When Li Shimin left, he packed some corn tortillas and fried potatoes, but he refused to let Huaiyu add chili noodles, not even slightly spicy.
Not only did he pack a few snacks, but he also asked Sinong Temple to take away almost all the potatoes, corns, and sweet potatoes that Huaiyu had harvested. Fortunately, the emperor did not take them for nothing. A pound of potatoes and sweet potatoes was exchanged for a stone of wheat, and a pound of corn was exchanged for a stone.
Rice.
Huaiyu was very satisfied with this transaction. Several hundred kilograms of coarse grains at home were exchanged for several hundred kilograms of rice and wheat.
"I didn't expect these humble crops to be so valuable." Lao Wu couldn't help but sigh as he looked at the piles of grain sent from Taicang.
Mrs. Wu Liu even said directly, "Next spring, our land should be planted with these, but now they have been taken away, what shall we plant by ourselves next spring?"
"Don't worry, Mom, they are still growing in the greenhouse. Sweet potatoes are very convenient to grow. You can just cut the vines and plant them. Potatoes are also convenient to plant. One potato can be cut into many pieces for planting. I still have some.
Potato seeds can also be used for seedling cultivation..."
Wu Liu announced that in the future, we could no longer eat corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. We had to keep all of them for seed. Only two or three grains of corn were taken off. Grinding them into flour would not make a few cakes, but they could be used for seed.
If you grow five or six hundred seedlings and use ten corn seeds as seeds, you can plant an acre of corn.
The old lady's arithmetic skills are pretty good. Now if you eat a root of corn, you will eat up a whole piece of land.
Although Huaiyu said there was no need to be in such a hurry, the old lady thought that what was left in her hand should be kept for seed. One pound for one stone was a very good deal. Even if Huaiyu said that this was a one-time deal, now Si
Nong Temple has brought so many kinds, so there is no need to exchange them with the Wu family in the future.
But the old lady still thinks that if the imperial court can spend such a large sum of money in exchange for it, then this thing is a treasure, and other landlords and people don’t want it?
When the time comes, what you grow at home can be sold to others for seed production.
Lao Wu looked at the piles of food at home and was very satisfied.
He and Huaiyi also went to collect their stipends and land rents. Although they were only a few dozen dan each, the Wu family now received a lot of food, and the pile amounted to more than a thousand dan.
"It's a pity that the price of food has dropped sharply now. If it had been released half a month ago, the thousand dollars per bushel of rice would have been worth ten thousand dollars."
"Mom, a thousand shi of rice is sold secretly in small quantities on the black market. Anyone who really wants to sell a thousand shi of grain will be directly arrested by the Yongzhou Yamen, the grain will be confiscated, and the person will have to be exiled to the frontier, or even beheaded."
Nowadays, the food supply has declined, and in the summer, the price and the price of silk have also dropped. Although it is still a bucket of rice and a piece of silk, a piece of silk now only costs about 200 yuan.
The fall in food prices is indeed severe, but this is normal.
Previously, there were wars and various other influences, but now that the autumn harvest has just begun, the Turks have withdrawn their troops again. In addition, the imperial court is doing its best to transport grain into the customs, open warehouses and smooth the market, and grain and silk have fallen back.
Huaiyu estimates that there will be another wave of rising grain prices in a few years, but it should not rise too much. In the next few years, as in history, there will be no major surprises, and grain prices will continue to fall.
Twenty or thirty qian per dou of rice was the real normal price of food during the Taiping years. Historically, in the 34th year of Zhenguan, it even dropped to 23 qian per dou of rice. At that time, a piece of silk could even be exchanged for ten shi of rice.
This is actually a bit abnormal. Although it is due to the continuous bumper harvest of food and the lack of war, it is also due to the insufficient mintage of new coins issued by the court, which has led to a shortage of money. Money is expensive and things are cheap.
But no matter what, food prices will continue to decline in the future.
There will no longer be a situation where food is as expensive as gold in the past few years since Daye Wude.
