Unlike the Shanghai Concession, which is full of wide roads and spacious Western-style buildings, the appearance of Shanghai's county town has not changed for the better with the opening of the port for trade. It is still narrow and dilapidated, just like most of the cities under the Qing Dynasty. Like other county towns, they all relied on the infrastructure inherited from the Ming Dynasty.
Even after the opening of the port, a large number of immigrants came to seek livelihood, making the already crowded county town even more crowded, with houses next to each other. In 1853, they fled to avoid the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's troops. There are so many refugees that there are nearly 200,000 people living in less than two square kilometers of land enclosed by the city wall of Jiuhuali!
This is simply a crowd of people!
Standing on the old city wall built during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty and looking down, what you can see are small, short and thin two-story and three-story houses crowded together. The houses here are spacious and bright like those in Beijing, but also have a sense of space. Compared with the courtyard houses with large courtyards, it is really heaven and earth. The houses here seem to be trying to make good use of all the space, but because they want to save costs as much as possible, they try their best to stick to the low and cramped style. .Three-story houses often only have the normal height of two floors, which is not enough. They also need to build an attic inside the roof that is not high enough to live in. Taller people cannot even straighten their waists when living there.
However, the people living in this extremely crowded city are extremely happy compared to the people in most places in the Qing Dynasty today, because they are less likely to die of cold and hunger. Although most of them People's lives can't be said to be rich, but they can still find a job that is enough to make a living.
This is because the five-port trade after the Opium War caused Guangzhou's depression, but at the same time allowed Shanghai, which guarded the Yangtze River Estuary and had the first port in the south of the Yangtze River, to rise rapidly.
The foreign concession next to Shanghai County can provide a large number of employment opportunities. The wharves, construction sites, foreign companies, shops and various factories and workshops that have sprung up like mushrooms require a large amount of labor, and the demand is increasing year by year! Even more! It has exceeded the speed of population pouring into Shanghai from all directions. Therefore, although the working people crowded in Shanghai County are also suffering, they can still earn much higher wages than elsewhere.
If they can find a job in a foreign bank, dock, construction site, or factory, their income will definitely exceed that of most rural landowners!
And these "working people" whose income exceeds that of the landlords are more willing to spend money than the wealthy landlords who are reluctant to give up food and clothing. Therefore, commerce in Shanghai County is also extremely prosperous, and almost every crowded and narrow street is crowded with various shops on both sides. , it seems that every business is booming, even the vendors selling along the street are busy, and it seems that they can make a lot of money every day.
But even in such a city that seems to be prosperous and not many people are on the verge of starving to death, there are still three powerful rebel organizations. They are the Guangdong Small Sword Society, the Fujian Small Sword Society and the local Tiandi Society in Shanghai.
The reason for this situation is that the Qing Dynasty officials have never had the ability to manage the grassroots in industrial and commercial cities. They can rely on thousands of Huang Laoye to suppress the grassroots in the countryside, even if the grassroots in the countryside have been in large numbers. Even if they starve to death, these Huang masters can still rely on the landlords' armed forces to suppress them.
However, in industrial and commercial cities like Shanghai and Guangzhou, the power of the gentry is negligible. The poor people who come from all directions to seek livelihood are very willing to join various gangs and organize to work together in order to have more security.
This gave organizations like the Tiandihui and Xiaodaohui the opportunity to flourish! After all, Guangzhou is the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, the governor of Guangdong, and the residence of the generals of Guangzhou. There are governors, governors, and eight banners garrisoned, with a total of more than 10,000 feudal people. The army is suppressing it, and Guangzhou also has Seoul and Mancheng. No matter how powerful the Tiandihui in Guangdong is, it will be difficult to enter Mancheng. It is really not easy for the rebellion to succeed.
In comparison, the power of the Manchus in Shanghai was much weaker. Shanghai was not even the seat of the Songjiang government office. Before Luo Yaoguo established the New Army, there were only one county government office, one Jianghaiguan government office, and one Daotai government office. Among them, the county government only has three groups of police officers, and the members are basically disciples of the Tiandihui. Of course, the soldiers in the customs yamen have joined the Tiandihui more than a hundred years ago, and the situation of the Daotai yamen is similar to that of the county yamen.
In other words, in this Shanghai county, among the people who were drafted by the Qing Dynasty, there is only one Shanghai magistrate, Yuan Zude, who is not a member of the Tiandihui... Even Wu Jianzhang, Su Songtao and Jiang Customs Supervisor, is a descendant of the Hongmen - he How could a businessman who raised ducks become a big comprador but not join Hongmen? He was admitted to Guangyi Hall, so he was so familiar with Wu Ruxiao. In theory, he was still a disciple of Luo Yaoguo and Su Sanniang!
