Chapter 169: Unrest in Naxiang Commune
Zhanjiang, Xuwen, and Qianshan Town.
Lin Sanqi sat in a small wooden house by the sea, listening to the sound of the waves and eating the famous Zhanjiang white-cut chicken, which he enjoyed so much.
As a Dongguan person, there is no one who doesn’t crave this.
Zhanjiang is a land of white-cut delicacies, with white-cut chicken, white-cut dog, white-cut goose, white-cut duck, and everything else. If you're happy, you might even white-cut a Hujian person to liven things up.
Just like the white-cut chicken in front of you, its characteristics are chewy skin, tender meat, golden color, fresh and juicy, and its main feature is that it melts in your mouth.
Another unique feature of Zhanjiang white-cut chicken is the preparation of its sauce, which uses a soy sauce base of garlic, sand ginger and peanut oil. This combination can enhance the flavor of the chicken.
On the contrary, Lin Sanqi, who was eating the seafood next to him, was too lazy to pick up his chopsticks. He was really tired of it and felt like vomiting if he ate any more.
Lin Sanqi was eating happily, and a little girl about seven or eight years old next to her was crying anxiously.
"Dad, he ate our only chicken, woooo ...
The child didn't know how to lower his voice, so Lin Sanqi heard it clearly. He happened to have a chicken leg in his hand. It was not good to eat it, but it was not good not to eat it either. He was embarrassed.
The little girl's father, Zeng Changqing, the team leader of Zengjia Village, was even more embarrassed:
"Go, go, go and play. Comrade Lin has been a great help to us. What's wrong with eating a chicken? Comrade Lin, just eat it. Children can't talk, so please don't mind."
Lin Sanqi thought, that's right, there is phoenix tail grass everywhere, but he came all the way to Qianshan Town to buy it. This is really helping the farmers in Qianshan Town. What's wrong with treating him to a chicken?
Buyer Lin is an honest man and doesn't take a single kickback.
This time, the Capital Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine offered a high purchase price for phoenix tail grass, 50 cents per pound, and 5 tons is 5,000 yuan, which is definitely a huge sum of money.
As for why the phoenix tail grass from Zhanjiang is so important, Lin Sanqi is completely baffled. Perhaps it's the feng shui of Zhanjiang, right?
Just like the most authentic Longjing tea can only be found on the small hills of Longjing Village near the West Lake?
If you ask again, that's metaphysics. Anyway, traditional Chinese medicine has its own set of theories and requirements. Perhaps this is the best answer our ancestors have come up with over thousands of years, and future generations just need to follow and learn from it.
But when Lin Sanqi saw the little girl in tattered clothes, wiping her tears with an aggrieved look, and then looked at the onlookers who were drooling, with pale faces and skinny looks, he couldn't bite the chicken leg in his hand at all.
Lin Sanqi took out some candies from his pocket and waved to the little girl:
"Little sister, come here. This is BeiJi's Prawn Crispy Candy. For you."
The little girl stopped crying when she heard there was candy to eat. She blinked and looked at Lin Sanqi. Her previous dislike for him immediately turned from negative to positive.
"Is this candy? Is it delicious? Can I have some?"
Lin Sanqi pulled the little girl over and put all five candies in her hand:
"This is a specialty of the capital, called Prawn Crispy Candy. Every child in the capital loves it, and great people also love it."
"Wow, really? I can eat the same things as the kids in the capital~~"
"Little sister, let me ask you, what kind of vegetables do you usually eat? Can you eat rice?"
"Big brother, we can only eat fish, lobster, abalone, and wild vegetable and sweet potato porridge on a normal day. We can only eat rice and meat during the Chinese New Year. I really envy you kids in the capital who can eat meat and big buns every day."
Lin Sanqi thought, the kids in the capital envy you for eating lobsters every day.
At this time, it seemed that people all over the country had a blind worship of the capital, thinking that it was the center of the world, the place with the richest resources, like heaven.
If they knew that people in the capital also eat dried sweet potatoes every day and have to carry shit basins to queue up in public toilets early in the morning, I wonder if their world view would collapse?
"Comrade Lin, we've already purchased all the phoenix tail grass. Five tons, no more, no less. When are you going to inspect the goods?"
"Oh ok, I'll be there now."
Lin Sanqi responded, gave the little girl another handful of candy, then picked up her bag and walked away.
The moment he walked away, the uneaten chicken on the table was quickly snatched up by the local children, and they even almost fought over the chicken.
Fortunately, the little girl was smart and ran into her house with the candy, otherwise she would not have been able to keep it.
Lin Sanqi ran to the purchasing point and watched the local villagers weigh the phoenix tail grass and then pile it onto the big truck. In less than half a day, the big truck was full.
Lin Sanqi immediately took out the 5,000 yuan he had counted out from his backpack and handed it to Zeng Changqing:
"Captain Zeng, please count the money so we can settle the bill."
"Thank you so much, Comrade Lin. You've helped us a lot."
Although Lin Sanqi gave the money, it was still difficult to exchange it for food, and it required a lot of trouble.
Zhanjiang is close to the sea and Southeast Asia, so it was very easy to get some food from overseas. Unfortunately, the farmers at that time were too poor. They were so poor that they had no supplies to trade.
