Chen Zixin has always felt that his temperament is different from that of his brother, and he is destined not to be able to do things. His brother endured hardships while studying medicine and had the courage to venture into the world, but Chen Zixin did not.
He is lazy, prodigal and timid. He is not good at reading or studying medicine. If it weren't for his brother's support over the years, I am afraid he would have become a gangster in Chenli Village. So his only advantage is probably that he listens. Brother's words.
But in the past two months, he began to suspect that this advantage may not be reliable. It is also more likely that his brother's order this time is not reliable.
Before that, he left Fuzhou with the certificate and two pieces of money given by his brother, and rushed to Yangzhou to sign up. According to the plan, he could become a medical officer by relying on a few recipes he picked up on the road. Dangdang, then you can find an opportunity to explore the details of the Beiren and see how ferocious those warriors are.
The most important thing is, if the ferocity of the northern warriors can still be tolerated, then explore again whether you can really get benefits by working for northern merchants or nobles. As for the benefits, I don’t want as much as traveling on the sea, but I want stability and stability. A guarantee.
But after arriving in Yangzhou, Chen Zixin found that something was wrong.
First, Yangzhou was obviously an important Jiangsu defense town in the Song Dynasty, but in fact, the influence of the Northerners in Yangzhou was terrifying. Whether in the big city or the fortress, there were at least a dozen trading houses opened by the Northerners, occupying a series of houses and mansions. , countless manpower.
There are also dozens of people who are called caravan guards, often riding on the road with bows and arrows, and it seems that the officers and soldiers guarding the city cannot see them.
They are already living and working in your home, do you still need to find out the real details of these people? Just open the two eyes above your nose and look at them!
Both... When Chen Zixin saw this situation, he had no intention of applying for the recruitment. He just wanted to wander around the city for a few days and then return when he had the opportunity. But when he first entered the city, he didn't think much of it and stayed directly at a trading stronghold in Jiacheng. The person in charge of this trading company's stronghold had been to the South China Sea with Chen Zixin's brother and had some friendship, so Chen Zixin's name was entered into the book that day.
Early the next morning, Chen Zixin had just finished his porridge and wanted to go out. The people from the commercial firm responsible for supervising the shipment swarmed in and moved quickly. In a blink of an eye, he and a large group of people were put on the ship heading north.
Chen Zixin wanted to find someone to explain and find a way to escape. However, many trading houses in Yangzhou City were recruiting people. At most, there were more than a hundred people gathered in a single trading house, which was not very impressive. The crowd. He shouted in the crowd and spoke in dialect. Who could understand? No one would care if they did.
I went through so many explanations on the way, and talked about it like a chicken and a duck, and now there is no need to say more.
Eventually Chen Zixin was settled on this island.
After he made a fuss for a while, he found that there was sea on all sides. He was from a water town in the south of the Yangtze River, and his swimming ability was good, but he could only use it in the gentle rivers in the south of the Yangtze River, but not in the deep and violent sea. There was no choice but to run. I couldn't run away, so I had to accept the situation as it came.
Compared with Chen Zixin, his friends who also came from the Song Dynasty were generally more depressed.
Before communicating with them, Chen Zixin had never thought that there would be so many miserable people in the Song Dynasty. Among them, there were small farmers who owed usury to local annexed families, were tortured to the point of death by powerful slaves, and luckily crossed the river to escape;
Chen Beiren was untrustworthy and unreliable. He offended a wealthy local family who was both an official and a businessman. He was beaten unconscious with a sap and tied up and sent to Yangzhou as a stupid scholar. Youben was working in a weaving field outside Yangzhou, but unexpectedly the weaving field closed down at the beginning of the year.
The family had no food and clothing, so they had to try their luck as a weaver in the city.
Many of them have quite tragic stories. The weaver even watched his mother and son starve to death.
When he first arrived on the island, he had a look of indifference on his face. It was not until he spent more than two months on the island and was slowly trained by the collective life that he gradually returned to his normal mood. This man snored and drank soup.
At that moment, Chen Zixin came from the front of the queue, took a spoon, and poured some pickles into his soup bowl.
The man showed a shy smile and thanked Chen Zixin.
This island is located east of Haizhou, deep in the sea. It has a name, called Cangwu Mountain. Across the sea, you can see two large islands called Yuntai Mountain and Donghai Mountain. I heard that the same people were recruited.
The northerners on the island said that those two islands were important bases for the navy of the Great Zhou Dynasty. They had shipyards, wharves and fortified walls. Thousands of people lived on the islands every day, and important generals of the marshal level of the Great Zhou Dynasty often came and went.
Sit in charge and supervise.
Compared with the busyness of the two islands, Cangwu Mountain can be described as desolate and lonely.
There is no decent flat land on the island, so crops cannot be grown. There are only continuous rocks and virgin forests. On the pier that must be passed to land on the island, there is a cliff stone carving. Chen Zixin recognized that the carving on it was from the early years of Dongpo layman in Haizhou.
When I was an official, I wrote a poem about Cangwu Mountain.
The poem goes: "The mountains are lush and green, the abbot of Penglai is everywhere. I heard from the past that the plants and trees are all magical medicine, and I want to abandon my wife and guard the city."
