At around ten o'clock the next morning, the train arrived in Nicolo.
Subsequently, United Matrix personnel contacted the train to Gravel City, additional carriages, etc.
Because extra carriages were needed, this train did not leave until after 5 p.m.
During this period, Lu Ming went to Donghai's representative office in the Western Alliance and asked about Liu Laocai's case.
However, the staff of the representative office said that after sending a telegram to the Batecheng Council the day before yesterday, they have not yet received a reply.
Lu Ming could only lament that public relations would never be as reliable as personal friends.
Because the owner of the Donghai Telegraph and Telephone Company, his business partner, although his communication business has not yet touched the area of Bate City, his representative here helped him contact a nobleman in Bate City in a roundabout way.
However, he could only send a telegram to the nobleman, hoping that he would help him check Liu Shoufu's whereabouts. He also told him where to wait for him, but he had no time to wait for his call back.
…
Gravel City is the end point of the western section of the railway. Although it is only 500 kilometers from Nicolo to Gravel City, it stops almost at every station in the middle, and the trains are full of people and even the roofs of the carriages. The train is extremely fast.
It's slow, and it's normal to be delayed. There's no normal train timetable at all.
Just like this train, because it had to meet the requirements of a large customer like United Matrix, it was originally scheduled to depart six hours later. But not to mention the transportation company and station staff, even the passengers were accustomed to it.
This 500-kilometer journey took more than ten hours, and the average train speed was probably only more than 30 kilometers per hour.
At around ten o'clock in the morning, the train arrived at Gravel City.
Further west from Gravel City, there is no railroad.
The gravel city-state has a population of more than 300,000 people. As for the gravel city itself, it has a population of more than 100,000, which is considered a big city in the west.
The United Matrix itself has armed pickup trucks, off-road jeeps, and even an armored vehicle. It also purchased seven or eight trucks directly from Gravel City to load supplies, mostly ammunition and gasoline barrels, etc.
Trucks are bought from several transportation companies, one or two for each company. As the end of the western railway line, the truck transportation industry in Gravel City is very developed.
But the semi-new truck is twice as expensive as the original price of a new car in Donghai.
Although there are no tariff barriers between the western city-states and the empire, under current conditions, the cost of shipping goods from the eastern part of the empire is relatively high.
The United Matrix helicopter also took off, causing the whole city to marvel.
The economic and trade group chartered a bus. According to the driver, it can go directly to Bate City. There are also various refueling points in the middle. However, the last one hundred kilometers is a dirt road, which is very bumpy. It is not a rainy season. It is not a rainy season. If it is a rainy season,
Those dirt roads cannot accommodate large vehicles such as buses.
Lu Ming did not take the bus, but boarded one of the helicopters with Nicole, Uncle Sun and other entourage members.
The three helicopters are not the armed helicopters that Sanmai is still developing, but Sanmai's Wave series medium-sized helicopters.
However, it has been considered for military use and is considered a product that must pass through the development stage of armed helicopter development.
The armor is relatively thick, and there is a special device for mounting a machine gun in the rear compartment. It can carry 10 passengers or 1.1 tons of cargo, and has a range of 450 kilometers.
The aircraft Lu Ming was riding in was purely for transportation purposes. It had no machine gun mountings or shock absorbers, and the rear cabin seats were also very comfortable.
Lu Ming, Nicole, Uncle Sun, Luo Yi, Luo Er and four black slave guards were all sitting in the back cabin.
The moment he sat in the back seat, Lu Ming let out a long sigh of relief.
The parameters of the Hailang-1 helicopter are similar to those of the H-19 in the 1950s. Today, it is the largest helicopter.
In fact, ten months ago, the shareholders of Sanmai Company had another quarrel over the production of Hailang-1 helicopter.
It is true that this kind of helicopter is expensive to build, with the final selling price being 180,000 yuan. Although the shareholders did not know the final selling price at the time, they also knew that this thing was extremely expensive and there was never a market. The year before last, the Sanmai Hailang-1
The prototype was shelved because the company found that the final cost of the model would be prohibitively high.
Now, do you want to invest in further testing models? Or even start manufacturing finished models?
Few shareholders agreed. It was also because of this turmoil that Lu Ming was not only the largest shareholder in Sanmai, but also had a shareholding of more than 60%. Madison's shareholding accounted for 3%.
Around ten years old, it can be said that the company's equity structure has become very simple.
In the end, United Matrix placed an order for three Hailang-1s, which immediately resolved Sanmai's financial crisis.
At the same time, the East China Navy has also begun negotiations with Sanmai Company and is preparing to order Sanmai's Hailang-1 helicopter.
This also means that the development of Sanmai Company has opened a new chapter.
…
It is said that the distance from Shashi City to Bade City is 500 kilometers, but the straight-line distance is only 300 kilometers.
The three helicopters have a full tank range of 450 kilometers and can be easily reached.
More than two hours later, three helicopters landed on the outskirts of Bate City.
