If you don't go out to sea once, you don't know the vastness of the sea; If you don't take a sea boat once, you don't know how uncomfortable it is to get seasick at sea.

In the first few days when he went to sea, not to mention Ren Yu'er and Cuihua, even Datou, Chen Hu and Ji Daji were so seasick that they almost vomited out the yellow bile, and Han Xiufeng vomited so much that the whole person collapsed, and he didn't recover until the sixth day, and he didn't know how it was this year.

Finally had the opportunity to refer to the "Qi Fighting Machine" in detail, Han Xiufeng naturally wanted to see it clearly, and after relieving himself, he was not afraid of the jokes of Captain Citi and Citi sailors, so he squatted on the edge of the huge iron lump from morning to night, and even stood up to help the Citi sailors add charcoal to the stove, or help the ashes in the furnace, making him disgraced every day.

After looking at it for a few days, I finally saw a little way, and found that the foreigners' "qi machine" is not a demonic skill, and it is not so miraculous as the people, to put it bluntly, it is a sealed cauldron cast of fine iron, there is water in the cauldron, and the water is constantly boiled by the fire, and the water vapor is then put on top of the pot lid.

However, it is not so easy to make this iron lump, especially those iron pipes that ventilate and ventilate water and the iron arms of the mechanism made of fine iron, one after the other, interlocking, not only to be strong, but also to be the size of the point.

Thinking that even if he hired the best blacksmith, he might not be able to create it, Han Xiufeng didn't want to bother with this or that anymore, and he came up with the idea of a foreign gun on the ship. asked Su Jueming, who had just recovered from his recovery, to take the interpreter to bargain with the Citi sailors, and when he arrived in Tianjin, he not only bought all the sailors' foreign guns, but even the handcuffs of the Citi captain, first mate and boatswain went to Datou, Chen Hu and Ji Daji.

In addition to the guns, there were several large barrels of gunpowder on the ship, the horn pots used by the sailors to hold gunpowder, the leather boxes for lead, and even the guy who melted the lead was surnamed Han. As long as Han Xiufeng wants to buy it, Captain Citi is willing to sell even the few cannons on the ship.

Counting the two Citi sailors I bought with the two Citi sailors when I first arrived in Shanghai a few years ago, I already had forty-three firebird guns, six handcuffs and four firebird guns with rifling in the barrel as the foreigners say.

It is very troublesome to load rifled shotguns, and they have to use a small wooden hammer to gently smash the lead into the barrel, but after Datou and Chen Hu put a few shots, they found that although this kind of gun is more expensive, although it is troublesome to load, it is really far and accurate!

In short, although I suffered a little along the way, this hardship was not in vain, and I bought at least dozens of foreign guns.

It's just that when I arrived in Tianjin, I encountered some trouble, Tianjin is not Shanghai, let alone Hong Kong and Macao, there is no open port, foreign ships not only can not dock in the port but also can not dock too close, if they are forced to dock like this, God knows what will happen.

At first, I was planning to find a fishing boat or sand boat to ferry, but it was the Spring Festival, and I waited for a day on the sea not far from an estuary, but I didn't wait for a boat. Captain Citi waited impatiently, and simply took advantage of the fact that the tide began to rise at dusk, lowered the dinghy and let the sailors row to quietly carry everyone ashore.

There were only two dinghies, and there were not many people on the dinghy, not to mention so much luggage, guns, and gunpowder, and they tossed back and forth seven or eight times until it was dark.

It was dark and they couldn't walk, let alone hire a car, and they couldn't find anyone in the dark land, so everyone froze on the beach for a night, and it wasn't until noon the next day that Su Jueming and Chen Hu hired four big cars from nearby......

It is said that Lin Fengxiang and Li Kaifang have been killed in Tianjin, Han Xiufeng naturally did not dare to stay in Tianjin for a long time, although there were official documents from the Ministry of Officials and the Ministry of War, he did not dare to go to the post station, so he walked and asked, and finally arrived outside the Xuanwu Gate on the afternoon of the 23rd day of the first month.

The gun can't be brought into the capital, in case it is found by the Five Cities Soldiers and Horses, it will be a head, Han Xiufeng asked Su Jueming to settle the money with the coachman, and was planning to find an inn for Chen Hu and Ji Daji and others to live in first, but the tax collector of Chongwenmen actually took a few tax collectors who didn't know where they came from.

"This master, where are you coming from and where are you going?" The tax collector asked with the ledger and motioned to several tax collectors to search the luggage that had just been unloaded from the cart.

Where did Han Xiufeng dare to let them turn over, looked at them with a smile and said, "This official is ordered to return to Beijing." ”

The tax collector hurriedly handed over the account book to the tax collector beside him, bowed down first, and then arched his hand: "Dare to ask the lord's surname, how many grades of official residence, and what position do you hold?" ”

It was not in vain to be in the capital for more than a year, Han Xiufeng did not answer his question, but looked at them with a smile and said, "You don't remember me, I remember you." If I'm not mistaken, how many of you have worked as errands under Fugui, right? ”

"Master Han, do you know the rich man?"

"Not only do I know the rich, but I also know Qian San, I know Zhang Lao Liu, where are Qian San and Zhang Lao Liu on an errand now?"

