Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 14: Officials Force the People to Revolt (Part )
More than a dozen living people died on the ground. This cruel scene instantly stunned the gang members.

These gang members usually just fight with others in the streets and alleys relying on their bravery. Where have they ever seen such a scene?

Dozens of bows were taken out and shot dead before they could react!

This isn't right. Didn't the boss say that all the people passing through the port today were ordinary merchants?

Is this a merchant?

In fact, many of Fang Yong's men were killing someone for the first time.

Although they were born as pirates, not all of them had ever killed anyone. For example, Li Sheng who was beside Fang Yong was a typical example.

Fortunately, they had a background as pirates and were naturally more ruthless than ordinary people. Although their hands holding the bows trembled slightly after the killing, they soon stabilized.

Practice is really the best teacher.

Fang Yong even considered whether he should call down the other men on the boat to get their hands on some blood.

Unfortunately, at this moment, the soldiers arrived.

All the gang members fled in all directions.

Seeing this, Fang Yong could only leave in a hurry with his men.

Courtyard No. 15, Yong'an Road, Tianjin.

Fang Yong and his men temporarily settled here.

"Third Master, you can just call me Xue Wu."

The person who spoke was an old shopkeeper, over fifty years old, with a white beard.

He was the person in charge of transporting the spices, and he was also the one who arranged where Fang Yong and others were staying.

Fang Yong did not look down on the other party, but respectfully asked him to sit down.

"Manager Xue, I just arrived in Jinhai and I don't know much about the situation here. Please tell me in detail what happened."

Shopkeeper Xue agreed upon hearing this and slowly said:

"Third Master, this is what happened..."

The incident happened two months ago, and the cause of the incident can be traced back to the new policy.

However, this year, the old Prime Minister Zhang Tingzheng passed away. Contrary to everyone's expectations, Emperor Longqing did not select a new Prime Minister, but personally appointed a new one, promoted a large number of old officials, and issued new policies, aiming to eliminate advantages and disadvantages and rectify the finances.

Among them, the policy of equalizing the land tax was one of the new policies, which indirectly led to Fang Yong's surrender to the bandits.

There is another policy in the new deal, which is about business and is called labor tax.

The so-called human tax, as the name suggests, is simply a tax divided into three levels: large, medium and small, based on the population employed by merchants or business organizations, and additional taxes are collected in turn.

It is worth mentioning that labor tax is a newly added tax and does not replace the original commercial tax.

"This will make life difficult for the workers and coolies."

Fang Yong took a sip of tea and shook his head with a sigh.

Businessmen are afraid of taxes, so they naturally dare not hire more people, and may even have to fire their original employees, so these people naturally lose their jobs.

The situation for those who stayed behind was not much better. In order to maintain the original production efficiency, the businessmen would inevitably force those who stayed behind to do two or even three jobs.

Xue Wu also sighed.

"Who says it's not true? After the new policy was issued, Jinhai was the first to be affected. A large number of hard laborers lost their jobs. I heard that even the apprentices in the restaurant were kicked out by their masters. These people had nowhere to go, so they formed the Four Seas Gang and competed with the boatmen for jobs, which led to our downfall as well."

Fang Yong shook his head.

"These canal workers are exempt from taxation, and now they are in great demand!"

Xue Wu heard this and blinked and said:

"You are wrong. Your Majesty sympathizes with the hard work of the millions of canal workers and has a separate new policy to care for them!"

Fang Yong was stunned.

After briefly understanding the whole story, Fang Yong sent Manager Xue away.

Afterwards, Fang Yong sent Li Sheng to take people outside to find out the situation.

In the afternoon, Li Sheng and others came back and reported what they had found out to Fang Yong.

The situation was basically the same as what Shopkeeper Xue said. The current chaos in Jinhai was mainly caused by the new Four Seas Gang and the original Cao Gang competing for jobs. Xue Dacui's goods were detained by the Four Seas Gang.

Emperor Longqing's new policy suddenly made more than 100,000 people in Jinhai homeless, which was a pity. At the same time, Li Sheng also brought back good news.

