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Chapter 361, Water and Drought Locust Soup, Four Desolations in Henan
With a forged civil certificate and a few banknotes, Yuan Lang and Monk Wei entered the city smoothly this time.

There was a delay on the road for a while, and the sky was already dark.

"Boss, let's find a restaurant to fill our stomachs first."

Monk Wei patted his belly, indicating that he was very hungry.

The main reason is that I only ate half full at noon.

If he is full, no one else will be full with that little meal.

Yuan Lang was not in a hurry to do things, he glanced at the signboards on the street, and finally landed on a fairly decent one.

"Donglaishun Donkey Meat Restaurant, this one looks pretty good, so it's the one."

Two catties of donkey meat in sauce, one stir-fried donkey meat, another ten on fire, and a pot of small wine.

There weren't many customers eating in the store, there were only three or two scattered tables, and the dishes they ordered came out quickly.

Yuan Lang took a piece of sauced donkey meat and tasted it. It tasted good and authentic, so he liked it.

Through the dishes, I have a little understanding of the chef's craftsmanship.

He called the shopkeeper over: "Shopkeeper, do you have any donkeys?"

The shopkeeper was also humorous: "Guest officer, you are late. The three donkeys of the last donkey have been eaten by people, and I don't know where the next donkey is! Naturally, the three donkeys are gone."

As soon as Yuan Lang heard it, he immediately understood that the business in this shop was not good, and the meat could not be sold, so there was no need to buy donkeys and kill donkeys.

It was all forced by the Japanese tax and that tax. The common people became poor and had no money to eat out. The business of the restaurant was not good, isn’t it?
Yuan Lang sent the shopkeeper away, picked up the chopsticks only to find that half of the plate of donkey meat in sauce was gone, Monk Wei grabbed a stack, and gnawed hard like steamed buns.

"Monk, pay attention to how you eat. When we are in the city, we are not afraid of eating if we have money, but you should pay attention to your image and don't embarrass me. It will be seen by others, and even I will digest it."

"Hey, didn't I hear the shopkeeper say there's no more meat?" Monk Wei smirked and didn't change his mind, just like Zhu Bajie eating ginseng fruit, he stuffed the meat into his mouth.

"Shopkeeper, another three catties of donkey meat in sauce."

Yuan Lang patted Dayang on the table.

"Good."

It wasn't until the waiter brought three catties of sauced donkey meat to the table that the monk gave up the way of eating Hesai.

Yuan Lang drank small wine and ate small meat, enjoying the taste of food.

The topic of conversation between two rich merchants in silk and satin at the next table caught his attention.

"Old Huang, you have collected catties of grain this month. This stockpiling is a bit big."

"What's so strange about this? This year's drought has raised the price of grain, and if there will be another severe drought next year, I'll make a fortune by hoarding grain."

"No, the three granaries of your family should have been fully stocked. You can't just go in and out. You must have sold the grain. Let me guess, is it through the Japanese channel?"

Yuan Lang turned his head and took a look. The old Huang who was asked had a round and fat face, and he looked harmless to humans and animals.

Is this still working for the Japanese?
Lao Huang laughed until his eyes narrowed, and said in a low voice, "I really can't hide it from you!

I heard that there is already a shortage of food in Japan, and oil, salt, rice and firewood are purchased in a limited amount according to the quota set by each person.

You have to have a way to transport the grain to the port, and someone will collect it, and the price can double. "

The man at the table shook his head. The only way to transport grain from Shanxi to the port is by land.

Form a large convoy to transport food, not to mention people eating horses, the Japanese can eat up all the goods at the checkpoints along the way.

Another way is to make train skins, and the grain is transported to Tianjin Wei Port by rail.

It looks easy, but the railway is controlled by the Japanese, and there is no strong relationship with the Japanese, so it is impossible to do this job.

He can't do this business.

The large amount of food aroused Yuan Lang's sensitive nerves.

The food problem is not a small problem.

The Eighth Route Army had to find their own way without eating or drinking.

