Chapter 2 Chapter One

Today's Yincheng people can no longer smell the smell of burning cow dung.In the Ming and Qing dynasties or longer for six or seven hundred years, the people of Yincheng have been using dried cow dung as fuel to boil water and cook rice.The housewives put the split dried cow dung cakes into the stove, and then slowly pulled the bellows. With the help of the wind, the fire was uniform and strong. Occasionally, there would be a trace of green smoke coming out of the stove. The smell was not bad, only some Slight grassy smell, plus a bit of smoke from burnt broad beans.Thus, the long history of Silver City is filled with the pyrotechnics of dried cow dung.

During these long hundreds of years, cooking with dried cow dung was the most common part of the life of Yincheng people.Making cow dung into cow dung cakes for sale was once the most reliable and easy-to-obtain occupation.In Yincheng, all coolies who work with cattle can get cow dung for free, so they can make cow dung cakes.When someone is overwhelmed, they often have to call in the bullpoop to do it.Only those who specialize in making cow dung cakes are called cow dung customers by the people of Yincheng.The finished dried cow dung cake is called cow dung.The hillside where cow dung cakes are dried is called cow dung slope.The market selling cow dung cakes is called cow dung alley.The so-called firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea, sugar, among the eight necessities of life, cow dung cake is the "firewood" of Yincheng people, which is indispensable for 365 days a year. .When the market is stable, one tael of silver can be exchanged for six hundred copper coins, and in bad years, one tael of silver can be exchanged for fifteen hundred copper coins.In Yincheng, one hundred catties of coal costs three hundred coins, one hundred catties of firewood costs two hundred coins, and one hundred catties of cow dung cake costs only one hundred coins.The cheap and easy-to-use cow dung cake is of course the most suitable for the needs of ordinary people.Every morning and evening, cow dung collectors would put the dried cow dung cakes into bamboo racks and gather in the cow dung alley with bamboo poles.Or simply use a grass circle to cushion the top of the head, stack cow dung cakes high on the head, beat two bamboo boards in hand, and sell them along the street.Hearing the banging of bamboo boards, a housewife would lean out of the house and wave her hand, cow dung man, turn around, turn around! 

All historical documents about Silver City have fatally ignored the pyrotechnics of cow dung cakes.All people who are fluent in writing think self-righteously that the history of man is not the history of cattle.Therefore, if you search through the historical records, you will not be able to smell the smoke from the dried cow dung, and you will not be able to find out the ins and outs of the Longhorn residents, and you will not see any relationship between the cow dung people and the prosperous Silver City. .Only the housewives of Yincheng, from generation to generation, firmly believe that if there is no cattle and cheap and easy-to-use dried cow dung cakes, it is impossible to live in peace, and there will be no Yincheng and everything in Yincheng.There are countless salt wells, salt merchants, and silver in Yincheng, but if there are no cattle, the carts will not turn, the wells will not be dug, and the brine will not be brought up. Everything is empty talk. The history of Yincheng will lose motivation.For six or seven hundred years or more, there were more than 30,000 cattle, buffaloes, living in Yincheng with more than 100,000 to 200,000 people.These 30,000 Changjiao residents have to eat 50 million catties of broad beans, 320 million catties of grain and grass, and 1.8 billion catties of green grass every year. The total amount of silver spent on these three items is 1.3 billion. Wanliang up and down.Among the 30,000 head of cattle, about 5,000 are retired every year due to injury, old age, illness, or death.The slaughter of these 5,000 cattle, and the processing and trading of beef, butter, cowhide, horns, and bones led to some long-lasting industries and transactions.The most abundant beef and the most discerning tastes of salt merchants for hundreds of years have created a famous food called Huobianzi Beef.When everything in Yincheng became forgotten and abandoned in the past, Huobianzi Beef actually replaced all documents and records and remained in people's tongues, passed down from generation to generation, and its reputation spread far and wide.In order to replenish new cattle, a well-known bull market was formed in Gaoshanchang and Jiming Town around Yincheng.Every third, sixth, and ninth day of the month, the market opens to sell cattle.Among them, the spring market on March 23 and the autumn market on August 23 are the most grand, and more than 3,000 cattle are traded in these two markets in a year.In the bull market, bulls are classified into upper, middle, and lower grades, and each cow ranges from thirty taels to one hundred taels of silver.Based on the average price of 72 taels, 5,000 head of cattle is another transaction of 350,000 taels of silver.Every twenty-five cows need a strong man to feed and serve them. In addition to cutting hay, feeding, drinking water, cleaning the shed, and feeding medicine for healing, the cows have to be driven to Yantang or Silver Stream to take a bath in hot weather. , In addition, once a month, the cattle must be irrigated with medicine to clear the intestines - "open the trough".This business is called Niu Brand.Thirty thousand cattle require 1,200 capable cattle brands.When a cow gets on a cart, it needs someone to drive it, and it has to change from stopping, walking, speeding, and slowing down.Every five cows need a small cart, and 30,000 cows need 6,000 small carts.On the salt well in Yincheng, the cows have never been stopped.Therefore, these 30,000 buffaloes, 1,200 cattle brands, and 6,000 small carts are integrated with the craftsmen on the salt well, turning the carts non-stop, day and night, regardless of cold or heat.Thirty thousand black and gray buffaloes, shaking their huge bodies and their beautiful horns, blinked their kind and docile eyes, quietly pulling Yincheng into the incomplete and indistinguishable past.

