Beigang District of Shuangyu Port, with the construction of Nanyang Town, more and more residents of Beigang District have moved their homes to the town, although living here is subject to certain restrictions, such as not throwing garbage, spitting, building indiscriminately, etc., but Nanyang Town is the best place for public security in Shuangyu Port, there are Jinyi guards sitting here, and even some petty theft rarely happens, because if you are caught once, you will be whipped in public, and that taste is not comfortable.

In addition to public security, with the expansion of the scale of Nanyang Town, the corresponding supporting facilities in the town are also gradually improving, such as the school, the hospital and other more important facilities, which can be easily found in Nanyang Town, so this also attracts more people to settle in Nanyang Town, and now the population of the town is close to 30,000 people.

However, although Nanyang Town is good, the cost of living here is not low, especially the town is not allowed to build indiscriminately, if you want to live here, you either build your own house, or rent someone else's house, these need to spend a lot of money, among which the income of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce is relatively high, plus the town has preferential treatment for the people of the Chamber of Commerce, so it is not a problem, but for those low-income people in other chambers of commerce, it is a big problem, at least in a short time, He was afraid he wouldn't be able to scrape together enough money to move to the town.

It is precisely because of this that although Nanyang Town is developing rapidly, it is almost a bottleneck, and almost all the people who have the ability and qualifications have lived in the town, and the few people who are not able can only stay in the original chaotic residential area, fortunately, there are many fewer people in the original residential area, so that the living conditions there have also improved. Moreover, the development of Shuangyu Port is getting faster and faster. All chambers of commerce are able to make more money than before. The people below also have some savings, and I believe that in a few years, these people will be able to save enough money to build a house in the town.

In a vacant lot to the south of Nanyang Town, close to the port, there are many strange houses built here, because there are two small rivers here that meet into one river and eventually flow into the sea, so this place is called the Three Forks.

The Sanchakou covers a huge area and is said to have been built before the construction of Nanyang Town. It used to be the largest residential area in the Beigang District of Shuangyu Port, but with the prosperity of Nanyang Town, most of the residents of Sanchakou chose to move to the town, and the rest were poor people who could not afford to move away for the time being, in other words, it has become a slum area in Shuangyu Port.

In the past, not all of the people who lived in Sanchakou were poor, but a considerable number of them were the middle and upper class of the various chambers of commerce, and they built relatively decent houses here, but after moving to the town, except for a few people who kept their houses. The rest of the house was emptied, and even the bricks and green tiles on the roof were removed and pulled to the town to build new houses. The original old yard was completely abandoned.

However, no matter how dilapidated these abandoned houses are, they are stronger than some straw huts and mud houses at the three forks, so those who did not come and moved away saw that the yards of others were gone, so they naturally lived in them unceremoniously, as long as the dilapidated houses were simply repaired and reinforced, they were much stronger than their original straw sheds.

There is such an abandoned yard on the easternmost side of the three forks, the reason for the abandonment of this yard is more special, the owner of the yard is the president of a medium-sized chamber of commerce in North Korea, and later because the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce forced the Japanese and the North Koreans away, so the president of the North Korean Chamber of Commerce also moved his home back to North Korea, the valuable things in this yard were taken away, and the houses that were built could only be thrown here, after all, before the appearance of Shuangyu Port in Nanyang Town, no one would be willing to spend money to buy a house, Because there is no guarantee of even the most basic safety here.

At the beginning, the North Korean Chamber of Commerce moved away in a hurry, although the valuable things in the yard were moved, but the yard was very intact and left, which is very rare in the three forks, so many people rushed to move in, and the result was that the most Lu also led to several brawls, and the last group of coolies from Shandong were taller than the southerners, and they all practiced boxing and kicking for a few days, and they won the brawl and occupied this very intact courtyard.

Coolies are the lowest level of laborers in Shuangyu Port, they don't need to know what craft, they just need to have a handful of strength, and then load and unload goods on the wharf, although they are tired every day, but they are more tired, how much they can carry every day, how much money they can get, generally speaking, a man in the prime of life earns a day's wages, not only enough for him to eat and live, but also to save some, and bring it home when he goes home for the New Year, as the main expense of the family for the next year.

Today is the Chinese New Year's Eve, Shuangyu Port is also deserted all of a sudden, most of the coolies living in Sanchakou are the lowest coolies, those coolies from Ningbo, Songjiang, Zhoushan and other places close to Shuangyu Port are all taking a boat home this morning for the New Year, the rest are some coolies far away from home, these coolies will generally select two reliable brothers some time in advance, let him go home early, and bring the money earned by everyone to the family by the way.

