Since an agreement had been reached, Wang Zhenyu naturally took action. On April 25th, Wang Zhenyu posted twenty-two notices at the garrison headquarters, clearly stating his political reform proposals for governing the county by its people. The news spread and caused a stir throughout the four counties of Jingzhou Prefecture, even the head of the Miao village in the deep mountains rode to the county town specifically to see the notice.

  Right after that, on May 1st, after several days of tense preparation, the county council of Jingzhou County was opened, with Chen Hongji as its first president. On the 3rd, Tongdao, on the 5th, Huizong, and on the 7th, Suining. On the 10th, each county successively elected new county heads, and a large number of former officials lost their public offices. For a time, Jingzhou Prefecture was like an upside-down world, with many people rising to prominence overnight, excited beyond measure; on the other hand, many people lost power, falling from heaven to hell.

  The great leader taught us that if the broom doesn't reach, the dust won't run away. And so a dark undercurrent is surging... Wang Zhenyu's reform announcement immediately caused an unprecedented sensation in Jingzhou, and the heads of the stockade villages, clan forces, and merchants all applauded and cheered, filled with expectation for the reforms.

  But like all reforms in history, some people are very satisfied and others will inevitably feel very dissatisfied, because the essence of reform is the re-distribution of interests.

  So who is most dissatisfied with Wang Zhenyu's reform? Not others, but the former dignitaries and local tyrants of Jingzhou Prefecture. As soon as this reform came out, the original four county magistrates were immediately replaced by county heads elected by the parliament, and the officials in charge of finance, justice, and other departments were also replaced by merchant officials (originally merchants, later elected by the parliament to become bureau chiefs and deputy bureau chiefs). This is simply outrageous, upside down! These people who have no tricks up their sleeves actually want to take power from their own hands, which is against the teachings of the sage. However, when they tried to use their official authority to intimidate these merchants, sorry, these cunning merchants were not afraid at all. They had the support of the soldiers with guns behind them, and these new nobles were also very tough. Helpless, these scholars who have been deeply influenced by the teachings of the sage did not dare to play word games with these unreasonable soldiers, and one by one, they honestly handed over their official seals, account books, packed up their belongings, and got out of there.

  No one would willingly give up their vested interests, except for a few honest people. Most people chose to oppose this fanciful Commander Wang, no matter how many guns he had under his command!

  They all chose to gather around Wang Dezhi, the governor who was still in office, and racked their brains to figure out how to drive away this King Zhenyu, who seemed a bit lawless and inexperienced.

  Hit? When a local tyrant who is used to solving problems with force proposed this method, everyone looked at him like an idiot. What a joke! The other side has an army that can defeat a division in Changsha. Now it's relying on those family guards who can only intimidate ordinary people to fight, isn't that sending sheep to the tiger's mouth? It's purely seeking death.

  This suggestion was automatically filtered out from the very beginning. Everyone spoke their own opinions, and Wang De heard them with a splitting headache.

  There were many ideas at first, but none of them are feasible.

  Some people say that someone was sent to the provincial capital to report, jokingly, but others didn't know. However, Wang Dezhi, who had dealings with the provincial capital, was very clear about it. Our Commander Wang's relationship with Director Tan is a typical case of "listening to orders but not listening to declarations". It may be even more serious because in reality, Director Tan, as the nominal superior, didn't even have the courage to give orders to this devil Wang Zhenyu. The terrifying night of military chaos in Changsha City had already established an image of a bloodthirsty demon for Wang Zhenyu.

  Some people say that they went to find Wang Zhenyu to complain, and the view held by Governor Wang Dezhong is just this. However, soon after, someone clearly told everyone not to dream, you think it's Chen Hongji and others who stirred up this reform? Inside information, from start to finish, it was all manipulated by Commander Wang, whose stench has not yet faded from your eyes.

  I really underestimated Wang Zhenyu, I didn't expect him to have such a strong political ideology and tactics, he actually played the game of pulling one faction and hitting another so skillfully.

  Wang Dezhong has also been in this Jingzhou government for over 30 years, and he can't help but sadly tell everyone that now openly opposing our Commander Wang is no different from a fool talking nonsense. Why? Listen to Wang Dezhong's analysis: "Fellow colleagues, some of you are old friends of mine, some are my subordinates, and there are things that I should take care of according to reason and emotion. However, the situation has changed since the previous dynasty, many things have changed, and we have lost our former reliance. To say something unpleasant, I and all of you are actually in the same boat, not knowing what happened, and having to hand over our official seals and go home to farm. This is the general trend of the world, and it's not something that we ordinary people can reverse. Therefore, I advise you all here, the current situation is different from before, don't have any unrealistic thoughts. Our Commander Wang is different from those incompetent governors in the past, he has real power and doesn't fear our attempts to manipulate him; moreover, he also has political means, this time's political reform has pulled over the entire merchant group, in other words, he has already taken away our salaries. Without strong military power outside, without wealth inside, even if you're not satisfied, what can you use to fight against Commander Wang? So my final advice to you all is to have a correct understanding of the situation, losing office is a small matter, but if you also lose your life, it's not worth it."

