Jiaozhou Bay, which once belonged to the Qi Kingdom, is now a typical colonial-like city.

Colonization is not a very later word, King Wu conquered the east and divided the country, and built a city to divide the country, which is a classical colonization method.

At the narrowest part of Jiaozhou Bay, two stone fort fortresses control the waterway in and out of Jiaozhou Bay, and heavy cast-iron cannons are densely packed.

Inside the fort is the core of the city, which is a military area that, once besieged, can be held with supplies from the sea.

With enough iron cannons and strong walls, as long as more than a thousand troops are stationed, it is enough to support half a year or more.

Outside the fortress were towns that developed as a result of trade.

After the Battle of Qi and Mo, the surrounding area of Jiaozhou Bay was ruled by the Mo family for thirty miles, as an exchange for handing over many cities in the southwest of Qi that year.

Because the Mo family did not recognize the legal principle that the whole world was not the king's land, they did not recognize that the land in Jiaozhou Bay belonged to the Marquis of Qi, but to the people of Zhuxia in Kyushu, so they did not give the Marquis of Qi a lease fee after the cession.

But the law is the law, and the real interests still have to be talked about, after the Qi Mo War, the strength of the Mo family is not enough to completely challenge the old order, so in order to be stable, Qi Hou will be given a sum of money every year.

This is not a lease fee, but a "sponsorship fee for the purchase of iron tools for the people of Qi to benefit the people's livelihood", which is actually to give some money so that Qi Hou will not strongly oppose it, but the statement is very different.

The rule within thirty li had already been localized, and the people had been allocated land, emigrated and settled to form convenient village communities, popularized village community elections, improved the military service system, and perfected the simplest education system.

Every year, a large number of Qi people flee here.

Some families came by land, some by boat, and some traffickers.

The center of the city was in the urban area of Qingdao in later generations, and there was originally a fishing village here.

In recent years, with the reactionary changes of the Qi State, the re-serfdomization and the development of industry and commerce in Sishang, Jiaozhou Bay has become a very busy port.

The cotton, grain, silk, etc. of the nobles of Qi were transported along the river to the port, and then loaded at the port and transported to Sishang.

Then the cotton, silk, Xuanlin, ironware, sugar, ceramics and even munitions from Sishang were transported to Jiaozhou Bay for trade.

From Jiaozhou Bay to the mouth of the Huai River, it is a very busy shipping route at this time.

The complementarity of the economic policies of the two sides has given birth to the prosperity of Jiaozhou Bay, and more and more people have fled here, either to work on ships or to do small business.

In a decade, a new class of citizens has emerged.

There is no difference in race, the dialect is quite similar, and the culture of the Mohists in Sishang soon became the mainstream within 30 miles of Jiaozhou Bay.

There is no garrison in the Jiaozhou Bay area today, but an army composed of local military servicemen.

A standard infantry brigade, a cavalry company, plus a boat division of five hundred seamen.

At this time, the clouds of the war were shrouded, and there were many words of agitation in the newspapers in the city every day, but the full mobilization had not yet begun here in Jiaozhou Bay, and the retired veterans were still at home, only registering but not starting to be drafted.

One day in July, somewhere in the city was bustling with activity, a local whale was throwing a drinking feast to celebrate a big event.

Lin Whale is also a person who escaped, but he did not flee to Jiaozhou Bay at first, but later migrated.

The direction of his initial escape was Penglai, which was also a Mohist-controlled port and an important port to the Yan Kingdom, Jizi Joseon, and the tribes of the Korean Peninsula.

When he fled to Penglai, he was poor and didn't even have clothes.

There are very few people who know his details, but if they do, it is similar to the experience of many wealthy families in Jiaozhou.

In fact, he was originally a native of Yeyi, with a name and a surname, and he was a down-and-out man.

When he was young, he learned swords, and he was a well-known chivalrous man in the market, but after killing someone, he was chased and killed by the enemy, and he ran to the port occupied by the Laidi Mo family and became a seaman, mainly to trade with Laidi to Liaodong.

After doing it for a year, it turned out that something happened, there was a strong wind, and the ship sank.

He drifted to the shore with seven people.

He has been in the market, a ranger, and has prestige among the people.

It was also fortunate that they encountered such a thing as waiting for a rabbit, and the eight of them actually encountered a stranded short-limbed pilot whale on the coast, weighing five or six thousand catties.

In those years, the industrial and commercial development of Sishang urgently needed a large amount of whale oil for lighting, and whales were common in Penglai and other places offshore, and the whaling industry had many oil refining workshops in Laidi, which was occupied by the Mojia family.

At that time, it was said that if you are lucky enough to go to sea to hunt whales, you will not have to worry about eating and drinking for several years, although the risk is high, but there are also many brave people to do it.

The luck of the eight people of Lin Whale was really good, and the eight of them cut the whale oil and boiled it with clay pottery, and finally met a passing boat, and actually returned to Laidi.

became rich overnight, and Lin Whale drew a surname and gave himself such a name.

With the first pot of gold, he returned to Yeyi, killed his enemies, and gathered more than 30 people in the market who were not engaged in production.

