After grandma left, grandpa didn't adapt to many things. He got up in the morning and went to chop wood, make a fire, boil water, cook tea and eat steamed buns. Then he crossed his legs and sat silently behind the stove for a long time.
But after all, he is a restless person. After a long time, he gradually developed the idea of changing the status quo in his heart. Later, he gradually implemented his own plan.
in the countryside, at that time, the biggest business was to pound animals. Some donkey farmers think that donkeys have no strength to plow and can't turn over the soil well, so they want to stir it up and buy a cow to raise it. Some horse owners, who have few people at home, think that horses are too big, waste forage and are not easy to handle, and they want to buy an old donkey. Some people are impatient, but they have a slow old cow. Because they can't live, they want to sell it and pick up a mule with tighter sex. Some people have teamed up with their neighbors to serve crops, and their donkeys and cows are not well matched, so they want to stir it up for long-term cooperation. Others have spare capacity and want to buy a better donkey, thinking that they can give birth to a donkey every year, or raise a female cow and calf until they are half a year old. Finding a chance to sell it is also a lot of income, which can be used for household use. As a result, in almost every township, a place where livestock are bought and sold is formed, which we call "Daji".
As soon as the fair is held, the wooden stakes of the fair are tied with animals waiting to be traded, and people who come from the four mountains keep shuttling between them. Some people look at the coat color, some people look at the hoof and leg, some people look at the mouth, some people praise, some people shake their heads slightly, some people speculate whether its mouth is good or not, and some people assert how it works. Of course, people who really like an animal will try their best to find all kinds of shortcomings, such as bad teeth, bad eyes, bad hair color and too big belly, so as to lower the price. At this time, the economic man with a leather bag under his arm and stone glasses on the bridge of his nose, which we call "the dentist", will find out the situation in time and come to talk about it. As usual, the price can't be shouted out in person. The dentist first looks for the buyer, covers their hands with the lapel of clothes, and determines the seller's asking price by pinching his fingers. The seller pinched the finger of the dentist and said that he would not sell it without this price. The dentist nodded to show his understanding and reached out to pinch the finger of the buyer. The buyer said that the highest price was this. If the price difference is not big, you can make a deal immediately by taking a middle price. If the price difference is big, the firm will negotiate from it, so that the seller can lower the price and the buyer can raise the price. If the transaction is successful, the price will be clear. The next thing is for the buyer to find a secluded corner to untie his belt and pay from it, and the dentist will also draw some money as the tariff for his words just now. If the business is good, you can make a lot of money at a party.
But not everyone can do this job. He must have a glib tongue, be very popular in Sishan, and master a unique skill, that is, reading the mouth. An animal can't tell its age just by its appearance because its head is not bald and its face is not wrinkled. A three-year-old donkey and a thirty-year-old donkey are almost the same face. But the teeth are very different. The back teeth of the old donkey are basically smooth. An experienced dentist can tell how old the donkey is by opening its mouth.
Grandpa has been a dentist for many years. But we later found out that his interest was not in those few pieces of tea money, but in capturing business opportunities every day. For example, if he finds out which animal is cheaper, or if the owner is in a hurry to sell it because he needs money, he will not hesitate to buy it and sell it in a few days, and he will earn some difference from it. Because he is familiar with the market, he usually doesn't get the wrong idea.
But there are occasional mistakes. For example, he once received an old donkey at a very low price and never sold it again. It turns out that although the skeleton of the old donkey is relatively large, there is something wrong with the structure of its two front legs, which are splayed out when walking. This is not a big defect in people, but not in donkeys, because it still has two hind legs to walk with, which is very difficult to coordinate. Because of this defect, it pulled up the plow, and because the four legs were not in the same direction, it was more difficult, and the donkey fell into its hand from then on. I remember that it was mainly me who took care of it at that time. I'm also a serious figure-eight walker, so it's not clear whether it's a bit funny to outsiders when I walk with the donkey on the mountain road.
