In the early morning, the sky was dim, and the lights of Bobu Fortress were still bright. The night sentry yawned and looked at the watch clock on the fort, hoping that the time for changing the sentry would come soon.
On the beach two miles away, several men with backpacks on their backs had already arrived on the beach through the lights in the distance.
At this time, it was still dark, and there were already many local fishermen who got up early on the beach. They were divided into several groups to guard one place a few hundred meters apart. When they saw several people coming here, they all looked a little evil. If it weren't for the security punishment of the Senate,
It's very strict. Judging from the situation, a fight would have started already.
"Lao Dai, which one should I choose?" Seeing that there were people around, a few people were a little anxious. The tides rise and fall in different directions. If you choose the wrong place, you have to walk more. The key is to sell less money.
A man with a face of about forty stepped forward. He was wearing a coarse shorts, covered in gray, and wooden-soled cloth shoes from Lingao Shoe Factory. He frowned and looked at the sea that had begun to surge, and then counted the time.
, then whispered: "Come."
A few people bypassed the crowd who were guarding their positions and stood at a slightly concave beach.
At this time, the tide has begun to recede rapidly, the beach is boiling instantly, and people picking up early-tide aquatic products have begun to take action.
After the tide goes out, the beach is covered with seaweed and seaweed, and live shrimps and crabs are crawling around in a panic.
"Lao Dai is so good at this. There are so many of them, please hurry up and pick them up." Several people said in surprise.
He smiled and looked at his somewhat flustered companions. Dai Dehou, known as Lao Dai, was unhurried. He first took off his shoes and stuffed them around his waist, and then started to attack. The target was not the conspicuous shrimps and crabs.
His attention was focused on the shellfish lying peacefully, avoiding large hard-shelled conches and the like. He picked up oysters, mussels, clams and other small soft shells one by one as quickly as possible.
, floated away the sediment in the sea water, and then threw it into the bamboo basket.
These descendants of the Sea Dragon King are the wealth bestowed by the chiefs!
After a while, the bamboo basket was already full to the brim, and Dai Dehou casually helped his two companions who were not yet full to load a few more.
"Let's go!" someone greeted anxiously, a few people had already left quickly, and most of the shell pickers on the beach were still busy.
Carrying [***] and a heavy bamboo basket on his back, Dai Dehou's steps were particularly brisk at this moment. Thinking that he would soon be able to exchange for circulating coupons, the fatigue of staying up late faded a lot at this time.
In just one cup of tea, they had arrived at the Bobu Port Area. You can't just enter the innermost pier, but the commercial street in the port area has a seafood processing factory shop owned by the chiefs, who buy and sell. There are very cheap ones here every morning.
For selling aquatic products, I suddenly started to put away shrimps, crabs, shells and the like some time ago.
The courtyard of the sales department has several doors, all of which are open 24 hours a day. Dai Dehou and his party entered through the side door. The place inside is very large, and as soon as they enter, there is a large courtyard. There are seven or eight unloaded four-wheel carriages parked.
Against the wall were stacks of wooden trays and bamboo baskets for transporting fishing goods. The air was filled with a strong smell of seafood. There were still large pools of water stains, fish scales, and fish bones on the ground.
Trash.
When Dai Dehou came to the store's purchasing station, the gas lights had been turned off. The yawning receipt clerk rubbed his hands and called for Dai Dehou and his companions to go over to the weighing scale.
Behind the collector, you can vaguely see the aquatic products processing plant. Behind the building is connected to the fishing port. There always seem to be returning fishing boats unloading goods. Baskets of catch are constantly being sent to the workshop via rail carts for processing.
After processing, part of it will be sent to stores for sale.
"Hmm..." The collector looked at the booklet in his hand and carefully looked at the shells in the bamboo basket, and then sniffed with his pointed nose before nodding, "They are all soft shells, freshness level two.
Put it on the scale. Thirty pounds, right? OK, take it."
The delivery clerk quickly wrote a few lines on the clips, pulled off one sheet and handed it to him.
Dai Dehou didn't understand what freshness was, but he was used to weights. Thirty kilograms of these second-grade soft clams could be exchanged for fifteen yuan in circulation coupons. He counted clearly and took the purchase order with a smile - to
The exchange office gave me three yellow paper tickets, which I carefully placed close to my chest.
Collecting shellfish is a hard job, especially in the first shift of the morning tide. The leaders have strict and many rules. Not only do they have different prices in the morning and afternoon, but they also cost one cup of tea when they are picked up from the sea. If it has been more than an hour, they will not take it.
The price of large conchs is not good. Although live animals such as shrimps and crabs are more expensive, they are not worth anything if they are damaged. On the contrary, they are not as cost-effective as these small soft shells. Moreover, they will not be collected after three hundred kilograms per day, so every day
In the morning, several groups of people took turns grabbing it.
It's just that the first batch of income this morning is really good. This hour is much better than the temporary work he did. Unfortunately, there is no fixed number of morning tides every day, and he can only get it once every three or five times.
Several companions were all from Danzhou, and Shi Bei knew each other. The fellow villagers looked after each other. Dai Dehou had collected fishing goods before and was familiar with the tides in Chengmai, Danzhou, so he seemed to be the leader among them.
"Lao Dai, are you going to have a drink?" Several companions quickly finished weighing the scales and greeted him warmly.
