Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1331

In the early morning, the sky was twilight, but the lights of Bopu Fortress were still brightly lit.The night sentry yawned and looked at the duty bell on the fort, hoping that the time to change the sentry would come soon.

On the beach two miles away, several men with baskets on their backs had already arrived on the beach by the light in the distance.

It was still dark at this time, and there were already many local fishermen who got up early on the beach. They were divided into several groups and kept a few hundred meters apart.If it weren't for the severe security penalties imposed by the Senate, the fight would have started long ago depending on the situation.

"Old Dai, which one to choose?" Seeing people around, they were a little impatient. The tide rises and falls in different directions. If you choose the wrong place, walking more is the next thing. The key is to sell less money.

A man in his forties came forward. He was wearing a coarse cloth bunt, his body was covered in dust, and he was wearing clogs from the Lingao shoe factory. He frowned and looked at the sea that had begun to swell, and then counted the time. , then whispered: "Come."

Several people bypassed the crowd keeping their positions, and stood on a slightly concave beach.

At this time, the tide has begun to recede rapidly, and the beach boils instantly, and people who pick up early tide aquatic products start to act one after another.

After low tide, seaweed and algae are everywhere on the beach, and live shrimps and crabs crawl around in a panic.

"Old Dai is very skilled, there are so many, everyone quickly pick them up." Several people exclaimed in surprise.

Smiling and looking at his flustered companions, Dai Dehou, known as Lao Dai, was not in a hurry. He took off his shoes first, stuffed them around his waist, and then started to strike, but the target was not the conspicuous shrimp and crab.

His attention is all on the shellfish lying quietly, avoiding the big hard conch and the like, he picks up oysters, mussels, clams and other small soft shells with the fastest speed , Drift away the sediment in the sea, and then throw it into the bamboo basket.

These descendants of the sea are the wealth bestowed by the chiefs!

But after a while, the bamboo basket was already full, and Dai Dehou casually helped the two companions who were not full to pack some.

"Let's go!" Someone greeted anxiously, several people had already left in a hurry, and most of the shellfish collectors on the beach were still busy.

Carrying a wet and heavy bamboo basket, Dai Dehou's footsteps are particularly light at this moment. Thinking that he will soon be able to exchange for circulation coupons, the fatigue of staying up all night has faded a lot at this time.

After a cup of tea, they had arrived at Bopu Port.The innermost pier cannot be entered casually, but the commercial street in the port area has the seafood processing factory outlets of the chiefs, which buy and sell.There are very cheap aquatic products sold here every morning, and some time ago, shrimps, crabs, shells and the like suddenly started to be put away.

There are several doors in the compound of the sales department, all of which are open 24 hours a day.Dai Dehou and his party entered through the side door.The place inside is very large, and once you enter it is a big yard.There were seven or eight unsheathed carriages parked.Stacks of wooden trays and bamboo baskets for transporting fishing goods are stacked against the wall.In the air, there was a strong stench of seafood.There are still water stains from the big beach and garbage such as fish scales and fish bones on the ground.

When Dai Dehou came to the purchasing station in the store, the gas lamp was already turned off.The yawning receiver rubbed his hands, beckoning Dai Dehou and his companions to go to the weighing scale.

Behind the receiver, you can faintly see the aquatic product processing factory. Behind the building is the fishing port wharf, where there seems to be always fishing boats unloading, and baskets of fish are constantly sent to the workshop by rail carts for processing. After processing, some of them will be sent to retail stores for sale.

"Hmm..." The delivery clerk looked carefully at the shellfish in the bamboo basket while looking at the brochure in his hand, then sniffed them with a pointed nose, and then nodded, "They are all soft shellfish, freshness level two, Let's put it on the scale. Thirty catties, isn't it? Well, take it."

The delivery clerk quickly wrote a few lines on the clip, and then tore it off and handed it to him.

What is the freshness, Dade Hou doesn't understand, but he is used to the weight, the 15 catties of the second-grade soft shell can be exchanged for [-] yuan circulation coupons, he counted it very clearly, smiled and took the purchase order--to exchange It was replaced by three yellow paper tickets, which were carefully placed close to the chest.

Picking up shellfish is a hard job, especially during the first shift in the morning tide. The chiefs have strict rules and regulations. Not only are there different prices in the morning and noon, but also a price for a cup of tea when they are picked up from the sea. The price of the big conch is not good. Although the price of shrimp and crab is higher, it is worthless if it is damaged. On the contrary, it is not as cost-effective as this small soft shell. In the morning, several groups of people took turns to rob.

It's just that the first batch of income this morning is really good. This hour is much better than the temporary work he does. Unfortunately, there is no fixed number of morning tides every day, and it can only be earned every now and then.

The few companions are all from Danzhou, and they know each other by shellfish. The fellow villagers take care of each other. Dai Dehou has collected fishing goods before and is very familiar with the tide in Chengmai, Danzhou, so he is the leader among them.

