Section 18 Customs
Compared with the squirrel cage cranes used in Europe at the same time, the Lingao version of the squirrel cage uses an inverter and a cam controller, which not only improves the output efficiency, but also prevents casualties caused by sudden reversal. 【Read the latest chapter】
The squirrel cage transformed by 21st century technology is much better than what Quark has seen in terms of efficiency and safety. Even for a trader like Quark Qiong who knows little about engineering technology, the benefits of this loading and unloading model are obvious: a flatbed truck of goods can be loaded and unloaded in a few minutes, using less than ten people in total. If it is carried manually, it will take an hour or two.
Quark's deepest impression after reaching the Ming Dynasty when he was poor was that the Ming Dynasty rarely used animal power and machinery, but tended to abuse human power. He once talked about this problem with Li Luoyou. Li Luoyu's explanation was that although machinery was used Convenient, but a machine always saves a lot of labor, which invisibly takes away these people's jobs.
"Although it is a bitter meal, it still has to be eaten, right?" Li Luoyou despised the red-haired man for not knowing how to govern the world.
On the one hand, Li Luoyu was very interested in machines. He often asked missionaries and businessmen from Europe for information in this area, and also ordered books. On the one hand, it rejects the practical application of machines. This made Quark Qiong not very able to understand his thinking logic, but Ming Dynasty's extremely cheap manpower still left a deep impression on him. Especially for the guys at Luoyou Li, the pay was unimaginably low by Quark standards.
No wonder his repeated suggestions to Leroy to introduce certain British machines to his industry were rejected. And Li Luoyou also plausibly said that he was "doing a good deed" by not introducing machines, because if the machines were used, redundant workers would be fired and their livelihoods would be ruined.
Is it the good deeds or the cheap labor that makes this big businessman refuse to use machines? Quark thinks it's probably a bit of both.
There is only one kind of machine that this big businessman is willing to accept - that is, things that cannot be done by humans alone. Such as a cannon-making machine.
At this time, the big businessman was fascinated by this loading and unloading method. Even the fear just now gradually disappeared. Flatbed trucks and box trucks ran back and forth on the track, some were pushed by manpower, and some were arranged in a row and moved by themselves. Some cargo is transported to the berth and loaded onto the ship, and other cargo is unloaded from the ship. The tower crane was constantly rotating and rising, and the goods were constantly flowing. This speed and frequency made Li Luoyou dizzy.
The goods shipped from Lingao are all well packaged. They are either crates of the same size, neat straw bags and bales, or sealed rattan baskets and bamboo baskets. There is a jar wrapped in straw rope. There were various marks and patterns on them, and Li Luoyou could barely see that some boxes had the words "fragile" and "handle with care" written on them.
The things that arrive are not so neat. But it seems to be much more complicated: some are brown rice and paddy, some are sugar, and there are pieces of wood. Some flatbed trucks carry pig iron from Guangdong. Recently, he has been taking care of his subordinates to stockpile pig iron for cannon casting. Raw materials, we already know a lot about the form and specifications of this kind of goods. He has always wondered why the supply of pig iron is so tight. Now that he saw the mountains of iron bars on the flatbed truck, he knew why the price of worthless cold goods in the past had risen so high - the scale of Australian pig iron purchases was far beyond his level.
What does Australia need so much pig iron for? Li Luoyu found it strange that among the various Australian products they sold, there were very few things that required a lot of iron. This iron must have been hoarded after the inflow.
Are they making weapons to plot a rebellion? Li Luoyu shuddered.
But there is still more black coal, and most of the truck trucks are filled with dark coal. Australians' appetite for pig iron and coal seemed staggering.
The boss of the ship advised: "Two gentlemen, after disembarking from the ship, you have to go through customs for customs inspection. You'd better hurry up and pack your luggage and disembark."
Li Luoyou originally hoped that Runshitang would send someone to greet him at the pier, so he waited on the deck for a long time. Seeing that all the guests on the nearby ships had left, but there was still no one to greet him, he had to ask the young master to prepare. Get off the boat.
