A few days later, it was February of the fifty-eighth year of Qianlong's reign.
It is said that on February 2, the first thing the people under the Qing Dynasty had to do was to shave their heads. Whether it was to miss the past or to be filial to their uncle because they were afraid of death, in short, they had grown like crazy for a month. If they did not shave their heads, they would be exiled and beheaded. .
However, the four counties of Jiaodong under the rule of Beihai Town are a different story. Wealthy people will still call barbers to come to their homes, shave their heads smoothly, remove the "little tail" on the back of the head and clean it, and then either braid it into a dish or put it on a jade or silver braid; and those who People who have no money, let their hair grow a few inches long on their heads. They can save a penny without losing anything, and at least they can keep warm.
The Military Control Commission issued a notice last year to express its position. The implication is that everyone can stay as they please, and shave as long as they like. However, it is best to wash frequently and maintain personal hygiene.
What is hygiene? The vast majority of people at the bottom of the class expressed their ignorance. Besides, washing your hair and boiling water requires firewood, right? You have to buy firewood!
Speaking of which, before Beihai Town sent troops to Shandong, everyone from the army to the civil affairs and even the medical department had disputes over whether to cut people's pigtails.
Radicals proposed that the Northern Navy should be like the revolutionary army of another time and space. After entering the city, everyone would have a pair of scissors and click them one by one. You must know that when the immigrants in Beihai Town disembarked from the ship for epidemic prevention procedures, their pigtails were cut off. Both men and women had their heads shaved, and the cut pigtails would be thrown into the fire under the witness of the owner to avoid Make the other person feel that they will be manipulated and take away their souls. No matter how reluctant the new immigrants are, it's all in vain. The bright future of fifty acres of land is beckoning in front of you. I just ask you if you want it?
However, Zhao Xin did not agree with the use of such radical methods. In another time and space, there were enough lessons from the "braid-cutting movement" after the Revolution of 1911. He warned Kong Shaoan that what the people at the bottom need is to voluntarily cut their braids through publicity and education, rather than violent force. Not to mention that doing so would cause panic among the people and even violent confrontations, and would also give the Manchus an excuse to sow discord.
As the top leader of the Shandong detachment, Kong Shaoan felt awkward about governing the pigtails on the backs of the people's heads, but he still obeyed Zhao Xin's orders.
On the third day of junior high school, Lin Qizong wanted to go to Longmen Port with Guo Yu to see the big iron ships. He hesitated again and again, and finally, under the persuasion of his wife, he went to the head-shaving stall in front of the Chenghuang Temple after lunch. After cleaning up, he looked It's much smoother going up.
On the next day, he arrived at the original "Changfengcang" in the city early, met with Guo Yu, and set off together on the Northern Navy's supply carriage.
There were originally three granaries in Ninghai Prefecture: Changping, Beibu, and Changfeng, and there were many social granaries outside the city. Changfengcang has long been abandoned due to disrepair and is currently being converted into a material warehouse for the Military Control Commission.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he arrived at the gate, Lin Qizong saw five "giant" carriages parked neatly in the yard, which made him gasp. I thought to myself how many mules it would take to pull such a big car!
The reason why I say giant is that the carriage of this kind of carriage is more than twice as long as that of ordinary folk carriages, and it has four wheels, especially the wheels at the rear, which are almost as tall as Lin Qizong. The outer panels of the tall carriage are painted bright blue, and the top is covered with an arched snow-white tarpaulin.
Just when he was in a trance, he heard someone calling from behind him. When he turned around, he saw that it was Cao Guifu and Guo Yu who came. Lin Qizong hurriedly bowed and saluted. Cao Guifu smiled and cupped his hands, then walked to the guard standing guard at the door and handed over his ID for verification.
When it was Guo Yu and Lin Qizong's turn, he took out a receipt from the Military Control Commission from his arms, which stated that Lin Qizong was approved to go to Longmen Port with the convoy, and his home address and house number were indicated. After entering the courtyard after the inspection, the three of them couldn't wait to step forward and look at the carriage carefully.
Although Cao Guifu and Guo Yu have joined the Military Control Commission for more than a month, they have never been here. The three of them watched the car for a while, then heard the sound of horse hooves, and a dozen Beihaimen drove a steady stream of tall horses over from the barn behind. At this moment, the eyes of the three of them were all straight, and their mouths were wide open.
When Cao Guifu and Guo Yu followed the cavalry team to investigate the case, they rode foreign horses-that is, Mongolian horses. Those military horses were captured by the Northern Navy from previous battles with the Manchus and Tsarist Russia. In the eyes of the two of them, they were already high-quality horses; however, compared with the current group of horses, they were nothing more than donkeys.
