Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1643 Bastion Market
Early the next morning, the three of them gathered outside the Great East Gate.Let's go to the big world together.

They are not rich, and they can't afford sedan chairs or rickshaws, so they can only walk around as rickshaws. Fortunately, it's autumn now, and the weather is much cooler than summer.The three hurried on their way early, but they were relaxed.

The big world of the Australians began to be built shortly after they retreated from the city of Guangzhou.
The boundary along the way from Dadongmen to Dashijie was originally just a mudflat on the bank of the river.Not to mention houses and fields, there are not many decent trees.There are some barren graves and mounds scattered in the wild grass.Since the Australians came here three years ago to build a big world, they first built a road.It connects the big world with the city of Guangzhou.So this big world has not yet opened, and the connection with Guangzhou has already been established.

Naturally, the road was paved with a mixture of crushed stones and black cinders in accordance with the usual extravagant style of the Kun people. It was wide and flat, with drainage ditches on both sides, and kapok trees were planted.

For more than three years, most of the items that can be purchased from Guangzhou on the Dashijie construction site were transported along this road, and all kinds of craftsmen and strong workers in the city also went to work along this road.The residents near Dadongmen are also used to the sound of the siren calling for work at the Dashijie construction site every morning.

At this moment, there are quite a few pedestrians on the main road, most of them are in the same direction as them.Most of them are "short-clothes gangs", hard-working people.There are also some small vendors who sell food, carrying burdens and pushing carts, going to the construction site in an endless stream.

However, there are also some sedan chairs mixed in the crowd, and there are also businessmen who ride donkeys and take their young apprentices to the big world at a leisurely pace.

Huang Tingkun was surprised to see that there were many people with fake hair among the vendors and laborers. Could it be that there are also many fake hair here?Looking again, these people were still dressed in Ming Dynasty uniforms, and they didn't look like "fake hair", so they asked Wu Bi what was going on in a low voice.

"These are all local people. They have worked for the bald people for a long time, and they have also imitated Australians' hair." Wu Bi said, "It is said to be so clean and easy to take care of."

"The government doesn't care?"

"It's better for the government to have one thing more than one thing less. Who wants to offend Australians for this?"

"It's really lawless!" Huang Tikun said angrily.

After walking less than half a mile, I saw workers inlaying long iron bars on the road. Wu Bi said that this was the ox-pulled railway of the Kun people—many people have seen the Kun people use oxen to pull the railways filled with iron bars. Trucks of building materials are on the road - I heard that in the future, you can ride to the big world by the Pearl River for only a few pennies.In addition to the wagons pulled by oxen, there are also small iron carts running on the repaired road. As long as two people push up and down, they can walk like flying.

"This is not a railway for bullock carts, but a track for a steamer cart." Huang Tingkun looked at the track under construction and said worriedly, "It won't take long for the small train of the Kun thief to reach the Great East Gate. "

"You must experience this." Wu Ni was very excited, "I heard that their small trains do not use cows, horses and manpower, but burn fire to boil water. I have never understood why, now I can see it with my own eyes!"

Huang Tinkun secretly smiled wryly, this train is naturally an extremely useful object, the railway is [-]%, and it only takes a moment for the bandits to reach the East Gate, not to mention that it is easy to pull the cannon.Rather than building a thoroughfare to the big world, it is better to say that it is an iron chain around the neck of Guangzhou City.

But what's the use of saying it yourself?The government dared not intervene, let alone scholars like Yuyuan Club.

A group of people continued to move forward, and after a short walk, they saw a pointed tower rising from the ground.Under the spire is an arched stone gate-according to Wu Bi, this is the main entrance of the Great World.

The people of Yuyuan Society are very interested in everything about Australians, so naturally they will not let go of the specimen that is close at hand, the big world. Every ten days and a half months, someone from the society will come here to have a look——Wu Ni can count Do is one of the people who come here the most.

"The shape of this tower looks like a red-haired man," Wu Ni said, "but I don't know one thing: Why is the top floor hollowed out on all sides? Some people say it's for hanging a big bell, but the tower is built well. It has been more than a year, but there is no hanging bell, but the surrounding area is sealed with reed mats, I don’t know why.”

Huang Tikun knew that this "clock" was not that "clock".He shook his head and said, "Brother Wu, this clock is not the big bell hanging in the bell and drum tower of the temple, but an Australian bell..." He thought about how to explain it, "Probably some wealthy families in Guangzhou also have it."

"Could it be the floor-standing Australian clock from Mr. Liang's house?" Wu Bi was a little skeptical, "I've seen that clock before, and it's very novel. It's just the size of a wardrobe."

