The Red Era: Starting from a Truck Driver

Chapter 211: Store vegetables in advance

The next day, Jiang Cheng still got up early.

The young man was full of energy, went to bed early and got up early, and returned to the place where he had separated from Song Wei and the others at seven o'clock. Then he bought a few dough figurines at a nearby state-owned store, and then waited for them by the parked car.

Once we got to Jinan, it was much easier to drive, as there weren't that many hilly roads. Even though we left late this morning, it was only about 300 kilometers to Jincheng.

In October, even in the early part of the month, the weather in Jinan was already cool during the day. In addition, global warming had not yet occurred in this era, and the overall temperature was a little lower than in later times.

At noon, we didn’t need to find a place to rest because the weather was too hot, so we just rested for a while after lunch and then set off again.

The three of them arrived in Jincheng before five o'clock in the afternoon. After having dinner in Jincheng, Jiang Cheng was about to separate from them.

This time it wasn't that Jiang Cheng wanted to avoid them on purpose. Even though Song Wei and Chen Guodong were there, Jiang Cheng couldn't buy things freely, let alone sell things. Even if he wanted to separate, he wouldn't rush to spend this evening.

The key is that Song Wei and Chen Guodong still have to go to the port. They want to go there first, pick up the goods early tomorrow morning, and then go to Sijiu City to take a look.

Jiang Cheng was no longer going the same way as them. He was planning to go to Tianjin to rest. They wanted to separate and go to the foreign trade port warehouse before it got dark.

Now that he was in Tianjin, Jiang Cheng had no intention of continuing his journey. Tianjin had three unique things: Goubuli steamed buns, Shibajie fried dough twist, and Erduoyan fried cake.

However, these three specialties have been ruined by some people in later generations. For example, Goubuli steamed buns were sold everywhere under this name at the beginning, which ruined their reputation. The prices of authentic Goubuli steamed buns in authentic shops are ridiculously high. A tray of eight steamed buns costs 128 yuan, and a plate of peanuts costs 58 yuan.

In the later generations of Tianjin, Goubuli steamed buns tasted OK, but steamed buns were still steamed buns after all. No matter how good the fillings were, they were still steamed buns. They were sold at such a high price that basically no locals would eat them.

The Shibajie Mahua is a big one, also called Tianjin Mahua. It was played up by later generations, but it is not that expensive, and the price is moderate.

I don’t know if it’s because he didn’t go to Tianjin to buy it, or for some other reason, but he ate it without saying a word.

In some cities, you can often see a three-wheeled vehicle with a glass cover at the back. It sells all over the country, and it is not clear how the business is going, but no one has ever seen this kind of fried dough twist being sold out, or with only a few left.

So the question is, how many days does it take for that truckload of fried dough twist to be sold out? Or does it keep being sold all the time? Fried dough twist is just a common deep-fried food, how many days does it take for it to go bad?

There are also those who drive around selling fried dough sticks. For this kind of product without any certification, I won’t talk about whether the oil they use is good or not. The key point is that it is not clear whether they have been using the same oil for frying fried dough sticks all the time.

From the 1990s to the early 21st century, it was said that those who sold hemp flowers made money.

Anyway, in later generations, Tianjin hemp twist is not bought by people from other places. Just like Goubuli steamed buns, it still has a market in Tianjin because of its origin, earning money from tourists.

As for the ear-shaped fried cake, it was eliminated by many similar delicacies. In fact, it is similar to the pumpkin cake in the south. In this era, egg cakes are considered very good pastries. The ear-shaped fried cake is just an ordinary breakfast for later generations. It is not much different from breakfast snacks such as sesame balls, glutinous rice cakes, and pumpkin cakes. After Jiang Cheng separated from Song Wei and others, he found a guesthouse to rest alone. The next day, he found the authentic Goubuli steamed buns shop in Tianjin, and bought ten kilograms of steamed buns with food coupons and money.

In this era, Goubuli steamed buns are sold by kilogram, not by piece. A kilogram of steamed buns is not cheap, costing 1.2 yuan per kilogram, which is nearly twice as expensive as meat.

When buying the buns, Jiang Cheng tasted them. It is not without reason that Goubuli buns are the top three must-trys in Tianjin. At least Jiang felt that the buns tasted fresh and not greasy, and were refreshing and fragrant.

After buying the buns, Jiang Cheng went to other places to buy the other two specialties. As for the Erduoyan fried cake, it is not called this because it looks like an ear eye. The earliest origin of this thing is that the shop selling this snack was opened next to an alley called Erduoyan. And this kind of thing does not require much technical content. Now it is sold in many breakfast shops in Jincheng.

As for the hemp flower, it was actually a pastry, which could not be bought even with food coupons, and you had to have a pastry ticket. This resulted in Jiang Cheng having to eat a little more ear-shaped fried cake and leave Jincheng.

After leaving Tianjin, Jiang Cheng drove slower because he had to sell fish and then buy a lot of things.

When in Jinan, Jiang Cheng had actually entered a northern city. As he went deeper into the north, the climate became cooler day by day.

Winter is actually coming soon in the north, and winter in the south is not far away either.

In addition to stockpiling some local specialties, Jiang Cheng now has to start storing vegetables. In the north, at least there are spinach, green onions and the like at this time of year.

Cabbage and radish are now on the market in large quantities. In late October, residents in northern cities will start to stock up on cabbage and radish. It will only take half a month, when the weather in the north turns cold and there will be no vegetables to sell in the market.

In November, vegetables are basically not sold in the northern markets, because they cannot be sold immediately or they will freeze and have to be stored in the cellar.

In the rural areas of the north, almost every household has a cellar, and in the city there are collective cellars. A collective cellar is a large cellar dug for many people to use together, so that if each family digs one, there will be no place for you to dig.

There was a scene in a TV series where a widow went into a cellar and an old man followed her in. It was unclear what happened next. If each household had a cellar, which man would dare to follow a widow into the cellar?

Even if there was nothing going on, you couldn't go into the cellar with the widow, it was hard to explain. But the collective cellar was different, it could be said that they just happened to go to the cellar to get vegetables.

The north is vast and sparsely populated, so cabbage is cheap. Even in later times, the price of cabbage is enviable to the southerners. In 2025, cabbage still costs one or two cents per pound.

At this time, cabbage might cost about one cent in a big city in the north, but in some small places, 50 cents could buy 100 kilograms of cabbage.

If Jiang Cheng hadn't been able to go to Hong Kong, he wouldn't have considered cabbage. In addition to cabbage, there are spinach and various vegetables. He can go to a place, sell fish and buy a lot of vegetables.

This is quite exaggerated. A pound of fish can be sold for more than 40 cents, and in some places it can be exchanged for nearly 100 pounds of vegetables.

(End of this chapter)