The public security in Bianliang has improved a lot recently.
Kaifeng Mansion and the Imperial City Division used all their firepower to crack down on gangsters in the city, causing a large number of gangsters to go underground.
At the same time, every government and department posted notices one after another. The notice posted by Kaifeng Prefecture was aimed at the gang members, telling them that only the chief culprits would be punished, and the rest of the gang would be dealt with lightly as long as they surrendered.
The notice issued by the Imperial City Division is aimed at the people of Bianliang. Reporting on gangsters will be rewarded, concealment will be treated as accomplices, and Wuyou Cave, Guifan Tower, etc. will be dealt with severely.
At this moment, Jiang Dalang was sitting on the boat. This burly man was shirtless and had several bandages. He was sitting in the stern of the boat with an expressionless face, closing his eyes and meditating.
This boat is not traveling in a river, but in an underground canal. It was pitch black all around, with no candles or sources of light. The only brightness was a kerosene lamp hanging on the bow of the ship. The light was swaying as the ship was rocking.
The water in the ditch was dirty and turbid, exuding a foul odor. There were more than ten people lying on each boat. These were all the above-ground forces affiliated with Guifan Tower. This time, the ground was damaged and they were forced to move underground.
Jiang Dalang cooperated with Zhao Jun to eliminate a Wuyoudong branch last month. Because Wuyoudong was wiped out, no one knew his role in it, so Zhao Jun arranged to be one of the undercover agents who went underground.
There is far more than one such undercover agent. Jiang Dalang has now joined the Imperial City Division and has become a casual team leader. Even with his authority, he only knows three teammates who came down together.
He smelled the unbearable stench and waited quietly for the ship to dock.
After about ten minutes, the boat finally swayed close to the shore. It was a wide underground cave with densely built buildings. There was even a small pier beside the underground river, full of boats.
The buildings on the river beach and near the cave are actually some wooden houses or stone houses. Jiang Dalang knew that this was the outskirts of Guifan Tower. He had been inside several times before.
Compared with the above-ground Fan Tower, the underground Guifan Tower is far less luxurious. It is just an underground street with a ghost market on the periphery. There is a two-story building in the innermost part, which is the core of the Guifan Tower.
At this time, there were more than twenty or thirty ships parked on the pier. Some of them had just arrived and were taken off the ship, while others were simply parked. There were several wooden houses on the pier, and everyone was queuing up to register; even if they came down , you also need an acquaintance inside to pick you up.
"Da Lang!"
When Jiang Dalang and several brothers got off the boat, a middle-aged fat man walked towards them.
This person is a helmsman under Guifan Tower, nicknamed Fatty Huang.
People who travel in the world usually don't tell their real names. Jiang Dalang was also a disciple of Fatty Huang, so he could join Guifan Tower and use Guifan Tower as a backer to find his son from Wuyou Cave.
Seeing that it was Fatty Huang who came to greet him in person, Jiang Dalang quickly said: "Brother, why are you here in person? Just let Ergou come."
Fatty Huang smiled bitterly and said, "The two dogs were captured."
"Forehead"
Jiang Dalang saw that there were only a few people around Fatty Huang, and he immediately understood the reason.
As an underground gang, Guifanlou is headed by the owner of the building, but there are rudders and supervisors below who are responsible for the various areas of Bianliang.
The poster rarely shows up on weekdays. The main important things are headed by the left and right whip poles, followed by the sub-rudders of each area, as well as the stewards responsible for each street and city.
There are also open and covert fights among the helmsmen and supervisors above, competing for each other's territory and positions. As long as the poster pays a fixed amount every year, no matter how fierce the fight is, the bosses will not interfere, so the various helmsmen will recruit troops and seize the territory.
Obviously, Fatty Huang's power was seriously damaged in this government raid, and Jiang Dalang was his most effective man on the outside. Therefore, after learning that Jiang Dalang was also forced to move down from above, he immediately came to greet him in person.
"Stop talking about this, Dalang, you will be my red palm stick from now on, just follow me around for now."
Fatty Huang waved.
"good."
Jiang Dalang nodded and went directly to Fatty Huang without registering.
Fatty Huang's power was damaged, but as the helmsman, he was second only to the original poster, and the left and right whip sticks and left and right flag bearers beside him. There were only advantages and no disadvantages to following him.
