Chapter 17 first quarter

This day is another day when Tian returns to town to catch up with the market. The days of early winter are not very long, and the country people get up early, so when the eastern sky is a little pale, the shopkeepers in the town have already got up to open the planks and pack the furniture. On the opening day, the first inns to open in the town were Yunji, Yipin, and Antai. This is because most of the merchants who come and go come and go as soon as the cock crows, and they have to hurry before the daylight.Along with the inn, there are opium dens, which are the burden of selling glutinous rice balls and fermented glutinous rice.On the day of rushing to the market, at the same time, there are also shops selling pork.

Chuanxiba - a popular name for the Chengdu Plain, which is more than 150 miles from east to west and more than 700 miles from north to south. ——The black-haired fat pigs produced, at least in Sichuan Province, can be regarded as the first-class pigs.The pig breed is good, with black hair all over the body, thin hair roots, short legs, short mouth, thin skin, big frame, and the strongest one can grow to about three hundred catties; the food is good, except for the leftover rice soup and vegetables in the kitchen, which are called sao water In addition, most of the food materials are distiller's grains and rice bran, and a small part of the food materials are broken white rice porridge that is not easy for people in many barren areas; , had no choice but to let the open pigs out, the rest of the family, all specially built a pigsty, most of them are paved with large stone slabs, and the fence made of thick wooden piles, the pig manure flows into the toilet outside the pen along with the inclined stone slab. I went, the stone trough for feeding pigs is narrow, and they can only put their mouths in it.The biggest principle is that it is only allowed to eat and sleep, eat and sleep, and absolutely not allowed to work. For example, in Xinfan County, Pi County, etc., stone slabs are hard to find, so wooden boards are used to build a solid low building. It is often washed very smooth, and when the weather is hot, for fear of swine fever, cold water must be poured on it from time to time.In short, to make it extremely comfortable, just grow meat without worrying about it, so the pigs from Chengdu North Road are considered the first-class among the first-class pigs in Western Sichuan.Its meat is more tender, more fragrant and more crisp than any other pork. If you cook it until just right, slice it into thin slices, dip it in a little white soy sauce, and chew it in your mouth, you will be able to see it. It has a walnut flavor, so you can understand why Chengdu's white sliced ​​meat is unique.

Because of this, although Tianhui Town is not considered a large market, when the farm is idle, two or three pigs have to be slaughtered every day. When it comes to rushing to the market, the pork business will naturally become even bigger. Even the trading in the live pig market is expensive!The live pig market is in an open space at the head of the market, where there are many large pens and many fat pigs are raised.Most of the pigs are transported from the four townships when they are idle, and the transaction is successful. The pigs are tied upside down to the cart with a second-handed wheelbarrow, and they are pushed and pulled to the provincial capital to make food and drink materials.Pig hair was not very useful in the past, but now it is not the case. Foreigners are buying it; not only pig hair, but also pig intestines and pig skin; he wants half a boat outside the east gate of Chengdu to Chongqing with a full load. Go to Chengzhuang.So many country people are surprised: "We lost useless things, and the foreign devils are willing to pay for them. How strange! In the future, even our mud will become money!"

The rice market is in the Huoshen Temple, and like the live pig market, it is one of the main businesses in this town.When the sky is clear, you can see loads of rice, from rough to refined, coming from the two ends of the field, filling the empty dam under the stage of the Huoshen Temple, leaving a narrow path, Let people who buy rice communicate with rice brokers. The poultry market and miscellaneous grain market are all in Guandi Temple, and the business is not small.There are most chickens, followed by ducks, and there are a few geese occasionally. Like geese, domestic rabbits are also packed in baskets. Most of them are tied with straw ropes to the wings and feet of poultry, and placed on the ground one by one.Baskets and baskets of wheat, barley, corn wheat, peas, soybeans, chickpeas, and all kinds of beans are arranged in the same pattern as the eight arrays.

