Chen Ada lowered his head and looked very ashamed. He continued, "I shouldn't have had bad intentions. I told my brother Chen Asan that you are quite rich. My brother Chen Asan usually does not do his job properly, and makes a living by stealing and cheating. When he has money, he throws it into the opium hall. Longchuan City knows that Chen Asan is a slut."

"What are you here for? Whose wife is this?" Wang Yujia asked with his eyes wide open.

Chen Ada sighed and pointed to the woman holding the baby and said, "This is my sister-in-law, Chen A San's wife and his child. The night before yesterday, our brother discussed: I am familiar with the terrain layout of the glass factory, and my brother is accustomed to stealing. Why don't you come here to catch some autumn wind? Because I'm lame and unscrupulous, I'm responsible for holding a ladder outside the wall, and then my brother climbed over the wall and went in..."

"You said you stole my factory the night before yesterday?" Wang Yu's family asked in disbelief.

Chen Ada nodded and then shouted: "But my brother never came out when he got in. I put the ladder in the ditch beside the wall, and squatted down the corner until dawn, but didn't see him. When I went home, he didn't go home. He hadn't come back yet today, so you caught him! So today I brought my sister-in-law to carry the thorns and apologize. My brother has a wife and a child to raise. Please let him go, and I am happy to go to jail."

After saying that, Chen Ada turned over and knelt down to Wang Yu's family in full view of the public, and kowtowed repeatedly.

Wang Yu's family turned around and asked the gatekeeper of the glass factory, "Did we catch the thief the day before yesterday or yesterday?"

"No." The gatekeeper said in amazement.

"Then he is not here with me, so I may not know where he has gone." Wang Yu's family said to Chen Ada and his sister-in-law who were kneeling at his feet.

Chen Ada kept kowtowing and said, "We have been planning for many days to steal you, and you must have caught him."

At this moment, the crowd was noisy, and a wave of sheriffs pushed everyone away. Ou Xingsun was the leader. He shouted: "Who reported the case missing?"

Chen Ada quickly stood up and said to the police officer again.

After hearing this, Ou Xingsun said to Wang Yu's family: "Can we let go in and take a look around? Don't let this little thief get stuck in any ditch and can't get out? Let Chen Ada shout everywhere, maybe this rat gets out by himself."

Wang Yu's family discussed with several subordinates and had seen such things. They were just thieves who sneaked into a house and could lurk for a few days until they had the chance to do something big. I thought that Chen A-san had a general idea and didn't know which corner of the factory he was lurking. Since this accomplice voluntarily surrendered and reported the case, he was just right to ask the police officer to search, so he agreed immediately.

While Ou Xingsun and his sister-in-law were checking around, Chen Ada and his sister-in-law were also shouting in the factory like crying souls: "Missary, come out, we have all surrendered ourselves, don't hide and hide."

The workers also helped them look around in the corners and cabinets.

A group of people struggled for a long time, but got nothing.

At this time, Ou Xingsun pointed to a small house not far from the west of the wall where Chen A San came into the wall and said, "Where is that? We might as well go and take a look."

"That's my family. Let's go, I'll take you there." Wang Yu's family quickly led the group of people over, not wanting Chen A-san to squat on the beam of his house for a few days. Who knows where he will pee, or come out in the middle of the night to pull out a knife to hurt his wife and children.

The group searched for another half an hour, but still found nothing. At this time, Ou Xingsun went to the Western carriage in the yard. This was Wang Yu's own car. He opened the car door and looked inside. He was about to stretch his head out, but his nose twitched, as if he had smelled something. Then he followed the smell and pulled a corner of the storage box under the seat with his hands and gently pulled it.

With a "clang", the wooden lid of the storage box hit the floor of the carriage, and a thin body rolled out.

His hands and feet were tied, and there was a deep knife in his stomach.

Everyone was immediately in a state of uproar.

Wang Yu's family was stunned.

Ou Xingsun said sarcastically: "Boss Wang, it is okay to kill the thief with self-defense, but it is completely different from killing it after being caught."

Chen Ada rushed to him with a limp leg, grabbed his front and yelled: "Since you have caught my brother and tied him up, why do you have to kill him? Are you a Christian? You hypocrite and bastard!"

"Boss Wang, come with us?" Ou Xingsun pushed Chen Ada away in the woman's heart-wrenching howl and said to Wang Yu's family with a smile, his tone was very polite, but he had no intention of being polite.
Chapter completed!