Zhang Xiaobao's group of five headed towards Jiangnan's West Road at a speed that was almost equivalent to 800 li.
Xiaobei and the group of children in Jiangzhou's water were already bored. They couldn't get off the boat, nor could they get out of the cabin. They could only hide in the cabin to play and learn.
Although there was a large cabin for them to move around in, with windows open to let the sun in, and even an indoor swimming pool for them to swim in, they still felt uncomfortable.
Even Pan 'er and the other younger children were always clamoring to go out. The scenery they saw was too dull.
"Let's eat on the deck at noon. We've pretended to be scared enough. Right now, there are no other boats on the river that can pose a threat to us. It's the same in the water. I don't believe that anyone can swim over here, climb onto the boat, and attack us."
Xiaobei stood on a table and leaned against the cabin's window. When he looked out with his binoculars, he said to his equally vexed brothers and sisters below.
"I think it's fine." Xiaoyuan agreed. Back then, they hid in the cabin to give the other party the impression that they were afraid. Now that many days had passed, the people they needed to catch had mostly been caught. If there were still people on the other side who hadn't been caught, they probably wouldn't be able to see them. They must be hiding in some hidden place and wouldn't show their faces no matter what.
Xiaoyuan looked at Xiaohai as he spoke. Now, Xiaohai was the leader. Don't be fooled by the fact that Xiaohai was usually quiet.
Xiaohai pondered for a moment and nodded. "It's fine to go out and eat at noon. We have to block the surroundings so that others won't be able to see us. We still have to put on a show for the local people. The things on the boat have basically been distributed to the people. It's just nice to ease their lives."
"It's been distributed, it's been distributed from other places to Jiangzhou. In order to help us, the locals have almost stopped working. There's also a blockade outside. If we still don't distribute things to them, we'll be guilty."
Xiaobei continued to look outside with his binoculars. There were many people busy moving things on the dock. There were the most small carts. Things were thrown up, and a person pushed a wheelbarrow very quickly. There were no problems with three to five hundred kilograms of things being transported to the city.
They were all daily necessities that had been transported over from nearby areas for the past few days. They were free of charge. The travel fees and other expenses that the ship had originally planned to earn were also free of charge.
After all, Lil 'Bei and the others had come over to seal off the city, but the other party didn't say anything and even helped to capture people. They basically didn't work every day and just patrolled everywhere. It was as if they were digging three feet into the ground. There were quite a few places that were dug up and people were caught.
Therefore, they couldn't just think about taking advantage of the people. Although the people of Jiang Zhou felt sorry for Xiaobei and the others, they were willing to contribute for free.
Ships of goods were delivered to the docks, and the locals were in charge of transporting them. Then, the local officials and famous people temporarily organized by the locals would distribute the goods to each family, according to the number of people. During this process, they did not forget to know which families were not living well, and whether there were elderly, children, and patients.
"Be gentle, be gentle. Don't worry. This box is not filled with rice or oil. It's medicine." A foreman at the docks saw the symbol on the box and appeared to be very careful. He also warned the people who came to take over.
Originally, one person was going to take over, but when they heard that it was medicine, three more people came over. The four people quickly knitted the rope together into a net, and put bamboo poles on both sides to carry it bit by bit. They didn't plan to put it on the wheelbarrow at all to avoid bumps.
Now, the price of glass had dropped, but it definitely hadn't dropped to the point where ordinary people could afford it. The medicine used by the medical school for intravenous drips was stored in glass bottles, and so were the needles.
This process alone was not simple. Although it didn't cost money to treat diseases and use medicine, it didn't mean that the medicine wasn't expensive. The people of Jiang Zhou were also very clear about this.
"It's a life-saving thing, so we have to be careful. It would be great if we could have the used glass bottles." A young man with a bamboo pole on his shoulder in front turned his head to look at the box and said regretfully.
The person next to him laughed. "Glass is very expensive. We'll give it to you after we use it up. What are you thinking? Do you know how much a glass bottle can be sold for in Japan? At least five times. "
"Nonsense, Japan doesn't buy glass bottles for medicine. We don't leave them for you because we're afraid that there will be something called bacteria left on the bottle during treatment and it will spread to others, especially small bottles. If you touch it and cut it on your hand and get sick again, the court will have to spend more money."
One of the people who followed and protected him said. From this person's dress, one could tell that he was a scholar. To be precise, he didn't pass the exam, but he was literate and could memorize a lot of scriptures. He was a teacher who taught in a school.
"Master Huang, you are very knowledgeable. Tell me, when will an ordinary family like ours be able to use glass in every house? Look at the glass windows used by rich people. It's really beautiful. Light shines in. It's like there's no cover, but it can block the wind and rain. It's much better than paper windows. There's no need to worry about it turning yellow. "
The person who spoke first said with a yearning look.
