People of the Jianghu Are Pawns Across the River
Zhao Meizhen called from behind, "Where are you going so early in the morning? I'll make you some ginger soup, come back!"
"Remember to take your medicine when you get home tonight. You have to meet someone this morning, so remember to buy deworming medicine. If you don't, I won't give you any more household allowance, and you'll have to stay with Scribe Hui on the third floor all night." After saying this, Song Tianyao walked out of the building.
Only Zhao Meizhen's cursing echoed in the corridor.
He was indeed going to meet someone, namely Chu Xiaozhong, the eldest son of the Chu Family and the owner of Liheng Trading Company, who had been completely honest with his boss.
Chapter Ninety-Seven: Jianghu People are Crossing-the-River Pawn
Gao Lao Cheng spat out the toothpick he was biting, licked his lips, and pointed to an old Studebaker US6 truck with a modified cargo box in the distance, saying to Chen Tai behind him, "See that truck? The oil on it should be ours, but they didn't even say hello or pay us before taking it away. What do we do? We take it back, of course."
Chen Tai was handed over to Gao Lao Cheng Song Tianyao. Originally, Song Tianyao wanted Chen Tai to work as a driver at Likang, but Chu Xiaoxin wanted to arrange for Chen Judy's younger brother to work at Likang, and Chen Tai couldn't do any work that required too much brainpower. So Song Tianyao's idea was to first hand Chen Tai over to Gao Lao Cheng, let him take care of Chen Tai, and help Chen Tai find some work at the dock. After he finished his current work in a few days, he would help Chen Tai settle down.
However, Gao Lao Cheng clearly misunderstood Song Tianyao's words, thinking that Song Tianyao wanted Chen Tai to find some work at the docks so that Chen Tai could make a name for himself there. After all, Chen Tai was a formidable figure who had single-handedly defeated Wo Two Ping Red Pole of He Erping at the docks. It would be a waste not to use such good skills to make a name for himself in the underworld. Therefore, Gao Lao Cheng brought Chen Tai and more than twenty of his Fuyixing all the way to the Sheung Shui Pier in the New Territories to give Chen Tai some pointers on how to "do things" at the docks.
Sheung Shui in the New Territories was almost like Sha Tau Kok, which Yan Hung was guarding at the time. It was a remote mountainous area of Hong Kong. Before the war, or even a few years after the war, let alone Gao Lao Cheng, even ordinary people would be too lazy to travel over mountains and valleys to the countryside. They would rather live in the Squatter Area in the city and endure hardship than come to the rural areas of the New Territories, which were overgrown with weeds and full of mass graves.
However, New Territories changed after the start of the Korean War. The United States and other Western countries imposed an embargo on China, with petroleum products being the first item on the list of embargoed goods. At that time, although Hong Kong did not consume a large amount of oil locally, it was an important transshipment point for petroleum products for Asia, especially Southeast Asia. China had always been a major consumer of petroleum products, and Western experts had repeatedly asserted that China was an oil-poor country that needed to import even a single drop of petroleum products.
Therefore, Hong Kong was home to numerous major oil companies at the time, and they had oil depots all over the Hong Kong. After the Korean War began and the Embargo Order was implemented, these oil depots became a goldmine for merchants who wanted to make a fortune by smuggling embargoed goods. They would buy refined oil from the oil companies under the guise of various companies, and then transport it to the mainland at double the price for smuggling and resale.
Oil depots naturally cannot be built in bustling urban areas. Most oil depots are built in the rural areas of the New Territories. These rural wharves in the New Territories have developed an exaggerated and abnormal prosperity due to the smuggling of petroleum products, which is almost entirely caused by the rush to transport petroleum products.
Naturally, people like Gao Laocheng would not dare to rob the oil company's oil warehouse that is guarded by the British army and armed police. However, if you buy the refined oil from the oil company and then transport it to the dock for shipment, if you don't have enough strength, the result will be to pay a high protection fee, or all the refined oil will be robbed.
This has led to merchants who can purchase petroleum products for smuggling partnering with powerful figures in the Big-Time Tycoon. These figures guarantee the safety of the goods, while the merchants share their profits with them proportionally. In return, these Big-Time Tycoon, driven by the desire for high profits, naturally arrange for their most trusted underworld figures to act under their name to ensure the safety of the refined oil products.
Gao Lao Cheng felt that if Chen Tai wanted to make a name for himself in the underworld, he should try his luck at these small docks in the New Territories. These docks weren't like the big docks in Central or Tsim Sha Tsui where laborers would fight over work opportunities or territory. These places were far from the city center, and you wouldn't even see a single cop. Plus, the profits were high. Even if a few died, they would just be buried in some random grove. Did they expect the cops to solve the case? Unless a dozen or so cops came at once, three or five cops wouldn't dare come to such a place on their own.
If Chen Tai could snatch an oil truck from some powerful figure in the underworld here, then when he returned to the city, there was no guarantee that Big-Time Tycoon wouldn't take notice of him, or a small gang would try to recruit him. They could use the unspoken rule of "a Red Pole from a clear sky" to promote Chen Tai directly to a high-ranking position or even higher, making him famous overnight in the underworld.
"Steal that car? How? I can't drive." Chen Tai was still wearing a dirty white woolen vest and tight-fitting loincloths. He originally thought he was going to the docks to do portering work, but Gao Lao Cheng told him to steal that car.
"You don't need to drive. See those twenty-odd people in front of and behind the car? Later, take my brothers out and block the road. Tell them they either pay ten thousand yuan in protection money, or leave the car and go back. Otherwise, beat them all to a pulp." Gao Lao Cheng patted Chen Tai on the shoulder. "Back when Wo Two Ping's men withheld your wages at the dock, how did you beat them? Today, just remember to beat them even harder than that day. Beat them until they can't stand up anymore. Secretary Song told me to find you some work. I'll take good care of you. You don't need to use your brain working at the dock. As long as your fists are strong enough, everyone will be afraid of you."
As he spoke, Gao Lao Cheng took a gleaming axe from his back and shoved it into Chen Tai's hand. "Go."
"Brother Yiu told me to do it, so I did it." Chen Tai looked at the axe in his hand, stuffed it into his waistband, and without bothering to call Gao Lao Cheng's brothers behind him, he stood up from the roadside and walked out, looking somewhat foolishly in the middle of the road, looking at the oil tanker and the more than twenty people in front of and behind it that were still dozens of meters away.