Chapter 450 Journey (Part 3)

After they came out of the railway bureau, Hao Hongmin gently pulled Han Li's sleeve and said embarrassedly.

"Han Li, we still have plenty of time now. Can you talk to that comrade and ask him to wait for us for a while?"

"Of course, but what are you going to do at this critical moment?"

"Now that there is a train, there is an approximate time to get home. Don't you need to send a telegram to your family to let them pick up the train?"

Han Li looked at her and Yang Xiuying with these large and small bags and immediately understood their idea. Let the family members go to the platform to pick up the train, otherwise they don't know what they will be squeezed with these things? It is not uncommon to lose a package on the chaotic train, not to mention that they have to squeeze into the bus after leaving the train station. If no one helps them, they will definitely be very embarrassed.

In this era, if you want to pick up the train on the platform, you first need a platform ticket, but this platform ticket is not something you can buy if you want. Family members need to hold a telegram or letter sent by the educated youth to buy it at the designated window, and one telegram is limited to two platform tickets.

Of course, those who didn't receive the telegram but knew that their family members were coming back could only wait outside the station. At this time, if a sharp-eyed and talkative person saw someone coming to the station and said hello, there was a high chance that he would be taken in by the other party.

Of course, this also depends on rapport and speaking skills, but more importantly, it requires the local accent. Otherwise, no one would dare to take you into the station even if you said something wonderful, because they were also afraid that you were a "bad" person who came to the station to "make trouble", thus causing unnecessary involvement.

(It doesn't count if you have a relationship.)

"I don't need to notify my family to pick me up at the station. You guys go send a telegram quickly. I'll smoke a cigarette with this comrade on the side of the road."

Time was tight, so Hao Hongmin didn't ask any more questions. She put the big and small bags on the side of the road and dragged Yang Xiuying to the post office.

Han Li told the comrade in the cafeteria that his companion was going to send a telegram, and then dragged him to squat on the side of the road to smoke.

At this time, the train ticket was stable, and Yun Yingying and the others also had time to look at the educated youth who were walking the most in front of the station.

This is the place where you can feel the difference between each other the most. Some people are dressed beautifully, wearing sweaters under their Zhongshan suits, and their hair is combed into 4:6, 3:7 points, and they look like a decent person.

Some educated youths, like the villagers, wear a thin blue cloth jacket with a large front, and a rope tied around their waist to make the jacket more close-fitting and warmer.

The female educated youths are almost the same, but they care more about their image, and they will dress neatly even if they are dressed in ordinary clothes.

However, no matter how they dress, they are now dragged down by the heavy luggage. In the season when they have already put on sweaters and thin jackets, beads of sweat still roll down their foreheads.

Almost everyone carries large and small luggage bags, which are tied with colorful ropes in all directions. The colorful ropes and tying methods can help them better look after and find their own bags.

When Hao Hongmin and Yang Xiuying ran to the post office, they were still whispering about everything they had just seen.

"Sister Hongmin, I didn't expect Han Li to be so powerful. I originally thought that he was already a scorpion shit among the educated youth in Shanghe Village, but who knew that he had already established a relationship with Bingcheng, and he is also the head of the Railway Bureau. Compared with Han Li, I feel like a waste.

But Sister Yun has a good eye. What she said about fellow villagers was a lie. I guess she must have seen Han Li's extraordinaryness at the beginning, so she went after him. You said that we knew Han Li first, but why don't we have this eye and courage?"

Hao Hongmin originally had a lot of things to say, but what could she say after hearing Yang Xiuying say this? But the bitterness in her heart could not be erased.

Yes, thinking about Han Li's performance all the time, why didn't she have that eye at the beginning?

And at the beginning, the three of them walked the closest, sat together when they came to the countryside, and later built a house together and went to the county town to buy things together. What a good opportunity this was? But why was Yun Yingying the first to get it? But she still had to pretend that nothing had happened.

"Okay Xiuying, Han Li is married, so we can just talk about these things between the two of us, and don't say them in front of others."

"I know, I'm not that stupid. If other people hear this, they will think I'm thinking about someone else's old man."

.

After Han Li and the comrade from the canteen smoked two cigarettes on the side of the road, Hao Hongmin and Yang Xiuying ran out of the post office.

The group picked up the packages and bags and followed the comrade from the canteen into the small door next to the station.

When they came in, a group of people on the side of the train were busy loading coal and water into the locomotive. In front of the locomotive, there were five big characters "Serve the People" written in red and gold.

There were only a few passengers getting off the train on the entire platform, and as for the passengers who were getting on the train, it was not time for them to come in yet. The entire platform was relatively empty, which was the advantage of taking the internal passage.

Han Li looked at these busy workers and thought that there was a reason why the trains of this era were slow and took a long time to stop at stations. The locomotives of these trains were all steam engines, and technical reasons resulted in a relatively low conversion rate of the boilers.

Secondly, this means that coal and water must be added every time the train travels a certain distance to ensure continuous power. However, no matter how much coal or water is added, it is up to the workers to load it in little by little, which is why the train stops for a long time every time it arrives at a station.