Soon, under the leadership of Fatty Huang, Jiang Dalang was not placed on the outside like others, but passed through the outside area and went inside.
There are now a large number of people on the periphery. Many people from the periphery of Guifan Tower have come down, plus the victims who were previously controlled by Guifan Tower and the people in the original underground area. There are probably thousands of people bustling there, and the management is very chaotic.
Jiang Dalang and his party went over and saw several fights taking place. The streets and alleys of shantytowns and wooden houses are full of vicious gangsters, watching everyone who comes in with vigilance and greed.
There was a large-scale blockade in the above-ground world. The Imperial City Division and Kaifeng Mansion arrested at least thousands of people during this period. A large number of gang members were forced to move underground, so that the place was overcrowded.
When there are more people, violence is inevitable. The main reason is that the actions of Kaifeng Mansion and the Imperial City Division are too fast, leaving many people with no time to carry supplies. Under the original situation of tight supplies, in order to fight for resources, they have to fight. .
"It's not too chaotic now. If Kaifeng Mansion and the Imperial City Division are still arresting people here and there in a while, there will be big problems down there when the food reserves are not enough."
Fatty Huang whispered to Jiang Dalang: "The poster asked the remaining people above to secretly transport supplies below. I hope it can last a little longer."
"Are we going to the main building now?"
Jiang Dalang asked.
"No, let's go to Ghost Street first."
Fatty Huang took him all the way to the depths.
The ghost street is located between the outer perimeter and the main building, with long and narrow underground river passages on both sides, as compact and cramped as a tomb passage.
There are various passages on the left and right sides. Someone has dug many large and small caves underground. Some people sleep in them. It is dark inside, and occasionally you can hear various strange noises.
After walking for two or three miles, the front finally opened up a little. I don't know who dug a huge cave underground, and the surrounding terrain connected together to form a street market.
In addition to the passage they came from, this market is criss-crossed and extends in all directions. There are at least a dozen passages to get here. There is only one straight street in the block, which is probably less than 200 meters long. There are wooden houses on the left and right sides, and there are stalls on the ground. .
All kinds of people walk through it. This is the ghost street, also known as the ghost market, which is the trading area of Ghost Fanlou. In addition to here, there is also a ghost market on the ground, which is much more prosperous than underground, and most of the items sold are contraband.
And the people who do the most underground business are people.
After all, Guifanlou was a gangster organization famous for abducting women and children in history. Human trafficking was naturally their main source of income.
Jiang Dalang saw that there were many cages on the stalls, and women and children in ragged clothes were imprisoned inside, forming a slave market.
I have seen these things many times since I joined Guifan Tower, so I am quite familiar with them.
He silently swore in his heart that if he could do this internal response work well, he would lead his brothers from the Imperial City Division to kill him and destroy everything here.
Fatty Huang led more than a dozen of them through the ghost streets and walked into a basement. The air inside was turbid and smelly, and it felt like it could make people unable to open their eyes.
There were many people gathered outside the door, sitting, squatting or standing.
Seeing Fatty Huang coming, someone outside the door said: "Only two people are allowed."
Fatty Huang nodded, waved his hand and walked down with Jiang Dalang and another red-pole palm stick.
It turns out that Jiang Dalang is a yellow pole palm stick and a peripheral thug. But now that Fatty Huang's power has suffered heavy losses, he can only be brought to the core.
After all, there was constant fighting within Guifan Tower, and his power might be absorbed by others, so he had to take this step.
The three people entered the inner passage, walked about ten meters, passed through the two-story outer room, and arrived at an inner room. The room was filled with candles and torches, and the smell of kerosene hit their faces.
There were already some people sitting inside, all of whom looked fierce, honest, calm, or indifferent. They were all middle-aged men in their thirties or forties.
These are the leaders of Guifanlou in various areas in Bianliang. There are eleven people in total, but there are only five sitting here now.
The rest either haven't arrived or have been captured.
The current situation is not optimistic for Gui Fanlou.
Fatty Huang put on a smile and greeted everyone before sitting down in his seat.
Jiang Dalang and another person stood behind him, one on the left and one on the right.
After a while, three more people came in one after another. It was not until the last man with a scar on his face walked in quickly that everyone changed their expressions to serious expressions.
"Left palm whip."
Everyone stood up to greet him.
