Xian Yufang, on Yang Tai's order, brought good news to Liuxu about the surrender of Chao Tian, Shen Faxing, and Lu Yan. However, the meeting hall of the Xuanwu Gang was so mixed that Liuxu would not say it in public.
She told Xian Yufang a few words, then turned to look at the burly old man who was speaking. After Wang Nianzu's introduction, she knew that this man's name was He Ming, and he was the master of the Weishui Hall. She said: "After Hall Master He's introduction, I understood everyone's concerns: the main reason is that the big gangs have already divided up all the good business, and they do not allow any more big gangs to come and divide it. As long as a certain gang makes them feel threatened, They will join forces to suppress them and even use force to destroy the gang."
"And you are unable to resist and want to join forces, but you are afraid that after joining forces, you will be bloodbathed by several major gangs, so for the sake of everyone in the gang, you can only hide your capabilities and bide your time. Is that so?"
"Mrs. Liu, you're too polite. What you call hiding one's strength and biding time is actually just living in an ignoble way." He Ming's Weishui Hall once had its glory days, but when the Weishui League was flourishing, he relied on his extraordinary martial arts and rebellious character, and The tough backstage did not buy into the accounts of the First, Second, and Third Cao Gangs. Within half a month, 90% of the ships in the Weishui Hall disappeared under the rolling waters of the Yellow River.
After that, he was suppressed from all sides by the three major gangs. After his backstage was eliminated, he quickly declined.
In fact, He Ming is a far-sighted person. He and Wang Nianzu are not only sons and daughters, but they also thought about uniting with small and medium-sized gangs in Bashang to compete with the big gangs. However, everyone was afraid and had no choice but to do what the big gangs did not bother to do. He did odd jobs to barely maintain the livelihood of the gang members.
He had already met with his father-in-law last night. Not only did he "understand" the origin of Liuxu, he also agreed with his father-in-law to defect to the "Su family". The reason why he pretended to be ignorant and confused was actually because he came out to act when Wang Nianzu was inconvenient to speak. shill.
"You are all heroes from the past, and everyone is a hero in the world. If you rely solely on strength and intelligence, you may not be able to defeat those big gangs. The reason why we have become small gangs who are worried about this and that is that there is actually no powerful one. The mouth of the canal." Liuxu was very good at talking and gave enough face to the thirteen leaders. She continued: "What I want to tell you is that my master not only wants to use the Xuanwu Gang to build a fleet of ships that can travel all over the world. , and he is also a figure comparable to the Nine Prime Ministers of the Council. In addition, he also brought in some powerful people, and these powerful people also invested money to build this fleet, so no one has to worry about the water port and the backstage. .”
As soon as this statement came out, the whole hall burst into laughter. Not to mention Wang Tao, He Lie and other core members of the Xuanwu Gang, even the leaders of these small gangs were also surprised. They knew from the direct descendants of the Xuanwu Gang who were responsible for inviting them: The Xuanwu Gang had a noble person to help them, and this noble person was beyond words, so these leaders who were unwilling to be mediocre and unwilling to be bullied by others came.
If this noble man really has that much energy, it will ensure that they have no worries. What's the harm even if he merges into the Xuanwu Gang?
At this time, everyone was shocked to hear Liu Xu say that her master was comparable to the nine prime ministers of the Council.
At this moment, a majestic and handsome young man walked out of the back hall. He bowed his hands to everyone and said with a smile: "Gentlemen, my name is Yang Gongdao. I am the newly appointed deputy leader of the Xuanwu Gang. I will be in charge of Cao Cao in the future. Everyone is very unfamiliar with me, Yang Gongdao, but my father, King Ande, must have been heard of by everyone."
Like a thunderbolt, it exploded in everyone's ears.
Although He Ming knew that the person in the Xuanwu Gang was the Suwei family, the arrival of Yang Gongdao, the son of King Ande, still shocked him.
He Ming and others knew about the new forces injecting funds into the Xuanwu Gang. What they are most concerned about is who is the mouth of the Xuanwu Gang. Without a strong canal, even having thousands of ships is useless.
