Chapter 455: Acting Magistrate of Fusong
Hu Zi originally thought that the man on the other side was just an ordinary fool, so he fired a few shots to scare him, and the other party obediently handed over the ginseng.

Unexpectedly, they encountered the well-trained guards and gunners of the Qu family.

Everyone had guns in their hands. When they heard something was wrong, they immediately found big trees or fallen logs to hide behind, and then started firing indiscriminately in the direction of the shouting.

In the chaos, a bearded man was hit by a bullet and fell to the ground. The other bearded men looked and realized that it was bad because the bullet was too hard and pricked their hands.

This group of bearded men is not large in number, and the guns they use are of poor quality, just some old foreign cannons.

It’s easy to imagine that anyone with a little bit of ability would not rob a bunch of people on the road.
At this moment, gunshots were heard behind Hu Zi. It was Shun Zi who came with the guards of the compound to support them.

Now, Hu Zi was attacked from both sides, and two more of them died in an instant.

There were only a few people to begin with, and now they had suffered heavy casualties. The leader, a bearded man, saw that things were not going well and quickly ordered everyone to evacuate.

“No, there’s someone to help. The point is too hard, row faster.”

Just like that, the remaining few bearded men, relying on their familiarity with the terrain, quickly ran away.

Qu Fu brought his men and met up with Shunzi and the others and continued walking down the mountain.

As for Qu Shaoyang, he met the other guards and continued to follow them about a mile down the mountain.

On the way back, they encountered two groups of bandits blocking the road, but they were all repelled by the Qu family’s guards and gunners.

In this way, under the escort of everyone, Qu Shaoyang and Meng Lanxin took the Ginseng King and went down the mountain in the dark.

“Hey, you guys are finally back, what on earth did you stay in the mountains for so long?
Your father and I were worried at home all day, fearing that something unexpected might happen to you in the mountains.” Chen asked hurriedly when she saw her sons coming back.

“Mom, we brought so many people with us, don’t worry.

Well, is there anything ready to eat at home? We haven’t eaten since yesterday afternoon until now.”

When they returned to the Qu family compound, it was already late at night and it was almost dawn. Everyone was hungry, so Qu Shaoyang asked.

“Yes, there must be food in the kitchen. Well, I’ll arrange for someone to cook for you right away.”

No matter what time it is, even in the middle of the night, as long as my son is hungry, there must be food. If not, it must be cooked on the spot.

Chen immediately led people to the kitchen, worked hard for a while, and prepared some food.

Everyone was very hungry and didn’t care about anything else. They ate a quick meal, then cleaned up and went back to sleep.

I slept until noon and woke up just in time for lunch.

Then Qu Shaoyang called together all the people who had followed him into the mountains and asked Qu Fu to withdraw money from the accounting office.

He gave each of the fellows who went into the mountains one hundred taels of silver as a reward for accompanying him into the mountains.

Qu Shaoyang had no intention of selling the ginseng king, but everyone couldn’t just follow him into the mountains for twenty days for nothing, so he would definitely give them some benefits.

One hundred taels of silver per person is already very good, and everyone is satisfied.

After dealing with things here, Qu Shaoyang and Meng Lanxin, taking the ginseng buns and leading a group of guards, rode back to the city.

The first thing Qu Shaoyang did after returning to the city was to summon the Dingbian Army and the Forest Patrol Team and order them to go into the mountains to suppress the bandits.

Damn it, these bandits are so tactless, they dare to rob anyone.

It seems that Qu Shaoyang has been too kind in recent years, giving these bandits the opportunity to survive and develop.

In this case, let’s suppress the bandits. It would be best if we could suppress all the bandit gangs around the county town, so that the people can feel more at ease in the future.

“You can pretend to be the gangsters who are going into the mountains to release the monkeys, lure them into the trap, and then catch them all in one fell swoop.

Anyway, everything is left to you, you can deal with it however you want.

