Villager of Daming

Chapter 1102: Selling a load at a low price
"We are watering the ground! When we came out, they said they would water it today."

When the team was on their way, they met two villagers. They were from the village in front of them. The village was called Daliang Village, a village near the Huliang River.

Both of them were carrying burdens, and a wheelbarrow was given to them. They alternated pushing and loading the things in the burden onto the wheelbarrow.

Among them, I took a break to talk about things. People in Daliang Village should be watering the fields today.

The two brothers went to Fangshan County to sell things. They bought something on the way back and sold gourd sticks. In the current season, gourds can be eaten.

Their family grew a lot. They sold two hundred kilograms of gourd strips and bought back salt and cotton cloth to make clothes for their family members.

Don't look at it now. It takes time to make clothes. The mother-in-law at home does it. When the family's clothes are ready, it will be autumn, and then put cotton on them for winter wear.

"Why not take a boat? There are boats in the river."

Fang Dachuan, the head of Xiashan Village, came over and said that there was only a small stream next to the village, not a big river. When he saw the boat on the river, he was very envious and thought it was a good means of transportation.

The young man who just mentioned the situation glanced at him and didn't know who he was, but he still replied: "After we come out, go north and go against the current. If we go as far as the river, we can take a shortcut."

"Actually, it just costs money and I can't bear to part with it." The person pushing the cart gave a more normal reason.

"Brother is right. It costs fifteen cents per person to bring things by boat from here! The upstream boatmen are very tired. They can only make one trip a day, and two people have to take turns rowing.

The total of the two of us is thirty cents. We go there and it is cheaper to come back. Five cents is the price. One trip is forty cents, which can buy a lot of things.

It’s not a quick trip. To eat on the boat, you have to bring your own dry food.

We walked there and ate dry food. The weather was hot but not cold at night. There was also a drought and there were no mosquitoes. We brought knives and slept on the roadside at night.

This cart is great. Two people can push it alternately, which is much better than carrying a load. You can push it more, and it is easy to load a load of 400 kilograms.

We will pick it out ourselves. We don’t dare to add more than a hundred kilograms. It’s a long way to go. If we lose the strength to hold on, we’ll be exhausted! "

The speaker also admitted that he felt embarrassed before saying it was for money.

"Is this car useful?" Lao Wu asked with a smile.

"It's easy to use. Thank you for lending us the car, Your Highnesses."

He knew who this was, and all four highnesses introduced him.

"It's a gift for you. Use it if it's useful." Zhu Rui was generous and originally wanted to give it away.

For ordinary people, a car is very precious, but if you don't know how to make it, not to mention the waste of wood you make by yourself, it will easily fall apart halfway.

There are professional craftsmen in the team, and making a wooden wheelbarrow is like playing. The construction sites in the industrial area do not use wood. It is too tiring. There are various tracks there.

"Thank you, Your Highness!" Poof! '

When the man was shouting, he suddenly knelt down, kowtowed and then stood up quickly, fearing that he would be stepped on.

"Okay!" Zhu Rui didn't have time to stop him. Seeing that everyone was getting up, he nodded, okay, it's not shameful to kowtow. He has a high status, so normally he has to kowtow first.

The villagers thought the same way. He chuckled and kowtowed after getting the car. Can he take it back again?

"Do you know what happened in Zhuozhou?" Ling'er asked suddenly. The south side of the Huliang River belongs to Zhuozhou, not Beiping Prefecture.

The prefect of Beiping Prefecture has no control over Zhuozhou, and Zhu Di, the King of Yan, also cannot receive taxes and land taxes from Zhuozhou. In theory, he cannot go to Zhuozhou or leave the government.

But Xu Dan was able to manage, and Zhao Yao, who participated in the politics of Beiping Province, had direct jurisdiction, not just Zhuozhou. No one in Xiaqiu Village has jurisdiction, so just ask. If you think there is a problem, you can give an order directly. The magistrate of Zhuozhou can choose not to listen to Xiaqiu Village. The consequences...

"It's better than ours over there. Our village is to the north of the Huliang River, and across the river is the border of Zhuozhou.

The location in Henan is always washed by water. Once it is washed away, there is a lot of good land. My mother-in-law is from there.

Her family grew gourds, so my family brought the seeds and planted them, and the village followed suit. The whole village did this together.

About eight or nine kilograms of gourd strips are sold for one kilogram of dried gourd sticks, which is worthless. It costs two pennies per kilogram and is still charged by department stores. In the past, it would have been difficult to sell even a penny or a kilogram.

A big gourd with dried gourd strips would have cost one penny last year, but now it sells for two pence, double the price.

A businessman is anxious and wants to pay ten pounds plus one penny for our dried gourd strips. This time we went to inquire about it, but we have agreed not to sell it to the businessman. Brother, can I push it for a while? "

This person briefly talked about Zhuozhou, but actually said nothing, focusing on the price of gourd strips.

To make gourd strips, you need to cut off the outer skin of the gourd first, and then use a paring knife to cut them layer by layer. A lot can be cut out of one gourd, and the weight will be lighter after it is dried.

This is not a vegetable gourd, otherwise it would take about twenty kilograms of gourds to produce one kilogram of dried gourd strips. The gourds here are normally thin in the middle.

Vegetable gourds are like melons and have high water content. The advantage is high yield per mu.

"No, we've only been pushing for a while, but we just haven't pushed. We can't use this strength. Just push more."

With the wheelbarrow, we can load four hundred kilograms at a time and push it alternately, which saves more effort than carrying a shoulder pole.

The gourds in the village can still be harvested. If anyone wants to sell them, we will lend them the cart and help get back the rotary knife that Blacksmith Wang made. "

The person pushing the cart shook his head and refused. It didn’t take long and there were few things. The cart contained a pole, a gourd filled with water, uneaten dry food, a butcher’s knife for self-defense, salt and cloth.

"It's strange that I have to take a boat. Two people can sell it for 400 cents each for 100 jin each, and take the boat for 40 cents back and forth. I can't bear to do it. How can I buy gourd sticks for only 3 cents per catty? All the money has been made by profiteers."

Fang Dachuan understood the other party's behavior of not taking the boat, but complained that buying gourd strips was expensive.

The merchant received it for a penny per catty, but ended up selling it for three pennies and earning that much. black! too dark! The kind with a black heart and black hands, the kind that makes your feet even darker when you take off your socks.

"There is no oil or water. I can only add vegetables in winter. If there is meat, it will be the most delicious. Otherwise, make pickles."

Ling'er held a gourd strip hanging on the villager's body. She took a look at it and shook her head. It didn't taste good. The green gourd strips were still tender when eaten, but the dry ones were not good at all without oil. eat.

But this can be used to make pickles and canned food. If there is meat, the meat will be fragrant when stewed together, and it can also remove the fishy smell of pork.

Department stores charge two cents per catty. About eight catties of wet gourd strips can produce one catty of dried gourd strips. For good soaking methods, four or five catties can be stewed together in a big pot of braised pork. Some people charge two cents per catty. Buy it, the profit is quite high.

"Is it difficult to grow gourds? Do you have the tools handy when cutting gourd strips?"

Ling'er recalled how to cut gourd strips. She didn't know the village's methods. If she planted more, she could improve the tools to increase efficiency.

"It's all you need, a whittling knife, a wooden pallet, and a small wooden stick, and you can turn it with one hand and use the other to peel it."

The younger brother who didn’t have a pushcart made two gestures, it was very simple.

　The status has not been adjusted today. I will update more tomorrow.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)