Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 475 Check the Personnel List

So, Rong Jin began to copy the drawings he had drawn. Copying was much faster than drawing, and the more he drew, the more skilled he became. After lunch, he had already finished drawing several drawings.

So Hualei decided to take the image out and try her luck. She asked several guards to split into several groups, and each group took a notice and the image to ask people in the shantytown.

Taking Xiaoyuan and Rongjin with him, Uncle Fu searched at the ferry. There were still people coming and going at the ferry. When Hualei passed by, Damazi, whom Manager Li mentioned, was helping others unload goods.

While waiting for Damazi, Hualei carefully observed the people on the ferry, hoping that someone who looked like the image or her grandfather would suddenly appear in front of her.

A quarter of an hour later, Damazi and several others came to Hualei, each holding fifteen coins. Uncle Fu came forward with the notice and the picture, stuffed a hundred coins into each of their hands, and then asked politely.

"Hey guys, please take a look. Have you ever seen someone who looks like the one in the picture? Or have you ever known someone called Hua Mancheng?"

Damazi looked at the 100 coins in his hand, somewhat incredulous. He looked at Uncle Fu and Hualei, then looked at the 100 coins in his hand again, and then turned his head to stare at the image in Uncle Fu's hand.

After looking at it carefully for a while, he turned around and discussed it with a few brothers behind him. Everyone shook their heads hesitantly.

Hualei, who was standing aside, sighed softly.

"Dear guys, please keep an eye out during this period. If you meet someone similar, or someone with the surname Hua, please go to the Xi Xiang Feng Restaurant in front to report the news. If the news is true, our boss will reward you handsomely." Uncle Fu said promptly again.

Damazi and the others looked at the hundred coins in their hands and nodded firmly.

Not getting any news from Damazi, Hualei went to look for some porters sitting against the wall in other places on the ferry and asked them around, but still got no news.

In the next few days, Hualei and the others kept asking for information at the ferry, but there was no result. Could it be that my cousin had seen it wrong? Or was it that my father had only been at the ferry for a few days and these people hadn't noticed?

Two days later, Tian Changjin and Tian Xiaofu also arrived at the ferry in Jianyang Prefecture and joined the search team. They and their guards formed groups to post notices and pictures at the ferry and nearby shanty towns. They each led a few people from one area to another to start a carpet search.

Rong Jin took the Marquis' Order from the Zhenbei Marquis' Mansion and found the ferry captain who was in charge of the ferry area and the village chief who was in charge of the shantytown.

I stuffed some silver into their pockets and asked them to help me. I borrowed the detailed personnel list of the ferry and the shantytown with Hua Lei, Xiao Yuan and a few others.

If you are a long-term resident here, you will usually have your name recorded in the personnel register, which is consistent with the household registration of each household.

Those who have lived here for more than one month but less than three months are generally recorded in another booklet, but for those who have lived here for less than one month, there is no record here.

Originally, Rong Jin had thought about this matter before he came. He wanted to use his official seal in the Hanlin Academy to ask the ferry chief and the village chief for help.

However, Lord Pei gave Rong Jin the Marquis's Order of Zhenbei Mansion, saying that it would be more useful. Sure enough, Rong Jin took out the Marquis's Order of Zhenbei Mansion.

Whether it was the ferry captain who managed the ferry or the village chief who managed the shantytown, they were all very enthusiastic and took out the personnel list for Hua Lei and the others to check.

Several people carefully read the personnel list twice from beginning to end, but found nothing. There was no family or person with the surname Hua in the list.

In other words, even if the person the cousin saw was really his father, he had lived in the Jianyangzhou wharf and the nearby shantytowns for less than a month.

On the ferry personnel list, generally speaking, there should be a record of everyone who has landed at the ferry. And the record should be relatively complete, including name, age, gender, destination, etc. However, this is theoretically true, but not necessarily true in reality.

In practice, there are many loopholes. The person in charge of recording may be too busy and accidentally miss something, or he may be lazy and not record it for a while.

After all, a dock is different from a city gate. Once a city gate is closed, anyone entering or leaving must ask the gatekeeper to open the gate. However, this dock is open, and any ship can dock as long as they pay the docking fee for the entire ship.

If the ship arrives at the shore in the middle of the night, and the clerk in charge of recording is sleeping in an inconspicuous place, and the people on the ship just leave, then there is a possibility that there will be no record of these people who left.

Another situation is that even if there are records, some people may leave false names to avoid unnecessary trouble. Or when a family travels together, they may write the name of the head of the household and the rest of the family may write the total number of people.

Some boatmen who want to save money may drop off passengers and sail away directly in order to avoid the docking fees, and there will be no information about the boat's docking.

Not to mention, if my father and his family lived outside these two jurisdictions, they would have no idea. However, it was impossible for Rong Jin and Hua Lei to go to every area of ​​Jianyang Prefecture to check the personnel list.

Regardless of whether or not to check it, it is not possible with this workload. Therefore, the detailed population list of the village head is very valuable, but Hualei does not have time to check it one by one.

The ferry's personnel list is not very useful for reference, it tastes like chicken ribs. But Hualei is reluctant to give it up, what if her parents' names are on it?

Unfortunately, neither of the two books in Jianyang Prefecture had the names of my parents. There was no family with the surname Hua. After seven or eight days, and after walking through almost all the shanty towns, they still found nothing.

Hualei was in a state of torment, and Xiaoyuan looked very bad. Rong Jin helped to search for people during the day, and continued to draw portraits by candlelight in the room at night.

Two more days passed, and there was still no news. It had been ten days since we arrived at the ferry, and the search team now had 30 to 40 crew members and guards, and had already walked through the shantytown for the second time.

Looking at her eldest cousin and Uncle Fu who came back from the shantytown one after another, Hualei was a little silent. In the past two days, autumn rain has fallen in Jianyang Prefecture.

The moderate rain not only made the already cold weather even colder, but also made Hualei's mood much more depressed.

"Cousin Hualei, could it be that I was seeing things? That person is not Uncle Xiaocheng at all?" Tian Xiaofu said with some self-blame.