Shanghai is an international metropolis. This huge city is filled with merchants of various colors and clothing, including white people, black people, brown-skinned people, and Japanese and Koreans who look like Ming Dynasty people. These may
If foreigners with red hair, high noses and sunken eyes, or as black as carbon appeared in other parts of the Ming Dynasty, they would be regarded as aliens, but in the eyes of Shanghai people, they are just ordinary.
This huge city covers an extremely large area and is densely populated. Tall and gorgeous palace-style buildings coexist with short and simple shanties. What is even more shocking is that such a huge city was actually built in more than ten years. It is said that
At that time, the speed of housing construction in Shanghai was far faster than that in other places. It only took seven days to build a house on average. It was sometimes called "Shanghai Speed".
Shanghai has rapidly developed from a small county to a metropolis. The millions of residents are certainly not locals. They come from various provinces in the Ming Dynasty and various countries around the world. Among them, immigrants from Ningbo account for a considerable proportion, and then from the north of South Zhili
Immigration, there used to be a place at the junction of Ming and Qing Dynasties. War broke out frequently and people were in dire straits, so many families moved. The popular official language in Shanghai Road is Jianghuai Mandarin, which is the Mandarin of the Ming Dynasty. Central Plains dialects, Jiangsu and Zhejiang dialects also account for a considerable proportion.
Those foreigners usually can speak a few words of Mandarin, otherwise they won’t be able to get along at all.
Another feature of Shanghai Road is that there is no city wall. The city is too big. The original Shanghai County city wall has long been demolished. Dense buildings are everywhere. The banks of the Huangpu River are full of ships and merchants. The houses here are
Shanghai's relatively high-end residential areas not only have Ming-style buildings with raised ridges and cornices, but also many Baroque and Byzantine-style foreign buildings. Japanese-style buildings with wooden boards and white paper and Nanyang-style buildings with stilts and straw huts are also on the market.
However, such low-cost houses are usually built by the poor dockworkers and vendors in Zhabei.
Shanghai is a port city and a trading city. A huge amount of import and export in the Ming Dynasty took place here. The silks and satins from Songjiang in Suzhou and Hangzhou, the porcelain from Jingdezhen, the ironware from Xuzhou, and the machine parts from Changzhou were all gathered here, and thousands of them were installed.
Large sailing ships from overseas or steamships from the Ming Dynasty were transported to the sea, and goods from all over the world were accepted: gold and silver, spices, raw materials, good horses, beauties, etc. At the same time, Shanghai’s local handicrafts and agricultural and sideline industries were also very developed, and gold
Candied fruit, salted ham, smoked ham, pig casings, Pudong chicken, fragrant japonica rice, Yangxing cucumber, Jiading white garlic, and Zhangjiang Yaoling are all well-known brands.
The main rivers in Shanghai are the Huangpu River, Suzhou River and Yangtze River. The Huangpu River originates from Dianshan Lake in the southeast of Taihu Lake, flows to Wusong and enters the sea through the Yangtze River Estuary. The Suzhou River (also known as Wusong River) originates from Taihu Lake near Suzhou and communicates with Shanghai.
It plays a big role in connecting with the mainland. In ancient times, the river that flows into the sea alone was called "Du", so Shanghai was called "Shanghai Du", or "Shanghai" for short.
When he came to the edge of the city, Liu Ziguang couldn't help but secretly admired. Standing on the hill and looking from a distance, he saw a huge city without city walls in front of him. This was the most open and developed port city in the Ming Dynasty, and it was also the capital of the Ming Dynasty.
The product of the development of socialism to a certain level. The exchange of Eastern and Western cultures has made the people here more flexible and less bound by tradition. According to the information from Nanchang, Shanghai Road is less controlled by the imperial court than Suzhou and Hangzhou. Here
The wealthy family was as rich as the enemy, and they also controlled a considerable number of private soldiers. The governor of Shanghai, Chen Liangjue, had been an official for many years and had many connections in Shanghai. He was well-connected in the city and was ruthless at critical moments. He was by no means as easy to deal with as Cao Yin.
The water in Shanghai is too deep, and the secret power of the wealthy families is so strong that there are almost no valuable clues in the files kept by Dongchang. In order to find the truth, Liu Ziguang decided to conduct a private visit incognito. His partner in the private visit was Japanese.
Hu Yimin, the chief shopkeeper of Shengchang, the strength of this heroine cannot be underestimated. There are fifty swordsmen who come to Shanghai to accompany them this time. Each of them is an orphan raised by the Hu family since they were young. Although
He didn’t have much reputation in the world, but he was ruthless and ruthless. He was definitely a team with super combat effectiveness. In order to create the illusion that he was still in Suzhou, Liu Ziguang did not bring any soldiers of the red shirt regiment. Liu Xiao
Mao and Han Xueer were both left in the Grand View Garden, and he rushed to Shanghai alone with Miss Hu.
