Before dawn, the night watchman walked through the long dark street, and some scattered figures became active in such a silent street.
Hanging small, orange lanterns, pushing carts through the streets are some women in shabby and simple clothes. Most of their figures are rough, and some are barefoot, stepping on the sewage-filled streets in the early morning.
Streets. Each of these women has their own path. They stop under familiar roofs or on the side of the road. They pick up the barrels one by one at the agreed-upon, inconspicuous corners, hang up the carts, and then continue pushing the carts.
The first ones to get up before dawn are the night-scented women in the small town.
There was no sewage system for excrement in the ancient towns. Pouring night fragrance was a despicable business that people were taboo about talking about. But to be honest, the income was not that small. Some women from poor families or widows came out to take care of this business when they were desperate.
They can also earn enough money and materials to survive for themselves and their families. In some places, night fragrance women also have a fixed "sphere of influence" in their business, and sometimes conflicts may even arise due to competition for customers.
But at this moment before dawn, most of the women pushing trolleys to collect night incense barrels were quiet. They walked through the dim city according to the predetermined route, and then gathered one after another towards a dilapidated courtyard outside the south gate of the city.
A man wearing a bamboo hat would collect the night incense brought by them bucket by bucket and give them copper coins as a reward.
Feces is an indecent thing, but in the past, there were people who concentrated on collecting it. However, since the Chinese Army came over, because the people who used to collect night incense were scared away, the business here has been taken over by people from the Chinese Army - although there is no trouble.
Why did the Huaxia Army, which had a great cause in the Qing Dynasty, take over this kind of thing? But after a period of time, most of the women who collected night incense also knew that this place had become a "public" property. Even the man who collected the night incense seemed to be a member of the Huaxia Army.
a member of.
The Chinese army's collection of night incense is actually better than that of scoundrels collecting night incense in the past. They don't make it too difficult for women who have nocturnal incense, and pay them clearly and readily. This was not the case in the past. Most of the people who collected night incense were women.
Most of the people who buy night fragrance have a dirty and rogue background. They often interfere with the "qualification" and "sphere of influence" of the night fragrance women. Sometimes they don't like people, and they make a lot of deductions and make things difficult when giving money. Sometimes they can see that the beauty is acceptable.
The little widow would even tease her a bit. Things like shit bandits and shit bullies may sound absurd and laughable, but they are also things that actually happen at the bottom of society.
After the Huaxia Army came, these things disappeared. In the past, it seemed that the people in charge of collecting dung here from the Huaxia Army did not see the interests of this area and had no intention of getting involved in these things. In the past two months, as this night fragrance station has changed
A new manager was hired, and even the dilapidated yard gradually became more organized.
The visits to various items were in an orderly manner. When the Night Fragrance Women came over in the early morning, they found that the surrounding environment was not as smelly as usual. This new member of the Chinese Army strengthened the shelf holding the huge dung bucket on one side of the yard.
, he would also wash the roads with water every day, so that the women would not have to work as hard as usual to pour the night incense. Occasionally, he would help the women pour the night incense buckets. Although he was not skilled, he seemed to have an easy-going temperament and it was not difficult to talk.
.
Within a month or two, the mature Yexiang woman quickly struck up a conversation with the other party, asking about her origins, whether she was an official member of the Chinese Army, and why the masters of the Chinese Army wanted to recruit her. Feces... and other questions, the middle-aged man named Tang Minjie answered the question without hesitation. He was originally from the north, so naturally he was not an official member of the Chinese Army. As for why he collected feces, that was Hua Xia Jun built a farm in the nearby Xiaoye Village and needed to stock up on manure and research on fertile land, so he took his wages and came over to do odd jobs.
"Oh..." Ye Xiang women also understood these things and nodded: "Then... the person you were in charge of before should be a regular employee of your Chinese army... I said, he didn't know much. made……"
Relatively speaking, the "regular worker" who worked at Yexiang Station in the past did not have the enthusiasm to dedicate himself to this position. The "public servant" had an arrogant attitude. Even the women who had dealt with dung gangsters and dung tyrants in the past were a little scared. , there was not much communication. At this time, a "temporary worker" came. The status of both parties was similar, and they talked more. The temporary worker would also ask about their lives and experiences over the years from time to time. Some elderly people The woman laughed and talked about things in life.
