North and South groceries

In mid-February, Wang Dang and the others finally returned, driving a herd of goats all the way from Dinghu County to Lishi County.

With the coming of spring, the price of cashmere in their area has dropped, and the price of goats has basically returned to the previous level, especially the price in Dinghu County is lower than that in Lishi County. They went there this time, and after comparing the price difference between the two places, they bought a batch of goats from there with the money and food they had recently earned.

They drove this small herd of goats around Lishi County, sold only two of them, and drove back the rest.

Goats can't be sold for a while, so they can raise them by themselves. If they can't be sold in spring, they will be raised until winter this year. When winter comes, the price will definitely go up again, and the batch they recycled Goats are not very big, and they can continue to grow after being raised.

"...I have already made an agreement with the people over there. After digging the [-] tree pits, I will go to collect the dates." This time, Wang Dang didn't bring dates to Luo Sanlang, and Wang Dang felt embarrassed.

"Don't worry about the jujubes, there are still a lot at home." The jujubes are the same when they are harvested. The batch of goats they reclaimed here are good, and the price is right. After passing this village, there may be no such shop. Needless to say, it is natural. It is to harvest the goats first.

"These sheep are starting to shed their wool. You see, I have smoothed them on the way, and they have lost so much." Yang Dalang took out a ball of wool from his pocket and handed it to Luo Yong. It was slightly scratched. Coarse wool and soft cashmere are mixed together. If you want to use those cashmere yarns, you have to choose carefully.

"It may be faster to brush with a brush with iron teeth." Luo Yong seems to have heard this matter somewhere before.

"I think you have to use iron teeth. Their hair is soft and thick. I'm afraid wooden combs won't work well." A villager who was watching nearby said the same thing.

Today when Wang Dang and the others came back from Dinghu County, many villagers heard the news and sneaked out to watch the fun. Luo Yong also came to join in the fun. The information is blocked these days, and they don’t come out often to find someone to chat with. Can't hear it either.

I heard from Yang Dalang and others that there is Mengmenguan in Dinghu County, which is on the Yellow River beach, and has a large area of ​​tidal land, where the locals planted many mulberry and jujube trees.

"You still plant mulberry trees?" Luo Yong thought that raising silkworms was a thing in the south.

"For those who want to plant mulberry trees, the weather has been warmer recently, and the local people are starting to prepare silkworms." Yang Dalang said.

"The silkworms can't stand the cold in winter, right?" Luo Yong was curious.

"Originally, we only raised spring silkworms for one season. There is no kang here. I am a bit bold. I want to start raising silkworms earlier this year. As soon as the mulberry leaves grow out, I immediately get the silkworm seeds and come back to raise them. Raise early and harvest early." , maybe there will be enough time for another season." When it comes to earning money, all those Dinghu guys are very energetic.

"Then Dinghu also produces silk?" Luo Yong asked.

"Production, why not. Every year when the silk comes out, merchants come from the north. Some of them bring money to buy, and some come to drive large herds of cattle and sheep to exchange." Wang Dang held his wife and made it for him. I squatted in the yard and ate with relish.

"I'm afraid it's not enough to sell?" Hearing these things, Luo Yong also felt quite good.

"That's not necessarily true. Many merchants from the north don't come to us, and they buy directly in Guannei Road. Isn't there silk in Guannei?" Yang Dalang also came out of the house at this time with a bowl of fried noodles.

"We Dinghu's silk cloth is still cheaper." Wang Dang said.

"That's not necessarily true." Yang Dalang said again: "When there are fewer merchants from the north, the prices will naturally be cheaper. If there are more merchants, the prices will naturally go up. Sometimes there is not enough goods, so they go to Fenzhou Transfer goods with Taiyuan Mansion."

"That large expanse of tidal flats is not to mention how fertile it is."

"Unfortunately, we are all landless people."

"It's not easy. Sometimes there are fewer merchants who come, and the silk cloth in those days can't be sold at a good price, and you have to pay taxes and eat."

"That's better than no land."

Hearing what these people were talking about, Luo Yong probably had a little idea about the place of Mengmen Pass.Dinghu County is also dominated by mountains, but because it is adjacent to the Yellow River, it has a large area of ​​tidal flats, and there are businessmen from the north and the south, so it is reasonable to say that the geographical conditions are better than those in Lishi.