I just want the result, which is to wipe out all the gangs around the county town.” Qu Shaoyang said this directly to the leader of the inspection team.

The members of the inspection team didn’t ask the reason, they just took the order and left.

Then after more than a month of bandit suppression, more than ten gangs of all sizes in the surrounding area were wiped out, and the heads of those bandits were hung directly on the city gate for public display.

For a moment, the people in the city clapped their hands in celebration, while the outlaws were terrified.

The gangs that were farther away all kept a low profile or simply retreated to other places, trying to stay away and avoid trouble.

Autumn has arrived in the blink of an eye, and the ginseng garden has to start harvesting and processing the goods again.

Shuangdianzi is different from Linjiang. It is the main area for artificial cultivation of ginseng.

There are a lot of ginseng farmers in the local area. Many wealthy families in the city have ginseng fields. Most of the business on Dianzi Street is also related to ginseng trading.

Every autumn when ginseng is harvested and made into dried goods, every household here harvests, peels, scrubs, washes, steams and makes it into dried goods.

Many old ginseng customers from other places flocked to the ginseng village and facilitated many ginseng transactions.

The locals call the process of preparing ginseng “opening the pot” and the end of processing ginseng “closing the pot”.

On the day when ginseng is cooked, ginseng farmers are busy brushing the water, lighting the fire to steam the ginseng, and at the same time they are busy slaughtering pigs and sheep, preparing banquets, and entertaining family, relatives and friends.

Everyone drank heartily, stayed up all night, and had fun to their heart’s content.

From the time the pot is opened to the time the pot is covered, the red fire in the stove must not be extinguished, and the ginseng in the pot cannot stop burning until it is steamed.

It may take at least ten days or at most a month.

Later, it gradually developed, and every year when the pot was about to start, people would spontaneously organize themselves to celebrate, and this was called the Pot Opening Festival.

The local ginseng industry has flourished in recent years, and some large local ginseng producers have formed a ginseng association.

Every autumn, the participating members gather together to agree on the date of the Opening Pot Festival based on this year’s solar terms.

In the past, the head of the big house would be invited to preside over the opening ceremony of the pot festival.

Now that a county seat has been established there, the Han family has withdrawn from the area around Shuangdianzi, and the big house at Tanghekou has also been disbanded.

Therefore, this year’s Opening Pot Festival invited Qu Shaoyang to host it. Qu Shaoyang couldn’t refuse, so he had no choice but to accept.

August 16th is the day of the Opening Pot Festival this year.

On this day, the streets are decorated with lights and colorful lanterns, gongs and drums are played, and people sing and dance to celebrate the ginseng harvest.

The children wore red bellybands and ginseng seeds on their heads, pretending to be ginseng dolls.

Young girls wearing red jackets and green pants dress up as girls with hammers, and some old men with white beards hold ropes and act as the bosses.

People twisted their bodies and sang to the rhythm of gongs and drums. The cheerful dance and moving songs had smiles on everyone’s faces as they celebrated the ginseng harvest together.

This year, the Qu family has 1,500 meters of ginseng for sale, part of which is in Xigang and the other part is near the Qu family compound.

With so many ginsengs being sold, it is naturally impossible to collect them all at once as before.

That way the processing is simply not enough. The ginseng will be picked out and processed too slowly, and it is easy for it to return to pulp and not weigh well.

Therefore, Meng Lanxin discussed with Qu Shaoyang that they should collect ginseng in batches this year, and collect the next batch when the processing is almost complete. With so much ginseng, it is definitely impossible to finish it with only the long-term workers, so every time at this time, they have to hire a group of short-term workers.

Qu Fu led his men to dig ginseng in the fields all day long, while Meng Lanxin and Feicui led the maids and wives to brush and steam ginseng at home.

In this way, after working for about a month, this year’s ginseng was finally processed.

At the same time, the construction of the county town was basically completed, and the county government office and city walls had been completed.

