Chapter 141 It's Difficult to Enter the Manchu Qing Dynasty
Chapter 141 It is difficult to enter the Qing Dynasty
In the afternoon, when Shen Jingdan, Lao Huang and others went to the island to meet with Zhao Xin, Zhao Xin asked Shen Jingdan: "Boss Shen, do you know anything about Flower and Bird Island?"
"I know a thing or two. In fact, I have been here several times."
"Oh? Then why are there so many empty houses on this island but not many people?"
After Shen Jingdan's explanation, Zhao Xin finally understood the whole story of this place.
In the past few years, Flower and Bird Island was a black market trading base for many overseas cargo ships, and the business was very prosperous. Various shipping companies built wooden houses on the island as temporary business halls; some Fujian and Zhejiang pirates occasionally came here to sell their stolen goods. Jingdan once bought some stolen raw silk and white sugar here and shipped them to Nagasaki.
In the forty-eighth year of Qianlong's reign, a vicious robbery and murder case occurred in Chongming. Thirteen pirates including the robber Gong Boss hijacked a Nantongzhou merchant ship offshore Chenjiahe. The group encountered a storm when they were preparing to move the goods. So he waited on the victim's boat for two days. During these two days, no one knew what happened on the boat.
Two days later, this group of robbers not only removed all the clothing, goods and money from the merchant ship, but also pushed all 25 people on the ship, including the owner, sailors, women, and children, into the sea and drowned, and finally burned the merchant ship to nothing.
This incident led to Qianlong personally ordering a strict investigation. Susong Town Navy sent a large team of troops to search inside and outside Chongming Island, and finally captured eleven robbery and murderers on Flower and Bird Island. At this time, various shipping companies on the island, Liquors and even brothels were driven away by officers and soldiers, and the huge Flower and Bird Island soon became deserted.
After listening to Shen Jingdan's introduction, Zhao Xin pondered for a while before saying: "Boss Shen, you are more familiar with the island conditions in Jiangsu and Zhejiang than I am. Do you think it is appropriate for us to use this place as a cargo transfer station?"
Shen Jingdan stroked his beard and thought for a while and said: "The location alone is appropriate. But how are you going to deal with the navy in Susong Town, Mr. Zhao? If it's just a killing spree that alarms the court, then not only Su In Songzhen, even the Mining and Zhejiang navy will be alarmed, I'm afraid it will be difficult to handle."
Lao Huang added on the side: "Mr. Zhao, you don't know. The imperial government's patrol system here is still very strict. There was an incident here last year. If you have fewer people, I'm afraid you won't be able to retain them."
Zhao Xindao: "How do you say this?"
Old Huang said: "This matter is too detailed to explain. I can't explain it. I'd better let Brother Shen explain it."
It turns out that forty-six years after Qianlong's reign, Chongming's internal and external patrols were changed from four cruises a year in spring and autumn to one every three months, patrolling according to the four seasons. There are four camps in Susong Town, left, right and Qi, which rotate every quarter. Sent 11 officers, led by 288 land and sea soldiers, and nine sentry boats, sampans and other ships, to patrol the ocean, and worked with patrol officers and soldiers such as Langshan Town Youying, Chuansha Camp, Wusong Camp and other patrol officers and soldiers to patrol the ocean at Banyangsha and other places. Meeting whistle.
Shen Jingdan finally concluded: "The purpose of the imperial court is to 'acquire dedicated responsibilities' to prevent the occurrence of all kinds of blame-shifting and malpractice in the Luying Navy. The so-called 'regular meeting posts, repeated shifts for dedicated patrols, and always dividing the boundaries The address is important.'
In this way, each water battalion demarcates the areas under its respective jurisdiction on the internal and external oceans by demarcating boundaries and assigning responsibilities. There is a general patrol above the division patrol, and there is a general patrol above the general patrol. The ships of each battalion come and go. Weaving and patrolling are all based on the arrows passed by the sentry post and the documents taken from the meeting hall as the trust."
As Shen Jingdan talked, Zhao Xin took notes with a pen. There were so many sub-inspections, general inspections, and people from this battalion and that battalion that Zhao Xin was dizzy.
