Chapter 50: Changing Seas and Yangzhou Dreams Part 8: Runzhou Boat Gang
"In what era, are you still using rattan soldiers?"
Lan Yuanmei, the Jiangnan Admiral present, muttered in her heart.
....
Three days have passed since Sangjice successfully captured Zhenjiang City.
Truqin is not my Qing Dynasty. During these three days, Truqin's army expanded its dock and built a mountain position in Beigushan, Jinshan, Jiaoshan, and Nanshan to the north, and Nanshan to the south.
Move the heavy mortar and short-barrel artillery there.
In this way, their firepower can not only take care of the Yangtze River, but also cover most parts of the city.
As mentioned earlier, the Grand Canal passes through Zhenjiang City. Due to the construction of the canal, the river water has continued to flood here for thousands of years, and many Shazhou and rivers have formed, resulting in the crisscrossing of rivers inside and outside Zhenjiang City.
Compared with the prosperous Yangzhou and Suzhou, Jiangning City and Zhenjiang City are obviously inferior. However, at this time, the prosperity of Yangzhou City and Suzhou City must be at the top of our Qing Dynasty, or in other words, there are two cities in nature.
It's Guangzhou and Chengdu.
Due to the rise of foreign trade in Guangzhou, Chengdu is caused by the internal circulation of the southwest.
Although Zhenjiang, which controls the Yangtze River and the key node of the Grand Canal, is not as good as Yangzhou, which is separated by a river, is not much worse. As mentioned earlier, since the water level of the canal is higher than that of the Yangtze River, in order to maintain the stability of the canal water level, it is not much worse in Yangzhou.
There is a sluice gate at the entrance of the river. The sluice gate will be opened during the flood season, and the sluice gate will be closed during the dry season.
Therefore, in the dry season, if the ship wants to enter the Grand Canal after entering the Yangtze River, they can only put the goods down at the north bank pier and then transport them to the Grand Canal by land. There are more than one such place on the Grand Canal, but
Under the operation of the canal's huge human power, it seems that the impact is not big.
Zhenjiang is unobstructed and naturally becomes a large cargo transfer terminal south of the Yangtze River.
At this time, people had long known the low cost and convenience of conducting business through ships, and large and small boat gangs came into being. The most famous ones are the Pearl River Boat Gang, the Han River Boat Gang, the Wujiang Boat Gang, and the Jialing River Boat Gang.
From the Grand Canal from Hangzhou to Zhenjiang, there are also large and small boat gangs. The largest of them are Runzhou Boat Gang, Runzhou, and Zhenjiang's ancient name is Ye.
Such situations were spontaneously formed, just like the rise of Huizhou merchants with many mountains and few lands. In the late Qianlong period, due to the intensification of land annexation, a large number of people had to make a living. For people in Jiangnan, they invested in handicrafts and transportation industries.
That's a natural thing.
Similarly, like the Salt Gang, it was a hard-working businessman at the beginning. After having a certain amount of capital and strength, he became a businessman who sat wholesale salt. If he wanted to get a lot of salt from the government, he was the person at the top of the pyramid.
Now, people will respectfully call you "Salt General".
At the level of General Yan, you can not only be a brother to the local officials, but also get close to the emperor. If you serve the emperor so happily, you will be given a yellow jacket and a third-rank virtual title, you can basically walk sideways.
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The same is true for the boat gang. At the beginning, some were one boat at a time, some were several boats, and those with slightly stronger strength would have several boats. In order to protect themselves, people from their fellow townsmen would gather together to join forces to join forces to join forces to join forces to take on business.
The increase not only allows one to protect oneself, but also has the strength to challenge other fellow townspeople associations.
The so-called challenge at the beginning was nothing more than lowering prices and grabbing business.
Later, the people in the hometown association had both financial resources and connections to stand out. He would buy all the ships under his name and hire the original fellows to drive the ships. This is the prototype of the ship gang.
After that, if you want to join the boat gang, you just need to provide the boat. You have to pay the shipping fee. So this boat has been working for help in the past few years, but not everyone has the qualifications to work. Most people want to join and still want to join.
You need to have an introduction from acquaintances in the gang, this is another introduction fee.
Later, the small boat gang had dozens of ships, the medium ones had hundreds, and the large ones had hundreds.
It is said that you can rely on the mountains to eat, so why are there fewer Runzhou people here?
Runzhou Ship Gang is the largest ship gang in the Grand Canal from Hangzhou to Zhenjiangcheng nowadays. It has 300 ships of all sizes!
