On the shores of Lake Baikal, the golden autumn harvest season is simply the most celebratory day of the year for the flag bearers who have been here for a year. The wheat fields on the shore of the www.biquge.info Lake have ripened, and the heavy ears of wheat are full, which can be said to be a good year for a bumper harvest. The summer sunshine here is abundant, and the wheat grows particularly well because of the cold climate, the long growing season of the crops, and the abundant moisture provided by the melting snow in the winter.

Potatoes and corn had already been harvested, and those crops had a short growing season, providing enough food for the banner people. Since the snow melted, far fewer people have starved to death.

On the shores of the lake appeared a new town, which had no walls, only a wooden fence around the perimeter, and most of the buildings were wooden houses, with only a few brick and timber houses in the middle. The lower part of these windows is made of bricks, and the upper part of the windows is made of wood, and the roof is also covered with tiles, which is the imperial palace of Kangxi. Although such a palace is much worse than the Forbidden City, even compared to the Forbidden City in Shenyang, it is the best house here.

"It's finally over! The most difficult moment is over! Kangxi opened the window of the study, looked at the golden wheat field outside, and said, "As long as the Qing Dynasty recovers its vitality and the support of the Rakshasa people, we still have a chance." ”

Speaking of the Russians, Kangxi turned his head and asked Tuhai: "Didn't you say that the Rakshasa people want to help us?" Why is it autumn now, what about their people? Not even a single figure is missing! ”

"The minions calculated, they should be there soon. Your Majesty, you wait a few more days, I believe that the Eight Great Imperial Merchants will not let us down, our Qing Dynasty is so kind to them, and they are the people on the list of the pseudo-Southern King who must be killed, can this do things for us without giving up? "Tukaido.

"It's been a long time, and those dog minions haven't come back yet! I'm afraid that they went to the countries of Taixi, and they can't miss it, right? Kangxi snorted coldly.

Tu Hai knelt down on one knee and hit a thousand: "Your Majesty, the minions think they won't!" ”

As it turned out, as Tuhai expected, nine days later, a caravan combining East and West appeared on the lakeside. The caravan consisted of Jin merchants and caravan men in horse coats, melon-skin hats, and pigtails of money on the back of their heads, Russians in Western-style clothing, missionaries, merchants, hired laborers, soldiers, criminals, and unemployed people from other European countries.

These people came to the East with the dream of making a fortune. When the Manchu royal family, Qing court officials, the eight imperial merchants and bannermen left the capital, they brought out a large amount of gold and silver treasures, which were coveted by the Russians and some people from other European countries, so they followed the caravan of the eight great merchants of the Jin dynasty to the East.

The caravans, which had traveled through Siberia to the East, carried not only enough food, but also a large number of weapons and ammunition, all of which were intended to be sold to the Manchus.

Kangxi had already seen the power of firearms, and he knew that mounted archery was beginning to become obsolete, and only firearms could dominate the world. Although the Manchu Qing Dynasty had lost like this, leaving less than 100,000 people to hide in the far north to survive, and even did not hesitate to declare himself a vassal to the Ming Dynasty, Kangxi still thought that one day he would be able to return to the Central Plains with the Eight Banners.

Of course, the Russians said that they wanted to support the Manchus, not because the Russians really had any hope for the Qing Kingdom, which had less than 100,000 people left, but because they wanted to earn their money on the one hand, and on the other hand, they were taking advantage of their disgusting Ming Dynasty, which was gradually recovering and becoming a behemoth in the East again.

……

Thousands of miles away, a flotilla of two river gunboats and twelve steam troop carriers left the canal and entered the Huai River, sailing upstream along the Huai River.

This fleet was responsible for transporting the Jin King Li Sixing to the south to investigate, originally from the north, in addition to Li Sixing's steam river gunboat and another steam river gunboat, his personal guards and members of the expedition group were all sails or oars rowing boats. After the fleet arrived in Huai'an, because it had to go upstream, the pro-guard and other members of the inspection group all changed to steam troop carriers and then went upriver along the Huai River.

Entering Hongze Lake from Huai'an, there is a section of the river with a large drop, and it is difficult for sailboats and oars to go up, and it is necessary for a slender man to pull the boat on the shore to pass this section of the river. Nowadays, with steamboats, you can easily enter Hongze Lake.

The 12 small steam troop carriers are not large in tonnage, all of them are only 50 tons, with a wooden hull structure, and from the appearance, they look similar to the small steam boats that sailed on the Huai River before the 80s, with only one floor of cabin, but the power used is not a diesel engine, but a steam engine. A twelve-horsepower steam engine was mounted on it.

After the fleet entered Hongze Lake, it entered the Huai River and slowly sailed along the Huai River towards Bengbu.

After a night of sailing, the sky gradually brightened. Li Sixing was woken up by the roar of the engine, he had been riding this steam river gunboat for several days, he was used to the roar of the steam engine, and he slept very peacefully on the ship, but every time it was dawn, he would wake up to the roar of the steam engine.

Li Sixing walked out of the captain's room, climbed onto the deck above the bridge, and stood on a high place overlooking the scenery on both sides of the Huai River. As far as the eye can see, there is a vibrant scene on both sides of the Huai River, the rice has matured, the rice fields on both sides are golden, and the farmers are busy in the farmland. Because of the war, coupled with the large number of immigrants leaving the country, the population has decreased, the price of land here has fallen, and every farmer who remains here has enough farmland to cultivate.

"Lord Wang, it's almost time to Bengbu!" An officer from the Inland Water Division came up to report.

On the south bank of the Huai River in front, there are a number of buildings, all of which are new-style cement buildings, most of which are five- to six-storey high-rise buildings, and the five- to six-storey buildings of this era are indeed high-rise buildings.

On the banks of the river, there are also many migrant workers and soldiers working on construction, as if to build a new wharf. Li Sixing didn't know what kind of pier it was, but it was actually a train ferry terminal. It was too difficult to build a bridge over the Huai River with the technology of this era, so it had to be replaced by ferries first.

"I'm about to see the fire dragon on land." Thinking of the train he was about to see, Li Sixing was very excited.

The flotilla of King Jin's expedition stopped at the Bengbu wharf, and everyone disembarked and, led by local officials and soldiers, went straight to the train station.

The steam locomotive whistled for a long time, pulling the special train and slowly leaving the Bengbu Railway Station.

Li Sixing sat in the car, looking at the rapidly regressing scenery outside. As the saying goes, three feet above the ground is like a fairy, the floor in the train carriage is three feet high from the rails, plus the height of the rail sleepers, the thickness of the ballast, and the height of the roadbed, all of which are six feet.