It's hard to believe that Shen Jingdan, a maritime businessman, could explain it in such detail. After recording it, Zhao Xin praised: "Boss Shen has such a good memory, and he can explain such complicated things in a clear and coherent manner."
Shen Jingdan said with a smile: "Those of us who are engaged in sea trade, if we can't remember these clearly, how can we manage everything?"
Zhao Xin suddenly asked out of curiosity: "Excuse me, Boss Shen, how much money do you spend on this a year?"
Shen Jingdan said nonchalantly: "There are always five thousand taels."
Zhao Xin was surprised: "Ah?! So many!"
Shen Jingdan clasped his fingers and said: "The governor of Liangjiang, the governor of Jiangsu, the naval admiral of Susong Town, Wusong camp, all have filial piety."
"Isn't the Governor of Liangjiang in Nanjing? Isn't he also required to give it there?"
"The imperial governor-general of Liangjiang has sixteen battalions, and the admiral of Jiangnan has five battalions. These are all responsible for Jiang defense. You also have to pay a fee when you come out of Shanghai Daguan Pier."
Although Shen and Huang explained so much, Zhao Xin still didn't want to give up the island. He thought for a while and said: "Boss Shen, Boss Huang, I think it will be difficult for you two to go to Nagasaki in the future. Next time you will purchase goods. , why not arrange it here. Let's agree on a time, for example, every two months, and the Thor will send the goods here to meet you. This will save you a long sea journey. If you want to go to Beihai Town, just take the Let’s go to the boat.”
Shen and Huang looked at each other with joy on their faces. Zhao Xin's suggestion was so easy!
The two of them also knew a little about the cargo capacity of the Thor, and the load of tens of thousands of stones was not a problem. It only needed one trip, which could take them to Nagasaki ten times. So the two agreed happily.
The three of them chatted until it was almost time for dinner. Wu Siyu also completed the preliminary interrogation of Xu Dayong and others. So Zhao Xin drank the fish soup while reading the materials.
Xu Dayong was born in Chongming, Jiangsu.
In mid-June of the 46th year of Qianlong's reign, a storm occurred in Chongming County. The water in Guanxiang (near the main street outside the city gate) reached a depth of four to five feet, destroying more than 18,000 houses and drowning more than 12,000 men and women. Seven of Xu Dayong's family of eight died in the disaster; the few acres of land they shared were also washed away by the flood. With no other option, he took Wang Changsheng and a dozen other landless tenants from the same village, The days of robbing passing merchant ships began.
Strictly speaking, Xu Dayong's group cannot be regarded as pirates, but can only be regarded as a group of thieves. These people also use rented sand boats to transport goods on weekdays; or they travel between islands off the coast of Chongming to do small things. A large-scale smuggling business. And every time during the peak season of sea trade freight, they would gather in groups and go overseas to grab a piece of it.
Since Xu Dayong's group rarely kills people, their reputation in Chongming is not that bad. When an ordinary merchant ship encounters them, they can say a few nice words, establish some friendship, and give them a few dozen taels of silver.
Since the spring of this year, the freight business of Xu Dayong and his group has suffered repeated setbacks. First, they were discovered by Su Song Navy for trafficking in private goods and sank a sand ship. Later, they encountered a storm at sea and lost a lot of goods. Because they could not follow the The owner of the cargo confessed that a group of people wanted to come to Flower and Bird Island to avoid the limelight.
Xu Dayong, who had lost a large amount of goods, originally wanted to find an opportunity to make some extra money, so he asked the second boss Wang Changsheng to take his people out to grab a handful. In the end, he only got a dozen taels of silver and more than 7,000 kilograms of fish.
Zhao Xin and others were "beaten to death" on the beach by the "unexpected visit".
Throughout the history of the Qing Dynasty, apart from the early Zheng Group, the three largest pirate groups on the southeast coast were Cai Qian and Zhu Xin's group from Fujian in the early Jiaqing period, Zhang Baozai from Guangdong, and the Banner Gang headed by Zheng Yisao Shi.
Pirates and everything else are irrelevant.