Therefore, it was natural for him, the two big bosses of the Tiandihui and Xiaodaohui, to use Liu Lichuan and Li Yunxian during the Shanghai regiment training at the Patrol Preparation Office.
Those are our own people, the Hongmen brothers, they are all loyal, so don’t worry! "Greetings, Shuang Guan!"
In the sub-inspection Su Songtai Bingdao Yamen, the three "big guys" on the beach, Liu Lichuan, Li Yunxian, and Zhou Lichun, were saluting Wu Jianzhang with clasped fists.
The three of them were all wearing black gowns with wide satin belts tied around their waists. The sleeves were rolled up to reveal the white lining, and they held a fan in their right hands - all dressed like Hongmen bosses in Shanghai.
Among them, Liu Lichuan, standing among the three, is short and lean, with high cheekbones, concave eye sockets, and a pair of piercing eyes. He is the leader of the Guangdong Small Swordsman Association in Shanghai. At this time, the most foreigners living in Shanghai are Cantonese, so he He is also the most powerful "tycoon" in Shanghai.
Standing to the left of Liu Lichuan is Li Yunxian. He is not tall, looks like a scholar, and is the most well-educated among the three. He is the leader of the Fujian Swordsman Association, and is also Wu Jianzhang's "Master of the Jianghu". He is involved in everything in the Jianghu. He stepped forward to deal with it. The number of Fujianese in Shanghai was not as large as that of Guangdong. However, a small knife society uprising broke out in Fujian Province a few months ago. After it was suppressed, many members of the small knife society ran to Shanghai to seek refuge with Li Yunxian.
Therefore, Li Yunxian also has the strength to compete with Liu Lichuan for the lead.
To Liu Lichuan's right stood a tall, fair-skinned, handsome man with a beard named Zhou Lichun. He was the boss of the Luohan Party, a branch of the Tiandi Hui in Qingpu County, Songjiang Prefecture. The members of the Luohan Party were all poor people in Qingpu area. Farmers, Zhou Lichun himself was originally a small landowner and the leader of the Qingpu Tiandi Association. Last year, he organized farmers in Qingpu to resist grain and brought the Luohan Party together. He clashed with the government several times, and he was almost an outright rebel. But ten Days ago, I was suddenly recruited by Wu Jianzhang and brought hundreds of Qingpu "group trainers" to Shanghai County to listen.
Seeing that his three generals were very effective, Wu Jianzhang nodded with satisfaction and said with a smile: "I'll tell you a secret, Luo Daotai's 6,000 new troops will set off to relieve the siege of Jiangning in three days! So here in Shanghai Our three battalions are guarding it, so you have to keep your spirits up, not only to prevent bandits in the city from causing trouble, but also to watch out for foreigners in the concession taking advantage of the situation."
Hearing what he said, the expressions of Liu Lichuan, Li Yunxian and Zhou Lichun changed.
Although Luo Xueyan's 6,000 new army is just a start-up, their foundation is very good. They are 800 Hunan veterans, all of them are elites, and they still look a bit scary. Although Jiao Hong, Xu Yuegui, and Zhang Sanxiang have already contacted Liu Lichuan , Li Yunxian, and Zhou Lichun. But the three of them did not know Luo Xueyan’s true identity, so they did not dare to make any mistakes.
Now this guy is leaving with 6,000 new troops, that's great! By the time he comes back, Shanghai will already be ruled by the Little Knife Club.
Wu Jianzhang seemed to have noticed that his men all looked worried, so he smiled and reassured: "But don't worry too much, Luo Daotai is just pretending to send troops this time, and he won't really fight to grow hair." , I’ll be back in ten days and a half at most. Please help me keep an eye on these ten days and a half. When Luo Daotai comes back, I will give each of the brothers below a reward of three yuan."
"Thank you Shuangguan!"
The three bosses all looked happy and saluted Wu Jianzhang.
Wu Jianzhang continued: "There is also a project to dig trenches and build wooden walls in the west of Shanghai County. Ah Chuan, I will give this project to your Yixing Company. You must recruit workers as soon as possible. Start work as soon as possible and don’t be afraid of spending money. Now is not the time to save money.”
Liu Lichuan did not agree immediately, but asked: "Shuang Guan, how should this project be done? Where should the ditch be dug? How should the wooden wall be repaired? The land outside the city is owned by an owner, so you can't dig it casually!" "You go and recruit people first, two thousand first. I will discuss the specific construction methods with the foreign engineers and Magistrate Yuan." Wu Jianzhang frowned slightly, "Shangmao is about to call us... We must protect the county seat and the concession no matter what!"
Chapter completed!