Qu Shaoyang specially invited famous calligraphers to write the inscriptions on the five city gates, and then found skilled craftsmen to make rubbings of them.

Because there are two large meadows above and below Malugou outside the county town, this place was previously named Shuangdianzi.

When the county seat was first established, it was temporarily named Shuangdian County.

After the county town was built, Qu Shaoyang submitted a memorial to the court, requesting that Shuangdian be renamed Fusong.

“Fu” means to pacify and calm down, and “Song” is because it is located in the upper reaches of the Songhua River.

Because this place was inhabited by vagrants, bandits, busy government affairs and frequent negotiations, it was named Fusong, which means to pacify the Songhua River basin.

At the end of October, the imperial court’s decree arrived, agreeing to rename Shuangdian County as Fusong and place it under the jurisdiction of the Dongbian Dao of Fengtian Province.

At the same time, Qu Shaoyang was appointed to temporarily serve as the county magistrate to maintain public order in the county, develop people’s livelihood, and ensure that the people could live a stable life without being disturbed by bandits.

The imperial decree had come down, what could Qu Shaoyang do? He would just be the county magistrate, as long as there was work to do.

Anyway, it’s just a temporary position. I guess after the New Year, when the Ministry of Personnel has selected and assessed officials, they will officially select and appoint a county magistrate to take up the post.

The county government had three shifts and six offices. Through his own operations, Qu Shaoyang arranged for Li Zhengwen to work in the county government as the chief clerk.

Most of the other yamen runners, squad leaders, patrol officers and other personnel were also appointed by Qu Shaoyang.

Then cooperate with forest patrol teams, militia security teams, etc. to maintain local public security.

Fusong is an important transportation route from Mengjiang to Tadian, Linjiang to Huashudianzi and other places. It is also a concentration and distribution area for major local specialties such as timber and ginseng.

Every winter, a large amount of ginseng is concentrated here and then transported to Linjiang, Yingkou, Dalian, Tianjin and other places.

In summer, large quantities of wood are loaded with tobacco, hemp, perilla, sesame, Chinese medicinal materials, etc. and transported to Jilin City by water.

It can be said that the local area is an important place for ginseng merchants to negotiate business and for wood weaving workers to take a rest.

In the past, because there were many local bandits and refugees and public security was difficult to guarantee, many big merchants did not dare to come and the local economy developed slowly.

Now that the county town has been established, Qu Shaoyang has specially arranged people to go to Fengtian, Jilin City, Yingkou and other places to promote the business, attract investment and provide preferential policies.

At the same time, warehouses, distilleries, flour mills, pharmacies, cake shops, and sauce factories owned by the Qu family also opened branches.

With this publicity, many merchants from other places came to Fusong to do business.

With the official completion of the county town, the population in the city increased sharply, the number of houses increased, and streets and markets gradually took shape.

At the same time, Qu Shaoyang also built a school in Dabeiguan of the county seat and enrolled children of school age.

For a time, the Fusong area showed a thriving scene. When the locals mentioned Qu Shaoyang, they all praised him and said that he had done a great thing for the local area.

Qu Shaoyang was temporarily serving as the county magistrate, handling the government affairs of the county. If he did not understand something, he would write to Chen Yunzhe or Zhang Xiulan for advice.

With these two people helping and advising behind the scenes, Qu Shaoyang is becoming more and more adept at government affairs.

Light snow and heavy snow, another year has passed. In the blink of an eye, the Year of Ji Hai has passed and the Year of Geng Zi has arrived.

Before the end of the first month of the lunar year, the slogans and posters of the Boxers in the Zhili and Shandong areas were introduced into southern Liaoning.

The Boxers appeared in the areas of Lüda and Yingkou, demolished the railways near the ports in the Russian-occupied areas, cut off the external communication wires, and called on the port construction workers to “support and protect China and drive out the foreigners.”

A large number of people practiced boxing and martial arts, preparing to drive out and kill the foreigners.

