Late Qing Dynasty Executioner

Chapter 43 Base Area

Liu Er and Zhang Haomin both thought that they could go to Fobao. Firstly, they would have a base, and secondly, if anything went wrong, they could hide in the deep mountains and forests.

Chen Gu didn't care. It was good to have a base. As for the threat from the Bian family, it was not within Chen Gu's consideration.

In Chen Gu's view, all means are paper tigers in front of absolute force, and the one who controls force is the real tiger, and the tiger is ready to eat people at any time.

For Chen Gu, the most important thing is how to digest the gains this time and transform them into military force.

The harvest this time can be said to be very large. In addition to the gold and silver worth nearly 40,000 taels of silver found in the bottom warehouse, there were also cloth, weapons and other things.

There were also silver notes in the cabin, amounting to as much as 180,000 taels, plus a small amount of pearls, jade and other treasures, with a total value of more than 200,000 taels. Together with the things in the bottom warehouse, the harvest this time, calculated in silver, was definitely more than 250,000 taels.

Twenty-five thousand taels was nothing compared to Heshen's fortune of eight or nine hundred million taels, and even compared to a large family in a county like the Bian family, it was not as much.

But compared to ordinary people who can only earn ten taels of silver a year, that is an astronomical figure.

For today's mountain strongholds, 250,000 taels of silver is also a huge sum of money, but it is not easy to convert it into military force.

Mainly, sulfur and saltpeter, the two raw materials for making gunpowder, were controlled items in this era. In fact, it was not only in this era, but also in later generations that it was not easy to purchase them in large quantities.

After discussion, it was decided that Zhang Haomin would take a group of people into the mountains to manage the base, while Lao Nian would lead the sixth row of people outside to gather intelligence and purchase supplies, and at the same time develop some new members.

Zhang Haomin sighed and said, "At present, cooperating with the Bian family is actually a good choice, but we can't continue like this for a long time. Otherwise, with the strength of the Bian family, we are likely to be swallowed up by them."

It is easiest to develop new members, after all, there are trackers coming up from downstream every day, but it is not so easy to find suitable people.

In this case, cooperating with the Bian family seems to be the best option at the moment.

With a stable rear, we can also appropriately add some new forces. "Chen Gu said with a smile.

Although Jiangjin County is a large county with a population of 200,000 to 300,000, it is relatively easy to buy a few dozen kilograms of sulfur and saltpeter. But if you want more, even if you can buy it, it will easily attract attention.

“So, we can divide the village into two parts. One part will hide in the mountains, and the other part will continue to operate outside, gathering intelligence, purchasing some necessary supplies, recruiting new members, and so on.

Zhang Haomin and Liu Er looked at each other and nodded.

"In fact, it would be better to invite a teacher to teach everyone to read." Chen Gu suddenly mentioned.

"Is it necessary?" Liu Er asked with a frown. Studying is a very expensive thing, not to mention that everyone has to study together.

"Then why did you arrange for me to study with Suan Xiucai?" Chen Gu asked. He was actually a little curious. After all, Liu Er was an executioner and at most a bandit leader. These two professions did not require much knowledge. But after testing Chen Gu for a few days, Liu Er immediately paid for a big meal for Suan Xiucai and then arranged for Chen Gu to study.

"Reading can help you understand things!" said Liu Er.

"Yes, reading can enlighten us and we can also learn a lot of experience from our predecessors. After reading, we will speak and act differently. We don't need to train everyone to take the exam to become a scholar, but it is always good to train everyone to understand more principles!

Old man, it’s enough to be able to fight during a rebellion, but what about after the rebellion?” Chen Gu smiled and said, “You can’t just ignore it after the rebellion is successful, right?
Someone once said: You can conquer the world on horseback, but you can never rule it on horseback. Therefore, we need to train some scholars. They don’t need to be highly educated, as long as they can write and calculate.

"If you can just write and count, then it won't cost much!" Zhang Haomin said with a smile. He naturally supported everyone to go to school. He himself had actually received education, but in order to hide his identity, he did not have the conditions to let his children go to school. He felt a little regretful in his heart. Now that he had the conditions, he could make up for it.

Liu Er glanced at Zhang Haomin and said, "Then you can arrange everything for everyone's studies. You can take all the cash, gold, and silver dollars with you. Apart from the money you promised to your brothers, the rest should be enough for the initial expenses.

You know the rules of the village, work with Lao San to settle the accounts. Now that we have more money, we must be more careful not to make any mistakes, otherwise we will lose face!"

"I understand!" Zhang Haomin cupped his hands to Liu Er, "Don't worry, Old Shake, I will settle accounts with Old San and will never do anything shameful."

The Gelaohui organization was originally divided into ten rows. In addition to the big boss Liu Er, there should have been nine leaders. Now there are only five rows left.

In addition to the first row led by the boss Liu Er, there are the third row in charge of money and grain, the fifth row in charge of enforcing family rules and conducting external negotiations, the sixth row in charge of gathering intelligence, and the tenth row in charge of all external operations.

As for the second row, it was cancelled due to taboo of Guan Yu, the fourth row was cancelled due to taboo of Zhao Yun, the seventh row was cancelled due to the appearance of traitors during the Tiandihui period, and the eighth and ninth row were cancelled due to taboo of the eighth and ninth sisters of the Yang Family Generals.

The fact that Liu Er was able to hand over gold, silver and supplies worth tens of thousands of taels of silver to Zhang Haomin was enough to show his trust in Zhang Haomin. At this time, it was just a routine reminder.

After all, human hearts are hard to predict, so let's be frank now. If Zhang Haomin breaks the rules in the future, Liu Er will not have any burden when he takes action.

There were nearly 40,000 taels of cash in cash. According to the minimum guarantee of 100 taels per person, 10,000 taels were first deducted. There were eighty people participating in the battle, and each of them received 100 taels. There were also eighty people killed, and each of them was also rewarded with 100 taels.

The rest is the compensation for casualties. Fortunately, there are not many people. According to the previous agreement, one hundred taels will be given for the dead, and ten to one hundred taels will be given for the injured depending on the severity of the injury. For example, if the person is severely disabled, it will be counted as death.

The total amount of silver distributed was less than 30,000 taels, and Zhang Haomin still had 10,000 taels of silver in cash and more than 10,000 taels of silver in supplies, which was enough for him to operate the base in the early stage.

Chen Gu thought for a moment and said, "In fact, we can hold off on distributing the money for now. With so many people here, there's no guarantee that some of them will take the money and run away. If something goes wrong, I'm afraid it will implicate everyone."

"If we don't pay you, it won't work!" Zhang Haomin frowned and said, "Everyone fought for money, right? If we don't pay you now, it will be hard to explain."

"Then tell everyone that the money will be kept in the public account and they will be given 2% interest every year. If they keep 100 taels for two years, they will be returned 150 taels!" said Chen Gu.

(End of this chapter)