Just after breakfast time, a notice board was erected at the two gates of the official residential area and the quarantine area, with a large notice written in traditional Chinese characters posted on it.
On the notice's header are the six characters "Recruiting Public Security Police".
Just after breakfast, dozens of refugees who were chatting in the camp gradually gathered in front of the notice and talked about it.
"What's written on this?"
"Who, hey, Yajiro, haven't you been to a private school for a few days? Come over and help me take a look." A refugee shouted to a young man outside the crowd.
The onlookers turned around and saw a young man squatting against the outer wall of a tent to bask in the sun. Hearing the greeting, the young man stood up lazily and walked over. Everyone then took the initiative to step aside.
Make a way for him to come in.
"Has he ever attended a private school?" a refugee asked curiously.
"No. I heard from his brother that his family was relatively wealthy before and could afford a private school, but within a few years it would no longer be possible."
Yajiro walked through the crowd and walked to the notice board. When he looked up, he knew all the words on it, so he started reading the title word by word.
"Recruit, recruit, enforce, police, police."
"What is law and order?"
"What is a police officer?"
"Are the adults here looking for followers?"
As soon as the title was read, everyone onlookers started talking about it. Except for the first two words, the remaining four words had no idea what they meant.
"Shut up and listen to him continue." A few people standing under the sign were dissatisfied and turned around to yell at everyone.
In fact, Yajiro doesn't understand what a public security policeman is. He knows every word in it, but what does it mean when they are put together?
At this time, everyone only listened to Yajiro continue to read: "Requirements, adult men, aged from 18 to 30 years old. Good health, no bad habits..."
"I said, what are bad habits?"
"It's just a bad habit!" Yajiro explained impatiently.
"Oh~~" Everyone suddenly realized.
What are the bad habits of these refugees? Isn’t it just spending money indiscriminately? We don’t waste food, we don’t drink and smoke, and we don’t drink tea. The bad habits have nothing to do with us mud-legged people. (The shogunate strictly ordered farmers everywhere not to eat casually.
Rice, wine and tea are not allowed to be purchased, alcohol and tea are not allowed, and tobacco is not allowed to be grown or consumed.)
"...salary, two kilo of rice or wheat flour per month!" Yajiro couldn't help but widen his eyes after reading, and he himself was shocked by the content on the notice.
"What?! Two stones a month, doesn't that mean..."
A refugee was counting on his fingers when a person next to him immediately exclaimed: "Twenty-four stones!"
"Oh my god, that's nearly seven liters of rice a day!" There are people here who think faster.
What is the concept of seven liters of rice a day?
According to the "Ryuan Zabi" compiled in the late Edo period, a family of eight to nine people in Edo Castle at that time consumed fourteen koku and four measures of rice a year, with an average of 4.4 tons of rice per person per day (1 liter equals
10 pieces is about 1.3 kilograms; 4.4 pieces is almost 1.14 kilograms, plus steaming with water, it can become more than 2 kilograms of rice).
(There is a scene in the Japanese drama "Jinyi" where the protagonist eats at a samurai's house for the first time. The samurai's sister brings a bowl of rice piled high, which almost scares the protagonist to death.)
Starting from the middle of the Edo period, urban residents' food consumption increased significantly. One important reason was the change from two meals a day to three meals a day.
With the increase and popularization of mustard oil production, lighting a lamp at night is no longer a luxury. Many people have to work at night, and two meals a day are no longer enough. Interestingly, tempura is a
The popularity of food is also due to the large-scale use of mustard seed oil.
Although many farmers still insist on eating two meals a day, who doesn’t want to eat three meals? The problem is that they can’t afford it.
The onlookers were completely shocked. Don't worry about what this "security police" does, the monthly salary alone is scary. By the way, how much is the salary of a samurai master? Even if the whole family eats hard, how much can they earn in one day?
How much to eat?
At present, each refugee family in the camp only has five or six members at most. If you are so luxurious that you only eat rice and some pickles, your daily consumption will not exceed 30 tons of rice.
This "public security policeman" had seventy pieces of rice a day. Not to mention eating it himself, the whole family was bloated.
So many people began to wake up. This was not recruiting followers and petty officials, this was clearly recruiting to be a samurai master!!!
At this time, there were more people around, and some people eagerly asked Yajiro where they could apply. As soon as Yajiro told him the location, they immediately ran away.
"Don't worry, there are more below." Yajiro said unhappily. He turned to look at the notice and continued reading: "The number of applicants is limited to fifty. The application location..."
