Chapter 123
On weekdays, the Xue family can't be called "widely friendly" in the alley, but they don't have any grudges. The He family is richer than most families in this alley, and I heard they have contacts with the government. However, the Xue family does not "use their power to bully others", and they are all very kind, both master and slave.
Zhang Yu watched the police nervously and saw someone knocking on the door and shouting loudly: "Police! Open the door!"
Then there was the sound of the door being opened, scoldings, shouts and women's cries mixed together in the night. After a while, Mr. Chain, although his expression was relatively calm, his complexion was frighteningly gray. Behind him, his wives, concubines, and children were all crying. Zhang Yu couldn't bear to watch anymore and slipped back to bed, secretly wondering: What's going on? What kind of law did Mr. Xue break, and the Australians suddenly wanted to arrest him?
Xue Guirong was caught and suddenly interrogated in the city bureau overnight, and all of them were arrested before midnight. He didn't expect that he would be caught, and even tried to "talk to Mu Min" before starting the interrogation. He still adheres to the old concept, thinking that the Australian police put up such a big battle because they thought he was not "filial" and took the opportunity to extort money. However, Mu Min's few words told him that he was completely wrong.
"...I know that hiring gangsters and thugs is commonplace for you. You also hire people, and your opponents also hire people. If you kill someone, you can buy someone else's life. This has been an old rule for many years. The government doesn't care." Mu Mu. Min said, "However, now the world is dominated by the Senate, and this old rule is not tolerated."
Mu Min walked slowly in the interrogation room: "The Senate will let things go in the past. But if something like this happens again now, you can't just buy a few lives to take the blame and get over it. As for you, Hiring gangsters, committing crimes in the city, attacking public and private institutions, in our Song Dynasty, it was a gathering of people to riot, which is equivalent to rebellion..."
These four words "equal to rebellion" made Xue Guirong go to pieces. Rebellion was a major crime that implicated the nine tribes. If his hands and feet hadn't been handcuffed to the chair, he would have been lying on the ground kowtowing like a fool.
If it were still the Ming Dynasty, he wouldn't be so nervous. The officials of the Ming Dynasty were always good at talking big words and making small money. When trying to extort people's money, they dare to say scary things even if it's a trivial matter. A golden bell can often frighten good people to the point of peeing and losing their fortune.
The dental industry is a special industry that is closely attached to the government, so this system is useless to them. The more serious your words are, the more you realize that you actually don’t have many cards to play. After some haggling, you can always compromise at a price that is acceptable to both parties. Qianli is an official just for money. As long as the demands are not too excessive, Yaxing will naturally satisfy the officials' demands. After all, the two parties mostly use each other.
If the Australians still follow the Ming Dynasty's official tactics, then they will naturally follow the same tactics as in the past: imprison the "prisoners" who have surrendered, release the beggars they have caught, and then send people to "dispute" with them: How much? Public expenses, how much private expenses, are twelve lives enough...
To arrest him directly is to enter the "judicial process" - although there is no such term in ancient times, it is also known that "one word enters the public domain, and nine cows can't turn around". Once a person enters the yamen, it will cost a lot of money to exercise in private.
Xue Guirong knew that Mu Min was not an empty threat, and he was immediately frightened out of his mind. He begged for mercy repeatedly, and in three strokes, he completely eliminated Yaxing's plan to give the rice merchants "a little color". Mu Min had received instructions from Lin Baiguang in advance, asking her to collect as much information about dental clinics from Xue Guirong. So I asked carefully.
Guangzhou's dental shops are large in scale and involve many industries. In theory, all goods entering the city must pass through the hands of dental merchants. However, in actual operation, Yahang has inconsistent control over the circulation of various commodities. Salt, which is also a staple consumer product, has almost no influence. This is not only because of the decline of official salt and the proliferation of private salt, but also because most of the private salt dealers are "evil lords" who are not afraid of death, let alone The hired thugs, even the officers and soldiers, would use their swords and guns whenever they disagreed. Moreover, the consumption of salt is limited and its absolute value is not high, so the dental industry is not interested in making great efforts to monopolize it.
Another example is vegetables, which are indispensable to the people every day: the wholesale of vegetables in the city is now monopolized by the Guandi Temple people. Whenever farmers go to the city to sell vegetables, they have to change hands - in fact, the Guandi Temple people do not have tooth stickers issued by the government, they are "wild teeth". To make farmers surrender and obey orders, they have to resort to violent means. Naturally, Yaxing didn’t dare to fight.
In addition, since a large number of officials and gentry are involved in the lucrative overseas trade, almost all sea trade merchants have a "big threshold" as a backer, and they only have a few scraps to eat.
Mu Min learned during the interrogation that Yahang basically bullied the weak and feared the strong. Whenever there were a large number of officials and gentry involved in a certain trade industry or there were powerful gangs like private salt dealers, they were often unable to effectively use the benefits provided by the government. Monopoly power. Generally speaking, it is a standard parasitic industry.