The person next to him also echoed, "There's also a glass mirror. It's more than twice as good as a copper mirror. It doesn't need to be polished often. Just use something to rub it and it'll be bright again. Who doesn't buy a mirror when they get married? They'll be looked down upon."
As a teacher, he was very satisfied when he heard other people's questions. It showed that he was knowledgeable. He pretended to ponder and said, "Glass and mirror are actually the same thing. Put something on the glass and it will become a mirror. As long as the Zhang Family and Wang Family are willing, the people of Tang can use mirrors now."
"Ah? Now? Then why don't the Zhang Family and Wang Family do more? They can't be doing this to earn money from us ordinary people, right? Look at the things they send. It's not cheap. Just because we help them find people, they don't want a penny for the things they send.
There's not only food, but also meat. Normally, people can't eat meat every day. But when they come and stop there, they actually transferred a lot of people from other places. They can eat a little every day.
"There's also more salt. Originally, the salt here needed to be transported from the river. Compared to the local salt, it's two copper coins per catty. Now, it's all free. A batch of salt is distributed to each family. It's enough for each family to eat for half a year.
With the addition of vegetable oil, it's not worse than the New Year. They're so good to us. Why don't they give us glass and mirrors? I don't believe it. "
The person behind him thought that Teacher Huang was lying. In his mind, the Zhang Family and Wang Family took good care of ordinary people like him. Not only did they let their children go to school for free, but they also gave them rewards when they had children. They helped them like the Emperor. When they fell ill, they also didn't need to pay for treatment.
They also helped to build roads and bridges to make it easier to travel. If there was a disaster, they didn't need to pay rent. At the same time, they also provided disaster relief materials. In this way, they would definitely give him a mirror for money.
Master Huang shook his head, looking like a child who couldn't be taught. He opened his fan with a snap and gently fanned it twice in the strong wind. Perhaps he was afraid that the wind would break the surface of the fan, so he carefully closed it again and said,
"In the future, you should go to night school to learn more. You can't do anything without knowledge. If you don't use glass, the Zhang Family and Wang Family won't care. They only care about treatment, education, bridge repair, and road repair. They care about the price of food, vegetable oil, and the most important thing is the price of salt.
If they care about these, you won't starve to death, you won't be unable to afford salt, and you won't die of a small illness like before. But I've never heard of people dying because they don't use glass. Since you won't die, why should they care about you?
Every family has glass and needs a lot of craftsmen. Then, people like Japan and a small country in the southwest will come and give you some money. You can sell glass to them.
For the Zhang Family and Wang Family, glass is a luxury. They count on glass to make money and then subsidize your daily necessities. Disaster relief needs money, medical needs money. If glass doesn't make money, no matter how big the Zhang Family and Wang Family business is, there will be a day when they go broke.
Do you know what a three-inch square mirror can be exchanged for on an island outside the sea? It can be exchanged for at least 100 mu of land. In addition, the local leader will arrange for people to plant food. The food produced will be sent here and will be provided to you. When every family has a mirror, it won't be valuable. Do you want to not starve during a disaster or look at a mirror? "
"Of, of course, to be full. It seems that when the Tang Empire doesn't want the food outside, when will we be able to use glass and mirrors casually? Teacher Huang, you know the best. If there's no glass, then there's no glass. It's better than no food."
The person who spoke later didn't have to think much and gave the answer in his heart.
The person in front of him also said, "After we catch the people who want to kill Xiaobei and the others, I'll find time to learn at night. When I was young, I didn't even dare to think that one day I could learn how to read and read. At that time, there was too little paper and ink.
Why don't we let our children go to school now? We don't need to pay for paper and ink. Thinking about it, it's strange that there's suddenly so much paper and ink in the Tang Empire. "
"It's that thing called productivity that has increased. There has always been rich and poor in the world, but there are more people who are not satisfied. Even if they know that their lives are better than before, they still like to compare their lives with the people around them. This is the driving force for improvement and also the root of turbulence."
Teacher Huang opened his fan again and used his hand to protect the wind that was blowing around him. He shook it gently a few times, showing an unfathomable look.
That person nodded fiercely. "Yes, turbulence, it's turbulence. There are still people who want to kill Xiaobei. They're tired of living and want to kill Xiaobei and the others. When Xiao Bao and Cuckoo get angry, they won't even be able to eat. Hmph! Continue searching at night and don't let a single one slip through the net. Catch them all and wait for Xiaobei and the others to chop off their heads. "
"Where else can they hide? We've already dug out good holes in all the places they could hide. Although we've caught a few people, even a hundred holes can't compare to a single person. "
Another person who was carrying a load muttered.
"Then we'll dig ten thousand holes and fill them in after we're done. Let alone a person, even a mouse would be dug out." Another person clenched his teeth and spoke. From the looks of it, he wouldn't hesitate to overturn the entire Jiang Prefecture.