The sub-military area expanded to more than 1 people, and one person would eat catties of grain per day.

There is so little food in the mountains that the common people don't have enough to eat.

Outside the mountains, the Japanese launched a massive blockade, demanding that no grain flow into the base of the Eighth Route Army.

The food crisis has been threatening the survival of sub-military regions.Yuan Lang heard Zhao Gang talk about it many times.

He also heard from Zhao Gang's guards that political commissar Zhao was buying food in his dreams.

I almost lost my hair.

Yuan Lang knew what Zhao Gang meant and expected him to get more canned food, biscuits, sugar and the like.

But those things can only be an adjustment, and the real solution has to find a way to get food.

Yuan Lang got up to strike up a conversation: "I overheard the conversation between the two of you just now. You are buying food. Coincidentally, I am also buying food."

Lao Huang raised his eyes and looked at Yuan Lang. He was dressed in ordinary clothes but had an extraordinary bearing. He said in a hypocritical way: "We are destined to meet each other. Please sit down."

Yuan Lang sat down generously and beckoned: "Shopkeeper, get me two jugs of good wine, and serve me two special dishes."

When he was walking outside with the monk, he wore more ordinary clothes.

Compared with the two big grain merchants, it looks very shabby, and they can only show their financial resources a little, so as not to be underestimated by the two.

The shopkeeper personally brought the wine, took the silver dollar thrown by Yuan Lang, and was slightly dazed: "This is too much, what you gave just now is enough to feed two tables."

"You can take it if I give it to you, and come to expensive place to do business, and stay at your house for a while longer." Yuan Lang said.

Two silver dollars are sold, this is not the way of ordinary small households.Ordinary people do not spend directly with silver dollars.

Drinking and chatting again, the attitudes of the two grain merchants have slightly changed, and they are polite and warm.

After each introduced their identities, Yuan Lang learned that the fat man called Lao Huang, whose real name was Huang Dawei, was one of the few big grain merchants in Yinshan County.

The family has six grain stores, three large granaries, and mu of land.

In the past two years, he married one of his nieces to a Japanese military officer, and got on the line of the Japanese.With the Japanese as the backer, the business is getting bigger and bigger.

Gao Lei is not a small person who can sit at the same table with such a rich businessman.

He is also in the grain business, with five stores and four warehouses, hoarding more than 30 catties of grain.

Yuan Lang's eyes lit up when he heard this, these two are simply living Bodhisattvas.

"Brother Yuan, how do you dump food?" Huang Dawei inquired.

Yuan Lang said: "Simple, do you know the situation in Henan?"

Gao Lei answered: "I know, the province has a large grain production area, the land is much easier to grow than ours, and the grain produced here is also much more."

Yuan Lang shook his head: "That's the old calendar. This year, Henan has experienced drought, and the harvest has dropped drastically. In some places, the harvest has even disappeared. Farmers have begun to eat grass roots and bark.

In times of famine, food is no longer food, it is gold, the life to live on.Are you talking about earning money? "

The circulation of information these days is very blocked, Shanxi and Henan are separated by the Yellow River, and many news are unknown.

Gao Lei was very surprised when he heard this: "It shouldn't be, Henan is short of food, it sounds outrageous."

Huang Dawei picked up a chopstick dish and said flatly: "Brother Yuan is right, it's because you have little knowledge.

I heard that there are 40 national troops in Henan, how to deal with the 40 mouths!All are resolved locally.

From to the present, the heavy military service and the amount of taxes have killed many people.

This year we have a drought in Shanxi, and it is estimated that Henan will not be much better.I have paid the tax burden in normal days, and I can still eat miscellaneous grains and wild vegetables to make do.

Now that there is a drought, God does not reward food, but the national army wants to eat.

He came to grab it with a gun, can you not give it?
Therefore, if there is no hard relationship, don't worry about this deal. "

Gao Lei was in a daze for a while, pondering these words carefully, the amount of information is huge.

To sum up: Henan is short of food, one is because of the drought, and the other is because of the national army.

