The next morning, three or five coachmen pushed the chicken bus into Cao's wine shop and rested at the door of the house over there.
Several helpers packed soybeans in baskets at the house and then put them on the chicken bus.
When a driver saw that his chicken bus was loaded with three baskets of soybeans, he took a sign from Cao Hongyou who was standing next to him and pushed the chicken bus away. The other drivers took the signs and pushed the chicken bus in turn just like the previous driver.
Wu Daode came in from the archway door and looked around at the door of the house where the goods were shipped.
When Cao Hongyou saw that this looked familiar, he asked if he was looking for Cao Yang?
Wu Daode said "hmm" and nodded.
Cao Hongyou said, he has something to do, and it’s the same as telling me if you have something to do.
Wu Daode said, OK, let me tell you, I have prepared a big ship at Chibi Pier, and your family will transport the soybeans there just to load my ship.
Cao Hongyou took out 10 pounds of soybeans from his body and handed it to him and said, "Young man, yesterday you threw a bag of soybeans weighing about ten kilograms among the pile of soybeans in my house. You didn't ask for money. Today I will give you 10 pounds of soybeans." .
Wu Daode shook his hand and said, "Who wants money?" Just leave your business of shipping soybeans across the river to me.
Cao Hongyou said, I'm sorry, our Cao family sails our own boats and doesn't need your boat. He handed him the 10 coins in his hand and said, "These 10 coins are still for you."
Wu Daode's face darkened. He didn't want it at first, but he still took the 10 coins, waved his hand and said: Forget it.
Wu Daode turned around and walked to the entrance of the archway, following a driver pushing a chicken bus. He raised his voice and asked, "Oh, man, what's the purpose of getting a sign from Old Man Cao?"
The driver said that if you get a sign to push a cart of goods, you will be charged a shilling, and when the work is completed, you will settle the bill based on the sign you received. After saying that, he continued to push the chicken bus into North Street.
Wu Daode followed. After walking for a while, he asked again, "Man, where do you transport Cao's soybeans?"
The driver replied, transport it to Beimen Ferry, then load it on a ship, and then transport it by water from Lushui River to Chibi Pier to load a large ship to Jiangbei. Of course, we don't care about those things. Our cart pushers are only responsible for pushing the soybeans from Caojia Winery to Beimen Ferry.
Wu Daode asked again, who loaded the ships at Beimen Ferry?
The driver replied, Cao Yang took a few hired workers to load the ship there.
Wu Daode stopped and said "Oh" again, a strange smile line appeared on his face.
At this moment, I saw four wooden boats neatly moored at the North Gate Ferry. The wooden planks were placed on the side of the ship and on the beach, forming a wooden boardwalk and bridge connecting the water and land.
Cao Yang directed the driver to push the chicken cart to the ship along the boardwalk bridge, and then unloaded the baskets filled with soybeans and loaded them into the cabin.
When the cabin was filled with cargo, the boatman pulled away the wooden planks that made up the road bridge, rowed the oar, and the boat slowly sailed away from the North Gate Ferry and rowed toward the lower reaches of the sparkling Lushui River.
Another small wooden boat filled with soybeans was launched, and Cao Yang waved to the boatman.
Wu Daode suddenly appeared at Beimen Ferry. He approached Cao Yang and pretended to be humble and shouted, "Boss Cao, I have prepared a big boat at Chibi Pier for your Cao family to transport soybeans across the river."
Cao Yang said, "Oh, I'm really sorry. My father disagreed and asked me to rent a big boat and drive it to Jiangbei by myself." I have sailed a boat before, and I know how to make a living.
Wu Daode said, then you shouldn't have agreed to let me get the boat yesterday!
Cao Yang smiled slightly and argued, I didn't fully agree, it was just an intention, and I didn't have writing paper or signatures. You can't blame me!
Wu De said angrily, bullshit. Then he turned around and left Beimen Ferry.
That day, Linjiang Pier in Jiayu County, near Chibi, had a different scene. There is a wooden bench on the side of the court, with bamboos as thick as a bowl arranged on it. Wu Daode and his accomplice Qian Wanguan held one end of the bamboo respectively, while his accomplice Wu Liangjin took a ruler to measure it and made a mark with a stick of firewood. His accomplice Kan Nenglai used a big saw to cut off the bamboo. In this way, many bamboos were sawed off repeatedly, and they fell to the ground and became a big pile.
The accomplice had already taken a bamboo pole knife to saw the bamboo tubes into sections of appropriate length, and then split them into strips of bamboo, which were still in piles.
His accomplice Cai Wanmin squatted on the ground and drilled holes into strips of bamboo, then threaded wires through them and joined them together to form several large pieced bamboo boards, and then riveted nails to secure them without loosening them.
This group of people worked all morning, and a bamboo raft about five or six square meters in size was produced.
They lifted the bamboo raft off the pier and placed it at the riverside ferry. They jumped on it one by one, applauded and cheered in the river breeze, and cheered.
Wu Daode used a pole to prop up the bamboo raft, and the bamboo raft swung away from the ferry and drifted towards the center of the river.
Suddenly, there was a man carrying a cloth bag on the riverside pier, waving and shouting loudly: "Hey, bring the raft together, I have bought all the black hats you want."
That person just wants money. Wu Daode asked loudly at him, "If you want money, is there any eye hole on the edge of the black hat?"
Hu Xiangcai took out a black hat from his bag and put it on his head. He pulled the brim of the hat downwards and covered his whole head. However, there were two obvious eye holes under his forehead.
Hu Xiangcai said loudly that this kind of hat with dog holes can hide the face because it leaves eye holes without affecting people's sight.
After a while, the bamboo raft rowed from the center of the river to the ferry, and then docked.
Hu Xiangcai jumped on the bamboo raft, and each person was given a dog-hole hat.
The other six people tried it on one after another, and the brim of the hat was pulled down to cover their faces. Some looked at each other and said jokingly, "We have become masked people."
Another morning, it was particularly cold at Beimen Ferry in Puqi County. That was because the sky was cloudy and drizzle occasionally fell. Four rickshaws came out of Beimen City one after another, and then stopped on the bluestone revetment of Beimen River Beach.
Cao Hongyou was sitting on the first rickshaw. Wearing a hat and a robe and holding a seven-star crutch, he got out of the car and immediately took out a handful of money and handed it to the driver.
On the second rickshaw sat the gray-haired old lady Xiao Huaihua. She got off the rickshaw and walked directly towards a wooden boat moored at the ferry, holding a cane with a dragon and phoenix pattern.
Sitting on the third rickshaw was Hu Qin, with her five-year-old daughter Cao Tingting on her lap. At this moment, they got off the rickshaw and walked straight towards a wooden boat parked at the ferry.
Sitting on the fourth rickshaw was Hu Qin's nine-year-old son Cao Gaofeng. On Cao Gaofeng's knees was his seven-year-old brother Cao Xiaofeng. The two brothers got off the car and walked straight towards a wooden boat moored at the ferry.
Cao Hongyou gave the driver of the second, third, and fourth rickshaws their fare money respectively, and also walked towards a wooden boat parked at the ferry.
The six members of the Cao family all boarded the wooden boat and got into the cabin one by one with their waists bent and sat down.
Cao Tingting stretched out her rosy and round hands and gently pulled Hu Qin's sleeves and asked, "Mom, where is daddy?"
Hu Qin said, your father went to Chibi Ferry yesterday.
The boatman held the handle of the oar and was about to shake it, and asked loudly, have everyone come up?
Cao Hongyou looked at his wife, daughter-in-law and three grandchildren, then looked at the boatman and waved his hand: start the boat.
