Late Qing Dynasty Executioner

Chapter 30 The Consequences of the Population Explosion
"People?" Liu Er smiled strangely and said, "There are only a hundred good people at the moment, but if you need them, I can always bring you thousands or tens of thousands of people!"

"What do you mean?" Chen Gu asked in surprise.

Liu Er was definitely not talking about the elderly, the weak, women and children, but thousands or tens of thousands of young and strong people are not a small force in any era. Can they be mobilized at any time?

Are gangsters that powerful?

"Do you know the tracker?" Liu Er asked with a smile.

After listening to Liu Er's explanation, Chen Gu finally understood what was going on.

It all starts with shipping. The water in the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River is turbulent. If downstream ships want to enter Sichuan and Chongqing, sails alone are not enough, so they must use trackers to pull them.

A small boat may require thirty to fifty people, while a large boat may even require hundreds of people to pull the boat. If the boat encounters certain special locations, it may take the boatmen from several boats to pull together to pull the boat up.

Generally, a fleet needs about two to three hundred trackers to go up the river, but when going back downstream, it does not need that many people, at most only half of the people, or even less.

The remaining trackers will stay and wait for another boat to move up the river or be picked up by the next returning boat.

Liu Er's stronghold implements a rotation system. After newcomers enter the stronghold, they must leave after staying for a maximum of five years, but they can also leave earlier.

As for why these trackers don’t walk back on their own after coming up.

At first, these trackers could barely make ends meet because they were paid for pulling the boats, but when their money ran out, they had no choice but to beg or become bandits.

Liu Er took in the desperate trackers and managed them according to the rules of the Tiandihui.

When leaving, Liu Er would give them a sum of travel expenses according to their contribution. These bandits were actually no different from working people.

Liu Er arranged these people to live on a mountain thirty miles west of the city. They survived by collecting tolls and cultivating some land. At the end of the year, they not only had enough food and clothing, but also had some surplus.

In this era, there were many people who were civilians during the day and bandits at night, plus there were people roaming around committing crimes, so every road was not peaceful. Although Liu Er collected tolls, he also cleared out the bandits and road bullies nearby.

In addition, Liu Er relied on the face of an old member of the Tiandihui to negotiate with several big families in the west of the city. Everyone tacitly agreed to his establishment of a mountain base, so there was peace and tranquility for more than ten years.

But next time there will be more people coming up, so more and more trackers will be left behind.

Firstly, it is not cost-effective, and secondly, there is no other way if they go back. The reason why they left can be explained by their poverty and move to another place.

After all, it was the popularity of potatoes and sweet potatoes that caused the population explosion. With several children in a family, someone had to go out and find a way to make a living.

Some of those who left became good people, while others went to other places to continue their lives.

Those who continued to hang out, from knowing nothing before, already had a complete set of gang rules by the time they left, so those who were smart enough did pretty well as long as their luck was not too bad.

Liu Er's statement of several thousand or tens of thousands of people is actually a conservative estimate. The forces that left his stronghold could probably mobilize several thousand or tens of thousands of people. If the boatmen along the river were organized, the number could be tens of thousands. In fact, the White Lotus Sect was similar to this model.

To be precise, in the Sichuan Basin, the Tiandihui, Gelaohui, Paogehui, White Lotus Sect, and various other small gangs had long been mixed together.

The White Lotus Rebellions in recent years, including the Ran Tianyuan Rebellion in eastern Sichuan at the beginning of the year, involved a large number of boat trackers.

Chen Gu thought for a moment and said, "One hundred men are enough, old man, let's do something big. There are at least tens of thousands of taels of silver on the ship of Addis, maybe even hundreds of thousands of taels.

I heard that he collected money all the way back from the upper reaches of the Jialing River. There were so many counties and towns along the way, including provincial capitals like Nanchong and Chongqing. He must have made a lot of money."

Liu Er was a little tempted when he heard this. In fact, he had no worries about food and drink. Although the executioner's salary was not much, it was enough for him to have no worries about food and clothing. However, it would take a lot of money to fight against the Qing Dynasty, and even more money to do big things.

“It’s very difficult. Although Attis only has one ship, it is a large Tongan shuttle ship with cannons and muskets. Although there are only 80 soldiers, they are all Attis’s trusted elite soldiers with excellent weapons and armor.

Although my people are not weak, they are far behind us in terms of equipment. With just a gun in your hand, you cannot take down a large shuttle ship from Tongan that is well-equipped and has elite soldiers!

You have to understand that if Addis was not sure about his safety, he would not have brought only one ship with him. If he was so easy to deal with, it would not have been our turn to take action."

Liu Er smiled bitterly and shook his head, he also wanted to avenge himself and get a large sum of money, but he was even more unwilling to lose manpower for this. If he could succeed, he would die a worthy death, but it would be stupid to do it when he knew it was impossible.

"Old man, the gap in strength is not as big as you think. If I use my gun well, I can at least kill half of them. Add the explosive cans and the gap can be almost narrowed.

The most important thing is that we can act without intention. If we can shoot Addis to death in the first place, the remaining people on the boat will definitely go crazy and try their best to catch us, otherwise they will not survive if they go back.

In this way, they will come ashore, and then our chances will be even better." Chen Gu sneered.

The reason why Attis dared to travel around with a boat was because the power of a large Tongansuo ship could guarantee his safety in this era.

But the rifle and high explosives in Chen Gu's hands were epoch-making products, which had surpassed the cognition of this era. In addition, Chen Gu had a great chance of capturing Addis's Tongan shuttle ship with his deliberate planning.

If Addis's Tong'an shuttle boat defends and Chen Gu leads his men to attack, Chen Gu will not be very confident even with rifles and high-explosive canisters. But as long as he can kill Addis first, the offense and defense will be reversed in an instant.

By then, Chen Gu will be using rifles and high-explosive canisters for defense, and the people on the boat will go ashore to attack. Then Chen Gu will be much more confident.

As for whether he could snipe Addis, Chen Gu felt that it would not be a problem if he did it intentionally.

"The key to the problem lies in whether we can kill Addis in the first place. Let's try it first. We won't lose anything if we fail. If we succeed, we will make a lot of money. It's not an exaggeration to say that we will make a huge profit." Chen Gu instigated.

It seems to be correct to think so. After all, the ship is moving slowly. Even if one shot fails to kill Addis, there is a great chance that he can escape. After all, Chen Gu's rifle is not only powerful but also has a long enough range.

(End of this chapter)