Lu Ming

Page 314

Having said this, Wu Fazheng and Uncle Jiu both looked at each other, and their expressions changed.

Chapter 682 Returning to the North (seven)

After the Yixinlong caravan bid farewell to the Beijing-Tianjin Expressway and set foot on the official dirt road of the Ming Dynasty, everything slowed down.

The most intuitive thing is the speed per hour... The daily mileage of the team has dropped from a high-speed [-] miles to a normal level of [-] to [-] miles.

Fortunately, this rhythm is the daily routine of the caravan traveling north and south, and the expressway is the alternative of the era, so everyone in the caravan expressed their emotional stability.

Of course, if you insist on hurrying, the team can still run at a speed of fifty miles per day.However, this kind of one-shot deal has prerequisites: either it is an emergency to avoid natural disasters or man-made disasters, or it is the last stop of the journey, and there is no need to care about manpower and horsepower.

Therefore, during the rest of the safe and sound journey, the experienced caravan still held the rhythm steadily.The convoy travels up to [-] miles a day, and would rather stay in a safe place early than miss the destination in order to hurry.

But in this way, Young Master Wu, the only scholar in the caravan who can be regarded as precious, began to suffer: now he has to get out of the car and walk frequently, instead of lying down and waiting to arrive at the station.

The reason is simple: bumps.

People in later generations drive by themselves, and after traveling hundreds of miles a day, they still have enough energy to drink a drink and get a girl a room.The development of science and technology has made people in later generations lack a deep understanding of the term "travel fatigue".

So how to experience the journey of the ancients?

Simple: Remove the hydraulic shock absorber system on the car, then remove the outer tire to leave the wheel hub, and finally, throw away the leather shock absorber seat... In this way, it is similar to the bumpy difference of the ancients driving.

Next, please drive such a car, find a washboard road near a remote village and town, and drive slowly... for half a day?

In fact, it doesn't take half a day at all.

It only needs to drive at a fast speed for two hours, and later generations will lie down in their own vomit and bile, and call 120 urgently for help.

This is the reason why Young Master Wu has to get out of the car and walk frequently: on dirt roads covered with messy ruts, with one foot deep and one foot shallow, it is often not suitable to lie flat.

Seven days after the Yixinlong caravan set off from Tianjin City, it arrived at the city of Bazhou, Hebei smoothly.

Bazhou is the center of the Hebei Plain.This place is well connected with flourishing commercial roads and a thriving service industry. It is an important finishing node for merchants traveling from south to north.

Yi Xinlong was not immune this time.After settling down at a familiar big car shop in Bazhou City, shopkeeper Wu ordered the unloading.

Unloading means a major overhaul.Generally speaking, the large convoys that have completed the first half of their trip will rest in Bazhou City for three to five days before setting off again.

Compared with doing business in other areas of Ming Dynasty, Yixinlong's journey from Tianjin to Bazhou this time is quite easy.

Not to mention the "scratching" of a section of the expressway before, even the remaining roads are within the sphere of influence of Tianjin Feihuying.Therefore, the team has traveled all the way, it is really safe and secure, and all members are in good health.

……

From Tianjin to Bazhou, on the map, it roughly draws a horizontal line.The caravan went from the far right side of the Hebei Plain near the sea, all the way parallel to the left, and came to Bazhou in the middle of the plain.

Next, after the caravan departs from Bazhou, it will still go left along the map and draw a horizontal line.

This time, the horizontal line will be raised slightly to the northwest, ending at the westernmost point of the Hebei Plain: Yi County.

Yi County is at the foot of the vertical Taihang Mountains.

The Taihang Mountains are the wall that separates the Hebei Plain and the Shanxi Plateau.

The Yixinlong caravan will eventually start from Yi County and enter the Taihang Mountains.Next, the caravan will pass through the world-famous dangerous places, the two natural dangers of Taihang Eight Xing: Puyin Xing and Feihu Xing.

Passing through these two dangerous mountain paths is equivalent to passing through the Taihang Mountains.

At the other end of Taihang Mountain is the Wu family's lair: Weizhou, Shanxi.

