Chapter 175 Laotang Ship

On October 28, the 49th year of Qianlong's reign, the Thunder God left the dock carrying fifteen people including Wu Siyu, Lu Shoushan, Xu Dayong and Wang Changsheng.

The reason why Wu Siyu came with him this time was to meet the woman he longed for. This move made Liu Sheng scold him for being useless, but Wu Siyu himself didn't care at all.

"By the way, I'm over thirty and don't even have a girlfriend, so why can't I find a good one? Even if Chen Yin'er is a female actress, it's because she is forced by life and has no choice. Besides, she is only nineteen years old, and she is still a yellow flower.

My eldest daughter, I just fell in love with her!"

"Okay, okay, you're right." Liu Sheng said impatiently. "Don't say I didn't say hello to you in advance. There are no idlers here. Even if Chen Yin'er has little feet, he still has to go out and do things."

Wang Changsheng, the former second-in-command of pirates, looked at the dock of Beihai Town gradually disappearing, feeling filled with emotion in his heart.

In just a few months, he changed from a prisoner to a laborer, from a laborer to a supervisor, and finally became a member of the spy organization in Beihai Town, following Xu Dayong back to Jiangnan to establish an underground population transfer network.

And the reason why he was selected to join the spy organization and participate in this operation was not entirely because of his relationship with Xu Dayong. Before Wang Changsheng joined Xu Dayong's small pirate group, he was a member of the Luo Jiao.

Wang Changsheng walked towards the ship building while rubbing his still sore right shoulder. The crazy special training he had done in the past ten days still left him with lingering fears.

Ever since Xu Dayong led more than a dozen of them into the military camp, they began to live a nightmare life from morning to night. Apart from eating and sleeping, there was almost no free time. Physical training started at dawn every day, and in the afternoon there was pistol shooting training.

After dinner, I still had to learn from the instructors how to escape surveillance, how to write secret words to convey messages, and how to respond to interrogations.

In order to train people like Wang Changsheng, Zhao Xin and a six-person team from the Security Department took turns every day. From experimental psychology, nine-step interrogation method to hand-to-hand combat, the use of daggers and other subjects, they were crammed into the first batch of espionage trainees.

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Putting aside the days when he was a pirate, Wang Changsheng had never suffered so many crimes. During the robbery, he would pull up to the ship, wave a knife and join the gang, forcing the other party to pay money and deliver the goods; anyone who dared to resist would be thrown into the sea.

People like Wang Changsheng thought that hardship would be nothing, but they didn't expect that on the first day they entered the military camp, they were tortured like a grandson. After a few days, hundreds of bullets were fired just from pistol shooting every day, and their arms were almost broken from the shock.

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One day Wang Changsheng secretly asked Xu Dayong while having lunch how much salary he could get as a spy.

Xu Dayong counted on his fingers for a while before telling him that Mr. Zhao's newly minted silver coins can earn him twenty yuan per month, equivalent to eighty taels of silver. In addition, after each operation is completed, there will be

There are bonuses of 50 to 100 yuan.

Wang Changsheng and others were dumbfounded when they heard this. They did not expect that they would be able to receive a salary of eighty taels a month in this life. If this task was successfully completed several times a year, it would be more than the salary of a county magistrate. (A seven-tael salary during the Qianlong period.

The salary in Pinzhi County is 45 taels of annual salary, 45 hu of rice, and 1,200 taels of Yanglian silver.)

Therefore, Wang Changsheng, who originally looked forward to having a wooden house, began to look forward to when he could live in a large blue brick house with three entrances.

Although the days on the sea are a bit boring, Wang Changsheng and the others don't have to rub salted fish on the deck this time. They only eat and sleep every day, and continue to eat when they wake up. This can also be regarded as a short vacation after intense training.

Three days later, the Thunder God arrived at Flower and Bird Island, where Shen Jingdan and Huang Maocai were already waiting.

On Shen Jingdan's sand boat, more than a hundred people of various identities looked at the blue and white steel giant with shock on their faces.

Among these people were blacksmiths and carpenters from northern Jiangsu, young doctors from the south of the Yangtze River, down-and-out bookkeepers, a dozen refugee women bought from Xuzhou as servant girls, farmers who had lost their land and sold themselves, cooks, and bankrupts. Craftsmen and so on, even Shen Jingdan's servant Guisheng was among them.

