Chapter 133 The mountain rain is coming, and the wind is full of buildings

On the sixth day of the fifth month of the seventeenth year of Jiading of the Great Song Dynasty (May 25, 1224), just after the dragon boat race of the Dragon Boat Festival, Yu Zhu, who won the championship in the dragon boat race, got up in the early morning and washed his face with the water in the water pipe.

When he left Tamsui to go on an expedition, Tamsui did not have such running water, and it was only in the past few years that a water system was built to facilitate the lives of the growing number of citizens and the convenience of water for various workshops. The main pipe of the water is a terracotta pipe, about 25 centimeters in diameter, sealed with cement on the outside, and then buried in the ground. Divided into each household is the pottery pipe and iron pipe used together, there is a live bolt at the water outlet, twist loose live tie can be released water - this is Ou Laogen made a gadget in his spare time, and there is no guidance of Zhao and Ju, he also applied for a patent with the psychology of trying, so that it has become the first monopoly since the publication of the patent case, this gadget is manufactured by Keelung's hardware equipment field, who wants to install this, must pay a considerable amount of pipe laying fees, water pipe fees, installation of this live bolt faucet of course also have to pay, And half of this expense after deducting the cost belongs to Ou Laogen. For Ou Laogen, who has one of the highest salaries in Tamsui today, this amount of money is almost nothing, but for an ordinary worker who has just settled in Tamsui, this money is almost half of his entire income.

Yu Zhu shook his head, looked at his face in the mirror, grinned, and showed a mouthful of teeth.

He put a random piece of clothing on his body, turned back to the bed and shouted, "I'm leaving." ”

"Come back early......" The female voice on the bed murmured, and then the quilt was pulled away, and the woman sat up: "Ah, I am going to sea today, don't worry, the slave will make breakfast for you......"

"You sleep, don't worry about it, I'll go to the cafeteria to eat." Yu Zhu beckoned: "It's still early." ”

He pushed the door open, and the sun shone on his eyes, causing him to squint. Looking at the people rushing to work on the street, he looked slightly in a trance, although half a year has passed, he is still a little uncomfortable with this kind of life.

After leaving Tianci Port, the expedition first went south along the coast and arrived near what was later called Changchang, where it disembarked. It is the capital of the Kingdom of Chimu, the largest adobe city in the world, with more than 20,000 inhabitants, and they are friendly to explorers, especially the silk, porcelain and glass brought by them, which are extremely popular here. Through the natives of this place, they finally collected all the seeds they needed, and at the same time exchanged them for a large amount of gold. After about four months of rest and replenishment in Changchang, everyone set sail again, with the help of ocean currents (Peruvian cold current, southern equatorial warm current) and southeast trade winds, they passed through a series of archipelago (later Polynesian islands), and finally discovered the "new continent" marked by Zhao and Ju in June.

The "Ban Chao" was stranded in Xinzhou when it encountered a strong wind, and at that time Yu Zhu was on the "Ban Chao", and the sudden, never-before-seen huge wind and waves pushed the ship more than ten zhang high, and sometimes fell from mid-air. Yu Zhu saw with his own eyes that the two sailors were swept away directly from the deck by the huge waves, and the remaining sailors had to tie themselves to the boat with cables. They tried to find a harbor to shelter from the storm, and in the process, the Banchao was thrown onto the reef by a huge wave, and soon found a huge crack in the bottom of the ship, and the ship sank rapidly. After throwing the life-saving sampan behind, the sampan was swept away by the waves in an instant. The other three boats also struggled in the wind and waves, unable to get close to the rescue in time, and finally the captain Deng Zhen was not afraid of danger, personally turned the rudder, and drove the boat onto the beach - but unfortunately he himself disappeared into the waves.

After the wind calmed down, the losses were counted, and half of the crew of the "Banchao" was lost, and the remaining half were all wounded, and the remaining three ships also suffered casualties, which was the largest loss suffered by the expedition team since it set sail. The "Ban Chao" could no longer be repaired, so they had to abandon the ship and use small sampans to transfer the cargo on the "Ban Chao" to the rest of the ships.

The storm caused them to stay in Xinzhou for 20 days, to dry the wet cargo, to recuperate the wounded seafarers, and to replenish the ships with fresh water.

The sound of the waves and the wind seemed to be still ringing in his ears, Yu Zhu closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and when he opened his eyes again, his face was full of bright smiles.

Half of the gold and silver they brought back belonged to their own family, so almost all of them became rich—otherwise, with Yu Zhu's salary, they would not be able to afford their current house or install running water. Most of them got married after returning to Liuqiu, and the things about Dongshengzhou and Xinzhou became a topic of conversation along with their wealth. Even the families of those who died during the expedition received a generous allowance enough for their surviving families to live a decent life in Tamsui .

