Su Yonglin's suggestion caused extensive discussions and disputes at the Central Meeting of the Renaissance.
The reason why he raised this suggestion at this time was not only the need for policy advancement, but also had other reasons.
This reason is a bit special.
Not long ago, Su Yonglin took the time to read a work report from the Tai'an Prefecture Renaissance Association branch. This report mentioned something that caught Su Yonglin's attention.
Xiao Cui, a young female worker who worked in a textile factory set up by the imperial court in Tai'an Prefecture, was working smoothly in the factory. Suddenly she heard that she was promised by her father to the son of a family in a neighboring village and was asked to resign from the factory to get married.
The reason why this marriage came about was because her alcoholic father was an alcoholic and had debts. He borrowed money from others to drink. He was also lazy and did not work in production, so the family had no money to pay off the debts.
Because he wanted more money for drinking, he accepted three chickens and three ducks from that family, as well as a small amount of betrothal money, and then he decided to give his daughter Xiao Cui to that family's son.
Xiao Cui resisted strongly and firmly disagreed with the marriage. She hid in the textile factory and refused to marry at all.
The alcoholic father was very angry and felt that he had lost face and his father's authority, so he conspired with that family and brought people to the factory to cause trouble, demanding that the factory hand over Xiao Cui and take him back to get married.
When the workers in the factory learned about this, they were very angry.
Xiao Cui works seriously and responsibly on weekdays, and is very popular with everyone in the factory. So, under the leadership of factory instructor Fang Zhiqiang, everyone helped Xiao Cui drive away his alcoholic father and the helpers of that family.
However, the gang refused to give up and came to the factory many times to cause trouble, disrupting the production order, making noise and making everyone uneasy.
In desperation, Xiao Cui received Fang Zhiqiang's advice and went to the People's Situation Consultation Room in Tai'an Prefecture to seek help from members of the local Renaissance Society, hoping to get rid of this nightmare.
The Tai'an Prefecture Renaissance Association was shocked when they learned about this incident and were speechless at the father's behavior. They respected Xiao Cui's choice and sent someone to coordinate, hoping to resolve the matter.
Just on the day they sent someone to coordinate, Xiao Cui's father brought people over to cause trouble again. More than 20 strong men tried to storm the factory and take Xiao Cui out.
The coordinator of the revival meeting was furious and immediately stepped forward to stop it. They also called the instructor of Xiao Cui's village and the president of the farmers' association to negotiate together.
After learning the name of the revival meeting, Xiao Cui's father restrained himself slightly, but still firmly stated that he had raised his daughter and that he was the one who made the final decision on marriage.
In short, she has to marry whether she wants to marry or not.
The coordinators sought help from the president and instructor of the farmers' association. Both of them reluctantly said that Xiao Cui's father was a well-known drunkard and lazy man in the village. He was an incurable type. They had tried many methods to get him back. On the right track, they all failed.
After all the good and bad things were said, this man had no food or salt, no soft or hard food, and was just a useless person lying flat on his back. It was more tiring for him to do things than for them to finish them for him, so they had given up.
They entrusted his family's land to the left and right neighbors, and asked the left and right neighbors to help his wife cultivate part of the land. Then the left and right neighbors each received 20% of the harvest as compensation, and the remaining 60% maintained their family's food and clothing. .
Really, in an era when farmers are unprecedentedly excited and excited, in an era when everyone is working hard to cultivate the land and accumulate wealth, there is still such waste.
Their eyes were opened.
But now the coordinators were helpless.
When working in civil affairs, the most fearful thing is to meet a shameless scoundrel. Once you meet one, you can't beat him or scold him. It's so uncomfortable that it makes you want to vomit.
Xiao Cui's father is such a person.
What's more important is that the coordinator has no way to rely on this kind of matter.
Due to lack of energy and time, the content of the first edition of "Ming Code" was mainly to assist political reform. In the area of marriage, it continued the previous principle of non-interference by the court, allowing the people to autonomously do so without making many regulations.
