Lu Ming

Page 218

……

All in all, the atmosphere at today's luncheon is very good.After eating porridge, everyone talked about it, and their energy was much better than before.

All those present have benefited directly or indirectly from Xincheng in recent days, and life has become a little bit easier.

However, these low-level people in the courtyard can't tell a thing or two about this big situation involving social transformation. They can only express some simple joy.

In the words of later generations, this situation is that after the capital injection of the people and the opening of the primary industrialization process, with Guangzhou as the center, the employment rate of the surrounding people has increased, the price of goods has decreased, and the economy of the Ming Dynasty, which was previously stagnant, has been sorted out. , so that the per capita disposable income will slowly increase, and the people's sense of happiness will increase.

He Biandan also has a strong sense of happiness today, because it's his turn to scratch the bottom of the pot again.After eating an extra half bowl of rice, He Biandan happily went back to the house to take a nap. In the afternoon, he was refreshed and went out to pick up work again.

After a few days like this, early in the morning, He Biandan, as usual, stayed at the tea stand where the porters often waited for work. Waiting for the customers to come to the door.

In recent months, there seems to be a lot of work in the city, so He Biandan is very confident that he can receive the work today.Sure enough, it didn't take long before business came.

This business is very simple: a customer has bought goods at Nancheng Wharf, has loaded them on a ship, and needs to hire someone to unload the goods along the way.The unloading point is on the other side of the Pearl River, and the bulk cargo needs to go along the Dongjiang River, and finally arrive at the terminal in Zengcheng County.

He Biandan is a bachelor, and this kind of business that needs to go out for a few days is naturally suitable for him, so he negotiated the price with the employer, and after receiving the deposit, he set off with the other three porters.

The employer, surnamed Wu, is a very kind and thin old man who is the shopkeeper of a chain grocery store in Zengcheng County.

He Biantan and his party followed the shopkeeper to a nearby medicine shop, and picked several loads of medicinal materials such as seahorse, musk, rhubarb, cinnabar, and velvet antler.Then the team walked out of the south gate and carried the goods onto a cargo ship at the pier.

This cargo ship called Pingfu is a flat-bottomed boat that is common in inland rivers. It has almost 300 materials, and it is already full of cargo.After He Biandan and the others boarded the boat, the boat pulled anchor and set sail.

After exiting the South Gate Wharf, the Pingfu cruised along the broad Pearl River to the east.Along the way, the reefs and shoals were marked with buoys by the crossing crew, so the speed of the boat was very fast. Before noon, it ran 50 miles of water and arrived at Huangpu.

When passing by Huangpu, everyone on the Pingfu, including the boss, the boatman, the shopkeeper of the grocery store, the man, and He Biandan, all ran to the port side of the ship and stretched their necks to look at the port that suddenly appeared on the shore of Huangpu .

A large ship with a blue background and gold lines, reflecting the dazzling light, is mooring at the wharf of Huangpu Port.The cloud-like white sails are towering above it, and there are many small boats going back and forth under its feet. From the proportions, it can be seen that this huge ship is mighty and extraordinary.

It was the first time for He Biandan to see this large western-style ship. He was opening his mouth at this moment, and while looking at it, he listened to the boatmen's foaming blows.

After listening with great interest for a long time, He Biandan knew two things: first, the name of this big ship was Cao, and it was the Cao of General Cao who brought him the salty vegetable porridge.

Second, there are dozens of cannons in the belly of this big ship. When the side valve is opened at the moment, and the cannons are fired, it will be destroyed for dozens of miles. All ships on the ocean will be shot. For the powder!

After He Biandan heard such an exciting story, his saliva was drooling, and he immediately pestered the boatman to tell him to continue.Seeing the enthusiasm of the audience, the boatman narrated the scene of the large ship suppressing bandits he saw at the mouth of the Pearl River.

In the process, the Pingfu turned a corner along the river bank and entered the Dongjiang River Basin.

The Dongjiang River originates in Jiangxi and finally flows into the Pearl River from Huangpu. It is an important trunk and tributary of the Pearl River.

