Chapter 80: Xu Xilin's Observations

Walking across Edward Avenue, a rickshaw pulled Xu Xilin to a crowded slum. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. biquge。 info

The coachman stumbled into the labyrinth, a pungent smell wafting through the air. On both sides of the street, small mud sheds were crowded one after another, and the roof of the shed was only a few rags and straw sheets made of rush grass. There are also small sheds with thin poles to build a shelf, and a few pieces of torn oil paper are spread on it.

The whining whistle comes from a nearby silk reeling factory, and dung trucks creak through small alleys to deliver manure to farmland on the outskirts. Everywhere there were people hurrying to the place where they sustained themselves: weavers, porters, merchants, peddlers, messengers, fortune tellers, and salesmen, and beggars.

Chen Wenqiang, who had already gone out, was not found in Lujiawan, Xu Xilin was a little disappointed and hesitated whether to wait. In Tokyo, because of his strong view of "lining up the fullness and destroying the full", he did not join the Revival Society, whose slogans were not radical enough, or even somewhat moderate, but had a similar idea to Tao Chengzhang, and contacted the very active Hui Party in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui, thinking that he was an anti-Qing army.

So, after returning to China, Xu Xilin personally went to various places to meet with the party leaders. After two months, he visited Shengxian, Zhuji, Dongyang, Jinhua, Jinyun and other local party leaders on foot, and got acquainted with Zhu Shaokang, Wang Jinfa and other party leaders. However, in his contacts with the local associations, Xu Xilin found that although there were many associations and some forces, their quality was obviously low, and they had to be trained and taught in order to unite the various factions and play their role. Therefore, the idea of establishing a "military school" to train the backbone of the party was born.

Running a school, and it is not an ordinary school, the first problem in front of Xu Xilin is funding. He first approached Xu Zhongqing, a wealthy businessman in Shaoxing, and tried to persuade him to invest in the establishment of a school called "Datong School". But Xu Zhongqing was cautious, and although he expressed interest, he did not immediately agree. Xu Xilin thought of Chen Wenqiang, whom he met in Tokyo, and Chen Wenqiang's reputation at this time was no longer comparable to that day, as if he was an unstoppable rising business rookie.

Judging from Chen Wenqiang's identity, he is in the Qinghong Gang, with a high rank and noble status, and he is also a figure like the party that Xu Xilin wants to strive for. Therefore, Xu Xilin came to Shanghai, firstly, to raise funds to build a school, and secondly, to contact the Qinghong Gang in Shanghai through Chen Wenqiang.

After seeing the construction and environment in Lujiawan, and then coming to this dirty and impoverished place, Xu Xilin couldn't help but sigh for a long time. I have to admit that compared to the situation in various places he has seen, Lujiawan should be the best place for the environment, the roads, buildings, factories, and the people there all make him feel a kind of vigorous vitality.

Unfortunately, such places are simply too few in China, and can even be said to be unique. Xu Xilin got out of the rickshaw and planned to walk the rest of the way. In Shanghai, in the concession, he had a feeling of being in a foreign country, with European-style architecture, Gothic towers, and swaggering foreigners, exuding a foreign atmosphere everywhere, which made his heart ache.

The alley was so narrow that it could only pass people, and the shouting rang out in the alley, one louder than the other. Xu Xilin is accustomed to this kind of noise, after all, he was born in a similar environment. He knew that at night, he would not hear the sound of the coolie's trumpet.

The alley was full of people, and Xu Xilin struggled to squeeze out of the crowd, walked to a wider road, and stopped in front of the gate of a house.

The houses in this yard are not very tall, but they are very solid. There are no windows on the street, only a thick wooden gate with a grille made of steel rods inlaid with a small window on the wooden door. He pressed the dragon-shaped door buckle and gently patted it a few times. As soon as there was a knock at the door, the small window on the door opened, and a pair of puzzled and wary eyes looked at him coldly for a while, as far as they could have examined him yesterday.

Xu Xilin reported his name again, and a hand slowly stretched out from the window, and reluctantly took the name thorn, and the window closed again, and everything was the same as yesterday.

Wait, Xu Xilin knows that he has to wait patiently as he did yesterday. This is the address left to him by Gong Baoquan, a fellow villager in Zhejiang, in his letter, and Xu Xilin hopes that it will be helpful for his trip to Shanghai. Of course, Xu Xilin didn't know that Gong Baoquan, Yang Dusheng and others first organized an assassination group in Shanghai, and now they have joined the Fuxing Society.

Looking at the street nonchalantly, Xu Xilin sensed that someone was pulling his sleeve. When he looked down, he saw a little girl looking up at him. The little girl looked like she was seven or eight years old, with a torn gown wrapped around her thin body and a pair of gray shorts on her legs, ragged from top to bottom, so dirty that it was impossible to distinguish which was her clothes and which was her flesh, only the eyes were shining.

The little girl was still holding a baby in her arms, resting on her hip bone with great skill. The baby was naked, only a few months old, with unblinking eyes, as if he had been born with patience, as if he had been through hundreds of years of suffering in this world. The little girl stretched out her free hand, her innocent expression full of anticipation. That thin appearance makes people can't bear to be angry at her recklessness. Compared with the beggars who walk the streets, she is obviously more likely to arouse people's pity.

Xu Xilin stretched out his hand and took out a few copper plates from his pocket, the little girl grabbed the money without a sound, pinched the copper plates, looked at the small square hole in the middle, and hurriedly turned around and ran away. The naked baby bumped to her iliac bone, and there were no cries or screams.

Several passers-by looked at Xu Xilin and smiled weirdly. In their opinion, this bespectacled guy must have come from other places for the first time, and they don't know the desperate people in Shanghai. Or if you are just entering Christianity, Protestants always like to pat the foreign pastor with charity.

The heavy door opened, and an old butler led the way, led Xu Xilin into the living room, invited him to sit down, and asked the next person to serve refreshments.

"Mr. Gong is entertaining guests in the study, and I invite Mr. Xu to sit down for a while." The old housekeeper said politely: "If you are rude and sloppy, please also ask Mr. Haihan." ”

"It's okay, I'll just wait here." Xu Xilin smiled tolerantly and looked around casually.

The room was tightly blocked by curtains on all sides, so that it was impermeable to light. There were several thick chairs scattered in the room, some of them with crumpled covers, as if someone had just sat on them. But the long table was empty, not even a tablecloth.

Entertaining guests? It was here just now, Xu Xilin guessed, picking up the teacup and sipping gently.

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