The comrade in charge of the canteen sent Han Li and his friends to the front of the sleeper car before stopping. Han Li stuffed the cigarettes he had just opened and smoked into his hand, and they parted ways after a few polite words.

Han Li led everyone into the sleeper car, and it was also the first time he saw the sleeper of this era.

Each compartment has six beds, separated from the left and right, and each side has three layers of upper, middle and lower. One side of the bed is fixed on the partition, and the two suspended sides are connected together with several iron pipes.

The width of each bed does not exceed 60 cm, and the distance between the bottom bed and the middle bed is OK. The girls can sit upright on the bed, and Han Li can also sit down with a slight bend.

The spacing of the middle layer is much lower. If a girl wants to sit up on the bed, she can only bend down and lower her head. Han Li's height cannot bend down, so she can only stick out her upper body.

Even if a girl wants to get in, she can only crawl in. She can't sit up even if she bends down. If Hou Yuhua comes, she will sleep on the top layer.

But even so, everyone is very happy. They touch and look left and right. This is much better than the wooden seats they sat on when they came.

Seeing this, Hao Hongmin took the initiative to choose the top layer. Yun Jingjing and Yang Xiuying slept in the two middle bunks, and Han Li and Yun Yingying lived in the lower bunk.

Although the bunks were allocated in this way, everyone was very energetic now. The four of them gathered in the lower bunk and started playing poker to kill time.

Han Li began to stroll in this sleeper car. There were 11 compartments in the whole car, and each compartment had six beds, which means that this car could carry 66 people, which was a world of difference compared to those hard seat cars.

Like other carriages, each sleeper carriage has its own toilet and water boiler.

(Since the 1960s, each of the more advanced carriages in northern trains has its own boiler, independent heating and hot water supply, but the water temperature and quality cannot be guaranteed, and the train attendants generally only boil some water considering the coal storage situation, and it is impossible to provide heating and hot water to passengers all the time. This is why after the 1980s, there were people selling hot water with thermoses on the platform.

However, this situation does not exist in the sleeper carriages at this time. In order to ensure that passengers can drink hot water at any time, the train attendants even specially equipped each compartment with a thermos, and filled it up every time the water boiled.)

In this era, those who can sit in the sleeper carriages are basically cadres or relatives of cadres, so the sleeper carriages are separated from the hard seat carriages by the dining car, and it is very difficult for those who buy hard seat tickets to come here.

This is a general situation, and everything cannot be generalized, because there are also trains where the train attendants pour water for hard seat passengers one by one. 》

Han Li walked around and went back to watch them play cards. Not too long after that, there was a noisy sound outside. It was ordinary passengers entering the station and getting on the train.

They rushed to the carriage in groups of three or five. The first person to squeeze into the carriage would open the window, and then the luggage and even the people of their companions would come in from here. Compared with the current Spring Festival travel scene, the scene of the later generations is not even child's play.

The inside of the carriage is another scene. There are many people "occupying seats" and "fighting for seats". In addition to the squeezing and pushing of chests and backs, those who have no seats began to occupy the luggage racks, under the seats, the connection between the carriages, the toilet door and other places. At this moment, the carriage is full of shouting and cursing in various dialects.

As the locomotive whistle sounded, and then there was a clang that made all the carriages tremble, and the locomotive and the carriages bit together.

At this time, the educated youth outside who had not yet boarded the train became even more anxious. All kinds of pushing and shouting made the scene chaotic, so chaotic that the station staff had to stand up to maintain it.

A few minutes later, all the carriages stopped again, and the train blew the whistle and slowly drove out of the Ice City Station.

At this time, the hard seat carriage changed to another scene. Most people had stopped their meaningless shouting.

Those who had seats were all resting with their eyes closed. Those who grabbed the luggage racks were clinging on them like snakes, those who grabbed the seats under them were curled up under the short seats like hermit crabs, and those who grabbed the connection between the two carriages were curled up there with their luggage.

There were even people standing on the backs of the chairs. Because the space above and below and the foothold were too narrow, they began to sway as soon as the train moved. They could only hold on to the luggage racks tightly to ensure that they would not be thrown off.

Only those who were squatting by the toilet were still arguing in a low voice. From their appearance, you can guess that they were evading tickets and were arguing about which party would go into the toilet to hide next. But they were afraid of being discovered by the conductor and did not dare to make their voices too loud.

If people in the future see these scenes, they will understand that there is a historical origin for those old men and old ladies to occupy seats and fight for seats as soon as they get on the bus. The root of their bad habits is probably planted at this time.

However, these are none of Han Li's business. The four of them are playing cards in front of the small table.

Han Li holds the freshly brewed tea in his hand and sits next to Yun Yingying, acting as a qualified military advisor.

And no one came to the other bed in their compartment when the train started, which made the atmosphere between them more casual.

At this time, the train broadcast sounded the fixed time of the day. In this era, the train was equipped with special announcers, so some important news were read by them.

After the news reading, there will be a period of entertainment programs, which are all famous songs and model operas of the time.

At this time, Yang Xiuying, who had been losing, put the cards on the table and rubbed her stomach after finishing a game.

"I didn't dare to eat much in the railway bureau restaurant just now, and now I'm a little hungry."