Chapter 11: The Darkness of the Plank Road in the Ming Dynasty
Update time:2012-09-22
The little sister cares about him very much, and Zhang Ning understands it completely. He sat on the chair with his eyes closed for a while, and kept thinking about this matter in his mind: Going to Beijing like this without even saying hello, it can be said that he has no news and does not know whether he is alive or dead.
How anxious should my sister be?
He wanted to find someone to at least deliver a letter to his home, and considered two ways: one was to find Fang Ling from Fule Yuan. Although she did not have a close relationship with him, she should be willing and she should be a person to some extent.
A trustworthy person; the second is to seek help from Yu Qian's entourage. But no matter what method, information must be delivered from this inn first. Zhang Ning can imagine that there will be informants in all directions outside this inn. Where are the few people here going?
It will be implicated soon... In the end, others will follow the clues and they will definitely touch the Zhang family. They will try to find out what news Zhang Ning and Yu Qian delivered to the Zhang family at this time. Zhang Ning really doesn't want to cause any more worries to his family.
I thought about it and swallowed the idea hard.
Not long after resting, it was daybreak. A total of five people in the suite had breakfast and were ready to set off.
Wang Jian couldn't help but said: "When we leave Tongji Gate in a while, the officials from Nanjing will not come to see us off, right? What if Zhou Ne, the censor of the patrol, also comes and asks where Brother Ping'an and we are going?"
Yu Qian said: "Ping An would not ask this question." Then he did not explain and let Wang Jian figure it out on his own.
Zhang Ning felt that he was being praised, but he really would not ask such a question: The patrol censor has great power in the local area and is of low rank. There must be accomplices in the cases of officials with the rank of minister of the Sixth Ministry, but it is absolutely impossible that the entire
The officials in Nanjing are all their accomplices. They are making an international joke. Would Emperor Yongle allow a place like Nanjing to be monolithic? If Zhou Na came to say goodbye and specifically asked where Zhang Ning was going, it would mean that Zhou Na knew Zhang Ning's whereabouts.
He looked concerned; if Zhang Ning and Yu Qian revealed something in the middle, was Zhou Ne afraid that he would not be stained with fishy smell?
A conspiracy is to do something secretly, for fear of others knowing, and it is more difficult to operate than a conspiracy... In fact, the group of people who used Lu Zhen to attack the prince used a conspiracy at the beginning. How could they have thought of arresting Zhang Ning and putting him in prison to death?
Something went wrong in this link, so he had to use conspiracy to wipe his butt. Zhang Ning had no idea how Lu Zhen ended up in the imperial edict, but he could guess that the patrol censor Zhou Ne and some bureaucrats did not move at first
Lu Zhen directly took Zhang Ning to jail to force a confession, and then impeached Lu Zhen in a memorial. As the saying goes, "big things are reported, small things are decided immediately"; Lu Zhen's arrest by the Jinyi Guards should be an imperial edict issued by the emperor himself.
A group of five people went out of Tongjimen to the dock on the Qinhuai River. It went smoothly, no one came to see them off. They boarded a large ship carrying grain, as if they were really going to take the boat to Beijing in such a swagger, "Ming Xiu Plank Road"
Yes, there is, but I can't see where "Chencang" is at all.
This grain-carrying sailing ship is very spectacular, as tall as a building. Zhang Ning was a little shocked when he saw such an ancient ship for the first time after coming to the Ming Dynasty... But thinking about Zheng He's World Invincible Fleet still existing in the world at this time,
The total displacement of the several thousand ships of the Ming Dynasty is greater than that of the rest of the world combined, so such transport ships are not worthy of much fuss.
As soon as Zhang Ning got on the deck, he couldn't help but notice an artillery gun on the bow of the ship. He couldn't help but take a second look. Wang Jian, who was traveling with him, saw this and said: "Wankou Gun, this is a transport ship of the imperial court, equipped with weapons." Zhang Ning.
He nodded and looked at some sailors holding muskets on the deck. He thought that these firearms might not be advanced, but suddenly he saw that ancient soldiers actually had guns and cannons, which was a little different from what he imagined, so he was a little surprised. After all, they were just transporting food.
The ship is not a warship. There is only a gun and a dozen sailors on the deck. In addition, the majority are sailors and strong men in short clothes, as well as some traveling scholars and merchant passengers. The people on this ship are quite mixed.
There are also officials (Yu Qian), there are really everyone there.
Yu Qian had an official status and received preferential treatment on the boat: a separate cabin for the five of them. This was indeed preferential treatment. After all, the sailboat was not a yacht, and it had to carry a large amount of food and cargo. The space was limited, and those coolie men had to squeeze in many people.
In the cabin on the second floor, there is only a small hammock in the resting area, and you have to sleep in turns.
The ship stopped at the pier, loading cargo from Nanjing. It seemed that there was no tension in the slow manner. The busy sailors on the deck saw a woman washing clothes by the river in the distance, and took the time to yell a few times.
The common folk saying about people with a sour throat caused everyone on the boat to laugh. Yu Qian was also quite calm, sitting calmly beside the bamboo curtain drinking tea and waiting, and said unhurriedly: "This ship will probably not be able to sail in until tomorrow."
The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal will join with other grain-carrying ships to form a fleet heading north, and the fleet will surely be mighty by then."
"Yes..." Wang Jian looked a little uneasy and looked out the window from time to time.
