"Do you know, after twelve o'clock here I have the final say!"
In 2003, a gangster on Jordan Road in Hong Kong arrogantly uttered this sentence when he was interrogated by the Hong Kong police.
But what he didn't expect was that this sentence turned him from a hot gangster leader into a poor prison prisoner overnight.
This person, named "Yingjie", is a small leader of the Hong Kong gang "He Shenghe", and he was drunk at dinner with friends that night.
When he met the police, he also wanted to insult the police as he did before the return of Hong Kong, and as soon as the words came out, the police immediately sent more men to carry out a large inventory of all the nightclubs on Jordan Road.
The police swept away all the illegal activities operated by Yingjie's men, and since then, Yingjie's gang has collapsed and gradually disappeared.
Hong Kong gangs, which rose to prominence in the late 19th century, were rampant in the late 20th century, with the total number of gangs reaching more than 100,000.
So why are there so many gangsters in Hong Kong, which is not a large area?
After the return of Hong Kong, what happened to these gangsters?
How will the gang that reports for group heating go astray?
The history of the Hong Kong gang can be traced back to the anti-Qing revival organization Tiandihui during the Qing Dynasty, and during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, a monk surnamed Hong in Fujian created Hongmen on the basis of the Tiandihui.
Later, as many southeastern coastal people migrated overseas in the late Qing Dynasty, the Hongmen organization spread to various places and gave rise to branches such as the Knife Society, the Zhigongtang, and the Triad.
This branch of the Triad grew in Hong Kong and became one of the most influential gangs in hong Kong's early days.
In 1840, the Qing government was defeated in the Opium War and ceded Hong Kong to the British, and after the British entered the land of Hong Kong, they did not pay attention to the interests of the Chinese, as long as they did not arouse widespread public anger, they would protect the interests of their own overseas Chinese to the greatest extent.
The Chinese people in Hong Kong, who are already having a hard time living, have a worse life under the severe oppression of the British.
So after all kinds of tribulations, the local Chinese more and more want to spontaneously form gangs to protect the interests of the Chinese.
Since they could not fight the British in public power, they should be jealous of the British in the underground order, so that they would not dare to blatantly bully Chinese.
The predecessor of one of the largest gangsters in modern Hong Kong, "He Sheng He", was born at this time.
In 1846, a Chinese-run "Hutchison Inn" in Hong Kong was built and opened in the Central area, and many Chinese would come to drink tea and chat when they had nothing to do, and over time it became the main place for Chinese to gather and talk.
The shop owner saw too many unpleasant and even tragic because of being bullied by the British, and filled with indignation, he directly used his inn as a base to create the first large-scale emerging gang in Hong Kong's modern history, the "Hezi System".
Many Chinese did not hesitate to join, and everyone reported to the group for warmth, and they were no longer easily afraid of being bullied by the British.
Many years later, the "Heshenghe" system, like the Hongmen in Hong Kong, has developed many branches, and the "Heshenghe" that later became famous in Hong Kong is one of the branches of the "Heshenghe" system.
In the long-term development of the gang, there are three major driving forces that allow its organization to be maintained all the time.
First, when the grassroots people faced the unfair oppression of the old social government, they needed to form groups to protect their own interests.
The second is the quality of chivalry and righteousness, as a spirit of the gang, attracting people to join one after another.
The third is a clan-like form of organization that allows members to have a sufficient sense of cultural identity, among which the ideas of "benevolence, righteousness, etiquette, wisdom, and faith" derived from Confucian culture and loyalty and filial piety were once the codes of conduct pursued by these gangs.
However, with the diversion and evolution of the organization, the self-cultivation of the gang members became weaker and weaker, so that they eventually became a simple criminal organization.
In Hong Kong in the late 20th century, the underworld was often referred to as the "triad".
At first, these gang organizations were formed by Hong Kong's Chinese to defend their own interests, and their members were mixed after all.
Therefore, it is inevitable that some brave and fierce people with poor qualities will use the power of the organization to do bad things or even gang up to run amok.
