In a dilapidated land temple in the northwest of the suburbs of Shanghai, Liu Lichuan and others sat on the ground, and everyone's faces were very ugly. After Liu Lichuan and others separated from Tong Qiangsheng and others that day, they planned to sneak back to Shanghai to find out the news, but when they arrived at the outskirts of the city, they saw that there were Qing troops and foreign soldiers stationed at many intersections here.

Liu Lichuan and the others had to retreat to this land temple for temporary shelter, and then sneak back to Shanghai after the rumors passed. What makes Liu Lichuan anxious is that there is no news now, and I don't know what happened to Li Xianchi and Chen Alin who stayed in the city.

Since the opening of Shanghai in 1843, displaced people from Guangdong, Fujian and other places who could not survive have flocked to Shanghai as a trading port to seek a living. In this way, Shanghai's population has exploded, and in addition to the indigenous people, the residents are the largest in Guangdong and Fujian. Most of these people were handicraft workers, sailors, coolies who carried goods at the docks, men of foreign and trading houses, shop assistants, etc., as well as some vagrants. In order to resist the oppression of the government and to help each other in times of difficulty, the poor people in these cities formed large and small gangs according to their regions. There are many gangs in Shanghai, including the Guang Gang, the Chao Gang, and the Jiaying Gang in the Cantonese group, the Fujian Gang, the Xinghua Gang, and the Fujian Gang, the Ningbo Gang in the Zhejiang group, and the Shanghai Gang and the Luohan Gang in the local people's group, totaling several thousand people.

After arriving in Shanghai, Liu Lichuan relied on his ingenuity and open-mindedness to win the support of the other two gangs in Guangdong, and became the common leader of the Guang Gang, the Chao Gang, and the Jiaying Gang. Later, Liu Lichuan made friends with other gangs, and won over Li Xianchi's Fujian Gang, Lin Afu's Xinghua Gang, Chen Alin's Fujian Gang, Pan Qiliang's Luohan Gang, etc., and several gangs jointly elected Liu Lichuan as the leader, and Liu Lichuan rectified the gangs and established the Little Knife Club.

But just like any gang fight, some of the gangs in Shanghai belong to Liu Lichuan, some are detached, and some are openly right. Xie Yinglong of the Ningbo Gang is a typical one, while gangs such as the Guan Dao Gang in the Shanghai Gang are gangs that are openly hostile to the Little Knife Society. In short, several gangs have been fighting for turf, docks, and living space in Shanghai for several years.

Because Su Song Taidao Wu Jianzhang himself is a Cantonese person, he has always taken care of Liu Lichuan's Guangdong Gang, and many people in the Little Knife Club are working in the yamen. Recently, due to the eastward march of the Taiping Army, Wu Jianzhang suffered from the lack of troops, so he prepared to build a brave camp, and many gangs from the Guangdong Gang were recruited into the brave camp, which made the shili of the Little Knife Club rise sharply.

Liu Lichuan originally planned to go out of the city this time to contact several other gangs in Qingpu and Jiading to start an incident together, as long as there are Xiaodao Club inside, and there are reinforcements outside, once the Xiaodao Club gets up, it can quickly capture Shanghai, Qingpu, Jiading and other places, he can establish the Ming Kingdom of his dreams, even if the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom forces himself to belong in the future, there are Shanghai and other cities and more than 10,000 elite soldiers in hand, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has a good price and capital.

Unexpectedly, overnight, someone said that the Qing court took advantage of the fact that he took a few leaders out of the city to wipe out all the gangs in the city, how could Liu Lichuan believe it? He sat on the stone ridge of the ruined temple without saying a word, and his face was frighteningly cold.

At this moment, Pan Qiliang, who went out to inquire about the news, returned to the broken temple with a few brothers, and among them was followed by Chen Alin, the leader of the Min Gang, Liu Lichuan saw that it was Chen Alin who arrived, and hurriedly got up and asked in surprise: "Brother Chen, how is the situation in the city?" ”

Chen Alin was in his thirties, his ears were broad-eared, and he gasped and said desolately: "Last night, the government and foreign soldiers first attacked the brothers in the yamen and Yongying, and hundreds of brothers in the two places did not know the situation. The bastards of the Shanghai Gang, the Ningbo Gang, and the Guandao Gang also had people in the Yong camp, and they joined forces with foreign soldiers to arrest our brothers. Lin Afu is a soft egg, after the government used a big punishment, he recruited everything, and then the foreign soldiers and the official army under his leadership raided the rudder of the gangs, the big guys were not prepared, the foreign soldiers blocked the front and back of the house, and the gangs and officials and soldiers who had a grudge against us rushed into the fight as accomplices, after all, they were outnumbered, the rudder of the gangs were lost, and the Li Xianchi brothers were also trapped in the city. After the helm of the gangs was captured, the gangs in the city had no leader, and the officers and foreign soldiers asked the soft bones in the gangs to follow and surrender, saying that they would surrender and avoid death, and only ask the first offender and not coercion, and as a result, most of the gangs had to surrender without a leader. Unexpectedly, the government turned its face ruthlessly, and drove the captured 2,000 gangs and more than 3,000 gangs to the north gate to be killed. Lin Afu, a dog thief, after joining the official army, the people who killed us were the most ruthless. A few brothers and I managed to escape with the help of a foreign priest, and this morning we followed Father Yang's carriage out of the city, and met Brother Pan Qiliang at the Puhuitang River, and then fled here. ”

Among the gang members of the Shanghai Little Knife Society, there are many hooligans and hooligans, and many of them are people who have committed serious crimes, these people are extremely undetermined people, some of them are bought by the government when they are in danger, and there are often mutinies when the gangs compete for hegemony on weekdays, and now the government threatens with torture and killing, and many of the Little Knife Club gangs surrender immediately, and even become accomplices. The Qing court was vicious and would rather kill by mistake than let go, so many innocent people also became dead souls under the knife.