"Old bamboo!"

Walking in such a peaceful and rapid city, Yu Zhu felt extremely relaxed, and when he heard the shouting, he turned around, and Li Rui's straight uniform appeared in front of him.

"Cut!" Yu Zhu snorted a little dissatisfied, this kid wore this dress all day long and dangled in front of his house, as if he was afraid that his family would not know that he was now in an important position. However, thinking that this kid is still crowded into the apartment with others, Yu Zhu's heart is balanced: "At least at this point, he can't catch up with his own family." ”

"Lao Zhu, I heard that you are going to sea again?"

"After a break for half a year, it's time to go out for a walk." Yu Zhu said with a smile.

"Where are you going?" The two chatted while walking, and after asking this question, Li Rui hurriedly said: "If it's confidential, don't say it." ”

"It's just going to Luzon Mayi, and then to Sulu." Yu Zhu pursed his lips: "It's close, it's close!" ”

The ostentation in his words is such that even a fool can hear it. Li Rui smiled, but he was quite envious: "I told you that it was very close, and I circled the ocean, where did I take the ten-day voyage in my eyes!" ”

Yu Zhu's trip south this time was for the seeds he brought back from Dongshengzhou.

In the past six months, more than 50,000 immigrants have been immigrants, nearly half of whom are women sent from the Japanese country and other places, so the problem of manpower restricting the development of the flow has been eased somewhat. In addition, Goryeo was too busy to take care of itself, and it was impossible to organize an attack on Tamna, so the use of Dongseongju seeds to develop Luzon and Sulu was put on the agenda.

The expedition brought a large number of seeds from Dongshengzhou, among which the seeds known as corn were the largest, weighing 20,000 catties. The rest of the seeds, the few are a few hundred catties, and the most are more than five thousand catties, such as the tuber roots called Zhao and Ju. There are relatively few rubber seeds, there are more than 500 catties, in order to prevent accidents, these seeds are scattered, and each ship has some of them, so the distress of the "Ban Chao" did not have much impact on the seeds.

Now these seeds have been planted in the selected land, because they are planted for the first time, they can only be planted according to the agricultural book prepared by Zhao and Ju in advance.

The seeds brought from Dongshengzhou include corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkins and other important food crops, as well as peanuts and sunflowers that can be used to extract oil, as well as peppers, tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables, and naturally there are also important cash crops such as sisal, rubber, cinchona and upland cotton. What can be sown in freshwater has now been planted, and when Yu Zhu walked out of the Tamsui City Gate and came to the road leading to the port, these plants were planted on both sides of the road.

"Today's dock is very lively again, you are going to Nanyang, and there are still people going to Hanging Island." Li Rui pointed to the field and said, "Look, the pumpkin you brought has bloomed." ”

As Li Rui said, it is not only Yu Zhu who went to sea today, but also a team of people who have quietly boarded the ship as early as early in the morning. There were about 100 of them, all of them in the oppressive cargo hold, and none of them came out to ventilate, let alone speak.

The leader of this group of people is Xing Zhiyuan, when Zhao and Ju were in the guard, Long Twelve stayed by his side, Qin Dashi was incognito, Wang Qinian went to Tamluo, and Xing Zhiyuan stayed in Tamsui. He and the most elite personnel selected from the Liuqiu Escort Team together formed this unit that Li Yunrui called the "secret camp". These people were originally strong soldiers, and they practiced hard for several years according to Zhao and Ju's training manuals, and after the Battle of Tamna, they were sent out in turn to infiltrate the Red Jacket Army, the Jin Kingdom, and Goryeo, to conduct secret operations and accumulate actual combat experience. Their fighting style is completely different from that of ordinary soldiers, and each of them must be proficient in traps, traps, and explosives with gunpowder.

Most of them remained in Tamsui, ready to strike.

Yesterday, Li Yunrui received a secret order from Lin'an, and early this morning, these people got on the boat.

This ship is the exclusive clipper of the Liuqiu Coast Guard, the capacity is not high, but the speed of the ship is extremely fast, and it takes six to seven days for a normal merchant ship to reach the hanging island, while this ship takes four days. After going to the Hanging Island, they found that they had nothing to do, no new instructions, they could only stay on the Hanging Island, until August, the first batch of them took the Great Song Sea ship that Meng Xisheng had already prepared, sailed directly to Lin'an by water, and then stayed in his "Wulin Inn" under Qin Dashi's answer.

Immediately afterwards, Wang Yu and Xing Zhiyuan, who were ordered to come to cover, took more than 60 people and also took the sea route to transport a large number of goods into Lin'an.

Zhang Xingpei held a clay pot, pulled a maza, sat on the dock, and looked around leisurely.

