Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1538

"Oh oh oh..."

With the high-pitched crowing of cocks, Nanbao Town, the southernmost town in Han District of Lingao County, which has flourished due to mining and trade in Li District, began to gradually wake up.White smoke wafted from the chimney.The small shop has already removed the door panels and started preparations for the morning market.The national army soldiers on duty at night rubbed their red eyes and came down from the watchtower.

The National Army officer on duty came out of the duty room, holding the key in his hand, and yawned as he opened the fence gate at the entrance of the town, which is next to the Li District and less than two kilometers away from the nearest Li Village.The contradiction between Han and Li on Hainan Island was very sharp in the Ming Dynasty.The large agricultural counties on the island like Lingao have always been the areas where the conflict between Han and Li is the most acute.The several civil uprisings in the Ming Dynasty basically occurred in the Qiongbei area.

Although the Li Miao Affairs Office believes that after the three-pronged approach of trade, missionary work, and cultural, educational, and health infiltration, it is unlikely that the local people will have riots again, but the necessary precautions must be taken.After all, their grasp of Li District is still very weak, and there is considerable uncertainty.And Nanbao is not only the trade window of Li District, but also the important Nanbao coal mine. Although the quality of the coal here is not high, the lignite, stone and clay provided here are still in great demand in agriculture and construction.

Therefore, after the end of the Qiongbei security war, the military affairs chief court stationed a platoon of the national army here to maintain a high level of vigilance.

With the opening of the town gate, some miners rushing to go to the morning shift and peddlers going to Li District went out one after another, and the number of people on the street gradually increased.

Sima Qiudao, wearing a patched jacket, got up from the bed that was put together by two tables. I couldn't come down to make breakfast.

The place where he lives is a two-story building along the street. This house is one of the many "pavement houses" built by the cooperative in Nanbao.However, the cooperative obviously overestimated the development potential of Nanbao.After the establishment of Nanbao Mining Company, the local area was very prosperous, but as the coal from Hongji and Qiongshan began to be continuously supplied by sea, the low calorific value Nanbao coal was basically reduced to a raw material for fertilizer.If it weren't for the huge demand for agricultural exports, Nanbao's coal mines would have almost lost their mining value.

Fortunately, the construction industry in Lingao is in great demand, and the production and sales of stone and clay mined by Nanbao Mining Company are still booming.As a result, Nanbao Mining's production scale has not been further expanded-Nanbao's coal reserves are not large, and as for stone and clay, the high transportation costs of construction materials make their sales scope very limited.The originally planned Phase III and Phase IV of Nanbao were canceled by the Planning Institute.

Without leading enterprises, Nanbao's population growth rate has dropped significantly.In the past few years, although a number of small enterprises, such as rattan wood processing, Chinese herbal medicine processing, leather and kapok processing, have been started in Nanbao for deep processing of trade products in Lebanon, the scale is small and the labor force that can be absorbed is limited. The hospital did not arrange a large number of immigrants here. As for the free immigrants, they prefer the prosperous Wenlan River, and no one is willing to go to the "border" area of ​​Nanbao.

The development of Nanbao is not as good as expected, and naturally it cannot support too much business.The cooperative built a lot of pavement houses back then, and they were reduced to rental housing.After Sima Qiudao and his party came to Lingao, the local responders arranged them here.

The house is a two-story, three-bay facade with a small courtyard behind and several wing rooms.The street in front of the door is not considered prosperous, but it is adjacent to the main road, and the back door is a rather deserted small box.The transportation is very convenient.Huang Zhen, who was in charge of looking at the house, fell in love with this place at a glance.

Huang Zhenren is called "Bronze Pen and Iron Abacus", and he is rich and handsome, with the temperament of a businessman. This operation can be regarded as the "treasurer" of Laigao's business.

Nowadays, there are many businessmen who open shops in Lingao, but most of them are in Dongmen City and Bopu, and there are very few in Nanbao.Therefore, as soon as he arrived in Nanbao and showed his intention of "investing and opening a store", the director of the local cooperative took him all over the town to look at houses, and finally Huang Zhen chose this place.

For Sima Qiudao, this house is not bad, clean and tidy, quite comfortable to live in, the only drawback is that compared to the number of people they came this time, the house is a bit small.

This time the Central Plains Wulin made a large-scale mobilization, only seven or eight people headed by Huang Zhen and Sima Qiudao came here earlier.There are still people coming.

Naturally, it is not acceptable for these men and women who come from famous families to shave their heads and "purify" them as naturalized people, but if they want to "employ themselves", they will be too conspicuous wherever they go.They can only be arranged to be hidden in this so-called "shop".