Since it was a private visit incognito, the clothing should not be too flamboyant. An ordinary carriage and ordinary cloth clothes. The two pretended to be scholars and entered the bustling Shanghai. Rishengchang's bodyguards were scattered around to protect them. Hu Yimin had seen Liu Ziguang.
With such great skills, there is nothing to be afraid of when she has such a powerful enemy by her side. This is not her first time in Shanghai, but it is her first time to walk the streets of Shanghai so lightly, so she looks brisk in her steps and smiles brightly.
Shanghai is an undefended city. There are almost no officers and soldiers patrolling the streets. People of all kinds come and go on the streets. There are restaurants and tea shops one after another on both sides of the road, with colorful flags flying everywhere. Unlike the capital,
The restaurants here have a dazzling array of signs, such as Japanese raw fish feast, French snail meal, Spanish turkey, English steak, all unheard of foreign dishes, and there are also charming shops in the street alleys, with faces painted white and dressed in
Bow-legged Japanese women in kimonos and clogs, dark-skinned Nanyang girls wearing scantily clad clothes, and fair-skinned and slutty Western girls all stood at the door of the store, selling themselves to the men passing by in less than authentic Mandarin.
It was such an exotic scene that Liu Ziguang could not take in anything. He saw Arabs wearing turbans and scimitars at their waists, short-legged Japanese ronin, Europeans with slender swords, and Nanyang people with rags hanging around them.
Of course, the majority of the indigenous people are the Ming people with buns on their heads and long robes on the right side. People of all races drink tea and eat together, chatting and communicating in different languages.
There are many types of currency used by these barbarians. They are basically gold and silver coins, but the weight, pattern, and purity are different. Over time, merchants have figured out the rules. These complicated coins have their own fixed exchange rates.
, the Spaniard's Eagle Ocean is of the best quality, the British Queen's Head can also be used, the gold coins of the Song Dynasty are the most popular hard currency, the Ming Dynasty's silver ingots are all-inclusive, and the Rishengchang's silver notes are the opposite.
Not a lot.
Hu Yimin explained that these foreigners were merchants who came and went in a hurry and were accustomed to carrying hard currency with them. Moreover, Rishengchang did not have a branch overseas at present, so banknotes could only be used by domestic merchants. Rishengchang
The semicolon in Shanghai plays more of a cashing role. Merchants from all over the country come to Shanghai with their banknotes, and then withdraw the money from the semicolon to buy goods from foreigners. Foreigners sometimes also collect cash.
Tickets, but only when purchasing goods locally. In the end, they still have to exchange the banknotes for real money when they leave.
"Let's go to the famous Bund and have a look. The Shipping Office is located there." Hu Yimin suggested. Secretly investigating the Shipping Office was the main purpose of their trip, and Liu Ziguang of course readily agreed.
Lin Sheng is from Gaoqiao Nan, Jiangdong, Huangpu. His parents died when he was young. He was raised by his uncle until he was 14 years old and went to Shanghai alone for eight years. Now he is 22 years old and has not yet married. Every day
Pushing a small cart to the Bund to sell fruit and earn some small money to survive.
Lin Sheng's knife skills are very good. He can peel off the peel of a pear with one hand with a knife without breaking the middle. He also likes to make friends. All the vendors who eat on the Bund know him and are given nicknames.
“Fruit Asheng”
The weather is very good today, and several foreign cargo ships have docked. People who have been traveling at sea for several months need to replenish fruits and vegetables. The vendors on the Bund all know this. The first thing those sailors do when they get off the ship is
Buy some juicy and sweet fruits and eat them before you go find a bitch.
But the limelight in the past few days has been very wrong. The government has to clean up these small stalls every now and then. It is said that the imperial envoy is coming, and they will not allow the city appearance to be destroyed by them. This will be fatal. The small stalls are already making a lot of money.
Lin Sheng is not afraid of the hard-earned money that comes and goes without going out of the stall for a day. Anyway, he can feed the whole family by himself, but the other dealers who take care of their families are in misery.
There are not only seniors and young children in the family, but in order to prevent the whole family from going hungry, these small vendors always set up their stalls secretly when the government is not paying attention.
Lin Sheng set up the wheelbarrow as usual and arranged the fruits neatly. It was autumn now and only local water radishes were available. The green radishes were cut into petals, rich in juice, refreshing and delicious. Made of a handful of iron slices
The fruit knife was placed on the desk, with a rag wrapped around the handle and a cold light shining on the blade.
Lin Sheng took out a clay pot and sprinkled water on the radish to make the radish appear more juicy and beautiful. While he was concentrating on this work, two carriages had quietly surrounded them from both ends of the road. The carriages
Sitting on the top of the car was an official wearing a dark green official robe, soap boots and a black hat. There was an eye-catching sign on the rear of the car, with eight characters written in serious official script: "Visiting the city for law enforcement, stop at any time."