The mage in the late Qing Dynasty

In the desert, there is a flying inn in the sky.

Wang changed his name and said in surprise: "Shopkeeper Zhao, are you going to Liangzhou to purchase?"

Zhao Chuanxin inserted the revolver into the holster, hung it on both sides of his legs, and took off the Miao Dao on the wall: "Yeah, what's wrong?"

Wang changed his name and said with joy: "Liangzhou is not peaceful, let me tell you the truth. I encountered people who rushed into the county town to resist food and donations. When they saw injustice on the road, they drew their swords to help, but they were besieged by soldiers from the northeast. I was injured..."

Apparently he was bragging about his exploits.

"Oh." Zhao Chuanxin got ready and prepared to go: "Be more careful next time."

"..." Although people said that Zhao Chuanxin was very skilled, Wang was still not convinced when he changed his name: "Shopkeeper Zhao has a full camp in the north of Liangzhou City. He practices constantly every day, and the instructor is a Belgian who has been trained by the German orthodox army. , they have live ammunition shooting twice a month, don’t underestimate them..."

Zhao Chuanxin laughed: "Everyone is shooting, but you got a knife wound. Did they use knives to shoot?"

"Here... there are at least thirty or fifty people with quick guns. I was lucky and I met someone without a gun." Wang changed his name and asked thiefly: "Could it be that shopkeeper Zhao wants to buy Gansu Huang?"

Zhao Chuanxin was about to open the door, and frowned when he heard this: "What is Gansu Huang? Does it sound like shit?"

"Gansu yellow, the smoke produced in Qinzhou, the world is flocking to."

Zhao Chuanxin's expression changed slightly.

Zhao Chuanxin never cared about fast guns and artillery.

What he fears most is opium.

"Are there many opium smokers in Suzhou and Liangzhou?"

"Um...I don't know."

Liangzhou is actually very prosperous, more prosperous than Suzhou and second only to Lanzhou.

Taking the post road normally, the flight to Liangzhou is about 350 kilometers.

But Zhao Chuanxin took a long detour, traveling parallel to the post road through the desert, to Zhenfan County, and then straight south to Liangzhou, a distance of about 400 kilometers.

The desert is vast as far as the eye can see, and the ethereal traveler can reach speeds of nearly 500 kilometers per hour. He has to bend his waist to break the wind, wear a smooth leather flight jacket, cover his head and face, and wear diving goggles.

Zhao Chuanxin experienced what it was like to be a fighter pilot in the era without a windshield.

The basic skeleton structure of Liangzhou City is simple. Two straight streets connect four city gates, dividing the city into four equal urban areas.

At the intersection of the two streets, there are four wooden gate buildings.

There are densely packed houses on both sides of the street.

There are suburbs in the south and north of the city.

There are less than 6,000 households in the city, but there are nearly a thousand shops.

Zhao Chuanxin walked on the street and felt that compared with Lanzhou City, it was both desolate and prosperous.

Why is this?

Just like the old man's face, the streets in the city are wrinkled and dried up after being soaked in snow and water. They are as hard as rocks. Even the wooden wheels of a carriage cannot shake them.

In this kind of environment, it is impossible for people's clothes to be clean.

What Zhao Chuanxin saw was that even the wealthy households were covered in dust.

The same goes for his own robes.

Street shops have a wide variety of products, selling plasters, glues, vegetables, gourd seeds, flax, fabrics and silks, flax, indigo dye...

Like Lanzhou, this is a cargo distribution center.

For example, silk brocade from Sichuan and Sichuan, saddle tarpaulin from Hotan, raisins and cotton from Turpan, matches, cigarettes and cleaning supplies imported from Japan, condiments from Xi'an and porcelain from Tianjin Wei...

Zhao Chuanxin's eyes lit up and he felt that this was much more convenient than Lanzhou City.

As far as shopping goes, it's more reasonable and centralized.

But when I touched my pocket and wiped it, the money was not enough.

Li Guangzong was asked to ask New York for funds prepared for Nikola Tesla that have not yet arrived.

The three melons and two dates that kept the inn were not enough to support Zhao Chuanxin's lavish spending.

