5-13 Fruit Asheng and coolie Ali

Lin Sheng's home is in the largest shantytown in Zhabei, where hundreds of thousands of destitute people live, the roads are narrow, the buildings are numerous, these houses are not like the houses in other places in the south of the Yangtze River with white walls and green tiles, here can be built with bricks and tiles is a very luxurious thing, the poor people live on the edge of food and clothing, how can they have the money to build any house, can use wood, linoleum, thatch to build a shack is good.

Above the narrow alleyway, there are countless clothes hanging, children are happily playing and chasing, women are carrying buckets and carefully avoiding the children's collision, every household is smoking, the residents of the port city use different fuel for cooking than the mainland, they use coal instead of firewood, there is a huge coal storage yard near the wharf, and there are countless ships from the mainland every day to transport coal for those foreign steamers, so the price of coal is very low, and you can buy dozens of catties for a few copper coins, If you don't want to spend even a few copper coins, you can also let your children go to the road to sweep cinders, pick up coal cores, and take them home mixed with yellow mud to make briquettes is an excellent fuel.

Lin Sheng took Liu Ziguang through the alley, walking through the shantytown, obviously fruit Ah Sheng's communication is very wide, everyone sees him to say hello affectionately, walked for a while, and finally arrived at Lin Sheng's residence, this is a small room built with wooden boards, canvases, nails, but a square zhang, there are dozens of radishes stacked under the tarpaulin outside, there are two bricks and wooden boards in the house, there are flower quilts scattered on it, and there is a night pot in the corner, and there are no other belongings, which can be described as four walls.

"Let Brother Xu smile, let's sit down for a while, my brother will be back in a while." There is not much work on the dock, so naturally work early. Lin Sheng pushed the quilt on the bed inside and beckoned Liu Ziguang to sit down.

Although Lin Sheng's house smelled bad and tattered, Liu Ziguang was a person who rolled on the chase bunk of hundreds of people, and he had never seen any dirty environment, he sat down without caring and began to chat with Lin Sheng.

The sky gradually darkened, and there was a shout from the women calling for their children to come back for dinner, Lin Sheng's stomach also growled, at this time, the men working on the dock came back, the door of Lin Sheng's house was pushed open, and a sturdy man walked in, Lin Sheng hurriedly introduced: "This is my good brother Ding Li, the buddy who carries the work and rice on the dock, this is my new friend Xu Wenqiang today, Brother Xu has read." ”

Then I briefly talked about today's life conflict with the City Patrol Division.

Ding Li is a bold man, and after listening to Lin Sheng's introduction, he slapped his thigh: "Good fight, Brother Xu and I have a temper!" When it's time for dinner, let's go out for a drink! ”

Lin Sheng smiled when he heard this: "I even had the car taken over by the City Patrol Division, and I didn't have half a copper plate on my body." ”

"Brother Sheng, today I closed last month's salary, and some of them are money, just follow me." Ding Li patted his bulging waist and said with a grin.

When the three of them sat at the table of a small restaurant in the shantytown, Ding Li took out a silver coin from his waist and slapped it on the table: "Ah Tubo, blanch three pots of good wine, serve two dishes of side dishes first, fry a waist flower, don't wash the waist flower, the more sassy the better, and then stew a big fish." ”

Ding Li and Lin Sheng are obviously frequent customers of the small rice shop, Atu Bo Mali put a plate of fennel beans and a plate of fried stinky tofu on the table, the rice wine is also put into the tin pot and scalded, a sea fish is added with condiments and thrown into the pot or stewed, and when the hot rice wine is empty, Ding Li took out a few cigarettes and distributed them for everyone to smoke, this kind of cigarette is a unique characteristic product of Shanghai Tang Wharf, it is rolled into old newspapers on the tobacco outside the discarded cigar butt, the ink of the newspaper and the tobacco are burned together, the taste is very strong, and it is the best tool for the wharf coolies to relieve their fatigue. And the best cigarettes were rolled with the Cagathine cigar butt in the Song Kingdom and the declaration in Shanghai, and it was this kind of cigarette that Ding Li took out to entertain everyone.

The three of them chatted while drawing, and during the conversation, Liu Ziguang learned that there were a large number of coolies from the north on the Bund wharf who were doing the work of resisting big bags, and these people were all employed by the largest commercial bank in Shanghai, Fuyuan, and the boss of the Fuyuan was Lai Youwei, who was born in Shanghai, about forty years old, and it was not easy to mix from an ordinary fisherman ten years ago to today's point, and now half of the import and export trade of the entire Shanghai Tang is controlled by him, and the relationship with the people of the Daotai Yamen is very iron. In addition, he also controls the gangster axe club on the dock, which can be described as black and white, and he is quite low-key, he does not like to show his head, and he never goes out to show off. So much so that except for the circle of foreign business, there are very few people who know Boss Lai's name.

