Chapter 594: The Filthy Rich Songjiang Prefecture

Yan Shixuan actually wanted to stay in Shanghai County to continue serving as the County Magistrate. Because of Shanghai County's location, it was destined to be a vital hub for opening the seas. All goods coming up from the Yangtze Jianghe had to be transshipped in Shanghai County, and one could achieve great merit here.

But Yan Shixuan ultimately chose to leave. This place—it was better to let the "Heavenly People" fight over it.

The reason Sun Wukong could ask whose servant the demon he was fighting belonged to was because he was the reincarnation of the Heart-Monkey Sarira, and his background was even greater than the Golden Cicada of Tang Seng.

"In the eighth year of Wanli, I arrived in Shanghai County to serve as County Magistrate. I remember clearly that the day I took office at the Qujiawan County Southern Yamen was the fourteenth day of the eighth lunar month. The next day was the Mid-Wang Qiujie. I remember it very clearly." Yan Shixuan led Li Yougong onto the streets of Shanghai County.

Shanghai County had no city walls, and the County Southern Yamen had moved from Shiliupu to this place, Qujiawan, in the first year of Wanli.

Standing on the bustling street, Yan Shixuan looked at the heavy traffic with deep emotion and said, "When I took office, the population of Shanghai County already exceeded 800,000. I had only one feeling at the time: is this a county seat? Jimo County only just reached 250,000 people. Jimo County is the vanguard of opening the seas in Mizhou, while Shanghai County is the bridgehead for opening the seas in Songjiang."

"At that time, it felt very strange. I had become the 'father and mother official' to 800,000 people? But for an 800,000-person Shanghai County, the annual revenue was no more than 200,000 taels of silver. For such a massive Shanghai County, it was like a cup of water on a burning cartload of firewood."

"I didn't understand why the tax revenue was so meager. I had the clerks of the Six Offices bring the accounts for me to see. That was the first stumble I took. From that moment, from the very first day I took office, I understood why imperial officials were also called 'drifting officials'."

"The grandfather of the grandfather of the clerks in the Six Offices was already a clerk. It was the same for the bailiffs, squad leaders, yamen runners, jailers, coroners, and even the vegetable farmers in the Vegetable Farmer Camp—generation after generation, hereditary and unchanging."

"The clerk told me directly: there are no accounts, but the money owed must be repaid; otherwise, it would be extortion of the powerful and harsh treatment of the commoners."

"Great Eunuch Li, facing this situation, you tell me: am I the 'Venerable Qingtian' Great Master, or are they? To put it more clearly, who is the one actually controlling the power?"

"Drifting officials governing a locality will always encounter this kind of dilemma. Even in Zhenping County, Nanyang Prefecture, Henan, it escalated into a farce of killing an official," Li Yougong answered this question. In this situation, power was indeed not in the hands of the County Magistrate.

Yan Shixuan reached out toward the front and said, "The street under our feet is called Huduzhu. It is the oldest street in Shanghai County, so old that the locals don't even know when it came into existence. I examined the ancient records and learned that it should have been built during the Spring and Autumn period by King Shoumeng of Wu. 'Hu' is a very ancient fishing tool, somewhat similar to a ground cage, used when the tide rises. Later, this place was called Huduzhu."

"During the Northern Song Dynasty, Huduzhu was renamed Shanghai Office, which was a supervised trade market—a government-run marketplace of the Northern Song court, mainly for selling wine. After the court built the marketplace, the Shanghai Office quickly prospered. It took less than ten years to upgrade from an office to a town."

"At that time, people built the Maritime Trade Office, Commercial Tax Bureau, Taiping Granary, Wine Office, Salt Office, Police Inspectorate, Water Post, Express Post, and so on along this Huduzhu Street under our feet. It could be said that everything was complete, the population was dense, and foreign merchants gathered here."

"Great Eunuch Li, how much commercial tax do you think this street can collect?"

Li Yougong pondered for a moment and said, "Itinerant merchants are not taxed, and sedentary merchants pay one out of thirty. If the situation is good, collecting 100,000 or 200,000 taels of tax money a year should be no problem."

