Legend has it that during Hong Xiuquan's Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Revolution, Zeng Guofan had a forest pipe belt under his tent, with thousands of soldiers, who repeatedly lost battles against the Taiping Army, lost the city and lost the town, and the army was panicked and collapsed without a fight. Zeng Guofan was furious and wanted to bring Lin Guan to military law and behead him to show the public in order to boost the military's might. Zeng Guofan had a fellow countryman friend of Lin Guan belt who ran to Lin Ying overnight to tell the news. Lin Guandai was stunned, knowing that Zeng Guofan ruled the army severely, and he could not escape this knife himself, and there was no doubt that he would die if he did not go again. Nai hurriedly gathered his henchmen, thirty-six counts, and went to the top plan, and a group of 18 people fled in a panic. On this night, the moon was dark and windy, and the forest pipe belt did not argue between the southeast and northwest, the legs were windy, and they only cared about speeding away, eager to insert their wings and fly out of this field of life and death.
The road was full of smoke, stumbling until the second day, people were tired, tired, and did not know where to run. It was originally a desperate escape, with no destination. Just when everyone was exhausted and could no longer walk, they suddenly saw a faint flicker of light in the distance, and knowing that there was a village, everyone went to sleep and rest. There was an unattended dry temple in the village, and Lin and his party went inside to rest and avoid sleeping. About three o'clock in the morning, there was a loud noise in mid-air, and the villagers were startled from their sleep, and saw a fire dragon in the mid-air in the distance, shooting straight down, and the fire was dazzling, illuminating the earth like daytime, falling into the temple and disappearing. The villagers were astonished, and some bold traces went to the temple, and saw that the mountain gate of the temple was half open, and only a dozen defeated soldiers were sleeping tiredly, and there was nothing strange about it. The villagers were very strange, and Xiang Gu said: "This temple has long been scattered with incense, the statues of the gods have been destroyed, and they have been lost for many years, and no one has visited this place, and strange things have never happened." How come there is a dragon descending tonight alone, and something extraordinary happens? There must be no doubt that there must be special people among these people. Therefore, the villagers woke up these officers and soldiers, and went forward to interrogate and inquire about the origins. These guan soldiers were originally birds of fright, afraid of being sent by Marshal Zeng to be questioned and beheaded, and afraid of being caught and beheaded by the Taiping Army, and now when they saw many people watching them, they were even more frightened, and each of them jumped up and drew their swords to prevent them, and asked in a loud voice what was going on. The villagers said, "Please don't misunderstand, we saw the dragon descend, the flames soared into the sky, and when it fell here, it disappeared, and we knew that there were great nobles who came and came to greet them, and there was no malice." Lin waited for a while to hear the words, and when you looked at me and I looked at you, they all felt inexplicable, after all, the exhausted escape was too far away from the splendid landscape that the villagers said. However, everyone saw that the villagers did not have malicious intentions, so they put away their weapons. Asked about the name of the place, the villager replied: "It is a certain village in so-and-so county." I wonder why all the officers and soldiers have come here?" When Lin Guandai heard the three words of so-and-so county, he felt very strange and hurriedly asked: "Is this place a certain county in so-and-so state?" The villagers replied: "Yes, in recent years, because of the war, several surrounding counties have been disturbed by chickens and dogs, harassed by officials and bandits, and it is difficult to make a living, fortunately, this county has not yet been affected, so there are many people fleeing from all over the surrounding areas, and those who flee to this village are more than a day." Alas, this is a day of chaos!" After some talking, the villagers went home.
Lin Guan was moved by his thoughts and said to his subordinates: "Brothers, let's imagine that the distance from the camp to here is six or seven hundred miles, how can you arrive in the middle of the night after only walking?" Isn't it true that there are gods secretly blessing us! I don't know who this temple god is offering. If this pipe belt can make meritorious atonement for sins, it must rebuild the temple and reshape the golden body when it returns to the camp after victory. After lin guan said it, they fell asleep on their heads
The next morning, Lin waited to get up, recalling what happened last night, each of them was still confused, and remembered that last night the villagers said that there was a divine dragon descending, and the fire was soaring into the sky. They got up to inspect, the temple had collapsed, it was difficult to identify, only a broken plaque under the porch, faintly marked. Everyone looked closely, and the text on it was "Hong Hook Temple" three words. At this time, everyone knew that this temple was the temple of the Hong hook old ancestor, and the more they believed that the strange phenomenon that occurred later must be the manifestation of the hong hook old ancestor.
