Early autumn has just arrived, but for some people on the boundary of Shandong, but began to embark on a journey to escape from the famine, a great drought in the summer swept the boundary of the thirteen counties of Shandong, the dry and cracked land in the field, so that all the crops in the field died of drought, almost no harvest, from the end of the summer harvest, there are tens of thousands of people fled from the land where their ancestors depended on each other, and tried to find a livelihood in Kanto to the seaside.

The autumn wind blows the floating soil on the official road, and a few hungry corpses can occasionally be seen in the woods on both sides of the official road.

On this official road, two boys walked north in tattered clothes, and when they came to rest under a large tree. Twelve-year-old Su Wen said to eight-year-old Su Wu.

"You eat this half of the pancake first, and I'll go to the tree and see if there may be a bird's egg."

Barefoot, Su Wen climbed to the branch of the tree neatly, and touched the bird's nest with wide eyes, he touched it for a while, but he couldn't touch anything in the bird's nest, but he said to his eight-year-old brother.

"I touched a bird's egg, I ate it, Xiao Wu, you eat the pancakes!"

Su Wen came down from the tree, but Su Wu tore the half of the pancakes he had begged from someone else's house in half.

"Big brother, don't fool me, our mother starved to death like this!"

Mother is like this, the food he begged for along the way was just for his brothers to eat, but in the end he starved to death on the way to escape the famine, although Su Wu was only eight years old, but he also knew that his brother was lying to himself.

"I'm not hungry, you eat!"

"You have to eat too!"

Su Wu stuffed the pancakes to the eldest brother again, and even shouted at the end.

"Brother, if you don't eat it. I threw the pancake away. ”

When he said that he was about to throw it. Su Wen took the palm-sized scissors. I ate it in front of my brother.

After resting for half an hour, Su Wen and Su Wu got back on the road, seeing that it was getting late, the tired brothers happened to have a broken earth temple in front of them, so they quietly entered the temple and saw that it was in tatters, and there was a pile of firewood and grass in the corner. I don't know how many people have lived on this haystack.

Su Wen stepped forward to spread out the firewood and grass on the ground, the two of them sat on the firewood and grass, looking at the brothers lying on the straw bunk, Su Wen took out the small half of the pancake that only took two bites from his arms,

"I wasn't willing to eat just now, little brother, let's eat half of the two of us, let's eat!"

Su Wen split the pancake in half and forced it into Su Wu's hand. Looking at the pancake in his hand, tears flowed from his eyes. Despite his attempts to resist the temptation of the pancakes, he ate them at a young age. Then the two of them lay down on the haystack and slept all night.

The next day, at dawn, the brothers walked out of the broken temple, walking, I don't know how long they walked, but they saw a blue piece in front of them, and the wind and waves crashed on the shore.

Looking at the blue sea, Su Wu shouted happily.

"Brother, what do you see that is?"

"Sea! Let's go to the beach! ”。

The brothers shouted and ran towards the sea, shouting excitedly as they ran, and when their mother was alive, they always told the brothers that as long as they crossed the sea, they would arrive in Kanto, and their father would be in Kanto, and when they arrived in Kanto, they would be able to eat enough. Being patted by the cool sea, Su Wu looked at the sea with no end in sight, and asked the eldest brother

"How far is this from Kanto?"

Originally, in Su Wen's consciousness, the sea was only equivalent to dozens of rivers wide, but this sea was headless, and he shook his head and said.

"Let's go to the dock over there and inquire."

The so-called wharf is actually a trestle bridge that stretches out from the beach into the sea, and a Western galleon is connected to the wooden trestle that enters the sea for more than ten feet, and the wharf is surrounded by a wooden fence, and there is a long queue of laborers waiting to get on the boat on the trestle.

The gate of the wooden fence was guarded by a few strong men with knives, and outside the gate was crowded with people waiting in line to get on the boat, they were also dressed in tatters, and more people were wearing single clothes, shivering in the cold wind, and in the distance, there were some women who dragged their families and looked at this side with their eyes.

The registration desk by the gate was surrounded by a group of people, who seemed to be waiting there to sign up. Although the people who signed up over there couldn't move, there were still people here who kept shouting.

"Sign up now! It doesn't cost you anything to take a boat, and you can earn money by eating and drinking! Come and sign up, and if you can, you can still get four stones of white rice to live ......"

As soon as the voice of the person holding the paper tube and shouting fell, Su Wen and Su Wu walked over, although they were young, Su Wen was not afraid, looked at the man and asked:

"Uncle, where is this?"

The man who was shouting with a paper tube looked at the two descendants in front of him and said casually.

"Incheon."

What is Incheon? I hadn't heard of it, so Su Wu hurriedly asked.

"Is it close to Kanto?"

The man replied with a smile.

"Near! At least it's much closer! Sign up now! This is the last boat! ”

For men, whether it is an adult or a young man, it is all silver, and the silver of white flowers is a woman, and it is also silver, but not many women are willing to go to that place.

Su Wen took his brother's hand and looked at the man.

"Uncle, what did you do in the past?"

