Chapter 278 The Virtue of the Qing Dynasty

Under the threat of Yan Xu's death, these officials immediately burst into action with great force. They gathered people from various departments as quickly as possible, and then skillfully used intimidation and inducement. Everyone performed their duties, making the bloated and inefficient departments function and cope with the post-war chaos.

Soon these people tasted the benefits of power, because in the past, they needed to report everything, and only when the leader nodded his head slowly and respectfully would they carry out their orders.

Moreover, he has been promoted to a leader due to his merits, but has also been punished for his mistakes.

There is no way, the official level will crush people to death.

Now they can make their own decisions, and a single word can determine the fate of their subordinates and even affect the operation of the entire city.

The taste of power is so intoxicating that they almost forget that they are working for the rebels, or that this is not a big deal in the face of sufficient benefits and advantages.

This is the reality. Without Yan Xu's rebellion, it cannot be said that it is impossible for them to become regular employees, but it can be said that it is very difficult, because unless they are promoted from above, there is no way for them to be promoted.

If one wants to be promoted, one must have enough merits and money. Where do these merits and money come from? They earn them.

In fact, the people below also think so. Everyone is oppressing the one below them and they are all exploiting each other.

Now that they have easily obtained the rights they had always dreamed of, they would definitely not be willing to go back to the way they were before.

In order to secure their current power and position, whether they like it or not, they are tied to Yan Xu.

As for betraying Yan Xu to help the Qing Dynasty recapture the Magic City, it's not that they haven't thought about it. It can even be said that every one of them has thought about it seriously.

But it is because they have thought about it seriously that they are hesitant.

No one knows better than them what kind of person the Qing Dynasty is.

They knew very well the cause of Yan Xu's rebellion. If the Qing Dynasty had more confidence, it would not have used such sneaky means. Therefore, it was sheer wishful thinking to expect the Qing Dynasty to rise up and retake the Magic City.

They could even guess the Qing Dynasty's subsequent reaction to a high degree of certainty.

First, confirm the fact of rebellion, and then report it along the way. Because the thing lost is the Magic City, the impact is huge, and it will be faster this time. It is estimated that the old Buddha will know in three to five days.

By then, the Empress Dowager would be furious and would call the ministers of the Grand Council to hold them accountable first and then ask about the follow-up.

Because it involves the reaction of the Shanghai Concession and foreigners, other ministers will probably be called in. In ten days or half a month, the decision on the expedition can be made. Then it will be a matter of mobilizing troops and paying for supplies. The Ministry of War wants money, the Ministry of Revenue complains, and finally the Ministry of the Interior has to pay some money before the matter is over.

Then troops were transferred from various places. Taking into account the problems of empty pay and insufficient food and wages, it would take at least one or two months to draw 30,000 to 50,000 troops from various places, while the number on paper was 100,000.

When the minister in charge arrives, he will first pay out the salaries that are less than one tenth of the original salary and the weapons and supplies that were made with shoddy materials. Then he will deal with the complaints, disputes, blame-shifting and other messy matters from below. Finally, he will chop off one of the unlucky guys as an explanation.

After one or two months of training, they started marching to rob wherever they went.

By the time we reach Shanghai, it will probably take three to five months.

It sounds funny, but in fact this is the behavior of the Qing Dynasty today.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to collect taxes from all over the country, and there are more and more warlords who refuse to obey orders and local officials who are disloyal.

The Empress Dowager was still spending money recklessly, thinking about how to build a garden. She embezzled money everywhere for this purpose, causing the entire Qing Dynasty to be full of holes that needed to be filled.

Moreover, people above and below them followed suit and became proficient in all kinds of extortion and bribery, and their practices became more and more excessive.

In the past, the food and wages allocated to the local areas would have at least 50% or 60% left. After the local areas passed it on, the soldiers could get about 20% or 30%. Now, haha, the Magic City Barracks is not an exception, but the norm.

In other words, the Qing Dynasty nominally mobilized an army of 100,000, but only 30,000 to 50,000 were actually in place, and no more than 5,000 of them were truly combat-ready. It would be a blessing if there were 2,000 to 3,000 of them who dared to fight.

This amount of combat power is adequate to deal with the Boxers, but it is obviously not enough to fight against the ruthless people who occupied the Magic City in less than a day.

The most important thing is that this guy is not a fool. Not only can he crush the whole group of people with just a few words, but he also has deep roots in the Magic City.

I can't say how many more there are, but it's easy to gather tens of thousands of people within two or three months, and then use the reserves in the Magic City and the connections with foreigners, it's really not difficult to arm thousands of elite soldiers.

Therefore, if the Qing Dynasty cannot recapture the Magic City in one battle, there will be no hope for the future.

The Qing Dynasty no longer has the ability to form large armies one after another. Even if it were to mobilize them, they would be short of food, clothing, and weapons. How could they be effective?

At the same time, the presence of foreigners in the concessions also restricted the Qing Dynasty's offensive. It can be said that the hope of retaking the Magic City was very slim.

In this case, it is not a wise choice to place a bet early.

On the contrary, if they were content to serve Yan Xu, they would definitely be valued when the other side was short of talent.

However, it depends on the outcome of the Qing Dynasty's first military expedition. Only then will they make a real decision.

Of course, no matter how much they say, they have to live to that time first, so everyone should be fully prepared to carry out civilized law enforcement and provide service with a smile.

They don't think that the man known as the Murder King of Magic City would joke with them. If their style of doing things really doesn't match the other party's ideas, the whole family might be killed.

Yan Xu knew very well whether these officials of the Demon City government were reliable, but before the new system was established, he really could not do without them.

Without these officials, the personnel of various departments would be at a loss and stuck in endless wrangling, and would not be able to function normally. In other words, someone must suppress them and whip them in order for them to function normally.

Ordinary people really can't do this job, otherwise why doesn't Yan Xu replace him with one of his own?

However, his own people were not idle either. After the master came back, he didn't even have time to change his clothes. He took the financial and management personnel of several factories and began to count the funds and materials of the Magic City from scratch.

For this reason, Yan Xu had to issue a notice to those newly appointed deputies, stating that officials of the current dynasty would not be executed for matters of the previous dynasty, which meant that no matter what happened, they would not be held accountable.

Otherwise, Yan Xu was really afraid that as soon as the master left, the account books, warehouse and other things would catch fire.

No one in this position, even if they are deputies, is clean. If the national law is followed, the whole family, young and old, will have to go to the vegetable market. They have no choice but to take risks.

So even though he holds the power of life and death, Yan Xu has to express his stance first and tell them not to panic, otherwise the Magic City will be in real chaos.

The lawyer was also smooth-talking. Although he had a heavy responsibility, he hinted right away that he could help solve the problem as long as he was paid.

Yan Xu arrested people but did not confiscate their properties, so this group of people had no shortage of money. Plus, they all knew that the master was a favorite of Yan Xu, which prompted them to place heavy bets, making the master very happy.

Even if 90% of the money has to be handed over to the master, the remaining 10% is still considerable. The most important thing is that it is legal, because the master said he would give it to him, so he can receive it with peace of mind. Otherwise, no matter how much money he has, he will not be able to sleep well.

While the master was putting all the long-standing bad debts on the head of the imprisoned regular employee, he was also supervising the financial and manager brought in from the factory to sort out and count the materials in the Magic City.

This is the capital that the master used to start his business, so of course the lawyer dare not be careless.

(End of this chapter)