On the way to the town, the caravan did encounter three waves of people from other villages.
In other words, they could still find someone to ask for directions without the leadership of Xu Laosan.
"Hey, Third Brother, are you going to the city again?" asked a large pig farmer from a nearby village.
As he asked, he looked curiously at the endless caravan.
I thought: This is it, it’s finally here, no matter whether it’s in the city or outside the city, everyone has been waiting for it for a long time.
"Uncle Ling, send me some meat."
"Yes, the newly killed, fat one will be delivered to your home."
Xu Youcang waved goodbye to the pork dealer, and not long after leaving, he met someone he knew again.
"Shopkeeper Qian, why are you here in person?"
"Don't mention it. My second grandfather is sick and has asked for leave. There is no way to recruit him. I'm afraid that it will delay your family affairs. I can only deliver the oil paper myself. I'm afraid you won't be able to use it."
"Well, thank you for your hard work. We really don't have much oil paper at home. My mother is at the shop. I can give you cash directly if you go there."
Shopkeeper Qian deliberately pulled the mule cart to the side of the road, and while humbly letting the caravan pass quickly, he thought to himself: It seems that these people rested at Erdao River last night, otherwise the third son of the Xu family would not be leading the way.
I was very envious of how much money the Erdaohe Xu family would earn. He really wanted to get married to the Xu family, but there was no daughter in the family, so he planned to get his younger brother's daughter to fall in love with the Xu family boy.
When they entered the city, the stewards of the two caravans saw another person greeting Xu Laosan.
This time I am sending spices to the Xu family, including star anise, cinnamon, peppercorns, aniseed, etc.
Along the way, shopkeeper Zhang was always sitting in the Xu family's car.
The Xu family's car had a strange red symbol "chua" written on the outside, and it was coated with horse dung on the inside. There was a green grass cover on the roof, and there were even cushions under the buttocks, which was very warm.
Shopkeeper Zhang took advantage of Xu Laosan to pick up horse manure and put it into a bag, put his hands in his warm sleeves and chatted:
"Boy, it seems that your family is still humble. I can feel that many people in and outside the village depend on your family for survival. This is called making money, but it is also a kind of good deeds, and it belongs to a good family."
Xu Laosan smiled heartily, let out a puff of breath, took off his cotton gloves and blew his nose again and said:
"The big shopkeeper is laughing at me. He is not well off. Even ordinary people can have enough to eat.
Can Yinshi build a house with adobe?
As for accumulating good deeds, my mother said we just help each other.
Most of our families here spend one month busy celebrating the New Year, three months farming, and two months finding work outside when the weather is warm. It’s not that we are lazy, it’s just that no matter how cold it is, no one will hire people to work. I have six months to spare.
Now that we have a good opportunity, it is true that while you big shopkeepers are here, you can make some money by pulling each other. "
The three Xu brothers never thought that their family situation was very good.
They have a strong case.
Three new cars were bought by my niece.
The family has added ten acres of land, which was bought by my niece.
The shop can exist today because it relies on the money that the eldest brother buried under the big tree to lay the foundation, which is equivalent to buying it from the niece.
Even though she was wearing furs and other clothes, she had to borrow the light from her niece to put them on.
Therefore, the three brothers of the Xu family always feel that they are still very poor and have not earned enough money to solve their problems.
Xu Laosan thought that he really told the truth and gave an example:
"For example, pigs are bought to be made into sausages and sent to various places. The money for the intestines is paid to the people who work in the village. As for the little money I earn from doing small business, I still have to buy grain to store fish."
Shopkeeper Zhang was speechless, what about the money you paid for the meals and fish you sold us.
Wouldn’t it be necessary to continue buying pork to make intestines and send them to various places?
It has become an endless cycle, tearing down the east wall to make up for the west wall.
"Anyway, my mother will do some small business when she earns some money. I have never seen her with extra money in her hands. She is always tight."
Shopkeeper Zhang: "..." That's just trying to gain power for you, silly boy.
After entering the town, Shopkeeper Zhang felt that the Xu family boy did not have a clear understanding of his family.
Shopkeeper Zhang also listened to what his subordinates said.
People from their caravan ate in the town:
"Old Mrs. Xu's Guokui is out of the oven. It's crispy and hot."
"Old lady Xu is grilling sausages. Do you want to buy some?"
"Mr. Xu's instant noodles from Erdaohe, one piece of bread will definitely fill you up. Look at all the guests at these tables eating, can you smell the fragrance from afar?"
