The seventh day of the winter month in the eighteenth year of the Wanli reign was the seventh day after the death of Hai Rui.

On this day, all the prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River were deserted, and tens of millions of people, regardless of their status, gathered on both sides of the Huangpu River, Wusong River, Lou River, Baimao River, Wangyu River, and Taipu River to pay tribute.

These six rivers are exactly the Taihu flood discharge system that was built by Hai Rui with the assistance of the Jiangnan Group when he was the governor of Yingtian.

Thanks to these six flood discharge channels, the situation of Taihu Lake flooding the south of the Yangtze River every year has come to an end. The people in the south of the Yangtze River can also enjoy the convenience of irrigation and shipping, so "the harvest is abundant every year, the people of Wu are always grateful, and the happiness and benefits are endless"!

Moreover, if Hai Rui had not designated the Huangpu River as the main channel for flood discharge, there would be no Shanghai today. The Pudong New Area of ​​the Oriental Pearl Tower would still be a quagmire!

Especially in recent years, floods in the south of the Yangtze River have been severe, but the flood discharge system built by Hai Rui 20 years ago has still withstood the test, saving the people from floods and ensuring a good harvest every year...

When drinking water, one should remember the well-digger. The people in the south of the Yangtze River will naturally not forget Hai Qingtian. The incense tables set up by those who poured wine and cried stretched for hundreds of miles, and the paper money thrown dyed the wide rivers white!

The clear river water has maple leaves on it. My eyes are thousands of miles away, and my heart is broken by spring. Soul, please come back and mourn for the south of the Yangtze River!

At the end of the memorial service, someone started singing the song that was published with the obituary. The song was sonorous and catchy, and people quickly learned it.

Then, a chorus of millions of people sang over the sky of Jiangnan, and the sound shook the world!

'Rise up, you slaves who are starving and cold! Rise up, you suffering people of the land of China!

My blood is boiling, let's fight the final battle!

The old world has beaten him to a pulp. Slaves, rise up!

Don't say we are worthless, we want to be the masters of the world!'

There is no more Hai Qingtian in the world, from now on we can only rely on ourselves!

'There has never been a savior, and we don't rely on gods or emperors.

To create our own happiness, it all depends on ourselves!

We must take back the fruits of our labor and let our thoughts break free from their cages.

Hurry up and make the fire burn red, strike while the iron is hot to succeed!'

No one knew who took the lead, but the people in white scarves and white clothes sang the "Uprising Song" and marched towards Suzhou City in a mighty force.

After paying tribute to the deceased, it is time to avenge the murderer! Although Emperor Wanli was far away in the capital, and the eunuchs he sent were still on their way, there were always eunuchs in Suzhou City.

The palace set up weaving bureaus in Nanjing, Suzhou and Hangzhou, and there were weaving eunuchs in charge!

Moreover, Suzhou was the silk weaving center of the Ming Dynasty. The weaving eunuchs here had the highest status and were also in charge of the weaving bureau in Hangzhou.

Therefore, the "Suzhou and Hangzhou Weaving Eunuch" was regarded as the best lucrative position in the world by the palace. People at that time said, "He also has the imperial edicts and the rank of the eunuchs who hold the pen, but he is more comfortable and wealthy." This means that the Suzhou and Hangzhou Weaving Eunuch is an imperial envoy, with a status equivalent to that of the eunuchs who hold the pen, but he has more money and less work, and he lives a life of luxury.

Therefore, if you want to get this position, you have to spend a lot of money. The current weaving eunuch Sun Long borrowed a loan shark of 500,000 taels of silver to get this job.

As a result, he paid off all his debts within two years, and spent "hundreds of thousands of gold" to decorate the West Lake, rebuild or newly build Lingyin Temple, Lake Pavilion, Jingci Temple, Yanxia Cave, Longjing, Pianyun Pavilion, Sanmao Temple, Shijintang and other temples, historical sites, and embankments, and was known as the "beneficiary of West Lake."

Where did the benefactors get their funds? Of course, they all came from the hard-earned money of the people from the Weaving Bureau.

Especially after the fifteenth year of Wanli, the royal family began to demand more and more. In order to please Wanli and stay in office, Sun Long desperately increased his efforts to plunder.

He forcibly stipulated that for each weaver, "each loom shall be taxed three cents of silver; each piece of satin shall be taxed five cents of silver; each piece of yarn shall be taxed two cents of silver." The tax rate may seem low, but in fact it is a double tax on the weavers, on top of the fact that each piece of satin and yarn had to be taxed highly by traveling merchants when it was shipped out of Suzhou.

Moreover, the Weaving Bureau was originally responsible for silk fabrics such as damask and satin. In order to expand the scope of plunder, Sun Long also extended his hand to the cotton textile industry. Although the tax collected from each spinning wheel and each piece of cloth was only half of that in the silk industry, the scale of the cotton textile industry was ten times that of the silk industry!

Otherwise, where would he get the money to become a benefactor of West Lake?

~~

It should also be mentioned here that although Jiangnan's cotton spinning and silk weaving industries are both under the leadership of Jiangnan Textile Group, Jiangnan Textile has adopted different management methods for these two industries based on actual conditions.

The cotton spinning industry was relatively unsophisticated and suitable for large-scale machine production, and it had sufficient raw materials and a broader market space, so it adopted the method of large-scale cotton spinning mills.

Such large factories, which often employed tens of thousands of people, adopted the water-powered spinning machines and hydraulic spinning machines developed by the 06th Textile Research Institute, which increased the efficiency of weaving by about 40 times - basically eliminating the human-powered spinning wheels in Jiangnan. In the face of the high-quality and low-priced factory cloth, there was no room for folk cloth to survive.

