Lu Ming

Chapter 613 Early morning in Guangzhou

One early morning in late October 1632, the Lady Jacob was ready to sail.

At that time, the sky was not clear, and it was the darkest moment before dawn.However, with the help of advanced industrial gas lighting equipment on the pier in the new area, the sailors on the merchant ship were ready to set sail during the night shift.

Now it's time for the big guy to get on board.

Saying goodbye to friends on the pier are Mr. Robert Crowley, the general agent of European black tea selected by the crossing forces, and Old William, the Dutch area manager.

As for the sender off, it was naturally related personnel from the Ministry of Commerce headed by Li Hao.

"Lee, believe me, our business will surely prosper, as long as I can return to England this time."

After getting along for such a long time, Crowley has already regarded Li Hao as his good brother.At this moment, under the flickering lights of the pier, Crowley's blue eyes seemed to have a little moisture.

However, despite the ups and downs in his mood, Crowley still maintained the demeanor that a nobleman should have. He stood up straight, held Li Hao's hand tightly and shook it twice.

Li Hao's eyes were equally bright in the night, and his tone was gentle but firm: "Be careful on the road, safety always comes first, take care!"

After a brief farewell ceremony, the passengers turned and stepped onto the gangplank.However, in the end, Mr. Crowley still couldn't hold back the gratitude in his heart, turned around and hugged Li Hao gently.

Old William, who had already boarded the boat, saw this scene, took a sip of the rum in the silver jug, and murmured: "The boy favored by God."

As a participant and witness of the whole incident, Old William can only attribute everything to the favor of God.

You must know that there are not only tea and other ancillary goods stored in the cabin of Mrs. Jacob, but also many "gifts" that "manufacturers" give dealers to "open up the market".

These so-called gifts, in the long memory of Old William, Western businessmen usually need to pay gold coins, despicableness, and even artillery and blood to get such as a lot of high-quality pearls, a complete set of gold-painted porcelain, a large barrel of kerosene glass kerosene lamps, and first-class gifts. The palace uses chiffon silk, and sterling silver lighters and other small and exquisite gifts.

The value of the above-mentioned so-called "gifts" has far exceeded Crowley's entire net worth.Old William once felt unacceptable to this: Western businessmen have always been deceived by local businessmen in the Ming Dynasty, but this time it was reversed. The ordinary small businessman Crowley got the right to use such a huge amount of wealth without paying anything. .

All this puzzled old William.

Of course, due to his education level and vision, Old William did not realize the importance of Mr. Crawley to the traversers.This cannot be blamed on him. After all, Old William is just an illiterate old mercenary. Comrade Old William really doesn't understand the business proposition of "how to choose the right person to open up the black tea market in the upper class in the West".

Not long after, when the first morning light rose from the sky, the fully loaded Lady Jacob raised its sails at the same time, and slowly sailed away from the pier in the new area under the strong north wind.

Mr. Crawley didn't put down the top hat he kept waving until the boat was out of sight of the pier.At this moment, he is full of longing, full of excitement and mixed feelings about his fantasy journey to the East.

In this silent dawn, Mr. Crawley sailed away, quietly, like other trading ships that left on the monsoon, without taking away the clouds, but took a lot of black tea.

The importance of this matter, even if all goes well, will not become apparent until several years later.So today, apart from the people from the Ministry of Commerce, not many people in the entire time-traveling force, and even in the bustling new district, including the aborigines, realize that the tea trade between the East and the West has already embarked on the historical track at this moment.

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The moment the morning light came up, Mr. Crawley was gone.At the same time, the ancient oriental city also woke up to the sound of morning bells.

As the bells of "Boom~boom~" kept ringing, the gates of Guangzhou, this famous southern city, also opened.The natives, who had been waiting in the night for a long time, passed through the city gate one after another and rushed to their respective destinations.

Generally speaking, most of the first people to enter the city are fishmongers, vegetable vendors, butchers and other non-staple food suppliers.These small traders are quite hard. They have to prepare fresh fish and vegetables in the middle of the night, and then wait outside the city gate before dawn. Kaesong must deliver the products to customers as soon as possible.In this way, after the master in the mansion wakes up, he can drink fresh fish porridge.

Most of the people who go into the city are delivering goods, while those who go out of the city are delivering "labour".

The first batch of Guangzhou natives who came out of the city with oriental fish belly white, most of them wore coarse cloth short skirts with patches, bare calves, and carried sticks, ropes and other tools on their shoulders. Many of them simply had big bald heads. It is also.

The trendy wage earners rushed out of the South Gate of Guangzhou as soon as they arrived in Kaesong.

After leaving the Great South Gate, many migrant workers flocked to the ferry terminal immediately.There, there are already many boats waiting for guests.

In other words, I don't know when the pier outside the south gate began endless reconstruction and expansion projects.