There are also aunties carrying baskets selling: "Erdaohe sticky bean buns, sticky bean buns. Why aren't they from Erdaohe? Look carefully. There are labels on the oil paper bags outside. I never sell fakes. I bought them with you at the market. The fake ones are different, they will cause heartburn. If you buy them and steam them in a pot, one pot will be enough for a family of twenty to eat and have the strength to work."
The caravan members went to the restaurant in groups to have a meal, and even heard that the dishes recommended by the waiter had the word "Xu's Family" on them.
"Old Mrs. Xu's sausage, would you like a plate? The new one today is pig head meat. The fresh dishes include stir-fried pork with garlic sprouts and soy bean sprouts. Yes, they are all from Erdaohe."
It is almost becoming a well-known company.
He clearly left Erdaohe, but he didn't seem to leave.
What Shopkeeper Zhang and the others didn't know was that, except for the restaurant, the rest were owned by one family and were owned by Zhao Dashan's wife.
Zhao Dashan's daughter-in-law had a big business, and as a Zhenting daughter-in-law, she couldn't do business in public, so she asked her eldest sister and her family to do the work, and the two families divided the business half and half.
She also helped her eldest brother rent a shop nearby, specializing in instant noodles and fried starch sausages produced by the Xu family in Erdaohe, and she shared the shop half and half with her eldest brother.
Don't underestimate this business, he can sell more than 200 sausages and about 150 bowls of instant noodles in a day or so, not counting the noodles bought out of the city.
Zhao Dashan's wife also asked her eldest sister's mother-in-law to buy sticky bean buns from her, and then she would sell them on the streets with a basket on her back.
Just because she pulled her husband's family, her husband's family was very dissatisfied with her.
Zhao Dashan's wife is open-minded and will be dissatisfied if she is dissatisfied.
Even if she now invites her mother-in-law's family to come to the town to make money, she will not think well of her. In her heart, she does not think she is worthy of the status of Mrs. Zhenting.
So no matter how you help your husband's family, your husband's family will be as blind as if you have so many relatives coming, and she will be in a lot of troubles. They will only close your eyes and say that you can live a good life just by borrowing the light of Zhenting.
Simply help your mother's family.
Gradually, her mother-in-law's family will think of her well when they have a family. She also held money in her hand, so she couldn't help but think that because she was good at making money, the possibility of teasing and Li Na Xiao or bullying her would be smaller.
No matter what happened, she couldn't afford to lose both her life and money.
The more small businesses he has in hand, the better, and he can survive without Zhao Dashan's salary.
But this is the worst case scenario.
On the contrary, since her natal family started to make money, they often bought some meat and sent it to her house. What Zhao Dashan said privately was that it was not easy for my brother-in-law and your natal brother to earn some money. They were too polite to let them spend more money.
She earned money by herself to buy clothes for Zhao Dashan. Zhao Dashan said that you have also worked hard and made two more clothes for yourself. The two of them talked at night and put the money they earned together. After talking for a year and a half, she dared to Thinking about adding a store for my son.
Anyway, since I started making money, my relationship has gotten better and better.
Sometimes her husband's family would say bad things about her behind her back, but Zhao Dashan would stop her and say, it's not that her daughter-in-law is caring about her parents' family, but that the family's success depends entirely on Aunt Xu.
As for his own mother and Aunt Xu, they had a fight and almost came to blows together. Can the Xu family sell the town agent to someone named Zhao? His wife could take over this situation only because she had stooped down and apologized many times. He was also very good at being a good person and offered to replace several small business plaques with Xu's production.
These words made Zhao Dashan's brothers and sisters complain to Aunt Zhao, "Why are you quarreling with Aunt Xu? Others can't be friends with each other, but you get into trouble when you go out."
Aunt Zhao: "I..." Who am I doing this for?
I asked Dashan's daughter-in-law to put her little hoof in a position, and after it was over, that little hoof turned out to be a good person. Fortunately, it wasn't his daughter-in-law who served as a pavilion, or else he would have been so blind that he wouldn't even know how he died.
Shopkeeper Zhang heard from his subordinates that he saw Xu Laosan's bullock cart at the city gate being surrounded by people selling precious fish and chicken feet as soon as it arrived. The innkeeper can say a few words about the Xu family in Erdaohe.
