Cursed Mountains and Seas

Chapter 26 The Wang family, who collect water, are nothing more than dogs raised by my Xie family!

It's not surprising that this member of the Xie family, who has a deep-seated grudge against the Wang family, would appear in Yuegang.

There is no government or governor in Yuegang; it is governed by the ships themselves.

The various factions elected eight of the strongest ship captains to jointly guard the five-story octagonal building in the center of the harbor, using it as the central hub to support a feng shui formation known as the "Eight Directions Ascending to the Pavilion Formation".

Therefore, this place includes both the trade faction, including the direct descendants of the Five Peaks Banner, as well as various water collectors, boatmen, and maritime merchants who are restrained by the Prince of Jinghai;
There was also a small group of pirates who could only keep a low profile and dared not commit evil deeds along the coast of Dazhao, but only dared to plunder Nanyang, Fuyu and Yingzhou.
Of course, there were also powerful families, influential clans, gangs, and even merchants from Southeast Asia, non-Han Chinese merchants, and foreigners from Western countries who came to get a share of the pie.

Even the powerful Five Peaks Banner sometimes couldn't tell which noble family or even foreign dignitaries or kings were behind them.

The Prince of Jinghai, who adhered to the principle of "sharing benefits with the people and defending the borders of the country," was always just the supreme leader of various armed maritime merchant groups.

It was only through personal prestige and military force that countless forces were barely brought together.

Now that he is no longer in control, the Wufengqi Maritime Group is still very powerful and can continue to hold the top position, but it no longer has absolute dominance in the East China Sea.

The Xie family's open defection drew widespread support from the gentry and powerful, who began to openly take sides.

The "ghostwriter" has clearly achieved the basic objective of this commotion.

However, thanks to the high prestige of Prince Jinghai, Huang Yuanzhou still had a considerable number of supporters even before the prince had left.

No sooner had Xie He finished speaking his accusations than a merchant leader on the other side angrily retorted:
"You are a bunch of ingrates."

"If it weren't for Prince Jinghai's suppression of bandits and Portuguese in the East China Sea and his bribery of officials in various prefectures, how could we maritime merchants have enjoyed our most glorious three years?"

Someone took the lead, and others followed suit, filled with righteous indignation:

"That's right, our entire Xiangzhou Prefecture's tea, sugar, fruits, silk, cotton cloth, and ceramics are sold overseas."

The city was bustling with all kinds of crafts, with looms and furnaces clattering, and agriculture, handicrafts, textiles, sugar making, shipbuilding and all other industries flourishing.

These industries have supported countless people. If they were all thieves and didn't engage in production, where would our Minzhou have gotten all this wealth?

"Yes, it's all because of Wufengqi who was at the forefront, taking the brunt of the damage for everyone."

We'd probably be dead by the sea monsters long ago, or imprisoned by greedy officials who would drain us of all our money and enslave us.

Some people even posed a thought-provoking question:
"If you don't want people to know, don't do it in the first place." This year, the matter of the eunuch from the Imperial Horse Administration sent by the central government to collect mining taxes being beaten to death by miners has caused a great uproar in Jiangnan.

Don't think we don't know. This is also a good thing you did under the guise of "speaking up for the people and the court not competing with the people for profit." You are the "people" you are talking about. It's ridiculous.

Despite their immense wealth, they remain insatiably greedy; sooner or later, they will drain the very marrow from the Great Zhao!

Wang Cheng nodded repeatedly as he listened, noting that the initial budding of capital accumulation in the Jiangnan region had been going on for many years.

The conditions for maritime colonization had long been ripe.

However, under the national policy of maritime prohibition, even going to sea was forbidden, let alone establishing a colonial presence overseas.

The prevailing view in the Great Zhao court was that it wished all the overseas Chinese who were not under its jurisdiction would die completely.

It was tantamount to handing over vast territories in the East China Sea and Southeast Asia to the Frankish colonists, which was truly infuriating.

