Embroidered sails obscured almost the entire length of the Hooghly River, the fledgling port of Calcutta was overwhelmed, and the military dock on the north side had to be opened to civilian ships.

Countless merchant goods are coming and going between the wharf and the sailing ship, the Chinese wearing silk silks, wearing nets or black yarn are whirring and shaking fans, staring at the loading and unloading of commercial goods, while the Tianzhu people with their heads are dressed in short clothes, and even most of their upper bodies are naked, sweating under the scorching sun, or carrying or carrying, busily carrying heavy goods.

In the 23rd year of the Holy Dao, after Wu Ya destroyed the Dzungar Khanate in the Western Regions, Jia Hao also forced the Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah, who was controlled by the Persians, to sign the Treaty of Delhi in Tianzhu, ceding Bengal to Anglo-Chinese ownership. The princely state of Bengal had been deposed by the Western Company last year, and most of the territory was controlled by the Western Company, and had become essentially a Anglo-Chinese dependency, and the Treaty of Delhi merely recognized the status quo.

When the news came back to China, Tianzhu suddenly became a new place for gold mining, attracting a large number of businessmen from the British and Chinese countries to come here to look for business opportunities. Previously, Jinshan in Nanzhou and Dongzhou triggered a wave of immigration, while Tianzhu triggered a tide of capital and even ambition.

As a colonial company, the Western Company had the right to govern, industrial and commercial taxation and customs duties in Bangladesh, and the Anglo-Chinese merchants dumped Anglo-Chinese goods here and organized the export of raw materials, all of which had many preferential treatments. At the same time, the Western Company also contracted the land tax rights in Bangladesh and actually fulfilled the duties of the state.

Western companies can only cultivate business talents, and administrative talents are insufficient, so they recruit elites from the country, and compared with the country, the managers at all levels of the Western company are equivalent to officials. If you are brave enough to forge ahead, you can even get the subcontracting business of a Western company, govern a county and a county, and collect your own taxes. The surplus money beyond the quota can be put into one's own pocket openly, and such a good thing makes ambitious people who are not satisfied with the system of the country flock to this place one after another.

Of course, such ambitious people are in the minority after all, and many more people only want to be stable and rich. The roaring machines of Yinghua Lingnan and Jiangnan are greedily sucking up all kinds of raw materials. The commercial goods produced are also in urgent need of finding buyers, and they are chasing the waves in this back and forth tide, which is enough to eat with a mouth full of oil.

From the news to the current September, it is only half a year. The merchant ships that came from within the country formed a huge fleet, which could be discharged almost all the way from the Hooghly River into the Bay of Bengal.

Kolkata was not only owned by the Western Company, but also a base of the Western Fleet, but it was located on an inland river, which was not as important as Chittagong, and was only used for logistical supplies. The Western Fleet built a small wharf on the north side of Mingang with a number of warehouses. There were a number of Fubo troops and their subordinate Tianzhu native soldiers, and they also assisted in the defense of Calcutta.

In the middle of summer, Kolkata was a bit difficult, but the naval officers and men at the base still fastened their collars and worked together to supervise the civilian ships unloading here. After all, this is a military wharf, and if there are detailed works hidden in the civilian boats, and the military situation is spied in, it will be a serious accident.

"Tianzhu is really a steamer. It's really amazing that the Buddha can be produced here, let alone under the Bodhi tree. Even if I soak in the river, I can't fix my mind for half a second! ”

The deputy envoy (deputy commander) of the base, Captain An Pingyuan, tugged at his collar, stuck out his tongue and glared and grumbled, and the steam that could almost be seen was coming out of him.

The base envoy, the naval cavalry captain embroidered with three bronze stars on the epaulettes gave him a blank look: "So the Buddha can become a Buddha, and you are like a monkey, you can never become an adult." ”

The young officer, slender and tanned, stood with his hands in his hands. Like a javelin, it is full of a sense of high-spiritedness of a soldier in the new era, but the delicate eyes and eyebrows reveal a gentle and elegant atmosphere, and the two temperaments are mixed together, which is enough to make the girls in the country tremble. …,

An Pingyuan looked at his companion who was covered with sweat stains on his back and sweat all the time on his face. muttered in a low voice: "Your Highness is coaxing people again, how can a monkey become a human......"

The young commander of the base is none other than Li Kezai, who is in his twenties this year, and has now been promoted to the rank of cavalry captain for his meritorious service in the Third Ceylon Naval Battle and its follow-up. After this errand is over, he will go back to the newly opened Wusong Naval Academy for further study.

