Siheyuan: Struggle Begins in the 1950s

Early the next morning, Wang Jianjun was awakened by the crowing of roosters in the village.

It's still dark now, but people in the countryside get up early.

A bowl of cornmeal porridge and homemade pickles is the daily breakfast.

Wang Jianjun secretly took two roasted corns from the space as a snack.

I wanted to give some to my uncle and aunt, but gave up because I thought it would be difficult to explain the origin.

After packing everything, Wang Jianjun pushed his bicycle to his great uncle's house.

Along the way, Wang Jianjun drove his uncle and asked who raised livestock.

He didn't even dare to think about cows. Before the popularization of agricultural machinery, cows were always an irreplaceable labor force.

What Wang Jianjun wanted were sheep and pigs.

If available, he also wants chickens, ducks, and geese.

The old uncle lit a cigarette for himself and asked:

"What do you want lambs and piglets for? They don't have much meat on them and you can't raise them in the city."

"Uncle San, I'm asking this for someone else."

"How much does that cost?"

"The more, the merrier."

The old uncle thought for a while and said:

“Lao Gen’s family at the west entrance of the village raises a lot of pigs. His sows are able to give birth this year, but he’s worried that he won’t be able to raise so many piglets, so I heard he’s planning to sell them to other villages.

As for the sheep, you have to go to the back mountain to find Lao Tai. The old shepherd usually grazes sheep in the back mountain. Anyone who raises sheep in the village buys their sheep from him.

You don't need to ask other families. Most of them raise a pig together and there is still not enough meat for you to share during the New Year.

If you give the right price to those two companies, I can come out and say a few more words and it shouldn't be a problem for them to lose a few more heads."

Wang Jianjun quickly nodded and thanked him. It would be easier to get things done after having good connections.

If we really let him go and ask alone, it would be difficult to accomplish this task.

With the help of his great uncle, things went much more smoothly for Wang Jianjun.

The pig-raising Lao Gen family and the sheep-herding Lao Tai family both agreed to sell some young livestock to him.

And reached a verbal purchase agreement with Wang Jianjun.

The situation is only better in the past two years. In another two or three years, disasters will start to occur and such good things will no longer be possible.

Wang Jianjun has reserved eight piglets, three females and five males.

The price of male meat is third-grade meat, 53 cents per pound, which is about eight dollars per piece.

The female is more expensive and is calculated as first-grade meat, at 70 cents per pound, which means about ten yuan per piece.

Mutton is not expensive in that era because it contains less oil. A pound of mutton costs only 50 cents in the market, which is cheaper than a pound of eggs. A pound of eggs costs only 53 cents in that era.

Lao Tai's family raised a lot of sheep this year, so he could be given at most ten lambs, four females and six males.

The lambs are relatively large, a female lamb costs about twelve yuan, and a male lamb costs nine yuan.

They are all lambs that have been weaned and can eat grass.

Wang Jianjun paid for a sheep and a pig first.

He only had a bicycle and a bamboo basket, and he couldn't transport so many livestock.

He and the two men agreed to come and take the remaining livestock in batches over a few days.

Now that the problems of piglets and lambs have been solved, Wang Jianjun's purchasing trip was not in vain.

The rest of the things were much simpler. With the help of his great uncle, he successfully bought some other supplies.

Like homemade bacon from the countryside, some dried black fungus, dried mushrooms, local vermicelli and other dried goods.

Even some chicken farmers have made an agreement with Wang Jianjun to sell their hens to him when they stop laying eggs.

As for fresh goods, Wang Jianjun also bought some, such as eggs and vegetables.

Especially eggs, which are generally not purchased easily by purchasers, and even if they do, they only buy a few.

Because the journey is long and the road conditions are bad, if the bicycle bumps a few times along the way, the basket of eggs will fly away and almost nothing will be left.

Generally, buyers put eggs in bags of cornmeal, relying on the cornmeal's cushioning to prevent the eggshells from breaking.

Even this is not completely safe.

However, these problems are not a problem at all for Wang Jianjun. With storage space, all problems can be solved.

After walking for a whole morning, the two bamboo baskets were almost full.

Wang Jianjun prepared to send his uncle home first.

The old uncle gestured for him to go first as he just wanted to stroll around the village.

After saying goodbye to his great uncle, Wang Jianjun rode his bicycle back to his uncle's house.

It was difficult to put things into the space when someone was around.

So I took out the lambs and piglets I had bought and asked my aunt to help feed them with some sweet potato leaves.

Today is Saturday and Wang Jianshe and his sister don't have to go to school, so they have already gotten up and are helping with farm work.

Nowadays, as long as children are not educated, they have to help their family with housework within their ability.

After unloading the things, he told Wang Decai that he was going to take a walk in the mountains and told him not to prepare his meal.

He left the bicycle to Wang Jianshe for him to ride in the afternoon and then went to the back mountain.

Laoyugou Village is backed by the Taihang Mountains and Yanshan Mountains, so it goes without saying that it is rich in natural resources.

The purpose of Wang Jianjun's trip was precisely the resources on the mountain.

Because time is limited, he plans to find out what good things there are on the mountain.

As we walked forward, we were getting farther and farther away from the village.

On the way, Wang Jianjun was scanning and if he saw any plants he had never seen before, he would use a hoe to collect them into the space.

Viola yedoensis, dogtooth petal, plantain, rehmannia root, calamus...

He put everyone into the space, whether he knew them or not.

Just by scanning the space, we can know what species these plants are and what their functions are.

Occasionally he would find some wild herbs, and he collected some of them, such as bupleurum, astragalus, and wild yam.

As for the more expensive ginseng and Ganoderma lucidum, I haven't seen them.

Villagers would usually come here, but even if there were any trees there, they would have been picked up long ago.

In addition to grass, those small saplings are also his collection targets.

In addition, any insect that came within one meter of him was collected into his space, especially the locusts, none of which was left alive.

These are high-protein foods prepared for the chickens and ducks in the space.

Chickens and ducks that eat insects not only lay very fragrant eggs, but also have delicious meat.

With the auxiliary function of the space, he has no worries about insects breeding and proliferating inside.

We walked and stopped along the way until we reached the depths of the mountain, and the village was no longer visible to the naked eye.

Apart from hunters, there are basically no signs of human activities here.

Wang Jianjun took out the pistol from the storage space, checked it to make sure it was fine, and then put it back.

You may encounter some wild animals here.

Animals at the top of the food chain, such as tigers, leopards, and wolves, can be found in the mountains.

Of course, there are also prey such as wild boars, sika deer, and roe deer.

Among them, wild boar is the most common.

This omnivorous animal reproduces quickly and has thick skin and flesh, which gives many farmers a headache.

Fortunately, the militiamen are now equipped with guns, so if you are lucky enough, you can get some meat if you meet one.

Of course, Wang Jianjun’s pistol doesn’t count. If the firepower is insufficient, unless you are a sharpshooter, it’s hard to say who the prey will be.

After walking and stopping for a while, it was almost noon.

Wang Jianjun found a shady place to sit down and rest, and then took out a kettle and some roasted sweet potatoes from the space as lunch.

I wiped the sweat from my forehead and looked at the scenery in the distance, feeling refreshed.

In order to survive, I forced myself to become a beast of burden in later generations.

Forget about traveling or sightseeing.

In comparison, Wang Jianjun felt that traveling to this era was not bad.