Chapter 341: Opening the Port (VIII)

Wu Sanye, who had been staring blankly at the ruined bridge, quickly realized where his oversight lay.

He had approached this matter according to the Edo concept of fighting over territory, but this opponent was different from those of the past: their goal was only the land itself. As for this private port, what Third Lord did not know was that it would certainly be demolished in the future, then buried along with the island to form a straight shoreline.

So a jetty, which in Third Lord's eyes was an incomparably precious means of production, was in Xiong Dao's eyes nothing but scrap to be torn down sooner or later.

This led to Third Lord's misjudgment: he thought they were coming for the people, but who knew they would start by smashing the pots and pans first.

So what now? Build another jetty? And have it burned down again once it's finished?

Just as someone was sinking into confusion, a subordinate reported: Du Yaren had come again.

... Continuing to extend a finger and push away the sharp blade at his neck, Du Yaren gave a mirthless smile and said, "Third Lord, throwing your weight around in front of a middleman doesn't seem like your style."

Seeing the mockery in Du Yaren's eyes, Third Lord barely managed to swallow a mouthful of foul breath. Waving his hand to signal his men to put away their knives, he asked harshly, "What are you running back here for, you wretch?"

"Ah, a life of toil. Early this morning, someone came from Master Xiong's side, again with a message."

"Spit it out if you've got something to say!"

"Master Xiong's meaning is this: since the jetty is gone, the previous sum must be cut in half... Furthermore, if you gentlemen are willing to pledge your service, Master Xiong is still willing to let bygones be bygones."

"Third Lord, give me a definite answer, yes or no, so I can go back and report." After stating the terms, Du Yaren fixed his gaze on Third Lord, waiting only for his reply.

Wu Meng today appeared calm, a bit faster than yesterday; it seemed burning the jetty had been useful after all. He raised a hand to silence the noisy protests of his sworn brothers and said slowly, "Please go back and tell Master Xiong to allow Wu Meng a few days to think it over."

"Good, good. Du takes his leave."

Three days later, the inner courtyard of Crane Tower.

Tonight was a waning crescent moon, just a curved sliver, and the thick clouds in the sky made the surroundings pitch black, where one could hear voices but not see people.

With a "splash," Liao Shuangding's head emerged from the pond, a green lotus leaf still perched on top. After looking left and right, Liao Shuangding got his bearings, slowly swam to the edge of the lotus pond, and with a surge of strength from both arms, silently vaulted onto the bank.

Liao Shuangding belonged to the Deng Clan's Da Hang in Xiancheng; he was a thief within the Da Hang specifically responsible for petty theft and scouting for valuables.

Da Hang were urban underworld organizations that gradually rose to prominence in the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty.

In essence, Da Hang were not much different from the triads of later generations; both were illegal organizations that relied on violence for profit.

As the name implies, the main business of Da Hang was naturally fighting. Formed by urban ruffians and hooligans, the original purpose of establishing Da Hang was to rent out thugs — the government was both dark and fatuous, and disputes among the citizen class were sometimes resolved more quickly by hiring thugs.

Thus, Da Hang developed in the Suzhou and Song areas, where the economy was most developed and the transient population was largest.

The result of this flourishing development was that the government could no longer tolerate it — during the Jiajing era, the Suzhou Regional Inspector Weng Dali began to crack down on Da Hang. Who would have thought that Da Hang would ambush men in an alley, and when Weng Dali passed by, they "leapt out and slapped his face, then withdrew like birds in flight."

Later, after the conflict between the two sides fully erupted, Da Hang even organized men to raid the jail at night, freeing all the men Weng Dali had arrested. They then stormed the Censorate, frightening Weng Dali and his wife into fleeing over the wall.

Afterward, Da Hang set fire to the Public Office, then "led a mob intending to raid the Prefectural government office," but were resisted by Prefect Wang Daoxing leading troops and braves. Seeing no advantage to be gained, this gang "broke through the gates and fled, entering Taihu Lake."

... The arrogance of Da Hang to this degree fundamentally stemmed from the increasingly deteriorating political environment of the Ming government.

First, the heavy taxation of the Ming Dynasty was notorious. Throughout the Ming generation, the fields of Jiangnan accounted for only 6% of the nation's total, yet the tax grain accounted for nearly 22% of the nation's total. In the mid-Ming period, the Canal Grain transported annually to Beijing was 4 million shi, and the five prefectures of Jiangnan in Jiangsu alone provided over one-third of the total.

Hangjiahu not only had high tax quotas, but the proportion collected in kind reached as high as 90%. By the mid-to-late Ming, under the exploitation of heavy taxes, Jiangnan was "drained to skin and bone." Official and gentry landlords could still shift their burdens onto the common people, while the common people had no choice but to sell their children, and then, driven by desperation, flee.

As a result, large numbers of rural vagrants flooded into urban areas, fundamentally undermining public order and providing Da Hang with a solid manpower base.

Second, by the mid-to-late Ming, the population grew increasingly dense, and those originally quiet towns in the Jiangnan region became places where "mansions touched the clouds, boats gathered like scales, and mulberry and hemp encircled the wilds, becoming a grand city on one side."

Under these circumstances, facing a suddenly booming commercial environment, the government's original meager management resources could not keep up. And at this time, Da Hang naturally emerged to fill the gap — just think, if a district only had one police station, public order would certainly not be good anywhere.

By the late Ming era when the Transmigrators appeared, Da Hang had already evolved into professional criminal gangs specializing in violent robbery, extortion, and organized theft. In comparison, the thug rental service they originally started with had become a secondary business for Da Hang.