After the Pingfu entered the Dongjiang River, it began to move steadily along the north bank.After traveling about 20 miles by water, the Pingfu arrived at the first stop, Tangqiao Town.

The grocery chain shopkeeper Wu works for has a branch in Tangqiao Town, so when the ship docked at the stone wharf in Tangqiao Town, He Biandan and the others started to get busy.Together with a few guys on the ship, they took turns unloading some of the goods on the ship to the grocery store in the town.

During this process, He Biandan was appreciated by shopkeeper Wu because of his skillful skills, not being lazy, and working hard.When it was time to eat, shopkeeper Wu smiled and asked the shopkeeper to add a bowl of meaty chicken offal powder to this pleasing young man, and also shared a chicken leg in his bowl with the shoulder pole.

He Biandan's IQ drops when he eats, but this time he can eat more without being beaten. Shopkeeper Wu immediately conquered the young people.

In the afternoon, the Pingfu continued to set sail, going up the Dongjiang River.In the afternoon, when the ship arrived at the junction of Dongjiang and Zengjiang, the second unloading point arrived.

It is still a town, and it still needs to unload a quarter of the cargo on the ship.This time the goods included all the medicinal materials, which were brought by shopkeeper Wu to the herbal medicine shop in the town.

Since He Biandan ate well at noon, he worked harder this time, and he did the work of two people by himself.Finally, after the ship weighed anchor, he was pulled over privately by the smiling shopkeeper Wu and asked about his family background.

After learning that He Biandan was a bachelor, shopkeeper Wu made a promise on the spot: When he returns to Zengcheng this time, he will be accepted as a full-time employee of the chain store. He is in charge.

He Biandan is of course eager for such a good thing.Full-time employees can keep their income in droughts and floods, so they don't need to be hungry and full like he is now.The master not only takes care of food and housing, but also learns a little bookkeeping and other skills in the future. In the future, when people are unable to resist activities in middle age, they will be promoted to store managers or even shopkeepers. This is a very bright road for the poor.

So the Pingfu ship turned into Zengjiang happily.

The Zengjiang River is different from the Dongjiang River in that it is a tributary originating from the mountains in eastern Guangdong.So starting from the entrance, entering Zengjiang in the north-south direction is equivalent to entering the mountainous area.From here to the north, after another forty miles of waterway, Zengcheng County is the terminal.

However, the Pingfu will not be able to reach Zengcheng County today, because the time is too late.It will be getting late, and the ship will have to spend the night on the road.

So the boat boss steered the boat into a fork river, and headed for a village where the boat often stopped.This village is called Shitan, and it is a large village with thousands of people. Ships often park here.

Unexpectedly, the next moment, an accident happened.

Hearing the sound of lacing and stabbing, the Pingfu suddenly swayed, and then the speed dropped sharply.

"No, it's hit the rocks!" The experienced ship boss got out of the cabin immediately, and soon he ran up and shouted: "It's leaking, go to someone to plug the crack!"

Hearing the boss's order, someone ran down the hold on the spot.The boss of the ship immediately began to direct the boatmen on the deck to turn the rudder and sail, and the Pingfu slowly approached the shore.

In just a short while, a lot of water has gushed out from under the bilge.Not long after, the soaked boatman ran up: "Boss, two boards are broken and can't be blocked!"

After hearing the words and swearing, the captain of the ship could only order the helmsman to turn the rudder bar. The next moment, the Pingfu plunged into the sand on the shore.

"Xu Shi had a landscape a few days ago, and the boulders that rushed down from the river cut the bottom of the boat. It's really fucking unlucky." After going down to the cabin for another inspection, the boss of the boat made a judgment.

By this time, everyone on board was dumbfounded.Fortunately, shopkeeper Wu has rich experience. He first ordered the employees to go down to transfer the goods.

So He Biandan and the others hurriedly disembarked and transferred the cargo stored below to the upper cabin one by one.This is thanks to the fact that half of the goods have been unloaded before, otherwise there is no place to transfer the goods.

By this time, it was already dark.The ship's boss lit the oil lamp and took people down to the bilge to repair the ship.However, the bottom of the boat is now half full of water, and there is another long hole, which will definitely not be repaired in a while.

