Dong Fangli is a river craftsman who works as a coolie for the canal ship at Nantong Pier. The river craftsman in Nantong are basically laborers who carry goods and ship workers who run boats, unlike Huaibei where there are a large number of boatmen. The ships here can use water and wind, and do not need a boatmen. Dong Fangli is a labor craftsman, not a skilled boatman. He usually eats live, stops his hands and mouths.

When he first entered the industry, the canal transport still existed, and the life of the laborers could pass. Later, the canal transport stopped and the north and south were divided. The life of the laborers was not easy. Many people who lived on the canal at the Nantongzhou wharf, fled and fled. And Dong Fangli stayed here to hold on to the group.

For a while, life improved. Nanzhi resumed part of the canal transport and transported military and grain to the front line in Xuzhou. However, the good times did not last long. The business was quickly taken away by other places. The canal transport in Nantongzhou could not make any oil and water work. Until later, after the north regained Songjiang, their lives came back to life. They still did the canal transport, but they transported silk and cotton tea grain from Nanjing or Suzhou to Songjiang Prefecture. The Nanjing court relied on being a second-department dealer to maintain basic expenses, so the convenience of canal transport must be used.

After the imperial court restored Nanzhi, the official transport of the government was cut off, but the freight of the people did not stop, and the people who ran the canal boats made a better life. However, it made the group of labor workers on the shore, because the ships coming from Nanjing went directly to Songjiang and basically did not move around Nantong. Unlike in the Nanjing period, due to the differences between the two courts, the ships had to stop and smuggle them into Songjiang by officials and civilians, so the labor workers could get a bowl of rice.

A few days ago, the situation was better and I could do some work, but because it was Danji, the work on the dock was even less rare. Dong Fangli was a relatively old worker, so it was even harder to get a job. After the New Year, he had no work for several days, and the whole family followed him and was hungry.

Dragging his hungry body, he came to the dock again, thinking about whether he could encounter luck today.

As soon as I arrived at the dock, I saw a group of people wearing official uniforms ringing the gong, as if they were about to say something.

But Dong Fangli was neither in the mood nor the energy to deal with it. It was said that good days would come after the court was restored, but Dong Fangli didn't feel it at all. A few days ago, the magistrate brought people to the dock, and nothing could be solved. If the court really wanted to solve the problem, wouldn't it be enough to restore the canal transportation? Obviously, in the eyes of the court, he did not take the laborers who made a living by the canal transportation seriously, regardless of everyone's life or death.

Recruiting? It seemed like Dong Fangli heard such a word. He quickly struggled to get up and squeezed into the crowd.

After squeezing into the crowd, Dong Fangli heard a rough idea. The government convened some bows to set up a guild called a passenger transport company. Now we are going to recruit a group of assistants who work on the docks! Unlike in the past, this time we hired long-term workers, who paid more than 1,200 teachers per month.

One thousand two hundred ci, a day is 40 ci. Forty cents a day is not a large group of piers. Under normal circumstances, if there is a job, everyone can earn more than 100 ci. So after hearing the treatment, many people turn around and leave, do a monthly work and earn ten days of salary, which is better than doing some work. What are you doing to be a piers at the dock? Isn’t it just that you have to earn the money you spend on the same day?

Dong Fangli did not leave. It was not that he felt that his salary was OK, but that he really couldn't find a job recently.

The passenger transport company has just been established, and there are not many franchise bows. Now it is the officials of the Nantong Prefecture Household Affairs Bureau who are in charge and operate the business. They thought of starting the dock operation first, but they did not expect that the first day of recruitment would not go smoothly. They only hired forty or fifty laborers who looked old. There is no way, it is better to have it than not!

"Today, you will first recognize the government office of the shipping company, and then send you a working license. From tomorrow, the company will organize everyone to conduct business training. When recruiting everyone to the company, the main work is to serve passenger ships at the dock. There are ticket sales, ticket inspection, guide passengers, guide ships, stop ships, and maintenance of passenger stations. Ticket sales must be done by people who are literate and able to settle accounts, and they will train them for almost everyone to do other things. From tomorrow, we will calculate your salary, take two meals a day, breakfast and lunch, and dinner that everyone will have to go back to solve for themselves. There are four days off every month. This is the basic treatment. Let's go to the company first." After introducing the basic situation to the remaining people, the recruiter led everyone to the temporary office point of the passenger transport company not far from the dock to recognize the door.

Dong Fangli was hungry and followed everyone to the office of the passenger transport company and received a work sign and a red cloth armband. When he finished these things, he had no strength to walk home and could only sit under the tree in the yard, thinking about getting some effort to go home.

