The Si River is a large river in Shandong and one of the main water sources in the Shandong section of the Grand Canal. It flows from the northeast of Yanzhou to the southwest and connects with the Grand Canal across the river at Nanyang Lake in the south of Jining.
The river is wide and cannot be crossed except at the wharf. Because it is close to the capital city, there are constant businessmen coming and going, so it is busy day and night.
When Chang Yu rested at the ferry, Kuang Ren strolled on the pier to observe. Seeing that the river was wide and the water was too fast to cross without a ferry, he asked someone for a price. The man casually made a price. Kuang Ren curled his lips and said, "There are many of us." , can we discuss it?".
"Then you have to discuss it with our leader." The big man looked Kuang Ren up and down: "A military master or a good man?"
Kuang Ren didn't answer the question and just asked where the boss is. The big man pointed to an awning next to the ferry. There were several big men under the awning. One of them was lying down half-lying on a watermelon with a fan in hand.
"Boss, there are more than 60 of us who have horses to cross the river. Can we discuss the price?" Kuang Ren walked to the shed, cupped his hands, and asked straight to the point.
The dark man glanced at him casually: "Twenty taels."
Hey, Kuang Ren took a breath, this was too expensive, and muttered: "It's a money grab."
"Fuck! I'm open for business, who's going to steal the money?" The big man's ears were very sharp. Hearing this, he stood up angrily and pointed his fan at Kuang Ren's head: "If you cross, you will pay money, if you don't cross, you will get out."
Kuang Ren also got angry: "Since we are open for business, we can negotiate, but there is no fixed price like this..." Before he could finish his words, the big man interrupted him: "Since you don't want a fixed price, I'll let you know. One price, fifty taels, get out of here!" The men behind him burst into laughter.
Kuang Ren's face was livid, and he smiled angrily: "Sure enough, a hero comes from Shandong! If he couldn't rob it openly, he robbed it secretly!"
These words immediately caused a stir, and the big man was furious: "Why don't you call us robbers?" As he spoke, he pushed Kuang Ren and staggered. Several of Kuang Ren's men immediately stepped forward and shouted. He scolded: "You bitch, you are so lawless."
The big man saw a few people with their guys, but he was not afraid at all. He raised his arms and shouted: "Brothers, someone is ruining their jobs."
With this call, all the men, women, and children on the dock rushed over. There were hundreds of them, and in the blink of an eye, they surrounded Kuang Ren and the others.
Kuang Ren and others quickly drew their swords: "I am an officer and a soldier, you can't rebel if you want!"
At the same time, Chang Yu, who discovered the situation, also ran over with his men holding a knife, shouting: "Spread out, spread out!"
Faced with Chang Yu's menacing momentum, the people on the dock showed no fear at all, and showed no willingness to give way. They still surrounded Kuang Ren and others and refused to let Chang Yu pass.
Chang Yu drew his sword and shouted angrily: "Are you going to watch the dock become a river of blood?"
"Come on, give it a try if you have the guts!" the dark man choked from afar. Chang Yu raised his eyebrows and thought to himself, why is he so tough?
"I only want to ask you one thing, are you a bandit or a civilian? If you are a civilian, it will be easy to talk. If the thieves want to kill officials and rebel, then I really have to give it a try." Chang Yu snorted coldly, and dozens of guards came out behind him. With sword and bow drawn, he would kill without hesitation as soon as he was given an order.
The swarthy man finally changed his expression. Chang Yu and his group of unusual officers and soldiers were all fierce soldiers who had waded through the mountains of blood and corpses. The murderous aura in his body was not something ordinary people could bear.
"We are all good citizens, so don't blame us!" The big man snorted.
"Since you are a good citizen, you can make a living, so why do you gather people to make trouble?" Chang Yu put his sword back into its sheath, took a step forward and pushed away the person who was blocking the way, and slowly approached, and the crowd automatically moved out of the way.
"We want to do business well, but we don't allow others to bully us." The big man looked at the young man in front of him, and his heart was full of doubts.
"Being bullied by others?" Chang Yu curled his lips and said, "Officers and soldiers dare to touch you. Who dares to bully you? If you don't bully others on weekdays, it's considered a good deed."
"We are not thieves, why should we bully others!" The big man yelled angrily. Chang Yu glanced around with a sneer. He saw that there were men, women, old and young around him. Their faces were dark and yellow, and they looked like poor people, so he felt something in his heart: "White Lotus Sect?"
"Don't blame us. The White Lotus Sect kills officials and rebels, but we are not the ones!" The big man took a step forward and looked at Chang Yu: "If you want to take action, you don't need to find so many reasons. I will stay with you until the end." Our grain boat gang is never afraid of trouble."
