The Wave of Life No. 10, Journey to Sil 3, to Sil (I)
(Abstract: In Xi'er, because Xiao Zou bought some wood by himself, Aunt Mo guided him to deal with the Tibetans and locals at the wine table.) ）
Xier is a district of Heishui County, and about 30 kilometers is the county seat of Heishui. At this time, the Sil neighborhood was not considered a street, and there were only a few point-style units and shops scattered along the gravel road. The fog in the sky has not yet lifted. Because of the cold sprinkled on the ground, the water turns into ice.
In Aba Prefecture, Sichuan, there is snow on the mountains in winter
The most eye-catching district supply and marketing cooperatives here are point buildings, a row of two-story brick and wood buildings, upper hotels, and lower stores. Among them, there are many department stores, deep and wide, and there are many people coming and going. There are at least dozens of black robes and red scarves, where Tibetan girls come and go, laughing and admiring the dazzling array of goods inside. As mentioned in the previous chapters, it can be seen that they talk a lot, but they really buy less! Xiao Zou also went into this store to take a look, and felt that most of the products came from Chengdu, which is still in Chengdu's economic radiation circle. Next to it is the tobacco and liquor store department of the supply and marketing cooperative, mainly from all over the country, low-grade cigarettes, liquor, candy, etc.
At the entrance of the restaurant of the supply and marketing cooperative, white characters were written in chalk on the blackboard: 1 part of the meat is 0.50 yuan, and the liquor is 1 ......yuan per catty. The price of meat is about the same as that of Guan County, and the price of liquor is 0.90 yuan per catty. Guan County wine is planned to be supplied, if you buy more than planned, you have to find the relevant leaders for approval. It seems that there is no plan here in Tibet? Wandering around the museum are some young and middle-aged Tibetans.
In addition, there are shops selling pork and beef and mutton, and there are also blackboards with prices written in white letters, and the price of beef and mutton is not clear now. Pork is 0.65 yuan per catty, and Guan County is 0.70 yuan per catty this year, and the price in Tibetan areas is slightly cheaper than that in Guan County. At that time, it was still fashionable to be an individual, and of course this butcher shop was also a supply and marketing cooperative, and the prices on the blackboard were priced by the state. There are many people here and many children wandering there empty-handed, and then Xiao Zou noticed that today is Sunday!
What is disturbing is that the Tibetans are thinly dressed and their clothes are somewhat shabby. The Tibetans in leather robes, Tibetan knives, white shirts, riding boots, mink hats, and red faces on their calligraphy and paintings have no connection with what they see in front of them. All that can be painted is their red faces and Kong Wu's powerful body. It was really cold and I later learned that the temperature at this time was minus 5 degrees!
The Tibetans in front of Xiao Zou were covered with skin on their hands and feet, especially a few teenagers wearing rubber shoes! At this time, it was 1978, and reform and opening up were about to be implemented. The Tibetans and Han people that Xiao Zou saw were mainly members of the production team of the commune brigade. Like the rural people in Guan County and other places in western Sichuan, after the reform and opening up, they can live a well-off life.
Xiao Zou remembers that there were two songs that were popular all over the country, and they were sung by Tibetan singers. A song "On the Golden Mountain of Beijing" and a song "A Mountain Like a Golden Bottle". The writing technique used in these two songs is metaphor! It took the ancestors of the Han nationality several thousand years to sum up the creation of poems, and they should use three techniques: comparison, xing, and fu. And Tibetan singers can skillfully use metaphors to create as soon as they make their debut! Maybe this is the will of the Buddha?
As mentioned earlier, Xiao Zou came here for two purposes: one was to transport wood back for the unit, and the other was to buy some wood for himself. Xiao Zou easily found the target of this visit, the Xi'er lumber yard not far from the Heishui River. There are flat saws that break down wood, mainly to break down some of the logs into square logs or slabs.