After learning about the situation in the bilge, shopkeeper Wu had a gloomy face, called two of his assistants, and ordered them to report the news overnight.

The current location of the Fuping is very bad. It is seven or eight miles away from the nearest Shitan Village, and even further away from Zengcheng in the north and the town where the cargo was unloaded.So shopkeeper Wu could only order the two men to go north and the other south to report to distant places respectively.

He Biandan on the side didn't understand this operation: the boat is broken, so patiently wait for the boat to be repaired and it will be over?Why did you send someone to report overnight?

After surreptitiously raising the question, shopkeeper Wu couldn't help but wryly smiled when he saw this foolish young man, then took He Biandan aside and secretly confessed to him: the reason for sending someone to deliver a message was just in case.In this wilderness where there is no village or shop behind, the boat broke down again, and I was afraid of encountering bandits, so I had to notify my family to come to help.

It was only when He Biandan heard this that he understood.It's not because he's inexperienced. Before that, he had been working for others in Guangzhou. He didn't go out frequently, and he didn't know much about survival in the wild.

The shopkeeper later confessed that He Biandan should pay more attention tonight and inform him whenever there is any situation.

The young man quickly nodded in agreement.

After completing this step, everyone had nothing to do. Shopkeeper Wu kept a sullen face the whole time, and could only silently pray that the ship would be repaired as soon as possible.

The only one who was in a good mood, He Biandan, took advantage of this time to eat a lot of dry food, and even ate two salted fish. When the moon was in the sky, this guy even drank two bowls of porridge.

However, shortly after he finished his porridge, a crew member on the boat yelled, "What are you doing!?"

Under the bright moonlight, a figure appeared on the beach not far away, and then disappeared into the reeds with the shout.

Chapter 497

A loud shout from the night watchman alarmed the whole ship.

Everyone ran to the deck to look around, but there was nothing under the bright moonlight, only the rustling reeds and river water.

Finding no one was found, and hearing from the night watchman that there was a figure, the serious-faced captain of the boat spat under the boat, and then said harshly, "Maybe it's just a few thieves, be more vigilant!"

After that, the atmosphere on the boat suddenly became tense.At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the social order collapsed, and bandits were everywhere, not to mention the Pearl River Delta, which is densely covered with water networks.

The people on the boat today, except for He Biandan, have been in the rivers and lakes all year round, so they naturally know how powerful the bandits are.That's why everyone was terrified at this meeting, and the timid shop assistant had already hid in the cabin and dared not come out.

But things are already like this, and everyone can only bite the bullet and get through the night: the nearest village is still several miles away, and the people there will neither open the door at night nor send people to help, so the people on the boat can now say is alone.

There is no other way, if you want to blame, you can only blame the rocks at the bottom of the river, otherwise, the boatmen would not stop at such places even if they were killed.

However, there is a law called Murphy's Law. In Chinese, it is what one is afraid of. At midnight, figures appeared again under the moonlight, and this time there were several figures.

This time the night watchman didn't even dare to shout.There were only a dozen or so people on board, and it was okay to deal with small thieves of three or two, but if they encountered gangsters with many people, it was simply not something they could handle.

After a while, those figures disappeared again.

Now most of the people on board realized that there might be trouble tonight.

After a few rounds of surprise and surprise, it was already late at night. Except for the silly He Biandan who found an opportunity to eat two rice balls, the rest of the people had already started to panic: the reeds on the opposite side were indistinguishable. Know how many figures are shaking.

"Young student, come here."

At this time, the shopkeeper Wu, who knew that something would happen tonight, secretly pulled He Biandan, who he was very optimistic about, to the corner again: "I'm afraid that today's incident will involve you. Young man, listen carefully, if you come out later If you are a gangster, then you run as fast as you can. If you have the heart later, you can find me at the Baijia grocery store in Zengcheng."