Li Luo was accustomed to being a master, so he naturally had servants to take care of him. In less than a moment, the servants finished tying up the luggage, gathered Mr. Li in the middle, and the group disembarked from the boat in a grand manner.
In addition to the railway road, there are also pedestrian roads on the embankment. I don’t know what kind of material the road is paved with. It is a gray hard road, smooth and smooth. There are signs on both sides of the road that read "Keep right". It doesn’t matter if there is a sign, white arrows are simply painted on the road. "Go" and "come" at the same time.
Li Luoyu and his party followed the arrow's instructions and walked on the right side. At the end of the embankment stands a long house. The house is square in shape. In the middle stands a bell tower like a European church. However, there is no bronze bell hanging on it, only a huge circular hole. Covered with wooden boards.
This building is very strange, the strangest thing is that it has many doors. There is a large open space in front. There are not many people now and it is empty. You can see many big signs set up in the empty field, which read "Local", "Long-term Valid", "Short-term Valid", "Temporary", "Customs Declaration", "Quarantine Registration", "Refugee", and "Green Channel". …
Li Luoyu came here for the first time and didn't know what it meant. Quark is also baffled by this set of things. While he was wandering, someone wearing a blue jacket came up to him:
"Is this your first time coming to Gao?" The visitor spoke in official Mandarin. Li Luoyou noticed that this man had a piece of cloth pinned to his chest, with the word "Customs" written on it in regular script.
In this way, this is the customs set up by the Australians. However, the customs mainly collects taxes and pumps water. Now Australians do not pump water. What is the use of the so-called "customs" officials?
"Exactly." Sao Ye quickly stepped forward to answer.
"Do you have any cargo?"
"No goods."
"Please take the temporary passage." The man pointed.
Luoyou Li originally thought that Quark's existence would cause some trouble. But the other party was obviously not interested in the red-haired man.
Sao Ye walked along the passage to take a look first, and then came back and said, "I still have to queue up to do some errands. Please sit here for a while and let me do it."
"You go." Li Luoyou ordered and chose a place with an awning. The servants beside him quickly opened two fold-leg stools and asked the master and Quark to sit down. Then someone else came from the blue satin-clad warm Tea was poured from the white copper thermos set, and someone handed hand towels. Quark had a habit of taking snuff, and the cigarette box was immediately brought to him.
This behavior made people in the square look at him with suspicion. Li Luoyou was used to enjoying it and didn't think there was anything wrong with it. However, Master Han who followed him coughed and whispered: "Master, isn't this a bit ostentatious -"
"It doesn't matter." Li Luoyou thought that this time he came to contact the Australians, otherwise he would not need to contact Yang Shiyi. Australians probably knew he was coming by now.
Li Luoyou drank hot tea and looked around. He saw that the place was extremely clean. People of all kinds came in and out, going their own way and doing their own things. If there was any hesitation, there were people wearing blue coats who were lingering and looking around. When people come forward to give advice, they seem to be in good order.
Li Luoyouzheng nodded secretly, opened a folding fan with Zhu Zhishan's inscription on it and shook it lightly. He glanced aside and his hand shook. It turns out that there are three houses on one side of the square, and there is a wooden sign at the door with a line of nondescript thick ink regular script: "Inspection Department of Bopu, Lingao County, Ming Dynasty", not to mention that the sign is not in line with the system of the Ming Dynasty. , the Ming Dynasty’s Inspection Department actually stands next to the stately customs of Australians, which makes people feel ridiculous.
There is actually an inspection department soldier in official uniform standing guard at the door of this inspection department holding a whistle stick. He looks quite decent, but the soldier's monk-like head reveals that this person is actually a "kun man", or It's called "false Kun".
This group of Australians is quite interesting. Just as he was thinking about it, Sao Ye trotted over and said goodbye on one leg; "Go back to the master, the deputy over there insists that you go and fill out some form in person. I have been talking for a while but I still can't make sense -"
"Come here and do this ceremony." Li Luoyou put away his fan and stood up, "Let's go and talk for a while."
