As soon as the sky was bright, the wharf of Shengli Port began to be busy, and teams of laborers entered the site one after another, and began to carry goods under the command of the foreman. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 It was winter, and although the temperature did not drop much, the daylight hours had been shortened to about 11 hours, and the sun set at 6 p.m. and it was dark, so the time left for dock workers to handle cargo loading and unloading was even more urgent.

In order to improve the operational efficiency of the terminal, the shipping department has begun to standardize the shipment of its own cargo ships several years ago, dividing the bulk carrier terminal and the general cargo terminal, supplemented by different cargo handling equipment. There are belt conveyors driven by steam engines on the bulk carrier terminals, which are specially used for loading and unloading bulk goods such as coal and ore, while general freight terminals are built with tall hangers for lifting standardized wooden containers and other goods with uniform packaging. There are also several tracks on the dock for the rapid transfer of goods between the train station and the terminal. Between the cargo ships in Shengli Port and the factories in Tianduo Industrial Zone, point-to-point transfer can be achieved in as little as one hour.

Compared with the trading ports of the same era, the operation efficiency of Shengli Port is at least three or four times higher, which is one of the important reasons why merchants from all over the world are willing to choose this place as an entrepot trading port. The price to be paid for this operational efficiency is the huge amount of infrastructure investment and intensive labor arrangements, with more than 2,000 laborers working in shifts every day at the cargo terminal of Shengli Port alone to ensure that the cargo can be loaded and unloaded as soon as possible and will not be stranded at the port.

With the exception of the foreman, the vast majority of the labourers were newcomers who had not yet obtained naturalized citizenship and lacked skills, and they had to temporarily sell their labor to make ends meet. With thousands of dock workers, plus sailors and crews entering and leaving the port, the population density of this port area is quite large, and in order to maintain normal operation, various supporting management agencies and service facilities are also readily available, such as the agency responsible for public security is the Shengli Port Police Station located next to the courtyard of the Yulin Inspection Division.

Although the organization of the Inspection Department is still there, Wei Ping, the former Yulin Inspector, has long gone to the sea to do business and take care of political affairs, and he only keeps this organization to facilitate the handling of disputes between some Ming businessmen or non-Haihan people. Of course, it was the people from the Inspection Department who came forward to deal with the matter, but it was the police station next to the Haihan Ministry of Justice that made the decision.

Huang Tongyang, the current chief of the Shengligang police station, immigrated from Guangdong to Sanya in 1628 and then joined the Haihan militia. However, he was wounded in the back during the Battle of Annam Hue the following year, and was discharged from the army after returning to Sanya. Of course, the military did not pay him a demobilization pay, but arranged for him to transfer to the judicial system and continue to serve in the police force. After a few years, Huang Tongyang was also slowly promoted to the position of director by virtue of his qualifications.

It is not easy to manage law and order in an area where thousands of migrants come and go every day. For example, the crew and sailors get drunk and fight each other, which is basically a routine dispute that occurs every day, young and middle-aged people from different countries and different regions and different races are concentrated in this port area, and it is difficult to think of something not happening, in order to be able to deal with various international disputes in a timely and effective manner, the staffing of the Shengli Port Police Station is also adhering to the tradition of Haihan internationalization, and the police officers not only have Han, Li, and Miao people, but also Annam and Dongying, as well as Portuguese and Malay mixed race and so on.

Such a multinational force with complex components is a kind of trouble in itself, and Huang Tongyang not only has to manage these people well, but also has to let them maintain law and order in the port area, and the work pressure can be imagined. However, a few days ago, when Huang Tongyang went to Shengli Fort to attend a meeting of the judicial system, Ren Liang, director of the Police Department, had already greeted him, and it was no surprise that he would be able to get the opportunity to be promoted within the year, and his position and treatment would be further promoted.

It is precisely because of the imminent promotion opportunity that Huang Tongyang does not dare to slack off, and recently he arrived at the unit just after dawn, and he left after work after dark, almost taking a break with the force workers in the port area. He worked so hard to ensure that there would be no chaos in his district during the period before his promotion, and even if there was any unexpected situation, he could respond and deal with it in the first time.