When Liu Lichuan heard this, his face turned pale, and he couldn't help but spurt out a mouthful of blood, staggered to the ground, hurriedly supported him left and right, and pinched people to rescue him, and then Liu Lichuan woke up and turned around. Liu Lichuan had tears in his eyes, took a deep breath and sighed: "God doesn't help me, God wants me to die, I'm sorry for my brothers." ”

Chen Alin was wise and scheming, and hurriedly said: "Brother Liu, don't be discouraged, it's not too late for a gentleman to take revenge for ten years, we might as well take refuge in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and raise troops to come back to attack Shanghai, when the time comes, whether it is the government, the foreigners, or the Ningbo Gang, the Shanghai Gang, and the Guandao Gang, these people will all be unable to escape, and this blood debt will always be recovered." ”

Liu Lichuan wiped the bloodshot from the corner of his mouth and said with a bitter smile: "We have no relationship with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, how can they accept a few of us?" If we still have a few hundred brothers in our hands, it would be good to say, but now that we only have dozens of brothers, will people look at us squarely? ”

Pan Qiliang gasped and said, "Brother Liu, didn't that Tong Qiangsheng brother say it last night?" The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom attacked Suzhou and Hangzhou is their king of the west, this king of the west is said to be brave and good at fighting, and there are not a few brothers of the Heaven and Earth Society who defected to him along the way, and last night that Tong Qiangsheng also had the intention of recruiting, let's go to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. ”

Chen Alin also said: "It is not advisable to stay here for a long time, Brother Liu, our paintings and shadows are already everywhere, and the government will definitely search everywhere, and now we can only go to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom." ”

After Liu Lichuan pondered for a moment, he had to say slowly: "Okay, we have to go to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom." ”

In this way, Liu Lichuan and others hid in the broken temple for a day, and then went to the direction of Jiading at night after dark.

……

After more than 2,000 people from the West Hall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom captured Jiading, Zhou Lichun's father and daughter came to meet with thousands of anti-grain peasant rebels in Qingpu and other places. On the same day, Zhou Lichun and other rebels announced that they would join the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, cut off the braided hair that had dragged on for decades, and officially tied their hair and modified it, and for a time the red cloth in Jiading City was out of stock.

After changing their costumes, Zhou Lichun, Zhou Xiuying and other rebel generals came to the county government to meet the king of the west. Our king of the West was tired all night, and he had just slept a little, and when he heard Li Zuoche's report, Xiao Yungui had to wipe the saliva from the corner of his mouth and hurriedly sat up, and ordered the father and daughter of the Zhou family and the generals of the rebel army to come in.

Taking the sweat towel handed over by the knife hand, Xiao Yungui wiped his face in confusion, his face was refreshed, but he felt that the beard on his face was a little in the way, and it was autumn and winter when he first crossed, and he didn't feel that his face was full of beard and was in the way, and it was getting hotter and hotter at this time, Xiao Yungui wondered if he should shave his beard.

While wiping his face and thinking about it, the father and daughter of the Zhou family came in with more than a dozen Qingpu rebel generals, and saw that all the male generals had lost their braided hair and wrapped in red turbans, which looked much more comfortable. Everyone stepped forward to salute, Xiao Yungui said with a smile: "You don't have to be polite, this king doesn't like these red tape, in the future, if you can avoid it, let's sit down and talk." ”

Zhou Lichun and the others were secretly delighted, this West King had no arrogance, he seemed rude, but he was polite, and after they sat down, they only heard Xiao Yungui say again: "How are the armies now organized?" ”

Zhou Lichun got up and said: "The weapons of the Qing Demon in Jiading City are all owned by me, but my rebels have a large number of people, and they still lack equipment, and many brothers still use firewood knives and hoes. The uniforms of the armies have been changed, but the red cloth is out of stock, and the armies are collecting red cloth at a high price among the people. ”

Jiading is not too big, and it is understandable that thousands of people's red turbans have used up all the red cloth on the market, Xiao Yungui hummed and said: "It's okay to collect red cloth from the people, but you must pay for it, and there must be no robbery of the people, otherwise the military law of our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom will punish the crime heavily." ”

Zhou Lichun and the others got up to receive the order, Zhou Lichun nodded and said: "Everyone is from a bitter background, naturally they know the suffering of the people, and they will never harm the people. ”

Xiao Yungui nodded, suddenly stood up and said solemnly: "At noon, no matter whether there is enough red cloth or not, all armies must gather men and horses, and after we have a full meal, we will wave the army to attack Shanghai, but now Shanghai has heard that there are many foreign soldiers, after we arrived at the periphery of Shanghai, we will first be stationed outside the city, bombard the Qing demon camp on the periphery of Shanghai, and do not attack foreign soldiers for the time being." But if the foreign soldiers shoot at us, then resolutely shoot back! ”