The explicit rule-makers are at the height of the temple, and the unspoken rule-makers are far away from the rivers and lakes. The Cao Gang is an unspoken rule-maker who once changed the pattern of China's division of interests.

The Cao Gang came because of the Cao luck and has been in a semi-gray embarrassing position. In the early years of Yongzheng, it obtained a legal status, developed rapidly after obtaining a legal status, and went underground after reorganization. During the Qianlong period, the forces could already make Beijing helpless, and there was even a legend of "Qianlong joining the gang".

Cao Bang has the following characteristics:

1. Single ingredient. It is dominated by proletarian young and middle-aged male shipwrights, and absorbs a part of the low-level scholars.

2. Well-organized. There are cruel rules, family laws, and righteousness in the rivers and lakes to maintain the seriousness of the system.

3. Paramilitarization. Flag words, code words and gang rules, the side shows the paramilitary deployment of the Cao Gang.

These characteristics have provided a good foundation for the development of mainstream triad organizations on land in the future.

The rise and fall of the Cao Gang makes it a specimen of a classical Chinese NGO.

Background:

The Ming and Qing dynasties relied on the south-to-north transfer of grain from the canal to the north to supply the Beijing division and border defense, and maintained the transportation for nearly 600 years. Around the collection and transportation of grain, a set of intertwined unspoken rules has grown, and the proper noun is called "Cao Gui". The Cao Gui is a private modification of the way in which benefits are distributed by law. First of all, the relationship with the peasants should be revised, and the peasants should be scraped a few more times through the "floating harvest"; Then adjust the internal relationship and try to distribute the fertilizer fairly and reasonably. Cao Gui has been banned throughout the ages. "Caokou" cleverly grasped this handle and used it to settle down.

Cao Kou is familiar with the information channel and has an information advantage, they are a mouth that can hurt Cao Gui. Caokou earns money for gags.

Why can Caokou develop? Through research, it was learned that the small households thought that Caokou could provide a protective umbrella, so they took refuge in them and asked them to pay the grain on their behalf to avoid the extortion of the officials. Caokou was also willing to take care of this matter, so it evolved into a "contractor". This is also understandable. It is definitely cheaper for small households to feed a Caokou, and it is definitely higher than the income of Caokou if they swallow it alone, which is a win-win situation. However, with such a package in Caokou, the extortion surface of the officials was reduced, and in order to maintain the original interests, they had to increase the intensity of extortion. Small households that did not find a protective umbrella were subjected to more ferocious raids, resulting in an unusually light and heavy situation, and public resentment boiled.

If the matter is too big, the deadline for the transportation and the quality of the grain will also be affected, which means causing trouble to the central government. Therefore, the provincial leaders in charge of Caoyun had to deal with Caokou and calm the situation. The provincial leader in charge of education thinks that it is unfair, and there is a serious violation of law and discipline in Caoyun, and he doesn't want to correct it, and the board actually hits our Xiucai's ass? When things went up, the holy decree came down, and while reiterating the discipline of Caoyun, he demanded that Caokou be dealt with seriously. The expansion momentum of Caokou has been frustrated, and the ecological balance has been restored.

Cause:

The Cao Gang already existed in the Ming Dynasty, and formally established a national unified organization, that is, the three ancestors of Patriarch Weng, Qian, and Pan became a gang in the second year of Yongzheng; According to the literature in the gang: Emperor Yongzheng ordered all provinces to recruit talents to handle Cao Yun. The three patriarchs of Weng Qianpan were overjoyed when they got the news, so they went to the Fu Office to unveil the yellow list. At that time, Henan Futai was named Tian Wenjing. The three patriarchs met with Governor Tian, told them the origins, and then made a note to rectify the Cao Yun method. Governor Tian was overjoyed, and he should play in the same book as Cao Du. Emperor Yongzheng issued an edict to the three ancestors to be controlled by Zhang Dayou, the governor of Caohe, and obeyed the command of He Guozong, the commander of the survey of the river workers. The three patriarchs said goodbye to Governor Tian and came to Qingjiangpu to meet Zhang Caotai and He Qincha. He and Zhang immediately ordered three supervisors to build grain ships and supervise the embankment repair project of the Jun River. The three patriarchs asked Zhang He and the others to turn the performance, and asked En for permission to open a gang to accept apprentices in order to unify the grain affairs. The Qing court approved the request.

The Cao Gang became a major "trade union" to protect its own interests, because at that time, from the petty military attache to the sailors on the Cao boat, they were bullied; There are roughly two kinds of people who can bully the boat:

1. If the officials who pass through the gates, or even the husbands, do not satisfy their greed, they will make things difficult in many ways, and if the deadline is missed, the boat will be responsible for itself.