Phoenix tail grass is only used in traditional Chinese medicine hospitals. If used elsewhere, it can only be used to burn firewood.
After completing the acquisition, Lin Sanqi drove a large truck to Zhanjiang Railway Station, took out his work permit and letter of introduction, and successfully arranged for the Phoenix Tail Grass to be shipped by rail.
The next day, Lin Sanqi took a train from Zhanjiang to Yulin, Guangqi. Yes, that's the Yulin where the Dog Meat Festival is held.
(The author is not against eating dog meat, as long as it is farmed, but is against eating domesticated dogs, and is extremely disgusted with dog thieves.)
The railway network at that time was really strange. There was no railway from Huadu to Zhanjiang within the province. On the contrary, Zhanjiang had a railway to the neighboring Guangqi Province.
The process of purchasing chicken bone grass in Yulin was also smooth.
Next is the last stop of this acquisition of six locations across three provinces, Qin County.
Qin County is located in the southern part of Guangqi Province, very close to the southern border. It is also a gathering area for ethnic minorities, with 27 ethnic groups including Yi, Bai, Dai, and Zhuang.
Border areas and minority areas.
A region with the above two characteristics is definitely a poor and backward region with poor information and inconvenient transportation.
Let me put it this way, Guangqi is one of the poorest provinces in the country, and Qin County is the poorest county in Guangqi. It is simply extremely poor.
It is only more than 200 kilometers from Yulin to Qin County. After a few decades, it would only take 2 hours to travel by highway. However, in 1959, Lin Sanqi drove a large truck for 10 hours.
You can see how bad the road is.
Lin Sanqi was driving a large truck and was covered in sweat. There was no other way. Qin County was classified as a tropical country in terms of climate. It was stuffy, hot and humid. He felt sticky all over and very uncomfortable.
When the large truck was modified, the power, brakes, chassis, etc. were all replaced, but there was no way to install air conditioning.
Lin Sanqi drove to the urban area of Qin County, found a state-owned restaurant in the car and jumped out.
The most famous thing in Qin County is of course the "pig's trotter rice noodles", which Lin Sanqi had searched on Baidu before coming here. When going to a place, he must eat the most distinctive local food, which is also one of the conditions for Lin Sanqi to be a buyer.
It's called a restaurant, but it's actually just a few bungalows with some tables and chairs inside. A few waiters were sitting there chatting listlessly.
Lin Sanqi entered the store and looked up at the menu on the wall:
"Hello comrade, give me a bowl of pig's trotter rice noodles."
The waiter didn't even bother to smile when he heard the foreign accent: "Pig's trotter noodles, right? But first, let me tell you, there's no pig's trotter, only noodles."
Lin Sanqi frowned: "What's the point of calling it pig's trotter rice noodles without pig's trotters?"
The waiter said nonchalantly, "Ask God, why do the days go by so much later that even the pig's feet disappear."
Lin Sanqi was defeated by this bad attitude and thought to himself that he should not cause trouble when he was away from home. Who knows if he made the other party angry, he might take out a kitchen knife and kill him.
"Then give me a dustpan of flour."
"No……"
"What's this water cake? Give me one."
"No……"
“Is there a McDonald’s?”
"No……"
The waiter didn't even raise his eyelids and just kept saying "no" like a voice recorder. Lin Sanqi was sure that this guy didn't even listen to what he said carefully.
I can't stand this shit, I won't eat there anymore. With such service attitude, if it were a private restaurant, it would have closed down and I would have lost my job long ago.
Lin Sanqi restarted the car and prepared to find a guesthouse run by the local government.
According to his experience along the way, the government guesthouse not only has the best accommodation conditions, but also often has a sufficient supply of food that is not available outside.
Early the next morning, Lin Sanqi came out of his room in the guesthouse and prepared to go to the front desk to ask for a map of Qin County.
There were no mobile phone navigation systems back then, so when we were on business trips we had to rely entirely on maps, and they were very simple handmade maps.
The attitude of the female front desk staff at the government guesthouse was different. She was very well-dressed and polite, and you could tell she was educated.
The two chatted while helping each other find the map.
"Comrade Lin, you're in Qin County on a business trip. Which factory are you going to? Is there any other factory in Qin County that would be of interest to the people of the capital?"
At that time, Qin County had almost no industry. Although there were many overseas Chinese, it would take more than 20 years for them to return home to invest and set up factories.
"Hey, I'm not looking for a factory. I'm from the Capital Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. I'm here in Qin County to buy a Chinese herbal medicine called Curcuma. Today I'm going to Naxiang Commune in Qin County."
"What about Xiang Commune?"
The waitress stopped what she was doing, straightened up and said softly:
"Comrade Lin, I heard that things have been unsettled in Xiang Commune lately..."
Lin Sanqi, who had been feeling rather lazy, suddenly became alert, wondering if this was a bandit uprising, a supernatural event, or a natural disaster. His curiosity quickly ignited.
So he cooperated and whispered, "What's wrong?"
Just as the waitress was about to speak, she heard someone cough, and a middle-aged man who looked like a small leader walked out of the room:
"A Xiu, are you done? Go clean up the guest room if you're done. You're just talking nonsense about the start time."
When the waitress heard this, she stuck out her tongue at Lin Sanqi and disappeared.
(End of this chapter)
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