1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 120 I'm not planning to rent it anymore.
"I am a staunch proletarian."

Old Wu smiled nonchalantly: "If you want to go, wait a while. Go when there are more people. Those guys are greenhorns. It's probably their first time doing this. Who would just block the door like that? They're asking for trouble."

Chen Jiazhi looked towards the market; there seemed to be quite a few people there. He and Xue Jun were going to deliver vegetables.

Waiting a while isn't cowardly, is it?

Heiwa'er hadn't left yet, and tried asking, "Chen the vegetable farmer, would you like me to have two more baskets of vegetables?"

"Need not."

"Okay, let's stay here tomorrow. If it doesn't work out, we'll find another place."

Heiwa left, and Lao Wu parked his car on the side of the road. The three of them watched the commotion outside the market from a distance.

"Old Wu, tell me about your life as a culinary tyrant?"

"I've already said I'm not a vegetable tyrant. If you're curious, I can tell you. I used to be a vegetable vendor."

Chen Jiazhi handed Lao Wu a cigarette, his gaze still fixed on the market entrance. There was some noise, but no one seemed to have actually started fighting.

"Then why aren't you doing trafficking anymore?"

"Sigh, I dare not travel to other places anymore."

Old Wu pondered for a moment and said, "The year before last or the year before that, I went to Changsha. Not only did I suffer a huge loss, but I also encountered a merchant who went through a lot of trouble to bring a truckload of winter melons from another place. After arriving at the market, because he didn't know the rules, he didn't pay the local authorities the protection fee. As a result, the winter melons were sprinkled with salt overnight, and the winter melons worth more than 10,000 yuan all rotted."

So later, when I stopped living in other places, I started doing wholesale and distribution work in Huacheng.

Chen Jiazhi asked, "Weren't there vegetable bullies in Huacheng a couple of years ago?"

"Yes, definitely. And they're not called 'vegetable tyrants,' but rather large-scale operators and market experts!"

Old Wu said with great enthusiasm: "Back then, a few big players who did wholesale in the market often monopolized several commodities. They not only drove away local vegetable farmers who had low vegetable prices, but also occupied and divided up their territory. Vegetable merchants from other places had to abide by the rules to enter the market. Every vehicle had to pay a fee. In addition to the market protection fee, they also suppressed transportation fees, forced buying and selling, and even forced others to rent and use the weighing scales."

Some large buyers will purchase certain vegetables at low prices, and vegetable vendors who refuse to sell will face violence and intimidation.

Once they succeed, they raise vegetable prices, sometimes by several times. If small wholesalers offer prices lower than them, the henchmen patrolling the market will force them to raise their prices, or they will face retaliation…

"But in the past two years, Huacheng has cracked down on bullying and market manipulation, and now the police station can directly intervene in the security management of the market."

So, wait until there are more people before you go over; then those people won't be able to do anything to you.

Chen Jiazhi smiled and said, "Don't worry about that, we're familiar with this routine too."

He was probably lucky in his past life, or maybe he was just a nobody who never encountered a real bully in the market, but fighting and brawling were quite common in the wholesale market.

Small vegetable farmers are different from rootless, out-of-town vendors; at least they have more people, are closer to the market, and if things get serious, they might just fight.

Besides, market management can't be that stupid, can it?

Without these small vegetable farmers, the market's popularity might disappear.

After chatting with Lao Wu for a while, Chen Ze arrived. He simply packed his vegetables, paid, and left, showing no interest in the hustle and bustle at the entrance of the market.

After Chen Ze left, more and more people gradually appeared at the side gate.

"Jiazhi, why aren't you going over there?"

"Someone is blocking the door."

Upon seeing Yi Dinggan and his two companions arrive, Chen Jiazhi took out the steel pipe that Lao Wu had given him last time from the tricycle. Yi Dinggan and his companions were momentarily surprised, and they also took out an iron steelyard balance.
"Give me something too!"

Chen Jiazhi glanced at Xue Jun, who seemed eager to try, and said, "You shouldn't need to lift a finger."

...

"If you want to get through this gate, you have to pay a protection fee first!"

"I'll pay the 5 yuan sanitation fee."

"Listen carefully, this is a protection fee, an additional 5 yuan on top of the sanitation fee, otherwise you can forget about coming in to sell vegetables!"

At the side entrance of the market, a dozen or so middle-aged and young men carrying knives and sticks blocked the entrance.

This is the small gate; large vehicles usually don't pass through here.

Three vegetable farmers on bicycles were blocked from both sides, unable to move forward or backward.

"We're not going in, let us leave!"

"Who do you think you are, leaving whenever you want? Fine, you can leave, but you'll have to sell us your vegetables!"

The three vegetable farmers looked around. They had arrived early, but they hadn't expected to encounter this. They knew they couldn't possibly win a fight.
"How much did you give me?"

"5 cents a pound, isn't that fair?"

"What the hell, are you buying this?!"

Among the people blocking the door, one of the men looked disdainful and said, "Don't you all love selling cheap? Today I'll let you sell cheap!"

"Sell my ass! I'm not selling!"

One of the three vegetable farmers was older, about thirty-six or thirty-seven years old, and his truck was loaded with vegetables. Faced with the threat, he refused to budge an inch.

"Don't worry, just wait a bit, they'll be here soon."

The old vegetable farmer whispered a few words in his local dialect, and the other two vegetable farmers panicked because they didn't have that many vegetables.

The group of people with knives and sticks didn't actually attack; they just sandwiched the person in front and behind, preventing others from entering, which caused more and more people to gather at the entrance.

This is the scene that Chen Jiazhi and his group saw when they arrived at the door.

A group of stall owners wielding knives, along with some young thugs, surrounded the three vegetable farmers, but did not make a move.