2. The local snakes on the wharves everywhere often collude with the flag bearers to make trouble under the pretext of making trouble, making trouble without reason, and thinking that they are a means of extortion.

This is in terms of land. They will also be bullied in the course of their fortunes; There are three kinds of ships that can be bullied and transported:

1. Official ships: In particular, the official ships of the Qincha have the right of priority to pass through the shipping lane, and the ships must give way. If you deliberately look for trouble, you can stay in the bottleneck area.

Second, the ship of the sailor: there are military reasons, of course, it is more spirited than the boat.

3. The most annoying and helpless thing is the copper ship from Yunnan. Escorting the copper ship is a very hard errand, so the sailors on the copper ship have an attitude of not caring. The bronze ship had a heavy draft, and went on a rampage in the lane, either invincible or sank at the same time. There is a deep-rooted concept that the copper ship is heavy and the draft is deep, and it is not easy to control, and only other ships in the channel let the copper ship, and the copper ship cannot let other ships, and the other ships themselves are careless, and they deserve to be sunk.

Organization and Family Law:

The ban on NGOs during the Yongzheng period was related to the reorganization of the Cao Gang, which also involved a dispute over a conspiracy to overthrow Yongzheng, and the suspect was Prince Cheng Yinzhi.

The cause of Panzu's death, by all indications, is speculated to be a major internal change. However, one thing is certain, because the Cao Gang had formed a huge and tight organization at that time, and it was impossible to disband, reorganize, infiltrate, and divide the gang except by using various methods to entrap and guide them, and if anyone dared to try, they would have violated the third article of the "Ten Gang Rules", which was "not allowed to pick up ashes and dump cages", which was the "only death sentence" in the "Ten Gang Rules", and the disposal was to be tied to an iron anchor and burned to death.

The Cao Gang is headed by the "Jianghuai Four" (within the Jiangsu Twenty-One Gang), and its rules are as follows:

The Jianghuai Four-headed Gang exchanged grain in Wuxi. usually play the gossip flag, and the apricot yellow flag is played on the fifteenth day of the new year; Enter Beijing to play the yellow dragon flag, and go out of Beijing to play the pale yellow phoenix flag. Gold-topped gold silk pan dragon mulberry branch finch pole, red on the top and black on the bottom, three purple gold hoops, Qingmen tin pot top, yin and yang purple gold, Ruyi head, bangs play money, double safflower, top four streamers.

There are absurd places in this account, such as the so-called "flag is given by the mother of the main palace" and so on.

However, there is a question that is obvious, the flag on the ship is nothing more than for identification, and it is simple and easy to recognize, why a grain ship should have so many tricks when it is flagged: one for ordinary times, one for Shuowang; One kind of entering Beijing, another kind of going out of Beijing? There are many ancillary equipment for flags and flagpoles, so why should they be so particular? All in all, the big question is: why make it so complicated? One of the most likely answers is that all kinds of flags have different meanings, and all kinds of flags match each other to produce newer and more meanings. In other words, the function of these flags, like the flags or flags on modern warships, is a communication device; And so to have this equipment, or for military purposes. The Cao Gang is also a paramilitary group.

There are two family laws in the gang: one is called "incense board", also known as "yellow board", which is said to be placed by the three ancestors of Weng Qian Pan. On the board, one side is "Protecting the Law", and the other side is "Violating family rules, killing no matter what". One is said to be "Panlong Stick", the board is painted with a dragon, the word "Qinci" is written in the dragon's mouth, and the five characters of "Protector Panlong Stick" are written under the book, and the back is also written with eight characters, but the "family rules" are changed to "gang rules", and there are "edicts, when it is in the spring of the third year of Qianlong".

Qianlong joined the gang, and there is no further information so far, but the Cao gang has a dragon stick, which shows that its laws are strict and justifiable.

Subsequent:

In the 27th year of Guangxu (1901), the Cao Gang was completely stopped, and the Cao Gang was forced to go ashore and develop along the canal, becoming a quasi-militarized underworld organization along the canal with its strict organization and righteousness. After the Cao Gang entered the Republic of China, it was officially renamed the Qing Gang (Qing Gang), because the Cao Gang was becoming more and more depressed, and the number of books in the gang forgot their ancestors. The Qing Gang had a "golden age" in the Republic of China, and one of the most famous disciples was Yuan Hanyun (Kewen), the "second son of the emperor" of "Hong Xian". The Qing Gang was known as the Qing Gang in Shanghai, and tycoons such as Zhang Xiaolin, Huang Jinrong, and Du Yuesheng appeared, covering the sky with one hand until the end of the Republic of China.