As the saying goes, a skilled person is bold. After advancing to the rank of Grand Martial Artist and acquiring the "real skill" of spearmanship, Yan Liqiang found that he was indeed getting bolder and bolder. The most obvious manifestation of this so-called boldness was that even when facing "giants" such as the Wumu Tribe among the Seven Shatu Tribes and the Northwest Transportation Office, he would no longer be intimidated by their names and momentum. Instead, he would often think of this question in his head - how many people can the other party send, and can I defeat them
As his abilities become stronger, his thinking will also become more positive. In the past, when Yan Liqiang faced the existence of the Transfer Office and encountered such a thing, he would probably think about how to mobilize the resources and relationships around him to deal with this hungry wolf of the Transfer Office. But this time, he just picked up his weapon and went up.
Before taking action, Yan Liqiang already understood in his heart that this time, it was not a fight between officials and civilians, but between officials. He was the Qiyun Protector General appointed by His Majesty, and the Transportation Yamen wanted to swallow up the Manufacturing Bureau, which meant that it was the Transportation Yamen against his Qiyun Protectorate. In this confrontation, the Transportation Yamen could not get the support of the Imperial Capital and Ganzhou. Therefore, what he had to face was a Transportation Yamen, a Northwest Transportation Envoy and the troops under this Transportation Envoy.
In the final analysis, it all comes down to who has the harder fist, the sharper knife, and who is afraid of whom!
In Yan Liqiang's eyes, the Northwest Yamen could mobilize more than a thousand cavalrymen who could threaten the Manufacturing Bureau. Purely theoretically, based on the firepower output of eight arrows per second, he could kill them all within three minutes. He only needed to shoot the bow three hundred times and have more than a thousand arrows with him.
Although the actual situation was that it was impossible for the soldiers of the Transportation Office to line up to kill him, Yan Liqiang did not take the soldiers of the Transportation Office seriously at all.
Early the next morning, before the Manufacturing Bureau started its breakfast, Yan Liqiang held another general meeting of all staff in the Manufacturing Bureau's cafeteria.
Just as Yan Liqiang thought, although it was only one day and Qian Su also issued a gag order, all the craftsmen and soldiers in the manufacturing bureau still knew what happened yesterday. They knew that Yan Liqiang killed people from the Northwest Transportation Office in the manufacturing bureau. In such a small place, everyone knew each other, and it was impossible to hide such a big thing.
The cafeteria was completely silent. Although no one spoke, everyone's worry and anxiety were written on their faces. No one spoke, and no one could laugh. The atmosphere in the cafeteria was a little solemn.
"I think everyone knows what happened in our manufacturing bureau yesterday!" Everyone's eyes were focused on Yan Liqiang's face, and Yan Liqiang spoke calmly. He just glanced at the people in the cafeteria. Yan Liqiang knew clearly what was in everyone's mind. "For those who don't know or are not clear, I will briefly tell you that a team of people from the Northwest Transportation Office came to our manufacturing bureau yesterday. Because our manufacturing bureau is now making four-wheeled carriages, which are means of transportation, and the Transportation Office has the right to requisition and manage all means of transportation, those people want to use the name of requisition to make our manufacturing bureau belong to them in the future, and they also want to take away the money earned by the manufacturing bureau. In the future, all things produced by our manufacturing bureau, including four-wheeled carriages, will be distributed by them. They want us to become their slaves. As soon as they came, they started to fight and beat people. They were arrogant and were ready to kill a few people who dared to go against them and disobeyed them. If Zhou Yong, who was guarding the spring manufacturing workshop yesterday, hadn't had a heart guard on his body, he would have been seriously injured and might even have lost his life!"
Everyone in the Manufacturing Bureau stared at Yan Liqiang blankly. There was a slight commotion in the crowd. Except for Qian Su, no one else expected that Yan Liqiang would start his speech today with such frankness and talk about what everyone was most concerned about.
"Yesterday I sent a letter to the Pingxi County Magistrate Wang Jianbei, saying that a group of people pretended to be from the Transportation Office and came to our Manufacturing Bureau to cause trouble and hurt people. They have been arrested by us. This is our explanation to the outside world. When outsiders ask, we always say that they are pretenders. But in fact, internally, there is nothing to hide from you. Those people are from the Northwest Transportation Office. The leader is Zhong Xiankui, the deputy transportation envoy of the Northwest Transportation Office. In terms of official rank, he is higher than the county magistrate. The other person who led the team was Shi Zhiyu, the Ganzhou inspector of the Transportation Office. Shi Zhiyu has been killed by me!"
