Chapter 126 Salt Ship
On the wide river, a fleet of more than thirty cargo ships moved down the river. Not far from Badong, we stopped at a small village called Niukou.
The village is not small, with hundreds of households, and an inn. Of course, the inn only accommodates official families, and it is impossible for the men on the boat to rest here. More than two hundred people rushed in at once, and the village suddenly became lively. Many men and women came out and led people to their homes. Although the food is rarely meaty or fishy, for these men, having thatched roof on their head feels like home. After a while, the smoke from the kitchen rose in curls, reflecting the setting sun, and slowly dispersed in the river breeze, forming a beautiful landscape painting.
This scene only started recently, and the usual Niukou Village was much more desolate. The men, oh, and the strong women, make a living by stringing the boats upstream. The fiber rope is made of bamboo, because no matter how thick the hemp rope is, it is easier to wear than the bamboo rope. When soaked in the river water, it will increase several times in weight. Regardless of whether you are a man or a woman, you are almost naked, because if you are wearing clothes and immersed in water for a day, your skin will be rubbed until it is dripping with blood. Even so, rheumatism, arthritis, etc. will never let anyone go. Whether it is a tracker or a tracker, they will fall ill before middle age, and few can live beyond their fifties. There are not many elderly people in the village. The few who are hunched over and lame in the legs stagger in the river fog that rises in the morning and evening, waiting for the next reincarnation of life. They are lucky after all. Too many young people are swallowed up by the river in front of them that their ancestors have relied on for generations. Many things are more dangerous than losing their footing on the edge of a cliff. For example, if the rope gets stuck in a rock crevice, the bravest man will need to step forward to solve it. If you are not careful, the huge kinetic energy released by the bamboo rope that suddenly bounces can break a strong man's spine into two pieces on the spot. ——It is absolutely impossible to cut it off, because that bamboo rope is far more valuable than a few human lives! The imprints left by our predecessors can be seen everywhere on the rugged rocks on the shore, including the wear marks of bamboo ropes worn by our predecessors over thousands of years, and the tread marks worn by tens of thousands of straw sandals - every time we visit such a place, the trackers Everyone will be more careful, because the most terrifying turbulence will often suddenly occur under the water here, dragging you into the bottom of the river without warning!
The leader of the boat was called Wupi. No one knew whether this was his real name or a nickname because of his skin that was darkened by the river wind. Anyway, no one except the uncles and nephews of the Du family dared to call him by his first name. , they all call him Mr. Wu. Wu Pi was Du Duan's confidant, and 70% of the Du family's private salt was transported by his fleet to Huguang via the Yangtze River.
In the past, trackers were not required for downstream boating. Although Chitan in the west of Guizhou is dangerous and there are only a few boats, Wu Pi can trust the few capable men he has single-handedly led. But things have changed recently. The volume of cargo has increased suddenly. There are more than ten or twenty ships at every turn, so there is no need to slack off. There are several huge rocks in the Chitan section, which disappear under the water every summer and autumn. The river water slapped against the shore and made a deafening sound. Hearing such a sound, you can know the rapidity of the river. If they didn't avoid being hit head-on, no one on the whole boat would survive - even a piece of wood in that section would not be able to survive. It will take a long time to be entangled in the turbulent undercurrent below the river surface before it can float again! This time there were thirty-five ships, large and small. In addition to transporting goods, Wu Pi also wanted to deliver a very important letter to Du Duan - half a letter to be exact. Therefore, Whoopi decided to hire a few trackers on each boat to pull them as close to the shore as possible.
Early the next morning, when the sky was still dark, Whoopi was the first to walk out of the farmhouse where he was staying. He looked up at the leaves on the branches: Great, there is a headwind, so we need to hold on tight. He nodded to his son beside him, the gong sounded, and Niukou Village became lively again. Two-quarters of an hour later, the fleet had unmoored and set sail. The sails were spread to allow the oncoming river wind to exert maximum resistance. Under the pull of the trackers, they slowed down as much as possible in the fast river water. There were surprises. We sailed through Chitan without any danger and parked outside Guizhou City in the afternoon.
Wupi saw the red-painted boulder on the river beach and directed everyone to unload the salt bags and put them in the basket in an orderly manner. Just as all the work was completed, a gong sound suddenly sounded in the forest dozens of feet away, and then, dozens of officers and soldiers wearing felt hats ran out of the forest shouting! People on the shore hurried back to the boat and sailed towards the center of the river. The officers and soldiers rushed to the shore with shouts and started shooting arrows at the ship...
Strangely enough, the arrows in the air were flying in all directions and at an extremely slow speed. Some of them even flew halfway before falling headlong into the river. Upon closer inspection, all the officers and soldiers used were bows tied with thin bamboo pieces, which many children played with. The arrows are also made of bamboo strips, and many of them don’t even have tail feathers! The people on the boat looked around laughing and joking, only to look back when their respective leaders scolded them.
The officers and soldiers stopped shouting for a while, and the second gong sounded. A group of bare-handed civil servants walked out of the forest, walked to the loaded salt load, picked it up, and followed the officers and soldiers who opened the way back along the official road. Go to the state.
Wupi and his son did not escape to the boat, but ran a few steps away and sat down by the riverside to watch. However, the officers and soldiers actually turned a blind eye to them, as if they were a pair of transparent people. After the civil servants had walked a few dozen feet, Wu Pi stood up and patted his butt. The father and son followed far behind and entered the city with everyone.
Guizhou used to be called Zigui (now it is also called Zigui), and it is said to be the hometown of Qu Yuan. Legend has it that Qu Yuan lived here temporarily after he was deposed. After hearing the news, his sister rushed back from her hometown to persuade and guide her younger brother. The villagers felt his virtue and changed his name to "Sister Gui". Some people also say that this is the ancient Kui Kingdom, commonly known as "Kuizi Kingdom" among the people. The two characters "Kui" and "Gui" have similar ancient pronunciations. As time went by, it was mistakenly called the "Guizi" country. Later, because the sound of "Guizi" was very similar to the sound of "Guizi", which sounded really indecent, the two words were reversed and called.
