On the sixth day when the procuratorate invited the eight salt merchants, the 13 major wharves inside and outside Yangzhou suddenly stopped freight. The coolies at the wharves were not clear, so they all gathered together.

Jiao Yuqing, a well-known leader on the dock, suddenly appeared on a pier outside the city, and said to the coolies who had nothing to do: "The dock in this city has always been mainly used to transport salt, and now the new salt patrol master in the city has arrested eight salt merchants for unknown reasons, and the salt merchants in the city are panicked, so they have stopped transporting salt."

Those of us who beg for a living on the docks are just relying on a handful of strength to eat. We don't have any savings on weekdays, and if we stop working for a few more days, our family will be killed.

Instead of sitting here starving to death, it is better to go to the procuratorate and ask the imperial master to be gracious, release the eight chief merchants, and resume the salt transportation business on the dock, so that everyone can have a way to live..."

The dock coolies, who were already at a loss and at a loss, were soon instigated by Jiao Yuqing and went to the docks everywhere.

On the wharves inside and outside Yangzhou, there are about 4 or 5,000 wharf coolies. Jiao Yuqing took these wharf coolies to walk around Dongcheng from south to north, and immediately gathered a team of nearly 2,000 people.

With the care of the salt merchants, more than 2,000 wharf coolies smoothly entered the city through the north gate, and the officers and soldiers guarding the city did not intercept them at all, and no one reported to the procuratorate and the county government and government offices in the city.

Yangzhou City is divided into two urban districts, the old city to the west and the new city to the east. The new city is more prosperous with commerce, while the old city is the most densely populated. After Jiao Yuqing entered the city with these wharf coolies, it attracted the attention of the citizens in the city.

Jiao Yuqing shouted slogans as he walked, and soon let the citizens in the city understand where they were going and what they were going to do.

Although there are many trades in and around Yangzhou, they are all developed around the consumption of salt merchants, and except for the coolies on these canal docks, there is no unity and organization in the rest of the city.

When Jiao Yuqing raised his arms and shouted in the street, except for some party members who were friends with him in the city on weekdays, no ordinary citizens were willing to join them. However, many street idlers in Yangzhou City seemed to think that this matter was profitable, and they followed and joined the team.

However, although the people of Yangzhou did not join the team organized by Jiao Yuqing, they followed the team and wanted to follow the excitement. Therefore, when Jiao Yuqing walked from Dongcheng to Xicheng, the crowd behind him had already crowded into the entire street.

In the downtown area where the procession passed, most of the pedestrians who were on the street avoided it, or they were involuntarily carried by the crowd and walked towards the street where the salt inspection institute was located.

Jiao Yuqing and dozens of his party members were able to restrain the team's actions at first, but as the city heroes poured into the team, he and his party members suddenly lost control of the team.

Just now, he was still chanting slogans, inviting citizens everywhere to join, and went to the procuratorate to stand up for the coolies at the dock, asking the imperial master of the procuratorate to raise his noble hand and release all the eight salt merchants, or release a few of them, so that the Yangzhou dock can resume normal operation.

After the number of people in the group behind him exceeded the upper limit of his control, it was finally much quieter. It was only then that he became a little apprehensive.

According to the talented old man beside the eldest prince of the Zheng family, as long as he instigated those coolies on the dock to enter the city and parade around the city. The people in Yangzhou City would follow him to the procuratorate out of righteous indignation to put pressure on the imperial historian.

As long as the imperial history of the procuratorate can't withstand the pressure, he will naturally release the chief merchants who have been detained for several days, even if it is one or two. Generally speaking, when hundreds of thousands of people in the city gather together to ask the government for an explanation, whether it is the prefect or the salt and imperial history, they will make certain compromises for the sake of their official reputation.

And as long as one or two of the eight chief merchants come out, the salt merchants in Yangzhou City will not be left without six gods, and they can slowly negotiate with this imperial historian.

But Jiao Yuqing found that although the team behind him had indeed expanded to the point where it was impossible to count the number of people, as the talented old man said. But from the words coming from the team behind him, he couldn't sense that many people wanted to help the salt merchants get justice out of righteous indignation.

Instead of going to the gate of the procuratorate to plead with the imperial historian, it is better to smash a few shops on the street, so that the imperial historian can see how much trouble he has stabbed, and the chief merchant will naturally be released.

Fortunately, the incitement of these scoundrels did not get a response from others, and everyone still wanted to see how the procuratorate would react to their presence, rather than wreaking havoc in the city where they lived.

When the officers and soldiers stationed in front of the procuratorate saw the crowd rushing towards the procuratorate like a tide, they quickly retreated into the procuratorate and closed the door. Soon an officer appeared at the head of the wall and shouted at the crowd: "You people are surrounding the observation center, but do you want to rebel? ”

At this time, Jiao Yuqing had already regretted accepting the invitation of the eldest prince of the Zheng family, and he felt that if there was a conflict with the officers and soldiers at the gate of the procuratorate, others would not know what would happen afterwards, and he, the leader, would inevitably be beheaded. Even, it is a luxury to be beheaded at that time.

