gnovel Chapter 199 Reversing the Heavenly Gang
Chapter 199 Reversing the Heavenly Gang
Mo Bei wasn't lying; a group of bandits from Huaihe River region had indeed wandered to Pingjiang Road.
They arrived at Fushan Port in Changshu Prefecture on April 12th and immediately seized a merchant ship, killing the ship owner and more than ten sailors in a brutal manner. However, they were unlucky and ran into the patrol officers. Their own ship was burned and the merchant ship was also damaged. Fortunately, they were strong in combat and after a fierce battle, they defeated the patrol officers and fled south.
What followed was a pursuit and interception, during which some local thieves joined the group.
On April 17, when Shao Shuyi last heard news of them, the bandits had already been caught up in Changshu Prefecture. After a fierce battle, several bandits escaped, but the Huai bandits who crossed the Yangtze River and headed south were all killed.
Shao Shuyi was really speechless.
The government mobilized approximately several thousand people to capture them, suffering over a hundred casualties, but ultimately annihilated seven bandits from the Huai region and five local bandits from Suzhou, a truly ironic situation.
If there were more thieves, dozens of them, wouldn't it require mobilizing tens of thousands of soldiers to surround and intercept them?
"Stop laughing at others," Shao Shuyi said, pointing to the threshing ground not far away. "Keep practicing."
Wu Heizi's expression turned serious, and he said, "Yes, sir."
He then turned and left, directing his thirteen men to begin training.
Shao Shuyi withdrew his gaze from Wu Heizi's slightly protruding belly and watched from the side with his hands behind his back.
Wang Huadu, who had come from Pudong, followed behind him, chattering incessantly: "Little Tiger—no, Brother Meng, please let me come back. Give me thirteen men, and I'll train them more diligently than Wu Heizi. He's become a bit lazy, indulging in gluttony and debauchery all day long. How can he train any good soldiers?" "Alright, you've learned to use 'debauchery' now. You haven't wasted your studies." Shao Shuyi deliberately interrupted, "Although Heizi is a bit indulgent, he's still very strict when it comes to training soldiers. He can't be considered lazy. Look at this..."
Wang Hua glanced over and noticed that Wu Heizi was carrying a leather whip, lashing anyone who didn't move properly—he was indeed very strict. But just seeing that made him even more itchy, he quickly said, "Brother Shao, after the attack on Zhu Ding, you raised thirteen soldiers—" Shao Shuyi glared at him.
"Thirteen men," Wang Huadu chuckled, "Now that even Wang Zongsan is dead, can't we support even more?" Mentioning this, Shao Shuyi didn't deny it, saying, "Do you know how much it costs to support one 'man' a year?"
"I've calculated it, more than ten ingots," Wang Huadu said.
Shao Shuyi looked at him in surprise and said, "That's right. Food, clothing, equipment, medicine, and wages add up to fourteen ingots per person per year. If you include the wages for their families, it's sixteen ingots. Supporting thirteen people would cost more than two hundred ingots."
A professional soldier, based on the relatively low price of grain carried by horses, spends about five ingots on food every year. If you include the fish, meat, tea and wine that are added regularly, it exceeds six ingots. Even this is based on relatively cheap livestock offal and scraps of meat. The fish and meat are produced and sold by the soldiers themselves, otherwise it would be more expensive. The annual military pay is more than seven ingots.
There weren't that many items like clothing, equipment, and medicine; when divided among everyone, it was less than one ingot.
Finally, there's the expense of the "employees'" families. Shao was quite greedy in this area, making the elderly, weak, women, and children help with making salted fish in addition to farming, giving them a little bit of grain and money as a subsidy, and giving them some of the less appealing scraps of salted fish as wages. The total cost for this was about two ingots per household per year.
All things considered, the total cost of supporting a professional martial artist exceeds sixteen ingots.
This only covers "maintenance costs," not including one-time investments—such as purchasing leather armor—showing how expensive it is to maintain professional warriors. In future wars, they can only exist as elite field troops; tasks like defending cities, garrisoning, and escorting supplies will be left to a large number of cannon fodder linemen. However, Shao Shuyi does have the ability to form a second team of fully professional warriors, and even a third could be formed with some effort. When Wang Huadu mentioned this, Shao Shuyi didn't immediately reject it, only saying, "Let's finish this job first."
Wang Huadu was overjoyed.
"Don't be so happy yet," Shao Shuyi said. "I intend to choose from among the laborers, but it's hard to say how many will actually be willing to move to Matuosha. Have you found anyone suitable in Shanghai?"
"There seem to be some among the saltworkers," Wang Huadu thought for a moment, then said, "but among the people recruited to build houses, dig ditches, and clear fields for you, there are far fewer. So far, I've only seen two or three who dare to fight; the rest are like pigs and sheep, only kneeling and begging for mercy when a knife is held to their throats." "The social atmosphere..." Shao Shuyi shook his head. "Alright, you should go back to Pudong first. Do you have enough money?"
"If we don't hire people, it's enough," Wang Huadu said. "This spring we planted some beans, but they grew sparsely and weren't enough to feed those dozen or so families. Now we have to distribute grain every month."
Shao Shuyi pondered for a moment, then said, "There are still a few dozen ingots at the old granary. Leave some for them, take fifty ingots, and use them for now." "Okay." Wang Huadu nodded and asked, "Who should we ask? Is Yu She in Huangtian Port?"
"Liu Huipeng, do you still remember him?" Shao Shuyi asked.
"He knows everything."