And if you want to get involved in this business, you have to have a relationship with the national army, otherwise you will be robbed.

Gao Lei asked: "Is there any relationship with my brother?"

Yuan Lang smiled, and skillfully pulled up the tiger's skin: "I can't hide it from you two, but there is a logistics officer brother who dumps food. He doesn't have two brushes, so he dare not do this kind of business."

"What price can you sell for twenty catties of grain?"

Yuan Lang laughed again, this Gao Lei looked very stupid, he just asked some stupid questions.

"In a good year, twenty catties of grain is just half a month's worth of food for one person.

During the disaster year, the victims who are about to starve to death, twenty catties of grain can be exchanged for a golden girl.

What price to sell depends on where you can sell it. "

By the way, there is another point, you must first ensure that it will not be robbed by the victims.

Otherwise, don't have that kind of dream.

Gao Lei was extremely disappointed. The old man in the family trained him to be his successor. He always wanted to do a few big deals and earn a lot of money so that he could gain face in front of the old man.

It seems that this business is not suitable for him.

Huang Dawei took a sip of the wine and shook his head: "This kind of business can only be done by people with guns.
Otherwise, they would be robbed by someone with a gun before they had time to earn ten times and a hundred times the profit.

I have heard the wind reviews over there, flood, drought, locust, soup, four shortages in Henan.

That Commander Tang was more ferocious than the bandits. His army organized robbery and rape, and the Japanese shook their heads when they saw it.

To put it bluntly, he is just a big bandit leader, but he is just wearing an official skin. "

Gao Lei nodded straightly, "It is indeed true, plus the Huayuankou burst the embankment back then."

The common people in Henan really suffered eight lifetimes of bad luck.No wonder he would rather be a good citizen for the Japanese than a free citizen for the government. "

Before the Anti-Japanese War, there was indeed a saying that floods, droughts and locusts came.But the "soup" in the water and drought locust soup during the Anti-Japanese War really refers to the team of Tang Enbo and Jiang Dingwen.

Mainly Tang Enbo rhymes, so Jiang Dingwen is cheaper.

Moreover, "Tang" is actually a regional name in Henan. It is called Dao Ke in the west of Henan (mainly for robbery), Laotai in the north of Henan (mainly in kidnapping), and Nianzi in the east of Henan (the origin of the Nian Army). .

But the water and drought locust soup belongs to the whole of Henan, regardless of the nightmare of the region.

Heard of water and drought locust soup, has anyone heard of water and drought locust knife, water and drought locust lift, water and drought locust twist?
The so-called "passing generals" refer to some farmers who work for the people in peacetime and become bandits in times of disaster in some disaster-prone places.

Some places are so serious that they become farmers when they are busy and bandits when they are free.

The characteristic of locust trips during floods and droughts is that they make trouble continuously. Generally speaking, when water passes, there will be drought, when drought passes, locusts will come, and when locusts pass, locusts will travel.Therefore, the four characters of flood, drought and locust trip are used together.

When Tang Enbo/Jiang Dingwen pulled the pole to catch the strong men in Henan, they drew a large number of such people into the team, and many of the teams were originally composed of bandits.

The military discipline of Tang Enbo's team was completely outrageous at the level of the invading army.

Once dispatched, the places they pass are like locusts crossing the border and devils invading.

Killing for fun, kidnapping and extorting, robbing people's property, raping prostitutes, reselling people, doing all kinds of evil, and not a blade of grass grows.

Basically, the devils will never be allowed to harm the people of Henan.

There is a word called "running old soup", which means the same as "running old day".That is to say, when you hear that Tangbu is coming, you should run as fast as you heard the devil is coming.

As for the Huayuankou embankment burst, it was one of the three major tragedies in the Republic of China.

In 1938, in order to prevent the pace of the Japanese attack, disrupt the Japanese attack plan.

The chairman of the committee ordered that Huayuankou, a ferry on the south bank of the Yellow River located 17 kilometers away from the northern suburbs of ZZ City, Hen Province, be opened.