“Why am I rude to these people and dare to kill them? Because although they are in the name of officials, in fact, they are thieves, doing what robbers do! They saw that our manufacturing bureau’s four-wheeled carriages made money, and that everyone would soon be able to share a large sum of money and have a good life, so they became jealous and wanted to rob us!” Yan Liqiang’s tone became murderous, “Why do I say they are thieves and robbers? That’s because the predecessor of the Manufacturing Bureau was the Craftsmen’s Battalion, which everyone knows. The reason why the Craftsmen’s Battalion became the Manufacturing Bureau was that His Majesty the Emperor promised it himself. His Majesty the Emperor gave the Manufacturing Bureau to Governor Qi Yun, which was regarded as the family property of the Qiyun Governor’s Office. The Qiyun Governor’s Office has nothing to do with the Northwest Transportation Office. The Northwest Transportation Office is completely different. No matter how long the government office is, it can't control our Qiyun Governor's Office. Although our Manufacturing Bureau is in Pingxi County, it is not under the jurisdiction of the Northwest Transportation Office. Those who came to our Manufacturing Bureau yesterday are officials in name, but in fact, they are thieves and robbers, and they are the kind of robbers who eat people without spitting out bones. They are the most disgusting kind of thieves. They are greedy, corrupt, and do dirty things in the name of justice. They are under the banner of the court but do things that undermine the reputation of the court. If they dare to bully us, I will kill them! It's like if a group of robbers rushed into your house one day, trying to rob your money, insult your family, and put a knife on your neck to make you work like a cow and a horse for them, would you be a coward or fight them to the death?"
"Fight those bastards!" After hearing Yan Liqiang's words, several soldiers in the audience roared, and then more and more people roared, the sound became louder and louder, almost blowing the roof of the cafeteria off.
"I know some of you are worried about how the Northwest Transportation Office will retaliate against us. I tell you the truth, the Northwest Transportation Office doesn't know what happened in our Manufacturing Bureau yet. If they knew, they would definitely find a way to retaliate. But we are not people who can be bullied. My position as the Qiyun Protector was conferred by His Majesty the Emperor. If they really want to take the case to the capital, I'm not afraid at all. Besides, the Governor and the County Magistrate will not help them. The Northwest Transportation Office represents a group of bandits and robbers, they cannot represent the court. This time, our Manufacturing Bureau represents the Qiyun Protectorate, and we will fight the Transportation Office to the end!" Yan Liqiang said loudly.
"Yes, yes, let's fight them to the end!"
The craftsmen and soldiers in the manufacturing bureau all roared in anger.
"I will fight the Northwest Transportation Office to the end, but I will not force you to go all the way with me. The reason why I am telling you all this here today is to tell you about the crisis and enemies that our Manufacturing Bureau is facing now, and to give you a chance to choose. If anyone wants to leave the Manufacturing Bureau, I will never force them. As long as they stand up now and say they want to leave, they can leave today and leave here. As for those who want to stay, let's fight those bastards in the Transportation Office to the end!" At this point, Yan Liqiang turned his head and looked at Qian Su, "Uncle Qian, how much silver did our Manufacturing Bureau get for each share in the past six months?"
Qian Su glanced at Yan Liqiang and knew what Yan Liqiang meant. He cleared his throat and said loudly to everyone, "Our manufacturing bureau has earned more than 400,000 taels of silver in the past six months. If we divide the profits according to the stocks, each share can get at least 50 taels of silver. If we calculate the whole year, this year's share of the manufacturing bureau can be expected to get nearly 100 taels of silver!"
None of the soldiers and craftsmen in the Manufacturing Bureau knew these figures. When they heard Qian Su say them here today, they were all shocked. In just over half a year, according to the shares, the lowest-level servant in the Manufacturing Bureau could get more than 50 taels of silver, and the most ordinary soldiers and craftsmen in the Manufacturing Bureau each had three shares, so they could get more than 150 taels of silver at once. As for the other team leaders and head craftsmen, they would get more. Each of the head craftsmen got more than 1,000 taels of silver. For many people in the Manufacturing Bureau, this money was a huge sum of money they had never had in their lives. And this huge sum of money was only the stock dividend of the Manufacturing Bureau in the first year. As long as the Manufacturing Bureau existed, such a large sum of money would be distributed every year in the future.
"If someone wants to leave, our Manufacturing Bureau will do its best to give him the stock dividends he should have received over the past six months. He will automatically lose his shares in our Manufacturing Bureau and will have nothing to do with us anymore. We will neither be able to share hardships nor happiness with him!" Yan Liqiang said to Qian Su.
"Okay, let's do what you say!" Qian Su nodded decisively.
No one was a fool. The people from the Manufacturing Bureau standing in front of Yan Liqiang calculated in their minds and immediately knew how much silver they could get - and now, those thieves from the Northwest Transportation Office actually wanted to snatch all the silver from them.
Cutting off someone's financial resources is like killing their parents! Moreover, those bastards in the Transportation Office not only want to cut off everyone's financial resources, but also want to turn everyone from a master into their slaves.
In just a moment, the eyes of many people below turned red, and their hearts were filled with anger and hatred towards the Northwest Transfer Office.
"Kill those bastards from the Transportation Office!"
"Yes, kill them!"
"Fight them!"
Countless people started to shout, even those who were a little scared and worried just now, now thinking about their own silver, they also roared in defiance...
(End of this chapter)