Monday at 10:00 am.

Zhang Qijie met a person he didn't want to meet in the reception room of his factory. Although the guest was dressed very well, he sat on the sofa and kept his knees close together. He had never touched the tea on the coffee table in front of him before, and his face was always smiling.

But Zhang Qijie smiled unnaturally and frowned from time to time.

No serious person likes this person in the entire Longchuan County. This person is Shanzhu, the deputy of the black/gang boss in the area.

Although Zhang Qijie was not afraid of Weng Quanguang as a decent glass man, he was careful not to deal with this group of people, but even if he was hiding, there was no way for others to come to him.

Moreover, the purpose of the mountain pig came was also surprising to Zhang Qijie: Longchuantang wanted to ask about the question of how to elect.

It turned out that Weng Quanguang's Longchuantang could not curry favor with Fang Bingsheng and Shan Ji who were looking at the sky. Fang Bingsheng did not see the boar, and Shan Ji just smiled and said a few nonsense, and even gave Longchuantang face to eat a meal.

In front of Huichuantang's domineering arrogance, Weng Quanguang couldn't swallow this. His people followed Fang Bingsheng for a few days, and used some money to find out Fang Bingsheng's purpose from the servants of the Opium Party's family. After all, Fang Bingsheng and his party were still very arrogant, and they didn't need to keep it secret. Knowing that the other party was specifically for the backbone of the four opium halls in Longchuan to be elected as members of the parliament. Weng Quanguang was angry and hated, and the reasons for the anger and hatred were the same - I didn't understand what the reason for Huichuantang did this.

Of course, he would not admit that he was too rustic. Although Weng Quanguang did not understand the election, he also made up his mind to become a member of parliament - because the things that Huichuantang and the Opium Party that were jealous of people must be good things!

However, Huichuantang did not take Longchuantang to play, and they didn't give him any friendship. They didn't know how to elect, so they had to ask people locally for advice. Who else can Zhang Qijie, the owner of the textile factory that connects Chinese and Western countries?

So early in the morning, Shanzhu asked to see Zhang Qijie with gifts, mainly to ask what was going on with the election. If so, Boss Weng Quanguang wanted to join forces with Zhang Qijie to run for election, but in fact he wanted to play with Zhang Qijie.

But how could Zhang Qijie want to play with a gangster leader like a poisonous snake? He had to talk to Shanzhu, say something unreasonable, and pretend that he didn't understand anything.

As the envoy of Longchuan Hall, Shanzhu actually felt a lot of pressure: mainly because he didn't understand his own problems at all, so that Zhang Qijie threw a new word to him, and he was dumbfounded and didn't know what it meant. Of course, Zhang Qijie had been talking for half an hour, but he was still in a foggy place. There was also an embarrassment between the two of them from time to time. So, Zhang Qijie said, "The US parliament is quite useful, but the parliament of the Song Dynasty is useless. It may be the decoration that the emperor added to the cake. There is no need to be too serious." After that, he looked at the mountain pig. Shanzhu touched the back of his head and smiled embarrassedly, not knowing what to say.

In order to cover up the embarrassment, Shanzhu pointed at a thick stack of newspapers on Zhang Qijie's desk and smiled: "Oh, Boss Zhang, have you bought the emperor's newspaper? I also saw photos of you and our boss. This is the largest emperor's newspaper in the country! You have shown your face across the country, this really gives us Longchuan a face."

"What's the matter? It's just a candidate for publication." Zhang Qijie waved his hand and smiled modestly, but he was very proud.

This morning, he was drinking breakfast porridge. His servant ran in with a stack of newspapers to report the good news and said, "Oh my God, it's amazing! Master, you have actually been to the emperor for reporting!"

"What?" Zhang Qijie was surprised. He took the thick stack of newspapers and saw that under the dazzling black head of the "The Royal Residence of the Great Song Dynasty", the title of "The Twelve Candidates for the Longchuan Election" was clearly stated.

It is a large woodcut photo of the twelve candidates in Longchuan, and his personal resumes and political concepts.

