Lin Ming sent the guy away, closed the door, and then breathed a sigh of relief. A rare sense of relaxation enveloped his heart - since he set off from Foshan and joined the merchant ship, he had never been truly alone, and lived under a careful disguise all day long.
Although this room is small and simple now, it is a small and unified world behind closed doors, allowing him to temporarily remove his disguise.
To be cautious, he checked the room first. In ancient times, there were many illegal shops, even on thoroughfares. It is a real thing that hoteliers seek money and murder, or even kill them to make human meat buns - Lin Ming himself has dealt with such a case, and he is a person who often goes out, so he must pay attention to the safety of hotels. a bit.
Although this guesthouse is run by a thieves and is not a black shop, it is also a dragon's nest and a tiger's den. You have to be extremely careful yourself.
Lin Ming checked under the bed and in the cupboard one by one, and carefully checked the door and windows to make sure there were no peepholes or hidden latches, and then he packed the things under the package.
There wasn't much in the bag, just a few sets of clothes and two pairs of shoes - I brought them from Foshan. I didn't wear shoes on the boat, so they were basically useless. Then there is an ink cartridge. In order to hide his identity conveniently, Lin Ming tried to bring as few items as possible that might reveal his identity, not even the dagger he never left his body with him.
He carried very little money with him. After landing, most of it was exchanged for currency notes, leaving only a few silver coins to carry with him for use in emergencies.
After packing up, Lin Ming went to the first floor to take a shower, put on clean clothes, and prepared to board the "Haixing" to "see the job" - based on his impressions along the way, he already knew how much the thieves treated the "refugees". Extremely tight control. The fact that he walked all the way from Bopu, there was not a single beggar or busker on the street showed this, and he also heard that he often "caught the waves" there. Once people without ID cards and employment certificates are caught, they will be sent to work in quarries or sand quarries for several months. If you don't have a stable job, you will take great risks in Lingao activities.
The employment contract contains the detailed address of the shop. The roads in Dongmen City are neat and there are many road signs to guide you. Lin Ming found a map in the hotel and read it several times, and soon found the location of the Haixing.
Haixinghao's storefront is not big, only one room in size, but the signboard is quite big. There are large gold letters on it, which don't quite match the front of the door. It feels a bit like a child wearing an adult's hat.
Shops near Lingao are not allowed to display signs to avoid affecting traffic. Therefore, Lin Ming couldn't tell what kind of business was being done here for a while. When he walked in, he realized that it was a local goods business. The purchase prices of various mountain products are hung on the counter.
The clerk came up to greet him, and he quickly explained that he was here to see a job. Then the waiter took him to the accounting room at the back - only then did he realize that the shops in Dongmen City were all narrow in appearance and deep inside. The shopkeeper is a Cantonese. He speaks Cantonese Mandarin. The two of them felt very close as soon as they spoke.
Lin Ming had quite a good understanding of merchants when he was in Guangzhou. One look at the decoration of the shop and the conversation of the shopkeeper revealed that Haixinghao's store business was just a facade, and was actually a merchant doing wholesale business. The owner of this shop should have a deep relationship with Kunthi and Daming.
"Since you are a fellow villager and you come here to make a living, of course I have to take care of you." The shopkeeper reported his family name as Qian. Since he was young, he had been entrusted by his boss to trade mountain goods and local products with the people in Hainan. He was considered a "Qiongzhou expert". "Since you are good at writing, just work as a copywriter in my accounting office."
"Thank you so much, Shopkeeper Qian!"
"You're welcome. I see how you look, Zhou Zheng. You were probably a child of a scholar in the past, so there's a reason why you ended up like this. But here in Australia, people don't ask about the past, don't talk about old things, you just have to do your job well. Just hang out. It’s not difficult to live with enough food and clothing.”
"Yes, it's all cultivated by shopkeeper Qian."
"Australians have strict laws and surveillance networks. People who have committed crimes can't escape from their clutches. You should behave yourself on weekdays and don't violate their laws, otherwise even gods can't save you."
"Yes, I understand, little one."
"Do you have a place to go now?"
"The younger one is staying at Weimin Hotel."
"The place is crowded, so you can move here after you sign the contract. We still have a few vacant houses here. It will save you some rent money."
Lin Ming promised repeatedly, and shopkeeper Qian stamped the contract document, handed him a copy, and asked him to return it to the agency as soon as possible. He also wrote the words "employed on a certain day of a certain month and year" on his employment certificate and stamped it. After finishing the work, I called a guy:
"Take Mr. Lin and go to the police station to register for residence."
Household checking is also a system in the Ming Dynasty's Baojia system, and Lin Ming is naturally familiar with it. I immediately followed the guy out.
The guy who took him there was very young, he looked no more than sixteen or seventeen years old. He was just sallow and thin, as if he was recovering from a long illness. Lin Ming knew that this was his future "colleague". In order to facilitate future work, it is natural to win over them carefully. I immediately found a place to start a conversation with him.
However, the other party couldn't understand his Cantonese Mandarin at all. Lin Ming had no choice but to speak Mandarin, but the other party understood him.
