Following Malu's gaze, my cousin saw several huge ships with a metallic luster moored at the pier on the south side of Taiyuan Bay.

The neatly painted numbers, the sun, moon and seven-star flag flying on the mast, and the rows of open gun ports on the high, oppressive sides clearly indicated their identity - they were the Jiangnan Group's coast guard warships.

The sailors were probably doing maintenance, as many gun ports were open, revealing the dark muzzles.

"My goodness, the cannons on this ship are more numerous than those on the walls of Beijing, right?" Malu couldn't help but gasp.

His uncle glared at him and signaled him to stop talking nonsense, but his heart was in a knot.

When he came here at sea, he also saw a few Coast Guard warships, but because they were too far away, he had no idea of ​​their size.

Only when he looked at it from a close distance did he realize how ridiculously large it was. He had thought that the 400-ton ship he was on, the Bajie, was big enough, but the mast of this passenger ship was not even as high as the lower deck of the other ship...

Aren't these two small boats of the Shangguan Army like elephants entering a flock of sheep? There's no need to fire cannons, they'll all fall apart with just one collision, right?

I really don’t know how Jiangnan Group built such huge ships, and how many such ships are there in total?

"It seems that it will be difficult for the government troops to defeat them at sea." Yang Dacai sighed secretly. Before he even got off the boat, he felt like he was in the Lion Country. It was really terrifying...

Yes, the author's Journey to the West has been published. Once it was published, it was sold out, and it was reprinted again and again, and everyone in the world knew about it.

~~

According to the port rules, cargo ships give way to passenger ships, so the Bajie was able to dock first.

While the ship was berthing, the crew on the passenger ship emphasized again that after docking, no one should get off the ship and follow the instructions in all actions! Otherwise, there will be no good consequences...

At the same time, the crew also comforted them, saying don't worry, it won't take long.

Because Bajie is a group ship, it spent more than 20 days on the way here, which is equivalent to being quarantined at sea. Everyone's personal belongings have also been disinfected on the ship. So as long as there is no epidemic on the ship, the longest quarantine step can be avoided.

After the boat stopped at the passenger pier, a gangway soon approached. Several people came up wearing the same gray ramie uniform. Their gray straw hats were decorated with the sun, moon and seven stars emblems, and a small sign was hung on the chest of their short-sleeved shirts. On the top was a row of five digits, and below it was the word "Public Security".

Although he didn't understand what the public security meant, my uncle could tell that they were definitely police officers.

This short-sleeved outfit is much more shabby than the uniforms of the Dongchang guards, not to mention the flying fish uniforms of the Jinyiwei.

However, the sense of superiority that my cousin had just developed disappeared as soon as he saw the short muskets hanging on the belts of these police officers.

He knew that the short guns produced by Jiangnan Group were exquisitely crafted and of high quality, with no risk of explosion. And most importantly, this Thunder Gun could fire six shots in quick succession after loading once, making it an unparalleled self-defense weapon!

After he met it once at the captain's place, he had been thinking about it ever since and wanted to spend a lot of money to get one for himself, but he never succeeded.

I didn't expect that every policeman here already has one.

This gap is too big...

These were police officers from the Tainan Port Police Station. After boarding the ship, two of them occupied the bow, while the other two began to check everyone's pass. No one without a pass or with an expired pass was allowed to disembark.

When it was Yang Dacai and Malu's turn, they quickly took out their overseas passes... It was a palm-sized cardboard card, folded in half.

Their age, height, appearance and physical descriptions were recorded on it. For example, Yang Dacai's pass read, "32 years old, 167 cm tall, 52 kg in weight. Square face, dark complexion, thick lips, thick eyebrows, right eyelid slightly drooping. There is a mole on the left earlobe, the size of a black sesame seed."

In addition, there are places of origin, departure places, destinations, reasons for coming here, etc. It is so complicated that it is almost like registering for the examination.

Yang Dacai knew that this was a road permit, but it was much more detailed than the imperial permit. With the description above, he could basically prevent impersonation.

He was secretly shocked and thought that although this place was claimed to be under the jurisdiction of Fengshan County of Chaozhou Prefecture, it had already blatantly established its own government.

Some people may ask, why didn't the court do this? Because it requires all officials to be literate and have a certain level of education to be able to make a concise and accurate summary.

Is this going to embarrass the officials who are almost all illiterate? So this level of effort is only done during the imperial examination. The imperial examination is actually more sloppy than this. For example, height and weight are not taken into account, and physical signs are not so detailed. But it also eliminates impersonation.

"Are you going together?" a police officer asked. When they nodded, he took their passes and compared them for a while. After confirming that they were correct, he asked again, "Are you going to Xinkang Village, Xinqiao Commune?"

"Yes, yes. Our cousins ​​are there." Yang Dacai nodded and bowed. "My brother came to see them."

"What's your name?"

"Li Shouzhong and Li Shouxiao." The cousin replied hurriedly.

Hearing these two names, several police officers looked over unconsciously, but then looked away quickly.

"Is two months enough?" asked the policeman.

"Enough, enough." Yang Dacai nodded quickly.

