Chapter 1524: Step on the market in advance
Li Song didn't stay at Hao Qing's residence for too long, and left quietly after explaining the matter. He was not worried about Hao Qing's identity being exposed prematurely, because from the time Hao Qing was imprisoned to when he was quietly released, all the written information he had during the period had been taken away and destroyed by Li Song. The general judge Wang Yuan did not even know about He Guanzhi's transfer. Among the water bandits that the government army went to exterminate, such a number one person survived. Hao Qing kept a low profile while living in Hangzhou City. He used a pseudonym when going out every day. No one would associate him with the leader of the water bandits who committed murder and swindled goods.
To put it another way, even if Hao Qing is eventually captured by mistake, Li Song still has a backup plan to completely silence Hao Qing in Hangzhou Prison. He couldn't let anyone follow Hao Qing's line and reveal He Guanzhi behind him. Of course, he believed that even if Hao Qing was arrested, he would not confess easily. After all, his family was still under his control, and Hao Qing would not risk their lives.
As for how Hao Qing will finally complete this task, Li Song actually doesn't know yet. After all, several plans proposed by Hao Qing were rejected on the spot because they were too risky. It is indeed not easy to think of other tricks. Easy thing. However, Hao Qing had already issued a military order and would definitely try to stop the work at those construction sites as soon as possible. Li Song also believed that this guy did not dare to lie to him, so he started taking action according to what the two parties had agreed upon.
Early the next morning, Hao Qing followed the first group of people out of the city. He first went to Yongjinmen and found the place Li Song mentioned to take a closer look at the construction site conditions. Although I noticed that housing construction was starting here when I passed by here before, but now that I want to do something about this place, I naturally have to come and inspect the environment first.
These three construction sites are all to the west of the official road. Hao Qing remembers that it used to be a vegetable field, and there was a store and a carriage shop between the three construction sites. Ordinary people passing by here generally don't care about the purpose of the buildings being built here. If Li Song hadn't reminded him, Hao Qing probably wouldn't have thought that the same boss was behind these three construction sites.
After seeing it in person, Hao Qing also found that his previous idea was a bit too simplistic. There were two courtyards separated between the three construction sites. He wanted to use murder and arson to stop the work at all three construction sites. I was afraid there would be some trouble. Unless a fire is used to burn down the merchant house and carriage house together, but these two buildings have courtyard walls, it is easy to leave traces of arson if forced operation. And Li Song's request to him was to do it as naturally as possible, and it was best not to leave too obvious evidence for the government to file a case.
This is quite tricky for Hao Qing, who is used to using tough tactics. The methods he used to use when he was a water bandit were quite ruthless, but he was not very good at using them skillfully. Li Song asked him to achieve his goal without leaving any trace, which was indeed not in line with his major.
There are forty or fifty people working on each of these three construction sites. Even if Hao Qing wants to tamper with the construction sites, it will be difficult to hide his actions during the day. Hao Qing couldn't help feeling a little regretful. He shouldn't have agreed to Li Song's mission so quickly last night. He should have talked to him about the conditions again, at least allowing him more time and means. In this kind of environment, if we want to stop the construction site, what else can we do except forcefully?
However, Hao Qing is not a person who can't hold his breath. Although he knows that it is extremely difficult to start here, he still patiently wanders around the area. The number of clerks in these two courtyards was determined. Then he continued to talk about business, walked around the yard, and took a clear look at the surrounding environment.
But after he almost finished visiting this place, he began to complain more and more in his heart. Because these two businesses were not far from the official road outside the city, they were quite popular, and there was an endless stream of caravans coming in and out. Moreover, Hao Qing asked the store clerk and found that even at night, traders would come and go from time to time. After all, this was outside the city and there was no curfew. Businessmen who arrived outside the city at night could only find these places to rest. And there will be teams that get up early and set off before dawn, so there doesn't seem to be much safe time for him to operate at night.
Although it seems that no suitable implementation method has been found for this task so far, Hao Qing cannot give up just yet. Li Song made it very clear last night that after completing this task, his family can regain their freedom. And this is Hao Qing's biggest weakness.
