Siheyuan: Struggle Begins in the 1950s

"Wang Jianjun, you bastard! I am your mother! How dare you talk to me like that? Be careful or your uncle will punish you!"

Wang Xiulan was shouting in a timid manner.

Wang Jianjun was too lazy to pay attention, not to mention whether Wang Deyao could beat him.

Given Wang Deyao's henpecked personality, he probably wouldn't dare to fight with anyone.

He took two steps onto the bicycle path:

"Be careful that my grandfather will come and punish you, the unfilial daughter-in-law."

After saying that, he ignored Wang Xiulan who was cursing angrily behind him and just rode forward.

I rode all the way out of the village and found a deserted place to put the things on the bike into the space.

His next destination was the neighboring Liu Village.

This is a village adjacent to Laoyugou Village, not far away.

In addition to purchasing, Wang Jianjun also set his sights on the livestock in Liu Village.

I heard from my great uncle that there are many families in Liu Village who raise donkeys and horses to use for grinding mills and carrying loads.

In the past, many people in this village relied on donkeys and horses to transport goods to the city for sale.

Now that business is not allowed, donkeys and horses have been replaced by farm work.

Wang Jianjun rode for half an hour and arrived at Liu Village.

Liu Village and Laoyugou Village are not connected. The two villages are separated by the reservoir that Wang Jianjun often visits.

The geographical location is much better than that of Laoyugou Village. The terrain here is relatively flat and there is more land suitable for farming.

When Wang Jianjun arrived, he saw a lot of horses working in the fields.

The horses are Mongolian horses, which are short but strong. When there are not enough cattle, horses are also a good substitute.

He also saw several animals that were neither donkeys nor horses in the fields.

This is the mule, a hybrid of a horse and a donkey. It combines the advantages of both horses and donkeys, with the only drawback being that it cannot reproduce.

Wang Jianjun fell into deep thought as he looked at Mule's face, which was somewhat similar to Xu Damao's.

He remembered that Xu Damao seemed to be infertile too?

Shake your head and stop thinking about these messy things.

After reporting his identity to the militia at the village entrance, Wang Jianjun was not in a hurry to purchase.

After asking along the way, I arrived at the village chief's house.

After introducing his great uncle's name and giving him a pack of cigarettes, the village secretary accepted him as his nephew from the neighboring village.

It is easier to talk to people once they get to know each other.

Village Secretary Lao Lin also told Wang Jianjun bluntly that most of the villagers in their village had reached verbal agreements with familiar purchasers.

Those people were purchasing agents from other factories, and most of them were related to the villagers, so unless Wang Jianjun raised the purchase price, it would be difficult to purchase anything.

Wang Jianjun had no intention of competing with his colleagues for jobs. He just said a few perfunctory words and then mentioned the purpose of his visit.

When Secretary Lin heard that Wang Jianjun wanted to buy some donkey foals and pony foals, he was curious but did not ask much. He searched the situation in the village in his mind and told Wang Jianjun about a few places and asked Wang Jianjun to ask himself.

After getting the information he wanted, Wang Jianjun thanked him and prepared to leave.

Before leaving, the village chief invited him to come to the village threshing ground to watch a movie in the evening.

"It's just a coincidence. Normally, you don't get to watch a movie once a month, but you got to watch it today. And the projectionist who came to show the movie here seems to be from your Red Star Steel Mill."

Wang Jianjun asked curiously:

"Is that man's surname Xu and his face looks like a mule?"

The village chief slapped his thigh and shouted, "That's right! It looks like the mule. I was wondering why Projectionist Xu's face looked so familiar."

Wang Jianjun thought to himself that it was not just their appearance that was similar, even the fact that they could not have children was exactly the same.

"Okay, thank you, Village Chief. I'll come and join in the fun tonight."

After confirming the time of the movie showing in the evening with the secretary, Wang Jianjun rode his bike and left first.

He was not planning to go back to Sijiu City tonight, as staying in the space all night would seem to be a very long time.

I might as well stay and watch some movies of this era to kill time.

Wang Jianjun went to the homes of those villagers as the village chief instructed.

These villagers have a lot of livestock and agreed to sell some donkey foals and ponies.

Wang Jianjun also negotiated the price with them.

As the saying goes, horse meat stinks and donkey meat smells good, but I would rather die than eat mule meat.

Donkey meat, which is as famous as dragon meat, is naturally more expensive.

Wang Jianjun added some prices appropriately. For reference, mutton is 50 cents per pound, and 19 cents per pound of uncooked mutton, which together with the meat coupons is about 2.5 yuan.

A young donkey weighs about 60 kilograms.

All in all, a little donkey colt costs about fifteen yuan.

As for horses, although they are cheaper at only two cents, a two-month-old foal weighs more than 100 pounds, and one will cost more than 20 pounds.

Wang Jianjun offered a high price so the negotiation went quickly. In the end, he asked for a total of ten donkeys and ten horses.

He wanted to ask for more, but gave up because he thought he needed to save some money to buy other things.

After spending these few days, his small treasury has shrunk significantly.

Wang Jianjun felt a little distressed when he saw his wallet getting thinner and thinner.

The number of donkeys and horses is 30% male and 70% female. Female donkeys and horses are 20% more expensive because they can breed.

Wang Jianjun also made an agreement with the villagers that he would come to pick up the goods from the donkeys and horses in a few days.

Today's trip can be said to be quite fruitful. The only pity is that no villagers are willing to sell their cattle, even calves.

There are also people in the village who raise cattle, and for farmers, cattle are the best for farming. So even if Wang Jianjun expressed his willingness to increase the price, the other party would not agree.

In desperation, Wang Jianjun could only hope that the steel rolling mill would be able to go to Inner Mongolia to purchase again one day.

Anyway, he now has a source of pork, and beef is just used to improve the diet.

By the time Wang Jianjun finished talking to the last company, it was almost dark.

At this time, the sound of gongs came from the threshing ground in the village.

This is to notify the villagers to pack up and go to the movies.

The movie will start about half an hour after the gong is struck.

After the gong was struck, many residents went to the threshing ground in groups of two or three.

Everyone had a stool in their hands, and those who were better off would even take some nuts like melon seeds and peanuts as snacks.

This scene reminded Wang Jianjun of his previous life when he was a child living in the countryside, and it was the same when operas were performed in the village at night.

In the days before television became popular, people had very few entertainment options, and a movie was the biggest event in the village.

Wang Jianjun had nothing to do at the moment, so he simply found a deserted place to put his bicycle away, then took out a stool and followed the villagers to the threshing ground.

When he arrived, the threshing ground was already half full.

Wang Jianjun doesn't like to crowd with others.

It is especially uncomfortable to be crowded with people on a hot day.

I just found a seat on the side with few people and sat down.

Then I took out a piece of roasted corn from my backpack and ate it while waiting for the movie to start.