However, the word Mengmenguan alone has a lot of bloody smell. When it comes to war, these places with the word Guan will suffer. Military fortresses are not so easy to be.

As for silk, Luo Yong was ignorant and ignorant. He heard these men from Dinghu teach him science. In ancient times, Lei Zu raised silkworms in their Hedong Road.

Many people in Lishi County also call their Yongye farmland Sangtian, because the land has been allocated to their family for generations, and they can plant mulberry trees on it with confidence, so it is called Sangtian, and the farmland is not divided. It's called Sang Tian.

Luo Yong searched the original owner's memory for a long time, and it seems that there is indeed such a thing.

However, here in Lishi County, they have never heard of anyone who raises silkworms. It may be because the altitude is too high and the temperature is too low to be suitable for raising silkworms, or it may not be suitable for planting mulberry trees.

"Brother, I'm going back to eat." Si Niang also came running to call Luo Yong to go home for lunch.

"Hey, here we come." Luo Sanlang replied, but he still didn't move, and asked those Dinghu men: "Then every year at the end of spring and beginning of summer, there are not many mulberries at Mengmen Pass."

"Needless to say, throughout the ages, we have never heard of people starving to death in Mengmenguan at that time." Yang Dalang and others boasted.

"Brother, hurry up." Si Niang urged again.

"Hey, here we come." Luo Yong promised again and again.

"Woof!" Mai Qingdouli was also anxious, if Luo didn't need to go home, they wouldn't be able to cook.

"Here we come." Luo Yong finally couldn't drag on any longer, and while getting up and walking out of the yard, he made an agreement with Wang Dang and the others: "When the mulberries are ripe this year, I will definitely go to that Mengmen with you." Close it for a while."

He must collect a lot of mulberries and put them in the space to consume slowly. Since he came here, the things in his space have always been in and out of state. After all, there are several pairs of eyes staring at his family, so it is really difficult to fool them. Especially when it comes to what they eat, the first few in the family can remember clearly the few rice cakes that came out of the last meal, let alone those more expensive and delicious foods.

The lunch of the Luo family is not bad either. The staple food is corn porridge and miscellaneous noodles. The dishes are scrambled tofu with eggs and fried liver tips. In addition, a small dish of fermented bean curd is added to make a plate.

Si Niang is a greedy girl who loves to eat, and she is quite passionate about cooking. Now she basically manages the Luo family's three meals a day, and sometimes Er Niang and Peng Er will help out. Luo Yong basically doesn't care much, just waiting to eat ready-made ones.

"This pork liver is fried well." Just after dinner, Luo Yong praised the fried pork liver well.

Anyway, he is now boasting three times a day, Erniang and the others are almost calloused, but Siniang is still very useful. This girl looks shrewd, but she just can't stand the praise.

"Pork liver is delicious. If someone kills a pig tomorrow, I'll buy it again." Er Niang also said.

Recently, people in their village have slaughtered pigs almost every day. If there are pigs slaughtered, there will naturally be such things as offal.

At this time, the pigs were not fed this medicine or that medicine, so they felt at ease after eating, and there was no residual toxin in the internal organs, and they were good pigs that were raised with two or three hot meals a day. The pork liver tasted so delicious .

A group of big and small children were eating around the dining table. Even though they were all small in stature, they were all good at eating when they were growing up, even the two little ones, Liulang Qiniang. Let more.

When Peng Er first came here, she was not very relaxed. Luo Yong saw that she didn't seem to be full, so he often told her to open her belly and eat hard. As time passed, she relaxed a little bit, at least when she was holding pancakes. I won't be soft-handed anymore, and I can eat several in one meal, but I still eat less food than others.

After lunch, the brothers and sisters cleaned up the dining table, and kept the unfinished meals warmed up in the evening to continue eating. The bowls and chopsticks were put away, and Er Niang and Peng Er took them to wash, both of them were working Quickly, the two of them started together, poured hot water into the wooden basin, and finished washing in two or three strokes.

