The proud smile on his face froze when he had a stomachache, and he stared at Xiang Xiaoqiang with his mouth agape. Xiang Xiaoqiang flashed the flashlight:
"Did you hear that? Answer me."
"Listen...I heard it, Captain."
"Well," Xiang Xiaoqiang shined the light beam back on the map, "keep talking."
He swallowed his saliva because of his stomachache, and stammered with a red face:
"Yes... Captain, you see, my subordinates think that this river may not be the same, because..."
After all, for various reasons, a dozen large rivers have been eliminated. The remaining small rivers with a width of 10 to 20 meters have naturally been eliminated. Now only the Wen River, Daqing River, Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and Gu
There are several major rivers such as the Yellow River, and they are basically determined to be in the south or west of Shandong, or in the northern Jiangsu area.
Xiang Xiaoqiang put out his flashlight, took off his raincoat, and was about to lead the team to ride along the river bank in one direction. At this time, there was a faint whistle of a train in the distance.
That direction was to the west. Everyone was stunned and stretched their heads to look to the west, but the night was too dark and they couldn't see anything even if they looked hard.
Xiang Xiaoqiang thought about it and said happily:
"Brothers, maybe we are lucky. Qinglu's main north-south railway line in the east is only one Jinpu Road. According to our estimate before parachuting, the landing place will not be too far to the west. Let's go and see if this
If the railway runs north-south, it should be the Jinpu Railway!"
Ten people got on their bicycles and rode westward along the small dirt road along the river bank.
After riding carefully for about ten minutes, I heard a "chunk" sound coming from the distance. The sound was like a steam locomotive, but it felt a little different, a bit like a tractor driving very slowly. Xiang Xiaoqiang and others looked ahead and continued riding.
Go, slowly, the sound is getting closer.
On the wide river, a small steamer drove slowly "chunk, chugging", dragging two open-top cargo ships behind it. They were very low, or most of them were under the water. The boats were piled high with black cargo.
Something, probably coal.
The water waves behind the small steamer slowly spread to both sides. The river was dark, and through the reflected moonlight, you could see a lot of ice and cinders piled up on both sides of the bank. The stones were dark and even withered grass
Everything was dark.
Seeing the special cargo ships sailing on the river, Xiang Xiaoqiang was now 70 to 80% sure that this was the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. It was so coal-black here, there must be a coal terminal nearby. This meant that there was a large coal mine in this area.
His mind quickly turned to the familiar map of China's mineral distribution, recalling where there were large coal mines along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.
Xuzhou and Jining are the only two places with coal mines.
It should be Xuzhou. Because the coal mines in Xuzhou are not only much larger, but also in this section, the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal happens to run east-west.
If it was really Xuzhou, then it would be my hometown. I have to say it was God’s will.
Xiang Xiaoqiang suppressed the excitement in his chest and said to the snail:
"Shout and ask on the ship."
"Okay."
"You know how to ask?"
The snail was stunned:
"How to ask?"
"Don't ask what kind of river this is, just ask how to get to the city and where is the bridge in this area. We went out in the dark to arrest people, and they got lost when we came back."
"yes."
He waved to Xiaoqiang and everyone retreated to the back, hiding in the shadows. He and Snail took a few steps forward and stepped on the shore. Snail shouted loudly to the boat:
"Hey - the sailor - hey - the sailor -"
After shouting a few times, the light came on in the small steamer cabin. A figure came out with a gas lantern, stood on the side of the boat, looked towards the shore, and shouted in a rough voice:
"Who? What are you doing?"
Xiang Xiaoqiang was excited. This man's accent was from the Xuzhou area! He asked Snail to step back, then stepped forward and shouted loudly in his hometown dialect:
"Hey, brother sailing, please ask, do you know how to get to the market? We two are lost! Do you know where there is a bridge in this area?"
The people on the boat shouted:
"Go east along the river for two miles, and there is a railway bridge! I don't know if you can cross it! The soldiers are watching the bridge!"
Xiang Xiaoqiang was a little confused, why were there still Qing troops guarding the bridge? This was already the Qing Dynasty's rear area, so why were they guarding the bridge? Was it still a strategic location?
Just as I was thinking about it, the people on the boat added another sentence:
"You two, be careful. If you can get through it, just get through it. If it's really hard, forget it. If you don't make it, you might risk your life again!"
Then he returned to the cabin with the lantern swinging, muttering:
"Oh, what a fuck... In this current world, you are only allowed to go north, not south... Grandma..."
