Chapter 43: Great Ming Dynasty
In order to enhance the actual experience, we also specially organized a visit to the county government office. Except for the inner government office, we visited them all. Everywhere we went, there were government officials giving special explanations. 【Read the latest chapter】
Master Wang Zhaomin was also invited to hold "symposiums" from time to time. He is different from the "reformed" government clerks. He is at a higher level and has a more subtle identity. In order to prevent him from facing a large group of people who are suspicious and unwilling to talk in depth, Xiong Buyou usually invites Xiong Buyou to the office to chat in the name of "drinking tea and wine."
The county office built a small courtyard, which was slightly tidied up and repaired, with some flowers and trees. The environment is relatively elegant. It is specially used to communicate with county officials. The atmosphere here is relaxed and quiet, and it is easier to talk to each other. In order to connect with each other, the County Office held tea tastings, banquets and other activities here from time to time.
Master Wang’s “teaching” is here. But he didn't know he had this "honor". When he and Xiong Buyou were talking, the surroundings were actually full of people - this place had been specially renovated, and it seemed like there was no one around, but in fact the students were sitting in the dark room listening to their chat.
Master Wang is very willing to come to the county office to have fun and chat. Originally, he was bored sitting in the county government office - Lingao was originally a place with "light business". As the Australians continued to intervene in county affairs, in addition to "waiting for this", he was busy doing things in the county. There is nothing much to do except the red tape. Moreover, the Australians made the summary court take away more than half of the master's main business, "criminal names."
Now when someone invites guests to chat, of course Wang Zhaomin will be there every time he is invited, drink every time he comes, and then talk loudly. So much so that Xiong Buyou had to prepare the topic of each conversation in advance to prevent his conversation from getting too exciting.
But the content of his casual chat was of great value to the traveling public. As a master, Wang Zhaomin's observation and understanding of the officialdom are more in-depth and comprehensive than those of the officials. Moreover, the master travels far and wide, is well-informed, and has a far wider horizon than the office clerk in a small county town. And it has contact with the upper, middle and lower classes of society. Li Yan's request to the county office to invite him to hold a "symposium" was largely intended to broaden the horizons of expatriates and enhance their understanding of the social conditions of the Ming Dynasty.
Wang Zhaomin’s symposium was recorded in its entirety and will be reviewed and compiled into materials after returning home, but there will be no on-site interpretation. He spoke in official Chinese, so Li Yan asked everyone to retell what he said into a report when they went back. This first tests the expatriate's mastery of official Chinese, and secondly exercises the expatriate's ability to "recover" intelligence content.
Another major indigenous lecturer on social conditions in the Ming Dynasty was Zhou Shizhai, a consultant at the police headquarters. He taught various ways of the Ming Dynasty society and various rules and dangers when going out.
Travel in ancient society was tiring and dangerous. Rich or poor, everyone encountered great risks when traveling. Zhou Shizhai had served as a escort and guard in the hospital, and had extremely rich social experience.
"... When walking on the sidewalk for a long distance, remember to scald your feet every day without washing your face." He passed on his experience to everyone one by one. "As long as you have the conditions, you must scald your feet and soak your muscles to soothe your muscles and bones, but you don't need to wash your face."
Not washing your face is to prevent facial skin from cracking. The roads are dusty and the sun is poisonous, making it easy to get sunburned and cracked. The ancients did not have sunscreen, so they had to use dust as a shield.
As for places to be careful about on the road, there are countless places. Zhou Shizhai focused on how to avoid staying in illegal stores, which places are easy for thieves to rob, and how to arrange your sleep at night to avoid being stolen...
"... Once everyone is on the road, their money must not be exposed." Zhou Shizhai Chunchun taught, "There are many people who are interested in seeing money along the way. In addition to bandits, there are many bandits among the people in cars, boats and shops who are waiting for opportunities." Then he said Speaking of the time when he was crossing a river on his way to escort, the boatman saw that they were escorting a lot of goods, and he suddenly became malicious and tried to rob the escort. The escort finally managed to escape while protecting the escort.
