Lu Ming

Chapter 495 A bowl of vegetable porridge

Although He Biandan is a native of Nancheng, he has lost all his property in Nancheng and lives in boarding all day long.

In the early years, when He Biandan was just an adult, he still had a courtyard at home.Later, after an epidemic, He Biandan lost his parents.Not only that, but due to the debts and medical expenses owed before, the house was also taken over by the creditor, and He Biandan became a homeless person.

Fortunately, this kid has grown up at the age of 17, and he was born tall and big, and has a long horse face that is unforgettable.So he stretched out a pair of lychee wooden poles, and lived a life of strength in Nancheng.After a long time, this kid with a horse face who didn't have enough to eat and had a silly smile was called He Biandan.

A few years passed in a hurry, but He Biandan's size was not crushed by the burden, but grew a little longer.But in this way, his skeleton looks even more wobbly. People who often don't have enough to eat don't have extra muscles.

Today, He Biandan's task is to pick "mechanism carbon" to the house of the old customer Mr. Hu.

Although this new "machine-made carbon" on the market has a strange name, it has become a new type of fuel favored by people above the middle class since the day it appeared.

Black, hexagonal, carbon rods with the same shape and specifications, the firepower is stable, the burning time is three times that of ordinary charcoal, and there is no smoke and no ash, very suitable for cooking, tea, wine, grilled fish, etc. Need to master the heat and temperature occasion of time.

In addition, in terms of price, although the machine-made charcoal made of ordinary sawdust and rice husk is a bit more expensive, it is cheaper than traditional charcoal in terms of overall performance, so many people buy it.

After receiving the order yesterday, He Biandan went to the wharf outside Nancheng this morning, picked up the more expensive "high-grade fruit wood machine-made carbon" from the grocery store of Hu's old relationship, and picked up all the way to Hu's house for Mr. Hu's meeting friends Tea is used.

When he was passing by the county government with his second load of carbon sticks, the young man noticed that there was a big show at the gate, so he happily went to join in the fun.After admiring the heroic posture of the six gentlemen standing in the cage, He Bian turned back to pick up the burden and delivered it to Master Hu's mansion before noon.

After unloading the burden in the woodshed of Hu's family, and helping to take out the garbage once more, the shoulder pole finally got a handful of copper coins from the steward of the kitchen, and went back to the nest happily.

He Biandan's nest is behind Caishikou, in a dilapidated alley called "Guzao Street".

This dilapidated alley belonged to a slum area in the Ming Dynasty, and the people living in it were all low-level citizens.There is a courtyard room among them, and the left and right side rooms were rented out by the landlord to the labor porters nearby, and He Biandan had a bed in it.

After hurriedly returning to Guzao Street, He Biandan first looked at the entrance of the courtyard, and then he was relieved: a large pot in the courtyard was steaming from the gap in the lid, and it seemed that it was not time for dinner yet.

After entering the house, he put down the pick at the old place by the wall, and without further ado, he picked up the scoop and scooped water into the water tank in the corner and poured it vigorously. Afterwards, he wiped his mouth with his sleeve and took a breath. Roommates" greeted.

The roommates are all rough old men who sleep in a large bunk. Those who come back early, some lie on the bunk to smoke pots, some lie on the bunk to doze off. In short, these poor people are grabbing every opportunity to recover their strength.

The only thing that can yell the coolies out of their beds is the yell of dinner.With the sound of iron spoons knocking on the pot, needless to say, everyone left the room quickly.

In the middle of the courtyard at the moment, stood a black and fat old woman with a sinister face and arms thicker than other people's thighs.

This woman's name is Mrs. Gui, and she could tell from her posture that she was a charter woman.Aunt Gui's family is doing well in the slums. Her husband works as a steward on the wharf outside the city, and she herself is responsible for renting out, cooking and other chores.

Most of the laborers like He Biandan in the courtyard are hired by Mrs. Gui.The reason is not that Mrs. Gui's cooking is delicious, but that Mrs. Gui's cooking is cheap.

Cheap, naturally no good goods.So when Mrs. Gui lifted the lid off the pot, it was no surprise that today was another pot of mishmash.

This pot of rice porridge is not like rice porridge, and rice is not like rice food. It is made of a mixture of [-]% brown rice, [-]% vegetables, and [-]% sweet potatoes.

The color of the porridge is lovely, and the sweet aroma is everywhere.But laborers all know that this food is actually not easy to swallow.

Even so, a group of hungry people still clamored to take large coarse porcelain bowls from the table and crowded around the pot, watching Aunt Gui divide the rice with a big iron spoon.

"There are no rules, I'll kill you!" Every time this happened, Mrs. Gui, who was fat and responsible for scooping up rice, would start cursing.However, the scolding was all scolding, and Mrs. Gui finally scooped up a big bowl full of shredded potatoes, vegetable porridge and rice for everyone.In addition, in the small jar on the side, each person will also receive a piece of salted radish or pickled vegetable head. I don't know if it is Fuling brand.

The next moment, He Biandan was beaten again.

