When the dock workers of Qingjiangpu began to march in the streets and surrounded the various yamen in the city in the name of opposing shipping, the officials in the city did not panic too much, and some even left the yamen early.

The remaining officials in the yamen closed the gates and sent people to Huai'an Mansion not far to the south to ask for help. Soon, however, the sparse shouting outside the yamen gave way to a more organized and rhythmic shout of the workers, and the officials, who had been sitting in the room, listened carefully to the slogans chanted by the workers outside, and finally began to get nervous.

Before, those workers shouted to boycott shipping, but at least they still asked the court to make decisions for them, as long as the door was closed, the other party would not rush in. Now the slogans shouted by these workers are not to beg the imperial court, but to ask the responsible persons of the various yamen to come out and negotiate by name, otherwise they will rush into the yamen.

Although most of the officials of the Ming Dynasty are incompetent, there is one thing they still know very well, that is, the anger of the public is difficult to follow. Once these dock workers stormed the yamen, it meant that there was no official order in the city. Since the gentry in Jiangnan learned to manipulate the citizens to storm the yamen in order to resist the authority of the central government, there have been such large-scale citizen riots in Suzhou, Huizhou, Fujian and other places, but they have all been against Jinyiwei, mine supervisors and central officials before, and there have not been many times against local yamen.

Because the citizens knew very well that following the local gentry to make trouble with the central government, the imperial court was basically over, and rarely made things big and made trouble for themselves. But if the local gentry and magistrates were targeted, then even if they bowed their heads for a while, they would have to settle accounts with these leaders afterwards. The powerful people in these places know the details of these people.

However, once the citizens pointed the finger at the local gentry and the government, it was basically not a riot of the citizens, but a rebellion of the people. In fact, the popular rebellion is a rebellion. At this point, the city will soon lose order, and then the converts will storm the homes of the rich gentry and plunder their property. The officials in the yamen rarely survive, because the people hate these officials who directly oppress them the most.

When Zhang Xianzhong joined the march with the dock workers organized by the union and changed the slogan, the originally lifeless workers' ranks suddenly became active. Rather than demanding that the imperial court ban shipping be made, the workers were more receptive to the union's slogans of raising wages, banning the bows of ships, the bosses and the merchants, and expelling the gangs from the docks, which were the exploitative practices they faced on a daily basis.

The gentry and wealthy merchants who sat in the restaurants in the city and watched the battle were still very proud when they first watched the crowded dock workers on the street marching, thinking that there had finally been some movement today.

But as soon as the workers came alive and shouted slogans that they had not taught, they lost their sense of elegance and began to question their companions as to what was going on.

Soon someone approached the gang leader who was in charge of organizing the march and ordered him to stop the slogans shouted by the workers in the streets, and if it really didn't work, he simply dispersed the marching workers, and prevented them from actually storming the yamen in the city, which would break the tacit understanding between the gentry and the local officials.

A gang leader asked with some confusion: "Dare to ask the old man, then disperse them, will each person still have 4 buckets of rice?" ”

A gentry surnamed Lin immediately reprimanded him viciously: "Things are done like this, you thieves and birds still want to take rice?" It's good that the lord won't let you return that half of the deposit..."

Under the reprimand of this gentleman surnamed Lin, the other gang leaders hurriedly bowed their heads to admit their mistakes according to this mouthy companion, and then hurriedly bowed their heads and exited the second floor of the restaurant.

After walking down the first floor, the mouthy leader spat on the ground a little unhappily and said: "Ahh Brothers, why did you stop me just now, there is no rice and food, what can we use to disperse so many people back? ”

Another leader took out an iron ruler from his arms, rolled up his sleeves and said fiercely: "What to take, naturally it is to take the guys, the left and right are just some coolies on the dock, if you dare to be disobedient, let them be carried back." ”

But suddenly someone said quietly: "Brother Huang, when you just went up, we saw that the dock union members also participated in the march, as if these new slogans were shouted by them. Those coolies are okay, the yellow tiger in the union is not easy to mess with, the brothers we fought with him last time are still locked up in Huai'anwei's prison, and no one even cares about Lin Baihu of Dahewei to intercede. ”

The leaders of these gangs fell silent for a moment, but after a while, the leader with the iron ruler said hatefully: "This dock union has been constantly struggling with us since its establishment, and even those gentlemen have offended a lot.

Since they are going to intervene in the handicraft march and expel us from the docks today, it is better to have a showdown with them. Why don't we go to the Chenghuang Temple in the west of the city to ambush first, and then invite the yellow tiger to negotiate. If he agrees to let the workers go, it's fine, and if he dares to say a word, grandpa will give him a white knife to go in, and a red knife to come out..."

An hour later, in the main hall of the Chenghuang Temple in the west of the city, the leader who claimed to give Zhang Xianzhong a white knife to enter and a red knife to come out had been stabbed in the heart by Sun Kewang. Sun Kewang, who pulled out the ox-eared sharp knife from the dead man, wiped the blood on the dead man's body as if nothing happened, and then withdrew the ox-eared sharp knife.