Xiang Xiaoqiang's hair stood on end for no reason, and he murmured in his mind what he meant by these two sentences, "If you don't risk your life," and "You are only allowed to go north, not south." He was about to take a breath and ask again,
A hand quietly tugged at his coat.
He turned around and saw that he had a stomachache. He looked sincere and whispered:
"Captain, I know what's going on. Let me tell you. It's best not to ask strangers about this matter. Really."
Xiang Xiaoqiang glanced at him, nodded, turned to the boat and shouted:
"Thanks, brother!"
Then he turned around and asked about his stomachache:
"Tell me, Zi Teng. What's going on?"
Stomachache glanced at everyone, licked his chapped lips, and said:
"Actually, everyone may also know that they are only allowed to go north, not south."
As soon as he finished speaking, he felt a thump in his heart. He knew that he had said the wrong thing again. The implication was that everyone knew it, but you, the captain, didn't know. What do you, the captain, do for a living?
He was afraid that he would be beaten in public again, so he glanced at Xiang Xiaoqiang with some fear, but found that Xiang Xiaoqiang's face looked the same, so he smiled and nodded, letting him continue.
Having a stomachache, he breathed a sigh of relief and continued:
"Captain, many people from the Qing Dynasty fled to the Ming Dynasty every year. In order to prevent the people from fleeing south, the Qing Dynasty adopted many bloody methods. For example, if a person escapes to the south, his family, possibly relatives and friends, must
Those who are caught and imprisoned in a labor camp or in a mine are usually forced to work hard for the rest of their lives. Those who escape will definitely be shot if they are caught halfway. Sometimes their heads are cut off and hung on the
Places to show the public. Generally, the Qing captives will set up checkpoints at all major places leading to the south. Generally speaking, they don't ask when people are walking from south to north. If they encounter people walking from north to south, they have to stop and interrogate them to find out who you are.
If you want to escape, that's the end of it."
Xiang Xiaoqiang asked:
"How do they know who is trying to escape and who is traveling normally?"
Stomachache says:
"The people of the Qing Dynasty are different from the people of the Ming Dynasty. The people of the Ming Dynasty can move wherever they want, and live and make a living wherever they want. As long as you can apply for someone else's visa, you can enter and exit the country completely freely. But this is the twentieth century.
, Qinglu still registered household registration for the people in order to restrict the free movement of the people. If the people had to travel far away for something, they would go to the countryside or county to burn incense, beg their grandfather and grandma, find connections, and find ways to support them.
It is clearly stated on it that you must bring your household registration with you before you go anywhere. The Qing army's trap is to first check your route and secondly check your household registration to see if it matches. Often it is obviously correct.
Go on, they will tell you that there is something wrong here and there, and it will be necessary to rip you off. If you have a rich family and no background, they will call it "catching a fat sheep"
', if you arrest someone and bring them in, you will have to give money to your family. If you don't give money, you won't be able to see the person. If you don't give them a hard time, they will be shot together with those who really escape."
Xiang Xiaoqiang listened silently, sighing in his heart. This is the Qing Dynasty of the twentieth century. It maintained an army of the twentieth century, held weapons of the twentieth century, but used barbaric methods of the nineteenth century to manage the people. In normal history,
Although the Qing Dynasty also had user registration, it did not reach this level. This is obviously because there was a richer and more popular Ming Dynasty in the south. People in the north continued to flee south, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty became more and more like Tsarist Russia.
That kind of country is ruled by gendarmes and police.
As for why people in the north fled south instead of people in the south fled north? This question is probably what the Manchu and Qing governments have been asking themselves for more than two hundred years. But they couldn't solve it. They probably also tried to do what the Ming Dynasty did
, but I can’t learn it no matter what.
More than two hundred years ago, a savage, ignorant, and greedy bandit broke into a scholarly house, killed the man of the house, insulted his wife and daughter, smashed all the furniture, porcelain, antiques, and burned all the books
Calligraphy and painting, and even the exquisite house were burned down. When he thought he could own this property, he suddenly found that all the beautiful things had been destroyed by himself. When the bandit wanted to win people's hearts and become like the original owner
While running the house, the servants who were lucky enough to survive the butcher's knife were only thinking about escaping. Those staff and servants who were living an ignoble life became extremely servile. When they saw him, they knelt down and said nothing but "嗻, 嗻, slaves deserve to die".
