Chapter 152: The Shantytown

The shantytowns of Shanghai could be traced back to the late Qing dynasty.

At the end of the twenty-third year of the Daoguang Emperor’s reign (1843), the earliest groups of shack dwellers appeared around the docks on both banks of the Huangpu River.

By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, all sorts of shantytowns had gradually sprung up on wasteland, ruins, and graveyards near industrial districts, including along both banks of Suzhou Creek and beside other waterways.

Pingjiang Village was one of the many large and small shantytowns along Suzhou Creek.

Li Hao changed into a set of ragged clothes and carefully pulled half a stale bun stained with spoiled swill from his pocket.

He could feel quite a few people around him looking over, staring at the half piece of foul-smelling bread in his hand.

He hurriedly broke off most of it and stuffed it into his clothes.

The remaining small piece he shoved into his mouth, squinting his eyes in enjoyment.

Brother Fan had said that the little beggar Preserved Egg could sneak into Pingjiang Village to gather information.

After arriving at Pingjiang Village and observing the densely packed rows of tiny shacks from afar, Li Hao immediately realized he could not do things the way Brother Fan had suggested.

Brother Fan had never lived in a shantytown.

He did not understand places like this.

Li Hao, who had grown up as a little beggar, knew shantytowns very well.

To be precise, Li Hao, who had once nearly starved to death, understood poor people even better.

The filthier and more chaotic the slum, the more conspicuous a little beggar would be.

No little beggars came here to beg.

No one here could bear to spare a mouthful of food for a beggar child.

If an unfamiliar little beggar suddenly appeared and started asking questions, never mind whether suspicious people would become wary, he would likely get beaten first.

Preserved Egg approached, dressed in rags with half his backside exposed.

At all times, Preserved Egg carried himself in this timid, shrinking manner.

Preserved Egg carefully edged up beside Li Hao.

“Brother Rat, I’m back.”

As he spoke, Preserved Egg stared longingly at Li Hao.

Li Hao impatiently slapped him.

“Eat, eat, all you ever think about is eating.”

Though he cursed, he still pulled out the filthy bun from his clothes.

Swallowing hard himself, he finally gritted his teeth and handed it over.

“Eat. Eat yourself to death!”

Preserved Egg took the bun and finished it in two bites.

Then he continued staring longingly at Li Hao.

Li Hao glared at him.

Preserved Egg immediately began trembling in fear and shrank closer to Li Hao.

“Did you find out?” Li Hao asked quietly while observing the surroundings.

“I did. Qiu Laosan went to Sujiawan. He’ll be back at the dung collection point in less than half an hour.”

Hidden behind Li Hao’s back, the fearful expression vanished from Preserved Egg’s eyes as he spoke softly.

“Let’s go!”

Li Hao slapped the dust off his backside, grabbed Preserved Egg by the ear, and Preserved Egg immediately started crying loudly.

The two walked away while Li Hao beat and cursed him.

After they left, two bare-chested men inside a nearby section of the shantytown withdrew their gaze and stuffed the daggers they had been gripping beneath a straw mat.

Not long afterward, a half-grown boy ran over and whispered something into one of the men’s ears while covering his mouth.

“Asking about Qiu Laosan?”

The man frowned.

“Fourth Brother, could it be that the Northern Jiangsu Gang grabbed Lujia Village and now wants to take Pingjiang Village from the Southern Jiangsu Gang as well?” the other man asked in confusion.

“Who cares?” the man spat.

“Neither gang is any good. Let them kill each other.”

He spat out the cigarette butt he had been chewing for half an hour.

A loafer immediately darted over and picked it up.

Fourth Brother cursed at him but paid no further attention.

“So we’re not doing anything?”

“Doing anything, my ass.”

The man cursed.

“Tell the brothers and sisters to stay away from both gangs.”

“Got it, Big Brother.”

Li Hao was very clever.

He had not chosen to infiltrate the shantytown.

Instead, he had set his sights on Qiu Laosan, the night-soil collector of Pingjiang Village.

Qiu Laosan was responsible for collecting human waste from this shantytown and another one called Sujiawan.

Every morning, the night-soil collectors pulled toilet carts through the streets and villages, shouting as they went.

Residents would carry out their chamber pots and empty the contents into the barrels on the collection carts.

The Municipal Council of the foreign settlements had little interest in managing the shantytowns along Suzhou Creek because there was no profit in it.

However, it enforced one strict rule: public defecation and urination were forbidden, and human waste had to be collected regularly.

Originally, no such rule existed.

Later, however, the stench of urine along both banks of Suzhou Creek became overwhelming, and human excrement could be seen everywhere.

Human waste became a civic disaster.

As a result, the Municipal Council invested in waste-collection carts and hired sanitation workers to collect waste from households before transporting it outside the city.

At first, the service was provided free of charge.

Residents paid nothing.