Knowing that Liu Ziguang needed to find a job, Ding Li immediately patted his chest red: "It's a trivial matter on me, my distant uncle is doing a bookkeeper in the Fuyuan, and it must be no problem to let him introduce him to him, I heard that the boss Corporal Lixian is the most respectful of scholars." ”

The three of them ate and drank happily, and after they were full of wine and food, Liu Ziguang said goodbye to the two, saying that he still had luggage to be put at a friend's place and needed to get it, and he would come back tomorrow to get together with the two friends.

The shantytown in the night was dark, there was no moon in the sky, only the bean-like lights in the shed beside the road illuminated the path outside, the sound of drunk men beating their wives and dogs barking, and the crying of children came and went.

Not long after the two left, one of Rishengchang's bodyguards came out of the darkness and said, "Lord Liu, please come with me." It turned out that when Liu Ziguang ran away with Lin Sheng, Hu Yimin sent someone to follow him, followed him to the outside of the shantytown, and waited for Liu Ziguang to take him back to the next place when he came out.

Rishengchang has a lot of real estate in Shanghai, Boss Hu is very eye-catching, at the beginning of the opening of the port in Shanghai bought a large piece of land near the wharf, and then the price of land and housing soared, the Hu family built a house for rent, it is very profitable, now Miss Hu lives in a house by the river, the appearance does not look like a mountain dew, but the inside is very luxurious and elegant, bamboo forest, pond is readily available, Hu Yimin has already prepared wine and rice waiting for him, Liu Ziguang couldn't help but laugh dumbly, It turned out that Miss Hu prepared the same stinky tofu as the shantytown restaurant, fennel beans and rice wine, which seems to be a special dish in Shanghai.

Eating and talking, Hu Yimin was not idle for half a day, mobilized forces to visit, and the result was the same as Liu Ziguang expected, the suspicion was concentrated on Lai Youwei's Fuyuan, this business has been in line with the policy of muffling and making money in Shanghai in obscurity, and can actually eat half of the cargo throughput of the port, what is this concept! Rishengchang doesn't have such a large amount of capital, and a little-known small business can sit down? It seems that this business must have an ulterior secret, and I heard that the relationship between the owner of the business and all the yamen in Shanghai is extraordinary.

"The Fuyuan is likely to be a tool used by the city to launder money." Liu Ziguang said categorically.

"Money laundering, that's a good word! Let's start with the Fuyuan. ”

Hu Yimin said. Nanchang and Rishengchang jointly handle the case, the strength is not trivial, they are not like the general judges, Yushi is as careful as the case, what is Nanchang, that is the secret service with ** judicial power and their own prison, as long as they identify who they want to do, they will not run, not to mention that there is such a strong financial support as Rishengchang.

"One question: The city ship division has its own anti-private division, the Daotai Yamen can mobilize the soldiers of the Shanghai Guard and the Yangtze River Naval Division, and there is also a strong team called the Patrol City Jingjie Division, which is said to be particularly capable of fighting tough battles. Hu Yimin said with some concern.

"This is easy to do, I will order the people of the Red Shirt Regiment to assemble in Shanghai, and then write a warrant to Li Peng of the Suzhou Thousand Households Office, so that he can listen to the order at any time, and if he wants to play hard with me, there are really few people in the Ming Dynasty." Liu Ziguang scoffed.

At noon the next day, Liu Ziguang came to the Bund Wharf as promised, Lin Sheng and Ding Li had been waiting there for a long time, and when they saw Liu Ziguang coming, Ding Li touched the back of his head and said embarrassedly: "My distant uncle doesn't talk about things, and the business name is unwilling to use newcomers. ”

"It's okay, if you resist big bags, you can resist big bags, as long as you can mix a bite of food." Liu Ziguang didn't care.

"Brother Xu is just refreshing, let's do it together. Even if it is to resist the big bag, we must do better than others. Lin Sheng said that his small cart was confiscated by the City Patrol Division, and people were also targeted, so he could no longer sell fruits on the street, so he could only do hard work with Ding Li.

So Liu Ziguang became a coolie on the Bund wharf, he was an expert in hard work, the labor intensity of transporting iron ore in the Liguo Iron Works was much more than the anti-big bag, the expert knew if there was a shot, Liu Ziguang put the hem of the robe into the belt, put a big bag in one hand and stepped on the springboard, and sent it to the boat steadily, fast and steady, and took twice as much as others, everyone was dumbfounded, Lin Sheng and Ding Li were stunned for a moment, and also picked up the big bag to keep up.

ran dozens of times in one breath, Liu Ziguang's face still did not change, Ding Li could still hold on, Lin Sheng was already a little out of breath, and every time he ran, he could change a bamboo stick as a proof of receiving money. Liu Ziguang relied on his strength and was able to receive two bamboo sticks at a time, and he earned a lot of money. Even the head looked at him differently.

The loading was soon over, and the coolies were resting on the docks, when a carriage approached, and a hand reached out from it and hooked it at the handle. Hurriedly ran over, listened to what the man said, and then turned around and shouted, "Bring me thirty good boys, and go with Boss Lai to unload the goods." ”