There is no difference between an official and a Jia, and there is no difference between a Jia and an official. There is no official who is not a Jia, and there is no Jia who is not an official."
This is a true portrayal of the officialdom in the late Ming Dynasty. Almost all the officials and gentry in the coastal areas of Fujian were linked to commerce and trade. Even during the period when the imperial court strictly banned the sea, officials formed interested parties with wealthy merchants. The new governor Chen Xingxue and the tax envoy eunuch Gaocai's reintroduction of various exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes has seriously threatened the interests of officials, gentry, and merchants across the province.
Yin Feng and representatives of thirty wealthy businessmen from across the province went to Fuzhou, but the governor's office refused to accept the news at all, while the tax envoys and eunuchs sent to Taiwan had already set off for Quanzhou.
Yin Feng discussed with Lin Xiao and others overnight that Zeng Qi, Zeng Ke, Huang Cheng and others planned to spend money to eliminate the disaster. However, Yin Feng disagreed. People like Gao Cai simply have a hard time satisfying their desires. Once the issue of tax collection in Taiwan and Hong Kong comes up, Once he tastes the benefits, he will intensify his efforts and get out of hand. Yin Feng definitely does not want the Taiwan Port he has worked so hard to build to become a place for eunuchs to gather wealth. Moreover, once the tax eunuchs are stationed in Taiwan, it will make the Chinese United Company's Many trade operations could not be carried out: the imperial court still prohibited trade with Japan, and treason with the Japanese was a serious crime. However, Chinese companies received millions of taels of silver from trade with Japan every year, so treason with the Japanese was impossible to stop.
Everyone was also aware of the problem of "travelling with Japanese". Even if they could send these eunuchs away with a bribe, if they got evidence of Chinese company's colluding with Japanese and used it as a threat, although they would not immediately attract a sea ban from the imperial court. , but it is a troublesome matter after all.
In the collusion between government and businessmen in the late Ming Dynasty, bureaucrats always took the initiative; they could choose any businessman as their business agent, or they could steal the wealth of businessmen without backing in anger. However, in Fujian, Chinese companies monopolized the most profitable overseas business. On trade routes, officials across the province had to cooperate with Yin Feng, but the tax collectors and eunuchs were different. They collected taxes on behalf of the emperor. They did not need to cooperate with local officials, gentry and merchants. If they could not collect taxes, they could just rob them. Moreover, they were so unscrupulous that local officials could not control them at all. Therefore, when merchants from various places faced the mining supervisors and tax envoys, they had no choice but to submit and rebel.
Zeng Qi, Zeng Ke, and Huang Cheng couldn't think of any good way to prevent the tax envoys from landing in Taiwan. However, Yin Feng thought of the local underworld organization "Da Xing" and immediately decided to spend money to sell people and bring those people to Quanzhou Port. Kill the tax envoy who plans to go to Taiwan.
The tax envoys and companions sent by Gao Cai were all recent arrivals from the capital. They were completely lawless and unscrupulous gangs of young eunuchs. They had just left the palace and were eager to imitate their predecessors in plundering money. In fact, the eunuchs sent by Emperor Wanli The mine supervisors and tax collectors searched for money for him, and only one-tenth of the total amount ended up in the royal treasury. Most of the rest fell into the hands of the eunuchs and their accomplices. As soon as these little eunuchs who went to Taiwan left Fuzhou The townspeople began to plunder and plunder, causing chaos along the way. Countless small merchants and hawkers not only lost money, but also had to be beaten and scolded, and many innocently died. When they arrived in Quanzhou, there were more than 30 eunuchs and a team of companions in this line. It made people angry, and the people of Quanzhou, who had just experienced the earthquake disaster, were complaining. For Yin Feng, this was a god-sent opportunity.
There are not many "beaters" in Quanzhou. The last time Yin Feng was assassinated at the south gate of Quanzhou, there were beaters involved. Afterwards, Lin Xiao spent a lot of money to bribe the government, dispatched a large number of government officials to arrest a large number of people, and also dispatched Luo Aquan's The special team raided the gang's headquarters in the Guandi Temple in the north of the city and killed many gangsters who had participated in the assassination. Now, Yin Feng and Zhonghua Company in the entire Quanzhou City are almost half of the prefects. The gangsters met with Huaxing Co., Ltd. He and the Tseng family's business were both hiding away.
