Zhang Xiao's inspection of Nanhai County came to an end and he returned to Guangzhou City. Although Foshan cannot be used as the county seat at present, as the first step for him to carry out work in Nanhai City, it is necessary to leave Guangzhou City. It is very troublesome to deal with a bunch of provincial agencies in Guangzhou City and the city government. There is also the issue of jurisdiction.
He discussed this issue with Liu Xiang, and Liu Xiang agreed with him and said that Foshan Town in the future would be the most ideal county seat for the Nanhai County government. But we can only overcome it for the time being.
After discussions with his men, he selected three places for the temporary Nanhai County seat, namely Dali, Shishan and Qiandeng Lake. Finally, after comprehensive consideration, he selected Dali as the temporary residence of the new county government.
Fortunately, it is just a relocation and does not involve the complicated work of building a county seat. And he will not take away all the current Nanhai County team, because many of the local cadres live in the urban area and suburbs of Guangzhou. Letting them go to Dali will not only increase the cost of relocation, but most of their work experience is from the urban area. . Therefore, after careful consideration, it was decided to only take away some personnel from the Nanhai County Government. The remaining personnel were directly transferred to the Guangzhou Municipal Government. In terms of the current cadre configuration, Guangzhou will no longer have separate districts to reduce levels and streamline institutions. The administrative office of Panyu County will also be moved to Shiqiao on a certain date.
After the busy autumn harvest, farmers can finally stretch out and relax a little. Most of the children can run around the village with smiles on their faces without having to worry about scolding from their parents. The fragrance of new rice wafted out from the homes of some anxious people in Zhuangzi. The neighbors smelled the fragrance and were a little envious, but they couldn't help but scornfully said a few words about not cherishing blessings.
A few days ago, a small boat came to Xiaoyaowu. The people on this small boat that once made Jin Zhu uneasy were indeed "Kun people", but they were not cadres who came to the countryside, but the Kun people's theater troupe.
This was the first time for the Australian troupe to come to Lijiawei. But before that, they often appeared in the market, and Xiaoyao Market also visited, so this improved version of puppet show using later Cantonese opera singing is nothing new in the local area.
The Australian puppet troupe borrowed a house to live in the Tugu Temple in the village, set up a curtain on the vacant threshing floor, erected a tent, put up a theater box, and started singing.
Some recreational activities in rural areas, whether they are opera troupes, singers, boxers, horse racing and selling tricks... all seek business in the market. If not invited by the village, they will not come to the village to run the dock. In Lijiawei, only wealthy families would invite them to perform when they have happy events. Otherwise, he would sing and perform to entertain the gods when he was in a state of ecstasy.
Now that the autumn harvest has just ended, farmers have plenty of money but not much farm work. Since the new thing "Lingao Puppet Show" has come to perform, everyone is happy to watch the fun and relieve their boredom. The troupe performs twice a day, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. The singing is nice, and the story is compact and interesting, with ups and downs. People of all ages love to listen to it, and they can make a lot of money every time.
But as soon as the troupe arrived, the Eight Immortals Meeting, which was originally very active in the village, suddenly died down. After they were busy harvesting rice, the leaders of the Eight Immortals Association led the villagers to practice martial arts together. Anyone who joined the association would receive a subsidy from the public warehouse named Li. Other villages also came one after another to invite the leader to set up an altar in their village. It's just that the original slogans about "Kun Thief" were suddenly changed to "Monster" and everyone knew who they were referring to. From time to time, some people shouted the wrong words during practice, and they didn't reprimand them much at all.
Nowadays, all the practitioners in Lijiawei have disappeared. Who doesn't know that this Australian troupe is getting paid by the thieves! If there is anything unusual, go back and report it to the officials, and the Li family will be unable to eat and carry around. Not only is the public practice no longer available, even the Fairy Goddess Shrine where Jin Zhu’s mother-in-law often goes to practice Dharma is no longer open. Lian Niang was so anxious that she just stamped her feet. She had already given the fairy one yuan and agreed to practice the Dharma for seven or forty-nine days and take incense ashes for forty-nine days. However, it was interrupted in less than twenty days, and the practice had to be started from the beginning - which cost another one yuan!
This yuan was offered to the fairy aunt without telling the golden pig. I originally hoped that Xiu Dharma would conceive a child, so I took advantage of the good news to inform Golden Pig. Now that I am not pregnant, one yuan is wasted. I don’t know where to find another dollar!
Another boat arrived at the small pier in Lijiawei. The second steward, who had been waiting on the pier, first saluted Luo Hetu who was escorting the boat, and then directed the people to move several boxes off the boat, picking them up and carrying them. , walked towards Li’s house.
After walking a few steps, I saw a group of children, reciting nursery rhymes and having fun, and ran past this group of people. Luo Hetu temporarily stopped and gave way to these children. Listening to the nursery rhyme, he couldn't help shaking his head and laughing. He had only been away for a few days, and the walrus mage made up another nursery rhyme. This man couldn't read well, and he had a lot of crooked stomachs. .
The second steward directed the long-term servants to carry the load and go to the village. Luo Hetu walked for a while and suddenly asked: "Why did you take a detour?"
