Wang Sheng shook his head and said: "No need, the current matter was provoked by them first, even if they want to make peace, it should be for them to ask us for peace, then there is a reason for us to take the initiative to find them, since they want to fight with us, then it will be as they wish." ”

In fact, Wang Sheng understands that if Lu Xiangming is allowed to go to the interests of Xu Chang, Jiang Mingyi, Zhao Pinghe, and other five people, Cheng Ming, it is indeed very certain that the five people will be soft and bow to the Jinan government, but this kind of submission is not out of their sincerity, and they will not be really convinced in the hearts of these five people, and their strength is still there, as long as there is an opportunity, such as when the East China government and the Qing court turn against each other, they will immediately counterattack; even if they dare not easily rebel, it will inevitably involve the East China government to use a lot of energy to prevent it.

Or they are bought by external forces, and when they are conspired, because these five people are powerful in Jinan, and they have a lot of power among the people, if they are really bought by external forces, it will cause a lot of danger to the East China government, so keeping them will always be a trouble, and the deterrent power of other local forces is not enough. It is better to take this opportunity to completely eliminate these five people, not only to eliminate future troubles, but also to truly threaten other local forces, so that they will not dare to easily become enemies of the East China government from now on.

Jiang Feng slapped his thigh and said: "Yes, it should be like this, it seems that the people we killed on the first day are not enough, and the prestige of the establishment is not enough, so no one dares to challenge our bottom line, we should be more ruthless again, until the local forces in Jinan are subdued, and when we take over other places in Shandong in the future, no one will dare to resist us." ”

Lu Xiangming's heart struck a sudden, understanding that the overseas Chinese were planning to take the opportunity to completely suppress the forces in Jinan, not just focusing on Jinan, but looking at the entire Shandong Province, and it was also conceivable that more heads would land. Although from Lu Xiangming's heart, he never wanted to see such a result, he also knew that he could not do anything about it, and even did not blame the overseas Chinese, because as Wang Sheng said, this time the struggle was completely provoked by the local forces in Jinan without their own strength, and in the end they could only blame these local forces in Jinan for their own crimes and could not live.

However, after all, Lu Xiangming still wanted to try his best to save as many people as possible, and did not want the local forces in Jinan to be slaughtered by overseas Chinese, so he said: "Several leaders, Xu Chang, Jiang Mingyi, Zhao Pinghe and other five people do not know the current affairs, and take the initiative to be enemies of the chief, which is naturally an unforgivable crime. However, as far as the lower officials know, not all of the squires in Jinan are intended to be enemies with the chiefs, but they are coerced and coerced by these five people, so they can only wait and see for the time being, and do not visit the lower officials to persuade these people, so that they can abandon the darkness and turn to the light as soon as possible. ”

Wang Sheng thought about it for a while, although he knew that Lu Xiangming wanted to save more local forces in Jinan, but what he said was not unreasonable, after all, the purpose of the Jinan government was only to shock the local forces, so that they would be honest, and always remember to make trouble for the government, but they could not kill all the local forces, after all, the Jinan government still needs to build Jinan, which also requires the cooperation of local forces.

So Wang Sheng said: "Okay, according to Lu Tongju's suggestion, you can persuade those squires who are still watching, but those who are engaged in brothels, pawnshops, casinos, and tobacco houses are not allowed to contact them, understand?"

Lu Xiangming was also stunned, what did Wang Sheng's decision mean, is it difficult for overseas Chinese to meddle in brothels, pawnshops, casinos, tobacco houses, and other businesses? As an official who has more contact with the grassroots, Lu Xiangshu certainly knows that brothels, pawnshops, casinos, and tobacco houses are all very profitable businesses, and the profits are huge. However, the reputation of these industries is not very good, and most of them are controlled by local forces, so the general government will not directly intervene, usually using the way of joining forces with local forces, which can not only get a piece of the pie, get rich benefits, but also do not have to bear a bad reputation, can it be said that overseas Chinese Beijing does not care about their own reputation?

In fact, of course, the traveler knows that although these industries are lucrative, they not only have a bad reputation, but also have a great harm to the society, and some people have proposed that all these industries should be abolished, but in the end it was decided that although brothels and pawnshops can be retained, they must be strictly supervised and restricted to minimize their harm to society, and casinos and tobacco houses must be banned because they are tobacco houses, which are actually places where opium is sold.

