The west is sinking, the breeze is blowing, and the pedestrians on Badian Street are gradually increasing.

Since the day before yesterday, some of the salt farms that had stopped work have recalled the salt workers, and they are busy boiling salt for reopening the stove, although now the Republican Army is planning to sort out the salt administration, and the people's hearts are a little uneasy, but as long as the salt administration remains unchanged, the salt works can boil more salt, and in any case, the market is too peaceful now, and the salt works can resume work.

Some salt farms with fire wells work around the clock, and when the two shifts of salt workers change, the workers who live in the city go to take over, and they inevitably pass by these eight shop streets, plus those who enter the city from outside the city, and the streets suddenly become lively.

Zhao Bei took more than 20 guards to wander around the Badian Street, still holding a bag of orchid beans in his hand, eating as he walked, and still had two pieces of dog skin plaster on his face to cover the commander-in-chief's sassy and heroic posture.

In addition to the guards in civilian clothes, there are two personal attendants around him, one is Tian Jinfu, the captain of the guard, and the other is Fu Huafeng, the commercial commissioner of the Chengdu General Chamber of Commerce.

As for Tian Jinfu, he carried a bamboo basket on his back, covered with a piece of cloth, and a few American-made "aluminum shotguns" were loaded in the bamboo, which were found in the Chengdu General's Yamen.

The aluminum shotgun was not the strongest firepower of this small team, and at the end of the line, four guards carried a heavy wooden box, which contained a few British-made rifles and a French-made Hatch Chase machine gun, which was originally captured at the Hanyang Iron and Steel Works from the hands of the Rì himself, Nishizawa Gongo, and handed over to the Hanyang Arsenal for surveying and mapping, and has been placed in the Commander-in-Chief's Jǐng Guard Camp, which is also the only machine gun in the Jǐng Guard Camp since it was captured, Except for the commander-in-chief who has been addicted to guns a few times, he has hardly used it and raised it well, and now he is brought out to escort the commander-in-chief of the microservice on patrol.

This strange "caravan" swaggered through the market, but it did not attract the attention of passers-by, after all, this Furong Field is a gold and silver nest to see a lot of caravans coming and going north, this "Zhao caravan" is just a drop in the ocean.

Badian Street is very long, stretching from the city to the city, and the shops on the side of this street are also more than half a mile out of the city.

Unconsciously, Zhao Bei walked out of Fushun City with his subordinates.

At present, there are not many shops outside the city. Many shops are still being cleaned up, and the few places that have opened to welcome customers are basically teahouses. It's rare that the sound of a bamboo piano can still be heard in one of the teahouses. "Shopkeeper Zhao" touched the voice and looked for it. Look up. Although the teahouse is ordinary, the signboard is very eye-catching:

A pint of incense.

"Wow! The teahouse owner boasted about himself. 'Tasting incense'? Gee. I don't know what is special about the Fushun Yandu teahouse compared to those teahouses in Chengdu? ”

glanced at Fu Huafeng, who was following him. Zhao Bei took the bag of orchid beans and paced into the teahouse by himself.

Tian Jinfu, the captain of the guard, hurriedly ordered the two guards to rush ahead. He himself also grabbed Zhao Bei's side and said, "Shopkeeper." Did you forget to go to the Chamber of Commerce's President's Mansion tonight? ”

"There's still two hours left before the feast begins. What are you anxious about? What to do so early? Talking nonsense with a bunch of jiān businessmen? Take advantage of your free time. Observe and observe the people's feelings. I won't have that time when I'm busy. ”

Zhao Bei took out the wall watch and glanced at it, walked into the teahouse, and saw that the two guards had chosen an empty table near the stage, so he paced over.

The tea place is quite spacious, but there are only a few guests, deserted, Zhao Bei with more than 20 subordinates paced into the teahouse, the teahouse seemed a little lively, the shopkeeper who was settling accounts saw this, hurriedly greeted the guys who were greeting the guests, and personally greeted these distinguished guests.

