The entire Anletang courtyard is divided into three roads. Except for the main courtyard in the middle road, where the leaders live, the east and west roads across the courtyard are allocated to the bottom members of the society as dormitories.
These lower-level members also function as handymen. They live across the courtyard and are easily called upon to do work.
In this era, the people despised the association members as "sticks", which means something similar to the young and Dangerous, and despised the associations as "stick party".
Of course, "sticks" and "sticks" are both used behind the scenes, but they are all called heroes in person.
Lin Tailai was locked up in the firewood shed of Dongkuaoyuan today because he rejected his elder brother's "kindness".
He is not worried about his life safety. He can't really kill himself just because he refuses to recognize someone else as his father. This is not in line with the concept of loyalty and filial piety in the Confucian social environment.
Recalling what happened on the first day after traveling through time, Lin Tailai was also speechless.
First of all, the name Anletang is not very good. Perhaps today, everyone thinks it means "living and working in peace and contentment".
But in the perception of a time traveler from four hundred years later, it sounds like it means to live in old age and wait for death, which does not sound like the name of a serious underworld society.
Secondly, the association's painting style is a bit indescribably bizarre, and from a historical and academic perspective, it feels very unscientific.
Lin Tailai also knows little about history and understands the principle that the economic base determines the superstructure.
The activity of underworld associations is also based on the interests of a certain scale of industry.
With the current level of economic development, can we support large-scale and dynamic social organizations?
Moreover, the fact that my predecessor went to the countryside to collect protection money was even weirder than being knocked unconscious.
In Lin Tailai's understanding, collecting protection fees is all about the tertiary industry looking for food, drink and fun. I have never heard of people collecting protection fees from farming villagers. Is this a characteristic of the Wanli Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty?
A society with dozens of people is not as large as a large clan, so why should it collect protection fees?
Suddenly the woodshed door was opened and someone walked in, interrupting Lin Tailai's train of thought.
Lin Tailai looked up and saw that it was Song Quan, the second leader of the club.
For some reason, the words "Uncle Song is very angry and the consequences will be serious" popped up in Lin Tailai's mind.
Then he recovered some of his original memory. The second leader of the Song Dynasty seemed to have a little bit of friendship with his father, and it was acceptable to call him "uncle" on his face.
"What crime have you committed, or have you been possessed by ghosts? Why did you reject the hall master?" Song Quan asked sternly.
Lin Tailai understood that Song Quan was justified in being angry.
The original person had previously promised Song Quan in private that he was willing to give Hall Master Lu an adopted son, but today he rejected Hall Master Lu. In fact, he went back on his word.
The time traveler Lin Tailai had no choice but to shoulder this blame. He didn't know how to explain it for a while.
But when faced with the accusations from his "elders," he could only sigh, squat on the pile of firewood, and said in a deep voice: "Sooner or later, you will have to pay back your money if you come out to fool around!"
Give your mother's head back! Song Quan became even more angry and scolded: "Don't fool me with nonsense words, just speak human words!"
Lin Tailai said more bluntly: "Uncle, there is no future for being a gangster!"
Song Quan was surprised that he, the intellectual leader of the society, did not understand, and asked: "What do you mean? What kind of future do you want? Why does Anletang have no future?"
Lin Tailai was in a high position and answered to the point: "In today's big tomorrow, the government is the parents of the people and the blue sky above!
Even if the association is prosperous for a while, it is actually robbing the government of its interests, and its ultimate fate will be to be eliminated by the government!
Therefore, there is no future for being a black man. Unless you are brave enough to rebel and succeed, you can become black and white!"
So Song Quan was even more surprised, "Are you really obsessed with ghosts? Or have you lost your mind and gone crazy? What benefits have we taken? Why did the government want to eliminate us?"
Lin Tailai murmured in his heart, are today's associations so backward in ideological theory? Even an intellectually responsible person like Song Quan can't see clearly the essence of associations?
Then I heard Song Quan continue to say: "The government still relies on us to collect money, food and taxes. Societies like our Anletang work for the government. Why should the government eliminate us?"