After entering the city, Yantiaozi went directly into the official treasury. Wupi and his son walked into a shop by familiar routes. The smiling shopkeeper saw Whoopi and said hello, and then the three of them entered the backyard one after another.
Liuchenpu is the largest shop in Guizhou. It is divided into six rooms: the south goods room, the north goods room, the mountain goods room, the pickled meat room, the preserved fruit room, and the candle room. Various goods are displayed in different areas, so it deserves its name.
Liuchenpu also does retail, but its main business relies on the wholesale of bulk goods. Most merchants first go to each room to look at the goods, write down the goods they are interested in, and after paying at the counter in front, an order will be issued to you - Liuchenpu accepts the order but not the person. At the approximate time agreed upon, , whether it is the merchant himself or anyone else who brings the order, Liuchenpu will arrange personnel to deliver the goods to the merchant's ship, and then sell them up the river to Bashu.
The big shopkeeper Du Yi smiles all day long and has a very good temper. It seems that no one has ever seen him lose his temper, so the merchants and neighbors who are familiar with him jokingly call him "Aunt Du". Some people even tease him in person. Shopkeeper Du chuckles after hearing this Smile: "Then in our house, you should be called uncle."
Liuchenpu has an excellent reputation. There was once a merchant who had an accident after making payment and died in a foreign country. It was more than half a year before the coffin was transported back to his hometown. In the rush, no one remembered what had happened. The family was packing up the belongings and found the six-storey list. Unfortunately, it was badly damaged. Thinking that the person was dead and the handwriting on the document was blurry and difficult to read, considering the distance, I paid no more attention to it. The backbone of the family was gone, which inevitably led to the gradual decline of the family. Six or seven years later, the orphan gradually grew up. Seeing the widowed mother's daily hard work, she left without saying goodbye with the attitude of giving it a try, and searched for her all the way. Aunt Du took the list, which was almost a piece of waste paper, and glanced at it, "Let everyone pay it immediately without any hesitation!" Moreover, he quietly helped the orphans arrange all the preparations for entering Sichuan, from the cargo ship to the trackers...even when the ship arrived in Wushan, Sichuan buyers were already waiting at the dock*!
Of course, some people thought that Aunt Du was honest and that there was nothing unusual about the receipt. She made a copy of it and thought it was perfect no matter how she looked at it. She got a group of people shouting and shouting to pick up the goods at Liuchenpu... At this time, What they saw was another face of Aunt Du.
Aunt Du first picked up the cargo list and glanced at it, then said "Please wait a moment" and then entered the back room. In the blink of an eye, more than twenty men in fine clothes surrounded the six or seven people! Aunt Du looked at these people coldly and said only one sentence: "Help me, friends who don't know why, please leave now, don't play with your own life!" When the crowd dispersed, the guy who forged the bill of goods Feeling guilty and wanting to run away, Aunt Du said the second sentence: "Don't teach your friend who holds the order to run away"!
That night, a small boat rowed quietly to the center of the river. Aunt Du took a receipt and approached a man whose skin was torn and tied with a big stone and whispered in his ear: "Teach me, my dear, not to talk about your grievances, and to know everything before you die. There are twelve months in a year. I have twelve pieces here." Seal! Look at the word 'Pu' in this chapter. It also has twelve strokes. There is a small break point in the second horizontal line. It took a lot of effort for your child to make it. But this is the seal used in October. "What month did your child write? Look at my monogram again," he said, holding up the document to the dim moonlight, "and you see, there is a little eye here, and there is a needle in the tip of my pen." ! Thirty days a month, on which day this eye is poked, will your son know? There are more than a dozen secret codes, but your little son can’t understand any of them, so you come here to cheat me? "The kidnapped one? The guy's eyes were full of begging for mercy, but his mouth was stuffed with sesame walnuts, so his whining was inaudible. Then, with a "pop" sound from the river, he disappeared from the world.
This Aunt Du is actually Du Duan's younger brother and Du Da Chong's biological father. And Liuchenpu is the secret stake of the Du family in Guizhou! Daning produces salt but not food—salt cannot be used as food. Nearly half of the daily supplies in Daning City are supplied by the Liuchenpu Organization.
In the main room in the backyard, Wu Pi first took out an oil paper bag from his arms and handed it to Aunt Du solemnly. Although it was already overripe, the latter carefully inspected the wax seal, opened the package, and took out a similarly sealed envelope inside. Checking the seals on the front and back covers again, Aunt Du nodded, tore open the envelope, took out half a page of paper, glanced at it, and said to Wupi: "Ha'er came here before and told me about this. Rice and noodles. Everything is ready, just go back and ask the brothers to move to the boat. Drink some water and rest."
Wupi responded: "Thank you, Master."
As the two talked, the yard became lively. Someone opened the corner door, and everyone on the boat came in one by one. Benches had already been set up in the courtyard, and there were piles of coarse porcelain bowls and teapots on the table. Everyone sat down and chatted and laughed, sipping tea and making vulgar jokes, waiting for the sumptuous dinner later.
*Most ancient merchants were like this. This incident is based on a real incident in Sun Chunyang's South Store in Suzhou: During the Shunzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, someone found a manifest of goods from Sun Chunyang's store during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty while packing up their elders' belongings. Although the dynasty had changed, the Sun family still "made everyone in the business stand." Pay it forward without hesitation” – how about those who have to “prove that your daddy is your daddy”?
[Stop for the sixth day to spend time with the baby. 】