This time, Yixinlong's caravan spent four days resting in Bazhou City, adjusting the condition of all the people, animals, and vehicles to the best.

In the early morning of the fifth day, facing the snowflakes flying all over the sky and the howling cold wind, the convoy returned to its full blood and embarked on the journey back to the north again.

Going west all the way out of Bazhou City, it is still an official road sunken deep in the ground.This so-called official road is covered with deep and messy ruts.

In the cold northern winter, the rut marks are frozen solid.Walking on this kind of striped road, be careful to slip and sprain your feet at any time.Whether it is people, livestock or vehicles, more energy is required to deal with it.

In the face of bad weather, Wu Fazheng and Wu Daxiu could no longer pretend to be a scholar.At this time, he was wearing a thick blue army cotton coat, wearing a Leifeng cap with ear protectors down, his hands in his sleeves, his head lowered, trying his best to avoid the oncoming wind and snow. It's full of hoarfrost, just like the second uncle who went through the Guandong.

Just like this, the first day the caravan left Bazhou, they only traveled [-] miles before finding a place to camp.

The days that followed were lackluster.The convoy seems to have copied the previous template, and it is on the road every day in the desolate and snowy fields of northern China in the seventeenth century.

Ultimately, however, something is different.

On the third day after leaving Bazhou, Young Master Wu encountered a large group of "long-lost" refugees on the official road.

There are quite a few refugees in this group, about 300 people. They look unkempt and emaciated.Dragging out a long formation of refugees on the dirt road, it was obvious that they had driven for a long time, and all of them looked exhausted.

Most of the refugee gangs consisted of adult men, most of whom wore tattered homespun clothes.Even though it is already cold winter, many of them are still wearing single clothes, exposing large areas of festered skin.These people hunched over, shivering in the cold wind, and moved forward with all their strength.

Most of the refugees carry cloth bags or bamboo baskets, and hold a bamboo pole in their hands... This is the last weapon to prevent themselves from being snatched away by wild dogs.

Following the loud whistle of Wu Qian, the leader of the guards, all the guards of the caravan immediately unsheathed their knives, wound their arrows, and led their horses to protect the vehicle.

"Okay, sir, let's have a treat!"

At the moment when the two forces intertwined, countless pairs of black arms stretched out, and on the faces of the refugees with chapped skin, only the whites of the eyes showed human color, which looked creepy.

"Get out of the way for Lao Tzu!"

The next moment, the guard, nicknamed Monk, and the other two fierce generals named Mute, holding wooden sticks and whips, yelled repeatedly, relying on their superb horse control skills, repeatedly rushed and smashed, and forcibly beat the refugees who were trying to stop the convoy. Spread out.

After this round, the refugees immediately realized the gap in strength and stepped aside.

So, the two sides... the caravan side was on high alert, and slowly passed by the refugee team.

Wu Fazheng was standing on the moving frame, holding the cargo rope in one hand and an iron ruler in the other, looking coldly at the begging or hateful eyes at his feet, showing no mercy at all.

Northerners who can live to adulthood in this era, even rich sons, have heard and seen the horror of refugees since childhood.

At this time, if you don't deal with it well, it's not a matter of losing a little property.

If the caravan had been a little weak just now and made these refugees clamor, there is no doubt that they would be besieged the next moment.He, Wu Fazheng, will soon turn into broken bones on the side of the road... the kind of skeleton left after his clothes were ripped off, and the skin and flesh were cooked in a pot because of its tenderness, and there are still residual tooth marks on it.

So Young Master Wu didn't dare to be careless at this moment, tensed up his body, ready to smash someone's head at any time.

In this way, in a state of full alert, the entire caravan tensed up, and it took a long time before they finally intersected with the refugee brigade.

Turning his head to look at the black shadow gradually going away, Wu Fazheng breathed a sigh of relief and sat back in the back of the car.

At this time, Wu Fazheng suddenly realized one thing: for a long, long time, he had not seen refugees or starved people on the road.

"When did it start?"

"Oh..." Wu Fazheng recalled: "When I left Jiangnan last year, I never saw the dead body of Lu again."

