Chapter 79 –Rioting Merchants
The city was thrown into an uproar. Many scholars were debating the new announcements and the changes among each other. Majority of these self-proclaimed wise men disagreed with these policies.
The nobles who were serving as officials of Julu happily yielded to the laws as they were fairly compensated. Secondly, they did not have to take responsibility for the farmers who used their lands. It would be the city hall staffs who would take care of the farmers and the lands instead of them, which freed up their times. Lastly, they no longer had to support the cost of their private troops because they would be transferred to the infantry division under Zhou Cang, Zhang Liang, and Zhang Bao.
Bo Cai Cavalry Division was the only unit that would not take in any more troops until Tong permitted it. Warhorses were hard to breed or sought for. As a result, Tong limited the number of the horsemen.
They might lose a portion of their influence and power, but they gained back their free times and gold as a compensation. Moreover, the trust toward to new governor and the new system was high due to the good reputation of Zhang family past deeds.
Most importantly, more than half of the officials were secret members of the Immortal Yellow Turban Society. They lobbied the non-members into submission and recommended them into the club. As a result, they followed through Zhang Jiao's plan without resisting.
Lu Zhi was also invited into the club, but he declined the offer. Later on, He told Tong about this organization, which reminded him of what had happened in the assembly a few days earlier.
After ten minutes trying to figure out the event and combined with his deduction and conjecture, Tong was so astonished to the point that he blurted out.
"My silly father created the Illuminati!?"
Tong did not realize that the original founder of the society was none other than Hua Shi. She gave Zhang Jiao the idea of the secret organization because she had the inspiration of her previous life.
In her former country, there was a deep state which was the underground government that dealt with all the conspiracies and all sorts of unethical acts that the "Real Government" could not publicly execute the tasks.
Zhang Jiao was interested in the idea and found the organization with him as the leader and the trustworthy government officials who joined his Taoist Sect to be the members. He also used this society to gather information around the city, which worked faster and more efficient than the intelligence agency that Lu Zhi had trained.
...
...
On the same day.
On the contrary of the nobles, all merchants were shocked by the announcements. Several laws hit them on their sore spots.
Unlike the representatives who had visited Tong in the government hall, these people were small-time merchants who took advantages of the farmers as their source of incomes.
When the harvest season began, they would buy crops from merchants with cheap price, for example, 10 tons of grain per one tael of gold or 1,000 coins. Once winter or spring arrived, they would sell it back to buyers at 2 tons of grain per one tael of gold.
"What the hell is this!? This is absurd!"
"Who said that the governor is capable? He's obviously a retard!"
"We can't buy provision from the civilians? What kind of logic is this!?"
"Foolish Zhang Jiao!"
"We can't have private troops? Then how are we going to travel between cities!?"
"No weapon zone!? Then what am I going to protect myself with? A pan?"
"What kind of pricing is this? Five tons per a tael of gold? I call it bullshit!"
They were discontent by the monopoly system that Tong had issued because they would lose out provision resources that they would get from coaxing and conning with the local citizens. Thus, they filed a complaint to the city hall, which was ignored by the officials.
"We want an explanation!"
"We want to see the governor!"
"Answer us, or else!"
"Compensate us!"
"Do you think you can be a governor because you are appointed by the emperor?"
"We can kill you easily if we want to. Get your ass down here and apologize to us! Or we will take back what's ours!"
Half of the merchants swore and curse at every officer on duty they found and threatened them that they would use force to take over the title of the City Governor if Zhang Jiao did not give them an explanation.
Two hours later, Zhang Jiao still ignored their protest, so they went back to their stores and tried to gather their private soldiers to revolt together.
In front of the city hall, Tong glared at the protesting crowd in disgust. He had only taken back the right to buy the grain from the citizens, so the food price of this city could not be manipulated by the merchants when the famine hit next year.
"This is the reason why they shouldn't possess any private army. What do they think they are? The king of this country? Just because they have a little power, they lost themselves for the small monetary profits." Tong complained in an angered voice.
