Traveling through 1942 with space

How could a group of little kids who had eaten too much wild grass and tree bark not be excited when they suddenly ate real food?

As the saying goes, a young boy can eat his father down. A steamed bun weighing 100 to 200 grams can be eaten in just three or five bites, and after finishing it, it feels like you didn't eat anything.

After eating the steamed corn bread, Hou Xiaoge gave a fairly honest evaluation of the owner of the steamed corn bread stall.

The bran only accounts for half of the steamed bread. Although it is a bit choking, it is still good because it is freshly made and has a soft and chewy texture.

Hou Xiaoge did not divide the remaining ten steamed buns, as he wanted to take them back for his family.

Otherwise, if my uncle and aunt find out when I get back, I’ll be beaten!

Ignoring the looks from his friends who were looking at him as if he were his adoptive father, Hou Xiaoge asked his cousin to hang the backpack on his chest for protection, and he wandered around the market with the group of little ones.

Most of the stalls in the front area sell food, but with the skyrocketing price of grain, ready-made food has become more expensive. Most people simply cannot afford it and can only look at it and smell the fragrance from afar.

Adults generally don't stop in front of these stalls. First, it's embarrassing; second, the more they smell the food, the hungrier they get; and third, they can easily get beaten.

Therefore, there is always a group of children guarding not far from these stalls, sniffing the fragrance of food from time to time, and then looking at the stalls eagerly, hoping that someone will come and give them some alms.

But Hou Xiaoge knew that these children were all dreaming and the scenes in the TV series would never happen.

Moreover, the bosses are also disgusted by the children who hang around the stalls. They are dirty and affect their business, so they will drive them away every once in a while.

After passing the stalls selling food, there were stalls selling various daily necessities, farm tools, etc. Hou Xiaoge even saw a stall selling guns.

However, this gun is not a rifle, but a homemade shotgun that shoots steel balls.

If it was a normal musket, Hou Xiaoge might try to get one for self-defense, but this thing takes almost a minute to load the gunpowder and then load the steel balls, so it would be dead if it really encountered danger.

Even for such a piece of junk, Hou Xiaoge just heard someone asking for the price, and the price is not cheap, fifteen dollars a piece.

To be honest, this thing had been eliminated by the army in the late Qing Dynasty. It was only popular among the people in mountainous areas to deter the scoundrels.

Of course, Hou Xiaoge had no interest in it at all. He was even afraid that it would explode and kill him.

But just because Hou Xiaoge doesn't like it doesn't mean it's bad. Even though the shotgun is backward, it is still a rifle and is always better than a kitchen knife.

This was the most difficult time in the War of Resistance, but many troops did not even have a decent gun.

Especially Mr. Ba, the main force was short of guns and bullets, and often only four or five people were allocated one gun.

So every time there was a war, most people would charge forward with swords and spears, relying entirely on their fearlessness of death and the bright red faith in their hearts.

This is what is shown in many reliable TV dramas, where the soldiers wait for the enemy to get close on the battlefield before fighting, and then after two or three shots everyone charges forward and engages in hand-to-hand combat with cold weapons.

So when looking at this gun, Hou Xiaoge sincerely admired this generation of ancestors, and thought in his heart that he would contribute his own meager strength to the country when he had the opportunity.

----

After expressing their feelings, the little rascals continued to stroll around.

This market is not big, but it has everything that ordinary people need in daily life.

Walking and stopping along the way, Hou Xiaoge was curious about everything in this era.

But after experiencing the humiliation at the Hu La Tang stall, even though Hou Xiaoge was curious, he just watched and didn't ask any questions.

There are also stalls selling grains in the market. Of course, these grains are not fine grains, but some bran, weeds, leaves and the like. Good grains will not appear here at all.

Hou Xiaoge also listened carefully. A pound of bran costs eight yuan, which is really expensive. Ordinary people can't afford it at all. The most they can buy is some tree bark and wild vegetables to fill their stomachs.

After passing the daily necessities trading area, everyone came to the livestock trading market.

It was summer, and the livestock market was filled with the stench of fermented manure and ammonia, which was very irritating.