Everyone opened their ears and waited nervously.
These people all have the same idea. Fifty people are nothing. As long as I can run faster than you, then it is mine and no one can take it away!
At this time, Yajiro pretended to take a few steps back inadvertently, so that the people around him could spread out a little and be less crowded. While everyone was retreating, he used the corner of his eye to find the largest gap between the crowds.
at.
At this time, his upper body leaned forward slightly, his arms and legs began to accumulate strength, his left foot stepped firmly, the front sole of his right foot was close to the ground, and his back heel was slightly raised.
It is said that this running posture was taught to him by his elder brother after he went to work as a guard. I heard from my elder brother that the adults carefully explained that this kind of movement can make him run faster.
"...The place to apply..." Yajiro read slowly.
"Where is it? You can tell me! I'm so anxious." A young man on Yaichiro's left shouted.
"Big ship on the seaside~~"
As soon as Yajiro finished speaking the first word, he suddenly turned around and pushed away a few people blocking the way on the right, and rushed out of the gate. After he had already rushed out of the gate, the next few words followed him.
The distant figure reached everyone's ears.
"Hey? Why is he going?" A refugee said strangely, but he immediately realized that Yajiro was talking about the big boat on the beach!
If he didn't run now, when would he wait? The refugee immediately turned around and ran towards the beach.
"This kid is so bad!" Everyone onlookers also figured it out and cursed one after another.
Hu La La~~~ The sound of footsteps suddenly caused a cloud of dust to fly, and hundreds of people immediately ran away.
"Mother, what are they doing? The person who ran out just now seems to be my second uncle."
Asaki and Yaichiro's wife were carrying two large buckets and had just returned from fetching water from the pond.
"Don't worry about him. You have nothing to do when you are full! You have just had enough food for a few days and you are messing around."
Yaichiro's wife walked towards the tent without looking back.
On the deck of the Thor, Zhao Xin, Liu Sheng, Katayama Kanbei and Katsu Kaishu had just met. They were about to go to the conference room in the cabin to talk about the morning interview in advance, when they heard a sailor on the deck exclaimed
: "Sir, something seems to have happened!"
Upon hearing this, several people quickly turned around and stood on the side of the ship, following the sailor's fingers and looking towards the shore.
On the road 200 meters away from the pier, I saw a small refugee running towards this direction at a fast pace; dozens of meters behind him, hundreds of refugees brought up a cloud of smoke and dust, and they were also running very fast.
The leading men were running and shouting: "Yajiro, you shameless guy! Stop right there!"
I'm stupid, you still want me to stop?
Yajiro, who was running wildly, couldn't help but think of his deceased father. If his father hadn't sent him to a private school in the town for two years against everyone's advice, how would he have had this opportunity?
When Yajiro rushed to the trestle where the Thor was parked, he was stopped by the sailor on duty on the trestle.
"Stop! What are you doing?!" The sailor nervously held the sword in his hand and yelled at Yajiro.
"Yes, yes, yes." Yajiro put his hands on his waist, bent over and breathed out, and said.
"Is that the group behind you too?" the sailor said, pointing behind Yajiro.
At this time, more than a hundred people had already run to the beach, crowding each other to rush to the trestle.
"Bang bang!!!" Two gunshots were heard in the air. The crowd on the beach immediately fell silent. Everyone was frightened by the sound; those with more knowledge knew that it was the sound of iron cannon being fired.
"I'll go over and take a look." Liu Sheng said, holding up his pistol.
Zhao Xin turned to Sheng Haizhou and said: "Sheng Haizhou, go find Mr. Wang and ask him to send a team of guards to maintain order. Have them line up, five at a time, to get on the ship to apply. Tell the people below who wants to
Anyone who dares to rush onto the trestle again will be disqualified."
Katayama Kanbei hurriedly said to Zhao Xin: "Master, let me go and help maintain it."
Zhao Xin nodded and said: "The guards will come soon. You can come back to the ship to find me. After all, these first batch of people recruited will be under your control from now on. You have to take a look."
Katayama Kanbei bowed and saluted, and then he and Liu Sheng went down to the trestle.
Half an hour later, Wang Yuanfang trotted to the beach with five squads of guards. Each of these guards held a wooden stick as a weapon and began to maintain order.
Soon, the timid refugees lined up in a queue, in order of five at a time, waiting to board the ship to apply for the draft.