"Your affairs have been exposed!"
This simple sentence caused Old Master Qian Zhi Li to tremble. Old Master Qian Zhi Li was not short of money, so he often watched opera. Having watched so much opera, he was very familiar with the phrase that the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern Depot agents often shouted when arresting villains in the opera scripts.
After regaining his senses, Old Master Qian Zhi Li realized it was the butler who was imitating the appearance of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
This infuriated Master Qian. He kicked the butler fiercely and shouted, "You scoundrel, are you trying to scare me to death!"
Butler Qian quickly apologized with a smile, "This old servant deserves death, this old servant deserves death. This old servant just thought that the government's hounds were about to confiscate the property of Old Master Li and Old Master Zhang, but we could stand by and watch. This old servant couldn't help but imitated the demeanor of those hounds. I beg Master to forgive me."
Master Qian's expression improved slightly.
However, Master Qian never imagined that this butler, who had been with him for more than ten years, even before the Great Ming was re-established, and who had remained loyal even when the Ming court completely abolished the system of servitude, would be a spy for the Heaven and Earth Society.
In fact, among the several intelligence agencies of the Great Ming, the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern Depot were well-known, and their reputations were as bad as they could get. Even though the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern Depot had not been very active in recent years, their reputations had not improved.
After all, they were the "dog's claws and grandchildren" most hated by the officials and the scholars. It was normal for officials and scholars to blacken their names. It would be strange if they didn't.
In contrast, the Heaven and Earth Society, which had been active in opposing the Qing and restoring the Ming, had a slightly better reputation.
This was mainly because the Heaven and Earth Society was mainly active among the people and did not target the officialdom.
After Master Qian finally calmed down, Butler Qian tentatively asked, "Master, what's next?"
Master Qian snorted coldly, "Next? Send someone to tell Madam that we are not in a hurry to leave for now, but just tell her to pack her valuables in case of any changes."
"The money that should be given to that dog official, go and take it to him. As for that broken painting, look at it yourself. If you think it's acceptable, bring it back. If not, find a place to burn it. Later, tell that dog official that it was accidentally damaged, and the money is compensation for his lost masterpiece."
Speaking of which, Master Qian couldn't help but show a cold smile again, "I thought the officialdom under that dog emperor would be as peaceful as a clear river and a calm sea, but it seems it's nothing more than this."
Butler Qian, while secretly sentencing Master Qian to death in his heart, agreed, "That's right. With those dog officials in the government, how can they compete with Master?"
Master Qian smiled complacently and instructed Butler Qian, "Alright, remember to send someone to inquire about those households and see what they are up to. Make sure no scoundrel has the same idea as us."
Master Qian's worries were not unfounded.
Although Old Master Zhang looked unremarkable, he was actually a descendant of Zhang Bo, a famous leader of the Fushe Society during the Tianqi and Chongzhen eras. His ancestor was involved in the famous incident of the Tombstone of Five People.
As for Old Master Li, although he looked like a shriveled old gourd in his earlier years, his ancestor was the famous Eastern Forest scholar Li Sancai, who not only managed the Great Ming's漕运 (tsaoyun - grain transport) but also played a key role in curbing the mining tax commissioners, narrowly missing a position in the Grand Secretariat.
And then there was another person, Old Master Liu Xin, who remained silent and seemed like a transparent person. He was truly a dog that bites without barking. During the Qianlong era, Old Master Liu was a famous philanthropist in the ten-mile radius of Songjiang Prefecture.
Why was Grand Benefactor Liu famous?
Because Grand Benefactor Liu had two businesses: one was an infant asylum, and the other was an opium den.
The survival rate of infants in Grand Benefactor Liu's infant asylum was two in a thousand, meaning only two out of a thousand infants survived.
Of course, the actual number of survivors was certainly more than two. However, whether those other infants died or were secretly sent to places like the Stick Leaf Bureau by Grand Benefactor Liu was difficult to say. After all, the intelligence agencies of the Great Qing and the Stick Leaf Bureau were never short of personnel, and most of them were trained from a young age. The selection methods involving death and elimination were indeed cruel.
As for Grand Benefactor Liu's opium den, it was even more worth discussing.
As everyone knows, "fushougao" (an archaic term for opium) was not introduced to the Chinese mainland during the Opium Wars. In fact, it had long been used by doctors in Chinese medicine as a component of medicine, and it had other names such as "afūróng" and "wūchénxiāng." Some small countries in the Nanyang region offered tribute to the Great Ming with this substance.
