Qiwei prepared a salt ship, which is a kind of cargo ship that travels on the Beijiang waterway. It is named because it is mostly used to transport table salt. It is not limited to transporting salt. Because it has a shallow draft, it is suitable for shallow water channels and can carry
It is suitable for both cargo and passengers, so Qiweizhan purchased some when he established the inland river fleet.
For this mission, the ship has been refitted at the Hong Kong Shipyard and has enough space to accommodate the entire staff traveling team and accompanying escorts. Because there are many bandits in the Xijiang and Beijiang basins, the cabins have been reinforced and the arches of the reed mats are
The underside of the ceiling was lined with iron sheets. The rear tower was also raised, iron plates were installed on the side walls, and a gimbal was installed for mounting the machine gun.
At this time, two large lanterns were hung on the bow of the ship with Song characters written on them. One was "Jinyiwei Foshan Hundred Households" and the other was "Jinyiwei Hereditary Baihulin". A powerful escort flag was also hung at the stern.
It is quite powerful on both the public and private sides. Generally, thieves would not dare to stir things up when they are too old.
Lin Ming originally planned to take a servant out, but when he went to the side of the ship, he saw that the Australians were all in simple carriages and did not bring any servants. It would be too garish to bring a servant, so he had to ask the servant to go back and carry it himself.
Went on board the ship with our luggage.
When he saw that the ship was a salt ship, he couldn't help but secretly complained: Although the ship was big, the passengers on the ship had a very hard time. They just sat and lay on the salt bags, not to mention that they could eat like a flower boat on an official ship.
Drink and have fun, and when you are tired, you can lie down and sleep soundly. It's just not as good as an ordinary ship - at least there are seats on the ship.
Climbing down the steps from the small door on the bow, we saw that the inside was completely different. The spacious cabin had been divided into different cabins. The front cabin was the largest, with a large table in the center, and the table legs were fixed to the ship's board.
"Lin Baihu, please come this way." The sailor who led the way led him to the back cabin. There were doors on both sides of a short corridor. Tax opened one of the doors.
"You and Mr. Xie will share a room."
This cabin is extremely small, and you can see it at a glance when you stand at the door. The bed is divided into upper and lower floors, and there are small tables, stools and cabinets beside the bed. It is not only exquisite and beautiful, but also practical. The ingenious use of space and area impressed him even more.
.The so-called dojo in a snail shell, Australians really have this ability!
After settling his luggage, Lin Ming walked to the front cabin. The ceiling here was inlaid with glass tiles, and the light was very bright. There was a large piece of flat glass on the table, and there seemed to be a painting underneath. Lin Ming glanced at it, and it seemed that
It was a map. His heart was beating wildly. He didn't dare to look at it anymore - this was a map required by the military plane. He just sat down on the bench beside the cabin and pretended to browse the scenery outside the window.
Within a moment, three Australians came together. Lin Ming quickly stood up to greet them.
"There is no need to be too polite." Thorpe waved his hand, "The space on the boat is too small, so there is no need to be so polite. Let's sail as soon as possible."
The salt boat started slowly and headed along the river to Sanshui County.
It is only 30 kilometers from Foshan Town to Hekou Town, where Sanshui County is located. Boating against the current relies entirely on manpower to rock the oar and the occasional wind. The boat travels very slowly. It cannot cover four or five kilometers in an hour. Lin Ming is used to this.
It was a slow-paced trip, but Thorpe and the others found it a little unbearable to sail at a slow pace: they were traveling on a sailing ship like the T800. They could travel at four or five knots in an hour.
"At this rate, when can we reach Sanshui County?" Cummins couldn't help but ask.
"It's time to make dinner." Lin Ming said.
The waterway of less than 30 kilometers started early in the morning and arrived at night. This was the normal travel speed in the 17th century. In the past, taking a boat would have been boring during the day. Lin Ming mostly played cards and drank wine with guests or his wives, but now he could only stay in silence.
Sitting there, watching a few Australians busy at work.
The bearded man and the young man had been sitting on the bow of the boat, writing and drawing in a book, and from time to time giving pointers. Master Nasuo didn't write or draw, he just mentioned it every once in a while.
He took a small box to the stern of the ship. Lin Ming looked at it coldly and saw that sometimes it was a Western "telescope" looking around, and sometimes it was an incomprehensible copper thing facing the sun.
Hope, I don’t know what the fuss is about.
As for the accompanying escorts, they were also restless. In addition to being vigilant on all sides, they used bamboo poles or plumb bobs to measure the water depth whenever they went to river bends, shoals, bridgeheads and other places. Whenever they crossed bridges, they used bamboo poles to make gestures as usual: this is measuring.
The height of the bridge opening.
Sometimes these three people would not be gesticulating outside, but would be sitting around the big table, talking and writing and drawing on the glass plate with pens. What they said was all in the so-called "Newspeak" of Australians, and Lin Ming could barely understand it.
, it's just that they use words like "contour line", "flow rate", "hydrology" and so on. Although they roughly know what the words are, they don't know what they mean.
