"Go directly to Deng Fei and tell him about this, and he will arrange the manpower. I'm afraid Zheng Yi and the others can't do the tea road thing alone. You need to help with the details." As the wedding day gets closer, Zhao Xin said to him in words. Shen Jingdan also became polite, which made Boss Shen very satisfied.
Shen Jingdan twirled his beard and said, "Don't worry, I also met two tea merchants when I was in Guangzhou... Hey, I just came back, are you leaving again?"
Zhao Xin nodded and said: "Yes, let's continue talking to the Manchus."
He paused and hesitated before saying, "Do you know who the Manchus sent here this time?"
Shen Jingdan said seriously: "I heard about it in Guangzhou, it's Liu Chongru."
"Yes, the big enemies of the Xu brothers and Ah Quan."
In fact, Zhao Xin didn't care whether they negotiated or not. He was really curious about Liu Yong and wanted to take this opportunity to meet this famous minister who was extremely famous in history and among the people.
Since the Qing army prisoners in Ningguta began their labor reform, the road from Fuldan City to Ningguta has been widened a lot. Cao Peng, a blasting engineer from the power plant, has now come here again, bringing a few points with him Apprentices from technical schools are digging into mountains and blasting rocks.
On the mountain road from Dongning to Ninggu Pagoda, deafening roars would be heard almost every few days. A group of Qing army prisoners could often see a small mountain being blown up into the sky, and then it turned into a mountain full of The valley is full of gravel.
After the whistle that indicates safety is sounded, the prisoners, tied together with ropes in groups of five, will be sent to clear the gravel, widen the road, and dig roadbeds and drainage ditches.
As mentioned before, because this area is covered with frozen soil, the excavation work of the roadbed is very difficult. The road surface must first be dug to a depth of one to two meters, and then backfilled with gravel soil, so as to ensure that the road will not be damaged due to The frozen soil melts and collapses.
When Zhao Xin rushed to the road construction site with a battalion transferred from the training base, Cao Peng was scolding several apprentices.
"How many times have I told you what you should pay attention to every time you drill holes to bury explosive sites?!"
"You can't drill holes and load the medicine at the same time..."
"Then why can't you remember! Also, what did I say about the water pipe? When the hose is connected to the steel pipe, it must be twisted firmly with double strands of No. 8 iron wire to prevent the pipe from breaking and hurting people! It's all pig brains!"
An apprentice said shakily: "Master, it's too cold, we just want to hurry up."
Cao Peng hated the iron and said angrily: "Cold? If you can't do it, go back! If something happens to you, how will I explain it to your parents?!"
After he finished scolding his disciples and kicked out all the boys in his 16s and 17s, the door curtain swung and Zhao Xin walked in.
Cao Peng looked surprised and said: "Hey, why are you here? Just arrived?"
Zhao Xin chuckled and said, "I'm going to Ninggu Pagoda. I just listened to your training, so it's inconvenient for me to disturb you."
Cao Peng said: "Why are you going to Ninggu Pagoda in this cold weather? I heard that you are not getting married at the end of the year?"
Zhao Xin waved his hand and said: "It's too late. Qianlong sent Liu Yong here as a negotiator. I plan to meet Liu Luoguo."
It has been a year since Cao Peng came to Beihai Town, and he had heard about old things in Dongtai. Now that he heard that he was going to meet Liu Yong, he quickly said: "Isn't it convenient for you to take me with you? I've been here for so long, and apart from the prisoners outside, I haven't seen anyone yet." Have you met the celebrities of this era?"
Zhao Xindao: "Can you go away? I just heard you get angry. I want to leave. Can I do that?"
Cao Peng said: "Just wait for me for one more day. I will finish drilling these holes and blow up a few big rocks."
While waiting for Cao Peng, Zhao Xin checked the food and accommodation conditions of the prisoners of the Qing army. Although Beihai Town treated these people harshly, they did not treat them badly in terms of food and clothing. They were fed with corn flour and steamed buns, and they were paid every week.
They were given a meal of white flour steamed buns, and their injuries and illnesses were treated, which made the prisoners shed tears of gratitude.
There are two roads built starting from Ninggu Pagoda, one leads to Sanxing City and the other is right here. Although the weather in the outer Northeast is cold in October and the ground is frozen hard, you can set up firewood to burn it and it will soften after softening.
It can be dug. The civil affairs plan is to stop work in November and let the prisoners do some manual work before continuing in March of the next year.
Five days later, Cao Peng followed Zhao Xin's team to Ninggu Pagoda. Because when Na Qitai initially retreated, he asked the people in the city to act as a rear guard to block the Northern Navy's pursuit, so now not many residents of Ninggu Pagoda have escaped, and most of them have been captured.
The Beihai Navy brought it back.
But since then, the trade routes between Ningguta, Hunchun, Jilin and even Shengjing have been cut off. Currently, except for a few pawnshops and a newly opened Beihai trading company, all other shops have not opened.
On the second day after Zhao Xin arrived at Ninggu Pagoda, he was in a pawn shop called "Hengfengdang" on the southeast corner of Cross Street in the outer city.
