Start as a farmer from an ordinary world

Chapter 2 Visiting Pigeon City
But it’s okay to eat it once in a while, but it’s really nauseating to eat every day.

In particular, the corn kernels are not peeled when they are crushed, so they taste rough, have a bit of toothache, and have a sour taste, which is very difficult to swallow.

If he hadn't had a choice, he really didn't want to eat it.

Thinking about something in my heart, I ended up eating so hard that I got stuck in my throat and yelled.

Wang Manyin hurriedly climbed down the kang, rushed to the side of the water tank, scooped up a ladle of cold water and gulped a few gulps, and finally went smoothly.

In fact, it is quite good to have corn nests to eat. Now many people in Guanzi Village can't even eat this, and most of them are black nests made of sorghum.

That stuff is even more unpalatable, it tastes bitter, it is difficult to digest in the stomach, and it is easy to cause constipation.

Happiness is all about comparison...

After eating a corn nest, there was food in his stomach, and Wang Manyin finally felt at ease.

Next, he carefully fastened the remaining nests, and pressed another stone on the top of the pot.This is mainly to prevent mice.

Mice can be called the first of the "four pests", and it is absolutely worthy of the name.

When Wang Manyin first arrived, he was taken aback: these guys were very rampant, and they climbed onto the cooking pots in broad daylight to steal food.

A corn nest gnawed two bites from the middle, and sprinkled mouse urine on the side, leaving a few grains of mouse droppings.The smell made Wang Manyin feel so sick that he almost vomited.

At night, these guys were even more lawless, as if they were having a meeting in a cave dwelling, they were making noise non-stop.Even running around on the torn quilt in the middle of the night.

What made Wang Manyin even more speechless was that when cleaning the cotton boots yesterday, he found a litter of rat cubs that hadn't opened their eyes, and the cotton wool was bitten through.

The previous body was surprisingly lazy, there were a dozen or so mouse holes dug underground in the walls of the cave dwelling, but they were never taken care of.

In the past few days, Wang Manyin kept sealing the hole with small stones and lumps of soil, finally allowing the mice to settle down.

However, the method of sealing the hole is a temporary solution, not the root cause. He plans to find time to raise a cat.

***
The red sun is rising, and the Loess Plateau is extremely desolate in late autumn.

Wang Manyin stood on the top of the cave and looked up. The mist curled up, and what came into view was a rolling earth-brown mountain ridge, extending to the end of the sky.

A little closer, there are layers of steamed bun-shaped hills.

A thin green can be vaguely seen from it, which is the newly sprouted winter wheat and the weeds that have not completely died.

A small river meanders through the cliff ditch, which is the Dongla River mentioned in the book.Hundreds of households in Guanzi Village are scattered in the middle of the mountainside, ditches and cliffsides.

Many people's cave dwellings are filled with cooking smoke, which means breakfast is being made.

The cave dwelling of Wang Manyin's house was dug outside the village, and there were no neighbors on the left or right. It was five to sixty meters away from the nearest Wang Qiusheng's family, and there was a deep ditch in between.

If something happened between the two families, they all shouted across the ditch.

Today is the fifth day of the lunar new year, which is the day when the Shige Festival Commune meets.

According to my memory, the Shige Festival Commune is held every five days (the fifth, fifteenth, and 25th day of the lunar calendar), and the streets are deserted during the rest of the time.

Of course, if farmers want to buy daily necessities such as salt and kerosene, they can go directly to the supply and marketing cooperatives.

Moreover, the management of the market is relatively strict now. Except for some things that are produced and sold by farmers themselves, many private transactions are not allowed.

However, if there is demand, there will be transactions, and there is still a pigeon market in Shigejie Commune in private.Counting the jiwaiji formed spontaneously by the people of ten miles and eight villages, the jiwaiji also opens every five days and is usually completed before breakfast.

If Wang Manyin wants to buy chicken, he must go to Pigeon Market as soon as possible.

For this reason, he purposely put on a blue khaki jacket over the ragged cotton jacket.This was the only decent piece of clothing in his predecessor, and he was reluctant to wear it at ordinary times.

Guanzi Village is seven or eight miles away from Shigejie Commune, which is not too far away, but there are no serious roads, and it takes about half an hour to walk back and forth.

It was a little late for Wang Manyin to go to Pigeon Market at this time.

As soon as he got down the dirt road, he saw an old man walking slowly with a dung basket on his back.The opponent's head was wrapped with a greasy white sheep's belly towel, he was wearing a torn sheepskin jacket, and a hemp rope was tied around his waist. He was a standard image of an old farmer on the Loess Plateau.

The old man's name is Wang Mancang. He is over 60 years old this year. He is in good health and hardworking. He carries a dung basket to pick up dung everywhere before dawn.

At this moment, I have already picked up half a basket.

Wang Mancang also has two younger brothers named Wang Mandun and Wang Manyao.

According to his seniority, he is the eldest brother of his predecessor.The same great-grandfather has not released five clothes yet.

In fact, most of the families in Guanzi Village are surnamed Wang, and the clan relationship is relatively simple.After all, they are all ancestors.

It is also because of this that Wang Manyin fooled around all year round, and only the villagers turned a blind eye.

Walking closer, Wang Manyin greeted with a smile: "Brother Mancang, you are picking up dung, you wake up so early to earn work points?"

That's right, picking up manure can also earn work points.