Of the five people in the cabin, only Yu Qian was the calmest. When he looked back at the three men on his left and right, the expressions on their faces were not very natural, but he was quite satisfied with Zhang Ning's performance. However, Zhang Ning was not as comfortable as Yu Qian. He looked
Very melancholy, maybe worried about safety?
What Zhang Ning thinks about most is actually the girls at home, and she doesn't know how anxious she is at this moment.
After struggling for a long time, the Yunliang boat finally broke down. The five people seemed very silent. Yu Qian didn't mention anything serious, and the others also kept silent. They were not in the mood to talk about anything else, so the atmosphere was very dull. Yu Qian sat there with his eyes closed and meditating.
The others just stayed there in silence and boredom.
Zhang Ning reached into his underwear bag and felt around, and pulled out a red auspicious charm. He had nothing to do, so he took it under the window and looked at it carefully. Suddenly Yu Qian said, "Is this a safe letter?" Zhang Ning raised his head and saw Yu Qian.
With a smile on his face, he pretended to be relaxed and said: "Sages don't talk about strange powers, things are gifts from others."
Wang Jian chimed in, "It must be a gift from some girl. Who would give me such a thing?"
Zhang Ning smiled but didn't answer, thinking that there were some similarities between a group of men in ancient times and modern times. The topic could easily turn to a certain beautiful girl. If everyone has met the girl, the conversation would be more harmonious|
Harmonious.
Yu Qian said: "By the way, Ping An is from Nanjing, can you swim?" Zhang Ning replied: "Yes, when I was a child, I liked to secretly go to the river with my friends to play in the water. I learned how to swim. But later I became more scrupulous about my shame and became very embarrassed.
You shouldn't go swimming in the river shirtless. The water quality is not very good." Yu Qian nodded: "As a scholar, this is indeed the case."
Everyone chatted for a while, sometimes leaning against the bulkhead and dozing off. It was still peaceful until after dinner. The wind on the Jiangsu water network was good these days, and after nightfall, the sails were still raised for food and supplies without docking. Five
I spent the whole night in Nanjing last night. I rocked on the boat during the day and didn't get a good rest. Most of them fell asleep exhausted. Zhang Ning also fell asleep somehow.
In the middle of the night, Zhang Ning was suddenly woken up by someone. When he opened his eyes, the surroundings were dark. After a moment, he came back to his senses and realized that he was on a boat in the Ming Dynasty. "Shh!" A voice came from next to him, and Zhang Ning remained as he was.
Motionless. Yu Qian's voice said: "Are you awake?" Zhang Ning whispered "Hmm".
Yu Qian said in a deep voice: "After a few of us arrived in Nanjing, Mr. Yang was worried and sent two more skilled people. In other words, since we were exposed last night, there are still two of our people who don't know about them.
I'm on this boat now. When I finish, you can go out and go to the stern to use the toilet. Someone will take you out of the boat and take the land route. There is a person named Luo Yaoniang who is the daughter of Mr. Yang Shiqi. You can trust her.
Just follow her arrangements."
Zhang Ning, who had just woken up, was still a little confused. He thought: Yang Shiqi's daughter's surname is Luo. How can he, the daughter of a court minister, have the same surname as her maiden name? And a group of him and his group took a boat from Nanjing in a big way, but the boat was slow.
I was delayed for most of the day at the dock. The other party must have arranged manpower on the ship. No need to guess that there must be spies around the cabin. If you go out to use the toilet and run away like this, do you think he is a fool? Yu Qian's so-called "Building a plank road in the open and secretly concealing Chen Cang"
"Couldn't this be a bad idea?"
He also felt that Yu Qian was not that kind of person. Besides, seeing his calm look first, I believed it was more than that. So Zhang Ning stood up and did not forget to salute Qian with his fists raised. Yu Qian said: "Go ahead."
Zhang Ning, however, found a flint and struck the fire stick first, then took the fire stick out of the cabin. As soon as he reached the deck, the wind blew out the fire stick, so he used his sleeves to block the sparks and walked calmly towards the stern of the ship.
The lower-level crew members wearing short clothes on the ship usually urinate on the deck into the river, but squatting on the side of the ship is more dangerous and embarrassing. Passengers with a certain status will also pay attention to their image.
Therefore, in addition to a few toilets, there is also a public toilet on the ship. Zhang Ning went to the toilet twice after getting on the ship. The toilet is similar to the modern train toilet. There is a slope, and the waste is discharged directly into the river.
The wind on the deck carried the crackling sound of the flag and sails, and the waves in the river roared. There were very few people outside in the middle of the night. There were only two people Zhang Ning could see. They were probably the sailors on duty, and the others
They were all in the cabin, it was really cold outside, and the two people on the deck were dressed as if they were wearing winter clothes. They saw Zhang Ning walking toward the stern of the ship with Mars covered, but they didn't pay attention.
When I walked to the stern of the ship, there was no one in sight. The lively and busy scene on the deck during the day had disappeared, leaving only the cold night wind, carrying a fishy smell like rotting fish and shrimp.
The toilet was right in front, and there was a dim lantern hanging at the door that seemed to be extinguished at any moment. Zhang Ning walked over without stopping, pretending to be normal. He couldn't see anyone anywhere, but he knew in his heart that there was someone outside besides the toilet.
There are also eyes staring at me, which makes me feel a little nervous.
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