The Haihe River, which has just opened its river, still has ice floe on the river, and there are not many boats entering the channel at this time. Li Jing looked at the bleak scene on both sides of the ship from the bow of the boat.

Li Jing's fleet is very fast, and Li Jing is satisfied that the countercurrent can have this speed. During the Republic of China, the Haihe River was opened, and ships from all over the world were keen to compete for the glory of being the first to arrive at the Haihe Wharf in Tianjin, and the first ship of goods was generally auctioned off to celebrate. It's a pity that there is no one in this era, otherwise Li Jing will definitely be able to win the first place.

Li Jing and Chen Zhong summarized the frequency and physical consumption of manpower stampede, and the need for high-speed maneuvering during combat requires three shifts and 60 people in one hour, and the speed of rotation can reach 20 kilometers per hour. Usually and night boating, you can only use 10 people, slow pedaling, do not waste physical strength, change shifts every two hours, and the speed is about 10 kilometers. Each person can step for four hours and go to rest or do some other light job. When you can use schooner, you don't need to use manpower.

Before noon, I had already seen the city wall of Tianjin Wei from afar. Since the establishment of the city in 1404, Tianjin has rapidly risen to become a major commercial town by virtue of the dominant position of river-sea combined transport, and at the same time the economy has gradually become prosperous, Tianjin has also formed a unique regional culture.

In 1402, Zhu Di ascended the throne as the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, and the year name was "Yongle". In order to commemorate the "Land of Longxing" that began to send troops, Zhu Di gave the name of "Zhigu", which was once "the place where the Son of Heaven crossed the river". "Ten" means the Son of Heaven, while "Tsu" means ferry.

After Tianjin was given its name, a military department was set up in the same year. "Wei" was the military establishment of the Ming Dynasty. Tianjin Wei also began to build the city, the city of Tianjin at the beginning of the construction is actually an earthen city, the circumference of this earthen city is more than 9 miles, the city is 3 zhang 5 feet high, 2 zhang 5 feet wide, the shape of the city is long from east to west, short from north to south, very much like an abacus, so people also called it "abacus city" at that time. At that time, Tianjin had Tianjin Wei, Tianjin Left Wei, and Tianjin Right Wei, collectively referred to as the Three Wei. The word "Tianjin Wei", which is often mentioned by people so far, comes from this.

Tianjin's initial development began with the opening of the Grand Canal in the Sui Dynasty. After the middle of the Tang Dynasty, Tianjin became a land and water wharf for transporting grain and silk from the south to the north. In the Song and Jin dynasties, it was called "Zhigu Village", and in the Yuan Dynasty, it was renamed "Haijin Town", which was an important military town and a grain transshipment center.

Due to the business opportunities brought by Caoyun and the prosperity of the salt industry, Tianjin "prospered because of business" and became the largest commercial metropolis in northern China. "Jinmen Miscellaneous Records" said: "Tianjin has no fertile soil, and most of the people use Jia to make profits." "The Changlu Salt Farm is located in Tianjin, and it has one-tenth of the country's production until today. Tianjin is prosperous because of the salt industry and Cao Yun, and is a salt city like Yangzhou.

Li Jing has coveted the salt industry for a long time, Changlu is the largest salt field in the north, here is still mainly boiling salt, the efficiency is not high, this area is full of salt households along the coast, forming a salt village, poverty. At the same time, it is also the most chaotic area, and illegal salt is prevalent. The government doesn't collect much tax either.

Tianjin is different from Beijing, the main city of the Ming Dynasty was originally a wasteland, because the canal and the Haihe River converged here, initially just a garrison, used for coastal defense to protect Beijing, and later the canal turned here to go to Beijing Tongzhou, plus almost all the rivers in the north of Hebei converged into the sea here, known as the lower end of the nine rivers, became a transportation hub. A Grand Canal and a Dagu Mouth fed more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians in Tianjin.

In addition to the military and their families, here are the people who serve the soldiers. Like tailors, restaurants, doctors, pedicures, wharf coolies, etc., later there were a lot of handicraftsmen, and commerce developed because of convenient transportation.

If you continue to sail to Beijing, it is exactly the middle of the night, and you can't enter the city, so you just wander around Tianjin, start the boat at night, and arrive outside Chaoyang Gate in the early morning, Li Jing gets off the boat, and the boat goes to Jishuitan along the moat to anchor. Li Jing came back this time to go to the military headquarters to receive food, salaries, weapons, armor, and some firearms and gunpowder cannons. After rebuilding Nanao Town from the imperial court, Li Jing paid the silver himself, and this time he came to reimburse the expenses and receive military salaries and materials.

Although the aft room had gotten out of the six-pounder gun carriage, added a small iron stove, closed the gun window, and pasted the window cracks with strips of paper, it was still very simple. The aft compartment is only five meters wide and six meters long. Living is very inconvenient. Originally, they wanted to leave the four maids in Yingkou, but they had to quarrel to come to Tianjin Wei to play, but Li Jing had to bring them all.

