Chapter 2 two

Baigou is a depression behind Shangzi Mountain. It is seven miles away from the town and three miles away from Shangzhi Temple on the top of Shangzi Mountain. It is the most remote place in the commune.Since this town is a famous town, its geomantic omen is also excellent.Radiating from the town, there are seven brigades and seven natural villages.Linjiahe and Mamenwan are in the east; Jiangouya and Xipoling are in the west; Yecun and Baoziping are in the north; Baigou is in the south.The east, west, north, and north sides are almost all on the north bank of the river, and every village is accessible by road, but this Baigou is located in a mountain depression, so the traffic is very inconvenient.Walking from the town, crossing the river beach, crossing the old embankment, crossing the new embankment, there is a wooden bridge on the river.The bridge has five supports, all of which are piled with logs, and stone pillars weighing thirty-six catties are smashed down, winter, winter, summer, and summer.The tide rises and falls, and the electricity on the wooden pile cannot be washed away.This river flows straight to the Han River. According to the "Shangzhou Local Chronicles", during the Jiaqing period, ships from the Han River could reach here, and the town was the last port along the river.At that time, merchant ships from Hubei, Sichuan, and Henan brought up salt, cotton, fire paper, porcelain, dyes, and kerosene; fungus, yellow flowers, tung oil, charcoal, and raw lacquer from Qinling were collected in the town and then shipped down.There are eight inns on the town street.Han Xuanzi's ancestors ran the only noodle workshop, which has nine characteristics of "tough, thin, light, fried, thin, bark, sour, spicy, and fragrant", and its reputation has spread far and wide.So far, Han Xuanzi still remembers.when he was young.I still saw a high stool with a noodle rack in my house, which was as tall as a person. Later, bandits broke out and burned the Han family's house, but the stool could not be kept.

Perhaps due to the movement of the sun and the moon, the mulberry fields have changed. Although this river is still "the ground is still one", after all, the water has gradually become smaller and smaller, and the fields have encroached on the river beach.Today's old embankment, no one can tell when it was built. Even the new embankment was built by Han Xuanzi's father, and people from more than a dozen villages around him jointly built it.Of course, the boats on the Han River will never come up again.As a result, in these years, the river is smaller, and when there is drought, the wooden bridge does not need to be erected, only a row of stones is propped up, and people can jump over it, and cats and dogs can also jump over it.

After crossing the river, walk in along a ditch at the foot of Shangzi Mountain, walk five miles, and enter a deep depression, which is Baigou Village.There is a pool in the depression, with water flowing out all the year round. Along the four sides of the pool, the east side is low and the west side is high, so most of the houses are concentrated in the west side, which corresponds to the saying "eating mountains by relying on mountains, and drinking water by relying on water".These people paved the village road with stone slabs, and one by one they climbed up the steps, and the houses had stones on the front wall and stones on the back wall, except for stones or stones.The land is less than half an mu flat, and it is full of slurry stones. All kinds of grains grow, but they don't grow much.Only the black beans, if you dig a nest by the eyelids and plant them, you will get a harvest, but the yield is pitifully low.Baigou people use soybean oil to sell in the town every year in exchange for wheat and corn.All in all, it is the most distressed brigade in the whole commune.

Erbei often remembers things from their childhood.At that time, Dabei led him and Ye Zi to Shangzi Mountain to cut leather, gather firewood, pick Shangzhi, and dig wild garlic. Tired from running all over the mountain, he went to Baigou Village to beg for water, or drilled into the mountain. In the black bean field of others, I pull a few handfuls of still tender soybeans and barley seeds, and light a fire on the ground to roast, and the smoke comes up! It makes me sneeze.So it was discovered by the owner.With a burst of yelling and cursing, the master could drive them out of the ditch, and even chase them to the river; they ran across the wooden bridge at high speed.Pull off a board and boldly make faces across the river to the furious but helpless hosts.

They also met a man named Gong Desheng, a hunchback without a wife or child.The hunchback couldn't catch up with them, so they often attacked his black bean fields.After a long time, the hunchback saw them coming to Shangzi Mountain again, and greeted them warmly to drink water, and even took a bowl of fried beans for them to eat.Since then, they have been embarrassed to harass them.He also often gave them one or two bundles of the harvested Shangzhi.Until five years ago, the hunchback fell in love with a widow who was three years older than him in the town of R, so he entered the family and became the old son-in-law of the family, and still had contacts with the Han family.

Two years before the ten-land contract, the commune set up an oil mill here, and the black beans from the four townships and eight villages were concentrated in Zigou. Almost every household in Baigou had oil sellers and oil cake sellers; their hands were oily, and their faces were oily. It's oily, wearing shoes and socks with oily strings, and everyone greets each other when they meet: "Hey, Youchaizi!" You know it's Baigou people coming! After the land was contracted, the oil workshop was also contracted to private individuals.Wang Cai's daughter-in-law is from Baigou, so he joined the contracting team. He was so greasy that he was neither human nor ghost, which made the townspeople laugh at him for a long time.Erbei went to him once.

