In July 1871, Guangdong was already hot. Although it was almost noon and there was no sun, the iron plate on the top seemed to be covered in breath. If you stretched out your hand, you could feel the heat waves coming from the top of your head. As for the occasional sunlight reflected by the glass window next to you, it would blind people's eyes;

In addition to the heat, there was a constant smell of coal smoke in the air and a constant roar. The floor under my feet was like the deck of a ship in the sea and kept moving;

The heat wave, noise, smell, and swaying made the people in it feel like they have turned into a stove of roast duck, wishing they could hit the wall, or plunge head into the silver-like river outside the glass window;

At this moment, another scream came from the roar, and a woman shouted: "Madam, there is heatstroke!"

Then the oven-like place became even more chaotic, and people stood up one after another, and someone went to help the woman with heatstroke.

Seeing the Han woman wearing a whale bone and a thin-waisted dress being carried out horizontally in front of him, a big man sitting near the connection of the carriage shook his suit cloak with pride. The expensive suit suddenly opened his arms, revealing his dark chest hair and tattoos. He reached in and wiped his chest full of sweat, wiped his hands clean on the backrest, and laughed at the poor woman with heatstroke.

The woman was dressed very well, and she thought she was also a wealthy person. When her maid and husband heard someone laughing at this time, they turned their heads angrily. Unexpectedly, they saw clearly that the man was wearing, turned back timidly, and followed the servant to carry his wife out.

The big man was wearing an expensive suit, holding a Western top hat with silk thread in his hand, and a pair of three-piece leather shoes under his feet. This was the standard style of a big businessman, but when he was worn, he was so scared that only two people sat in the four seats.

Because he not only untied his suit and shirt inside, he swayed open his arms, put his leather shoes under the seat, took off his socks and stepped on the seat where the two of them were sitting, holding a top hat in one hand as a fan, and pinching a watermelon in the other hand, and occasionally using the tie swaying around his neck as a cloth for wipers.

In addition to Zhu Bajie treating formal clothes like a peach, not to mention the tattoo he exposed on his body, of course, no one dared to approach him and let him occupy the seats of two people alone.

However, although this big man is so terrible, he seems to be even more afraid of the middle-aged man sitting opposite him. He smiled flatteringly at the man opposite him, "Brother Sheng, look at this stupid woman! Wear this outfit in hot weather and wear a big Western silly hat. I think he is so fashionable! Look, is he heatstroke? A fool hat!"

The man opposite was exactly the same as the tattooed man, but every button was tightly tucked, even the custom button on his shirt was buttoned. The white silk white shirt collar was wet with sweat. Although his skin was dark, like a farmer, his hair was combed in a fashionable 300% 70% chew, and the hair oil was shining on it. There was also a pair of myopia mirrors showing erudition on the bridge of his nose. It made people feel awe at first glance. It was like the ferocious man opposite, which was like an angel and a devil.

At this moment, the angel was reading the newspaper intently, and just said coldly to his evil friend's gossip, as if he didn't care about everything around him.

The tattooed man looked at this man named Sheng Ge, but he didn't care. He straightened his waist from the seat, glanced at the full people, and said apologetically after sitting down: "Brother Sheng, I'm so embarrassed today. I asked the stationmaster of Huizhou Bureau, their private car is not here today! Otherwise, I can't let Brother, you squeeze in this carriage in this hot day and see so many people!

"Damn, the ticket price for the first-class car is very expensive. I didn't expect there were so many people?! What should you do if you have heatstroke?"

Brother Sheng raised his head from the newspaper, his glasses flashed, and he smiled and said, "Shanqi, you become more delicate when you get rich? You can't get enough heat. When you were a child, you helped your family do farm work. At that time, the sun was going to peel off. Besides, this carriage is better than the third-class car behind, right? Look at the top of the carriage above, there are hundreds of people who are not afraid of death."

The tattooed brother named Shan Ji stretched out his neck from the carriage. In a burst of black smoke, he looked at a group of ragged poor people on the top of the carriage behind him, and sat back on the chair with an angry look on his face: "Grass! Huizhou Bureau even counts as a station ticket on the roof! We are just railways. If you have something to do, you will be embarrassed to sit for a while!"

Brother Sheng smiled slightly, pointed at the passengers in the carriage in front of him and smiled: "When you see so many passengers, you will see a bunch of silver dollars, what else can you give in?"

"Brother, you are so tall! I remember when I met my elder brother at the gate of the palace, I felt that you were different at first sight, and your talent surged into the sky! Now when we talk about our Songyou Railway Power Company, who doesn't know the famous Sino-Western Tong Fang Bingshengsheng? I'm very proud when I go out. Now, I beg Mr. Weng to let me hang out with you?"