In addition, a man dressed as a man, with his head and face wrapped in cotton and only his eyes exposed, followed closely behind Shen Jingdan.

"Miss Yin'er, look, Mr. Wu's ship is coming."

When Chen Yin'er looked along Shen Jingdan's finger, a big silly man was standing on the deck of the Thunder God waving towards the sand ship. Fortunately, there was a cloth blocking it, otherwise Chen Yin'er's red little face would have been covered by it. People pay attention to.

Shen Jingdan spent a total of two thousand taels of silver to redeem her body this time. Such a high price caused a sensation in the Xiao Qinhuai area. However, after Shen Jingdan completed the redemption procedures, he immediately sent Chen Yin'er to his house in Shanghai County. It wasn't until he and Lao Huang Lin set off that they got to know Chen Yin'er.

When Chen Yin'er heard that the person who paid for her to redeem her life was actually the man who was staring closely at her among the people she met in the boat a few days ago. Moreover, he wanted to marry her as his wife, which made her surprised and happy.

However, when Shen Jingdan told him that Mr. Wu lived in a seaport in the north and needed to take a boat there, he hesitated for a long time.

She is from a lowly household! How can she be a real wife? Is Mr. Wu just making fun of herself? It has been a long time since we were sent away, and she still understands the principle that "people leave home cheaply, but things cost dearly when leaving home".

Who is Shen Jingdan? He could see Chen Yin'er's worries at a glance. So he patted his chest and assured her: "In the town where Mr. Wu is, there are dozens of women from the south of the Yangtze River. You will definitely not go there." Will be lonely.

Moreover, Mr. Wu is obsessed with you, Miss Yin'er, and he doesn't care about your lowly background at all. But seeing that Miss Yin'er is so worried about you, then I will be a witness and you can accept Boss Huang as your adopted brother. With this If you want to compare with me, Mr. Wu will not look down on you."

Lao Huang agreed with a smile. He was definitely willing to be related to the leader of Beihai Town.

So when Lao Huang brought Chen Yin'er to see Wu Siyu, he said that I would leave my sister to you. If you treat her badly, I will settle the score with you.

Wu Siyu looked at his beloved with excitement, not paying attention to what Huang said. Chen Yin'er was so confused by Wu Siyu that he didn't even know where to start. However, the next action of the other party surprised Chen Yin'er, and she burst into tears of gratitude. It flowed down instantly.

When Shen Jingdan handed the redemption deed to Wu Siyu, Wu Siyu opened it, took a look at it, and then tore it into pieces. When he raised his hand, the scraps of paper immediately flew away in the wind.

"We don't have slaves there." Wu Siyu said with a smile.

Chen Yin'er cried, and she knelt down in front of Wu Siyu. She was startled and he quickly reached out to help her up.

"You are my daughter, and I am the flower of injustice. From now on, wherever I go, as long as I am willing, I will never be separated from you."

Yes! Of course I do. At this time, Wu Siyu was absolutely willing, and he gratefully thanked Shen and Huang with his hands.

Lao Huang smiled and cupped his hands at Wu Siyu and Chen Yin'er and said, "May you two have a happy marriage and have a son soon!"

It took two days to move the goods transported by the Thor to the sand ship. In addition to the cigarettes produced in Beihai Town, there were also thousands of boxes of matches, large pieces of flat glass, and finally Zhao Xin's temporary purchase from another time and space. The important three tons of salt.

Although Shen and Huang had been in Beihai Town for a while, they had never seen the salt used in Beihai Town. However, when they got a small bag of samples and tasted them, they were extremely surprised. They did not expect the quality of salt in Beihai Town. It is so high that it can be called the best refined salt!

What was the table salt like in the Qing Dynasty?

Taking the Lianghuai Salt Field as an example, the weight, size and hardness of the salt grains are different in each branch. The salt produced in the same salt field and the same salt flat can be divided into upper, middle and lower grades. The difference between the three grades is that the better salt particles are larger, lighter, and harder.

As for the refined salt that modern people consume daily, in the Qing Dynasty, even the families of ordinary officials and gentry could not afford it. Only the luxurious people would buy it. This is because the purification of coarse salt requires a large amount of firewood and iron pots. Ordinary people cannot afford it.

The salt used by ordinary people in the Qing Dynasty was generally of medium or low quality. When it came to the retail sales channels, the price of salt was even more expensive; unscrupulous businessmen often mixed it with sediment and gypsum. But even if As a result, many farmers often cannot afford it.

