By the time Pan Er, Liang Liu, and Zhang Guangsheng arrived at the mansion next to the foreign concession, it was already dark, and Han Xiufeng, who had just had dinner, asked the three of them to hurry up and eat, and asked Datou to help clean up the bed. After all, it's not close to Xiaodongmen from here, and Shanghai is so chaotic, it's not safe to walk at night, Pan Er talked about what he saw and heard today while eating.

"Fourth brother, I have never seen such a chaotic place, those Fujianese and Cantonese people are really lawless, and the yamen really can't control them!" Pan Er was worried and felt that something was going to happen in Shanghai sooner or later.

Han Xiufeng also felt that the dark tide in Shanghai was surging, either something would happen, or something would be a big deal, holding the teacup and saying: "The county government and the provincial government connived, and the tail was too big to fall, and now I regret it and want to play the pressure, how easy it is to say." ”

Zhang Guangsheng couldn't help but raise his head and said: "Fourth master, you can't blame the county government for this, you can only blame the provincial department." ”

"If it is like this, the county master will not be able to escape the blame!"

"Fourth master, don't you know, the main hall in Shanghai is different from the main hall in those counties in Jiading, the Taoist Department is in the city, and the county master has to listen to the Taoist platform in everything. Yuan Zude, the current Shanghai main church, is a fellow villager with me, and he is also from Qiantang, and when my cousin escorted my uncle's coffin through Shanghai, he went to pay respects in front of the spirit, and he also told my cousin about these things. ”

"What did he say?" Han Xiufeng asked curiously.

Zhang Guangsheng said with a wry smile: "He said that his county master is just a decoration, and all the big and small things in and out of the city are 'selling chickens'." But no matter whether the former Futai Yang Wending or the current Futai believe in 'selling chickens' so much, what can he, the magistrate, say. And he had long expected that the township warriors who were trained by Li Xianyun and Li Shaoxi were all rogue vagrants, and the party henchmen were scattered, and even the servants of the Provincial Department and the county government were their eyes and ears, so as soon as Chaoyang ordered the dismissal of the township Yong, he took the opportunity to dismiss, and during this time, he ordered Li Xianyun and others to be unlucky with the party, and even set up the cannon at the gate of the Fujian Hall last time. ”

Han Xiufeng was taken aback, stared at him and asked, "Have you set up all the gun carriages at the gate of the Fujian Hall?" ”

"If they are over, they will not be allowed to form a party again, and they will be ordered to dissolve the party." Zhang Guangsheng confirmed.

"Mediocre officials, mediocre officials!"

"Fourth master, you ...... What do you mean by that? ”

Without waiting for Han Xiufeng to speak, Pan Er put down the dishes and chopsticks and said, "He's too anxious!" Knowing that there were few soldiers in the city, and even those errand officers of the Provincial Department and the county government were colluding with the Hui Party, he also forced the two surnamed Li to disband the Hui Party, isn't this to force those two surnamed Li to rebel? ”

"But...... But as the magistrate of Shanghai, Master Yuan can't just watch those parties sit big. Zhang Guangsheng said with a sad face.

"You can't watch those party members sit big, but you can't do it brutally," thinking that he would go back to his hometown in Sichuan after buying a gun, and Pan Er would continue to be an official with Guo Peilin, Han Xiufeng was more or less uneasy, and couldn't help but turn around and ask: "Changsheng, if you are the county master, if you also encounter such a thing, what will you do?" ”

Pan Er said without hesitation: "If it were me, I would stabilize those leaders of the party first." If the Taoist platform is unreliable, go to Futai, if Futai is helpless, he will report to the domain, the division and even Futai, and ask the boss to send reinforcements to help suppress the bullets, anyway, if the reinforcements are not available, they must not act rashly. ”

Liang Liu couldn't help but ask: "Why don't you recruit locals and train some trustworthy villagers?" ”

"Shanghai is so big, just cut the regiment training and dismiss the villagers, and you start a new stove and recruit local young people to train again, isn't it a surprise to the snake? It's all in chaos, and I don't think there's a second way but to move the troops from somewhere else. ”

Looking at Pan Er's determined look, Han Xiufeng felt that Pan Er was almost ready to "get out of the school", thought about it and asked: "Shanghai is chaos, but no matter how chaotic it is, can there still be Jiangning and Yangzhou chaos?" In order to recover Jiangning, the imperial court transferred all the green battalion soldiers in Songjiang Town, where did you ask Futai to send troops to help? ”

Pan Er was stumped, racked his brains and thought for a while before he smiled bitterly: "Really, where to move the rescue soldiers, where can there be soldiers to move?" ”

"Then what should I do, what if you are the county magistrate of Shanghai?"

