Heshan County is located at the bottom of the Jiuhe River, which is a flat and low-lying land, all saline-alkali land. Most of the county is full of reeds, and you can't see people on the road for 100 miles.

Most of the reeds are shallow swamps, generally speaking, it is impossible to enter, and only occasionally see a little higher place to find a way out.

It was the beginning of autumn, and the reeds had passed their vigor, but it was not yet time to harvest. It's not that the reeds don't grow, it's that the reeds can't be harvested.

The reeds have to be harvested in winter. Winter in the Northeast is called a cold! The idiom said that the freezing three feet is not a day's cold, which probably refers to the winter situation in the Northeast!

It was three feet frozen, and of course the ground was frozen, so that the reeds could enter and harvest the reeds.

The usefulness of the reed can be great, the roots, stems and leaves are all treasures, what is the Tomafang papermaking mat into medicine, its leaves are the wrapping of the rice dumplings that people often eat, and its young shoots are also edible.

The eastern part of the town is a little higher, and there are occasional farmlands in the dense reeds, which are suitable for growing rice, and can only be cultivated.

Because it is a saline-alkali land, the rice that grows is particularly delicious. The rice produced here is so good in the eyes of the southerners that it is called good rice, and with good rice, there is bad or not so good rice in comparison.

The people of the Northeast call the rice produced in the south as thread rice, which is a bit contemptuous. In fact, if you think about it, it may also be that the taste of rice produced in the south is indeed not as good as that of the rice produced in the northeast, especially the rice produced in Heshan County.

There is also a possibility that in addition to steaming and eating, the rice produced in the south is also used as a raw material for making a snack similar to noodles, which is called rice noodles.

Reeds and rice are the main products of Heshan County, and they are also the economic source of the survival of the people of Heshan County, Wang Yuan's warehouse is also mainly responsible for the rice and reed business, and at the same time, he also opened an inn, and the inn and inn are mixed together, just on the east street in the east of Heshan County near the suburbs.

His inn is actually a big car shop, and the main customers are those handlebar and small traders and hawkers who come and go from south to north, that is, the so-called peddlers and pawns on the rivers and lakes.

Although this Heshan County is located in the land of Beiyi, it is not prosperous, but it is also a very big place, of course, it cannot be compared with Shanhaiguan, and it is even worse than Beijing, but people can live and have food to eat, it is enough, what Shanhaiguan!

What else is Beiping! When I arrived at the passenger and freight inn of Dewangyuan, it was already the time to hold the lamp. The guest and freight inn is a very large yard, facing south, red brick wall, the courtyard door frame is a wooden pillar, the courtyard door is a wooden board, and a wooden sign is hung on the right side of the door frame, the passenger and freight inn of Heshan East Street.

When the little doctor was in Shaolin Temple, he learned to read and write with his senior brothers, and he still recognized a few of the simple ones, but the words on the sign were not complete, but he only recognized the words of Heshan East - passengers and goods - a few words, and he was not easy to ask.

When I entered the courtyard gate, I was faced with a row of adobe bungalows, and there could be more than a dozen of them, and the lights in the houses flickered through the window paper, yellow.

The saline-alkali soil in Heshan County has an advantage, especially suitable for the wall, the house is built with the saline-alkali soil wall, not afraid of water, the roof is wiped with this saline-alkali soil, and it does not leak rain.

This saline-alkali soil bungalow also has an advantage, that is, it is warm in winter and cool in summer, of course, this is also relatively speaking, in the northeast, the summer is cool, the summer is cool, but when the winter comes, it is the strength of the frozen three feet, and the house is warm in winter.

As soon as he entered the courtyard, the little doctor saw a black man stumbling in the courtyard. When the man heard that someone was coming, he looked up and was happy, and ran to meet him, big brother, come back!

He looked at the little doctor again and nodded at him. Wang Yuan agreed, and asked, is there anything wrong?

