MTL - Red Alert 1895-Chapter 936 Collection of Gifts (Part 2)

"The emperor's prince and princess have just been born, and the emperor specially collects gifts from the people for the prince and princess. If the people voluntarily give gifts to the prince and princess, the emperor will conduct a selection and reward the top ten titles. The second and third place will be awarded the honorary county viscount. The fourth to tenth will be awarded the honorary county baronet. And the top 100 will receive a certificate signed by the emperor as encouragement! Part of the citizen ranks, except government slaves, can be eligible to participate. The next 50 days will enter the gift collection process. Anyone who has a gift to celebrate the birth of a prince or princess can participate. No age limit, no gender limit , there is no limit to creativity.”

The emperor's private telegram was sent to all parts of the country, but even though it was the emperor's private telegram, the local government did not dare to take it lightly. They quickly took this matter as an important matter, and then ordered to collect gifts from every household, and began to use their brains to think for themselves. Even many government officials are thinking about this matter, especially those about the honorary title, which is even more tempting. Many low-level government officials do not have titles. They actually live on their salaries, and they don't have such lofty things as titles.

So now they heard that they can get honorary titles, so who wouldn't be tempted? So even the civil servants themselves are quite tempted, and even they are preparing to make one by themselves step by step. However, because Wang Guorui had already prepared for it, he ordered that the price of soliciting gifts this time should not exceed three yuan. Three yuan means that the future generations will be less than one thousand yuan, and at most seven or eight hundred yuan. If there is no limit to the value, then these bureaucrats will definitely take the opportunity to extort and extort, and then use this as an excuse to charge more fees to the people. And if the common people heard that the tax was collected only for gifts to the emperor, they would transfer this hatred to the emperor. This would ruin the emperor's reputation.

Therefore, Wang Guorui ordered that a single gift should not exceed three yuan, and that no precious metals or precious materials could be used, so as to ensure that they could not exploit the people more. Even Wang Guorui asked everyone to supervise. Avoid someone taking the opportunity to blackmail the people.

However, this time the collection of gifts. It adopts the principle of voluntariness and cannot be forced. And it's useless even if it is forced, because in fact, most of the gifts are just a gimmick, and even most ordinary people have no chance to participate. Because their cultural level and artistic accomplishment are not enough, it is difficult for them to discover the so-called "art". After all, art is a thing of spiritual civilization. If material civilization cannot reach a certain level, spiritual civilization will be difficult to develop.

At present, the country is still in the stage of primitive accumulation, and many workers and peasants have not even reached the level of well-off. Letting them play art is really difficult. So in fact, only those who have certain financial conditions can participate, and ordinary people just join in the fun, and it is impossible to really get this thing.

Wang Guorui just wanted to show his presence in the eyes of the common people, and prevent them from forgetting about it.

"This time the emperor is collecting gifts, so prepare some good things for me right away, and use all the good things for me, so that I will definitely have a surprise! This time, it is imperative for me to get the title!" said a jeweler.

"No, boss. This time the court said that the value cannot exceed three yuan. If you do this, no matter how good you are, you will be eliminated! The emperor said, this time it is the sincerity of the gift." , not the value of the material. If you use precious materials indiscriminately, you will be eliminated directly. The emperor does not like extravagance and waste. The most important thing is art, not the value of materials! If you do this, I am afraid it will be a waste of time Yes. Do you think the emperor will lack the money?" Someone immediately suggested.

Wang Guorui is the biggest capitalist with countless wealth. Will the money be missing? Therefore, giving those expensive gifts will not only fail to bring real happiness, but it will be a curse.

"Then tell me. What should I do? If I don't use precious materials, how can I show my sincerity?" said the jeweler.

but. The subordinate rolled his eyes, and immediately said: "Boss, in fact, although the emperor has stipulated that expensive materials cannot be used, there is no rule that cheap but rare things cannot be used! For example, Boss, you are not a collector. Is there a table full of Chinese people? Look..."