Many of the knowledge and tips explained by Zhou Shizhai were accumulated by the escort agency during long-term escort operations, and are of great practical value to expatriate intelligence personnel. Not only did the Intelligence Bureau invite him to give lectures, the police headquarters also specially collected and compiled the contents of his lectures as reference materials.
Liu Gang, who has been selling private salt for the Ministry of Colonization and Trade for a long time, was also invited. He trafficked private salt for the Crossing Group. This time I was quietly invited to teach about business and illegal trade in Ming Dynasty society, especially how to do business in Ming Dynasty society as a small and medium-sized businessman.
As for He Xin, who was rescued by Lin Baiguang, he was specially recalled from Qiongshan and gave a series of lectures at the Ji Academy of the Ming Dynasty. This lecture also included many entertainment methods and methods of the Ming Dynasty. They learned the rules, lingo, scams, consumption standards and taboos of the high-class industry,
When He Xin heard that he was going back to Lingao, he was so frightened that he thought he would fall into the hands of the devil Fu Youdi again. I didn’t expect that after I came back, I would actually teach a group of strange people how to visit the courtyard, eat flower wine, and run a food stall...
Aboriginal people from various professions under the control of the Traveling Group, as long as their knowledge and insights are considered to be useful, will be "invited" on a sedan at night and quietly carried into the training center. He held face-to-face conversations with several elders across the curtain, teaching them everything they wished to know. No one knows what is behind the curtain, but smart people may guess that there is also an Australian chief sitting behind it, because when someone's accent is too strong, there will be a chief who will speak to him in Australian. Let’s say it again.
In order to enhance the sense of immersion among expatriates, a life-scenario-style drill was held in Eshui, with indigenous personnel playing different roles. He assigns one life situation at a time and assigns expatriates to fill one of the roles. The natives play another one or several. When expatriates are sent to invest in a shop, the natives are the bosses and clerks; when they go to buy maids, the natives are Ya people; when they talk about business, the natives are business partners; when they go to government offices, the natives are the concierges, government servants, masters and county magistrates...
The indigenous people used in each performance are tried to use indigenous people who have such professional experience. Try to be as accurate as possible. In order to stimulate the courage of the natives to make things difficult for the expatriates, Yu Eshui scored each performance. The natives who performed best in making things difficult for the expatriates could receive additional rewards.
After each performance, everyone must gather together for playback analysis. Yu Eshui specifically requires expatriates to remember the jargon and expressions used by various characters, and to understand each other's thinking patterns and methods of doing things.
"Don't have a feeling of 'I am a human being'. You will never suffer a loss." Yu Eshui attacked them mercilessly in class, "You are just ordinary citizens in the 21st century, and you will not become big shots in the 17th century. Without the Cross-Travel Group as a whole, you are nothing. Unless necessary and approved by the General Administration, don't rush to show that you are different, knowledgeable, and outstanding anywhere; let alone talk about 'democracy' or 'one country, one political party' everywhere A leader' or something like that. We are not sent to the Ming Dynasty to let you be scientists, politicians or other people. Your task is to be 'like a common people of the Ming Dynasty'."
In order to ensure that they are "like", it is necessary to enhance the sense of substitution. At every other stage, expatriates must go out for internships as Ming people. The content of the internship ranges from simple shopping, hiring servants, to trying to do a small business on your own... Everyone must make others unable to recognize their identity.
Personnel from the Operations Division of the General Administration of Political Security will track and monitor the expatriates to see if they are detected by the natives. Li Yan believes that the natives of Lingao are the ones who get along with the traveling people the most. If they can be deceived, getting to the mainland will not be a problem.
Later, such an action was developed as a confrontational exercise. Both sides limited the location and number of people, and then students from the Intelligence Bureau and the Political Security Bureau identified each other and arrested them.