Lao Huang asked Lu Shoushan: "How do you plan to sell this salt?"

"Twelve taels per quota." This price was proposed by Wang Changsheng. The current market retail price of salt in the Lianghuai Salt District is approximately twelve taels per quota.

One pound of salt in the Qing Dynasty was 200 kilograms, and each kilogram was about 600 grams in later generations. Three tons of salt was twenty-five jins, and twelve taels of salt was 300 taels of silver. After this batch of salt was sold out, Lu If Shoushan and the others want to import salt again, they will have to find a way on their own.

Lao Huang nodded after hearing this, and then asked Liu Sheng for a few packs of salt, saying he would take them home and enjoy them himself.

Taking advantage of this moment, Lu Shoushan took out Zhao Xin's letter to Lao Huang. "Boss Huang, this is what my master asked me to give to you."

After reading the letter from Zhao Xin, Lao Huang pondered for a while and asked, "Did Mr. Zhao say anything else?"

"Gone."

After hearing this, Lao Huang nodded and said, "This matter can only be handled after we return to Shanghai. I will hand it over to you as soon as possible."

"It doesn't matter."

"Boss Huang, I want to ask you something."

"Speaking."

"What did we do in Shanghai last time, how was it from beginning to end?"

"If you don't ask me about this, I'm just going to talk to you. The government has been investigating for a long time with no results, and the final conclusion is that it is an unsolved case. Don't worry!"

When all the goods were moved and more than a hundred people on his side had boarded the Thor, Shen Jingdan cupped his hands at Old Huang and said, "In this case, I will leave the affairs of Yangzhou to Brother Huang."

Old Huang laughed and said goodbye to Shen Jingdan, and took Lu Shoushan and others on the sand boat. Their route back this time was still smuggling through Zhangjiabang and Yemaotang. In fact, it was said to be smuggling, and the Susong Navy was just a smuggler. Just turn a blind eye; in fact, the cost of buying this waterway is 500 taels of silver per thousand-stone sand boat. However, it is precisely because of the high price that few boats go here.

Two nights later, Lu Shoushan and the others had checked into an inn outside Shanghai County. In order to avoid attracting attention, the fifteen of them were divided into three groups and stayed in two inns respectively.

Lu Shoushan took five of his men and stayed at an inn in Xingrenli. Xu Dayong took five others and moved into another courtyard. Wang Changsheng took two of his men and stayed at an inn in Yanmatou.

Early the next morning, Wang Changsheng came to the Lujiabang Bridge alone and found a 300-stone tug barge docked on the river bank. On a shelf on the boat, there was a birdcage with a thrush inside.

Wang Changchang breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that the ship was still there. He walked along the stone steps to the ship, and a man in his fifties who looked like a merchant came out of the cabin and greeted with a smile on his face: "This

What do you want to buy, sir? We have both north and south goods here."

Wang Changsheng glanced at the shelves, raised his finger and pointed at the thrush, and asked the old man in a low voice: "Where was the general born?"

The old man's expression changed, he looked at Wang Changsheng for a while, and then said with a smile: "Sir, please follow me into the cabin to inspect the goods."

As soon as the two entered the cabin, two strong men walked out of the cabin. The three of them surrounded Wang Changsheng. The old man asked: "Where was the general born?"

Wang Changsheng cupped his hands and said: "Kunlun Mountain."

"How high can it fly? How far can it fly?"

"You can fly to the sky with high energy, and you can fly to the edge of the sky with great distance."

"What eyebrows, what eyes?!"

"Dragon eyebrows, phoenix eyes."

"How many big hairs are there? How many small hairs are there?"

"One hundred and twenty-eight big hairs, nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine small hairs."

"How many times a day does the general bark?"

"If you have a close friend, you will scream, but if you don't know, you won't open your mouth."

Wang Changsheng and the old man exchanged words for a long time, and the more they faced each other, the more they smiled. At the end, the three people on the boat raised their hands to Wang Changsheng and said, "It turns out we are all brothers in the sect."

Wang Changsheng cupped his hands and said, "Young man Wang Changsheng is from Chongming."

The old man said: "May I ask who your old official is?"

Wang Changsheng cupped his hands and said, "My master's surname is Li Tagui."

The old man smiled and said: "So you are Brother Li San's apprentice. No wonder you found this place. How is your master? We haven't seen each other for seven or eight years."
To be continued...