Chapter 1347 Family Misfortune!

Although Murong Yuliang came from a traditional official family and entered the officialdom through the imperial examinations, under the influence of Ye Mingsheng over the years, he also realized the importance of commerce. He understood that although agriculture is the foundation of a country, if the country wants to develop, it needs to work hard on science and technology and commercial trade.

Therefore, as early as when he served as the governor of Hebei and Henan, Murong Yuliang paid great attention to trade, maintained communication with the owners of some large businesses, learned more business information, and seized every opportunity that might bring development to Hebei and Henan.

This time when he came to Jiangnan where commerce was more developed, Murong Yuliang also maintained such a habit and kept communicating with the owners and managers of these big businesses!
Because in a G-based society, these gentlemen are all high and mighty and look down on merchants. Except when they want money, they are willing to take the initiative to find these merchants, otherwise they are too lazy to pay attention to these merchants.

So when Murong Yuliang showed his goodwill and willingness to communicate, these people were very reserved at first. Some even thought that Murong Yuliang wanted to SH and gave him a big red envelope.

Murong Yuliang was at a loss whether to laugh or cry about this. After refusing the red envelope, he once again expressed his attitude. These businessmen were very excited to see that this high and mighty governor was really willing to communicate with them.

They told Murong Yuliang a lot of their ideas, some of which were very good suggestions, which Murong Yuliang also adopted.

But not all of their ideas are good suggestions...
For example, these big businessmen all complained about Work F. Although they did not dare to say it directly, what they meant was that Work F was an unrealistic idea proposed by Ye Mingsheng. This approach would increase their production costs and reduce their profits, which would result in less taxes they contributed to the court!
Secondly, this work F will only be implemented in Lin'an and Yijing, so it will inevitably weaken Lin'an's competitiveness as an economic center and affect Lin'an's economic development. Therefore, some businesses are already considering moving some of their handicraft workshops out of Lin'an.

After hearing the ideas of these big businessmen, Murong Yuliang was also very embarrassed. Although he did not think that Work F was a weird bill that Ye Mingsheng came up with on the spur of the moment.

But in his heart, he also did not support the implementation of Work F. If possible, he would not want to affect the economic development and income of Jiangnan, or even his own career, for the sake of those workers!
But unfortunately, as a subject, all he needed to do was to faithfully carry out Ye Mingsheng's orders!
So even though Murong Yuliang was reluctant, he still pushed forward Work F.

Of course, in order not to affect economic development, Murong Yuliang made improvements in many details. For example, he set the minimum wage standard at five taels of silver a year. This wage might be a good job in Hebei, Henan, Jingchu, Qi and Lu.

But this was not enough to support life in Lin'an, the most prosperous city in Daqian. The laborers who moved goods at the Lin'an dock basically received more than five taels of silver a year. As for the issues of work-related injuries, working hours, and paid leave, Murong Yuliang tried to be as vague as possible...

Although Murong Yuliang has tried his best to help these businesses avoid the negative impact of Work F, Work F has caused many business owners to complain.

At present, the work law has spread in Lin'an, and many workers in Lin'an are talking about it. Everyone is very curious whether this work law will be implemented. Although most people choose to wait and see in order to avoid losing their jobs, there are still courageous people who have sued the business and factory they work for to the government in order to fight for their legal rights.

A typical case among them was that of a female worker surnamed Wang from Huainan who worked at the Liuji Textile Factory in Lin'an. She became disabled due to a hand injury at work and could no longer continue to work. The Liuji Textile Factory offered Wang two taels of silver in an attempt to force her to leave.

Wang was desperate at first, and even thought of quitting her job because of the injury on her hand which made it impossible for her to work anymore. But at this moment, the appearance of Job F gave her a glimmer of hope. With an attitude of giving it a try, she directly sued her former employer, Liuji Textile Factory, to the Lin'an government office.

Because at this time, Task F had just begun to be implemented, and Wang's case was a typical one, how it was judged was likely to have far-reaching consequences, so the Lin'an government also attached great importance to it, and this case was also heard by Murong Yuliang.

