Early the next morning, Wang Sheng and a group of nine people set off from Wangjiazhai and came to Jiaozhou County.

The history of Jiaozhou is very long, and the highest can be up to the Shang and Zhou dynasties. After Qin unified China, Qianqian County was set up here, which is also the earliest name of Jiaozhou, Jiaoxi County was named after glue in the Sui period, and Jiaozhou was set up in the Yuan Dynasty, and the three counties of Jiaoxi, Gaomi and Jimo were led by the county, and the state was located in the county seat of Jiaoxi. Until the opening of the Ming Dynasty, Jiaoxi County was withdrawn to Jiaozhou, the Ming and Qing dynasties, Jiaozhou has been repeated between counties and states, until the old time and space in 1904 (Qing Guangxu 30 years), Jiaozhou was promoted to Shandong Province Zhili Prefecture, to 1913 (Republic of China 2 years) and cut Jiaozhou for Jiao County. The geographical scope of Jiaozhou was basically formed in the early Song Dynasty, and was basically stable in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, and there was no change until the founding of New China.

Because Jiaozhou is adjacent to Jiaozhou Bay, before the establishment of Jingdao, it has always been an important port along the coast of Jiaozhou Bay, and its commerce is very developed. In the early nineteenth century, more than 4,000 merchant ships entered and exited Jiaozhou Port every year, and the annual trade volume of Jiaozhou Bay Tabutou Wharf reached 3, 4 million silver dollars. However, after Germany forcibly leased Jiaozhou Bay and its coast, 45 villages (tun) in the area from Tabutou to Jimiya were included in the Jiaoao concession, and with the rise of Qingdao, Jiaozhou's port status was gradually declining.

Before arriving at Jiaozhou City, a large number of houses and villages have appeared on both sides of the avenue, and there are many shops, trading, and they are quite prosperous. However, the combination of nine people in their line is quite strange, Wang Sheng, Marseille, and Ban Xiaowei are all modern clothes, and the four warriors are in Tsing Yi strong suits, as well as two foreigners, and there are many people holding a small card and swaying around, some curious people peeked and found that the other side of this small card was actually a street scene, fortunately, the people of this era have a little knowledge, and they did not regard this as a demon law, but they were also scared to passers-by to retreat and avoid. Fortunately, the soldiers and German missionaries had long been accustomed to the fact that the travelers had to take out their mobile phones and take random pictures everywhere they went, so it was not surprising.

Marseille patted the portrait and said: "I didn't expect it to be so lively before I arrived in Jiaozhou City." ”

Wang Shengdao: "Of course, before the emergence of Qingdao, Jiaozhou was the most developed city along the coast of Jiaozhou Bay.

While taking pictures, everyone moved forward, and finally came to the front of Jiaozhou City. Although the city walls are not very tall, they are all made of bluestone, but the defenders on the city walls are sparse and there are few people. At the gate of the city, there were only five soldiers guarding, and four soldiers with guns stood on both sides, wearing gray-blue horns, with a big brave character written on their chests, but many places were washed close to gray-white, and they were full of patches, which looked not much better than Hanako's suit, and the tips of the guns were rusty, and they stood crookedly.

The other soldier had a slightly newer uniform, few patches, and a waist knife hanging from his waist, which looked like a small boss, but there was a welding fume stuck in the other side. The people who enter and leave the city must be checked, and those who enter the city with their belongings must be checked. Of course, people who brought things into the city usually stuffed them with a few copper coins, and it passed.

Ban Xiaowei said to Wang Sheng: "Director Wang, should we also hand over a door bag to the city?"

Wang Sheng thought for a while, shook his head, and said, "No, let's enter the city like this, and see if he dares to stop us." Then he called Riddle and whispered a few words in his ear.

Riddle nodded, straightened his chest, and said, "You'll just look at me." With that he swaggered, he led the way toward the city gate, followed by the missionaries whom he had found to accompany him, and then the others.

It turned out that Wang Sheng wanted to see if the foreigner was good or not, if he could enter the city like this, and the soldiers guarding the city did not dare to stop him, then this trip to Jiaozhou, the basic safety could be guaranteed.

Sure enough, Rieder walked through the city gate in a big way, and the Qing soldiers guarding the gate didn't even dare to let out a fart, and they retreated one after another, as if they were afraid that they were in the way.

Wang Sheng was the last to enter the city, paused for a moment, and said to the Qing soldier with a waist knife: "We went into the city to find your county magistrate, where is the county government?"

In fact, the combination of their group is strange, and their behavior is very different from the others, which has long attracted the attention of the Qing soldiers defending the city. If it weren't for the fact that there were two foreigners in their group and one was a missionary, I am afraid that someone would have come to check it a long time ago, but it was precisely with these two foreigners that the Qing soldiers guarding the city would not have seen it. Although you can make some extra money by defending the city, you should also keep your eyes bright, and you must see clearly who should be stopped and who should not be stopped, in case you stop the wrong person, you will be unlucky.