Silver City, rich in well salt and natural gas, has always been a prosperous city.Hundreds of salt wells are crowded between the large and small valleys on both sides of the Yinxi River, and derricks several or ten feet high stand on the wellheads.In order to transport the boiled brine, in the forests of the derricks on both sides of the valley, there are tens of miles of bamboo pipes coiled like giant pythons.People in Yincheng call the derrick made of Chinese fir a crane, and the pipes connected with bamboo are called pipes.Below the crane is a pulley, and the cow pulls the winch, babbling, turning around day and night, lifting the bamboo ropes with chisels or buckets from the salt wells tens to hundreds of feet deep, and sending them to the village. Down.Most of the dug salt wells are surrounded by dozens or hundreds of raging fire rings burning with natural gas, and the large iron pot on the fire is full of salty brine.Yincheng produces an average of 420 million catties of well salt per year, and pays salt taxes of more than five million taels of silver every year.Half of the province's total tax revenue comes from Yincheng.The sails and masts of the salt boats moored on the Yinxi pier are like forests.There is an endless stream of caravans carrying salt from Yunnan, Guizhou and Kangzang.With the prosperity of the salt industry, bamboo industry, wood industry, iron industry, animal industry, grain industry, transportation industry, construction industry, financial industry, all industries are booming.Even veterinary medicine is a transaction of hundreds of thousands of taels of silver a year.People in Yincheng never observe the farming time of working at sunrise and resting at sunset.After the sun goes down and it gets dark, thousands of fire rings still blaze into the sky. There are 800 shops in the old and new cities and the lamps are hung in front of the gates of the wealthy salt merchants. The artisans who do night work on the crane hang countless butter lanterns. , the lights of the salt boats flickered on the waters of Silver Creek.There is a saying: You can't count the sparks in the sky and the lights of Yincheng.The ever-lit Yincheng, where merchants gather, the bustling, rich Yincheng, the inexhaustible Yincheng, looks abrupt and grotesque in the farming era when the land is vast and sparsely populated; Almost irrational.

The man who sweats profusely, drying one hundred catties of dried cow dung cakes for one hundred copper coins, is the most humble coolie in Yincheng.In those years when the money was flowing like water, no one remembered how many cow dung cakes were burned in Yincheng, let alone how many cow dung customers there were in Yincheng. However, in the second year of the Xuantong reign of the Qing Dynasty, in the autumn of 1910 AD, to be exact, on the fifth day after the Mid-Autumn Festival, the bullshit man named Wangcai still picked up the piece of shit from the reeds on the bank of Yinxi River. Bamboo slices.The clear river water drips from the bamboo pieces and elbows, knocking out flowing ripples on the river surface.

Like other colleagues, Wangcai is either hired to make cow dung cakes every day, or goes to Niushipo to make cow dung cakes himself.Wangcai and his colleagues collected fresh cow dung, mixed it with an appropriate amount of crushed hay, added a little water, and then repeatedly trampled on the dung mud with bare feet until the broken grass and cow dung were evenly mixed.The work is a lot like using straw mud for plastering walls.After stepping on the dung and mud, spread a layer of fine broken grass on the dry and flat ground, spread the trampled cow dung on the broken grass one by one with a shovel, and then use a trowel to smooth it one by one. round dung cakes.The diameter of the dung cake is one foot and five inches, thick on the outside and thin on the inside, gradually reducing from one inch thick on the outer edge to less than half an inch in the center.When it is half-dried in the sun, stand up the dung cake and pierce a hole in the center, tie two bamboo slices one finger wide and one and a half feet long into a cross-shaped bracket with a straw rope woven by Ma Lian, and use the grass rope to pierce the hole. The bracket can lift the dung cake in the air, and then hang the half-dried cow dung cake to air-dry in a place sheltered from rain and ventilation.If the weather is fine, the dried cow dung cakes will be ready for ten and a half months.Wangcai worked hard when stepping on the cow dung, and was careful when wiping it. Therefore, the cow dung cakes he made were all good products with a bright exterior and a tight interior, and strong firepower.

In the autumn of 1910, when Wangcai accidentally picked up a piece of bamboo from the reeds by the river and looked it over carefully, he saw two pieces of bamboo sandwiched between the reed stalks.Wangcai dipped in the water for two steps, then scooped them up again.On each piece of bamboo someone wrote in black ink.Wangcai can't read.But Wangcai felt that the bamboo piece was more than one foot long and one or two inches wide, and it was split in the middle to tie a cross to dry cow dung cakes.Wangcai looked around, hoping to see more bamboo pieces.The rolling Silver Stream glows golden in the setting sun, and the bay above Xiashuiguan is crowded with wooden boats waiting to load salt, and the wooden boats are holding up a piece of golden mast.The sparse reeds around him swayed back and forth in the golden light, but unfortunately, there was nothing Wangcai was looking for in the splendor everywhere.

Because he made good cow dung cakes and was diligent and honest, Wangcai had a little reputation among housewives in Yincheng.After accepting the cow dung cakes and paying the copper coins, they sometimes scooped up a bowl of herbal tea and handed it to Wangcai, watching Wangcai swallowing the herbal tea like a buffalo with a gurgling sound in his throat.The women will kindly advise him to make money, and you will not be able to make money if you are a cow dung for a lifetime. Why don't you learn the same craft anymore?In the next day, I will get married and start a business, and have a baby.Women often simplify the most difficult things in the world into the most irrefutable truths.Hearing this kind of talk too much, Wangcai no longer defended himself, only saying that he was born to be a cow dung.When he said this, Wangcai had an apologetic smile all over his face, as if he had done something very sorry for others, especially for the well-intentioned herbal tea in the bowls of housewives.The housewives don't know that the dull smile on that face is a shield for Wangcai.Wangcai is not as simple and stupid as the housewives think, Wangcai just doesn't want to explain his fate to everyone.Even if he is not thirsty, Wangcai still drinks herbal tea.Wangcai knew that he could not refuse the women's kindness.Wangcai does not always drink herbal tea to quench his thirst, but often to satisfy the host and to bring in his own cow dung cake next time.