As a result, the Yellow River broke its embankment, tens of millions of people were left homeless, and millions of people died as a result.

This year's grain harvest has something to do with that incident.

In short, in Henan under the government of the Republic of China, the common people suffered more than eight lifetimes of bad luck.

It was like being reborn in hell on earth.

Yuan Lang regretted the skin a little bit, this is not Zhang Hu's skin, it is simply Zhang Maggot's skin, the smell is unbearable.

It's disgusting to see.

After condemning the national army's bottomless line, Huang Dawei remembered that there was a deep connection with Yuan Lang, so he quickly apologized.

"Brother, I'm really sorry, we didn't intend to say that you and your brother, those bandits dressed in the national army's skin, are too hateful."

Yuan Lang waved his hand to indicate that it was not important: "It's all rotten to the bone, to be honest, even though I rely on this relationship for a living, even I can't stand it.

So by doing business, get out of that dirty place of right and wrong. "

In fact, Huang Dawei just used his lips to say something that was beneficial and cost-effective.

Yuan Lang is a dragon crossing the river, but he is a tiger sitting on the ground. He is not afraid of having the Japanese as his backer.

However, there is one thing he has to confirm.

"Is my brother going to collect food?"

Yuan Lang knew that the meat show was coming, and said modestly: "I have this idea, Brother Huang, you might as well give me some advice, my brother is all ears."

Huang Dawei played with the wine glass in his hand, and said lightly: "One bowl can only hold so much food, if there is an extra bowl, it will be difficult to divide.

My brother wants food, yes, we will sell the collected food to you at a fair price.But if you want to snatch it from the bowl, I'm afraid some people will not agree.

At that time, it would be bad to hurt the harmony. "

When receiving goods, I am most afraid of someone disturbing the market.

Several major grain merchants in Yinshan County have a tacit understanding, no matter whether the harvest is good or not, they can suppress the price of grain and collect it.

Once an outsider comes in to stir up trouble, raise the price and receive the goods.

Just wait to be cleaned up by a few big grain merchants!
Yuan Lang naturally understood the reason for this, and he didn't take it seriously when he heard Huang Dawei's implied threat.

He said with a smile: "Thank you, brother Huang, for reminding me, brother is willing to sell me food at a low price, so I have to thank brother.

This saves me effort, if I do it myself, it would be too time-consuming and labor-intensive. "

Sure enough, when Huang Dawei heard it, a greedy light flashed in his small eyes, and he suddenly felt that Yuan Lang was young and young, and he was really good.

"Since you call me brother, it's natural to help me out. How much food do you want?"

"100 catties."

Yuan Lang spat out a number, which startled both Huang Dawei and Gao Lei.

One million catties is not a small number, the combined granaries of the two of them don't even have that much.

This amount of food is enough to feed 1 people for three months.

"..." Huang Dawei reported a figure, a figure that could make % of the profit, and waited for Yuan Lang to bargain.

Yuan Lang pretended to ponder and did not raise any objection on the price, but he put forward a condition that he would see the batch of grain within five days.

"The deposit... After all, you want so much food."

Huang Dawei's words flickered, but he didn't feel embarrassed at all.

After all, the two of them had never done business before, and they were just talking one-sidedly. Why do they believe that you want millions of catties of grain.

Yuan Lang took it out of his pocket and patted a large yellow croaker on the table.

The shining gold is so cute, Huang Dawei stared straight at it, and stretched out his hand subconsciously.

Yuan Lang put the big yellow croaker into his arms again, and said with a smile: "I have to see my brother's food before I can pay the deposit."

"Good talk, good talk."

Huang Dawei promised again and again, of course he couldn't let go of the profitable business.

Gao Lei picked up the jug and poured wine: "My family also has food, so count me in."

Yuan Lang said boldly: "The more food the better, the 100 million catties is just the first batch."

This makes the two very happy. It seems that they have to collect more food and make a big business with huge profits.

(End of this chapter)