North and South groceries

There is a small village more than 40 miles east of Changle County. The villagers mostly make a living by raising sheep and planting millet.

In the past two or three years, the price of sheep has been quite good, but the yield of corn is still not high, because the land is barren and irrigation is difficult.

There is a farmer in the village who went to the city to sell sheep in early spring. He heard a distant relative in the city tell him that the new county magistrate attaches great importance to the business of restaurants and guest houses in the city. To sell, should be able to earn some money.

After the man returned home, he thought about it and decided to grow courgettes, because their village is far away from the city. If they picked the vegetables the day before and walked a long way the next day, the leaves would all wilt. Growing courgettes is good, and they can withstand storage. Courgettes taste sweet and refreshing, and everyone likes them more.

It takes a lot of effort to take care of the two or three acres of courgettes, watering, fertilizing, catching insects and setting up a shelf. By the time the first batch of courgettes can be picked, it will be summer.

Early in the morning of the second day, before dawn, the two of them got up in the dark, simply ate some food to fill their stomachs, and the man took up the burden and planned to go to the city.

"Be careful on the road."

"Hey."

"Come back sooner."

"Hey."

The poor family has no cattle, horses and camels, and the only female donkey in the family has been bred for breeding some time ago, so it has to be handled at a leisurely pace, so this load of courgettes weighs a hundred catties, and he has to carry it on his shoulders to the city to sell.

The sky was getting brighter, and the Gobi Desert was empty and barren, with few people. This man was walking on the gravel road with a load of courgettes. His feet stepped on the road, making rustling noises. Whenever he encounters a wolf, he has to put down the burden in time, pull out the pole, and pull it over to bear the appearance of those beasts...

The more you walk in the direction of Changle County, the more popular you are. From time to time, you can meet children herding sheep, farmers plowing the land, and some like him who carry burdens into the city.

"You grow courgettes well."

"Hi."

"I heard that in Dunhuang, when the winter is the most expensive, a catty of courgettes can be sold for two or three yuan."

"That was two years ago."

"It wasn't cheap last year. Two or three courgettes, not as long as a palm, cost a penny."

"I heard that the people on their side almost scratched the weeds on the deserted beach, and pulled them back to light the fire. If there are no sparks, how can courgettes be grown in winter?"

"Do you know what the price of this courgette is now in Changle County?"

"Great price."

"There are more Hu people in the city this year than in previous years, and the price of vegetables is also higher than in previous years."

"Your load of courgettes is of good quality. If you take it to a government-run vegetable shop, you should be able to sell it for thirteen or fourteen."

"Let's hurry up and leave. If they are full of vegetables for the day, they won't take any more."

"Go faster, go faster."

"..."

In this way, they walked all the way to Changle County. After entering the city gate, several people went all the way to the government-run vegetable shop. After going in and asking, it was still too late, and many vegetables had already been harvested today. If you want to blame, you can only blame them for living too far away.

The government-run shops don’t want them, so they have to sell them on the street. Although the restaurants and restaurants in Changle County mainly buy vegetables from the government-run shops, if they meet the right ones, they will sometimes buy some. Even if the guests don’t order, the family has to eat too.

The matter of selling vegetables is really not easy. Now that the weather is getting warmer, every household in the city has vegetable gardens. Those who are more frugal are unwilling to spend money on buying vegetables. If they are more prosperous , there are not many households in this city.

The farmer was walking on the street with a load of courgettes, and the sun was shining at noon. After walking for a long time, he was hungry and very thirsty.

So he parked his burden under the eaves outside a shop, and begged for a bowl of water to drink from a boy in his teens, but the boy was kind and not only brought him a bowl of water , and moved a wooden stool with him, saying that the sun is getting hot now, and told him to rest for a while before leaving.

The man sat outside the shop, drank a few sips of water, and took out dry food from his pocket to eat.

At this time, there were a few tables of guests in the shop. At noon, a group of people were still drinking and laughing there, talking about their encounters and experiences on their business journeys. The farmer sat outside and listened, and found it quite interesting.

These people were talking, and one of them suggested: "Hey, I'm tired of hearing these, let's ask Saburo to tell us a joke."

