Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 402 What is the concept of five thousand government servants?
"Boom!"

"Whoa~~"

Zhang Beihai, the platoon leader from the Beihai Garrison Regiment, heard Chamei's narration, and in anger, punched the small table beside him with his fist. Smashed it.

He was bought by Xu Dayong at the Luoyang People's Market three years ago and sent to Beihai Town.In the 51st year of Qianlong's Henan disaster, three of Zhang Beihai's family starved to death. After burying his parents and younger sister, he took his 14-year-old brother and traveled hundreds of miles south with his feet, all the way to Luoyang.Zhang Beihai, who was already a child back then, saw hungry people eating each other along the way, and saw countless people planting labels and selling themselves, and that scene was unforgettable for him forever.

If my younger sister was still alive, she would be about the same age as Chamei, right?

Thinking of this, he turned to look at Chamei with gentle eyes, and asked, "How many kidnapped girls like you are there in the Jiangbei barbarian camp?"

Chamei said: "Just in the brothel I stayed in before, more than 40 people were abducted from Guizhou. I don't know about other places."

Xu Dayong heard Zhang Beihai's meaning, sighed and persuaded: "Beihai, this kind of thing can't be managed now. Even if we rescued ten today, the traffickers will sell twenty more from Guizhou tomorrow."

Zhang Beihai said viciously: "Our Bei Haijun is right. If we want the poor to have a way of life, we have to smash this evil world!"

Chamei listened to the conversation between the two, and panic appeared in her eyes.grown ups?smashed?Who are they?

Not to mention how everyone settled down for this poor girl, at noon of the second day, Xu Dayong found a home-like wine shop in Chaotianmen, and sent a half-year-old boy to the river beach with a coin to call Luo Sankui.

Luo Sankui is the silly Kui mentioned earlier, but because of his simple and honest face, he was often bullied when he was a tracker in the early years, so he got a silly nickname.

As soon as they met, Luo Sankui hurriedly bowed to Xu Dazuo to thank him, and even said that he was just a poor man, so he should not be treated so kindly.

Xu Da cursed with a smile and told him to sit down and talk.At this time, the store clerk had already delivered a catty of hot wine, and also brought stewed pork head meat, pig offal and other dishes, which made Luo Sankui swallow his saliva involuntarily.

He worked as a porter on the pier every day, and he survived exhaustion with only a few pennies. He couldn't afford meat all year round. At most, he bought a fish occasionally as a tooth sacrifice.

Luo Sankui was a little cautious at the beginning, but later on he became more and more open-eyed and grinning.After drinking for three rounds, he remembered what Li Shangyuan told him, so he hiccupped and asked tentatively: "Master Xu, what kind of goods are you going to buy when you come to Chongqing this time? Maybe let the ants follow the three .”

"Sankui, are there many trackers stranded now?"

"Why not many." Luo Sankui stuffed a piece of fatty pork head into his mouth and chewed a few mouthfuls, with a satisfied expression on his face, before adding: "Almost 2 people, I heard Every now and then, people who died of starvation would be buried in mass graves.”

Xu Dayong let out an "oh" and said flatly, "I have a business. If you do it, you will have enough food and clothing for the rest of your life."

Luo Sankui's eyes lit up, only to hear Xu Dayong continue: "Help me recruit people in Jiangbei, and go to Jiangsu North to farm."

When Luo Sankui heard this, he immediately remembered what happened last year, and persuaded with lingering fear: "Master Xu, are you still thinking about that? If those bastards find out, they will trouble you again."

"You didn't join the Hulu Club, did you?"

Luo Sankui was shocked immediately, and hurriedly said in a low voice: "Master Xu, you can't take this joke! If someone from the government hears about it, a pinch would be light."

Xu Dayong smiled, turned his head and looked around, saw that no one was paying attention to his place, then reached into his arms, took out a buckskin bag containing more than 100 coins and pushed it in front of Luo Sankui, commanding: "Sankui , help me send a message to the chief trackers in Jiangbei, and say that I, Xu, will invite them to drink at Xingshun in Jiangbei in the evening. You also go there."

Luo Sankui glanced at the money bag, swallowed and said, "That's it?"

"That's it." Xu Da said with all his heart that I wish those bastards would come to make trouble.He traveled all over the world for several years, but unexpectedly, he stumbled when he came to Chongqing last year.After being so angry, I feel aggrieved when I think about it.

After Zhao Xin heard about this before Chinese New Year, he asked him, is there enough people to transfer you a platoon?Afterwards, a platoon of the Beihai Town Defense Regiment followed the empty boat to Sheyang Lake, and then followed him to Chongqing, and the platoon leader was Zhang Beihai.

It is really overkill for the regular army to fight gangsters, and it is no problem to deal with hundreds of scumbags.What Xu Dayong wanted was to take advantage of this opportunity to scoop up all the leaders of the Gulu Society in Jiangbeiting City, and see who would dare to stab him in the future.

