North and South groceries

Luo Yong was worried about the safety and living conditions of the herdsmen outside the city, but the herdsmen themselves didn't think there was any problem.

In terms of danger, the grassland and Gobi are much more dangerous than here. Except for the inconvenience of getting water, everything else is good. Many people are reluctant to leave after selling their sheep, so they live here forever.

Most of the herdsmen did not live as meticulously as the Han people. At this time, many herdsmen had money on hand after selling sheep, and it was easier to spend it, so many peddlers took the burden to do business with them.

Many people in the city said that those herdsmen don’t work every day, but they are too lazy to even cook food. Many people directly buy cooking cakes from Jinchang hawkers for their meals, and they are like that every day. eat.

Changle County has a small population and many workshops, many people work in the workshops, and there are not so many local hawkers, but many people from the Dunhuang Jinchang area come to them to do business.

Especially Jinchang, because it is close, the city is bigger and more populous, but there are not so many places to earn money, so now many Jinchang people come to Changle County to earn money.

Most of the Jinchang people who sell cooking cakes are familiar with each other. This autumn, when Changle County was harvesting white flowers, many people went to the fields together, and they were so busy all day long that they couldn't even eat. Too late to cook.

At that time, some Jinchang people came to them to sell cooking cakes, which cost three pennies, with rough skin, and the fillings were probably canned mutton with some seasonal vegetables. At that time, Changle County was just right. There is a batch of canned mutton clearance, the price is very low.

At this time, it’s already winter, so they don’t use canned mutton anymore, they just use fresh mutton as stuffing, add some onion, garlic, dried tofu and so on, and adjust some sauces sold in Changle County, three pennies per penny, each serving It is full of flavor and delicious, and some herdsmen outside the city love it very much, wishing to eat this every day.

Some herdsmen also said that they felt that Jinchang people were more industrious and able to endure hardships than Changle people.The people of Changle are so embarrassed, these nomads who are too tired to even enter the workshop, how dare they talk to them about hardships and hard work?

Sometimes when Luo Yong walks on the street, he often encounters those piles of people. I don’t know where they come from. They are fighting with each other. The main thing is to flatter the other party and flatter him. Sometimes he shouts loudly, but Generally, as long as you don't do anything, Luo Yong and they don't care.

Recently, a few Gaochang people announced in the city that there was an eminent monk who had come back from Tianzhu and was preaching in Gaochang at this time, and he praised the eminent monk as having nothing but heaven and earth. Not seriously.

Someone told Luo Yong about this, but he didn't believe his words. He only said that those Gaochang people talked all day long, and praised their Gaochang place as a holy place of Buddhism.

Luo Yong said that the story of the eminent monk was probably true, and also said that if the eminent monk traveled to Le County often, he told them to treat each other with courtesy.

The eminent monk they are talking about here is Master Xuanzang. Counting the time, he should have returned from India by this time.

In the original history, when he traveled thousands of miles from India to Gaochang this year, he planned to fulfill the promise he made to Qu Wentai and repay him for his kindness to him in the past. Also dead.

Today, Gaochang Kingdom still no longer exists, but fortunately Gaochang is still the original Gaochang, the Qu family is still alive, and Qu Wentai is still alive. I heard that he has been planting pumpkins, chanting scriptures and meditating all these years, and his body is also in good condition. Quite tough.

Recalling the battle that almost happened in the Tang Dynasty against Gaochang, Luo Yong couldn't help thinking of the young man named Chen Ji, and wondered what happened to him now.

At that time, Luo Yong cut out a sentence from a book in his own space and asked Chen Ji to hand it over to a monk in Gaochang, pretending to be the enlightenment of Buddha, so that the royal family of Gaochang at that time realized the seriousness of the situation, Qu Wentai His son, Qu Zhisheng, rushed to Chang'an City at the last moment, determined to vote for Tang, and resolved the disaster.

In the blink of an eye, several years have passed.