"Australian clocks can be big or small. The small ones can be carried in your arms, and the big ones can be placed on the bell towers." Huang Tingkun shook his head, "There are several such bell towers in Lingao. The bells are rung every half an hour. There is no clock on this bell tower, and it probably hasn’t been built yet. This big clock is very difficult to build, even in Lingao, those bell towers have been empty for several years.”

"I see."

The three walked along the track for a while, and the big world was in front of them.The appearance of this big world is very strange, it is said to be a business, but the scale is huge, like a small city.

Now they are standing on the mound by the roadside, and they can roughly see that the big world by the river is a huge pentagon. Huang Tikun remembered that he had seen it in Huang Ping's mathematics book: this is called a regular pentagon.

Each side is about a mile long.Huang Tikun gasped: This scale is enough for a county in Hainan.Kun thief is called opening a business name?Obviously building a city!

Huang Tikun has been through battles for a long time and is familiar with the military, and he also has a good understanding of the Australian city defense architecture.He could see at a glance that this big world was exactly the same as the various military forts and camps built by the Kun bandits on Hainan Island: they were all so-called "bastions": the fortress was pentagonal, and each protruding corner was a small fortress.This so-called bell tower is a salient fortress.

It is a little gratifying that the two wings extending from the bell tower are not built with city walls, but two open colonnades, which are not very military.A part of it is still covered with bamboo scaffolding, and most of the others have been completed.The thick stone pillars are embossed with patterns, which look majestic and magnificent.Through the colonnade, you can see that there is a large square inside. The site is not yet leveled, and it is full of yellow sand, stones and various materials.In the center is a thick and ferocious black iron tower, which has been the talk of the rich and the poor in the city of Guangzhou in recent years: a steam hoisting crane.

This steam crane is thick and strong, can lift heavy objects, and rotate freely. What puzzles the citizens of Guangzhou—including those who are interested in studying "Kunology" in Yuyuan Society—is: This tower crane is How do you grow taller?
The lively citizens watched the iron tower machine rise from more than one foot high to seven or eight feet high as the buildings in the big world were built higher and higher.

How the hanging tower was raised has become a topic of constant discussion in many teahouses and restaurants in the city, and there is also endless debate in Yuyuan Club.For this reason, Young Master Lin specially hired a few carpenters and coppersmiths with excellent craftsmanship to watch the machine on the spot.It's just that the construction area can't be approached, and I can't see why after looking at it a few times from a distance.

It can only be seen that it is roughly built up section by section.However, the tower is so high, and the iron frame of each section is so huge and heavy, it is obviously not dragged up by manpower or pulleys.Furthermore, there is a long cantilever and a small glass house with an iron frame at the top of the tower.It seems to be completely impossible to increase the height layer by layer.

At this moment, none of them were in the mood to talk about it, and they just followed the flow of people into the big world.

The construction site of Dashijie was originally surrounded by a bamboo fence far away. At this time, the gates of the fence were all open, and there were road signs at the door: "Working" on one side, and "Investment Attraction" on the other.

A group of people walked in the direction of "investment" along the road signs, and the people who crowded along the road were all businessmen.The three of them followed the flow of people through the colonnade and entered the large square that was still full of building materials.Several people were startled: What kind of house is this!
Not only Zhang and Wu, who are in Guangzhou, have never seen the main building in front of them, but even Huang Tikun, who came from the "Kun Thieves' Lair", has never seen it before.

The building in front of me stands in the middle of the square and is all made of stone.The ornate stone façade has long tall, narrow windows through which glass glistens.Not only was the building five stories high, but each floor was taller than their usual floors.The main entrance of the magnificent building is as high as two floors, supported by stone pillars in the middle.On both sides of the high steps are a pair of unusual-looking stone lions with ferocious faces and wings.Another bell tower above the main entrance.Looking closely, this building is not square, it is also a regular pentagonal building just like the outer wall of the Great World.There are towers on each of the five corners.Stretching out from the two wings like wings are two-storey buildings that connect to the two towers on the outer wall of the Great World.

"It's so high! It's just, it's just..." Zhang Yu stammered, and suddenly felt that his small walnut cake shop was over, and it was a waste of effort to come here by himself.

"This height is almost as high as a Buddhist pagoda." Wu Ni forced himself to remain calm, looking up at the building. There were very few buildings built in ancient China, and most of the few buildings had two floors.Only religious buildings such as pagodas can be called real high-rise buildings.Although the height of some towers can be equivalent to the twenty or thirty-story buildings of later generations, the building area is small and has little practical value.

Huang Tikun was amazed, and suddenly his heart sank: In Lingao, he had never seen such a magnificent building built by the thieves. Why did he only spare no expense to build such a magnificent building outside Guangzhou?

Xiang Zhuang's sword dance was aimed at Pei Gong.The so-called great world they cultivated is clearly a letter of war to the imperial court.This big world is not a fancy world of Australian style, but an out-and-out grand pass!

(End of this chapter)