On the night when the tax envoys and eunuchs arrived in Quanzhou, Yin Feng sent Li Qi, a secret agent in charge of Xu Xinsu, to find the leader of the "beating business" and used a sum of money to make an agreement with the "beating business" people.
The next day, the tax envoys and eunuchs sent people to block all the city gates in Quanzhou and collect whatever "entry tax" they wanted.
From the third to the sixth day, because there were no ships willing to carry the tax masters and eunuchs out to sea, they continued to harm the people in Quanzhou City and began to collect taxes under various names, taxing everyone and everything. Starting from the third day, there were The merchant's clerk was killed; on the fourth day, two shops were ransacked, and the Quanzhou government office was used by the tax eunuchs as a warehouse for storing stolen goods.
On the seventh day, when the tax eunuchs mobilized the ships of the navy and officers to sail to Taiwan, this group of arrogant eunuchs were attacked by hundreds of "beating" elements at the south gate.
At this time, Yin Feng finished paying homage to Zeng Yue's grave and was returning to Beicheng with the Zeng family. Lin Xiao came up to him excitedly and whispered to him: "It's begun, let's get started."
Yin Feng nodded: "Have our people sneaked in?"
"Luo Aquan personally supervises the formation, and no one in this group can escape,"
Members of the special team of the China Company's escort team also dressed up like local gang members and rushed into the south gate. The officers and soldiers guarding the tax eunuchs were soldiers of the general Zhu Wenda, and they still had some fighting ability. They were still at the city gate at the beginning. There was some resistance nearby.
Then, the development of things was completely beyond Yin Feng's expectation: the people inside and outside the city who were entering and leaving the city gates surged in and took the initiative to join in attacking the tax envoys and eunuchs. The people who beat the eunuchs were originally paid to do things, but their behavior of attacking the eunuchs complied with the people's will. With a response, a riot was triggered.
"Hit the eunuch,"
"Kill these eggless things,"
"Hit, hit, hit,"
Thousands of people roared in, chasing and intercepting the eunuch everywhere near the south gate. Among the accompanying officers, soldiers, and government servants, a young eunuch and his two attendants were beaten to death on the spot.
The news immediately spread throughout the city, and the people of Quanzhou, who had been resentful for seven days, rioted all over the city. In the streets and alleys, people ran towards the south gate with sticks, chairs, benches, kitchen knives and so on, scrambling for the first place.
Within ten minutes, the crowd gathered at the South Gate had exceeded 20,000. Lin Xiao, who came to investigate the situation, witnessed the dark crowd in a restaurant. Sticks were flying inside and outside the South Gate, fists were rising, and people were shouting. He was stunned.
Almost all of the tax eunuchs and eunuchs who hid on the south gate tower under the protection of the escort officers and soldiers were injured, with bruises and swollen faces and rags. The officers and soldiers guarded the gate tower and took advantage of the terrain. The rioting crowd could not attack them for a while. , public anger has accumulated for many days, and once it breaks out at this moment, it is almost unstoppable. Even the Quanzhou Prefecture Yamen is surrounded by people. Many people demand the return of the property that was stolen a few days ago. Many thieves take advantage of the chaos. They broke into the houses of wealthy people and robbed them, and several houses caught fire. Suddenly the whole city of Quanzhou fell into chaos.
Luo Aquan's face was accidentally injured by the crowd, and he went to the restaurant with panda eyes to see Lin Xiao, "Brother Guangze, before the brothers had time to take action, the crowd had already surrounded them. Our brothers didn't even think about it. We have to get close, or we can use muskets to deal with it." Close combat was not Luo Aquan's forte. Although some of his team members were good at close combat, tens of thousands of people were crowded together at the scene, making it impossible to get close to those eunuchs.
Lin Xiao shook his head: "No, the captain said that you must not use muskets. We are the best at firearms in the entire Ming Dynasty. That will reveal our identity."