Hou Xiaoge discovered that most of the livestock sellers were dressed in rags and looked like farmers, not people who specialized in the livestock business.

The main livestock sold in the market are cattle and donkeys, which are the most numerous.

Of course there are some other livestock such as mules, horses, sheep, pigs, chickens and ducks, but their numbers are very small.

However, Hou Xiaoge also discovered that these livestock all had one characteristic, which was that they were thin. Most of the oxen and donkeys were so thin that they were just skin and bones.

There was also the big fat pig that Hou Xiaoge remembered. Wow, it was so thin that it looked like a dog. This appearance made the seller standing by very anxious.

When Hou Xiaoge was a child in his previous life, his grandfather’s family raised cattle. The status of these large livestock in the family was higher than that of humans.

On weekdays, the first thing my grandfather did when he got up every day was to feed the cows. In addition to grass, he also had to add some bran as a supplement, and salt was needed to the drinking water.

If it is the busy farming season, the cows work very hard, so food becomes even more precious. In addition to grass, they also have to be fed corn. If conditions permit, they will also be fed eggs. It can be said that the status of cows in the family is particularly high.

Nowadays, the good oxen and donkeys have starved to the point of skin and bones, and are even taken to the market to be sold. The farmers can no longer survive!

But at that time, how many people could afford to buy large livestock? Ordinary people couldn't afford to raise them! So the fate of these large livestock was naturally to be killed and eaten.

The people who can afford to buy and eat meat naturally cannot be the victims of disasters and ordinary people, but only the rich.

Therefore, most of the people who come to the market to purchase are wearing silk robes, or at least their clothes are clean and tidy, and they are followed by three or five thugs or servants.

When Hou Xiaoge and his group of children met these people, they stayed away from them, especially the eldest cousin, who kept urging Hou Xiaoge to leave the livestock market as soon as possible to avoid offending any important figures.

Of course, Hou Xiaoge did not force himself to stay in the livestock market. After finding out the prices he wanted to know, he would naturally leave the market.

With the coming of famine years, the price of meat also rose sharply.

The seller wanted sixty dollars for a skinny cow weighing two or three hundred pounds, but the buyer was only willing to pay forty-five dollars, saying that the weather was too hot and the beef could not be kept, and that it was so skinny that its bones were visible. After a long haggling, the deal was finally concluded at forty-eight dollars.

(Everything is expensive during disaster years, so don’t take it personally. Also, prices were very chaotic at that time, so the author used his own calculations.

After all, Baidu says that one dollar in the Republic of China can only buy three to five pounds of pork. If we calculate according to Baidu's five dollars for a cow, a cow is worth more than ten pounds of pork? Who raises cows? One pig is equivalent to ten cows. What kind of cows are they raising?)

After getting the price of the cattle, Hou Xiaoge also inquired about the prices of other livestock.

The prices of pigs, sheep, donkeys, horses, and mules range from ten to seventy yuan, while the prices of poultry such as chickens, ducks, and geese fluctuate around two yuan.

Although the price of meat is much cheaper than the price of grain, Hou Xiaoge still feels it is fair. After all, a livestock costs dozens of dollars, which is unaffordable for ordinary people.

As for the farmer who killed the animals for his own consumption, haha! I guess his family wouldn't get much either, and they might even be in danger, as there are too many people watching them.

So it is better to change it into dollars. Dollars are hard currency. You can carry them with you wherever you go and buy whatever you want. It is much safer.

Hou Xiaoge is rich and really wants to buy an animal, but he is just a nine-year-old kid. Buying an animal is like a child carrying gold through a busy market, which is too ostentatious. He can only watch with envy.

After learning about the prices of livestock, Hou Xiaoge left the livestock market with regret.

After leaving the livestock market, everyone entered another market.

As soon as he entered the market, Hou Xiaoge saw a little girl about ten years old kneeling on the ground with a piece of grass stuck in her hair.

A word immediately popped up in Hou Xiaoge’s mind, “selling the first place by inserting a bid.”

The scene that would only appear on TV in the future now actually appeared in front of Hou Xiaoge.