But this errand turned out to be outrageous, serving as the commander of the Kolkata naval base......

As far as the navy is concerned, this kind of logistics position is either carried out by marginal people from the wild road, or something went wrong and was thrown from the battleship unit from above.

Last year, he instigated Hu Hanshan to take the initiative to attack and completely eliminate the British navy that had fled to Ceylon before the peace treaty concluded between the British and Chinese was sent to Ceylon.

There is nothing wrong with this suggestion, but it will be a big problem to ask the battleship Qi Jiguang, where he is located, to take the lead attack. Hu Hanshan rejected him as a matter of course and gave the emperor a small report. The emperor reprimanded Xiao Sheng, the boss of the navy, and said that some people in your navy have embarked on the wrong path and put their personal interests above the interests of the overall situation, and you have to train them well.

So Xiao Sheng issued a military order, and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was sent to the shore to guard the base for three months.

"This is to sharpen my mind, even if I can't be reconciled, I must be calm."

Li Kezai warned himself like this, at this time the scorching sun was in the sky, his face was calm, but there was still a trace of fire in his heart, his father was really yin, there was such an emperor father, I really don't know if it was lucky or unlucky.

Washing An Pingyuan with the inexplicable "science" instilled in him by his father when he was a child, Li Kezai turned his attention to the merchant ship that was unloading, and felt that the owner of this ship was a little strange. Everyone came with a load of goods, but the ship kept unloading all kinds of miscellaneous items, mostly furniture, as if it were moving.

"Be careful, just broke a corner, and you can't afford to sell it ten times!"

Under the pedal, a fat man in brocade shouted screaming, Li Kezai stared at the things carried by the four big buns (Tianzhu coolies) in front and back, and observed for a while before he realized that it should be a bed.

The tongue man shouted for a while, and then smiled at the fat man: "Why don't you use a crane, it's really easy for people to have accidents." ”

The fat man is not young, he looks nearly sixty, but he has a lot of strength to speak, and his posture is even more impressive. The tongue man said a word, he replied a long paragraph, and the spit star sprayed the tongue man's face: "This is the fine porcelain cloud bed!" Crane? If you hang it, you have to fall apart! Each bed bone is a high-grade fine porcelain fine eye pot fired in Jingdezhen, and the medicinal gas contained in it can not only ward off evil spirits and drive away miasma, but also nourish and maintain health ......"

Li Kezai squinted, thinking that he was afraid that he would have the same idea as himself, and he didn't know what the fat man had paid to keep this bed floating across the ocean without accidents. Fine porcelain cloud bed. It is also thanks to these nouveau riche who can find such a way to luxury.

The fat man shook his three fingers and kept shaking: "Three thousand taels!" This bed is worth three thousand taels! It's still custom-made, and you can't buy it with silver alone! Without this bed, I can sleep in this hellish place!? ”

He covered the scorching sun with his hand again and shook his head: "This hell place! Not to help friends. If I don't come, it's like a frying pan...... Ahh Don't move! ”

Before he finished speaking, he screamed again, it turned out to be a translator of the tongue man, and the big buns were frightened, the bed was originally heavy, but now it couldn't move its feet, and the bed sank straight away.

The fat man screamed. It made the frightened big baotou have the strength and stabilized the bed, but he couldn't get down.

Turning his head and scanning the surroundings, because this is a military dock, there are not many big baotou who come here to work, all of them are loaded and unloaded on other ships, and the fat man has not found any extra manpower for a long time. …,

His eyes turned to Li Kezai but stopped, and the fat man beckoned: "Hey! Big buns! Call you. Come and give a hand! Silver is good to say! ”

Li Kezai paused for a moment, and suddenly realized that he didn't call him out of the corner of his eye. But the fat man's eyesight price is still very poor. Didn't you see those two big buns on their upper bodies? They are not laborers, they are patrols to which the base belongs.

If Li Kezai wasn't here, most of the two Tianzhu patrolmen would still have to help, and the Chinese lord had the power and money to fight, but it wasn't something they Dalits (pariahs) could afford to offend.

But Li Kezai, the big man, was right in front of them, they didn't dare to move, seeing that the young old man didn't speak, they were like blind and deaf people, ignoring the fat man.

Li Kezai is not in a very good mood, if the fat man is not so domineering. He also helped out, but this fat man was not only extravagant, but also had no one in his eyes, so he was silent and watched how the fat man jumped.