Because all the way from Yangzhou, there will be checkpoints, docks, and layers of exploitation. If you don’t have a strong backing, the more people on your boat, the more money you have on your behalf, and you will naturally be exploited layer by layer. The more powerful you are, the hard work you have to do to bring the fleet back to Daxing will be in vain, and you will not be able to maintain the huge expenses.
In the end, without the pressure of other gangs, you will collapse.
But when they heard that this young man claimed to be the son of King Ande, everyone expected that the rise of the Xuanwu Gang was just around the corner.
Everyone really doesn't know Yang Gongdao, but Ande Wang Yang Xiong is a famous name.
When the late emperor was in power, Yang Xiong, the king of Ande, was favored by the nobles and was the most favored for a while. He was called the "Four Nobles" together with Gao Jun, Yu Qingze, and Su Wei. Now he is not only one of the nine ministers of the council, but also the prince and tutor. . His son is now the deputy leader of the Xuanwu Gang. This is simply unbelievable.
When the hall gradually became quiet, Yang Gongdao continued: "Compared with Madam Liu's master, I, Yang Gongdao, am nothing. Even my father is not qualified to rely on his old age in front of him. In the future, the Xuanwu Gang will have our two families as the backing, so Caokou You don’t have to worry about this at all.”
Worry?
The Xuanwu Gang has such a big figure as a mouthpiece. Even if they have to worry about it in the future, they are also the enemies and opponents of the Xuanwu Gang.
"I would like to ask Mr. Yang, will you always be the deputy gang leader in the future?" A leader stood up and asked.
Yang Gongdao thought for a long time and said frankly: "My elders asked me to be the deputy leader of the Xuanwu Gang. For me, this is a practice and a test for me from my elders. Even if I want to continue to be the leader, The elders don’t allow it either. But I think it doesn’t matter who is the deputy gang leader in charge of Caokou. What matters is who is behind this person. Even if my elders replace me with anyone in the family now, the members of other gangs The people behind the scenes don’t dare to make things difficult for the Xuanwu Gang, do you think so?”
Everyone nodded silently!
This is indeed the truth!
In fact, Yang Gongdao is not important at all. What is important is the power behind him.
"However, although I am young, I still have a few taels of ink in my stomach. During my tenure, I will do my best to be the deputy leader of the Xuanwu Gang. Otherwise, you don't need to blame me. Lady Liu's master will also put me in a dilemma of life and death."
Yang Gongdao was Yang Xiong's concubine, the sixth eldest son, and was born in the same year as Yang Shidao. The two brothers were of the same age, had similar interests, and exchanged letters very frequently, so he not only knew that his father supported Yang Ji's treatment and tormented Yang Shidao, but also knew that Yang Shidao was extremely miserable by Yang Ji's treatment. If he can't be the deputy gang leader, his father will definitely send him to Liangzhou for training. And Yang Ji, his uncle who is a few years younger than him, will definitely try his best to deal with him and torment him.
He bowed to everyone, and then said: "I have two pieces of news to tell you. One is that the straightened canal will be opened soon, and many good docks from Yangzhou to Luoyang are ours; secondly, we have already arrived. The person in charge of Guanzhong, a shipping company in Yangzhou, placed an order with him for hundreds of large ships. These ships will be completed by the end of next year. By then, the Xuanwu Gang brothers can just rush to Yangzhou to receive the ships, and they will be able to load grain on the spot and travel along the coast. The canal goes north.”
Liu Xu knew that Yang Gongdao took office "in a critical situation" and did not know much about the Ba Shang Cao Gang, so he took over the topic and said: "There is another thing to explain. Among the various Cao Gangs, except for the gang leader, deputy leader, In addition to the elders and other high-level people, those below will be brutally eliminated as long as they are old or have no successors. As for whether they have someone to rely on when they are old and someone to support their children, no one in the gang cares about it. I am not saying that everyone does not want to care, but I know that everyone is powerless. I think this is what everyone is worried about."