later, because of one thing, grandpa, regardless of rank, didn't want the donkey. Once my grandfather and I went to the mountain to cut alfalfa, so we invited him to eat ice grass on the mountain road. As a result, we found that this donkey had another problem, that is, it loved to steal Tian He. You know, most domestic donkeys can tell what is Tian He and what is weeds in the field. They graze outside the ridge and will never eat the seedlings inside the ridge. I didn't expect the old donkey to reach over his neck and eat a few mouthfuls of rice seedlings as long as you weren't careful, and squint to see if you found it. This makes people very angry. It's a pity to eat Tian He, and it will cause unnecessary trouble for fear of being asked by others. What's more, its honest appearance has deceived people.
I'm determined to teach him some lessons, because you don't have to worry about raising such animals as long as you ask them out. So I secretly waited for it to put its donkey's mouth in the past to steal food, quietly pulled out the brown rope tied with alfalfa, and suddenly pulled a rope on its face. It was shocked and its hooves jumped up, and its nose was panting. Before it turned and ran away, I whipped the brown rope and planned to solve this problem once and for all. Grandpa also encouraged me to beat it hard. It's really a long memory. On the way back, he walked honestly with his eyes down, and I was a little smug, thinking that the animal had to be cleaned up more, otherwise it wouldn't look like it. Unexpectedly, at the corner of the mountain road, when I just approached it, it suddenly jumped up and hit my heart. I suddenly squatted on the ground with my hands holding my chest, feeling that I was going to breathe. Grandpa flew into a rage and pulled out the pole and ran after it, but it had run away and could not catch up. Grandpa Yu Nu didn't disappear, so he sold it cheaply to the dealer who collected the meat donkey at the next gathering, saying that cook the meat should cook the leather.
Grandpa made the second big move in dentistry, that is, he sold all our captive animals and replaced them with burly ones.
Now you can't even see donkeys in the countryside, but at that time, there were big livestock such as mules and horses everywhere, so when you walk on the winding mountain road, you can see huge horse manure piles and long ponytails everywhere, and we often pick up ponytails to survive and trap birds. In those years, there were also many dealers who specialized in pounding mules and horses. Once, Grandpa called a dealer who had walked a long way with a dozen big horses to our house to have a rest, and this rest lasted for several days. The trafficker was so tired that he sat on the kang and didn't want to go out, so he urged me to drive his horses to the river bend to drink water, and said that these horses were very docile and tired after a long journey, so they wouldn't run around, let alone hurt people. When I was a child, I was playful and daring. I naturally refused to let go of such an opportunity, so I took my grandfather's cowhide whip from the wall of the mill kiln and drove them to Qianhewan to drink water. As he said, these horses are very docile, and they all walk head-to-head together. Swinging the whip and walking behind, looking at their tall bodies and long manes, I naturally thought of the scenes in the movie: a young hero or a white knight crossed the river in an ancient stranger, said goodbye to others, whizzed, got on the horse, shook the reins and left the world ... This fantasy was enough to make me ready to move, so I found a horse and prepared one. But the horse is too tall, no matter how hard I try, I can't jump on it. So I had to change my strategy, give up the method of jumping up and use the method of climbing up, but the horse's back was too smooth, so I climbed to the middle of the waist and fell down again. Finally tired and panting, finally desperate, I led the horse to a earthen platform. When I stood on the earthen platform, I easily climbed up, but this action was really a bit difficult. I got on my horse and grabbed my mane, but I found that I didn't dare to straighten up at all. I always felt that I was going to slide down. So I had to lie down on the horse's back, clamp my legs, shivering, and made an extremely timid action. Unexpectedly, this seemed to give the horse a signal to gallop, and it started to run in steps. When other horses saw that the situation had changed, they also ran with it, and the faster they ran, the faster I gradually heard the wind whistling in my ear.