Fang Bingsheng joined Huizhou Telegram Construction Company, not voluntarily, but he couldn't find a job after passing the imperial examination. He had to make a living with these people. Unexpectedly, he accidentally got into the right business. After a few years, the telegraph industry has been booming and he got a royal errand for building a railway. You must know that the railway costs 40,000 taels of money for two miles. What a beautiful thing!

This juren stands out in the fully illiterate ** company. Although he can't cut and kill, he can read and think, and soon became Weng Jianguang's secretary and assistant. Although he didn't know what the telegram was for, he had a good time to build telegram lines to deal with the people. Later, he still didn't know what the railway was for, but he handled countless troubles for the people. Over the past decade, Huichuantang, a small sect originally in Longchuan, became the Huichuan Telegraph Company, and the current "Songyou Railway and Telephone Company".

You should know that the emperor formulated the "Ten-Year Plan for Iron River" with Haijing as the center, and planned to build the Song Dynasty railway network. Because Haijing is on the seaside, it is considered the southernmost point of the empire. Natural railway construction has three major directions: above the map, directly connecting to the north of the empire and the junction of the Manchu and Qing dynasties; to the left of the map, it is planned to connect to Guangdong, Guangxi and Annan Henoi; to the right of the map, the railway line is the most valuable and most preferred strategic trunk line of the empire: from Haijing through the iron waist Ganzhou, directly to Nanchang, Jiangxi, connecting the Pearl River War Zone and the Yangtze River War Zone, or connecting the Pearl River Economic Circle and the Yangtze River Economic Circle.

Because there was not so much money to start construction at the same time, the emperor decided to build a short-distance railway in Guangdong first, and naturally divided into three major railway companies: "Songzuo Railway Company", "Songbei Railway Company", and "Songyou Railway and Electricity Company".

Huichuantang was remembered by the emperor because of the speed, fierceness and stability of the telegraph lines. In addition to Zhong Jialiang's strong support, they also built telegraph lines, so they took the plaque of the imperially-given company name "Songyou Railway Telegraph Company" from the emperor.

They are more domineering than the other two companies. They are called Railway, and Weng Jianguang's "Teleoelectricity". This is actually just the surface. In fact, it is the Haijing-Nanchang line that the emperor is most concerned about. Because the most powerful enemy comes from that direction, Weng Jianguang, who has seized the right to undertake the construction of this line, became a tycoon overnight. His confidant Fang Bingsheng also rose and became an industrial upstart in Haijing.

The senior pheasant who recruited him into Huichuan Hall fifteen years ago was willing to flatter him. In order to return to the first time we met, he was so hungry that he screamed, he gave Weng Jianguang a big gift to take on the job of following Brother Sheng, the "No. 1 Pioneer of Iron and Electricity".

"Brother Sheng," Shan Ji sincerely praised: "Every time these Western news come out, you will be the pioneer immediately. I really admire you. How do you have such a head? You are really the best talent in our company's integration of Chinese and Western..."

When Fang Bingsheng heard the four words "Chinese and Western connections", he did not have any happy reaction. On the contrary, he lowered his head and pretended to look at the dazzling newspaper reflected by the sun. He could not see a single word on it, and he was full of depression.

He has long been a generalist who connects Chinese and Western China. In fact, he has not been: telegraph? Who knows how the solid thing is transmitted? He still doesn't understand it; railway? Who knows how the terrible roaring thing is opened? He can actually run by eating coal? When will China throw coal into the furnace? It must be porcelain coming out? Who has ever heard that the porcelain kiln itself ran a hundred miles overnight?

Now the people under his control are no longer thugs like Shan Ji, but a group of current juren, sea turtle, who find any person who comes out to "study in France in 1962 and come back to serve me in Hai Song", "I was trained in the UK for two years", "The Royal First-Class Architect, has participated in the construction of the first railway from Hong Kong to Hai Jing"...

Fang Bingsheng never dared to touch the instruments in their hands, for fear of showing fear.

After so many years, he was shocked to find that the biggest strength of his vice president of Western Learning Company was to direct gangsters to deal with unruly people!

Of course, so much money, let alone commanding, it would be worth it even if he lifted a knife and cut it himself. The problem is that his self-esteem has been hit recently: although he is now rich and prosperous, he asked a French architect to build a huge mansion outside the Haijing area, and on the balcony you can see the emperor's blue palace dome; but in his heart he would rather be a running errand under the blue dome!

Scholars, farmers, industry and commerce!

Fifteen years have passed, and he is already thirty-four years old. The world has become surprising. Even porcelain kilns can run away. Farmers have long been equated with rags, but this is nothing. Farmers have always been like this, starting with Qin Shihuang. But when were those lowly merchants and industrialists equated with scholars?