"I heard that because of the drop in grain prices, many people who lent grain before now said they would charge the original grain price instead of borrowing grain and paying it back."
"Those guys are really treacherous, pervasive, and don't let go of any profit." Lao Wu disliked this. Although he could get a lot more profits by borrowing food and paying back the money, Lao Wu told his son that the money lent by the Wu family
It is best to let everyone pay back the food. Just pay back the profit as agreed upon at the beginning and do not change it.
"Don't worry, I understand this."
Now the Wu family is in a stage of rapid improvement, and a good reputation is more valuable to the Wu family than a little money and food.
"Let's transport a thousand stones of these grains back to Longqiao Fort. We will build kilns and courtyards and ask the villagers to work on grains. In addition, if everyone is in need, you can come and borrow grains if you need it." Lao Wu said.
"Okay, our family now has more than one thousand shi of grain, and the rest will be given to the clan for 20 shi. Also, didn't the clan leader say last time that he would build another clan charity warehouse? Let's donate 100 shi and sell the rest to a thousand gold coins.
Don’t worry, there are so many guys who need a lot every month, so I can save money and buy it.”
Qianjintang is a joint venture between Wu Huaiyu and Fatty, Changshengtang is a joint venture with Fan Xuanfu and Zhang Ananda, and Baoyutang is Huaiyu's personal property. These properties are not owned by the Wu family.
There is even a capital investment from Huaiyu in the Gaia Restaurant in West City, and he can be regarded as a shareholder.
Lao Wu was relatively open-minded about these things. The respective properties of Huaiyi and Huaiyu brothers, the land granted in their names, etc., were all owned by them personally, and the profits also belonged to them.
The brothers' lumi must be handed over to the public, and their salary and other money also belong to themselves.
The dinner was very sumptuous. Li Shimin packed some Wu family snacks for Empress Changsun and the prince. The empress was very satisfied and specially rewarded Huaiyu with a deer, two sheep and two wild ducks.
Sheep are still Tongzhou sheep.
Wu Huaiyu has now been promoted to the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Fifth Rank Army, and can enjoy the supply of nine sheep per month. The deer rewarded by the Queen are not considered cute enough to be kept as pets. He found that people in this era are actually all
Quite pragmatic.
The concept of treating those livestock animals is also very simple, they are just food.
This is good. There is no overflowing Holy Mother's heart. In this home, only Huaiyu's two dogs can enjoy some pet treatment.
If it weren't for Huaiyu's persistence, the two dogs would have had no choice but to return to their duties as two hunting dogs instead of two pets.
It is very enjoyable to eat sheep in winter, especially the Tongzhou sheep as a gift from the royal family.
Cut the fresh mutton into large pieces, and you don't need any water. Just put it in a pot and stew it. You don't need to add anything except onions and ginger. As long as the stew time is long enough, the mutton will be very tender.
When eating, sprinkle some fine salt and chopped green onions to make a delicious dish.
Today the mutton is served with wild rice, which is also a reward from the Queen.
The rice is purple and black, as long and slender as needles. Huaiyu is no stranger to this. Isn’t this the fruit that the wild rice had before it was infected with the mutation? At this time, the wild rice in the Tang Dynasty would produce seeds like rice, and the stems would not bear wild rice.
Wild rice has become rare in later generations, because once wild rice is infected with a certain fungus, it will mutate, and the infection will spread in large numbers. The stems will grow wild cabbage, but will no longer bear wild rice.
In later generations, the wild rice commonly eaten in the Tang Dynasty had to be imported from abroad, which was surprisingly expensive.
In Huaiyu's opinion, the taste of wild rice is quite average, not as good as rice. If you really want to say that the one that tastes better when cooked is glutinous rice, which is softer and glutinous.
Wild rice tastes better than millet and wheat rice.
When he was eating wild rice, he even missed wild cabbage a little bit. It was crisp and tender. It tasted great when shredded and eaten cold, or stir-fried with beef. It was also very crunchy when eaten raw.
