Author: Gao Yingzhong, Sun Shaotang
Source: Reading Leting Magazine of the Leting Cultural Research Association || Today's headline number: Leting hometown people
The title image comes from the network, is only a picture, and has nothing to do with this article
In the early republic of China, Jianggezhuang was a large administrative village, with eleven natural villages under its jurisdiction, with the largest front and back streets. The third and eighth days of the lunar calendar are large sets.
The land around Jiang Gezhuang is relatively fertile, and the grain produced in the four townships is still self-sufficient. Villagers with cultural knowledge often go to the three eastern provinces to do business, rich people often set up shops in joint ventures with others, and poor children serve as shop assistants. Because there is a township proverb cloud: "If you don't carry money in Kanto, what a law!" ”
The town's bazaar prompted the start of the hundred industries. Some people with the ability to write and calculate open small shops on the street, while others work as small traders and hawkers, or push carts to catch markets, or shoulder strings. In the 1920s and 1930s, it was a period of relative prosperity in Jianggezhuang Town. At the west end of Qianjie Street, there is a fish market every day in spring, summer and autumn. Carts, donkeys, and caterpillars bring fish, shrimp, shellfish and crabs from the sea, or wholesale or retail. At the turn of spring and summer, there are many yellow flowers, partial mouths, fish and shrimp such as rays and trouts. In the summer and autumn, there are many catfish, striped fish, perch, copper luo, small miscellaneous fish such as blue-backed, qi stick, horse's mouth, puffer fish (commonly known as stingy head fish), etc., almost all fish. Yellow croaker old sixteen two scales one pound or two or so; the large mouth is about five pounds, the fish eye is three or four pounds, the eel is generally about five pounds, the large one is about ten pounds; shrimp one pound seven or eight; with fish generally more than one pound. The townspeople have a lot of research on eating fish: proverbs, one turbot, two mirrors, three catfish pots; spring quail, autumn perch, white-eyed cutting grain; sorghum sunning red rice, scales do not give you and so on. The fish market is mainly wholesale, there are villagers who weigh the scales, there are people who load baskets and abacus to help calculate the price, and they each have income, or change or fish and shrimp. The food and snacks specially served in the fish market are all operated by the people of the town, and the food changes according to the seasons, or yellow rice cut cake, fried cake, fried cake, flapjack, steamed bun, or cold noodles, sorghum rice and rice fried salted fish and so on. Cloth shed fences are covered, long cases, low wooden stools, etc., all available, very convenient.
The pick-up market is melon market. In the middle of summer morning, there are many varieties of melons, such as yellow on the ground, sweet flowers, large-noodle dogs, Japanese small white melons, green tendons, red skins, clam legs, croissant honey, tiger skin crisp, perfume, purple wands, red seeds, etc. when they are sprayed, and the different varieties have different tastes. Watermelons have upish, light green, green and black flowers, etc., or red urns, or yellow urns, the large ones are more than ten pounds, and the townspeople often give gifts or sacrifices. In the melon market, a few cunning and idle people sometimes take treacherous and skillfully, and eat for free; while naïve children are expecting acquaintances to appreciate a little food.
There are many merchant shops in the town, and the south of the road from east to west is: Money and Grain Industry Yuan Shunxing, Oil and Grain Groceries Yiju No. (later renamed Yongju No.), Huimin LiJia Beef and Mutton Shop. Pastry making Yuxingde goods are very famous, as the saying goes, Chen Laoji (Jia Tan Zhao Zhuangzi people) white fruit to the mouth crisp. Silver gold jewelry to create source and poly, grocery store Concord Fu, dim sum shop Yuan Hengsheng. On Daobei Street, there are large groceries and cloth satin Zhuang Fuqingcheng, which is the head of the Jiangzhen business. The second is the oil and grain grocery store Rui Shengxiang, which is run by Cui Rongxiang, a native of Fengrun County, and is profitable for its small profits and wide sales. In order to show the prosperity of his business, when the Lantern Night in 1937 greeted YangGe, the firecrackers were set off at one time, and two large flower baskets were set off, plus fireworks, and the smoke of gunfire filled the small half street like a thick fog, and the audience cheered continuously. The Traditional Chinese medicine shop Chunhetang opened by the Ma family and the Bohetang where Gao Xiyuan sat in the hall were both famous in the four townships; in addition, the Western medicine clinic opened by an old acupuncturist Mr. Lu and Yue, a Huangkou ren, was also quite popular with the townspeople. The small stationery