To do this, a large piece of wood is placed on the railcar, and the bottom is fixed with iron nails. The first thing to sawn off is the surface peel, and the rest after decomposition is called the bottom peel, which is stacked together for another treatment. Because the flat saw can only enter, the part above the wood grip nail, the bottom layer of the bark wood is still thick and can be used. In Guan County, it can be broken down with a disc saw, and it becomes a sub-board and lining for furniture. There is no disc saw here, so the leather wood, especially the bottom, is large and thick, and cannot be further decomposed.
Xiao Zou found the person in charge and handed over the timber lifting procedures issued by the Guan County Planning Commission and the Provincial Planning Commission. The other party asked where the car was? Xiao Zou said that he would arrive in the afternoon. They asked Xiao Zou to come back in the afternoon, because it would take time to load the car and not come late, so Xiao Zou had to agree first.
Picture of the Heishui Mountains in Aba Prefecture, Sichuan
It's time to find your aunt and father, and it's easy to find if the Sil neighborhood is too small. There are more than 30 people in the section of the water transport department, and each man and woman live in a large room, as well as a kitchen and toilet. I heard the workers say that my aunt has taken some responsibility, and now he is the squad leader under the section, because everyone calls him Wang squad leader because of his surname Wang. The male worker's room here is 5 small green tile houses, which are connected by a common room. A circle of double single wooden beds was placed along the perimeter, one for each worker, regardless of age, and the lower bunks slept and the upper bunks stacked their belongings. There are also two separate huts, which are said to be family workers who have come to live in them. Xiao Zou noticed that their beds were covered with palm mats produced by the Guan County Palm Ware Society! Because he had been sewing palm mats in the Palm Ware Society since he was in the fifth grade of primary school, he felt cordial after seeing them.
In the middle of the cold, empty house in winter, there are two iron stoves for burning firewood. This kind of stove is cleverly designed with an iron lid and a fire vent, which can boil water and cook something to eat. There are long iron chimneys that smoke the burning ash outside. It was warm in the room, and the thermometer hung on the wooden wall pointed to 21 degrees Celsius. When he entered the house just now, Xiao Zou saw that there was also a thermometer at the door outside, and it was minus 5 degrees above. The section leader's desk was also in the room, in the middle of the room in front of his bed, and a few other dining tables and stools were placed in the middle of the room.
Aunt Mo welcomed Xiao Zou, a nephew who was nearly 30 years old, and he went to a meat shop to buy 1 pound of pork. How to eat it? Xiao Zou is a little more expert in stir-frying than this senior. He first went to the food balls and diced them and asked the kitchen cook for some spices, then went back to the room where the fire was made and fried them in an iron pan. When he ate it, his aunt praised him, saying that Xiao Zou's fried meat residue tasted good! He also took a bottle of white wine, and the two of them drank a little each, and the rice and vegetarian dishes were brought from the food group. Because it was Sunday, my aunt didn't go to work, so after lunch, he took Xiao Zou to take a tour of the neighborhood and helped Xiao Zou buy some wood. Xiao Zou only brought a satchel, and the kettle was placed here by Aunt Mo.
Let's start with buying wood: all that can be bought is some open wood, and you can't buy it in the lumber yard. The lumber in the lumber storage yard should also be planned to be supplied, and it is mainly sold to some paper companies in Sichuan Province for pulp. However, the control of the skin is not as tight as that of the original material! Some people who have the means have also managed to buy some of it. After a while, my aunt will come forward, find a few of his friends, and ask them to come out. And then there are the people on this mountain, that is, the Tibetans, who also have good wood. If you can pass the inspection on the road, you can also ask them to buy some.
Soon, my aunt's friends brought a total of 9 pieces of leather materials. Among them, there were 8 pieces of surface peel with a unit price of 1 yuan, and 1 piece of bottom peel with a unit price of 3 yuan; Xiao Zou took out a total of 11 yuan and piled up a large pile at the door of a certain unit on the side of the highway. In particular, the large bottom of the leather material, 4 meters long, 20 centimeters thick, 40 centimeters wide, a full 0.3 cubic meters of wood! Aunt Mo said that this bottom is a spruce material. If you make a set of furniture, you can't use up these things, i.e., beds, high wardrobes, cabinets, and desks. At that time, Xiao Zou thought that his younger brother was not young, and he could also use it as furniture when he got married. I heard from the people in this unit that they are on duty day and night, and what they put at the door will never be lost! There are still a few cars in the open space here.
