The hot wind blew from outside the pass, carrying a long yellow tip, and the sky became dark, and it was noon, but the light looked like evening. ^^ Baidu search to read the latest chapters of this book**

This? It is Shanhaiguan, Nanguan Railway Station.

The Jingfeng Railway connecting Běijīng to Mukden (Shenyang) passes through here, and this Nanguan railway station is the most important transit station on the Jingbong line.

The Jingfeng Railway is an extension of the former Guanwai Railway, and the Guanwai Railway was built in consideration of the safety of the capital, and the Qing court did not intend to connect the railway connecting the Guannai and the Guanwai into a straight line from the beginning, so this Shanhaiguan Station is very special, it is the end point of the Guanwai Railway. It is also the starting point of the Kannai Railway, in other words, if you take the train to the Kannai Railway, when you arrive at Shanhaiguan Station, both passengers and goods must change trains here.

It is more convenient for passengers to change cars, and the trouble is to change cars for goods.

In these years, there is no concept of containers, all goods, whether they are local goods or foreign goods, whether they are whole goods or zero goods, all are packed in bulk in the carriage, moving up and down all by manpower, to Shanhaiguan Railway Station, the change of goods is a system engineering, it is not easy to unload the goods from the train, but it may not be able to load another train immediately, this has to be scheduled, but the goods are unloaded from the car, can not be just piled up in the open stack in the wind and sun, you have to find a place to store, Because no one knows when they will be able to wait for the train.

As a result, a new industry has emerged in this Shanhaiguan Railway Station, a small warehouse industry, a private warehouse industry.

The main business of Shanhaiguan warehouse industry is to handle the transfer of goods for customers, the loading, unloading, storage, and application for the procedures of the train, "many matters are handled by the warehouse side, without the need for customers cāo how much heart, in a word, as long as the warehouse is given silver, the goods can be smoothly and properly loaded on the train. Transported to where it should go, this Shanhaiguan warehouse is an indispensable business tool for small merchants who have no way out.

After the expansion of the railway inside and outside the customs to the Jingfeng railway, although the two railways are finally connected, theoretically can realize the direct delivery of passengers and goods, but due to the lack of capacity, the freight car must still stop at the south station, if the number of trains is not arranged, the goods on the car still have to change cars, so the Shanhaiguan warehouse industry has not declined with the connection of the Jingfeng line, although it is not prosperous, but at least the people who rely on the warehouse industry to eat can still hold the rice bowl in their hands.

Today, before dawn, a strong wind broke out, and it did not stop until noon, because the wind and sand were pervasive. The first time to see the signal light, the train running on the Jingfeng line had to slow down, the train was completely disrupted, not only the passenger car was delayed, the passengers were stranded, and the truck stopped at the Shanhaiguan South Station station is also extraordinarily many, many anxious shippers jumped all over the world, contacted the warehouse to send people to the station to unload the car, inventory, which has been a lot since the revolution rì The warehouse business has also become hot immediately.

However, the owners soon found that they could not muster enough people to unload the trucks, as most of the warehouse guys and shopkeepers were assigned tolerances. is unloading the truck at the north station outside Shanhaiguan, and there is no manpower to help at the south station for a while.

The owners inquired curiously, and then learned that there were several military trains coming to the North Railway Station, which were said to be transferred to Tianjin, but due to the problem of the number of trains, they could not go south immediately, so they could only unload the military supplies on the car first, so as to turn around and return to Fengtian, and take the Beiyang Army troops that had not yet been transported to Tianjin as soon as possible.

There is still a Beiyang Army in the three eastern provinces? Wasn't Cao Ming's Third Division already transferred to the Beijing-Tianjin area?

Among the shippers, there are many nouveau riche who have broken into Kanto. The situation in the three eastern provinces is no stranger, and some good people deliberately ran to the North Station to take a look, and then ran back to the South Station with a scolding.