Wangcai turned back from the river and looked at the handwriting he didn't recognize.Because he was so close, he could smell the fishy smell of water washed out by the sand on his hands.The peaceful sunset on Yuquan Mountain creates a resplendent phantom on the water surface of Yinxi River, turning the naked Wangcai into a radiant statue.Wangcai, who was tired all afternoon, did not feel that he was a god in the phantom.Wangcai had just washed his hands and feet covered in cow dung with the sand from the river.On the river bank behind Wangcai, his ragged clothes and sandals were spread out, and the cow dung slope not far away was filled with cow dung cakes he had just made.Old clothes, straw sandals and neatly arranged cow dung cakes also fell into the phantom of splendor.Wangcai is a clean cow dung eater.After finishing his work every day, Wangcai would come to the Silver Stream to scrub himself clean.The sediment at the bottom of the river is the cheapest and best soap.When it was hot, he would take off his clothes and swim happily in the river for a while.There is no severe winter in Silver City, and Silver Creek never freezes over.Therefore, even in winter, Wangcai has to stand in the cold water by the river to scrub himself clean.Although most of the cow dung collectors also come to wash in the Silver Stream, they are not as careful as Wangcai, and they are not as fond of water as Wangcai.Colleagues often joked about Wangcai who was left in the cold water. They all said, your brother is not a shopkeeper, and secondly, he is not a master. If he is clean and white, why not go to the mandarin duck building to meet his younger sister?Could it be that it was washed for the third sister of Cai Liu's family?Wangcai, who is full of blood, ignored these ridicules, and went to the river to wash as usual.Now, Wangcai has been washed and swam.The swollen Yinxi River is like a plump and mature woman, carrying the brilliant cloud array of the river, passing through Yincheng, passing through Xiashui Pass, passing through Wangcai's strong and naked body, passing through Aiye Beach, and heading towards the vastness and slowness in the distance. Slow down.This river, which brought great wealth to Yincheng, will flow into Qingyi River at Guanyinkou, and then it will flow into the Yangtze River together with Qingyi River.Standing in the slow river, Wangcai suddenly remembered that he had seen bamboo pieces with words written on them in Niuwang Temple. A few words, the Taoist is based on those words to predict good luck.Could it be that the Dragon Lord put the bamboo sticks in the Silver Stream today?Thinking of this, Wangcai grasped the three bamboo pieces for writing in his rough and strong hands, and smiled slightly, as if he had received some small gift.Wangcai thought, I want to try whether the magic lotus of Lord Dragon works.Wangcai thought again, what he heard may not be true, and Cai Liuniang may not have changed his mind.But Wangcai hesitated soon. He looked up at the towering city wall in the glow on the other side of the river, and knew that his dream was a bit like the glow on the wall. When the sun went down, there would be nothing left.Thinking of this, Wangcai seemed to be afraid of losing some treasure, and subconsciously, he held the bamboo stick in his hand very tightly.

Wangcai didn't know that he had unknowingly picked up something called history by others. Soldiers carried a large bamboo basket dripping with blood from the street into the open hall of Huixian Tea House. The bright red blood flowed down from the gaps in the bamboo strips like a water column. The moment the bottom of the basket fell to the ground, Nie Qinxuan could clearly hear the blood dripping down. Buzzing and splashing.Nie Qinxuan felt that the blood was splashing straight into his eyes. In the darkness with his eyes closed, Nie Qinxuan understood that he, a veteran of the green battalion who has been eliminated, and an outsider, now has nowhere to go, but can only fight for this troubled world. The endgame is desperate.In the bloody bamboo basket were some fragments of clothes, and a pile of limbs, internal organs, and flesh and blood that were also fragments.What can be distinguished are half of a skull with braids, two gums with molars attached, three legs, half of an arm, a few pieces of torn breastbones, a few bloody hearts and lungs, some intestines, and floating in the air. Few fingers on the surface.The slender nails on the slender fingers were intact, and one of the fingers was covered with a gold ring inlaid with green emeralds.On top of this basket of flesh and blood and fragments of clothes was Mr. Yuan's fourth-grade top hat. The flower feather behind the hat had long since disappeared, and on the top of the blood-stained hat, the sky-blue lapis lazuli was still intact. Shining miraculously in the blur.The oppressive air gradually heated up, and amidst the bloody smell, a group of greedy flies buzzed and danced around.As the bamboo basket fell to the ground, a terrifying sigh swept through the crowd, many people turned their faces away, and a gloomy murderous aura suddenly gathered in the open hall.The pale-faced soldiers knelt down on one leg beside the bamboo basket and reported in trembling voices: "My lord, according to your order, I have searched everywhere, and they are all in the basket... Master Yuan only has so many."