Three years ago, the Franks occupied the southern coast of Hainan, and the flames of war could spread to their homeland at any time.

Many people in the past thought that Macau was leased by foreign powers for only a hundred years, but in fact, from the time the Franks began to colonize the area until they regained sovereignty, it took nearly five hundred years!

At such a critical juncture, if we don't concentrate our efforts on investing in navigation, firearms, and foreign expansion, are we going to keep the money for war reparations? Unfortunately, from the upper and middle-class gentry and aristocratic families to the central government officials and the rulers of the state, they simply did nothing. In fact, many people even advocated bringing in the Franks to jointly punish the "pirates" and overseas Chinese.

Wang Cheng was seething with hatred. Right now, it was just a family feud, but it wouldn't be long before it turned into a national vendetta.

"How can you govern a country while associating with these insects?!"

Xie He glanced at the leader of the ghostwriters, and the merchants and shipping guilds around him, all of whom had connections to powerful families and influential clans, both overt and covert. He straightened his back, and the resentment he had suppressed for years by the Wang and Xu families surged back into his heart.
"You're talking to me about the Prince of Jinghai?"
Ha, the Wang family who collects water is nothing more than a dog raised by our Xie family!

A bunch of lowly peasants dare to challenge us, the scholars and officials who have passed down our family tradition of poetry and literature. They are truly defying Heaven.

Unfortunately, not all of these treacherous servants died; one survivor escaped the net.

Now that the officials of the prefecture intend to thoroughly clean up Yuegang and restore a bright and clear world for the people, I think that in the future, the people who die here will probably not be just the Jinghai Prince's family.

"If any of you wish to be buried with me, please do so. Don't say you weren't warned when the time comes!"

Wang Cheng stared intently at Xie He, mentally condemning his entire family to death.
"This thief has already made his way to death!"

However, he quietly ruled out the possibility that the Xie family was the mastermind behind it all.

This person wasn't even a divine official; he was just a mortal.

He's not very shrewd, speaks without thinking, and charges into battle on the front lines. It's no wonder he gets shot in the back; he just seems like a lackey running errands for someone else.

It's not hard to guess why this person is jumping around like this.

The gentry were well-versed in the art of struggle. The first step in accomplishing great things was never to rush to introduce this idea or that slogan, but to distinguish who was the enemy and who was the friend!

The more complex the plan, the bigger the loopholes and the harder it is to execute. Now they want to use the general trend to force everyone to take sides.

The core teams of both sides have highly intertwined interests, so of course they won't buy into this. But after today, there should be no room for neutral parties to survive in Moon Harbor.

as predicted.

With the government's menacing figurehead in front and the Xie family, representing the gentry, stepping forward, the already unsettled Yuegang, which was in turmoil due to the arrival of the Waterworks Bureau, was completely ignited.

Some people only wanted to protect themselves and dared not get involved in the struggle between these powerful forces. They secretly slipped into the crowd of onlookers and disappeared in the blink of an eye, preparing to temporarily withdraw from Moon Harbor, this place of trouble.

Some people subconsciously moved to stand behind the "ghostwriter" and Xie He.

Xie He was referring to the officials of the prefecture, not the imperial court or the emperor, which means that even if he surrendered to them, the smuggling business could continue.

The only issue is that the distribution of profits needs to be changed to a different supplier.

Although the Xie family's reputation for defaulting on even the profit-sharing between black and white gloves is truly awful, discerning maritime merchants know that the Xie family is not the mastermind behind the scenes, and it's worth taking a gamble.

The key is that the winner takes all, and now the one who died is Prince Jinghai, while the one who won is the government.

Yuegang, which should have been ruled by the Five Peaks Banner for many years, actually turned against the Heavenly Gang at this moment, and the gentry faction, which had brought in foreign aid, gained the upper hand.

Several of the eight boatmen guarding the Octagonal Tower openly sided with the gentry.

The already loosely organized "Mutual Trade Faction" has suddenly split apart today, not long after the seventh day after the death of Prince Jinghai.

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(End of this chapter)