The next day, the sky was clear, so Chang Qingde and Lu Chengping took more than 20 servants, pushed 3 carts, brought 500 200 silver, 2 pigs, 20 horses of silk, and 20 jars of wine, and rushed to 30 posts to reward the people's army.

The gift prepared by the Luzhou Mansion is indeed not small, but considering that this time East China ** helped Luzhou to transport grain, and did not charge freight, it also saved 1, 2000 taels of silver, not to mention that this batch of grain is indeed for the Luzhou Mansion to save the emergency, so it is reasonable to prepare such a generous gift.

A group of people, chariots and horses walked along the embankment of the river, only to see the waves of the river rolling, the water level is obviously much higher than usual, and the water level of some sections of the river has approached the top of the embankment. If it weren't for the fact that after the flood receded last year, the Luzhou government did spend some effort to strengthen the embankment of the river, which would have been really dangerous.

Walked along the embankment for more than 20 miles, only to see a sentry post appear on the embankment, and blocked the road with a horse rejection, two small wooden towers were also built on both sides of the river embankment, there were several tents behind, and more than 10 soldiers stood here to guard in front of the horse rejection.

Only their group of people came by in a carriage and horses, and immediately a few soldiers came forward and blocked the way, and one soldier who looked like a leader said, "Stop, what are you doing?"

When Lu Chengping was on the boat, he had dealt with the soldiers of the People's Army, he was more familiar with them, and he knew that the soldiers of the People's Army were more reasonable, and he did not charge any "hard money", "tea money" and the like, which was indeed much better than the officers and soldiers of the imperial court. A few comrades, everyone has worked hard, in Xia Lu Chengping, from the Luzhou Mansion, a few days ago the noble people helped me to transport food to Luzhou to help the victims, to solve my urgent needs, today in the next prepared some gifts, specially to thank the grace of the people, and no other intention. ”

One of the soldiers nodded and said, "You guys wait a while, we're going to report to the command." ”

Lu Chengping saluted again, retreated, and said, "They have reported, everyone wait a while." ”

Chang Qingde frowned and said, "Chengping, I see that you didn't take care of them, what is the reason for this." According to the rules of the Qing Dynasty, this kind of people to report, are to hand out money, not to mention dealing with the army, almost no money is difficult to move an inch, by these people below, as the saying goes, 'the king of Hades is good, the little ghost is difficult', if you don't do a good job of them, you really can't do anything.

Lu Chengping said: "Mr. Chang, you don't know, this people's army is different from the army of the imperial court, I got along with them on the ship for a few days, according to the soldiers on the ship, there is no such rule in East China, their chief, that is, overseas Chinese hate this set very much, as long as it is found out, no matter how big the official is, they will be dismissed from their posts and will never be hired." Not to mention anything else, that is, in the army, there are several officers, all of whom have become battalion commanders, and have made a lot of military exploits before, but as a result, they were forced to retire because of the charge for the fee, so I was taught not to use this set of rules when I meet them in the future. ”

Chang Qingde listened, and became a little worried, because this set of rules has been implemented in China for hundreds of years, and even has become a matter of course, and it is not regarded as a bad habit at all. But after looking at it, I saw a soldier pull out a horse from behind the tent, fly up, gallop away, and it seemed that it was really reported, so not only was it a little suspicious, could it be that there were really no such rules and dramas in East China? But no matter what, it has come to this point, so we can only wait and talk about it.

After about 20 minutes, the soldier rode back again, said a few words to the squad leader, and handed him a piece of letterhead.

After the squad leader saw it, he walked over and said, "The chief has ordered you to let you in, but the vehicles and things you brought are placed here." ”

Lu Chengping hurriedly said: "Okay, good." He turned his head to Chang Qingde and said, "Mr. Chang, let's leave our things here and go first." ”

Chang Qingde really believed it at this time, and the soldiers of the People's Army who didn't send money would really report it, and the behavior of the East China ** was indeed a little weird, so he ordered the servants to take care of the vehicle items, and dismounted with Lu Chengping, only took two servants and walked over, and the soldiers of the People's Army moved away and put their group in, and the soldier who reported said: "You come with me." ”

Chang Qingde, Lu Chengping and others followed the soldier along the embankment, and saw that the road of the embankment was paved with a layer of cinders, and it was compacted and flattened, and it was far more convenient to walk than the road when they came. Chang Qingde watched carefully, and saw that the people who got off the boat were all wearing blankets, their hair was scattered, and their expressions were haggard, probably the victims who were rescued. On the inner side of the embankment, people are stacking sandbags along the embankment, apparently reinforcing the embankment. At the same time, along the embankment, there are soldiers of the People's Army guarding the river, and people and vehicles are constantly coming and going. It looks very lively.