shop in the center of the street and the Tianjin miscellaneous (goods) case of Fan Meitang were not very popular because of the high price of goods. The bicycle repair office opened by Li Mou, a former camper in the town, is highly skilled by Jiang Mou, a master from Shandong, with reasonable fees, and has won praise. There are two barber shops in the east of The Street West Street, Song Chengfang and Song Chenglin brothers, the former is highly skilled, serving officials, merchants and religions; the latter is mediocre and more popular with ordinary people. Ren Laoguo, Cui Xingzhi, Huimin Zhang Yongbao three bakery bun shops, each with its own characteristics, Ren family's noodle pancakes, the outside is burnt and tender, crisp and soft, unique flavor. Zhang Heling's family has several generations of ancestral smoked chicken, whenever its smoked chicken, nearby people can smell the rich aroma of delicious, famous in the north and south of the Luan River, Le, Chang two counties for sale, perennial supply of Yushu Village Tile House single-family Zhao Daotai family to eat. It is said that the ingredient of the Zhang family is to soak the large smoke bone into the aged soup, which is addictive. Song Laosi's family steamed dumplings, the skin is thin and filling, and the taste is delicious. Hu Jiatuo came to catch up with the merchant restaurants in the three or eight episodes of the front and back streets, fried cakes, dumplings... More than generally comparable, the author patronized this restaurant when I was young, and I saw that the pie was transparent, the leek shrimp meat was clearly visible, and the bite was a red soup, which was very beautiful! As for some small foods, they are more exquisite and abnormal, such as Liu Pengwen's sugar gourd on the front street, a large hawthorn, a cut in the middle to pit it, sandwiched with a chengsha filling, a black melon seed kernel, the dipped sugar surface is transparent as a mirror, and it is sold along the street, there is dust and dust, and it cannot be contaminated. Reed factory Du Zhuang Du Baoyu's sugar gourd, originally sold reed factory 13 natural villages are in short supply, he rushed jiang gezhuang three and eight big sets and Liu Bi up and down, sell sugar gourd without wheat straw handle, but put the goods into a wooden large satchel box, once he came to Liu Pengwen's shop before the several strings of sugar gourd deliberately thrown on the dirt road, the children snatched home without blowing and washing as usual to eat good sugar gourd. Neighboring village Qiancheng Zhuang Bai Wenchang is known as the dog Yama King, his dog meat is unique, every three or eight must be on the market, do not wait for the meat box to be stable there are customers around to buy, the reputation is far away, but also exported to Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai. The millet noodle tea soup of the Huimin nicknamed Li Erhu, a copper plate and a bowl, suitable for both young and old, a large copper pot half a person high, polished brightly, when the water is boiling, the pot whistle "whine" sounds, as if beckoning people to "come and eat tea soup!" Liu Mou, known as "big fat daddy", made roast wheat candy, fragrant, sweet, crisp, crisp, the entrance does not need to be chewed, it is a must, its production is not much, the basket on the street, only for a few rich people to enjoy. Located in the east of Songjia Hutong, the sesame oil factory opened by the Yang brothers in Luan County is well-hyped, the oil is pure and transparent, and the oil smell is fragrant. The big tailors and small tailors who settled in qianjie in other places, two tailor shops made clothes and shoe uppers, which was convenient for the four townships. Tang Zhanyuan, who came from The City of Qicheng (a better tailor), borrowed the old shop in Yuqian Street, this person was skilled in craftsmanship, good at soft thread (silk and the like), and was often invited by the surrounding wealth masters to make wedding dresses for boudoir and fashionable satin clothes for the young lady. Jiang Gezhuang people like to drink tea, only the front street from west to east, that is, Li Fangtian, Shang Laoyao, Song Jingyang, Song Lao eight four tea stoves sell boiling water. When the small household came to the tea house to fetch water, they added a copper plate to brew a pot of tea and carried it home. There are also two tea stoves in the back street, Lao Hai and Yang Laosan, and the situation is the same. Located in the North Cai Temple of Qianjie Road, The Shandong Nationals Song Erzeng, Wang Deshan and Luxi Gong surnamed Gong two blacksmith furnaces, to create hoes and pickaxes, kitchen knives and rice shovels, etc., for agricultural production and daily life in the four townships, and also operate mules, horses, cattle and donkey nails. The two iron shops are burning with fire, the hammers are clanging, the sound of bullets and flowers with the brothers of the Shang surname cotton house, and the rumble of the big stone milling cloth of the old Xi'er dyeing factory is loud every day.