Although the job of pouring night incense is not glorious, once you get used to it, life is not too embarrassing. Or it can be said that in these years, embarrassment has always been a part of life. Most of these women collected night incense in the early morning in silence. At Yexiang Station, I felt happy when I saw someone curious and talking about some things in life. In the early morning at Yexiang Station, I could occasionally hear the laughter of women.
After the excrement is dumped at the night incense station, the night incense women pushing the carts will go to the tributaries of the nearby rivers to clean the night incense barrels - this is also part of the night incense work. If the night incense barrels are cleaned, the owner will often get the favor. Bonus points. Some women continued the conversation by the river, occasionally mentioning the "temporary worker" at Yexiang Station.
“I’m not sure about my age…”
"Thirty...more than forty, right?"
"You speak with sophistication, someone who has seen the world..."
"The people are very nice..."
"My body seems not to be well..."
"Well, when I saw him coughing, he almost couldn't breathe once, and the incense bucket fell on him..."
"Is there something wrong..."
"He's not a tuberculosis man. Look, he doesn't cough all the time..."
"I'm eating public food..."
"Looking at what he does... I think he might be able to become a regular employee in the future..."
"It looks good to me... Do you think we should tell him about Xiao Qing? Xiao Qing looks good..."
"Xiaoqing is strong and fertile..."
After older women express their appreciation for men, most of the topics come here.
Xiao Qing, as everyone knows, is a new night-scented woman. She is twenty-seven years old and pretty. After her husband passed away, she lived with a daughter. She did not want to work as a prostitute, so she came to do the work of collecting night-scented flowers. Of course, at the beginning Although she stumbled a lot, she had a strong character and was quickly recognized by others.
After saying this for several times, I felt that it was quite reliable, especially when the woman named He Qing was there. Everyone laughed and saw that the other party just blushed and remained silent, and did not curse harshly, so I knew how much the woman felt that The temporary worker was "okay", so after a few days, an old woman who was the most sociable mentioned her intention to him in private.
After being silent for a while, Tang Minjie sighed again and again, and then told the other party that his health was not good, especially since he had a serious illness last year and almost died. Now that he has found such a thing through his connections, he might not be able to do it anymore.
How can you hurt the other person who is good to you?
He spoke sincerely. Afterwards, the old woman, besides giving a few words of comfort, felt that the marriage between the two was not suitable. She turned around and reported to everyone, mentioning the physical problems of "Xiaotang", and couldn't help but feel sad.
Tears, after the woman named He Qing learned that the other party was "too weak" and "often sick", she silently stopped paying attention to this matter.
People everywhere have their own lives.
As the sky grew brighter, the area around Yexiang Station returned to calm.
Tang Minjie began to pack away the debris and perform simple cleaning inside and outside the yard. Then he set up a mule cart and transferred the huge dung bucket supported by a wooden frame at the back of the yard to the mule cart. Due to the height difference of the wooden frame, this work was complicated.
It’s not laborious either.
The mule cart used to transport manure every day is the main asset of the Night Incense Station, and it is also a manifestation of the Chinese army's "rich wealth". The mule cart will drag one to two large barrels of Night Incense back to the experimental farm nearly ten miles away every day.
To verify the advantages and disadvantages of various retting techniques, and to selectively experiment with the characteristics of various substances - of course, all of this is not considered mature, especially in the area of fertilizers, even in the Chinese army.
Ning Yi has put forward some ideas for "cheap industry", and many people have proposed ideas. However, the experiment cycle is long, the overall clue is not clear, and there are not many participants. It is not as organized as the direction of "selecting and breeding improved seeds".
