Chapter 180: Shandong Tax Bank Robbery (VI)
On the 14th day of the first lunar month in the fifth year of Yongzheng's reign, Huo Chong suddenly received news from Laiwu that several armed landlords had launched an attack on the troops occupying Laiwu. Since the troops were conducting propaganda in the local area and their forces were not concentrated, several people were injured.
Liu Shiwang was chasing the fleeing landlord armed forces. Before setting off, he asked Huo Chong to send some more troops to Laiwu to prevent further incidents.
Without even asking, Huo Chong probably guessed what had happened. This was not the fault of Liu Shiwang, the sixth junior brother, nor could it be said that the landlords and gentry in Laiwu were too reactionary. If those landlords were really that reactionary, they probably wouldn't have chosen the stupid battle at the moment.
Huo Chong sent some troops to Laiwu and continued to do the work he had prepared before.
On the second day of the second lunar month, when the dragon raises its head, Huo Chong would sit in Zibo, the center of the base area, waiting for more news of rebellion.
As a result, on the third day of February, three people were brought from Jinan via the transportation line. The leader bowed to Huo Chong when he saw him, "I am Jiang Song, and I pay my respects to Master Huo."
"Why would you government officials think of looking for me?" Huo Chong felt puzzled.
In recent times, the main goal of organizational construction is to make everyone in the Han regime understand who is a friend and who is an enemy.
The government has long been clearly identified as the enemy, and the timing of the battle between the two sides is also relatively certain, so there is no need to worry about a sudden large-scale battle breaking out.
In order to ensure sufficient human resources in the battle, Huo Chong and others put in a lot of effort and determination.
Fortunately, none of Huo Chong's men were from the gentry family, so they easily accepted the reality. Although it was difficult to mobilize the peasants, at least they would not cause trouble without reason. In contrast, the landlords and gentry were snakes with teeth in their mouths, and some of them had more lethal fangs.
Most of Huo Chong's training was about how the landlords and gentry exploited the people. The Han regime could not slaughter the landlords and gentry indiscriminately, so it had to first attack the points where the landlords and gentry exploited and harmed the ordinary people. It tried to separate the landlords and gentry from the people.
At this time, what did the government want to do by jumping out? Are they going to plead for the gentry?
"Master Huo, I came here this time to ask you something. Are the people who are in Jining your men?"
"What did those people do?"
"They robbed the government of its silver."
Hearing this, Huo Chong couldn't help but burst out laughing. This Jiang Song was really interesting. The government's silver was robbed, and he actually came to ask if Huo Chong did it.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Song was not annoyed by being laughed at. He said, " Brothers who have fought with Master Huo know Master Huo's benevolence and justice. If Master Huo robs the silver this time, I have nothing to say. But those people, although they are under Master Huo's banner, are not necessarily Master Huo's men. It's just 200,000 taels of silver. If it gets out, it will hurt Master Huo's reputation."
Huo Chong somewhat understood why Jiang Song dared to come to him to ask, 200,000 taels. Huo Chong annihilated 20,000 Qing troops under the city of Jinan, and the silver he seized was only 200,000 taels.
After thinking about it, Huo Chong felt that he had a chance to get his hands on the money, so he asked, "I wonder what Brother Jiang wants to get out of it. From what I think, it shouldn't be just for money, right?"
"My brother has been implicated, and I can't just let it go."
Huo Chong decided to intervene in this matter and asked Lei Hu, who happened to have some free time at the moment, to be responsible for receiving Jiang Song.
When Huo Chong and the technicians figured out the track ideas for the new hoisting equipment, or in other words, Huo Chong finally got the technicians to agree to spend a lot of effort to make the rails, he came out and learned that Lei Hu had finished asking questions.
"What did Jiang Song say?" After Huo Chong asked this question, Lei Hu enthusiastically recounted the result of the inquiry.
Jinan was short of money, so the official silver from the south that had not yet fallen into Huo Chong's hands was to be transported to Jinan City as soon as possible.
At this time, the southern part of Jinan was basically controlled by Huo Chong, and the only way to transport silver was through the canal. Huo Chong had seen how the government transported official silver before, with soldiers escorting it, which was very appropriate.
This time, it was still soldiers, but because the Shandong soldiers were massacred by Huo Chong, the number of soldiers dropped sharply. So a batch of 200,000 taels of official silver was robbed on the road. The robbers also carried Huo Chong's banner...
"Lei Hu, what do you think the problem is?"
"What do you think, sir?"
Huo Chong laughed, "Or write it down?"
Lei Hu immediately took a pen and paper, and they both wrote down their thoughts. Huo Chong wrote "there is a ghost inside", and Lei Hu wrote "there is an insider". It seems that their views are basically the same. Lei Hu happily continued to tell the story of Jiang Song. Jiang Song's brother was among them and was arrested to take the blame.
Jiang Song knew that Huo Chong was the only one who could really solve the problem in Shandong at that time. His purpose of coming here was not necessarily to ask Huo Chong to get the money back, but to not let this anger go. In Jiang Song's opinion, the situation was so bad that officials from the prefectures and counties in southern Shandong could not help, but what kind of stabbing in the back was this?
After saying this, Lei Hu said excitedly: "Sir, this is two hundred thousand taels of silver, we should..."
Huo Chong interrupted Lei Hu's dream, "If there really is 200,000 taels!"
After all, Huo Chong was born in P2P, so he was always wary of such things. If TG said a number, he could still believe it with caution. Otherwise, Huo Chong really had never seen anything he could believe. Lei Hu was a little surprised, "Mr. think..."
Huo Chong pointed out the problem. "I think whether there are 200,000 taels of tax silver is a problem. Lei Hu, 200,000 taels is more than 10,000 kilograms of stuff. You have fought in a war, is it so easy to transport 200,000 taels of silver?"
Lei Hu finally understood and was furious, "Those birdmen are so mean!"
Huo Chong also felt that it was true. And there was a plan for a real-life training at this time, so he said to Lei Hu: "Take some people and go to Jining with Captain Liu Shiwang's troops. Even if they don't have 200,000 taels, they should have at least 30,000 or 40,000 taels."
Lei Hu nodded repeatedly, "Those despicable officials! Go to hell!"
"Lei Hu, what I care about this time is actually the use of the 10-jin cannon in field battles. If this thing is used well, we will not be afraid of the Qing army in field battles. I am not bragging. If the 48 10-jin cannons are used well, the current 100,000 Qing troops are no match for them."
"Understood, I will perform well!"
"The key is the ability to maneuver and move across the country. Anyone can carry this thing on flat ground. But being able to move the artillery over mountains and hills is the most difficult and most critical thing!"
Huo Chong initially felt somewhat hopeful after sending out two battalions of troops. Later, he felt that he was too greedy to do this for tens of thousands of taels of silver. To comfort himself, Huo Chong could only comfort himself that these people had gained much more in technology than silver by traveling through the mountains.
