5-19 The Axe Gang

After Liu Ziguang came back, he told Hu Yimin about his plan, and Miss Hu also thought that smuggling could not be banned from the source, it can be said that wildfires could not be burned, and the spring breeze blew again, if you want to curb smuggling and increase tariffs, you must start from the root --- the city's shipping company, and now Lai Youwei has promised to provide evidence of the city's corruption, and the next step is to thoroughly clean the Shanghai shipping company, and then insert it into their own hands.

If there is no local Taoist yamen, it is almost impossible to connive at the officials such as the judges, and a smuggler in the family alone will have to take out three million taels of silver every year to pay bribes to officials, and it would be strange if other yamen could not share the silver.

"Pull a whole body, if we start with the city, it will inevitably cause a backlash from the entire Shanghai officialdom, Shanghai is not as good as Suzhou, and the city is not as good as Jiangnan Weaving, they all have military power in their hands, in case they are forced to make trouble and cause Jiangnan to shake, the consequences will be serious." Hu Yimin is still a little worried.

"The inspection of the city is based on the emperor's order, but this official is equipped with Shang Fang's sword, if they have the courage to make trouble, I will have the courage to kill, what are you afraid of." Liu Ziguang snorted coldly, he is not a compassionate character, and the most convenient and quick way to deal with the intricate officialdom struggle is to use the word "kill".

"What about the Fuyuan, if Lai Youwei helps you deal with the City Division, do you want to take him and his Fuyuan into account?" Hu Yimin had a very bad impression of the smuggler, and when he mentioned Lai Youwei's name, his rosy lips were obviously pursed.

Liu Ziguang groaned for a while, and said solemnly: "According to my observation, Lai Youwei is not like a person who can condescend to others, even if he temporarily takes refuge in my South Factory, it is a cooperative relationship rather than a relationship between superiors and subordinates, they have hundreds of merchant ships and thousands of sailors on the Fuyuan, but it is a considerable force, I am now giving him a chance, if he can recognize the situation, he can also wave his specialty, if he is in the twilight, I am afraid there is only a dead end." ”

The order to transfer troops was first sent back to Suzhou by fast horse, and then returned to the capital by telegram from Suzhou, all the things of Jiang Nansheng were directly returned to Nanchang by telegram every day, and then sent directly to the emperor's desk, without going through the cabinet and the celebrant supervisor, after the Cao family did it back to the capital in Suzhou, I heard that the emperor was very happy, this time to move the Shanghai officialdom needs to mobilize the elite forces of the Red Shirt Regiment, but also to mobilize the guards around Shanghai, the sailors, without the emperor's will, it is absolutely impossible. Liu Ziguang is convinced that the emperor will quietly act according to his own suggestions, avoid the eyes of the court bigwigs, and strive to solve the matter of Shanghai as soon as possible, after all, this is a matter they have discussed a long time ago, and solve the tumors of the two imperial courts of Jiangnan Weaving and Shibosi, and the income of the household department can immediately increase by more than three percent, so that the military expenses of the Northern Expedition and the funds for researching various entertainment can be solved.

"I'll find a way to find out the bottom of the city tomorrow, and then it's time for Lord Qincha to come forward, after all, staying in Suzhou is not a way." Liu Ziguang said.

"Before your people are transferred, use the swordsmen of Rishengchang, they are all trained fast hands, and it is not a problem to deal with hundreds of people, and those dock coolies you organized may not be useful in a short time." Miss Hu is very concerned about Liu Ziguang.

"Then I'll be respectful and obey." To tell the truth, the quality of these swordsmen in Rishengchang is indeed very high, the level of secret operations in the city is much higher than that of the people in Nanchang, and the coordination and organization are also excellent, if they can receive their command, it is definitely a good thing.

"If the City Division is controlled by us, then the income of Rishengchang will be guaranteed, and the share of the South Factory will not be less, and I will also give you a big gift, how about you look at the sixty swordsmen?" Hu Yimin seemed to guess Liu Ziguang's thoughts, and suddenly threw such a big bait.

"Hehe, let's talk about it later." Liu Ziguang was secretly happy in his heart, he had a great grasp of this matter, these sixty swordsmen would become the new Ding of Nanchang in the near future, how could this not make him happy.

"I've been wanting to ask a question these days." Hu Yimin hesitated and changed the subject.

Liu Ziguang just wanted to answer, but suddenly heard someone outside say: "Mr. Zhao is here, there is something important." "It turned out that Zhao Kang came back with the account book of the smuggling ship.

The conversation between Liu Ziguang and Hu Yimin had to be interrupted, and Zhao Kang was welcomed in, and the three of them discussed ways to deal with the city's shipping department together.