The fat man was really anxious, shaking his fat belly and "rolling" over. finally saw the dress of the two big buns, and knew that it was related to the young officer in front of him, so he said straight to Li Kezai: "Little military master, call them for a hand, we folks in the township, we have to help." ”

While talking, a red ticket was stuffed over, and the pattern on the face of the ticket was a double dragon, which was one or two banknotes issued by the Anglo-Chinese Bank, commonly known as the red dragon ticket. Although the prices in the country have risen, this is also one-fourth or fifth of the average person's monthly income, just as a casual little dot, I have to say that this fat man is really generous.

Li Kezai was still in a daze, it seemed that it was difficult to enter the role all of a sudden, he had really never been beaten, at least he had never been hit by a little red ticket......

An Pingyuan kept looking around, and when the fat man stepped forward, he subconsciously stopped in front of Li Kezai, and when he saw the fat man handing over the green ticket, his face, which was like a steamed shrimp, suddenly turned from red to black.

"What people!? What do you want to do!? ”

An Pingyuan snorted, the fat man was startled, and subconsciously bowed his head and said, "Villain Zhong ......"

Too fat, his waist can't bend, his head is only a little bit, and his name is not finished, and then this guy regained his heart, and muttered with some annoyance: "If you don't help, you won't help, why are you so fierce!?" You young people, you are really rude......"

As he muttered, his heart became more and more full, and this guy seemed to be dissatisfied with losing face in front of the two lieutenants, and he shook out a green ticket with the image of Confucius on the ticket, ten taels!

The fat man put on a condescending but bright smile on his kind face, shook the green ticket and said, "Two military masters, it's time to stretch out your hand." ”

An Pingyuan's face has turned from black to white, this fat man really doesn't know whether to live or die, and he slaps the prince's face with a banknote arrogantly?

He was about to kick the fat man away, the British and Chinese military discipline is strict, and the relationship between the military and the people is more harmonious than that of all dynasties, but there is still a great distance from the military and civilian family, not to mention that the fat man took the initiative to send his face to the door.

Before he could lift his legs, he was stopped by Li Kezai, and the young prince smiled slightly: "Okay, help you." ”

Seeing that the prince was also smiling brightly, An Pingyuan realized that he didn't speak again, and watched Li Kezai beckon the two patrolmen to help the bunch. The fat man saw that his ticket was not rejected, and left with a smile. But while walking, he shook his head and sighed, as if he was lamenting the declining world and the people's hearts are not ancient, and even this little work must be bought with money.

Li Kezai pinched the green ticket, the smile on his face was even more strange, and An Pingyuan asked, "Your ...... Gram, what charter? ”

Fine porcelain cloud bed stepped off the pedal, moved towards the carriage behind Hou, Li Kezai gestured towards An Pingyuan, the latter's eyes lit up, he couldn't hold back a smile, and ran away.

Seeing that the three thousand taels of treasure beds were still ten steps away from the carriage, a rush of trumpets suddenly sounded, and the two Tianzhu patrolmen subconsciously let go and stood upright, this was the patrol assembly number in the base, and they didn't dare to disobey it in the slightest. …,

Crash...... When the ......

The crisp sound continued, and the fine porcelain cloud bed worth three thousand taels fell to the ground, instantly turning into a broken porcelain piece that was not worth thirty taels.

Under the horrified gaze of the fat man, the tongue man, and the other four Baotou, the two patrolmen shouted "one-two-one-two" and ran away without slapping their buttocks.

"My bed! My fine porcelain cloud bed! ”

The fat man hugged his head and screamed, the four baotou looked at each other a few times, and they spread their girls very tacitly, and their big feet slipped away.

"The surname is Zhong, and he is a fat man, he must not be a good person......"

On the other hand, Li Kezai still kept a smile on his face, but he scolded happily in his stomach. My father once told the story of Fengtian Village in the early years, and there was a fat man in it, who was really a villager.

But the fat man named Zhong Shangli should not be the same person as the fat man in front of him, it's a pity.

When Li Kezai was secretly cool, the fat man was tearfully scooping up the fragments of the treasure bed, and his heart was churning like angry waves, "God, you just like to fix me!" What kind of bad luck has I fallen in my life! ”

"God, I hate you—ahhh My bed! ”

Zhong Shang, the outgoing governor of Coral Prefecture, had just set foot in Tianzhu when he suffered another heavy blow, and he was full of grief and indignation, and once again issued a bitter howl of fate. (To be continued) RQ