Nanming Engineer

Chapter 52
Wang Huan retreated to the shore, Li Tingyu hurriedly followed, and opened his mouth to ask in a low voice, "How is it?"

Wang Huan watched a dozen inspectors lazily standing on the bow of the boat, farting and chatting, but no one checked, and replied softly: "Okay, the fat man took the money, so he shouldn't embarrass us, tell everyone Wait."

Li Tingyu's face was ashen. He was worried about whether the Qing soldiers would catch up after being here for a long time. Walking up and down, I kept looking at the road downstream of the Huaihe River, and finally just stamped my feet and jumped on the boat to see out of sight and out of mind.

Wang Huan waited stupidly on the wooden raft alone, but his heart was very calm. He calculated the time. If all goes well, the water fleet used as bait should be able to buy them a day, and wait until the pursuers If they found out that they had been tricked, if they turned around and chased after him, they would probably still be taking advantage of Hongze Lake at this moment, and there would still be a lot of time left for him.In this era without telephones and telegraphs, the transmission of messages was very slow, so he didn't have to worry at all.

The time passed slowly in boredom, half an hour later, the fat man who had accepted the bribe slowly walked down from the water village, led a group of inspectors to step on the gangplank, and boarded the boat for inspection.

Wang Huan followed behind with a bow and bow, smiling and flattering the fat man with a smile on his face all the time. After looking at every boat briefly, he waved his hand and let it go.

"Switch to release!" The fat inspector stamped the road guide and threw it to Wang Huan.

When the patrolling soldiers got off the boat at last, they carried away two boxes of fine Songjiang cloth without even issuing a receipt, and let go of the mooring rope.Wang Huan didn't care about it at all, these cloths were the booty of water thieves anyway, it was a pity to throw them away easily.

When the fleet took advantage of the last ray of light on the horizon and entered the river, Wang Huan stood on the bow and took a long breath. The first water barrier was passed. Although there was no danger, it also made him aware of the danger. The following levels have an intuitive understanding.

"It seems that when it comes to corruption and bribery, the officials of the Qing Dynasty are not inferior to the officials of the Ming Dynasty." Wang Huan sighed.

"The crows in the world are as black as any dynasty and every generation. They travel thousands of miles to seek official positions just for money. This is true even for those scholars who have a good family background, let alone the clerks in the market." Li Tingyu just glared at the patrolling soldier Ding Yi with a dark face. Without saying a word, he left Shuiguan at this time, and then recovered a little normal expression, and stood at the bow of the boat again, talking to Wang Huan.

"Sir, the more greedy they are, the safer we will be. Those who collect money are not scary, but those who don't collect money are troublesome."

"I know that gold is the most reliable in troubled times. These days, who doesn't want to get more silver in their pockets? In troubled times, money is for self-defense." Li Tingyu also sighed: "Only you, throwing money out is like throwing something." It seems that you have a great talent and strategy in your heart, and you don’t have financial support, what will you use to fight for it in the future? I have also told you that the stone pillars are barren and the people are poor, and they are not comparable to the rich land in the south of the Yangtze River.”

"Hehe, you don't have to worry about the adults. When you get to the place, you can just watch me." Wang Huan vowed.

Li Tingyu glared at him, then shook his head and sighed, feeling sorry for Wang Huan in his heart, thinking that this young man is so talented and witty, it would be a waste of talent to be trapped in a corner of Sichuan without a stage to display his talents.However, since he had already mentioned it once and was flatly rejected by him, he could no longer persuade him. He had to wait until he arrived at Shizhu and let General Qin persuade him.

The northwest wind blew for a day, and the good luck of Wang Huan and others came to an end. When it was dark, the wind stopped, and everyone had to row their boats with oars. It's been a night.

At dawn the next day, the fleet raised the sails and set sail. The wind direction was a little tilted, but it was not against the wind. The ship boss, who was a pirate, was experienced and kept changing the direction of the sails to try his best to catch the wind. There were many people on the ship. Li Tingyu gave an order and everyone I picked up the wooden oar to grow the grass, rowed the boat to support the grass, and moved forward quickly and slowly. However, when sailing against the current, it would be much slower when there was no tail wind. At the end of the day, I only sailed a distance of fifty miles, which was the same as the first day. Going with the wind is a lot worse.

On the third and fourth days, the wind direction was still bad, or even there was no wind at all, which made Wang Huan and Li Tingyu bubbling with anxiety. The most taboo thing for runners is that they can’t run fast, even though they passed several inspections along the way Relying on huge bribes and guides regardless of cost, they passed the water pass safely, but the worries hanging in the hearts of the two became more and more serious, making them frown.

Wang Huan and Li Tingyu called a few officers together to discuss it. Everyone felt that the speed of the waterway was very slow. It is very worrying. The official road from Huai'an to Xinyang is nearly two thousand miles away, and the road is all the territory of the Qing army. The cavalry can travel two hundred miles a day, and they can drive ahead of the fleet in five days. If one man and two horses Chasing wildly, the speed is faster, and it only takes three days to see this group of huge merchant ships staggering on the river on the shore.

Abandon the boat and go ashore?Someone proposed such a method, find a bigger city, or hire or buy some mules, horses and carts, which can also be disguised as a caravan.This proposal was immediately rejected, because there were too many uncertain factors on the shore, there were too many patrol inspections, and there were also many bandits and bandits. The goal of a team of 400 people was too big. It is easy to arouse local suspicion.

So in desperation, Wang Huan suggested continuing to take the water route. Li Tingyu weighed it and agreed, because there was really no other way.

The river meanders and bends, making everyone feel uneasy. Li Tingyu's regular job every day is to stand at the bow of the boat, look at the waterway in front of him and frown to calculate the speed, and compare it with his fingers on the map. He wondered how much distance he could walk today, and then started cursing after a while of silence.

Wang Huan was also irritable for a day or two at the beginning, but then he calmed down. Anyway, he did his best and obeyed the destiny. If the wind does not blow or blows against the wind, no one can do anything. What's the use of it, it's better to calm down and read a book, listen to Li Yan and Zu Bian talk about the customs and geography of the mountains and rivers of this era, understand the details of the war in the cold weapon era that can't be learned in books, and better integrate into the late Ming Dynasty in the future The world lays the groundwork.

The book in his hand is a military book that Li Tingyu never leaves his hand. It is the book "Records of Military Training" written by Qi Jiguang, the god of war in the Ming Dynasty. This book had a great influence on the generals in the late Ming Dynasty. , regard it as a treasure, take it out and study it carefully whenever you have time, and am deeply impressed by the method of training soldiers in the book.Wang Huan's major is history and mining, and he knows nothing about military affairs. All his military knowledge before crossing came from three months of military training at the university, and he had never heard of cold weapon warfare. To supplement military knowledge, Li Tingyu gave him this book. By the way, he would tell him about his combat experience when he was free, and he wanted to cultivate this young man.

The book is in traditional Chinese, and Wang Huan, who is used to reading simplified characters, has a big head, but after a few days of getting older, he gradually got used to it. The cumbersome fonts subtly correspond to the simplified characters in his mind one by one. After reading it, Wang Huan felt that he was fully able to control the ancient Chinese without punctuation, and he also had a preliminary feeling for the ancient military training techniques.

(End of this chapter)