The farm located here is named "Huaxia Army 223 Agricultural Research Institute". It is close to a village where hundreds of people live. It is obviously not a key project in the Huaxia Army's agricultural experimental layout. The number of people is small, the place is small, the research direction is vague, and the members
The will to fight is not strong either. This is something Tang Minjie could see at a glance when he came over. The director of the research institute is called Chen Cirang. I don’t know when he was a comrade recruited by the Huaxia Army. He is literate and must have read a book.
A Confucian scholar, he arranged things in a fairly orderly manner and had a relatively gentle personality - of course, perhaps only this kind of personality was suitable for running agricultural experiments.
In the morning, I hauled back the night fragrance and poured it into a large septic tank. According to the work arrangement of the farm, there will be different retting experiments. Due to the work rhythm of the farm, most of these things are dirty. For Tang Minjie, it is not very tiring -
-Of course, as someone who has worked in the hinterland of the Kingdom of Jin for several years, there is already a distorted part of his spirit. The standard of whether he is tired is no longer consistent with ordinary people, and it is difficult to say whether it is objective.
Since I get up early in the morning, I often don’t have much to do in the afternoon.
Although there is no distinction between high and low in work, collecting night incense inevitably leaves people smelling bad. In the one or two months since he came to the farm, Tang Minjie didn't make many friends - this was also his fault.
During work meetings, he would make sure to sit a little further away from others. When he met colleagues on the street, he would simply say hello, and when he went to the cafeteria to eat, no one would take the initiative to sit next to him. Discrimination aside, the taste was also unappetizing.
The injuries he brought back from the north have not fully recovered. His body is still weak, and he occasionally feels unable to do physical work. After being sent here, while adapting to work, he asked Director Chen to borrow some
Looking at agricultural research books and materials, the overall understanding is not difficult.
In the afternoons when the sky is clear and there is nothing to do, he will often cross the grove on the edge of the farm and sit on the edge of the pond to look at the situation in the village opposite. Opposite the pond is the grain drying field in Xiaoye Village. There is a stone mill next to the grain drying field.
, men, women and children in the village often gather there, some grinding things, others chatting, and children playing and playing.
The sun shone down and fell on him. It was late autumn, but the warmth in the sun still caused a chill in his heart. The chill burst out, conflicting with the sun in his body, torturing his skin and rattling in his bones.
.
His eyes would flash through the scenes of the North that he could still see every night, those who died in skin and bones, those who died of various abuses, and the crazy screams of slaves whose skins were peeled off.
Even though they are thousands of miles apart, they are still clearly visible and within reach. They often merge with everything in front of them.
The villagers in the grain drying farm opposite would occasionally look at him curiously. Once or twice, an old man from the village walked along the pond and seemed to want to strike up a conversation with him and smell his scent.
So he walked away.
The life after arriving in Wenpu County did not exist in any of his previous expectations. During this period, his spirit was chaotic. Many times he woke up in the middle of the night, suddenly feeling that he was still in the clouds.
, he listened to what was going on outside, and even rushed out of the yard to look for weapons. It would take a while before he could realize where he was. Sometimes the women laughed loudly, and he felt dizzy, as if in a dream, over there in the sun drying grain fields.
The people always reminded him of the villages in the north where Han slaves gathered. He would habitually fumble for his collar, but there was no poison inside.
After placing him here, people outside seemed to have completely forgotten about him. So one afternoon in October, three soldiers from the Chinese Army came to Xiaoye Village on horseback. The leader was Peng Yueyun.
"Senior brother."
At this time, Peng Yueyun could be regarded as one of the representatives of the young faction in the army, and he also had the representative significance of inheriting the mantle of the Western Army. He had the rank of senior colonel and a bright future. However, he still used his strength against Tang Minjie, who was guilty.
A military salute. Tang Minjie looked at him for a moment and woke up from his dream.
"It seems I can't call you Xiao Peng anymore. What should I call you?"
"We are all on our own, so just be casual." Peng Yueyun said, "Just call me father."
"……Why."
After subconsciously answering, Tang Minjie hesitated and then kicked him.