Zhao Beichuan didn't speak well, and the errand of dealing with the shopkeeper was handed over to Fu Huafeng, he put the bag of orchid beans on the table, lifted the hem of his robe, and sat on the dark bench, while the others sat down at the nearby table, and a few other guards walked out of the teahouse after turning around, and stood at the door, responsible for the peripheral jǐng ring.

After a while, the teahouse guy served some herbal tea for everyone first, and snacks were served one after another.

Half a cup of herbal tea, two slices of mint cake, the heat of the whole body suddenly decreased, Zhao Bei sighed, put down the teacup, untied the neckline, looked at the stage, and saw that the person who played the bamboo piano was an old man, but he only played and didn't sing, but he didn't know what tune he played.

"Shopkeeper, what tune does this old man play?"

At this time, the captain of the guard turned his face over without knowing what to do, and asked stupidly, which made the commander-in-chief a little depressed.

"This old man is playing the 'Chu River Han Realm', which is about Qin losing its deer, and the world will chase it."

Fu Huafeng's words solved Tian Jinfu's confusion and also relieved the siege of the commander-in-chief, but this person's ability to observe words and observe sè is not comparable to ordinary people.

While speaking, he took a cup of hot tea handed over by his man, gently rested it in front of Zhao Bei, and then handed a cup of hot tea to Tian Jinfu, and then took his own

Seat.

"Now it's time to clear the deer."

Zhao Bei picked up the tea and sighed, but before he could open the tea cover, he heard Fu Hua seal it.

"I wonder who this clear deer will be?"

"The ancients have a good saying: The heroes of the world, what is An Zhifei...... This one...... Hehe. ”

The commander-in-chief's unfinished words made Fu Huafeng's mind change.

"This man is so ambitious."

With this thought, Fu Huafeng picked up the tea and took a sip, a little distracted for a while.

When he followed Zhao Erfeng to implement the new policy in Sichuan, because of his ability, he won Zhao Erfeng's trust, and it was for this reason that he was able to take office, and it was a year and a half to sit on the fat shortage of Yanfa Road, but the good times did not last long, with the outbreak of the "Xushen Revolution", the fall of the Manchu Qing Dynasty was imminent, in order to find a new backer, Fu Daotai had to persuade Zhao Erxun to surrender to the revolutionary army, but he did not expect that after the recovery, he was still kicked away by the commander-in-chief, The butler who contacted Zhao Erxun fell to the commander-in-chief and betrayed his original master at the first time Fu Daotai was treated coldly is very understandable, when he said the sentence "Yuan does not descend Zhao", the housekeeper was listening to it, although it was the meaning of the British consul, but this is also Fu Daotai's handle, and this handle is even if it falls into the hands of the housekeeper, perhaps it is for this reason that the housekeeper was able to take a step higher, and was appointed by the commander-in-chief as the magistrate of Guan County, presiding over local self-government. And he, Fu someone, only hung up the false title of a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and hung himself alive by relying on that little carriage and horse fee.

Some time ago, Fu Huafeng was completely shrouded in a huge sense of loss, and being able to catch the revolutionary train of the commander-in-chief meant that his career would come to an end, how could this not make him sad? It wasn't until the commander-in-chief asked him to write a letter on the reform of the salt administration that he seemed to see a little light, so he spent two whole days behind closed doors and presented tens of thousands of words of painstaking work to the commander-in-chief.

This move made this Fu member Fu excited for several days, thinking that the commander-in-chief was preparing to promote himself, but it had been a few days since he arrived in Fushun, and the commander-in-chief had not taken any action, and the commander-in-chief did not adopt his opinion at the meeting on the aftermath of the salt administration this morning, which made people a little worried. What exactly did the commander-in-chief have in mind? Fu Huafeng didn't know, and he couldn't guess.

When Fu Hua was in the right fugue, Leng might as well come to reprimand.

"Here comes the tea, here comes the tea! This ghost weather is hot and dead, and our snowy mountains are cool. ”

Fu Huafeng turned his head to look and saw two strong men sitting at a table by the window, both of them were five short figures, dressed completely different from Hermes-Epitek, and each carried a Mauser single-shot gun in his hand, and the body of the gun was decorated with bells and whistles.

