Chapter 146
After the sweet potatoes are dehydrated, they become dried sweet potatoes. There are generally two types of dried sweet potatoes. One is made by steaming and peeling the sweet potatoes, then cutting them and drying them naturally. One is made from fresh sweet potatoes, which are cut into thin slices with tools and dried in the sun.
Dried sweet potatoes can be stored for more than a year, or even several years, as long as they are placed in a cool, dry place.
The dried sweet potatoes can be used to cook porridge directly, or they can be ground into powder and mixed with flour to make dried sweet potato noodles and steamed buns. They can also be used to make wine. This is how the famous sweet potato roasting comes from.
You can also smash the sweet potatoes to precipitate the starch inside, then boil a pot of water, add the sweet potato starch like noodles into the boiling water, and this will become vermicelli.
The vermicelli in Pork and Cabbage Stewed Vermicelli, a famous Northeastern dish, is made from sweet potato flour or potato flour. This kind of vermicelli can also have a shelf life of two or even three years.
The simplest storage method is to dig a cellar and store fresh sweet potatoes. They can be stored for half a year without deterioration. Sweet potatoes must not be placed in high-temperature environments, such as in the kitchen. Once they are exposed to temperatures above 25 degrees, , the sweet potatoes will sprout.
Cheng Shijie did not tell everyone that this was indeed a current trade secret, just like the difference between white sugar and brown sugar is that lime is used as a clarifier. The production process is the same as that of the two. Just adding white ash for clarification forms white sugar.
White sugar is dozens of times more expensive than brown sugar, which costs 600 Wen per catty. Now there is a sugar factory in southern Liaoning. Since Liaonan does not produce sugar cane, it cannot directly make sugar. It can only use purchased sugar and buy it in large quantities. Under the circumstances, the price is still as high as 280 wen per catty. Just because of a simple process, the selling price has increased by more than a hundred times.
The sugar currently sold to Jiannu is twenty-eight taels of silver per catty. This is the value of technology.
From noon to evening, more than 5,000 military households plus 55 transferred from the field and 100 households, a total of more than 20,000 people started working, and finally harvested more than 40,000 acres of sweet potatoes, which is only the equivalent of Zhenhai City There are slightly more than one-tenth of the sweet potato field, but the purchased sweet potatoes have piled up into dozens of hills.
These people also learned to do it themselves. Some baked sweet potatoes, some boiled them, and some ate them raw. Because sweet potatoes contain a lot of starch and sugar, they were deeply loved by military households in the fields.
Countless refugees from Henan were crying while eating sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes haven't had time to spread to Henan, and they are all crying.
If they had planted this kind of sweet potato earlier, they would not have to go hungry and so many people would not have to starve to death. Counting from the first year of Tianqi, Henan has been deteriorating year by year. Heavy taxes, coupled with drought, locusts, and this flood, starve to death almost every year.
Cheng Shijie was in a very good mood. He killed dozens of big fat pigs in one go, stewed the pork, cabbage and sweet potato vermicelli together, and treated everyone to this famous dish.
Everyone was very satisfied with this meal. It was so delicious and so satisfying that I really wanted to swallow it all on my tongue!
Sun Yuanhua pulled Cheng Shijie and kept asking: "How to store sweet potatoes for a long time!"
Cheng Shijie was so entangled by Sun Yuanhua that he had no choice but to give a rough idea of how to store sweet potatoes.
Although sweet potatoes and potatoes are plants from the same order and different families, their processing methods are completely different. For example, sweet potato flour can be cut into slices, dried in the sun, and processed into coarse flour. This flour is not starch, but it tastes better than sweet potato starch. But potatoes cannot be processed in this way. Potatoes cannot be exposed to the sun. They will deteriorate as soon as they are exposed to the sun. If you eat the potato noodles made in this way, you will die.
There is only one way to process potatoes into flour, and that is to wash the potatoes clean without leaving any dirt, and then mash the potatoes into a paste to separate the starch inside from the potato skins.
The third step is to filter. Pour the mashed potatoes into a jar, add water and stir until they are saturated. The last step, which is also the most difficult step, is dehydration. Squeeze the filtered starch as hard as possible to remove the water, and then Pour it into a container made of bamboo similar to a steamer and send it to the drying room to dry, so that it can be stored for a long time.
