The train arrived in Nicolo at around ten o'clock the next morning.
Subsequently, the personnel of the United Matrix contacted the train to Gravel City to arrange for additional carriages and so on.
Because additional carriages were needed, this train did not depart until after five in the afternoon.
During this period, Lu Ming went to the Donghai representative office in the Western Alliance and asked about Liu Laocai's case.
However, the staff of the representative office said that after sending a telegram to the Council of State in Batcheng the day before yesterday, they have not received a reply yet.
Lu Ming could only sigh that public connections were never as reliable as private friends.
Because the boss of the East China Telegraph and Telephone Company, his business partner, although his communications business had not yet reached the Bat City area, his representative here helped him contact a noble in Bat City in a roundabout way.
However, he could only send a telegram to the nobleman, hoping that he could help him find Liu Shoufu's whereabouts, and told him where to wait for him, but he didn't have time to wait for his reply.
…
Gravel City is the terminus of the western section of the railway. Although the distance from Nicolo to Gravel City is only 500 kilometers, the train stops at almost every station, and even the roof of the carriage is full of people. The train runs very slowly, and it is normal for it to be late. There is no normal train schedule at all.
Just like this train, it was originally the first train to depart, but it was delayed by six hours just to meet the requirements of a big customer like United Matrix. However, not only the transportation company and station staff, but even the passengers are used to it.
The 500-kilometer journey took more than ten hours, and the average speed of the train was probably only more than 30 kilometers per hour.
The train arrived at Gravel City at around ten in the morning.
There are no railways further west from Gravel City.
The Gravel City-State has a population of over 300,000 people. As for Gravel City itself, it has a population of over 100,000, which is considered a large city in the West.
The Joint Matrix itself has armed pickup trucks, off-road jeeps, and even an armored vehicle. It also bought seven or eight trucks directly from Gravel City to load supplies, mostly ammunition and gasoline barrels, etc.
The trucks were purchased from several transportation companies, one or two from each company. As the end of the western railway line, the truck transportation industry in Gravel City was very developed.
But it’s just a half-new truck, and it’s twice as expensive as a new car in Donghai.
Although there are no tariff barriers between the western city-states and the empire, under current conditions, the cost of shipping goods from the eastern part of the empire is relatively high.
The United Matrix helicopter also took off, causing the whole city to marvel.
The economic and trade delegation chartered a bus. According to the driver, it can go directly to Batcheng. There are various gas stations along the way. However, the last 100 kilometers are dirt roads, which are very bumpy. It is okay now as it is not the rainy season. If it is the rainy season, those dirt roads are simply unsuitable for large vehicles such as buses.
Lu Ming did not take the bus, but boarded one of the helicopters with Nicole, Sun Bo and other entourage.
The three helicopters are not the armed helicopters that Sanmai is still developing, but Sanmai's Wave series of medium-sized helicopters.
However, it has been designed for military use and is considered a necessary stage in the development of armed helicopters.
The armor is relatively thick, and there is a special device for mounting a machine gun in the rear cabin. It can carry 10 passengers or 1.1 tons of cargo and has a range of 450 kilometers.
The plane that Lu Ming was riding was purely for transportation purposes. It had no machine gun mounts or shock absorbers, and the seats in the rear cabin were also very comfortable.
Lu Ming, Nicole, Sun Bo, Luo Yi, Luo Er and four black slave guards were all sitting in the rear cabin.
The moment he sat on the seat in the rear cabin, Lu Ming breathed a sigh of relief.
The parameters of the Hailang-1 helicopter are similar to those of the H-19 helicopter in the 1950s of his previous life. Nowadays, it is the largest helicopter.
In fact, ten months ago, shareholders of Sanmai Company quarreled again over the production of the Hailang-1 helicopter.
Indeed, this type of helicopter is very expensive, with the final selling price being 180,000 yuan. Although the shareholders did not know the final selling price at the beginning, they also knew that this thing was extremely expensive and there had never been much of a market for it. The year before last, the prototype of the Sanmai Hailang-1 was shelved because the company discovered that the final cost of the model would be frighteningly high.
Now, are we going to invest in further testing models? Or even start manufacturing finished models
Few shareholders agreed, and thanks to this turmoil, Lu Ming is now not only the largest shareholder in Sanmai, but also holds more than 60% of the shares. Madison's shares account for about 30%. It can be said that the company's equity structure has become very simple.
Finally, United Matrix's order for three Hailang-1s immediately resolved Sanmai's financial crisis.
At the same time, the East China Sea military also began negotiations with Sanmai Company to prepare to order Sanmai's Hailang-1 helicopters.
This also means that a new chapter has been opened in the development of Sanmai Company.
…
The distance from Sand City to Bat City is said to be 500 kilometers, but the straight-line distance is only 300 kilometers.
The three helicopters have a full fuel range of 450 kilometers, which can easily reach the destination.
More than two hours later, three helicopters landed on the outskirts of Batcheng.