He Biandan usually looks pretty smart, but when it's time to eat, his IQ drops to a negative number.From childhood to adulthood, the shoulder pole suffered countless beatings for this.

Today is the same routine: After He Biandan finished his portion, he reached out to grab more radishes from the jar, and then was hit twice on the head by Mrs. Gui with a rice-stirring stick.

The laborers squatting on the spot in the courtyard and eating, laughed and watched this repertoire.Everyone knows that He Biandan can't get enough to eat all year round, and everyone knows that Mrs. Gui is a woman with a dark face and a soft heart, so after being beaten twice, He Biandan finally squeezed into the crowd with the spoils of war, and sipped the vegetable porridge Come.

Then came the happiest moment of the day for these coolies: sitting on the well platform and snoring to fill their stomachs, while blowing all over the world, exchanging information about the world of coolies.

Recently, everyone's main focus has been the improvement of food standards.

In the years before that, the porridge cooked by Mrs. Gui put very little salt in it, and in certain periods of time, even no salt was added.The coolies supplemented their salt every day, all relying on the pickles in the jar.

However, pickles are not so easy to replenish. Whenever the salt price in the city fluctuates, Mrs. Gui's pickles become less salty.

Salt is an essential substance for human cells to regulate fluid osmotic pressure.For manual workers, salt is a key part of ensuring that the fresh water you drink is converted into sweat.

The oily men and women of later generations see salt as if they were snakes and scorpions, but if these people are to carry the burden like He Biandan for a few days, then they will drink salt soda with all their might, otherwise they will go into shock and die.

Therefore, the salt content in meals has always been a link that coolies are very concerned about.

As a result, the situation has changed since two or three months ago.

People in Guangzhou suddenly discovered that there was a big loophole that could be exploited at the construction site of the new city in the south: anyone who went to fight against Cao Zongbing could buy cheap salt on the construction site.

Everyone knows that this military commander from Yizhou has a lot of money, and the story of the silver dragon being moved out of Baietan to pay Qiuba and others is still circulating in the city.

And his old man's subordinates have undoubtedly inherited the tradition of the boss's wealth: at the same price and the same weight, people can buy high-quality snow-white salt grains from the Xincheng construction site, instead of black and mixed with sand. Bitter official salt.

In this way, people spread the word, and soon someone saw the benefits, and organized a large number of bitter people to go to the construction site to work-only the foreman can buy salt, and the more workers he has, the more salt he can buy .

Note that this quota is additional, and workers' wages are still paid.

In the beginning, this kind of deceiving rule was mainly to reduce a little objection: only those who work for me can buy salt, and there is nothing wrong with it.

After a period of time like this, when the telegram of Cao Zongbing’s great victory in the north was transmitted to Guangdong, the rules were changed: individuals can pay for their money to wholesale salt, the quantity is unlimited, and the price is [-] taels.

So on the Xincheng Wharf, salt owls from Guangdong and Guangxi swarmed here.These people brought silver, Guangxi rice and prostitutes from the mountains.After switching to salt, the salt lords hired people to load their ships day and night, and then disappeared into the endless waterways of the Pearl River Delta.

At the same time, Xincheng also wholesales salt products to the local salt merchant system, ranging from salt grains to snow-white refined salt, with low prices and no deception.

When encountering such a domineering president with a battleship, the local salt merchant system in Guangdong could not resist. They could only choose to cooperate, which can also be understood as strong X.As a result, the endless salt goods began to penetrate to every corner of Guangdong and Guangxi with the new city as the center.

The most direct impact of this incident is that the price of salt in Guangdong and Guangxi dropped sharply just like that in Fujian next door, and the vegetable porridge in He Biandan's bowl became a much more delicious salty porridge.The salted radish in his hand could really be called a pickle.

So recently, every meal, everyone always happily discusses the endless salt goods on the Xincheng Wharf.Among the laborers in the yard, several of them are working on the pier, so they know exactly how much they have to unload every day.

The exciting point of today's dinner party is that the person who has been to Yizhou to do part-time work came back to give a real hammer: there is a salt mountain in Yizhou. It is said that it was spit out by the salt dragon in the lake. It is tens of feet high and can be dug no matter what not finished.

At this time, Sister-in-law Gui would pat her chest with her calloused fat hands and say a few words of blessing like "Bodhisattva blesses General Cao to be free from disease and disaster." , whoever can bring her cheap salt should live a long life.

In today's bowl of vegetable porridge, there is not only the topic of saltiness, but also another eye-catching thing: yellow potato chips.

Potatoes are not easy to preserve in the relatively warm south, and they will germinate over time.Although the time traveler can reprocess potatoes into rice flour and starch, the best way to deal with potatoes is to eat them immediately.

So starting from the second half of this year, whenever the farms in Tainan harvest a large amount, there will be ships carrying fresh potatoes to Guangzhou and Fujian.

These potatoes will be used to feed migrant workers on various construction sites.In this way, the people across the land can store the locally purchased rice for emergencies.

(End of this chapter)