What appeared in front of them were dozens of large reddish-brown and black horses, all over one and a half meters tall. Each of them had strong limbs, well-developed muscles, broad shoulders and broad backs, showing pleasing curves. The brown hair on the top of their necks He was neatly trimmed, and his brown hair trembled as he walked, making him look even more majestic.
After a while, Lin Qizong put away his dropped chin and murmured: "The dragon's spine is attached to the money, and the silver hoofs are walking on the smoke. No one is weaving the brocade, who is going to forge the golden whip."
Guo Yu asked without turning his head: "Brother Deyuan, what are you talking about?"
"Well, this was done by Li He in the former Tang Dynasty. It is one of the "Twenty-Three Horse Poems", praising the horses. Brother Yu, these horses are very handsome. I think the ancient Pegasus horses are just like this!"
Guo Yu couldn't help but nodded when he heard the words: "Yes, yes, this horse probably doesn't need dozens of liang to make it."
These days, the starting price of a gelding in Shandong is only ten taels, and stallions are even more expensive. Not to mention that the Manchu and Qing government strictly controlled the private horse trade and prohibited private breeding and selling. Many families could not afford the cost of raising a horse. The three of them thought about how much feed these horses must eat in a day to keep them so strong!
However, when they saw several Northern Marines taking the horses to the long shaft in front of the truck one by one and beginning to put on the harness, the three of them were dumbfounded again. Cao Guifu's eyes widened and he said in astonishment: "Using such a good horse to pull a cart? This is too much." He wanted to say it was a waste, but because there were people around him, he swallowed it back.
When a soldier who was harnessing a horse to a cart heard this, he couldn't help laughing and said to the three of them with white breath: "What Pegasus? This is called a draft horse, it is the one who pulls the cart!"
Needless to say, this is the offspring of the heavy draft horse that Zhao Xin first bought. Nine years have passed and the second-generation draft horses are ready to work.
What? ! The three of them looked at each other and thought to themselves, there are also horses specially used to pull carts? This is the first time I've heard of this. You should know that because horses are expensive, folk carts are pulled by either mules or donkeys, and occasionally oxen are used. The fact that the Beihai Navy used such a majestic horse to pull a chariot seemed to the three of them to be a waste of natural resources.
The soldier was busy while explaining to the three people that these draft horses were specially bred by the Beihai Town Horse Farm and were transported just a few years ago. Because the road was bumpy and rough, they felt a little uncomfortable after getting off the ship, so they raised them for more than a month. Dare to use it. When they learned from the soldier that the carriage behind them could carry up to 10,000 kilograms and required eight draft horses to pull it, the three of them were shocked and speechless.
More than half an hour later, all five carriages in the yard had been hitched, and eight draft horses were hitched to each vehicle. Under the order of a leading company commander, Lin Qizong and the others climbed into the carriage of a carriage in a daze. After getting on the bus, the three of them discovered that the interior of the carriage was different from an ordinary carriage. The floor was not flat, but high at both ends and low in the middle, so it was very awkward to sit on it.
Little did they know that this carriage was a "Conestoga wagon" heavy-duty freight carriage specially copied by the Beihai Town factory. Because of its good passability, it is currently being widely used in the eastern United States and Canada, responsible for commercial transportation between towns. The interior of the 5.4-meter-long carriage is tilted at both ends to prevent the loaded goods from tipping over and moving forward and backward.
However, precisely because of its large load capacity, this heavy-duty carriage is not suitable for use in grassland areas. The main reason for putting it into Jiaodong is the hard soil roads there, and the transportation of materials from the port to the town in winter.
As the horse-drawn carriage team left the Changfengcang compound and merged with the cavalry team waiting outside, they drove slowly towards the Zhenhai Gate in the north of the city. The people along the way were all stunned when they saw it. Soon there were nearly a thousand people gathered on both sides of the road. People look strange. Some idle men and children were still following on both sides of the convoy, eating the dust for several miles before they walked back excitedly.
The destination of the convoy's trip is Longmen Port, located at the mouth of the Xin'an River 20 miles northwest of Ninghai Prefecture. The Conestoga heavy carriage does not move very fast, even when empty, it only travels at 3 kilometers per hour.
Lin Qizong and the other three were quite excited at first, but not long after leaving the city, they felt a little chest tight and nauseated due to the bumpy road. After walking for less than half an hour, Lin Tongsheng was lying on the back of the car, wishing he could vomit out his overnight meal, which made the two draft horses at the back of the car snort at him.
Cao Guifu smiled and joked: "Lin Tongsheng, this is not good for me. When the time comes to take the exam, I'm afraid I will vomit out the gall."
After hearing this, Lin Qizong's originally wrinkled face became even more ugly. He said to himself that he was really full and couldn't stay at home in the cold weather. He had to come to see some big iron ship. Now that it's all here, I can only bear it.