Following Zhao Erfeng to stay in the riverside for a while, Fu Huafeng is very familiar with this kind of dress, these two people are the subordinates of the Sichuan side Tusi, judging from the embroidery on the clothes, one of them is still a low-level official.

Perhaps hearing the shouting in the teahouse, the guards guarding the door of the teahouse walked in and took a look, and then paced to the door again.

"Yo! Isn't this Zhuowo? Are you here in Fushun again? Or by boat? If you want to enter the city, I advise you to leave the foreign guns outside the city, now the city is strictly watched, foreign guns are not allowed to be taken into the city casually, and native guns can enter the city. By the way, this time you came to Fushun, did you come to sell tea bricks or salt bags? ”

The shopkeeper of the teahouse hurriedly greeted him and greeted him warmly, judging from his words, these two strangely dressed people seemed to be frequent customers in this teahouse.

"It's not about selling tea."

One of the strong men raised his head and looked at the shopkeeper of the teahouse, this person spoke well in Chinese.

"Then you're here to sell salt." The shopkeeper laughed and ordered the man to serve tea.

The strong man laughed, raised his hand and pointed to the street corner opposite the teahouse, and said: "Selling salt, also selling people, selling people, selling people, there are twenty in total, fifteen men, five women, the men are strong, and the women are good-looking." Take a boat, sell people over, sell salt again, and exchange people for salt. Do you want to buy it? Count you cheaper. ”

The shopkeeper looked out the window with his hand and was taken aback.

But there were twenty men squatting on the opposite corner, men and women, each of whom was tied together with ropes, and beside them stood four strong men, dressed like the two who had entered the tea-house to drink tea, and both with guns in their hands, but with open fire guns. There were also some curious passers-by standing near these people, watching and talking.

Slavery prevailed on the territory of the Kawabe Toast, and it was common to buy and sell slaves, and at this moment the slaves who were squatting on the side of the road, both men and women, were unclothed, and the women still used a few rags to cover the vital points, and the men simply wrapped a circle of grass and vines around their waists.

However, in the past, Tusi sent people to sell salt, usually in cash, and almost no slaves were exchanged for salt, so the teahouse shopkeeper, who was accustomed to seeing big scenes, was also surprised.

"Do you want to buy it? One cow for a man, two cows for a woman, you pick it, I don't care. The slave trader reached out and pushed the shopkeeper who was in a daze.

"No, no! Don't buy, don't buy! ”

The shopkeeper shook his head again and again and said, "Now that there is a revolution and a republic, the army has issued a decree prohibiting people

Destroy all the deeds of sale, whether it is the banner people, the Han people, and the slaves from now on, whether they are rewarded or confiscated, they are all bought by the red deed or the white deed, and all of them will be released as good citizens, and anyone who dares to privately accumulate slaves will be punished as 'hostile to the revolution' and 'resisting civilization', and there is no ambiguity in confiscating the house and beheading. The current revolutionary army, the officers and soldiers of the past, are different. ”

After listening to the shopkeeper's words, the performance of everyone present was completely different.

"If you don't buy it, you won't buy it, it's really wordy!" The toast slave slapped the table and cursed.

"The shopkeeper said it well! The revolutionary army is just going to smash the rotten and dross of the past! The young merchant, who had a dogskin plaster on his face, also stood up, but did not slap the table with his hands.

The tea shopkeeper walked over and said with a smile: "The guest officer is right, the revolutionary army is doing a good job!" Two days ago, the big family of Fushun was busy cleaning up the deeds, and I am afraid that no one will dare to buy slaves and maids anymore, and it will be called 'hired laborers' in the future. Last night, the kiln sisters in the Qinglou were also making a revolution, and they beat the old bustard back to the deed of sale, which is called a lively ah, I also went to take a look, hey, the deed of sale is that the bustard burned on the street called a big teapot to beat people, and the result was taken away by the propaganda team, and I knew that it was shot and beheaded. ”

"This is called 'revolutionary gas'!" Zhao Bei pointed out in high spirits.