Hao Qing slowly walked to a tea shed not far from the construction sites on the east side of the official road, sat down and ordered a pot of tea, pretending to be a passerby taking a rest, and quietly monitored the activities in this area. After waiting like this for an hour or so, the tea in the pot had already cooled down, and Hao Qing still hadn't figured out any new method.
After sitting here for too long, Hao Qing was also worried about attracting the attention of interested people. After all, the official roads outside the city were full of people. In addition to the gangsters, Li Song also told him that each yamen would send spies here to monitor Nan Lai. Passengers heading north were prevented from being sneaked into the city by hostile armed personnel in disguise - to put it bluntly, they were afraid that the Haihan people would cause trouble. But the irony is that a considerable number of the caravans coming and going on the official road have done business with the Haihan people, and even the goods being trafficked are from Haihan.
Hao Qing paid for tea, stood up and left his seat, slowly walking towards the Qiantang River. He also has more than twenty reliable subordinates working at the riverside dock. These people must also be gathered as the manpower to carry out the next operation. However, this group of people did not have such a perfect identity cover as he did. After participating in the operation, they would most likely not be able to stay in Hangzhou Mansion anymore, so he had to talk to these people first, and then try to get help from Li Song for them. I need a settlement fee so that I can take them to this game with peace of mind.
It's not far to walk from outside Yongjinmen to the Qiantang River. In a short time, you will reach the several-mile-long dock area on the river bank. Although there was a far-reaching pier fire a year and a half ago, the ruins caused by the fire are no longer visible, replaced by a more prosperous and busy Hangzhou pier. After the Zhejiang government semi-publicly acquiesced in opening the trade rights of coastal states to Haihan, the trade volume between Zhejiang and Haihan surged, and the number of cargo ships plying the Qiantang River also increased significantly compared with before.
The increase in cargo throughput has also brought about a more prosperous shipping market, and more people rely on it for their livelihood than in the past. Just on the wharf along the Qiantang River alone, there are thousands of people engaged in related industries. The continuous warehouses under construction on the shore also show that the development prospects here are widely optimistic. Of course, the premise is that there will be no more armed conflicts like the Haihan Fleet blocking the Qiantang River. Once the situation between the two countries deteriorates, the shipping industry will be the first to suffer.
Hao Qing could clearly see that many sailboats docked on the shore had red and blue flags hanging on the top of their masts. Not all of these ships belonged to Haihan. Some of them were actually ships of Ming merchants, just to sail with Hangzhou Bay. The Dinghai Port in Zhoushan controlled by Haihan was easily accessible, so the red and blue flag symbolizing Haihan was simply hung on the mast. And the businessmen soon discovered that there was another additional benefit of doing so, that is, no one would come to cause trouble. Even the ships of the Ming Navy would take the initiative to keep a distance when seeing a ship flying the double-color flag. Hao Qing was working on the Qiantang River, so he naturally understood the deterrent effect of these two-colored flags. There was once a water bandit boss who didn't believe in this evil and robbed a sailboat with a two-color flag on the river. But he was really unlucky. The owner of the ship was really an agent who had direct trade relations with Haihan. Knowing that there was no point in filing a complaint with the Hangzhou government, he reported the matter directly to Zhoushan. It is said that he paid for insurance from Haihan that would cover the accident, and also hoped that the people of Haihan would stand up for justice. Haihan's response was quite straightforward. In addition to compensating the agent's losses, he also offered a bounty of 10,000 taels of silver on the head of the water bandit boss. Only seven days after the news spread, someone took his head to Ningbo Mansion to collect the money. After that, no one in the rivers and lakes dared to attack the sailboat with the two-color flag. After all, no one knew about the money. Whether you can still spend your life if you make money with life, the best way is not to cause this trouble.
Hao Qing had also thought about becoming an agent at first, but he had no government background and limited capital on hand. Even if he had someone with a ship, he still did not meet the threshold. But now that he thinks about it, if he had been smarter at that time and took the initiative to do some business in Hangzhou, find a high-ranking official to support him, and then go to Zhoushan Island to get an agent qualification, he might have become a rich man by this time. How could he be like that? Now this is how people act as watchdogs.