Although the election has been three times, this is the first time that the Haisong court has done this.

Everyone accounts for half of the newspaper paper. Because everyone has no political ideas and many repetitions, half of each person's content is a large photo picture of the size of a palm, and the other half is a text introduction such as personal resume.

Zhang Qijie turned the page and saw his photos appear vividly in the newspaper.

"This?This?This?This?This?Is this really the imperial newspaper?" Zhang Qijie turned back to read the newspaper cover in disbelief. It was indeed the imperial newspaper!

I actually went to the imperial newspaper?! The most important newspaper in the Song Dynasty?! The mouthpiece of the emperor and the court?!

And there are also woodcuts of your own photos!

This issue of the royal newspaper has been thickened! It is specially thickened for a few of them!

"How much did you add? Such a thick newspaper?" Zhang Qijie turned his head and asked the servant.

"No extra money, it's still five cents." The servant smiled and said, "It's great. This is equivalent to spending one to buy two newspapers. Master, your photos are left, and the remaining newspapers can be used as oil paper wrapped in meat, haha."

Zhang Qijie also smiled and said, "Don't! The other eleven people are from Longchuan, and they all know each other. It's not good to wrap meat with photos of their heads, and it seems disrespectful to them. Just burn them. You can use other newspapers casually."

Then he was impatient to turn to his own page again, and carefully looked at his photos. Another word, another word, one by one, and another, and he was always impulsive in his heart: he should cut this part, put it in a glass frame, and put it together with the ancestral tablet! He was on the imperial newspaper! He is famous nationwide! So awesome!

But then I thought that the other eleven people were also in the newspaper. This was just an advertisement given to them by the emperor for free, not because he had made some great achievements, but because he could leave a name in the emperor's newspaper.

However, the disappointment was slightly. Zhang Qijie got on the carriage with the newspaper in his arms and arrived at the factory. He didn't want to put it down all the way. He walked with a fluttering moment. Although the sky was still gloomy, it was simply sunny in his eyes. Today was so beautiful that he was lucky enough to be on the imperial newspaper together!

In the office, Zhang Qijie did nothing, just sat down and read his part several times. Sometimes he smiled, sometimes was surprised, and sometimes his face turned slightly red because he felt that there were some sentences in his article that were not very smooth, but because he wrote it himself, the newspaper was published word by word. This is what everyone who knows literacy across the country saw it, and he felt a little embarrassed.

At nine o'clock, the factory accountant also rushed in with a royal report and shouted to Zhang Qijie: "Boss Zhang, do you know that you have reported to the emperor? I passed by the yamen and saw them posting newspapers on Xuanhua walls. I realized that you have been published! Your photo! Look, how energetic!"

Looking at the accountant who pointed at the photo with excitement at him, Zhang Qijie suppressed the pride on his face and waved his hand and said, "This is nothing, everyone has entered the newspaper. I guess this is the grace given by the emperor, nothing is great."

"Boss Zhang, I don't understand other Western learnings, except for settlement," the accountant said with a smile: "Anyway, I wish you and other gentlemen of the Presbyterian Church will win the election next week! The whole Longchuan's face is shining! I will definitely vote for you!"

"Okay, okay." Zhang Qijie watched the accountant leave with a smile, turned around and walked to the window, his eyes seemed to be flying over Longchuan County like birds: He actually went to the imperial newspaper, ha, what's wrong!

As a result, after a while, many people in his factory bought newspapers and read or heard about them, and came to congratulate Zhang Qijie, which made Zhang Qijie really embarrassed: This is indeed like an advertisement, I did nothing, why are you congratulating? But you can't explicitly not let others congratulate you, they are kind-hearted.

However, before Zhang Qijie could enjoy the joy, the uninvited guest, Shanzhu, came.

Seeing this black/support backbone coming with a pot of flowers and gifts, everyone was tactful and was left with only Zhang Qijie facing this guy who seemed very weird today.