The tax collector was happy, looked back at a few of his subordinates, and asked again: "Master Han, since you know the rich man, do you know where the rich man is now?" ”

Han Xiufeng dusted off his body and said with a smile: "He is now the assistant committee member of Yangzhou Guan, his brother-in-law Jinghua you must know him, Jinghua is better than him, he has already become the boss, and we also had a meal together a few years ago." ”

"Master Han, you even recognize Jinghua, it's really a big flood that washed the Dragon King Temple, and the family doesn't know the family!"

The more a tax collector looked at Han Xiufeng, the more familiar he felt, and when he saw the big head squeezing over from behind, he suddenly remembered who Han Xiufeng was, and couldn't help laughing: "Fourth master, it's really you!" Fifth brother, the fourth master is really not an outsider! ”

"Do you recognize Master Han?" The tax collector will be skeptical.

"I recognize, Han Siye of Chongqing Hall, the rich man didn't have the silver to make up for the vacancy back then, it was the money that the fourth master made up for the rich man's tattered yard under the main plate!"

"I forgot about this little thing, I didn't expect you to remember it," Han Xiufeng walked over and patted the tax collector on the shoulder, and immediately turned around and gave Su Jueming a look, Su Jueming suddenly relieved himself and hurriedly took out the door bag that had been prepared earlier from the blanket.

"A little heart, my brother has everything, don't be polite to me, if anyone is polite to me, they just don't treat me as their own." Han Xiufeng took a stack of door bags and distributed them, and said with a smile: "I understand the rules for entering the city, how can I not embarrass my brothers, it's just that I originally did a good job in Songjiang Mansion, but I offended the villain in a daze, was impeached, and was taken from office." Now that I have a job and no job, I don't know how to pay the tax for entering the city. ”

"Fourth master, what you said made us all ...... I'm embarrassed. Otherwise, you can look at it and give as much as you want. ”

"No, no, no, everything has to be according to the rules, I can't let you fail to pay."

"Fourth Master, didn't you slap us in the face?"

"One yard to one yard, it's not easy for you." Han Xiufeng walked to Su Jueming's side, took out four ingots of silver from his coat, and turned around and said, "It should be about the same as paying two hundred taels like me, if it's not enough, just ask." In short, you can't lose your job because of this. ”

"Enough is enough, fourth master, two hundred taels is enough, I'll give you a ticket."

"What kind of tax stamps are issued on such a cold day, hurry up and find a place to bake a fire, warm a pot of wine, and warm your body. It's time for me to go into town, and I don't know if I'll be able to get an errand. ”

"Look at what you said, Fourth Master, if you haven't been impeached these years, you're embarrassed to tell others that you're an official, which is called being a mediocre person if you don't get envied. I bet you'll be reinstated in a few days! ”

"To borrow your auspicious words, if there is really that day, I will invite a few brothers to have a drink."

……

sent away a group of debt collectors, found an inn for Chen Hu, Ji Daji and others to settle down, and confirmed that the guns were hidden, so Han Xiufeng hired a car to take Datou, Su Jueming, Ren Yuer, and Cuihua into the city.

The female dependents can't stay in the hall, Han Xiufeng didn't plan to take Ren Yu'er and Cuihua into the city, but thinking that Cuihua is now the fiancée of Datou, since she can't help but bring her over to let Huang Zhongyin and Ji Yunfei and other fellow villagers take a look at it when she arrives in the capital, not to mention that Datou has bragged to her about how familiar she is with the capital along the way, and she has said that she wants to take her into the city to see the world, so she can only bring it, and she can't bring Cuihua without Ren Yu'er.

As expected, the two of them came to the capital for the first time, and they were really curious, sitting in the car and looking around, but they seemed to be a little disappointed.

Ren Yu'er felt like she was dreaming, and muttered, "Fourth brother, is this the capital?" ”

"That's it, what's wrong?"

Ren Yu'er didn't dare to look at it anymore, covered her nose and said: "The capital is where the emperor lives, how can the place where the emperor lives be so dirty!" ”

The road was full of feces and urine, but fortunately it was cold, and if it was summer, it would be stinky.

Han Xiufeng also subconsciously covered his nose, and just as he didn't know how to explain, the big head sitting next to the coachman turned around and said: "The capital is like this, the capital is a big dung pit!" ”

"Shanghai is much cleaner than here, and even Taizhou is cleaner than Beijing." Su Jueming couldn't help but say.

In front of the coachman, Han Xiufeng didn't want to say that southerners love cleanliness better than northerners, so he could only say perfunctorily: "It's good to get used to it, and then you can sit in the car again, and you don't need to go." ”

"Yes, my fourth brother and I used to be willing to hire a car, no matter what we went out to do, we had to go, every time we went back to the hall from outside, we had to change our shoes, and sometimes we even had to change our pants!" The big head looked at the familiar and somewhat unfamiliar street, thought about it and said, "It's okay this day, it's not snowing." If there is a heavy snowfall next, then the road is called difficult to walk. ”

Su Jueming was not interested in these things, and couldn't help but ask, "Fourth Master, why did you give so much silver to the tax collector just now?" ”

"Is it much?"

"Two hundred taels is not much!"

"It's really not much, speaking of which, people are already very face-saving, if you don't have acquaintances like me, don't want to go into the city without paying five or six hundred taels."

"What kind of rules are they, and why do they want so much?" Su Jueming asked puzzled.

Han Xiufeng said with a smile: "Don't look at them as officials, but they are helping the emperor collect taxes, the bigger the officials, the more they collect, and it is difficult to entangle, even the governor has a headache when he sees them." ”