Nie Qinxuan had seen countless deaths in his life as a soldier, but this was the first time he had seen such a tragic death.Looking at the bloody bamboo basket and the messy flies, Nie Qinxuan couldn't believe that the pieces and pieces of meat in the basket were the Tongjiang magistrate Yuan Xuemen who just broke up with him.Two days ago, Master Yuan, regardless of the Mid-Autumn Festival, brought a battalion of patrol troops from Tongjiang City and three emergency military orders, and Xingye rushed to Yincheng to deploy military defenses and prepare to deal with the rebellious party.In order to strengthen the defense force, when we parted just now, Mr. Yuan deliberately left another sentry for himself, nearly a hundred muskets.How could he have turned into this bloody pile in the bamboo basket in the blink of an eye?On the night of Mid-Autumn Festival yesterday, was this pile of flesh and blood confiding in heart to heart, toasting to one's sorrow? Nie Qinxuan recognized the emerald ring, Master Yuan used the wine glass on the hand wearing this ring.Master Yuan said: "Brother Jing Nong, I know you are not happy. I have already issued an elimination order and I want to change the order to keep you to lead the army to fight this battle. Even if you and I are affectionate, it is not enough to keep people from life to death. All these years The military system has been changed frequently, but you have been kept in the old position of the green battalion general. Seeing that the war is imminent, the temporary appointment order of the patrol battalion commander by the Taitai Master is also an urgent need. Now the county magistrate of Yincheng has another Ding worry report Lack, you can't expect me to use the policemen from the county government arresting office and the official transportation bureau to catch smuggled salt to go to battle, right? Brother Jing Nong, Yincheng can only rely on you now. The rebels who rebelled in the provincial capital last month The rebellious parties are the same as those in Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan. They are all dominated by the new army. Logically speaking, the imperial court sent them to study abroad, appointed high-ranking officials, gave them generous salaries, and gave them the best foreign guns and cannons. It was them. But now it is the new army that is rebelling everywhere. Fortunately, the rebellious party accidentally set off a bomb. More than 30 people were killed. Unexpectedly, this month, they would risk their lives to revolt in Yincheng. Sun Wen’s rebellious parties are really numerous. I am old, and I can’t figure out such things. The hungry people want to rebel, High-ranking officials and rich salary still want to rebel. Foreigners want to fight, chaotic parties want to fight, and their own people also want to fight. Today’s world is full of wars and turmoil. The imperial examination is abolished, and the constitution is being established, and the old system of the ancestors is thrown away. The light is exhausted, but it still can't stop the chaotic parties everywhere, and the flames of war are everywhere. Brother Jing Nong, today you and I are still drinking together under the moon, and it is unknown whether we will still be here tomorrow. This year you and I will still perform our duties for the court, and next year not only Your life and my life are unpredictable, and I am afraid that the life and death of Daqing is also unknown. Hey, it is not born in troubled times, but in the end times... All you and I can do is to know what is impossible and do it... ..." The cold moonlight illuminated Lord Yuan's sad and dignified face, and also illuminated the cold wine glass and this cold jadeite ring.Mr. Yuan brought three military orders. The first military order was to temporarily replace him, the general manager of the Green Battalion who was about to be eliminated, as the commander of the Yincheng Patrol Battalion, and report to the Ministry of War for approval and transfer to the emperor's hand-picked appointment.But the soldiers and horses they led were nothing more than the old 800 Green Battalion under him who had been slightly reorganized, plus the nearly 100 muskets of a sentry infantry specially left behind by Mr. Yuan, barely enough for the number of the third battalion.The second military order is to make every effort to arrest the commander-in-chief of the Yincheng rebellion party and a number of important officials before the riot.The third military order is to monitor and restrain the new military officers sent from the provincial capital for reinforcements, so as to prevent people from responding to the chaos inside and outside the party.After seeing these three military orders that took both internal and external considerations into consideration, Nie Qinxuan had nothing to say but a miserable smile.Master Yuan is right, now is the end of the world, this battle is just something you can't do, and the other battle is probably something you can't do.Seeing that the strength of the