Gu Shizhang looked at the mountains of sweet potatoes, as if looking at the most beautiful beauties, with a green light in his eyes, which made him look like a loser.
"Master Manager, do you want to sell these sweet potatoes?"
"Not for sale!"
Cheng Shijie said resolutely: "You have also seen that such a high yield costs several kilograms per acre, and this thing is very hungry. A man with a big belly will be full after eating two or three kilograms. Sweet potatoes contain protein, starch, Pectin, cellulose, amino acids, vitamins and various minerals are longevity foods.”
"longevity?"
Fan Yongdou asked in disbelief: "Can you live longer if you eat this?"
"Of course, sweet potatoes not only have high nutritional value, but also have a sugar content of between 15% and 20%. They also have the effects of laxative, intestinal moistening, and phlegm reduction. Especially in the elderly, the gastrointestinal function has deteriorated, and general food grams It cannot be digested, but sweet potatoes are very easy to digest. If you boil sweet potatoes and millet together, you can live ninety-nine times with a bowl of porridge for each meal."
When the merchants saw this situation, they all gathered in front of Cheng Shijie: "Master Jinglue, you have so many sweet potatoes anyway, sell some to us, and we can exchange them with rice. How about one stone for one stone?"
"One stone for one stone, what the hell do you want to eat?"
A sugar merchant asked: "Master Jinglue, do you think this sweet potato contains sugar? So, sweet potatoes can also be used to make sugar?"
"This is natural. In the future, our sugar factory in southern Liaoning will use sweet potatoes to produce sweet potato gummies, malt candies, syrups, brown sugar, etc. If you need it, you can approach the Commercial Affairs Department of the Management Committee to discuss cooperation!"
The fat man, who weighed nearly two hundred kilograms, squeezed out of the crowd very nimbly and ran towards Zhenhai City. He didn't need Cheng Shijie to remind him, he also knew that if he reacted quickly, he would get meat, but if he reacted slowly, he wouldn't even be able to catch up with Rehu even if he reacted slowly.
Cheng Shijie looked at Fan Yongdou and said with a smile: "Brother Fan, don't worry, you won't miss a grain of the grain you ordered. The wheat will be harvested in half a month at most. Once the grain is harvested and stored in the warehouse, it can be shipped." !”
Fan Yongdou naturally knew that Cheng Shijie did not lack silver, only war horses and cattle. It was difficult to buy his things with silver, but war horses were much easier.
Fan Yongdou smiled and said: "Master Jinglue has betrayed Fan. Fan's men are collecting debts from the Ordos tribe in Mongolia. They have a group of Hequ horses in their hands, not Mongolian horses. I wonder if Master Jinglue needs them?"
"how many?"
"Sixteen hundred horses!"
Fan Yongdou's batch of Hequ horses are naturally not from the Ordos tribe, but the army horses from Datong Town. Since Man Gui, the chief military officer of Datong, was killed in King Qin's Battle of the Capital on December 16, the second year of Chongzhen, Datong Town It quickly deteriorated, and more than two-thirds of the more than 460 forts had been corroded by Fan Yongdou.
In the seventh year of Chongzhen in history, the Manchu Qing Dynasty broke through and invaded the Xuanfu and Datong areas of the Ming Dynasty. During this period, many places were conquered, nearly 200,000 people were robbed, and countless grains, grass and cloth were taken away. Among them, Fan Yongdou established great merit.
Cheng Shijie thought for a moment: "Not to mention 1,600 war horses, even 6,100, I want them all!"
"Can we use sweet potatoes..."
Cheng Shijie said with an embarrassed look on his face: "Well, that's not good. I have good food, including wheat, soybeans, and rice. Good Jiangnan polished rice!"
Seeing that Cheng Shijie was unwilling to buy it, Fan Yongdou lowered his voice and said: "How about one horse for ten thousand catties of sweet potatoes?"
"Don't even think about it, I'll give you money, twenty taels of silver for each war horse, thirty-two thousand taels of silver!"
"One horse, eight thousand kilograms of sweet potatoes!"
"How about continuing the grain trade, twenty stones of grain for one horse!"
"Seven thousand pounds!"
"no!"
"Six thousand five hundred pounds!"
"This is impossible. As we are brothers, if it can be sold, I will definitely sell it to you. I have a lot of use for these sweet potatoes!"
"Six thousand pounds!"