Last year, Aunt Luo also mentioned Chen Ji in a letter to Luo Yong, saying that this person is very useful.

In other words, two years ago, Chen Ji, Mrs. Luo and others went to the south of the Yangtze River to open up markets, because Chen Ji was able to read and write, had martial arts skills, and knew how to deal with people, and Mrs. Luo trusted him. Gradually, he also became a core member of Sister's Restaurant.

Now that Aunt Luo is going back to Chang'an City, he still stays in Jiangnan. He doesn't care about the shop, but is entrusted by Auntie to go to Shan County with a few children from Wu County who are also employees of Auntie's restaurant. Fish ball canning workshop.

When the auntie and the others first arrived in Wu County, they were still not used to the local food, and every meal was fresh seafood from the river, which made them very depressed.

After waiting for a long time, I gradually got used to it. Knowing the benefits of seafood, the fish balls made from fresh sea fish are better than river fish. In order to allow this kind of fish balls to be supplied to various branches inland, Aunt Luo decided to open a canned fish ball workshop by the sea, and she handed over the matter to Chen Ji.

Nazun County is located in the Ningbo area of ​​later generations. Mingzhou was established in the first year of Tang Kaiyuan. At the beginning of Tang Dynasty, it was only a county at this time, and it was under the jurisdiction of Yuezhou.

Because of the abundant fishery in Zun County, the fish price is slightly lower than that in Suzhou, and it is very convenient to travel by boat, so they bought a piece of land along the coast of Zun County, bought sea fish from surrounding fishing villages, and set up workshops to make fish balls.

It was not easy to open this workshop in the early days, and it needed a steady stream of funds to invest in it. The people in the surrounding fishing villages are relatively tough, and they are not very friendly to foreigners like them. If it weren’t for Aunt Luo’s reputation in Jiangnan, this workshop would I am afraid that it will be difficult to gain a foothold locally.

In the spring of this year, Chen Ji received a bundle of sweet potato vines from Erniang and him, planted them on a slope outside the workshop, and often cut the vines to give to local fishermen. The relationship between the two parties improved a lot.

There is no fertile land in their area, either mountains or seas, so they can't grow any crops, but the sweet potatoes are pretty good, they can just open a piece of land on the hillside and insert them to survive.

This autumn, many people have harvested sweet potatoes, so they became very friendly to Chen Ji and others.

Many places in this era are still very closed, they are often full of defense and hostility to outsiders, and there are even many barbaric behaviors and thoughts, and there are occasional stories of murder and robbery.

This is not the case in the local area of ​​Yan County, and after the local people really accepted Chen Ji and others, they regarded them as their own people, and they were often very protective when facing outsiders.

In this age and background, many foreign merchants often have to pay a high price to operate and develop in a new place, but once they gain a foothold, it is difficult for others to shake them.

When Chen Ji and others came here to look at the land, they found out that the owner of this sloping land was currently living in the county seat, so they looked for it.

Originally, they thought that the other party would offer a high price, but unexpectedly, the landlord not only did not want the high price, but also said that if the Luo family wanted to open a workshop there, they could give them the land for free.

"I heard that in Laizhou, it's because Mr. Du Lang opened a canning workshop there in the early years. In the past two years, their canned fish in Laizhou has been continuously shipped to Chang'an, Luoyang and other places."

"In terms of fish production, Yuezhou is not inferior to Laizhou, and our county is even more blessed. I know that your master's Luo family is full of capable people. If you want to set up a workshop here, I am very happy. , it’s just a barren land, just use it.”

Chen Ji and the others originally set their sights on several places on the north-south coastline of Suzhou, but they haven't decided which one to choose.

At this time, after hearing what the squire said, he was more inclined to the place of Yan County in his heart, and after some understanding and investigation, he finally settled here.

Chen Ji is not short-sighted and greedy for petty gain, so he naturally has no reason to want other people's land for nothing. In the end, under the witness of several other famous local gentry, they completed the land transaction at a relatively reasonable price. .

