At this time, the door of the house was pushed open from the outside, and two women in their twenties came in carrying something. The woman in the lead was carrying two blue kettles, and the woman behind her was holding a bulging bag in one hand and a blue plastic basin in the other.
Li Shangyi's three followers followed the woman and walked in with their bodies bent. He didn't say anything after entering the door. He stood by the door and waited with his head down.
Kong Xiaoyuan was furious and was about to open his mouth to question when the two women who came in first said, "Masters, these two blue pots are full of boiling water for your washing. Please be careful when pouring the water. The water inside is very hot." After that, he pointed to the blue plastic basin and the bulging bag and said: "This basin is for you to wash your face. This bag contains a total of six sets of toiletries and towels. Gentlemen, please wash up first. Rest, and in half an hour, we will take the gentlemen to dinner again."
"Thank you." Li Shangyi nodded, then asked how to open the hot water bottle, and finally took out a few coins from his sleeve and handed it to the two women.
The two women didn't pick her up at all. They bowed and bowed before turning around and going out.
"This" Li Shangyi shook his head with a wry smile. This Beihai Town is filled with weirdness from top to bottom.
"What are you three killing people doing?!" Kong Xiaoyuan and others went out, and then asked in a deep voice.
"Master, the three of us were arrested by the local police and taken to the Yamen. They were interrogated before being released." The person who spoke was Li Douhuan's follower.
"What?!" Li Douhuan was shocked, and he quickly asked: "What did you do? Why did the police interrogate you?"
"The young man was just anxious. He couldn't hold it in anymore, so he ran to the back of a room to urinate. Unexpectedly, a passerby saw him, and the man started yelling. After a while, the local police arrived. .”
Li Douhuan asked: "Did your female relatives see you while you were urinating?"
"Master, no! We even looked carefully and there was no one around! When the police arrested us, they said we were 'destroying public health'. Later they heard that we were here with three masters, so we made a pledge , and led us here to find the master."
During dinner, Liu Sheng and Chen Qingsong heard about what happened in the afternoon, so they came over with their rice bowls to ask Zhao Xin.
"Why do you want to fall out with someone from Li Chaolai?"
So when Zhao Xingang said "Maoshan magnetite with 5 billion tons of reserves", Liu Sheng and Chen Qingsong immediately said "Oh" and looked at each other, which clearly meant "I knew this guy was unprofitable and couldn't afford it early." ".
"I still have something to say, the mouth of the Tumen River and the mouth of the Yalu River. We must get these two places in our hands."
Chen Qingsong asked while eating the braised pork ribs specially made for him by Qing He, "Are you not planning to let Li Chao become a vassal?"
"You are all so naive! These sects and vassals just want to form a cultural superiority gap and improve their status in the East Asian political circle by homogenizing with Chinese civilization." Zhao Xin looked at himself. There was green vegetables made by Shen Xuan in the bowl. After thinking about it, he took a piece of ribs from Chen Qingsong's bowl.
"You mean the island country?" Chen Qingsong asked, lifting his rice bowl off the table.
"Yes, we are just competing with the island countries and Ryukyu." Zhao Xin took a big bite of pork ribs and another bite of rice, feeling comfortable now. "I have no interest in the so-called vassal vassals. Let them go their own way. But there is no need to talk about the territorial issue. Whoever owns it belongs to whoever wants it. If you can ask for more, you will get it. If you want less, you will never agree to it. !”
"These words have touched my heart!" After Liu Sheng finished speaking, he glanced sideways at the few ribs still in Chen Qingsong's rice bowl, and continued to ask: "Who will accompany those three Koreans tonight?"
"I asked Pingtai to come forward and let him take care of this matter." After Zhao Xin finished speaking, he emptied the rice in the bowl in a few mouthfuls and began to concentrate on the ribs.
Chen Qingsong noticed Liu Sheng's malicious gaze, so he pretended to be serious, put one hand on the rice bowl and said, "Then when you go south in two days, do you need to go outside Busan Port?"
Zhao Xindao: "This matter is not urgent. When we completely capture Hunchun, it will be time to resolve the territorial issue with the Li Dynasty."
"Hey, let me ask you, are you still going to eat with your hands on it?" Liu Sheng used chopsticks to pull Chen Qingsong's hand several times, and finally gave up.
"I won't cover it? If I don't cover it, it will be easier for both of you!" Chen Qingsong quickly picked up the two pieces of ribs in the bowl and took a bite of each.
"I don't think you're dirty." With lightning speed, Liu Sheng stretched out his chopsticks and the ribs were already in the bowl.
In a single room of the large dining hall, Pingtai was entertaining three visitors from the Li Dynasty. As for their entourage, they were arranged in a single room next door, accompanied by one of Pingtai's men.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. We actually don't have many rules in Beihai Town, but the "Public Health Regulations" must be followed. This, you will really be caught for defecating in the open, whether you are a local or a foreigner, the public security The police treat everyone equally."
Facing the dazzling array of meat dishes and drinking a few glasses of white wine, a small misunderstanding basically disappeared. But Gong Hyo-won is still not satisfied, why is there not even a singer?