Yan Shixuan sighed and said, "In the seventh year of Wanli, this place only collected 1,890 taels of silver in commercial tax. The sedentary merchants paid nothing; only the peddlers and hawkers paid money. And it wasn't paid to the court yamen, but to merchant groups like the Hailong Gang. In the eighth year of Wanli, there were seven merchant groups of various sizes entrenched on this street. They raised many loafers as thugs, and they would clash at the slightest provocation."

"In one year, the County Southern Yamen had to repay over 300,000 taels of silver in debt, while the annual revenue was no more than 200,000 taels. This was Shanghai County when I took office."

"How many people advised me to 'harmonize with the light and mingle with the dust'? The world is like this; one should blend in with the secular, not stand out, not reveal one's edge. If everyone is like this, and you appear special, you appear different?"

Li Yougong said sincerely, "Then Magistrate Yan truly has a backbone of integrity, refusing to wallow in the mire with such filthy goods."

Harmonize with the light and mingle with the dust? It was clearly wallowing in the mire, birds of a feather. If the officials of the Great Ming Dynasty were all kneeling to serve as officials, then the Great Ming Dynasty was likely not far from national ruin.

"Eh, this Great Eunuch Li thinks too highly of me." Yan Shixuan waved his hands repeatedly and said, "Where would I get the confidence to refuse to wallow in the mire with them? I wanted to, but the pity is that they didn't give me the opportunity at all."

"Oh? I would like to hear the details." Li Yougong frowned; there seemed to be hidden secrets here. Yan Shixuan looked like he wanted to kneel, but it seemed he hadn't succeeded.

Yan Shixuan walked forward step by step, sighing, "This baseless debt emptied the entire prefecture office. The Shanghai County Southern Yamen couldn't even pay the salaries of the yamen runners. This is Shanghai County! Opening the seas for several years, this place is filthy rich, rich enough to make people intoxicated, but I, this 'Venerable Qingtian' father and mother official, didn't even have the silver to pay the yamen runners."

"If it were just that, it would be fine. It wasn't the first day salaries hadn't been paid; it had been decades, and the yamen runners were long used to it."

"But not only did they not give money, they also wanted my life."

"Grand Coordinator Hai repaired the Wu Song Jianghe and Baimao Jianghe embankments, dredged the rivers, and connected them to the sea, which gave Shanghai County its basic layout today. The river embankments Grand Coordinator Hai repaired with the commoners could at least be used for another dozen years."

"On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the Mid-Wang Qiujie, the County Assistant found me and told me to memorialize the court to repair the Wu Song Jianghe embankments again, estimated at 340,000 taels of silver."

Building walls in the north and dredging in the south—these were old tricks. Repairing the Wu Song Jianghe, which didn't need repairing, again would cost 340,000 taels. The court would allocate a portion, and the locality would solve the rest. But at this time, the Shanghai County Southern Yamen was empty; even a mouse entering would have to cry as it left. But those who ate meat were absolutely unwilling to let themselves go hungry.

At this time, letting Yan Shixuan memorialize the court to repair the river embankments happened so naturally.

Everyone was satisfied, except for Yan Shixuan. Given His Majesty's decisive and ruthless character, if Yan Shixuan really reported it like that, and later the court and the Emperor discovered their silver had been wasted like this, I'm afraid it would be another massive case of collective punishment.

"I wanted to 'harmonize with the light and mingle with the dust', but they didn't even give me a chance to survive." When Yan Shixuan spoke, there was some hostility.

He wanted to kneel, but they wouldn't let him! Wasn't this bullying people?

"Judge by actions, not by heart. Magistrate Yan did not wallow in the mire with these people, so that is a backbone of integrity. For those who charge into the fray, the first to ascend gets a heavy reward." Li Yougong gave a very positive evaluation. No matter how afraid you are in your heart, no matter how much you want to kneel, if you didn't kneel, you are a loyal official with a backbone. When fighting a war, cutting off the enemy's head is merit.

Yan Shixuan walked with a steady, square gait along the long street by the Huangpujiang. This long street had embankments and street trees. He continued, "I definitely wouldn't do the thing that would cost me my life. Later, in the spring of the ninth year of Wanli, the Grand Minister of Works returned to the capital, and Provincial Governor Shen took office. I quickly received a warrant to go to the Prefecture Southern Yamen, where I was scolded by the private secretary Dong Wei."