There was a long counter in the room, and behind it were several people sitting with stamps with the word "Customs" on them. Li Luoyou noticed that they were all young, no more than twenty years old. In front of each person was a sheet of white paper and a European-style water-dipped inkstand. There are also Chinese-style four treasures of the study
"This is our master." Sao Ye said with great momentum. The clerk raised his head and looked at him:
"Do you want to fill out a form and know how to read?"
Not even a polite word, let alone the word "Master". Just as Sao Ye was about to scold him, Li Luoyou nodded: "I know a few words."
"That's great, you can fill it in yourself." She said and gave him a piece of white paper. "The pen and ink are ready."
Li Luoyu picked it up and saw that many words had been printed on the white paper in advance, such as name, year of birth and other various contents. There are some guest books like staying in inns, but the content is much more detailed.
He thought for a moment, took a pen and started to fill it out. Li Luo used a pseudonym called You Shucheng. He filled in this name, his occupation was "Trading Business", his place of residence was Foshan, and his purpose of coming here was also written "Trading Business".
Finally, there is the number, name and gender of the attendants. Li Luoyou filled in the information one by one and handed it to him. The other party browsed for a while before picking up a stamp and stamping it.
"Take your fingerprints." The clerk handed over a box of red ink pads.
When Li Luoyou's business was still small, he did take his fingerprints when signing contracts - this was a common business habit. I didn’t expect the Australians in Lingao to do this.
The form was then handed to the person next to me.
After checking it again, the person took out a sign from the drawer. The sign was made of thick paper, very hard, and about the size of half a book. The clerk tore off a long piece of paper from the form Li Luoyou filled out and glued it to the sign. Then I started writing something on the sign with a pen dipped in water with an iron tip made of bamboo.
"You must carry this sign with you at all times during your stay in Lingao." The clerk said, "The sign is valid for thirty days. Return the sign when you leave Lingao. If you want to stay in Lingao for this period, you must do so before it expires. Please go to here or the local police station to re-register and obtain your license plate.”
He emphasized his tone to show his solemnity: "...the brand is very important. Don't lose it. If it is lost or damaged, register it as soon as possible."
Li Luoyou took it and took a look. On the back of the sign was written "Temporary Visa", with the torn-off strip of paper attached underneath. It is a cuboid composed of thick and thin black lines, with a row of Arabic numerals underneath.
In addition to his registered name, place of origin, and occupation, there is also a "certificate date" written on the front, and at the bottom is a line: "Valid for thirty days from the date of filling in."
Li Luoyou noticed that not only did he have this sign, but Master Han, Sao Ye, and even every servant came over to receive the same sign. Those who could not read had the clerk write it on their behalf.
After receiving the documents, Li Luoyou's tour group moved forward along the counter. Behind the counter are several young women wearing long blue cloth gowns. They wear wonton-like cloth hats. The gowns are very slim-fitting and they look very handsome. The ticket on the chest says "Quarantine".
Behind these women were four or five men and women wearing black short coats, belts around their waists, and disc-shaped hats. On their chests was written "Police" - Li Luoyou knew this. A small piece of cloth was put on the market to mark their mission.
The woman took the sign from Li Luoyou's hand, looked at it and shouted: "Foshan"
A woman behind him immediately flipped through a large book, and after a while loudly replied: "Foshan has been free of epidemics for the past ninety days."
Then the woman asked Li Luoyou a series of questions: Have you had a fever recently? Have a cough? He also looked at his face carefully. This man felt very uncomfortable - usually when women saw him, they would either be frightened or lower their eyes shyly.
"Have you had any illness recently?"
After getting a negative answer, the woman shouted: "Passed" and then stamped a seal on Li Luoyou's sign. Li Luoyou looked carefully and saw that the seal was actually blue with four words engraved on it: "Quarantine passed".
Then Quark asked the same questions, and Li Luoyou suddenly heard: "Have you ever had syphilis?"
"God is my witness, no," Quark categorically denied.
"Where's the gonorrhea?"
"No"
"Please come inside," the woman said.
"Why?" Quark felt a little uncomfortable, "I'm not sick, I'm healthy."
"It only takes a moment." The woman was not accommodating, and several strong men with sticks behind her also forced her way over. e! ~!
