Begging in late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 482

This is what Song Qingshu and the employee of the Dutch East India Company learned. If they are beaten to death with a stick and left their hometown so far away, the Chinese who love their families will definitely not want to come, but if there is a deadline and the hope of returning, then they are willing to make some money. There are many Qian Yijin returning home. In ten years, who knows what will happen. If the Ming Dynasty is wiped out by the Qing Dynasty, they don’t have to come back, and they have worked here for a long time, and they have a house and land. Let them go back The two Huai Rivers do not even have a foothold, and they are poor and white. It is estimated that these recruited workers themselves are not willing.

With just one contract for ten years, hundreds of thousands of bankrupt peasants like Li Laobai foolishly boarded the bandit.

It really looks like queuing up to buy train tickets during the Spring Festival. Residents of several prefectures along the Yangtze River dragged their families and starved to line up at the registration gates everywhere. Li Laobai led his silly son Li Xiaohei to brave the river wind , After queuing for three days and two nights, I finally got to the window.

But the more he got here, Li Laobai became more and more anxious. From time to time, he could see people entering the recruitment tent, some directly entering the factory behind, and some coming out swearing or dejected. was eliminated.

It turns out that no one wants it!
Finally, in an uneasy mood, the receptionist who had already received tens of thousands of job seekers yelled weakly: "Next!"

"Talk about you, the next one! If you want to recruit, recruit, if you don't recruit, get out!"

With a jerk, he looked around and saw that there was no one around, so Li Laobai pointed to his nose foolishly, the waiter couldn't help but started cursing, he had been waiting in line for several days, how could he get out?Carrying his silly son who was swaying, Li Laobai hurriedly opened the curtain and went in with a smile on his face.

The tent is not big, and there is a Shaoxing master behind a desk, and two beggar soldiers are also standing with their arms folded, with double revolvers on their waists, Song Qingshu sent all his own soldiers to suppress the situation Yes, as soon as he entered the door, the teacher pushed his glasses impatiently, and then he suddenly found a new world. He stood up abruptly, with his thumb straight, his index finger bent, and the remaining three fingers still straight, making a strange bow.

"Where are the guests coming from? Do you serve tea?"

Immediately, Li Laobai was taken aback, he was stupid for a moment, and then he waved his hands again and again: "I don't drink tea, the young ones don't drink tea, the young ones are here to recruit workers!"

The master was obviously stunned for a moment, but then he exchanged glances with the two soldiers on the left and right, and sat down again. Seeing the expression on the face of the master, Li Laobai felt his heart skip a beat, but it was the soldier on the left who snorted coldly: " Undress!"

"What?"

But I was really startled, Li Laobai seemed to meet a perverted loli, he subconsciously hugged his chest, causing the soldier on the right to burst into laughter, and the soldier on the left glared at him angrily , and immediately shouted impatiently: "Should I recruit? If you don't recruit, get out!"

Again!For the sake of living, Li Laobai also gritted his teeth sadly, take it off, anyway, old men, what are you afraid of!

If he knew that the sailors on the southeast coast still have something called gays, he wouldn't think so, took off the ragged clothes, and the old and the young stood there shyly. , the smell on their bodies made the three of them cover their noses and pinch their noses, the soldier on the left winked, the soldier on the right circled around the two of them sadly, and even asked them to pull their legs apart, and looked at them again. Looking at his feet, he nodded to the master again.

"What's it called? Where is it from?"

"Back, back, master, the youngest is from Huaizuotian County, with the humble name Li Laobai, this is the youngest son, Li Xiaohei, we are all honest and good people! For a few lifetimes..."

"Okay, let's go in!"

Obviously impatient, the master took up a pen and wrote the words Li Laobai and Li Xiaohei, and immediately waved his hand back.

Is this over?

Putting on their clothes in embarrassment, the two of them are still a little dazed, and entered the Longjiang Shipyard through the door behind the tent.

In fact, no matter men, women, young or old, even old men who can no longer work, Song Qingshu wants them. After all, there is an old man in the family. If there is a treasure, the experience of the old man in this age is sometimes a fortune, but the only thing he guards against is the gang!

There really are gangs these days. The late Ming and early Qing dynasties were the time when the gangs took shape. The Hongmen, the Qinggang, and the gangsters that ran rampant in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan were basically formed at this time. They all came from this The turbulent wars of the era and the refugee culture it produced.

At the beginning, Master’s words were the lingua franca of worshiping the wharf. If they were scammed out, they would just leave without saying anything. The only voice in the colony was the West India Company. Song Qingshu didn’t want a lot of green and red double stick faucets under his hands. Brother come.

Then I took off my clothes to check the tattoos. Qiongmian is an ancient punishment. It was born out of this. Generally, gang members will also have tattoos on their bodies, and some diseases can also be reflected on the body. There will definitely be scars from the fighting. Once these problems are found out, they will naturally get out again.But only men are checked here. As for women, although I dare not say 100% that there are no gangsters, but this era is rare after all, so women don't need to be checked.

First of all, these two levels can filter out a large number of thorns.