Time is also destiny, and Hao Qing has nothing to complain about except lamenting his bad luck. It is only right to settle the matters in front of him first. But he walked to two piers, but he didn't see his brothers. He thought to himself that he hadn't shown up at the pier for only half a month. Could it be that these bastards just ran away without making a sound?
Hao Qing also knows that it is not easy for his group of people to work hard at the dock, so after receiving the salary from Li Song every month, he will send part of it to the dock to support them. And Hao Qing did not forget to promise them that as long as the right time comes, he will definitely lead them to make a comeback and share the wealth, so this group of people will stay at the dock by the Qiantang River with peace of mind, waiting for the opportunity that Hao Qing said.
Hao Qing walked along the river for a long time before finally seeing a few of them on another pier five or six miles away from Hangzhou City. Hao Qing called these people aside and asked, only to find out that something unexpected had happened in the past few days when he had not appeared. Under Li Song's strict order, his residence in the city was not informed to these men, so he could not be notified in time if anything happened here.
The first thing that happened was that his group of men had a conflict with another group of workers because of competition for dock business. Sporadic verbal conflicts gradually developed into friction, and finally turned into a fight one evening. Hao Qing's group suffered heavy losses in the fight. Several of them had their hands and feet broken, and in the end they were expelled from the dock where they originally took the job.
Hao Qing couldn't help but ask: "You are all very skilled, how could you lose in this kind of dock fight? Could it be that the other party sent some powerful people?"
He believed that the group of men who stayed outside Hangzhou were all powerful people. They could kill people and steal goods. There was no reason why they couldn't defeat ordinary dock workers. The next answer of his men also left him dumbfounded.
It turned out that the other group of workers who had a conflict with them had a background. It only took a moment that day to transfer a large number of people from other docks and directly block them on the dock. Although these people have some means, they are unable to defeat four hands with two fists. Hundreds of people directly attacked them. The resistance measures they could take only lasted for a moment, and then they were dispersed. Even the hidden I didn’t even dare to take out any sharp weapons and use them. In retrospect, perhaps the other party had figured out their details a long time ago and was just waiting for an opportunity to take action and drive away their competitors.
So they had no choice but to leave their original territory and come to the riverside farther away from Hangzhou to pick up work. During this period, they encountered a second incident. A maritime businessman recruited experienced sailors with generous rewards to sail with the ship to Southeast Asia, and promised that they could choose to disembark in Haihan State to apply for immigration when they returned. So some of them couldn't resist such temptation, so they packed up their things and left. After all, the remuneration offered was more than ten times more than that of working as a dock worker, not to mention that he would also have the opportunity to become a Haihan citizen in the future.
Even if they haven't seen it with their own eyes, those who work on the docks have heard rumors about how wealthy the Haihan people are. Those maritime merchants who had been to Haihan Kingdom all praised the place as a fairyland on earth, and everyone lived a life without worries about food and clothing. This is not only attractive to ordinary civilians, even among Hao Qing's group of anonymous desperadoes, there are still people who yearn for a stable life. If there is a chance to get this kind of life without working hard, then what reason is there not to fight for it? There is at least a glimmer of hope in going to Nanyang with the ship, which is better than being chased around here like a lost dog.
After hearing this, Hao Qing felt helpless. Although it seemed a bit unloyal to do so, if he were asked to stand in the same position and take this multiple-choice question, it would be difficult for him to guarantee that he would stay in Hangzhou to compete for a place that cannot be seen. to a hopeful future. Apart from sighing that "everyone has his own ambitions", he really couldn't complain about his subordinates who had made other choices.
After leaving a group of people, there are only fifteen people left in Hangzhou. Among them, there are six injured who have injured their muscles and bones and can only rest temporarily and cannot come out to do work, so they can use the manpower Hao Qing sends. , there are only nine people.
(End of chapter)