Huang Tongyang also arrived at the office early that day, and first started to deal with the file that had not been completed the day before. It's all trivial things, and the two thefts have been caught, and everyone has been stolen, so they can be sent to a hard labor camp today. There was also an incident of drunken brawl, but fortunately, the police arrived in time to stop it, and the two parties who committed the crime were arrested and locked up.

After dealing with yesterday's unfinished business, Huang Tongyang still has to arrange today's work in advance. According to the schedule, there should be a migrant boat arriving at the port today, and there will be about 300 migrants from the northern region of Daming arriving with the ship, Huang Tongyang needs to coordinate with the civil affairs department to arrange the time, and then send people to the passenger terminal to maintain order, if necessary, it may also need to ask the military to come and help. These northern immigrants lack understanding of the situation in Haihan, and many of them have become very troublesome and unruly since they came here, and there have been incidents of immigrants attacking civil affairs workers before, so the police must also take some precautions.

Huang Tongyang flipped through the calendar, the monthly higher-level inspection should be the last two days, and he had to organize his police officers to clean the courtyard of the police station first, so as not to let the inspector come to see and pick a bone in the egg and say something like "untidy police appearance". It just so happened that the people from the inspection department next door were relatively idle, so they had to call over to help with the work later.

Huang Tongyang finished planning today's affairs, and before he had time to go to breakfast, something came to the door. Zheng Gao, a subordinate who had just completed the handover with the night shift staff, came in and reported: "Director, someone reported that there was an accident on the dock!"

"It's not that there was a homicide, I'm panicking, I'll go over after I have breakfast. Huang Tongyang said angrily. Every month, there are many laborers who accidentally break the fragile goods and are twisted by the owner to claim compensation, especially when the weather is bad in the morning and evening, this kind of thing can easily happen. And the police station can generally only mediate in the middle, after all, the income of those laborers is too low, and they must not be able to pay for the full compensation.

"Director...... This time it's really fatal!" Zheng Gao hurriedly added.

"Damn, why didn't you say it earlier!" When Huang Tongyang heard this, he immediately canceled his plan to have breakfast: "What's going on?

"In the inspection department next door, it's a maritime merchant from the Ming Dynasty, I've already brought him over, and I'm waiting in the courtyard outside......"

"Then don't talk nonsense, let's go, go out and have a look!" Huang Tongyang didn't wait for Zheng Gao to finish speaking, and immediately ordered: "Hurry up and send someone to the scene, don't mess with things, protect them first!"

"I have already asked the inspection department to send someone over first. "This Zheng Gao is also shrewd, and when he heard the news, he came to report the news, and asked the inspection department to send the police to deal with it first.

Huang Tongyang walked out of the courtyard and saw this maritime merchant, seeing that his face was quite calm, followed by two retinue servants.

"This is our Director Huang, you tell me again what you saw today. Zheng Gao instructed the maritime merchant.

"Xiaomin Liao Zhen, I've seen Lord Huang!" the maritime merchant bowed in response.

"Don't be polite, let's get down to business!" Huang Tongyang didn't have time to put on an official stand, and waved his hand to signal Liao Zhenzhi to say.

Liao Zhen straightened up and told Huang Tongyang what happened this morning. Because he was in a hurry to set off north to Haikou Port today, he went to the wharf early in the morning to supervise the loading, but suddenly saw something floating on the water between the side of the ship and the shore. At that time, the sky was not yet bright, so Liao Zhen asked someone to light a torch and raise it to a closer place to see, but a person was floating on the water with his face down.

Liao Zhen was surprised, so he sent someone to report to the staff on the dock, and at the same time asked his subordinates who were familiar with the water to quickly go to the sea to rescue people. However, after the drowning man was fished up, he found that he had lost his heartbeat and breathing, and had probably been dead for several hours. Since it was a fatality, the staff on the dock did not dare to slack off, so they asked Liao Zhen and others to report to the official quickly. However, Liao Zhen was not very familiar with the official organization of Shengli Port, and when he saw the door number of the Inspection Division, he went straight in. As everyone knows, there is no way to manage this kind of major matter, and after reporting it, the other side quickly notified the police station next door.

After hearing this, Huang Tongyang turned to Zheng Gao and asked, "Have you notified the above to send a servant to the past?"

