Chapter 14 on board
Living in that small hotel is really not an option. Although it is only thirty-six cents a day, the money owed in the past four months seems to be a large amount. There are too many debts, and I am very afraid of seeing the boss, and I must pay the same every day. She was eating at the same table. I could pretend I didn't understand what she said, but I still kept it in my heart and couldn't move it away. The errands in Taoyuan didn't work out, so if there was no way, should I just be a hotel clerk? At that time, a sailboat escorting military uniforms was preparing to go up. The escort was an old friend of my brother, and I also ate and drank with him. A relative who was a primary school teacher agreed to make a negotiation with the store for me. Let’s not talk about the debts for now, let’s see if we get rich in the future. The cousin in Taoyuan just happened to want to return to the team, so the three of us took this boat together. My luggage is just a bag made of flour It is a small burden, so it is really free and easy when boarding the boat.
The boat was filled with brand new cotton military uniforms. I spread out the uniforms and lay on top of them, listening to the friend surnamed Zeng who was escorting the boat, telling various stories about our past life. We have been on the boat for forty days.
This friend surnamed Zeng didn't study much, but he was very good at doing things. He was brave and straightforward like a soldier, just like the general characteristics of ordinary people in the town. Therefore, when he told any story, he could always make people fascinated. He was not young at that time. He will be over twenty-five years old, but he has already admired about forty young yellow-flowered girls. When he talked about this experience, he never showed an air of conceit, pride, or reserve. He said it was his Destiny is a coincidence of chance. Every woman he said seemed to have a different personality, but he only described it with a few most appropriate and funny words. I wrote many novels later, describing The outline of a young woman who is not seen by others, so as not to lose her natural dotted line, is right and accurate, and most of it is based on this friend's account. All vulgar words, in a straightforward mouth Speaking, but often charming. This friend loves to speak vulgar language. In my works, I have learned a lot from him about the application of rich colloquialisms and puns (this person is " The big boss wearing an otter fur hat in Xiangxing Sanji).
I had one dollar and seventy cents when I set off, and my unrestrained cousin had twenty dollars, but when we had only covered one-eighth of the seven-hundred-mile voyage, all our money was completely spent. After the money was spent, we still talked and laughed, each of us lay on the warm and soft cotton uniforms, told wild stories, drank the cold north wind, let the boat pull slowly, and when it was time to eat, we used extremely The powerful chili is charred in the fire and served with salt.
Because the ships have to go up at the same time with a group of cargo ships escorted by troops, a hundred or so cargo ships of different sizes must pull anchor and drop anchor at the same time every day, so the scene is very moving. It is extremely slow. Any boat needs to be assisted in case of accident, and it will always have to stand still for a long time. The weather is cold, the river has already fallen, and the place where boats can be accommodated is very narrow every time the river trough reaches the beach. In such weather, the boatman, I also have to go into the water all the time to stretch my fibers, so even if there is no obstacle, I can only walk thirty miles a day. Some of the soldiers who send the ship have to go ashore to watch at night, and they all go ashore to follow the boat during the day, so it is also very hard work. After the orders of their superiors, these soldiers don’t need a single penny for sending the boat, so they only receive a daily fee of 20 cents a day, but everyone is very happy. Whenever there is an accident on the boat, they will help the boatman and do what they should. Things to do.
In order to lighten the weight of the boat, we often went ashore. No matter how windy, snowy or cold, we followed the footsteps of the boatmen on the river beach. When they fell into the water, we walked around the high mountains on the river bank.
From Changde to Chenzhou, four hundred and forty miles away, we walked for eighteen days, and the day we arrived was the first day of the first lunar month. It was already dusk when the boat was near the city, and the three of us went ashore empty-handed, and went to the city street to read a couplets. A butcher's shop passed by, and I was telling them that I saw this veteran butcher beaten by others four years ago, like the town of Guanxi in "Water Margin". A big firecracker sounded, which startled us. Although there were firecrackers everywhere at that time, my friend surnamed Zeng thought it was strange. Seeing someone approaching not far ahead, he dragged us a little. After walking a few steps in front of the butcher's door, he paused. When the two merchants passed by, they saw another firecracker quickly thrown down from the small door of the butcher's house, and there was another loud bang. The businessman looked around, as if he knew about it, and hurried away. The friend surnamed Zeng said: This bastard is deliberately scary, let us go to pay a New Year's greeting. Before it was too late to stop him, he went over there and knocked on the door. On the one hand, he said kindly: "Boss, boss, New Year's greetings, New Year's greetings! After a while, someone came to open the door. When the door was opened, the friend surnamed Zeng looked at him and knew that this person was from Zhenguanxi, so he arched his hands with him. The tall man was punched firmly between the eyes and nose. The guy probably drank an extra glass of wine, and fell into the candlelit door with one punch. He could only hear groaning and cursing, but he couldn't get up for a while. And when someone asked something upstairs, the friend surnamed Zeng said, "Fuck you, throw the firecrackers over my head, you misidentified the person. I beat you, if you have anything to say, send it to the Zhongnanmen River." The ship in uniform came to look for me, my name is great-grandfather. As he said that, he took out a business card and threw it through the door, then pulled the two of us by the arms, laughed and walked away.
We thought that the town of Guanxi would come, so we each picked up some stones and prepared for a fierce fight, but no one came behind us. After boarding the boat, we thought that although we didn't come at that time, after a while Someone must have called Zeng Qinxuan on the mudflat and asked him to go ashore for a martial arts competition. This friend temporarily tied a big soft cowhide belly to his belly, and chose a piece of wet firewood that fits well, but my cousin and I each took a lot of stones , Prepare the butcher to reason. Maybe the guy punched him and broke his nose. Maybe he heard the voice of the troublemaker, and he knew it was not easy to mess with, and he lost the reason first, so he didn't dare to come to the second place. This time we had to pay for it, so we waited for half the night in vain. This year passed in such a ridiculous situation. Early the next morning, the boat left the bank of the Chenzhou River again, and sailed into the Baihe River, a tributary of the Chenhe River.
Going up from Chenzhou, we were still delayed along the way. After traveling for fourteen days, on a beach seventy miles away from the destination, it was our ship's turn to be in danger. The ship hit a big rock and broke the cable. The starboard side was completely broken. After five minutes, it was full of water. Fortunately, the boat was equipped with cotton uniforms, so it would not sink for a while, so we followed the wrecked boat and floated in the rapid water for about three miles. At the same time, there were only one dam worker and one worker on the boat except the three of us. Helmsman. The water is rough, so any method can never make the boat land safely. But God bless, it is close to the shallow place at the end. Slowly, a dozen boatmen and soldiers came, and everyone We didn't say anything, just looked at each other and laughed dryly. So we climbed to the high cliff on the bank, asked the people in the boat to remove the awning of the broken ship lying in the shallows, and built a temporary shed on the river beach for the night. The rest of the boats left without waiting for us because they were due to arrive in two days. Although there were no bandits in the local area, they were worried that there might be wild animals in the barren hills. The boatmen lit two large fires, and we listened to The sound of the beach all night, passed a Lantern Festival.