nbsp; It was getting dark, and fewer and fewer parishioners came to East Street.

The banquet that had been serving wine since noon was now coming to an end, and one by one the parishioners were hooking their shoulders and spewing their mouths full of wine from the Qingfeng Building, laughing and walking past Huang Yuanchang.

The banquet in the bamboo huts on both sides of the building ended earlier, and most of the people who ate in the bamboo huts were some parishioners who were greedy for cheapness, and the parishioners who really had some power and ability were invited into the Qingfeng Building.

From the afternoon at both ends of East Street, there were many horse-drawn carriages with black sheds.

Vehicles are scattered along the entire avenue on both sides of the intersection leading to the various roads.

There were three or four strong men standing on the side of the Wupeng carriage, and as long as the others looked at the carriage twice, these people always glared back with vicious eyes, so that the ordinary people who passed by these carriages hurriedly avoided their eyes and hurriedly walked past the side.

But as long as the parishioners came out of the Qingfeng Building, these people immediately changed their faces as if they saw their ancestors, and one by one they were humble like slaves, nodding and rushing over, and three or four people were bargaining, and after a while, they invited one by one the parishioners to the car, and then as soon as the horsewhip sounded, the big cart rushed into the distance.

I don't know where I went around, and the carriage of the incense stick turned back from Xin, and the people passing by on the street looked at them coldly.

Before the gate in the east of the city was about to be closed, the big shopkeeper of Rui Shengxiang, a big merchant in the city, and the shopkeeper Liu personally ran over and begged to say that there were still more than a dozen truckloads of goods outside the city that had not been transported in, hoping to delay for a while, and then gave a reward of fifty eagles.

In this way, Han Guangding, the petty official guarding the city gate, was the main city gate privately, but half of the gate was closed, anyway, it is a peaceful year, and there is nothing wrong with closing the city gate this night, not to mention that there are still fifty eagles?

This Eagle Ocean is really a good thing, who can get along with silver, isn't it?

Han Guangding took out thirty pieces of Ying Yang from his sleeve cage and distributed them to his brothers. That won a lot of praise from the brothers, and he was a little embarrassed to compliment him one by one, and hurriedly scolded with a smile: "Look at it carefully, wait for a while, and wait for the big convoy of Shopkeeper Liu to pass the gate of the city." ”

It was completely dark, and Han Guangding was a little anxious, why hadn't this shopkeeper Liu's big convoy arrived yet?

I was thinking about whether to send someone to ask in Liu's shopkeeper's shop, when I saw dozens of Wupeng carriages coming from the side of Dongdajie, and one by one strong men rushed towards the city gate with whips and carriages, and the frightened Han Guangding hurriedly stood in front of the city gate with a knife in his hand and shouted: "Stop, stop, don't you see the city gate closed?" Hurry back. ”

The soldiers with low hands also reacted at this time, pulled out their waist knives one by one, rushed to the city gate with them, and stood behind Han Guangding with their waist knives, looking at these black shed carriages nervously.

I saw a carriage at the head of the car stop a few meters away from me.

A little white face full of sleepiness came out of the curtain, opened his mouth and didn't speak, first yawned a big and then said impatiently: "What's the matter, the third child!" Reward! After saying that, the curtain shook and the man shrank back again.

Han Guangding, who was watching, wanted to draw a knife and go over, to take a good look at what kind of immortal it was, why such a big spectrum, he didn't even see the person's face clearly, and the person shrank back.

But before he could move, he saw the handlebar of the car pushing the horsewhip in his hand into the wheel, jumped off the wheel neatly, shook a long scar on his face and said, "The master said that he rewarded you, and then." After speaking, he stuffed a silver ticket into Li Han Guangding's hand, and then didn't even lift his eyelids, turned around and sat on the wheel again.

Han Guang was so angry that he just wanted to draw his knife and ask him, what was the fairy there, and he was like this to himself and others, but when he looked down at the silver ticket in his hand, he was immediately stupid, if it wasn't for a pawn under his command who pushed it, he didn't know how long he would be stunned, but he saw that the big mouth of the horse of the carriage that hit the head was about to rush into his arms, and he was so frightened that he hurriedly jumped back and shouted loudly: "It's all out of the way, it's all out of the way, adults want to get out of the city, hurry up and get out of the way." ”

A group of soldiers saw that the horses were about to rush to Han Guangding's face, thinking that he was going to send a message to ask them to stop the vehicle, but who knew that they were in a hurry to dodge away and let the convoy out of the city.