"Don't look at the fact that this private secretary has no official status; he scolded me like he was scolding his son. And I couldn't even talk back, because I didn't know if it was Shen Shixing's intention. After all, he is of the Chu Party, and I am of the Jin Party."

"Construction doesn't necessarily have to be the Wu Song Jianghe; it could also be the wharf market on this Huangpujiang. After being scolded, I returned to the County Southern Yamen and memorialized the court to request construction."

"For this construction matter, the court gave 100,000 taels of silver to renovate the sixteen markets along the Huangpujiang in Shanghai County. It was only on the day construction started that the mask was completely torn off. I didn't use locals at all; from inside to outside, they were all outsiders. At that time, I was also afraid. I was afraid of death, afraid that the silver given by the court would be embezzled by them, and I wouldn't be able to bear the court's accountability, afraid that the renovation of the markets wouldn't be done well and I wouldn't be able to fulfill the task."

"As I repaired it, I discovered that they were all a bunch of cowards! Shadows in a shadow play, looking intimidating, that's all."

Li Yougong raised an eyebrow: "Oh? I would like to hear the details."

Yan Shixuan raised an eyebrow and said excitedly, "They didn't dare to kill me because I am an imperial official. If they killed me, even if Shen Shixing really instructed the private secretary to fish for silver, he wouldn't be able to cover it up. They didn't dare to sabotage the construction site because it was an imperial decree. On one hand, the hired laborers were entering, and on the other, the local powerful and wealthy families were leading the shops and merchants to oppose it, but in the end, the hired laborers entered."

"I discovered their essence: a bunch of cowards. They didn't even dare to make a big scene, didn't dare to cause any deaths, because human life lawsuits must be reported to the court. Once the court's gaze turned toward Shanghai County, it wouldn't be something the locals could handle."

"Borrowing the matter of repairing the sixteen markets, I opened up the situation. First, I drove out all the sedentary bandits from the sixteen markets and became the sedentary bandit myself. Later, I simply didn't even recognize the previous debts. I didn't bring anyone and appeared swaggeringly at their banquets and poetry gatherings. I am just a vulgar person. They didn't let me have my way, so when I went to their banquets, I was sarcastic and pointed at the mulberry while scolding the locust tree."

"I cleared out the yamen vermin with great force, hiring outsiders to become squad leaders, yamen runners, and clerks of the Six Offices. The Great Ming doesn't have much else, but people who want to eat imperial grain can line up all the way to the West!"

"If you have the ability, kill me!"

The last sentence was almost shouted by Yan Shixuan, with a bit of the illusion of a petty person who has achieved his ambition and is rampant.

Yan Shixuan was different from the traditional virtuous or good officials. He was rampant once he achieved his ambition. After opening up the situation, smashing up venues everywhere became his hobby. Forcing this bunch of cowards to take risks was Yan Shixuan's plan.

Yan Shixuan spread his hands helplessly and said, "Sigh, these proud days didn't last half a year. Everything was going quite well, but later, Hai Laosi of the Hailong Gang hooked up with the private secretary Dong Wei, and my days became difficult again."

"I had to go to the Songjiang Prefecture Southern Yamen once a month to be scolded. Dong Wei was sarcastic at first, but later he was simply heartbroken, wishing he could grab my collar and scold me. But I discovered that Dong Wei was also a coward. He couldn't do anything to me; he could only scold. The angrier he got, the happier I was, and the less I would do what he wanted."

"At that time, I was somewhat 'breaking the pot to pieces'—I just wanted to wipe out the Hailong Gang, and nothing else mattered."

"That day, I suddenly received a warrant from the Provincial Governor. I thought it was for me to go to the Prefecture Southern Yamen to be scolded, thinking Shen Shixing finally couldn't hold back and wanted to lecture me personally. But when I opened it, it was for me to cooperate with the yamen runners of Huating County to arrest Hai Laosi and the other criminals of the Hailong Gang!"

"Still need Huating County yamen runners? I could have wiped them out completely just by bringing my own yamen runners!"