Just when Master Wu was recalling a lot of stories, shopkeeper Wu, the team manager, beckoned Wu Qian to come over, and then whispered a few words in his ear.

After Wu Qian nodded and took the order, he prepared for a while, and then led the monk and the dumb two humming generals, three of them and three horses, with their long knives out of their sheaths, and turned around to catch up with the end of the refugee team.

Looking at the refugees who turned around blankly, Captain Wu waved his hand, and the two bundles were thrown in front of the horse.

The next moment, the bundles were scattered, and the yellow grains and steamed buns were scattered and rolled on the snow.

Facing the crowd that was slowly approaching, Wu Qian raised his voice and shouted: "Listen well, from here, go eastward for three days, and you will be Bazhou City. When you arrive at the ground, there will be Marshal Cao of Haidong to help you. Marshal Cao is unparalleled, I will teach you to eat and drink without worrying... Take the dry food and go for refuge quickly!"

After shouting the last word, Fourth Master Wu raised his sword and beat his horse, turned around to catch up with the convoy, and steadily escorted everyone and the refugees away...

……

In any port area where the traversers are located, the political propaganda system is the first department to enter the area to start work.

Even though most of the time-traveling crowd are low-level dicks, there are still a lot of sensible people after all-ideological struggles can never be taken lightly.

Over the years, although there is no deep-seated theory (the people who travel through time don't understand it), the publicity system has done a lot of superficial and easy-to-effect work.

For example: Ad soft text.

Nowadays, any teams that start from Tianjin and go to various parts of North China to do business, whenever they encounter refugees, they will more or less do what the convoy did just now, preaching a few words to the refugees.

Gein, these refugees will fall into the hands of Marshal Cao sooner or later.At that time, if the department in charge of political review finds that a certain caravan did not make a name for Marshal Cao... then Marshal Cao will be very angry, and the consequences...

no way.The last coquettish operation of the guard just now...is the "tacit understanding" of the "epiphany" after businessmen from all over the place and the "Tianjin Commercial and Trade Corporation" have "broken in" with each other for a few times... It's a bit like 404 in the seventeenth century, see Invisible, intangible, but everywhere.

……

From this group of refugees, in the days that followed, the convoy began to frequently encounter skeleton-like starved corpses on the roadside and large groups of refugees.

The Yixinlong motorcade, relying on the strength of the guards, had no danger along the way, and finally arrived at Dingxing County four days later.

Dingxing is a large county in Hebei, where the famous Juma River runs through the county.Next, after the caravan passed Dingxing, it was not far from Yi County at the foot of Taihang, and it took two or three days at most.

So the convoy did not stop, and only set out after one night in Dingxing, leaving the city and going up Hebei, with the goal of Yi County - due to the terrain here, the convoy had to go up Juma Hebei first, bypassing a river and lake before arriving at the city. Go west to Yi County.

However, at noon that day, when the convoy was resting on the side of the road, Captain Wu Qian quietly came to shopkeeper Wu's stall, glanced at shopkeeper Wu and young master Wu with a gloomy face, and said in a low voice: "Boss shopkeeper, we are being held by the shopkeeper." Wild dogs are watching!"

Chapter 683 Returning to the North (eight)

"Wild dog? Spy? Being followed?"

Perhaps the peaceful journey for a period of time made shopkeeper Wu forget the dangers of the world.

He was gnawing on a set of salted vegetable pancakes when he suddenly heard someone trailing behind him, he was shocked, his hands trembled, and he almost dropped the pancakes into the furnace.

In front of shopkeeper Wu was a short, round-bellied iron briquette stove that is common in later generations.

As soon as this kind of stove came out, it quickly occupied the middle and low-end market of Ming Dynasty with its long-lasting combustion and low fuel price.

From this as a starting point, briquette factories have sprung up all over the place.In addition, merchants now wholesale white iron sheets from Tianjin and ship them to blacksmiths in Beijing to hand-make coal stoves.

Since the development of the honeycomb coal industry chain, in the north where there is no shortage of coal, coal stoves are not only used for home use, but also a necessary tool for caravans. Only a little kerosene and two briquettes are needed to make caravans walking in the ice and snow, Drink a sip of hot water and bake a hot dry food when hitting the roadside.