After the two Opium Wars, all countries obtained the qualification to legally sell opium in China, so the import of opium to China became more rampant, by 1879, the import of opium to China reached a peak of 104,900 stones, although after the First Sino-Japanese War, the export of foreign capitalist goods to China increased greatly, opium was no longer a means of balancing the trade deficit, coupled with the strong condemnation of international public opinion, so the amount of opium imports in China was gradually reduced, by 1899, it had fallen to 59,000 stones, only more than half of the peak。

However, after all, the opium business is extremely profitable, and at the same time, Sichuan, Yunnan and other places in China also grow a large number of opium privately, and the legal operation of opium has not been canceled, and still attracts a large number of foreign businessmen to engage in opium business activities, and combined with the comprador forces in the country, a huge chain of interests has been formed, so that opium in China is still a large amount of flooding, intensifying, almost every city will have a few big tobacco houses. Although the officials of the Qing court knew the dangers of opium, they could not do anything in the face of such a huge network of interests, and at most they only restrained their subordinates from smoking big cigarettes.

And no one understands the dangers of opium better than the traverser, so it is absolutely and unconditionally forbidden in his own area, which is a consensus among the traversers, whether they hold a radical position or a conservative position, they are all consistent on this point.

The big cities occupied by the previous traversers, such as Tianjin and Beijing, have just experienced the war, and the whole city is under military control, brothels, pawnshops, casinos, tobacco houses and other industries have shrunk significantly, and it is Tianjin, which has almost all been destroyed, and Jiaozhou, Gaomi, and Jimo are all county seats, and the economic development and urban scale are not large, Qingdao and Weihai are both colonies, and Britain and Germany have relatively strict rules and management, so the traverser strictly controls brothels and pawnshops in these places, and prohibits casinos. The tobacco houses, which strictly prohibit the opium trade, have been carried out relatively smoothly.

But Jinan is through the peaceful takeover, without war, and the city is huge, the economy is developed, the city in the city of all kinds of brothels, pawnshops, casinos, smoke houses as many as nearly dozens, and from the brothel, pawn shops, casinos, tobacco house business people, are powerful, have the number of people, in the local power is great, and control the economic lifeline of Jinan, although it is in Jinan although there are only more than 10 smokehouses, but the general brothels, casinos, high-end restaurants, teahouses, Cinemas, and even some other high-end shops, often provide opium services, so the spread of opium has penetrated almost the entire society.

The situation faced by the traverser in Jinan is, of course, much more complicated than other cities before, so after taking over Jinan, the traverser did not immediately deal with brothels, pawnshops, casinos, tobacco houses and other industries, but planned to stabilize the situation first, and then slowly adjust it to avoid major social and economic turmoil.

On the one hand, because these local forces that have taken the lead in challenging the Jinan government are almost all related to brothels, pawnshops, casinos, tobacco houses and other industries, and are even the leaders of these industries. Tobacco houses and other industries will cause a heavy blow, and at the same time, it will also seriously affect Jinan's economy; on the other hand, anyway, this struggle with local forces will certainly have a considerable impact on the social economy, so it is better to take this opportunity to carry out a comprehensive rectification of Jinan's brothels, pawnshops, casinos, tobacco houses, and other industries, and simply put it in place in one step, and then slowly restore Jinan's economy in the future.

Of course, there is no need to say these truths to Lu Xiangming, and they are not something that can be clearly explained in one or two sentences, so Wang Sheng just did not allow Lu Xiangming to go to the local squires who were engaged in brothels, pawnshops, casinos, tobacco houses, etc., and did not explain them to him.

After Lu Xiangming left, Jiang Feng said, "What should we do next? ”

Wang Sheng thought for a while, shook his head, and said: "I don't think it's appropriate to attack everyone right now, because such a blow is too big, and we have no reason to arrest people, after all, they are not blatantly opposed to us, in addition, these five people have a big family, not only in Jinan City, but also outside Jinan City, there are also a large number of granges, real estate, there must be a group of thugs and evil slaves under our hands, and we now only have a regiment of troops in Jinan City, plus the police are only 5, 600 people, so it may not be able to wipe out these five people in one fell swoop, not to mention that these five people are only representatives who oppose us, behind them, there are quite a number of local forces, if we want to minimize the turmoil caused to Jinan, then if we do not do it, we must completely destroy the hostile forces, at least we must beat them to the point where they lose the ability to resist. ”

Duan Qian also nodded and said, " Mayor Wang's consideration is reasonable, I suggest that you can start with An Luo Tang, although An Luo Tang is not the most powerful among these people, but it is the most special, because it is a gang organization, the ability to mobilize the grassroots is the strongest among the local forces, it is said that their gang has 3,000 people, this number may be a little exaggerated, but even if they can mobilize 1,000 people, it is a great threat to us, so if we concentrate manpower and defeat An Luo Tang first, it will actually cross half of the resistance ability of local forces。 ”