"A bunch of cowards. Usually, they bully the commoners and fight fiercely, but when facing yamen runners, they surrender without a fight, not even daring to scold. Of course, it might have something to do with the Great Ming Navy being in Songjiang Prefecture."

Borrowing the fox's power to intimidate the tiger—after Yan Shixuan couldn't kneel to serve as an official, he discovered that these people weren't actually afraid of him, but were afraid of the sharp soldiers of the navy.

If the Hailong Gang really clashed with the Shanghai County yamen runners and even fought, the Great Ming Navy's strong troops could arrive in less than half a day. This was suppressing a rebellion; suppressing a rebellion didn't need so many reasons.

The eunuch Zhang Cheng, Regional Military Commander of Songjiang Town, specifically ran to the Songjiang Prefecture Southern Yamen to communicate with Shen Shixing before the operation, just to tell Shen Shixing that the navy had already sharpened their knives—act boldly.

Li Yougong just listened quietly to Yan Shixuan's endless stream of words. This Yan Shixuan was actually a chatterbox; once the floodgates were opened, he just kept talking.

The sixteen markets were just the initial conflict. Over these few years, Yan Shixuan picked out over a dozen important matters and shared them incessantly with Li Yougong.

For example, the conflict over temple land during the land survey; the conflict over hidden households during the population census; the conflict over land annexation by Xu Jie in Shanghai County; the conflict over land occupation during the construction of government factories, and so on.

Yan Shixuan straightened his back, looked at the ten-mile long street, and said very proudly, "When the road surface of Shanghai County was hardened, thirteen government factories were built: lime factories, brick factories, coke factories, iron factories, etc. Later, there were too many people here, so I moved the factories to the city outskirts. These factories have now turned into the three-story small buildings we see. All these ten miles of small buildings on Huduzhu Street are government housing, belonging to the Shanghai County Southern Yamen!"

"The wharves, schoolhouses, wine shops, Confucian schools, People's Benefit Pharmacies, and weaving bureau residences were all built by me!"

Li Yougong thought of Wang Yie. When Wang Yie was serving as the Vice Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture, he also built a similar street along the Tonghui Jianghe. Now it is the most prosperous street in the capital, with people coming and going incessantly. On that one street alone, over 100,000 people gathered.

The Emperor's sparring partner, the number three ancestor in the palace, Li Yougong, was very convinced that Yan Shixuan was a capable official. Eunuchs didn't talk about things like morality; he just saw that Yan Shixuan could get things done, and being able to get things done was already very, very remarkable!

"Actually, I didn't do well at all." Yan Shixuan changed from being quite proud to being somewhat dejected. He looked at a street and said, "This street is the best proof of my incompetence."

"Isn't this street very prosperous?" Li Yougong didn't understand. How could this street, where people came and went and carriages were far more numerous than in other places, become the best proof of Yan Shixuan's incompetence?

Yan Shixuan said with an exceptionally solemn expression, "On this street, everything sold is extravagant. This street is three miles long, and there is no duplicate extravagant item. Agate and jade from the Western Regions, jadeite from Luchuan, kingfisher-feather inlaid gold and silver jewelry, gold-lacquer inlaid furniture, cloisonné, Shu brocade and Sichuan satin, tea and fine wine from all over—dazzling and overwhelming."

"It is extravagant to the extreme here. A tael of tea dares to sell for dozens of taels of silver, and it is still in short supply."

"Is there a problem?" Li Yougong didn't understand. Such a prosperous place, in Yan Shixuan's mouth, became proof of his failure and incompetence.

"Those covered in silk and satin are not the ones raising silkworms." Yan Shixuan said in a low voice, "The poor commoners and laborers pass through this place in a hurry, not even daring to take a look."

Li Yougong said with great conviction, "Magistrate Yan is truly a scholar of great ambition and integrity."

Wang Jiaping didn't misjudge him. Yan Shixuan actually didn't have much courage. He also wanted to kneel and was ready to surrender before the battle even started. If Wang Jiaping had really accepted such a disciple, the possibility of causing trouble and implicating Wang Jiaping would be very high.

Yan Shixuan had no choice; he could only resist. If he didn't resist, he would die. At first, Yan Shixuan's resistance was more like trying to secure better surrender conditions.