Looking at the outline of Bat City from the air, it is a rectangular earthen city surrounded by earthen walls of varying heights. Most of the buildings inside are earthen houses and thatched houses, and there are also a small number of magnificent stone buildings, which I think are the palaces, official residences, private houses and the like of nobles.
The entire Bat City-State has a population of less than 50,000, and there are only about 20,000 residents within the earthen city.
After the helicopter landed.
A group of people hurriedly ran down the grass slope, led by a middle-aged man in a silk robe. They all looked at the helicopters in shock.
"Who is Mayor Lu?" Although the middle-aged man saw that the young man seemed to have the highest status among the people getting off the plane, he was still a little unsure.
Lu Ming smiled and gestured.
He knew that the other party was sent by the chieftain family to which he had sent a telegram in Gravel City.
This family was contacted by the representative of the East China Telegraph and Telephone Company in Nicolau, who used various means to help him get in touch with them.
In Bat City, the ruling model is that of the city lord and many chieftain nobles.
In fact, "Tusi" is a Chinese term to describe, more precisely, the city lords and landlords of all sizes.
In a city-state with a population of less than 50,000, the city lord and chieftains of all sizes, totaling forty or fifty families, were the real ruling class. The rest, except for a small number of merchants and craftsmen, free civilians, etc., were serfs who depended on them.
The chieftain that he contacted was named Popolo. He was considered a relatively powerful chieftain in the Bat City-State, owning tens of thousands of acres of land, and the total number of serfs working the manor for him was three to four thousand.
In addition to the city lord, there are four chieftains in Bat City, and the Popolo family is one of them.
I just don’t know what position this middle-aged man who came to receive me has in the Popolo family
From the fact that he can speak the Central Continent dialect, although it is so strange that one cannot understand it without careful consideration, it seems that he is of high social status.
After all, let alone the Central Plains language, even Western languages are not required to be learned by aristocratic families in a small city-state like Bat City, let alone servants.
Moreover, he was able to prepare to find the helicopter landing site he mentioned, which shows that he had a certain level of cultural knowledge.
Because the telegram said that it was about three miles north of Bat City, at a 30-degree angle, in a relatively flat grass or ground.
I was worried at first, wondering if the other party had any aides who could understand what I meant.
Now it seems that I have got all the key points I mentioned.
"Mayor Lu!" A middle-aged man with a thick black beard walked over quickly, touched his chest and bowed, "My name is Long Xiang, my father is the head of the Popolo family and one of the four white flag councilors of Bat City."
Lu Ming nodded. The power structure of some local states in the Western Regions was very weird, and Bate City was definitely one of them.
Also learning from the East, the city-state has a parliament called the Council of State, which is a legislative body, but also a governing body. The city lord serves as the speaker, and the four major chieftains are the four white flag councilors; there are thirteen chieftains who are the yellow flag councilors, who are actually middle-level chieftains; the remaining twenty or so chieftains are the blue flag councilors, who are actually small landlords.
After pondering for a while, Lu Ming smiled at the middle-aged man and said, "You speak the Central Plains language quite well."
Long Xiang smiled immediately, but then he restrained his smile and became extremely humble: "I have longed for the culture of Zhongzhou and the Holy City of East China Sea since I was a child. How honored I am to be able to host the mayor today?"
Lu Ming nodded and said, "Most of our troops will arrive tonight or tomorrow, so let's wait for them here. Is there any cooler area nearby?"
It is noon now, the sun is high in the sky, and it is in the southwest, so it is very hot.
But forget about entering the city. He now has more than a dozen mercenaries, not counting the four black slave guards, and someone has to stay behind to watch the helicopter and supplies. If he encounters an ambush when entering the city, even if he is good at fighting, casualties are inevitable due to the sudden warning.
Although this possibility is very small, we are unfamiliar with this place after all, so we should prepare for the worst-case scenario, even if the probability of it happening is very small.
Long Xiang blinked his small eyes, which were deeply sunken. "Mayor, if you don't want to go into the city now, there is a manor of my family about thirty miles to the west. The environment there is good, and it has just been cleaned. The furniture and other things are all replaced with new ones. My father was going there to avoid the spring. If the mayor doesn't mind, how about you and your entourage go there first?"
Lu Ming didn't know what their custom of "hiding spring" meant. He thought for a moment and nodded: "Okay, let's go there."
A manor, with a helicopter flying over, everything can be seen from a bird's eye view. If the other party has bad intentions, we can take precautions.
…
This area is a plain with large tracts of neatly arranged green farmland and more than a hundred serfs' mud houses and thatched houses. On the grassy slope in the center, there is a stone earthen fortress with two circles of wooden fences and one circle outside, enclosing the serfs' mud houses and thatched houses. There is also an inner layer of fences enclosing the grassy slope and earthen fortress.
All this actually shows that this place is not peaceful. If there is an enemy attack, the two circles of wooden fences represent the inner city and the outer city, and young and strong serfs and guards can be organized to defend against the enemy.