The remaining twenty or so black cars rushed out of the city gate one by one, and then turned around and ran into the pipe, disappearing from everyone's sight after a while.

When those vehicles were far away, these soldiers reacted, and surrounded Han Guangding one by one hoping that he would give an explanation, after all, today's matter is too evil, who are these black shed carriages! Why was he so happy to leave the city without even checking it.

Han Guangding saw that the soldiers and braves were all around, and said hehe: "Everyone is rich, today I went out to meet the God of Wealth, everyone is made today, one person has ten eagles." I'll invite everyone to drink tomorrow, haha. ”

"How many, ten eagles."

"Is the head of the shed real, it's really ten eagles!"

“………………”

Just when these people gathered around and discussed, a large convoy came from outside the city, more than 30 big cars were full, squeaked and slowly entered the city gate hole, and a guy on the side of the first car rushed over, saw Han Guangding in the middle of the crowd, and bowed his hand and said: "Master Han, it's late, it's late, there is a car on the road that is broken, delay a little time, you always take care of it, take care of it." After speaking, he took out ten Ying Yang from his sleeve cage and stuffed it into Han Guangding's hand with a smile and said, "Please help me invite the brothers to drink some wine, it should all be an apology for the contempt, thank you." ”

This Han Guangding can't close his mouth now, today's duty is really a rich day, haha smiled: "It's easy to say, it's easy to say, let's go into the city, I'm waiting for you, I thank you for my brothers." Hahaha. ”

The mighty convoy passed through the city gate, rumbled through the city gate, and disappeared into the darkness as soon as it turned from the East Avenue to the main road behind.

As soon as Han Guangding, the last big car in the large convoy, passed the city gate, he immediately shouted: "Close the city gate." The city gate closed behind Han Guangding with a squeak, and then the top door bar fell down, and basically nothing happened to Han Guangding.

Calling over a pawn and throwing him three Yingyang and telling him to go and get some wine, so that he could have a good drink with the old brothers.

Today, I made at least more than 200 taels of silver, which is simply a fortune.

Groups of soldiers patrolling the streets lined up in a neat line and passed in front of the city gates, reminding everyone that the time for curfew was approaching.

The entire Jinan Mansion City, except for the air dead wind lanterns hanging high at the entrance of each yamen, was all suspended in the darkness.

The gentle breeze blew the lanterns on the towers of the city flickering and dimming, and the surrounding lights of the city gate flickered and flickered, and they couldn't look down on the movement around them.

From afar, there was a drumming sound: "Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!. ”

Immediately afterwards, the long voice of the night watchman sounded: "Sound the gong to inform, close the doors and windows, and be careful of the candles." "Dudu, dudu." (The time here is 9 p.m.)

(The timing of the more drums goes like this:

When hitting the shift (i.e., 7 p.m.), one slow and one fast, hit three times in a row, and the sound is like "Boom! - Boom! "Boom! - Boom! "Boom! - Boom! ”；

Hit the second watch (nine o'clock in the evening), hit again and again, hit many times in a row, and the sound was like "Knock! Boom! ”。“ Boom! Boom! ”；

When playing the third watch (11 o'clock in the evening), you should be slow and fast, and the sound is like "Knock! - Boom! Boom! ”；

When playing the fourth watch (1 a.m.), you should be slow and fast, and the sound should be like "Knock-knock!" Boom! Knock";

When I hit the fifth watch (three o'clock in the morning), one slow and four fast, the voice station "Knock-knock!" Boom! Boom! Boom! ”。

More drums are more drums, and the night patrol is the night watchman, which is actually two different things, because the whole city may be one, so the more drum is to hear the more drums, and then the night patrol and the bamboo tube to tell the time, generally the more husband is two, one person holds the gong, and the other takes the bang. When playing the shift, the two of them take a gear and knock as they walk. That's how the word partner came about, which means to survive the night together. ）

The curfew system at the end of the Qing Dynasty was probably abolished after 190 years, when the advent of electric lights improved lighting, so the curfew was abolished, and the era of pig's feet began to curfew around the second watch, and when the third watch came out, they would be arrested by the street patrol as a bandit and other interrogations.

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