There is no more convenient and quicker means of heating than this.

Shopkeeper Wu is an old Jianghu after all. After the moment of panic just now, he quickly realized that he had lost his composure, so he lowered his face and regained his composure.

Looking up at the surroundings, I found that the guys who gathered together to eat dry food did not pay attention to this side.Shopkeeper Wu lowered his voice at this moment, stared at Wu Qian and asked, "Which troop? When will we catch up?"

"I don't know which way people are going."

Wu Qian also lowered his voice: "It should be that we left Dingxing County, and we stayed behind."

"Damn it."

Shopkeeper Wu also started as a clerk step by step in the past. When he was young, he encountered many horse bandits and robbers in the desert outside the mouth.Now as soon as his IQ was in place, he immediately put the pickled vegetable pancakes into his pocket, then stood up and yelled: "Pack up your belongings, get up and go!"

The well-trained guys got up immediately when they heard the order from the big shopkeeper, stuffed dry food into their mouths, and at the same time took care of the mules and horses and picked up the scattered items.It took only 5 minutes for the team to adjust from the peak state to the road state.

After half an hour.

In the convoy that was moving forward steadily, shopkeeper Wu and Wu Xiucai huddled together in the No. 13 rear car hood, holding a Western retractable brass telescope, trying to watch through the small glass window.

In the circular lens, the endless North China Plain first appeared.Under the gray sky, the wilderness is deserted.Whether it is the deserted wild land or the sparse farmland beside the road, they are all covered in white, and it is impossible to tell why.

The next moment, shopkeeper Wu twisted the lens barrel and pulled the lens in, and a black band suddenly appeared in front of his eyes: Juma River.

The Juma River flows slowly in winter.White snowdrifts drifted on the driftwood, dotting the lifeless black surface of the river.

At this moment, two cyan dots appeared in the sight of shopkeeper Wu.

He tried to adjust the Westerner's monocular again, and this time, he could see clearly: on the other side of the river, at the side and rear of the convoy, there were two travelers on horseback, traveling at a leisurely pace.

Silently, after half an hour of careful observation, shopkeeper Wu passed the mirror tube in his hand to the young master with a blank expression, and then sighed: "Oh, if it is the binocular iron mirror in the hands of the Cao family, it should be the eyebrows and beards. You can see it clearly!"

Wu Fazheng didn't know why, so he opened the lens tube and casually said, "Uncle Nine, I saw the iron tube telescope on the boat."

"That's the one."

Shopkeeper Wu shook his head regretfully: "I can't make up my mind about something that is a military country. Last year, shopkeeper Huo of Lingqiu spent a lot of money to 'buy' it, but it turned out that the goods hadn't shipped out of Tianjin. The incident happened and they were uprooted."

Speaking of this, shopkeeper Wu seemed to have thought of something bad, and the muscles on his face twitched.

Immediately, he lifted a corner of the rear curtain and hooked his hands.

After a while, Wu Qian's strong body forced himself into the carriage.

At this time, I can't manage so much.At the same time as Wu Qian came in, the shopkeeper Wu said in a deep voice, "I have no luggage, and I'm not in a hurry, but I'm hanging at the back of the convoy... It's true that I came here for us."

"Well, I just don't know which company's spies it is." Wu Qian knew the shopkeeper would have such observations, so he quickly asked: "Boss shopkeeper, what do you want brothers to do?"

After pondering for a while, shopkeeper Wu made a quick decision: "It's hard to deal with the river across the river right now. We'll talk about it when we leave Huzhuang tomorrow."

"understood."

The direction of travel of the Yixinlong caravan at this moment is not to go straight to Yi County in the northwest, but to go up the Juma River first.

This is because there is a DC lake near Baiyangdian Lake, which belongs to wetland terrain.This kind of wetland is a marsh in spring and summer, but it is a deadly trap in winter.

Therefore, the caravan had to go up the Hebei River today, and when they settled down at the camp at Huzhuang, they could just bypass the wetlands and go west to Yi County early tomorrow morning.

Fortunately, Huzhuang and Yi County are on a parallel line, so the caravan is not considered a detour today.