"That's right, let's ask Saburo to tell us a joke!" Immediately, other people started booing.

Then the young man called Sanlang told them a joke, which made the honest farmer outside the shop flush with embarrassment, choked his throat with water, and almost sprayed it out of his nose .

He probed into the shop, and saw that he was a young man who was not as weak as a crown, dressed neatly, looked gentle, and he spoke like a street ranger (commonly known as a gangster) generally.

After telling a joke, the man reasoned that he had something to do in the afternoon, and asked those people to continue drinking, and he wanted to go ahead.

Walking outside the shop, he saw a load of courgettes brought by the farmer, so he stopped and asked, "How do you sell courgettes?"

"Ten pennies a penny." The farmer said.

"..." The man wrinkled his face, and he didn't know what he was thinking. Maybe he was a little drunk. After a while, the farmer heard him say again: "Your courgette is good, you want it all, the money is enough ?”

The farmer took the handful of copper coins he handed over, estimated that there were at least fifteen or six, and said repeatedly, "Enough is enough."

"You send these courgettes to the vegetable shop in front, and next time you have courgettes, you will also send them there." After the man finished speaking, he turned around and left.

Holding a handful of copper coins in his hand, the farmer looked at the load of courgettes in front of him, and was a little dumbfounded for a moment, thinking that this man was really drunk, why did the courgettes he bought himself be sent to the government-run vegetable shop? ?

"Hey, you, why don't you go?" the store owner urged.

"Who is the gentleman just now?" the farmer asked him.

"This person looks like a Changle person, why doesn't he even know his own county magistrate?"

"Hahahaha!" The few barbarians who came out with the shopkeeper to give away Luo Yong laughed, and most of these people were also a little drunk at the moment.

"It's rare for people from the countryside to go to the city a few times a year, so it's not surprising that they don't know each other."

"There's no more jokes, and the wine isn't tasty anymore. I'd better go to the backyard to have a rest."

"We will be leaving in two or three days, everyone should be healthy and refreshed."

"What would you like to have for dinner?"

"night……"

After talking, these people went back to the shop. The farmer stood there stupidly for a while, then slapped his head, picked up the load and went to the government-run vegetable shop.

Since that man is the county magistrate of Luo, and since he said that he wants to collect his own courgettes, he should not worry about selling the courgettes on his several acres of land this year, but the magistrate of Luo county looks like he has drunk too much at the moment. He sobered up after a while, wondering if he could still remember this matter.

Luo Yong did drink a little too much. The Hu merchants who drank with him today are very straightforward. If Luo Yong is not happy drinking, they will say that Luo Yong, the former scholar of Zhongyuan, is still putting on airs with them. I didn't really think of them as friends.

Luo Yong must drink as much as he can, but sitting on the same table with these people, after going back and forth, he still drank a lot in the end.Although he could still barely raise his spirits to walk at this moment, but the soles of his feet felt light, and he knew that he was drunk.

Magistrate Luo was wandering alone on the street when he was spotted by a few guards patrolling the city, and he hurried to call their boss Qiao over.

When Qiao Junlin came over, his complexion was not very good-looking, and he didn't know why he was angry, anyway, he would get angry every time he saw this guy drunk.

"You want to find those five pairs." An officer asked.

"Forget it, it's just a few steps, I'll carry him back." Qiao Junlin said as he took off his saber, handed it to an officer next to him, then grabbed Luo Yong's arm, and carried him on his back. , picked it up and left, saving him from wandering slowly in the street alone.

Although Luo Yong was drunk at this time, his mind was still clear, and he knew that Qiao Junlin was carrying him on his back.

This kid has grown up now, his shoulders are getting wider, and the arms around Luo Yong's legs are also very strong, but for some reason, his face has become longer and more handsome in recent years, and his temperament has become more and more calm. .

To be honest, it was not easy for Luo Yong to be the magistrate of this county. Fortunately, Qiao Junlin was by his side, although this kid had a bad face recently and didn't talk much.

"The first batch of baijiu will come out in two days?" Luo Yong asked.

"Well, the day after tomorrow at the latest." Qiao Junlin replied.