At four o'clock in the afternoon, Jiang Feng, Zhang Zhengjie, Duan Qian and others all went to Wang Sheng's office to meet.

First of all, Jiang Feng brought a definite news to Wang Sheng. It turned out that the interrogation officers were really not bragging. After Jiang Feng gave the order, several people immediately took action. As a result, although the arrested people were all hob meat, they carried it in front of them for less than an hour and all confessed.

It turned out that they were instructed by an sect leader of Anluo Hall, but they didn't know why this sect leader instructed them to do this. Because the organizational structure of Anluo Hall is to take the sect leader as the master, and under the sect leader, there are four elders. However, the elders generally do not care about practical matters and only set them for the respected elderly people in the hall. The affairs of the whole body are divided into four internal and external sects. The inner four sects are mainly responsible for various business operations of Anluo Hall, while the outer four sects are responsible for competing with other gangs for territory, defending their own interests, and collecting protection fees. Each sect has a sect leader, and each sect is in charge of the ranks of officials, deacons, service, and apprenticeship. The people who make trouble are at the lowest level in Anluo Hall. In the past, they have always only listened to the mission and never asked the reason.

Wang Shengdao: "If we can get only these confessions, then we cannot be completely sure that this incident is targeting us, because it may also be the personal behavior of this sect leader."

Jiang Feng said: "Why would you catch the sect leader who instructed them to act back, and then punish him and ask clearly?"

At this time, Duan Qian said: "No need, based on the information we have, this is an action against our Jinan government."

After more than three months of development, the intelligence department has made great progress in Jinan City. It has initially established intelligence outlets in Jinan City. There are more than 10 intelligence outlets arranged, and a group of informants have also developed. Although it cannot fully control and monitor Jinan City, it also has considerable control. Most of the things that happened among the people in Jinan City can receive extreme feedback. However, the office location of the intelligence department is not in the prefect's yamen, and no one knows where it is. It is just an office in the yamen to facilitate communication between the intelligence department and the administrative system.

After hearing Duan Qian say this, Wang Sheng immediately asked: "Webmaster Duan, what information have you collected?"

Duan Qian said: "We also summarized and analyzed all the information collected during this period this morning and concluded that yesterday I reminded Mayor Wang that some local forces in Jinan are planning to join forces to deal with us. Now, several of the main local gentry that can be confirmed are: Xu Chang, which is mainly engaged in opening brothels and restaurants, and has more than ten large and small shops, with assets of about 130,000 taels of silver; Jiang Mingyi, which operates pawn shops and pharmacies as the main business, has three pawn shops, two pharmacies, and three or four small shops, with assets of about 150,000 taels of silver; Zhang Yan'an, the current owner of Anluotang, Anluotang's business is mainly a casino, with four, and in addition

More than 10 hotels, shops and brothels have been opened, but the scale is not large, with an estimated total assets of about 200,000 taels of silver; Zhao Pinghe, a super-large landlord, has a total land property of more than 20,000 mu, and has about 500 tenants. He also runs three grain stores in Jinan City. His assets are affected by land prices and grain prices, fluctuate greatly. When it is good, it can exceed 500,000 silver, but when it is bad, it is less than 100,000 silver; when it is in the inlaid blue flag, his main business is opium, and he alone accounts for about half of the supply of big smoke in Jinan. He opened three tobacco shops himself and supplies about 20 other shops, such as restaurants, gambling halls, and brothels. The assets should be about 300,000 silver."

"These five people are the most powerful gentry in Jinan. Their power is much greater than the officials we punished, because the power of those officials is basically limited to Jinan City, and it can be shot to the surrounding areas of Jinan City at most. These five people have considerable influence in the entire Shandong Province, and at least there are business in more than three prefectures and prefectures. It is said that behind them, there are backstage forces support. However, we have not investigated clearly, but one thing can be confirmed, that is, the officials we have dealt with usually do not dare to be provoked easily."

Jiang Feng interrupted, "It seems that being a prefect of Jinan is too boring. The officials under his command can't afford to offend these gentry, so how can this official be regarded as a "moment."

Duan Qian said: "It cannot be said that. The prefect dares not provoke officials. It is mainly controlled by officials. Without the cooperation of officials, he will not be able to effectively govern in Jinan. The reason is similar. For big landlords like Zhao Pinghe and local gangs like Anluotang, if they refuse to pay land taxes, the officials will have no way to deal with them, so they can only follow them. There is no direct restrictive relationship between the prefect and the gentry, and the gentry generally has a big family and does not generally confront the government openly, so the gentry is more respectful to the prefect than the officials."