Later, when it reached the point of being incompatible like fire and water, with the enemy weak and him strong, why surrender?

"This servant has seen every treasure in the Inner Office. Let this servant go take a look!" Li Yougong was full of confidence. A piece of agarwood in the Great Ming Imperial Palace weighed 300 catties! Jadeite was weighed by the catty. Just in the gold Inner Office, there were 1.2 million gold coins! They were all minted gold coins, specifically used for rewards.

Dare to ask who else in the world could be as extravagant as the Imperial House?

Li Yougong didn't believe that there were treasures on this three-mile-long street that he hadn't seen before!

Li Yougong walked past the archway of the street, on which was written "Xiafei." This three-mile-long street was called Xiafei Street. Li Yougong, full of confidence, walked nearly a hundred steps, casually turned into a shop, and then walked out with a face full of confusion.

"How is it?" Yan Shixuan asked curiously. He wanted to know how the Heavenly People evaluated the extravagance here. Li Yougong belonged to the Heavenly People among the Heavenly People; after all, he was the head of the sparring partners who grew up with His Majesty.

"His Majesty advocates frugality; there is no such thing in the palace." Li Yougong said blankly.

He saw a type of ink paste selling for 30 taels of silver per tael, only accepting silver coins or promissory notes from the official post house. Li Yougong almost cursed on the spot. Your ink paste is made of gold, and it still shouldn't be this expensive! One tael of gold can only be exchanged for sixteen taels of silver, and this one tael of ink paste sells for thirty taels!

Why don't you go rob someone!

The shopkeeper politely sent Li Yougong out with a look like he was looking at a poor ghost—if you can't afford it, don't look; you're delaying business.

There were also wealthy families in Jiangnan who used castrated slaves. Li Yougong didn't have a beard, which wasn't anything strange.

But this ink paste was indeed worth the price. Longquan ink paste uses lotus silk; 10,000 catties of lotus roots can extract two and a half taels of lotus silk. After being extracted and dried for a year, and tea oil dried for six years, the ink paste, which has over thirty processes, does not solidify in winter, does not lose oil in summer, does not rot when soaked in water, leaves a mark when burned, and remains unchanged for a hundred years.

His Majesty the Emperor possesses the most silver in the world, with nearly 20 million taels of silver piled up like a mountain in the Inner Treasury—a silver mountain in the physical sense—but His Majesty has never been so extravagant.

Ink paste that costs one tael of silver per catty isn't unusable, and paper that costs 300 wen per knife isn't unusable.

"Is there none in the palace?" Yan Shixuan asked in surprise. In a flash of lightning, he knew it was bad!

When Li Yougong came, he brought over twenty secret agents, but Songjiang Prefecture had a Tax Inspection Court and 120 Tax Inspection secret agents. Raiding this Xiafei Street from beginning to end would be more than enough, and it would be justified and open!

Because this was usurpation. If even the Emperor doesn't use such extravagant items, how can the common people use them!

Xiafei Street, which had committed the crime of usurpation, was raided, which conformed to traditional Confucian rituals and laws. Even if this matter became known to the whole world, Li Yougong would be in the right. Heaven and Earth are great, but the Emperor is the greatest. Regardless of the reality, nominally, it is like this.

"Tsk tsk, filthy rich." Li Yougong's eyes flashed with light. He was thinking about whether to take action and rob. Robbing this haul would be enough for the palace to enjoy for over a dozen years, and he wouldn't even need to spend silver. He was the Emperor's sparring partner; he personally led people to raid it in the name of usurpation, which was justified.

Except for His Majesty, who could make things difficult for Li Yougong? Even Zhang Juzheng couldn't. Zhang Juzheng, leading the Cabinet, could only say a few words. If His Majesty wanted to protect him, it would be easy.

"Forget it. His Majesty said that when I go to the locality, I should not disturb the locality. Every cent of silver I bring back to the palace is exchanged for His Majesty's credibility." Li Yougong ultimately didn't intend to do that. Although they were filthy rich and it would be justified, there was an imperial decree.