It doesn't matter if there are too many people, but there are also several "women".Although they are all sons and daughters of the rivers and lakes, men and women are different after all—and besides, these masters are all respectable elders in the martial arts—it is impossible for everyone to sleep together.So two of the three rooms upstairs were given to them, and one was reserved for the main character in this operation who had not yet arrived: Zhuo Yifan, the great disciple of the Wudang School.The rest of the people could only squeeze into the wing room at the back, and even Huang Zhen could only rest in the small tent on the first floor.

Sima Qiudao felt that there were too many people and noisy, so he simply stayed in the shop. The two Eight Immortals tables were put together as a bed, and he was at ease.

He went to wash his hands by the well platform in the backyard, and saw that Huang Zhen was already rinsing his mouth. He was over 50 years old, and he looked like a businessman, with an abacus under his armpit and a writing brush stuck in his back waist. He looked very strange.Looking at his fat figure and slow movements, it is impossible to tell whether his martial arts is high or low.

Sima Qiudao knew that Huang Zhen was the eldest disciple of the head of the Huashan School. When it comes to martial arts, only Zhuo Yifan is better than him here.

"Treasurer Huang." For the sake of concealment, they all changed their address, "You wake up really early."

"It's Sima." Huang Zhen spat out the water in his mouth, "It's getting late, how can a businessman sleep too much, the so-called dawn, sweep the courtyard. Clean up yourself and the shop, guest officials Only when you come to the door do you feel happy, and this business can be done well."

Sima Qiudao secretly said: Don't pretend!This Huang Zhen usually likes to show people the appearance of a merchant.Sneaking into Lingao this time puts on the shopkeeper's airs even more.

However, in the martial arts that pay attention to martial arts background and seniority, how can Huang Zhen's status be compared with that of a junior of the Qingcheng School.So Sima Qiudao was still very respectful on the surface: "The shopkeeper is right."

While talking, a woman had already come out of the room, probably a little sleepy, still rubbing her eyes.Seeing Huang Zhen and Sima Qiudao in the yard, it was a blessing to be busy.

"Miss Nan, you wake up really early." Huang Zhen narrowed his eyes and greeted with a smile.

The woman called Miss Nan was not young by the standards of this time and space, she looked about 25 or [-] years old.Wearing a light green skirt, covered with a light red bijia, with a slender waist, and a graceful figure, a pair of black eyes are shining brightly, flowing in waves, extremely flexible, as if the eyes can speak, and the face is beautiful , The corner of the mouth is like a smile but not a smile, which makes people feel close.

Women don't wash their hands on the well platform, even the sons and daughters of the Jianghu have to maintain a bit of decency, and they can't be too unruly outside.

"It's still early. The sky will be bright after a while. If you don't cook for a while, everyone will have nothing to eat." Miss Nan pursed her lips and went to the kitchen to measure rice.

Seeing her go in, she whispered to Huang Zhen: "Master Huang, are we still nesting like this these days?"

The smile faded from Huang Zhen's face: "Didn't the Seventh Master say that? You must follow his instructions for everything. This place is no worse than Daming, and it is the most dangerous place."

The so-called Qiye is the person who supports them locally.They knew very little about this Seventh Master, they only knew that he was a member of Jin Yiwei and had been lurking in Lingao for many years.

"Shi Weng said that this place is like a dragon's pool and a tiger's lair. I went to explore their lair, Dongmen City, yesterday—it's nothing more than that."

"Zixiao, don't underestimate the Kun thief. In the past few years, there have been countless people in the green forest who thought of Lingao, a new prosperous place, to make a fortune, and all of them have gone forever, like disappearing into the sea. Several of them are thieves who have run across several provinces in Beijing, and it is said that they also lost their wind in Lingao." Huang Zhen is old, so he is naturally more mature. Talking about the rules of the world, we can't take this set here, we must be very careful in every move, and we must not act rashly."

"Yes, I understand." Sima Qiudao was somewhat disapproving.Because he had just been to Dongmen City and Xin Nachun joint a few days ago, although he was shocked by the prosperity and order of the streets in Dongmen City, it was not like the "three steps, one post, five steps, one sentry" as he imagined, and there were many swordsmen. , a heavily guarded picture.

When he patrolled the streets of Dongmen City, he didn't even feel the slightest sense of danger.Fake hair and easy-to-wear fake hair are even more difficult to count.The Kun thief is so good at winning people's hearts, no wonder the court has been helpless after stealing Lingao for many years.

"Zixiao," Huang Zhen felt that he was reckless because of his young age, and urged, "This time Shi Weng sent us here with all his strength, and even took out people like Qi Ye from his pocket. We must If you live up to your expectations, investigate this matter to the bottom! Report it to the imperial court and save all the people!"

Sima Qiudao nodded, feeling a little more stressed.It has been more than a month since I sneaked into Lingao, and I have been just like this, sometimes I really don't know what I am here for.

But the purpose of this trip is only known to Zhuo Yifan, the leader of the Wudang School who has not yet arrived.

Even a character like Huang Zhen is just a front-runner.

(End of this chapter)