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Chapter Seventy-Six: The Train Platform

The railway station in Baoding was built in the last years of Guangxu, and later the railroad tracks were pried away and smelted into weapons in the Boxer Rebellion, and it was not until a few years ago that it was repaired because of Yuan Shikai's idea of the northern soldiers going south. It's just that Yuan Shikai was later dismissed from his post and placed under house arrest in Beijing, and the railway was repaired to Baoding, instead of continuing to be repaired to Shijiazhuang. Because on the road from Shijiazhuang to Baoding, most of the merchants knew that there were many bandits and bandits, and they were reluctant to go this way, so the railway station became a lot of depression.

Like other big towns in the north, Baoding has also begun to gradually become Westernized, walking on the streets of Baoding, there are Western-style newcomers wearing suits and ties, and there are many progressive young women who have long abandoned their deep dreams. Although the railway station in Baoding is much more depressed than before, after all, it is still the most popular place in Baoding, especially today there is a train to Tianjin, which is even more overcrowded, even if it is not crowded, but it can also be called crowded.

Near the platform of the railway station, a large number of people were looking at both sides of the railway, guessing when the train would arrive, and just on the edge of the platform, there was an open space, which was particularly abrupt in this crowded place. In the middle of the clearing, four male and female students seem to be rehearsing their patriotic drama, and the people around them are just waiting for the bus to be bored, and watching these four people perform can also relieve their mental sleepiness. These four students can also be regarded as very good, and they turned such a serious event as Li Hongzhang's signing of the traitorous treaty into a comedy farce, in which the ridicule of the Manchu court officials was vividly displayed, which attracted the surrounding people to constantly applaud.

However, at the very bottom of the crowd, there were two people who stood out. A stout young man with a mighty face dressed like a wandering man, with dust on his face and a look of disinterest, watched the drama as if none of these things had anything to do with him. Next to him stood a barefoot monk in a plain yellow robe, with an elegant appearance, and in contrast to the young people, the monk was clean, even if he stood barefoot on the muddy ground, his feet were extremely clean, and he felt as if he were not touching dust. Compared to the young man, the monk watched the play from beginning to end, but he did not smile at all, his face was always expressionless, and only a deep contempt and disdain could be slightly detected in the sight of his eyes.

The four students had already noticed these two spectators whose temperaments and behaviors were diametrically opposed to their surroundings, especially the contempt and disdain in the monk's eyes, which made one of the female students notice it lightly, and told the other companions. Since they were performing, they couldn't stop halfway, so the four of them just paid a little attention to the monk, and waited until the performance was over to ask them why they had such expressions.

"The car is coming!" After a whistle sounded, everyone's attention was on the train slowly entering the platform, and the four students were no exception to the train at this moment. When they turned around, they saw that the monk just now was gone, and although they wanted to look for it again, the dense crowd pushing towards the platform blocked everyone's sight.

"Damn, it's a shame! The female student who noticed the monk's disdainful gaze complained unhappily to the classmates beside her, and then searched around, and said angrily: "I actually watched our drama with that kind of disdainful eyes, if I didn't ask him clearly, Miss Ben would definitely not be able to swallow this breath." ”

A male student standing next to him said flatteringly: "Just stand on the luggage, and you will be able to see them from a high position." ”

"That's right!" the schoolgirl nodded, and quickly put the suitcases of several people together, and then, with the support of her companion, stood on it, stretched her neck and looked around, and soon found her target. However, the scene that caught her eyes made her stunned for an instant, and she saw that a monk was shuttling freely in the sea of people as if he was strolling leisurely. When they move forward, the people around their bodies waiting to get on the bus will inexplicably get out of the way and distance themselves from them, and when they walk away, they will huddle together again, and the people in front of them will automatically get out of the way as before. It feels like there's an invisible wall around them, separating them from the world, and it's very eerie.

The two of them did not walk fast, but they reached the carriage faster than the train passengers who were squeezing forward with all their might, and when they got on, the monk seemed to sense the gaze of the schoolgirl, looked this way, and shook his head with a smile, as if to laugh at the schoolgirl's childish mentality.

"How is it?Sujuan, have you found it?" another female student below asked anxiously when she saw her companion's stunned look.