After generally believing that there will be no problems with them and pretending to be very similar, the dispatched veterans will go on several long-distance trips to different places alone or in groups under the secret escort of the special reconnaissance team. The destination of travel is generally Qiongshan County. The expatriate senators, like all natives, set out on the road on foot or in a sedan chair with simple luggage and a small amount of money. This kind of trip will give them a personal experience of the environment they will live in in the future - Lingao has been transformed and "modernized", which is very different from the real time and space of the 17th century.
In Qiongshan County, they can move around for a few days to half a month under the covert protection of Qiongzhou Station to experience the social conditions under the rule of the Ming Dynasty. After this trip was considered qualified, the expatriate veterans had the opportunity to go to Guangzhou to see the big city scene in this time and space.
In addition to the camouflage course, the elders also had to learn everything that intelligence work might require. They learned tracking and counter-tracking, fighting skills and dagger-using skills; they mastered simple surveying and mapping; they learned to rely solely on visual inspection to be accurate. Judging the number of people, the size of objects and the length of distance; learning to use radio stations, encryption and decryption - before there were reliable indigenous telegraph operators, all this had to be done by the elders themselves; radio stations are precious and limited in number, so they need to be used most of the time For encrypted letters, the Intelligence Bureau prescribed a secret writing method: in fact, it was written with rice water and developed with iodine. Ming Dynasty does not have iodine except for the traveling public, so there should be no problem in keeping it secret.
They also mastered a simple set of special code words: "center" is the intelligence agency headquarters; "swimming" means traveling; "sickness" means being arrested; "wet work" means assassination; "legend" means forged experiences with false identities; "Liquor" refers to secret medicine; "Pipa" refers to the radio station; "neighbor" refers to the General Administration of Political Security; the hawker refers to the traffic officer...
Finally, they were sent to the field exploration team and spent four weeks of field survival training under the guidance of Liu Zheng and others, ensuring that they would be useful if they needed to escape.
While Department B of the Intelligence Training Center is undergoing intensive training, the indigenous intelligence personnel of Department A of the Intelligence Training Center are also intensifying their training. Their courses are more numerous and intensive than those of the elders, and the content is mainly about intelligence business. This group of people will be sent as attachés to the senators. This group of entourages are all men - it is very inconvenient to take women on the road without settling down.
On this day, Li Yan gathered everyone together and announced a message:
"Everyone, pack up and go to Fangcaodi now."
Only after arriving at Fangcaodi did they realize that they were asked to choose their own "life secretary." Li Yan announced that the selected life secretaries will receive additional intelligence training in Department A. After everyone is stable at their workplace, they will be gradually sent to their respective places to handle intelligence work.
"The leader is really considerate of us." Someone burst into tears with gratitude.
Some people didn't appreciate it very much: "Didn't you say that you can buy women at will? Why do you need a life secretary?"
"Isn't the life secretary safer than the women you buy from outside?" Li Yan said, "And it can also help you with intelligence work, killing two birds with one stone. What's not good about it?"
After saying this, everyone felt relieved. After reading the materials, everyone chose the girl they wanted. Most people spent the amount of the maid subsidy to buy a top-level maid. Some people were interested in a higher-level maid and could only register first and wait for the subsequent lottery. . Anyway, the maids will not be available soon - according to the "center's" plan, they will not be dispatched until they have settled in the local area for at least three months.
There is a large building near the cooperative headquarters in Dongmen City. This house is one of the few traditional houses in Dongmen City. It has a large front yard, which is used to park vehicles and sedan chairs. The two sides are used as warehouses for stacking goods.
The main room is a cabinet room, and the wooden counter is polished with raw lacquer and tung oil. It has a wide variety of goods, but unlike the cooperative, the products sold here are all products from the mainland: cloth from Songjiang, Suzhou and Hangzhou. silk and preserves, porcelain from Jiangxi, tea from Fujian, citrus... all kinds of goods from the north and the south. It would be unimaginable that there is such a large shop with a complete range of goods in Lingao, if the population had not doubled in recent years, and everyone would have some spare money.
