Lu Ming

Chapter 419
The two sitting in the simple reception room are Xue Haiyuan, the future station chief of Beijing Station, and Yao Jianshe, the current station chief of Tianjin Station.

Comrade Yao Jianshe's earliest profession was circuit design, and he was the last person who crossed the intelligence front by relying on "internal potential digging" by the Intelligence Bureau.
After all, since last year, Emperor Cao has stopped "inviting" people to the New World, so the Intelligence Bureau has been repeatedly defeated, and most of the proud and expensive men are unwilling to be dogs. spy.

So the last informant, Yao Jianshe, was assigned to an important location in Tianjin as soon as he came out of the mountain.

Fortunately, the difficulty of intelligence work in the seventeenth century was very low. Judging from the experience of the previous intelligence stations, the traversers who presided over the work did not need to take any risks and pressures. The difficulty was no different from that of the branch offices of later generations.

So Yao Jianshe came to Beijing and Tianjin this time with veteran Xue Haiyuan—the two families are close to each other, and it is convenient to support each other in case of any situation.

Today, it was the first time for the two stationmasters to make public appearances in the Beijing-Tianjin area when they met people from all walks of life.

Due to the shortage of manpower, according to the latest guidelines, the future intelligence station masters will have official public identities in order to implement the "one person, one city" strategy.The previous layout of one light and one dark will be eliminated.

Therefore, the two stationmasters that Lu Shui, a small official from the Ming Dynasty, saw in the room had already put on the robes of low-level civil servants, and their titles had become "Experiences of the Chief Soldier's Yamen Experience Department".

The experience department is a low-level civil service unit responsible for managing cultural transfers.This unit is mainly used for docking documents and executions of higher-level departments. It was quite extensive in the Ming Dynasty, and it is somewhat similar to the offices of later generations-the principal's office, the office of the Education Bureau, and so on.

In short, almost most of the yamen in the Ming Dynasty would set up subordinate experience departments.In this way, the "experience" of the experience department, like the title of "director" in later generations, will change with the level of the superior yamen.

For example, the Experience Department of the Dudu Mansion of the Five Armies is a fifth-rank unit; while the Experience Department of Shuntian Mansion is only a mere seventh-rank unit.

Therefore, according to this characteristic, the inconspicuous, and one-handed experience of the experience department has become the best way for the two webmasters to conceal their identities.

In addition, the appointment of this position is also very convenient: the Experience Department of the General Military Mansion is a seventh-rank yamen, a semi-independent subordinate officer recruited by General Cao himself, and only needs to report to the governor's yamen, without going through the official department.

The receptionist that the local aborigines in Tianjin saw at the school today was the experience of the appointment of the two general soldiers.

After Lu Shui entered the room, the two who were still tall and fair in the eyes of the northerners exchanged a few words with him briefly.Next, the amiable Xue Jing and Yao Jing talked about "homely" with Lu Shui in a strange "Southern dialect".

Lu Shui knew that this was "at the bottom of the market", so he quickly introduced a few words about his family's situation, and then appropriately expressed his "admiration" for the general - he knew that there were still a lot of big shots waiting outside. Then, the conversation will end soon, so we must seize the time to express the "central idea".

Sure enough, after 5 minutes, the initial contact between the two parties was over.Lu Shui happily left the house after getting a promise that "good friends should move around frequently and take care of each other".

The two experiencers fiddled with the tape recorder on the table, smiled and commented on Lu Shui, a clever little official, and said to the guard: "Next one, please."

Cao Zhen's soldiers and horses who came to "Qin Wang" began the so-called "rest and reorganization".

It didn't take three days for Tianjin Wei's civil and military officials to be dumbfounded: Cao Zongbing never saw him drill soldiers since he nested in the old school field, but instead met with guests and businessmen wantonly, making a sacred "Journey to the King", Forcibly made a business trip full of copper smell.

At this time, Cao Zongbing's background was completely blew up in Tianjin Wei. Everyone knew that he was rich.

In this way, Mr. Cao inevitably attracted the attention of the natives, especially the local civil and military officials in Tianjin Wei.

This southern general is really too weird—everywhere he travels, the behaviors that seem to be "spreading money for nothing" always make the natives feel incredible.

Whether it is the repair of the Dajiaochang or the padding project of the muddy puddle, these are purely death in the eyes of the officials: Your surname Cao is a guest army, and you cannot be stationed in Tianjin. Spending such a huge amount of money to repair the station is not Is it just brain damage?

The chief soldier who is willing to spend his own pocket to repair the barracks in Biezhen is probably this idiot Cao who is not short of money!

However, the time-traversing people still go their own way, looking like they want to carry out stupid things to the end: on the cold construction site in winter, Cao fool did not hesitate to buy a lot of coal, hire a large number of workers, and spend all night without stopping, spending several times more expensive than in summer. The price is working hard.

What the officials didn't notice was that many of the fools hired by Cao were refugees.

Are there any refugees in Tianjin Wei?Of course there are, and there are still a large number of temporary refugees.