Three hundred ships, which seem to be many, but all ships that can walk on the canal must be subject to the dual jurisdiction of the Ministry of Revenue and the Governor of the Canal. If you want to join this army, you also need to pay an entry fee.
Except for the ships of the canal transport office, the private ships are not large. According to later generations, the largest one will not exceed twenty tons.
But this is much more cost-effective than carrying cattle and horses on the back of land, so shipping is still rushing, especially for people in the business world.
People often say that if you can achieve the salt general, the network of relationships must be weaved at least to the level of the Governor of Liangjiang and the Governor of Lianghuai. For the big ship gang, in fact, it is enough to open up the Governor of the Canal Transportation.
The Governor of the Canal Transportation Transportation is the second only to the Lianghuai Salt Transportation Transportation Transportation Transportation Transportation.
The governor of the canal transport will change like a lantern, but the officials under his command will hardly change. Once a large ship gang is formed, it can maintain its wealth and prosperity for at least twenty or thirty years, unless some gang leaders are broken in the middle and want to challenge the new ones.
The premiere of the canal transport.
But some people do this, and some people do it. Not surprisingly, how many people suddenly get rich, and their families also have official figures like scholars and juren, and then they become swollen, thinking about changing dynasties.
Obviously, most people are bleeding from their heads.
But Hua Zhixiu succeeded.
Three years ago, a fire broke out in the Runzhou Ship Gang.
Large gangs like Runzhou Ship Gang are definitely not a monolithic piece of the board, and they are divided into factions. Originally, the locals in Zhenjiang have always held the right to speak. Although other factions are dissatisfied, they can only hide them in their hearts.
The development of the ship gang has naturally had a complex division of labor. It is responsible for taking orders, ordering goods, handling ships, and escorting them. There are many things, and it is naturally divided into factions.
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Later, the person in charge of escort gradually emerged.
The Grand Canal, which is thousands of miles away, is not calm. Although the Governor's Office of the Canal Transportation Transportation also has the title of water police, in fact, in addition to making money, basically does not care about the matter. Therefore, as a ship gang, you also need your own armed personnel.
Such armed personnel were initially under the jurisdiction of the gang leader, but with the development of time, new members, especially those who were incognito, the White Lotus Cult, the Tiandihui, and the wanted robbers of the government, began to form their own factions.
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In the end, the leaders of these people naturally became one of the leaders of the gang.
The Jiangnan area sounds gentle and lovely, but obviously not all of them. In history, whether it is the Three Kingdoms era or the Ming Dynasty, Zhejiang miners and Danyang mountain people are all tough existences.
By the Qing Dynasty, places like Huizhou with few lands and many people began to do business. The original fierce land had long disappeared, with one exception.
There are still many natives living on the mountains at the junction of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Fujian and Anhui. These natives were later classified as She, Dong, etc., and they continued to evolve from farmers to miners. While the Han people were in trouble, they had nothing to do with them.
Change.
Hua Zhixiu is one of the native mountain people. He also comes from Huizhou. Most Huizhou people come to the plains, and the worst one has become a friend in the business. However, Hua Zhixiu, as a Dong people, has become an armed person of the boat gang.
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Then three years ago, launching a "coup" to overthrow the former local gang leader and become the gang leader himself.
Hua Zhixiu, thirty-five years old, is thin and lean, always with a smile on her face. She is already rich, but she is still used to wearing short clothes. Although the clothes are made of the best Huqian,
Still looking like a servant.
But if you look down on him because of this, then you are very wrong. Since he served as the escort of the Runzhou Ship Gang, the robbery incidents on the Grand Canal from Hangzhou to Zhenjiang have been greatly reduced. Of course, there are also
Some of the people from their own ship gangs and other ship gangs disappeared without understanding, which is not worth telling to outsiders.
Of course, no matter how strong it is, no matter how strong it is, it still does not look good in front of the government. Even if they have far more personnel than the government, it will not be possible. Not everyone can withstand the hat of "rebellion" that falls down.
of.
As a result, collusion between officials and businessmen has become a natural thing, and it has never changed since eternal.
After Truqin's army took over Zhenjiang City, Runzhou Ship Gang was safe and sound, and the gang leader Hua Zhixiu was the same.
On an autumn afternoon, Hua Zhixiu and a few brothers were still wearing the thick lake shirt embroidered with flowers, walking leisurely and leisurely on the street.
Today he also took a folding fan and slapped it twice from time to time, which looked both funny and weird.
Hua Zhixiu is walking towards Zhenjiang City since the Eastern Wu era, which has been the Iron City of the City, which is also the base camp of Sangjice.
Chapter completed!