During this period, Illinois was not a prefecture-level city, but a county-level city. After all, the new province had only begun to develop a few years ago, and the population was still too small.

The station in Yizhou is very small, just a small two-story building, not even one-tenth the size of Chang'an.

Li Wen also understood this. After all, the two are incomparable. One is a provincial capital city with a population of millions in the interior, and the other is a county town in the frontier with a population of only more than 200,000.

Although Illinois only has a population of over 200,000, its area is extremely large, covering hundreds of thousands square kilometers, which is equivalent to the area of ​​an inland province.

Therefore, people in later generations often say that unless you visit a new province, you will never know how big the land is. Maybe the land of a village is equivalent to the area of ​​a county.

Maybe it was because it was the first time he took a long-distance train. Now Li Wen felt dizzy and his legs were a little wobbly when he walked. It was also thanks to his better physical condition than the average person, otherwise the after-effects of riding in the train would have lasted for two or three days.

As he walked out of the station, Li Wen didn't take the bus. He was really scared of taking the bus, so he had to take his time.

Li Wen still hasn't eaten a drop of rice since his meal yesterday evening. He plans to find a place to fill his stomach first and taste the local delicacies of the new province.

It is not convenient to travel on the train these days, and several fellow passengers are very frugal. Li Wen cannot eat and drink by himself, and his mouth is full of food.

Li Wen smelled the aroma of mutton from a distance on the roadside. He walked closer and looked at the house number. It was written in the local minority language.

Li Wen guessed that this was a Uyghur breakfast shop based on his experience of watching short videos in his previous life.

"The taste is quite fragrant. It must be a local specialty. I tried it here."

"Hello, comrade, what do you have to eat now?" Li Wen walked in and saw a woman from an ethnic minority ladling sheep soup.

"Nima Yeisizi?" the woman raised her head and said.

"What?" Li Wen shouted directly.ωωw..net

He doesn’t understand the language of this minority!

The people in the restaurant were all ethnic minorities, and no one paid any attention to him. Li Wen really didn't know who to ask, just as Li Wen turned around and left.

An ethnic minority man strode out from inside.

"Comrade, I'm sorry."

"We are Uighurs. My wife doesn't speak Chinese. She just wanted to ask you what to eat.

We have grilled dumplings, grilled buns, mutton soup, potted meat and beef noodles here. Comrade, what would you like to eat?" the man introduced with a smile.

"How are they sold?" Li Wen nodded and asked with a smile.

"A cake is 30 cents, a baked bun is 20 cents, haggis soup and beef noodles are 30 cents, and meat in a pot is 60 cents."

Li Wen couldn't help but sigh, it's true that this is a new province rich in cattle and sheep. If you find any restaurant, you will find more meat than pasta.

"Comrade, I don't have beef and mutton stamps, how can I use the national food stamps?" Li Wen asked after hearing the shop owner's quotation.

"National food stamps?" Upon hearing these words, the shop owner's eyes lit up instantly.

"Comrade, I can exchange this at a one-to-two ratio, and you will never suffer a loss." Obviously, the value of the national food stamps made the boss very excited.

Li Wen took out a dozen national food stamps and nodded with a smile. He also knew the value of the national food stamps.

National food stamps and meat stamps are much more valuable than currency, and they have no expiration date within one year. They are must-have items when going out.

When the shop owner saw that Li Wen had so many food stamps in his hand, he did not ask Li Wen to pay first. Instead, he asked Li Wen to eat first and then settle the bill after finishing the meal.

Li Wen learned from the chat introduction of the shop owner Aman that this was a privately owned shop owned by his family, and all the people working there were his own family members.

In fact, it can be seen from this that the country still gives great preferential treatment to ethnic minorities.

In 1963, there were very few private shops in the mainland. Most private owners chose joint ventures or directly sold their shops to the state at a discount.

If you want to open your own store, the government won't stop you, but now the factories are all state-owned, so you can't get goods at all.

"Here we go!"

"Comrade Li, please use it slowly. If you have any questions, you can call me at any time." The Uyghur man has a very good service attitude.

In less than five minutes, the man brought what Li Wen asked for on a wooden tray.

The baked buns are quite big, each one is about half the size of a palm. When you break it open, there is a lot of mutton inside, and the juice flows into Li Wen's hands.

Li Wen couldn't wait to take a sip of the steamed bun juice, and instantly the aroma of mutton and green onions rushed into his mouth.

“It’s so fragrant! There’s no smell at all.”

Li Wen turned his left and right hands upside down and stuffed a hot bun into his mouth, picked up a spoon and drank the mutton soup.

"fresh!"

At this moment, the word "really fresh" came to Li Wen's mind. This was much more delicious than the lamb soup that was carefully blended in later generations.

There is actually mutton in the haggis soup. It is not pure haggis. It is really a conscientious operation. If this happens in future generations, the owner of the shop will probably slap his thigh and cry that he is bankrupt.

"Let's start a pot of meat!"

After eating the steamed buns and mutton soup, the mutton in the pottery pot also cooled down a little.

The meat in the jar contains skin yams, carrots, wolfberries, chickpeas, and a local specialty dish from Qiamagu that the boss said. Li Wen didn't understand it, so he could eat it.

The meat in the pot contains large pieces of mutton bone meat. Li Wen estimated that there was a pound of mutton. The portion was really quite a lot.

Eat a lot of meat, drink a lot of soup, and finally soak in the meat that comes with the pot.

Li Wen couldn't help but lament that people still need to eat enough, and being hungry really makes you lose your energy to do anything.

"It's still nice to eat meat!" Li Wen put down the big bone in his hand and stretched his waist.

"Comrade, please do the math and help me take away ten baked buns." After finishing the meal, Li Wen shouted to the shopkeeper with unfinished thoughts.

"Okay!" the shop owner responded loudly.

Including the big bag of Li Wen, this meal cost a total of three kilograms of national food stamps and three yuan. It was not expensive, after all, there was so much mutton.

After packing the toasted buns wrapped in straw paper, Li Wen walked out of the breakfast shop with energetic steps.

Now Li Wen can't express himself freely. As a buyer in a department store, he has to finish his business first and help the unit purchase the required cloth and cotton thread.

After waiting on the side of the road for a long time, he finally saw a tricycle. Li Wen quickly stopped it.

"Comrade, where is the cotton spinning factory? Can you take me there?" Li Wen didn't know the way and could only ask the tricycle master.

"It's not very far from here, let's go! I'll pull you there." The tricycle driver was a Daxia tribesman and he also spoke the Xia language.

Illinois is a vast and sparsely populated area. The population is not large, but the city is not small. It took the tricycle master almost an hour to reach the destination.

Li Wenzhen wanted to ask the driver and asked if it was not very far. It was almost the same distance from their town to the county seat.

The distance was long and the ticket was certainly not cheap. The tricycle master charged Li Wen one yuan.

After getting out of the car, Li Wen walked directly towards the guest house of the cotton spinning factory. He wanted to meet up with the unit's motorcade.

"Hello, comrade, I would like to ask, has the Chang'an Department Store's convoy arrived?"

When he arrived at the guest house, Li Wen took out his ID card, showed it to the staff, and asked with a smile.

"Comrade Li, you arrived just in time. They only arrived early this morning and asked me to pay attention to you!"

The staff at the guest house is a lesbian and is very enthusiastic towards Li Wen.
Chapter completed!