Republic of China: Guandong Ginseng King

Chapter 31: Settlement of Accounts and Distribution of Pay

“Also, those who drag their feet will have to wait a few more days.

We have to wait until all the wood is sold, the rows are packed up, and the tools are loaded into the trough before we can start hauling back."

The trough is a small wooden boat tied behind the last row of seats.

After the raft is delivered to the merchant, it will be loaded onto a ship and shipped away, and the eight rivets removed can be reused.

In addition, the long and short oars, cables and other tools used for rafting also need to be transported back to the mountain.

So someone is needed to drag the trough and tools back upstream, and these people are called Jiangluzi.

After saying this, Li Yongfu took out the account book and started to check the accounts and count the money.

One set of hard-wearing rows can weave about 180 to 200 cubic meters of wood, and there are ten sets of rows in total, which is nearly 2,000 cubic meters.

Taking red pine as an example, it can be sold for around 12,000 taels, and other precious woods will be even higher.

About five thousand taels of it was cost, including the purchase of wood from the mountain farm, as well as the expenses of handling tickets and taxes.

Of course, there are many parts that can be manipulated here. Some big cabinets have strong backing, extensive connections, and low taxes. If they have their own mountains and organize people to cut down trees, the cost will be even lower.

The remaining seven thousand taels were divided equally between the cabinet and the wooden handle.

The first oar costs 200 taels, the second oar costs 150 taels, the side oar and the tail oar each costs 120 taels, each rower costs 90 taels, and each donkey on the river costs 100 taels.

Of course, the expenses along the way and the 20% advance payment before starting the raft must be deducted from the raft's pay.

In fact, during the rafting process, on some calm river sections, cargo owners will ask the rafting team to help them transport their goods, or people who are in a hurry will want to ride on the raft for a while, and they have to pay for all of this.

One row can carry thousands of kilograms of goods, and ten rows can carry a lot of things.

These are all taken out and are not put on the counter. They are generally used to improve the lives of the guys in the queue.

In this way, the road expenses can actually not be deducted much.

Qian Xiucheng, the chief cabinet manager, also started out as a small clerk and worked his way up to his current position.

He was quite nice to Mu Ba, calculating the wages as they should be and never cutting corners.

So after the bill is settled, the most likely to get 70 or 80 taels of silver, and the least likely to get 60 taels of silver, depends mainly on their personal expenses along the way.

If you want to eat and drink well wherever you go, and have a big bite of red fruit at night, your expenses will definitely be high, and there will be little left.

This is pretty good. If it were those unscrupulous counters, after all the deductions, there would only be 20 or 30 taels left in the end.

Everyone happily took the silver or banknotes and put them in their arms, and they already started thinking about what they would do when they got ashore.

Li Yongfu went back to the counter to settle accounts. After distributing the pay to everyone, he left with the people at the counter.

On the raft, Shui Laowu stopped everyone and said something. "Brothers, before everyone disperses, I have a few more instructions."

"We started from the foot of Widow Mountain, passed through the 9981 checkpoints of the Yalu River, and finally reached the South China Sea after risking our lives and crossing so many dangerous rapids.

This place is a world of pleasure, with casinos, brothels, opium dens, half-closed doors, and sea platforms.

These people's eyes are all fixed on our Muba, they want to skin us and eat our meat, even the bones will be smashed."

"I have to say one more thing to my brothers: be sure to protect the money in your pockets and don't let anyone take it out.

If you have parents, a wife and children, think more about your family. If you have that money, buying some food and daily necessities for your family is better than anything else.

Don’t let those people drain you out of your money. In the end, you will have nothing left, and even have to pawn your clothes and pants, and walk back home with nothing.”

Shui Laowu said this with all his heart. As for whether others could understand him or not, that was not his business. "I'll still stay at Tonghe Inn. If you have any problems, you can go find me there."

Having said everything that could be said, the water crow knew that everyone was anxious to get ashore, so he waved his hand and asked everyone to leave.

"Lenghu'er, follow me to the inn and don't run around."

The city of Andong was originally an ordinary market town. It developed in a short period of time due to the large-scale timber development in Changbai Mountain in recent years.

People say that Andong is a city that floated down from Changbai Mountain.

From January to June and July every year, Anton is the most lively and prosperous season. Whether it is casinos, brothels, theaters, or restaurants, they are all in peak season.

Because at this time, the woodcutters sailed all the way to Andong, settled accounts and divided profits, and had money in their pockets.

Mu Ba had the silver he earned with his life in his pocket. In the eyes of others, he was a cash cow, and too many people were eyeing him.

Every shop in the city would arrange people to go to the docks, inns, etc. to recruit people.

Mu Ba, who spends money like water, is the breadwinner of these local people.

As the saying goes, "Once the wood sticks enter Andong County, pigs, ducks, chickens and dogs are all exchanged for food."

Shui Laowu led everyone off the raft and onto the shore, where they ran into those shop owners who had come to pick up people.

"Brother, come on, come to my place, it's better there.

For food, there are food boxes containing three meals a day, including big buns stuffed with meat and large pancakes wrapped with bacon, which are delicious and affordable.

There are flower platforms for playing, where you keep the least money and enjoy the greatest happiness. There are also sea platforms, where you can bet as much or as little as you want, and they will never cheat you. "

Those who try to attract people are all very conceited and say all kinds of things just to attract people to their own shops.

When the woodcutters, who had been busy for so long, heard this, they immediately came to life.

Especially those who were new to rafting for the first time, when they heard this, they couldn't wait to follow them.

At this time, the experienced old man quickly reached out to stop those young men.

"Wait a minute, we still have some serious business to do, let's talk about it after we finish it."

The first thing Muba did after getting ashore was to go to the water god temple of the "Boat Club" to worship.

The Water God Temple is on the south side of the Grand Cross Street. It is built with blue bricks and gray tiles, and is exquisite and unique. The flying dragons and water beasts are portrayed vividly.

In front of the temple gate there is a stone statue of "Ten Incompletes", while inside the temple are the Dragon King, Dragon Mother, dragon sons and grandsons, as well as fish, turtles, shrimps and crabs.

The members of the Pai Gang bought paper codes made of yellow paper, wrote the names of the Dragon King, River God, River God, and Yuan Shen on them, and then burned the paper codes together with incense sticks in a large incense burner.

Finally, the remaining pickles are hung around the neck of the stone statue with ten imperfections, which means that one will not get choking in the future.

After doing all this and walking out of the temple, the woodcutters began to let themselves go completely.

When Muba was either in the mountains or on the water all year round, the time he spent in Anton was the happiest moment for him.

I have been working hard for several months, risking my life, just to enjoy this season.

"Let's go, brothers, let's say goodbye now. I'm going to go to my lover's place. Let's go back and call me, brothers."

Old Sun, the tail boatman, bowed to Shui Laowu and the others and said.

Lao Sun has a lover in Andong City. Every year when he goes to Andong for rafting, he goes to live in his lover's home. This is also called "relying on others" or "getting help".

(End of this chapter)