He didn't dare to show a boring expression of disinterest, and he was afraid that he would arouse the other party's suspicion by being too concerned, so he had to carefully keep a distance. He just started serving tea and water, except for them asking questions.
Say a word.
For Thorpe and others, the area they are currently passing through does not require much effort. The Qiwei Escort Bureau has a lot of activities here and has accumulated a lot of hydrological data. They only need to investigate certain information in a targeted manner.
He set off early in the morning and sailed all the way until noon, but he didn't smell the fragrance coming from the kitchen at the back: Lin Ming saw that the Australians probably didn't treat them with fine wine and fine food, and most of them just had a simple meal. Okay.
I brought a lot of street food with me, which can be used as a meal.
Thorpe saw that the sun had reached the middle, took out his pocket watch and saw that it was already past twelve o'clock, then waved his hand: "Eat!"
Xie Peng immediately took a rag from under the table and wiped the glass table clean. Cummins took out a few packages of things from the locker under the bench, placed them on the table, and invited everyone to sit down and eat.
Lin Baihu hurried over. He had seen "Australian food" ranging from high to low in Lingao, but what he saw in front of him was different from any "Australian food" in his memory.
Let's just say that this tableware is unheard of: Each person has an iron cylinder, shaped like a kidney. It has a lid and a handle. When the lid is turned over, it seems to be a bowl. Each person also has a small iron plate with a handle.
cup.
There were a bunch of large and small paper boxes in the middle of the table. There was no food or rice, so he couldn't help but secretly wonder: What are they eating?
While he was hesitating, the accompanying escort brought a thermos. This thing is now quite popular around Guangzhou, and almost every household above the middle class has one.
Lin Ming saw the three Australians taking out several rectangular paper bags and peeling them apart, so he followed suit and took a piece.
However, he saw small black characters printed on the paper: Grassland Series Compressed Ration (Plain Type A), Sesame Nut Flavor, Ready to Eat. Printed below was 200kj/100g. Lin Ming only knew that these were the words "Big Food Number" and "Frang Machine".
Looking further down, it read: "With hot water", "Mixed with 2 to 3 times of water", "High-energy porridge", "Better taste". Lin Ming pondered for a long time and it seemed that it had solidified after drying.
Porridge can be eaten directly. It will taste better after heating water, right?
Looking at the Australians, Thorpe and Xie Peng added water and ate it with a spoon, but Cummins ate it directly with his hands.
He decided to take a bite first. The ration was very dry and hard, with a vague taste, a little sweet and a little salty, with only a little aroma of rice flour and oil. The taste was much different, like chewing sand. It only took a long time to chew.
You can feel the slight aroma of sesame and dried fruits in your mouth. However, this stuff is dry and hard. You can't even swallow it without drinking water. It's really difficult to bite off both pieces in this bag.
So I poured hot water over the hard dough. I thought it would soften immediately, but it turned out that the lump refused to give in and had to be smashed with a spoon. It took a while before it became completely soft.
So inside the iron cylinder was a dusty, mushy substance that smelled both sour and sweet. If you looked closely, you could see that this stuff was absorbing water and bubbling at the same time.
He mustered up the courage to take a bite, and couldn't help but frown secretly: What kind of strange smell is this... Although it is not too unpleasant, it is very, very weird. Lin Ming has never experienced this kind of taste in his more than thirty years of eating experience.
Watching three Australians eating this stuff with cold expressions, it was obvious that their feelings were similar to mine...
"Let's drink some pickled mustard." Seeing his strange expression, Xie Peng knew that he couldn't bear the teething stick, so he pushed a small oil paper bag on the table to him.
Lin Ming took a look and saw that this small oil paper bag was wrapped very well. There was also a note on it with black characters printed on it: "Refreshing Pickled Vegetables".
What is this pickled mustard? He was secretly suspicious and wanted not to eat it, but it was too disrespectful to the Australians. He immediately thought hard and opened the paper package. Inside was a small piece of crumpled some kind of mustard.
The pickles were blue-grey. They didn’t look very appetizing, so I took a bite with hesitation. They tasted pretty good: neither greasy nor strange, salty but light in texture. It had a crunchy texture when I bit it.
Taste.
With this thing to accompany the meal, the strange paste was finally not so unpalatable. He couldn't help but secretly regret that he would have taken out the vegetables first if he had known better.
The hot tea that was brought out next was normal. Although it was dark in color and tasted inferior, almost brick tea, it was still tea. Unexpectedly, it was followed by an oil paper bag for each person. Lin Ming picked it up and looked at it: the black words on it
It's an "energy bar", I don't know what to explain. When I opened it, I smelled a familiar aroma: isn't this the smell of mooncakes? Are Australians already preparing for the Mid-Autumn Festival?
When he opened it, it turned out to be a pastry similar to a moon cake, but it was just a long strip. Lin Ming was slightly relieved. If it were a moon cake, he could still eat it. After taking a bite, he found that it was indeed a moon cake, filled with red bean paste, and filled with oil and sugar.
, except for the fact that the bean skin was not removed and the suet was not diced, which was a bit disappointing, everything else was quite satisfactory. (To be continued. (.))