Zheng Gao responded: "I have already asked someone to inform me, but I guess I didn't get to work so early, maybe I haven't rushed over at this time." ”

"Let's go, let's go check it out. Huang Tongyang did not delay, and immediately took Zheng Gao, Liao Zhen and others to the scene of the incident.

The place where the incident occurred is located at the No. 3 pier of Shengli Port, which is located at the southern end of the scenic avenue, and the ships docked are mainly small and medium-sized merchant ships and cargo ships, because there is no special isolation between the port area and the scenic avenue, and most of the ships docked here are owned by merchants who are closely related to Haihan, and the crew members can freely enter and exit the commercial area of the scenic avenue.

Huang Tongyang asked casually: "Boss Liao seems to be coming to Sanya for the first time, right?

Liao Zhen responded: "The villain is the shopkeeper of the Leizhou branch of 'Qiong Lianfa', and it is the first time he came to Sanya, and he didn't expect to encounter this kind of thing." ”

Huang Tongyang nodded slightly, his heart turned out to be his own person, no wonder he was allowed to dock at Pier 3 for the first time. However, only a small number of the employees under "Qiong Lianfa" are Haihan nationality, and judging from the degree to which Liao Zhen is not familiar with Haihan institutions, he is probably not a naturalized citizen.

Several members of the inspection department who arrived in advance had already used a few bamboo poles found temporarily to circle an area of two feet square on the shore of the wharf, isolating irrelevant people and others. And the drowning body lay on the ground, covered with a straw mat.

It's not uncommon for people to drown at the Victory Harbor docks, and similar things happen almost every month. It's not that the safety of the dock is not in place, but that this place is too close to the business district, and it is inevitable that there will be drunk guys strolling here at night to blow the sea breeze, and one accidentally planted in the water will not be able to get up. Because of this, there will always be ten or eight unlucky ghosts who drown here in a year.

Originally, there was no need for Huang Tongyang to come forward in person for a small matter like this, just wait for the corpse to come out with a report after the examination. However, he happened to be on the dock today to deploy the work of receiving new immigrants, so he stopped by to see the situation.

Zheng Gao leaned down and uncovered the straw mat covering the corpse, revealing the man's face. Huang Tongyang said with a little surprise after reading it: "This ...... Is it a fan?"

The corpse has not been soaked in the sea for too long, and the face can still be seen clearly, this deep-eyed and high-nosed appearance is indeed a Western fan. Looking at his thick curly beard, the sparkling ring on his hand and the clothes on his body, Huang Tongyang already had a rough judgment of his identity: "It's a Persian merchant." ”

Zheng Gao got closer to the corpse, raised his head and said to Huang Tongyang: "Director, this person can still smell wine, it looks like he is another unlucky drunk!"

Huang Tongyang also thought so, nodded and said: "Most of them drank too much in a nearby restaurant yesterday, and when they arrived at the beach, the sea breeze blew and they wanted to vomit, but as soon as they stumbled, they fell into the sea and couldn't come up." ”

"Then are you still waiting for the autopsy?" Zheng Gao covered the straw mat and got up to ask for instructions.

"Ah, what we see is only the appearance of drowning, and we still have to look at it. Although Huang Tongyang felt that his speculation should be the truth, he did not arbitrarily draw conclusions. The homicide must have a post-mortem conclusion before it can be closed according to the accidental death, otherwise if the report is handed in like this, most of them will be reprimanded by their superiors. In addition, let him take a look at his physical characteristics, and it is also convenient to post a notice afterwards for people who know him to identify the body.

"Zheng Gao, you go to a few nearby inns that can accommodate Persians, and see if there is such a person. Huang Tongyang deliberately wanted to test the observation of his subordinates: "You remembered the height and appearance and clothing characteristics just now, right?"

"This man is about six feet tall, with black curly hair and a big beard, but this person looks old, and his age is difficult to deduce. He wears a black silk robe, brown calfskin boots, and rings set with gems on his right middle finger and left index finger. Zheng Gao was quite careful and immediately described it.

Huang Tongyang nodded approvingly and said, "Yes, then hurry up and inquire about the news, if there is anyone who knows him, he will quickly bring the corpse to be identified." (To be continued.) )