Seeing that the commander-in-chief was in high spirits, Tian Jinfu came to joke: "In my opinion, this abolitionist slave not only has to be abolished in our Han land, but also has to go to the territory of those Tusi to abolish slaves!" Now it's the republican era, and the era of people riding people has passed! ”

Although he didn't agree with Tian Jinfu's optimism, Zhao Bei also nodded, raised his hand to touch the two pieces of dog skin plaster on his face, and asked the teahouse shopkeeper: "Who are those two slave traders?" Toast Kawabe's men? ”

The shopkeeper looked at the two slave dealers, only nodded, then confessed, turned away, and went to the counter to settle the accounts, obviously not daring to offend the two toasts' men.

Zhao Bei looked out the window again, sent Tian Jinfu to take a look at the sold slaves, and then sat down and asked Fu Huafeng.

"Old man, I heard them say 'Big Snow Mountain' just now, what is it?"

"It's in the east of Yazhou Mansion, next to Jiafu in the west, and the arrow furnace is in the area of the Great Snow Mountain, which is close to the Dadu River, the mountain is high and the emperor is far away, and there are many Tusi and Touren, although the two people are from the Great Snow Mountain, but which Tusi's subordinates are not known. Just now, the shopkeeper called one of them 'Zhuowo', but it was not a personal name, but an official name, which is equivalent to the county order of our Han land. Strange, the big snow mountain and Fushun are far away, there is a Jiading Mansion in the middle, even if it is easy to come from the Sichuan River by boat, these toast people come so far to sell a few slaves and maids, and then buy some salt to go back, this toast who sent them here is really a strange person. ”

"It's a little weird indeed. Isn't the county in Jiading Mansion? It's also a good salt production area, and it's on the bank of the Sichuan River, so why doesn't that toast buy salt nearby? ”

Zhao Bei touched the dog skin plaster on his face, suddenly remembered something, and said, "The arrow furnace is in the area of that big snow mountain?" Zhao Erfeng was reforming the land and returning to the river to carry out a new deal in the Sichuan, didn't he just use the arrow furnace as a station? Why is the toast there still so arrogant? ”

Fu Huafeng sighed and said: "The shopkeeper doesn't know, Chuanbian Tusi originated in the Yuan Dynasty, after the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, the monks and laymen are one, the so-called deep-rooted, how can it be so easy to change the land and return to the stream?" This time, the Qing court changed the land and returned to the stream, although a group of toasts were deposed, but most of them were weak, and the really powerful Tusi still did not dare to move, the Jinchuan Rebellion during the Qianlong period made the Qing court suffer a lot, when the national strength was strong, and now the wind and rain are shaking, where do you dare to move the hard stubble? Therefore, a few years ago, Zhao Erfeng ran a new deal in Sichuan, and this change of land and return to the river is also a great shout, if it is really completely changed, it will not be able to be suppressed by one or two hundred thousand patrol battalions. Besides, Zhao Erfeng didn't stay long in the arrow furnace, and went to Batang further west after tossing for half a year. ”

"I see."

Zhao Bei was stunned, but the Qing court did not dare to touch the hard stubble in the toast, it does not mean that the commander-in-chief did not dare, the reason why the Tusi on the Sichuan side and the Tibetan side were arrogant was not the integration of monks and laymen, but the British stood behind them, but the European war was about to break out, how long could the British support them?

At this time, Tian Jinfu hurriedly rushed back to the teahouse, walked to Zhao Bei's side, first glanced at the two toast men who were drinking tea, and then whispered: "Commander, the slave children outside are not indigenous people, they are all Han people, the men are soldiers in the Zhao Erfengchuan border patrol army, and the women are only relatives of the battalion." ”

"What?"

"Boom!"

Zhao Bei was slightly startled, Fu Huafeng beside him did not have the good concentration of the commander-in-chief, and under the shock of his heart, he accidentally smashed the fine porcelain tea cup.

Still, both of them remembered the same thing at the same time.