After walking about 6 or 7 miles, you can see a camp in the distance on the inner side of the embankment, with rows of gray-green tents. So they went down the embankment and walked about a mile or two miles before they came to the camp, and saw that the wall of the camp was being erected on the periphery of the camp. And where the fence has not been built, it is temporarily stopped by a horse rejection.

Entering the camp, Chang Qingde saw clearly that all the tents were built in the air, and at the bottom was a stone squat more than 1 foot high, each stone squat was about 1 zhang apart, and the stone squat was driving a "work" The steel skeleton of the font, the wooden planks are laid on the steel bones, and the tents are all erected on the wooden boards, about 2 feet high from the ground; each tent is about 2 zhang wide, and the door is opened in the middle, and there are stone steps to go up; by opening the tent door, you can vaguely see that the tents are placed in the bed, cabinets and other things; 6 tents are in a row, each row of tents is about 1 zhang apart, 4 rows are a group, and the distance between each group is about 1 zhang and 5 feet; the roads are compacted and flattened, and both sides are provided with shoulder stones and drainage ditches, which are horizontal and vertical, very neat.

In fact, the stone squat that Chang Qingde saw was a prefabricated reinforced concrete abutment in East China, with a height of 0.75 meters, a bottom edge of 0.6 meters long, a thickness of 0.25 meters, an upper side of 0.4 meters long, and a height of 0.5 meters. The abutment is distributed according to 3.3 meters, the length of the I-beam is 6.6 meters, the side length of the tent is 6 meters, and the construction fixed space is 0.3 meters. Each tent can accommodate 8 bunk or triple beds for 16-24 people.

Now there are 4 groups of such tents completely built, and there are 2 or 3 groups under construction, and Chang Qingde carefully observed, the construction personnel are wearing a gray-green long-sleeved vest, covered with a gray-blue vest, but they all have bald heads, monks are not monks, and they are not vulgar. But the whole battalion was in good order, and the personnel were mixed but not chaotic.

Chang Qingde didn't ask too much, and followed the soldier who led the way to a tent with four guards at the door, and the soldier said at the door of the tent: "Report to the chief, someone has brought it." ”

I only heard someone inside: "Invite them in." ”

The soldier turned to Lu Chengping and said, "Chief, please come in." ”

Lu Chengping nodded, and let the two accompanying servants stay outside, and he and Chang Qingde entered the account.

I saw that there were two long tables on one side of the tent, on the table were books, papers and other things, there was one person sitting behind each table, and the other was a chair coffee table, in the shape of "凇", and against the wall of the tent, there were several cabinets.

The soldier said: "This is our Chief Xie and Chief Zhu." ”

Lu Chengping knew that "chief" was the honorific title of the first in East China to overseas Chinese, so he hurriedly bowed his hand and said: "In Lu Chengping, the capital of Xialuzhou, I have seen two leaders. ”

Chang Qingde also came over to give a salute, but seeing that these two people were not very old, one was in his early 30s, and the other didn't seem to be even 30 years old, so he was a little disapproving.

Since this was the first refugee camp, two veterans were sent to each camp to take command. These two veterans are called Xie Tao and Zhu Nanzhen, both of whom are staff members in Shanghai, but their qualifications and levels are relatively low, so they were sent to the refugee camp to command, although it is hard work, but it is also for them to brush up more experience. In fact, both of them are over 30 years old, and Xie Tao is already 36 years old, but they are well maintained and have no beards, so they look a few years younger.

Xie Tao said: "The two of you sit down and talk first. ”

So the four of them sat on a chair on one side, Zhu Nanzhen took a boiling water bottle, poured tea for the two, and said, "The conditions in the camp are simple, and the two of them please send a lot of letters." ”

The two hurriedly said, "Don't dare." And Chang Qingde slandered in his heart, could it be that these two people are not willing to be among overseas Chinese, and they don't even have a subordinate to serve? But these two people can manage such a large camp, they are by no means powerless people, maybe the rules of overseas Chinese are different.

Xie Tao said: "I don't know what position the two of you hold in the Luzhou Mansion?

Lu Chengping hurriedly said: "Don't dare, here is the family of Master Lu, the prefect of Luzhou, and this Mr. Chang is a guest hired by Master Lu, and he has no official position." This time, the two of us are on the order of Master Lu, and we have come to thank you for helping Luzhou transport grain some time ago, so we Master Lu prepared a little gift to show our hearts. As he spoke, he presented the gift list.

Xie Tao nodded, understanding that these two people were actually white gloves, without public office, but they could represent the prefect of Luzhou.