Grain boat gang! Chang Yu was stunned!
They are indeed not thieves, but they are gangsters! No wonder you are so arrogant!
The Liangchuan Gang was the predecessor of the Cao Gang and later the Qing Gang. The disciples took water transport as their profession, and many people joined the gang from all over the country.
The Cao Gang was officially named during the Yongzheng period. At this time, it was also called the Liangcao Gang or Luo Jiao.
The founder of Luo Jiao is called Luo Qing. He was originally a water transport officer who served in Miyun and converted to Buddhism. He retired from the army and studied Buddhism for 13 years. He established Luo Jiao and preached among the boatmen and fishermen at the water transport terminal. Almost all the people who made a living on the waterways were him. of believers.
Therefore, the Caogang at this time was both a gang organization and a religious organization, and it had a great influence at the time.
But Chang Yu was not wrong about one thing. The Luo Jiao actually absorbed a lot of the teachings of the White Lotus Sect. To some extent, the nature is the same. The difference is that the White Lotus Sect likes to rebel, while the followers of the Luo Jiao prefer to be gangsters. Blackie.
No wonder they were so awesome. It turned out to be the local black society. Chang Yu just realized that this was the era when the grain shipping gang was developing rapidly. It was very powerful in Beizhili and Shandong and then followed the canal towards Jiangsu and Zhejiang. , Jiangxi and other regions developed, and eventually became the largest gang in the world. Because Luo Qing's missionary work started in Zhejiang at that time, the Caogang was based in Wenzhou and Taizhou as the main gang, and the northern Anhui and Jiangbei as the guest gang.
"What's your name?" Chang Yu turned to look at the dark man and asked, cupping his hands.
Seeing the change in Chang Yu's expression, the big man thought that he was scared, and said proudly: "Wei Changde is at the gate of Si River in Yanzhou."
"Oh, I'll go," Chang Yu wiped the sweat from his forehead, really worried that he would say Qingmu Hall Wei Xiaobao.
"It turns out it's Boss Wei." Chang Yuyou raised his hand, since he was doing a good job: "Why did it end up like this?"
"Ask you," Wei Changde snorted, and then he and Kuang Ren argued about what just happened. Chang Yu's head was buzzing.
"The wording of my subordinates is slightly inappropriate, but Boss Wei's raising of prices cannot be justified. He usually does not bully the common people but only bullies our officers and soldiers. Although this approach is different in essence from the White Lotus Sect's rebellion of killing officers, it is the same in nature. This is called Zaiguan!" Chang Yu said with a half-smile.
Wei Changde snorted: "You have hundreds of people and horses. It will take time and effort to use all the ships at our wharf, and it will also delay other business. Is it expensive to charge you twenty or thirty taels of silver? You officers and soldiers usually take advantage of the people's wealth. Why are you starting to care about it when it’s your turn to spend money?” He rolled his eyes and said, “It’s a mutually agreed upon business, if you think it’s too expensive, just leave.”
"Yes, let's go, let's go, get out of here..." The people around him made a lot of noise and cursed loudly.
"I don't know whether to live or die," Kuang Ren yelled angrily.
Wei Changde's eyes turned cold: "What's the matter, are the military men still planning to buy and sell by force? If so, we are not easy to bully. Hehe, now it is understandable why the White Lotus Sect always likes to rebel."
Chang Yu grabbed Kuang Ren, who was about to take action, and he naturally heard what Wei Changde meant: If you use force, the officials will force the people to rebel. This left him speechless and helpless.
The reason why Caobang is so confident is that in addition to its own strength, it also naturally needs the protective umbrella of the local government. It is said that the big Heisehui in the past has no backstage or protective umbrella.
The reason why he dared to speak so loudly to the officers and soldiers was that the officers and soldiers at this time were too bad, too weak, and too cowardly. When encountering a small group of officers and soldiers, they would not sit down and raise prices even if they did not feel sorry for themselves.
It's just that this time he looked away and didn't know that the officers and soldiers in front of him were actually the most powerful soldiers in the Ming Dynasty.
But although Chang Yu was annoyed, he couldn't use force, otherwise he would be no different from Liu Zeqing and others and bandits.
So I couldn't help but sigh, thousands of troops and horses, mountains of corpses and seas of blood rushed over, but they were stumped by a bunch of local snakes.
"Business requires harmony to make money. No matter how powerful your grain boat gang is, you can only beg for food in the rivers and lakes, and this food depends on whether the government will give you food. If they give you food, you have to be filial. If they don't give you food, you have to be filial. First, consider whether you dare to rebel like the White Lotus Sect!"