Qing Dynasty was exhausted, it was impossible to fight or not to fight.Whether to fight or not to fight is probably just a leftover from the last days.And it is a temporary appointed survivor.You are loyal to the Qing Dynasty, but who wants to see your useless loyalty? ...For a while, the two toasted their glasses speechlessly. The bright moon in the Mid-Autumn Festival and the cold wine in the cup illuminated the world in front of them too coldly and clearly. Nie Qinxuan saw the pool of blood at the bottom of the basket in a blink of an eye, and a stream of blood rushed out of the basket, and suddenly flowed towards his feet.Uncontrollable compassion welled up, and Nie Qinxuan burst into tears. In order to hide it, he lowered his eyes again and asked in a low voice: "Do you really want to use this bamboo basket? Can't you find a coffin for Mr. Yuan? " After a while of fuss, the soldiers carried a nanmu coffin from the warehouse of the tea house into the open hall.Behind the coffin was the dizzy teahouse owner Chen Jitang, who knelt on the ground and kept kowtowing: "My lord, I voluntarily confiscate the coffin...I won't take any money...The villain always keeps his own place...I don't know anything about it. I am wronged... how did I know that the lord of the prefecture would pass by the door... I voluntarily offered up the coffin, and I will not take any money, my lord..." Nie Qinxuan waved his hand impatiently, making people drag the restaurant owner down.He casually ordered: "Chop off two heads first, and throw the corpses in the street for three days. The rest of the suspects will be escorted back to the camp to await trial." After a burst of shouting of grievances outside the open hall, there was the sound of knives beheading people's heads. Mr. Yuan's guards said that the sedan chair was walking when something suddenly fell from the sky, like a teapot smashed into Mr. Yuan's sedan chair curtain, and then exploded.The bomb was so powerful that it not only killed Mr. Yuan, but also shattered the sedan chair, injured several brothers, and killed two bearers.But they saw nothing but the shadow of the teapot.After a thunderbolt, the guards got up from the dust, and there were no sedan chairs or the magistrate.Before leaving, Yuan Xuemen deliberately brought a patrol battalion with more than 200 Mausers because he knew that the news was urgent.In order to avoid ambushes, he rode a horse instead of a sedan chair on the mountain road across Tongling.But he didn't expect that these revolutionaries who are not afraid of death would dare to openly assassinate in the streets of downtown.When Chen Guandai, the leader of the army, saw the death of the magistrate, he was already frightened to death.He couldn't think of any other idea but to catch people desperately.As soon as Nie Qinxuan got the news, he immediately ordered the four gates of the old city to be closed and searched the whole city.After inspecting the scene, he sent someone to immediately send an emergency telegram to the governor's office in the provincial capital, announcing that the prefect of Tongjiang had been assassinated in Yincheng, and urged the people who were already on the way of reinforcements to come to Yincheng as soon as possible.Afterwards, he ordered Chen Guandai to leave the wounded and immediately escort Master Yuan's coffin back to Tongjiang. Everything can only be handled like this.Those who should be bet should be bet, and those who should be cut should be cut.The only ones who couldn't bet or cut were the two foreigners.From the moment he arrived at the scene of the accident, Nie Qinxuan saw two men in western clothes standing behind a group of criminals kneeling on the ground.Nie Qinxuan knew them. They were teachers hired by the Yuren School with a lot of money from Japan.The Yuren School was originally an ethnology school funded and run by the Liu family of Dunmutang, a salt merchant in Yincheng. Since the abolition of the imperial examination, the Liu family built another school building and playground, purchased a complete set of teaching equipment from Japan, and established a new school.The children of the Liu family who were studying in Japan invited three foreign teachers, two men and one woman, to run a preparatory class for studying in Japan in addition to regular teaching. Wealthy families in the surrounding counties rushed to send their children to school.The two people standing in front of them were Hideyama Jiro and Takano Tozo.The two oriental men were dressed in suits and leather shoes, shining like lacquer, and looked upright. It seemed that they were here to taste tea.That man named Hideyama Jiro is a big monster in Yincheng. He has a foreign machine called a camera, which can record all things of mountains and rivers, men, women and children on paper.Some people have seen those pictures of him, and they all say that they are real people, and they are not at all unhappy.As long as he led the janitor carrying the machine out of the school, a group of people, old and