Among the big cities, there is also a livestock market, which is in the woods outside the market.There are buffaloes, cattle, sheep, goats, and occasionally horses, donkeys, mules, and guard dogs. In addition to the big market, there are also grocery stalls along the street, called small markets.In the past, the purchase of groceries in the countryside depended entirely on the burden-carrying shopkeeper, shaking a long-handled rattle, walking along the town street and along the farm.Later, I don't know it was that lazy man who went to the town street to set up a stall and sell his goods. He actually gained more with less effort, so it became a fashion and he set up a small market by himself.

The main commodity in the small market is homemade cloth.These are all ordinary peasant women who fill the empty time after doing rough work. They spin the yarn and weave it by themselves. It is a kind of product that is not enough at home, but recently there are foreign bamboo cloth and foreign cloth, which are really good, wide, thin and even, white with white, blue with indigo, and printed ones, which will not fade even after washing The thick ones are the same as woolen cloth, and the thin ones are the same as silk, but the price is much more expensive, fewer people buy them, and they can't sell homemade cloth.Secondly, there are melon skin hats worn by men, and su satin hats worn by women. At this time, there are swallow felt hats and Jing felt nests. .There are also all kinds of shoes worn by men, some with cloud heads, some with strips, some with single beams, some with double beams, some with ingots, some made of fine materials, and some made of cloth. Cloth-backed felt-backed, painted with lead powder.The boots are only half-boot fast boots, but no platform boots.For women's feet, there are only a few paper patterns, zero-cut uppers, and high wooden soles.In addition to shoes, there are also bleached socks specially worn by men, single-padded trousers of various colors, trouser belts, and silk braids and braids for braiding.

There are also things related to women in the small market stalls.Such as the thick clay kudzu towel for washing face, the fashionable thin foreign kudzu towel; the scented soap, white pancreas, peach ball powder, scarlet head rope, rouge flakes, and various cotton threads, silk threads, flower threads, gold Thread, leather gold paper; Liao Guangdong's and Rotten's brand scissors, pedicure knife, ruler, needle, thimble.There are also very popular foreign thread and foreign needles. Among the two, the top of the foreign needle is passable. Although it is more expensive than the soil needle, the nose of the needle is flat and has a groove, which is easy to thread, but it is not as big as the top. There is no place for the quilt cover; although the foreign thread is even and smooth, it is just too rigid and not many people use it.In addition, there are copper, silver, gold-covered, emerald, hairpins, hairpins, and other kinds of jewelry, as well as fake jade earrings and bracelets.Again, there are all kinds of flower braids and embroidered goods, such as sleeve skirts and the like; there are also Soviet goods, Cantonese goods, material flowers, and fake pearls.All these things have a kind of seductive appearance, and emit all kinds of brilliance, so that some middle-aged young women, no matter whether they have money or not, will always hook them in front of the stall and stand for a long time.Ordinary self-admired young men can't help but have sparkling eyes, wanting to spend a little money for their lovers.

The stone-paved street, which was already wide enough, was once eroded by the small market stalls on both sides, as well as the stalls selling vegetables, odds and ends, and food and drink, and suddenly narrowed by half, and the thousands of men and women rushing to the market were like people in the mountains. The water samples of the wild valleys poured into this Changjiang-like town street that is about three miles long and less than ten feet wide from the field gardens, wild paths, and roads in all directions.You can imagine how crowded it is when the field is full! Going to the market is the flow of goods, money, and people, and it is also the flow of voices.The voice is completely human. Although poultry and livestock can also make voices, you can't hear it at all when you are rushing to the market. All you can hear are human voices!Some yelled and hawked, some yelled and bargained, some yelled and called for directions, some yelled and chatted, and some joked.As for quarreling over unimportant matters, of course, both parties will compete to raise their voices to a height that cannot be raised, and those who are persuaded by the side can't help but want to raise their voices beyond two. above.So, only human voices, only human voices, everywhere!It seems to be a sound of mercury, flowing everywhere.But at noon, when the climax is at its peak, you can hardly tell which is selling and which is quarreling, and your ears can only feel the rumbling.If you are not used to it and suddenly exposed to this sound wave, your eardrums will be deafened for a long time.