  Wang Dezhi's meaning is very clear. This Commander Wang, we can't beat him. Everyone might as well go home early and get some rest.

  If everyone could accept Wang De's words of advice and swallow their anger, this storm triggered by the political reform would probably have ended here. But there are always those who don't know what's good for them in this world.

  Huang Jianxiong, a native of Jingzhou Jiangdong, was born into a poor family and had a stubborn temperament since childhood. He disliked reading books and spent his days stealing chickens and dogs, not engaging in honest work. After growing up, he was good at socializing, but had a ruthless personality. He mixed with people in the Jiangdong area for many years and became a local tyrant.

  The above experience is nothing surprising, just enough to be shameless and ruthless, able to fight, eat, and bully sisters. In any era, in any place, there are always such goods. So this can't be considered a human specialty, it can only be considered a pig's specialty, sorry, I insulted the pigs.

  But as the saying goes, times create heroes. The same rogue, placed in Shanghai, might have become a big shot. Put in the 80s, he would likely have been severely cracked down on; if lucky, he'd be sent to Xinjiang to eat sand, and if unlucky, he'd get a bullet, which his family would have to pay for.

  Huang Jianxiong, the yellow wolf with a wrong number, is just such a scoundrel who caught up with a good era. The official governance of the late Qing dynasty had reached its peak, but even the most shameless government would try not to touch that last piece of fig leaf. So many things that couldn't be seen in the light were handed over to rascals like Huang Jianxiong to handle.

  Huang Jianxiong's ability to do bad things is perhaps a natural talent, and there is no one who cannot do evil deeds. This person is the most typical local rascal, rotten to the extent that in order to curry favor with his superiors, he even bullied his own relatives.

  As time went on, Huang Jianxiong, who was good at handling affairs and currying favor, unexpectedly changed from a small-time hoodlum to a police chief. Thus, Laozi also became an official, and the crow naturally turned into a phoenix. From this, it can be seen that if the Qing dynasty did not perish, heaven's principles would be hard to contain.

  In the blink of an eye, it's been over a decade. The glorious Huang Lang, who had been in power for over 20 years, suddenly encountered a wolf catcher... Overnight, all his social status and political honors were taken away by this young security commander in his early 20s, and he himself was reduced to being an ordinary citizen again. This tone is something even Grandpa can't tolerate, let alone Grandma.

  After all, Huang Jianxiong, who came from the underworld, believed in quick revenge. He didn't believe that a man in his 40s like himself couldn't defeat a young kid in his 20s. So Wang Dezhi's words went in one ear and out the other, and now Huang Jianxiong was only thinking about two words: take revenge.

  However, in terms of Huang Jianxiong's analysis of Wang Dezhi, there is one point that he still agrees with: that is, relying solely on the handful of local ruffians and corrupt police officers at his disposal, it may be possible to create some small disturbances, but to overthrow Wang Zhenyu, who holds significant military power, this number of people is simply not enough.

  It doesn't matter, the underworld is just the underworld. When looking at problems and thinking about them, it can break free from those constraints of rules and frameworks.

  I've been in Jingzhou for over 20 years, I don't dare say that I have other skills, but I really know the friends from the four borders, three mountains and five peaks. From Quyang Town to the west, entering Guizhou Province, there are high mountains and steep ridges, with many bandit dens like beehives. After all, Guizhou has too many mountains, and relying on crops can't support people's livelihoods. In order to survive, many residents in eastern Guizhou and western Hunan have started the business of being a bandit, which requires no capital.

  It's worth mentioning that the bandits in Xiangxi and southeastern Guizhou are somewhat different from the horse thieves in the northwest and the beards in the northeast. Apart from a few powerful bandit gangs, many of them are not much different from today's car hijackers. During the day, they were honest farmers holding hoes to cultivate the barren mountain fields, paying taxes to the government; but at night, excuse me, they would suddenly transform into beautiful girls, this road was opened by me, this tree was planted by me...

  This route has been an extremely important trade route for hundreds of years, with tea, salt, tung oil and pig bristles all passing through here.

  It's also laughable that after the Opium Wars, in order to compete with foreign opium for market share and prevent silver from flowing out of the country, the Qing government, which couldn't defeat foreigners, chose to plant opium in Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou, using domestic smoke to defend against foreign smoke. This was the national government at that time, so shameless, so irresponsible. It's hard to understand why there are still so many films and TV shows later on that beautify it, eulogize it, tracing back five thousand years, you can't find a darker era than the Qing dynasty, of course, if you want to follow in its footsteps, if you don't care about losing face, you can continue.

  The booming opium trade made this ancient tea-horse road even more prosperous.