"Five thousand and five!"
"Five thousand pounds!"
Fan Yongdou lowered the price bit by bit, which made Cheng Shijie a little excited.
Sixteen hundred fine Hequ horses and five thousand kilograms of sweet potatoes. Is there anything so cheap?
The answer is yes, no.
Seeing Cheng Shijie a little moved, at this moment Yang Yuniang brought Zheng Jian, Zheng Qi and his daughter to ask to see Cheng Shijie. When Zheng Qi saw this scene, she bravely said: "If Mr. Fan is not sincere, I don't have to take it lightly." Yes, there are other merchants waiting to talk to us about purchasing surplus grain!"
Cheng Shijie simply shut up and let Zheng Qi bargain with Fan Yongdou.
I can't see that she can still do business. From now on, Zheng Qi will be transferred here to be responsible for business negotiations. It would be too unqualified to be placed in a bank.
Fan Yongdou couldn't figure out Zheng Qi's identity, but he had already seen that Zheng Qi was a woman, a woman disguised as a man. It was precisely because of the woman that it was even more difficult for him to figure out her identity.
Fan Yongdou and Zheng Qi started negotiations on the transaction of war horses and sweet potatoes. She was in tit-for-tat, refusing to give in to each other, going back and forth, one raising the price while the other was bargaining, and the fight was endless.
Bargaining is one of women's natural hobbies. Cheng Shijie realized this deeply in later generations. Xiang Hui had an indifferent temperament and could be said to be indifferent to the world. As long as they went to buy clothes or other things together, Xiang Hui would I can even negotiate the price with the boss for half an hour.
Just like this time when I bought a house, the house in Binhe Garden was not for sale. The total price was more than 1.286 million. Cheng Shijie didn't say anything. Xiang Hui went from 128 to 119, which cost nearly 100,000 yuan.
Zheng Qi was very articulate and Fan Yongdou felt like his head was as big as a bucket.
It was related to Cheng Shijie's vital interests. Zheng Qi worked hard to get every copper he could get. After half an hour of fierce confrontation, the deal of sweet potatoes for war horses was finally completed.
"Six million catties of sweet potatoes, in exchange for 1,600 war horses!"
Fan Yongdou compromised. It's impossible not to compromise. When a man bargains with a woman, he is naturally at a disadvantage. Fan Yongdou has never negotiated business with a woman. Of course, except for Cheng Shijie, in this time and space, many businesses are represented by men. Fan Yongdou really lacks experience in negotiating with women.
Cheng Shijie was very happy, which meant that he had 1,600 more war horses. There were many places in southern Liaoning that needed war horses, especially as more and more post stations and more reconnaissance troops were built, all of which needed war horses. . Even if Cheng Shijie is given another 10,000 war horses, he will not let these horses idle.
With the harvest of sweet potatoes, the most intuitive feeling is that the people of southern Liaoning have stabilized. More and more refugees are pouring in. The families of the Ning Navy officers who were the first to enter the Liaoning people and the old people of Dengzhou Weizuo Qianhu Station My subordinates felt uneasy. They objected to Cheng Shijie's continued recruitment of refugees, fearing that the refugees would eat up all of Cheng Shijie's food. Once the food was gone, they would also starve.
Well now, the sweet potato harvest is here.
The harvested sweet potatoes are transported by trucks to factories in various places. From now on, the people in southern Liaoning have realized the freedom of sweet potatoes. They can cook, bake, steam, or stew sweet potatoes. Eat in different ways.
With the sweet potato harvest in Zhenhai City, these agricultural experts who had been exposed to sweet potatoes immediately began to reflect on how they could compete with Cheng Shijie, a martial artist.
Cheng Shijie knew how to fight, and that was his specialty as a manager, but farming was their specialty, and in his own field of expertise, he was inferior to a layman.
These agricultural experts couldn't keep their faces off. They were guarding their wheat fields and eating their rice, but they felt that the food no longer tasted good.
…
Zhenhai City, Xu Family Courtyard.
After Xu Shumin from the Xu Fourth Group came to Liaonan, she quickly fell in love with bathing. She took a hot bath every day and then went to bed. It was very relaxing and very comfortable.
When Xu Shumin was getting ready to go to bed, she suddenly felt a commotion on the street outside the door.
Zhenhai City is a very livable city. There has never been any trouble. There are not many things that disturb her rest like today.