"Why don't you go home, this worker? You'll be working tomorrow." An official from the passenger transport company office (in order to get the passenger transport company to start as soon as possible, Zhou Changning transferred more than 30 college students from the yamen to support the construction of the passenger transport company and first concentrated their efforts to arrest this work). When he was doing business in the hospital, he met Dong Fangli and asked about the situation.

"I will leave after a little bit of ease. I am so hungry that I have no strength to leave if I have the energy."

"You haven't eaten! Don't leave now. Follow me to the cafeteria to see what you have to eat. I'll give you some stuff first, so that you won't be hungry and have no energy to go home."

"How can this be done? Can I eat the public meal?"

"You can't have a single mouth! The company originally took care of you for two meals, so today I'll just say that you will open your mouth." The official led Dong Fangli to the cafeteria without saying a word, and found a rice bowl from the chef and took some leftovers to Dong Fangli.

The hungry Dong Fangli ignored the cusp and quickly ate the leftovers. After eating, he had the strength and thanked him to say goodbye to the officials and go home.

When I got home, my wife surrounded me. "His father, are you looking for a living today?"

"Looking for it!"

"Where is the money?" Dong Fangli's wife stretched out her hand.

"Where did I get the money? This time I found a job to work as a long-term worker for the government office, and I received monthly money." Dong Fangli was helpless about his wife's actions. He was looking for a job, but he didn't get a salary.

"Get monthly money for the chief steward of the government office? How much can I get in a month? What should we do during this period?" After hearing her husband's answer, Dong Liu had a lot of questions.

"Only one thousand two hundred cigars a month, it's just enough for Hukou. As for this period, I've been in charge of two meals a day and I won't eat at home. You and the baby, just use fish rice to spend some time, and it's better to spend it. Now it's not easy to find a job on the dock, and I'm older, and it's even harder to find a job. Thinking that after all, I'm working for the government office, there's a long flow of water, so that you and the baby will not have a meal with me all the time."

Dong Fangli was helpless and expressed his thoughts and plans. The so-called eating fish rice is fish meat. Nantong City is leaning against the river, making fishing convenient. Many people who have no food and clothing find ways to put a fish net or fish basket in the river or pond to catch some fish to satisfy their hunger.

"Okay! I will take Yi'er and the others to put fish baskets and dig wild vegetables tomorrow. Let's take care of the tights in front of you first. I hope the monthly money given to you will be settled sooner." Dong Liu could only accept the reality. She has lived a lot of life by relying on fish and wild vegetables. Fortunately, she still has some hope this time.

The next morning, Dong Fangli rushed to the passenger transport company to work just to have breakfast early.

After three days of work, Dong Liu came back with a bag of rice when she saw her husband get off work.

"His father, where did you get the money today? Why did you buy rice?" While taking the rice bag and pouring rice into the empty rice jar at home, Dong Liu asked her husband curiously why he had the money to buy rice.

"It's not the rice I bought, but the rice I paid by the company. It's worth five days' salary. It's safe to work for the government. Today, officials said that given the difficulties of our family, anyone who has enough work for three days can go to the account office to advance a bag of rice home for five days to relieve the difficulty of not being able to take the pot."

"Is that true! No wonder people say that the court is doing business now. Fortunately, you went to work in the government office. With this bag of rice, our family can hold on until your official expenses."

"What else is good! One day I saw my hungry official, I asked me for something today. I asked me if I had a wife at home. If there was a wife, I could consider the kitchen of the company to help the kitchen. I quickly agreed. You can go to the company to work with me tomorrow."

"I'll work with you? Can't I get a salary even if I give me it?"

"Of course it will be available. One tael of silver dollars a month, and two meals are still in charge. You get up early tomorrow to cook some lunch for Yi'er, so we will go to work in the company. This time, our family has come back to life. Both of us can make a living in the company. Yi'er only has the same food at home. There are more than two taels of silver dollars a month, so we still have to worry about living? It must be better than looking for a living on the dock."

"Of course I have to be strong! I have eaten the last meal but not the last meal. How can I compare with the current job? This time you chose a good job. When we get to the company, we have to work hard for others."

After five or six days of work at the passenger transport company, Dong Fangli officially started working. The work he did was very simple, which was to check tickets at the dock. Any passenger with a ticket with a stamp was stamped and left a bottom couplet to board the ship. The tickets were colored and could be checked without literacy. Dong Fangli was more skillful and was chosen to do this job. The ticket inspection work was easy and could not be easier. For Dong Fangli, who had worked hard, was just like not working.

The passenger transport company in the early stage is not large now, with only more than fifty canal ships, and there are not many routes temporarily opened. In addition to the few routes from Zhoucheng to Linjiang County, it is to go to Songjiang Prefecture, Suzhou City, and Nanjing City. At the beginning, passengers were mainly civil servants, but others were not very adapted to this new shipping method and were slowly adapting to it.
Chapter completed!