"Here, I can tell you that you don't have to worry about this at all. Once the new Xuanwu Gang is established, my master will set aside some farms, and then lease the fields here to the Caoding family on a per-household and per-labor basis. Normally, His parents, wife and children farmed. In the spring and autumn, they only had to pay grain according to the court taxes, and the remaining grain belonged to them. This meant that the whole family, young and old, had something to do and income, even if there was nothing in Caoding for a year. With the income, we don’t have to worry about the family having nothing to eat.”
"And Caoding, without worries, can naturally go into battle lightly and run the fleet with heart."
For a time, everyone in the hall was talking about it.
Most of the Caoding in the Caogang in Bashang are 'floating people', 'foreign people' and 'refugees' who came to Gyeonggi to look for opportunities. As time goes by, these people have already started families. The existence of a family requires them to have a stable income to support them, but they have little education and connections, so they can only engage in the most arduous and difficult industries.
In addition, water transportation is an industry that relies on young people and coolies. All ship crews and boatmen must be young and strong people. Once a person becomes old and becomes useless, he will face the risk of unemployment. , it means that the family has lost its source of livelihood. So when Caoding was young, he was working hard to make money and save money. When his children got older, they would take them on a boat to study, and then they would continue working generation after generation.
In order to get a good piece of land, Zhang Zhongjian did not hesitate to help He Ruobi assassinate the prince Yang Ji. The purpose was to root his direct lineage in Guanzhong. As long as they had a home in Guanzhong, they would be able to do things for him without any worries.
If the girl's master was willing to take Caoding's family as tenants and servants to stabilize them, Caoding would definitely accompany her to the death. Even without coercion, many veterans on the ship can be poached.
"Your Majesty, what a great gesture!" He Ming bowed his hand to Liu Xu and said in admiration.
"This is how we always do things!" Liu Xu said with a smile.
When Wang Nianzu saw that Yang Gongdao and Liu Xu had stopped talking, he knew that it was time for him to appear. He said to the leaders: "Brothers, we are in this business for a living, but when we go boating along the rivers and coasts, there are boats at every turn. The ship capsized and both people and goods were lost. When we were crossing the border, various docks made things difficult for us and extorted us. In order to survive and to have a good meal for our whole family, we formed a gang. Li Faction matters.”
"When we form gangs, we never want to do evil or oppress good people. We want everyone to stay together for warmth, so that we can fight against dangerous rivers, corrupt officials, local tyrants, and local gangsters. But today, , the Ba Shang gang engaged in intrigues and undermined each other, and things like big fish eating fish out of water often happened."
After finishing his opening remarks, Wang Nianzu returned to the topic: "You are all people who are unwilling to be bullied by the big gangs, and you are also like-minded people with me, so I specially invited you to discuss the merger. What the deputy gang leader and Lady Liu just said , everyone has heard it, but I don’t know what you think about it?”
"We have worked hard for most of our lives to scrape together a few broken boats. If we can have a big tree to enjoy the shade, we will naturally wish for it!" A big man said: "Now that the Xuanwu Gang has such good conditions, I have no reason to refuse. outside the door."
"I have no reason to refuse." Everyone expressed their opinions.
None of the thirteen leaders present here is a fool, otherwise they would not be able to eat this knife-edge meal. They know in their hearts that the rise of the Xuanwu Gang is imminent. If they join now, they will be the elders of the new Xuanwu Gang, and their future glory and wealth will be just around the corner; If he didn't join, the Catkin Master would be able to poach all the old boatmen and Caoding from the small gang just by settling the Caoding family.
Wang Zunian nodded and said: "Since you brothers have joined the Xuanwu Gang, you can no longer take the original banner. From now on, you will be the thirteenth chief steward of the Xuanwu Gang. You are still in charge of the original men, horses and ships."
"Our top priority is to integrate internally, verify the family background, and then recruit and train new Caoding. So after you go back, you should do two things first: First, make a good count of Caoding's children for unified placement in the future; The second is to gather together the old brothers who are no longer able to run boats, and they will teach Xincao Ding boating skills, experience in resolving risks, and the year-round climate conditions of various major rivers."
Wang Nianzu added: "In our line of work, we travel around the rivers all year round. We will inevitably encounter some bandits and pirates. If you don't have the strength, you will have to be bullied and squeezed, so you can't fight with fists in a gang." No. Now that we are all united, I am going to gather the Cao Fist together and make unified arrangements when we get out of the ship."