The oil workshop is in a small earth ditch behind the village, a water channel flows in the ditch, and seven or eight holes are dug along the side of the ditch for an earthen kiln.Erbei entered the small ditch.I heard the sound of "Boom! Boom! Boom!", which was as dull as thunder, but the thunder seemed to be above the high clouds, and also seemed to be deep in the center of the earth.He got into a large kiln, the inside was heavy, and a hot, greasy smell sprayed out, and he could see a few lamps in the depths, in a trance, as if he had entered a magic cave, and the "boom! Boom!" The sound came from inside.He groped and walked in, his feet were covered with soft grass, his eyes couldn't adapt, and suddenly he saw figures, seven or eight men, all with bald heads, bare bodies, bare feet, and bare legs, wearing only a pair of shorts. Holding a big tamp—it was the girder of a house, which was suspended in the air—with a cry, he stepped back and aimed at the big wooden stake on the oil tank very quickly, and a deafening "boom" sound came out!

He had never seen such a scene before, he felt brutal and majestic, primitive and powerful, and he shouted "Brother Wang Cai!" The choking smell of oily smoke and sweat poured into his mouth and nose, He was literally suffocating. But Wang Cai came out from a nearby kiln. He was short and stripped naked.He took Erbei to Guaiao.It turned out that his division of labor was to steam the ground black beans until they were half-cooked, and then wrap them with straw to make "bean buns" one by one.His whole body was covered with greasy dirt, only his eyes were small, focused and dark.

"How do you do this?" Erbei said. "I don't have the strength. Do you think making bean buns is easy?" Wang Cai said, "I only earn one yuan and fifty cents for making forty bean buns a day." Er Bei pulled Wang Cai out of the kiln and told the little man, "You don't have the strength to do this job. I'm here to tell you to find another way." It is enough to eat, but none of the six members of the family earn money, they can only go in and out, and he has no ability, so he has to do this. Er Bei said: "You have no strength, but you are smart. Only you can do this, and no one else can do it. We produce Shangzhi on the mountain of Shangzi, which is unique in the world. Every spring, the town street sells Shangzhi in a basket. Basket, why don’t you buy them all, steam them and dry them in the sun, and sell them to the cities? I’ve talked to the cadres of the commercial bureau in the county. You pay five cents for a basket, and you can earn seventy and eighty cents for a small bag, and within a year, you will be a farmer who gets rich first!"

Wang Cai said: "My brother, this Shangzhi is a wild vegetable of our mountain people, who wants this stuff?" Er Bei said: "How did you know that the people in the city are tired of eating big fish and meat, so they want to eat a piece of fresh mountain products, and they all pay attention to nutrition. This Shangzhi has the highest nutritional value. It is said that it can promote blood circulation, strengthen the stomach, and nourish the spirit. During the Qin Dynasty, Sihao lived here in seclusion and did not eat five grains for many years, but he lived a long time eating this food. To manage, each bag has two instructions, one explaining its nutritional value, and the other explaining how to eat it. On the bag I’ve already thought of a name, it’s called ‘Shang Zi Shan Si Hao Shang Zhi’!”

