1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 28 Li Ren ([-])

Approaching Litong Village, someone in the team found a new thing on the roadside - cotton.Of course, some people have doubts about this completely tree-like plant: "Isn't the cotton you see on TV all low and low, and the chest is so high? Is this Nima taller than a person really cotton?"

Gao Huan from the Ministry of Agriculture was notified that he was transferred to the special working group from the labor camp this morning. As an expert on cash crops, he answered this question: "Cotton will also grow into a perennial woody plant in the wild in the natural environment. , in tropical regions, it can even grow to a height of about six meters. Don't look at this inconspicuous thing. The Li brocade spun from this kind of sea island cotton is quite famous. Everyone should know Huang Daopo, right? She is in Yazhou I learned the textile technology of the Li people here, and then brought it back to the Central Plains to spread."

"Since cotton is produced here, so we can open our own weaving factory soon?" Someone asked excitedly.

Gao Huan shook his head and said, "It's not that easy. The Li people have not specially cultivated this kind of sea island cotton, and the output is very limited. It is possible to provide small-scale weaving, but it is definitely not possible to engage in industrial production. We brought a lot of them. It is a good variety of sea island cotton, but it is not easy to find a place to promote planting. Hainan is mountainous inland and there is almost no flat land, so the cost-effectiveness of cotton cultivation is not high enough.”

"Didn't the labor camp open a large field on the east bank of the Tiandu River? Can't grow cotton there?"

Gao Huan said with a wry smile: "It is possible to plant, but the monsoon season is coming soon, and it will last for a few months. You should have seen the situation where Hainan is hit by typhoons every year. You should have seen it on the TV news before. The land for wasteland reclamation is right at the mouth of the sea. Planting cotton in the coastal areas will easily lead to no harvest. The only feasible way is to persuade the Li people to plant cotton in the valleys near where they live, and then every year We use cotton to trade grain with us. When it comes to growing grain, we are invincible in this world. This is also the most important means for us to promote agriculture in the future. As long as we can provide enough grain, I think we will have the opportunity to persuade the Li people. "

When he finally arrived outside Litong Village, the middle-aged man who led the way asked the working group to wait outside the village, and he wanted to go ahead and report.At this time, many Li children who didn't even wear trousers came out of the village, and gathered to watch the strangely dressed exotic visitors.

There are no stone walls or wooden walls around the village. There is only a circle of thorns and shrubs that are obviously artificially planted. There are also various vines and bamboos with the thickness of the bowl. as a defensive barrier for the entire village.This barrier extended from left to right until the distance disappeared into the forest, and for a while, it was impossible to see how big the village was.

Some people noticed that the old ladies of the Li people sitting at the entrance of the village all had dark faces, which must be the custom of tattooing that Zhou Hengxing mentioned earlier.In addition to the complete disillusionment in my heart, I can only sigh the wonderful aesthetics of these Li people.

After waiting for a while, the middle-aged man came out, but he said that there were too many people here. In order not to disturb the villagers, they could not enter the village together, and only five people were allowed in.After some bargaining, the middle-aged man finally agreed to the request of ten people.After a brief discussion among the leaders of the working group, Zhou Hengxing was the leader of the team, plus Ning Qi, Gao Huan, and seven members of the military and police department entered the village to trade with the Li people. Of course, three former US soldiers also entered as reliable combat power. this team.

Before the crossing, the executive committee had organized all members to visit the villages of the Li ethnic group in batches. Even a few foreigners from the North American Gang were specially taken out to make up for this lesson after arriving in Sanya. When I saw the scene in Litong Village, I wasn't too surprised.Most of the houses are similar to the boat-shaped houses seen in the folk villages. The wood is tied into the frame with rattan, and the arched gable roof is covered with thick bamboo grass or sunflower leaves. Buckle the same boat.This kind of house can live above people, and can raise some poultry and livestock below. The overhead structure can also prevent moisture, miasma, and rain.There are also a few houses that no longer use elevated structures, but are built with mud walls, which at first glance are influenced by the Han people.

The team was taken to a large boat-shaped house in the center of the village. The ground was evenly built with stones on the abutment, and there were steps made of logs at the entrance.Everyone entered the house along the steps, and saw that there was about forty square meters in it. There was a bamboo bed on one side of the house against the wall, a white-haired old man was sitting on it, and several other men were standing around the old man.After seeing them come in, the old man made a gesture, indicating that they could sit down on several other vacant bamboo beds in the room.There are no extra living facilities in this house. It seems that this house is not a residence, but is mostly a place for meetings in the village.

The middle-aged man proudly introduced to the visitors that this old man was the master of Fu Shandong, Fu Nuo.Fu Nuo also opened his mouth and said a paragraph, Zhou Hengxing translated to his companions, within a radius of [-] miles, Fushandong is the largest Li village. If you want to do business with the Li people, you must obey the Li people. 's rules.