I don't remember clearly how the cavalry finally stopped. It seems that my grandfather heard that I was going to drink horses alone, so he didn't trust me, so he found it all the way and was caught in the middle of the road. Grandpa didn't scold me for taking such a big risk and making such a big mistake. He never scolds me. I only remember that he mentioned the dealer, and the dealer explained that this horse was ridden by people, and it would carry people without getting in the way. This hurt me so much that for a long time, I felt particularly depressed and thought I was a material who could only ride an old donkey. Isn't it? I almost crippled the old donkey with a splay outside, and its thin spine finally worn out a piece of flesh in the most secret part of my thigh, which didn't grow well for dozens of days.
There are so many tame horses, but grandpa finally bought three fierce horses for our families. Uncle's family is a black-haired horse with long legs and tight belly. Our family is a mare with big hoofs and big belly, while uncle and uncle raise a tall brown-red stallion. So everyone in the village said that the Ma family had horses.
These three horses have smooth and shiny fur, strong hooves and legs, and are tall and powerful. As soon as they get out of the gate, they have to hold the reins. I remember when we were led to the river ditch to drink water, the fourth uncle led the brown horse, the eldest brother led the dark horse, and I led the bordeaux horse. The sound of hooves was very cool. Especially as a child, I walked with my hands on the reins, and when I was seen by children, I felt a sense of heroism rising from my heart. My face must have been majestic. But almost every day, something happens to them, and they never stop. For example, a child in the village entered the stable and dug a bird's nest from the back wall, and was bitten by a dark horse from the back neck and fell to the ground for a while, until he heard his screams, his uncle saved him; For example, Brown Horse took off Grandpa's toenails with one hoof and bit off a piece of his scalp with one bite, and the most thrilling story happened between me and Jujube Horse.
In fact, comparatively speaking, among the three horses, the bordeaux horse is the most docile, so when I often take it up the mountain to eat grass, my family won't worry too much. But it's a monotonous and boring job to eat mountains by holding the reins of horses, because two hands can't spare to play. Later, I invented the invention of freeing my hands one after another, such as extending the reins of a horse indefinitely and dragging it on the ground, so that even if the horse runs, it will be dragged down by the long reins, and I will have a grip when I chase him; For example, I tied the reins of a horse to a tree, let it spin around the tree and eat, and so on. But at that time, I thought the most effective way was to tie the reins on my wrists, so that I could not only lead the horse to eat grass, but also free my hands to play. But once it was hot, the mare was stung by a donkey bee, which made me crazy, dragging me down the mountain. My arm was tied to the reins of the horse and I couldn't get rid of it, so I rolled all the way with this crazy horse. At that time, fortunately, I met my uncle who went up the mountain to bury dung, and only my strong uncle could restrain these fierce horses in our family. When the mare saw that his uncle had pulled himself down, he suddenly became angry, gave a loud scream, and jumped at his uncle with his hoofs flying. His uncle flashed sideways, jumped up, grabbed his horse's head with one arm, and then took advantage of the situation to slam down, and the horse knelt on the ground.
the second problem brought by these horses is the shortage of forage. In summer and autumn, they ate up all the alfalfa and sorghum in our family, and their stomachs were often flat. We had to cut reed wheatgrass or even Peganum harmala as a supplement every day, which became a heavy burden for everyone. Especially in the winter, forage was already in short supply, and they suddenly seemed to have a big appetite. Even the wheat-coated potato stalks that were usually used to burn kang were eaten up, and they kicked the hooves to show that they had not eaten enough. What is even more hateful is that the big guys have tried their best to wait on them, but they can't plow at all. As long as they put on plowshares, they will snore around the ground. When the summer fields were basically abandoned in those days, grandpa dealt with these horses one after another.
However, after raising it for such a long time, we are still a little reluctant to part with it. As a stallion, the brown horse fought for a lot of pea fodder, and the dark horse slowly learned to plow, especially the bordeaux horse, and later gave birth to a lovely pony.