Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Naturally, Zhang Pu's negotiations with the merchants were unsuccessful.

Some merchants selling fresh goods would like to agree to this to prevent the goods from spoiling after being stored for a long time.

But more businessmen believe that workers should not be spoiled and they must be made aware of who feeds them.

Especially after some Suzhou gentry sent slaves to help them unload the goods, these people became more confident and even laughed at Zhang Pu and others:

You are just a laborer, and you think you can control others?
Some of the laborers were so angry that they wanted to fight with them, but were stopped by Zhang Pu:

"Don't answer them. Let's see how long they can hold out."

"Old Liu, you are familiar with these people. Look at which families these people are from and write down their names."

Old Liu said happily:

"okay!"

"The leader over there is Wang San, from the Lu family. I heard he's quite brave."

"The person who is chatting with Mr. Li is Qi Liu from the Gu family. This person is incredible. Even Mr. Gu can't do anything about him."

"And this... this..."

Hesitantly, Lao Liu did not name the person, but Zhang Pu gritted his teeth and said:

"It's Guo Kun!"

"My father was angered to death by him and Chen Peng and others."

"If you don't take revenge on me, you are not a human being!"

These powerful slaves colluded with local ruffians and gangsters, and even some gentry were bullied by them.

As long as they don't want to leave their masters, they will certainly not join the hired workers' association. In fact, many hired workers and slaves hate these powerful slaves the most.

The laborers nearby were horrified when they heard that Zhang Pu's father was angered to death by the powerful slaves of his uncle's family.

Just when they thought Zhang Pu was going to go forward to seek revenge, Zhang Pu sneered and ordered:
"Write down their names and see which tenants are in the hired hands association."

"Tell them all their land, especially the land that they have to hand over to the government."

The laborers were puzzled, but Zhang Pu did not explain to them. He arranged a few people to keep an eye on the situation and then took the others back to the camp of the Hired Workers Association.

At this time, there were already tens of thousands of people joining the workers' association.

Of course it is impossible for so many people to return every day. Some of them even had no intention of going back after escaping from the host's house.

Therefore, Zhang Pu had already arranged for people to set up a camp to accommodate these people, especially the elderly who had nowhere to go.

The one who helped him do these things was Gu Yanwu. He knew how to set up camp, so he organized young and strong hired workers to build the camp:

"Hurry up, work faster, don't be affected by idle chatter."

"Qian Wu, how do you judge people? Drive away those who are gossiping around you."

After instructing Qian Wu to disperse the onlookers, Gu Yanwu directed a group of soldiers and hired workers to assemble the standard camp components. This was the simplest type of camp in the army, and it could be easily built using local materials.

Especially in Jiangnan, there is no need to protect against the cold yet. It is even easier to build, and you only need to protect against rain.

When Zhang Pu arrived, he saw Gu Yanwu personally building a thatched hut. Many hired workers were smiling and very happy about the hut.

This made him feel much better. He walked up to Gu Yanwu and said:
"Brother Gu, people's hearts can be used!"

"Do you think these people can defeat the servants of the wealthy family if they bring their weapons?"

Gu Yanwu sneered and said disdainfully:
"Brother Zhang, do you look down on me, Gu, or do you look down on the new army of the Ming Dynasty?"

"Don't underestimate me. I've only trained for a dozen days. These hired workers can definitely beat all the other companies to a pulp when they go out."

"The training and organization of the new army are far from comparable to the old army."

"If they are trained for three months and equipped with firearms, I can lead them to sweep across Jiangnan!"

He was not unaware of the situation in Jiangnan. He had wiped out all the most capable villains.

If the people he trained couldn't even beat the servants of a wealthy family, Gu Yanwu felt that he might as well find a piece of tofu and kill himself.

In Jiangnan, a place with weak military power, Gu Yanwu could confidently say that he could run rampant in Jiangnan with a team of Yingyang Army.

Zhang Pu didn't know much about marching and fighting, but he heard Gu Yanwu's confidence and laughed:
"That's good!"

"The autumn harvest is coming soon, and I plan to organize an operation."

"By then, the various families will surely stop us. Captain Gu must train these people well and have them protect the hired workers."

Gu Yanwu looked sideways and asked:

"action?"

"What action?"

"Will it cause chaos in Suzhou?"

Zhang Pu thought about it for a while and revealed to Gu Yanwu:
"There may not be a big mess, but there will be small messes."

"If there is really no other way, the only option is chaos."