"Found it!" said the schoolgirl with a frown, "but they are in the fourth carriage." ”

"Huh, carriage four!" the others gasped, and one of the male students said with jealousy, "Are they monks who can get on carriage four?"

In order to facilitate the foreigners and wealthy merchants who traveled between the north and the south, the railway bureau of the Qing court specially opened several carriages for each train to separate them from the poor and ordinary people, and the No. 4 carriage became the collective name of these carriages. The tickets for these carriages are very expensive, almost a year's home for ordinary people, not only ordinary people can't afford to buy them, even ordinary foreigners can't afford this kind of tickets, and the people who can take these carriages are all wealthy businessmen and magnates, or they are wealthy foreigners such as the general manager of a foreigner firm.

For such two monks to be able to get on the fourth carriage, it is reasonable for everyone to express their surprised expressions. The female student seemed to be a little unwilling to let go of the monk like this, especially at the end the monk shook his head contemptuously at her, which was even more considered a provocation in the heart of the arrogant female student, and she couldn't let it go, so she gritted her teeth and said, "Let's go, let's also get into the fourth carriage." ”

"What?" The other three were all shocked, and the female companion next to her immediately took her hand and said, "Su Juan, don't be crazy, we don't have so much money to sit in such a luxury car." ”

"What are you afraid of? I don't want you to pay a penny, I still have a ticket from Baoxiang Qian Zhuang of the Huizhou Chamber of Commerce, which is enough for the four of us to sit in the fourth carriage," the female student glared at her companion and said: "Those Manchu ** officials can sit, ** businessmen can sit, foreigners of different races can sit, and even those two monks can sit, why can't we, the enlightened progressive students?"

As she spoke, she lifted the salute in her hand and walked angrily towards the fourth carriage, while her companions looked at each other, and finally chased after her luggage.

The monk who waited for the fourth carriage was Xu Changqing and Guan Zheng, because both of them focused on testing their foot skills, they unknowingly ran in the wrong direction, got lost, and only figured out their location when they arrived in Gaoyang, and finally it took a whole day and a night to come to Baoding. Both of them are cultivators, and if they don't sleep for a day and a night, they won't have any effect, and they both maintain the spirit of Huan, but compared to the spirit, the appearance of the two is very different. Xu Changqing's method of avoiding dust has been used perfectly, even if he does not deliberately use his spirit, Jiuliu Avenue can perform the method of avoiding dust by himself, even if he walks in the mountains full of dust and mud, he still does not get any dust on his body, and his body is as clean as new. And Guan Zheng chased all the way on the ground, although he was protected by the law of divine action, but he was inevitably discouraged, and the dust on his body made him feel like he had crawled out of the ground.

It was precisely because of this dusty appearance that Guan Zheng felt very uncomfortable sitting in this extremely luxuriously decorated carriage, and the eyes of the richly dressed rich people and foreigners in straight suits around him made him feel like pins and needles. He looked a little restrained to Xu Changqing, who was sitting opposite, and asked, "Master, are we on the wrong carriage? The ticket for such a carriage seems to be very expensive." ”

"Brother Guan is not nervous about dealing with those demons and monsters, but he is nervous in the face of these ordinary people and mundane things, it seems that Brother Guan's Dao heart needs to be cultivated more!" Xu Changqing smiled and said: "You don't have to worry about the ticket, it's not as expensive as you think, this train line is chartered by a person who is known to the poor monk, and the fare for this carriage is the same as that of an ordinary car." ”

Before coming to Baoding, Xu Changqing had already learned from other sources that Chen Zhangping, the fourth son of the Chen family, had already chartered this train line from the Beiyang New Army who controlled the railway a year ago, and also built a club near Baoding, which was exclusively used for the entertainment of foreigners and wealthy businessmen in the Tianjin Concession. This is also the most important reason why Xu Changqing did not go to Cangzhou and went to Baoding, although at the moment Xuangang Heavenly Demon is lucky, and he sent people everywhere to intercept and kill the people in the lower ninth stream side of the north, but even if he is rampant, he does not dare to rashly meddle in the industry of the Beiyang New Army and the affairs of the foreigners in the concession, compared to other places, this train is much more stable.