The second entrance is to the main hall, which looks very majestic, with square tile paving, fine Cantonese rosewood tables, official hat chairs, large porcelain vases, and a large carved screen standing in the middle of the hall. Under the eaves of the corridor hang eight lanterns with the words "Full Blessing" written on them - logically speaking, these are illegal. But in the south, the sky is high and the emperor is far away, so no one will pay attention to it, and there is no need to be taboo in Lingao.
With such a grand style, it looks like a traditional and substantial large-scale business. Everyone knows that this brand is the property of Lin Quan'an, the number one "imperial merchant" in Lingao and the Australian comprador.
In such a luxurious shop sits Mr. Lin Quan'an, the designated supplier of the Ministry of Commerce and the director of the Dongmen City Business Association.
Lin Quan'an, three years ago, everyone who knew him, including himself, never dreamed that one day he would be called "Master", let alone be able to accumulate such wealth.
He sat in the locker room at the back of the hall, surrounded by business documents and large account books. Mr. Lin is about thirty-five or sixteen years old, but his skin is dark and wrinkled. He looks like a man in his early fifties. He is a man of bitter origin. I spent almost twenty years of my life carrying burdens and selling food in the villages, living a day-to-day existence.
At this time, he was wearing a Nanjing Xiangyun gauze robe bought from Guangdong and a pair of straw slippers produced in Chenqiao, Kaifeng, and was looking at the account book attentively. Mr. Lin is a businessman who dares to be the first in the world. In his early years, he could neither read nor calculate. Later, his business became big. Just like when he was the first to do business for the "Kun Thief", he did not hesitate to join the Australian Literacy classes run by people have taught them how to read and learn how to keep accounts and keep accounts - this kind of accounting is Australian-style, and even the numbers are Australian-style. This made him very happy - because no one could see it clearly.
A quill was inserted into the ink bottle on the table. Lin Quan'an didn't know how to write with a quill. He learned this method of writing with water from the Australians.
He was examining the pages of the large account book in front of him; each page was printed with horizontal and vertical lines, with liabilities recorded on the right and assets recorded on the left. On the first page of the account book, it is written in large characters: "The third year of Chongzhen, the year of Gengwu."
After Lin Quan'an reviewed the last account and carefully corrected one of the mistakes above, he leaned back tiredly on his chair, feeling a little depressed.
The business in the store is pretty good, and the gross profit earned is about 30%. But the amount of goods sold in this way is too small - he is used to selling goods in batches, and he is not used to doing business in such a piecemeal manner.
In the past two years, I have been accustomed to making big deals that went smoothly. Lin Quanan recalled that three years ago, he was just a small businessman carrying a load through the streets, with only four or five pennies in capital. By buying vegetables, pigs, sheep, chickens and ducks for the "kun thief" - an Australian gentleman, he made a fortune within a year and opened this Quanfu Bank. Then, under the instructions of Mr. Xiong, he gradually expanded his footprints to the entire Qiongzhou Prefecture, purchasing various goods for Australian gentlemen. It’s easy to make money - the house and shop have been renovated twice in three years: even the glass windows, porcelain toilets, porcelain bathtubs and tap water used by Australian gentlemen are used, not to mention small items such as thermoses and crystal mirrors. . Not only was he able to afford a wife, he now had a second concubine.
All this came from Australians arriving in iron ships. Australians are their own lucky stars and gods of wealth.
Recently, he felt that the light of this lucky star had dimmed a bit. The account books show that his biggest customers, the Australians, have had less and less contact with him in the past six months. He only made a few big deals in lumber. He sold a lot of goods from the north and the south, but the volume was not large.
Now the Australians supply all their own vegetables, pigs, sheep, chickens and ducks. The vegetables they grow cannot be eaten all by themselves and they are used to make pickles and pickles for sale. As for the pigs, sheep, chickens and ducks, they have recently even been able to provide them to their group members every week. I ate meat for the last time. The ships operated by the Australians are constantly transporting the things they need from all over the world, and naturally there is less and less left for their own business. m! ~!
