"Do you believe me when I say this is a coincidence?"
At that time, iron and steel were being made in the Wushan blast furnace, because it was an uninhabited wilderness before. Even though Zhao Hanzhang had sent people to send supplies there, there was still a shortage.
What I eat the most every day is all kinds of whole grains. There is very little meat and most of it is stewed. Except for some pickles, it is bean sprouts.
Because of the shortage of manpower, and there are no people with particularly good cooking skills, no one bothers to make cold bean sprouts and the like. They just pluck a handful and throw it into the boiling water, add some soybean oil, add some salt, and fish it out when it is cooked.
You can eat it as soon as you come out.
Zhao Hanzhang's face turned blue after staying there for several days.
So when she saw someone banging and making knives, she couldn't help but sigh, "If I had an iron pot, I could cook very quickly every day."
When Fu Tinghan heard this, he immediately brought someone to make her in a pot.
As heaven and earth can learn from each other, she really just mentioned it casually at that time. It was really a coincidence.
But it was all done, so why not use it? So she happily accepted the pot.
Zhao Hanzhang tried his best to look back at Zhao Ming sincerely. Before she could be more sincere, Zhao Ming nodded, "I believe it."
Zhao Hanzhang's eyes lit up and he was about to speak when he heard Zhao Ming ask: "I once told you that the iron pot is too extravagant. Now Xiping County is in need of prosperity. If the county king is extravagant, the people under his rule will definitely be sad. What do you do?
Ten pots were made? One was even delivered to my house."
Zhao Hanzhang said: "That is my filial piety towards my fifth uncle."
Zhao Ming nodded, "What about the remaining nine? You don't use them yourself, but you sell them in the Treasure Pavilion, and you set such a high price. What do you want?"
Zhao Hanzhang gave Zhao Ming an approving look, "Uncle, I think well, I do have other purposes."
She asked: "Don't you think the food made in an iron pot has a different taste?"
Zhao Ming humbly asked, "So?"
"There are always rich people in this world who can't help but eat. I don't feel guilty at all for making money from them. Moreover," Zhao Hanzhang said: "The most important thing is that I want the effects of soybean oil to be widely spread."
Zhao Ming was confused, "Soybean oil?"
"Yes," Zhao Hanzhang was full of resentment when talking about this. She felt that her and Fu Tinghan's greatest contribution to this era so far was not glazed soap, but the redevelopment of soy foods.
Especially soybean oil.
But the gentry of this era were not grateful at all. They even secretly said that soybean oil was a despicable thing and they were unwilling to eat it.
If something is tabooed above, it must be tabooed below.
Of course, the common people didn't think soybean oil was cheap and didn't want to eat it, but they saw that the landlords refused to eat soybean oil and found it so taboo, so there were rumors in private that eating soybean oil was bad for the health.
Too much will blind the mind, and eventually cause inexplicable death in sleep.
Well, this is still a relatively reliable rumor. Some of the outrageous ones include that eating soybean oil will cause infertility, eating soybean oil will cause blindness, and eating soybean oil will cause poisoning...
Zhao Hanzhang had no choice but to save the country through a curveball. With the iron pot, she introduced a large number of new dishes for free, and the oil used in these dishes was all soybean oil.
As long as one of these wealthy families starts using soybean oil and slowly spreads the word, one day they will accept soybean oil.
They accepted it, and the common people naturally accepted it too.
In fact, if she weren't worried about the bad influence, her excessive extravagance would really spoil the atmosphere of Xiping County. She really doesn't mind putting an iron pot in the house and eating three different meals a day.
Zhao Hanzhang was still ready to make a move, so he asked Zhao Ming, "What does uncle think of me single-handedly driving the consumption of soybean oil in Xiping County?"
Zhao Ming glanced at her and said, "I'm afraid your current reputation is not enough to complete this move."
Zhao Hanzhang sighed, "Yes, that's why I put all the iron pots in the Treasure Pavilion and didn't keep them for myself."
It was the lesser of two powers that harmed each other, but she made a difficult choice.
"Since you intend to promote soybean oil, why do you set the price of iron pots so high?"
"It's difficult to calm down at the moment, iron tools are rare, and," Zhao Hanzhang said: "The most important thing in Xiping County now is to build farm tools to prepare for next year's spring plowing. Although promoting soybean oil is important, it still comes after spring plowing, so the iron blocks are tightened first.
There are only a few farm tools and iron pots, so they are rare and expensive, so they will buy them as much as they like."
Zhao Ming understood the confusion and felt happy.
Fu Tinghan, who was standing in front of the window watching the snow, looked at the two of them with a puzzled look on his face. He didn't understand why they were standing in the snow talking. There was a lot of snow on the umbrellas above their heads.
Seeing that the two of them still had no intention of entering the house, he reached out and knocked on the window lattice.
Zhao Hanzhang and Zhao Ming turned around to follow the sound and saw Fu Tinghan standing in front of the window with his hands folded, looking at them inexplicably, "Aren't you cold?"
Only then did Zhao Hanzhang remember and hurriedly asked Zhao Ming to sit in the room.
The backyard of the county government office is different from the old house, and even more different from Zhao Ming's house. Almost all the seats here are tables and chairs.
Oh, there is a wooden couch by the window on the other side, but it looks like the place where Fu Tinghan usually lies. If the owner doesn't invite him, Zhao Ming can't sit there.
Zhao Hanzhang asked him to sit down.
Zhao Ming sat on the high chair uncomfortably, "I don't know where you come from so many fantastic ideas, and all the things you make are unexpected."
His eyes fell on Fu Tinghan and asked: "Did you also make that iron pot?"
Fu Tinghan glanced at Zhao Hanzhang and said: "It was made by craftsmen."
"How could they have thought of doing something like this without your suggestion?"
This time Fu Tinghan did not refute.
Zhao Ming was very curious, how did the Fu family teach this child? Why was everything he knew... so strange?
He lowered his eyes. Glazed glass, soybean oil, iron pots, even soap and bricks, each of which could become an important tool for the family to make money in a stable period, as well as their papermaking mill, which they have yet to hear about...
Zhao Ming's heart skipped a beat and he raised his eyes to look at Fu Tinghan, "How sure are you about making paper?"
Zhao Hanzhang perked up and immediately said: "Eighty percent!"
Zhao Ming glanced at her and said, "I didn't ask you."
He looked at Fu Tinghan persistently.
Fu Tinghan: "...Uncle Ming, it was Han Zhang who came up with the art of papermaking."
Zhao Ming, however, looked unconvinced and asked, "I remember that you started working on the paper mill before winter, but you still have no results?"
Fu Tinghan said: "The weather is cold and the fiber soaking is slow. I have recently prepared a suitable dose of lime water and am rinsing it. It won't be long before I can try to get the first frame of paper."
Zhao Ming glanced at Zhao Hanzhang and defended Fu Tinghan. His eyes seemed to say, "Did you see that? How dare you admit this credit?"
Zhao Hanzhang lowered his head in shame, and when Zhao Ming wasn't paying attention, she gave Fu Tinghan a naughty look.
Fu Tinghan's face turned red and he looked away uncomfortably.
Zhao Hanzhang was too busy to take care of these things, so he could only keep an eye on them. She had already memorized all the steps she knew, so he could just deduce and debug the rest. She would do it, and the steps would be the same.