"Your Majesty said that it doesn't matter if half of the wealthy families in Suzhou are cleared out."

"If some people are unwilling to cooperate with the court, then send them to New Jiangnan."

Gu Yanwu was shocked. He did not expect the emperor and Zhang Pu to be so cruel. He asked:
"Aren't the gentry in Suzhou quite cooperative?"

"Why do you have to use such drastic measures?"

Gu Yanwu had previously used thundering means to clear out the Suzhou gang, and he thought he could suppress the unrest.

Unexpectedly, Zhang Pu still planned to instigate unrest in Suzhou, and the emperor was not optimistic about the situation in Suzhou at all.

This made him frown, feeling quite reluctant -

No matter what, he is still a Suzhou native and does not want to see chaos in his hometown.

Zhang Pu was older than him and had a deeper understanding of Suzhou. He sighed and said:
"The wealthy families serving in the court are cooperating because they know the methods of the current emperor and know that they will not be treated unfairly."

"But those who don't know how the world changes are not so honest."

"Who else drove out those elderly people? If we hadn't responded in time, Suzhou would have almost suffered a horrific disaster!"

"Some people won't cry until they see the coffin. We must let them see how serious it is."

Gu Yanwu thought about the situation of some wealthy families in Suzhou, especially those elderly people who had nowhere to go, and knew that Zhang Pu was right:
Some people just have to wait until the board falls on them before they know how to be reverent.

This made him sigh and say:

"Please tell me what to do, Brother Zhang!"

"Anyway, the emperor's order is for us to obey Brother Zhang."

This order was directed at all the inner court personnel in Jiangnan, and the Yingyang Army where Gu Yanwu was located was one of them.

Regardless of whether Zhang Pu explained or not, he had to obey the other party's orders. Now that the other party had explained clearly, of course he had to obey.

In this way, under the arrangement of Zhang Pu, Gu Yanwu formed a guard team for the hired workers association, and anyone who was willing to join was absorbed by him.

Because slaves needed to serve in the military for three years to become good women, and the future official fields would be rented to military and civilian households, after Zhang Pu announced that the time spent in the guards would be counted as part of the military service, many slaves were willing to join the guards.

Especially after they learned that the escort team would only stay in Susong and would not leave the two prefectures, more people were willing to join -

They have been watching how the soldiers are led by Gu Yanwu these days, and they believe that they will definitely not suffer if they follow such a leader.

Many people just want to work in the Guard for three years and obtain citizenship.

However, there are also people who want to excel in the military and train very hard.

Gu Yanwu selected these people as the backbone of the guard team. They will be responsible for the protection of hired workers and cooperate with Zhang Pu's actions. For this purpose, Gu Yanwu also transferred a batch of military equipment from Henghaiwei and equipped these people with armor, swords, guns and other cold weapons.

Although they may not have much fighting power, they are more than enough to face the servants of wealthy families.

Some big players in Suzhou have also noticed these trends.

After all, these people had deep-rooted power in Suzhou, and Gu Yanwu, who wanted to intimidate them, did not hide anything at all.

After guessing that Zhang Pu might use force, some people became worried and wanted to reach a compromise.

Some others still maintained a stubborn attitude and did not think Zhang Pu could do anything to them:
"Why did Zhang Ximing touch us for no reason?"

"Is it because I didn't release the slaves and didn't hand over the land to the government?"

They had done both things, and the old and useless slaves had been released.

Guan Tian also promised to hand it over, but they have not yet reached an agreement on how to compensate him.

Therefore, these people would not think that Zhang Pu dared to take action, and there was no reason for him to do so.

They thought that the guards were probably the same as the Eagle Army and were just trying to scare them.

However, even so, the number of slaves helping merchants unload goods on the Wusong River was visibly decreasing.

Many families believed that less trouble is worse than more and did not dare to confront Zhang Pu at this critical juncture.

The phrase "Action during the autumn harvest" also spread widely, and many people had a premonition that there would be chaos during the autumn harvest.
-
"There was chaos during the autumn harvest?"

"What exactly does Zhang Pu want to do?"

Liu Lishun, who saw this information, frowned and thought.

He had been staying in Suzhou for several days and could see with his own eyes that the city was becoming dirtier and more messy.

This made him realize the importance of hiring workers, and at the same time, he became more curious about what Zhang Pu was going to do:

"Is Zhang Pu going to steal the food?"

"He has taken in so many hired workers. How does he support them?"