Just when Chang Yu was at a loss what to do, Wu Zhong rubbed his sleepy eyes and slowly walked over with a knife, walking straight towards Wei Changde. A big man wanted to stop him with his hand, but he raised his foot and kicked him away. Everyone was furious. When he was about to pounce, he saw a flash of cold light and the tip of the knife was already under Wei Changde's neck.
The rest of the crowd was in an uproar, not daring to act rashly, and shouted and cursed one after another.
"No!" Chang Yu quickly shouted to stop him. He was afraid that Wuzhong would really be killed, which would arouse public anger and make the mess difficult to clean up.
"If you dare to kill me, you will never cross this river with your life." Wei Changde was also a man, and said coldly without changing his face.
Moreover, Wu Zhong raised his chin with the tip of the knife and said with disdain: "If it weren't for the fact that I am in the government now, you and your family would really not be enough." He then put the knife back into its sheath: "Your grain gang makes a living on the river. , but have you forgotten who owns this river? With just an order from the imperial court, you will lose your livelihood. With so many people without food, should they join the mountains and become bandits, or should they imitate the White Lotus Sect and rebel?"
"There's no need to fool me." Wei Changde said, "I'm afraid even the imperial court wouldn't dare to deprive tens of thousands of people of food."
"Afraid doesn't mean you don't dare. Even your officers and soldiers dare to extort money. Why doesn't the court find someone who is obedient?" Wuzhong chuckled and said, "I know you are a local snake and you have your backers in the government." He pointed at Chang. Yu: "But your patron is not worthy of carrying our lord's shoes. Even King Lu has to be polite when he sees him. As for the Governor of Donghe, hehe, I'm afraid he can't even say a word."
The Governor of Donghe, whose full name is Henan and Shandong River Governor, is responsible for the Yellow River canal waterways in Shandong and Henan. It is said that his power is even comparable to that of the governor of Shandong. His office is located in Jining, less than a hundred miles away from Yanzhou.
After Wei Changde heard this, he narrowed his eyes and looked at Chang Yu carefully. This man was young, but he was even polite to the vassal king. Who was he?
I saw his retinue again, all of them were hunky-backed and full of murderous intent. They were definitely not ordinary warriors. Could it be that... something suddenly came to mind.
He is from the Caobang, and he can hear a lot of news from the merchants coming from north to south on the dock every day. For example, the eunuch of Dongchang who is now powerful in both the government and the public!
After several months of fermentation, Chang Yu's achievements and reputation were no longer limited to the north. At this time, even the southern Zhili people were talking about him, saying that he was brave and invincible at a young age, good at fighting and killing.
"My lord, your surname is Chang?" Wei Changde suddenly asked respectfully, clasping his fists. This reversal made his men stunned.
Chang Yu smiled bitterly. It seemed that he was so famous now that even the leader of the Black Society heard of him.
"Now that you know my name, can you cross the river with ten taels of silver?"
"Yes, yes, yes!" Wei Changde suddenly stuttered, not knowing whether it was excitement or fear.
Maybe he was excited. He had heard too many rumors about this little eunuch. Almost all the merchants going south would talk about this young eunuch who turned the tide with his own efforts. How Taiyuan defended hundreds of thousands of enemies, and the Tatars were killed outside the customs and fled in embarrassment. , King Qin of Baoding Prefecture killed millions of thieves and chased the Tatars for thousands of miles... Anyway, this man is said to be like a god or a god of war, but one thing is certain that this eunuch is very young, a boy!
Today I actually saw a real person, and I didn’t even notice the slightest bit of eunuch in him.
Maybe there is some fear, after all, the rumored little eunuch is prolific in murdering people, whether they are thieves or Tatars, no one will survive if he falls into his hands, and he loves to build the capital with human heads...
Thinking of this, Wei Changde and his ilk sweated, it was probably because the Cao Gang was powerful in Shandong and had a strong background, so when they met ordinary officers and soldiers, they would not buy it at all and would blackmail them.
That's why I said twenty taels, but in fact five taels of silver is enough.
If the rumors were true, if he had angered him just now, he might be bleeding like a river now? Wei Changde began to feel lucky that he had the eyesight.
Standing on the other side, looking at his subordinates on the dock who were busy crossing the river, Chang Yu looked slightly helpless. The eunuch of Dongchang, who was facing the invincible across the battlefield, had to rely on his reputation in order to cross the river.
But Wuzhong was even more helpless. He pretended to be in a humble position and threatened and intimidated him. After working hard for a long time, he finally couldn't live up to his reputation as an adult.
"Perhaps because of your name, we have already crossed the river?" Chang Yu joked.
Wuzhong shook his head: "They are not thieves and they are not true Jianghu people. They don't follow my tricks."
