Somewhere in Zhongshan outside Xuanwu Lake.

In the early morning, the sky is slightly bright, and the lights of the State Guesthouse, which can be seen across Xuanwu Lake, are still bright. The nightless sentinel yawned and looked at the morning star in the sky, hoping that the sky would turn white and the time for the change of guard would come sooner.

More than a dozen men in single clothes with a basket tied to their chests had already walked from the entrance of the mountain to the edge of Xuanwu Lake.

Before dawn, these people had already divided into several groups, separated by a few hundred meters, and each guarded one place. They hated each other, and the way they looked at each other was all malicious and unkind. If they didn't know the rules of Nanjing's generation of free-range farms, they couldn't fight, and the public security punishment was very severe, looking at that vicious gaze, they would probably have started fighting long ago.

The mountain in front of you is one of more than a dozen professional farms scattered in the mountainous area around Nanjing.

There are countless chickens, ducks and geese roaming on the mountain ridge because of its proximity to the water.

And some of the mountains are raised pigs, sheep, rabbits, pheasants, roe deer, muntjac and other different wild animals, this is entirely because Nanjing's daily demand for eggs and poultry meat is increasing day by day, so that countless people see profits from it, and then some of them act quickly, some of them succeed, some fail.

This is a success story right now.

In this era, it is difficult to imagine the huge and intensive modern farms in later generations, and when it comes to breeding, it is more dependent on geographical advantages for free-range breeding.

And those farms that raise wild boars and other wild things, such as the breeding base that raises chickens, ducks and geese and other poultry in front of you, it takes a large number of people to search the mountains and fields every day to pick up eggs, duck eggs, and goose eggs.

These people are not counted as workers on their farms, they are like the day laborers of the past, who are paid according to the efficiency of their work.

- Everyone wears the bagless and bagless overalls provided by the farm before going up the mountain, a basket is tied to his chest, and he is not even allowed to bring a kettle, and the eggs, duck eggs and goose eggs are put into the basket, and then at the end of the work, he is paid according to the weight of the eggs he picks up.

According to the regulations of the farm, anyone can not eat during work, can only drink water, the water tank is at the entrance, as for the delay in work because of drinking water, get less money, then you can only blame yourself, not others. So no one deliberately drank raw eggs in the process of picking up eggs, and the raw eggs were very fishy, as long as you checked them, you can know them.

And everyone has a working area, and if the farm staff finds that there are deliberately smashed eggs, hehe, the farm can also find someone to ask for money.

Isn't it fair? There are definitely loopholes in the whole prescribed setup, after all, there are no monitors in this day and age. For example, the broken egg has two chicken feathers stuck to it, and the devil knows if it was artificial, or if the hen broke it herself? Then there are chickens, ducks, and geese, which will affect the number and speed of their egg production, but does the ghost know that they are really frightened?

But the right to interpret these is all in the farm. There is not even a 'miss rate', and there is no 'reward' either, because they are all short-term workers.

So the pay for this job is not low, but it is by no means easy to do. Don't forget, there is also the rainy season in the Nanjing area. It's really hard work.

The time to pick up the eggs is fast approaching. The crowd waiting at the entrance also changed from a dozen to twenty or thirty, and these people took advantage of the whiteness of the sky to go up the mountain, and awoke a flock of chickens, ducks and geese along the way.

Sun Wangfu looked at the big goose eggs in the litter in front of him with joy on his face, he didn't rush to pick them up, but first took out a pair of oilcloth gloves from the basket. Whether it is eggs or duck eggs, goose eggs, the smell is very heavy, those eggs are even stained with blood and feces on the shell, do not wear gloves to take it with bare hands, can not pick up half a basket, the smell on the hands is disgusting, just like grabbing a handful of, and then rinsing the with water, in fact, the palm is still full of smell.

The daily output of eggs, duck eggs, and goose eggs in the farm can have six or seven thousand, and there can be tens of thousands at the peak, at least a little experienced people can pick up two baskets, a basket of twenty catties, and the wage is one catty and five cents.

The eggs in the Nanjing market have been bought for five cents a pound, which is the same price as pork, and they are the same as meat, not because they are less and expensive, but because the supply exceeds demand, so the price continues to rise. Sun Wangfu remembered that at the earliest, the eggs in his hometown Wuxi were only more than 30 yuan a catty, and they were exchanged for the current paper tickets, which were only five jiao. At that time, the pork was only forty or fifty cents a catty, but now one anise is five cents a catty, and one nine jiao is a catty.

In the past, he couldn't buy two catties of eggs for a day's wages for a short job, but now he can earn two yuan a day on the farm alone, which is twice as high as in the past, but the price of eggs has also risen.

During the Chinese New Year, the price can be as high as one pound a piece. But even so, his family's life is stronger than it used to be.