That person is one of the spokespersons of the original poster, left and right whip stick.
In the Song Dynasty, all government officials used water and fire sticks. Productivity was insufficient at that time. Although iron tools were popular, it was difficult for ordinary people to obtain knives because of the government's control of salt and iron.
Therefore, in the early Song Dynasty, even these underground evil forces did not have many knives, and they all used sticks like the yamen people.
In the middle of the Song Dynasty, the situation gradually stabilized, the handicraft manufacturing industry developed, and the number of knives increased. But the previous names and habits are still retained, such as palm whip, palm pole, palm stick and so on.
The double-flowered red sticks of later underworld groups are derivatives of the names of underworld groups such as Wuyoudong, Guifanlou, Hongmen, and Qinggang in the Song, Ming and Qing dynasties.
Zuo Palm Whip sat down directly on the top chair, looked around and said, "How is the situation in each of your branches?"
"It's not good. Half of our team was captured and left."
"We ran pretty fast. Only a few people were arrested, but we didn't bring much with us."
"I heard that Zhang Laosan and Xie Jiu were taken away, and our position here will also be exposed. What should we do now? Do we want to leave the ghost street?"
"Zhang Whip, what did the host say? Can you distribute some food first? We didn't bring much with us when we ran down."
Everyone was talking in different directions, and everyone was gloomy.
Their headquarters is underground, but their respective branches are above ground. Now that they have been destroyed, their strength has been reduced sharply.
Moreover, I was in a hurry when I ran down, and I didn’t bring much food. I was afraid that I would be unable to get up, and by that time everyone might suffer.
"Don't panic."
The left palm whip said in a deep voice: "The host will find a way to deliver food, you just have to wait patiently."
Jiang Dalang's heart moved.
What the other party said was to find a way to deliver food.
This shows that the original poster may still be up there.
"As for here."
He knocked on the table with his left palm whip and said: "There are still many whistles outside, so you don't have to worry. When the food comes down in a while, if there is any action from the government, the host will notify everyone to disperse."
"That's good."
"With the landlord's arrangements, we can rest assured."
"The original poster is still thoughtful."
Everyone nodded.
Jiang Dalang crossed his arms and thought expressionlessly.
I was lucky today. When I first arrived, I encountered Fatty Huang, whose power was damaged. He was drawn into the core group of thugs to act as a left and right bodyguard.
I overheard this information again, and then I tried to find a way to send the information out and see how Chisi responded.
"With the whip, if we provoke the government so much, will they continue to arrest people?"
A helmsman said.
"Provoking the government?"
The left palm whip wondered: "What are you provoking the government for?"
Although they are domineering in front of the people, the so-called poster is not even a grandson in front of those seventh- and eighth-grade judges in Kaifeng Prefecture.
Now even the protective umbrella behind the poster has been completely captured, and the poster has long been scared out of his mind.
At present, the entire Wuyoudong, Guifanlou and other underground forces are shrinking, hoping that the wave of severe crackdowns by Kaifeng Mansion and Imperial City Division will pass quickly. After the news is gone, they will come out again. How can they still dare to provoke the government?
The helmsman said: "I came down this morning. Last night I heard that we and the people from Wuyou Cave tore up government notices and posted new ones, threatening the people and not allowing them to reveal our whereabouts to the government. I thought this was It’s the landlord’s order.”
"What?"
When Palm Whip heard this, he was shocked and said: "It's impossible, the host didn't arrange for anyone to go there at all."
"I've also heard about this. It's causing quite a fuss."
Fatty Huang frowned and said, "It was said by some of my new brothers who came down from above. I heard that Fan Zhongyan of Kaifeng Prefecture and Si Lei, the governor of the Imperial City, were furious and said that they would continue to clean up the people on the ground on a large scale in a few days. What should I do if I want to execute the captured brother in public in the eastern suburbs?"
When Palm Whip learned about this, he immediately stood up from his chair and said, "How could this happen? No, I have to tell the poster."
After that, he walked out directly.
Many Gui Fanlou were left at the helm, all looking at each other.
If the poster didn't do this, who did it?
Although it is a bit confusing, there is nothing we can do about it. This time, two events are foreshadowing at the same time, so it seems a bit confusing, but everyone believes that the protagonist will solve the problem very quickly and it will not take too long.
(End of chapter)
