In the early morning, the sky was dim, and the lights of Bobu Fortress were still bright. [Novel website without pop-up windows] The night shift sentry yawned and looked at the watch clock on the fort, hoping that the time to change the sentry would come soon.
On the beach two miles away, several men carrying backpacks had arrived on the beach with the help of distant lights.
At this time, it was still dark, and there were already many local fishermen who got up early on the beach. They were divided into several groups to guard one place a few hundred meters apart. When they saw several people coming here, they all looked a little unkind. If the senate's security penalties were not very severe, judging from the situation, a fight would have started long ago.
"Lao Dai, which one should I choose?" Seeing people around them, a few people were a little anxious. The tides rise and fall in different directions. If you choose the wrong place and walk more, the key is to sell less money.
A man with a face of about forty stepped forward. He was wearing a coarse shorts, covered in dust, and clogs from Lingao Shoe Factory. He frowned and looked at the sea that had begun to surge, and counted the time. , and then whispered: "Come."
A few people bypassed the crowd who were guarding their positions and stood at a slightly concave beach.
At this time, the tide has begun to recede rapidly, the beach is boiling instantly, and people picking up early tide aquatic products have begun to take action.
After the tide goes out, the beach is covered with seaweed and seaweed, and live shrimps and crabs crawl around in a panic.
"Lao Dai is so good at this. There are so many of them, please hurry up and pick them up." Several people said in surprise.
He smiled and looked at his somewhat flustered companions. Dai Dehou, known as Lao Dai, was not in a hurry. He took off his shoes first and stuffed them around his waist, and then started to attack, but the target was not the conspicuous shrimp and crab.
His attention was focused on the shellfish lying peacefully. Avoiding large hard-shelled conchs, he picked up oysters, mussels, clams and other small soft shells as quickly as possible. He floated away the sediment in the sea water and threw it into the bamboo basket.
These descendants of the Sea Dragon King are the wealth bestowed by the chiefs!
After a while, the bamboo basket was almost full, and Dai Dehou casually helped his two companions who were not yet full to load a few more.
"Let's go!" someone greeted anxiously. Several people had already left quickly, while most of the shell pickers on the beach were still busy.
Carrying**. The heavy bamboo basket, but Dai Dehou's footsteps were particularly brisk at this moment, thinking that he would soon be able to exchange for circulating coupons. The fatigue from staying up late has faded a lot at this time.
In just one cup of tea, they had arrived at Bobu Port Area. You can't just enter the innermost pier, but the commercial street in the port area has the seafood processing factory shop of the chief executive, who buys and sells it. Very cheap aquatic products are sold here every morning. Some time ago, I suddenly started to put away shrimps, crabs, shells and the like.
The sales department's compound has several doors. They are all open 24 hours a day. Dai Dehou and his party entered through the side door. The place inside is very big, and there is a big courtyard as soon as you enter. There were seven or eight unharnessed carriages parked. Against the wall were stacks of wooden trays and bamboo baskets for transporting fishing goods. The air was filled with a strong fishy smell of seafood. There are still large pools of water stains and garbage such as fish scales and fish bones on the ground.
When Dai Dehou came to the store's purchasing station, the gas lights had been turned off. The yawning collector rubbed his hands and called Dai Dehou and his companions to go over to the weighing scale.
Behind the collector, you can vaguely see the aquatic products processing plant. Behind the building is connected to the fishing port wharf, where there always seems to be returning fishing boats unloading goods. Basket after basket of catches are continuously sent to the workshop via rail carts for processing. Part of it will be sent to stores for sale.
"Hmm..." The collector looked at the booklet in his hand and carefully looked at the shells in the bamboo basket, and then sniffed with his pointed nose before nodding, "They are all soft shells, freshness level two. Put it on the scale. Thirty pounds, right? OK, take it."
The delivery clerk quickly wrote a few lines on the clips, pulled off one sheet and handed it to him.
Dai Dehou didn't understand what freshness was, but he was used to weighing weights. Thirty kilograms of these second-grade soft shells could be exchanged for fifteen yuan in circulation coupons. He counted clearly and took the purchase order with a smile--to The exchange office replaced them with three yellow paper tickets, which were carefully placed close to the chest.
Collecting shellfish is a hard job, especially in the first shift of the morning tide. The leaders have strict and many rules. Not only do they have different prices in the morning and afternoon, but also the price of a cup of tea when you pick it up from the sea. If it exceeds an hour, you don’t want it. The price of large sea snails is not good. Although live animals such as shrimps and crabs are more expensive, they are not worth anything if they are damaged. On the contrary, they are not as cost-effective as these small soft shells. Moreover, they will not be accepted if they collect more than 300 kilograms per day, so every day Several groups of people took turns grabbing it that morning.
It's just that the first batch of income this morning is really good. This hour is much better than the temporary work he did. Unfortunately, the daily morning tide is not fixed, and it can only be done once every three or five times.
Several companions were all from Danzhou, and Shi Bei knew each other. The fellow villagers took care of each other. Dai Dehou had collected fishing goods before and was familiar with the tides in Chengmai, Danzhou, so he seemed to be the leader among them.