*****
The people they were thinking about were truly living in fear and trepidation.
In Xunyang City of Jiang Prefecture, on a small hill not too far from the city walls, six people were hiding under an abandoned temple.
Not a single one of the six dared to go out, because ever since Xunyang had imposed martial law, there had always been people in the abandoned temple. Moreover, they had practically turned the entire temple upside down.
The reason the six of them had not been dug out like rats was because the place they were hiding in was unusual. They were hiding under a latrine pit. This latrine pit had not been there when they first started digging the tunnel, but later on, they felt that this place was not important, so they turned it into a latrine. Thus, the latrine pit had appeared.
In the past, when they were gathered, they had always been in the ruined temple. This time, they truly had no other place to hide, so they could only hide in the latrine pit, which even gave them a foul odor.
"Fangzi, it's no good. If we continue to stay here, in less than three days, I'll be suffocated to death by the smell. A ventilation hole against the wall is simply not enough. From time to time, because we haven't closed the hole properly, feces will drip down. Can you see if you can fix it?"
One of the six said to the person next to him, who was leaning against the wall with his eyes closed.
There was no light in the tunnel. There was only a very small ventilation hole against the wall, making it seem like a crack.
When this person called Fangzi opened his eyes, even if he couldn't see anyone, it was much more comfortable to talk with his eyes open.
"I fixed it, but I didn't dare to touch it again. If I didn't do it right, it would all fall down with a crash. Not only would we drown to death, if someone went to the latrine up there, they would also discover us.
Originally, there wasn't much feces and urine in the latrine pit. It was all done when we came here to discuss matters. Who could have expected that it would become their place? As a result, every day, quite a few people would come in to shit and pee.
But we didn't dare to carelessly touch it. Didn't you hear what was going on up there? As soon as they came, they tore down the temple. They dug under the Buddha statue and under the pillars, as if they really knew we were down there. Fortunately, they didn't dig up the base of the wall, or else we would have all been captured.
Fortunately, we put quite a bit of food and water in here. Although we can only eat it raw and the water isn't clean, it's still better than being captured, beaten, and then decapitated.
In any case, we're already smelling like this, so we can just take care of eating and drinking in the tunnel. If we persist a little longer, I believe that in just a few days, they'll leave. I didn't expect, really didn't expect. "
The other five knew what Fangzi meant by 'didn't expect'. At the time, they had not directly participated in the operation to blow up Xiaobei and the others. They were considered undercover personnel. As a result, as soon as they began to act, all of Xunyang was immediately placed under martial law. Squads of soldiers rushed onto the streets and began to search house to house.
They realized that something was wrong, so they fled to this abandoned temple. Then, they realized that this place was also not safe, so they could only endure the smell and enter, rubbing themselves against the dirty stuff.
They had originally believed that they would hide for at most two days. Xiaobei and the others wouldn't take the risk of stopping the people of Xunyang from searching for so long.
Who could have expected that when someone entered the latrine, they would say something that they didn't dare believe?
At the time, two people had come in together to relieve themselves. From above, they began to discuss this matter. One of them said that if they couldn't find the person behind the scenes, they would rather not do any work and continue the search. Otherwise, in the future, they wouldn't have the face to eat the food sent by the Imperial Court during a disaster, nor would they have the face to go to a medical clinic when they fell ill.
The other was even more ruthless. He swore that even if he had to dig three feet into the ground and flip through all of Xunyang, he would drag that person out. He would first break the bones of the person's four limbs, and then skin them. Moreover, he wouldn't skin them to death, but rather peel off a small piece of skin and stick it with hemp to stop the bleeding. When the skin was almost healed, he would peel off the hemp.
Only when the flesh was peeled off layer by layer and the bones exposed would the end be considered over.
The other helped to replenish the wounds. He said that he would use salt water to disinfect the flesh, brush salt water on the exposed areas, tie them up, rub sugar on the body, and bring them to the side of the ant nest so that the ants could eat them bit by bit.
When he heard this, he felt his blood run cold. Even the murderer of one's father could only be this much. It wasn't like they had bombed them, so why not let them go?
Were Xiaobei and the others that popular?
The result was that day after day, they would hear a little bit of news every day. In summary, a portion of them used the temple as a place to rest. Then, every day, they would send people out to look for places with holes that could allow people to hide. They would also find some place where smoke would suddenly rise from the kitchen chimneys, and they wouldn't even let go of a graveyard.
They would rather take the risk of offending the corpses of the dead by first offering incense, burning paper money, and kowtowing in apology, all so that they could dig up the graves and see if anyone was hiding inside.
Crazy, all of them were crazy.
Even more frightening was that every day, they would hear the higher-ups say that they had caught a few more, where they had been caught, and how they had been dealt with after they had been caught.
