Liu Muchen came to the ticket window of Shanghai North Railway Station early in the morning, and before he walked to the ticket window, he was stunned by the scene in front of him: he saw a long queue in front of the ticket window, from the ticket hall to the road outside, a total of twelve ticket windows, and the line in front of each window was at least 100 steps long!

"Why are there so many people?" Liu Muchen was taken aback.

"It's the Spring Festival, and everyone has to go home. Now with the train, how convenient. A man on the side said.

"There are so many people, when is this going to be queued? Otherwise, just go to the steamship wharf, you can sit directly in Wuchang, and you don't need to transfer in Nanjing. Another man who looked like a servant of a large family said.

"That's right!" Liu Muchen nodded, "I'm also going to Wuchang, so it's better to go to the dock." ”

"Docks?" Someone sneered, "There are as many people as there are people at the dock!" It is not always possible to buy a direct ferry ticket from Shanghai to Wuchang. There are many boat flights from Nanjing to Wuhan, and the railway station also sells connecting ferry tickets from Nanjing to Wuhan, so it is better to buy them here. If you go to the dock and run away, don't you have to come back? ”

When Liu Muchen heard this, he had to give up the idea of going to the dock, and honestly followed the queue and waited patiently.

From 9 o'clock in the morning to 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Liu Muchen finally lined up in front of the ticket window. Before getting to the window, he looked up at the ticket price and saw that the sleeper ticket was only five yuan. Liu Muchen thought about it for a while, and felt that although the ticket price was one dollar higher, he could sleep for one night, and his monthly salary was ten yuan, so he decided to buy a hard sleeper ticket, so that his wife and daughter would suffer less.

Liu Muchen finally lined up at the window, and he handed over the banknote: "A third-class ticket to Nanjing tomorrow night, and a hard sleeper ticket." ”

"No, the tickets for tomorrow and the day after tomorrow are gone." The conductor said.

"When will there be a ticket?" Liu Muchen asked unwillingly.

"The pre-sale period is three days, and within three days, there are no more tickets for no seats, so you can come early tomorrow morning." The conductor replied.

Liu Muchen left the train station dejectedly, he called a carriage and rushed to the ticket office of the steamship terminal. However, after arriving at the ticket office, I saw an announcement posted at the ticket office, which said: Tickets to Wuhan, Jingzhou, and Chongqing have been sold out within five days, tickets to Ningbo, Wenzhou, and Guangzhou have been sold out, and there are still tickets left to Tianjin, Fuzhou, and Xiamen.

"It seems that we can only queue up at the train station all night tonight." Liu Muchen said to himself.

At this moment, Liu Muchen suddenly heard someone shouting: "Tickets are sold!" Tickets are sold! Nanjing, Anqing, Jiujiang, Wuchang, Jingzhou, Yiling, Wanzhou, Chongqing direction tickets, want to buy as soon as possible! Tickets are limited! ”

Liu Muchen was overjoyed, and hurriedly ran in the direction where the voice sounded, but saw a large group of people surrounded by water, and there were two gang thugs outside shouting: "Don't squeeze!" Take it easy! ”

"What? Eight yuan to go to Wuchang Tongban? Are you robbing money? "I only heard someone shouting.

From Shanghai to Wuchang, the ticket price of the ship is two yuan and five cents, and it is sold for eight yuan, which is indeed a lot more expensive. I only heard the person inside sneering: "Lao Tzu took the brothers to line up hard, don't you want labor fees?" Do you like to buy it or not? Don't buy pull-down! There are so many people waiting in line to buy tickets! ”

The person who looked like a thug in the gang outside also said: "That is, we work hard to be scalpers, and it is not easy to earn this hard-earned money, and those who line up all night every day, if you want to go home, you have to give us labor fees, right?" ”

"Eight bucks? It's so expensive! Liu Muchen shook his head and left. Originally, he wanted to queue up at the pier to buy a ticket, but there were not many ferry flights, the steamer from Shanghai to Wuchang only departed once in five days, today's ferry ticket was gone, and the ferry ticket five days later was estimated to be gone, if he couldn't even buy a ticket in ten days, then he couldn't go back. So Liu Muchen went to the train station again, planning to queue up at the station all night.

"Why are there so many people queuing up at night?" Outside the ticket hall of the train station, Liu Muchen saw many people queuing, and some people were sitting in the queue with small benches.

Someone said, "No way! If you don't queue up all night, you won't even want to buy a ticket. Tickets to Nanjing and Hangzhou are so hard to buy that it's a blessing to be able to buy a non-seat ticket! ”

At this time, Liu Muchen heard someone shouting again: "Tickets are sold!" Tickets are sold! A third-class ticket to Nanjing, with a seat! There are also connecting tickets from Nanjing to Wuchang, which are available in the unified cabin, fifth class, fourth class, third class, and second class! Tickets are limited, so hurry up! ”

Liu Muchen squeezed up and asked about the ticket price, and the third-class ticket to Nanjing was sold for two yuan! The ticket price from Nanjing to Wuhan costs seven yuan, which adds up to more expensive than the direct ticket to Wuhan from the wharf. It's just a little good, that is, you can buy a ticket to leave tomorrow night at the train station, and you can take the ship to Wuhan the morning after tomorrow.

"Let's go to the pier and buy a direct ticket to leave in five days." After thinking about it for a long time, Liu Muchen gritted his teeth and decided to go to the dock to buy two high-priced scalper tickets.

In the yamen of the Shanghai prefect, Wang Yu, who rushed to Shanghai from Nanjing today, was listening to a report by Yao Tingxuan, the prefect of Shanghai.

"The Beijing-Shanghai railway has been saturated, and the single-track railway has reached the limit of 40 pairs a day. In terms of water transport, there were too few steamers sailing upriver from Shanghai, and there was only one steamer bound for Chongqing in five days, and this ship docked at Nanjing, Anqing, Jiujiang, Wuchang, Jingzhou, Yiling, Wanzhou, and Chongqing, which was simply not enough, and every ship was overloaded. Yao Tingxuan said.

Qi Bansun, who was standing on the side, said: "Now there are some gang guys who buy tickets and ferry tickets at the docks and stations, and then sell them at a high price, making illegal profits from them!" Many of them used to be the eyes of the Heaven and Earth Society, but now the world will be decided, and those non-staff members of the Heaven and Earth Society have lost their income and joined the gang. ”

"There must be a purchase restriction method, and one person can only buy three tickets at a time!" Wang Yu said.

"What if someone buys it for you? The queue is much longer. Yao Ting said.

"The longer the queue, the longer the queue, only in this way can we prevent scalpers from making illegal profits as much as possible. In addition, the sail clipping cargo ship is used as a temporary overtime passenger ship. However, this is not the final solution, and it seems that the Beijing-Shanghai railway will complete the double-track project as soon as possible. In addition, more steamships should be built, sail cargo ships have fallen behind, and the transportation capacity is too poor, so it is necessary to build a few more Yangtze River passenger ships. Wang Yu frowned and said.

"The change is indeed too fast, originally the passenger ship on the Yangtze River is a flying clipper passenger ship, the passenger capacity is small, the countercurrent speed is slow, the ticket price is expensive, and the people dare not go home during the Spring Festival. Now that there are ships with cheap fares and fast counter-currents, everyone wants to go home for the New Year, but the capacity is insufficient. Yao Tingxuan sighed.