After chatting about the photos of Zhang Qijie and Weng Quanguang in the newspaper, Shanzhu felt that it was closer. He rubbed his teeth and smiled and said, "That, our boss Weng, I admire you very much. Everyone knows that you have seen big scenes in our small town. Can you tell me that we boss Weng join us to join us for election? Our boss said that we will definitely not treat you badly."

Zhang Qijie looked at the boar, as if he was watching a real boar with fangs sitting on his sofa, smiling on his face, but in his stomach, he was making excuses to reject these dangerous hooligans.

After thinking about it, Zhang Qijie smiled and said, "Brother Shanzhu, I just told you that this election is useless, it is just a waste of money, and the court may take the opportunity to check taxes. The reason why I run for election is that I am the elder of the Presbyterian Church and the backbone of the church. The emperor called on us Christians to run for election. In order to honor God and benefit others, I contacted several other brothers to run for election together. It is considered a statement of loyalty to the emperor by a Protestant church. Boss Weng

He is a famous Catholic philanthropist. He should go and choose with your Catholic friends, right? For example, the bookstore owner and the gentlemen from the opium museum in the past, aren’t they also Catholic? You also know that our Presbyterians argue about doctrines every day, and we don’t think that Catholics have the Holy Spirit, so when they encounter loyalty to the emperor, we are really not good at cooperating with people from the Catholic Church (Catholics). In that case, maybe God doesn’t like it.”

Zhang Qijie said it a bit too much, just to scare the mountain pig.

Not only that, he also spoke for brothers such as Li Guangxi and Fan Linhui, so that they would not be able to resist the entanglement of Longchuan Hall, so that one day they would go to the church to fellowship and found that one of the five people had brought Weng Quanguang in again.

That would be too annoying.

Although the Pig is Catholic, there is little debate about the doctrine of Catholicism. Lower believers will kneel in front of various holy statues and ask for this and that. They are not very familiar with the disputes between sects, and Zhang Qijie cannot question what he said. He thought there was nothing he could do, so he had to go back and report to the boss to ask him to decide.

After chatting for a while, he got up and said goodbye. Zhang Qijie wiped his head with cold sweat, following the mountain pig with his hands all the way to send him off.

At the door of the office, Shanzhu suddenly pressed his hand on the door frame, stopped, and turned around and asked, "Boss Zhang, since you said you are Protestant and don't want to run with our public servants, then do you know what the railway station Bingsheng came to Longchuan for? Why are you entangled with them? The people in the Opium Hall are also Catholic."

"What? What do you mean? I know Mr. Fang Bingsheng. Didn't he come to inspect Longchuan Railway Station? But why did he get involved in the Opium Pavilion again?" Zhang Qijie asked in confusion.

"You don't know about this!" Shanzhu said in disbelief when Zhang Qijie's expression was not a fake.

"What's the matter?" Zhang Qijie asked with his eyes wide open.

Shanzhu opened his mouth. He originally wanted to say that Fang Bingsheng was here to assist in the opium restaurant, but then he thought that Fang Bingsheng was secretly obscene. It must be that he did not tell Zhang Qijie and the others seriously, deliberately testing the other party's trump card. After all, this bastard came here to do this. Why did he tell Zhang Qijie about this for no reason? He is not his father, and he is not very happy to help Longchuantang. Thinking of this, Shanzhu smiled and said, "It's nothing. You are busy, you are busy, I will say goodbye first."

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

After seeing off the mountain pig, Zhang Qijie put it on the chair. The last few words of the old man who said the mountain pig were strange, but how could Fang Bingsheng, the deputy general manager of the railway company, get involved with the people in the small county? Didn’t he just come to inspect the station?

"A hooligan." After thinking for a while, Zhang Qijie couldn't understand what it meant. He didn't want to think about it anymore. He rumbled and put the newspaper carefully into the drawer. He prayed for a while, then put the sleeve carefully on his shirt arm that was carefully ironed out. He picked up a hard-headed pen to start checking the report. He was so happy that he had no intention of working because he had posted the largest newspaper in the country. That was not possible. For Christians, they had to work to glorify God.

