Chapter 133: No War in Lingnan (I)

In April of the sixth year of Chongzhen, when the snow in the north had not completely melted, Guangzhou in the south of the Lingnan Province had already been a beautiful spring color with all things germinating.

Outside Guangzhou, on the bank of the Pearl River, Li Fugui, a displaced person from Jiangxi, was sitting on a bench under a large pergola, straightening his neck and supporting his ears, stepping on the bench with one bare foot, drinking herbal tea and listening to books.

Li Fugui, who just turned 20 this year, just left his hometown in the mountainous areas of southern Gan last summer and went all the way to Guangzhou in exile to make a living.

As early as the last years of the Apocalypse, the mountainous areas of western Fujian and southern Jiangxi were already swarmed by bandits. In the Chongzhen period, he began to openly kill officials and rebel on a large scale. The heroes of the various mountains first worked together to defeat the government, and then began to fight endlessly with each other. The local people were plundered and slaughtered again and again, and all the fields were abandoned...... It was because Li Fugui's family could not bear the trouble of war that they embarked on the road of family migration. But unfortunately, when they broke through many dangers and obstacles along the way and successfully escaped to Guangzhou, Li Fugui was the only one left in their family.

However, what almost made Li Fugui feel desperate was that as soon as he fled to Guangzhou, he caught up with the imperial court to issue an order to crusade against the "Australian people" entrenched in Qiongzhou. As a result, before the Guangdong officials and troops had time to mobilize, the big iron ships of the "Australians" had already entered the Pearl River and landed in the provincial capital of Guangzhou!

As a result, the unlucky Li Fugui was also arrested by the Guangzhou government, and he trembled and guarded the city with a sharpened bamboo pole, ready to serve as cannon fodder when the Australians killed. There is also a group of local people in Guangdong around him, who are muttering all day long about the majestic style of the Australians sweeping across the Pearl River and bombarding the city of Guangzhou, which frightened Li Fugui into chanting Amitabha Buddha for three days, asking the Bodhisattva not to let the Australians' shells kill him......

Fortunately, this battle did not start after all. Because the strength of this group of "Australians" is so strong that they no longer look like mortals -- first, dozens of "flying fairy boats" (airships) came from covering the sky and the sun, playing terrifying music, pressing on the heads of the people of Guangzhou; Then, somehow, it was clear that the city gates had not fallen, but hundreds of "Australian elite soldiers" poured out of the official offices in the city (the [random door] was directly opened in the yamen of Guangzhou), and the civil and military officials such as the governor, the governor, the prefect, the chief soldier, and the political envoy were all unified......

In this way, relying on such decapitation tactics and psychological deterrence, which are completely impossible to resist, Guangzhou City naturally went down without a fight. After the change of ownership in Guangzhou, Li Fugui was first imprisoned as a prisoner of war for a period of time, doing hard labor for the Australians to build bridges and pave roads, carrying large bags, and then receiving a little severance pay and being released. However, due to the difficulty of finding jobs on the market, after a turn, he still came back to serve the Australian master's job.

-- For most of the past six months, every morning as soon as the sky was dark, Li Fugui got up early, rushed to the Australian recruitment office outside the east gate, and delivered a bamboo sign with his name written on it to an Australian wig with his name written on it at the door, and then went to the pergola next to him to wait for the work.

When Li Fugui first came to work part-time, this pergola could only accommodate 180 people, but then it grew bigger and bigger, and now it can accommodate 1,000 people, because there seems to be endless work under the hands of these Australian lords -- they have built one bridge and wharf after another, paved one wide road after another, and even somehow torn off the city wall of Guangzhou and changed it into a ring road with coconut trees on both sides. He also said that he wanted to build a "factory" on the wasteland next to the Pearl River, and gathered a lot of manpower to build on the wasteland, so that Li Fugui and his companions could take a good look at the diorama for a while: none of them thought that there were so many tricks to build a house, and the yellow-colored iron cattle brought by the Australians were bigger than the houses, and the roar was like thunder, and a meal could dig a big pit that hundreds of people couldn't dig even for a month. In addition, a lot of other strange-looking iron guys were also transported, and the iron used was only more than tens of thousands of catties, which made the onlookers in Guangzhou stunned.

Although these iron cattle are indeed infinitely powerful, they are still too rough to do the work, and many of the fine work such as laying bricks and walls, polishing stone slabs, tamping the soil and planting saplings still rely on manual labor, so there is an opportunity for Li Fugui and them to work and eat part-time jobs.