Although Murong Yuliang provided some help to these businesses regarding the issue of work F, Ye Mingsheng had already made it clear that the issue of work-related injuries was a red line. Employers must be responsible for injuries caused by work and provide reasonable compensation, and cannot simply kick people out.

Therefore, in the face of the red lines listed by Ye Mingsheng, Murong Yuliang instructed the Lin'an government to support Wang's appeal and ordered Liuji Textile Factory to compensate Wang with twenty taels of silver...
After the order from the Lin'an government was issued, it immediately caused an uproar in Lin'an. Hundreds of thousands of laborers in the city of Lin'an were celebrating and very excited, while the owners of businesses and factories complained about it, thinking that twenty taels of silver as compensation was too much for a case like Wang's.

They thought that twenty taels of silver was more than enough to buy Wang's life, and now Wang was only disabled in her hand!

For this reason, some big businessmen approached Murong Yuliang, and expressed openly or secretly that if Lin'an continued to implement Work F in this way, the factory they originally planned to build in Lin'an might not be able to be built. Murong Yuliang, who was caught between Ye Mingsheng and these businessmen, felt torn!
But fortunately Murong Yuliang still remembered that he was working on the G given to him by Ye Mingsheng!

It was not these businessmen who could decide his fate, but Ye Mingsheng, the emperor of Daqian!

So when faced with the threat of moving businesses and factories out of Lin'an, Murong Yuliang still gave a clear answer. He would not stop anyone who wanted to move, but as a business or factory, you have to think carefully about the pros and cons of leaving Lin'an, the JJ center, for the sake of some manpower costs.

Although Murong Yuliang has taken a very clear attitude on this issue, in order to reduce the negative impact, he still hopes that some influential large business can stand up to support and take the lead in implementing the work method. This will also be beneficial for him to continue to carry out related work in the future!

For this reason, Murong Yuliang, the governor of Jianghuai, also found these shopkeepers to make arrangements. Unfortunately, this world is realistic. Some people are willing to do things that will cost them their lives, but no one is willing to lose money. Therefore, everyone rejected Murong Yuliang without exception...
This also put Murong Yuliang in a dilemma in terms of the implementation of Work F. While Murong Yuliang was racking his brains to think of a solution, the clerk beside him walked into the classroom and reported to Murong Yuliang:

"Sir, Hu Wenjie from Ruifengchang Trading Company wants to see you!"

Hearing the name Hu Wenjie, Murong Yuliang was startled at first, then after a moment of silence, he ordered:

"Let him in!"

"Yes!" Hu Wenjie soon came in front of Murong Yuliang and paid his respects to the governor of Jianghuai, Daqian. In order to show his respect for the wise and his attitude of attaching importance to work-related injuries, Murong Yuliang also asked Hu Wenjie to sit down.

Of course, although Hu Wenjie sat down, he only dared to sit on the edge of the chair and kept his body leaning forward, trying his best to show his respect and humility to Murong Yuliang, a senior official of the court.

After a few simple greetings, Hu Wenjie took the initiative to get straight to the point:

"Master Murong, our Ruifengchang Company intends to take the lead in implementing the various contents of Work F. All employees whose annual wages are less than five taels of silver will be compensated with five taels of silver. They will have two days of paid leave each month and can work a maximum of five hours a day. Overtime pay will be paid for any hours beyond five!"

“In addition, our Ruifengchang Company will also provide adequate compensation for work-related injuries and deaths. We must not let down the hearts of every worker working in our Ruifengchang Company…”

Hearing these words coming out of Hu Wenjie's mouth, Murong Yuliang was a little confused at first, thinking that he had heard it wrongly, but seeing Hu Wenjie's serious look, Murong Yuliang asked doubtfully:

"Mr. Hu, are you serious? Are you kidding me?"

Facing Murong Yuliang's question, Hu Wenjie continued to preach very seriously:

"Master Murong, who are you? Even if I had ten times the courage, I would not dare to joke with you about this matter!"