"I ...... Fourth brother, I'm ...... There's nothing I can do about it. Pan Er looked back at Zhang Guangsheng and Liang Liu, and couldn't help but ask, "Fourth brother, if it were you, what would you do?" ”

"Find an excuse to run away, find a reason to run for your life, no matter what you say, you have to save your life first!" Han Xiufeng stared at Pan Er's eyes, and said very seriously: "I know that it is not easy for you to be this official, but you can't be obsessed with the mind of an official, there is only one life, if your life is gone, then there is nothing, you know?" ”

"But the lost land will be investigated."

"It's better to be investigated than to die, sixth, so are you." Han Xiufeng thought about it and said: "After I buy the gun and go back, don't go into battle if I can, I can't help it, I can only fight with the bandits, but I have to be careful when I am desperate." If you can beat it, you can fight, if you can't beat it, you can run, and don't forget Lord Guo when you run. If Master Guo has three longs and two shorts, I will have the same way to clean you up in Sichuan! ”

"Fourth Master, don't worry, as long as I, Liang Liu, am here, Lord Guo will never be fine."

"Not only Master Guo can't have anything, but you can't have anything to do either," thinking of the surging dark tide in Shanghai, Han Xiufeng continued: "Shanghai can't stay for a long time, I'll go to the foreigner to buy a gun early tomorrow morning, and you will go to the inn tomorrow to return the house, bring all the brothers here, it's better to live here." ”

"But we still have to buy rice and hire boats!" Pan Er said eagerly.

"The matter of buying rice and hiring a boat is to ask the shopkeeper Wu and Mr. Wu of 'Rishengchang' to help with it, by the way, I just thought that the gun should be hidden, and I forgot that gunpowder takes up more space than the gun, so I have to buy more rice and hire a few more boats. Then there are more than a dozen customs gates in the customs, in the afternoon I heard Wu shopkeeper say that not only Wusong, Liuhe, Qiya, Baimao, Xu Liujing, Fushan and other places have the customs checkpoints, even Jiangbei Lu Si, Xiaohaikou, Shizhuang have, you don't have to go to Tongzhou when you go back, go directly to the Laoba Port in Jiaoxie. ”

"It's okay to go to Laoba Port, Laoba Port is our own territory!"

"One more thing." Han Xiufeng picked up the teacup and asked with a smile: "Changsheng, do you remember those who are in the same year as Huang Yushi?" ”

"There are several people in Huang Yushi who are the same age, fourth brother, which one are you talking about?"

"The criminal department is in the matter, Qiao Bangxian."

"I remember, when we were in the capital, Master Qiao often went to the guild hall, and I remember that he had a son named Qiao Songnian who was also a jinshi."

"Qiao Song has come to Jiangsu, and now he is the prefect of Songjiang, and I will go to the concession early tomorrow morning to find foreigners to buy guns, if the purchase of guns goes well, we will take the time to go to Songjiang to pay a visit."

How could Pan Er not know that Han Xiufeng was planning to take this opportunity to let him make friends with Qiao Songnian, after all, one more friend and one more way, he couldn't help but smile and said, "Okay, I'll listen to you." ”

……

After dinner, everyone couldn't sleep, and sat in the flower hall to talk about Shanghai and its surroundings.