In early March, villagers at the coal mine near Dengta launched a struggle against the Tsarist Russia to oppose land occupation and mineral plunder, forcing the coal mine’s Tsarist general manager to pay according to the price of the land.

In mid-March, the Boxers in Tianzhuangtai and Yingkou gathered together and gathered at the three major temples.

They burned down gambling shops run by foreign churches, attacked the Far East Trading Company, and destroyed foreign churches in Shuangtaizi, Gaoping, Hujia and other places.

The Boxer Rebellion spread from south to north. In early April, the Boxer Rebellion also broke out in Jilin City, Changchun City and other places.

At this time, General Yan Mao of Jilin was transferred to Beijing. Chang Shun, who had been appointed by the Qing court to supervise military training in Jilin, once again took over the post of General of Jilin.

At this time, Qu Shaoyang had resigned from his post as magistrate of Fusong County and led his people to Mengjiang to preside over the establishment of Mengjiang government.

Meng Lanxin was pregnant and returned to Linjiang to give birth and recuperate.

After learning about the Boxer Rebellion, Qu Shaoyang immediately ordered someone to send a letter back to Linjiang, asking Chen Xiuyun to send someone to protect Anders and others.

At the same time, people were sent to Shi Hospital in Fengtian and Jilin City to bring back all the children studying there.

Orders were also sent to shops in Yingkou, Fengtian, Liaoyang and other places to ask their managers to dispose of goods, close shops and withdraw to Linjiang City as soon as possible.

On the other hand, Qu Shaoyang also quickly sent a letter to Lin Yuhuan, asking her to close all the shops in Jilin and Changchun as soon as possible, and for everyone to immediately withdraw to Linjiang or Fushun and Mengjiang areas.

Although Lin Yuhuan did not understand Qu Shaoyang’s intention, she resolutely carried out the order.

So she took her people and dealt with everything in the shortest time possible, and then brought them to Mengjiang to meet Qu Shaoyang.

In May, in order to suppress the Boxer Rebellion in Northeast China, Tsarist Russia, in the name of protecting the Chinese Eastern Railway, arbitrarily expanded the Chinese Eastern Railway protection team to 7,000 people and equipped it with an artillery company.

Subsequently, Sakharov, chief of staff of the Tsarist Russian Independent Border Guard Corps, expanded the railway protection team to 11,000 people.

On May 18, Tsarist Russia assembled an army of 1,700 people and invaded Tianjin by warships from Lushun to participate in the Eight-Nation Alliance’s invasion of China.

On May 25, the Qing government issued an edict declaring war and appeasing the Boxers.

On May 27, the Qing court ordered General Zengqi of Fengtian to quickly assemble a militia.

If Tsarist Russia planned to transport troops again, the railway outside the Great Wall would be demolished immediately, and the Mongolian princes would be ordered to quickly train their troops in preparation for deployment.

On May 30, the Boxers in Fengtian demolished railways and bridges near Liaoyang to prevent the Tsarist Russian troops in Port Arthur from advancing northward.

The Russian government declared a state of war in Kwantung. On June 2, the Russian director of the Eastern China Railway Construction Bureau issued a retreat order, suspending railway construction.

At the same time, the Russian Finance Minister Witte ordered the chief engineer of the Chinese Eastern Railway, Rugevich, to convey the message to the three generals of the Northeast of the Qing court.

If they could suppress the Boxer Rebellion in the region, the Tsarist Russia would reward each of them with 100,000 taels of silver, equivalent to approximately 150,000 rubles.

On the same day, the Qing court ordered three generals in the Northeast to train the Boxers according to the conditions in their respective provinces in preparation for war.

General Zengqi of Fengtian immediately issued orders to all places, actively training militia and preparing them to be ready to be deployed at any time.

Qu Shaoyang also received orders from his superiors to suspend the establishment of the Mengjiang government and immediately integrate the Dingbian Army, ready to go to war at any time.

(End of this chapter)