"The Sichuan gang can't beat the Tea Gang, but the locals can't beat a bunch of people from other provinces?" Pan Er found it incredible.

"It is said that a strong dragon cannot defeat the local snakes, but the local porters are not as many as those from other provinces, so they cannot defeat them. However, in recent years, the Sichuan gang has become more and more courageous in fighting, otherwise the two gangs would not have been fighting every day, and they have become more and more arrogant.

"

"How is it possible that there are not as many locals as there are people from other provinces?"

"You can find out if you go to a few docks outside the city," Han Xiufeng flicked the wick and explained: "For cargo ships traveling up from the middle reaches of the Yangtze River to our Chongqing Prefecture, a ship will employ at least seventy or eighty trackers. But going back down is

At that time, we only needed to hire thirty or forty trackers. Taking into account the ten boats arriving and departing every day, the number of trackers stranded on the Ba County riverside doing nothing every day would reach three to four hundred, and the number could reach more than ten thousand in a month.

People. These stranded trackers cannot make a living and can only work as porters carrying goods for others. There are many people in Ba County, but the number of porters is naturally not as many as in other provinces."

"So that's it," Pan Er thought about it and asked, "Fourth brother, you just said it involves miscellaneous taxes, donations and errands. What's going on?"

"Brother Pan, your family runs a pawnshop. It's impossible that you don't know that taxes are not only land tax, but also land deed tax, business discipline tax, pawnshop tax, livestock tax, door stall tax, landing tax, fishery tax, tea tax, etc.

Wait, most of these taxes and yamen's bad rules come from merchants doing business. Most of our merchants in Ba County are merchants from other provinces, and most of those merchants are related to the tea gang."

"Remember, you just said that the tea gang was originally the porters working in tooth shops, shops and warehouses. They are in the same group, maybe they are related."

"That's why I asked Jiang Liutuo to find the guest manager of the Eight Provincial Guild Hall to help negotiate peace." Han Xiufeng paused and continued: "The county magistrate not only wants to collect their commercial taxes, miscellaneous taxes and bad regulations, but also

When there are natural disasters such as floods, we have to go to them to persuade them to donate, so we are quite polite to the guest managers of the Eight Provinces Guild Hall."

"Who makes those people from other provinces rich?" Pan Er nodded, then thought about it and asked, "What's going on with the errands?"

"The errands are the porters' corvee work, picking up and dropping off luggage before the examination, carrying luggage for civil and military officials, carrying things during the Spring and Autumn Festival, checking warehouses, carrying grain and stone, carrying military rice, carrying saltpetre and sulfur, and capsizing boats with copper and lead.

, the Huangmu border crossing cable, and some other messy chores, all have to be done by the dock porters."

"Fourth brother, I don't understand what you are saying."

Han Xiufeng suddenly remembered that although he knew a few words, he had never read the Eight Classics seriously, so he had to explain: "I just want to help the officials passing through Ba County carry their luggage, and help the Green Camp carry grain and grass. Saltpeter and sulfur are military supplies.

It can only be transported by porters hired by the yamen, and our Chongqing government happens to produce nitrate and sulfur, so we don’t know how many thousands of kilograms we have to carry every year."

Pan Er asked: "What else?"

"The copper and lead that capsized the boat was to transport the Yunnan copper and Guizhou lead salvaged from the river for transfer to the capital, and all the Yunnan copper and Guizhou lead had to be changed to ships for transfer in our Ba County. There are 23 dangerous shoals in our Ba County.

, copper and lead can easily sink tens of thousands of kilograms, and porters at the pier not only have to help carry and change boats, but if a boat capsizes, they also have to help fish the copper and lead out of the river."

Han Xiufeng opened the window and looked at the sky, and then said: "The transportation of imperial wood cables is also a heavy task. If the emperor wants to build a palace, the Ministry of Internal Affairs must purchase nanmu from Yungui River, and those giant nanmu must also be in our Ba County.

It is said that each plant requires hundreds of porters to transport it on rafts."

Pan Er subconsciously asked: "The Sichuan Gang will bear the burden, but the Tea Gang will not?"

"The Sichuan Gang has nothing to do with the Eight Provincial Guild Hall. Those local merchants, especially merchants from other provinces, cannot carry goods for them. They can only earn a living at the dock. But whenever there are these errands, the county magistrate will assign them to Qimen Wharf as usual.

There were dozens or even hundreds of porters coming out of each house, all working without any payment, so the Sichuan gang was resentful."

"The county magistrate should be fair in his work. Whenever there is an errand, he should send it to the Sichuan Gang instead of the Tea Gang. Isn't this partiality to the Tea Gang?"

"I can't help it, who made this a routine practice," Han Xiufeng sighed, and then changed the subject: "But every county magistrate also knew that the Sichuan Gang suffered a loss in business, so every time the Sichuan Gang and the Tea Gang started fighting,

When I go to the yamen, I also favor the Sichuan gang intentionally or unintentionally."

"What about this time?"

"This time is different from before. After all, a human life was involved. Whether Datou can save his life depends on the fate of his self-sufficient son."

The locals were actually bullied by people from other provinces, and Pan Erzhen felt a bit like the same enemy.

He touched his chin and thought for a while, then raised his head and asked: "Fourth brother, the husband-in-law just asked you to help go to the execution room to take care of things. After all, execution room Jingcheng is still a scribe, is it useful to give him money?"

"It may not work, but it can't be ignored."

"What do you mean?"

Han Xiufeng looked at him as if he were an idiot and asked, "Brother Pan, has your family never had a lawsuit?"

"No, the yamen opens to the south. If you have no money, don't come in. If you are a good person, you will go to see the official. It's too much money!"

"That's it. The clerks in the torture chamber may not succeed in your affairs, but they can ruin your affairs! All the confessions submitted to the government and the case files were all transcribed by them. Changing a word on purpose can kill someone, but changing a word if you are willing to help can also save someone's life.

Human lives.”

"So domineering!"

"So domineering." Looking at his doubtful expression, Han Xiufeng gave an example: "There was a murder case in a place. Two people got into a fight because of a quarrel. The one who provoked was killed, and the one who was provoked was killed.

The family wanted to save the life of the one who beat the person, so they gave some money to the prison clerk.

The murder case had to be reported to the government office, the government office had to report it to the governor, and the governor had to report it to the governor, who then reported it to the Ministry of Punishment. The clerk saw that the official document submitted contained the words "Extenuating circumstances, unforgivable law".

Suddenly my eyes lit up and I copied it into 'The law is unforgivable and the circumstances are excusable'. I swapped the two words and the meaning was completely different. I just saved someone's life."

Pan Er exclaimed: "My dear, this is so overbearing. It's really not possible if you don't take care of it."

Han Xiufeng couldn't help but think of what his uncle Han Yucai said before his death, and murmured: "When it comes to making money, it's best to make money from criminal charges, otherwise you won't get into a huge lawsuit, as long as you get a huge amount of money

, there is a saying of "Guaranteeing a win but not losing". But there is a God who keeps his head above water. If you do too many evil things, you will eventually be punished. Therefore, neither my uncle nor I have ever written complaints to others, and we have never made this kind of money.

."

"But you are not the porter who wants to help the Sichuan Gang."
Chapter completed!