As for human teeth, dental teeth... Although these dental professionals can be considered a part of the dental industry, due to their humble status and many industry secrets, they are actually in another industry, and there is a deep gap between them and these upper-level dental dealers. Xue Guirong knew very little about them and could not provide any useful information.
After He Guirong was taken into custody, the entire police station was dispatched and immediately began to search for relevant personnel. When it was daybreak, many people involved in the case related to the dental industry were caught from their beds and taken to the detention center. Mu Min sent people to separately interrogate them. At the same time, the police were ordered to seize the properties of the persons involved:
"The family members and slaves of the persons involved in the case will all be sent to Gongyuan for temporary detention. Send people to seal up their houses, properties, shops and warehouses to prevent anyone from taking advantage of the chaos! Pay attention to the family members, important servants and masters of the persons involved in the case to prevent anyone from escaping. Or commit suicide!”
Although the legal system of the Senate is "not implicated", in such a case, it is almost impossible not to involve his family and slaves - after all, this is an era of "family and world". From the emperor down to the common people, no one is exempt from vulgarity. When it comes to stolen money and stolen goods, it is almost impossible to have nothing to do with family members and servants.
The leading figure in Yahang was destroyed overnight, causing great waves in the city of Guangzhou. Immediately following, there was a notice from the Guangzhou Special Municipal Government banning tooth shops.
The notice announced: From now on, except for daily service intermediaries such as Fangya and Renya, which can obtain business licenses from the city government to continue operating, all dental shops in counties under the jurisdiction of Guangzhou Prefecture that involve the circulation of goods will be cancelled. Dental stickers issued by the Ministry, Guangzhou government, county government and other levels of government are all invalid. Goods can be freely circulated after paying taxes according to regulations. No business or individual shall be left in trouble.
As soon as the announcement came out, the merchants who had been oppressed immediately felt proud. The doorways of dental merchants everywhere were suddenly crowded with merchants from other places who came to ask for payment and inventory. Suddenly, incidents of tooth dealers being beaten and goods being robbed were heard everywhere. Fortunately, Mu Min was somewhat prepared and strengthened patrols in the streets where tooth shops and residents were densely packed, and stopped the riot in time.
Immediately afterwards, notices about cleaning up the teeth appeared on the city government bulletin board and the "Yangcheng Express". Aftercare notices are posted by the Yaxing Aftercare Office. The tooth trade involves a wide variety of trade goods and involves many traders. Moreover, Lin Baiguang already knew from the interrogation materials that since the tooth shop was a "white wolf" business, it was very common for the merchants to misappropriate their payment and goods. Some dental dealers live a luxurious life and have huge daily expenses, which have actually resulted in a huge deficit. Once you start cleaning up afterward. It was bound to involve a lot of legal issues, so Liu Xiang decided to let the Guangzhou Circuit Court of the Ministry of Justice take the lead, and the Bureau of Commerce and Trade and Delong Bank cooperate to deal with the aftermath.
"Mu Min just arrests people, and I'll leave the aftermath to you." Liu Xiang said to Liang Xinhu, "We have to get this done!"
"Understood." Liang Xinhu nodded solemnly, "Since I came to Guangzhou on my own initiative, I naturally have to make achievements."
"I have already said hello to the Cheka and will transfer some auditors to you. In addition, you can also call on the old officials retained by the households at will. They are more familiar with this kind of old-fashioned accounts and know better the tricks inside." Liu Xiang said , "Yaxing is a small power group, let's practice with it first. There are more things waiting for you to 'handle them according to the law.'"
Liang Xinhu understood it and as soon as the announcement was made, he had already arrived at the city police station. Subsequently, the police once again mobilized in full force to seal down all dental shops and warehouses in the city. A notice is issued: Dental dealers are required to report to the aftermath office within three days and hand over old dental stickers and related account books. Tooth dealers, their families, servants, and clerks are not allowed to leave the city. Wait for the aftermath to be dealt with. Anyone who refuses to report, absconds, or transfers property will have all property confiscated.
This thunder blow was clean and crisp. The tooth merchants in the city were in chaos, and by the time they realized it, they were all under control. Some people knew that Xue Guirong and his group were conspiring to deal with the rice merchants, and they couldn't help but scold him for "not succeeding enough but failing more than he failed." Some people who have heard about the "strict laws" of the Australians are worried that their family will suffer a huge loss and may not be spared. Thinking of the various "cruel" punishments in the legend of the Australians, they may not be able to survive the torture, and some of them will commit suicide by throwing themselves into the ring. .
Businessmen everywhere were naturally celebrating: they were fed up with the tooth merchants' arrogance and their years of profits being misappropriated. Now the Australians not only vented their anger, but also abolished the dental dealer system. We also have to clear up the dental dealer's debt, how could this not make them happy! For a time, all the major restaurants in Guangzhou were drinking wine and prostitutes, and there was laughter and laughter everywhere.
However, in one day and one night, some people in Guangzhou were happy and some were sad. (To be continued.).