"He's back from Yangzhou. He said he doesn't plan to go back to Jiangxi anytime soon, so he asked me for a bookkeeping job. He plans to earn enough money before traveling again. You can ask Baijianu to use the seal, and Liu Huipeng can pay the money."
"This man lives a really carefree life," Wang Huadu praised.
"Your elders are officials in the Huangzhou Prefecture and also run an inn. If you had fathers and brothers like that, you could live a carefree life too." Shao Shuyi laughed. "Alright, use those fifty ingots sparingly. Don't dawdle, go back to Shanghai in the next couple of days."
"Fine," Wang Huadu replied sullenly, his eyes fixed on the group of "buddies" who were lining up to assassinate.
"Seventeen households of refugees from Shouchun, are they easy to manage?" Shao Shuyi asked again.
"What's there to manage or not manage?" Wang Huadu curled his lip and said, "They can still be tenants here and won't starve to death, but if they go elsewhere, they might not have such a good life. My uncle paid to hire a few strong men, so managing them is very easy."
"That's good." Shao Shuyi said, "I will be recruiting refugees to settle down in the future. Please keep an eye out for them. If anyone is willing to work, screen them first. Send the suitable ones to Ma Tuo Sha, and I will personally inspect them."
"Okay," Wang Huadu replied.
On April 19th, the group of people that Shao Shuyi had sent to the Matuosha Inspection Office, along with their equipment, boarded the Taijia Canal ship on its return voyage and arrived at Liujiagang.
At this point, the number of people gathered here had exceeded fifty.
The people from Matuosha had long been organized into a team, led by Gao Daqiang, totaling fourteen people.
The other team, led by Wu Heizi, also consisted of fourteen people.
They all practiced regularly, but the difference was that the former had been supported by Shao Shuyi as a professional martial artist, while the latter was still working part-time, and his daily livelihood mainly consisted of moving and transporting goods for Shengye Trading Company and Huangtian Trading Company.
The above are soldiers.
Besides the soldiers, there were also fourteen sailors and seven men each from the flat-bottomed and flat-bottomed boats, who had also participated in training, though less frequently.
When there is no battle, some soldiers are separated from the main force to assist the boatmen in maneuvering the boats.
After the soldiers landed, the ships anchored in the nearshore waters, with the navigators remaining to guard the area. They did not participate in the fighting but were only responsible for launching and retrieving small boats and providing support. The remaining personnel were scattered, such as Shao Shuyi, Tie Niu, Liang Tai, Cheng Ji, and several of Liang Tai's childhood friends from the Pizhou Wanhu Prefecture. They were considered a "mobile squad" outside of the "soldiers' squad," totaling fifty-one people.
That night, Shao Shuyi secretly went to the Zheng family's old residence in Yantietang, climbed over the wall, retrieved a small bundle, and then rushed back to Liujiagang overnight.
The next day, Shao Shuyi worked a normal day at the Xia Zheng silk shop without any apparent abnormalities. After work, he immediately returned to the small courtyard by the river and changed into another set of clothes.
That night, the Pingjia and Pingyi ships quietly left Liujiagang.
Due to unfavorable wind direction, we didn't pass Chongming until the early morning of the second day.
On the evening of the 22nd, the fleet arrived near Lüsichang.
Under the dark sky and sea, more than thirty heroes rowed their small boats ashore overnight on the undulating waves.
On the morning of the 23rd, a thatched hut woven from reeds and branches had already been erected on the mudflats near the sea.
Wang Xiaoer, an archer from the Lüsi Patrol Office, had just snatched a piece of cake from a restaurant and was about to eat it when he was stunned by what he saw in front of him. A red flag was being held up on a bamboo pole on the roof of a thatched hut, with the character "武" (Wu) written on it in large characters.
Besides the large banner with the character "武" (Wu, meaning martial arts), there was also a triangular red flag, but its purpose was unknown.
Two men stood at the entrance of the thatched hut, looking straight ahead and leaning on their rifles.
A tall young man was chatting and laughing with someone, completely oblivious to the fact that others could see him.
Smuggled salt dealers? Wang Xiaoer was taken aback, because he had already seen people carrying salt bags going over to sell salt.
They don't even try to hide from people, they're so bold!
Enraged, Wang Xiaoer forgot all about eating his pancake and grabbed a villager who had just returned home from selling salt, saying, "How dare you!"
The villager was startled and could not break free.
Just then, a man with a small flag on his back waved at the entrance of the thatched hut, and several people followed, armed with knives and spears, coming in a menacing manner. Wang Xiaoer could see clearly that the leader was carrying a black spear, with a bow on his left and a knife on his right at his waist, and a two-handed greatsword and heavy sword with shafts much longer than ordinary iron swords slung across his back.
The small flag on its back fluttered in the wind, and it was embroidered with a fierce tiger with bared teeth and claws, which was quite frightening.
"How dare you!" The other party said the same thing and slapped Wang Xiaoer across the face, making him dizzy and collapsing to the ground.
The heavy leather boots stomped down, grinding against Wang Xiaoer's face, and said, "Don't meddle! Brother Wu is here to collect salt. He'll leave once he's collected 20,000 catties. Don't cause trouble. Otherwise, I know where your patrol station is, and I'll raid it today, killing everyone I see, leaving nothing behind."
"What are you looking at? If you have salt, come and sell it; if not, get lost!" Several other waiters glared at the passerby, looking menacing. Wang Xiao'er's face was covered in mud, and a wave of indescribable humiliation surged within him. Only four words remained in his mind: Rebel against the Heavenly Gang!