young, would be chasing after him to watch the excitement.Now, although these two foreigners were not as frightened as those kneeling on the ground, the tension and pallor on their faces were still evident at a glance.Hideyama Jiro carried a leather bag in his hand.When Nie Qinxuan's eyes turned to the purse, Hideyama Jiro opened the purse knowingly, and there was only a bag of tea and a book in the purse.Nie Qinxuan nodded, and raised his hand to the two Orientals: "The two gentlemen are shocked, please." Hideyama Jiro nodded and smiled as if relieved from a heavy burden, and then, somewhat bluntly, saluted and spoke Chinese, cupped his fists at Nie Qinxuan, "Thank you, Mr. Nie." As he spoke, he turned and signaled his companion to go first. Nie Qinxuan noticed that Takano Tozo had an obvious wound on the back of his hand, as if it had been cut by something.He raised his hand politely again, "Mr. Takano is injured, please go to get a doctor and bandage. I have official business and I won't send it away. Please, please." Seeing the two Orientals walk out of the open hall, Nie Qinxuan thought, these Orientals speak Chinese better than me, and I don't know where they learned it.Nie Qinxuan thought again, if Qin Shihuang didn't let the five hundred boys and girls go to Dongying to visit immortals and ask for medicine, how could there be so many rebellious parties now?Nie Qinxuan graciously released the two Japanese.Because he was a foreigner, he had to let him go.Nie Qinxuan took away all the Yincheng people who were present at the time, because he had no clues other than this.Excluding the two beheaded people, including the restaurant owner, waiter, shopkeeper and all the guests, there are eighteen people left in total.Nie Qinxuan knew in his heart that what he had to deal with now was not only the murderer who threw the bomb, but also the commander-in-chief of the riot.What worried Nie Qinxuan the most was that he didn't know if the assassination of the magistrate was a signal of the riots by the rebels.In the three military orders brought by Mr. Yuan, it was specifically mentioned that the commander-in-chief of the Yincheng riot was personally sent by Sun Wen from Japan.But in the past two years, there are more than a dozen foreign students returning from Japan in Yincheng alone.After these people returned to Yincheng, they set up hospitals, schools, newspapers, banks, and everything that foreigners have that China does not have.It may not be difficult for these people to run a revolutionary party.But the children of these wealthy businessmen have deep roots, and it is not easy to disturb any of them.The reason why I was able to arrest the owner of the teahouse without hesitation was because Chen Jitang was just a teahouse owner, and he had neither the surname of a salt merchant nor the guild of Paoge as a pillar behind him. Nie Qinxuan didn't dare to stay in Huixian Teahouse for a long time.He didn't even know if the assassination was a plan by the Revolutionary Party to divert the tiger away from the mountain.Nie Qinxuan was worried that someone would take the opportunity to attack the barracks. In addition to guns, there were more than a dozen boxes of shells and bullets left behind by Mr. Yuan in the warehouse of the barracks.That was the capital Mr. Yuan left for himself to restrain the new army.After a while of haste, the empty Huixian Teahouse was in a mess.In front of the teahouse, there were a few puddles of dry black blood and two decapitated corpses.The heads of the people who fell on the street were covered with blood, and the expressions on their faces were indifferent and false.Beside the corpse stood a few veterans holding shotguns and knives around their waists.The dark red butt of the gun was stuck on the ground, as if it had also been smeared with dried black human blood.There was an eerie silence in the street after the uproar.In the distance, a few frightened and curious children wandered out from the street and passed by in a flash.In the bloody silence, a few fat dogs wandered, with long bright red tongues and rapid panting, which made it obvious that they smelled good food. Soldiers with guns, dry black blood, headless corpses, and excited dogs all formed a rare and desolate scene on the once bustling streets of Silver City.The news that the magistrate was killed by the bomb spread all over the new and old cities on both sides of the Silver Stream in a blink of an eye.Unexpected details and speculation spread as word spread.Terror spread like a thick fog.The salt merchants who worry about the well salt market all the time, planning to buy and sell, the housewives who spend all day in the kitchen and needlework, and the craftsmen who have been working on the wheel and the fire ring all year round, were all shocked by the explosion. shocked.The Yincheng people did not expect that the magistrate would be killed on the street crowded with shops.That earth-shattering explosion caused the people of Yincheng to suddenly open their frightened eyes in the