Despite his hard work to ensure that the civilians of Julu would not starve in the future, these people dared to threaten him and his father because they lost a bit of profit. They were too selfish and shameless. Tong thought that he had to teach these people a lesson.
Lu Zhi, who was standing by his side, sighed. This private army system had been around ever since the warring states. He had never paid attention to it before, but now he realized that these private army rights could come back and bite its master like a stray dog.
"Be lenient to them, disciple."
Tong shook his head. "I'm sorry, master. I have to kill chickens to scare the monkeys this time. Or else, none of the civilians will be afraid of the laws."
…
Half a day later, the rioting merchants gathered 2,000 private soldiers and marched toward the city hall to take over the governor position by force.
Within the city hall, four thousand men stood in formation. A group of shield bearers stood on the front rows. Archers sat on top of the roof and the high ground. Another reserve soldiers stood on the backline, getting ready to support the other groups in any situation.
"Remember what we were trained for! Remember our Lord's teaching! When the first casualty happens, the first thing that will shut down is your brain! The only thing that is still working is your muscle memories! You were trained hard for this day. Everything that you did was memorized within your flesh and muscles. Don't disappoint our Lord!"
"SIR, YES SIR!!"
Zhou Cang rallied his men which were stationed inside the city hall courtyard front gate.
He had already been alerted by the commotion made by the merchants. Four thousand garrison soldiers were on standby with Tong's signature repeated crossbows, tower shields, and spears. The other six thousand men were creeping toward the riot army from all sides. The merchant force did not realize that they were surrounded.
Merchant private soldiers, armed with leather armors and simple swords, rushed through the streets and stormed the city hall front gate. They charged at the iron-shield wall formation of the garrison force within the city wall front yard.
Like a solid dam which stood against flash flood, Zhou Cang troops did not flinch the slightest. The shield bearers on the frontline did not blink nor lose focus. The shieldmen on the second line kept an eye for the loose weapon or gap between the shields. They immediately moved up to put an extra shield into the formation if they found a leak.
Like the riot polices fighting against the unorganized mob in the 21st century, Zhou Cang troops stood still with tower shields protecting their front and overhead in turtle formation. The second line behind the formation and the archers on the high ground raised their crossbow up and launched a simple volley.
Rain of arrows flew over the first line of turtled shield bearers and poured onto the mobs, after which resulted in screams and shouting coming from the back of the charging rioters.
Zhou Cang did not do anything fancy. He repeated order and had the archers continued to shoot while the front shield bearers stood still without attacking or moving forward.
Within 20 minutes, the rioters were down by half while Zhou Cang men were still in full-numbered. Noticing that they could not fight against the garrison army, the merchants ordered their men to retreat.
However, the net had already been cast, they were ambushed by the remaining six thousand men which had been creeping on them from behind.
All rioting merchants and servants were arrested later. Tong immediately gave out an order to behead the prisoners in public to demonstrate the authority. He also did not forget to give an additional order to seize the property of the rebelling merchants and expelled their entire families of the rebels, which scared the local peasants.
...
During the execution, Hua Shi stared at Tong and complained.
"You're becoming like that North-Korean fatty Kim Jong-un, you know?"
Tong glanced back at her and returned his sight toward the death row prisoners.
"Don't lump me together with him. At least, I don't let my people starve. I'm sorry that I have to be a tyrant. I have to kill them now, so in the future, there will be less killing. If I let them be, I will have to kill 10 times or a hundred times more innocent people because they aren't afraid of the laws. Laws are made to be sacred. If the civilians don't follow it, then everything we have done would be for naught."
"Hmm, you're bringing in the socialism, ironfisted laws, and that cold-blooded slaughtering. What else should I call you?"
"Do you prefer if I bring in the democracy system instead, so we can have an election for any random mofo to suddenly show up and become the president of our country that we have been working our ass out to create?"
"Err … no. But we should think about it in the long terms. Maybe ..."
Hua Shi wanted to refute, but she suddenly came to a pause. She noticed the change in Tong's facial expression and the depth within his eyes. They had a tinge of insanity for a split second, then it returned to the indifferent face.
Hua Shi rubbed her eyes in confusion.
'Was it my imagination?'