Sun Wangfu wiped the bark on the side of the tree, his nose was like he couldn't smell the disgusting smell in the basket, he held a bamboo stick in his hand and continued to walk up the mountain.

He was in a good mood, what was this smell for a poor family? What's more important is a good life, and more importantly, the money in your hands, these are the emperor's favors, and it is the emperor today who makes his family live a good life.

But after a while, the bamboo basket was already full, and Sun Wangfu turned around and went down the mountain.

The basket was shifted from the chest to the back, and the lid was also closed, as if the dew in the mountains and forests in the morning had made the outer skin of the basket a little wet. Carrying a twenty-pound bamboo basket on his back, Sun Wangfu's steps were exceptionally brisk, thinking that this basket was a dollar, no matter how much fatigue faded from him.

At seven o'clock in the morning, ten thousand rays of sunlight shone on the earth. When the work was over, Sun Wangfu, who had changed back into his original clothes, had more banknotes in his pocket than when he came, as well as eight dime coins and a pound of eggs.

This pound of eggs is bought on the farm, and it only costs five cents for Wu Jiao, and it's fine. Who made Sun Wangfu an 'old man' who picks up eggs, and he is honest! The farm is cheap, which is considered a benefit to him.

It only took a quarter of an hour for them to reach the market outside the Xi'an Gate. Sun Wangfu didn't need to enter the city gate, the market outside had everything he needed. There are acquisitions and sales; Some are wholesale, and some are retail. Sun Wangfu is a regular visitor here, as there are cheap seafood sold here every morning market.

I don't know when, more and more seafood appeared in the southeast region, from the most basic kelp, seaweed, to different sizes of marine fish, including rough but cheap whale meat, as for sea cucumber, abalone, squid, octopus, crab, shrimp, sea shells, clams, etc., not to mention. Sun Wangfu even saw sea urchins in the small market of Xi'anmen.

When Sun Wangfu arrived here, it was close to 7:20, and it was close to the end of the morning market, so the seafood would be sold cheaper. Walking into the market, there are four big sheds, each of which can be more than ten zhang in length, three zhang in width, and no less than three zhang between each other, which can easily pass through the four-wheeled carriage. Just like now, there are more than a dozen unloaded four-wheeled carriages parked between the greenhouses, and stacked bamboo baskets, dustpans and baskets carrying vegetables, meat, eggs and fish goods are stacked on top of each other. The air was filled with a pungent smell of the mixed future, and there were still large pools of water stains and garbage such as vegetable leaves, vegetable gangs, and rotten vegetables on the ground.

After the market closes, that is, after 10 o'clock in the morning, there will be special people to clean and clean up, and those messy rotten vegetable leaves will be bought and fed to the surrounding farms to feed pigs and chickens.

Sun Wangfu often comes to buy small fish and shrimp, and I don't know who said it, fish and shrimp are better than meat, especially for children, who are smarter to eat.

"Old Sun, go have a drink?" Several of his companions who had come to the market quickly finished their purchases, and then greeted him warmly.

"No, go back and go to bed early, and I have to carry the work in the afternoon." Sun Wangfu refused with a smile, this work of picking up raw eggs was too tiring, he got up early, he wanted to rush home to sleep. And it doesn't cost anything to drink?

You can't just ask someone else to pay for it, it takes your turns. Sun Wangfu felt that with that money, it was better to buy more fish balls and meatballs for the child. He had three children, but only one boy, the first one was a daughter, the youngest was also a girl, and he was only two years old, and only the middle one was a precious son. I'm about to reach the age of entering the school. Sun Wangfu has to save money even more.

After separating from his companions, Sun Wangfu carried his own eggs, as well as a large piece of tofu and a bag of dried bamboo shoots he had just bought, and went to the seafood greenhouse.

The four greenhouses have their own differences, one is to buy melons, fruits and vegetables, one is to buy seasonings, sauce, salted meat, salted fish, as well as air-dried bacon, mountain goods, and then to buy live poultry and pigs, sheep and beef, and the last one is to buy aquatic products and seafood.

Kelp, seaweed, dried fish fillet, dried fish, minced fish, fish sauce, oyster sauce, shrimp paste, fish balls, dried shrimp, dried shrimp, etc., are all wrapped in coarse paper and oilcloth or small bamboo baskets, straw bales and the like and piled on the shelves; At the same time, carp, silver carp, black fish, long thin loach, purple thin loach, white turtle, old turtle, big yellow croaker, small yellow croaker, mackerel, pomfret flat fish, eel, mackerel, white girl, grouper, blue catfish, blue crab, etc., or aquatic or seafood, all kinds of common and uncommon, even unnamed fresh fish, live shrimp and live crab are jumping around, raised in a small pool.

