Chapter 162: Side Jobs for Family Members

As night fell and the moonlight was like water, the third uncle and his brother-in-law arrived as scheduled, and the eldest aunt had already prepared a sumptuous seafood dinner.

They looked at the table full of delicious food, including sea intestine with leeks, steamed conch, spicy crab, stir-fried prawns with sauce, steamed grouper, sea cucumber with scallions, stir-fried squid with peppers, stir-fried jellyfish with cabbage, mixed kelp shreds, and clam soup.

Every dish is delicious and mouth-watering.

"Brother, you are so generous! Look at this table full of seafood. Even the landlords and rich people probably didn't enjoy such treatment in the past. It's really exaggerated." Liu Fusheng's brother-in-law sighed sincerely.

The third uncle smiled and said, "People living by the sea don't like these things. They've eaten enough of them. Although they are nutritious, they can't satisfy hunger. And they taste too fishy without oil. Only people like us inland treat them as treasures."

Liu Zhiye continued, "Uncle San is right. Eating seafood alone does consume a lot of oil. You need to pair it with some side dishes to make yourself full."

My aunt urged, "Eat quickly, don't wait for the food to get cold. It will be too fishy when it's cold." She pointed at the dishes on the table and motioned for everyone to eat first.

Upon hearing this, Liu Zhiye picked up a sea cucumber, placed it respectfully in the old man's bowl, and said with a smile: "Okay! Let's eat the vegetables first, Grandpa, you try this first..."

After three rounds of wine, five flavors of food.

Liu Zhiye mentioned the purpose of looking for them tonight and said, "Uncle, I found that the mountains near our village are full of plants that can be used to weave baskets, including cotton strips, wax strips, broom strips, and thorns. They are everywhere on the mountains and it would be a waste to leave them there.

I suggest you organize the villagers to make cotton sliver baskets, baskets, dustpans and other tools, and I can help with the recycling. I can give you 15 cents for each frame. "

The third uncle, the eldest uncle, the brother-in-law and others looked at each other and said in confusion: "Zhiye, every household can make this thing, there are plenty of them, and it's not worth much. If you want to use it, I'll give you a few, why bother talking about the price?"

Liu Zhiye smiled and said to the uncle: "I bought this for my friend. There is a huge demand, so we need tens of thousands of them. If they are not enough, we will buy more later."

He purchased a large number of woven rattan frames, originally in order to cope with the surge in demand for frames caused by the surge in seafood trade.

Liu Zhiye noticed that this frame-weaving plant could be seen almost everywhere in their village.

He suddenly had an idea and thought that he could use these plants to provide a new source of income for his family back home, while also ensuring the demand for tools needed to sell seafood. This was a win-win situation.

When the third uncle Liu Yuanhai heard this, he was instantly excited: "Hey, this is really great! Every household in our village can weave this frame. If they are good at it, they can weave two or three a day in their free time. If you calculate it for a month, each household can earn at least eight or nine yuan more!"

"Can so many frames be sold? Don't let them fail to sell and then we won't be able to explain to the villagers!" Uncle said worriedly.

His brother-in-law Liu Fusheng also reminded him: "Yes, Zhiye, there are 300 households in our village, and each household can weave at least two baskets a day, which means nearly baskets a month. Maybe even more than that. Some elderly people in the village who don't work in the fields can weave three or four baskets a day."

Liu Zhiye smiled and reassured everyone: "Dear elders, please rest assured that 20,000 frames will be absolutely no problem."

In fact, he had thought about it carefully. Considering the current scale of transactions, based on a frequency of twice a month, the weight of seafood involved each time would be as high as more than one million kilograms.

Considering the actual situation, a box can usually only hold 3 to kilograms of seafood. Therefore, a rough estimate is that about boxes are needed each month.

He was very confident about this matter, and even worried that it would not be enough. In addition, even if he did not use so many frames that month, it would not cost him much, at most 3000 yuan a month, which was just a drop in the bucket for his huge transaction volume, and he could just treat it as a relief for his family.

The old man praised sincerely: "Great! Zhiye, you have done a great thing for the villagers again. Their lives are hard now, if you have the ability, please help them more."

His eyes sparkled with expectation for the Liu family. Who in this village was not his clansman or relative? He knew very well that only when the villagers lived a good life could their Liu family prosper.

In the village, the old man's status is unmatched, even the third uncle Liu Yuanhai has to keep his distance from him.

