Approaching the end of the year, the Shanghai sixteen shop market is more and more crowded, the purchase, the goods, the gang, the field, the robe, the short jacket, that is the car to and fro, endless, although now the foreigners in the Western war, the lack of ships, but the war has been fought for so long, the coastal, along the river, and even the sail and wooden ships in Liaodong have already been able to make up for the capacity, at least the cargo ships on the Yangtze River waterway can basically meet the needs of domestic trade, only the foreign trade ships are still insufficient, but this is enough, At least the business of the 16 shops in the market, which focuses on domestic trade, has not been affected much, and even because of the rise in freight rates, the selling prices are inflated, and the various stacks that take points according to sales have made a lot more money than in previous years.

In the fruit area, after the wave of people picking up goods at five or six o'clock passed, under the morning sun without any warmth, the shopkeepers who got up at four or five o'clock began to stretch their waists and yawn, waiting for breakfast in the stalls; On the street that was specially renovated during the trade of the 16th Shop Zone last year, a lot of rotten fruits were thrown out during the morning inspection, some of which were flattened and festered by pedestrians and vehicles, and some of them were intact and rotten, emitting the peculiar smell of rotting fruits, which permeated the entire fruit area.

Sun Shiyuan, the owner of Dongshenglong North and South Fruit Stores, got up very early, and when the business was busiest at the stall, he asked a young man to go outside and buy a few newspapers, and he used to read newspapers, but in addition to reading the China Times, he only read the Business Daily, but now there is a big incident in the capital, so he buys all newspapers during this time, including foreign newspapers - his son who was admitted to junior high school already knows a little foreign language, although not all the articles in the newspaper can be understood, but with the help of a dictionary. The meaning of the above is still very clear.

Under the incandescent lamp, the top copy of the China Times, which still smelled of ink, was unfolded, and Sun Shiyuan began to read it carefully. And yesterday the Court of Suspicion was again over-abstained from voting. The news of the failure to re-elect the prime minister is different, and the headline of today's newspapers is - "The Death of Lord Chua's Mansion Suffers, the Perpetrator Throws Bricks at the Police Station Surrenders", and there are two photos of the gate and glass of the Tsai Mansion being smashed and the blue bricks thrown by the perpetrator at the top right of the article. Although the black-and-white photos are not real, Sun Shiyuan still scolded with great relief: "Why don't you stone this bastard to death?!" ”

After reading the headline willingly, the next article is about Japan: "The Japanese Government Hopes to Invite Former Premier Yang to Japan to Take Up the Post of Prime Minister of the Japanese Cabinet." The previous news relieved his anger, but this one raised Sun Shiyuan's heart. I was so busy reading the following in a hurry, and I saw Prime Minister Yang politely refusing the invitation of the Japanese government at a glance. He breathed a sigh of relief.

It is true that there must be a big event when Zhengyangmen is burned, and the elder Sun Shi has long heard that there are gods on Zhengyangmen, and Gengzi was burned to make the Manchu Qing Dynasty fall, and this year he was burned but the prime minister resigned. It couldn't be more amazing.

I want to finish the psychic Zhengyang Gate. Sun Shiyuan read all other articles related to the premier in the China Times, and opened the Chinese...... of the Imperial Daily, the News, the Declaration, and the Beijing-Tianjin Times. While he was watching, the mother-in-law came out. There is a small house at the stall that collects money, as the proprietress is naturally she collects money, and now there are fewer people outside to get the goods early, so she just goes back to the house to drink saliva.

With a 'click', the woman turned off the incandescent lamp at once, and looked at Sun Shiyuan, who was reading the newspaper. complained: "If you don't come to the stall so early to take a look, you know that you read the newspaper." Isn't it just that the prime minister resigned...... I don't know how much money I spent on newspapers for seven or eight days...... and when the sky is so bright, I don't turn off the lights. ”

The woman's complaint was irrelevant, she turned off the light, and Sun Shiyuan, who was carefully reading a comment on current affairs, suddenly became angry: "Turn on the lights!" Lao Tzu is concerned about state affairs. Can there be such a country without a prime minister? Can the people live a good life without the prime minister? There is no prime minister...... Seeing that the woman didn't turn on the light, Sun Shiyuan moved his butt to turn on the light, and continued: "...... Is there this fruit block at home? It's really a woman's family, with long hair and short knowledge! ”

It's not unheard of a man getting angry with a woman, so I'm not afraid, listening to his big string of words, I only asked: "Do you still know that you have a fruit block?" I know that the business is busy at the end of the year, and you are still sitting here reading the newspaper, and you are not a member or an official, that idle ......"

