Chapter 31: Riverside Street
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All the livelihoods of the people by the river have always revolved around that water wharf.
At the foot of Wendou Village, there is a four-mile long pond, which is a natural water dock. The two streams of Huangmen and Wubang, one up and down, meet on the other bank and go up and down the Sili Changtang.
Downstream, most of the timber flowing out of Huangmen Creek and Wubang Creek has to be moored at the riverside water wharf.
The ancestors begged for a living on the water wharf for many years, and built a wooden shed on the shore to shelter from the wind and rain at night. There are also people who come down to the river to sell coolies and beg for food, and if there is work by the water, they go down to the river to earn coolie money; When there was no life at the water's edge, they went up to the mountains to cultivate the fields. After one or two generations, they were frugal and most of them built wooden buildings.
There are also people who come in from outside, come to this ground to find a bowl of rice to eat, and when they come, they never leave. The population grew, and it slowly became a small village. By the time of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty, there were already dozens of families and 100 people in this small village.
When the river was hot and the timber trade was flourishing, the riverside village was lively.
People on Wendou Village and Yanwan Village mostly come down the mountain to buy daily necessities such as oil, salt, and cloth. The rowmen who came up to the river and the slender men who came down the river also settled here for a night's rest, so that they could hurry after the clouds.
In addition to a few grocery stores, there are many shops selling oil and salt, farm tools, gunpowder, etc. There are also tailors, pharmacies, restaurants, and hostels. Later, business-minded people in Xiahe also brought their families to open teahouses, pawnshops, and green buildings, and gradually formed a market on both sides of the river.
On the side of the street of the stilted building, you can always see a few women holding their hair in a bun and a lot of fat powder on their faces. On weekdays, I had nothing to do, just basking in the sun in front of the door, and when the silver boat came down to the river, there were always a few coolies who got into this house and vented all the unused energy on the riverside here. Some people who are familiar with it after coming and going no longer negotiate the price, and go upstairs to close the door first.
Silitang down, is a dangerous shoal called "threshold", the lower wooden raft often disperses people here. As early as the Qianlong period, the head of Wendou Zhai proposed to build a Yang Gong Temple in Silitang, and the 48 villages of Shanghe donated silver at that time. After the temple is completed, the people who put the row every time they go to the foot of Sili Pond, they always have to stop the row, go up to the temple to burn a few pillars of incense, turn a few origami papers, and pray for a safe beach.
The lower threshold beach was lucky not to die, and received wages at the water wharf by the Wendou River, and the upstream rowmen would go to the riverside street, buy a few hanging leaf cigarettes, make a pot of wine, and walk home happily.
When it rains, or when it's getting late, they will also go to the hostel to open a big shop, and a dozen people will squeeze into one night. The nights were too long, and they would drink a lot of wine and then gather around with red necks and thick throats to make money.
Most of the people who play with money are young platoons who don't know the depths, and when all the money is in other people's pockets, they will sleep with their heads covered, and they don't worry, anyway, the whole family is not hungry when they are fed alone.
If you win money, you have the right to sprinkle a night of wild on the belly of the woman in the stilted building.
The young platoons who lost money are not discouraged, they have the strength, and after a few days, they can get a salary again.
There are only a few middle-aged pai men who are worried about the family, and there are also cheap people and a bunch of children waiting for money to buy rice to fill their stomachs, and after receiving the salary, they will cover the money bag tightly, and after eating, they will go to the river street to find a place to roast the fire, smoke leaves and smoke, talk to the door, pass the time in the middle of the night, and then go back to the hostel shop and fall asleep.
The next day dawned, a new day began, the sun rose, and people had to do what they had to do.