"what happened?"
Catherine said: "They all said that Governor Cheng... planted a new crop, and now it has a good harvest. The yield per mu is as high as more than three thousand kilograms, and in some fields it is even more than four thousand kilograms..."
As the granddaughter of Xu Guangqi, although Xu Shumin is also an eldest lady who has no fingers in the spring water, she is clear about basic common sense such as grain yield and crop harvest time. She immediately laughed and said: "How is this possible? Who made up this nonsense? "
"I don't believe it either, but people outside say so, there is no smoke without fire, I'm afraid it may not be true!"
"Go find out what's going on!"
Lying on the bed, Xu Shumin was not sleepy at the moment. As the granddaughter of Xu Guangqi, the children of the Xu family were all content with themselves. Xu Guangqi had never taken a concubine in his life, and he only had one son, his father Xu Ji. Xu Shumin's sisters and brothers all maintained With such a family tradition.
However, under the general environment of the Ming Dynasty, it was actually quite difficult for the children of the Xu family to get married. They had to choose someone who was of the right family and who was clean and self-sufficient. Such people were not uncommon in the Ming Dynasty. They were very rare.
Officials who did not take concubines, including Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Yuanhua, also had several concubines.
She actually knew the reason why Xu Shumin came to Liaonan.
Regarding the marriage between Cheng Shijie and Cheng Shijie, the first thing to consider was age. In the Ming Dynasty, the age gap was not too big, but twenty years was not too big, and this was normal.
Many scholars only take concubines but do not get married. That's it. By the time they become Jinshi, most of them are in their thirties or forties, and it is not uncommon for some to be in their forties.
Cheng Shijie is only thirty-six years old now. Although he is married and has a son, the problem is that Cheng Shijie is a good man who conforms to the canon.
According to Cheng Shijie's identity and status, it would not be a problem for him to have a hundred concubines, and no one would say anything. Now many people in southern Liaoning are worried that Cheng Shijie has no son. Many people use every opportunity to advise Cheng Shijie and ask him to hurry up. Get married, or take a concubine.
Regardless of whether he is a legitimate son or a concubine, having a biological son from Cheng Shijie is better than nothing.
Xu Shumin did not dislike Cheng Shijie's appearance. Although Cheng Shijie was not as frail as Jiangnan scholars, he had a very rare temperament.
In Catherine's words, Cheng Shijie is a very manly man.
But the problem was that Cheng Shijie didn't have any strange thoughts about her. He didn't chat with her to promote their relationship, and he didn't find anyone to propose marriage to the Xu family. Everyone came over, but he was treated as nothing.
This made Xu Shumin very frustrated.
To be fair, Xu Shumin is a beautiful woman. Regardless of her figure, appearance, or family background, she is the best choice. But Cheng Shijie is not interested in her, what can she do?
Catherine had some advice for her and invited Cheng Shijie to dinner...
This method was directly abandoned by Xu Shumin. What a joke. If this was true, what would happen to her?
As for Lian'er's method of seducing Cheng Shijie, it was even more unreliable.
Even though Cheng Shijie often runs around, the question is, who can get close to him easily?
Which trip did he not have hundreds of guards to protect him airtight?
Once, when Cheng Shijie was traveling, a frightened horse rushed towards his carriage. Cheng Shijie's guards beat General Wu Sheng to death with just one punch, like a tall horse.
If Wu Sheng misunderstood him, one punch from him would be enough to smash his little head into pieces...
…
It is not only Xu Shumin who is worried about marriage, but also Xie Zongze. Although Xie Zongze has a high official position, his family background is not prominent, and he is not famous for his poems and articles, his temper is indescribably stubborn.
At first, it was because he had interfered with his daughter Xie Susu's marriage. However, as he was the dean of Jinzhou Academy, he also served as a member of the Liaodong Management Committee. Both father and son members joined the management committee.
In the view of traditional scholars such as Xie Zongze, the members of the Liaodong Management Committee are responsible for the education work in Liaodong. If placed in other provinces, this should be the level of a province's education.
What's more, his son Xie Jinglin, a blessing in disguise, served as the Commerce Department and enjoyed Dusi-level treatment. So Dusi can be regarded as a fourth-level official, at least at the prefect level.
