Chapter 169: The People's Rice, the Officials' Rice

Seeing that the situation was not good, Shopkeeper Liu shouted, “Brothers, grab your weapons, put up the door boards!” As he spoke, he had already grabbed a cudgel.

The clerks all picked up their sticks and desperately beat outwards. They were both clerks and thugs, and their experience in fighting was rich. At this moment, everyone knew they were in a great crisis. They all roused their spirits and swung their sticks wildly, driving away the crowd.

The common people were even more furious. They seemed to have forgotten why they had come here. The anger and sorrow of many days erupted like a mountain flood. The people who were knocked down got up again. They ignored their bleeding heads from being hit by the sticks and rushed forward desperately, grabbing the sticks with their hands and fighting with the clerks. The people, who had been starved and emaciated, and were on the verge of death, did not know where they got so much strength. They knocked down several clerks in a row.

As soon as the clerks fell, they were immediately swallowed by the crowd, punched and kicked. Their screams were soon drowned out by the roar of the crowd.

Seeing his clerks being knocked down one by one, and his men retreating step by step, with more and more people gathering outside, Shopkeeper Liu was terrified. He knew he had provoked public anger today.

In the past, he would have long since cut his losses and fled. But here was the family business he had worked so hard to build. Just in the rice warehouse behind, there were seven or eight hundred shi of rice, as well as more than a thousand taels of silver and many valuables. If he ran, he would have nothing!

He gritted his teeth, pulled out a Burmese sword from a hidden compartment under the counter, and shouted, “Brothers, show your weapons! Let’s go together!”

Before he could finish his sentence, several lime bags were suddenly thrown from the crowd. Shopkeeper Liu was hit squarely in the face. The shop was immediately filled with white lime. The clerks who were hit by the lime could no longer care about any “real weapons.” They covered their faces, howled, and stumbled backwards.

The agitated crowd was like a broken dike. It instantly broke through the gate of the rice shop, and the crowd poured in like mercury. Some people chased the fleeing clerks with sticks, while others pushed over the rice bins and filled their bags with rice. Piles of white rice were pushed to the ground, and the white rice flowed like water. People plunged into this white “river of rice,” scooping it up with abandon. Some had cloth bags, while others took off their clothes to wrap the rice. The people in the inner circle were grabbing the rice, while the people outside were desperately pushing in. A strong young man directly shouldered a sack of rice weighing one shi and ran out.

Among them, some did not grab the rice. They led people directly to the backyard to intercept Shopkeeper Liu, while a few others directly smashed the cash box and deftly poured the silver and copper coins from the cash box into pre-prepared sacks. Anyone who got close and wanted to take a share of the spoils was immediately beaten away.

Hao Yuan ignored both the cash register and the rice. He jumped onto the counter in three steps and shouted loudly, “Fellow villagers, don’t panic. Take it one by one, don’t waste it! The rice here belongs to us, the common people!”

His voice was very loud and sonorous. Even in this chaotic environment, it instantly drowned out the noise in the shop. The common people inside and outside the shop stopped their commotion for a moment and turned their eyes to this person.

“There is plenty of rice here, and there is more in the rice warehouse behind! Don’t waste the rice! There are many poor people outside who have no food. After you take the rice, go out and tell the people nearby to come and get it! This is the blood and sweat of us common people!”

A burst of applause immediately rang out from below. Hao Yuan jumped off the counter and hurried to the back. In the courtyard lay seven or eight rice shop clerks, some still groaning, some already stiff and motionless.

Shopkeeper Liu’s face was covered in white lime. He was pinned down under the eaves, roaring in defiance, his face already bleeding. His hands and body were covered in blood.

“Did he confess?”

“He confessed,” one of the young men sneered contemptuously. “Shopkeeper Liu still calls himself a tough guy who is not afraid of being killed. He confessed everything before we even finished cutting off his five fingers.”

As he spoke, several people had already carried out a few small chests from the back room. They were heavy, so it was obvious they were full of money.

“Send Shopkeeper Liu on his way,” Hao Yuan ordered. “No blood!”

As soon as he finished speaking, a strong man standing behind Shopkeeper Liu swung a stick and hit him hard on the back of the head. Shopkeeper Liu didn’t even have time to cry out before he went limp, blood flowing from his mouth and nose.

“Don’t worry about the rice in the shop. Now, everyone, guard the entrance of the rice warehouse and don’t let anyone take the rice at will. Line up and distribute the rice by head! Give one dou to everyone who comes, regardless of whether they are adults or children!” Hao Yuan ordered.

Outside, the common people who had heard the news flocked over. Although there were seven or eight “bailiffs” in the town who “helped” in the yamen, they were good at bullying the common people in normal times, but they were no match for a mob. Seeing that a “popular uprising” had broken out, not only did they not dare to come out to maintain order, they didn’t even dare to show their faces. Only a few people ran all the way to Lin’an County to report to the officials.

The common people from the town and the neighboring villages, hearing this news, all came with baskets and rice bags. Hao Yuan led people to distribute the rice by head in front of the rice warehouse. In less than half a day, the rice in the rice shop was completely distributed.