A flower in a crop depends entirely on fertilizer.

There is a shortage of chemical fertilizers these days, and fertilization in farmland basically depends on soil manure.

The production team called on all households to pick up manure. More than a dozen catties of manure can be worth one agricultural work point, and they will be weighed uniformly at the beginning of spring.

In other words, the old man was busy all morning and earned about five cents.

"It's you, you bastard, why are you running around all day long when you don't do your own business?" Wang Mancang squinted at him, obviously disgusted.

The industrious man loved by peasants.

For this kind of wandering ghost, the old man obviously doesn't like it.

If it was changed to 20 years ago, it is estimated that he would have starved to death.

What's even more unreasonable is... a few days ago when he was working in the team, he heard people say that such a coward was engaged to the eldest daughter of Sun Yuhou's family in Shuangshui Village.

Wang Mancang really couldn't figure out why Sun Yuhou had taken a fancy to this bum.

Wang Manyin was also speechless, and the other party said three sentences with two words "毬".

In later generations, they would definitely think that they cursed people on purpose.

But this year is normal, completely colloquial.Just like the saying in "Qibigou", "Words are inseparable".

"You're busy, I'm going to the commune to go to the market." Wang Manyin replied sarcastically.Knowing that people look down on him, he didn't intend to chat.

After saying hello, they hurried along the dirt road.

By the time the sun was rising above the ridge, he had arrived at Shigejie Commune.

Pigeon City is located in a cliff ditch outside the commune, and there are large jujube forests planted at the exits on both sides, just for shelter.In addition, there are people who are specially guarding outside to help keep an eye on the situation.

If other people want to go in and buy or sell things, they need to pay a venue fee of 5 cents.

I was a frequent visitor here before, so I am familiar with it.

Now during the slack season, there are really many people who come to Pigeon City, there are hundreds of people.

The clothes are very simple, basically in three shades of black, yellow and blue.

Those people wearing tattered and patched homespun padded jackets and with dusty heads naturally belonged to the farmers in the nearby villages.There are also some people wearing blue khaki cloth, who should be eating commercial food in the town.

This situation is normal, and now the grain supply is fixed and rationed.

Many families who eat commercial grains have many children, and [-] catties of grain per month for adults alone is not enough to eat, so they also have to come to the Pigeon Market to buy high-priced grains.

Wang Manyin glanced and found that the items were quite rich.

There are those who sell tickets, those who sell cotton wool, cotton cloth, tobacco leaves, grain and vegetables, hand-woven wicker baskets, dung baskets, dustpans, etc.

There are also piglets, lambs, chickens and more for sale...

In a word, except that it does not sell industrial products, it is almost the same as the later bazaars.

Seeing Wang Manyin appearing, several acquaintances immediately came over to say hello.The cat looks for the cat, the dog looks for the dog, and the tortoise follows the bastard.

These people are well-known wandering ghosts in ten miles and eight villages, and they have a good relationship with the original body, Wang Manyin.

After chatting with them for a few words, Wang Manyin went straight to a woman with a blue turban on her face and a floral padded jacket with double breasts.

"Sister, how do you sell these two native chickens?"

"One yuan and one catty." The woman obviously asked about it, and directly called out the real price.

Wang Manyin also knew about the market of local chickens. The supply and marketing cooperatives cost seven cents a catty, but they needed meat tickets.In the pigeon market, one yuan per catty is considered a fair price.

He has already agreed in his heart, but he has come all the time, and it is unprofessional not to set prices.

"How about Jiumao?"

"No, I won't sell it if it's less than one piece. I inquired before I came here, and it's all at this price." The woman didn't give up a penny.

"Okay, just one piece." Wang Manyin didn't insist anymore.

For him, the pigeon market is coming to an end, and buying things as soon as possible is the most important thing.

A difference of a few cents is not a big deal.

Next, the woman brought two native chickens to the manager of Pigeon Market and asked him to help them weigh and settle the accounts.

Now most of the older generation of rural people have never been to school, and many of them are illiterate and unable to settle accounts.

That's right, in this era, the pigeon market also helps to weigh and settle accounts for free.

Based on this alone, Wang Manyin knew that the guy hiding behind the scenes was a talent, and his service concept absolutely crushed the people in the supply and marketing cooperative.

Two chickens weighed six catties and cost less than seven yuan.

After clearing money and goods, Wang Manyin came to an old chicken seller again...

It is said that the predecessor has been wandering around in the past few years, and has more than 100 yuan scattered on hand, and more than 30 catties of food stamps.

Wang Manyin spent twenty dollars on a trip to Pigeon Market.

In addition to the three chickens, there are ten catties of white flour and more than 20 catties of cornmeal.

He was originally interested in selling piglets, but after considering the funds at hand, he temporarily dismissed the idea.Again, raising pigs is different from raising chickens, and there will be no benefit for at least a few months.And this thing is a big belly man, eating only grass every day and not gaining weight, he must be fed wheat bran and bran, and he has nothing to feed himself.

At this moment, the pigeon market is almost over.

Wang Manyin did not continue to stroll, but walked out of the jujube forest with the things he had bought, greeted the young man guarding the door, and turned into an unoccupied side road.

Turning over the mountain, looking around, he directly threw the things in his hands into the space.

The native chickens did not dare to let go for the time being, mainly because they were afraid that they would peck at the crop seedlings.

(End of this chapter)