Coupled with the continuous development of the commodity economy in modern society and the proliferation of material temptations, these gang organizations are inevitably addicted to the pursuit of various interests.
In particular, it is possible to make a living by relying on violent gangs, such as gambling stalls, drug trafficking, robbery and kidnapping, and so on.
As a result, the gang organizations previously established for solidarity and mutual assistance gradually evolved into criminal organizations of the nature of the underworld, causing many negative effects on social security.
The madness before the demise
In Hong Kong in the 1970s and 1980s, gangsters were rampant to the extreme, and the tentacles of the underworld industry were pervasive throughout Hong Kong.
Whether it is a small street vendor or a major business house that is open for business, whether it is some students in schools or a well-known figure like a movie star, they need to pay protection fees to the underworld.
Movie stars Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-fat, Chow Sing-chi and others have all been persecuted and threatened by triad forces to varying degrees.
When Jet Li, a mainland kung fu superstar, once shot a bodyguard-themed movie in Hong Kong, he was surrounded by more than a dozen Hong Kong police officers to protect his safety, just to prevent the underworld forces behind other film companies from going against him.
Some of these Hong Kong celebrities also have certain friendships with the underworld forces, such as the famous movie stars Ren Dahua and Xiang Huaqiang, who have a certain weight in speaking among the underworld forces when they encounter special things.
There is also Chen Huimin, who often plays the big brother of the underworld in the movie, who is herself a member of the underworld and has been detained by the mainland police.
On March 30, 2013, more than 100 people gathered in a large restaurant at Shenzhen's Futian Port.
The Shenzhen police dispatched more than 300 people to surround the restaurant and check everyone's IDENTITY, eventually taking more than 160 people away for investigation, including Hong Kong movie star Chen Huimin.
In order to crack down on rampant triad activities, Hong Kong set up the Organized Crime and Triad Investigation Bureau in 1957 to deal with activities such as drug smuggling and money laundering by the Hong Kong mafia, and to freeze the illegal income of triad gangs in a timely manner.
This effort by the police has on the one hand led to a convergence of triad activities, and on the other hand, it has also led some gangs to develop their influence outside Hong Kong.
After the development of these gangsters in Hong Kong was almost saturated, they extended their tentacles beyond Hong Kong, after all, the area of Hong Kong is limited, and the black market that can be opened up is also very limited.
As a result, Hong Kong began to expand its black business to Macao, the mainland, Southeast Asia and other places.
In 1989, Wu Wenxin, the leader of a Hong Kong gang, sneaked into Fujian, China, in batches with 20 younger brothers to engage in arms trafficking.
Many of the "77" pistols and "64" pistols they sold flowed into the Fujian people one after another, and the police quickly attacked and sent a large number of armed police to arrest them.
The armed gangsters initially resisted, engaged in a shootout with the police, refused to surrender, and the armed police force besieged them and tried to persuade them, and finally captured all the members.
The reason why these gangs were able to blatantly smuggle arms and drugs was not unrelated to the corruption of the Hong Kong police force at that time.
The 1960s was when gangs were at their peak, with drug trafficking, arms and gambling, pornography, kidnapping and robbery all over the country.
What is even more tragic is that Hong Kong's police force has also been seriously eroded by the underworld, and many police officers have colluded with the underworld to earn extra money by shielding and covering up the activities of the underworld, the most typical examples of which are lame Hao and Leiluo.
In the 1960s, when mafia member Crippled Hao rose to fame in Hong Kong, the Chinese Detective Inspector of the Force who wanted to make a fortune, Lei Luo, met Crippled Hao, and the two occupied a piece of the sky on the underworld and the white road respectively.
They have joined hands to make huge profits through criminal means, and many Hong Kong people have been harmed by the underworld, even if they report the crime, it is useless, which can be described as a day that should not be done, and the land is not good.
Originally, many officials sent by the British to Hong Kong also went to the government with the mentality of seeking benefits, so if there were Chinese under them to take advantage of the opportunity to enrich themselves, they would not care, usually turning a blind eye.