Outside the south gate of Guangzhou City University today, it has long been a different place from a few years ago.In front of the city wall, the spacious and straight South Gate Avenue, the steady and thick concrete embankment, and the sorted wharves that seem to never be repaired make the viewers sigh.

Of course, the wage earners have no time to express their feelings about life. They have no poetry in their eyes now, only the big ferry.

The so-called big ferry is a steam thing made by the crossing crowd.It is wide and flat, slow in speed, and emits black smoke, a concept similar to that of later generations of tourist ferries.

The reason why wage earners rush to get on the big ferry is because the fare is cheap: there is a copper coin in the bottom deck, and children are free.

Undoubtedly, this obviously government-subsidized mode of transportation is another trick created by the crowd.

The routine is still very useful. After all, for the poor natives, one copper plate can be saved. So when the Great South Gate was opened, the bilge of the ferry was already full of wage earners.

The sweaty wage earners gathered together, and the smell in the bilge soon became unpleasant.Fortunately, everyone is a bitter person, and no one dislikes anyone.Those who are acquainted with each other will also take out a little tobacco residue or a crumpled cigarette from their pockets, and you will take a sip, and when you take two puffs, you will also set up a dragon gate.

For these wage earners, the topics of conversation are just a few: a new factory in a certain place is about to break ground, a new factory in a certain place is recruiting people, a certain person has applied for a house, and has moved his family, etc.
The latter topic is the hot topic of the moment.

The current policy of the new district is: all staff who work in the new district all the year round are eligible to apply for "affordable housing".After the application is successful, this house can be rented for a long time, and when you have money in the future, you can also buy the deed from the general.

Aborigines who have not been washed by the real estate tide of later generations are not sensitive to the future.On the contrary, the clean environment, low rent, and large red brick houses with glass windows are extremely attractive to the poor aborigines.

People who apply for a house for a while are like Jiang Zhiqing.However, production capacity is limited, and those who cannot apply can only take a ferry every morning to work in the new area.

After the bottom deck was filled with wage earners, the second group of passengers followed.It was late for this group of passengers to leave the city, because most of them were small traders, and their goods could only leave the city after paying the release money to the officers and soldiers at the gate of the city.

The small traders went out of the city, some with single-wheel carts, some with their shoulders, and each showed their skills to deliver the goods to the ferry deck.The next step is to wait for the conductor to come over to verify the volume of the cargo and buy the ticket, then they can sit on the deck and wait for the boat to sail.

Usually by this time, the sky has already brightened, and the steam system of the ferry has already begun to pressurize.However, the ferry leaves on the hour, so there is no rush. Besides, there are still passengers who haven't arrived yet.

With more and more people going out of the city, the last ones to take the ferry were naturally the gentlemen in the city.

After eating the raw fish porridge, the gentlemen stretched out their sedan chairs and stood on the concrete floor of the pier.

The gentlemen are dressed in a variety of clothes.There are those who wear traditional straight headdresses and gowns, and those who have long gowns and mandarin jackets with civilized swords in their hands; there are also many progressives with short hair, tulle top hats, and suits and trousers.

Of course, a lord is a lord, no matter what the lords wear, there will always be slaves around them.These servants had a fierce look on their faces, pushing and shoving those blind-eyed mud-legged people along the pier to make way for their masters.

It is naturally impossible for gentlemen to squeeze together with mud legs when they take the ferry.The gentleman bought the business class, which is the teahouse on the second floor of the ferry.Not only is it bright and beautiful, but it also has a small bar that sells beer, cigarettes, peanuts and other snacks.

As time went on, when the business class was also close to being full, the South Gate Ferry Terminal also reached the first busy time of the day.

At this time, the sun was rising, and a large number of people who wanted to go to the new district had already arrived at the pier.They failed to catch the cheap "bus", so they had to carpool and take a private boat.

The proprietress, who was wearing a floral double-breasted jacket, leaned half her body against the window, regardless of the complaints from the crowded passengers in the cabin, she still stretched out her white arm to attract the individual passengers on the pier: "Come on, let's go again!" The last one, the next one will open!"

Around the proprietress of the big-bellied Upon boat, there are also various "motor bikes" that shuttle around the pier like small fish.These small shuttle boats looked very much like wandering black fish, from time to time they got into the gaps in the middle of the big boats, "carried" away a few passengers, turned around and ran away.

"Woo~~~~~~"

With a long scream from the whistle, the sailor put away the pedals, black smoke came out from the stern, and with the rumbling sound, the big ferry sailed to the pier in the new area.

At this moment, the South Gate Wharf suddenly seemed to be alive.All kinds of ships of various sizes that were originally surrounding the pier also set sail one after another, following behind the big ferry, shaking their heads and tails, sailing to the place where the sun rises like a school of fish.

(End of this chapter)