When he arrived at the ticket office of the railway station, Xu Changqing immediately showed the Chen family's guest jade card, and the director who presided over the Baoding Railway Station was also an old man of the Chen family. The old man of the Chen family also knew very well how high his status was in the Chen family, and even the fourth young master of the Chen family, who was in charge of the affairs around Tianjin, had to be respectful when he saw him. So he immediately arranged for him and Guan Zheng to sit in the highest No. 4 carriage, and sent someone to wait on the train to make him satisfied.

"I'm relieved!" Hearing Xu Changqing's words, Guan Zhengchang breathed a sigh of relief and whispered: "I'm not afraid of your jokes, this is my first time taking a train, and it's really a bit rare." ”

"Each other, the poor monk also took the train for the first time. Xu Changqing smiled, then beckoned, called the waiter, pointed at Guan Zheng and said, "Please take this gentleman to the bathroom and freshen up." Besides, get me all the new newspapers that have been coming out these days. ”

"Yes!" After listening to the waiter who had been instructed by the railway conductor to salute very respectfully, he led Guan Zheng towards the dressing room in the middle of the carriage. It didn't take long for him to bring a large stack of sorted newspapers, put them on the table in front of Xu Changqing, and then asked, "Master, do you want something to drink?"

"Let's have a cup of tea!" The expression on Xu Changqing's face reverted to his usual coldness, and he commanded, then took out a Tianjin Daily and read it.

Although there are many newspapers in front of me, and there are also foreigners' newspapers, the content is basically the same, almost all of them are a series of measures promulgated by the new emperor on the throne, the regent in power, and the Qing court. The only newspapers that caught Xu Changqing's attention consisted of four, only one of which was a local newspaper. Among the four newspapers, Japanese and French newspapers in less visible places had a statement that it would not intervene in China's internal affairs and rejected Mr. Sun's request to enter the country. Another newspaper, the New York Times, carried the headline "Is China Moving Forward? or Backwards?" on the second page, which mainly mentioned Yuan Shikai's dismissal and return to his hometown, his house arrest, and the Qing court's request for the Japanese government to help them control students studying in Japan.

As for China's homegrown newspaper, an anonymous contributor to the Shanghai Times wrote an editorial about some of the shapes and problems of the Qing court today, and how to deal with them. Interestingly, in the article, it is believed that Yuan Shikai's dismissal from his post is a good thing, and that the Qing court should take this opportunity to take control of the Beiyang New Army, and then go south to quell the chaos of the Southern Revolutionary Party. From the article, it can be seen lightly that the writer's thinking is that he is an absolute royalist, advocating a constitutional monarchy, and extremely opposed to the revolutionary party presided over by Sun and Huang, believing that the revolutionary party is the source of turmoil, and that the Qing court should uproot the revolutionary party with the force of thunder.

The thoughts expressed in this article reminded Xu Changqing of a person who he didn't want to think of, and when he saw that the name of the writer at the end of the article was Sushan, a sneer couldn't help but appear on his face. When the reform was carried out, Chen Deshang contributed to it, and at that time, several presiding officers of the reform had all lived in Chen Jiachong for a period of time, and they had a long talk with Xu Changqing. Xu Changqing really admires the knowledge of the six people, but thinks that all of them are undesirable, and for their character, Xu Changqing always admires only those one or two.

Sushan people were also one of the few people in Chenjiachong at that time, and they were the most fierce when they changed the law, and the one who escaped the fastest after the accident. Sushanren is a pen name he once used, few people know, but as one of the parties back then, Prince Zaifeng knows his pen name and articles very well, so this person is worth playing such an article at this time, which is quite flattering.

Just when Xu Changqing had an interesting picture of a human-faced dog wagging its tail at its owner, there was a sudden quarrel at the junction of the carriage behind him. However, the foreigner spoke French, and the student spoke English, and felt a little bit of a donkey's lips against the horse's mouth, and neither side understood what the other meant, although there were Chinese waiters in the carriage, but they did not dare to speak because of the rules in the carriage, and the matter was deadlocked, and the rich merchants and foreigners around them looked at them as if they were watching a play.