Li Yougong walked two steps and suddenly saw a carriage procession decorated with flowers coming from the front. These carriages looked a bit familiar. After looking for a long time, Li Yougong was convinced that these were all products of the Imperial Manor, and they were the high-end goods of the newly released hydraulic shock absorption series. One carriage ranged from 500 taels of silver to 5,000 taels of silver.

This series was called "Cloud Carriage," symbolizing the vehicles ridden by immortals, originating from the "Biography of Cui Guang" in the "Book of Wei."

You get what you pay for. The Imperial Manor's craftsmanship was extremely precise. Each carriage had different specifications, such as the transparency of the window glass, the steel of the carriage, the spring steel of the shock absorbers, etc.

The Imperial Palace was not without luxury goods, but most of them were placed in the Imperial Manor to be auctioned off for silver.

"One, two, three... twelve carriages." Li Yougong counted simply. There were actually twelve of the top-tier luxury carriages. Just the carriages alone cost 60,000 taels of silver, and adding the horses pulling the carriages—all of them were fine steeds—the price was immeasurable.

"Which wealthy young master is traveling?" Li Yougong asked with some doubt.

Yan Shixuan said with great emotion, "These twelve carriages are all for the top courtesans of Songjiang Prefecture."

"The top courtesans are this rich?" Li Yougong was stunned. Songjiang Prefecture of the Great Ming was indeed very wealthy, but had it become so rich that even top courtesans could afford such expensive items?

Yan Shixuan said with mixed feelings, "No, how could that be? Simply put, it's competing in wealth. Actually, it's a bad custom passed down from Japan. But Japan is a tiny country; no matter how rich Nagasaki is, what kind of tricks can they come up with? After this bad custom was introduced to the Great Ming, it intensified and became what it is now."

Li Yougong understood the details and learned about Japan's custom of competing in wealth. This was the fault of Xu Fan and Sun Kehong. They issued paper money, but they didn't issue it excessively, which alleviated Japan's currency famine and stimulated the economy in the short term. Around several ports in Japan, it became wealthy, and this strange culture of competing in wealth and extravagance appeared.

Japan has a very rich courtesan culture, which is an industrial chain comparable to the Korean courtesans.

When these top courtesans go out, they have the "Six Gentlemen."

One is the "Destined Gentleman." The Destined Gentleman is the family the courtesan will marry into after leaving the profession. One must find a Destined Gentleman with high status. The remaining five gentlemen are easy to handle. These Destined Gentlemen are either direct descendants of famous land-owning daimyo or descendants of court nobles.

With the Destined Gentleman and the six gentlemen for going out, one can start searching.

The first one to look for is the "Holding Gentleman," which is actually the number one backup. Once the Destined Gentleman abandons these courtesans, the Holding Gentleman cannot take his place, because the Holding Gentleman is just the backup who "rides a donkey to find a donkey." Only when the courtesan really cannot find a Destined Gentleman will she give the Holding Gentleman a chance.

Below the Holding Gentleman is the "Curtain Gentleman." This Curtain Gentleman doesn't consider family background at all. He must be handsome and strong, responsible for helping the courtesans handle all the troubles in life. But the Curtain Gentleman cannot be a guest behind the curtain; the meaning of this "curtain" is just that he can go into the courtesan's boudoir to solve trivial life matters.

The Curtain Gentleman is also a tool for courtesans to fight among themselves. If my Curtain Gentleman is higher and stronger than yours, then I have the upper hand.

Besides the Destined Gentleman, Holding Gentleman, and Curtain Gentleman, there are three other gentlemen. These three gentlemen are mainly children of wealthy merchants. The "Foot Gentleman" is responsible for running errands, the "Pack Gentleman" is responsible for providing vehicles for travel, and the "Viewing Gentleman" is mainly responsible for pretending to be elegant and providing the poetry and songs to be sung.

The Destined Gentleman, Holding Gentleman, Curtain Gentleman, Foot Gentleman, Pack Gentleman, and Viewing Gentleman are the "Six Gentlemen of the Courtesan." Besides these, there is another type called the "Tribute Gentleman," who is specifically responsible for offering tribute. There are many of these people. These Tribute Gentlemen are the wallets for the courtesans when they go out. They are responsible for providing all the expenses for the courtesans, but even seeing the courtesan once is harder than ascending to heaven.