This slope is not very close to the nearby village, but it is not far away. It takes less than a quarter of an hour to walk from the nearest village to the fish ball workshop.

Chen Ji and the others built their fish ball canning workshop on this gentle slope, with mountains behind and the sea in front, and they built a fishing port by the sea.

In the beginning, only nearby villagers rowed to the fishing village to sell fish, but now there are more fishing boats coming and going. Sometimes, twenty or thirty fishing boats enter the port a day.

At the beginning, the workshop could only make dozens of canned fish balls a day, but now it basically makes hundreds of cans every day. Sometimes there are too many fish purchased, and the workers in the workshop are too busy. The wages will be increased to attract villagers from surrounding villages to come to do temporary work for a few days. At this time, they are often not very selective, and they are willing to take even the elderly and children who do not normally accept them.

The children over the age of seven or eight in the neighborhood basically have the experience of working in this fish ball workshop, killing fish, washing fish and scraping fish meat, lighting fires, sorting and jars, etc. They can get started at any time, and all of them are skilled workers.

Working in this canned fish ball workshop, I can earn a few pennies a day. There is a grocery store in their workshop, with oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, grain, cloth, everything, and some food such as cakes and maltose. After earning money, they exchanged it for food.

The canned fish balls made by their workshop were mainly supplied to the branch of Ajie Food Shop in the Jiangnan area in the early stage. After the spring of this year, the branches in Bianzhou and Luoyang will also be supplied.

This summer, a batch of goods shipped to Chang'an was sent from them. This piece of goods was mainly supplied to a branch in Tongguan and two shops in Chang'an City.

Because the DPRK and China were dispatching troops, this batch of goods did not go smoothly on the road, and it was more than a month later than expected.

Over there in Chang'an City, all the managers in the shop had already made preparations. When the batch of goods arrived, this new store and an old store in the city would soon put this kind of sea fish balls on the shelves at the same time.

These sea fish balls are quite expensive to sell, ordinary fish balls with meatballs cost only [-] Wen for a bunch, and this sea fish balls cost [-] Wen for each piece.

The shop has already made custom-made bamboo sticks for stringing sea fish balls, which are more delicate than ordinary bamboo sticks, and the position between the handle and the fish balls is also carved with patterns.

Use this bamboo stick to string five sea fish balls, and it costs ten Wen. There is also a longer bamboo stick, which can string ten fish balls, which is a full twenty Wen, which is beyond the reach of ordinary people.

These days, ordinary people work with others for only a few pennies a day.

At this time, if someone walks on the street with two long strings of sea fish balls, twenty coins in his left hand, twenty coins in his right hand, and a full forty coins in his hand, he will look very rich and wealthy.

However, there are also some people who look down on them, thinking they are too vulgar and embarrassing.

Those delicate ones were all sent out by family servants to put a food box, put a celadon soup bowl in it, and buy five or ten fish balls from the shop. They made a spoonful or two of the soup, which was boiled with the original soup in the can and some water and seasonings, and the taste was very delicious.

Take this bowl of sea fish balls back, put it on a small red clay stove and boil it for a while, sprinkle some pepper, and add a teaspoon of rice vinegar, that taste!

Some unrestrained people look down on this style of eating, and laugh at their poverty.

In this city of Chang'an, it was very lively all the year round, eating fish balls would have to quarrel for a long time, the quarreling was not enough, and they wrote poems to ridicule and ridicule each other, among them the students who were active in the forefront were the students from those academies.

These young people are narrow-minded and creative, and they have written a lot of ridiculous and funny poems about eating fish balls, which are widely praised in the market.

They were making such a fuss, and many elders saw it and thought it was a bit outrageous.

On this day, a certain minister in the DPRK and the Central Committee heard about this matter, and said to others: "Since the assistant teacher Na Luo left, the students in Chang'an City have become more and more free."