Looking at the bitter porters who were begging for a living on the docks, he had a strong sense of superiority in his heart.

A year ago, like these people, he was poor, and he had hardly fulfilled his happiness for half his life. He had tried his best to climb up, in his early years he was studying hard, hoping to become famous in one fell swoop, but the result was disappointed, and then he had a business, Zhong Ni could not do Tao Zhu Gong is not bad, the result is still disappointed, in the face of the creditor who chased the debt, he relied on his thin body to drill the dog hole to escape, and it was easy to get some books, to do a bitter businessman, and met a thief in Jinghu, not only did he have no last hope, but he also had to succumb to the thief in order to survive. Even when he was a bandit, he was not lucky, and the following year he had to jump into the water to escape because of the encirclement and suppression of officers and soldiers.

At that time, he wanted to enter the Qunying Club to eat an overlord meal, even if he was beaten to death, he didn't expect to find out that after he ate the overlord meal, he was directly taken to see Huo Chongcheng. Seeing that he was quite courageous and literate and could count, Huo Chongcheng recruited him as an account room. For more than a year, he was cautious, and he was even trusted by Huo Chongcheng, and today Huo Chongcheng couldn't come to the dock because he had something to do, so he sent him.

He didn't know the real purpose of his trip, he only knew that he was here to ask for Wang Yu, a maritime merchant. Wang Yu basically has to come to Lin'an once or twice a year, so he also knows him.

However, when he saw Wang Yu this time, he felt a little strange, Wang Yu was calm and calm, and the men and entourage around him couldn't see anything unusual. But Zhang Xingpei is alert by nature, and he still feels that there seems to be something wrong with this guy and the sailor.

It's not that they are too young, but they are too silent, if ordinary sailors come to a big city like Lin'an, they will not be frightened and laughing, they also see, from the eyes of many people, it can be seen that they are coming to Lin'an for the first time. But Zhang Xingpei never saw them talk to each other about it from beginning to end.

Zhang Xingpei's heart moved, and he asked tentatively: "Wang Daguan is begging, he must be a great son of a family, right?" ”

Wang Yu smiled and said, "How do you know? ”

Hearing that he never denied it, Zhang Xingpei put down half of his doubts in his heart, and said with a smile: "Not to mention that Wang Daguan is extraordinary, it is definitely not something that can be raised by a small family like a villain, it is Guijie, who is also shrewd and strong, and has extremely strict rules." ”

Wang Yu heard this and glanced back at the people who were following him, and then squeezed his eyes at Xing Zhiyuan, Xing Zhiyuan was a little annoyed, they came to Lin'an to do great things, but they didn't expect to go ashore, and they were seen by a small tent that something was wrong.

Fortunately, in this tent, he is Huo Chongcheng's cronies, and he can be regarded as his own person.

"My family is begging, but it's just middle and upper, but the rules are strict, it's really as you said." Wang Yu said with a smile: "The children of the family all live in a distant country, and they have never seen the scene of Lin'an, the capital of the country, and they are dumbfounded, but they make you laugh." ”

Zhang Xingpei said with a smile: "How dare the villain laugh at it, Wang Daguan is here, please here, the place where your family stays has already been arranged, and it is in the West Hotel of Chaiduoqiao." ”

After settling these people, Zhang Xingpei still said goodbye with a smile, and then hurried back to the "Heroes Meeting", after Huo Chongcheng came back from his errands, he pulled Huo Chongcheng to a secluded house.

"Boss, this is not the right situation." He squinted his eyes and said, "That maritime merchant Wang Yu, I see that he is not a good person." ”

Huo Chongcheng was taken aback, whether Wang Yu was good or not, he knew best, so his face changed: "How do you know?" ”

Zhang Xingpei sneered: "The appearance of his own family must be from a family member, but today I saw his entourage, all of them walking exactly the same, although they intended to spread out, but the size of each person's steps was of average length." His fingers were calloused, and his joints were so coarse that if he was just doing rough work, he shouldn't be everywhere on his body. And these people didn't say a word, maybe the villain was suspicious, and always felt that if the villain was a little different, they would break the villain's neck......"

When he said this, his heart suddenly jumped, Huo Chongcheng had a friendship with that Wang Yu again, and sent him to pick him up, could it be ......

Huo Chongcheng stared at him, and a smile slowly appeared on the corner of his mouth: "Very good." ”

Zhang Xingpei never thought that as the people he picked up entered the city, Lin'an, and even the Great Song Dynasty, would usher in a violent storm.

Note 1: According to the Song Dynasty Hongmai's "Yi Jianzhi", Quanzhou maritime merchant Yang Ke "learned the goods, placed the owner of Jianying Street, Tang Weng's house, and lived in the West Hotel of Chaiduoqiao. ”