These Tribute Gentlemen may not necessarily be rich, but they are definitely willing to give everything they have for the courtesan, while the courtesans are too lazy to even look at these Tribute Gentlemen.

Tribute Gentlemen are not in the sequence of the Six Gentlemen, because "lick-dog" (sycophants) don't get a seat at the table.

Among these messy gentlemen, only the Destined Gentleman can get close to the courtesan. Occasionally, the Destined Gentleman will summon the courtesan to his mansion to play and sing.

"Are they crazy?" Li Yougong was dumbfounded after hearing this. He wished he could immediately invite out the Zhu-Cheng Neo-Confucianism! Isn't this nonsense?

Yan Shixuan let out a heavy breath of turbid air and said, "Competing in wealth and extravagance in Songjiang Prefecture has become a trend. This absurd way of Japan has been passed to the Great Ming. These children of the powerful and wealthy families are flocking to it, immediately imitating it, and started the 'Songjiang Courtesan Ranking,' with twelve people on the list, using the twelve months as flower names. Actually, it's not that they admire the courtesans that much; it's just to show that they are wealthy."

*Ta-ta-ta! * Footsteps came. Li Yougong looked toward the end of the street with a solemn expression. There were many people running toward Xiafei Street.

Did the Hailong Gang come to seek revenge on Yan Shixuan?

The accompanying secret agents and tax inspection agents reached for their handguns, their eyes scanning the surroundings, looking for favorable terrain for the upcoming battle. A lightly equipped secret agent ran and vaulted over a wall, disappearing into the sea of people. This secret agent was a Marquis of the Beacon Tower, now going out to deliver a message.

Once the fight started, as long as they held out for a quarter of an hour, the yamen runners would arrive. If they held out for three hours, the sharp soldiers of the navy would arrive.

A group of people dressed as retainers, holding long wooden sticks as thick as a fist, rushed into Xiafei Street. They didn't hit anyone, nor did they rob. They rushed straight toward the courtesan carriage procession. A four-man sedan chair passed quickly in front of Li Yougong and the others.

Li Yougong was already prepared for battle, but the retainers didn't even look at him.

"Qu Daocheng! You turtle grandson! Get over here for your father!" An old man with white hair all over his head stepped out of the sedan chair, leaning on a cane. His spirit looked very poor, his eyes were bloodshot, and he roared with incomparable anger.

"This is?" Li Yougong realized that they weren't coming for him.

Yan Shixuan actually recognized this person. He said concisely, "Old Master Qu of the Qu family, Qu Hexing, is the Qu family from Qujiawan. Originally, the County Southern Yamen was on their land. Later, Qu Hexing sent the land deed to the County Southern Yamen. He is considered a wealthy family in Songjiang Prefecture, second only to the Sun family of Songjiang. In his family alone, there are over 300 two-masted ships and 80 three-masted ships. Last year, he bought two five-masted ocean-going ships."

"Qu Hexing is Qu Daocheng's grandfather."

Li Yougong simply sorted out the relationship and said blankly, "No, then Qu Hexing is scolding his grandson as a turtle grandson, then what is he?"

"He's a bit incoherent when he's anxious." Yan Shixuan said with a smile, "Qu Hexing is that kind of stubborn old man with a bad temper. During the sea ban, he went out to sea to make a living."

A man with deep-set eye sockets, only about twenty years old, looked like he didn't have long to live, even worse than Qu Hexing.

"Grandfather! What are you doing! I'm just out playing." Qu Daocheng shouted loudly.

Qu Hexing's face turned red and white. Closing his eyes, he waved his big hand and said, "Family misfortune, family misfortune! Beat him! Beat him to death, and if the yamen asks, it's on me!"

"Grandfather, you only have one grandson!" Qu Daocheng was scared silly. He didn't doubt at all that his grandfather really wanted to beat him to death!

Qu Hexing was able to lead the Qu family to take such a big bite out of the sea-opening business. In front of so many people, he naturally did what he said.

"It's fine, your father still has three illegitimate children. Even if it's shameful, it's not as shameful as you! Beat him!" Qu Hexing snatched the wooden stick as thick as a fist from the retainer's hand and struck out. ===== CHAPTER 595 =====