"Master Murong, to be honest, the last time you mentioned this matter to me, your words were so shocking that they pierced my heart. I was deeply shocked!"

"I think what you said is absolutely right. If you are poor, you should take care of yourself. If you are rich, you should help the world. Although our Hu family is not rich, we are also wealthy. The reason why our Hu family can be what it is today is entirely due to the support of the elders and folks in Lin'an. Now we should also give back to these elders and folks and let them share the dividends of our Ruifengchang's development!"

Hearing these positive words coming out of Hu Wenjie's mouth in shock, Murong Yuliang was very surprised.

Although he did not have much contact with Hu Wenjie, Hu Wenjie's shrewd and profit-seeking style as the owner of the business left a very deep impression on him!
When I told him these words before, Hu Wenjie seemed not interested at all. Facing the expectations I had of him, he was playing Tai Chi the whole time, rambling on and on about some meaningless nonsense...

How come his attitude has changed so drastically in just a few days?

Although Murong Yuliang didn't know what prompted Hu Wenjie to make such a change, his intuition as a political figure told him that something big had happened in the Hu family in the past few days that he didn't know about!
Otherwise, the old fox Hu Wenjie would never do this!
After all, the Hu family's Ruifengchang Company has several factories, which are all labor-intensive industries. Together with the Hu family's employees, it is conservatively estimated that there are at least 3,000 people eating Hu's food. Once Work F is implemented in Ruifengchang Company, Ruifengchang Company will at least increase its cost by tens of thousands of taels of silver.

Therefore, Murong Yuliang would not believe his nonsense about being greatly shocked, giving back, sharing, etc.!

Are you, Hu Wenjie, that kind of person?
It’s already very good for you, old man, not to exploit or bully others!
Thinking of this, Murong Yuliang looked at Hu Wenjie deeply, and then he spoke directly:
"Boss Hu, if it's not as I expected, you should ask me for help, right?"

Seeing Murong Yuliang speak so bluntly, Hu Wenjie, who was also experienced, felt a little embarrassed, but under Murong Yuliang's gaze, he still sighed and said:

"Lord Murong, you have a sharp eye. My Hu family is truly unfortunate..."

"To be honest with you, Lord Murong! When my nephew Hu Ming was already on duty, he accidentally offended Minister Cui of the Ministry of Revenue. That's why he hid in Jiangnan and didn't dare to return to Jiangnan. But now Minister Cui still refuses to let Hu Ming go. He dug up some of Hu Ming's mistakes and wants to take action against Hu Ming!"

Upon hearing this, Murong Yuliang narrowed his eyes. Although Hu Wenjie glossed over some key points of the matter and did not honestly explain how Hu Ming offended Cui Shao and what kind of wrong deeds he had done that allowed Cui Shao to catch him.

However, Murong Yuliang had been in the G-game field for so many years. When thinking about some of the rumors about Hu Ming, he could roughly understand some things without Hu Wenjie explaining them too clearly. So under Hu Wenjie's earnest gaze, Murong Yuliang also said righteously:
"Hu Wenjie! The country has its own laws, the family has its own rules, and the laws of the court are not something that businessmen like you can use to make deals! The court will naturally find out whether Hu Ming has done anything wrong. If you want me to help you, you are making a wrong calculation!
After saying this, Murong Yuliang wanted to ask the clerk to invite Hu Wenjie out. Seeing this, Hu Wenjie quickly said:

"Master Murong, you have misunderstood! I am definitely not here to ask you to protect Hu Ming!"

"You are right. A country has its own laws, and a family has its own rules. Without rules, there will be no order. Although Hu Ming is my nephew, if he really makes a mistake, I, Hu Wenjie, will be the first to kill my own brother for the sake of justice!"

Listening to Hu Wenjie's decisive and merciless words, Murong Yuliang was also a little confused. He pondered for a moment as he spoke in a more moderate tone:
“In that case, why did you come to see me today?”

(End of this chapter)