Goro wiped the table clean with an old sackcloth. When guests came, they had to do business on this table. The brothers and sisters were also used to eating at the grocery store and didn't like to go to the hall. In case the guests come while they are eating, and they have to run this way, it will be troublesome.

After eating, Luo Yong checked that nothing was wrong, and the stove was empty, so he took the waste oil accumulated in the past few days and boiled soap.

Since staying up all night for the first time, Luo Yong never boiled soap at night again.A few days ago he stayed here at the grocery store, and Si Niang Wu Lang and the others immediately knew that the words about the sugar cake were a lie. It was made of lard, not white rice, and there was no sugar in it.

"Brother, can this thing be eaten?" That boy Wu Lang didn't give up at that time.

"No." Luo Yong told him the cruel reality.

"Why can't you eat it?" It's obviously made of lard, so why can't it be eaten?

"There is a powerful thing here, and your stomach will break if you eat it." Caustic soda is too dangerous, so Luo Yong put them in the space directly, not because he was worried about the two messing around. The two older ones already knew what was going on and were obedient, so they were afraid that the two younger ones would eat it by mistake.

Today, Luo Yong set aside his dick and started to boil soap, and the little ones in the family gathered around again, and it seemed that he still couldn't forget the legendary southern sugar cake.

"When my brother sells these stinky soaps, I will buy rice and steam southern sugar cakes for you to eat." Luo Sanlang said to his children.

"Brother, is the southern sugar cake delicious?" These children are most concerned about eating, and they don't care much about this smelly soap that cannot be eaten.

"It's delicious, sweet and glutinous, and sticky to the teeth." Luo Yong said with a smile.

As soon as those little ones heard that the cake was sweet and sticky, they were immediately overwhelmed with beauty. Sweets are still very rare these days, even in the Luo family, it is not possible to eat them every day.

"Brother, let me make stinky soap for you." The girl Si Niang volunteered.

"No, you can't do this." The soap making process, no matter what, needs to go through a chemical reaction, how can Luo Yong give it to a child with confidence, in case something unexpected happens again.

"How about I come." Peng Er also came in from the outside at this time.

Peng Er is now mainly responsible for feeding pigs. The Luo family killed several big pigs a few days ago. Now there are only two big pigs left in the pigsty. Eat less and save trouble feeding.

Peng Er got up this morning and fed it once, just before lunch, and then again before dark in the afternoon, and fed him three times a day, which is already very careful.

As for the Dongpo pork, she prepared it this morning. It was easy, as long as the pork collected that day was processed, and some seasonings were added to it and stewed on the stove.

"Okay, you can do it and see." Luo Yong didn't like to stay on the stove all the time, so it's good to have someone take the handle.

"The fire must be low. There are ingredients added here. If the fire is too high, it will be fried. Look at the position of the water and oil. It is so high at the moment. After cooking for a while, the water in the pot will be less. , you just add a little more, it’s still this high, don’t add too much, and remember to stir it, don’t leave it there and forget it.”

Luo Yong carefully told her how to make this stinky soap. He was quite relieved about Peng Er. On the one hand, Peng Er's current identity is the servant of the Luo family. Peng Er's impression is also relatively good. Although he is not very old, he is already quite stable in his actions, meticulous in his work, and cares about the children of the Luo family.

"There is no more wool at home, I'll go to my sister's place to have a look." Erniang also watched the process of making the smelly soap for a while, and then said.

"If you don't have wool, you can rest for two days, and you have to find something to do for yourself." Luo Yong persuaded.

"You can rest anywhere." Erniang laughed.They have all suffered and suffered poverty, and they told her not to work and sit around at home all day long, how could she feel at ease.

"Wait until the snow outside melts, let's go out and burn the dung together?" Luo Yong suggested.

"Okay." Erniang also knew that their family didn't have enough soil and dung. Although they had saved a lot last autumn, there was so much land this year, and there was not enough to grow saplings and food.

Erniang was going to Xu's guest house, Luo Yong was worried and asked her to go alone, and handed over the soap making to Peng Er, got up and went out of the yard with Erniang.

Peng Er's work is more careful than Luo Yong's, so there's nothing to worry about entrusting this job to her.

