Republic of China: Guandong Ginseng King

Chapter 341: Mountain Vault
"Second brother, have someone move all the stuff out of the vault and bring it all to the Juyi Hall.

Then send people to search every room in the village, and keep all the valuables and things that can be used. We will carry them all away after daybreak."

Since the Zhan Dongshan gang had been wiped out, these things naturally fell into the hands of Qu Shaoyang and others.

So Qu Shaoyang ordered that all the things be moved out, and then the total amount would be tallied up later before making any further arrangements.

Immediately afterwards, Qu Shaoyang asked Fan Duo to lead them to find Zhan Dongshan’s private warehouse.

The private warehouse was not somewhere else but in the house where Zhan Dongshan lived.

There are hundreds of bandits in the village, most of whom live in wooden tube houses with two large kangs facing each other. One room can accommodate forty or fifty people.

However, the big leaders like the four pillars can have a single room, and the big boss occupies the east mountain and has two rooms of his own.

The floor of his house is paved with bluestone slabs.

Fan Duo led Qu Shaoyang and a few others into the house, then pointed to a few bluestone slabs in the middle of the ground and asked people to lift them up.

A few young men came forward and lifted the stone slab with great effort, only to find that there was no soil underneath, but wooden planks.

Qu Shaoyang walked forward and took a closer look, and found that the wooden board was alive, so he lifted it up, revealing a dark hole.

"This is a cellar, where all the boss's belongings are hidden." Fanduo explained hurriedly.

"I discovered this by accident once. The boss had swallowed up a lot of money and kept it all here."

Qu Shaoyang waved his hand, and several people came over with torches to illuminate the entrance of the cellar, and then some people walked down the stairs.

The cellar downstairs was about half the size of the room, filled with boxes, some of which had padlocks on them.

After a lot of effort, several people finally moved all the boxes up. Someone found an axe and knocked off the lock on the box, then opened the box.

Sure enough, it was full of gold, silver and jewelry, which almost accounted for half of Dongshan’s own private vault.

Everyone was shocked, even Chen Yunhan looked surprised.

"Fuck, this guy from Zhan Dongshan is really good at making money. How many evil things did he do to accumulate such a fortune?"

In the beginning, the Double Gun Gang had an annual revenue of more than 100,000 taels, but that was earned by the Chen brothers who racked their brains to run various businesses and opened shops in Yingkou, Fengtian and other places.

What kind of place is Shuangdianzi? It's a remote and poor place with no one around.

The fact that the Zhan Dongshan gang was able to save so much money is enough to prove that they really did nothing good.

"I heard from Brother Li that the Zhandongshan gang is the largest group of bandits around Shuangdianzi, and there are dozens of mountain areas within its sphere of influence.

Judging from the nature of this gang, I estimate that they have extorted a lot from those mountain farms. If they charge a few thousand taels from each mountain farm on average, he can extort 50,000 or 60,000 taels this winter.

Adding other aspects, it's no wonder that he can save so much money. "Qu Shaoyang thought about it and said.

"Tell me, how many mountain areas do you control? How much tribute does each mountain area give each year?"

Qu Shaoyang kicked and stomped his foot lightly and asked him.

"To answer your question, I manage about thirty mountain farms in total. The tribute is calculated according to the size of the mountain farm. The big one receives 3,000 taels, and the small one receives 2,000 taels.

Only more than half of this year's offerings have been collected, and some brothers are still outside collecting debts and have not returned yet.

If all of it were collected, the mountain farm alone could bring in about 70,000 to 80,000 taels of income a year.

If you add in other things, the annual income is indeed quite a lot.

However, the gang is large, has many members, and has high expenses.

This year, it's not the time for the big show yet, and everyone hasn't divided the money yet. "Fantuo didn't dare to neglect it and explained it quickly. The Zhandongshan Gang is large in scale and has its own mountain stronghold, so it doesn't have to find a place to hibernate as soon as winter comes like other gangs.

Basically, the people in the mountain village would go out to collect large quantities of goods in the twelfth lunar month, and after settling accounts and dividing profits, those who were willing to go down the mountain would go down.

Those who have homes go back home to celebrate the New Year, while those who don’t go home go to some busy and lively towns to spend money and visit brothels.

Of course, there were also some bearded men who were unwilling to go down the mountain and spent the New Year there.

Generally, from the beginning of winter, the tribesmen would start preparing things for the New Year, such as food, wine, meat and so on.

Some bandits would go down the mountain to capture a few laborers to help them grind the mill, heat the kang, cook, etc. Sometimes they would even capture a few women and bring them up the mountain for fun.

Wait until spring and then kill these people.

After hearing what Fan Duo said, everyone understood.

What's hidden in the treasury in the back mountain is the gang's income for this year. It's not time to settle accounts and distribute dividends yet, so all the money is kept together.

As for Zhan Dongshan’s private treasury, that should be all the property he has accumulated over the years.

"Fuck, you have such a greedy boss, how can you still have a good life?"

After Chen Yunhan finished looking through Zhan Dongshan’s private vault, he couldn’t help but shook his head and cursed.

There are rules for dividing the profits within a gang, and usually the profits are divided according to the top shares.

Ordinary people will get one share, newcomers who joined the company that year will get seven shares, the four pillars will get one share and eight shares, one share and five shares respectively, and the head manager will get two shares.

This is just the most basic. In addition, guns also count towards the share. If the older members of the gang have more guns, they can rent them out to new members.

Furthermore, in activities such as destroying kilns, those who work harder and make greater contributions can get more money when the dividends are distributed.

Although the standards for top-body stocks are very clear, no one can really be as clear as water or as bright as a mirror and truly follow these rules.

The boss and the other pillars of the family all use tricks to put money in their own pockets.

But most of the time, there is a limit. If you are too greedy, your subordinates will become resentful.

If things go wrong, the brats will unite and kill the boss.

That’s why Chen Yunhan was wondering, Zhan Dongshan was so good at scratching, why didn’t his beard fart?
Qu Shaoyang didn't care about that and directly asked people to move the things in Zhan Dongshan's private warehouse to the Juyi Hall.

It just so happened that by this time, the others had almost finished searching and picking up everything. Not to mention, they also managed to take out a lot of things from the house with four beams and eight pillars.

After putting all the gold, silver and jewelry together, a rough estimate showed that there were about 100,000 taels.

Qu Shaoyang discussed with Chen Yunhan that all those who participated in this operation should give some token of appreciation as a reward for their hard work.

The remaining bulk was used to purchase guns and ammunition and recruit soldiers.

"Shaoyang, the Zhandongshan gang is now completely finished. What should we do next? Should we go back directly, or do you have other plans?"

It has been some time since Chen Yunhan left Kuandian. Now that things are done, he is a little anxious.

The wedding date is set for the 16th day of the twelfth lunar month, which is still a little over a month and a half away. We should go back early to prepare, right?
"Second brother, don't be impatient. Let me interrogate these people again."

Qu Shaoyang pondered for a moment, and ordered his men to bring up Fan Duo and several small leaders in the mountain village.

I plan to ask about the situation of Zhan Dongshan gang and other gangs in the surrounding areas.

(End of this chapter)