Luo Sankui is an honest person. Although money is attractive, it must be able to get it.Thinking of this, he said to Xu Dayong: "Thanks to Mr. Xu for thinking highly of me, idiot, if you want to handle this matter quickly, you have to find another person. Speaking of which, he still takes care of me as a porter."

"Oh? Who?"

"This person's surname is Wu, and his name is Wu Desheng. He has some relatives with me. He used to work as a clerk in the workshop of the county government. The people in the county are very acquainted, so I can definitely find him for Master Xu's affairs."

Xu Dayong said: "Why didn't you mention this Wu name to me when I came last year?"

Luo Sankui said with a smile: "At that time, he was recuperating at home after eating a board, how can I introduce him?"

Xu Dayong said: "Then is he here now? You go and call someone, I'll talk to him."

"Yes! His house is not far away. Master Xu, sit down for a while, and I'll invite him right away." Luo Sankui drank the remaining wine in the bowl and hurried out of the restaurant.After a stick of incense, he came to the north of Chaotian Temple, in front of a small courtyard near Yaojia Lane.Just as he was about to knock on the door, he heard a burst of cursing from inside.

"I'm your motherfucker! A few turtles are not as good as a dog! I remember when I was living with me."

Luo Sankui didn't care much, patted the courtyard door and shouted: "Brother Desheng, it's me, Sankui!"

After a while, the door opened, and the person who opened the door was a middle-aged man, although he was only in his 30s, but because of his rough and dark skin, he looked like a man in his forties.A pair of small black and bright eyes are embedded in the black and red square face, and there is a mustache on his lips, which makes him look very shrewd.

Wu Desheng saw that it was Luo Sankui, and smelled the alcohol in his mouth, so he said angrily, "What are you looking for?"

Luo Sankui walked into the yard, whispered to Wu Desheng's ear for a long time, Wu Desheng's small eyes rolled, and after listening, he asked Luo Sankui to call a bamboo sedan chair to wait, and went into the house and told his family that he wanted to go out. He changed his clothes, went out and sat in a sedan chair, and was led to the place by Luo Sankui.

After meeting Xu Dayong and Wu Desheng, he saw that this person was wearing a gray poplin gauze gown and a black test silk mandarin jacket, which was buttoned up neatly. He looked like a man working in a government office. .He asked the waiter to clean up the leftovers on the table and served the dishes again, and then he started talking with Wu Desheng.

At this time, Wu Desheng had completely lost the appearance of cursing people in his own yard. After hearing Xu Dayong's narration of the incident last year, he rolled his eyes and said with a smile: "I heard about this incident a few days ago. Wu To be honest, my brother offended someone from the dental firm at the beginning, and it was inconvenient for him to come forward, so he came here to lie to you."

Xu Dayong was taken aback, and asked quickly, Wu Desheng said with disdain on his face: "To be honest, although the gangsters are arrogant at the moment, they are only looting along the waterways and deep mountains and old forests. If it is really those places, they are like government servants." They didn’t dare to go either. As for inside and outside Chongqing, these are nothing more than stealing people’s money and coaxing people to bet on treasures. They deceived my brother that he came from a foreign country, so they don’t understand the power of it.”

When Xu Dayong heard this, he scolded his mother angrily.Wu Desheng took a sip of his wine, and continued: "Since my brother found me through Sankui, there is actually some business to do, but I need to take care of some servants, and I have to pay for the profit that should be given to the dental practice. It is natural for them to come forward. Won't come looking for trouble."

Xu Dayong said: "Brother Wu, I heard from Sankui that you used to be an errand in the county government, why did you lose your errand?"

Wu Desheng glanced at Luo Sankui, he knew that if he wanted to do recruiting business with Xu Dayong, he had to let people know about himself.So he sighed and said, "This is all the trouble caused by the contract."

All walks of life in Chongqing in the Qing Dynasty had to undertake government errands, that is, corvee apportionment, and almost no one was spared.

These errands can be roughly divided into three categories, all of which need to be paid by the shops.The first category is the fixed engineering projects of the county government, such as repairing the large and small yamen and even the city wall; the second category is the military and state affairs, such as the two successive conquests of Jinchuan, the size of Jinchuan, the collection of civilian husbands, horses and cattle, and related expenses; the third category is the welcome of officials at all levels. deliver.For example, when Fukang'an came to Chongqing to inspect, the deacon's fee and husband's fee alone cost as much as 89 Wen.

Although the burden is heavy and it is fearful to take on job assignments, with the full support and protection of the government, merchants in Chongqing can monopolize their operations in the name of accepting assignments, and can also control prices in the name of accepting assignments.