This substance did not develop in the Great Ming until the Qing Dynasty, when it began to show signs of becoming widespread. As for why it became widespread, one would have to ask what the Qianlong dog and his family were thinking.
Of course, this substance is inanimate, and it is not possible for it to become widespread simply by wanting to. It still requires someone to promote it.
Therefore, Grand Benefactor Liu Xin's opium den came into being.
If one were to speak truly, Grand Benefactor Liu Xin was much more formidable than Master Qian, Old Master Zhang, Old Master Li, and others.
As everyone knows, the emperors of the Great Qing, starting with Brother Mazha, had been actively pursuing policies of coastal evacuation and sea ban. By the time of the Qianlong dog's reign, Great Qing's foreign trade was reduced to only the Thirteen Hongs of Guangzhou.
Based on this premise, Songjiang Prefecture should not have been able to conduct foreign trade.
However, Grand Benefactor Liu Xin, Old Master Liu, was able to trade with the foreigners in Songjiang Prefecture and obtain enough "fushougao" from them to supply his family's opium dens.
In the past, Master Qian Zhi Li had also considered interfering in Grand Benefactor Liu's opium den business. However, when Master Qian approached the prefect of Songjiang Prefecture of the Great Qing with real silver, the result was that all the real silver was accepted, but nothing was done for him.
From then on, Master Qian Zhi Li knew that Grand Benefactor Liu was someone he could not afford to offend.
In the past, the Liu family had partnered with the Huang family in Yangzhou to set up a workshop. After making money, Grand Benefactor Liu directly kicked the Huang family out of the picture. Even a master craftsman sent by the Huang family to the workshop inexplicably ended up in the official prison, accused of misappropriating thirteen taels of silver from the workshop.
In the past, a scholar in Jiangnan wrote a poem that satirized the Liu family a few times. In the end, not only did the scholar die under mysterious circumstances, but his family also suffered various misfortunes, leading to the ruin of their entire family.
As for why Grand Benefactor Liu was so formidable, even the somewhat provincial Master Qian had his suspicions.
First of all, it was Grand Benefactor Liu's son, Liu Chuanshan. This little bastard inherited all of Grand Benefactor Liu's abilities. He was constantly flattering the Manchu nobles, even going so far as to offer his daughter, Liu Hong, as a concubine to Fuk'anggan.
Who was Fuk'anggan?
Let alone the governors and viceroys of Jiangnan, even Heshen, the Grand Chancellor, had to respectfully address Fuk'anggan as "Master Fu" when meeting Li Shiyao, the de facto emperor of Yunnan. He was even a formidable figure who was on brotherly terms with several princes in the imperial city. Liu Chuanshan's connection with Fuk'anggan was enough to make him formidable.
Later, as Zhu Jinsong raised an army in rebellion at Mount Yuhuang and subsequently killed Fuk'anggan in Shandong, the Liu family's patron collapsed. When the various Provincial Administration Offices of Jiangnan also revolted, the Liu family's situation became even more difficult.
Of course, Grand Benefactor Liu was not only formidable because of his connection with Fuk'anggan, but also because he had real abilities.
Not to mention anything else, just look at the infant asylum run by Grand Benefactor Liu. Although the survival rate of infants was a pitiful two in a thousand, at least its reputation had been established.
With Grand Benefactor Liu's reputation, no matter how the situation changed in Jiangnan, or which banner was erected on the city walls, Grand Benefactor Liu's family could still maintain their prestige. Even Zhu Zhongji, who occupied Songjiang Prefecture at the time, had said, "Jiangnan is not my Jiangnan, but the Liu family's Jiangnan."
Later, as Zhu Zhongji's reign ended and Zhu Jinsong, who started in Shandong, began to unify the entire country, Grand Benefactor Liu's family suffered a major setback. The Ming court under Zhu Jinsong did not care how benevolent Grand Benefactor Liu was; they still had to fight those who needed to be fought and investigate those who needed to be investigated.
However, thanks to the good reputation of Grand Benefactor Liu's family in the Songjiang Prefecture area, even the Ming court under Zhu Jinsong could not do anything to them. This was because Grand Benefactor Liu voluntarily handed over the infant asylum to the government, voluntarily distributed the family's land to the poor people of Songjiang Prefecture, and even voluntarily closed all their family's opium dens.