And now, Liao Shuangding, who had just surfaced from the pond at Crane Tower, was a habitual thief from a Da Hang in Xiancheng.

Nowadays, even thieving had its companies. Some renowned "master thieves" would "recruit rootless vagabonds from all over, harboring and keeping them at home, picking pockets in the streets and markets during the day, and drilling into boat cabins on the rivers at night, greatly harming the people."

This craft of harboring and training thieves was even passed down to later generations, both in China and abroad — it is vividly depicted in Oliver Twist.

The reason he was sent to Crane Tower tonight by the Chief Thief to "do a job" was because Liao Shuangding was very familiar with the terrain here: this fellow had worked as a servant at Crane Tower back in the day, and was later beaten severely and driven out of Crane Tower for stealing his master's property.

Wearing a cowhide waterproof suit, Liao Shuangding quickly darted out of the lotus pond. He then tucked the pig bladder he used for storing air into his waistband and ran forward, stooping low.

In the pitch-black night with only a faint glimmer of light, Liao Shuangding's movements were precise and swift: he had swept every inch of this land back in the day, his sweat had fallen upon it, so he could find his destination even with his eyes closed.

However, after running out a certain distance, he sensed something was wrong: where had all the plants and trees gone?

At his current position, he should theoretically be passing through a patch of flower bushes. Opposite the flower bushes was a long corridor. After climbing over the corridor, following the railing to its end, and passing through a moon gate, he would reach his destination for this trip: Cangshu Ge.

But tonight was bewitched; even after Liao Shuangding climbed over the long corridor, he had not seen any of the once-luxuriant flowers, trees, and bushes.

This situation put Liao Shuangding on high alert: flowers and trees were the best cover. Now that his field of vision was completely open, it was highly disadvantageous for him.

Fortunately, although the flowers and trees were gone, the other structures remained. Though Liao Shuangding muttered to himself, he still smoothly ran to the end of the long corridor and hid beneath the corner of a wall to observe carefully.

Normally, the guards would patrol on the move at night. So Liao Shuangding had to wait for the guards to pass by the moon gate before he could dart in, to avoid running into them head-on — after all, he had been away for a long time, and the guards' patrol schedule must have changed long ago.

Yet just as he crouched low, quietly waiting for the guards to pass by, something unexpected was happening: he dried off.

The run after emerging from the lotus pond, plus the time spent lurking and waiting, caused the water droplets on Liao Shuangding's body to gradually be shaken off and evaporate, and so, he dried off.

Completely unaware of any impact his drying off might have, Liao Shuangding soon successfully waited for two black-clad guards to emerge from the moon gate. After the guards passed, Liao Shuangding silently "bent low, moved forward quickly at a slant, and slipped into the moon gate."

What Liao Shuangding did not know was that the moment he slipped into the moon gate, the heat radiating from his body's surface displayed the outline of his body on a pair of infrared lenses.

So when Liao Shuangding ran to the door of Cangshu Ge, reached into his bosom for the sealed leather pouch, and prepared to take out his tools to pick the lock, he suddenly heard a whoosh of wind behind his head... and then he lunged forward.

"Splash." A basin of cold water was thrown onto someone.

Instantly awakened by the splash, Liao Shuangding quickly began to struggle, but he was already tied to an armchair. Most terrifyingly, he was now completely naked, without a stitch of clothing.

A bright kerosene lamp illuminated every corner of the room, so when Liao Shuangding raised his head in panic, he found himself in an incomparably familiar place: the firewood shed where he had once fought and lived.

Of course, the several large men before him, all wearing lecherous grins, were unfamiliar to him.

"Boy, confess honestly, which nook did you crawl in from?"

A dark, thin man speaking in a thick Huainan local accent saw the prisoner was awake, reached out to pat his cheek, and began to interrogate him.

In that instant, all of Liao Shuangding's terrifying memories came flooding back — back then, after stealing his master's property, it was in this very firewood shed that he had been hung up and beaten severely.

"Sirs, I just climbed over the wall to get in." Liao Shuangding begged for mercy repeatedly: "I was caught before I could get my hands on anything. I beg you to spare my life; I will surely repay you later!"

"This boy isn't being honest."

At that moment, someone behind Liao Shuangding spoke.

"A tight leather suit, a waterproof leather bag, a pig bladder for storing air, plus fire-starting materials and oilcloth." A slightly plump young man, rummaging through the clothes on the table, said, "This boy came in from underwater. Looks like he's not after valuables; nine times out of ten, he intends to commit arson."

Liao Shuangding thought to himself: this is bad. The waterway leading from the river outside the wall into Crane Tower's pond was a secret passage he had kept for many years, meant for sneaking into Crane Tower to pull off a big score. Originally, he had been Intending to set Cangshu Ge on fire tonight and then return the same way. He never expected that getting caught would end up exposing the secret instead.

"Viscount, still daring to spout nonsense at a time like this? Looks like if we don't teach you a lesson, you won't Knowledge the might of us men."

The dark, thin man picked up an Iron ruler at this moment and first slapped Liao Shuangding's manhood with it twice, then turned his head to the young man and said: "Team Leader Liu, how about showing everyone a trick? Let us see the Achievements of headquarters training..."

Hearing this, the young man smiled cheerfully, revealing a mouthful of white teeth cleaned by ultrasonic waves: "Heh heh, headquarters didn't have time to teach that much either. Altogether, I only learned two moves: Fire at Me and Chicken Crosses the River... Ah well, the night is still long anyway. Using this Viscount to practice my skills today will be a bit of fun too."