Damn it! Lin Tailai was really surprised! The situation seemed a little different from what he imagined?
Suddenly, Lin Tailai thought of a historical term - taking over money and food!
To put it simply, many ordinary farmers are afraid of dealing with the government because they often suffer bottomless blackmail and exploitation by government subordinates.
Therefore, many people will give their money and food to capable people and let these capable people pay taxes instead, so that the people can avoid the pain of dealing directly with the government.
Over time, the government has to rely on these talented people who "collect money and food" to complete the tax collection task.
After all, the government also has the tradition of "imperial power not going to the countryside." With the limited manpower in the yamen, it is almost impossible to cover the vast rural areas outside the city.
Not to mention the particularly cumbersome matters of tax collection, especially when Suzhou Prefecture was the place with the heaviest task of taxing money and grain during the Ming Dynasty. Tax collection was a huge systematic project.
Therefore, between the county government and the countryside, there is the soil for societies like Anletang to survive.
Lin Tailai also understood why he went to the countryside to collect money.
What Anletang collects is "protection tax", which is legal national tax on imperial grain, not "protection fee" as Lin Tailai mistakenly thought he heard it wrong.
Societies like Anletang are essentially an extension of the power of the government, and they are the tentacles of the government that bypasses the original system and extends to rural areas.
It is not the kind of illegal underground forces that compete with the government for profits as Lin Tailai thinks.
That’s why Song Quancai, the second leader of Anletang, said just now, why did the government want to eliminate us?
Looking at Lin Tailai who was speechless, Song Quan couldn't help but said to himself: "Why do you look like a fool when you wake up? Don't understand anything?"
Lin Tailai: "."
Unexpectedly, unexpectedly, I was despised by others first. But no wonder others, I really had the first impression.
Who would have thought that there are underworld societies in this world that can help yamen collect taxes legally?
Of course, such associations will not be eliminated by the government.
However, Lin Tailai still didn't want to join the club, which was the last stubbornness of the time traveler who studied the Eight-Part Essay Doctor.
In the previous life, who had no choice but to waste his youthful years and study useless eight-part essays for several years? Who would be willing to do so?
Now the dragon-slaying skill finally has a chance to be used. If you miss it, will you be worthy of your efforts?
And no matter how promising a society is, how can it be better than studying for the imperial examination? The largest societies in the world are all in the palace!
Feeling Lin Tailai's determination to withdraw from the world, Song Quan frowned and asked, "Have you noticed any rumors?"
Lin Tailai was puzzled by this sentence. Could there be some hidden secret that he didn't know about?
But Lin Tailai remained calm and deliberately said: "I'm not really a fool, how can I not notice anything?"
Song Quan sighed again, perhaps thinking of some incense love, and told some of the inside story he had deduced:
"The day before yesterday, you were attacked when you went to the countryside. On the surface, the biggest suspect is He Yitang, but there is another instigator behind it. I don't know if it is the Fan family or the Shen family."
Without Song Quan's detailed explanation, Lin Tailai had already found relevant information about the Fan family and the Shen family from his original memory.
"Tianpingshan Fan family?" Lin Tailai asked nervously.
Song Quan nodded.
"The Shen family who started building the family righteous village outside Xumen?" Lin Tailai asked, trembling from the bottom of his heart.
Song Quan nodded again, and Lin Tailai almost knelt down.
The ancestor of the Fan family is Fan Zhongyan, a famous official in the Northern Song Dynasty. They have been a famous family in Suzhou for hundreds of years and dozens of generations!
The Shen family, today's Shen Shixing, the chief minister of the Ming Dynasty, is a newly aristocratic family in Suzhou Prefecture that has risen in the past ten years!
The Wanli Dynasty was too dangerous, and Lin Tailai wanted to travel back to the 21st century.
What kind of virtues and abilities does he have as a little minion, so that he can use Fan Zhongyan's descendants or Shen Shoufu's close relatives to instigate a sneak attack?
Historical data records that those who collect money and food are mostly "cunning".
Hao, a wealthy family; cunning, a member of the society and a gangster.
Wherever there are interests, there are rivers and lakes.