This was something that many people could predict. Many of the hired workers and servants who joined the Hirelings Association had nothing. These days, they were supported by the Hirelings Association so that they could have food to eat.

But this is obviously not a long-term solution. No matter how rich Zhang Pu and the Hired Workers Association are, they can't support tens of thousands of people for long. Not to mention that most of the hired workers have no money and can't even pay the membership fee.

Therefore, Zhang Pu's autumn harvest must be related to food. Maybe there will be fighting in the fields to compete for food.

This made Liu Lishun sigh:
"What a troubled time!"

"Suzhou is a place that is not easy to govern."

Even Zhang Pu, who had tens of thousands of employees, found it so difficult to break the situation in Suzhou.

Not to mention the government and yamen in Suzhou, it was impossible for them to touch these wealthy families, and they just continued to govern by inertia.

If you can get the support of the big households, you can govern well. Otherwise, you will be restricted in every way and even be driven out.

It is easy to imagine how difficult it would be to build a new district in such a place.

So Liu Lishun gave up the idea of ​​creating a new district in Wuxian, Taicang and other places, and planned to choose a desolate place:

"Wusongjiang Branch and Baoshan Branch seem to be good choices."

"I heard that the Susong Customs is here, shared by Suzhou Prefecture and Songjiang Prefecture."

The establishment of the Suzhou and Songshan Customs was the subject of much dispute between the two governments. After all, the Customs was said to be a means of strengthening customs control, but in fact it enabled legal trade.

In the end, it was the Jiangnan Governor Cao Wenheng who mediated and established the customs between the two governments through cooperation.

Liu Lishun also knew the importance of customs and planned to take a piece of the pie by building the new district here.

He targeted the Wusong River Station and Baoshan Station in Jiading County, as well as the two sides of the Wusong River in Shanghai County.

This place is relatively desolate, making it easier for him to perform:

"The land of the guard post can be directly expropriated as official farmland, and the same applies to wasteland, river beaches and seashores."

“It would be even better if all of it could be replaced with official land.”

"One million acres of land is enough to build a new district."

Liu Lishun set his sights on the banks of the lower reaches of the Wusong River and planned to build a new district here.

The goal is one million acres, all of which must be official farmland controlled by the government.

So he was very much looking forward to Zhang Pu's actions, wanting to see how he would force the wealthy families in Suzhou to hand over the government-owned land.
-
Zhang Pu acted quickly. When the rice in Suzhou began to ripen, he organized several harvesting teams and went to harvest the rice under the protection of a guard team.

The land where the rice is grown naturally belongs to the big farmers, who are the ones who have been the most active in fighting against the Hirelings Association.

However, most of the tenants who cultivated the land joined the Hired Workers Association, which came to harvest rice in the name of helping their fellow workers.

“Is this to help us harvest rice?”

"Zhang Ximing is so kind?"

The wealthy investors who were watching the scene looked at each other in bewilderment.

I don’t understand what Zhang Pu is doing. He even brings a guard team with him to help them harvest rice.

It was not until they saw the harvesting team put the rice directly on the truck and planned to transport it away that they felt something was wrong and shouted:

"Zhang Ximing, what are you doing?"

“Where will the rice be transported?”

Zhang Pu laughed and said:
“Where to?”

"To pound rice, of course!"

"Many people have never tasted rice this good!"

He called upon the transport team to push the carts and transport the rice away.

The guards stood by and were alert to the people around them.

The landlord of this land was very anxious and shouted:
"Don't even think about taking my rice away."

"Come on, everyone! Get the rice back for me."

He commanded his clansmen and servants to go up and grab the rice.

But they were no match for the armed guards.

Even if these guards were only equipped with shields and sticks, they would not be able to stop them.

Soon he was beaten to the point of crying for his parents and was defeated miserably.

The other wealthy families were about to order their servants to come forward, but when they saw this, they also hesitated. A squire named Yang said:
"Zhang Ximing, what's your reason for stealing food like this?"

"Even if the lawsuit reaches the government office, you have to return the rice!"

Zhang Pu continued to laugh and said happily:
"Don't bother with that!"

"We pay taxes to the government, and the rest belongs to us."

"This land is government land. We only need to pay rent and taxes to the government."

He commanded everyone to leave, leaving the landlords and wealthy people looking at each other in bewilderment.

Apparently, they heard Zhang Pu's subtext:

That is, the government supported their grain robbery this time. They were unwilling to hand over the government land, so the government took it back directly. (End of this chapter)