", never say a complete sentence again.
…
Looking at the coal boat that was still moving slowly in the distance, he took a deep breath to Xiaoqiang, looked at the dark earth, and waved:
"Let's go do our thing!"
Everyone got on their bicycles and rode eastward along the river bank according to the instructions of the boat operator.
After riding for almost two or three miles, the night sky was a little brighter in front of me. As I got closer, I could see a patch of undulating hills on the other side of the river. But they seemed to be shorter than the hills. Each one was very pointed and steep. In the middle of the hills
, is a piece of light.
Riding closer, everyone could see clearly that they were coal mountains one after another. In the middle was a large area of brightly lit lights. On the waterside of the wharf below the coal mountains, long and short cargo ships were lined up. There seemed to be many more around.
Small house.
Under the yellow light of wind lanterns and light bulbs, a dozen workers shouted slogans and loaded coal onto the boats at the dock. The chimneys of the steamers on the water's edge were "popping" with sparks, creating a lively scene.
Xiang Xiaoqiang was right in his estimation, this was the coal terminal.
About a hundred meters further east, there was a black thing across the river. Through the peripheral light of the coal port, I could barely make out that it was a steel frame bridge with several cement piers. That should be the railway bridge. The train honked just now.
The sound should be a train passing over the bridge.
Xiang Xiaoqiang gestured to his men to silence them, and then he listened hard to what the coal transporters on the other side were saying.
Fortunately, there was no wind and the night was quiet. Even though there was a river nearly 100 meters wide, the loud shouts of the workers could still be heard clearly.
Yes, it is Xuzhou dialect. Then it is certain that this is the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and the suburbs of Xuzhou are on the other side of the river. This railway is the Jinpu Railway, which later became the Beijing-Shanghai Railway.
But Xiang Xiaoqiang only knew that cities developed in later generations, and the suburbs were on the other side. At this time, the cities were very small, and crossing the river might still be far away from the urban area. If you count from the old city, there is about ten miles to the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal.
.
He turned around and said:
"Ziteng, please contact your family. Tell us that we are now in the northern suburbs of Xuzhou, on the north bank of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, on the Jinpu Road. As for us on the plane, please also ask them to cooperate as much as possible, causing His Majesty to have crashed in the
The illusion in Qinglu territory. This is very important."
With a stomachache, I hurriedly squatted on the ground, put on my raincoat, shined a flashlight, took out my code book, paper and pen, turned to the page of the key that I had agreed with Dongshang, first wrote the message succinctly, and then translated it into cipher text.
Then he opened his suitcase, put on his headphones, turned on the radio, and sent a message to Nanjing.
The regular sound of the transmitter in my ears is not the "beep" sound in the movie, but just the "dah" touch sound, and the sound is very soft.
Xiang Xiaoqiang listened to the report behind him and looked at the other side and the railway bridge on the left. He couldn't help but feel a little uneasy. In his mind, he imagined the German occupying forces driving cars with metal rings on the tops, walking through the streets and alleys looking for resistance.
The scene of organizing a radio station. Then I was secretly amused. After all, this was the Qing Dynasty's rear area, not Pukou, and it wasn't during a war. It couldn't be.
Dongchang responded very quickly. Ten minutes after the telegram was sent, the reply came. Dongchang promptly revised the arrangement based on the skydiving location and asked them to find a place to settle first. It was best to stay in the city and go to a hotel at noon the next day.
When dining in a restaurant, contact the shopkeeper. He will provide them with the necessary help.
As for which restaurant it is and how to contact it, be ready to receive the report at 11 noon the next day and I will give you instructions then.
It seems that Dongchang is also very cautious, fearing that if they are arrested before noon, the shopkeeper will be exposed in vain.
"Well, eleven o'clock, right."
Nodding to Xiaoqiang, his stomach hurt, so he wrapped a small stone in the paper he was writing the message on and threw it into the canal.
He looked at the ripples spreading in circles under the moonlight, then looked at the railway bridge a hundred meters away, and ordered:
"Okay, now cross the bridge and enter the city! Zi Teng, you are the first to go, and you are responsible for dealing with the bridge guards."
After all, Xiang Xiaoqiang had just come to this era. He didn't know how the officers of the Sticky Branch interacted with ordinary soldiers at this time. How high the airs should be, whether he should be arrogant or cold, he didn't know. Therefore, the experienced agent of the Enemy Behind Enemy Lines was worried.
Pain walked in front, and he followed behind.