It wasn't until this time that He Biandan realized the seriousness of the problem.But at the same time he opened his mouth to ask, "I ran away, the shopkeeper, how do you get away?" There was a loud whistle sound in the night sky, and then, the surrounding lights were brightly lit, and from the reeds on both sides of the Fuping In the bushes, more than a dozen sampans suddenly sprang out, and there were many men holding torches standing on them, and they surrounded the Fuping in an instant.

"Run, junior, run!"

After being pushed by shopkeeper Wu, He Biandan jumped off the boat in a jerk, and burrowed into the reed in the slanting thorns. When he arrived, he was still holding the eating thing tightly in his hand.

The next moment, when He Biandan was about to enter Luwei Cong, he stopped, and slowly retreated - a torch was suddenly lit in Luwei Cong, and a row of figures walked out slowly with knives and axes .

At this moment, Fuping was surrounded by gangs with a total of 70 people.

"Everyone, the little old man is the shopkeeper of the Baijia Grocery Store in Zengcheng, and the proprietor is a native of Baiju from Zengcheng County. I don't know who is going to meet you today, so please show your name."

Shopkeeper Wu has been in business for half his life, and he has encountered things like today several times in his career, so he didn't panic at this meeting, but followed the rules to show his name first.

Under such circumstances, generally friendly gangsters would not embarrass the people on board too much.After all, most land tigers live by collecting tolls, fighting with local caravans every day?This team is long gone.

Shopkeeper Wu is most afraid of encountering bandits.Bandits who cross states and counties don't think about the consequences at all. Killing and stealing goods is a standard action.

The next moment, a gloomy voice sounded: "I want to teach you to know, whether our men can change their names or surnames, Guitou Walaoqi will be it."

Shopkeeper Wu felt relieved when he heard this: Guitouwa is a reed beach nearby, where a group of thieves have been entrenched for a long time, and he has also heard of the reputation of the big boss Lao Qi.Although I have never dealt with this group of people, they are locals after all. It seems that everyone's life can be saved today.

Thinking of this, he replied in a loud voice: "So it's Mr. Lao Qi from Shazhai, what can I tell you?"

"Hey, Zengcheng Bai Juren, I've heard of it." The gloomy voice sounded again: "But Master Bai has never paid homage to our ruined temple in the past, so he can't hold Buddha's feet today. Listen, sensible ones, if you are honest, you will be arrested without a fight, and you will follow the rules later, and you will not have to use a weapon. If you dare to bark your teeth with our men, you will be hacked to death!"

"Admit it, admit it!" After looking at each other, shopkeeper Wu and the boss of the ship knew that surrender was the best result, so they confessed on the spot.

In a situation like this where there is no blood, usually the bandits will not make it difficult for them to be captured.Afterwards, as long as the letter is sent back, Bai Juren will naturally find a middleman to redeem him, so shopkeeper Wu hurriedly confessed.

After hearing the statement of the people on board, the bandits around were ready to row the sampan over to control the cargo ship.

Unexpectedly, the next moment, an accident happened.

Hearing a loud shout from the shore, He Biandan picked up his pole and started fighting with the bandits.

It was the first time for the young man to experience this kind of situation, and he was already flustered, but when he heard that he was about to surrender, he completely panicked.He Biandan, who didn't know the follow-up development, thought he was going to be caught by the thieves to plant lotus, so he picked up the pole and tried to find a way to escape.

Although He Biandan made a sudden attack, there are more than a dozen bandits in front of him, can he really allow him to escape?So the young man was quickly surrounded.Under the bright torches and the moonlight, He Biandan yelled and shouted, threw off his airs, and fought with the people around him.

Unexpectedly, after this fight, He Biandan was impressive.The young man was tall and had long arms and quick movements. He swung his shoulder pole round and beat back and forth fiercely. The bandits with knives and axes couldn't break into his defensive circle in a hurry, and two of them were accidentally knocked over by He Biandan.

He Biandan's hand is also trained in normal times.You must know that all walks of life have territories, and porters are no exception, so young people often fight with others with poles.

Just like that, He Biandan rushed left and right in the crowd like a mad tiger, and he knocked down three or four bandits in a short time.If it weren't for the unfamiliarity of the terrain, he might have been pushed out by him.

