The important commercial town of Yuji Town, "Hankou" in southern Henan

Yuji Town has developed transportation and is located at the throat from Anhui to Wuhan, Hubei. Business is booming and it is known as "Little Hankou" in history. The white cloth powder and fish seedlings produced were rated as the "three major piles" and became famous in Guangzhou and Hankou. "Dezi powder is exported to Southeast Asia. In recent years, township enterprises have developed rapidly and their economic strength has increased year by year. Products such as chestnuts, tea, silkworms, bamboo, marble, granite, fish seedlings, and bristle products are well-known in central and southern provinces. Among them Bristle products are exported to Europe and the United States. In 2000, the town's business revenue was 180 million yuan, and profits and taxes were 12 million yuan. The town's business is prosperous, with sufficient resources. The average daily floating population in the market exceeds 100 million yuan, and the per capita net income of the town is 18,000 yuan. The income is 6,000 yuan. Private enterprises include: agricultural tool factory, fur and leather factory, paint factory, gas station, silkworm station, etc. Among them, the building waterproof cold glue of the paint factory and the three-thread overlock sewing machine of the agricultural tool factory are exported. All over the country. The pillar industries are: tea, chestnut, sericulture and fish seedlings. The trade in Yuji Market is prosperous, with more than 20,000 people moving around during the daily peak period, and the annual transaction volume in 1992. Eight markets were expanded and constructed. Among them, the newly built large-scale comprehensive trade market covers an area of ??40 acres and has more than 800 front houses. It has become a large-scale comprehensive trade market with great influence in the inter-provincial border area in southern Henan. Agriculture includes rice, wheat, sweet potatoes, Tea, silkworms, chestnuts, sesame, peanuts, rape, cotton, etc. There are 14 small reservoirs and 1,185 ponds. The effective irrigation area of ??the town is 13,500 acres, and the livestock industry, forestry and fruit industry, vegetable industry, and agricultural product processing industry are growing steadily. , to achieve multi-level value addition through the dual approaches of "company + farmers" and "company + base". At present, 5,000 acres of tea base, 5,000 acres of sericulture base, and 5,000 acres of chestnut base have achieved results; in 1998, the total grain output was 10.5 million kilograms. , 13,000 pigs were slaughtered, 118,000 poultry were in stock, and 130,000 kilograms of silkworm cocoons were built around Yuji Town in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Four stone villages were built with a height of 4 meters, a width of 2 meters at the bottom, and a length of 500 meters. There are turrets at the gate and sentry gates on the streets. The main street is 600 meters long and 4 meters wide, with more than 1,600 houses and more than 300 shops along the street. It covers an area of ??62,000 square meters, and most of them are brick structures from the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Ji is an important commercial town in southern Henan. It is known as "Beilin Prefecture, Nan Yuji, Xishe Banner, and Dongzhoukou". Huizhou merchants and Shanxi merchants gathered there. During the prosperous period of Shanxi merchants, Shanshan Guild Hall was built in Yuji.

The goods listed in Yuji Town include homespun cloth, silk, kudzu, tea, bamboo wood, earthen paper, iron pots, medicinal materials, etc. The goods are either transported to Huaibei via the Huaihe River, or carried to Hankou by manpower. There is a saying of "going to Hankou". Cotton, fine cloth, salt, sugar and other commodities are mostly purchased from Macheng, Hankou, Zhenjiang, Wuhu and other places. Yuji Town is rich in products and has a prosperous commercial culture. There is an idiom to prove it. Piles, homespun cloth, board powder and fish seedlings"

(1) Homespun cloth. The weaving industry (wooden loom) and printing and dyeing industry in Yuji Town developed rapidly during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Because it was the first During the First World War, foreign cloth was out of stock, and the industry developed rapidly. Before 1940, there were nearly a thousand wooden looms and spinning wheels in almost every household. Printed cloth was very popular among people for its unique decorative interest and strong local flavor. This traditional handicraft industry is still preserved.

(2) Plate powder. Noodles with the word "De" are also called plate noodles and soup noodles. They are mainly produced in Yuji, Tangquanchi and other places. This product began to be produced in the Ming Dynasty. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were nearly 50 noodle shops in the town, among which the best one was supervised by the noodle merchant Zhang Dexing. Zhang used the word "德" as his trademark, so he called the powder "德" the word. "De" noodles are made of high-quality peas as raw materials, and washed and bleached with local cool and pure spring water. The craftsmanship is exquisite and the production is exquisite. The finished product is pressed into a 34 cm long, 30 cm wide, 5 cm thick, and 5 catties heavy plate. It is surrounded by bamboo slices with patterned patterns and bundled with bamboo silk. It is clearly layered, beautiful and elegant. The vermicelli with the word "De" is fine and pure in texture and does not break when cooked for a long time. It is suitable for stir-frying, stir-frying and stir-frying, making it a delicacy at the banquet. This product was exported to Guangdong, Guangdong, Fujian, Hong Kong, Macao and Nanyang Islands during the Qing Dynasty. In 1914, it was exhibited at the "Universal Commodities Fair" in San Francisco, USA, and its reputation became even greater. During the Republic of China, "De" noodles were sold as far away as Hankou, mostly purchased by foreign businessmen and resold in the international market. At the Guangzhou Trade Fair in the autumn of 1964, foreign businessmen ordered 100,000 kilograms. During the Cultural Revolution, the production of "De" powder was discontinued. In the 1980s, Yuji and other places began to resume the production of powder with the word "De".

(3) Yuji fry hatching has a long history.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it shifted to commodity production, and Yuchi became the largest distribution center for residual seedlings in the Dabie Mountains. Yuji, together with homespun and banfen, are known as the "three major piles" of Yuji. Fish farmers in Jiangbian, Hechong, Zhubong, Daerwo and other places account for more than 70% of the residents. At the beginning of the 20th century, Yuji's fry were sold well in more than 10 counties in Henan and Anhui including Fuyang, Lu'an, Jieshou, Yingshang, Luoshan, Gushi, Huaibin, Guangshan, and Xixian. In 1948, Yuji sold 270 million fry annually. In 1959, Yuji's first breeding factory was established in Huangwa. In 1978, 1,820 households in Yuji were engaged in fish fry production and built 1,238 fish ponds covering an area of ??263.2 acres. Most of them are Yangtze River fry, mainly green, grass, silver carp and bighead carp. In the old days, Yuji was poor and backward, with inconvenient transportation. At that time, our ancestors had to carry the local specialties of Yuji Town to Hankou, a hundred miles away. They came back from Hankou and then picked up the urgently needed necessities for local people. This method of transportation (running to Hankou ) lasted for dozens of generations in our town, and were replaced by vehicles in the 1940s and 1950s. Yuji people's "running to Hankou" is as tragic as Shanxi people's "going to Xikou" and Shandong people's "breaking into Guandong".