Shopkeeper Zhang thought that he had a clear understanding of the Xu family's status in the town, and at least it was very popular among the common people.
As a result, another day later, he actually met Xu Tianxin himself in the Securities Exchange Department.
And Xu Tianxin was received before them.
He is a tea merchant, a tea merchant. The big tea merchants in the tea-horse trade market ranked behind Xu Tianxin.
However, this is a story for later.
Let's talk about it first. After the caravan left, the old men who took a bath had no intention of sleeping. After squinting on the bathhouse kang, they started to feel hot after a while. In fact, they closed their eyes and couldn't figure out how many copper coins they earned yesterday.
The woman who made shoes also asked Liu Laozhu's mother, "Auntie, will you be paid today?"
There were also men who were responsible for feeding the mules and cattle, passing by the entrance of Xu's restaurant all the time.
Unfortunately, the Xu family has done too much business and no one has come back yet.
The guy who came to deliver the meat said he was going back to the village to make arrangements and catch up on some sleep.
Seeing these people wandering around, the fourth uncle was really upset, so he called to one of the boys and said: "Shuanzi, I see that you guys are too idle. Go collect the kitchen knives from each shop and sharpen them. You don't even dare to use the kitchen knives." My teeth work well."
Are there any knives that don’t allow you to have good teeth?
What an exaggeration.
Let's put it this way, the distance between the fourth uncle's two teeth would cost 20 to take a taxi in modern times.
Until the seventh uncle of the village committee came. He was sitting on Liu Laozhu's bullock cart, carrying two newly made big flags in his hands.
Liu Laozhu touched the big flag happily while driving.
Immediately afterwards, the Xu family's vehicle also appeared behind.
Mrs. Xu personally drove a car full of women and showed up.
After getting off the bus, the women didn't have to take the trouble to always call the shots. They first whispered in code, one, two, three, and then shouted in unison: "Money is being distributed!"
Everyone cheered immediately.
In the Xu family restaurant.
Mrs. Xu and Pepper sat side by side at the counter.
Liu Laozhu is being teased by everyone for not caring about money.
Mrs. Xu was responsible for reading out the names, while Pepper paid for the bather, the boy who burned the boiler, and the man who chopped and delivered firewood.
"Wang Daye."
"arrive!"
"525 text".
"Well done with the scrub team."
Wang Daye scratched his head, smiled sheepishly and said modestly that it was okay, but he was very excited. He only earned so much in one day. If he worked for a month, he would be able to marry his younger son by the end of the year.
"I'm old and wilted."
The fifty-five-year-old old man was overjoyed when his name was called out. He cheerfully said loudly: "Here we are."
"You take a bath and a massage for fourteen people. It's hard work, it's 490 yuan."
The old man nodded and said it was not hard work. He thought that if he worked hard, he would be able to add an acre of fertile land to his family in the coming year. With more land, future generations would be able to have enough to eat.
Next, Mrs. Xu felt that she couldn't call her by name, because she didn't have a proper name despite her age, and some old men were higher than her.
People here pay attention to having a low reputation so that they can make a living. Some people named them pots, pans, stoves, windlass, wells, ropes, buckets, manure forks, dustpans, sieves, etc.
So she shouted with a smile: "Master Tugen, Master Maogan, Master Black Egg, Master Oil Pot, Master Menlian, Daddy Ugly Baby, Daddy Occupyer, Daddy Huozi, Daddy Hammer..."
At the end of the bathhouse session, Pepper whispered into Mrs. Xu's ear: "There are also four taels from Tian Xin." This is the money for using Tian Xin brand toiletries, and even the toothbrushes are given by the old man in the village. If you do it, it’s worth it.
Mrs. Xu told me to give it to me and not in front of everyone.
Then, the two of them left the table, and the Fourth Uncle and the Seventh Uncle took their seats and began to distribute the money for laundry and shoemaking.
"Shi Zhenxiang, I made a total of fifteen pairs of shoes for three hundred yuan... What did you say? Ah, isn't your maiden name Shi? What is your surname then? Come on, I'll call someone's mother, or I'll call you my man's name."
But the women gave up and said, "No, you have to call us by our own names. You need to be smart."
Our hands bleed when we make shoes, and our hands turn white after being soaked in laundry. We are also working hard to earn money to support our families. Why should we be called our husband's surname when we don't deserve our own name?
The fourth uncle said softly in the midst of chattering, "Okay, the caravan will come as soon as it comes. We still have a lot of business, so I'll call you by your name, that's all."