"Lao Tzu pays taxes, Lao Tzu is a taxpayer, Lao Tzu is still the director of the Shanghai Tan Fruit Office......" Sun Shiyuan was completely angry, and the thick newspaper slammed on the table, startling the woman. Frightened, the woman muttered and exited outside.

"This man, do you want to take the apple? How many pieces do you want to take? This is an authentic Shandong red Fuji, sweet and crisp, all of them are good goods, the same as the bottom of the surface, all of them are high-quality ......" On the pedestrian deserted stall, suddenly a few well-dressed men were looking at a few boxes of apple samples placed outside the stall, and the young man thought that he was taking the goods, and immediately greeted him.

"Let's see." The old man at the head seemed to be afraid of the cold, so he wore a big mask, and only quietly coped with it in Beijing. After reading the apples, he said a few words to the person beside him, looked at the bananas, and finally walked to the boxes of oranges, and when he picked up an orange, the young man said enthusiastically: "The master knows the goods, this is Huangyan's fragrant oranges, which sell well every year, and give them the latest trendy ......"

"Is this from the mountains or from the fields?" The other party suddenly asked an unexpected question, and the young man was immediately dumbfounded, he had greeted so many old vendors who took the goods, and he had never been asked like this.

The young man couldn't answer, but the man standing beside the old man picked up the orange and looked at it, and replied in Beijing dialect with Taizhou dialect: "Look at the skin of the oil cells is so thick, it should be from the field." After that, he shook his head and said, "Now in Huangyan, oranges are shelf-stable and can be sold at a high price, so every family has planted oranges, which used to be only planted in dry land, but now some paddy fields are also planted, and the farmers' association has repeatedly banned it, so there is really no way." ”

"When the people have money and transportation is convenient, it is natural for agricultural products to be marketized. This is nothing, I am afraid that the scale will suddenly expand too much, and the fruit will hurt the farmers. After speaking, the Beijing dialect master at the head asked again: "The sugar level of eleven grown in this field can't be reached, right?" ”

"There's one on the box." After the Taizhou dialect master finished speaking, he looked at the mark on the side of the box of oranges, and said embarrassedly after reading it: "The sugar content is less than eleven, only ten." After speaking, he explained: "There are not many such goods, and most of them have a sugar content of more than twelve. There are eleven at the lowest, and I don't know what's going on with these boxes......"

If the two old men didn't ask and answer themselves, the young man suddenly understood that these two should be the owners of the goods. didn't answer at the moment, and went back to the stall to sit by himself. But when these two people were about to leave, Sun Shiyuan, who was standing in the stall and stretching his waist, suddenly shouted: "Ah, Master Zhang......"

Hearing this, the Taizhou dialect master turned around and said a few words to the person beside him, and several people came over together. "Wishing you prosperity, Master Sun!" The person called Master Zhang greeted Sun Shiyuan with a smile. Another sentence brought the person next to him, "I have a few friends, but I have never seen a fruit shop." Come and take a look. Then he immediately changed his words and said: "The year will end soon, Master Sun, how is this year's business?" ”

"What's so good, let's live so-so." Sun Shiyuan smiled all over his face. Business is actually much better this year than last year. But businessmen are often modest, especially the current boss Zhang Hanting Zhang, who is a figure who is all over the world. Not to mention that the Tianyuan Fruit Company under his name is the big shipper of all the fruit shops in the Sixteen Shops, with his relationship with the prime minister of the current dynasty, he is the master who can go sideways wherever he goes. "Master Zhang, a few masters, please drink tea inside."

