readx; "Why are they here?"

After dark, in the private room of Cuiyunlou, a well-known restaurant in Yangzhou, ten salt merchants and eight rice merchants accepted the invitation of the new prefect Shi Kefa and sat down at two tables. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info Shi Kefa has not come at this time, these people are all figures with heads and faces in Yangzhou City, of course they have to greet each other politely.

But to their surprise, in addition to them, seven or eight other young and strong men in shabby clothes also sat at the other table. As soon as the merchants turned their faces away with disdain, these men themselves felt quite embarrassed, but they just bowed their heads and said nothing.

The enemy's land and the land are the land of Sun Qiu, and the cold master is the land

It turned out that they were not businessmen, but the hall masters of the Yangzhou Cao Gang.

The so-called "Cao Gang" sounds quite scary, but in fact it is just a bunch of clay legs who sell coolies. They are mainly divided into three types of people:

One is the slender man. The cargo ships that walk in the canals are generally very heavy, and it is not feasible to sail by wind or oars, and they must be pulled on the shore by manpower, so the slender man is indispensable.

One is a boatman. Compared to the slender men who pull the fiber on land, the boatmen work even harder, because they have to follow the ship. Sailing and loading and unloading are self-explanatory, running a ship for several months is a common thing, food and accommodation are on the ship, and I can't go home a few times a year.

The other is the flag bearer. Named "flag bearers", they are not flag bearers, they are actually bodyguards. Since the opening of the Grand Canal, it has naturally attracted bandits because of the value of the goods on each boat. Committing crimes on the water, killing people and sinking boats after robbing things, there is often no trace, and the government investigates in vain, so they simply do not investigate, which further fuels the arrogance of the water bandits. Therefore, as long as it is a cargo ship, it must be equipped with a number of "flag bearers", who usually do no work, but once they encounter water bandits, they must fight with their lives, and it is absolutely not allowed to lose the goods without a dead person.

As Caoyun becomes more and more developed, there are more and more slender boatmen and standard-bearers who rely on Caoyun to eat, and it is inevitable that conflicts will occur because of the grabbing of jobs, and even bloodshed. In the long years of quarrels and fights, some organizations naturally emerged. Each of these organizations has its own sphere of influence, and in its own sphere of influence, it is necessary to maintain fairness as much as possible, so that everyone can eat; And with other organizations, it is a competitive relationship, and sometimes even large-scale fights will break out. These organizations continued to divide and integrate in the struggle, and finally the famous "Cao Gang" was born.

Yangzhou Cao Gang has a long history, the ancestor surnamed Pan, Hongwu years to open the mountain and establish a faction, under the establishment of a number of masters, are his descendants or apprentices. After his death, he publicly recommended a successor from among the hall masters, and it has been passed down for dozens of generations. The Cao Gang has the nature of a "trade union", and the brothers in the gang can twist into a rope, bargain with the cargo owner, and strive for their own interests; It also has the nature of an underworld, because the members of the gang are mixed, there are all kinds of people, and they will be hit twice, and some people with bad conduct often do some petty theft, deception, domination of the market, and even molesting women, and ordinary people are afraid when they see them.

The relationship between the merchants and the Cao gang was complex. On the one hand, the merchant is the employer, and the gang is the hired worker, and the hired worker must of course listen to the employer. There are Cao Gangs in various places, and the competition between them is also fierce, so when the people of the Cao Gang see the merchants, they naturally flatter them like the God of Wealth, and the status of the two cannot be equal. Businessmen take advantage of their dominant position, often owe money at low prices, and even find fault with debts; And in order to always have work to do, the Cao Gang often has to swallow their anger.

The enemy is far away, and the enemy Chamo is making trouble

On the other hand, once the merchant hires the Cao Gang, his goods can all rely on the Cao Gang, if the merchant is too mean, the Cao Gang's popularity is not enough, and he will do something to his goods, causing the merchant to lose a lot. After this happened a lot, the businessmen and the Cao Gang had great opinions about each other, but they couldn't leave each other, and the relationship was very delicate.

In the past, if the merchants thought that the status of the Cao Gang was low, it would never be possible to sit together. But today, the Cao Gang was also invited by the prefect, and the merchants felt that they had lost the price, and they were very unhappy. A transporter named Lin Yu smiled sarcastically: "Ah, rare guest, rare guest, I didn't expect the Eighth Hall Master of the Cao Gang to be here today, it's really an honor for me to wait!" ”

Lin Yu is also the big patron of the Cao Gang, although the eight hall masters heard the sarcasm of the other party, they did not dare to slack off, they all got up and clasped their fists and arched their hands: "The forester is laughing, how can we mud-legged people be qualified to sit with your old man." But this time, it was the prefect who issued an invitation, naming us to help the lord and all the hall masters come to the banquet, how dare we not come. ”

"Your Pan gang leader is also here? That's great! Lin Yu immediately laughed with a silver evil face, "Who here doesn't know that the Pan Gang Leader is the first beauty in Yangzhou City, and the top brands of the four famous buildings are all over the Yangtze River in vain, and if you want to compare with the Pan Gang Leader, they will all become vulgar fans." But I don't know why the Pan gang leader hasn't arrived yet, why, is the shelf bigger than the prefect? ”

As soon as several hall masters heard this, they knew that Lin Yu had bad intentions, and they all felt angry in their hearts, secretly thinking that this Lin Yu actually compared our gang leader with the woman in the Qinglou, and it was obvious that there were many people in the Cao Gang! Just as I was trying to argue, I heard a voice like a silver bell ringing outside the door: "I'm sorry, everyone, Ying Zi is also the first time to attend this kind of occasion, for fear of being unkempt and disgusting, I just freshened up, so come tonight, you must forgive me!" ”

Everyone's eyes lit up, but they saw a beautiful and well-proportioned girl pick up the curtain, walk into the private room generously, and greet everyone with a fist. She only applied a little powder, and there was no jewels on her body, she was only wearing ordinary cloth clothes, but she was as beautiful as a hibiscus out of the water. And between the gestures, there is naturally a mature and capable atmosphere, which is by no means comparable to the squirming Qinglou woman. These merchants are all veterans of the flowers, and there are countless women who have played with them, but when they saw this girl, they all opened their mouths greedily, and they were eager to swallow it.

The young girl seemed to be accustomed to seeing such a man's obscene gaze, smiled indifferently, and sat down at the table of the Cao Gang by herself. The eight hall masters were all powerful martial arts masters, but when they saw this woman, they were like rats seeing cats, and they all immediately stood up until the girl opened her hand and beckoned them to sit down, and then dared to sit leaning over.

But at this time, the prefect Shi Kefa still did not come, and some shameless businessmen wanted to get close to this girl, taking advantage of many opportunities. Then Lin Yu came over and said with a dry smile: "Gang Master Pan, I think you also know that the prefect invited us to come, and he must have asked us to give money to fund Tuan Yong." But I don't know what your gang's attitude is? ”

When the girl heard this, she smiled and said, "Ying Zi wants to listen to the opinions of the foresters first." ”

The forester immediately pouted his mouth and said, "My opinion is very simple, you can't take out the silver!" ”

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