When Lin’an County received the news, the county magistrate quickly dispatched the registrar with bailiffs to suppress it. Unexpectedly, they found that the bridge had been burned on the way. They had to take a detour. By the time they arrived, the entire rice shop had been smashed and looted. Except for catching a few unlucky people who were wandering in the empty shop, hoping to find something else, nothing was left. Not even the baskets, crates, reed mats, or even the door panels were left. They were all looted.

Looting rice was like looting a wealthy household. It was not uncommon in years of frequent famine. It was just that this time, several people had died. Lin’an County did not dare to be negligent and quickly reported the situation.

However, the rice riot spread like a plague throughout the northern Zhejiang region.

At this time, in the several prefectures of northern Zhejiang, the dissatisfaction of the common people was already like dry firewood soaked in oil. The rice looting in Dongguan Town undoubtedly lit a fire on it. In the following ten days, the common people in various counties under the three prefectures of Hangzhou, Huzhou, and Jiaxing in northern Zhejiang, and in places like Wujiang in Suzhou Prefecture of the Southern Zhili region, successively rioted, destroying or looting more than two hundred rice shops. The entire Jiangnan region was shaken.

The ships of the China Merchants’ Bureau bound for Liaodong had already set sail at the end of July. Wu Zhixiang had delivered thirty thousand shi of rice as promised, which made Zhao Yigong look at him with new eyes. On this day, he specially held a banquet for him at the Shanghai head office, nominally to settle the accounts with him, but actually with the intention of further testing his cooperation.

The food and wine were, of course, all Wu Zhixiang’s favorite “Australian style” and Cantonese flavors, including the famous Wuzhou dish “paper-wrapped chicken.” Of course, at this time, paper-wrapped chicken did not yet exist in Wuzhou. This made this Young Master Wu, who had been staying in Jiangnan for more than half a year, have a great appetite.

When the wine was half-drunk, Zhao Yigong asked him how to settle the payment for the goods, whether to issue one draft for him or several.

“I have a list here,” Wu Zhixiang took out a piece of paper from his bosom. On it were written the “shop names” of several “halls,” and under each “shop name” were different numbers written in Suzhou numerals. Some were as small as three hundred, and some were as large as ten thousand.

Zhao Yigong knew that this must be the list of the officials of the Ministry of Revenue who had participated in this resale of tribute grain. A quick glance showed that there were about twenty people. Those with a lot of silver were probably the high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Revenue, and those with less were at least the warehouse masters of Qingjiangpu.

“Alright, should I issue them as Delong drafts or…”

“Issue them all as Delong drafts. Delong’s drafts are exquisite and beautiful, much better than the shoddy paper of the Shanxi draft banks,” Wu Zhixiang was in a very happy mood after accomplishing a “great deed.” “In addition, prepare one thousand taels of silver in cash.”

“Alright,” Zhao Yigong immediately summoned a clerk who specialized in handling money and finances and issued the drafts one by one according to the list.

Then he ordered someone to bring a thousand taels of silver in a box.

After all the drafts were issued, plus the cash, it was only fifty thousand taels. Zhao Yigong was a little puzzled and asked:

“What about the rest of the silver? Should I prepare cash or…”

“The rest of the silver will be my capital,” Wu Zhixiang smiled. “The China Merchants’ Bureau will count me as one share.”

Zhao Yigong nodded, “No problem! It’s just that your esteemed father…”

“It’s okay,” Wu Zhixiang shook his head. “I can make the decision on this matter.” He said jokingly, “The ‘Zi’ character shares are no longer available, but it should be appropriate for me to have one share in the China Merchants’ Bureau, right?”

Zhao Yigong gave a dry laugh and did not answer. Although he knew that his identity was no secret to people like Wu Zhixiang who had long had dealings with the Guangzhou station, it was too reckless to say it out loud like this.

However, it was acceptable for the other party to want to become a shareholder. The China Merchants’ Bureau was very tight on funds now, and it was a good thing to pay ten thousand taels less. He immediately expressed his willingness to accept him as a shareholder.

Wu Zhixiang was in a great mood. He drank a few more cups, and his words inevitably became less cautious. He said with a smile:

“Speaking of which, Brother Zhao, for you to be able to procure so much grain this time, you should also thank a certain big shot.”

Zhao Yigong’s heart stirred. He knew that this drunken talk might contain some important information, so he did not say much, just silently smiled and drank.

Wu Zhixiang indeed rambled on, his words disjointed. It turned out that the smooth progress of this grain purchase and sale was not only because of the officials of the Ministry of Revenue and the tribute grain transport who were taking a cut, but also because the provincial administration commission yamen in Nanjing was also involved. It was the people from the provincial administration commission yamen in Nanjing who had specifically revealed to them that the China Merchants’ Bureau was trying to buy rice.

“Otherwise, I’m not Zhuge Liang. How could I have predicted that you, old brother, would want to buy so much rice?”

Zhao Yigong was secretly shocked. This was simply a case of taking from both the plaintiff and the defendant! On the one hand, they were strangling them and not giving them rice, insisting on giving them converted silver. On the other hand, they were having someone come forward to arrange for the high-priced sale of black market rice… The methods of these officials for accumulating wealth were truly ruthless!

Needless to say, a considerable portion of the rice that Wu Zhixiang had transported was probably also from the provincial treasury in Nanjing—the very grain and provisions that should have been allocated to Guanning.