"Let's do it another day." Zhang Hanting arched his hand at Sun Shiyuan, "Celebrate the New Year immediately." Peasant associations everywhere are waiting to settle the bill. ”

Zhang Hanting said that he was busy, how dare Sun Shiyuan stop him. At that moment, he sent a few Gong away, and when these people walked away, he suddenly felt that the person wearing a big mask standing beside Zhang Hanting seemed to have seen it somewhere, and he didn't want to be okay, so he was shocked when he thought about it, and muttered: "Ah! Yes!! Mo is not ......, Mo is not ......"

Yang Rui and Zhang Hanting were walking in the sixteen shops of fruit wholesale area in Shanghai at this time. This former messy and stained market was completely renovated by the Shanghai municipal government last year, and now the wharf in the market is wide, the road is neat, the stalls are all tall steel frame sheds, and the two-storey small buildings on the side of the shed are office accommodation areas, just like the appearance of the sixteen-shop fruit market in later generations.

"Now the banana business is expanding the fastest, and the profits are also the highest...... Zhang Hanting said. Yang Rui was the major shareholder of Tianyuan Fruit Company, after the founding of the country, the fruit company was transformed into a cooperative, and after the fruit cooperatives from all over the country became shareholder, his shares fell sharply, and now it is less than one percent, but even so, the company's affairs are routinely reported to him by the company's general office, even if those reports and financial statements have never been opened.

"Oh, that's unexpected." Yang Rui had also seen the bananas in the box with the Tianyuan Company's mark just now, but he had only looked at apples and oranges in detail just now.

"Mainly cold storage, air conditioning and ethylene began to be used on a large scale for banana storage and ripening, so that the company can sell bananas all year round. Fruit farmers have been trying to cut bananas since last year, but the 2-4D yield is insufficient, otherwise bananas all over the country can be cut and sold abroad. Unlike orange apples, bananas cost five dimes per box, which is much higher than orange apples or something. ”

Tianyuan Fruit Company is an agricultural cooperative, its operating model is similar to that of Sunkist in the United States, is to help domestic fruit cooperatives sell a variety of fruit products under the Tianyuan brand, equivalent to an intermediary but not just an intermediary, the company's income comes from the sales of each box of products, these revenues are generally used for technology, channels, and publicity related to fruit sales, plus its shareholders are basically farmers in various fruit producing areas - the annual profits in addition to retention, will be distributed to the major farmers' associations, and the farmers' associations will be distributed to each farmer. It's a bit of a charity company.

"2-4D is a big killer, and it's out of stock everywhere now!" Yang Rui sighed, this kind of preservative for future generations, after the chemical experiment was developed according to the information he gave, it was robbed madly as soon as it was launched. "This thing can not only strengthen the storage tolerance of agricultural products, but also prevent crops from falling flowers and fruits during the flowering period. They didn't say anything about it for my sake, and they didn't say that it couldn't be used for fruit storage......"

Zhang Hanting also knew that 2-4D was extremely popular, and it was not that those who planted cotton could not get the goods if they wanted to, and Tianyuan Company was the only exception, but the amazing profit of banana sales throughout the year still made him can't help but say: "In this ......, can't the Ministry of Industry build a few more factories and produce more?" ”

"The war in Europe is so fierce that it is too late for the Ministry of Industry to build a synthetic ammonia plant, how can there be manpower and material resources to expand the 2-4D factory? If ethylene hadn't been for the army's need for a large number of cigarettes, and the flue-cured tobacco factories had to use it to ripen tobacco leaves, they would have almost stopped. Yang Rui was dressed in an old blue robe. As if he had turned into a fruit seller, "You can wait for the war to end." The 2-4D factory will be expanded, and then not only the output will go up, but the price will also go down. ”

Yang Rui's explanation made Zhang Hanting nod his head to express understanding, and then he said: "People from United Fruit Company came to Shanghai some time ago and seem to want to talk to us about some cooperation ......."