Ten bicycles strutted under the bridge, then each got off and carried their bikes up to the bridge.
On the left side of the bridge is a small brick house with lights on inside, and on the right side is a small bunker about as tall as a person, with three dark shooting openings high and low.
"Damn, I'm so exhausted..." He cursed with a Beijing accent as he had a stomachache, put down the car, patted the car seat twice, and looked around, "I said, who is standing guard here? They don't even turn on the lights.
, You are fooling around in vain, you ride into the river to figure out whose fault it is!"
Two figures flashed out of the small bunker, and two flashlight beams shone on Tummy's face.
"Yes, yes, take the photo, take the photo as hard as you can," he said without using his hands to block his stomachache. He opened his eyes and looked at the bright light like a bachelor, pulling on the epaulette on his coat to guide them, "Yes, take the photo here, take the photo well."
Did you see it clearly? If you don’t see it clearly, then take a photo.”
The two beams of light moved to his epaulettes and immediately went out with a "pop".
Two trembling voices in the darkness:
"Ah, sir... sir..."
"Sir...sir..."
"What's going on? Can you see clearly?"
"Yes...see...see clearly..."
"Damn it, did you see it clearly? Then there are a few other brothers and our superiors, all of them are going to continue taking pictures!"
"This...sir...we..."
Just as the two soldiers were trembling with fear, ten people behind them came up with carts on their backs, and suddenly there was a lot of dissatisfaction and shouting:
"What's going on? Someone is taking care of it but no one is taking care of it? It's just a waste of time!"
"That's right, where did the guard go? Hurry up and turn on the lights to cross the bridge!"
"Is there anyone? Hey, this man came from Nanmingdongchang. Is there anyone to arrest him?"
"Fuck you, go to hell, you dare to say such nonsense. Let's make it clear first, you are the only one, and none of us are."
"I asked, are there any lights in here?"
…
"I'm talking about Fuhai," Xiaoqiang's voice spoke in the darkness, "Stop talking nonsense and ask them to turn on the lights. Hurry up. This is a fucking railway bridge. It's so narrow on the edge. Who the hell does it fall if it falls?"
of."
One person who had a stomachache slapped them on the back of the head:
"Go, hurry, hurry!"
As if they had received an amnesty, the two of them ran to the house and pulled the switch. Three big light bulbs on the bridge came on, and the entire railway was brightly lit.
Ten people were shouting and pushing their cars across the bridge along the narrow concrete path beside the railway tracks.
The railway bridge is not wide, and there is only one railway on the bridge, which is a single-track line. The light bulb has a large wattage, and the water under the bridge is very gentle. The huge shadows of ten people are reflected in the strong light, like ghosts.
There is also a small bunker on the other side of the bridge in front. There was a noise here just now. Two soldiers on the other side also raised their guns and looked over. Seeing these living hell kings approaching, one soldier was so frightened that he got into the bunker, and the one who couldn't get through stood there.
"Hehe, come on, come on? Hehe, let's go, let's go..."
The ten people ignored them, pushed them off the bridge, got on their cars and drove away.
There is a parallel road dozens of meters away next to the railway. It is not too wide and can accommodate up to two cars in parallel, but it is asphalt, probably like the asphalt roads in the countryside in later generations.
Although it is an asphalt road, its quality is very poor, with many potholes and potholes, and it looks like it has been in disrepair, just like the dilapidated national roads next to small counties in remote areas. Fortunately, the moonlight was bright, otherwise it would not be as easy to walk on as the dirt road just now.
On the left are large bare fields, and graveyards can be seen from time to time on the roadside. Villages can be vaguely seen in the distance. On the right is the railway.
While riding, Xiang Xiaoqiang took out his luminous pocket watch with one hand and saw that it was almost five o'clock.
It's December now, and the sky is still very dark. It seems darker than when we first skydive. It's so dark that it's suffocating. There's not even a hint of light in the east. Maybe this is the "darkness before dawn."
…
Suddenly, a burst of "gurgling" laughter came from behind the graves in the field, and it penetrated far into the night sky and was very harsh.
Everyone was so shocked that they held the car brakes, stood with their legs on the ground, and looked ahead in surprise.
There was a dark figure in the field on the left, moving and moving, as if it was very short, staggering towards the road, accompanied by the sound of "croak, croak", slowly, as if clogs were stepping on the road.
Since there were quite a few graves around, several people already had the pot-bellied boxes in their hands.