One of the reasons for this is that the old man is the most senior and was the village patriarch before liberation. His fairness and selflessness make the villagers respect him. In addition, the Liu family has a very good family tradition. Everyone is united and there is no such a mess.

In addition, the disasters in recent years have made other nearby villages miserable, but in Liujiazhuang, with the old man around, life is prosperous. Among them, Liu Zhiye's care played a key role.

Putting aside other things, Liu Zhiye took great pains to do many things for the village, and none of them was not for the betterment of the villagers.

If he were in ancient times, a man like Liu Zhiye would surely attract thousands of responses if he raised his arm. It's a pity that he was born at the wrong time, otherwise he might have created the "Liu Dynasty".

"Uncle, have we released fish, shrimp and crab seedlings into our rice fields?" Liu Zhiye then asked about rice field farming.

The geographical location of their Liujia Village is truly unique, with the majestic Taihang Mountains and Yanshan Mountains behind it and rich forest resources.

In addition, the village is located on the banks of the Yongding River, which flows through the village and brings abundant water resources to the village.

Despite the severe drought in recent years, their village has not suffered from water shortages, thanks to a large swamp to the south of the village, which is formed by the confluence of tributaries of the Yongding River and many streams flowing down from the mountains.

Under Liu Zhiye's clever suggestion, this thousands of acres of water area was cleverly utilized for scientific rice farming.

It is early May now, and the rice in the paddy fields is already growing vigorously. Various aquatic product seedlings such as grass carp, crucian carp, carp, crayfish, and "Shengfang crab" specially introduced from Baiyangdian are all released in this area, sharing the rich resources of this area.

This practice of multiple economic benefits not only brings new vitality to this water area, but also injects new vitality into the economic development of the village.

Speaking of which, the "Shengfang Crab" is extremely famous. Because old Beijing people almost never eat hairy crabs, and rarely have the opportunity to eat sea crabs, they eat "Shengfang Crab" if they want to eat it.

Maybe someone in the capital of later generations can see the word "hairy crab" everywhere, whether in street shops, large supermarkets or commercial websites.

Some people even think that eating hairy crabs is one of the Beijing's culinary traditions, which is a huge misunderstanding.

In the diet of the old capital, when it comes to crabs, you rarely see the word "hairy crab". On the contrary, the crabs they eat every autumn are actually a delicacy called "Shengfang crab".

"Shengfang Town is the place for crabs, and Zhengyanglou is the place for crabs." Zhengyanglou is famous for its mutton hotpot and Dongshan-style dishes, but the most famous is its giant crabs.

Every autumn, Zhengyanglou adds "steamed giant crabs" to its menu. Crabs in autumn are the fattest and have a nickname called "sorghum red".

The crabs at Zhengyanglou are purchased from Shengfang Town, a famous swamp near Tianjin Port.

Xia Renhu, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, recorded in his "Miscellaneous Notes on Old Beijing": "Zhengyanglou in Qianmen is also famous for its crabs. The crabs come from Shengfang and are first selected by Zhengyanglou before being put on the market, so they are the best."

Writer Zhou Zuoren once wrote an article recalling: "Shengfang crabs like those shown in Zhengyang Tower were indeed only affordable for officials and wealthy businessmen. In the past, teachers and craftsmen could only pool their money for a meal and go there occasionally."

Many people are like what the famous scholar Mr. Liu Yeqiu said: "The crabs in Zhengyanglou are big and plump, each weighing half a pound. It is not surprising that there are so many diners. If you are not entertaining guests, you can go to the market, pick a few pounds of big crabs, go home and add ginger and vinegar, and have a full meal. It only costs a few dollars, which is more enjoyable than going to a restaurant."

Guo Degang has a crosstalk in which he said, "The weather is clear and cool in autumn, it is the time when river crabs are fat." He bought two kilograms of crabs and "carried these fifty-plus crabs home." Yu Qian said, "Aren't you afraid of spending five cents?" Amid the laughter of the audience, Guo Degang euphemistically named them "chess crabs."

Therefore, after in-depth research and visits, Liu Zhiye discovered that the old Beijingers really like "Shengfang Crab", which fully demonstrates their pursuit of food and unique taste.

In this context, when Liu Zhiye was choosing farmed aquatic products, the first thing he considered was Shengfang crab.

He keenly saw the potential and huge business opportunities of this market. If the breeding scale can be gradually expanded, Liu Zhiye believes that their village will have a bright future with the specialty product "Shengfang crab".

(End of this chapter)