"What to talk about? Talking about bananas? Hearing the United Fruit, Yang Rui's eyebrows twisted. This fruit company, known as the 'human-footed octopus' and the 'green devil' by the locals in the Americas, sells bananas to the point where it can manipulate the power of several countries and determine the diplomatic strategy of the United States toward Central and South America, is really a giant in the fruit industry. Who said that there is no future in selling fruits. See how people play?

"Yes. The main talk was about maturing technology transfer, and the U.S. Consul General in Shanghai also intervened. The main idea is that we want to transfer this technology, and the price is negotiable, even in the banana plantations of Guatemala. Zhang Hanting said. It could be seen that he was very surprised by the other party's conditions.

"Ethylene is the same as 2-4D. They are all plant growth regulation hormones, the difference is that one role is to promote ripening, and one is just the opposite, the role is to keep fresh, which is positive and negative, so that the crop growth cycle can be long or short, and the products will not be all put together in one or two months, which is convenient for farmers to raise prices and reduce rot loss. It can also reduce the pressure of transportation, which is of great significance. Not to mention that the ripening process originally requires 2-4D. Just ethylene, it can not only fade green citrus, ripe bananas, apples, avocados and other fruits, tobacco, cotton, rice, these are also urgable. It's just that, generally it is only used in tobacco, bananas, citrus, the most economically valuable items, if the Americans master the ethylene ripening technology, then their agricultural advantage will be greatly improved. ”

Yang Rui was affiliated with the advantages brought by ethylene, and finally found the feeling of work after resigning. After he finished speaking, he was not very happy, and said: "Let's let the Americans continue to smoke with kerosene stoves, aren't they very skilled?" Don't think about the banana plantations in Guatemala, United Fruit not only controls the banana and pineapple plantations, but also controls the railways and docks there, which is to give us the plantations, and once we have a bad relationship, our bananas and pineapples will be shipped out? ”

"But will the Americans discover ethylene on their own?" Zhang Hanting asked.

"Then are the technicians in your local ripening warehouses reliable?" Yang Rui asked rhetorically.

"Of course it's reliable! They are all the children of fruit farmers, and this is everyone's eating work, and it will never be leaked. Zhang Hanting said.

"That's it." Yang Rui said, "Americans will have to wait at least twenty or thirty years to discover the secret of ethylene ripening." All they know now is that the smoke from the kerosene stove contains a gas that accelerates the ripening of the fruit, but they don't know exactly what this gas is.

If you don't want to trouble, go to Hainan to plant bananas in cooperation with farmers; If you want to make huge profits, then go to the South Seas, and do the same thing as United Fruit in the Americas, buy land, open plantations, build railways, and build docks, so as to ensure that you can earn a lot of money. It can be said that in the South Seas, let the local indigenous species, the technology is difficult to keep secret; Please overseas Chinese, the profits will be affected again, they are all your own people, can you be ruthless like foreigners, and don't take their lives seriously? ”

"I can't do it." Zhang Hanting touched his nose, a little embarrassed, he had also gone abroad two years ago, and he had been to the plantation of United Fruit in Guatemala, and that place did not take the indigenous people for granted, only treated them as slaves. Not to mention taking into account the company's reputation, let's just say that he is also Chinese, and he can't do this kind of thing.

"That's it!" Yang Rui also nodded deeply. In this era, the merchants, merchants, and workshops, as long as they are not new-from, money-making owners, the time-honored brands are more benevolent to the guys, of course, the apprentices at the bottom are still squeezed by the master and other guys, and the situation is really not good, but in general, compared with the American factory kind of labor relations that work for a day and pay for a day, and in addition to this, the two do not owe each other, or the kind of employment relationship with rifles and leather whips in the American plantations, the Chinese business is still benevolent and humane. This is also the reason why the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Industry finally complied with the requests of all walks of life and implemented the lifelong employment system after repeated investigations. According to the structure, Tianyuan Company is a fruit sales company that sells goods to farmers and gets a commission, and no one has the experience to run a bloody South American plantation, let alone the courage.

As soon as the market walked, the sun gradually rose. Walking through the fruit area, there are vegetables in front of it, and then on, there is the Huangpu River wharf, and the river breeze blows over, with a biting chill. Two inconspicuous carriages were already waiting on the side of the road, and when they saw Yang Rui passing, they unconsciously became cautious.

