Qing Yao

Chapter 219 A Little Trouble

Zhao An means Bao's Restaurant.

To be precise, he used a restaurant that combined accommodation, catering, entertainment, and leisure as his personal office.

It can also be called an activity venue.

It's not for my own enjoyment, but truly for the convenience of work. Without such a place, many confidential meetings cannot be held, many tasks cannot be carried out, and various resources cannot be effectively integrated.

In those days, without telephones or mobile phones, all arrangements for people and tasks had to be made verbally. This was fine for Zhao An in Yangzhou, but if he wasn't in Yangzhou, communication would be quite inconvenient. Therefore, a special agency was needed to act as his "messenger," playing a connecting role between superiors and subordinates.

It means something like Lord Zhao's office.

Or, to put it another way, it could be that Lord Zhao was privately stationed at a certain office in a certain location.

From now on, Zhao An should directly notify the office for any matters, and his subordinates should also report directly to the office if they have any issues. The office's dedicated communications personnel will then relay the information to Zhao An as soon as possible.

This not only greatly improves work efficiency, but also allows the office to be used to build an intelligence and network of contacts to help Zhao An resolve various disputes.

Even if Zhao An is transferred away from Yangzhou in the future, this office should continue to play a stable role to ensure that the people remain engaged even after he leaves.

From the perspective of the command system, the Yangzhou office was actually the command branch of the "micro-loan party" in Yangzhou. In addition to carrying out the tasks of the party leader Zhao An, it also had to win over local officials in Yangzhou in all aspects. In this way, the command branch could take on the role of the Yangzhou government at critical moments.

If every province, prefecture, and county in the country had such an office, perhaps there would be no need for armed seizure of power.

Everyone take out their ledgers and do the math, then we'll ask the old man to step down.

Since the office is to play a significant role, it certainly can't be a roadside food stall or a small inn. It should at least be a four-star establishment. After all, Zhao An, as a seventh-rank official, is directly under the jurisdiction of the imperial court. He holds a low position but wields great power, which is incomparable to a local seventh-rank official. It is necessary to put on a show.

If the style is too low, it will seem too shabby, and adults who don't know the situation might think that Lord Zhao is poor.

If you don't have money, who will follow you?
If you don't have money, who would dare lend you money?
Who would dare to deposit their money in your bank?

Business needs packaging, even a rebellion needs packaging!
In fact, Zhao An was quite pleased with the private clubs run by the salt merchants in Yangzhou, but he was too embarrassed to tell Vice Principal Ma directly.

Because it's a bit too corrupt.

This is Zhao An being conservative; what corruption is there?

The Fuzhou general who beat up Committee Member Zhao in public before used a brothel as his headquarters, and in previous lives, there were even several high-ranking officials who used five-star hotels as their offices.

Compared to these people, Lord Zhao is not corrupt at all.

Besides, this was for work purposes and has nothing to do with corruption.

In fact, since becoming an official, Zhao An has not only never taken a single copper coin from the people, but has also continuously contributed money to the government. So you can say anyone is corrupt, but you can't say that Lord Zhao is corrupt.

When it comes to doing things, we should judge by intentions, not by actions.

Vice Principal Ma has a strong ability to understand things. He quickly figured out the principal's true intention and, without hesitation, took it as a top priority.

Even though the Lunar New Year was just around the corner, Vice Principal Ma still decided that he had to sort this out for the principal, even if it was on New Year's Eve.

The principal's affairs are the school's affairs; we cannot wrong the principal!

The academy is not short of money.

After signing some documents, Zhao An went to the Yangzhou branch of the Canal Gang to hear work reports from Ding Jiu and others.

Thanks to the valiant efforts of the canal transport guild, shipping has resumed. The canal workers belonging to the Yangzhou branch, after receiving their hard-earned wages, resettlement allowances, and freight payments from the transport authorities, were in high spirits and were all praising the greatness of their leader, Shaojun. This greatness stemmed not only from Shaojun's leadership in their victory against the transport authorities, but also from his genuine concern for the well-being of all his men.

The gang members have sharp eyes. Putting aside everything else, the fact that they seized the operating line from the Jiao family and built the house is enough to make all the gang members grateful to Shaojun.

Besides Ding Jiu, some leaders from the second and third gangs were also present, including Ye Zhigui and Xu Lin, who simultaneously "paralyzed" the waterway on both the north and south sides of the canal.

The former is a complete criminal with a long criminal record.

Although the latter was also ruthless, he was a decent guy compared to Ye Zhigui.

With a membership of millions, it's inevitable that the Canal Gang would harbor many criminals, including murderers. However, Zhao An doesn't need to purge the gang's criminal elements at the moment.

Because these audacious madmen were actually the main force behind the rebellion.

Throughout history, whether it was a peasant uprising or any other kind of rebellion, those who dared to strike first were always thugs, not respectable people.

Therefore, Zhao An's principle regarding the thugs of the canal gang is to let bygones be bygones for the things they did before he took charge. However, if they commit murder and robbery again after he takes charge, then they should not blame him for being ruthless.

Besides the second and third gangs, there were also two people in the first gang: Sun Rui, who had just been released by the Huai'an government, and An Shun, the leader of the first gang, who was the one who made his fortune by prostituting himself.

Sun Rui already knew from Ding Jiu that it was Shao Jun who had taken charge of rescuing him, so when Shao Jun arrived, he naturally stepped forward, knelt down, and kowtowed in gratitude.

"We're all brothers, what's there to thank me for? If I get into trouble and get arrested by the authorities, do you think my brothers will just abandon me?"

Zhao An smiled and helped Sun Rui up, while giving a "precautionary warning" to all the leaders present.

"Which corrupt official dares to arrest Shaojun? He's not afraid that tens of thousands of our brothers will blow his skull off!"

These words were spoken by Ye Zhigui, who frequently led men to rob passing merchant ships. General Kuilun of Fuzhou was almost drowned by him at the mouth of the Yangtze River.

Zhao An laughed heartily: "That won't do. If we do that, wouldn't our canal gang really become rebels within the canal transport government?"

Xu Lin scoffed, "So what if they're rebels? Do you think those damn government soldiers can beat us? If it weren't for Young Master telling us to hold back, I could have led my brothers to take over the Grand Canal Administration!"

"Alright, you're getting more and more absurd. You think you're so ruthless, Xu Lao Er? It's rare for the young master to come here, so everyone should go to the incense hall and listen to his instructions."

Seeing that everyone was going too far, Ding Jiu quickly stepped forward to interrupt.

Zhao An nodded, glanced at everyone, and asked with some surprise, "Why are there only two of you in the first group?"

The question was directed at Anshun and Xu Rui, the leaders of the gang.

"This"

Anshun glanced at Ding Jiu, hesitating whether to tell the truth.

Sun Rui also hesitated, it seemed that something must have happened on the First Gang's side.

Zhao An frowned slightly and looked at Ding Jiu: "What happened?"

"It's a little trouble."

Ding Jiu gestured for Shao Jun to follow him inside. After Zhao An and the others entered the incense hall, Ding Jiu revealed that someone had come up with the idea of ​​taking over the two routes that the Jiao family had given up.

The group that was after them were a few influential figures in the city, people who had connections in both the legitimate and underworld circles.

(End of this chapter)