Is it possible to find some wild rice that has mutated bacteria and cultivate it carefully so that we can eat wild rice in the future?
There are still a few days until the wedding.
Lao Wu took the three Huaiyu brothers, his eldest sister Ma Zhou, two girls, and Wang's younger sister back to the countryside to Longqiao Fort. He specially hired many cars to haul a thousand shi of grain.
Fan Xuanfu heard about it at home, but insisted on coming.
Originally, according to the rules, they were getting married soon, and the two parties could not see each other during this period, but now that he has not seen Wu Huaiyu for a day, Fan Xuanfu cannot eat well and sleep well.
So in the end, the four sisters Fan Xuanfu also went with their sword maids, and Huaiyu simply brought Runniang, the Gao sisters, and Irina with them.
Huaiyi also brought his own concubines.
This time, a large team returned home in glorious glory.
Four fellow villagers, Xu Jizu and Xu Jizu, who are still in charge of Huaiyu, went back with us today and looked at this convoy with great envy and emotion.
"When can we become like Erlang in this life?"
"Erlang doesn't dare to think about it, but if he can become like Dalang, it will be enough."
Wu Huaiyi is doing well now. He is a fifth-rank commander, leading the army and leading the Qianqi Battalion, and he also has the title of baron.
"We can come forward anytime."
Going back to Longqiao from Chang'an, we hired many carriages to pull thousands of stones of grain, so the speed was not very fast. We crossed Weiqiao and returned to Sanyuan via Jingyang, and stayed one night in Jingyang on the way.
Along the way, you can feel the huge damage caused by the Turks' plundering of Guanzhong. Many villages were burned to ruins. Although some noble manors and wealthy families' fortresses survived, many traces left by the war can still be seen.
Two days later, we returned to Longqiao Fort.
There were still dried blood stains on the ground in the Wu family's courtyard.
"Borrow the pots and bowls and treat the neighbors to a feast."
The first thing the Wu family did when they returned home was to visit every house, borrow pots and pans from everyone, ask everyone to help cook the banquet, and also invite everyone to have a meal together.
This meal is actually quite simple.
The Wu family brought back thousands of stones of grain, as well as two pigs and six sheep. They all asked the villagers to help butcher them. The two pigs and six sheep were the main dishes.
The rest is to grind the wheat into flour to make noodle soup, peel the millet and steam the millet, grind the millet and mix it into steamed yellow buns.
Get seasonal vegetables and wild vegetables from the vegetable garden, blanch them in mutton fat soup, and turn them into a dish.
The last time Longqiao Fort was attacked by the Turks, more than 30 young men died, and more than 20 women, old and weak were injured, not to mention everyone's food and belongings were robbed.
After the war, many villagers came to visit relatives to borrow food and beg for food. The Wu family received many villagers in Chang'an and lent them a lot of food. When they came back this time, everyone gave the Wu family a special welcome.
The Wu family's boldness in killing pigs and sheep to treat the villagers to a banquet aroused even more praise.
The whole village ate ten stones of grain in one meal.
Many people haven't had a full meal for a long time, let alone eating with their mouths full of oil and their stomachs full of food. On average, one person ate two kilograms of meat and two liters of grain.
Everyone's belly was full after eating, and the Wu family's reputation reached a new peak!
Lao Wu's face was red and his legs were not very lame when he walked. He pointed to the grain piled in the yard and expressed to everyone that he would like to ask everyone to finish repairing the Wu family's five-hole kiln and the three holes next to it during the slack season.
The cave dwellings continued to be built, and even a mason had to be hired to connect the stone face of the cave entrance.
Villagers, regardless of gender, old or young, can come to work and are provided with two meals a day, and are also paid additional wages, which can be converted into grain.
"If any family is temporarily inconvenienced, they can borrow food first, and then they can pay for it through work."
As soon as Lao Wu said these words, there was another sound of admiration.