Although he is an industry and businessman, his contempt for his identity has never changed for a moment.

So although he is very rich and has a status, he never touches two guns: a cigarette gun and a gun below.

You can be very rich, you can smoke cigarettes, you can even raise a concubine, but if you want to be an official in the Song Dynasty, which was established as a kingdom of gods, you will definitely have no way to have these two guns!

This is the iron rule set by the emperor.

Fang Bingsheng always wanted to be an official, and even married a Catholic wife to learn from those officials.

This is why he always wanted to be admitted to the imperial examination and pass the civil service exam.

However, on the one hand, he is very busy, but on the other hand, he feels that he will never be able to get in. His education is currently equivalent to that of elementary school!

Back then, he could use the Western Studies introduced by the emperor to get excellent exams, but that was the Chinese exam. Three years ago, the empire canceled the Yiwen exam. It was not that he would not take the Yiwen exam, but that all subjects except one Mandarin were all Yiwen!!!

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Thinking of this, Fang Bingsheng closed his eyes in pain.

Seeing his supporter look like this, the pheasant opposite immediately threw the watermelon out of the car window nervously, leaned over and covered the newspaper with a dazzling white light, and shouted: "Brother Sheng, what's wrong with you? You're thorny? Don't read the newspaper now? You can get the sun, just turn and read it again?"

"No...yes, it's pricked." Fang Bingsheng certainly wouldn't let Shan Ji know what he was thinking. He pretended to be prickly and slapped the newspaper on the small table, took off his glasses and wiped it.

Shan Ji looked at Fang Bingsheng as he returned to his original state with concern. He looked down at the newspaper and smiled and said, "I don't know a few words now, but I have read the original book. I heard that the emperor has changed the characters. I used to write vertically, but now I have written horizontally. In the past, there were many strokes, but now there are fewer strokes. What is the simple word? "

"Simplified Chinese characters!" Fang Bingsheng replied.

He pinched the newspaper and looked at the simplified Chinese characters with claws on it, and cried in his heart: "My emperor! You are the saint! We all know! We know that you are semi-illiterate and not very literate, but we will not despise you! How many wise and wise men are waiting to assist you! A few years ago, you insisted on punctuating Chinese because you didn't know the sentences. This is annoying enough, but how could you regard your white characters as golden rules as new Chinese because you didn't know the traditional Chinese characters! Let everyone in the world write white characters with you? Oh my God!"

Just as he was thinking, a big round man came to the seats of the two. He kept wiping his head with his handkerchief. Because it was hot, the windows were open in the carriage. Sometimes the soot in the front of the carriage and the coal ash in the carriage that followed him flew up. The handkerchief had turned black and looked like a piece of rag. It looked even more funny when combined with the owner's red face and sweaty sideburns, as if the chef in the kitchen was wiping the pot.

"What's the matter?" Shan Ji, who was sitting cross-legged in the seat, did not get up, his eyes tilted, and asked fiercely.

"This car is so crowded, you two are in four seats. Can you let me sit? My side is too hot, and I am too fat. The next person is as fat as me. We squeezed together and could only sit half of our butt. I really can't stand it. Can you let me sit here and have a breath, okay?" the fat man shouted.

"Get out!" Shan Ji roared: "Believe it or not, I will kill you?"

The pheasant was so fierce that the fat man had foreseeed it, but he looked at Fang Bingsheng opposite him, hoping that this person who looked like a rich and civilized person and a friend of a villain could speak fair words. Unexpectedly, Fang Bingsheng pretended not to hear it, and his eyes never left the title in the newspaper, simplified Chinese, four words: "Haijing Jiwen".

Shan Ji stood up and tried to beat someone. Seeing that Fang Bingsheng was not a good person, the fat man turned his head to the front carriage in anger. While walking, he shouted: "Train Conductor! Train Conductor! Are you still in charge of someone here taking over the seat?"

"This stupid guy!" Shan Ji sat down proudly, waiting for the conductor to come and saw his expression after seeing him. They were all family. He didn't believe that there was a train conductor on the train who didn't know Shan Ji, the former leader of the safety team of Huizhou Railway Bureau.

At this time, the dispute between Shan Ji and Fatty had long attracted the attention of others. The car was full, and the two dominant four-seaters were particularly eye-catching. The poor were not the poor who could afford first-class tickets. Most of them were New Song people who regarded themselves as the new word "civilization". They were originally angry, but were frightened by Shan Ji's appearance and were unwilling to provoke them.

A man grew up among the angry passengers and walked straight to the front of Fang Bingsheng's two-person seat.

"** again..." Shan Ji turned her head and yelled, but when she saw the other person wearing clothes, she immediately shrank, staring at Fang Bingsheng with her eyes full of help.