There is also a small waterwheel on the side of the small pool, which is connected to the equipment outside by the runner, belt and lever, and constantly drives the waterwheel through animal power, constantly rotating, and the waterwheel in the pool is constantly turning the splash.

This is said to ensure that the fish in the pond live longer.

You can often see ice cubes here, if there are dead fish in the pool, either they have just died, or they have been put on the ice cubes, covered with crushed ice to keep them fresh, although they are dead fish, they are bought home to eat the same delicious, the key is that the price of this chilled fish is only half of the fresh fish, and then go a little later, the discount is only two or three percent of the original price.

Sun Wangfu is not the first time to come, he has dealt with fish for 20 years in the past, his family is on the coast of Zhejiang, and he followed his father to the sea. But the first time he came here, he was really dazzled.

The ocean fishing company is really powerful, and the big boat and big net are stronger than the small fishing boat. It is said that you can catch thousands of catties with one net.

Nowadays, the imperial court does not limit the size of boats on the seaside, whether it is a merchant ship or a fishing boat, Sun Wangfu secretly sighed in his heart, if his family could have a medium-sized fishing boat, he would not appear here. It's been a good life for a long time.

In the past few years, under the severe punishment of the imperial court, the past fishermen have either changed their careers and run away, or they have been imprisoned, or they have been targeted, and the world is much better.

Today, Sun Wangfu bought half a catty of dried shrimp, a catty of fish balls, and a catty of meatballs, not pork, mutton, and beef, but whale meat.

This one is cheaper.

Coupled with tofu, dried bamboo shoots and a pound of eggs, one dollar was used up, and Sun Wangfu only had a piece of banknotes and three dime coins and a five-cent coin left in his pocket.

With Caolou in his hand, Sun Wangfu walked to Xi'anmen Station, not far from the market. Familiar with boarding a public carriage, Sun Wangfu handed the monthly ticket in his hand to the quality inspector for inspection, and then went straight to the top floor. He knew that there was a faint smell of bad smell on his body, so he never sat on the bottom floor, but on the roof of the carriage.

The carriage could carry Sun Wangfu back to his own vicinity, which was not in the city of Nanjing, but outside the city wall of Nanjing, four or five miles west of the Qinhuai River.

This is not a rural area, it can only be said that this is a rural-urban interface.

Nanjing is one of the top metropolises in China, and the city is also one of the top metropolises in the world. But don't forget the size of Nanjing, which is more than 100 miles of walls enclosing one of the largest metropolises in the world today.

As of the end of last year, the resident population of Nanjing had just reached one million. Perhaps after four or five months, this number has increased, but compared with the huge area of Nanjing, it is obvious that the population will not spread outward at this time.

The villages outside Nanjing have developed greatly, and although there is still a lot of farmland, there seems to be no spare land in the villages, and all of them have been built with houses or turned into warehouses.

Even though Xi'anmen is located in the southwest of Nanjing, near Zhongshan and farthest from the Yangtze River Wharf, there are still many places here that have been turned into warehouses. At night and day, there are public carriages running along the avenue, every quarter of an hour during the day and every half an hour after eight o'clock in the evening.

Sun Wangfu only came into contact with the public carriage after coming to Nanjing, and I have to say that this thing is really convenient. Otherwise, it will take half an hour to walk on two legs from Sun Wangfu's house to Xi'anmen, and then turn to the farm in the south, it will take another quarter of an hour, and the road will be an hour shorter, which will increase Sun Wangfu's physical exertion a lot.

But now with the public carriage, the travel time has been shortened to about an hour, and Sun Wangfu can rest even more after working on the farm.

Even if it costs a dollar a month. However, a one-month pass is not limited to one person, so it can be said that it is a good deal.

Blowing a cool breeze, Sun Wangfu looked at the neatly divided vegetable fields and orchards on both sides of the road, yes, vegetable fields and orchards. The farmers around Nanjing City no longer grow rice or anything, backed by Nanjing City, planting some seasonal vegetables is the performance of maximizing profits, and planting fruit trees is also very profitable.

Even if the peasants and the head of the village can't think of this, the head of the village can think of it.

How many fruits and vegetables do you have to consume every day in the whole city of Nanjing? In this era when transportation is far from convenient, 'proximity' is the biggest advantage.

"It would be nice if I had a piece of land here...... Sun Wangfu, who was thinking about having a medium-sized fishing boat not long ago, now thinks about having a piece of land on the edge of Nanjing.

Dreams are human desires, and dreams are the source of motivation for many people to work hard. Even if their income and life are much better than in the past, human beings will expect to live better.

This is called 'greed' and 'insatiable'. Many times it will become a further disaster, and many times it will also become a ladder of development and progress in human society.