The prosperous urban area of Tianjin in the Ming Dynasty was in the Sancha estuary area of the South Canal, including Silk Street, Guyi Street, Guodian Street, Needle Street, Liangdian Street, Qudian Street, Meat Market Street, Bamboo Pole Hutong and Doudian Hutong. The most prosperous is Guijia Hutong, where restaurants, theaters, teahouses, bathhouses, and green buildings are one after another. Nanshi is even more set up stalls to perform all kinds of juggling, storytelling, art, all kinds of snacks, Li Jing took Bai Yu and four maids, plus six personal soldiers, changed into ordinary people's clothes and first found a restaurant for a meal, this time it is a business trip, or it is better to keep a low profile.

"Young master, young master, what's so fun about Tianjin Weidu" Xiaozhu said coquettishly.

"Young master, what is there to eat in Tianjin Wei," Xiaolan also shook his arm and asked.

"Well, speaking of which, there are three treasures in Tianjin, namely the Bell Pavilion, the Drum Tower and the ,......" Li Jing suddenly remembered that the fort had not been repaired yet, and the fort in Tianjin City was repaired in the twelfth year of Chongzhen.

"What else," Mei asked, shaking her arm.

"Oops, how did I forget, forget it, let's go to the Bell Pavilion after eating, then go to the Drum Tower, and then go to Nanshi to watch juggling and eat snacks." Li Jing said.

"Yes, yes," the four maids cheered happily. Bai Yu couldn't help but smile bitterly, the young master is just too good at talking, and he is spoiled by his subordinates and his own family.

The bell pavilion was originally the Tibetan scripture pavilion of the ancient temple in the west of the old city, built in the seventh year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1579), because the eaves are out in all directions, the wind chimes are Ding Dong, commonly known as the bell pavilion.

Located in the northwest corner outside Tianjin County, the original name is Jigu Temple, built from the Tang Dynasty, and there is the whole volume of the Tripitaka in the temple.

In the seventh year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, (1579) built the Tibetan scripture pavilion, the heavy eaves came out in all directions, and it was very spectacular. The corner of the pavilion is equipped with wind chimes, the bell can be heard for several miles from afar, and the villagers call for the bell pavilion.

At this time, it has been rebuilt for less than 40 years, and it is still quite spectacular. Everyone played with satisfaction, and when they left, they told the abbot that they had given a hundred taels of silver. One hundred taels is a lot, and a peasant family's tax is less than two taels a year. A group of monks enthusiastically sent them out of the temple.

Then they came to the drum tower,

The Drum Tower in the Hongzhi period is the landmark building of the whole city, and it occupies the commanding heights of Tianjin. Everyone climbed high and looked into the distance, the whole Tianjin Wei was in full view, and the canal sails in the distance were like forests, and it was very lively.

The girls chattered and said, "Why doesn't the young master have a drum in this drum tower, why does there have a big bronze bell?"

"Is this strange, Tianjin's Drum Tower is actually a bell tower, but it's called the Drum Tower." Li Jing said.

When the city was built in the second year of Yongle in the Ming Dynasty (1404 AD), the Tianjin Acropolis was still only a soil enclosure, and it was only in the sixth or seventh year of Hongzhi (1493-1494) that the bricks were built into a brick city, and at the same time the city towers of the east, west, south and north four city gates and the corner towers of the four corners of the city were built.

The Drum Tower, located in the center of the city, was also built at that time and was named the Bell and Drum Tower. This bell and drum tower is three stories high, the first floor at the bottom of the building, is a square platform made of bricks, wide at the bottom and narrow at the top, there are four arched door openings, and the four main streets of east and west, north and south are passed. On this platform, two floors were built. The first floor is dedicated to Guanyin Master, Our Lady of the Queen of Heaven, and Guan Yu Yue Fei. On the second floor of the building, there is an iron bell weighing 300 pounds. "Legend has it that there are bells and drums in the drum tower, but when the drum was moved out, it was called the 'Drum Tower'.

Coming out of the drum tower to Nanshi, there are a lot of people here, shoulder to shoulder, all the women are chattering around Li Jing and talking about the strangeness of the drum tower, suddenly there is a horse-faced man on the opposite side squeezed over from the opposite side, bumped Li Jing, Li Jing was just about to speak, and four or five men on the opposite side squeezed over again.

Li Jing suddenly felt that something was wrong, and when he touched his arms, it was terrible, there were ten silver tickets of fifty taels in his arms and a thin account book voucher that went to Beijing to go to the military department for reimbursement wrapped in silk, and one piece was lost.

Seeing Li Jing suddenly stop, Bai Yu hurriedly caught up and said, "Young Master, what's wrong?"

"The ledger and the silver ticket were lost," Li Jing said.