"Kill," a eunuch accidentally fell into the hands of the crowd and immediately disappeared among the crowd. A moment later, no body was left. Most of the eunuchs were still hiding on the tower, and countless stones, mud, bricks and tiles rained down on them. It fell on the heads of the escorting officers and soldiers, but the officers and soldiers had spears, swords, and a blunderbuss, guarding the only step up to the city tower, and the angry crowd could not rush up.
Lin Xiao watched anxiously as more and more people came from all over the city, gritted his teeth and said: "We can't delay any longer, otherwise when the officers and soldiers of the Quanzhou Guard arrive, these eggless things will escape. Luo Aquan, inform the brothers in front to set fire to the tower."
"Set fire," Luo Aquan was surprised: "That will burn down the houses in the city."
"You can't control so much. The ship owner doesn't want to see these people appear in Taiwan. Understand, go and set fire to it," Lin Xiao said through gritted teeth.
Luo Aquan was also a decisive person, so he immediately ran away without saying a word.
Soon, someone in the crowd gathered at the south gate exclaimed: "The water has leaked,"
A plume of black smoke suddenly rose from under the city gate building, and then a fire suddenly shot up more than ten feet high. The crowd retreated like a tide. Those who fell in the chaos were mercilessly trampled by the crowd, and they let out shrill screams. The fire In the blink of an eye, the city tower was swallowed up, and none of the eunuchs could escape. They were all beaten to death and burned to death. More than a hundred of the escorting officers and soldiers were also beaten to death and burned to death. More than 300 people in the Quanzhou riot also died, and more than 1,000 people died. People were injured, most of them trampled on each other to death, and few were killed by the officers and soldiers. The fire spread to surrounding residential buildings and was not extinguished until the afternoon. A total of more than 50 residential buildings near the South Gate were burned down. The riot lasted for three days. On that day, the city of Quanzhou was blazing with flames and filled with smoke. The losses suffered by the people were no less than those caused by the earthquake a few months ago.
The news that the people in Quanzhou City beat the tax eunuch to death spread throughout Fujian immediately. The next day, people gathered in Haicheng, Zhangzhou, Fuzhou and other places to beat the tax eunuch and burn down the tax eunuch's yamen and government offices.
The whole province of Fujian was in turmoil and the public sentiment was fierce. Officials and gentlemen all blamed the wanton actions of the governor Chen Xingxue and the eunuch Gao Cai for causing the civil uprising.
The civil uprising was so violent that it broke out simultaneously in the coastal areas of the province within a few days. The subordinate officials and tax supervisors of the Haicheng Governor's Pay Office who were responsible for the tax collection at Yuegang Port were beaten to death, tied up like rice dumplings, and driven out. When they arrived at Haicheng County, the leader who smashed the Governor's Pay Hall was a wharf coolie from the Huaxing Alliance. A large number of people also smashed the county government office. The Zhangzhou Guard officers and soldiers received a request for help from the county magistrate, but refused to send troops to suppress it. The guards officers and soldiers relied on Living off the dividends from Yuegang's overseas trade, the tax inspectors' wanton raids in Yuegang have violated their interests, so they are not willing to go against the merchants of Haicheng for these eunuchs.
For three days in a row, businessmen and civilians paraded on the streets of Fuzhou. Even a group of well-established imperial examination students took to the streets carrying the memorial tablet of Confucius to petition. The governor's office was tightly blocked by the petitioning businessmen, civilians, officials, and gentry, and the tax eunuch Gao Caicai Countless bricks and stones were thrown into his residence. In the end, Zhu Wenda had to transfer officers and soldiers of Fuzhou Guard and Funing Guard into the city to strictly guard the official residence.
Except in Haichengyue Port, China United Company was always behind the scenes to fuel the flames and never took the initiative to show up. However, at this time, the development of the incident no longer required Yin Feng and the company to promote it. Many local Fujian officials, gentry and wealthy businessmen took advantage of the situation. Taking this opportunity, he stood up and encouraged the people to oppose the mining tax inspector.
It had only been three months since Chen Xingxue was promoted to governor of Fujian, but he had offended all the officials, gentry, and merchants in Fujian, causing rebellions and riots everywhere. Now he had to be busy putting out fires everywhere, and no longer thought about plotting against Taiwan. Things have developed It's better than Yin Feng expected. The Fujian government will not have the energy to take care of Taiwan's affairs in a short period of time.