The leader of the Four Seas Gang was arrested!
But today at the dock, thugs from the Four Seas Gang crazily hacked and killed passing merchants, resulting in seven deaths, more than thirty serious injuries, and hundreds of people suffering varying degrees of injuries.

Among them, there was a big businessman from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, who was very famous and had a fortune of millions. Now he had been hacked more than a dozen times by the men of the Four Seas Gang, and most likely he would not survive.

Under pressure, Guo Dahai, leader of the Four Seas Gang, was arrested and taken to the Jinhai Yamen that afternoon and sentenced to death on the charges of gathering a crowd to cause riot, murder and robbery.

Tomorrow at noon, he will be executed!

"So fast?"

Fang Yong thought about it and felt that something was wrong here!
Since Guo Dahai was supported by everyone to become the gang leader, there should be nothing wrong with his brain. Why would he send his men to the dock to kill passing merchants for no reason?
Isn't this just asking for trouble?

Moreover, Manager Xue had just told him about Guo Dahai, a very upright man with high prestige. Although he seized their goods, he did not hurt anyone. His purpose was only to force the Cao Gang to make concessions.

How could such a person do such a thing?

Moreover, the immediate execution was too decisive. The sentence was not even sent to trial and he was executed tomorrow.

Fang Yong seriously suspected that someone was colluding with the government and deliberately framing Guo Dahai.

But then again, even if Guo Dahai was framed, it had nothing to do with him.

The purpose of his visit was to resolve the issue of seized goods.

If Guo Dahai died, the Four Seas Gang would be leaderless, which would make it easier for Fang Yong to act.

So Fang Yong did nothing, but arranged for his men to rest for a night.

The next day, Guo Dahai was taken to the execution ground and beheaded.

Countless people gathered around to watch the fun.

Guo Dahai seemed to have a good reputation among the people. Not only did no one of the onlookers say anything bad about Guo Dahai, but they all pleaded for Guo Dahai.

Of course, no one paid attention to the pleas of these untouchables.

Fang Yong took his men to find a loft with a wide view to watch the situation on the field.

Guo Dahai was escorted to the execution ground by a team of fully armed soldiers. His mouth was blocked and he could not speak the whole time.

There was something fishy about the whole thing.

The government office simply skipped the step of parading through the streets and took Guo Dahai directly from the prison to the execution ground. He was escorted the entire time by elite soldiers, not yamen runners.

Obviously, the Jinhai Yamen was on guard against someone hijacking the execution ground.

But this doesn't make sense, because although the escorting soldiers are elite, there are only about twenty of them. If the Four Seas Gang really comes to rob the execution ground, what role can these few people play?
"It's three quarters past noon, behead immediately!"

The supervising officer threw out a handful of sticks, and the executioner raised his sword and was about to chop off.

"Who dares to hurt my brother!"

Suddenly, a big man rushed out from the crowd, threw a big axe, and knocked the executioner down with one axe.

Afterwards, countless people like the big man rushed out of the crowd, holding weapons, and fought with the officers and soldiers.

Although the officers and soldiers were elite, they were few in number and were quickly dispersed.

Fang Yong watched this scene quietly in the attic, looking at the killed soldiers, and suddenly, he seemed to understand something.

The Cao Gang and the Jinhai Yamen were too cruel.

Those soldiers were victims.

The Sihai Gang robbed the execution ground and killed officers and soldiers, which was already a proof of rebellion.

If nothing unexpected happens, there will be an army ambush outside the execution ground, waiting for the people from the Four Seas Gang to rush out and catch them all in one fell swoop.

In this way, the Cao Gang eliminated the Sihai Gang.

The Jinhai Yamen achieved great success in suppressing the rebellion.

In the end, the only losers were Guo Dahai and those who lost their jobs because of the new policy.

Fang Yong couldn't help but think of the official who had gone to Fangjia Village to explain the new policy.

I remember that the other party said at that time that the Daxi Dynasty was peaceful, the people were prosperous, the treasury was full, the seas were clear and the rivers were peaceful, and Emperor Longqing sympathized with the people's hard work, so he issued a new policy...

(End of this chapter)