After reading the interrogation records, Zhao Xin decided that he still could not let Xu Dayong and his group go. First, the news about the Thor could not be leaked. Second, these guys were considered strong laborers and were brought back to Beihai Town to undergo labor reform with Qing prisoners.
Just right.
Therefore, Xu Dayong's remaining sand boat, which contained more than 7,000 kilograms of catch, became Zhao Xin's trophy.
The cargo capacity of the sand ships in the Qing Dynasty was not small. The large ones could carry 120 tons, and the small ones could carry 60 tons (the larger ones could carry three thousand shi, and the small ones could carry 1,500 shi.) Although the speed of the sand ships was
It is slower, but after adding the water board, water logs and safety basket, the sailing stability is very outstanding and it can resist large winds and waves.
There have always been different opinions about the name of sand ships. According to "Tiangong Kaiwu", the Beiyang sea surface is full of shoals with crisscrossed ditches, and sand ships can freely travel among them, hence the name.
According to Shen Jingdan's introduction, Zhao Xin learned that the number of sand ships that enter the Huangpu River from Wusongkou to berth and unload cargo is as high as more than 3,000 every year. The annual cargo volume of sand ships accounts for almost half of the freight throughput of the entire Susong area.
Zhao Xin and Liu Sheng discussed it and decided to move part of the catch into the cold storage in the kitchen on the ship, and most of the rest would be given to Shen Jingdan and Lao Huang.
Shen Jingdan couldn't laugh or cry. He and Lao Huang were not fishmongers, so what was the use of having so many yellow croakers? Moreover, the boat was rented by Xu Dayong. Once it entered Wusongkou, it would definitely be recognized. Not only the catch on the boat
If he couldn't tell the origin, he would get into trouble. Once Zhao Xin heard this, he gave it up and could only take the sand boat back.
So Xu Dayong and a group of prisoners began a miserable life of hard labor from the early morning of the next day; every day they would disembowel the yellow croaker on the deck of the Thor, clean it, pickle it, and then lay it flat on the cargo hold cover to dry repeatedly.
.And a group of foodies headed by Zhao Xin began to feast. They started cooking fish every day in the kitchen, frying, frying, steaming, and eating in different ways; they ate all the way from Flower and Bird Island back to Beihai Town.
When it came to the sea outside Jiangsu, Wu Siyu wanted to find an opportunity to go ashore and have a look. Zhao Xin and others also wanted to see Shanghai County in this era. However, Shen Jingdan's words dispersed their thoughts.
"My lords, you don't have braids!"
Different from what is known in later movies and TV shows, the braids of Chinese people in the late Qianlong period were still the typical money rat tail. It was not until the middle Jiaqing period that the area of hair growth began to be expanded, and it was not until the late Daoguang period that it transformed into mostly bald and half full hair.
image.
It's okay to ask Zhao Xin and others to shave their heads, but they can't find the props for wigs and braids right now!
Liu Sheng waved his hand and said: "Why do you need braids?! Can't we just pretend to be a monk?"
Shen Jingdan shook his head and said, "You can't even pretend to be monks."
"Why?" Liu Sheng looked unhappy. He thought Shen Jingdan just didn't want to help him.
When Shen Jingdan saw that Liu Sheng and others looked wrong, he quickly explained: "Master Liu, my pregnant concubine and daughter are both in Beihai Town. Why don't I help? It's because pretending to be a monk will cause big trouble. !Listen to my explanation."
It turns out that in the middle and late Qianlong period, although the system of paying ultimatums was gradually abolished and replaced by ordination ultimatums, and it seemed that anyone could dress up as a monk, it was replaced by a strict Baojia system for wandering monks.
The government carries out strict review of the four-pillar inventory of monks and Taoists in various places to achieve management of grassroots monks and Taoism.
For example, the review of ordinary people in Baojia is quarterly or semi-annually, while the review of monks and Taoists is once a month. At the end of each month, the abbot of each temple must write in the "circulation book" that the temple (nunnery, nunnery, etc.) How many people actually live in the temple, their appearance and characteristics, where the monks are from, when they come and when they leave; after writing these, you must submit the booklet to the local monastic association secretary, who will send it to the local monastic association secretary on the second day of the following month. Send the circulating book to the county government for verification; the county government will return the book after review and continue next month.
