North and South groceries

In this era, there is no wheat grinding machine. The white flour used to make dumplings is made by first grinding the wheat grains in a stone mill, sifting out the whitest and finest wheat cores, and then grinding them into white flour. flour.

The remaining rough grains with skins are ground, then sieved to remove the wheat bran, and the result is rough noodles. The oily dregs buns that Xu's guest house makes every evening for three pennies are made of thick noodles. Thick noodles are also used for sauce noodles, and thick noodles are also used for making jujube bean cakes, and only this dumpling is used for white noodles.

The white flour is really very expensive. The big fat dumplings made from this white bread only sell for six cents a catty. If someone is stupid and makes dumplings with thick skins, then the final order will be at a loss. The more you have, the more you will lose.

Nowadays, Luo Yong sells frozen dumplings for hundreds of catties every day. The merchants who live in the guest house of Xu's house always buy tens of catties for hundreds of catties when they leave, and there are often people rushing them in the city. Bullock carts and horse carts came to buy, and baskets of big dumplings that were frozen hard were moved to the cart.

Selling dumplings every day like this, the income is also good, the main mutton is cheap, and cabbage is not expensive.

Speaking of the mutton, the local mutton in Lishi County is already considered cheap, but compared with some small border towns in the north, it is still more expensive.

In the past, in their Lishi County, about three liters of corn could be exchanged for a catty of meat. If they moved to some places close to pastoral areas, the price of meat would be lower. About two liters, or even less than two liters of corn, could be exchanged for a catty. Meat.

Recently, in Lishi County, basically only about two liters of corn can be exchanged for a pound of mutton.In the Chengzhou market, it is generally a liter of corn for a pound of meat.

Earlier, His Majesty the Emperor had sent capable officials to Chengzhou to purchase mutton for canning.

I heard that this official has a reputation of being upright and unselfish. After he arrived in Chengzhou, he had people post a lot of notices in the city and outside the city to buy live sheep. Sure enough, some herdsmen brought naked sheep to sell them for exchange. After obtaining grain and cloth that satisfied them both in quantity and quality, some herdsmen and merchants who were still waiting to see went away one after another. Within a few days, a batch of canned meat was shipped out from Chengzhou.

On this day, another group of prairie people came out of the city carrying a lot of cloth and grain on their shoulders and hands.

There are also restrictions on the entry and exit of this city. If you want to enter the city to sell mutton, you must first report the name of your tribe, and you can only enter after you have confirmed that you are indeed from this tribe. After entering the city, there will be soldiers to follow. , They are not allowed to wander around in the city.

"What's the matter? But you got a good price?" As soon as the group of men came out, a large group of people immediately surrounded them outside the city.

Although there is no limit to the number of people entering the city to sell sheep, for many grassland people, this tall and strong city is like a beast, and the city gate is the beast's mouth, and they don't want to enter unless necessary.

Therefore, when these tribes arrange people to enter the city to sell sheep, they often choose some smarter and capable young and old men. In addition, they must ensure that their tribes have sufficient vitality outside the city. The tribe will not just embark on the road of being annexed and extinct.

Generally speaking, in the area of ​​Chengzhou, there is such a relationship of mutual cooperation and mutual defense between grassland people and Han people.

"That's right, as those people said earlier, the price is fairer than the vendors in the market." A man with a large bag of grain on his shoulder said with a smile on his face.

"That's good, that's good." The people waiting outside the city also looked happy.

"Hey! Over there, don't block the city gate if there is nothing to do!" shouted the soldiers guarding the city over there.

Now the situation in this city and state is relatively complicated, and the officials above are also afraid that someone will take advantage of the chaos to launch a sneak attack, and they give orders to the officers and soldiers guarding the city all day long, fearing that they will relax a little bit.

"Let's go, go back first, don't make them wait for a long time."

These prairie people don't plan to stay here any longer. Even if they divide up the cloth and food they exchanged for, they carry and carry them. After a while, they go far away, and the area at the gate of the city suddenly becomes empty again. Many, the officers and soldiers guarding the city looked this way, and then focused their eyes on those who were about to enter the city at this time.

When they returned to their tribe's camp, many women and children came out to welcome them, surrounded by the men, and sent the cloth and grain they exchanged to the patriarch.

Their tribe has always been like this. Every time the materials exchanged for a transaction, they must first be handed over to the patriarch. At that time, their patriarch will keep a part of it, and then distribute the rest to the herdsmen under his banner.

Their tribe is relatively peaceful and friendly, and the patriarch and his family are not very extravagant and greedy.

I heard that in some tribes, the leaders will exploit and drive the herdsmen in the tribe like lambs. In such tribes, fights and sacrifices are common.

"Yeah, eat candy! I want candy!" A group of children followed, pestering their adults for candy.

They also just came to this market in the past few days. Seeing that there are so many small vendors selling all kinds of goods in this market this year, they feel very novel.