"The market is looking at it, and I'll look at your reports again to see if there's anything to mention." Yang Rui said to his partner, looking very serious.

"It's your ......" Zhang Hanting was very unaccustomed to it, and he finally said after holding back for a long time, "You really want to sell fruit with me?" What about state affairs? ”

"State affairs?" Yang Rui smiled, "Butcher Zhang is dead, don't eat mixed pigs." After all, they are here to choose a better man......"

Before Yang Rui finished speaking, a few people ran over from the other end of the road, and as soon as they ran, the guards around them began to be on alert, but the more this happened, the more energetic those people became, and one of them showed something and said: "This is my press card, I am a reporting reporter, I want to interview the Prime Minister......"

Unexpectedly, the reporter actually touched this, Yang Rui shook his head and smiled at Zhang Hanting: "It's still a reporter in Shanghai!" It's all squatting here. ”

"Go back quickly, I'll deal with them." Zhang Hanting knew that Yang Rui didn't want to see reporters, so he greeted him immediately and said loudly: "Everyone, everyone, Lord Yang asked me to tell you ......."

The carriage drove out of the 16th shop and headed for the former concession. At this time, it was time to go to work, and the trams full of fish and shrimp and the fast-moving passers-by were all stuck in the clock, for fear of missing the factory's opening whistle. Buses, pedestrians, shops, traffic police, sanitation workers, snack stalls, this later magic city with a population of more than two million people, gradually revealed the atmosphere of the first city in the Far East, and most importantly, it is no longer a concession, but a special city in Shanghai.

The carriage accompanied the flow of people into the former British Concession Ruyi Lane No. 14, which was a two-storey shikumen house rented by the landlord Mrs. Huang as a laboratory more than ten years ago, and has now been bought by Yang Rui and turned into private property; As for No. 12, Mr. Huang's family still lives there, and the pavilion on the second floor still has the same bedding that Yang Rui used before, and Mrs. Huang will go up to clean it every once in a while.

"You're back?" When I entered the yard, I saw the smiling face of a woman, and after Xianfeng left, she changed a lot, "Just eating." ”

After the woman finished speaking, then her son, who got up early to study, came up and said, "Dad, it's so cold here, I'm so cold, and my brother is so cold, let's go back." ”

The biggest difference between the house in Shanghai and the capital is that there is no hot kang, and the wind here is already cold, so although there is a fire cage at night, my son still shrinks into a ball when he sleeps, which is very unaccustomed.

"Carry your books!" Yang Rui pretended to be serious, "Think about the soldiers of the Renaissance Army, you are not ashamed to fight in the colder Tiandu than this." ”

"But my mother said that when I grow up, I want to be a fruit seller and not fight." Yang Wuming didn't know where he heard this rumor, and whenever Yang Rui used the Renaissance Army soldiers to motivate him, he used it as a rebuttal.

"Who said you were going to sell fruit when you grew up?" Cheng Ying looked at Yang Rui and smiled, and dragged his son in, "It's time to eat, it's time to eat." As soon as she shouted, the other two boys who had been sitting at the table happily beat with chopsticks, but they were more than two years old and couldn't speak, shouting 'eat', not shouting 'rice', but the atmosphere in the living room was a mess, just afraid that the world would not be chaotic. They saw that Yang Rui was knocking even harder, and 'Dad' shouted loudly.

Cheng Ying hurriedly snatched the chopsticks of the two children, and then slapped each of them lightly, reproaching: "Sit down to eat, and if you make any more trouble, you will be locked up......"

A wife and three sons, sitting at the table to eat at first glance are full, this is a family. Every time Yang Rui saw this scene, he felt a little unaccustomed to it, after all, he was used to being a lone ranger, and suddenly he had so many worries; Thinking about this, I thought about how good it would be if Xianfeng was still there, and the family would be happy.

"It's done, the people's house was smashed, you really ......" The woman said suddenly, after Yang Rui's resignation, she was still the first time to mention business.

"Let's eat." Yang Rui replied lukewarmly. (To be continued......)