Of course, if you can bribe the temple abbot and the people in the yamen in advance, it's not impossible to go ashore for a month or two. But the heights of Zhao Xin and his gang are too scary!
In the Jiangnan area, where the average height is 1.65 meters, how can it go unnoticed when a few monks with a height of 1.8 meters and round waists suddenly appear? Take Liu Sheng, for example, who is 1.85 meters tall. If he puts on a cassock, his whole body will look like Flower Monk Lu Zhishen!
Therefore, Shen Jingdan and Lao Huang suggested that they should make some preparations first, such as wigs, clothes, etc., so that they can go ashore next time.
When Liu Sheng and others heard what they said was reasonable, they gave up in frustration and could only talk about it next time.
Zhao Xin rolled his eyes and asked Shen Jingdan: "Boss Shen, can you help me buy a courtyard in each of the four places: Shanghai, Yangzhou, Suzhou, and Nanjing? The heads of households can be in the names of two people."
Lao Huang on the side asked at this time: "This is easy. My family has shops in these places. I just don't know what Mr. Zhao's requirements are for the location and the size of the yard?"
Zhao Xindao: "As for the location, a more secluded place outside the city will do. As for the size, a small courtyard with two or three entrances will do. The key is not to attract anyone's attention."
Lao Huang nodded and said, "Leave this matter to me, I'll make sure it's done properly!"
When Zhao Xin saw that Lao Huang agreed readily, he immediately wanted to give him some money. Lao Huanglian said no, he had made a lot of money just from the half-shipload of leather goods that Zhao Xin gave him this time. To buy four sets of courtyards, two thousand taels of silver was worth the money. , besides, there is no need to use so much.
Since sailors from the island country could not enter the territory of the Qing court, that night, Zhao Xin and Wu Siyu took a dozen soldiers to take Shen Jingdan to Chongming Island in a patrol boat at night.
Shen Jingdan has a warehouse outside Chongming County. In the past, most of the goods he purchased were sent here, and it was very convenient to find help.
Two days later, Shen Jingdan took a rented sand boat and took more than forty sailors to board two Benzai boats on the west side of Flower and Bird Island.
At this point, the escort mission of Zhao Xin and others has been completely completed. Next time, Shen Jingdan and Lao Huang will come directly to Flower and Bird Island to meet with the Thor to purchase goods.
On the deck, Xu Dayong and others were busy drying fish. When they saw the Flower and Bird Island gradually disappearing, they couldn't help but shed tears.
"Brother, can we come back?" Wang Changsheng, the former second in charge, kowtowed three times in the direction of Chongming Island and asked quietly.
"Damn it, it's not a living here! I think these gentlemen are not bad at all. At least they have enough rice and can eat as much fish as they want." Xu Da wiped his nose with his raised hand.
Wang Changsheng said: "But, brother, that fish, the fish was originally ours. Oops!"
Xu Da kicked Wang Changsheng's calf angrily. "Damn it, if you don't speak, no one will treat you as a mute!"
"What are you two doing! Work quickly!" Yaichiro, who was in charge of standing guard on the deck, shouted at the two of them with a gun in his hand.
"Yes, yes! Master Jun." Xu Dayong lowered his head and continued to rub salt on the fish, while cursing in his heart: "What are the arrogance of the Japanese people! If I get a blunderbuss one day, I won't be able to beat you to death!"
As an aside, in the Qing Dynasty, it would be difficult to travel without a road guide issued by the government where the household registration is located. Even if you want to pretend to be an official, in addition to wearing a hat, you must also have a waist badge, otherwise you can't live there.
If you don't go into the hotel, the waiter will directly report the person to the government for arrest. Some people say that in the worst case, you can pretend to be a monk. Hehe~~ It's easy, isn't it. If you can answer the following questions, and add the ordination certificate stamped with the official seal, congratulations
Passed the inspection! Question one, who? Who is the monk? Who is the monk? Who is the teacher? Question two, in which temple did he become a monk? Where did he receive the ordination? Question three, memorize
Is this a sutra? The Ksitigarbha Sutra is the most commonly used for practicing rituals. Memorize it once.