In the back street, there is an official salt shop that rents five street rooms in Gao Jiaren and Xing, the manager Han Mou plays a good three strings, and Yang Laosan, a Muslim who often opens a tea stove with the west wall, plays and sings Yinghe, and the neighbors listen to it pleasantly. The salt police team that rents Liu Laozun's single house is in charge of the salt industry all over the coast of Changli, and the captain Song Jiemei (a street man from Jiang Gezhuang) is a fan of drama, he has beautiful eyebrows and beautiful eyes, and he is gifted with a golden voice. Later, he became a fan of Peking Opera. The only grain and oil grocery merchant in the backstreet, Yi Yuanhe, is also a five-room façade. Zhangjia Beef Shop, Fengrun people run the cattle and sheep water pot shop, Tangjia Chinese medicine shop, Li Laosi, Wang Laoda two restaurants, Wang Family Shop, Qi Jia Oil Mill, Qi Jia Shed Shop, Qi Lao Pin Horn Shop, Flower Car Rental, small lithography bureau and tailor shop opened by outsiders. There is a grain market on the playground of the primary school in front of the Niangniang Temple on this street, and every third and eighth big market here is full of people, bustling and extraordinary, grain bags are lined up, and there are many varieties. Most of the rice in Kanto Green and Snake's Eye is sorghum rice, followed by corn and various beans, and small grains are available. The local black millet is milled into rice and ground into noodles to make sticky bean buns, and the old lady needs to be careful to stick out her teeth when eating it. Fruit and vegetable markets in a single location have flourished accordingly. Fruits are not produced locally, and fruits from Changli Phoenix Mountain, Liangshan, Taiying and other places are sold in the town. Varieties include wheat yellow apricot, jar pear, spiced pear, sydney pear, ann pear, flower pear and so on, phoenix mountain rose fragrant grapes are the most popular among locals. Apples include Guoguang, Marshal, Giant Crown, Exhaust Mountain Red (Changli specialty) and so on. Vegetables are constantly on the market according to the season, spring cabbage, leek sprouts, spinach, celery, coriander... These green vegetables are rare in winter, when there is no greenhouse, and the price of fresh food in the cellar is expensive, which only the rich can afford. Ordinary people can only eat cabbage in winter, and say that "a hundred vegetables are not as good as cabbage". Every time the winter solstice snow season is light, the two townships (referring to the villages such as the reed factory west of the bridge in this town), Chinese cabbage is listed in large quantities. Every household in the town always buys some more to keep for the winter and New Year to eat, and also buys some half cabbage, pickles a jar of sauerkraut for sauerkraut white meat or sauerkraut fine powder soup.
In the early 1940s, Houcheng Zhuang Qi He Chu and Dongxiang Zhou Jiaying and other village rich households raised funds, zhou Xiangwen came forward, rebuilt the courtyard of RenheTang in the heart of the street, opened a 10,000 synthetic oil and grain groceries, cloth satin Zhuang business, and introduced diesel machinery to mill rice and press oil, and the business flourished for a while. After Wan Synthetic changed its name to Fu Synthetic, the business situation was unprecedented. Shortly after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Fuhe was closed and a state-owned Changli County Dawn Store was stationed until the liberation of Changli County in 1948.
Two streets away, the Wang Mazi shoe shop in Xiwangzhuang, the style is fashionable, the quality is superior, the paper shop of the former Zhengzhuang Wang Haiting family, passed down for generations, all kinds of paper ties, fine carving, bright colors, and realistic character shapes. Xiwangzhuang is nicknamed the Hammer Head Family, and the rental of dishes, tables and stools for marriage and funeral, and the craftsmanship of setting up a mat shed are quite impressive. The coffin bars of Liu Xuanshun in Houlongzhuang provided the needs of the people's lives at that time.
Jiang gezhuang town north of Changli county town sixty miles, in the mid-1930s, in the middle of the last century, there were Laoting County Yang surname private medium-sized old cars running between Chang and Le County, and Jiang Town as the middle economic station, but in the end due to insufficient publicity, poor management, soon stopped operation. During the Japanese and puppet periods, the Chang and Promised Land Highways were forcibly built, and in addition to preparing them for military use, there were also official-camped sedan cars to and from the two cities, with many passengers, which can be called convenient. Jiangzhen Front Street West is a big station, and the main street Kochi Hou sells tickets on behalf of the street, and the ticket price is not high.
In the old days, although Jiang Gezhuang was not a big place, because it was close to the mountains and the sea, the geographical location was special, five elements and eight works, the prosperity of the city, and the seventy-two lines, all gathered here, painting pictures, like a distinctive "Qingming River Map".
(The author is Gao Yingzhong, former associate professor of Tangshan Normal University; Sun Shaotang, retired teacher.) ）