The outline of Bate City seen from the air is a rectangular earth city surrounded by earth walls of varying heights. Most of the buildings inside are earth houses and thatched houses, and there are also a few magnificent stone buildings. They are probably palaces and official residences of nobles.
, a private residence or something like that.
The entire Bate city-state has a population of less than 50,000, and there are probably more than 20,000 residents in Tucheng.
After the helicopter lands.
On the grassy slope, a group of people hurried down, led by a middle-aged man wearing silk robes. They all looked at these helicopters in shock.
"Who is Mayor Lu?" Although the middle-aged man looked at the people who got off the plane, the young man seemed to have the highest status, but he was still a little unsure.
Lu Ming smiled and made a gesture.
He knew that the other party was sent by the chieftain family that he had sent a telegram to in Gravel City.
This family was the representative of Donghai Telegraph and Telephone Company in Nicolo, and they helped him contact them in a roundabout way.
In Bade City, it was the ruling model of the city lord and many chieftain nobles.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! In fact, toast is its own Chinese vocabulary to describe, more precisely, it is the city lord and the big and small landlords.
In a city-state with a population of less than 50,000, a total of forty or fifty families of city lords and chieftains are the real ruling class. The rest, except for a small number of merchants and craftsmen, free civilians, etc., are all serfs attached to them.
.
The chieftain he contacted was named Popolo. He was considered a relatively large chieftain in the Bate city-state. He owned tens of thousands of acres of land and had a population of three to four thousand manor serfs working for him.
In addition to the city lord, there are four major chieftains in Bate City, and the Popolo family is one of them.
I just don’t know what the status of the middle-aged man who came to receive me is in the Popolo family?
Judging from the fact that he can speak the Central Continent dialect, although he can't understand the weird things without thinking carefully, his status is probably not low.
After all, don't speak Zhongzhou dialect. Even Western languages are not compulsory for aristocratic families in a small city-state like Bade City, let alone domestic servants.
Moreover, being able to prepare to find the place where the helicopter landed is also a good level of education.
Because what my telegram said was that it was about three miles north of Bate City, at an angle of 30 degrees, on relatively flat grass or flat ground.
I was worried at first, not knowing if the other party's staff would understand what I meant.
Looking at it now, I have got all the key points I said.
"Mayor Lu!" A middle-aged man with a thick black beard walked over quickly, caressed his chest and bowed, "My name is Long Xiang, my father is the head of the Popolo family and one of the four white flag councilors in Batte City.
one."
Lu Ming nodded, some princely states in the Western Regions had weird power structures, and this Bate City was definitely one of them.
Also learning from the East, the city-state has a parliament, called the Yizhengyuan, which is a legislative body, but it is also a governing body. The city lord serves as the speaker, and the four chieftains are the four white flag members; there are also thirteen chieftains who are the yellow flag members. In fact, they are the middle chieftains.
; The remaining 20 or so chieftains are blue flag councilors and are actually small landowners.
After thinking about it randomly, Lu Ming smiled at the middle-aged man: "You speak Zhongzhou dialect quite well."
Long Xiang immediately smiled, but then he restrained himself and became extremely humble: "Since childhood, I have longed for the culture of Central China and the Holy City of the East China Sea. How lucky are you to receive the mayor today?"
Lu Ming nodded and added: "Most of our troops will arrive at night or tomorrow, so let's wait for them here. Is there a cooler place nearby?"
It is noon now, the sun is high in the sky, and we are in the southwest, so it is very hot.
But forget about entering the city. Now, not counting the four black slave guards, I have more than a dozen mercenaries, and I have to leave people to look after the helicopters and supplies. If I am ambushed when I enter the city, I think I am very capable of fighting here.
, but if caught off guard, casualties are inevitable.
Although this possibility is slim, we are unfamiliar with the place here, so we should always plan for the worst outcome, even if the probability of it happening is very small.
Long Xiang's sunken eyes blinked, "Mayor, if you don't want to go into the city now, my family has a manor thirty miles to the west. The environment there is good, and the furniture has just been cleaned.
They have all been replaced with new ones. My father was originally going to hide in spring. If the mayor doesn’t mind, how about we go there with your entourage first?"
Lu Ming didn't know what their custom of "hiding in spring" meant. He pondered for a moment and nodded: "Okay, let's go there."
A helicopter flew over a manor again. From a bird's eye view, everything was in full view. If the other party had bad intentions, he could take precautions.
…
This area is a plain, with large tracts of neat green farmland, and more than a hundred serfs' mud houses. On the grassy slope in the center surrounded by thatched huts, there is a stone earth castle, two circles of wooden fences, and one outer circle, which separates the serfs' mud houses.
, thatched houses are enclosed inside, and a layer of fence inside surrounds the grass slopes and earthen forts.
All this actually shows that the place is not peaceful. If there is an enemy attack, the two wooden fences represent the inner city and the outer city, which can organize the young serfs and guards to defend themselves against the enemy.
The helicopter happened to be parked on a grassy slope.