eternal, trivial and mediocre days.All the salt merchants immediately began to transfer cash, and the mules and horses carrying the silver came and went mysteriously under the protection of bodyguards in the dark.People in Yincheng have their own basis for judging the current situation. When money is circulating safely and freely, everyone lives in peace.When the money suddenly disappeared mysteriously, everyone began to hoard food desperately to prepare for the disaster. Nie Qinxuan, the newly appointed commander of the patrol battalion in Yincheng, and the revolutionary party preparing to riot cruelly placed that terrifying and desolate scene on the street, cruelly placing it in the eyes of Yincheng people who yearn for money.The whole city suddenly fell into an unprecedented panic.The sudden blow made those fingers who were used to dialing the abacus beads lose their confidence in a panic.When a catastrophe looms, the people of Yincheng instinctively believe in silver.Therefore, in order to rescue the captured people, a lot of money and lobbyists quietly came to the barracks of the old barracks.But Nie Qinxuan's merciless decision far exceeded the judgment of the Yincheng people and the Revolutionary Party. Despite her brother's firm opposition, and her brother's constant warnings not to mix with those "China" women, Yoshiko Hideyama still likes to come to Tingyu Ferry to do her laundry.Put the wooden basin containing the clothes by the water, step on the bluestone steps immersed in the river with bare feet in clogs, the cool river water bites on the calf, and the blocked water flow pushes out oblique water patterns , flows calmly and far into the heart, and then slowly swings from the heart to the heart of the river.Pick up a piece of water-soaked clothes and pile them on the slate, and the snow-white mallet will fall evenly, and fine droplets of water will splash on the face.The women in Yincheng squatted by the river to wash their clothes.But Fangzi Xiushan has been standing in the river and bending down to wash.Over time, the people of Yincheng have become accustomed to her various special behaviors, and her special costumes and clogs, so they are no longer so curious.Xiushan Fangzi remembered that when she pulled the mallet out of her clothes for the first time under the amazed gaze of the women, there was a sound of admiration all around her.Even though we don't speak the language.But the women in Yincheng discovered that this Oriental woman actually used the same tool to wash clothes!This discovery not only surprised the women in Yincheng, but also gave them a lot of confidence and kindness—all women in the world are the same!Oriental women also wash clothes with a mallet!The women raised their white lotus-like arms and mallets by the emerald green river, laughing together.They gathered around chatteringly: "Mr., your brother earns 150 taels of silver a month, and you earn 60 taels of silver a month. Why do you have to do the laundry yourself?" "Do you Japanese women come out to do things by themselves? Women can teach and be teachers, can women also be Jinshi and top scholars? Women can also do business? Women come out to do things and how to raise children?" "A weak woman who runs far and wide, you are not afraid? Don't you miss home?" "If you come to China, your husband's family will let you go?" Yoshiko Hideyama was surrounded by chattering.Although she couldn't understand what they were saying, she understood surprise and kindness.Xiushan Fangzi tried hard to communicate with everyone, she pointed to the pier and said, "Listen, fish..." Many voices answered her: "That's right. That's Tingyu Pavilion over there. This is Tingyu Wharf. Everyone comes here to wash their hands." She pointed to the two dark red characters not far away on the rock wall of the river bend and said: "Su, Dong, Po..." The chaotic voice became more excited, "You also know? Right, right, those words were written by Su Dongpo. Those who sang high-pitched songs were sung by Su Dongpo. He was a high-ranking official who wrote articles in the Song Dynasty. He came to our Yincheng. , Ya Gaotou Tingyu is written by him.” Yoshiko Xiushan knows this allusion of Yincheng, and she also knows that "Listening to the Fish in the Middle of the Night" is one of the Eight Scenic Spots of Yincheng.On the other side of the rock wall, there is a corner pavilion corresponding to the two characters of Su Dongpo.There is a pair of couplets on the pillars of the corner pavilion, "the drums and zithers swim by the river and the fish listen, and the egrets fly while playing chess outside the willows".These anecdotes were told by Takano Tozo.Before they came to do the laundry, the three of them had already been to that kiosk.Brother Jiro also took photos for them in front of the kiosk.They opened a bottle of sake brought from their hometown in that old pavilion, drank and talked, and waited until the moon rose. come over.The silver stream washed white by the moonlight emerges from the gloom, and dissolves into