As a native of Shaanxi, he has seen too much life and death over the years, so he has no feeling for the person who has just been stabbed. For the seven or eight gang leaders who were trembling on their knees, I couldn't help but feel contempt.

Zhang Xianzhong, who had his back to Sun Kewang and the others, was holding three incense sticks to worship the city god, and said with words in his mouth: "Don't blame the city god, you are the righteous god canonized by the imperial court, and my old Zhang is also doing things for the emperor, this city god temple is similar to the official yamen, borrow your precious place to do something, you must not complain about my old Zhang." ”

After Zhang Xianzhong's sacrifice, he put three incense sticks on the incense burner, turned to the gang leaders who were kneeling on the ground and asked, "What are you thinking about?" Is it with this brother on the road? Or do you want to do something for me? ”

Several gang leaders hurriedly replied: "I am willing to do things for the master, and I am willing to serve the emperor..."

Sun Kewang couldn't listen anymore for a while, he raised his foot and kicked down the person closest to him and said: "Just rely on your dirty appearance to serve the emperor, you can return whatever my father-in-law says, don't add fuel and vinegar to your own opinions, otherwise you will go on the road with your brothers." If anyone can't control their mouths, the master will treat you. ”

The leaders who were kicked by Sun Kewang did not have any resentment, and hurriedly resumed their kneeling posture, and said again and again: "Yes, yes, it is the villains who want to go wrong, thank you for the teachings of the master." Whatever Uncle Zhang says, we will do it, and we will never dare to say anything..."

Looking at these gang leaders who tame like family dogs, Zhang Xianzhong finally knew why the southern gentry liked to raise these gangsters in the market. In the face of power, they are as docile as domestic dogs, but in front of the common people who have no background, they are as vicious as jackals, and they have no lower limit when they act, but blindly obey the orders of their masters.

Zhang Xianzhong looked at these villains in front of him with some disgust, even the gentry and powerful people in Shaanxi and Henan who relied on power to exploit the people were much cuter than these unscrupulous villains.

Zhang Xianzhong's feeling is actually correct, these gang leaders who are mixed in the market have no moral bottom line, and they have always been night pots in the hands of the gentry, whether it is abducting little girls and selling them into the alleys of fireworks; or kidnapping and extorting foreign businessmen; Or tempting honest dealers to eat, drink, prostitute and gamble, make people bankrupt, etc., as long as the powerful person tells them to do it, they will not hesitate to do what they are told.

Later, the Qing army entered the customs, and these villains, who had been raised by the gentry, immediately found a new master. They assisted the Qing army in capturing local rebels, and led the Qing army to loot the rich merchants and beautiful women in the city, just to stand on the bones of their compatriots and gain the approval of their new masters.

Zhang Xianzhong shook his head, suppressing the disgust in his chest, he pointed to the more fluent person who had just answered and asked, "What's your name?" ”

"The villain's surname is Zhang Ah Fa, and the master can call me Ah Fa." The named gang leader hurriedly replied.

Zhang Xianzhong then pointed to the corpse on the ground and said, "Didn't you just say that it was Lin Dashan who instigated the Qingjiangpu dock workers to act this time. In the second half of the night, you will get this corpse into the Lin family, and tomorrow you will go to sue the official, saying that this Lin Dashan man wants you to incite the workers to rebel, but your eldest brother refuses, and as a result, he was killed by the Lin family, can you do this little thing? ”

Zhang Afa was still a little confused and said: "Master Lin's family has a lifter, two talents, the government may not believe me..."

Sun Kewang immediately reprimanded: "If you want to do it, you will do it, whether the government will accept the case, and you will have to worry about it." ”

Zhang Afa immediately changed his words and said: "Yes, yes, the villain must do what the old man tells him..."

After the gate of the temple was closed for more than half an hour, it was finally opened. Zhang Xianzhong and Sun Kewang and more than ten people walked out, and he explained that the officers and soldiers at the gate continued to stay here until midnight and could not evacuate, and then returned to the parade with Sun Kewang.

That night, Cui Wensheng, who was sitting in the Caoyun Yamen, the governor of Huai'an, received the report of Zhang Xianzhong of Qingjiangpu, and immediately went to the guest room to discuss the matter with Shen Tingyang.

Cui Wensheng originally wanted to report to the capital immediately to explain how the gentry of Qingjiangpu colluded with gang members to make trouble.

However, Shen Tingyang stopped him and said: "Governor Cui should slow down, if we report it like this, someone in the DPRK will inevitably jump out and say that we want to make meritorious service to frame and slander the good gentry." ”

Cui Wensheng immediately asked, "So what does Shen Xun mean?" ”

Shen Tingyang pondered for a while before saying: "Naturally, it is to help these gentry, so it is said that the dock workers in Qingjiangpu are dissatisfied with the reduction in wages, so they march on the streets and surround the government to ask for countermeasures. In this case, someone will inevitably take advantage of the incident of the workers' march to propose that the shipping be stopped, and then we will report the actual information..."

Cui Wensheng immediately said with a smile on his face: "Sure enough, it's a good plan, since they jumped into the net, it will be difficult to escape again." ”