By the time Long Xiang and his entourage in a carriage arrived in a hurry, the serfs had already been scared away by the mercenaries firing shots.
Some serfs were obviously savage, aggressive and ignorant. They believed that these people came from nowhere. Although they were protected by flying monsters, they were scary, but if they invaded their master's house, they would die, and they had to drive away these monsters.
Led by a few die-hard elements, dozens of mobs armed with various farm tools immediately gathered. But as soon as a gunshot was fired, one die-hard element was hit in the leg. He knew the pain. He screamed, and everyone else started to scream.
Ran away.
After Uncle Sun took out the bullet and bandaged the diehard, Long Xiang and his servants hurriedly arrived.
Uncle Sun had a very steady hand. After following Lu Ming, he gained a lot of skills and learned simple wound treatment from the medical soldiers.
Of course, he had nothing to do with science, and his thinking was different from that of a doctor. He dared to do things like taking bullets, but since there was no hospital nearby, Lu Ming just let him handle it.
After Long Xiang arrived, he first beat the injured thug with a stick. If Lu Ming hadn't stopped him, he might have beaten the thug to death.
It was obviously something that was commonplace. The mob didn't seem to resent the host family, but was just afraid of begging for mercy.
Looking at this scene, Lu Ming didn't know what to feel in his heart.
I am also very fortunate that the education I received in my past and present lives has broadened my horizons. If I had been raised in the living environment of these serfs, I would not be any different from them.
Of course, if we delve deeper into the rules of human society, the vast majority of people are no different from the serfs in front of us. They support the upper class and are exploited by the upper class, but they are grateful in the information cocoon and think that they are
You are the master, sometimes you just don’t work hard enough.
In this regard, there is no difference between China and foreign countries in ancient and modern times.
In this world, can I enter the class outside the Three Realms? The class that really makes the rules of society?
While Lu Ming was in a daze, Long Xiang came to apologize again, saying that it was a temporary arrangement. The mayor's aircraft was too fast, so he had no time to inform these ignorant slaves.
Although there was a telephone in the castle, no one dared to go in and answer it.
Lu Ming just said it didn't matter.
Then Long Xiang led Lu Ming into the castle and introduced him to the layout of the room.
It seems that this three-story earthen fortress has just been washed by water a few days ago, and the furniture and other items are all new.
From the first to the third floor, the iron plates of the windows can fall down and turn into narrow shooting holes.
The first floor is a utility room, maid's room, etc.
The second and third floors are the master's living quarters, bathroom, etc. There are large iron buckets on the top of the castle to supply hot water.
Lu Ming felt that in a western city-state, the accommodation conditions were considered acceptable.
The bedrooms on the third floor are equipped with telephones, and even the telephones are brand new.
It seems that this custom of "hiding in spring" is very particular among the local nobles.
However, the telephone is a rocker type. You shake it to the node, say you want to call there, and the node connects to the next node, and finally to the terminal you want to call.
It's very troublesome, and only a very small number of households have telephones installed, so this kind of manual switch can meet the demand.
"In Bate City, there are very few tourists or businessmen coming to invest in Zhongzhou. You should know Liu Shoufu, right? He was also mentioned in the telegram sent this morning. Which police station is he being held in now? What's going on?" Visited
Behind the third floor, Lu Ming asked Long Xiang.
It's a small town of 20,000 people and it belongs to the White Flag Chieftain family, so they shouldn't be unaware of it.
There are four police stations in Bate City, one near each city gate, and four police officers. The convention is that each of the four Baiqi families selects one.
Long Xiang nodded lightly: "Actually, before the mayor sent the telegram, the villain and the villain's father did not know about this. We knew that Mr. Liu was traveling locally. There has been no news in the past few days.
I thought I had left."
"After receiving the telegram from the Mayor, I went to investigate. Fortunately, I fulfilled my mission. I found out that Mr. Liu was detained at the Dongmen Public Security Station. The Mayor should know that we have four Baiqi families, one for each.
When the enemy attacks, each guard their own gate. The economic Luo family of the East Gate Public Security Station has always been at odds with the villain family. Moreover, their family has always been married to the lord of Dingshan City, and Dingshan City is our city-state's ally against Bailu City.
, is the city lord, and the Luo family is very important to the economy..."
After saying this, he paused for a moment, smiled bitterly, and said, "But don't worry, sir..."
Lu Ming nodded when he heard this: "Thank you very much. If so, please accompany me to the Dongmen Public Security Bureau. From now on, I am Mr. Liu Shoufu's defense lawyer. I need to see my client, Bate."
Although the city has its own state law, it is only a matter of similarities and differences between the laws and regulations. The existence of courts and lawyers is inevitable according to the imperial constitution, right? Moreover, I think your state’s state law and the suspects are also informed during the arrest stage.
to the power of a lawyer.”
It seems that what Long Xiang said is not a lie. Under this situation, there is no problem in entering the city.
Long Xiang hesitated for a moment, "Okay, I'll make arrangements now."