The helicopter happened to land on the grass slope.
By the time Long Xiang and his party arrived in a hurry in a carriage, the serfs had already been scared away by the mercenaries' gunshots.
Some serfs were obviously barbaric, aggressive and ignorant. They thought that these people came from nowhere. Although it was scary to have flying monsters protecting them, they would rather die than drive away these monsters since they invaded their master's house.
Led by a few diehard elements, dozens of rioters armed with various farm tools gathered immediately. But after a burst of gunfire, one of the diehard elements was hit in the leg. He knew the pain and screamed in agony, and the others ran away.
After Sun Bo removed the bullet from the diehard and bandaged him, Long Xiang and the servants hurried over.
Sun Bo has steady hands. After following Lu Ming, he acquired a new skill and learned simple wound treatment methods from the medical soldiers.
Of course, he has nothing to do with science, and his thinking is different from that of doctors. He even dares to do things like removing bullets. However, there is no hospital nearby, so Lu Ming just lets him handle it.
After Long Xiang arrived, he first beat the injured thug severely with a stick. If Lu Ming had not stopped him, he would have beaten the thug to death.
Apparently, these were all common occurrences. The mob did not seem to hate the master, but were just begging for mercy out of fear.
Looking at this scene, Lu Ming didn't know what to feel.
I am also very grateful that the education I received in my past and present lives broadened my horizons. If I had lived in the same environment as these serfs since childhood, I would not be much different from them.
Of course, if we delve deeper into the rules of human society, we will find that the vast majority of people are no different from the serfs in front of us. They support the upper class and are exploited by them, but they are grateful in their information cocoons and think they are the masters. Sometimes they just don’t work hard enough.
In this respect, there is no difference between ancient and modern times, China and the West.
In this world, can I enter the class outside the Three Realms? The class that truly makes the rules of society
Lu Ming was in a daze when Long Xiang came to apologize again, saying that it was a temporary arrangement and the mayor's aircraft was fast, so there was no time to notify these ignorant slaves.
Although there was a telephone in the castle, none of them dared to go in and answer it.
Lu Ming just said it was okay.
Then Long Xiang led Lu Ming into the castle and introduced the layout of the rooms to him.
This three-story earthen fortress seemed to have been washed with clean water just a few days ago, and the furniture and other items were all new.
From the first floor to the third floor, the iron plates of the windows can be lowered to become narrow shooting holes.
The first floor is the utility room, servants' room, etc.
The second and third floors are where the owner lives, washes his face, etc. There is a large iron bucket on the top of the earth fort to supply hot water.
Lu Ming felt that the accommodation conditions were quite acceptable in the western city-state.
The bedroom on the third floor is equipped with a telephone, and even the phone is brand new.
It seems that this custom of "hiding from spring" is very important among the local nobles.
However, the telephone is a crank type, where you crank the handle to connect to a node, tell the place you want to call, and the node will connect to the next node, and finally to the terminal you want to call.
It is very troublesome, and only a very small number of households have telephones installed, so this kind of manual switch can meet the demand.
"In Batcheng, there are very few tourists from Central China or businessmen who come to invest. You should know Liu Shoufu, right? The telegram sent this morning also mentioned him. Which police station is he being held in now? What's going on?" After visiting the third floor, Lu Ming asked Long Xiang.
It's a small town with a population of 20,000, and it belongs to the White Flag Tusi family, so they should not be unaware of it.
There are four security stations in Bat City, one near each city gate, with four security officers. It is customary for each of the four White Flag families to elect one.
Long Xiang nodded gently: "In fact, before the mayor sent the telegram, I and my father did not know about this matter. We knew that Mr. Liu was traveling here. We didn't hear from him in the past few days, so we thought he had left."
"I received a telegram from the mayor and went to investigate. Fortunately, I have fulfilled my mission. I found out that Mr. Liu was detained at the East Gate Security Station. The mayor should know that our four Baiqi families, each one of them, will guard one gate when the enemy attacks. The Jingji Luo family of the East Gate Security Station has always been at odds with my family. Moreover, their family has always been married to the Lord of Dingshan City. Dingshan City is an ally of our city-state against Bailu City. Even the Lord of the city is against the Jingji Luo family..."
He paused here, smiled bitterly, and said, "But don't worry, sir..."
Lu Ming nodded when he heard this: "Thank you very much. In this case, you will accompany me to the Dongmen Police Station. From now on, I am Mr. Liu Shoufu's defense lawyer. I need to see my client. Although Bat City has its own state law, it is only a difference in laws and regulations. The existence of courts and lawyers is inevitable according to the Imperial Constitution, right? And I see that according to your state law, suspects also have the right to see a lawyer during the arrest stage."
It seems that what Long Xiang said is not lying. Under this circumstance, there is no problem in entering the city.
Long Xiang hesitated for a moment and said, "Okay, I'll arrange it right away."