A group of vegetable farmers had gathered outside.

The small vegetable farmer wanted to go in to sell his produce, but the stall owner and his men blocked the entrance, preventing him from entering. He didn't see anyone in uniform.
In fact, the vegetable farmers could have simply turned around and left to sell their vegetables elsewhere, and some people did just that. However, most people stayed because the other party detained three of them.

"We can't fight."

Yi Dinggan glanced at it and made a judgment; the group then joined the crowd.

Chen Jiazhi also said, "These stall owners probably want the market management to come out and negotiate, to raise our stall fees, or to force us to leave." He saw the middle-aged couple from last night in that group of people.

There are plenty of smart people.

Many vegetable farmers were cursing loudly because they knew the other party didn't want to fight; even the most arrogant vegetable bully wouldn't resort to blocking the door.

Time passed slowly.

As more and more people gathered, many grocery shoppers were also drawn over, eager to watch the spectacle.

"Are you going to fight or not? If not, get out of the way and don't delay our grocery shopping."

"Trying to inflate vegetable prices again, huh?"

Around 1:50, only seven or eight people from the market management arrived.

Apart from the leader, who was dressed in a shirt and wore glasses and looked somewhat refined, the rest of them were all strong and muscular, and did not look like they were to be trifled with.

"What are you doing? Trying to get arrested again?! Get out of the way!"

The refined-looking middle-aged man in the lead shouted twice, but the stall owner showed no fear upon seeing the person in charge.

"Director Wang, if there's no explanation today, we won't be able to open this door!"

"What explanation do you want? Come down here and we'll talk!"

"You're trying to pass the buck again, aren't you? If the market continues to let these farmers sell their vegetables haphazardly, how are we stall owners who have paid rent supposed to do business?"

"Exactly! If this keeps up, who the hell will still rent a stall!"

"Temporary stalls must be cancelled!"

The stall owners started talking all at once, and the vegetable farmers naturally wouldn't be outdone.

"Fuck you, didn't we pay the stall fee? It's only five yuan a night!"

"Cancel it if you want, who the hell wants to sell vegetables here?"

"Release them, and we'll move to another place!"

"If you don't release them, we'll beat them!"

"What's the fuss about?"

Director Wang was not tall, but he had a large belly and was quite bold. He led his men to stand in the middle of the crowd and said to the leading stall owners:
"Get out of the way! If you don't let me through, I'll call the police immediately. This is bullying and extortion; you'll be arrested, you know that?"

"You can move aside, but you surnamed Wang, you can forget about getting this month's rent. I'm not renting it to you anymore!"

Director Wang's face was ashen: "What are you yelling about? Come down here and talk to me."

"Hmph, you'd better have an explanation~"

...

The door eventually opened, and the onlookers booed loudly, while Xue Jun, who had been eager to see what would happen, looked disappointed.

"Hey, let's sell vegetables."

"We've sold it today, but who knows what tomorrow will bring? Don't be fooled by that guy surnamed Wang's earlier support; he just wants to collect more rent."

"What else can we do? The stall fees are probably going to go up again."

"If things don't work out, we can just move to another place. We can sell vegetables anywhere by the roadside. A living person isn't going to die from holding their pee!"

"This place is really popular!"

A group of vegetable farmers were quite pessimistic. Some of the local veteran vegetable farmers also had a strong attachment to this place. It used to be a street market, but it became a formal market after it became more popular.

These days, it's not easy to find a stable place to trade vegetables.

If a street market gets even a little bit crowded, it might face a double crackdown from both the authorities and local thugs, so the only option is to play guerrilla warfare.
Upon reaching the temporary alleyway, the vegetable farmers resumed selling their produce. Perhaps due to what had just happened, some farmers were offering even lower prices.

As a result of the chain reaction, vegetable prices dropped across the board, and everyone wanted to go home as soon as possible.

Chen Jiazhi didn't have many dishes, but the amount of vegetables he served was reduced slightly in the end.

Xue Jun followed him to sell vegetables, his eyes almost popping out of his head. The money was coming too easily!

Chen Jiazhi had no time to deal with him; after selling the vegetables, he still had to repackage and deliver them. Xue Jun was new to the area and didn't know anything about it.

As he was busy serving the food, he suddenly felt that the surroundings had become much quieter.

Looking up, I saw Director Wang, who wore glasses, leading a group of people to his stall.

Director Wang smiled and said loudly, "You're Chen the vegetable farmer, right? I heard you're looking to rent a stall. How about we talk about it?"

Chen Jiazhi felt as if countless eyes were fixed on him.

“You have a keen sense of smell. Last night, you went to the back stalls to ask about prices, which made the stall owners realize that the market might be changing. Their business has been severely affected by you, which led to this incident this morning.”

Director Wang looked at the row of vegetable farmers around him and smiled again: "Don't worry about the renovation. It won't start for a few more days. Half a month will be enough. After the renovation, there will be some permanent stalls here, and you can all come and rent them."

If you don't want to rent, you can sell your vegetables to wholesalers. They can pick them up directly from the field, saving you the trouble of selling vegetables every day.

One vegetable farmer said indignantly, "To put it bluntly, you just want to raise prices and then try to get our vegetables for free!"

Director Wang still smiled and said, "The market will post an announcement tomorrow, you can take a look, the price will definitely go up a bit~"

Small vegetable farmers are a vulnerable group.

While banding together for mutual support and resistance against violence is possible, there is no solution when faced with such blatant and overt methods.

The market management has already compromised with the stall owners.
After saying that, he looked at Chen Jiazhi and said, "If you want to rent it, you can sell vegetables at the stall tomorrow."

"I'm not planning to rent it anymore."

Trying to use him as a shield? No way. He probably doesn't have much of a future in this market.

(End of this chapter)