Zhang Guangsheng came early, and he was a fellow villager with the county magistrate in Shanghai, so he knew a lot, and sighed and said: "Although Songjiang is rich, it also pays a lot of taxes, and those state and county officials can do everything to make up for the shortfall." Last year, in order to make up for the shortfall, Yu Longguang, the magistrate of Qingpu, actually ordered the requisition of the money and grain that Daoguang had been exempted from the edict 30 years ago, and even imprisoned and collected the unfavorable grain shortage. ”

"There are also people in Qingpu who are making trouble?" Han Xiufeng asked in a low voice.

"There is a man named Zhou Lichun in Qingpu County, on the bright side is the land protection of 45 forts and 89 Tutang Bay, in fact, he is a rampant in the township, Zhou Lichun took the opportunity to make trouble, connected the neighboring map to protect the land, and asked the nearby land security to gather the villagers to go to the county to make trouble, and said that those who did not want to go would give the people who went 200 wen food money, and if they didn't give it, they would set fire to the house", so he collected more than 60 yuan of money and gathered more than 300 people. On May 19 last year, he entered the city to make a big fuss at the county government and injured Yu Longguang, then the main hall of Qingpu. ”

"And then?"

Later, Yu Longguang was dismissed, and Li Chuqi acted as the governor of Qingpu County, issued a notice ordering the villagers to send Zhou Lichun away, and ordered Xinjing to inspect and lead the Sooli archers to get it. When Zhou Lichun received the news, he gathered forty or fifty people to make trouble with the Yamen of the Inspection Department, and also blackmailed the gentry such as Ren Lin, Ren Wenwei, and Ren Dawen, who lived in Xinjing.

didn't extort the money, and a few days later, he took fifty or sixty splashes to Ren Lin and Ren Wenwei's house to set fire to and rob them, but the Ren family swallowed their anger and didn't dare to report to the official. At the beginning of September last year, he said that the local gentry Gong Xiu was the eyeliner of the county government, and that the local gentry Ren Lin planned to help the yamen lock him, and not only burned down the house of Gong Xiu and Ren Lin's family with a gang of splashers, but also burned Gong Xiu's young daughter to death. ”

"Lawlessness, it's just a matter of resisting food, burning people's houses, and burning people's daughters. The villagers are not afraid of retribution! Pan Er asked in surprise.

"So the yamen wants to bring him to justice," Zhang Guangsheng took a sip of tea, and continued: "On the sixth day of September last year, Li Chuqi, the new Qingpu main hall, led his troops to lock and get it, and Zhou Lichun actually gathered four or five hundred people, armed with knives, guns and sticks to resist arrest. Although they had foreign guns, they were a rabble after all, and in the end they were killed by the officers and soldiers and captured eight, while Zhou Lichun took advantage of the chaos to run away, and it is said that he was still hiding in the countryside of Qingpu. ”

Qingpu is not far from the county seat of Shanghai, Han Xiufeng didn't expect the situation in Shanghai to be so erosive, and asked solemnly: "Guangsheng, is this Zhou Lichun colluded with the party in Shanghai?" ”

Zhang Guangsheng put down the teacup and said: "As far as I know, he knows Li Shaoxi, the director of the Jiaying Prefecture Office in Guangdong, and I heard that Li Shaoxi trafficked big tobacco to Suzhou one year, and was intercepted by the local supervisor Jin Renbao and his people when he passed through Huangdu Town, Qingpu. Li Shaoxi once went to Qingpu to find Zhou Lichun, and Zhou Lichun came forward to help him get the tobacco back, and many people in the city knew about it.

It was precisely because he had a friendship with Li Shaoxi that Li Shaoxi asked him to help him intercede with the 'Selling Chicken Shuang', and the 'Selling Chicken Shuang' felt that it was better to soothe him, so he acquiesced to the squires who were close to Li Shaoxi to recruit him. Zhou Lichun probably knew that he had committed a lot of things, and he didn't believe the words of those squires, so he didn't dare to enter the city, and the notice to arrest him was still posted at the gate of the city. ”

The more Han Xiufeng listened, the more frightened he became, holding the teacup and muttering: "There are hundreds of remnants of the Heaven and Earth Society under Li Xianyun, Li Shaoxi and others, and there are Chen Mujin, Xu Yao and Zhou Lichun and other people who committed rebellion. ”