However, the development and growth of the Gang in Hong Kong and the increasingly common collusion between the Gang and the Police officers gave these British people a sense of crisis.
In order to change this widespread corruption situation in the Police Force and even many officials, Hong Kong established the Independent Commission Against Corruption in 1974 to relentlessly investigate and combat the corruption of public officials.
Lost the soil of arrogance
After The return of Hong Kong to the motherland, with the support of the mainland's central government, the Hong Kong police stepped up their crackdown on the underworld.
Some members of the mafia also thought they could be as lawless on the streets of Hong Kong as before, and as a result, they all fell on the heads of the Hong Kong police.
One night in 2003, a small leader named Yingjie of the Hong Kong gang "Ho Sung Ho" appeared suspicious on Jordan Road, and the patrolling police officers came forward to interrogate him.
Yingjie also thought that he could accept the interrogation of the police as he did before the return of Hong Kong, while swearing and grinning harshly, and then the police would leave after the interrogation.
He arrogantly said to the policeman: "Do you know, after twelve o'clock here I have the final say!"
What Yingjie Wanwan did not expect was that after the police heard his words, they immediately detained him temporarily and sent police forces to carry out a large inventory of Jordan Road.
Within a few hours, the police detected many illegal activities on Jordan Road, and the underground business of Yingjie's gang was severely hit, and since then, he has been seriously injured and devastated.
In addition to sparing no effort to crack down on the various emerging underworlds, after the return of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong government also focused on cracking down on the five most famous gangs in Hong Kong at that time.
At that time, although the New Ngee Ann Gang was more powerful, the police found that it had a special weakness, that is, its big and small leaders were not elected by the people, but were inherited by family members.
Therefore, the police focused their work on these leaders, tried to persuade them to start participating in the White Road Industry, and disbanded their younger brothers, and it did not take long for the overall size of New Ngee Ann to shrink greatly.
In addition to New Ngee Ann, there are four more famous gangs in Hong Kong, namely "Water House", "14K", "Hehe Peach" and "Heshenghe".
Among them, "Hehe Peach" and "Water Room" focus on making money silently, trying to avoid attracting the attention of the police, and behaving very low-key.
Heshenghe and 14K still carry out various illegal activities on the street, selling pirated CDs, engaging in pornography and gambling industries.
At a time when other gangs have withdrawn from the physical black industry, they have expanded their power, but they have frequently attracted the attention of the police.
Over time, they began to be hit by the police again and again, and their black industry was seriously injured and gradually disappeared.
What is different from the past is that the underworld in Hong Kong has now switched to a survival strategy, focusing on making money, such as usury, selling pirated software, and opening underground casinos.
They are constantly changing their organizational forms, usually in the form of a company, and rarely publicly mention their triad identities to people.
As for the same thing as in the past, these gangsters are also as little as possible, and when they encounter conflicts with people, they can not do anything without doing anything, and now Hong Kong no longer has a bloody underworld jianghu.
In Hong Kong in the 21st century, although the underworld forces have become weaker and weaker, they are still active in some unknown corners.
In 2010, Hong Kong police launched a crackdown called "Black Samurai" to conduct surprise inspections of various suspected underworld organizations or houses that had been lined up in advance.
A total of HK$10 million was seized in connection with mafia activities, which involved various illegal acts such as usury, gambling, and money laundering.
During this operation, several small triad organizations in Hong Kong were investigated and exposed, which played a great deterrent effect on other triad gangs hiding in the shadows.
Now with the development of the commodity economy and the rapid development of the era of science and technology, many industries have begun to enter the era of networking.
All industries have gradually begun to take the competition of technology and funds as the main form of competition, and the violent competition method of fighting, killing, killing, grabbing land and grabbing goods has gradually lost the soil of existence.
Even though some underworld bosses retain some businesses in the fierce competition and do some illegal activities under the protection of legitimate companies, as the older generation of black bosses withdraw one after another, their family businesses begin to be controlled by future generations.
On the basis of contact with emerging business models, future generations have gradually stopped touching criminal businesses, and the black elements of triad enterprises have disappeared little by little.