Wu Zhenzhou, the pawnshop owner who was sitting behind the counter, suddenly heard the door creak softly and quickly leaned over to check. He saw a guy wearing a ragged mink hat and covering his face poked his head into the door, waiting for his eyes to catch his eye.
, then turned around and looked outside again, then walked in and closed the door behind him.
When the man took off the scarf covering his face, Wu Zhenzhou couldn't help but be shocked. He knew this man.
"Ouch~~ Mr. Chang! Why are you back?" Wu Zhenzhou said as he hurriedly walked out of the counter, welcomed the other party to sit down in the main room at the back, and made preparations for him to make a cup of tea.
"Shopkeeper Wu, the imperial court is about to negotiate with Zhao Ni. Mr. Liu Chongru will go to the retreat station in a few days. I am here with the soldiers from the front station."
This person's name is Chang Wu, known as Chang Wuye, and he is a relative of the concubine of Na Qitai, the former deputy governor of Ningguta. "Hengfengdang" is the business jointly opened by Na Qitai and Wu Zhenzhou, but to the outside world, it is Chang Wu and Wu Zhenzhou.
partnership business.
Speaking of the San Francisco Rebellion, because the Qing government transferred all Ningguta soldiers to the south, Han people began to live in the city, and the city's economy began to rise. There are currently 95 merchants in Ningguta City, including a pawnshop
There are 12 of them.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! However, no matter what the shops were doing at this time, they could only be opened if they had something to do with the government; even if foreign merchants wanted to do business locally,
It must be a joint venture with someone from the government.
For example, the Guanglai Cloth Store in Xiguan was opened by the Yin family of the Vice-President Government Office, while the grocery store on Beida Street was opened by the Wang family, who was responsible for negotiating prices. In addition, there were also blacksmith shops and nian shops.
, candle shop, noodle shop, grocery store, restaurant, etc., this is the case for every family.
Wu Zhenzhou said: "Then why are you here?"
Chang Wudao: "Please count the money on the cabinet, I want to take it with me."
Wu Zhen heard this on Monday and said anxiously: "Fifth Master, you can't do it! If all the money on the counter is taken away, how can we still do this business?"
Chang Wu sneered: "Even if it's over, we can't leave it to someone named Zhao!"
Wu Zhenzhou said: "Fifth Master, please listen to me. Since the Beihai Navy entered the city, everyone has been frightened. Many merchants are anxious to go back to the south. The pawn business in the city is now at its best. How about you wait a few more days?
"
After the Northern Navy implemented military control over Ninggu Pagoda, it did not deliberately make it difficult for local Manchu residents and shops jointly owned by various government and businessmen. First, most of the Manchus in Ninggu Pagoda were Hezhe and Kurkaqi who were organized into the Eight Banners.
belong to "Yi Che Manchu", that is, New Manchuria. Let alone massacre the Han people, many of them have never even been to Shanhaiguan and still live a primitive and simple life. The second is to attack these shops as soon as they come up.
, will cause instability in the market and panic among people.
But even so, some merchants who opened shops in partnership with government officials still felt uneasy. They all pawned off their valuable household goods and prepared to go back to the south when the snow stopped. This is where Wu Zhenzhou said the good business came from.
Chang Wu shook his head and said: "No! The master told me before I came that the stock money must be brought back! To tell you the truth, the Ningguta court cannot take it back."
When the Beihai Navy fought against Mingliang, Wu Zhenzhou was in the city. He saw with his own eyes the smoke at the Ning Guta Camp and knew that what Chang Wu said was true.
He thought for a while and said with some embarrassment: "The money on the counter right now is only seventy or eighty thousand yuan, and the silver is only a few dozen taels..."
Chang Wu looked surprised. He stared at Wu Zhenzhou blankly and asked, "Why is it just so small?"
"Fifth Master, where are you thinking? If I, Wu Zhenzhou, were like that, I would be struck by lightning!"
Wu Zhenzhou then explained to Chang Wu. Among the items he had pawned recently, furs and ginseng were the most common. They were all pawned by those who took advantage of the recent chaos to poach and dig ginseng privately in the mountains.
"Now that the trade route to the south is cut off, these leather goods and ginseng are all worth a carrot price." Wu Zhenzhou hesitated and said, "Otherwise. Mr. Wu, you might as well take the leather goods and ginseng away. These things will arrive in Jilin."
You can exchange money with Ula. If you pass the customs, I estimate that you must have five thousand taels of silver. I will continue to collect it here. When the money on the cabinet is almost spent, I will close the shop and go back to the south.
"
Chang Wu thought about it for a long time and felt that this was the only way to go. After all, even if he took all the money in the cabinet back, he couldn't explain it to Qitai.
Just as he was about to speak, he heard someone outside the door say: "Shopkeeper, the short-haired officer is here!"
"Officer?" Chang Wu was startled and whispered: "It's broken! Are you here to catch me?"
Wu Zhenzhou opened the door and asked the waiter: "How many people are here? Do you have any muskets?"
"Three, no muskets. Two have been here before, and the other has never been seen before."