"Phew! Bullshit Beiyang Army! Isn't that Zhang Zuoshuang and Feng Delin's beard team? If it sounds good, it's called "insurance team", and if it sounds bad, it's called "horse thief,!" At that time, the small nose of the East and the big nose of the West fought in the three eastern provinces, and the place was erosive. Bandits all over Liaoxi, although later the Manchu court sent troops to suppress bandits, but the officials and bandits colluded, the bandits and horse thieves were more and more suppressed, and they had no choice but to use bandits to govern bandits. After a few years of fighting in the east and west, they finally wiped out a large number of bandits, and this Zhang and Feng also changed. He became the commander of the patrol battalion. But bandits are bandits, and if they change their skins, they are still bandits! ”

"Shhhh Be quiet! Now it's a republic. President Yuan Da appointed Zhang Zuoshuang and Feng Delin as each a division commander, and now, you have to call someone else, Division Zhang, and Division Feng. ”

"Master Zhang, Master Feng? Lo and behold, you haven't been in Mukden. This "division commander." It was called by outsiders, but the team was calling "Zhang Dashuai" and "Feng Dashuai." ”

"Handsome? It's not too shabby. It's good not to be a soil overlord in the three eastern provinces, what are you going to do in the south? ”

"What to do? Be cannon fodder. Now the revolutionary party in the south has set up a "united front", claiming to have millions of party members, hundreds of thousands of troops, and strong soldiers, and want to compete with Yuan Gong to protect the world, and the Beiyang army is not enough, so the team of Zhang Zuoshuang and Feng Delin has been transferred, counting on these green forest heroes to fight to the death with that group of revolutionary parties. ”

"Don't talk about state affairs, don't talk about the country. Drink, drink. ”

The owners who went to the north station to inquire about the news rushed back to the south station, and got together in the wine shop on the street of the warehouse to mutter, while drinking sorghum wine, while talking about the situation between the north and the south, the outside of the warehouse is full of wind and sand, but the warehouse is full of wine.

In the staggered arrangement, two catties, the blonde foreigner walked into the street of the warehouse, and it was a hot day. But it is neatly dressed and hated, and it looks particularly different in the yellow dust.

One of these two foreigners is called Stade, and the other is Marven, both Americans, the former is the US Consul General in Mukden, and the latter is his assistant and Tu Ze.

"You know, Marvin, this hotel reminds me of the rural rebuilding of Kansas."

Stade stopped in front of a liquor shop, tilted his head and squinted, his gaze wandering the sign.

Marven raised his head, looked at the signboard and said, "Except for the drunkards inside!" Outside. I don't see any similarities between the tattoo and the American tavern. There are still two hours left before the departure time. I suggest we go in and sit down, maybe they have beer here, and we can bring some back to the carriage to make the sullen legation politicians happy. ”

The two of them entered the liquor shop one after the other, but there was no beer here, so the two had to order two cups of tea and looked at the Chinese pastries on the plate in a daze.

"Marven, I remember I ordered pastries."

Stade pinched a small bun with his fingers and looked at Marven curiously.

"Sir, there's only this kind of "pastry" here, and traditional Chinese pastries are basically this kind of thing. Marven blinked.

"Marven, your Chinese language is good, but you have a very limited understanding of traditional Chinese culture, and the pastries in northern China are different from those in the south, just like the southerners and northerners in China, their xìng characters are completely different."

Stade put the bun back on the plate. Picking up the teacup, but not touching his lips, he began to express his opinion.

"The northern Chinese people are rough, while the southern Chinese people are delicate, so the pastries they make are completely different, the northern pastries are affordable, as long as they can eat enough, while the southern pastries are good-looking, and in order to pursue the delicacy, they do not hesitate to give up some practical xìng. Take this bun as an example. Let the north do it, just have noodles and filling, but southerners may also do some tricks on the pattern, and they will also give this bun a very chic name. ”

Marven disagrees with Stade's opinion.