Because human waste could be sold as fertilizer, however, the Municipal Council discovered a huge business opportunity.

It began charging residents collection fees while simultaneously selling the waste to farmers, earning money from both ends of the transaction without investing any capital of its own.

Later, the Municipal Council’s waste collection business was squeezed out because of the emergence of “dung bosses.”

By now, throughout the streets, alleys, and shantytowns of Greater Shanghai, a massive “waste industry chain” controlled by various dung bosses had taken shape, and wars between rival dung bosses frequently erupted.

Li Hao knew that the four or five shantytowns in this area had been divided between two major waste-collection syndicates, the Northern Jiangsu Gang and the Southern Jiangsu Gang.

He had learned that only a few days earlier, in neighboring Lujia Village, the Northern Jiangsu dung bosses had fought over collection territory.

Early one morning, they blocked a waste cart controlled by a Southern Jiangsu Gang collector from Wuxi.

A member of the Northern Jiangsu Gang stuck his finger into the cart, dipped it in the waste, tasted it, and told the Wuxi collector:

“Your shit isn’t as good as ours.”

After that, they overturned the cart and fought until the Southern Jiangsu Gang admitted defeat and surrendered the waste collection business in Lujia Village.

Naturally, Li Hao had no intention of getting involved in the waste business.

What he wanted was Qiu Laosan.

If there was anyone who knew every household in the shantytown best, it was undoubtedly the collector who gathered their waste every day.

Qiu Laosan strained as he pulled his toilet cart.

The cart, loaded with waste, weighed about 200 kg (~440 lb), making it extremely difficult to move.

Leaning forward, Qiu Laosan felt the harness rubbing the calluses on his shoulders raw, leaving them red and burning with pain.

Just then, he saw a group of people approaching from the distance.

Judging by their clothing and bearing, Qiu Laosan hurriedly and carefully steered his cart as far aside as possible.

One glance was enough to tell him these people were not to be trifled with.

Yet despite all his caution, one wheel rolled over a stone.

The cart jolted.

Several drops of waste splashed out and landed on the last man passing by.

Qiu Laosan was terrified.

He quickly put down the cart and repeatedly waved his hands and bowed in apology.

“You worthless old bastard!”

The man, dressed in short work clothes, immediately stepped forward and slapped Qiu Laosan across the face.

After taking the slap, Qiu Laosan saw the man preparing to hit him again and hurriedly dodged.

“You worthless bastard, and you dare dodge!”

The man raised his leg to kick him.

The movement exposed the pistol tucked beneath his outer jacket.

Qiu Laosan was so frightened that he immediately dropped to his knees.

Even so, he was kicked to the ground.

“Hu Bin, stop it!”

Hearing the commotion behind him, Wang Kangnian turned around and barked the order with a dark expression.

He looked down on some of his subordinates.

Certain people could not even be considered qualified agents.

They were no different from street thugs.

Hu Bin was a perfect example.

Was this really the time to show off his authority?

His own men had suffered heavy casualties in last night’s operation.

He had no choice but to bring along these people he normally regarded as useless riffraff.

Seeing that the team leader had intervened, Hu Bin reluctantly stopped.

Wang Kangnian glanced at the cowering Qiu Laosan and frowned.

This was the kind of timid and cowardly countryman they had.

How could the nation ever become strong with people like this?

“Old man, do you know where Yang Damei’s family lives?” Wang Kangnian asked.

“The Yang Damei who worked at Huacheng Cigarette Factory.”

“S-Sir, y-you mean Yang family’s eldest girl, the one who died?” Qiu Laosan stammered nervously.

“That’s right.”

Wang Kangnian signaled to Hu Bin with his eyes.

Hu Bin took out two twenty-cent nickel coins and held them out to Qiu Laosan.

Qiu Laosan’s eyes lit up as he reached for the money.

Hu Bin withdrew his hand.

“Turn south and keep going. Third row. The eighteenth shack inward.”

Qiu Laosan answered immediately.

Satisfied, Wang Kangnian nodded and turned away.

Qiu Laosan looked expectantly at Hu Bin.

Hu Bin casually tossed the coins.

Qiu Laosan hurriedly turned to catch them but failed.

The coins fell into the waste inside the toilet cart.

At the same time, Hu Bin kicked him again from behind.

One of the barrels tipped over, covering Qiu Laosan in filth.

“You old bastard, eat shit!”

More than ten minutes later, Qiu Laosan, covered in excrement and urine, was laboriously pulling his cart uphill.

Taking a detour along a small path, Li Hao spotted him from afar and immediately guessed that this was Qiu Laosan.

Li Hao instantly reacted.

He quickly hid in the grass by the roadside.

Then Qiu Laosan, bent over and struggling to pull the cart, heard the sound of running footsteps.

He forced himself to raise his head.

A ragged little beggar with his backside hanging out came charging over.

Without saying a word, the child threw all his strength into helping push the cart.