The Yangzhou section of the Grand Canal, also known as the Inner Canal, intersects with the Yangtze River at Guazhou. A sluice gate at Guazhou acts like a "shuttle-shaped islet," dividing the mouth of the canal into two channels—one flowing south, the other north—to prevent traffic congestion and collisions.
The responsibility for cutting off northbound vessels at the Guazhou mouth fell to the Second Faction, a group under the local branch's jurisdiction.Their team was led by Ye Zhigui, a man not born into the Cao Gang, but a native of Chuzhou, Anhui, who had fled to Yangzhou seven years prior after killing a man in a brawl.To survive, he joined the Hongmen as a boatman. His fierce and aggressive nature earned him a reputation among the canal laborers, catching the eye of his superiors, who then purchased him a position as a grain transport official through the Grain Transport Yamen. Armed with this official status, Ye Zhigui became even more brazen. He would often have his gang secretly load grain onto passing merchant ships and then frame the owners for theft. To avoid trouble, the merchants were forced to pay off the gang to make the matter disappear.
Beyond extortion, Ye Zhigui and his men frequently blocked the waterway on various pretexts, openly collecting tolls from passing ships and sometimes resorting to outright robbery and violence. With at least three lives on his hands, he had no fear of the authorities. Such a man was even more vicious than the thugs of the F…
Chapter 161