Now that there was no one else in the car except the couple, Chen Lan started talking. She asked, "Brother Mingxuan, do you know a place called Ussuriysk in the Soviet Union?"
Xu Mingxuan replied without hesitation, "Of course I know this place! This place originally belonged to our country. It is a historical city in our northeast. In 1860, during the tenth year of Emperor Xianfeng's reign in the Qing Dynasty, Tsar Russia forced the Qing government to sign the unequal Treaty of Friendship between China and Russia, and then, together with Shuangchengzi, all the fertile black land east of the Ussuri River, about one million square kilometers, was ceded to Tsarist Russia. Therefore, a country must be strong to avoid being bullied by outsiders."
Chen Lan patted Xu Mingxuan's hand reassuringly and asked with some surprise, "Brother Mingxuan, Shuangchengzi? What kind of place is that?"
Xu Mingxuan calmed his excited emotions and continued, "Ussuriysk is also called Shuangchengzi, and it is located in the southeastern part of present-day Russia."
Chen Lan couldn't help but ask curiously, "Shuangchengzi, such a strange place name, Brother Mingxuan, does this name have any special meaning?"
A smile appeared on Xu Mingxuan's face, and he replied with a laugh, "Lan'er, you guessed it right this time!"
This made Chen Lan even more curious, and she immediately pressed on, "Brother Mingxuan, tell me quickly, what exactly is going on?"
Xu Mingxuan still smiled and spoke unhurriedly, "The reason why Ussuriysk is called Shuangchengzi is that according to one theory, there were two cities in this city, divided into an East City (Fuerdan) and a West City (Zhuge'ergen), so the city was named after the coexistence of the two cities, east and west, hence the name Shuangchengzi.
Another theory is that the city's Manchu name is Fuerdan. It is located on the north bank east of the lower reaches of the Suifen River and on the west bank of the Fuerdan River. Later, for some unknown reason, two cities, east and west, formed, and these two cities were only three to four li apart, so they were merged into one city and named Shuangchengzi.
The current name Ussuriysk was only changed by the Soviets a couple of years ago! It was not called this name before."
Chen Lan continued to ask, "Brother Mingxuan, the manor owner uncle just said that the farms in the Ussuriysk district are relatively wealthy. Why don't we ask the manor owner to take us to see them tomorrow?"
Xu Mingxuan nodded in agreement, "Okay! We'll go and see tomorrow. I've heard people say that the black soil there is particularly fertile. Some people describe it as: 'Pinch a handful of black soil and oil oozes out, and a chopstick can sprout,' so how fertile is it? It is said that both agriculture and animal husbandry are relatively developed in the Ussuriysk district, earning it the reputation of the granary of the Far East; moreover, every farm in the Ussuriysk district has a livestock farm, and almost every farm has a milk processing plant. It seems that it is indeed much richer than the farms in Pogranichny town. Lan'er, in fact, there is a road in Dongning that goes directly to Ussuriysk."
Chen Lan said with some regret, "What a pity, there must be checkpoints on this road, so we can't take this road."
Xu Mingxuan smiled and comforted her, "Lan'er, it doesn't matter! We have a Jiefang truck, so it's just as convenient to go to Ussuriysk from here!"
Chen Lan thought about it and stopped dwelling on it.
The next day, before setting off, Xu Mingxuan told the manor owner about their plan to go to Ussuriysk, and the manor owner seemed very happy!
The couple was quite surprised. The manor owner smiled and explained, "My daughter, Elena, is married in Ussuriysk. I haven't seen her and my little granddaughter for twenty days. Today is a good opportunity to go and see them. Nikolai, Mira, let's have lunch at my daughter's house today!"
Xu Mingxuan and Chen Lan could not refuse the manor owner's enthusiastic invitation and happily agreed.
In the car, the manor owner started talking volubly, "Nikolai, Mira, Ussuriysk is a very beautiful city, and you will definitely like it once you go. It is closest to Vladivostok, the largest city in the Far East..."
The long string of place names made Chen Lan's eyes go starry—she was dumbfounded. Xu Mingxuan smiled and explained in a low voice, "It's Vladivostok."
Now Chen Lan understood, and she thought to herself, "Vladivostok means 'ruling the East' in Russian. These whimsical Russians, they dream quite beautifully! There's a good saying in China: 'Those who do not seek death will not die,' and in the end, the Russians didn't collapse themselves?"
After driving for more than an hour, the group finally arrived at the city that the manor owner described as very beautiful, Ussuriysk; however, in Chen Lan's opinion, it was only larger than Pogranichny town and the houses were a bit taller.
The manor owner took the couple directly to his friend's farm. His friend, the manor owner, was holding a meeting on the farm. When they met, the two men embraced enthusiastically, and then the manor owner said, "Peter, my friend, it's been a long time."
Peter replied happily, "Valery, my friend, you haven't visited me in a long time."
Chen Lan only then learned that the manor owner's name was Valery.
At this moment, the manor owner continued, "Peter, let me introduce you, my friend Nikolai, and his wife Mira."
Manor owner Valery said enthusiastically with a smile, "Welcome, Mrs. Mira, Mr. Nikolai." With that, he shook hands warmly with the couple.
Then the manor owner asked in a low voice, "Peter, have you handed over the grain from your farm yet?"
Manor owner Peter replied, "The quotas have been handed in. We are still discussing whether to hand over the surplus grain or distribute it to the farm members. Everyone's opinions are not unified, so we are holding a meeting to discuss it now?"
Upon hearing this, the manor owner immediately pulled him aside, and they whispered for a while. Then he showed Peter the goods on Chen Lan's car and listened to Valery's prices. Peter immediately made a decision.
So Manor owner Peter immediately walked into the conference room, called out all the people in charge of the farm who were in the meeting, showed them the goods on the car, and announced his decision to exchange the goods.
Needless to say, when everyone saw the goods, they were already tempted, and when they heard the prices of the goods, they were even more so. The entire staff unanimously agreed.
With Manor owner Valery present, the matter proceeded very smoothly. This farm was indeed relatively wealthy. The Chen Lan couple exchanged twenty-five thousand jin of corn and eight hundred and ninety VIC sausages from this one farm. Their farm had limited stock of large fish, so they didn't exchange much even after exchanging all of it because they didn't know in advance that Manor owner Valery would bring Xu Mingxuan and his wife for an exchange, so they didn't go fishing in advance.