"I'm not going. Go back and go to bed early. You have to work the night shift." Dai Dehou smiled and refused. He was too tired to stay up all night.
After separating from his companions, Dai Dehou went to the main entrance of the market, where the catch that had returned to port this morning was already laid out.
Although it is still early in the morning, there are already many people coming to buy cheap and discounted fish. Some even come from the county town. Anyway, now there is a train and it is convenient to travel.
Different from the common local fish vendors and small shops, the seafood processing factory here has a store that is much larger than the direct sales store in Dongmen City. It was originally only a wholesale business, and then it started retailing after the train was connected, just like a store that specializes in selling fish.
Not only people from the county like to come here to buy goods, I heard that even merchants from Guangzhou come here to buy goods - you can buy a lot of rare fish here, and the price is cheaper than in Guangzhou, and you can also get processed food here.
In the ice packaging business, wooden boxes filled with ice cubes and seafood are loaded on the fast liner of Dabo Shipping, and the fish shipped to Guangzhou is fresher than the fish fished from Huangpu.
The store is divided into several areas. The dry goods area is full of seafood products: kelp, seaweed, fish fillets, dried fish, fish sauce, oyster sauce, shrimp paste, fish balls, fish intestines, etc., all packed in thick paper or small bamboo baskets or straw bags.
Packages like this are piled on the shelves; the fresh goods area is the largest, with large fresh food, grouper, squid, mackerel, yellow snapper, hairtail, prawns, flower crabs, all kinds of common and uncommon, you can’t even name them.
Fresh fish, shrimps and crabs are all jumping around and kept in small pools. There is a thick iron shaft on the roof that is constantly rotating, and a belt drives the waterwheels in the pools to continuously stir the water; inside
The most novel thing is the chilled area. The chief has endless ice all year round. The fish are piled in bamboo baskets and wooden trays and covered with smoothies. Although the fish is dead, it is just as delicious when you buy it home. The key is this.
The price of chilled fish is half that of fresh fish, and there are special discounts of 20% to 30% in the morning and evening.
This is not the first time for Dai Dehou to come here. Although he has been dealing with fish for half his life, he is still a little dazzled by the shopping.
The leaders are really capable. Dai Dehou secretly sighed in his heart. Although some fish are common here, some fish are very rare this season. For example, the hairtail fish likes to hide in the depths of the sea in winter. It cannot be caught with ordinary fishing nets, so it takes a long time to use a long line pole.
He only caught a few fish, but there were dozens of them in the bamboo basket in front of him, and he had never seen any fish sold out in this store.
However, he also wondered why the chief could catch so many fish and shrimps, but he also opened a market to buy live shrimps and shells, etc., so that he could not catch them all?
Nowadays, the catch in Lingao is so cheap that many nearby fishermen have no way of living. Most of them have no choice but to join the chief's team: those with a little savings and big boats join the fishery cooperatives, while those with no money and small boats have no choice but to go to the fishing cooperatives.
Lingao Fishery Company works as a fisherman. There are fewer and fewer independent fishermen. Dai Dehou naturally does not know that this is done deliberately by Lingao Fishery Company, just to maximize the use of the special human resources of fishermen, not to mention that these fishermen are salvaged in large quantities in the open sea.
The cost of fresh chilled fish is not high either.
Thinking about going to school to see his daughter in the afternoon, Dai Dehou gritted his teeth and went to the fresh goods area. The prices here were twice as expensive as outside. Usually only wealthy households in the county and restaurants doing business would buy them.
After Dai Dehou entered, he saw price tags displayed in the pool. He couldn't read them, so he looked at them one by one. Many of the fish's names were different from what they were accustomed to. For example, the chiefs of Daxian called them big yellow croakers. In fact, most of the fish here were outside.
There are both in the chilled section, but this one is much bigger and full of life.
After going around a circle again, there were many fish whose names I had never seen before. The prices were frightening. Dai Dehou hurriedly returned to the door and asked the clerk to help him choose a smaller fish, weighed it and put it in a wooden barrel.
After scooping another ladle of water into it, he sadly took out two yellow bills. The money was enough for the family to eat for more than a day. Then he went to the dry goods area and used the change to buy a small bag of fish fillets. This daughter likes to eat.
Then I bought a bag of fish balls and a jar of shrimp paste.
This fish ball is the most cost-effective, the price is only higher than the price of rice, and much cheaper than the discounted fish. Naturally, he doesn’t know that the sweet potato starch and surimi made from various low-grade fish are used in this thing.
Semi-mechanized mass production requires no labor and the cost is naturally low.
Dai Dehou held the bucket in his hand, put the fish fillets, fish balls and shrimp paste in his backpack, walked to Bobu Railway Station, found the monthly pass card and handed it to the concierge for inspection.
The place where he works is over Ma Niao, and the monthly train ticket is really convenient. Without it, he would have to walk for several hours back and forth, and it would be impossible to earn the fifteen yuan in circulation coupons.
Fortunately, a train came soon after entering the platform. There were not many people in the morning. Dai Dehou got on the last train, found a place to put the barrel on the ground, and then sat down with the barrel in his arms. The train left quickly.
, he endured his sleepiness and looked outside the car.
Not far away is the main road from Bopu to Dongmen City, or as the leaders call it, the highway.