"Sir, as far as I know, the food culture of northern China is also a science, take the Manchu Dynasty as an example, although their emperor is an authentic northern Chinese, but they are also very particular about the food they eat, according to the diplomats who have attended the palace banquets, there are many jīng dishes in the palace of the Manchurian Dynasty that people can't bear to swallow."

"Marven, that is the result of two hundred years of cultural exchanges between the north and the south, before ruling this small country, the court banquet of the Manchurian emperor must have been very simple, perhaps, roasted Luo Zhu meat is the only dish they can take to entertain VIPs."

Two Americans who don't know much about Chinese culture sit at the table and argue about the inheritance of Chinese culture. While debating whether the Chinese had a separate meal system in ancient times, the figure at the door of the wine shop flickered, and two foreigners walked in.

Before the liquor shop guy could come forward to greet them, Stade had already stood up and greeted the two men.

"Hi!! I'll see you here. It was so surprising to me. ”

The two foreigners who walked into the wine shop were obviously a little surprised, and the one in front hurriedly walked over. Greeted Staid and Marven, and introduced the companion behind him.

"Mr. Consul, it is a great honor to meet you here. This is Mr. Bessonchank. He was French, a former captain of a ship, having spent many years in China, and now he was the manager of an import and export trading company, and he had come to the north with the intention of opening a branch in South Manchuria. ”

The four foreigners sat down at this wine table and asked each other why they were in the mountains.

"Mr. Morrison, what are you doing at Shanhaiguan? Now that China's parliamentary elections are in the middle of a critical period, how did you end up here? Could it be that you are going to Manchuria? ”

"Mr. Consul, are you kidding? In such a country, in such a small era, it is not those members of Congress who decide the future of this country, but the army commanded by military strongmen! When I went to Shanhaiguan, I planned to go to Mukden. I heard that two new infantry divisions were about to go south, so I went to cover them, and as for the congressional elections, I had already followed them a few days ago. As the new editor-in-chief of The Times Far East, it is my duty to keep an eye on the most important issues. ”

"Congratulations on your appointment as Editor-in-Chief. In fact, you should thank the Americans, without the aircraft invented by the Americans, your report on the Republican air raid on Chengdu probably would not have been made up, and without that report, you would not have been able to be the editor-in-chief. Stade raised his teacup.

Morrison also raised his teaglass, and the French captain next to him also took out a whiskey bottle from his pocket and drained half of the bottle in one go.

"Mr. Consul, why did you appear at Shanhaiguan? Isn't it always for a tourist? Morley got down to business.

"Actually, I was going to Běijīng, and I just stayed at Shanhaiguan for a while, and when the train was ready, I went to Běijīng to report to Mr. U.S. Minister to China on the progress of the negotiations on the Jinhua Railway.

Judging by the news in this newspaper. Rì本zhèngfǔ seems to be opposed to the Jinchuan Railway. Morrison said tentatively.

"But don't forget, the three eastern provinces are Chinese territory, and Rì Ben has no say in the issue of the Jingui Railway. Mr. Xu Shichang, the governor of the three eastern provinces, was very interested in this railway, and with his support, this railway can be built.

"But as far as I know, Rì本zhèngfǔ is now increasing its support for Yuan Shikai, will Yuan Shikai fight against Rì Ben for a railway? Moreover, Britain also shares the same position as Rìben, and they oppose the involvement of non-Entente countries in China's railways, and the United States is no exception. With the support of Britain and Rìben, Yuan Shikai may not give American businessmen a chance, and Xu Shichang is Yuan Shikai's subordinate. I'm afraid he won't disobey Yuan Shikai's orders. ”

"Mr. Morrison, international politics is very complex and cannot be explained in a few words. The matter of the railway let those big people go to cāo heart, let's talk about the scenery on the road. ”

Stade ended the topic wisely, and although he did not care about the railroad on the surface, he was very anxious inside.

As the U.S. Consul General in Mukden, after concluding negotiations on the Guangdong-Hankou Line and the Sichuan-Han Line, Stade returned to Mukden and accepted a new assignment assigned by the U.S. State Department: to preside over the "Knox Count"