Furthermore, Grand Benefactor Liu's family had also been involved in building bridges and roads (the bridges and roads were for the Liu family to use) and setting up shelters to distribute congee (mainly to prevent their hoarded grain from being robbed, so what was a bowl of clear congee?). The people of Songjiang Prefecture regarded the Liu family as great benefactors and strongly opposed any action against them. In the end, the government could only drop the matter, and the Liu family was able to preserve themselves.
Even the matter of Liu Chuanshan voluntarily offering his daughter as a concubine to Fuk'anggan became ironclad evidence of how Fuk'anggan abused and oppressed the common people in Songjiang Prefecture. It was unclear how Fuk'anggan, who was mainly active in the north and had never even been to Songjiang Prefecture, could have committed such acts of bullying and oppression there.
It was not important how many false accusations were pinned on Fuk'anggan by Grand Benefactor Liu's family. What was important was that Grand Benefactor Liu's family's days became difficult with Zhu Jinsong's unification of the country.
Think about it, Grand Benefactor Liu's family was flourishing when the Qianlong dog was still alive. After Zhu Jinsong, the emperor of the Great Ming, unified the country, the Liu family's situation suddenly declined rapidly, like an old man with long-term erectile dysfunction who collapsed overnight without even a chance to find a traditional Chinese medicine doctor. This was something the Liu family found difficult to accept.
If they wanted to rebel, Grand Benefactor Liu's family had some self-awareness. They knew that no matter how powerful they were in the past, it was due to the influence of the Manchu nobles. If they wanted to fight Zhu Jinsong, the emperor of the Great Ming who had completely defeated the Great Qing, they were probably not qualified enough.
If they wanted to bribe the officials of the government, the officialdom of the Great Ming had a fixed rotation every few years. The term of office for a Provincial Administration Commissioner was at most five years, after which they would definitely be transferred elsewhere. The term of office for prefects was longer, but only seven years. And how these Provincial Administration Commissioners and prefects were transferred depended on the skill of the head of the Ministry of Personnel. According to rumors, the head of the Ministry of Personnel would randomly throw dice on a map, and whichever Provincial Administration Commissioner's name landed on a spot was where they would be transferred.
This way, Grand Benefactor Liu's family could not know in advance which Provincial Administration Commissioner or prefect would be transferred where.
If one also considered the existence of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern Depot, as well as the Censorate, the Ministry of Scrutiny, and the Agricultural Association, all of whom were monitoring the various prefects, it became increasingly difficult for Grand Benefactor Liu to pave his way with wealth and beauty as he did during the Great Qing.
As for bribing county magistrates with terms of office of five or ten years... Grand Benefactor Liu really disdained them. After all, the influence of a county magistrate was limited. Not only were they pressured by the prefect and the Provincial Administration Commissioner, but they were also watched by the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the Censorate, and the Agricultural Association. Bribing a county magistrate was too risky and yielded too little benefit, making it not worthwhile.
However, as the ancestors of the Chinese mainland medicine proclaimed, "It is easier to change mountains and rivers than to change a person's nature," and there is a common saying in the folk that "a dog cannot change its habit of eating shit."
Seeing that their usual methods were not working well, Grand Benefactor Liu's family then began to engage in workshops in earnest. Of course, Grand Benefactor Liu's workshops were a joke. While other workshops were investing heavily in research and development, Grand Benefactor Liu's family never thought of spending a single cent on research, but rather constantly solved problems through buying and buying.
This approach, while not necessarily wrong in the current Great Ming, was also not entirely correct. After all, the Liu family's products had little competitiveness in the Great Ming, but they were highly competitive when sold to the barbarians in Europe.
In Europe at this time, it was still common to believe that anything from the Great Ming was wonderful. Anything that bore the mark of "Made in England" or "Made in France" was not valuable, but anything labeled with the four Chinese characters "Made in Great Ming" would double its price.
Therefore, Grand Benefactor Liu's family did enjoy a period of good fortune.
However, as the Great Ming continuously underwent reforms, workshops like the Liu family's, which did not possess their own core technology, found it increasingly difficult to operate. The money earned from exporting to Europe was largely collected by the court as taxes, and Grand Benefactor Liu's family's days suddenly became difficult again.
It was precisely for this reason that Grand Benefactor Liu's family took the lead in producing those sensationalist tabloids.