All right! The black man agreed, and took the burden on Wang Yuan's shoulders. The little doctor looked at the courtyard at this time, on the left was a horse shed, there were two carts unloaded and parked next to the horse shed, on the right side were three or four bungalows, one in the middle, the door was open, and a stream of smoke gushed out, and in the dim light, there were two people who were busy working, it seemed to be the kitchen.

At the south end of the bungalow there is a reel well, and nothing else. The yard was very clean, even in the dim evening of the evening.

Wang Yuanchao glanced at the smoking door, where is cooking? So saying, he walked towards the door. Uh-huh!

They entered the door of one of the houses one after the other. Two men were cooking on a fire, and the room was full of smoke.

When the man who burned the fire heard that someone had come in, he looked up and saw that it was Wang Yuan, and immediately stood up, ah! Big Brother is back!

The man who was cooking also turned around and greeted Wang Yuan, looked at the little doctor, and only nodded.

What's delicious to cook? Yes! Rice, two pillars touched a few fish in the ditch, stewed fish! Ooh! Good foodie!

Get busy! Out of the stove room, the servants came to the front of the courtyard of the slippery bungalow, through the door of the middle of the room into the door, this is also a stove room, one left and one right plate two pots, two large pots, wooden pot lids, very dry and quiet, the north gable also opened a door.

From this stove room to the left and to the right, there are guest rooms. The guest room is exquisite, because this bungalow sits on the north and faces south, so that according to the male left and female right, the male guest lives on the east side and the female guest lives on the west side.

In fact, there are very few female customers in this big car shop, only occasionally there are relatives, and new women return to the door, that is, according to the old rules, women need to go back to their parents' homes to visit their parents on the third day after marriage.

The rooms on the left and right are all tube rooms, each with five rooms, each of which has no partition, and can only be distinguished by looking at the wooden pillars of the house beams.

A lampstand was nailed to the pillar of the room, and kerosene lamps were placed on it. Three people into the east room, a big kang from the door has been used to the east gable, there are a few men on the kang, some are sorting out their own luggage, some leaning on the futon and squinting, then I heard someone enter the door, the one who sorted out the luggage stopped, the squinting opened his eyes, and saw that Wang Yuan came in, all came straight, said hello, and looked very familiar.

Wang Yuan greeted the people in the house, and then took the little doctor and the black man out of the north gate of the stove room and went to the backyard.

This backyard is also a bungalow. The little doctor thought that if the house in front was a guest room, the house in the back should be a warehouse.

He was right. The front room is an inn, and the back room is a freight inn.

Entering the room in the middle of the warehouse, it was still a stove room, and no one was cooking there, and it was very clean, as if it hadn't been used for a long time.

The little doctor didn't understand, there was already a place for cooking in the yard, why should every house have a place to cook?

Entering the room on the right, it seems to be a place for guests, in the middle of the room is a table of eight immortals, four chairs are placed around the table, there is no kang in the room, and a few chairs are placed next to the south window and the north wall.

There was no one in the house. The black man put Wang Yuan's burden on the chair against the north wall, touched the small brass teapot on the table, and said, "Big brother, you and this little brother sit down first, let's go make some water, and the meal will take a while."

To make water is to boil water, and it is also the local dialect of the Northeast. The eldest brother is back, this little brother is still new, let's let Erzhuzi get two more dishes, and let's have a few drinks!

Wang Yuan said, Ah, you go, don't worry. After a while, I heard a few people coming in from outside, and then someone pushed the door and entered the house.

The first was a young man in his thirties, followed by a man in his fifties, and the black man who had just gone out followed.

Eldest brother! Coming back? I guess it's time to come back! The young man who came in said. Wang Yuan stood up, and after meeting the two of them, he said, let's introduce you!

This is our little brother Baiguo. Yes! Big brother's little brother is our little brother, sit down! Then, Wang Yuan introduced all the three men to the little doctor.

Originally, the four chairs around the Eight Immortals Table were sitting just right, and when the little doctor came, it was not enough to sit, so Wang Yuan asked the black man to move another one from the north wall, and the little doctor sat on the chair.

At that time, the little doctor didn't know that as soon as he sat on this chair, he would fall into the grass.