Qing Yao

Chapter 170 The Young Lord Has Arrived, the World Has Changed

Money should be spent wisely.

Building houses for the lower-level members of the Canal Gang was an idea Zhao An had long had, because it was the most direct and effective way to win people's hearts.

Because he understands all too well the thoughts and feelings of those who have lived in shantytowns their whole lives or even for generations.

These people crave houses far more than anything else.

For the poor in the shantytowns, suddenly having a house of their own that looks like a place for people to live in is undoubtedly the best gift God could give them.

Therefore, Zhao An must act as this God, as the one that all the gang members are grateful to and thankful for.

There's no way around it; having more money is meaningless to him. Only by transforming money into a form of energy can it have any meaning.

Only with power could he drive away the debt collectors sent by the old man.

Building a house is the first step, and this step can be started immediately thanks to the 300,000 taels of silver that the Jiao family has compensated them.

The canal gangs rely on boats for their livelihood, so the newly built "community" certainly cannot be far from the canal, otherwise it will be inconvenient for the gang members to "commute" to and from get off work. Therefore, Lao Ding needs to coordinate the land acquisition to try to obtain the land at a low price and reduce expenses.

Zhao An's next step is to solve the problem of school enrollment difficulties for children of the Canal Gang.

It is well known that it is very difficult for children in "shacks" to go to school. First, their families cannot afford to support their education; second, local schools naturally discriminate against children from the urban fringe.

In the eyes of Yangzhou "citizens," the lower-level members of the Grand Canal Gang were essentially migrant workers. These poor people couldn't even guarantee their own basic needs, so how could they afford to send their children to school? Therefore, the best achievement of the Grand Canal Gang's members in terms of academic success since its establishment was that two of them became successful candidates in the imperial examinations.

Most children simply don't have the opportunity to go to school.

In order to win over the canal gangs, Li Wei opened several free schools, but these schools were all built in Jiangnan and Zhejiang, and they were used to solve the problem of schooling difficulties for the children of the main gangs.

The main members of the gang were all from Wenzhou and Taizhou, which meant they controlled the canal gangs that controlled the section of the Grand Canal south of the Yangtze River all the way to Hangzhou.

The canal gangs active in the Yangzhou and Huai'an area were a type of Hakka gang, whose members were from northern Anhui and northern Jiangsu.

The main reason Li Wei favored the south over the north was that he served as the governor and viceroy of Zhejiang for a long time, while the anti-Qing underground forces in the south were more rampant than those in the north.

Gan Fengchi, a reclusive master who frequently appears in martial arts novels in Zhao An's previous life, was from Jiangnan. It is said that he once assisted Lü Siniang in breaking into the Qing Palace to assassinate Emperor Yongzheng.

The righteous man Feng Laodie in the novel "The Scholars" is based on Gan Fengchi.

However, after being captured by Li Wei, this person betrayed the Qing dynasty and sold out all the anti-Qing organizations he belonged to and knew about to Li Wei, which led to the Jiangnan case.

Through this case, Li Wei effectively eliminated all anti-Qing underground organizations in Jiangnan by utilizing the Jiangnan Canal Gang, thus making a significant contribution to consolidating the Qing government's rule over Jiangnan.

Since Li Wei knew how to solve the problem of schooling difficulties for the children of the main gang members, Zhao An naturally followed suit and also wanted to solve the problem of schooling difficulties for the children of the guest gang members.

Some things aren't a matter of whether you've seen or not; it's simply a matter of whether you've done them or not.

Given that his influence is currently limited to the Yangzhou branch, Zhao An will definitely use his position as a supervisor and professor at the Yangzhou Prefectural School to establish a school specifically for the children of the Canal Gang.

Firstly, it could enhance his influence within the canal gang; secondly, it could influence the next generation of the canal gang, enabling these innocent canal gang members to become good helpers for Teacher Zhao in his battles with the debt collectors.