Shopkeeper Wu standing at the bow of the boat was very anxious at this moment, and kept shouting: "Young man, don't fight anymore. If you turn around, the owner will pay you money, and you will be able to redeem us. I will guarantee you, old man!"

He Biandan heard the shouts, but now he was already on the verge of riding a tiger, surrounded by dangling knives and axes, and he would die if he got hit, so he couldn't stop.

The bandits here saw that He Biandan didn't listen to persuasion, so they became impatient, and quickly got down from the sampan with two three-eyed guns, and when they came over, they were ready to use lead to solve this stupid hat.

Unexpectedly, the gloomy voice sounded again at this time: "Don't hurt this person, use the net!"

Hearing the words of the big master, several people came down from the sampan.The next moment, a fishy and smelly hemp net with a few small salted fish hanging on it was buckled over.Poor He Biandan won the championship bravely, but in the end he was covered by a fishing net, and then he was rushed over and kicked down, and rolled a few times on the ground... Now He Biandan became a stick.

Naturally, the human stick did not end well: the raindrops of fists and big feet landed on He Biandan, making him scream.

After suffering enough beatings, He Renstick was thrown onto the sampan, and shopkeeper Wu and his assistants were also chased up.

The bandits are already familiar with handling this situation.After the captives who had turned into meat tickets were taken down, the cargo in the cabin was quickly moved out and scattered on the sampans and small boats.At the moment when the eastern sky appeared pale, the group of sampans disappeared among the reeds with a whistle, leaving only a solitary broken boat and the token of Guitouwa gangsters—this is Show it to the rescuer, so that the other party can negotiate the redemption.

……

Guitouwa is not far from the place where the Fuping ship ran aground, otherwise the bandits would not have come so fast in such an emergency.So after walking through the winding and lost reeds for a period of time, Lao Qi and his gang returned to their old den.

Guitouwa is covered with dilapidated bamboo huts and thatched huts. It is difficult for outsiders who are not familiar with waterways to find it.When the bandits arrived at the ground, they locked the butchers in a special wooden fence "human circle" and then started unloading.

At this time, He Biandan, who still maintained the shape of a human stick, was just thrown in the empty field, with legs and feet walking around beside him, and he would be kicked again from time to time if he felt that he was in the way.

After unloading the goods, the gangsters happily began to organize the celebration banquet: today’s outing is considered pie in the sky. Everyone got the spoils without working hard to ambush and fight. Of course, there is a reason to celebrate.

The next moment, tinplate-packed liquor and cans were picked out from the cargo, the fire was lit, fish and wind chickens were strung on the branches of the tree, and the banquet began.

As for the person sticking to the shoulder pole, he was finally pushed and rolled to the front of the head.

The head of the family named Lao Qi doesn't look very old, in his 30s.This person's eyes are narrow and long, his face is white and beardless, his muscles are strong, and he looks like a haze.

However, Master Lao had a smile on his face when he saw the He Bianbao that had just been uncovered from the fishing net: "Shangzi, you are good at it, what do you do?"

"Porter." He Biandan, who had a bruised nose and swollen face, didn't dare to do anything wrong this time, and answered honestly after standing up.

"Tall, skilled, and hot-tempered... Shaozi, you've entered the wrong profession, so you're not a porter." Shopkeeper Lao Qi smiled and handed over a bowl of Gan Lie's Erguotou : "Follow my father, make sure you are popular and hot, and then find a woman to let you vent your anger, how about it?"

"Don't drink, pour it when you drink it." He Biandan saw that the water bandits were pulling open cans of pink luncheon meat and pouring them into the pot, drooling: "Take care of the food, eat the meat!"

"Haha!" Shopkeeper Lao Qi laughed a few times: "It's still a baby, I like it! Go eat meat, and I'll send you a red seal after eating."

The next moment, He Biandan rushed to the table piled with chicken, duck and fish, and then he was beaten up by the old gangsters. After learning the rules, the young man got a chicken and started to gnaw fiercely.

Squatting in the corner while gnawing on the chicken, He Biandan stole a few glances at the fence that locked people in.

Chapter 498