Although Wang Sheng's appearance is a Chinese, his clothes are strange, just now he was with two foreigners, and as soon as he opened his mouth to find Zhixian, the soldiers guarding the city did not dare to slacken, and hurriedly said: "Just follow this avenue into the city and go straight to the intersection in front." ”

Wang Sheng nodded, then turned around and walked through the city wall to follow the people in front of him, and walked towards the city. Jiaozhou has been oscillating from state to county, so it is much larger than the average county seat, and now Qingdao has not yet fully emerged, so Jiaozhou is still the most prosperous city along the Jiaozhou Bay. After passing through the city gate, it is more lively than outside the city, the two main streets are almost all shops, hotels, markets, and rooms are basically all two-story structures, and there are quite a few three-story buildings, and the sound of people is bustling, shouting and selling, and the sound of bargaining fills the whole street. And everyone paid attention to the observation, most of the business is mainly felt, linen fabric, silver, tin and copper and other metal utensils.

Jiaozhou is Wang Sheng and other people have been, in addition to Tianjin's second city in this time and space, although Tianjin is one of the most developed cities in China in this era, but when the traverser occupied Tianjin, Tianjin has been looted by the Eight-Nation Alliance, a large number of people fled, although it is not said that it is ten rooms and nine empty, but it is indeed a great injury to vitality, although more than three months, Tianjin's population has returned significantly, and the order of life has been basically restored, but it is still far from completely recovering its vitality. Therefore, although the scale of Jiaozhou City is not as large as Tianjin, in terms of prosperity, it is much stronger than the Tianjin seen by the traversers.

Marseille looked left and right, and said: "Jiaozhou is so lively in the city, if this time the negotiation is not good, we will simply occupy this county, which is good, I think it is much better than Qingdao." ”

Ban Xiaowei said: "What is this, as long as we do it, we can take Jiaozhou City at any time, what else is there to talk about." ”

Wang Shengdao, who caught up from behind: "Now we have three cities in our hands, and both Tianjin and Qingdao are much better cities than Jiaozhou, but Tianjin has just been plundered by the Eight-Nation Alliance, and Qingdao has not yet developed, so there is no need to covet Jiaozhou anymore. However, if the county officials of Jiaozhou are not interesting and must oppose us, then you are welcome. ”

As the group talked, they walked down the street, sometimes taking a look at the shops or stopping to take pictures. It also attracted the attention of many passers-by and merchants, but fortunately there were two foreigners in their group, so no one dared to come up to disturb them, and only came to the door of the county government after about ten minutes.

However, seeing the appearance of the county government was greatly unexpected by the traverser. According to the idea of the traverser, in the old time and space, the county administrative buildings were all high-grade and high-grade, and most of them were the landmark buildings of a county, and although the county magistrate of this era was not big, he was also the lord of a county after all, and Jiaozhou was not a poor place, so the county government would not be too shabby. At least it should be the cornices and corners, the blue tile gray wall, the west of the stone ground, the vermilion lacquer gate, the copper ring and iron buckle, and there are two large stone lions on the left and right of the gate. Anyway, what you see in the film and television dramas of the old time and space is like this.

But the county government of Jiaozhou County is also very dilapidated, although the gate is vermilion, it is a pity that the door is peeled off and peeled off, many places are exposed to the wood color, the door knocker is made of iron, rusty, the eaves are also full of dust, and it is full of cobwebs, the high walls on both sides are also deep and shallow, and the surface is uneven and different, many places have been dusted, even the green bricks on the steps are missing several corners, it looks like the county government in the minds of the traveler is completely different, even the Wang family mansion is not as good.

Everyone stopped at the gate of the county office, and Rider exaggerated: "Are you sure this is the county office?"

Ma Raceway: "Why not, look at the words on it, it is clearly written." ”

Although the gold characters on the plaque under the eaves have faded, the words "county ya" are also clearly recognized.

Ban Xiaowei said: "From this point of view, this county official should be a clean official, otherwise the county government would not be so tattered." ”

Ma Race: "Qing officials are fart, the county yamen in this era are all so tattered, because this is the custom of officialdom, as long as the county yamen can't collapse, it will be used improvised, and it will definitely not be renovated, and when you look at the back hall of the county ya, you will know whether this county official is greedy or not." ”

At this time, Wang Sheng said: "Platoon leader, you go and hand our film." ”

Ban Xiaowei clicked and took out a piece of paper from his backpack, this is the name sticker that the traverser made up last night, of course, the name is overseas Chinese, but the words are written with Qingwen's help. Because at least in the traverser of Wangjiazhai, no one can write calligraphy. And Qingwen's grandfather was born in Xiucai, he learned to write when he was a child, and after entering the Wang family as a maid, he often helped Wang Kexing keep accounts and write notes, so although the calligraphy with one hand is not very good, it can also deal with it.

Ban Xiaowei took the sticker and walked up the steps of the county government gate in a few steps, the official guarding the gate had already noticed their group of people and immediately greeted them, but they didn't dare to despise the people, not only the people who came were dressed in Western clothes, but there were also two foreigners in their group, so they naturally had to wait carefully, so they owed a debt and said, "Is there something wrong?"