After returning to Laidi, he bought some goods and went to Mizi Korea to sell them.

It is called selling, but in fact, if there are many people, they will sell, and if there are few people, they will rob.

These more than 30 people promoted him as the leader, formed a righteous alliance with each other as brothers, and did great things in the deep mountains of Liaodong.

There was once a small tribe of more than 50 people who fished and hunted, and these 30 people pretended to sell iron tools, but secretly killed all the tribesmen, leaving not a single woman, child and child, and robbed the tribe of furs and gold.

Whether they cheated, robbed, or plundered, in three or five years, more than 30 of them have become quite wealthy.

It was also his sober mind, seven or eight years ago, some trading stations were established in Liaodong, and looting was already a risk.

He dissuaded everyone from doing it again, it was better to wash their hands, and most people supported him, but there were still five or six people who wanted to go out and continue to do it.

Lin Jing exerted the spirit of democracy, and after discussing with his confidants, the minority obeyed the majority, and sentenced the six brothers to death.

Pretending to go to sea and killing all six of them, pretending to be shipwrecked, ruining the lives of six former brothers at the cost of a small boat.

As soon as the wind passed, he packed up his gold and silver wealth, left Penglai, and went to Jiaozhou Bay.

The primitive accumulation was completed in Liaodong, and the trading port that had developed in Jiaozhou Bay was naturally like a fish in water.

He has invested in shipping, engaged in trade, opened two workshops for reeling silk, organized people to go to the Korean Peninsula to traffic "long-term labor", and engaged in sugar futures......

In recent years, he has invested in education, set up a village community school, and donated funds to help the poor......

Now that he has a successful career, a high prestige, and a lot of wealth, he thinks about a higher level of spiritual needs after satisfying his material needs.

Today's big banquet is to celebrate that he has become a "viscount".

After the Mo family and the old system completely turned their faces, in order to disgust the Zhou rite feudal system, and in order to make Zhuxia completely free of the so-called aristocratic spirit, they changed a lot of names.

For example, the public opinion representatives at the township level are commonly known as barons.

Representatives at the county level, commonly known as viscounts.

And so on.

Because the best way to destroy a lofty-sounding existence is not to ban it, but to make it common, common to everyone, and then it's easy to ruin that feeling of being on top.

The state of Chu was not satisfied with Zhou, so it called the county magistrate a duke, and there were a lot of dukes in the state of Chu.

Sishang is a step further than the state of Chu, since Mozi said that in ancient times, the Son of Heaven was elected, and the princes were also elected.

Well, then all the people selected will use traditional names.

After the name change, there were more than 600 marquises, countless counts, even more viscounts, and a baron who in the village toilet could put water in the corner.

And the number of these titles increases every few years, because the representatives of the people are not hereditary, but elected.

This leads to the fact that the people have no fear of a certain duke and a certain marquis: for example, the village chief of a certain village community in Sishang was elected as a marquis because he did an excellent job, and the villagers often talked nonsense with the marquis at the gate of the village community.

This makes names like Prince, Princess, Earl, Viscount, and Marquis already a kind of rotten street existence in the places controlled by the Mo family. The son of the village chief may be the earl, and the blacksmith in the military workshop may be the viscount, and the beautiful illusions and fears of the nobles because of the distance are suddenly gone.

The Jiaozhou Bay area is at the county level, and Lin Whale relied on murder, arson, and robbery to complete the primitive accumulation, and then turned into a good person who funded education and donated to help the poor.

Today's feast is held to celebrate this event.

The banquet was about to start, and suddenly someone galloped in, attached to Lin Whale's ear and whispered: "There is a warship approaching in the harbor suddenly, and there are many sails, it should be a ship transporting troops." ”

Lin Whale was shocked, and understood that if it was really difficult for ships from other countries to enter the port, the army on the Si would be killed, so why not start a war in unison?

Thinking about it again, I couldn't get the news before, and I was even more puzzled.

After a short time, everyone present knew the news, and soon someone came to inform him that he would go to the county for a meeting the day after tomorrow.

At the banquet, people were discussing this matter, and someone asked, "I wonder if the viscount knows about this?" ”

In the banquet hall, the viscount sat seven or eight, but everyone knew that this sentence was asked by Lin Whale.

"I don't know. I'm afraid it's going to be war? ”

He thought about it for a while, understood that the law was strict, and he was more aware of the various prohibitions of the Mo family in the state of war, so he had to come forward to say a few words.

So he said: "The people invited to today's banquet are all talents from Jiaozhou. The war is for the benefit of all the people of the world, how can we support this matter? ”

"Needless to say, the bonds have been bought, and the children have served. But I'm afraid that some people don't know the depths, and they actually want to hoard food when the war starts, or do the work of the army for money...... I have no choice but to warn you that you must not. ”

He has no interest in benefiting the world and the people, but he knows the depth of the Mo family, and once the war starts, there are a few things that cannot be done.

These words are not only to remind everyone, but also to be regarded as a high-profile person who is in line with the following status as a viscount, and he must always consider the overall situation, at least say something that takes the overall situation into account.

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