In fact, on the construction site of the Australian lord, in addition to their short-term coolies who settle their wages on a daily basis, there is also a kind of "worker" who has signed a long-term contract, and the treatment is much better than that of these short-term workers, not only the salary is more favorable, but the owner also manages a meal at noon, and from time to time there are some small gifts called "welfare", which makes Li Fugui very envious. But if you want to be an Australian "worker", the first thing is to go to the "purification camp" to take a bath and shave your head, this requirement to shave your head makes Li Fugui feel really difficult, so he hesitates and has not yet made up his mind......

The wages paid by Australians to them are not silver spent in vain, but some pieces of paper, the kind of paper they gave at first was called a circulation coupon, and later changed to another piece of paper with a more precise pattern, called Huayuan, in fact, to put it bluntly, it is the Da Ming Bao banknote of the Australians. But this Australian banknote is much better than the waste paper-like deception of the Ming government - next to the pergola of the fundraiser, there is an Australian-owned shop that only accepts Chinese dollar banknotes, and it sells the best-selling Australian goods in Guangzhou at the moment: candy, pastries, refined salt, cigarettes, shochu, white paper, steel needles, and many other strange things. The most eye-catching are Australian glass mirrors and cosmetics, but the price is also ridiculously expensive.

Of course, a short-term coolie like Li Fugui, who works all day and eats a day, naturally can't afford such an expensive luxury, but this is not difficult for them. Because the shrewd merchants had already set up a coin exchange booth near the Australian Recruitment Office outside the East Gate, exchanging the Chinese dollar banknotes in the hands of the laborers into silver and copper coins. Moreover, as time passed, Australians' banknotes gradually established credibility in the Guangzhou market, and more and more shops were willing to accept Chinese dollar banknotes. Today's Li Fugui no longer has to exchange paper money and let the second-class dealers peel off a layer of skin.

Today, Li Fugui came very early, so there were only a dozen people sitting in the shed, and there was a water intake in a corner of the shed, and a row of large tanks was filled with herbal tea at any time.

After a while, more and more people came to work for short periods, and soon the pergola began to be lively, hundreds of people gathered together, and the courtyard was filled with the sound of laughter and laughter. There is also an old man who loves storytelling, spitting and dancing to retell the new joke of "Three Kingdoms" that he heard in the teahouse yesterday...... Although the old man said it was ridiculous, it still made the coolies who lived a boring life and lacked entertainment very happy to listen.

On the roof of the Australian Recruitment Office, there is a small clock tower. After a few months of short-term work, although Li Fugui was illiterate, he could already understand the purpose of the disc on the bell tower - whenever the stubby hand pointed to seven and the slender hand pointed to twelve, the bell tower would ring the bell, and a clerk wearing an Australian "uniform" would appear on time on the steps of the gate of the fundraising office. He held a stack of sheets in his left hand and a large tin horn in his right hand, dragging a long and long note, shouting at the eager coolies to distribute all kinds of work. For example: "...... Digging a ditch for four hours, two hundred people, each of whom had six angles of Huayuan......""...... The wharf transports timber to 80 square meters, 50 people, each of whom has a Huayuan triangle ......""...... The wharf unloaded 500 bags of coal, 10 people, each octagonal ......""...... One hundred and twenty coconut trees, twenty people, each with seven ......"

Every time the clerk shouted, there was a buzz below. Then, just as the captain of the Red Hair went to the tavern to recruit sailors, the coolies who were willing to go would gather at the registration office at the bottom of the stairs, give their names, and then a special person would lead them to their respective construction sites.

After the work is done, there will be a half-grown child in an Australian uniform on the construction site, one by one to put a blue stamp on the back of your hand, and then you can go back to the pergola to receive your salary, where someone will check the name and stamp, and then use a special potion to erase the blue stamp on the back of your hand.

Today, however, the situation seems to be somewhat different, for the stubby hand of the disc on the bell tower has long since reached seven, and the other slender hand has moved a distance of twelve and the bell has struck, but the instrument that sent the work has not yet come out. This made Li Fugui and his co-workers gradually panic, and the sound of small talk became quieter and quieter, and finally it was completely quiet, and everyone stared at the closed door on the steps, while exchanging frightened glances with each other--look at this posture, could it be ...... There's no work today, right?

