New Shun 1730

This incident is also a very common event that will be encountered during a period of social transformation.

The original small circle of acquaintances gradually disintegrated with the development of commodity economy and industry and commerce.

The so-called middle-class citizens in the city are anxious every day to ensure that they do not slip into the class.

The development of ports and trade has brought a large number of migrant workers, and these migrant workers have formed small circles because of their place of origin, dialect, and accent.

And because they are migrant workers, they can only do some low-end labor in the city and live in remote places.

This can easily lead to some group panic rumors, and with the development of commodity economy, this kind of specific panic rumors will spread very quickly.

Similar events, such as the dark fairy tale, the Pied Piper of Hamelin. When it appeared, it originated from German immigration to the Baltic Sea region. After this story was born, it was silent until the 17th century, when the citizen economy developed, and this thing was dug out again.

Another example is the Kappa in Japan, a group of coolies from other places, who are one level lower than the locals in terms of class and occupation. They do heavy physical labor by the river. The local middle class is wary of them, and because of excessive anxiety, they are worried that they will rob them of their lives and cause class slippage, and gradually evolved into the story of Kappa eating children.

In short, the traditional men farming and women weaving, pastoral economy, or small circle of acquaintances, accompanied by the development of commodity economy, differentiation of social division of labor, development of cities, entry of foreign immigrants, psychological panic of urban middle class, etc., in the transition period, such similar incidents are very easy to occur.

And it is also very easy to spread.

Similar incidents in Songjiang Prefecture of Dashun have added a layer of outsiders coming here to compete with the local bottom for jobs.

For example, docks, building houses, digging rivers, transportation, etc., which are in urgent need of manpower due to port development, have attracted a large number of river workers who were originally engaged in canal transportation.

In addition to the development of shipping, many people from Shandong, Hebei, Guangdong, Fujian and other places have come here to make a living.

The anxiety of the citizens, the fear of the large number of immigrants during the transition period, and the struggle for job opportunities among the lower-level gangs have made this rumor full of malice.

Simply put, the local gangs and the foreign gangs have a conflict over the issue of doing hard labor.

And these foreigners are either gathered in a certain area or have underground religious organizations like the canal workers.

The locals made up a rumor.

It is said that among those foreigners, there are some people who can do magic, and they will suck the souls of children away, causing the children to die.

This matter is not purely groundless.

It is mainly because of the reduction of rice prices in recent years, the development of industry and commerce, vaccinations such as cowpox, and the popularization of simple health knowledge. The living standards have improved slightly, but it is still far from the level of worrying about class slippage. In addition, the large number of foreign populations has caused the birth rate of children to soar.

And in these days, the birth rate of children has soared, but the survival rate is still not high, and it is easy to die.

When children die, there are mass graves specifically for throwing children.

The location of the mass graves is very close to the residential areas of those outsiders.

And Liu Yu also ordered to take in the dead children and burn them as much as possible to avoid the plague. So those places were filled with smoke every day, which made it seem as if a large number of children died every day?

There were similar rumors, and local gangs and local fighting groups took the opportunity to spread such rumors.

Once the rumors came out, they immediately triggered the confrontation between locals and outsiders.

And Liu Yu's way of dealing with it...

I can only say that it was very fucked up and extremely shameless.

He did not go to refute the rumors, because he felt that in the current situation, the more he refuted the rumors, the faster they would spread.

So he decisively led people to catch scapegoats.

The scapegoats were a group of monks.

Monks also have to live that kind of life, especially some temples with real estate.

It is very normal for monks to help tenants marry wives and sleep with them for the first month.

The so-called eighteen miles in front of and behind the temple, all the people near and far are the father-in-law's family.

After arresting these monks, Liu Yu knew clearly that this matter had nothing to do with the monks, but he did something very disgusting.

If a monk sleeps with the tenant's wife, does that mean he must have done something else bad?

From a legal point of view, this is definitely not the case. He is morally corrupt, and it cannot be said that if someone dies, he must have killed them.

Liu Yu then gathered a bunch of real crimes, such as lending money, debt collection, sleeping with other people's wives and daughters, etc., all of which are true.

Of course, feudal ethics cannibalism, Liu Yu is really not a plaything.

After he broke these things, several women hanged themselves that day.

Liu Yu could only pay money to let the families in the surrounding area who really had similar situations move to places where no one knew them, such as going overseas.

The monk had to admit these things, and Liu Yu tortured him into confessing, forcing the monk to say that these rumors were made up by them.

Because making such rumors helps people go to the temple to pray for peace, keep peace, and send incense money, etc.

Although, although some monks really can't control their lower things, the market is also very clear about this. After it was really exposed, it was widely spread, saying that the monks were also wronged, they did sleep with other people's wives and daughters, but they really didn't spread such rumors.

But at this time, some monks couldn't bear it anymore and signed a pledge to admit it.

When a false case was brought out, people believed that this was the case, and that the monks deliberately spread rumors to create panic and get money for incense.

After this matter was resolved, Liu Yu decisively struck back.