The same is true of those Shandong coolies who live in the courtyard of North Koreans, as early as half a month ago, they asked two reliable brothers to bring the money back, and it is estimated that they have arrived home early, with the money they have saved in a year, presumably the family can have a good year, and even add new clothes to the children.

In the evening, the main hall of the courtyard was brightly lit, and all the candles that were reluctant to light in the past were taken out and lit today, illuminating the entire hall very transparently, and in the middle of the main hall were placed two large long tables, and the dishes on the table were also very simple, large bowls of wine and large pieces of meat, forty or fifty tall Shandong men sat around the table, for them, this was the most sumptuous Chinese New Year's Eve dinner.

"Brothers, over the past year, I, Zhu Jiu, have thanked everyone for their help, so that our Shandong people have gained a firm foothold in Shuangyu Port, and they have also grabbed such a large set of yards, I won't say anything else, everyone has done this bowl of wine!" I saw the red-faced man sitting in the first place stand up and raised his wine glass and said loudly.

This person who called himself Zhu Jiu was the head of this group of Shandong coolies, he was not only strong, but also strong in martial arts, the last time he clashed with another group of coolies, he once beat five of them. In addition, in addition to martial arts, Zhu Jiu is honest and fair, and when his own people have conflicts, he can be impartial, so many people are very convinced of him.

Seeing Zhu Jiu toasting, the men in the hall all stood up, raised the big wine bowls and saluted Zhu Jiu one by one, and then raised their heads and drank them all cleanly.

"Brother Jiu, I heard that you are going to take your sister-in-law and nephews and nieces over this time, is it true?" No sooner had they sat down than they heard one of the men shouting.

"There is still such a thing, it seems that Brother Jiu has been uncomfortable this year, and he is in a hurry to take his sister-in-law over to vent his anger!" I saw a long-faced man sitting at another table also shouting loudly, and his face was full of dirty expressions, which caused everyone to laugh loudly.

The coolies earn little money, and few people will take their families over, but these adult men also have their own needs, so when they are really uncomfortable, they will inevitably go to those cheap brothels in the port to vent their fire, but Zhu Jiu has never been there, so the long-faced man will say so.

"Donkey face, you are a muddy ball, you think about the old lady all day long, be careful of dyeing the willow one day!" Zhu Jiu looked at the long-faced man and scolded with a smile, they are all rough people, and they often make some rude jokes, and no one will take it to heart because of this.

Then everyone made a few jokes, and the most difficult topic returned to Zhu Jiu's connection to Shuangyu Port, only to see Zhu Jiu eat a piece of fat meat at this time, wiped his mouth and said: "All brothers probably feel it, now there are more and more ships coming and going from Shuangyu Port, and the work on the dock can't be finished. ”

Speaking of this, I saw Zhu Jiu pause, drank a big sip of wine, and then said: "There are no old people in my family, only my wife and two children rent other people's land in my hometown to plant, and the little food collected every year is not enough for them to make ends meet, plus the family has not seen each other for many years, so it is better to bring the family here, I heard that now the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce is recruiting women to wash clothes and cook, I have a brother who works in the Chamber of Commerce, and then ask him to find an acquaintance and send my mother-in-law to work in the Chamber of Commerce, The wages earned are much better than farming in my hometown. ”

Hearing Zhu Jiu's words, other Shandong men all gave him congratulations, and at the same time they were very envious in their hearts, after all, no one wanted to be separated from their wives and children at home, but they didn't have Zhu Jiu's strength, and it was a little difficult to earn money to feed the whole family, and secondly, they didn't have Zhu Jiu's way, so they could arrange their mother-in-law to work in the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce, although they only cooked and washed clothes, but a month's salary was not less than that of their coolies, and maybe maybe Zhu Jiu would be the first to move to Nanyang Town to live in the future.

Although Zhilu Dao can't take his family over like Zhu Jiu for the time being, Zhu Jiu's matter has also set an example for them, and even many people have begun to think about what they should do to take their family over? For these coolies, the most hopeful thing is to be able to join a certain chamber of commerce, especially a big chamber of commerce like the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce, which is the place they yearn for, because as long as they join the chamber of commerce, their income can immediately double several times, but unfortunately the chamber of commerce's recruitment is very strict, if there is no special talent, I am afraid it is difficult to be favored by the chamber of commerce.

Just when Zhu Jiu's group was eating Chinese New Year's Eve dinner in the hall, a staggering figure suddenly walked towards their courtyard on the deserted street outside. (To be continued......)