Jiang Feng said: "It's a bit like a stick, a tiger, and a chicken, and it's a chain of condoms."

Duan Qian said: "It's a bit like it, but it's not all about sticks, tigers, and chickens. Because overall, the prefect is still at the weakest end. If the gentry is determined to go against the prefect, it can also make the prefect unable to be a prefect. Just like this time the gentry wants to be an enemy of us, of course, under normal circumstances, these three forces should be able to reach a balance and combine to form a community of interests. After all, this is the most in line with the interests of the three parties."

Jiang Feng said: "What can the gentry do to make things difficult for the prefect? ​​Or how are the gentry in Jinan ready to deal with us this time?"

Duan Qian said: "Generally speaking, the easiest way for the gentry to deal with the prefect is to complain to the superiors of the prefect, such as the governor, the governor, and drive the prefect away through the power behind it. Although the governor and the governor do not have the power to directly appoint and remove the prefect, if the governor and the governor report to the court, the court will generally do the same according to the governor and the governor. However, this move is obviously useless to us, because the governor is also ours. But the gentry also has other means. According to the information we have collected, the gentry's original plan was to call on shops in the city to stop the market to deal with us."

Wang Sheng also suddenly shook his head and said, "If they really do this, it will cause a devastating blow to Jinan's economy and will be quite unfavorable to us. However, this is also a way to both sides. If the shops in the whole city are shut down, the merchants will also suffer a considerable loss. For small merchants, it may also be a damaging blow."

Duan Qian nodded and said, "It is precisely because of the great self-loss of this move that it has been strongly opposed by many small and medium-sized merchants. Moreover, after we took over Jinan, we immediately dispatched more than 10 officials from Jinan Prefecture, which really shocked many large and medium-sized merchants. They did not dare to go against us in a bold manner. In the end, this trick was not used. Instead, it was banned from registering all shops. This was not a direct confrontation with us, and other merchants were more likely to accept it."

Jiang Feng said: "Aren't they afraid of being ordered to close their business without registration?"

Wang Shengdao understood this point and said, "The law does not punish the public. If all merchants do not register, it will be difficult for us to order all merchants to close their business? On the surface, this move is a little more relaxed than the previous one, but it is actually more powerful, because if it is really developed to not register all merchants, it will make us very embarrassed. Ordering all merchants to close their business will cause a devastating blow to Jinan's economy. If they do not order them to close their business, it will also be a serious blow to our prestige. It seems that they have guidance from experts."

Duan Qian said: "It's almost like that, so we must deal with it very carefully."

Zhang Zhengjie said: "But I can't understand one thing, that is, why these gentry were against us. Did we say that the execution of several officials did not show any authority to them? To be honest, although their method would make us very embarrassed, it does not mean that we have no way to deal with it. If we are a little simpler and more crude, we arrested the people in the leader, confiscated their homes, and killed them in public, I don't believe that other merchants dare not register."

Jiang Feng said: "It is probably because of our land reform. These people must have a large amount of land. They are afraid that our land will be taken over by us, so they will fight against us at all costs."

Wang Sheng shook his head and said, "This explanation seems to make sense, but it cannot stand scrutiny. As for the five leading people, only Zhao Pinghe is a big landlord, and mainly relies on land for profit. Others may also have a large amount of land. However, they also have a large number of other industries in Jinan. Even if they do not rely on land, they can obtain huge benefits and live a prosperous life. There is no need to fight against us, because this is a doomed failure. Just like when we use the advice of Captain Zhang, they have no room for resistance at all."

Duan Qian shook his head and said, "We also suspect that there is a reason for this, but we can't find a clue for a while."

Jiang Feng said: "Is this still necessary to be confused? Isn't it just that the head is kicked by a donkey, and the brains of rich people are different from those of normal people."

Duan Qian said: "In addition to being bold and ruthless, people who work in the industry must be good at using their brains. They must be versatile. They are not to be able to do anything to the point of being unsuccessful. Therefore, there must be something we have not understood here. After all, we are not people of this era, and there is a considerable generation gap in our thinking. It is best to find someone who is familiar with the rules of the officialdom to ask."
Chapter completed!