After Aunt Mo left for a while, he and a Tibetan carried a piece of square wood. After they put it on the ground, Xiao Zou saw what a good piece of wood it was! The birch wood had no knots on its whole body, and it could completely be broken down into two sets of wooden bed trimmings! The Tibetans also said that he was selling tofu wood. This pile of wood in Xiao Zou is more than 1 cubic meter. The Tibetans were in their 30s at the time, and their clothes were also thin, with a pair of old liberation rubber shoes under their feet. He smiled and said to Xiao Zou: 5 yuan! Xiao Zou said thank you when he paid. The Tibetans also said that they should entertain themselves and drink some wine with their sons!
Spring has arrived in the Blackwater Sil region
At this time, Xiao Zou noticed that there was a 10-year-old boy with him. The boy is usually dressed in old clothes and has a pair of old liberation galoshes on his feet. Like the children Xiao Zou saw before, there were some small blood streaks on his hands and feet. Just now they sold Xiao Zou a large piece of wood, which was only enough to buy a pair of new Jiefang brand rubber shoes. But are the two equal?
Economists at the time explained that this was called the scissors gap for industrial and agricultural (including forestry) products. This means that industrial goods are sold above value, and agricultural goods (including forestry products) are sold below value. After the reform and opening up, the phenomenon of poor scissors no longer exists, but later economists really don't know how to explain all this that Xiao Zou Xiaonian saw in Heishui Xier!
Xiao Zou and Aunt Mo have already eaten, and the father and son may not need much money to drink? at most, two portions of meat, 1 catty of wine, and more than 2 yuan for food. Xiao Zou took them to the restaurant of the supply and marketing cooperative, not far from about 50 meters across the road, and Aunt Mo was waiting for Xiao Zou at the wood stack.
On the way, the Tibetans said that they would bring some sorghum and good wine next time, and that they would make some good wood for the little doll to wear! They also said that the Tibetans could speak Chinese, but they could not write or read books and newspapers. At that time, Xiao Zou was thinking about the 3 yuan a pair of corduroy tire bottom cotton shoes produced by the Guan County Tannery. How suitable is it for this father and son, as well as for these people that Xiao Zou saw! Is it because the supply and marketing cooperatives here do not know about it, or are the people of Guan County who do not have the same information? Perhaps when the planning committees of the two sides arranged production, neither of them took into account the other party across regions.
When the restaurant went inside and out, it was full of people walking around. It seems that there are many diners, but most of the dining tables and stools are empty. In other words, there are more people walking around to watch, and fewer people actually sit down to eat. Like the Guan County Restaurant, the dining table here is also lined with long wooden benches. Xiao Zou arranged for the father and son to sit on a stool at a table.
Picture of Heishui County, Aba Prefecture, Sichuan
Xiao Zou went to collect money to sell the brand, and the Han lady bought 1 catty of wine, two portions of meat, 1 catty of rice for food stamps, and a bowl of soup and vegetables - boiled lotus white. When I was working in an organ, I heard from a comrade of the Guan County Planning Commission that the western Sichuan Plain and Aba Prefecture exchanged vegetables. In winter, the vegetables come from the western Sichuan Plain, and the vegetables from Aba Prefecture in summer and autumn come down to the western Sichuan Plain, including Guan County.
Xiao Zou sat on the bench next to him, watching the father and son drink, eat meat, and make lotus white. The wine is served in two bowls, the meat is served in two plates, and the lotus white soup dish is served in one large bowl. The amount of meat is very sufficient, each plate may have half a catty of cooked meat, and the fat is mainly soaked in lard!