The poems of layman Dongpo are naturally good. But how can ordinary people be as free and easy as the old man? Everyone responded to the call of the northern court because they wanted to earn benefits in a business or somewhere, not to be prisoners. In this deserted place
I was trapped on the island for more than two months. Although the food was good, I was inevitably upset.
Chen Zixin had long made it clear that he was a doctor on the road. Although his actual medical skills were not as good as those of ordinary apprentices in the pharmacy, the medical books taught by his brother were indeed brilliant, and he was indeed quite capable of boasting. The medical officers on the island were very polite to him.
Ask him for help from time to time.
So he also knew that in the past two months, several people who landed on the island had developed fevers, showing signs of the plague. They were immediately placed on the other side of the island. Some people recovered day by day, and some were in poor health.
It really doesn't work anymore, I'm going to die of illness.
The body of the deceased was not thrown into the sea, but was specially cremated. The bones were also packed in clay pots. It is said that they will help send them back to their hometown in the future. This is really kind.
Since those infected with the disease have been picked out, everyone else is healthy. I guess the superiors will arrange a place for everyone to go in the next few days.
With this thought in mind, Chen Zixin made another bowl of mung bean soup and drank it in large gulps.
The weather in the past few years has been getting weirder and weirder. Winters are so cold that people feel nervous, and summers are as hot as furnaces. There are many shadows on Cangwu Mountain, and there are many trees. It can barely escape the heat, but because the weather is too hot, the forest is
The flies in the room were so rampant that they flew around in swarms all day long, like clouds of smoke.
Those who were bitten immediately developed large and small bulges on their bodies, which were painful and itchy. Even if they were scratched until blood flowed out, they could not be relieved. At this moment, almost everyone who was eating pancakes and drinking mung bean soup had scratches all over their bodies.
trace.
Several people were also infected with insect poison, and their limbs became swollen and the wounds ulcerated. Chen Zixin, a doctor who had become a monk by the way, had to step in and use a silver knife to remove the rotten flesh from the patients. The process was really painful, as he knew whether he was warm or cold.
Fortunately, when the company was delivering supplies a while ago, they specially delivered mosquito repellent liquid and realgar incense. Everyone also learned from experience and lessons, and even if the weather was hot, they still wore long-sleeved clothes and tied the cuffs and trouser legs with straw ropes.
tight.
While everyone was eating, ten steps away, under a watchtower on the edge of the camp, Wang Erbai complained: "The weather is hot and unbearable. There are not only mosquitoes and flies on this island, but also snakes! Do you believe it? In the early hours of this morning, there was a
The snake crawled onto my belly! It’s so long!”
Wang Erbai gestured with his hands to show the distance to his partner Xu Zhuer.
Xu Zhuer, a military student who was born in the Laizhou Military Academy and whose brother's tablet is enshrined in the Martyrs' Shrine, was originally involved in the construction of a shipyard here and was temporarily assigned the task of guarding the camp. After all, he had no experience and tried his best to do it well, but it was inevitable that he would appear here and there.
Omission, failure to prepare medicines to prevent snakes and insects in advance is one of the omissions.
Hearing what Wang Erbai said, Xu Zhuer was surprised and asked quickly: "Wang Chuantou, are you okay? Is that snake poisonous?"
"Of course I'm fine." Wang Erbai smiled proudly: "That snake is definitely not poisonous."
"It turns out that Wang Chuantou has the ability to identify poisonous insects."
"That's not true."
Wang Erbai said confidently: "After I caught the snake, I threw it whole into the pot where we cooked porridge in the morning. If the snake was poisonous, all of us would have been poisoned to death by now... Since we didn't
If it dies, it shows that the snake must be non-venomous.”
This makes damn sense.
Xu Zhuer couldn't help but want to curse, but he didn't know what to curse.
He touched his lips and suddenly felt that his lips and throat were a little numb. After finally breathing slowly, he heard Wang Erbai say: "Hey, didn't you praise me this morning that the porridge was delicious? I thought you knew this.
Son."
After a long while, Xu Zhuer said in a deep voice: "It is unavoidable that the island is difficult, but our life is already better than those of the common people. Wang Chuantou, let's not talk about these snakes and insects. Let the common people hear it later. They
What do you think?"
Wang Erbai nodded and said, "That's right. Maybe some people don't like eating snakes. It's not like I am from Haizhou, but I prefer the taste of Lingnan."
Does the key to the matter lie in taste? As the rumors say, Wang Chuantou’s thinking is a little different from ordinary people!
Xu Zhuer's face turned pale, but luckily Zhao Bin came over at this moment.
Zhao Bin was the earliest veteran to represent the Ding Navy in maritime affairs, and he could speak in front of Emperor Guo Ning of the Great Zhou Dynasty. He has many legendary experiences, which are as well-known as his shining silver iron hook.
.
The two people stood in silence. Zhao Bin nodded to them and said, "It's begun!"
Far away on the road leading to the dock, a group of people walked over. Some of them were dressed as civil and military officials, and some were dressed luxuriously, like senior executives of commercial firms.
Zhao Bin glanced at it from a distance and said: "Everyone, cheer up. We are selecting and training people. Don't let the employees come and see the joke."