Not far from this station, there is a stall that specializes in exchanging caramel for jerky. Three catties of jerky can be exchanged for half a catty of caramel. If it is placed in the Central Plains, no one will care about it. But the children still circled the stall all day long.

"Okay, let's go to exchange sugar." A man unloaded the bag of grain on his shoulder, came out of the tent, picked up his baby, and laughed.

On the other side, a woman trotted back to her tent, put a bag of dried meat in a straw net bag and handed it to the father and son.

They have sold out the cashmere and soap in the past two days, and today the sheep have sold for a good price. This winter and the next spring, they don't have to worry about going hungry, and it doesn't matter if they have less dried meat at home.

The caramel seller is a native of Guan, and he looks a bit honest and cowardly. When the men on the grassland say something loudly, he will start to shrink his neck unconsciously.

I heard that their hometown is also very poor. A caravan passed by their village earlier, saying that they wanted to come to the Chengzhou market. He inquired with others and learned that there was no caramel seller in the Chengzhou market last winter. , So he packed some grains of wheat and millet, and went to Chengzhou with those merchants.

When he was leaving, his old mother was still holding on to the door frame and crying, fearing that he would die to go back, but there was a bit of stubbornness in this man's bones, and he stuck his neck and refused to turn his head.

The dolls in the family are getting bigger and bigger every day, and the boys from rich families are sent to study, and the girls wear beautiful clothes. My own children satisfy their hunger, and sometimes they help others, and they can earn a little food.

The person in the caravan told him that when he went to the Chengzhou market, if there were no other vendors selling caramel, he would ask him to increase the price. People on the grassland have no shortage of dried meat. In addition, they don't go to the market a few times a year or so, so even if the price is higher, they are definitely willing to buy it.

So the man offered three catties of mutton for half a catty of caramel. At first, he felt guilty, fearing that no one would buy his caramel, but it turned out that within two days, the jerky in his tent would be piled up. It has become a hill.

Making caramel is also hard work, but he is not tired at all, because this is the first time in his life, he has really tasted the taste of making money.

"Replace it with caramel." At this time, another prairie man threw a net bag of jerky onto his wooden cart. Although this man's official language was not standard, he could still understand it anyway.

"Hey." The caramel seller hurriedly weighed the jerky with his crudely made steelyard, and after doing the math, he weighed the corresponding amount of caramel and handed it over to the other party.

The man on the prairie took the caramel, turned around and left without saying anything.

But anyone who has done business in this market for a few days basically knows that these prairie people are like this.

"Yeah! I want candy! I want candy!" The man walked out of the crowd with a bag of caramel, and his baby was bouncing back and forth beside him. His father ignored him, so he just Jumping up, the whole person hangs on his father's arm.

The man was grinning, just like that, with a child hanging on one hand, striding towards his tent.

The caramel seller in Guannei raised his head while he was busy, and happened to see such a scene, and he couldn't help but put on a little smile on his simple and honest face.

His eldest son is about the same age, but he is not as strong as these little boys on the grassland. When he earns money this time and goes back, he will definitely buy them a lot of delicious food, so that they all look like him These little dolls on the prairie are generally strong.

I heard that the Chengzhou market is the busiest during the winter months, and by the beginning of spring, these barbarians will all go back to the prairie to graze.

These few months in winter happened to be the slack season for farming, so he could come here to sell caramel every year in the future.

"@#￥%..." At this time, a few extraordinarily burly barbarians came over, and they didn't know which prairie they came from. They couldn't speak Chinese at all, and they didn't know what to say Somewhat.

"Hey, hey." The people in the pass didn't care what they said, just accepted the jerky, weighed caramel for them, carefully calculated the catty, and dared not have the slightest greed for ink.

I heard that these prairie people are the most serious about death. If he really dared to do that, he would be beaten to death in this market in the end.

Two days ago, a group of Hu merchants from the west fought with a small tribe on the grassland, because those Hu merchants didn’t know how to bully the grassland people, so they cheated them. Immediately, he rode on a big horse and put on a machete to find those businessmen desperately.

I heard that those Hu merchants were cut down several times, and finally the officers and soldiers in the city were dispatched to drive these two groups of people away from the market. As for the capture of murderers, no one even mentioned it.

"@#￥#￥......" Those prairie people didn't know what they were talking about.

"Hey, hey." The man who sold the caramel candy just nodded and bowed his waist, speeding up the movements of his hands to weigh the caramel for them.

"Brother! Brother!" Another group of little dolls ran over there, all of them were strong, and when they ran, their legs swung like a whirlwind.

"Hahahaha!" Those barbarians lifted up the group of little dolls and hung them on their bodies. After the caramel seller finally weighed their candies, they took them and gave each of them a piece, and then several people Just such a person with a bunch of dolls hanging on his body, left the stall with big figure-of-sight steps.

The people in the pass secretly breathed a sigh of relief, wiped the few drops of sweat from his forehead, and continued to do his business. When someone came up to buy caramel, he nodded his head to them.

The author has something to say:

Brother: I heard that grassland people used to call their father brother.