Guo Yu patted Lin Qizong's back and said, "Uncle Cao, please stop scaring Brother Deyuan. He is a scholar, so he has never suffered this crime."
Cao Fugui laughed after hearing this, closed his eyes and stopped talking. He leaned against the carriage board and took a nap. After a while, he heard a purring sound.
More than an hour later, the motorcade arrived at its destination. Lin Qizong, who was pale-faced, could not even stand still. He was helped out of the carriage by Cao Guifu and Guo Yu, and found a place to sit down. Guo Yu went again I found a cup of hot water for him to drink, and then he felt better.
Cao Guifu had been to Longmen Port before, when he brought his government servants to collect taxes from fishermen. Due to the long-term sedimentation of the Xin'an River and the Qing government's greater emphasis on Dengzhou Port, only some small fishing boats could be berthed in Longmen Port. In fact, the best deep-water bay in the entire northeastern Jiaodong is on the southeast side of Zhifu Island, which is later known as Yantai Port.
However, developing Yantai Port is a big project that cannot be completed in one or two years. Not only does it require a large amount of machinery and equipment, it also requires the deployment of a large number of engineering personnel from Beihai Town. Kong Shaoan thought about it and decided to make do with Longmen Port first, and wait until the Northern Navy captured the entire Dengzhou Prefecture and established a firm foothold in Jiaodong.
The Military Control Commission built a material transfer warehouse in Longmen Port, covering an area of about two football fields, and stationed a platoon of troops. Because searchlights were placed on the tower, the people in the nearby villages were very nervous. Later, Chief Jia came to see it in person. Although he went back without knowing anything about it, everything was fine.
The three of them came to a barracks and sat for a meal. Cao Guifu couldn't bear it anymore, so he went to the company commander leading the team to inquire about it, and learned that the ship would not arrive until the afternoon. While he was talking, he vaguely smelled the aroma of meat. After he finished speaking to the company commander, he looked for the smell.
Guo Yu didn't see Cao Guifu come back, and just as he was about to go find him, he saw Cao Guifu enter the door happily. He came closer and said, "This time we are here! We have meat for noon!"
Before Guo Yu could say anything, Lin Qizong suddenly stood up and asked, "How did Capt. Cao find out?"
"Hey, I just went to the kitchen to see the fat pork stewed with cabbage and radish, and the big snow-white steamed buns."
"Gulu~~"
Lin Qizong swallowed his saliva dissatisfiedly. Although he still felt a little tight in his chest and wanted to vomit, he had not seen any smell of oil for many days since he had eaten a meal of pig sesame a few days ago.
Guo Yu was very greedy when he heard that there was meat to eat. In these days, not everyone with money could eat meat every day, and even wealthy landlords could not eat it. Pigs and sheep cannot be killed until they are fattened during the Chinese New Year. If there are fish and chicken on the table every day, it is already a luxurious life that ordinary people cannot dream of. At present, in the whole of East Asia, only the Beihai Navy dares to eat like this. Who makes Zhao Xin the boss?
The three of them looked forward to it for a while, then heard the dinner bell ringing outside. With an empty stomach, Lin Qizong took a quick step and swooped out of the door, leaving Cao and Guo stunned.
Lin Tongsheng finished five big steamed buns at noon, and Cao and Guo didn't give in. They wolfed down four steamed buns. Each of them also took out a bowl of stew and a bowl of egg drop soup, and their mouths were full of water. Oil, even the remaining oil in the bowl was wiped with steamed buns and eaten. After the meal, the three of them leaned back on their chairs, picking their teeth and touching their stomachs with satisfaction, saying that today's trip was really worth it.
At about one o'clock in the afternoon, there was a sudden noise outside. Guo Yu went out and asked, and then he realized that the ship had arrived. So he hurriedly called Cao Guifu and pulled Lin Qizong, who could hardly walk, to the outside of the warehouse. He saw a small white dot approaching on the northwest sea.
The three of them thought the ship was not big at first, but after a while they realized that the white ship in the distance was bigger than any sea ship they had ever seen in their lives, and the ship was extremely fast, as if it was gliding on the sea. .
Not long after, the ship stopped several miles away from the coast. First it whistled twice, and then the rumble of anchoring shook the surrounding areas and startled a sea of seabirds. On a high slope two miles away to the west of the three people, a group of villagers who heard the sound were also waiting eagerly, all with frightened expressions on their faces.
Lin Qizong was already fascinated by it. He had experienced so much in the past half day. He rode in Beihai Navy's carriage, ate from Beihai Navy, and then saw such a huge boat. He finally understood that the Manchu Qing court would never come back!
(End of chapter)