After passing the first door, there is another big house behind, and several interviewers. This time, Li Laobai and his son faced detailed interrogation, such as asking them what they do in their hometown, what they do for a living, and whether they have ever fought. , Who are their town tyrants?What will they do?This time the records are obviously more detailed. Fortunately, there are more interviewers, and the efficiency is much faster than before.

After coping here profusely, following the flow of selected people, the foolish father and son were led to the third big house. When they entered the house, a gust of heat came blowing in their faces, and another impatient receptionist yelled. Said: "Take off your clothes!"

"What, take off your clothes again?" Now it was Li Xiaohei's turn to yell angrily, and Li Laobai hurriedly gave him a slap in the panic. This yell seemed to make the reception staff angry, and yelled angrily: "Screw you, you poor ghosts have taken over all of our bathrooms, I have to wait for weeks to take a shower in my factory, whether you like it or not!"

It's actually a hot bath!This is really a luxury, not only Li Laobai, but also those prospective workers who lined up behind hurriedly followed Wei Nuo Nuo and laughed and dragged their clothes, and then they went into the inner room with dozens of shower heads standing on it. Inside, as soon as it was unscrewed, a stream of hot water accompanied by the smell of sulfur rushed to the face.

Sulfur was imported from Japan, and it was one of the few goods that the Zheng family sold to the beggar army. It was used here for disinfection.

I haven't taken a hot bath for more than a year. Coming out of here, Li Laobai is really white, but his son really deserves the name, he is still so dark, and he came out of the house steaming. A pile of brand-new clothes was put there, and the impatient waiter pointed at the big iron bucket with black smoke at the door and yelled impatiently.

"Put away any personal belongings, and then each person has two sets of clothes, and the rest of the tattered clothes, trousers and bedding are all thrown in and burned!"

"Ah? Burned, what do we use?"

Although there are new clothes, Li Laobai is really reluctant to part with this set of cotton-padded jackets and torn quilts that he has worn for five or six years. Impatient, he directly opened the door at the entrance and stretched out his hand. Li Laobai was so scared that he didn't dare to put another fart, and he didn't even care to wear his clothes. He threw his luggage into the fire bucket first, and then went outside A few passing women screamed and ran back to put on their clothes in embarrassment.

In the raging fire, not only were there few beddings emitting black smoke, but also crackling and crackling sounds could be heard faintly. Occasionally, a black thing jumped desperately, and halfway through the jump, it was also scorched by the high temperature.

When such a large group of people gather together, what they are most afraid of is infectious diseases, and most of the sources of infectious diseases are various blood-sucking parasites, so the first thing they do when they come in is take a bath, and then burn the old clothes, Song Qingshu is Those who started out in clothing are really not bad for this kind of clothes.

This is not over yet, in the next room, Li Laobai and others were so smoked that tears flowed, and his hair was almost scorched. Finally, a few fleas and lice kicked their legs and died honorably, and then they were led out again.

There are so many people, the dormitory can't fit in at all, forcing Longjiang Shipyard to give up all the factory buildings, each with iron canopy beds, sixteen people in each room, separated by boards, if this place is for future generations, it is probably the most suitable place The hard-working migrant workers were unwilling, but seeing the brand-new cotton quilts, Li Laobai and others were so pleasantly surprised that they left holding the pillows reluctantly.

After a while, another impatient and cold-faced receptionist came in, pointed at the head of the bed and yelled, "Remember your number, and go with me!"

Only then did Li Laobai notice that there was a symbol written on the wooden sign on the head of the bed. His is the Arabic numeral 1279, and his stupid son's is the lower berth 1280. But the two really don't know each other, so they can only remember the shape as best they can. , and then followed the reception staff out.

This time they felt that they had come to the right place. They came to the canteen of the Longjiang shipyard. Although there were no big fish and meat, canned fish soup, pickled vegetables and big rice were enough, not to mention the usual miscellaneous grains and buns. They queued up for one day in these three days He could also gnaw a corn stick begging for relief from the living army. Seeing this, Li Laobai felt like he was in heaven.

He drank six or seven bowls of rice in one go, until the chef in the kitchen was afraid that they would be overwhelmed, so he drove them all out with a big spoon, and the starving devils rubbing their round bellies gave up the canteen to the next batch.

"This trip is really right!"

After finishing dinner, he returned to the factory building wrapped in a quilt and shaved his teeth. Li Laobai muttered with a full face, rice!Even if he is farming in the countryside, he is not willing to eat like this. It is mixed with miscellaneous grains, rice, wild vegetables, boiled in a pot, and fish. What is salted fish turned over?That is when poor people buy a salted fish during the Chinese New Year. They usually wrap it in batter, fry it, and eat the crispy skin with a fresh and salty taste. But even so, the fish is always eaten. Means this kind of cheap food has to say goodbye.

But today, Bai Shengsheng's fish is delicious!
It's a pity that Li Laobai, who is content with rubbing his belly, doesn't know that an unprecedented test will soon befall him and his silly son...

(End of this chapter)