At this time, the two Li merchants winked at each other. Li Douhuan stood up with a wine glass in his hand and said, "Mr. Zhao, I wonder what kind of goods your place has besides the kind of fire starters and cigarettes that can catch fire with just a touch?"
Pingtai and Li Douhuan clinked glasses and drank the wine, and then said: "Silk, sugar, lanterns, glass, including the toiletries that the female worker sent to you today, these are all local specialties."
Li Douhuan had traveled all over the country for many years, and his knowledge was quite broad in this era. He cursed in his heart: "You have the nerve to say that silk and sugar are specialties here, shameless!" He guessed that these two commodities were smuggled from the Manchu and Qing Dynasties next door.
Li Shangyi asked curiously: "We have seen a lot of colored glaze today. I wonder what the lantern is?"
Pingtai smiled and said: "You will know in a moment. When I go back later, I will give each of the three of them a cup."
It is said that since Kuye Island can produce diesel, Zhao Xin asked Zhang Bo to build a special earthen kiln to distill kerosene before leaving. The current earthen kiln can only satisfy atmospheric pressure distillation. Once the workers become proficient in the equipment, vacuum distillation can be realized. As for plastics, forget about it for now.
In addition to these, Li Douhuan asked about the prices of hot water bottles and some toiletries, and Ping Tai also answered. The reason why he is so enthusiastic is that he has just taken office. Another factor is that Zhao Xin asked him to find opportunities to develop an intelligence network in the Li Dynasty.
In the next two days, Zhao Xin never met Li Chao's visitors again. He was busy preparing various supplies needed to go south. The three of them, Li Shangyi, were accompanied by clerks from the Trade Department of Pingtai and Beihai Town and walked around the town.
Because Zhao Xin strictly ordered people from Li Chaolai to be targeted and restricted their visits to sensitive areas, the three of them could not go anywhere except the residential areas and ports in Beihai Town, which made Kong Xiaoyuan very angry.
However, just what they saw and heard in these two places made the three visitors from Li Dynasty extremely shocked but confused as if they were looking at a kaleidoscope.
The first was the Port Thor. The three of them spent half a day and went to the port to see it again. This time they heard incredible news from Pingtai, that is, the blue and white Thor was made of steel. Li Shangyi and Li Douhuan were so shocked that their jaws dropped to the ground, while Kong Xiaoyuan didn't believe it at all.
Steel makes a ship? It’s a three-year-old child! Unless you let me touch it with my own hands!
Pingtai readily agreed and took the three of them onto the trestle and onto the gangway. As a result, the three Koreans reached two-thirds of the height and dared not go up. It was too high! But after getting off the gangway, Kong Xiaoyuan no longer said any doubts, because he had touched the gangway railings and the hull, and they were indeed iron.
The second is the loudspeakers that can be seen everywhere on the roadside in residential areas. When Kong Xiaoyuan and the others heard someone speaking from the loudspeaker for the first time, they were almost scared to death. The three of them and their followers stood under the wooden pole and listened for a long time, trying to figure out how people could hide in the speakers. Kong Xiaoyuan's follower vowed that he would keep watch until the person from the loudspeaker came out. This move made Pingtai and his clerks laugh bitterly. Although they didn't understand the logic behind it, they had seen so many new things that Zhao Xin brought out that everyone could only say "Wow" now. After you know that it has nothing to do with you, you will continue to do whatever you need to do.
The third is stores located in residential areas. Li Douhuan originally thought that Pingtai was bragging when he said that Beihai Town had a wide variety of products, but when he went in and took a look, he was blinded by the dazzling array of products. As a businessman, Er Li likes this and wants to buy that. It's a pity that this trip was not planned and I didn't bring much money. After wandering around for a long time, the three of them finally bought a few small mirrors, a few large packs of matches and ten cartons of cigarettes.
Kong Xiaoyuan discovered that Beihai Town was selling Hanfu women's clothing in the store. Almost every woman who entered the store came to take a look, and then left with a sigh. As a scholar from a Korean university, Kong Xiaoyuan couldn't go there and ask questions because of the relationship between men and women. Finally Li Shangyi figured it out, and after asking the store owner, he found out that each set of Hanfu women's clothing actually cost five Beihai Town silver coins.
By buying things and exchanging silver coins, the three of them also got to know the silver coins in Beihai Town. Erli merchants recognized the silver content and value of 925. As a businessman who has been engaged in trade with the Qing Dynasty and the island countries for a long time, Li Douhuan was keenly aware that there seemed to be a certain correspondence between the silver coins of Beihai Town and the bean plate silver of the island countries, and he vaguely felt that there should be something to do in this.
To say that what shocked the three of them the most was the hospital in Beihai Town. The day before departure, when the three of them saw the red cross erected in the central square of the town, they thought it was a red-haired church, so they asked to go and have a look.