Wang Cai immediately became popular, quit his job in the oil factory, and went around to raise funds. When spring came, he bought a large number of Shangzhi. Erbei was also busy ordering bags for him at the county plastic factory, and started drafting the contents of the manual.However, Han Xuanzi scolded Er Bei: "What can you do, boy? What role is the king? What can he accomplish? Now the policy has changed. It is the dragon who wants to go to the sky, and the worm's electrician wants to go to the sky; look at the old cow shit, and the little cow It won’t even work if you break it! Who are you fighting with all day long?” Er Bei said: "Father doesn't understand Wang Cai. He is a person who does not show his talents, but he has no strength. If he wants to do these things, he is guaranteed to succeed. Now the land is contracted, and everyone is in charge. There are many capable people. You want Pay attention to these people, and don’t spend all day in the dark just interacting with the commune compound.” Han Xuanzi was not happy, even angry: "It's because you taught me a lesson? Now it's not the same as before, but the sky is still the sky, the earth is still the earth, and the leader of the commune is still the leader! People can look up to your father, but your father can give a cold face, ignore him, and live alone. People, dead people? Do you know what society is?!" Erbei's movements were restricted, so Wang Cai naturally couldn't get plastic bags, and couldn't write instructions.People are ambitious, and they are holding back their breath. In the spring, they collect a few sacks of Shangzhi and take them to the provincial capital to sell.As a result, the cost was greatly reduced, and he was so pitiful that he sat at the base of the city wall and cried.Thanks to the hard work of others, he worked as a temporary worker in a street food processing factory in the city for two months, and when he came back, he made a fuss about setting up a food processing factory as well.Of course, talking to people is just about "passing five hurdles and cutting six generals" as a temporary worker, and never mentioning the matter of losing money. Er Bei failed to do anything for Wang Cai, and felt extremely ashamed, so she and her father had a dispute.Wangcai started a food processing factory. He didn't say a word at home, and everything went according to his father's words.Secretly, Wang Cai always advises and helps.Han Xuanzi could also see that he was annoyed with him and Baiyin, and finally because of repairing the screen wall, the conflict intensified, causing the family to split into two families. The matter was over and it was over, but Er Bei never expected that the understanding between his father and him became more and more inconsistent.For Ye Zi's marriage, he will often come to Baigou Village again. Ye Zi is his elder sister, in her early twenties, she is tall and slender, with a slender waist, two long legs, huge eyes, wrapped in double skin, she looks at people with a flash, and has two bags of water like.She is pretty, but her temperament is all motherly, and she speaks softly and slowly.Walking lightly, she seldom shows her face in the market on the 3rd, 6th, and 9th, and occasionally goes there. When others see her, she doesn't say a word, doesn't laugh, and walks back like a kitten.People say that women nowadays are crazy, and it is rare for Ye Zi to be so docile! Therefore, there are a lot of marriage proposals and matchmaking, and most of them are professional households who have made a fortune in this year and have a rich family.Ye Zi was soft-tempered, uncertain of his mind, and wanted to listen to his father, but Han Xuanzi opposed it. "What's the matter with Dad?" Er Bei was puzzled, "This family objected, that family objected, what kind of family do you want to find for Ye Zi?" Han Xuanzi just said: "Any family is fine, but you can't marry those professional households!" At this moment, someone mentioned Baigou Sanwa.Sanwa's family lives in the east of Tanshui, and the family is not well populated. There are three brothers in the father's generation, but he is the only elder brother in the three families.My elder brother was a geological worker, but unfortunately he died in a construction accident three years ago.The geological team recruited him to take care of him.The family asked three times about the upper house and the small courtyard of the two buildings, and the door has been locked since then.Han Xuanzi took a fancy to this family, and said that this family has four advantages: first, the three children eat commercial food.Although the work is hard, the wages are high. His brother died in an accident. Of course, the danger of his construction can be seen, but there are millions of geologists in the world.It is also the reason for his longevity; the second is that the family has a house and a courtyard, and his father and brother keep this one back root. It can be said that a small bowl of three sea bowls is combined, and the family must be rich.Of course, a good son is not in the family, and a good daughter is not in the makeup, but a rich family is beneficial and harmless after all; third, when his parents pass away, the old should be filial, and the young should be supported.In this way, Ye Zi is unavoidably single and weak, and there is no one to direct the work inside and outside the house, but he will not make troubles and be peaceful and quiet; fourth, he is not far from his parents, and if Ye Zi has any troubles, they can take care of them. When I am old, Ye Zi can often come to serve. Er Bei disagrees with Dad.First he thought that Sanwa was not tall, then he felt that the family was too lonely, and then he thought that Baigou was not a place, after all, he was not as good as the children of professional households in everything.Han Xuanzi didn't listen to him, and let Ye Zi make up his own mind, Ye Zi still obeyed his father, and Er Bei was very unhappy. After the marriage was decided, it was said that they would get married, and the good day was set on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month.Because there is no one to take care of Sanwa's house, if you do something at home, relatives, friends, and neighbors must entertain.A rough calculation is more than 30 seats, not to mention how much it costs, who will bear the burden?So I decided to travel abroad and get married, which is a very civilized thing.After going out, Ye Zi became a member of Baigou, and she started hiring a carpenter at home, making furniture, repairing the roof, muddying the courtyard wall, and busying herself with her small family.Originally, a major event had passed, but Han Xuanzi decided to have another guest at home.Er Bei and Dad started arguing again: "After the event and hospitality, why travel and get married? Why spend that money on food and drink for others?" Han Xuanzi said: "Let's say it's giving Ye Zi a way, and only waiting for the family members. Outsiders are not invited except good friends. No one is welcome. How can it be done if you don't wait? Your father likes to be lively, don't say how capable he is." , Always walking around in front of people, others will laugh at us and I can’t afford it! This is the way of the world, and it is our dignity to treat a guest once. We have also done benefits to many people, and they also want to take the opportunity to thank us.” Er Bei said: "Dad said this, but I have a lot of opinions! You are a retired person. They want you to participate in the affairs of the commune. You shouldn't go. You handle things according to your views. Maybe you will." If there is a mistake, it is good for some people. If these people want to come to thank them, they will inevitably offend some people and have hatred for father. If we treat guests like this, we will definitely have some thank you. It will not affect well .” Han Xuanzi said: "Who is jealous? I just want to entertain guests. Let those people see who I invite or not! You and Baiyin can be willing or unwilling. I want to treat this guest. I will do things for your sister. Are they all like this?" Erbei diverted from his father's words, saying that his father's words would destroy the relationship between their brothers and sisters. Since father has made up his mind, he will do as he wants. He can share the money with Dabei. It's just a family matter. I don't care about anything in the future.This morning, my mother asked me to go to Baigou again, and my father lost his temper again, so he and Baiyin could only obey, not daring to say too much, and didn't want to say too much.