The next day

The sound of pots and pans in the courtyard and the energetic shouts of children kicked off the day, which seemed to be very vibrant.

Richard's breakfast was a large bowl of stick noodle porridge, plus two half-pound stick noodles and a plate of pickles pickled in cabbage stalks, which he ate cleanly.

Feeling the warm fullness in his stomach, he lit a Havana cigar and sat on a stool with his legs crossed to drink tea leisurely, thinking about where he was going to go for a spin today.

Meals are not provided at noon in the miscellaneous courtyard, because the old men who go to work will not come back at noon, and it is too delayed on the way back and forth.

Whether it's a factory or a wharf, there won't be much time left for workers at noon.

Therefore, when I go to work in the morning, after breakfast at home, my wife will prepare a few wowotou or dough cakes, and then bring the leftover vegetables from last night, or two pickle gnocchi, and will have some at noon.

Workers who do manual work can't do it without food in their stomachs. Greel

Only dinner will be richer. Stir-fry two vegetables, and a little peanuts, you can drink two glasses of wine on the dough cake to eliminate the fatigue of the day.

The life of ordinary people will not have big fish and meat, and it would be good to improve it two or three times a week, which is the most simple life.

It's not that ordinary people can't afford to eat, but the Chinese have always had a tradition of thrift and thrift, and the money saved is to buy a house, go to school for the baby, make clothes, and marry a daughter-in-law.

The consumption of Chang'an, the imperial capital, is relatively high, and ordinary people rarely go to restaurants to live. Three or five friends came to the mother-in-law of the family to cook a few dishes and play some loose wine to entertain the guests.

Friends weigh a pound of marinated chicken feet, marinated pork liver, braised pork head meat and other meat dishes on the street, it is a happy day with wine and meat.

It was almost 9 a.m. when Richard went out.

It didn't take long for the Grebe

He came to Pier 9 by the sea, the imperial capital Chang'an Bay Area, also known as the San Francisco Bay Area, in a narrow sense, including the surrounding area of Chang'an along the Pacific coastline, 11 large cargo terminals have been built one after another, with different functions.

Pier 9 is mainly a bulk cargo wharf, which is a large harbor wharf, with a series of unloading berths, wide concrete wharfs, wharf hoisting operation area, warehouse area, etc., and the facilities are quite perfect.

Pier 10 adjacent to the north is a special iron ore wharf, mainly used by several large iron and steel companies, with special iron ore conveyor belt lines, stockpiles, steam engine grabs and other special facilities.

The northernmost pier No. 11 is the Royal Navy Pier, which is the town of Oak Bay, a few dozen kilometers north of Chang'an.

The town now has 4 10,000-ton berths, 8 5,000-ton berths, a large naval ship repair yard, three naval stations, a coal-fired dock, an oil depot, several large naval weapons and ammunition depots, as well as a naval sanatorium and a number of training base facilities, making it the most important and well-equipped support base for the Royal Navy on the Imperial mainland.

Back to the point

Pier 9 occupies about 1.3 kilometers of coastline along the coast, and on the wharf stands a tall bridge hoister, which is a port machinery pioneered by Chang'an Heavy Industries, which mainly uses a small steam engine as the power of the steel cable winch, and has 8 concrete cement slabs at the rear end, each weighing 260 pounds. Greel

With each lift, it can lift up to 1,600 pounds of load.

When Richard arrived, it was a busy time of day. Ocean-going ships loading and unloading cargo are parked at the docks, thousands of dock workers are busy loading and unloading goods, and thousands of cargo trucks and heavy-duty horse-drawn carriages are moving between the docks and warehouses, presenting an orderly and busy labor scene.

Coastal terminals were one of the first companies to use trucks on a large scale, and the original 1.5-ton trucks often carry three tons or more of cargo here, and the distance between the terminal and the warehouse can be as long as more than a dozen kilometers and as short as a few kilometers.

This kind of truck that does not need to rest, does not need to be fed and drinks, and does not know how to be tired once it is used, it is favored by the terminal companies with deep pockets, and it is soon widely promoted.

After years of application

The performance of diesel trucks is gradually stable, and it is no longer anchored halfway, which can adapt to long-term and high-intensity transportation labor, so it has gradually become the main force of wharf and port transportation.

Richard glanced at the eagle

There were about five or six hundred trucks in sight, some of them were emitting thick black smoke and were struggling to drive away with a full load of goods, some empty trucks were lined up in a long line, waiting to be loaded, and some were overhauling with their hoods open.

During the mixing period, there were about three or four hundred heavy carriages with two horses, which were not as many as the trucks.

These four-wheeled heavy wagons, which could carry five or six thousand pounds of cargo, were originally the workhorse of dock transportation, but now they are clearly lonely.

At the beginning of the 19th century, when the French Emperor Napoleon led his army to invade Tsarist Russia, he carried more than 18,700 heavy and light four-wheeled carriages, and the military heavy four-wheeled carriages could weigh up to 3,000 pounds, which was the main force for transporting the baggage of the French army.

The French heavy four-wheeled carriages mainly traveled on dirt roads in the wilderness, while port transshipment was carried on flat cement or asphalt roads, so the amount of cargo that could be pulled was heavier, but also more laborious.

on the pier

A few waiting coachmen were pushing the cart with their companions full of goods. Greel

The sound of the whip of the coachman in front of him drove the two strong horses to slowly pull the heavy carriage, which seemed quite difficult.

"Hi...... Dude, do you have to push your wagons like this? That's a lot of work. Richard walked over and accosted the drivers.

Several coachmen, who had just pushed away a carriage, were dusting their hands and clothes, turned around and walked back, heard Richard's question, and a stocky middle-aged man replied heartily; "This gentleman seems to be the one who has drunk foreign ink, and he doesn't know that our work is about to be robbed by the big iron bull now. How about not pretending to be a little more? ”

"It's okay to run as little as you want, what do you say?"

"That's different, didn't you look at the long queue? It takes at least more than an hour to queue up, and it will take at most half an hour to pull from here to the warehouse. ”

"That's true, but it's unbearable for Yuan Ma to pull goods like this!"

"Listen to Mr. also understand livestock, we are the best healthy horses in the ranch, basically more than 20 days to change a batch, has been pulling such a heavy goods is really too hurtful, change back to take care of a good care, otherwise you will not be able to do heavy work." Greel

"Then why don't you save up to buy a big iron bull?"

"Hahaha...... Sir, you are a full man and you don't know how much does it cost to buy a big iron ox? One of the goods we transport here is a Chang'an truck, the other is a Detroit truck, the cheaper Detroit truck is more than 9,000 yuan, and the Chang'an truck is more than 10,000 yuan, who can afford to buy two suites in Chang'an at this price? ”

"What about them?" Richard asked, gesturing to the other trucks on the docks.

The trucks on these wharves are not owned by the wharf companies, but are mostly privately owned, and they do a business here to transport goods, and they get paid according to the number of goods shipped.

The coachman at the head flattened his mouth, and stood down to speak;

"You don't know, this gentleman, those who really contribute to the dock can't afford to buy a car, and those who can afford to buy a car hire someone to drive it, and they sit at home to collect money.

On the wharf, you can hire a driver for sixteen or seventeen yuan a month, and earn at least twenty or thirty yuan a day, how cost-effective is this? Greel

In Chang'an, our imperial capital, a good horse like me is between 300 and 400 yuan, and two horses and carriages are 1,000 yuan.

Do the math and you'll know what's the difference? ”