It was not unusual for people in the Li Dynasty to know about Catholicism. As early as 1603, envoys returning from Beijing in the Ming Dynasty brought back Matteo Ricci's "Records of the God of Heaven" and the "Liang Yi Xuan Lan Tu". However, at that time, the scholars of the Li Dynasty still regarded Catholicism as a science, not a religion.
Last year, in the 49th year of Qianlong's reign, Li Chengxun, who was baptized as a Catholic in Beijing, returned to China and founded the first church of the Li Dynasty. Catholicism has since taken root in the peninsula. At this time, because the church was not large in size and had not many believers, both the government and the public were just curious. But when the church begins to preach in a few years that "everyone is equal before God, regardless of gender, high or low," then the "cup" will come into play.
equality? What do you want the scholar-bureaucrats to do?
When Kong Xiaoyuan and the others walked to the door of the hospital, they looked at the people coming in and out, pointed to the red cross on the outer wall and asked Pingtai: "Mr. Zhao, is this the Catholic Church?"
Pingtai shook his head and said: "There is no Catholic Church in Beihai Town. This is a hospital."
Kong Xiaoyuan asked curiously: "Then why do you have to hang the symbol of Western Catholicism?"
Pingtai quickly explained: "Mr. Kong misunderstood. This symbol was created by my family. Its meaning is two blood-stained crossed bandages, which represents saving lives and healing the wounded."
Just when Kong Xiaoyuan was about to ask again, he heard a person behind him shout loudly: "Fart! Your family will be punished by God for misinterpreting Jesus Christ in this way!"
Everyone turned around and saw a red-haired Westerner with a mustache, a smooth chin, and a white coat, glaring at them angrily.
Pingtai said with a smile: "Doctor Ma, why are you angry? My lord is a saint who came down from heaven, and has nothing to do with your Jesus. Besides, you don't have a red cross in the West, so why do you have to say what kind of cross it is? ?”
Father Macarius was speechless for a moment and glared at Pingtai angrily with his eyes bulging. Since he came to Beihai Town Hospital at the end of the year before last, he was immediately attracted by the various equipment and medicines in Beihai Town Hospital; the diagnosis method here was completely different from what he had learned before. So Macarius decided to stay and study with Hong Tao, preparing to bring these advanced medical technologies back to China after completing his studies.
However, a priest wore a black robe and wandered around the hospital all day long, like a ghost. Female nurses and patients were startled several times. So Hong Tao persuaded him to put on a white coat, saying that you just want to learn knowledge anyway, so why bother with an outer layer of clothing? So a few months later, Father Ma became "Doctor Ma."
Because he was forced to take a shower every day, his body odor became lighter, and his beard was shaved off. Dr. Ma, who has fair skin and large eye sockets, still received many flirtatious looks from refugee women.
Kong Xiaoyuan asked Pingtai: "Mr. Zhao, you actually have a Western student here? He, he can actually speak Mandarin?!"
"Oh. Mr. Kong, this is Dr. Ma, who is from Oros. He is now a doctor at our Beihai Town Central Hospital." In front of Father Ma, Pingtai couldn't directly say, "This is our prisoner." , that’s too disrespectful. If I have to go to the doctor next time and catch up with Macarius, the revenge will come in minutes!
When everyone heard that he was actually a doctor, they quickly bowed their hands and saluted. Markarius ignored him, raised his head, snorted, and walked a dozen meters away to smoke.
Pingtai shook his head and walked into the hospital door with the three of them. As soon as they entered, several Li Chao people noticed many women wearing white masks and white dresses walking back and forth in the aisles.
Looking at the graceful and graceful backs of each of them, the three Li Chao visitors were stunned. Kong Xiaoyuan pointed at the backs of the female nurses and said to the escorts in Beihai Town: "This, this, this is simply shameless. Don't you even talk about the protection of men and women?!"
Pingtai and his clerks looked confused and said hesitantly: "They all treat everyone. What does this have to do with the defense of men and women?"
"A doctor?" Several visitors from Li Chao looked at each other and thought of one word in their minds, doctor woman.
The three of them thought that since Zhao Xin was very aware of the past territorial disputes, could he also follow the example of Lord Yanshan and create a group of medical women?
Li Shangyi swallowed a sip of saliva and asked in a low voice to Li Douhuan next to him: "Do you think these people are medical women?"
Li Douhuan shook his head and said: "It's our first time here and we don't know the basics, so it's better not to provoke him."
Kong Xiaoyuan on the side was wondering what kind of hospital it was, this was clearly a theater! He understands this!
In the morning of the next day, the three visitors from Li Dynasty, who felt that they had gained a lot, finally boarded the ship with their followers and returned home.
On the way back to the voyage, Kong Xiaoyuan took advantage of his free time and wrote a "Travel Notes on Donghu" based on what he saw and heard during the trip, which served as a written record of his report to Zuo on his return to China. Unexpectedly, this text did not arouse much response among the court and the scholar class. Instead, it aroused discussion among the Beijing merchant group and the Song merchant group. In addition to Er Li's respective companies, other companies also began to prepare goods and ships, preparing to cross the sea to explore.
But that’s all for another day.
(End of chapter)