Obviously, if there is no work today, then there will naturally be no salary for this day. What a deal! Many of them are so poor that they have "no food for the rest of the house", and they are waiting to rely on their daily wages to buy rice and go back to the pot!

As time passed, just as the short-time coolies began to stir slightly, the door of the recruitment office finally opened with a bang. However, what came out of it was not only the "wig" document that was common on weekdays, but also a young Taoist priest with sword eyebrows and starry eyes. I saw that the clerk looked around, then raised the iron horn in his hand and shouted at the coolies in the shed: "...... Little ones! Listen up! The Changliu Sect is recruiting miscellaneous disciples and outer disciples in Guangzhou today, and if you want to participate in the assessment, you should come to this chief to sign up! ”

He pointed to the young Taoist priest beside him and announced, "...... This long stay is the protector of the Australian Song Dynasty, and the mountain gate is hung with a golden plaque written by the emperor of the Australian Song Dynasty! If you are admitted to stay for a long time, it is equivalent to eating the official family! Don't miss this opportunity! ”

This unexpected news immediately stunned everyone - what kind of road is this long-stay faction? But that sounds good......

“…… Yes, my long-term stay faction is a first-class faction that has been officially certified by the Australian and Song Dynasty courts, and the treatment is absolutely generous! When the clerk with the tin horn finished shouting, the young Taoist priest also nodded, and slowly agreed, "...... As long as you are willing to abide by the rules of the door and obey the dispatch of the master, all disciples will be fed and lodged regardless of whether they are high or low, as well as pocket money and clothes for the four seasons, and teach various grades of martial arts! ”

Speaking of this, he suddenly patted his head with a sudden realization, "...... Oh, by the way, this disciple can't help but marry, and of course there is no need to shave his hair......"

Suddenly, Li Fugui, who had been longing for some kind of stable life for a long time, suddenly brightened his eyes......

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On the newly built avenue in the south of Guangzhou, a horse-drawn carriage is moving slowly, and there is a small group of short-haired soldiers with loaded guns and ammunition behind the car to follow on foot, and a rising star flag and a red star ring flag erected at the top of the carriage are hunting and hunting in the wind, attracting countless envious and awe-inspiring eyes on both sides of the road.

At this moment, Xu Xiake, the most famous "No. 1 traveler in the world" in the history of the late Ming Dynasty, is sitting in this luxury carriage specially sent by the "Australian" to greet him with his traveling companion and brother Xu Zhongzhao. The rhythmic tremor of the seat under them made the two people who had been tired all the way drowsy.

-- This Western-style four-wheeled carriage is a high-end product custom-made in Zicheng Ji, Guangzhou, with a sturdy iron skeleton, a light carriage made of rattan, wrapped with velvet curtains inside and out, and the windows on the side of the carriage are equipped with detachable glass windows and double window screens with black and white inside, which fully guarantees the privacy of passengers and allows pedestrians not to see the situation in the carriage. Underneath the seats, a small rattan box holds a variety of drinks and snacks, from herbal tea, fruit, lugvas, to rum, neatly arranged in small compartments. The interior and exterior of the carriage are exquisitely decorated, with a large number of copper decorations and gorgeous relief inlays, coupled with the new soft sofa launched by Lingao Furniture Factory, which greatly improves the comfort of passengers during the journey.

But the biggest advantage of this kind of carriage is the use of rubber pneumatic tires and advanced suspension shock absorption system, relying on the shock absorbing plates made of bamboo and all kinds of shock absorbing springs, which can greatly reduce the bumps caused by the uneven road surface, so as to adapt to the poor road conditions of the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, this kind of carriage in Guangzhou once launched, it caused a lot of shock, although the price is expensive, but the sales are still hot, the first batch of 20 trial version of the carriage was quickly sold out, the order has been lined up for half a year, regarded as a "Australian" under the rule of a kind of status symbol, and the "new dynasty" rich dignitaries must go out. And the departments concerned are also very much in favor of the popularization of this kind of carriage -- in any case, as long as it can replace the sedan chair, which is a slow and serious waste of human resources, it will be a great liberation of labor.

However, riding in this comfortable carriage that he had never experienced before, and once again stepping on the boundary of Lingnan Guangzhou, Xu Xiake's mood was extremely disturbed - he never thought that he would actually embark on the journey home in such a wonderful form!

Xu Xiake sighed, staring at the glass car window in a daze, and the various magical experiences of the past year seemed to have appeared in front of him again......