Zhou Hengxing first explained his intention to the old master, and then took the initiative to send the gifts prepared in advance to express his goodwill: two Yangjiang imitation Kaba 1218 saber, two ZIPPO domestic knockoffs from Yiwu wholesale, and two torn bottles. Labeled one-pound pack of Luzhou Laojiao.The reason why each gift is prepared in two is suggested by Zhou Hengxing. According to him, there is also the meaning of good things in pairs in the customs of the Li people.

Fu Nuo carefully examined the gifts presented by the working group with interest. The sharpness of the two short knives and the ingenuity of the lighter made him amazed.When he finally saw the two bottles of white wine, the old man was completely restless - this wine is nothing, there are also self-brewed glutinous rice wine, plantain wine, and mountain fruit wine in Lidong, but the bottle of wine turned out to be transparent!These prodigal Han people actually use crystals to make wine bottles!

Then the middle-aged man who led the way brought up the trade items and placed them on the floor in the middle of the house. The master of the cave, Fu Nuo, checked the goods again, nodded with satisfaction, and then said in an accent that was very close to southern Cantonese: " Your goods are very good, and there is no such thing in Yazhou, where do you come from, my guests?"

Most of the people in the audience stayed in Guangzhou for a few months before crossing. Even if they didn't speak Cantonese, they could basically understand it. What Fu Nuo said was obviously within this range.Even Zhou Hengxing was taken aback: "Master Tong, do you speak Mandarin?"

Fu Nuo nodded and said, "I went to Yazhou and Qiongzhou when I was young, and lived in Yazhou for a few years, but the Han people there would not trade these good things with us."

Zhou Hengxing had been trained for a long time and knew how to explain the origins of his group of people. He immediately repeated what the overseas Chinese said, and finally brought a solemn statement: "We are willing to trade with the Li people on an equal basis. You can get what you want through trading on a voluntary basis.”

"Then what do you want?" Fu Nuo spread his hands: "We Li people don't have much money, only wood, fur, jibebu and buffalo."

Ning Qi wanted to interrupt and say that we want people, all the living people in your village.However, Zhou Hengxing had already rushed to answer: "Yes, we accept all these things."

So soon someone brought bundles of cowhide, buckskin, wild boar hides, and one by one self-spun jibe cloth.As for the water buffalo, the deal can be reached first, but the cattle working group does not plan to accept it for the time being, because the current temporary cowshed can no longer accommodate newcomers. It is still a burden to bring this thing back, at least until the Ministry of Agriculture has a few days. A new livestock breeding base has been established.

Of course, these superficial transactions were not actually valued by the working group, so there was not much bargaining with the Li people during the process, and an agreement was quickly reached, and Dong Zhu Fu Nuo could provide these Han people with a much lower price. He was also very satisfied with the prices of the previous trading partners - the price of salt and ironware in this transaction was even less than one-third of the previous Han merchants. In his opinion, it was half sale and half free.

After that, the two parties reached an agreement that on the first, tenth, and [-]th day of each month, Chuanzhong will open a market near the No. [-] base to provide all kinds of materials needed by the Li people, and the Li people can also Sell ​​what they can offer to the traversing crowd at a negotiated price.

After completing this basic foreshadowing, the relationship between the two sides has become much closer.Fu Nuo ordered to hold a banquet in the village to entertain guests, and at the same time allowed those outsiders who were still waiting for news at the entrance of the village to enter the village.

Said to be a banquet, in fact, in the eyes of the members of the working group, it was more like a picnic full of ethnic customs.The guests sat face to face in the open space outside the big house, and Fu Nuo, the master of the cave, raised the wine bowl to invite the guests, and then drank them all.Then he served the self-brewed rice wine to the guests one by one. After the previous one had finished drinking, he walked to the next one. In this way, he announced the start of the banquet after a circle of wine. This is the unique drinking ceremony of the Li people.

The people who crossed the road were also fortunate enough to eat the most authentic bamboo tube rice here. According to Fu Nuo’s introduction, it was made of venison and wild boar mixed with glutinous rice and salt and baked in a bamboo tube.As soon as this kind of pure natural and pollution-free delicacy appeared, it was immediately enthusiastically sought after by the people who had suffered from various food poisoning in later generations. Some people even asked for it on the spot after tasting it, hoping that Fu Nuo could arrange a few people to go to the second place. No. Base specializes in making this kind of bamboo rice.

As for the various kinds of rice wine and fruit wine brewed by the Li people, it is not that great in the eyes of the people across the world. After all, these Li people have not yet mastered the distillation technology, and the alcohol concentration is not high.However, Fu Nuo later opened a bottle of Luzhou Laojiao at the instigation of Zhou Hengxing. As a result, six or seven Li men were brought down with that bottle of wine, and Fu Nuo, the master of the cave, was not spared.

This small accident also disrupted the original arrangement of the working group. Ning Qi was going to find an opportunity at the banquet to talk to Fu Nuo about the cooperation of Li Dong's labor export, but the current situation is definitely impossible to talk about.So that night, the working group set up camp in the village of Li people and stayed there, planning to wait until the next day to discuss with Fu Nuo.

(End of this chapter)