The police filled in the date and stamped the pass, then handed it back to the two of them and said, "If you want to stay longer, you must go to the commune to apply for an extension."

"Yes, yes." Yang Dacai nodded quickly and took the pass.

"Get off the boat." The police made way for them and reminded them, "If no one comes to pick you up, there are horse-drawn buses at the dock. The yellow ones go to Xinqiao Commune. When you get there, ask the commune for help and they will definitely take you home."

The two of them hurriedly got off the boat with their luggage and expressed their gratitude profusely.

"The police here are really friendly and don't even charge money." After getting off the boat, Malu looked incredulous. What a great opportunity to make a fortune...

"If they don't want money, what else do they want?" Yang Dacai murmured.

~~

At this time, there was no fixed date for the ship to arrive at the shore, so Li Shouzhong and Gaoda naturally could not come to pick them up.

The two cousins ​​followed the police's instructions, walked out of the pier and headed towards the dock.

On the way, Yang Dacai saw that the freight cars were running on the rails, and the workers sitting at the front of the cars were using their feet to push the pedals to make the cars move forward. Only then did he realize that it was not some kind of magic...

When we got out of the dock, we saw a lot of carriages parked outside, all painted in a variety of eye-catching colors. One of them was yellow...

"How lawless! How dare you use forbidden colors so blatantly!" The uncle made another note of the crime in his mind.

The two walked over and asked, and found out that the bus's final stop was Xinqiao.

When the driver saw their appearance, he knew that they were not immigrants, so he bought tickets for them and let them get on the bus.

The long carriage was equipped with five rows of hardwood benches, each row could seat three people. There was another section of the carriage at the back, but it didn't have that many seats, so it was used to store luggage.

After the carriage was full, the driver started driving. Although it was composed of two carriages, it was only used to carry people and was equipped with rubber tires, so the two mules could pull it effortlessly.

There was a sunshade on the roof, and when the carriage started running, a cool breeze blew away the heat. The two of them realized that they could hardly feel the bumps when sitting in the carriage, which was much more comfortable than sitting in a sedan chair. Not to mention the wooden-wheeled carriage that could make a person's intestines come out.

They looked curiously at the wide and clean road in front of them. Even the coconut trees and palm trees on the roadside were pruned. The buildings on the street were lined up one after another, and the shops were thriving. The market was already very prosperous.

But in the eyes of the two Dongchang spies, this place was full of sin - for example, many men coming and going on the street no longer tied their hair up, but had short hair like a hedgehog.

That's fine, but the most critical thing is that the women here shamelessly expose half of their arms, half of their calves, and even their necks!

And she is obviously a Han woman! How can she dress like a barbarian? She is so immoral! Where is the virtue of a woman?

The two of them looked at it fiercely, and thought it was really fucking beautiful...

Oh no, be critical!

~~

After the carriage drove out of the city, the scenery in front of us suddenly changed.

On the left side of the road are rice fields with gurgling water, and on the right side are lush sugarcane fields that stretch along the road to the horizon.

Every few meters there is a village with white walls and black tiles, which is clean and refreshing. Every household has its own door and courtyard and a two-story building.

Everything in front of me seems to make me feel like I’m in the south of the Yangtze River, but even the south of the Yangtze River isn’t this clean and tidy, right?

The most serious question is, what about the poor people's dilapidated houses? Why can't we see any?

The two then remembered that they had never seen a beggar in the city.

I was just looking at the woman and didn't realize this. Now I'm so scared that I'm stunned.

The relationship between Dongchang and beggars, ruffians, and second-rate people is like that between fish and water.

No one understands better than them what it means to have no beggars on the streets.

That means Jiangnan Group has a terrifying control power. They are completely unable to drive a stake here...

No wonder Mr. Shen went to such great lengths to use the dumbest method to spy on her. It turned out that he had no choice.

The two men sat in the carriage, unable to recover for a long time.

Fortunately, they got off at the terminal, and the driver kindly took them to the front of the commune compound.

The two men then came to their senses and told the guard about their situation. The guard then sent someone in to ask if anyone had been to Xinkang Village.

He kindly asked them to wait in the reception room and poured them some mung bean soup to cool them down.

Soon, Officer Zhu from the Security Department came out and said to the two cousins ​​with a loud smile, "I am the accountant of the Xinkang Village brigade. Come with me!"

The two of them hurriedly thanked him. They thought that the people here were quite kind...

Secretary Zhu went to the cart shed and pulled the donkey cart, took the two men to Xinkang Village, and then took them to Li Shouzhong's home.

Just then, the two brothers came back from work with their hoes on their backs. Malu knew them. When Shen Yingkui was training, he had beaten them up a lot. He nodded slightly to his superior.

The two of them rushed to shout, "Shouzhong, Shouxiao! Your cousin is here to see you!"

The two brothers also recognized the millipede and shivered uncontrollably.

Secretary Zhu hugged the two men's necks tightly and said with a smile: "Why are you two so stupid? The elders have come all the way to see you, why don't you hurry up and invite them home and serve them well?"

"Hey, hey." The two men woke up from their dream, and quickly kowtowed to their two "cousins", and then respectfully invited them home.