Everyone then rearranged their military uniforms and performed a great salute of three kneels and nine prostrations to the shrine in unison. After the ceremony was completed, Lin Guan belt said to his subordinates, "All the brothers listen." Since we took over the battle, we have repeatedly suffered defeats, lost the city and lost the land, and exhausted the prestige of the Xiang army, and it is no wonder that Lord Zhongtang was so angry that he wanted to punish us with military law and kill our head. Today, there are thousands of people in the camp, except for the dead, the wounded, and the fleeing, only 18 of us are left. Thanks to the apparition of the Buddha, we were able to escape here within hours. But this is not a good solution, and if there is any good way for the brothers who cannot live here for a long time, please propose to discuss and decide where we go. ”
The man said, "We have now become fugitives, and magistrates can arrest us." The only way now is to disarm, take off your uniform, abandon your troops and go into business, and go your separate ways to make a living. Otherwise, the neighboring villagers knew that we were all aware that if it reached the ears of the magistrate, there would be a great disaster. Fortunately, the villagers still don't know our bottom line, so we dispersed in time, and the sooner we do business, the better. Another said: "These words of yours are good, but we all have no savings, food and clothing cannot be guaranteed, if dissolved, it is very difficult to find stuttering, where is the money to do business?" It is bound to become a hungry ghost. Another person spoke up and said: "Now we are riding a tiger and we are in a dilemma." It is better to simply form a group, gather in the mountains and forests, rob the rich and help the poor, and not lose their heroic qualities. In the future, it is still possible to judge the situation, act opportunistically, take advantage of development, or have the opportunity to flourish again, and I do not know whether the brothers agree or not. As soon as he finished speaking, many soldiers clapped their hands in agreement, and even the forest pipe belt saw that most of them agreed with this opinion and claimed to be good and secretly happy, saying: "This is a good suggestion." However, a thousand things cannot have a beginning and an end, and since all the brothers want to gather righteousness today, they will set up an oath in this temple as an alliance, and form brotherhood with the old ancestors of Hongjun, so that everyone can share difficulties and happiness, and the cause can last. Everyone unanimously thought that this was a very good statement, and immediately sent one person to the neighboring shop to buy incense candles, yellow paper, red cloth and three animals, and burned incense and swore an oath: Led by the forest pipe belt, 18 people will form brothers with different surnames, and in the future, they will share misfortunes and blessings, and they will never break the covenant, and if there is a different heart, the heavens and the earth will not tolerate it. Then, everyone lined up the elders and young, and the group worshiped. After the ceremony, the crowd devoured the sacrifices and set out for the city. That night, Lin and his party stayed in a hotel in the city, secretly inquiring about the situation of the rich households in the city, waiting for the opportunity to attack, and as many as four or five rich families in the city were robbed.
The people in the city were panicked, and the government stepped up investigation. Lin and the others each took their belongings out of the city and set out in the direction of Lijiabao. On the way, I saw a place that was a good place to camp. This place is surrounded by mountains, and only this flat land is inhabited. The mountain is rugged and dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is about 100 miles away from Lijiabao. There are no fruit trees of economic value on the mountain, nor do they grow into timber trees, or a barren mountain, and only a few deserted graves with stacked barriers indicate that people have been here. This is the Legendary Double Dragon Mountain in the future. Lin and others decided to build a cottage in this place, took the stolen silver from the city, hired local craftsmen, and built more than a dozen grass huts. Planning to stay in this forest for a long time, it is enough to go down the mountain and rob once by chance, it is enough to meet the needs of the cottage for half a year, drink a large bowl of wine, weigh gold and silver, and live very happily, which is almost a far cry from the suffering in the military in the past. Lin and others transferred to the green forest career, but after all, they were still from the official army, strategizing, and sending generals to the imperial army, of course, it was not comparable to the general green forest cottage. They only robbed once a month, and each time they were able to get their hands on it, and they got a lot. In this way, the name of the pirate gradually spread, and the four thieves knew the prestige of Shuanglong Mountain, heard the wind, and joined the gang. In half a year, Shuanglong Mountain increased to four or five hundred people. At this time, the Qing government was going all out to deal with the Taiping Army, and the strength of the troops was already insufficient, and there was no strength to deal with these thieves and thieves.
Lin waited for this opportunity to develop rapidly in two years, and there were already three thousand people and horses, almost equal to Liangshan Po in "Water Margin". Lin Guan saw that the number of people who came to the cottage to serve was increasing day by day, and the momentum was getting louder, and he was worried that it would be difficult to control and control the group with his own strength, so he would play the foolish policy of the old ancestor of Hongyu. He traveled hundreds of miles at night when escaping from sin, hid in the hongjun old ancestor temple, and the strange omen of the descending of the divine dragon and the fiery sky,... A word to the new gangsters. He also said: "Although we have become good men in the green forest today, we may not have a day without development in the future." Otherwise, why would the Old Ancestor of the Great Hook appear to save us? However, if we want everyone to work together and create a career, we must establish a gang, formulate rules and regulations, and regulate everyone's actions. Otherwise, if there is no restriction and doing each other's own thing, it will harm the interests of everyone, which is not the blessing of all brothers!" These good men of the green forest even claimed that they had elected the forest pipe belt as the whole mountain affair of the village lord and the prime minister, and those who did not obey the orders were beheaded. Lin also said, "Those of us who drink water must think of the source, and the lives of me and the 18 people under my old subordinates were given by the old ancestor of Hong hook." If it were not for the blessing of the old ancestors, I am afraid that we would have already been under the Nine Springs, decaying with the grass and trees, and the sunset and the grass flowing, then there would be today's righteous deeds! Today, since we want to open a mountain and set up a gang, we should use the name of Hongzi to thank the old ancestors of Hong hook for their blessings. The crowd agreed.
Lin Guan belt then set up a general gang of all the people in the mountain, called the Hong Gang (later misrepresented as the Red Gang). Lin Mou claimed to be the boss, and all the henchmen in the future were called brothers. This is different from the old man in the Green Gang, who regards himself as a master and a master. In addition, a kind of ticket cloth style was formulated, and the names and ages of the people who joined the gang were written on it one by one as a certificate of permanent membership.
Since then, the gang's momentum has grown day by day. Although Lin Guan Belt is a thief, he does abide by the principle of "stealing and having a way". In normal times, brothers and gangs are strictly forbidden to kill innocents indiscriminately, harm their lives, and are not allowed to rob single lonely guests. Compared with the ordinary bandits who have no system and no rules, they are still very moral. Therefore, soon the reputation of the surrounding bandits came to join the gang. In just two years, this gang grew to more than 3,000 people. It was also the time when the imperial court went all out to deal with the Tai army, so that they could quickly sit up. This is where the Red Gang first formed.
At that time, the feudal society, in order to confuse the people, let this underworld organization put on a mysterious veil. The Red Gang is also a product of the times.