But the silk industry is different. It is difficult for the number of silkworms to explode as quickly as cotton production, and the silk industry is a delicate job. At present, except for the new silk reeling machine, the 06th Institute has not yet developed a usable silk weaving machine. Therefore, the group still distributes raw silk to the majority of weavers and then purchases silk at a guaranteed price to carry out production.

Although the group also organized the Weavers Association and the Weavers Association to coordinate labor-capital relations and guide and supervise production, the management of the silk weaving industry was relatively loose. The weavers and weavers were also free people.

They had long been fed up with Sun Long's extortion, and "we all suffered from it, and there was nothing we could do!" At this time, they wanted to seek revenge on the emperor's lackeys, so the weavers and weaver households targeted this beast!

The rest of the people also followed them into Suzhou city, filling the prosperous Guanqian Street.

The imposing Weaving Bureau Yamen is located on Guanqian Street.

Seeing the aggressive crowd, the eunuchs guarding the gate of the weaving bureau were so scared that they fled into the yamen and quickly closed the door.

"Break it open!" People roared and looked around for handy tools to break the door.

At this moment, a magical scene appeared. Dozens of leaders of the Weavers Association, holding palm-leaf fans, stopped the weavers who were about to break through head-on.

"Everyone, listen to me. We are here to avenge Lord Hai! Lord Hai's spirit in heaven would definitely not want to see us looting, smashing, and burning, and even affecting the entire Guanqian Street!" A young man named Ge Cheng shouted loudly while holding a tin loudspeaker.

"That makes sense." Everyone nodded, and some people angrily asked, "Then how do we take revenge?!"

"Today we will only kill castrated dogs and running dogs!" Ge Cheng shouted, "No one should harm innocent people! All actions are subject to the direction of the banana fan in my hand!"

The weavers had obviously held a meeting and discussed the matter long ago, so tens of thousands of them responded in unison, and the rest of the people didn't even have a chance to object!

"Find the back door and don't let them escape!" Ge Cheng waved the palm-leaf fan!

The weavers rushed into the eunuchs' alley, howling, and indeed, they blocked the eunuchs who were trying to escape.

This time, when the eunuchs tried to close the door, the weavers worked together and broke the bolt.

The door flew open, knocking several young eunuchs and Jinyiwei to the ground. The weavers rushed forward with swords, guns, sticks and clubs, and killed them in an instant!

The weavers, who had seen the blood, were completely out of control and rushed into the huge courtyard of the weaving bureau which covered an area of ​​more than 50 acres, shouting.

The Suzhou Gardens, where the "West Lake Benefactor" lived, are naturally even more impressive. Not only do they cover a vast area, but they are also the most beautiful in the south of the Yangtze River. The halls, pavilions, temples, gardens, ponds, and flower gardens are all exquisitely designed and magnificent.

The weavers who rushed in were all stunned as if they had entered a painting. Then they naturally thought, how many good things must there be in it?

This is why Ge Cheng and others had to take precautions in advance. Upon seeing this, they quickly waved their palm-leaf fans and shouted, "Capture the living, don't touch the dead! Lord Hai is watching us from the sky!"

This spell worked, and the weavers focused their attention again, looking for and surrounding Sun Long's gang.

All men without beards were beaten to death. Those with beards who committed crimes were also beaten to death...

For two whole hours, the rebels searched the weaving factory and killed 62 people and captured more than 100 people.

But they couldn't find Sun Long after searching for him. After interrogating the captives, they found out that he had already escaped over the wall.

People were sighing and lamenting that they had not caught the main culprit, which was a pity. Suddenly, a cheer was heard in the distance, and several big men came over carrying a man who was tied up.

"Brother Ge, Sun Long wants to hire our boat to escape to Hangzhou, so we've brought him here for you!" After the leading man said this, the other big men threw the man heavily to the ground.

It was the fat and white weaving eunuch Sun Long!

Seeing this, Ge Cheng was overjoyed and hurriedly clasped his fists and said, "I am ashamed. Thank you for your help! I don't know your name!"

"It doesn't matter what we're called, we're all ordinary working people!" The man turned around and clasped his fists to the crowd and said loudly: "We've all heard about your righteous deeds outside, and we all admire you so much! This is indeed how you should be the master of the world!"

Once the weavers were dressed in this high hat, they completely gave up the idea of ​​looting and smashing things, so they rushed forward and prepared to beat Sun Long to death.

Ge Cheng and others stopped them and said, "Keep him, we will send Sun Long to the prefectural government office and see what the old man says?!"

This was the next step planned yesterday, which was actually to force the Suzhou prefect to surrender...

When everyone heard this, they all thought it was a great kindness. They followed the palm leaf fan, escorted Sun Long, and carried the bodies of the castrated dogs and running dogs, and left the weaving government office through the main gate.

People all over the street cheered and spat at Sun Long.

The men who captured Sun Long also followed far behind.

The leader was called Li Jiaqi, who was Mi Wa from Li Hua’s family.

He, Xu Guangqi and Wang Heng were classmates at Yufeng School. Miwa was very clever, but he couldn't sit still and was not cut out for academic study.

However, Zhao Hao was impressed by his background and character, and still accepted him as his disciple, saying that he would teach him the "art of slaying dragons".

After that, the poor baby disappeared from people's sight.

When he reappeared more than a decade later, Miwa had already experienced many hardships and sufferings. I don't know what is so special about this "dragon-slaying technique" that it takes such a great price to learn it...

Fortunately, what he learned finally came in handy.

He was the one who planned the Suzhou weavers' uprising!

The purpose is of course to help the workers and peasants get the results they deserve...

P.S. Don't say I'm exaggerating. Just look at the Suzhou weavers' riot led by Ge Xian, it was so civilized... not to mention that now there is the support of the Jiangnan Group.