"Don't worry, I can't tire you, four oceans a month, and I still take care of food!"

Su Wu whispered to Su Wen.

"Brother, it's unlikely that there will be such a good thing! Shall we report? ”

Su Wen, who was already hungry, looked at the endless sea and gritted his teeth, at least eat there!

"Report."

The wind blows the sails, Li Mingxin, who is standing on the boat, holds the railing of the ship, looking at the hundreds of laborers sitting on the deck, although when he went to Incheon, he still thinks about not touching the labor trade, but who would have thought that in the end, he still got the labor trade, more precisely, he set up a shipping company, at the beginning he only wanted to freight, but the empty ship came, the ship was full, and after two boats of laborers, he still pondered this business, so he found the public office, and took the ticket to recruit 1,000 people from there, and then he took the ship to Busan, I bought 10,000 stone of Korean rice at the port of Busan, half of which I sold to the Beiyang Kaisha after returning to Incheon, and the other half was taken to Jiaodong, and then I started recruiting workers.

Others recruited workers for a settlement fee of ten silver oceans, but he recruited workers to give four stones of rice, which was converted into silver coins and nearly three oceans more than others, but in Busan, four stones of rice were only more than six oceans, even if the freight was added, five thousand stones of rice could earn tens of thousands of yuan, and after a boatload of laborers was transported to Incheon, he earned nearly 20,000 yuan, and found the office and reduced the freight of the laborers from four yuan to three yuan, thus covering the labor import of the office.

The proprietors of dozens of private ports on the Jiaodong Peninsula are naturally happy, some people are willing to settle down with money, and they are also happy to save trouble, they only need to divide the money according to the head, and the risk will become smaller.

"There's another ship next month!"

When the ship was about to anchor, looking at the full ship of laborers, Li Mingxin secretly muttered in his heart, Busan, Incheon, private ports and then return to Incheon business seems to make money, rice, labor ships are not empty, at least 10,000 yuan can be earned each time, but it is too time-consuming, even if it is this ship, it will take seven or eight days to make a trip.

Adding a boat can at least double the earnings, thinking so in his heart, Li Mingxin was peaceful with Fang next to him, the sailor he met when he bought a boat in Tianjin, and he had worked on a foreigner's ship for more than ten years.

"Pinghe, you get off the boat from here, go to Yantai, and then go to Tianjin, and see if you can buy another boat there!"

"Now this business is at the right time, I think it's okay, if Tianjin doesn't have it, I'll go directly to Shanghai!"

Fang Ping responded peacefully, greeted the French captain a few words, and got off the boat directly. When he got off the boat, he happened to meet two teenagers escorting the young ones on the gangplank, looking at the young man's dry and hungry appearance, although he was used to seeing the suffering of refugees, but he couldn't help but sigh.

"Brother, did you say that Incheon is close to Kanto?"

Huddled on the deck, Su Wu asked his brother beside him, Su Wen said a little nervously.

"It shouldn't be far, you didn't hear the man, it's much closer."

It's a lot closer, but how many are there? Su Wen didn't have a score in his heart, but at least now, he no longer had to worry about the food of the two brothers - twenty oceans, if he didn't want to take rice, he could take silver, and the brothers naturally didn't need to take rice if they had no home or mouth, twenty oceans, living so big, he hadn't seen so much silver.

When he arrived at Incheon, he naturally didn't have to think about eating, but he didn't know if the work was heavy or not, and whether the younger brother could do it, suddenly, the swaying of the hull interrupted his thoughts, the ship anchored, the chimney spewed black smoke, and the steam engine roared and dragged the ship towards the depths of the sea.

Looking at the vast sea around the boat, Su Wen's face had turned a little pale, and he even grabbed Su Wu's hand a little nervously, like everyone else, Su Wu's hands and feet were cold by the sea breeze, and he didn't care about being afraid, and hurriedly pulled his little brother into his arms and sat down.

Now most of the people on the ship are like this, those who know and those who don't know are sitting tightly to avoid being blown by the cool breeze, sitting in his brother's arms, feeling a trace of warmth, Su Wu looked at the people walking on the mast, many of them were foreigners with big noses, but Su Wu didn't feel a trace of fear, just looked at the crew.

"This sea is so big!"

Finally, he could no longer control his inner curiosity, he stood up and looked towards the endless sea, at this time the sun was about to sink into the western horizon, the sunset dyed the western sky red, Su Wu, who stepped on the boat for the first time, looked at the beautiful sunset, closed his eyes and enjoyed the feeling of the sea breeze caressing his face, this feeling is so comfortable!

Li Mingxin, who was standing at the stern of the boat, looked at the appearance of the child on the side of the boat, but smiled, thinking that when he reached the deep sea, the boat was hit by the waves, and it was estimated that this kid's mood would be lost by the waves.

"Sir, if we are a qiē shun lì, by this time tomorrow, we will arrive in Incheon!"

The captain's words made Li Mingxin nod, and finally looked at the hundreds of laborers sitting on the deck and said.

"In two hours, let them have another meal! Tomorrow...... I guess no one can eat it, so forget it! (To be continued......)