But before he could read the two lines of report, his subordinates pushed open the door and reported with surprise: "Boss, bosses Fan Linhui, Zhong Erzai, Li Meng, Zhuang Feijiang, Lin Liuming, and a railway-based Mr. Fang Bingsheng have come to see you. They have all been in the newspaper! Let's congratulate each other?"

"Oh, so many people? Please! Please! You can't sit here, let them go to the small living room!" Zhang Qijie pulled the sleeve off his shirt and walked towards the small living room of the factory in surprise.

The small living room is a place used by textile factories to greet guests. In fact, it is at the end of Zhang Qijie's office corridor. He felt that the other party was coming to congratulate each other and tested each other's strength. Zhang Qijie quickly put on a suit, tied his bow tie, looked in the mirror, and then walked towards the small living room.

As soon as I entered, I felt a momentum coming to my face. Although there were not many people, I felt that the entire living room was filled with people from Longchuan.

"Haha! Friends from the Opium House are such rare guests. And Lao Fan, you are half the owner of me. Why are you sitting on the sofa and helping to pour tea?" Zhang Qijie greeted him enthusiastically, but no one responded. Suddenly, he felt something was wrong. Zhang Qijie barely stopped laughing and looked over carefully.

There are two three-person sofas in this small living room, which are placed opposite each other across the coffee table. There are also a row of chairs on both sides of the sofa, but from the perspective of people's seats, things are very strange.

The six people sat in the row against the wall, looking like a whole, but there were two people sitting on the sofa of three people: Fang Bingsheng was sitting at the east end and Fan Linhui was sitting at the west end; Fang Bingsheng had his legs spread apart and his hands pressed on the civilized stick, which seemed to be a very impolite posture; Fan Linhui had a helpless expression on his face; and what was even more strange was that the four opium restaurants, who were also the head-on figures in the county, seemed to dare not sit on the sofa, but sat on the high chairs on both ends of the sofa. In addition, there was a middle-aged man with a ferocious look on the face of a gangster, but he was standing by the window, his body pressed on the flower pot rack, and his lips were staring at Zhang Qijie with a sneer on the corner of his mouth.

If everyone's posture is to draw lines, the center of gravity will be focused on Fang Bingsheng, as if he is the center.

"Hey, Mr. Fang? You haven't returned to the capital yet. You've been busy preaching these two days and haven't asked you for advice. By the way, I didn't see you in the church on Sunday. Didn't you say you were going? I'm looking for you in the crowd, haha. You're here too today. My small broken factory is really full of glory." Although I don't know why Fang Bingsheng has something to do with the people in the Opium Pavilion, Fang Bingsheng is the most important guest, whether in terms of actual social status or the position where everyone sits today, so Zhang Qijie first chatted with Fang Bingsheng.

But Fang Bingsheng smiled slightly and did not get up. Instead, he pointed to the sofa opposite and said, "Mr. Zhang, I have business to come to see you this time. Please sit down and let's talk, okay?"

Zhang Qijie sat suspiciously across from Fang Bingsheng, looked at Fang Bingsheng and Fan Linhui face to face and asked in surprise: "What's going on?"

"Old Zhang, they came for the election." Fan Linhui smiled bitterly and said, "They were not here to inspect the railway station as you said."

"What? I don't understand." Zhang Qijie widened his eyes.

Li Meng, who was against the wall, laughed loudly, stood up from the chair, walked to the side of the coffee table between Fang Bingsheng and Zhang Qijie, and smiled at Zhang Qijie: "Boss Zhang, you must know you, but you are not familiar with Mr. Fang Bingsheng. Now let me introduce you to you: This gentleman is the railway elite, Western learning genius and election expert invited by our Foreign Medicine Guild from Beijing to help us to assist in the election, Mr. Fang Bingsheng."

"What did you say? Election?" Zhang Qijie asked in confusion, then looked at Fang Bingsheng in confusion, seemingly not understanding what was going on.
Chapter completed!