For example, if a seller of mountain goods wants to sell Cantonese goods, he must pay another commission.Otherwise, you will have to be sued by the government, and you will definitely lose.

The same is true for dental shops. Each dental shop has a fixed business location, and according to regulations, it is not allowed to go to other people's land to mix.In the common practice in Chongqing, the commissioned money of the dental office is contracted by the book offices of the county government, and then subcontracted to the lower levels.If the annual tax is insufficient, the scribes will pay in advance.

Because Wu Desheng contracted the dental office, he saw that the advanced taxes were too much to bear, so he gritted his teeth and joined others to open a "Jinfenghang" in other places, which violated the rule of "illegal manipulation".Later, he was sued to the county government and charged with "secretly colluding with one bureau, two posts and one line, and occupying the street". In the end, he was ordered to be dismissed by the county magistrate of Ba County. silver.

Xu Dayong finished listening in a daze, and asked, "Then if I'm in the business of grain and cotton cloth, will I have to pay two commissions?"

Wu Desheng shook his head and said: "Not only that, each has its own rules. The food store sells goods for one stone, the dental store draws six cents of silver, four cents are used for business, and two cents are used for running errands. The cotton store takes one roll of cloth for the old rule. Two money, two points are taken from the second money to help the bank account. In short, the money is paid when the bank is opened, or the money is deducted when the transaction is made, or the money is paid quarterly."

Xu Dayong's head got bigger the more he listened, thinking why there are so many rules in the big fart place, he couldn't help frowning.

Wu Desheng guessed what he was thinking, so he said: "I don't know something, my brother. Ba County is located along the main road along the river, and there are many errands. Do you know how many yamen servants there are in the local county government?"

"Two 300 people?"

"There are three out of one hundred rated, and the actual number is no less than five thousand!"

I go!Xu Dayong almost fell off the stool, and there are five thousand servants in a county government.However, he didn't know that in the history of another time and space, at the end of Jiaqing, there were as many as 7000 government servants in Ba County, ranking No.1 in the country!
There is a saying in the local area that "if the head is changed for the juren, the juren will pay a thousand silver", which shows that the yamen servants are very profitable.

After that, Wu Desheng asked Xu Dayong about the purpose and quantity of recruiting trackers. Xu Dayong talked about his Zhuangzi in northern Jiangsu, and vaguely mentioned his territory in Jeju Island, meaning that he wanted to recruit a large number of people to farm and herd. .

Wu Desheng felt strange, so he asked why he went to Sichuan to recruit people when he could recruit people along the coast.

Xu Da used this to pretend to be surprised, and asked, "Dude, don't you know the big iron boats in Beihai Town? They lure people everywhere along the coast of Shandong and northern Jiangsu, and the price of recruiting people in the north is extremely high. Listen next." Said that there are many refugees in Sichuan, so I came here to recruit them."

Although Wu Desheng is in the inland, he has heard it mentioned occasionally by merchants.However, no matter how fiercely Beihai Town fought outside the pass, the impact on the provinces in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River was not serious.The most sensational thing in Chongqing is that in the 51st year of Qianlong's reign, General E Hui of Chengdu led troops northward to fight against the thieves, but he never returned. The news came back half a year later that he died in battle.

A large number of refugees gathered in central Sichuan, which not only brought many problems to the local social security in Chongqing, but also affected the lives of ordinary people.Now that someone recruits these people out of Sichuan, and can make a fortune from it, Wu Desheng is naturally willing to do it.So he asked: "The leaders of the trackers are very familiar with me, and I can invite them tomorrow. But what about the price?"

Xu Dayong said: "Each person will pay [-] Wen for settling down, and other expenses will be paid separately. Those who are willing to bring their family members are even better, so as not to have to help them find women over there."

Wu Desheng shook his head and said, "Two thousand Wen is too much, but five hundred Wen is enough. And how will the people be transported away? Who will ship?"

Xu Dayong was overjoyed, he didn't expect the settling fee in Sichuan Province to be so cheap, he clasped his fists and said, "I need my brother's help in this matter. When we arrive in Xiangyang and Hankou, there will be people from the Cao Gang to take care of us."

Wu Desheng raised his eyes to look at Xu Dayong, and thought that this person had such a good relationship with the Cao Gang and could help in human trafficking.After pondering for a while, he slowly made a suggestion.

His opinion is that in order to achieve such a large-scale population transfer without being noticed by the government, it must be covered up with superficial commercial activities.Therefore, Xu Dayong had to set up two or three local commercial firms. One was to transport cotton and cotton cloth from the south of the Yangtze River, and the other was to buy rice from the local area and sell it to Hankou.Then through the local boat gang, in the name of hiring boatmen and trackers, the trackers stranded in Chongqing can be gradually transported to Hankou or Xiangyang.

　There are things at home, and I really can't finish writing.Feel sorry.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)