Some were hiding in tunnels, some were in cellars, some were in wells, some were on the roof beams, some were in the gaps between the boats on the river, some were in the dense canopy of a certain tree in the forest, some were hiding in other people's storehouses, and so on and so forth.
In any case, they would search every nook and cranny, and they would search over and over again. Those that were caught would also be interrogated again and again, and those that could provide clues would suffer less.
The temple that the six of them were hiding in had been mentioned more than once. Fortunately, of the people who knew of this underground tunnel, other than the six of them who were still in the city, none of them were in Xunyang.
Even so, they did not dare to lower their guard. When eating, they had to be quiet, when speaking, two people had to be awake when sleeping, because they were afraid that the others would snore.
Even so, there were still people who would talk in their sleep, saying that they had been caught and were willing to perform a meritorious deed, and so on. No one knew if someone not in Xunyang City would be caught or not, but if they were caught, perhaps they would reveal everything.
Right now, they could only hope that it would end quickly, or that the ceiling would be dug up. If that was the case, they would give up. What was before them was the most torturous.
"I'd rather die here than be caught by them," Fang Zi added.
None of the five made a sound, presumably because they were thinking the same thing.
*****
Five days later, on the official road leading to Jiang Province, a two-wheeled carriage pulled by three horses was traveling at half the speed of a normal carriage.
The driver wore a bamboo hat on his head, but it did not completely cover his face, because when he raised his head, he would occasionally look around for a while, so that people could easily see his slightly white hair, and the beard that followed the corners of his mouth down to join the beard on his chin, hanging in front of his body.
From time to time, the driver would even crack his whip a couple of times, the cracking sounds causing the people the carriage passed to furrow their brows. This, coupled with his seemingly verbal curses, was even more eye-catching.
As for who was sitting in the carriage, the people outside had no idea. The speed of the carriage also made it impossible for the people inside to easily get off. At the same time, the curtains of the carriage were tightly shut. No matter how strong the wind was, not the slightest gap could be created.
"A plaything that only eats and doesn't poop, giddy up! A plaything that only eats and doesn't poop, giddy up … "The voice of the carriage handle sounded again.
Of the four people sitting in the carriage, three of them were already confused by the shaking, but the woman sitting opposite them was very natural, as if she did not care about the jolting.
"I still think riding a horse is better. I would rather have my thighs scratched than be shaken by the carriage. But I have to admit that the young master's driving skills are indeed extraordinary. It seems that there is nothing in the world that the young master doesn't know. Don't you think so, Zhang Nan?"
"No, I think the young master doesn't know how to give birth," Zhang Nan replied.
"What if he does?"
"Wang Gang, do you want to die?" Wang Juan sitting opposite him spoke.
"I wouldn't dare. I'm just joking. I'm just praising the young master. Boss, do you think we can really meet them while we are driving? The carriage is going too fast. Even if we meet them, they won't be able to catch up. "
Wang Gang shrunk his neck, smiled, and asked Wang Juan.
"What do you know? Xiao Bao has no intention of making contact with them right now. Xiao Bao is just putting on an act for our family's intelligence network and the emperor's intelligence network to see. We're about to enter the lower realms of Jiangzhou. We're not going to Xunyang, we're going straight to Poyang Lake.
The three of you should continue to familiarize yourself with what I've taught you. If anyone is recognized by our intelligence network, we won't bring them along to play in the future. If you think you're not good enough, then you're incessantly giving them psychological hints. "
Wang Juan explained Zhang Xiaobao's goal in doing this, then gave the three of them some pointers.
But the three of them still didn't understand. Zhang Yu asked in confusion, "Boss, why do you want our intelligence network to keep an eye on us? Since we don't want them to recognize us, can't we just not be so ostentatious? "
"If we don't keep an eye on them, how can we get in touch with the other side's people? Now that Xunyang is sealed off, all of Jiangzhou is jittery at the slightest sound. The contact points the other side left behind are guaranteed to be gone.
If we want them to find us, we have to have our people keep an eye on us. I trust that the other side has already guessed which one is our people. Anyone that our people keep an eye on is also someone that the other side keeps an eye on. When they see Xiao Bao disguised as Ning Tian, they'll definitely think of a way to get in touch.
As for us, we're just opening a shop. You know what kind of shop we're opening. Remember to cooperate well. Not only do we need to catch the other side, we also need to catch the people who are addicted to drugs after they've been corrupted. Understood? "
Wang Juan's explanation this time was detailed enough.
The three assistants nodded in unison. "We understand. But where's the opium pipe? We didn't bring it."
"When we get there, we'll make it on the spot. You're not allowed to secretly eat that thing. Don't think that because you have enough willpower, you'll be dealt with once you get addicted," Wang Juan warned them.
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