Cao Quan is the fleet guard and thug. It has always been the top priority of each gang. Wang Nianzu's move is equivalent to taking away everyone's "military power". However, there are not many professional Cao Quan among them, so they have nothing against it. But who will be responsible for unified management of Cao Quan is something that everyone cares about.
One of the leaders raised his hands and said, "Gang leader, I wonder who will be the helmsman of Cao Fist?"
"Wu Chao!"
As Wang Nianzu shouted, a middle-aged man strode out from behind Liu Xu. Wang Nianzu nodded and introduced to everyone: "Wu Chao is the nephew of Nanchen's famous general Wu Mingche. He not only served as Nanchen's loyal general, , Sanqi Changshi, Guizhou Governor, and he participated in all the major and minor battles led by his uncle. He is a general who has experienced hundreds of battles and is proficient in land and water battles. From now on, he will be the first deputy leader of my Xuanwu Gang. The helmsman of Cao Fist!"
Wu Mingche was the first famous general in the Southern Chen Dynasty. He attacked the Northern Qi Dynasty, conquered the Western Liang Dynasty, and quelled civil strife, establishing his status as a famous general. In 573, when Emperor Chen Xuan decided to make the Northern Expedition, Shangshu Zuopu shot Xu Ling strongly recommended Wu Mingche as the commander-in-chief of the Northern Expedition. Wu Mingche then led more than 100,000 troops in the Northern Expedition. He was invincible and victorious along the way, defeating hundreds of thousands of Northern Qi troops. Occupied the Huaihe River area.
When Emperor Chen Xuan heard that the Northern Zhou Dynasty had conquered the Northern Qi Dynasty, he intended to seize the opportunity to seize the Huaibei area, so he ordered Wu Mingche to take the opportunity to go north. He killed Liang Shiyan, the famous Northern Zhou general and general manager of Xuzhou, and retreated steadily. He held on to Xuzhou City and did not dare to fight. Yu Wenyong sent Wang Gui to lead an army to assist Liang Shiyan, and they also plotted against each other. Wu Mingche suffered from a serious illness and was unable to fight, so he was captured by Wang Gui. The Northern Zhou Dynasty treated him with courtesy and made Wu Mingche the Duke of Huaide County. General. But not long after, Wu Mingche became ill from grief and anger and died of illness in Chang'an (Han Chang'an).
Wu Chao also became a prisoner of the Zhou army at that time, but due to the changes in the world, he, a general's son, had long become no different from ordinary people. In addition, he did not understand business methods, and his life was worse than that of ordinary people. However, he was eventually reduced to a tenant in the farm of Prince Wei. It was not until he was discovered by the chief steward Gongsun Huan that he slowly climbed up.
The so-called phoenix is not as good as a chicken when it falls, it is nothing more than that.
In fact, when Wang Nianzu learned about Wu Chao's origin, he was also shocked.
He didn't expect that the descendants of a pair of old enemies would be in such a state of decline, and even become a higher or lower class, which made him feel indescribable. Naturally, the purpose of introducing him to everyone at this time was not to humiliate Wu Chao, but to increase his persuasiveness and let everyone know that Wu Chao had the ability and qualifications.
Besides, as the grandson of Wang Gui of the winning side, he has become like this, so what qualifications does he have to humiliate others?
Wu Chao stepped forward and cupped his hands to Wang Nianzu: "Wu Chao has met the gang leader."
Everyone looked at Liu Xu with even more awe. What kind of god was the person behind her? He even took someone like Wu Chao as his servant.
. . . . . .
Just when the Xuanwu Gang was in a lively atmosphere and happily discussing a merger, there were signs of internal strife in the Jiangnan League.
Since Chao Tian was forced to hand over power at the beginning of the year, the power of Cao Fist in the Jiangnan League has fallen into the hands of Zhang Zhongjian's younger brother Zhang Zhao. However, Chao Tian's power is deeply rooted and cannot be digested by Zhang Zhao in a short time.
Nowadays, the target of criticism from several other deputy leaders is mediocre Zhang Zhao.
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