He must have been bored in the store all day long, but the young man was quite talkative, and soon Lin Ming found out that his name was Wang Xinglong. He just came to work as a waiter on the Haixing last year.
"Brother Wang can speak Mandarin, so he's not from Cantonese."
Wang Xinglong's face suddenly darkened: "To be honest, I am from Laizhou Prefecture, Shandong Province."
"Laizhou?" Lin Ming originally only knew that there was a place in the world called Shandong, but he had no idea about Laizhou. But when the news of the Denglai Rebellion came more than two years ago, the place name Laizhou was deeply imprinted in my mind.
"that is not……"
"Exactly, the place where the war broke out two years ago." Wang Xinglong took a deep breath, "It's unspeakable!"
"I am reporting in the Di newspaper..." Lin Ming realized that what he said was inappropriate. No one in the city was looking at that stuff, so he quickly changed his words, "I heard that there was a lot of news in the Di newspaper. The rebellion was so powerful that almost The whole province of Shandong was poisoned, but fortunately, Sun Yuanhua, the former governor of Denglai, led the Jin gentry to defend Laizhou..."
"Master Sun, without the Australians, Laizhou would have been finished." Wang Xinglong curled his lips.
These words immediately aroused Lin Ming's interest. Sun Yuanhua began to defend Laizhou, and later assisted in suppressing the rebellion, and he made great contributions. It is said that there were people in his court who helped with the activities, so although the rebellion occurred during his tenure, the subsequent punishment was very light, and he only received dismissal from his post. And he still stayed in Dengzhou to "assist in Liaodong military affairs."
Unexpectedly, this mutiny also involved Sun Yuanhua! Jin Yiwei's political sense made his whole body immediately excited. He said deliberately:
"This place is thousands of miles away from Dengzhou and Laizhou. How can the Australians help Mr. Sun? Besides, Mr. Sun is an official of the imperial court, how can he have secret connections with the Australians? This... this... is incredible..."
"You don't know something about this." Wang Xinglong was young after all, so he didn't know that this gentle "copywriter" was a guard in uniform. He spoke unobstructedly, "The Australians set up a village on a desert island off the coast of Laizhou to accommodate insurgent soldiers. The victims of the disaster were attacked by the rebels who besieged Laizhou, but were beaten to pieces by the Australians. Tens of thousands of people were killed and injured, and many brave generals were killed. Even the cannons obtained from Dengzhou were confiscated by the Australians - if it hadn't been for this How can Laizhou defend itself in a big battle?"
Lin Ming nodded: "I see." He was slightly disappointed: he originally thought that he could get important information about the secret collusion between Sun Yuanhua and Kun Thief from this young man, but he didn't expect that it would be nothing more than this.
However, the news is still shocking. It turns out that the thief's tentacles are far beyond Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian! Denglai is not a wealthy place, but the thieves actually reached out to it and even set up a stockade to recruit exiles - his heart is to be punished!
As the governor of Denglai, Sun Yuanhua could not have been unaware of their establishment of a stronghold, and when the rebels besieged Laizhou, they actually divided their forces to attack the Kun thief's stronghold... Even if there was no collusion, there was some kind of tacit understanding between the two parties. Thinking again that Sun Yuanhua could actually slide over - Lin Ming felt a chill running down his back. Could it be that the thief Kun's hand had already reached the capital and reached into the court? !
"Fortunately, the Australians set up this village, and many people in Shandong were able to survive!" Wang Xinglong sighed, "Although they have to leave their hometown, it is still better than filling in the ditch!"
"Oh? Doesn't that mean there are many people in Denglai here?" Lin Ming asked.
"At least there are more than 100,000 people. They all arrived in big Australian ships one by one. There was a sea of people on the pier..."
More than 100,000! This number once again shocked Lin Ming. What did the Australians do with more than 100,000 Shandong people?
During the conversation, Lin Ming learned that Wang Xinglong was only eighteen years old this year. Originally a medium-sized merchant in Laizhou Prefecture. He has read books and studied Chinese literature. He has always been among the best in the county boy examination and is a popular candidate for scholar. The family is quite poor. However, the Denglai mutiny turned all of this into ashes. Although the city of Laizhou was not destroyed, most of his family's shops and properties were outside the city, and all the family property was wiped out in the fierce offensive and defensive battles. His parents and family were all dead and scattered, leaving him alone to escape with his cousin.
He didn't come to Lingao by boat, but fled all the way west from Laizhou to Jinan Prefecture. There was a relative of his father in Jinan who was also a business partner. Unexpectedly, this relative saw that his whole family had been ruined, so he was very interested. He paid no attention.
Seeing that his relatives were unreliable, Wang Xinglong thought of several businessmen he had contacted who had been to Lingao. When he heard that he was interested in "Australian miscellaneous studies" and "Australian goods", he once suggested that he go to Lingao to have a look.
Since the Australians have set up a camp in Longkou to accommodate refugees heading south, they are obviously in urgent need of people. Now that my family is broke, I can only die of cold and hunger in the Ming Dynasty, so I might as well go south to find Kun. I heard that Lingao is a peaceful place. Whether it is doing business or working as a waiter, I can always support myself and my cousin. (To be continued...)