The second housekeeper knew that Luo Hetu was now an important guest in the master's family, so he whispered: "Second master Luo, you don't know something. A group of thieves have recently come to the village..."
Now I talked about the puppet troupe coming to perform. Luo Hetu frowned and said, "This is troublesome. These pretenders in dramas are the best at deceiving people. That's not it. They are all spies of the thieves. If they discover something..."
The second housekeeper said: "My master has sent people to the nearby opera troupes to sing social operas. He said that he was not afraid of spending money, so he invited the best troupes to sing opposite operas with them and forced them to leave."
Luo Hetu thought that this was also a way, Qiugu came on stage, and the weather was good this year, so all the villages were supposed to perform operas to reward the gods. It will not arouse false suspicion.
The second housekeeper continued: "Master said, this is also to cheer up everyone. The troupe will arrive tomorrow! When they arrive, I will tell them to leave a good seat for you." After saying this, with an obscene look on his face, "I heard Several of them, men and women, are all good-looking, and the most charming and lovely ones..."
Luo Hetuben is a lively person, and theater troupes like this that run on the dock usually make a living as prostitutes, so naturally they have to come and see this show.
Arriving at the Li family courtyard, Li Guangyuan and Luo Heying were waiting here. Seeing the arrival of Luo Hetu and others, he immediately ordered the servants of the inner house to take the pick and send it to the inner house.
A side courtyard in a secluded part of the inner house is now the "headquarters" of their planning. Including Monk Walrus and senior officials of the Eight Immortals Society, they live here and discuss matters here on weekdays.
When he got to the main room, he sent away the servants. Li Guangyuan didn't even care about being polite, so he asked his cronies to open the box.
Each of the three long boxes contained five brand-new Franconian guns. Li Guangyuan stepped forward and took out a gun first. The gun was about four feet long and weighed about ten kilograms. After tearing off the gun jacket wrapped in oil paper, you can see the shining barrel and the original color of the gun body. Li Guangyuan, regardless of the heavy grease on the gun, took the gun in his hand and looked at it with great interest. In the other two boxes are a thousand rounds of muskets and matching gunpowder and flash caps. These five boxes cost Li Guangyuan two hundred taels of silver, which was not a small sum for a rich country man like him.
After putting the gun back into the box and wiping his hands with a handkerchief, Li Guangyuan bowed to Luo Hetu and thanked him for taking the trouble to escort him all the way.
Luo Hetu Zhida had been watching Li Guangyuan just now, and he couldn't help but criticize Mr. Li for being too stingy. I couldn't put it down when I first saw the Franco machine gun I brought. Later, after Luo Heying established a bridge with the seller in Fujian, I was reluctant to buy it again after hearing the price. Later, Luo Heying went to negotiate in person and talked with Li Guangyuanche several times before buying fifteen fast guns and a thousand rounds of guns. It's just that the seller doesn't have much in stock. If he wants more, he can only pay the order fee first and wait several months for it to be shipped from Luzon. Li Guangyuan, however, was a man who would not let go of eagles when he saw rabbits. He just asked when another foreign ship would send Franconian fast muskets, and would contact him again then.
In Luo Hetu's eyes, these quick guns are more effective than the "spells" of the Eight Immortals Society. To put it bluntly, the stupid villagers who used magic to threaten them were just creating momentum. They would still be defeated when they encountered the Australians' fast guns.
The so-called opening of forums and practice is nothing more than to strengthen the determination of these big households to "do whatever it takes". As long as the momentum is built up, beacon fires are everywhere, and no matter how powerful the weapons are, they will not be able to look around, and they will have a chance.
This fast gun is the really useful thing. This fast gun is easy to train and can be formed into an army in less than a month. When something goes wrong, Li Guangyuan's real estate properties will not turn into ashes when they are cheap, so why not buy more fast guns, recruit a team in a decent manner, and have a good fight with the Kun thieves? Have a livelihood.
It's just that these truths cannot be spoken. If you tell them, no one will follow them.
I heard Li Guangyuan continue to say: "Brother, please rest for a few days. There is a social drama in the village these days. After the social drama, I would like to trouble you to train some young men in my village. They are all young men surnamed Li who I have carefully selected. Brother Lin Xian, please take the trouble to let them learn how to use this fast gun." After saying that, he asked the butler to give him a token of gratitude as a reward for their hard work.
Luo Hetu thanked him and followed the second housekeeper out of the manor. Servants also moved the boxes into the warehouse in the backyard. Only Luo Heying and Li Guangyuan were left in the room.
Luo Heying then stepped forward and said to Li Guangyuan: "With this quick gun, brother Li can feel more at ease."
Ever since the Kun soldiers stationed in Xiaoyaowei, Li Guangyuan had been a little worried, fearing that one day the Kun thieves would bombard the Li family and swing himself on a swing. He also thought about forming a group to fight against the Kun many times. It wasn't until one day when he saw a mage from the Eight Immortals Association using magic water that several of his servants could actually fish out copper coins from a frying pan with their bare hands after drinking it. Li Guangyuan repeatedly checked the servants' arms and found nothing abnormal, and then he truly believed in the Eight Immortals. Know the magic.
(End of chapter)