Jiao Yuqing hurriedly repeated to the officer, what the Xiucai old man told him to say, he wanted to end today's matter as soon as possible, so that the huge team behind him who did not obey his command dispersed quickly.

However, his hopes were soon dashed, and the officer, having heard their pleas, did not reply at once, but asked them to wait where they were, and he was going to inform Lord Goshi.

After waiting for an hour, when the crowd behind Jiao Yuqing began to stir, a civil official wearing a scarlet official uniform with a lark patch sewn on his chest slowly climbed up on the opposite wall.

The people who had seen Han Yiliang immediately recognized this imperial history, and waited under the sun for an hour, and the people, who were already a little impetuous, shouted loudly because of the large number of people, asking the imperial history to release him quickly. The voices of these people immediately covered Jiao Yuqing's voice.

Jiao Yuqing even heard that some people in the crowd not only demanded the release of the eight chief merchants, but also demanded that the Salt Patrol Imperial Shi release the arrested officials of the Yun Division. Rao is Jiao Yuqing turned around and kept drinking the team, asking these people not to talk nonsense, and let him talk to Lord Yushi alone, but to no avail.

The two sides were deadlocked for half an hour, and Han Yushi saw that he couldn't communicate with the people below, so he asked the sergeant next to him to shout loudly, so that the crowd outside the gate of the courtyard dispersed as soon as possible, otherwise he would order the sergeant to go out and disperse.

The chorus of seven or eight sergeants finally silenced the noise of the crowd outside the procuratorate. Before Jiao Yuqing could say anything, he heard someone in the crowd suddenly shouting: "This dog official wants to bully us Yangzhou people, everyone rushed in together and rescued several chief merchants, can't let him frame us Yangzhou people like this..."

Before the sound fell, someone in the crowd on the street had already thrown a clod of earth at Han Yushi, who was standing at the head of the courtyard wall. This behavior soon followed, and the soldiers on the wall hurriedly escorted Han Yiliang off the wall. But the desperate Jiao Yuqing already knew that things were completely out of his control.

After the crowd on the street began to attack the imperial history and soldiers on the wall of the courtyard, the citizens of Yangzhou, who had just followed to see the excitement, suddenly knew that the matter was getting bigger.

The citizens hurriedly dispersed in all directions, wanting to get out of this place of right and wrong as soon as possible. And the scoundrels in the crowd began to get excited. Some of them came forward to help besiege the gates of the Courtyard, while others began to attack the shops along the sides of the street. As the first fire was lit, the street centered on the Inspectorate began to become completely chaotic.

Zheng Yuanxun, who was standing on the tower of the West Gate City and watching, saw the first wisps of smoke rise, and his feet began to weaken a little. He grabbed Wu Chang beside him and said anxiously: "Brother Wu, this is completely different from your plan." If it were known afterwards that it was my Zheng family who planned this chaos, how could the people of Yangzhou who were victims below let my family go. ”

Wu Changshi was quite calm, he thought about it and said: "You gathered those salt merchants yesterday, and the negotiation was only a strike, how can they know that you and I did this."

The only one who can testify to you is that Jiao Yuqing, and we will go out of the city. Let your servants find him out, and then send him out of Yangzhou as soon as possible, as long as Jiao Yuqing does not fall into the hands of the government, no one will know, this matter has something to do with you.

Although the matter was not what I had planned, but there is such a mess in Yangzhou City, this case will inevitably attract the attention of the world. That Han Yushi can no longer cover the sky with one hand. Overall, our goal was achieved. Now the decision-making power in this case is no longer in Yangzhou City. ”

Zheng Yuanxun suddenly said with some surprise: "Not in Yangzhou City?" Where would that be? ”

Wu Changshi said confidently: "With such a mess, this case is no longer a simple corruption case, but involves the problem of local civil unrest." The one who can decide this case is naturally the Gonggong princes above the court. ”

An hour after the chaos in Yangzhou City occurred, Han Yiliang sent people to ask for help from Yangzhou Wei in Dongcheng, asking the guards to suppress the riots in the city.

However, Yangzhou Wei's army had just been transferred out a few days ago, and finally had to ask the Shanghai First Garrison Division, which was passing outside the city, to enter the city and suppress the chaotic people.

At dusk, the headquarters of the 1st Shanghai Garrison Division entered through the north gate, and it took three hours to finally suppress the chaos in Yangzhou City.

Three to 40 homes and shops were burned down, and hundreds of homes and shops were looted. More than 70 people were killed or injured in the turmoil, and as many as 600 or 700 scoundrels took part in the robbery of shops.

Although the 1st Garrison Division took control of the situation, most of the salt merchants fled the city and hid in the manor outside the city. In response to Han Yiliang and Men Chenxin's request for them to resume the normal operation of the Lianghuai salt transport, these salt merchants insisted that they would not have been able to recover without the orders of the eight chief merchants.

While speeding up the process of trial of the case, Han Yiliang had to write to the court to ask for guilt together with Men Chenxin.