On the one hand, a new urban area was divided and rebuilt to disperse the outside population.

On the other hand, a large number of grassroots thugs were arrested by taking advantage of the previous small-scale fights between the two sides.

This caused the grassroots organizations in Songjiang Prefecture to split rapidly.

Some people, relying on their prestige, became the "Western Travelers" of the industry, organizing the grassroots coolie workers to fight against the emerging capital groups.

Through the split, the local grassroots and the grassroots from outside were mixed together, and through the strike at the shipping terminal, the local differences between the grassroots were gradually reduced.

Another part of the people became professional gangsters and became professional thugs of the emerging capital group. These people included both the original local thugs and a group of professional gangsters from outside the canal.

This group of professional gangsters had to be supported by emerging capital and were responsible for fighting against the dock workers who were deliberately organized by Liu Yu.

The emerging capital also urgently needed a group of professional gangsters to protect their industries and prevent the workers from striking.

The differentiation of the bottom-level workers into gangsters and workers made the gangsters in Songjiang Prefecture professional. Everyone exchanged experiences and the gangster skills increased rapidly.

For example, the northern gangsters learned the "beating people to death later" method of the southern gangsters through experience exchange and mutual discussion.

The professional gangsters in the southern fighting industry can beat people to death three months or half a year later. In this way, they can escape punishment.

For another example, the southern gangsters learned the ruthlessness of the northern canal workers gangsters through experience exchange.

They gambled their lives at any time, and both sides sent people to negotiate and grab work to see who was more ruthless to themselves, and whoever was more ruthless to themselves could scare others. Moreover, if they died, there were also internal arrangements for funeral affairs and taking care of family members.

The emerging class had money and had to live in the city because of their business. They also needed these professional hooligans to guard their homes and houses and to beat up striking workers when necessary.

At the same time, a large number of redundant scholars in Songjiang Prefecture also quickly moved closer to the emerging class. This group of people would follow whoever gave them food.

The emerging class had a shallow foundation and often encountered people who hindered the construction of factories on the grounds of "ruining feng shui". This required special hooligans with official titles to fight with those people.

It was different from the salt merchants in the north.

The hooligans in Songjiang Prefecture gradually transformed into "professional lawyers".

Because the emerging class did not have the qualifications to participate in politics and party struggles. The direction of "armed struggle" here was mainly to fight against striking workers, so professional hooligans and cultural people gradually took shape.

In Songjiang Prefecture, Liu Yu has been "changing customs and habits", constantly erasing the pastoral hypocrisy of the previous dynasty, "The governor of Songjiang will come tomorrow", encouraging mutual complaints and legal solutions, which can be regarded as giving birth to the professionalization of cultural hooligans.

On the other hand, the scholars of the salt merchants still maintain the "civil and military" differentiation, because they can participate in court politics. Whether it is a clan or a literati circle, there are officials in the court.

The civil ones are in charge of public opinion, and the military ones are responsible for beating people during party disputes. After all, scholars still have privileges.

Let's look at this matter in a positive way. This is called social development promoting social division of labor.

Moreover, the class struggle of the emerging class quickly promoted differentiation.

Hooligans also need social division of labor and specialization.

Some are responsible for beating people, some are responsible for scolding people, some are responsible for killing people, and some are responsible for creating public opinion, and some are responsible for lawsuits.

The more differentiated, the stronger the professionalism.

The stronger the professionalism, the more experience in dealing with such things.

After all, the group of people in the north who depend on salt merchants have been using the same routines for two hundred years, and the local gangsters here are very familiar with these routines.

However, the gangsters in Songjiang Prefecture are not static, but are gradually undergoing social transformation.

I have seen industry strikes and know how to suppress them.

I have seen unfavorable public opinion and know how to reverse it.

I have not only seen conflicts between the emerging class and the landlords, but it has also been the mainstream contradiction in the past twenty years and I have experienced many battles.

The reclamation company over there paid money and found an intermediary.

The intermediary directly stated that if the money is in place, they will definitely win against the group of old antiques over there.

The reason why the intermediary is full of confidence is that the intermediary is not stupid.

Obviously, the host behind this matter is Liu Yu, who should be able to stand firm in the struggle between the upper level.

As long as the upper level stands firm, these things below will be easy to deal with.

The upper level has the upper level struggle logic, unspoken rules and rules.

The lower level has the lower level struggle logic, rules and unspoken rules.

As long as the above can stand firm, the intermediary believes that with the development of Songjiang Prefecture over the years, what have they not seen? The group of people in the north who rely on salt merchants are not as capable as they used to be, mainly because they lack practical training. They are probably useless over the years.

Since Dashun has recognized the various rules at the beginning, including the salt permit system, they have not experienced any real struggle scenes over the years. The literary hooligans have degenerated into talking nonsense and arguing for justice. Can the people understand?

On the other hand, Songjiang Prefecture has been trained for more than ten years. How to beat striking workers, how to incite public emotions, how to beat people to death without paying for their lives, how to say white is black, are all learned through practice.