The old man should definitely pay for it; there's no reason for Committee Member Zhao to pay out of his own pocket.

This matter can also be considered an achievement of Zhao An, the supervisor of education, since it is within the duties of an educational official and can play a positive role in local education and stability.

Even if the old patriarch is senile, he can't possibly refuse to approve it. Once the two essential aspects of housing and education are settled, and the income level of the followers is substantially increased with wages constantly rising, the Yangzhou branch will inevitably become Zhao An's base of operations, and even the old patriarchs of the four major temples won't be able to influence him.

In the decades since the establishment of the Canal Gang, who has served the gang members as wholeheartedly as Zhao Shaojun?

No, absolutely not!
Zhao Shaojun not only didn't take a single penny from the gang, but he even paid money out of his own pocket for the gang!

"Noble character and lofty integrity" are insufficient to describe the greatness of the young ruler.

It can only be described as magnificent.

After deciding to build houses for the gang members as a benefit, Zhao An, in his capacity as the young leader, went to visit and comfort the gang members who were injured in the dock fight.

They went secretly, carrying silver with them.

The large-scale brawl at Xiaguan Wharf, which shocked the relevant government departments in Yangzhou, could not have been without casualties on both sides. Sixteen people died and more than a hundred were injured on the canal gang side.

I don't know about the Jiao family's side, but their casualties were definitely much higher than those of the Canal Gang.

The canal gang had its own clinic, and the wounded were sent there for centralized treatment.

Upon hearing that Young Master was coming to visit everyone, the lightly wounded managed to sit up, while those who were seriously injured and unable to move looked at the young Young Master with excited eyes.

"Don't move, don't move."

Zhao An looked just like a leader, a leader who genuinely cared about his subordinates. He looked at each of them, lingering for three to five minutes longer with each seriously injured person.

"The brothers were wounded because of the captain, and the captain cannot let them down!"

Originally, Zhao Anding gave fifty taels to the injured and one hundred taels to the dead. But now that the Jiao family has paid compensation and there is an operating route with a profit of one million taels every year, he announced to the public: "Each injured brother will be given one hundred taels by the gang, and each dead brother will be given two hundred taels. In addition, the wives, children and elderly of the dead brothers will all be taken care of by the gang. Do you have any objections?"

The question was directed at Ding Jiu and the two incense hall managers who had accompanied him.

"Whatever Young Master says goes!"

Ding Jiu waved his hand, and immediately his gang members brought over the silver that had been prepared beforehand, distributing it to the wounded on the spot.

One hundred taels of "consolation money" was undoubtedly a huge sum for the injured gang members whose average wage was only six taels.

In the past, when Uncle was around, those who were injured while working for the gang would receive a maximum of fifteen taels for medicine. But here, Young Master gives a hundred taels. What conclusion can be drawn from this comparison?
Looking at the heavy silver bag placed beside them, the gazes of everyone—whether seriously injured, lightly injured, or the gang members who had carried them over to take care of them—changed dramatically.

Zhao An did not linger before visiting the families of the fallen gang members. He brought the money with him, intending to personally distribute it to the families, comfort them, and listen to their grievances.

He admitted that this was formalism.

However, it must be admitted that this formalism is quite necessary, because it will infinitely elevate Zhao Shaojun's image within the Grand Canal Gang.

His position in the Yangzhou branch was elevated to a level that no one could challenge.

At the same time, Shaojun's plan to build houses for the gang was like a bombshell exploding in the Yangzhou branch.

Upon receiving the news, Xu Lin, who was leading his men to "persuade" ships coming from the north to turn back on Gaoyou Lake, immediately informed his hundreds of subordinates of this great opportunity. In his excitement, he pointed at the official boats of the canal transport office that were stopped half a mile away and said fiercely, "Young Master said that no one can pass through our area without his orders. If any bastards dare to force their way in, brothers, we'll fight them to the death!"

(End of this chapter)