Since the army of the Eight Banners went south, countless Ming people in the Jingyuan area began to take their families and go south to seek refuge.As a hub of water transportation, Tianjin not only has convenient canals, but also hoards a large amount of food and supplies, and rich people are everywhere, so there is no doubt that this has become the first stop for refugees to seek refuge.

What are you waiting for?A certain faction has mastered this routine after traveling for three years.

The first step is to hire a large number of refugees to work.

The second step, in this process, is to fully demonstrate to the beggars what it means to be rich and powerful, to rescue the suffering, and to treat others with sincerity.

The third step is to identify scammers, pack them and ship them away.

Relying on this set of increasingly familiar procedures, the empire is now absorbing natives in many cities along the coast of Daming, and the effect is remarkable.

But this time, when the traveling people from the north saw a large number of northern refugees, their saliva was about to flow down: enriching the source of population in their hometown is urgent, and the arrival of a large number of northern immigrants will make the "domestic" southerners live in a high situation. This is an important national policy related to "long-term stability" and must be taken seriously.

One week, in just one week, the dilapidated old school ground stood up again like a brand new silver coin.

The original wall has now repaired the breach, and has been re-smeared with white lime, and a watchtower has been added, which is beautiful and neat.

In the vast school grounds, the dilapidated houses had been repaired, and some temporary soldiers’ dormitories were built beside them: low houses built with double-layer bricks and wood, with cement applied in the gaps.

Although this kind of temporary low-rise house has poor lighting and is cramped, it can block the winter wind of the Little Ice Age, which has surpassed most ordinary houses.

In addition, on a part of the mud field that has been raised and compacted, the walls and stables built with bricks and wood are being extended one after another.

What surprised the natives the most was a small boiler hoisted from a transport ship.Now the natives knew what the converted house with the brick chimney on the schoolyard was for.

With the boiler, there is 24-hour hot water, and there is also a bathhouse to keep soldiers healthy and hygienic.This is the real killer. You must know that in the north of the Little Ice Age, most people could not afford to take a bath. The sanitation of the aborigines was extremely poor. Various germs and infectious diseases were everywhere, which made the travelers shudder.

Of course, all these achievements are inseparable from the local big businessmen.

Including recruiting refugees, hiring craftsmen, organizing a large number of building materials, organizing logistics supplies, etc. These seemingly smooth projects are all behind the resources mobilized by big businessmen from everywhere. less than.

However, Cao Zongbing also gave the merchants enough rewards: Compared with the kerosene lamps and kerosene agency rights in a certain area, the "small favors" and the food that the merchants have helped in the past few days are nothing What?
In the past few days, the goods unloaded from the transport ship have unsurprisingly caused fierce competition among local businessmen.This is also the main reason why the progress of the project can be advanced at a high speed - the merchants regard this as a test of the strength of their own firms.

Seven days later, Cao's army, which had begun to take shape and officially settled down, started a new round of eye-catching activities.

Since this morning, a herd of horses has come to the old school field along the dirt road.The owner of the horses is a horse dealer who came from outside.

Horse dealers have not only horses, but also camels and cattle.

As a water transportation hub, there are quite a lot of caravans assembled in Tianjin on weekdays.The horses in the hands of these people will go all the way south along the canal. The luxurious horses used by the rich merchants in the south of the Yangtze River to pull carts are all bought from this generation.

And the one who drove the horses to the old school field today is the largest caravan currently stationed in Tianjin Wei.

The caravan that had been informed in advance brought nearly [-] Mongolian horses to choose from, so at the moment the school field was very lively with people shouting and neighing.

The grooms provided by the merchants and some old guards who are familiar with the nature of horses are all on the school grounds at the moment, discussing loudly while inspecting the horses.

And Cao Jiajun, who was completely helpless in this regard, could only be helpless—the crossing crowd was not a god after all, so he didn't take horse inspection into consideration when he set off.Most of the team are from the south, although some have ridden before, but being able to ride a horse and being able to meet a horse are two completely different things.

So for today's horse buying fair, we can only rely on the temporarily hired grooms and guards, and General Cao just pays for the money.

The vigorous horse selection event lasted for most of the day.In the end, most of the horses with a shoulder height of more than 1.3 meters were kept, and the total number reached 200.

At this time, the newly built stables in the mud next to it came in handy.

Lu Shui, who delivered the military supplies a few days ago, was directing his servants to help, water and feed the horses—the black beans, wheat and buckwheat he personally delivered were as the white tent said that day. They were all poured into the manger, which was claimed to be "fat" for the horses.

"It's really rich and powerful!" Lu Shui clicked his tongue secretly.In fact, in the north, these black soybeans, old wheat and buckwheat were originally the daily food of many troops and ordinary people, and there was no such thing as "horse feed" at all.

Then it's time to checkout.

Then the people surrounding the school grounds saw Cao Jiajun's tent lift off the felt blanket, revealing a pile of shiny, rectangular iron boxes piled up underneath.

(End of this chapter)