There were so many things, and he still couldn't remember them all.
"Wang Lianhua, ten sets of laundry, one hundred and fifty coins, very clean."
"Hey, here we come," the woman said excitedly, clasping her chilblained hands, "Fourth uncle, my maiden name is Li, Li Lianhua." Of course they were clean. She beat each piece of clothing hundreds of times with a wooden mallet. I'm afraid that it will be reworked, and then Li Zheng will brush her name off and not activate it again.
"Okay, okay, I won't pronounce it wrong next time."
And when the women were handing out money, all the money in the pockets of the bathing grandfathers was coaxed away.
For example, Xu Tianxin rents a house and makes medicine. There are only two daughters in the family who are married out. The girls live in poverty in their husband's family. The old lady was saying to her wife who was taking a bath: "Her father, if you are able to make more money this time, we can subsidize our daughter so that she will be favored by her husband's family and feel more comfortable."
The old man immediately felt that he could take another hundred baths: "I can't help but because we, the old couple, have money in our hands, the ladies are also happy to come. My dear, please keep the money and save it for them." . When the girls come back to the house, prepare a table of food to make up for it."
Next to the old couple, another old lady took the money and said to her old man: "Dad, I never thought you could earn so much at your age. It's only been one day, and I didn't even dare to think about it. I have to cook you something delicious, otherwise my body won’t be able to bear it.”
"Hmph, then think about it carefully, there will only be more in the future." The old man put his hands behind his back and straightened his spine.
There was also a little grandson who was hugging his grandpa's neck while he was bathing, and said sweetly: "Are you tired of me having to massage those feet? I heard that you worked all night, and when I grow up you can earn money to buy meat for me." eat."
This big cake was painted, so his father hurriedly took out the coins and said, "Buy meat for my grandson now. I can buy whatever he wants to eat."
Half an hour later, there was a big one-eyed snowman.
Erdaohe, from old to young, both men and women, gathered here and saw with their own eyes that the fourth uncle was tremblingly stepping on the ladder and hanging the flag.
The red flag is embroidered with the words "Have entertained Huizhou tea merchants, headquarter in the capital".
The pink flag is embroidered and written, and it has received Luzhou pen and inkstone, Donglai head office.
On this day, children of several years old in Erdaohe will never forget this scene, and they often recall it when they grow up. It was also a topic that would be discussed at many people’s dinner tables for many years to come.
At this time, the villagers looked at the flags fluttering in the wind and thought:
Although our ground is frozen and we cannot dig foundations for expansion, given the situation, there must be a lot of inconveniences in the reception.
Aren’t we poor before? We cannot afford to build so many houses, and we will surely miss out on the money we receive, but we will work harder to solve many small problems.
For example, we will expand our manpower and even female bathers will be ready at all times.
We have also decided which houses in the village will accommodate us and decorated the house like a new house.
When we fish in the river, we also hire a lion dance team for the guests staying here to watch. We will rehearse the party from now on. If you are bored at night, we will give you a performance.
Because our goal is that if a group of people work together as one, and given one year, we will become the "Green Brick Erdaohe" where every family can build a brick house!
…
After noon that day, a new caravan arrived and did not stop at Erdaohe Village, wanting to rush to the town before dark. But when this group of people passed by, many people looked at the two flags in unison.
There was also an official horse racing team passing by Erdaohe Village near dusk.
The horse team ran for more than half an hour before finishing. I don't know who the officials were, but I heard they were escorting the bank.
From now on Zhenbei Dadi will have a branch of a bank.
The official team also looked at the two flags.
At seven o'clock in the evening, two rows of red lanterns lit up the roadside of Erdaohe Shop.
The silk caravan has arrived.
And I have a minimum of respect for the coldness of the Northeast.
They looked at the flags that had enough experience to entertain caravans, and a mighty team of 500 people planned to stop.
Stop.
"Home is coming!"
Ladles for water and shovels for rice, we here take care of the guests at home.
Birds are called Jiaqiao, chatting is called chattering, taking the initiative is called getting on the pole, saliva is called harrassing, bathing is called rubbing, and lying is called blinding.
"Wuwuzhazha" and "Xilimaha" are our local words. Skating is called "slipping".
Whether they are food sellers or bathers, as long as they are asked, they will spread the word to this team of 500 people.
They really want to have the whole world: "Well, then, what the hell, let's do it."