Wu Zhenzhou felt relieved after hearing this. He turned around and said to Chang Wu: "Did Master Wu hear that? This is not about arresting people. There are many rules in the short-haired government. They come to check at every turn and say they understand the situation. How old is our shop?
It’s been a long time, so I often come to ask about other shops.”
After Liu Sheng led his troops northward and left a battalion of troops in Ningguta for execution, Chen Qingsong sent a team of 20 civil affairs cadres here and transferred 50 security policemen to cooperate with military control.
.
After the Civil Affairs Bureau arrived, they first posted a notice to calm the people, and then they were busy measuring the official villages and private fields outside the south gate, and then they began to conduct a thorough inspection of various shops in the city to investigate the situation of displaced people.
According to the measurement results and combined with the Manchu archives in the government office, the cultivated land in Ninggu Tower is divided into two types: official villages of the Eight Banners and private fields; the 16 official villages have a total of more than 420,000 acres of cultivated land, mainly distributed in the south of the city. In addition, there are
There are more than 54,000 acres of private land cultivated by refugees from the customs.
Since the Yongzheng Dynasty, with the continuous influx of refugees from the Guan Dynasty into the Northeast in order to survive, there have been more and more cases of private land reclamation and joint land reclamation with banner people. The Manchu and Qing Dynasty's practice was to clear land regularly, and the land reclaimed by the banner people returned to the banner people, and the people
As long as people cultivate the land, they need to pay the grain on time.
After this year's autumn harvest, the grain harvested by various local government villages were forcibly confiscated by the Northern Navy. Together with the grain stored in the former deputy capital's Yamen, it can basically meet the supply of staple grains for the whole winter. Grains will be transferred from Fuldan City in the spring.
That’s it.
At present, Ningguta implements a food rationing system, with two meals a day, which can be obtained by card. Through this operation, Beihai Town has a close grasp of the local population. According to the statistics of the civil affairs, there are currently 792 local households.
It has a fixed population of 2,952 households and 87 businessmen who come here to do business.
After hearing this, Chang Wu's face calmed down a little, and he said to Wu Zhenzhou: "Then I'll go to the side room for shelter first, and you can go back quickly. Hey, ask the clerk to show me the inventory list."
Wu Zhenzhou agreed immediately after hearing this, but when he turned around and went out, there was a look of disdain on his face.
This Chang Wu is a loser. In the past, he just came here to collect money, and the amount was already fixed. Fortunately, he was prepared and made two copies of the inventory account. Let the clerk show him the fake one!
This year, when merchants opened shops to do business, they usually used their own relatives as waiters, mainly because they knew everything and were trustworthy. There were originally two waiters in "Hengfeng Dang", but the one sent by Chang Wu ran away before, and the remaining one is
Wu Zhenzhou's nephew.
After instructing the clerk to go to the account book, Wu Zhenzhou came out from behind and saw three guys wearing thick black cotton coats standing outside the tall counter. One of them was tall and had a smile on his face when he spoke;
He has a beard and looks like he is in his twenties.
The man was standing next to the counter at this time, looking at the wooden sign hanging on the wall. The wooden sign was an ordinary pine board, with three lines of words written on it with a brush from top to bottom and from right to left: Shenpao Opera
Improper clothing, improper flags, gongs, umbrellas and fans, improper jewelry.
"Interesting." This was Zhao Xin's first time entering a pawn shop. He had seen it in movies and TV series before.
Wu Zhenzhou hurriedly stepped forward and bowed: "The little man Wu Zhenzhou pays his respects to all the officials."
"Your honor is Shopkeeper Wu, right? I've heard of his name for a long time." Zhao Xin smiled and cupped his hands.
Wu Zhen saw on Monday that the two short-haired officials who had come before were standing behind each other, and guessed that this one must have a higher official position. However, he had not yet understood the official levels within Beihai Town, so he cupped his fists and saluted: "I dare not not
Dare, may I ask who your lord is?"
Zhao Xindao: "Oh, my surname is Zhao. I came from Fuldan City with the army yesterday. I want to know something about the situation with you today."
Wu Zhenzhou said with a smile on his face: "Master, you are too polite. Please sit in the back hall."
After a few people sat down and the waiter served tea, Zhao Xin said: "I heard that Shopkeeper Wu has done a lot of business in ginseng and leather goods in the past few months."
Wu Zhenzhou's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly bowed and said, "It's a small business, we're just here to help."
"Don't worry, I'm not here to check you." Zhao Xin explained with a smile and continued: "You are an old local merchant. I would like to ask Shopkeeper Wu how many gangs there are in the local area that secretly dig ginseng?"
"This..." Wu Zhenzhou's heart suddenly pounded, and he replied hesitantly: "I can't say for sure, but it is said that there are two groups of people, both numbering around a hundred or ten people."
Zhao Xin smiled slightly and stopped talking. Then a civil affairs cadre next to him suddenly said: "Shopkeeper Wu, don't have any worries. According to what we know, in the last month alone, you have served Xu Mazi, Yu Deshui, Lu Qi
Also, Chen Er has collected a large amount of ginseng. Why are there two groups of people?!"
Wu Zhenzhou was shocked when he heard this. How could such a secret thing be known to the other party? This was so embarrassing!