the gloom in the distance.On the rock wall standing on the opposite bank, there are dense forests, full of egrets that sleep on the branches at night, and the snow-white bodies of the egrets flash dreamily among the branches and leaves. But today, there was no one in the pavilion on the other side of the river, and there was no one on the deserted steps of Tingyu Wharf.The ferry boat lay across the shore, and the boatman with his bamboo hat on was sitting alone on the bow and taking a nap.In this unexpected silence, Yoshiko Hideyama put a long skirt into the clear river.The skirt slowly floats and unfolds in the river, and the maple leaves of my hometown on the skirt are in full bloom on the cool water.The golden red maple leaves, the autumnal maple leaves, evoke infinite nostalgia and love in the cold river.Yoshiko Hideyama felt tears blur her vision.She gently swayed her skirt, gently swaying the slender and cold feelings in the river.Yoshiko Xiushan obsessively recited an ancient poem in her heart:  The flowers and colors of Aozhou are numerous, and the colors are messy like my heart. For whom is my heart in such a mess, there is no one except you!  从听鱼渡口向上，越过上水关，越过那座七孔相连的上关桥，远远地，在银溪的尽头，就会看见山岚氤氲的桐岭。常有飘渺的白鹭，在高挂云天的银溪上忽隐忽现。鹰野寅藏说“桐岭横烟”是银城的又一景。银溪就是从那些高远的“横烟”里流淌出来的。鹰野寅藏是他们三人中的兼职翻译，他似乎对银城的一切都了如指掌。有一天，鹰野寅藏拿出一本叫做“县志”的旧书，在他纤弱白皙的手上，旧书墨蓝色的封套幽深得像一口古井，不知把多少时光淹没在里面了。鹰野寅藏说在中国任何一个县、一个州、一个省，都有自己的“志”，在这本“志”里记载着沿革、地理、物产、风俗、人物、历史大事，和所有的这些“景”。每个地方都会有自己的“八景”。即便景物简陋也总会凑出八个。每一“景”都有应景而写的诗来描绘、感慨一番。不过这些诗大都是些冬烘先生的庸作。银城是座有名的古城，所以银城的“景”更是一个也不能少。他微笑着说自己关于银城的知识，都是从这本书里得来的。鹰野寅藏说话的时候，眉宇之间常有一股儒雅而又热烈的神态。他把书端举在胸前，古旧的墨蓝色封套越发衬出人的年轻和苍白。看着那些瘦弱的手指打开封套，在枯黄的书页间灵巧地翻动，秀山芳子不由得怦然心动。 秀山芳子对鹰野寅藏的衷情，让外人一望而知。可是在这个遥远的银城，看破了秀山芳子恋情的“外人”只有一个，就是哥哥秀山次郎。但是秀山次郎坚决地告诉她，这件事情不但不可以做，而且不可以想。当初秀山芳子执意要跟哥哥到中国来教书的时候，并没有想到自己会陷入情网。更没有想到在这远离家乡的地方，“不可以”的恋情竟是这样的令人煎熬。秀山芳子一心要到中国来，是因为她喜欢中国，尤其喜欢李白和苏东坡的中国。深爱古诗的秀山芳子，是从《万叶集》《古今集》或《百人一首》这一类的诗集中了解中国的。她深信和那么多的日本古诗糅和在一起的中国，绝不是现在的男人们告诉她的那个被日本打败的“支那”。两年前，他们带着学校所有的新设备，从横滨乘海轮三天三夜跨海到中国。而后，昼行夜宿，又从上海乘江轮沿长江逆流七天到重庆。再从重庆改乘木船，由纤夫们拉着继续逆流而上，长江，青依江，银溪，这一次竟然走了将近一个月。傍晚靠岸，清晨起航。一个又一个陌生的码头，一座又一座陌生的城镇和村庄。如蝼蚁般辛劳的人群操着陌生的语言，在码头上忙碌。每天坐在船头，看着赤身裸体的纤夫们唱着凄厉的号子，在江边的岩石和沙滩上弓身爬行。山重水复，水复山重，秀山芳子觉得自己真是走到了天涯尽头。秀山芳子觉得自己年轻的心像一只孤单的风筝，也被纤夫们带到了永无尽头的天涯。而银城就是天涯尽头的神话。当他们乘坐的木船拐进银溪，走过艾叶滩，临近下水关的时候，古老繁华的银城，就像里的奇迹一样突现在眼前。河东岸青石砌就的城墙依山而立，威严高耸。河里的船只往来如梭一片繁忙。两岸的河谷间密集着高耸的天车和盘旋的枧管。到处可见熊熊燃烧的火口。到处可见咿咿呀呀拉着盘车的牛群。他们三人一时都被这眼前的奇景惊呆了。他们没有想到在贫困、落后、愚昧的“支那”，竟然还有这么繁荣昌盛的城市。陪了他们一路的育人学校校长刘兰亭兴奋地指着说： “你们看那座红楼，我们的学校在河西岸的新城，我们敦睦堂刘家住在河东的旧城，九思堂李家，慎怡堂王家，陶淑堂赵家，也都在旧城。银城的富商大户都在旧城。旧城背后的那座山叫玉泉山，山上有个很有名的飞泉，是我们银城著名的风景。泉水下面不远就是我家的松山别墅，哪天我带三位到松山别墅小住，去看看'月照飞泉'。不过，等到我们船上的这些新设备都安装好以后，我们育人学校就会是银城最风光的新景致了。秀山君，你的照相机可以派上大用场喽！” 好像是为了回应刘兰亭的自豪和兴奋，入港的纤夫们唱起了舒缓的号子，引来两岸无数好奇的目光。眼尖的人立刻喊起来：“看呦看呦，是刘七爷从东洋回转来喽！”转眼之间，下水关的码头上聚起一片新奇兴奋的人群来。人群里有人高声喝彩：“刘七爷，你带起洋人回家乡硬是风光得很呐！” “刘七爷，你好孝心，三公天天在家里担心你的辫子，你还给他老人家好好的留起！这下三公要开心！” 刘兰亭对着人群抱拳拱手笑红了脸。 看着这从地老天荒里神话一般涌现出来的城市和人群，秀山芳子紧紧抓住了哥哥的手，猛然想起横滨的码头，想起那些在海风里悲鸣的海鸥来。离家万里，海天相隔，秀山芳子就是从那一刻起陷入了千丝万缕的乡愁。两年来对家乡的怀念，对恋人的期待，让秀山芳子的心变成一张纤细敏锐的蛛网，任何一点轻微的感触，都会在这网上颤动不已。 今天，还在学校的中秋节假期之内，秀山芳子本打算和他们一起去旧城的会贤茶楼品茶。可是秀山次郎和鹰野寅藏坚决地拒绝了她。从他们断然的神色中，秀山芳子已经预感到也许有什么重大的事情要发生。果然，将近中午的时候，一声巨大的爆炸从旧城里传出来，在最初的慌乱之后，整个银城突然陷入在可怕的安静之中。听鱼码头斜对着旧城的北门，秀山芳子远远地看见士兵们关闭了城门。她匆匆忙忙地从河水中捞起正在洗的衣服，匆匆忙忙地跨上石阶。走了几步忽然又在石阶上停下来。她把盛衣服的木盆又放在台阶上。旧城的城门已经关了，而听鱼渡口是秀山次郎他们返回来的必经之路。与其回到学校去，还不如在这里等。虽然哥哥看见自己来河边洗衣服又会生气，可现在已经顾不得那么多了。秀山芳子紧张地在台阶上坐下来，焦急地盯着那个紧闭的城门，她不知道那场可怕的爆炸是不是炸伤了自己的亲人，恐怖和猜疑逼出她满脸绝望的惨白。高耸的城楼上军旗飘舞，奔跑的士兵往来不停。那座古老端庄的古城，转眼间四门紧闭，变成一座森严恐怖的堡垒。坐在石阶上的秀山芳子猛然悲从中来热泪横流。 码头上，摆渡的船夫也被爆炸声惊醒过来，他推起头上的斗笠，从远处侧目看着静坐在石阶上的秀山芳子，心里由衷地赞叹：“这东洋来的女先生，真好比是天上下凡来的白娘子呀！” 秀山芳子知道哥哥坚决反对的原因，是因为自己爱上的鹰野寅藏不是日本人，而是中国人，是哥哥和父亲，也是几乎所有日本人都鄙视的“支那人”。 坐落在东京郊区的秀山制作所是一间私人的小兵工厂。近些年来兵工厂的主人秀山正雄先生和许多中国人的交往多起来。在几个年长一些的中国人来过几次之后，中国的留学生就成了那里的常客。为此，秀山先生在自己家里办了一个日语补习班，由做教师工作的儿子次郎和女儿芳子来担任补习班的教员。这两个年轻人很快就发现，中国留学生们把主要的时间都留在父亲的车间里。他们学习制造炸药、炸弹和手枪、步枪的热情，比学习日语的热情要高得多。补习班每三个月结业一期。每到结业的时候，秀山先生都会带着他的学生们骑自行车到乡下的荒野去“打渔”“打猎”。在实弹演习之后才算是真正的结业。年轻人总是最容易相互感染的。次郎和芳子很快就和留学生们成了好朋友，陷入在难言的吸引和热情之中。可是兄妹两人迷恋的不是同一件事情。哥哥秀山次郎羡慕、渴望的是冒险是英雄壮举。妹妹秀山芳子却暗暗地喜欢上一个叫做欧阳朗云的年轻人。 秀山芳子最初注意到他，是因为这个年轻人是补习班上惟一没能如期结业的人。在“打猎”回来的那个晚上，照例又是秀山正雄先生设酒庆祝自己的学生结业。在为结业的同学们祝酒之后，秀山先生很严厉地宣布说：“欧阳君，你这样学习是不能结业的！你缺乏的不是细心，是勇气！你们支那人太缺少勇气，支那人如果真想要自己强大起来就需要有勇气！需要有视死如归的大丈夫气！你如果没有勇气，就不必再到我的制作所来了！” 欧阳朗云已经不是第一次被人当面叫做“支那人”了。和所有在日本的留学生一样，欧阳朗云在时时处处看到这个国家的强大和先进的同时，也时时处处感觉到这个民族对中国人的蔑视。在呵斥声中，文弱清秀的欧阳朗云，垂下一双又黑又大的眼睛，窘迫得无地自容。他无法解释和推卸自己今天下午的胆怯和错误。慌乱之中他先是碰倒了酒杯，接着又把筷子跌落在榻榻米上。秀山芳子上前去收拾的时候，无意中碰到他颤抖的指尖。芳子刚才已经听说，欧阳朗云投炸弹的时候出了差错，慌乱之中把炸弹掉在自己的脚下，如果不是秀山先生抢救及时踢开炸弹，不只欧阳朗云不可能活着回来，肯定还会炸伤别人。在此之前，秀山芳子已经听哥哥说过，这个名字有点像日本人的中国学生，并不是从中国来的，是从越南来的，他是一位越南华侨富商的儿子，他的父亲在越南有很大的甘蔗园和轧糖厂。他是在四年前听过孙中山先生的一次演讲之后，为追随孙先生而从越南河内投考新成立不久的早稻田大学，现在已经快要毕业了。而且，为了抗拒家里为他定下的婚事，四年来一直不回越南，和家里闹得很僵。欧阳朗云很不愿意跟别人谈论自己的家人，他的“不愿意”甚至叫人觉得近乎冷漠，叫人觉得他是在拼尽全力地想要摆脱那个家。秀山芳子没有想到，这个平常文弱寡言远离家庭的年轻人，竟有这么大的决心和热情投身如此冒险的事业。看着欧阳朗云那副惶恐内疚的样子，芳子赶忙为他重新斟满酒杯，又忍不住安慰道：“欧阳君，那就再学三个月，我正好想再听你讲讲李清照。” 欧阳朗云没有回答，芳子只感觉到他急促的鼻息轻轻地擦过耳轮。 欧阳朗云一面道歉，一面对秀山先生深深地跪拜下去，等到他直起身来的时候，猛然用一把刀子把自己的右手钉在了榻榻米上。谁也不知道他是什么时候把餐桌上割肉的刀子悄悄拿走的。在大家的惊呼声中，那只被尖刀刺穿的手掌在榻榻米上颤抖不已，颤抖中，鲜血四下横流。欧阳朗云再次对秀山先生跪拜下去：“秀山先生，下一个学期，我一定会让这只胆怯的右手鼓起勇气来！” 那一刻，秀山芳子几乎在自己的惊恐之中晕厥倒地。她下意识地朝着那只鲜血横流的手掌扑了上去。她没有想到，自己就是从那一刻起，飞身跳下了感情的悬崖。