In the evening, in the private room on the second floor of Xiaonanguo, a famous hotel in Shanghai, Lai Youwei, the owner of the Fuyuan, was giving a banquet to the governor Cheng Liangjue.

"I don't know what the Governor has to say about Jiangnan weaving? I heard that Qin Cha is a young stunned young man, if he goes to Shanghai, I am afraid that the city is the next Jiangnan weaving is unknown. "Lai Youwei said.

"Suzhou is Suzhou, Shanghai is Shanghai, Jiangnan Weaving and City Bosi have no similarities, Mr. Lai is too worried." Governor Cheng stroked his beard and said confidently.

This answer obviously couldn't reassure Lai Youwei, and he asked again: "What if Qin Cha is strong, I heard that he was born as a military general, and he has repeatedly made military exploits in Shandong, and he also has the errand of the commander of Nanchang. ”

Governor Cheng put down the wine glass raised to his lips when he heard this, and was a little unhappy with Lai Youwei's questioning: "You Jianghu people like to say a sentence: A strong dragon does not suppress the head snake of the ground, what if Lord Qincha is three-headed and six-armed?" It's not a mortal body, the governor estimates that they will arrive in these two days, when the time comes, the governor will help you introduce you, you come to entertain him, if not, the governor will make other arrangements, you can rest assured, the governor has been sitting in Shanghai for more than ten years, what kind of wind and waves have not been seen, I dare to guarantee that within three days, Lord Qincha will be commensurate with you as a brother. ”

Lai Youwei naturally knew Governor Cheng's methods, and he couldn't ask for a while, so he could only nod his head and say yes, saying that he must do it according to the arrangement of the Governor, it stands to reason that the Beijing officials should be entertained by local officials when they go to the place, but Governor Cheng gives this task to Lai Youwei every time to do it, because Lai Youwei can be a man and is generous, and there is an exquisite villa "Red Mansion", which hides countless beauties.

"As soon as the governor talked about it, Lai was relieved. Come, the villain toasts you. Lai Youwei knew that he couldn't ask anything valuable, so he had to stop mentioning it.

Governor Cheng and Lai Youwei drank a cup of each other, and said earnestly: "Lao Lai, you don't have to worry, the city department is behind you, and there is the governor behind the city department, the money and silver handed over to the household department by Shanghai Dao every year accounts for more than 30% of Daming's annual income, who do you say dare to act rashly in this place?" Isn't he afraid that he will affect the taxation and be impeached by the imperial history and dismissed by the cabinet? You also know the stall of the city company, who can manage it well after changing the two people? Who cares? So you better relax, the sky won't fall. ”

Early the next morning, the coolies on the dock received a cart of gifts, and the people who drove the car told them that it was something sent by Xu Wenqiang, and when Lin Sheng asked people to unload the boxes on the car, they left, and everyone opened them to see that the boxes were full of axes produced by the Lianfeng of the Liguo Iron Works!

Liguo ironware, famous all over the world, in addition to making weapons, the blade is also used as agricultural tools and tools, this kind of axe is made of good hardwood as the handle, the stainless steel axe blade is coated with a layer of black paint, only the edge of the blade is the metal color of Bai Sensen, Ding Li picked up a handful and waved it twice, and couldn't help but praise: "It's really a good axe." ”

Lin Sheng also grabbed an axe and touched the edge with his fingers, the sharp edge almost cut his fingers, with such a sharp weapon in hand, why worry about other gangs.

Shanghai is not as strict as other places, the control of weapons is quite strict, the appearance of bows and arrows and long weapons is absolutely prohibited, and short weapons such as swords are also restricted. Even the famous city patrol and street cleaning division is only equipped with wooden sticks, so it can be imagined that the control of weapons is very strict.

But the axe is a tool and is not restricted, so many gangsters choose weapons such as axes, kitchen knives, and sticks. What's more, this batch of long-handled axes is not an ordinary civilian product, but a special use for the sappers of the Red Shirt Regiment, and the quality is not ordinarily good.

Everyone was full of praise and played with the long-handled axe, but Lin Sheng appeared a leather bag under the box, opened it and saw that it contained twelve cold and shining knives, Lin Sheng was good at using knives, this is a flying knife that Liu Ziguang specially got from the Shanghai Lianfeng, and it was perfect to give it to Lin Sheng.

Along with the flying knives, there was also a box of silver dollars, fifty of which were wrapped in mulberry paper, exactly twenty of them, and a letter was signed to indicate that this was Liu Ziguang's gang to Lin Sheng's fund, and the name of the gang was mentioned by the way.

Lin Sheng knew how to read, and after reading the note, Xun shouted excitedly: "Brothers, in the future, our gang will be called the Axe Gang!" ”