Fang Bingsheng had no intention of looking up and talking to these passengers. He was going to take a private car, but his schedule was too fast, and the station private car happened to be out of here, so he took this bus. He was originally a railway company and didn't want to pay attention to these customers;

Seeing Shan Ji's panicked gaze, he slowly put down the newspaper and raised his head. Even if sweat flowed down his ears into his shirt collar, it did not change the rhythm of his calm movement.

He looked up and saw: No wonder Shan Ji was panicked. It turned out that although the person who came this time was a short Chinese, his clothes were black and a white card on his neck, he was a Catholic priest.

"Hello, priest, what advice do you have?" Fang Bingsheng asked with a smile.

"Hello, gentleman, Jesus said: Love others as yourself. You two occupy four-person seats. The gentleman was very fat just now. Why didn't you help him and let him sit here..." said the priest.

Fang Bingsheng sneered and raised his hand and said, "You are right, but here are Protestants, I don't listen to the priests."

The priest was stunned and sighed, "So you are Protestant, no wonder, it seems that your church has not shepherded you well..."

Fang Bingsheng spread his hands proudly, meaning: What other ways do you have?

The priest shook his head, turned around and walked back, thinking to himself, "Protestantism is indeed not good. It seems that we have mastered the truth."

The rooster suddenly wanted to stand up from his seat, but wearing leather shoes took too much time, so he simply knelt on the chair, and raised his hands on the back of the chair and shouted, "Father, I believe in the Virgin Mary!"

"Look," he said, and took off his suit and shirt again, and had a Maria tattooed on his chest. The pheasant cried: "Prince, look at me, I have tattooed the Virgin on my chest. I've not finished tattooing yet, I will definitely finish it!"

The priest turned around and was obviously startled. The gangster kneeling on the chair was actually Catholic, and he looked like a child-like excited. He looked at the surprised gazes around him, and he was a little embarrassed to make a move, nodded and said, "Then you should give the seat to those in need..."

Shan Ji was stunned when she heard this, turned her head and looked at the eldest brother who was cursing for her with all her might. She turned around and covered the Virgin Mary's avatar with her shirt. She said a little embarrassedly: "Next time! This time, I will go back to Huizhou to confess to the priest!"

After saying that, he ignored the priest again, turned over and sat down, and Fang Bingsheng opposite him smiled and said, "Phoenix, everyone says you believe in the Virgin Mary and are very pious. Why?"

"Brother Sheng, we must do something shameful in this industry. Protestantism is too difficult to do, so we must repent! If I repent, who will deal with those troublemakers? How to smoke cigarettes? How can we go to Hong Kong to play beautiful girls? And the priest can repent, and if you repent, your sin will be gone! How happy!" Shan Ji laughed.

Before Shan Ji could finish laughing, a boy who looked seventeen or eighteen years old passed by the disappointed priest and walked over again. After walking in front of the two, he stopped and closed his eyes and moved his lips for a moment, prayed silently to God, and then he mustered up the courage to stand before Fang Bingsheng and the others.

The boy asked Fang Bingsheng directly: "This brother, I believe in Jesus, and I don't believe in Mary. I think we Christians must be light and salt..."

Believing in Jesus or not Mary means that one is Protestant.

Shan Ji saw that the other party insulted his beliefs, wanted to stare at him and intimidate him, but was afraid of offending the boss in front of him. He wanted to scare the boy and look at the boss's expression, but he stretched his neck and froze in the seat, listening to how Fang Bingsheng spoke.

Fang Bingsheng smiled slightly, interrupted the boy's advice, and asked, "Are you also from Protestantism? Which sect do you have in the church?"

The boy was stunned and replied, "I? Wesley..."

Fang Bingsheng glared and shouted, "Sorry! I am Calvin Reformed, I firmly believe in election and do not believe in your universal salvation theory! Jesus' blood shed only for the elected Christians. This is clearly understood in the Bible. How can you say that Jesus' blood shed for the people of the world? This is heresy!"

The boy was stunned. Fang Bingsheng waved his hand and asked him to leave, saying, "I won't talk to heresy."

Before the boy could wake up from his shock, a middle-aged man in a suit and tie jumped up from the seat next to him. He walked over with a smile on his face, held the boy's shoulder with both hands, and gently turned the shameful and speechless young man around, letting him walk along the aisle, but he smiled and said, "Happy, I am also Reformed. Which city does this brother belong to?"

"Haijing, where are you?" Fang Bingsheng smiled.

"So coincidentally, I am from Haijing too," the middle-aged man in a suit and tie smiled, and then asked, "Which church are you in Haijing?"

"You won't be the same in the Reformed Church of the South of Haijing District, right?" Fang Bingsheng asked.

"I'm the one!" The middle-aged man slapped his thigh.
To be continued...