"Old Dai, go for a drink?" Several companions also quickly finished weighing and greeted him warmly.

"No, go back to bed early, and have to do some work on the evening shift." Dai Dehou refused with a smile, it was too tiring to stay up all night.

After parting from his companions, Dai Dehou turned to the main entrance of the store, where the catches returning to Hong Kong this morning had already been placed.

Although it was still early in the morning, there were quite a few people who came to buy cheap and discounted fish, and some even came from the county town. Anyway, it is convenient to come and go now that there is a train.

Different from the common local fish vendors and small shops, the seafood processing factory here is much larger than the direct sales store in Dongmen City.Originally it was only for wholesale, but after the train passed, it started retailing. It is like a market specializing in selling fish. Not only local people like to come here to buy, but I heard that even merchants from Guangzhou come here to buy goods—you can buy here. There are a lot of rare fish, and the price is cheaper than in Guangzhou, and there is also an ice-packing service here. The wooden box filled with ice cubes and seafood is loaded on the fast liner of Dabo Shipping, and the fish shipped to Guangzhou is cheaper than the fish shipped from Huangpu. Even fresher.

The store is divided into several areas. The dry goods area is full of seafood products: kelp, seaweed, fish fillets, dried fish, fish sauce, oyster sauce, shrimp paste, fish balls, fish intestines and so on. They are all made of rough paper or small bamboo baskets or straw bags. The fresh goods area has the largest area, big fresh, grouper, spot blue, horse mackerel, yellow snapper, prawn, flower crab, all kinds of common and uncommon, even unnamed fresh Live fish, shrimp and crabs are all alive and kicking, and they are kept in small pools.There is a thick iron shaft on the roof, which is constantly rotating, and the belt drives the waterwheels in the pools to continuously turn the water; the most novel thing inside is the chilled area, where there is endless ice all year round. The fish are stacked in bamboo baskets and wooden trays and covered with smoothies. Even though they are dead fish, they are still delicious when you buy them home. The key point is that the price of fresh fish is only half of that of fresh fish, and there are discounts of [-] to [-] percent in the morning and evening. .

This is not the first time for Dai Dehou to come. Although he has dealt with fish for half his life, he is still a little dazzled.

The chiefs are really capable, and Dai Dehou secretly sighed in his heart. Although some fish are common here, some fish are very rare in this season. For example, the hairtail likes to hide in the deep sea in winter. It cannot be caught by ordinary fishing nets, and it takes a long time to use a long line pole. He only caught a few fish, but there were dozens of them in the bamboo basket in front of him, and he had never seen any fish sold out in this market.

But he also wondered, why the chief can catch so many fish and shrimps, but open the market to buy live shrimp shells and the like, and he can't catch them all by himself?
Nowadays, the catch in Lingao is so cheap that many nearby fishermen have lost their livelihood. Worked as a fisherman in Lingao Fishery Company.There are fewer and fewer single-handed households. Of course, Dai Dehou didn't know that this was deliberately done by the Lingao Fishery Company, just to make the most of the special human resources of fishermen. high.

Thinking about going to school to see his daughter in the afternoon, Dai Dehou gritted his teeth and went to the fresh goods section. The price here is twice as expensive as outside, and usually only the wealthy households in the county and restaurants that do business will buy it.

After Dai Dehou entered, he saw the price tags on the pools. He could read and read one by one. The names of many fish were different from what he was used to. There are chilled areas, but this one is much bigger, and they are all alive and kicking.

Going around again, there are many fish whose names have never been seen. The price Dai Dehou looked frightened. He hurried back to the door and asked the clerk to help him choose a small fresh fish, which he said was packed in a wooden barrel. After scooping up another ladle of water, he took out two yellow bills in distress. The money was enough to feed the family for more than a day. Then he went to the dry goods area and bought a small bag of fish fillets with change. This daughter likes to eat them. Then I bought a bag of fish balls and a can of shrimp paste.

This fish ball is the most cost-effective, the price is only a little higher than the price of rice, and much cheaper than the discounted miscellaneous fish.Of course, he didn't know that the sweet potato starch used in this thing and the surimi made from various low-grade miscellaneous fish were semi-mechanized and mass-produced, requiring no labor and naturally low cost.

With the bucket in his hand, Dai Dehou put the fish fillets, fish balls and shrimp paste into the basket, walked to Bopu Railway Station, found out the monthly ticket and handed it to the concierge for inspection.

The place where he goes to work is at Ma Niao's side, and the monthly train pass is really convenient. Without it, he would have to walk several hours back and forth, so it would be impossible for him to earn the 15 yuan circulating coupon.

As luck would have it, a bus came soon after entering the platform. There were not too many people in the morning, so Dai Dehou got on the last trolley, found a place to put the barrel on the ground, and then sat down with the barrel in his arms.The train left quickly, he endured his drowsiness and looked out of the car.

Not far away is the main road from Bopu to Dongmen City, or as the leaders say, the highway.

(End of this chapter)