Although the sand boat hired when he came was registered in Tongzhou, and the owner of the boat was also from Tongzhou, the boat did not usually return to Tongzhou.

The reason why the ship was hired in Tongzhou was that the ship was about to be repaired after sailing at sea for more than a year, and the owner of the ship received an order at the Merchant Marine Club to transport cotton and homespun cloth from Tongzhou to Shandong, and then transport beans from Shandong to Shanghai for sale. After all, it is cheaper to repair in Tongzhou than in Shanghai, and after repair, the goods can be transported to Shandong. In another twenty or thirty days, the shipper will be able to purchase cotton and homespun cloth, and the ship's boss will rush back to Tongzhou to repair the ship, and it is impossible to wait in Shanghai.

Because of this, Pan Er asked more than 20 old Taiyong brothers who came together to settle down at the inn by the dock, and then entered the city with Lu Daming, Liang Liu, and Chen Hu. I was going to go to the Merchant Marine Club to ask first, but I didn't expect to go to the city gate and not only met dozens of villagers, but also found that dozens of sea fishing documents were posted on the Yamen to reward people for catching criminals.

"Where did there be so many fugitives, I have been in Taizhou for so many years, and the reward notices I have seen add up to not so many!" Lu Daming felt unbelievable, and couldn't help but look at Xiang Yong, who was sitting in a teahouse not far away, drinking tea and smoking a big cigarette.

"Shopkeeper Pan, I don't think there were so many fugitives before the fall of Yangzhou." Liang Liu also felt strange.

"Shanghai is a big wharf, and there will naturally be no shortage of Jiangyang thieves." Pan Er didn't want to be mistaken for a fugitive by the doorman and those village warriors, so he led the three of them to the city.

The city is more prosperous than the outside, full of shops and the streets full of people, but most of the accents are from Fujian and Guangdong.

Chen Hu was illiterate, and when he saw that there was a big mansion in front of him, and there were many men in uniforms hurrying in and out, he asked curiously: "Shopkeeper Pan, what kind of yamen is this, where did so many yamen come from in Shanghai?" ”

Pan Er looked up, turned around and smiled: "This is not a yamen, this is a Fujian guild hall, and the faces of those gates just now are not yamen, they are all guild halls." ”

"Guild Hall?"

"It is the place where foreign businessmen settle here, Shanghai is worthy of being a big wharf, and even there are more guild halls than Taizhou, and there are more than our hometown in Ba County. But it can't be compared with the capital, and the guild hall in the capital is called more. ”

"Is there a guild hall in your hometown?" Lu Daming couldn't help but ask.

"I don't know that."

"Would you like to ask someone?"

After coming out for so long, Pan Er was a little homesick, and couldn't help laughing: "It's okay to ask." ”

Mr. Han is very good, but Mr. Han is going to return to his hometown in Sichuan from Shanghai after finishing his errand, Lu Daming eats a trench and grows wise, and he doesn't dare to trust outsiders like before, so he made up his mind to follow Pan Erming in the future, stopped and looked around, and saw that there was a fortune teller in front of him, so he immediately ran over and took out a few copper plates to help Pan Erda sound.

The fortune teller took the copper plate, looked up at the four of them, and muttered in official dialect with a Zhejiang accent: "A few guest officials, there are many guild halls outside the city, and the ones I know alone include Sanshan Guild Hall, Chubei Guild Hall, Merchant Marine Guild Hall, Huzhou Guild Hall, Jiangxi Guild Hall, Zhejiang Yan Guild Hall, Fujian Guild Hall, Xing'an Quanzhang Guild Hall, Guangdong Jiaying Prefecture Office...... I haven't heard of the Sichuan Hall, let alone I've never heard of it, and I haven't even seen a few people from Sichuan. ”

Sichuan people are reluctant to go far away, and it is expected that there is no Sichuan guild hall in Shanghai, Pan Er arched his hand and smiled: "We just ask casually, thank you." ”

"This guest officer, I see that your Yin Tang is black......

"I don't have time to ask you to look at the face today, so let it be dark first, and then I will ask you to calculate it when you are busy with the things in front of you." Pan Er, such a charlatan, has seen a lot in the capital, and without waiting for the fortune teller to finish speaking, he led Lu Daming and the others to continue walking.

I asked for directions a few times along the way, and just as I figured out how to get to the Merchant Marine Club, there was a sudden scream in front of me, and then the whole street was running for hiding.

Pan Er didn't want to cause trouble, as soon as he pulled Lu Daming and the three of them into the teahouse on the left, he saw more than a dozen Xiang Yong who had been beaten with blue noses and swollen faces fleeing here, and those who were chasing and beating them with machetes and sticks were actually Xiang Yong wearing uniforms, scolding angrily while chasing and beating, all with southern accents, and they couldn't understand a word.