For the time being, it’s business as usual.
The coordinator was helpless and went to work with the family who wanted to marry Xiao Cui.
That family is from a neighboring village. They have a lot of labor and land. They are considered a big family in that village, and their words are quite weighty.
They also said that they gave gifts, chickens and ducks, and all debts were forgiven. Father Xiao promised to give his daughter to their son, but now he goes back on it, who will bear their losses?
They also work hard to make money and accumulate wealth!
The coordinator thought it was reasonable, so he hoped that Xiao's father would return the gift money and chickens and ducks to the family. Everyone sat down to discuss again, but the result was no good.
Xiao Cui's father had already exchanged the chickens and ducks for money, and bought wine with the bride price. Including the debt, it was a large amount of money. Xiao Cui's family could not afford it, so Xiao Cui's father insisted that he would use it. The daughter comes to pay off the debt.
It's great now, we're at an impasse.
The coordinators were unable to coordinate this matter, and in the end they could only say that they would not interfere with marriages, but they could not continue to cause trouble or make noise in the factory.
If they continue to act randomly, disrupt the production order of the factory, and affect the production of the factory, and the court investigates the crime, they will notify the government to arrest them.
Catch all of you troublemakers and put them in jail! Do hard labor! We also have to compensate the imperial court for its losses!
It doesn't matter if he eats prison food. It's not like Xiao Cui's father has never eaten it before. He still thinks that prison food is good. It can be regarded as eating royal food in a sense.
But when they heard that they would be caught doing hard labor to pay for it, Xiao Cui's father and others did not dare to forcefully cause trouble and did not dare to enter the factory again.
But they spread the word that Xiao Cui had the ability to hide in the factory for the rest of her life. As long as she came out, they would definitely take her back to get married.
So Xiao Cui is still hiding in the factory and does not go out. Xiao Cui's father also appears outside the factory from time to time. It seems that he wants to kidnap Xiao Cui and send her to get married while she is out.
This matter is so deadlocked.
After Su Yonglin learned about this, he thought about it.
It should be said that since Su Yonglin established a stable base, he has begun to consciously liberate women's productivity.
This idea was first implemented in Tai'an Prefecture, his early important base, because Tai'an Prefecture has iron mines, large mining fields and iron smelting plants, with many workers working in them.
Su Yonglin decided at that time to hire unmarried young girls to work in the factory, responsible for providing logistical assistance to the workers and paying wages.
He plans to use Tai'an Prefecture as an early experiment to see whether women's participation in social work will have a positive impact on the social economy.
It turns out there is.
After young women join the workforce, the income of a normal family will increase. With an extra income, the family's financial situation will also improve a lot. Parents are more inclined to let their daughters get married later, hoping that they will have more time to make money.
Whether it is to subsidize the family or to raise enough dowry for themselves, it is of positive significance, and it also invisibly curbs the local custom of marrying off daughters at the age of twelve or thirteen.
Like men, working women can also have a free and substantial lunch meal in the factory.
In addition to wages, there are also welfare benefits such as meat, oil, rice and noodles during holidays. When you are sick, you can get medical treatment and medicine at the small clinic inside the factory without spending any money.
If a family has many children, and in addition to the necessary land labor, the other children work in the factory, it will greatly reduce the burden on the family.
Therefore, the mining factories and iron smelting factories in Tai'an Prefecture quickly became the local hot spots, and getting a job there was the dream of many farmers' families.
As the Victory Army transformed into the Liberation Army and the Ming Army, Su Yonglin's business became larger and larger, and the demand for steel increased. The mining factories and iron smelting factories in Tai'an Prefecture also gradually expanded their scale and production. More local people were admitted to work.
At the same time, there is also a local textile factory established during the war, which specializes in providing summer and winter uniforms and quilts for the army. After continuous expansion and development, it is now very large.
According to the written report of Tai'an Prefecture Renaissance Association branch, Su Yonglin learned that local folk customs have changed a lot over the years.
First of all, it rarely happens that daughters get married very early.
