Liu Guanshan embarked on the road again.

Two days ago, a piece of paper from the imperial court was delivered to his small village by the post officer. "I heard that Liu Kanshan, a member of the village, was conscientious and well-governed, so he was sent south to wait for the dispatch."

In this way, Liu Guanshan went back to Zhongxing City, which had been vacated, said goodbye to his parents and sisters, and left home without looking back.

It's not that he's obsessed, it's that he can't bear to look at it anymore.

After traveling dozens of miles to the south, we arrived at a ferry port, where a large fleet of boats was already waiting.

Myanmar has rainy summers, so there are thatched huts next to the pier. There were a number of young men sitting in the hut dressed in the same clothes as Liu Guanshan, some of whom were promoted from the local Han Chinese, and some of whom showed the characteristics of soldiers. The two groups of people sat in two separate rows in the shed, but there was some occasional communication.

"In Xia Liu Kanshan, he is a small village official near Zhongxing. I'm going to walk with you today, and I ask you to take care of me. Liu Kanshan consciously greeted everyone.

"Today? I've been waiting here for two days, and this ship has come in waves, but we won't be allowed to get on board. ”

A black-faced man grinned.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I asked the officer guarding the ferry, and he said that there were many bandits on both sides of the strait, so we had to wait for the gunboats to escort them."

"In that case, it's good to be safe."

The black-faced man was about to complain, but he saw a gunboat with the sun and moon flag floating in the distance, followed by several warships that also carried cannons.

Liu Kanshan knew almost nothing about military affairs, but counted the numbers curiously: there were four ships and eight guns in the escort fleet.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please get on board."

Before the post man could finish speaking, the old pawn on the side rushed over and gave him a brain crash on the spot. "You elm head! The ticket was not issued, and he dared to let people on the ship? ”

The little official cried and mourned, covered his head and suddenly realized.

"I'll do it for you this time, if it's like this next time, I lose my job, and you don't want to eat imperial food!"

"Let the officials smile," the old man poured out a pile of bamboo chips with words written on them from the bag with a smile on his face. "Please take a ticket for each person and get on the boat according to the text on the ticket."

Everyone lined up to receive bamboo chips, carried luggage, and stepped on the pedals to get on the boat. As soon as he got on the boat, Liu Guanshan smelled a bad smell, and he couldn't help but cover his nose with his hands.

"Don't dislike it, sir, our boat is clean on this river. The villain had seen the Burmese warships and the Han merchant ships, but the deck was in a mess. ”

Liu Kanshan only responded a few times, but did not take it seriously. He showed the waiter the bamboo chips, and the servant led him to a small room in the cabin.

There were two beds in the room, and it was obvious that Liu Kanshan had to walk with people on the road.

Carefully inspecting the damp room once, except for a slight smell, there were no other problems, and it was much cleaner than most houses he had seen.

"Squeak", the door was pushed open, and it was the black-faced man who walked into the room.

"What a coincidence, we're meeting here again."

The black-faced man smiled and arched his hand: "Yes, fate." But I don't know where my brother is from? ”

These people on board are all small officials from all over the world, and most of those who can be sent to the south will be reused, so naturally this black-faced man wants to know the potential stocks.

For Liu Kanshan, this big man is also a potential stock. "Down there is the Zhongxing Mansion people."

"My name is Wang Qinian, I am from Guangxi, thousands of miles away from here."

"Oh? Brother Qi Nian is a mainlander? According to this dress, Liu Kanshan was sure that this person must and must have no words, so he called him by his name.

"Yes, I came out of the ranks called the one who changed jobs. When he was at home before, in order to eat enough, he joined the army of King Jin, and served as a soldier all the way to eat food and kill Tartars, and escorted His Majesty to Burma. ”

Hearing it, there was a little pride in Wang Qinian's words.

"Brother Qi Nian is loyal to the country, forgetting his life and forgetting death, and he admires it a lot."

"If you eat the emperor's food, you naturally have to work hard for the emperor. There is nothing to admire. ”

The two lay in the hammock and talked, exchanging experiences with each other. Wang Qinian has a low level of education, only barely knows a few hundred words, and the amount of reading is pitiful; Liu Guanshan, on the other hand, has lived in Zhongxing City since he was a child and has never seen what the world outside the city is like. The two have their own strengths and weaknesses, but there is no shortage of topics. Liu Kanshan praised Wang Qinian for being well-informed, and Wang Qinian praised Liu Kanshan for being full of economy. The two seemed to have become friends in an instant.

"Brother Liu, before I left my seat, I received a booklet. There are two kinds of messy ghost drawings on it, the first one I probably know is a Burmese character, but the second one I haven't seen before. Wang Qinian took out a booklet made of yellow paper that he had handcopied from his baggage.

"Will there be a word on the front of the pamphlet explaining the meaning?"

"That's right, but I can't read the words. My brother will help me take a look. ”

Liu Guanshan took the pamphlet and read it out: "Burma has been destroyed, and all its land has been returned to Huangming." I was supposed to do things like books and cars on the same track, so that the Burmese people could also talk about Sinicization. But although Myanmar is small, there are two million people, so the Burmese people lose the Burmese dialect and speak the sinicization, and it cannot be completed in ten years. But Burmese characters are really hard to understand and difficult to write. In order to facilitate the military and civilians to master the Burmese language, a set of new Burmese characters has been specially compiled..."

The rest of the content is divided into three rows, the first row is Burmese (Brahmi alphabet), the second row is Hangul, and the third row is Chinese character phonetics. Listening to Liu Guanshan's speech, Wang Qinian quickly understood the meaning of the booklet. "Yes, I don't know who invented this word, it is very flat and vertical, much better than the twisted hemp rope character in Burma."

"I think so too."

"What's down and down, we're brothers." Wang Qinian patted Liu Guanshan on the shoulder.

"It seems that I want to change my words, this kind of person doesn't like those kind words."

"Yes, yes."

Wang Qinian took out the wine and meat to share with Liu Kanshan. The wine is a low-alcohol rice wine, and the meat is the common buffalo meat, but it is also a very good meal. Liu Kanshan was born in the city and studied at home all day long, where is there any opportunity to touch wine? After a short time, he was put down by Wang Qinian.

Seeing Liu Kanshan sleeping groggily in the hammock, Wang Qinian cleaned up the table, and took out the pamphlet and read it slowly. In the dream, he faintly heard this passage:

"The reason why I tried my best to promote you to officials is that I can still watch you in the future. It's because you have been tested and are loyal ministers of the Ming Dynasty. However, there are not many of you who are even familiar with writing and ink, and even if I want to grant you an official position, it will be difficult for me to hand over the weight of the imperial court to the illiterate... But if you can read and hyphenate and understand the documents of the imperial court, I can make you serve as the order of any county..."