The teahouse guy was worried that the fish in the pond would be affected, and while he was busy with the door board, he said eagerly: "Let a few guest officers let go." ”

"Oh, I'm sorry." Pan Er didn't dare to look at the excitement anymore, and when he looked back, he found that there was an empty table, so he simply walked over and sat down.

There were many outsiders like them who were hiding in the teahouse, and they all asked the shopkeeper and the tea customers at the adjacent table to find out what was going on.

"It's a long story." An old local scholar put down the tea bowl and said worriedly: "In February, didn't Changmao occupy Jiangning, and all the soldiers in Shanghai were transferred to fight Changmao. ”

"But how could Xiang Yong fight with Xiang Yong, gather people to fight in broad daylight, and is there any royal law?" A businessman with an accent that sounded like he was in Shandong asked.

"Shouldn't this township Yong be a native of his hometown, but 'Shuangguan' is good, he is a Cantonese himself, so he only believes in Cantonese people, not only selected four or five hundred Guangdong refugees as pro-soldiers, but also ordered Li Shaoxi, director of the Guangdong Jiaying Prefecture Office, to train Cantonese, and Li Xianyun, director of the Xing'an Quanzhang Hall, to train Fujian's porters and boatmen."

The old scholar knocked on the table and said bitterly: "Our local gentry have gone to the Provincial Department more than once to make a statement, it is really better to recruit locals than to recruit outsiders, because outsiders are not only useless, but will cause trouble. The local people will do their best to protect the land and the people, but if they can't listen to it, they will believe his fellow villagers. ”

"The people of Fujian and Guangdong are fierce, violating laws and disciplines, and acting recklessly; Zhejiang people are scheming, Jiangbei people are timid and afraid, think about it carefully, or our locals are reliable. A local tea drinker thinks so.

"You haven't said how those villagers outside fought?" Pan Er couldn't help but ask.

"Didn't Changmao come to Shanghai, the imperial court was worried that all localities could not afford the food and salary of the Xiangyong, so they ordered the regimental training to be abolished and the Xiangyong to be dismissed. Think about it, those Cantonese and Fujianese people finally live a good life where they don't have to do anything, they have food to eat, and they have money, who wants to endure hardships again? Although it has been cut, they are still wearing uniforms, and they gather to fight at two ends for three days, because they can fight for big things. ”

"Does the yamen care?"

"Didn't you say just now, even the pro-soldiers of the 'Shuangguan' are all Cantonese, the villagers who have not been dismissed in the county government are all Fujianese, and those errand boys are originally in the same group as those outside, even if they don't fight together, they can still be expected to take care of it?"

The old pedant looked around and said, "These outsiders are either members of the party or gangs. On the surface, he listened to the 'cool official' and the county master, but in fact, he only listened to the directors of their respective guilds secretly. They are fighting for nothing else, but because they are grabbing land, buying and selling, and making a living. ”

Pan Er didn't expect Shanghai to be chaotic like this, so he thought about it and asked: "Old man, you just said 'Shuangguan', who is this 'Shuangguan'?" ”

Without waiting for the old scholar to speak, a businessman said with a little disdain: "It is the current Su Songtai Bingbei Dao and Jiang Customs Supervisor Wu Jianzhang Wu Daotai." ”

"Why did Wu Daotai become a cool official?" Pan Er asked.

"This guy should have just come to Shanghai."

"Exactly."

"It's no wonder, our Wu Daotai is a Cantonese, his family was poor in his early years, he made a living selling chickens, and his nickname was Ah Shuang. Later, he did business with foreigners, and went to foreign companies to be a partner, well-behaved and diligent, exquisite, good at touching the minds of foreigners, and even learned to speak foreigners' words, and won the respect of foreigners, and the business became bigger and bigger, and became a big businessman. ”

Pan Er thought to himself that it was no wonder that these people dared to talk about Daotai in public, it turned out that Wu Daotai was not an official who entered the imperial examination, but a businessman who made a fortune by tying up foreigners, and couldn't help asking: "Then how did he become an official?" ”

"If you spend money to donate, how can he be this official if he doesn't spend money. It's just that now although the business is no longer done, the official has become bigger, and no one dares to call him 'selling chicken cool' to his face, and even foreigners have changed the name of him to 'cool official'. ”

Shanghai County is under the rule of Su Song Taidao, and the Provincial Department and the county government are in the same city, in other words, all the big and small things in Shanghai are decided by the "chicken sellers" who make a fortune by tying up foreigners! Pan Er realized why Shanghai was so chaotic, because there was an official man who could only talk to foreigners, and he didn't know what to say, when there was another shouting and killing sound outside.

The guy looked through the gap in the door panel, and then turned around and said: "The county government has sent troops, this fight should not last long, and the guest officers can go out after drinking some tea." ”

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