"You mean..." The owner of the jeweler felt a little heartbroken.

This Man Han Banquet is actually not a real dish. But it is actually a strange stone. This jeweler has always sold jewels. When he mines these jewels, he often collects some rare things that are not jewels. And he used these rare but rare stones to make a set of "dishes" for the Manchu banquet. These dishes are actually made of strange stones, and all the things on them are also very rare things. In fact, if you really talk about the value of those materials, you won't bother to pick up this stone when it's on the ground.

But in fact, this kind of stone is still scarce in the final analysis. The reason why jadeite gemstones are valuable is that they are scarce and have a good gloss, which is what makes them valuable. But other stones are not necessarily the same. Although other stones are not of high value in terms of materials, they have very peculiar characteristics. The uncanny craftsmanship of nature has created many strange stones.

The owner of this jeweler is also a person who is very good at playing with stones. He runs the jewelry industry himself, so he doesn't like ordinary jewelry. This is also a kind of aesthetic fatigue. Maybe others think jewelry is very rare, but for him, jade and jade are also boring. But on the contrary, this kind of stone made by nature's uncanny workmanship made him very interested. For so many years, he has actually seen the performance and collected it, and even spent a lot of money to buy these strange stones. It is absolutely natural without any traces of artificial carving, so this is rare.

"Boss, this strange stone is nothing more than a stone in the final analysis. The emperor just said that it cannot be made of expensive materials, but these strange stones are just some ordinary materials, and the value of the material is actually worthless. Let him become rare. The emperor just said that the value of the material should not exceed three yuan, but the emperor valued art. Isn’t this art? What can reflect this art better than the natural craftsmanship of the world? When the time comes , Send this up, and you say how much it is worth, so that is how much it is worth. After all, only people with your hobby will spend a lot of money to buy this stone, so the value of this material is not high. But if you send it up , That is definitely very high art. The emperor just stipulated that the value of the material should not exceed three yuan, and you stones say that they are worthless, that is, they are worthless. But saying that they are valuable, but it seems to be very complicated. After all, in hobbies In the eyes of those who don’t like it, it’s priceless, but in the eyes of those who don’t like it, it’s completely fair and reasonable. In this way, we can take advantage of loopholes, and it’s very rare and expensive, but we won’t be judged because of the use of expensive materials. Get eliminated!"

I have to say that taking advantage of loopholes as the Chinese people is the best and the smartest. They saw that Wang Guorui only stipulated that the value of materials should not exceed three yuan, so they all began to prepare to make a fuss about art. This one uses strange stones to make a fuss, while others simply invite various art masters to help them make it. Of course, these materials are not valuable, and most of them are made of cheap materials. But those art masters come to make it, so their value is different. These art masters did not give low appearance fees, even much more expensive than those materials.

They were supposed to be responsible for the production of expensive materials~www.novelbuddy.com~ but now they are asked to make this cheap material. Their labor costs are not worth three or two yuan, but Wang Guorui only set the value on the material, but did not set the value on the cost of the production staff, so that they have loopholes to exploit. So many art masters joined in one after another, and were hired with high salaries to make these gifts.

And those art masters also think that this is an opportunity, if their works can be selected, that is also a very good way. Especially after they gained even greater fame. As a result, Wang Guorui himself did not expect that his unexpected move would lead to an exchange and competition among various art masters, and even indirectly The normalization of various art competitions has begun. This allows art to be communicated effectively and avoids the problem of working behind closed doors.

However, many art masters also took action, and made a lot of preparations for this gift giving. This time the use of all kinds of expensive materials is banned, but the essence of art is restored instead of pursuing the expensive charm of those materials, which is the most testing place for art. Although things made of expensive materials may make everyone admire, they may not have much artistry in them. Perhaps, more people care about the value of the material rather than the art itself. In elementary school textbooks, isn't there an allusion to "throwing the piano"? This is the truth that is said, once the material value itself is too expensive, it will not be able to reflect art. (To be continued.)