He really wanted to buy it for zero yuan, but he heard Wang changed his name and said that the exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes in the northwest region were too serious, and Zhao was relieved that the burden would eventually be placed on the shoulders of the local people.

We were already poor, and under the heavy burden, many people probably died.

He bought some cigarettes, which he couldn't stop smoking. As for cigars, he hadn't smoked them for a long time.

Silk, brocade, etc., looks good but useless.

But cotton, he wanted to add a few more quilts.

He bought some grains such as millet, wheat, highland barley, and peas and put them into a pocket technology.

Liangzhou also produces paper locally, one is called horse dung paper and the other is called Mao silk paper.

Nowadays, rough guys like Guo Tuwa are used to wiping their butts with toilet paper, so paper has become a necessity.

Zhao Chuanxin bought thatched silk paper, and he was worried that the horse dung paper was really made of horse dung.

Then I don’t have much money in my pocket, and I still have to buy food.

Standing on the street, Zhao Chuanxin looked up to the sky and sighed: "It's so bad that a penny can't help a heroic man."

But I heard someone behind me say, "Taoist Priest, I can help you more."

Zhao Chuanxin turned around in shock: "Who are you? Why are you so kind? Then borrow a thousand yuan first."

There was a foreigner standing behind him, who looked familiar.

Morrison said happily: "It's me, Morrison. Taoist priest, we met in Lanzhou City."

"Oh, it's you..." Zhao Chuanxin said in a long voice: "I forgot."

"..."

A big city or a small city is not the key to chance encounters. The key is that there are only two streets in Liangzhou City, and what's more, Morrison has been looking for Zhao Chuanxin recently. He inquires carefully about every place he visits and stays for a few days.

He is a qualified explorer. With 40 pounds sent by his mother, he walked from Shanghai to Yangon. Two years later, he walked from Bangkok to Kunming. The following year, he traveled across three provinces outside the customs...

Curiosity is one of his driving forces, so he is obsessed with seeing Zhao Chuanxin again.

He didn't ask about Zhao Chuanxin, but he heard about a place name from others, and it was called Ah Rixi in Mongolian.

It is said that it is an oasis in the desert, where there are vast pastures and delicious food. People's diseases can be cured without treatment...

The Meng man swore to him that his baby had been to Arixi.

If Zhao Chuanxin could not be found again, Morrison would be ready to go find the magical Arixi.

Morrison remembered that Zhao Chuanxin had just lamented that he had no money, and he had an idea: "Taoist Priest, if you accept my interview, I will pay you the corresponding fees."

"Oh?" Zhao Chuanxin's eyes lit up slightly: "How much?"

Morrison held out five fingers.

Zhao Chuanxin was shocked: "Fifty thousand pounds? I'm Zhuo, come on, let's find a place to chat."

"..." Morrison emphasized: "It's five dollars, an ocean, not a pound."

Zhao Chuanxin sighed: "Hey, Morrison, Morrison, if everyone in the world is as stingy as you, then civilization will not progress, science and technology will not develop, human living standards will not improve, and the global material realm will regress. In one hundred and fifty years, when global warming, world war, ice and snow in the Arctic and Antarctic melt, and people's hearts become sinister, you, the stingy one, will be the culprit of these disasters."

"..." Morrison: "I can increase it to six yuan."

"Oh, my friend Morrison, I remember you, you were a generous gentleman, and the northwest welcomes you."

"..."

Morrison stayed for a moment and then suddenly said: "I don't have much funds. Six yuan is my limit. If the Taoist priest is short of money, I know that there is a Finnish explorer Mahanda who has also arrived in Liangzhou City. Maybe he is also willing to contribute money." Help the Taoist priest to tide over the difficulties."

This is what foreigners do, Ding is Dingmao, and if you borrow a dollar, the fee will be up to six yuan, and you won’t be given a penny more.

Zhao Chuanxin was really short of money. He thought about it. If he spent another five yuan and eleven yuan, he could buy a lot of snacks. He could open a snack shop in the sky and coax those boys who dug out excrement into bartering. Work, then the task is completed today.

He happily said: "Let's conduct interviews while walking and look for Mahanda, the financial backer."