"Lao Dai, are you going to have a drink?" Several companions quickly finished weighing the scales and greeted him warmly.
"I won't go. Go back and go to bed early. You have to work on the night shift." Dai Dehou refused with a smile. He was too tired to stay up all night.
After separating from his companions, Dai Dehou went to the main entrance of the market, where the catch that had returned to port this morning was already laid out.
Although it is still early in the morning, there are already many people coming to buy cheap and discounted fish, some even coming from the county town. Anyway, now there is a train, which makes traveling more convenient.
Different from the common local fish vendors and small shops, the seafood processing factory's store here is much larger than the direct sales store in Dongmen City. It was originally only a wholesale business, but then it started retailing after the train was connected. It was like a market dedicated to selling fish. Not only people from the county like to come here to buy, but I heard that even merchants from Guangzhou come here to buy goods - you can buy it here. You can find a lot of rare fish, and the price is cheaper than in Guangzhou. Moreover, it can also provide ice packaging business. Wooden boxes filled with ice cubes and seafood are loaded on the fast liner of Dabo Shipping. The fish transported to Guangzhou is much cheaper than the fish brought from Huangpu. Even fresher.
The store is divided into several sections. The dry goods section is full of seafood products: kelp, seaweed, fish fillets, dried fish, fish sauce, oyster sauce, shrimp paste, fish balls, fish intestines, etc., all packed in thick paper or small bamboo baskets or straw bags. Packages like this are piled on the shelves; the fresh goods area is the largest, with large fresh food, grouper, squid, mackerel, yellow snapper, hairtail, prawns, flower crabs, all kinds of common and uncommon, you can’t even name them. Fresh fish, shrimps and crabs are all jumping around and kept in small pools. There is a thick iron shaft on the roof that is constantly rotating, using a belt to drive the waterwheels in the pools to continuously stir the water; the most novel thing inside is the chilled area. The chief has endless ice all year round. The fish are piled in bamboo baskets and wooden plates, covered with smoothies. Although it is dead fish, it is just as delicious when you buy it home. The key point is that the price of the chilled fish is only half of the fresh fish, and there are special discounts of 20 to 30% off in the morning and evening. .
It was not the first time for Dai Dehou to come here. Although he had been dealing with fish for half his life, he was still a little dazzled by shopping.
The leaders are really capable. Dai Dehou secretly sighed in his heart. Although some fish are common here, some fish are very rare this season. For example, the hairtail fish likes to hide in the depths of the sea in winter. It cannot be caught with ordinary fishing nets, so it takes a long time to catch it with 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 store.
But he also wondered why the chief could catch so many fish and shrimps, but he also opened a market to buy live shrimps, shells and the like, so he couldn't catch all of them?
Nowadays, the catch in Lingao is so cheap that many nearby fishermen have no way of living. Most of them have no choice but to join the chief's team: those with a little savings and big boats join the fishery cooperatives, while those with no money and small boats have no choice but to go to the fishing cooperatives. Worked as a fisherman in Lingao Fishery Company. There are fewer and fewer independent households. Dai Dehou naturally does not know that this is done deliberately by Lingao Fishery Company, just to maximize the use of the special human resources of fishermen, not to mention that the cost of these chilled fish salvaged in large quantities in the open sea is very low. high.
Thinking about going to school to see his daughter in the afternoon, Dai Dehou gritted his teeth and went to the fresh goods area. The prices here were twice as expensive as outside. Usually only wealthy households in the county and restaurants doing business would buy them.
After Dai Dehou entered, he saw price tags displayed in the pool. He couldn't read, so he looked at them one by one. Many of the fish's names were different from what they were accustomed to. For example, the chiefs of Daxian called them big yellow croakers. In fact, most of the fish here were outside. There are both in the chilled section, but this one is much bigger and full of life.
After going around again, there were many fish whose names he had never seen before. The prices were frightening. Dai Dehou hurriedly returned to the door and asked the clerk to help him choose a smaller fish, weigh it and put it in a wooden barrel. After scooping another ladle of water into it, he sadly took out two yellow bills. This money was enough for the family to eat for more than a day. Then he went to the dry goods area and used the change to buy a small bag of fish fillets. This daughter likes to eat. Then I bought a bag of fish balls and a jar of shrimp paste.
This fish ball is the most cost-effective, the price is only higher than the price of rice, and much cheaper than the discounted fish. Naturally, he didn't know that this thing uses sweet potato starch and surimi made from various low-grade fish. It is semi-mechanized and mass-produced, requiring no labor and naturally low cost.
Dai Dehou held the bucket in his hand, put the fish fillets, fish balls and shrimp paste in his backpack, walked to Bobu Railway Station, found the monthly pass card and handed it to the concierge for inspection.
The place where he works is over Ma Niao, and the monthly train ticket is really convenient. Without it, he would have to walk for several hours back and forth, and it would be impossible to earn the fifteen yuan in circulation coupons.
Fortunately, when we entered the platform, a bus came quickly. There were not many people in the morning. 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 sleepiness and looked outside the car.
Not far away is the road from Bopu to Dongmen City, or as the leaders call it, the highway. (To be continued...)