At Xu's Guest House, recently, some locals or outsiders often brought dyed wool to ask people from Xipo Village to knit sweaters and socks.

The first person to come here was a local landlord in Lishi County. The other party was also worried that the people in Xipo Village would not take up the job, or that Luo Sanlang would stop him in the middle, but when he took it, nothing happened. There was almost no work to do in the past few days, and even if someone came out to take the job, it would only cost a few tens of pennies, which was much cheaper than he expected.

As for Luo Sanlang, he didn't say anything, he just let everyone buy and sell fairly, and don't cheat anyone. If you are really worried, you can find someone from Xu's guest house to act as an intermediary to make a contract. Of course, this is not a free service. Well, after all, people also have to bear trouble and risk. If there is any problem in this transaction, the middleman will not be able to get rid of it.

But those who have been here a few times know that the little ladies in Xipo Village still do their jobs very decently. They can knit as much as you say, and there is basically no error. Return the sweater together, so far I haven't heard of anyone having the problem of being short of weight.

People in these days value reputation, and people in Xipo Village also value reputation. Before that, Tian Sheng and his wife ruined the reputation of making tofu in the village, and the villagers were very angry.

Now that the sweater knitting business is started, everyone is naturally paying attention. If someone ruins the reputation of the village, it will not be good. A set of sweaters earns tens of pennies, even if it is a slow-handed little lady. It can be finished in about half a month. What a good business this is, and it must be carefully managed.

When Luo Yong and Erniang passed by, the aunt was looking at the wool, but this time a stranger came back, so the aunt was extra careful when checking the materials.

She didn't make the wool herself, she usually took it home and made it for her sister-in-law and second sister-in-law.Sister-in-law Lin and Sister-in-law Lin can be regarded as being honored by her aunt. In other families, only the unmarried lady has learned this craft, and the two of them, who are daughters-in-law, have also learned this skill.

Speaking of which, these two are also hardworking. Recently, they have been knitting sweaters at home without leaving home. A while ago, when they were in the downtown area, Lin's mother finally let go. Besides these jobs at home, who would earn more money? For some extra money, just give them a little bit of filial piety to the old couple, and ask them to take the rest.

This is also a relatively common way in this era. If the children of a family want to divide the family, if the elders refuse, the two sides are at a stalemate, but the family can't always quarrel, so they make a compromise with each other, and the parents agree to let it go. They save some private money by themselves, and generally speaking, the conflict can be subsided for a while.

Recently, the two households of the Lin family are throwing away their arms to save money for their private house. Mother Lin sees it, and feels a little bit in her heart. How come they are not so diligent when they were working for the family?But thinking about it, it's my own son and daughter-in-law. Diligence is better than laziness. If you really want to be like Tian Sheng and his wife, the old people in the family have to break their hearts.

A few days ago, Mrs. Luo, Lin Wulang, and Lin Wulang had been doing homework for Luo Yong for a month, and took two hundred Wen from here to go back. He didn't know how reluctant he was, but he still put the one hundred Wen money back into Wu Lang's hand: "The two of you keep the money yourself, don't let the two Fangs know."

When Aunt Luo was teaching Luo Yong about this, she was still laughing, saying that the couple had been pleasing to their eyes recently, and if it hadn't been for the dislike of the two rooms above, how could they have thought of them.

When Luo Yong saw the aunt like this, he knew that she should be happy in her heart.After all, we have to live in the same courtyard, regardless of whether the elders in the family are good or not, as long as the relationship is good, life will definitely be easier.

"Sister." Luo Yong and Er Niang walked into the hall one after the other.

"Have you run out of wool at Erniang's house? Just in time, there is a job here. This gentleman is in a hurry, and he is willing to pay more. Two sets of sweaters for half a month. Can you do it?" The aunt saw Luo Yong and Er Niang came, and said happily at once.

Luo Yong looked over from the door, and saw a girl of eighteen or nineteen years old in a dimly lit hall, wearing an undyed coarse cloth dress, with black hair tied low in a bun behind her head, At this time, she was very happy because she helped her younger sister take over a good job.

This is Aunt Luo, who is nineteen years old and married.But in Luo Yong's view, her life has just begun, and it doesn't matter whether she is married or not.