Since then, Xie Zongze's attitude has become tougher again. A scholar... no dog would marry his daughter to a poor scholar, at least a scholar.
It's best to be a Jinshi...
Because the Xie family's family status in southern Liaoning is getting higher and higher, of course, more and more people want to marry the Xie family. Matchmakers come to visit in groups, and many of them are satisfied with Xie Zongze.
But the problem is that this old girl from the Xie family is arrogant.
I would rather marry a centurion than a scholar.
This is Xie Susu's principle and his bottom line.
There are not many people in Liaonan who can catch Xie Zongze's eyes.
Warrior.
Even at Chang Yu's level, he was considered one of the top five generals under Cheng Shijie. He was young and unmarried, but he looked down upon Chang Yu's family background. Chang Yu's father was just an ordinary military household, making Xie Zongze become a blind and illiterate old man. In-laws, that would be worse than killing him.
As for Shen Mingyu, he is a little older. His father is from Qianhu, Guide Prefecture, and he has a good official body. But the problem is that Shen Mingyu is not a good bird. Now Shen Mingyu has seven concubines, five of whom are eldest. Got a stomachache...
Although Xie Zongze believed that Shen Mingyu did not dare to pamper his concubine and kill his wife, so Xie Susu was angry, but the problem was that when Xie Susu saw Shen Mingyu, he said that he would rather become a nun and accompany the Buddha with a green lantern.
Xie Susu was annoyed by the matchmaking team, so she set her own rules for the matchmaking team: "First, the other party must be from Liaonan, and they are not allowed to leave Liaonan for life. Second, after the other party gets married, they are not allowed to take concubines. Third, the other party must serve Xie Zongze and his wife for life together with Miss Xie;
If one of these three conditions is not met, the marriage will not be possible. Xie Susu made it clear that the marriage will be forced. If the three chapters of the agreement are violated in the future, Xie Susu will divorce and remarry.
These conditions are very harsh. The first condition is that Ms. Xie expresses her unwillingness to marry too far away from her parents. The second condition is that Ms. Xie expresses her hope that her future husband will follow the example of Fang Xuanling, the famous Prime Minister of Zhenguan. , the third condition is that Miss Xie clearly tells the other party that it is your obligation to honor my parents, but to honor your parents - it is your own obligation, the obligation of your brother and sister-in-law.
When Cheng Shijie heard this condition, he was so frightened that he broke into a cold sweat.
He even wondered whether Miss Xie had traveled through time in later generations...
Otherwise, how could there be such advanced concepts?
At the same time, Cheng Shijie was also curious about Miss Xie.
Cheng Shijie didn't have any reaction yet. Following Xie Susu's three chapters of agreement, the whole Liaonan exploded.
"I really thought I was a golden branch and a jade leaf!"
"What good things do you want to do?"
"Is this the Xie family tradition?? Xie Zongze, an old man, is really doing his own thing!"
"Who in the whole of Liaonan can meet her criteria for selecting a son-in-law?"
"Don't say no, there is actually someone who fits the bill!"
"who?"
"Our Liaodong Economic and Strategic Envoy, Mr. Cheng!"
"I'm afraid this standard is for Mr. Cheng!"
"Toad wants to eat!"
Cheng Shijie naturally didn't know that he had been formed into swan meat.
After learning about the bumper harvest of sweet potatoes in southern Liaoning, Gao Qiqian, the nominal supervisor of Ning Haijun, could not sit still. He hurriedly took a boat from Dengzhou to Liaonan, then rode a fast horse and led a group of eunuchs and royal guards. Hurry up and head to Zhenhai City.
"What kind of wind brought father-in-law here!"
Gao Qiqian did not greet Cheng Shijie politely, but directly smiled and said: "Is it true that the yield per mu is three thousand catties?"
"The most fertile field yields 4,652 kilograms per mu!"
"It's so auspicious, why not present it to the emperor!"
Cheng Shijie said in surprise: "Is this auspiciousness?"
"Isn't this considered auspicious? In the past, when have we ever seen a yield of more than 4,000 kilograms of grain per acre?"
Cheng Shijie was really speechless.
Gao Qiqian became anxious: "Hey, General Cheng, hurry up and write a note and give us a few carts of sweet potatoes. We will dedicate them to His Majesty..."
What does it mean that the emperor is not anxious but the eunuch is anxious?
This is probably it.
(End of chapter)
