Drinking the cool well water swept away the fatigue and sweltering heat of the morning, and because of this, the hunger in his belly also spread little by little.
But the lunch they had at noon was not the same white rice as before - their food reserves were consumed along the way and the part given to Hayato villagers was finally used up. Although there was money in hand, Zhangzhou did not produce rice itself. And since there are so many nobles who love rice, there is actually no room left to sell to a group of people.
The rice stocks in various restaurants and hotels were basically depleted every day and needed to be purchased from Taizhou. The group of people who originally wanted to replenish rice searched around. In the end, only black traders were willing to sell them at twice the market price.
1 dou of rice costs 1,200 wen, which is a little more than 1 tael of silver. If you buy 10 buckets, it will be calculated as 1 bucket or 1 tael, which is 1,000 yuan. A team of more than a dozen people only had 2 taels of rice to feed them for 4 days. Spending 1 tael of gold, or 10 taels of silver, could only buy 20 days' worth of food. Spending nearly a year's income of a civilian to buy less than a month's worth of rations is a bit too expensive no matter how you think about it.
Even if the Qingtian family is very wealthy, it is obvious that they want to take advantage of the situation and rob you. If you pay back the money, you are not simply rich but stupid.
The senior samurai who knew how to exercise restraint were a little dissatisfied because they couldn't eat the food they always loved, not to mention Yajiro who they considered quite pampered. But when Lao Qiao and Narumi looked at the young master worriedly, he rarely took the initiative to say: "In that case, let's buy chestnuts."
The rations were replaced with cheap yellow rice. Because it was a common commodity that nobles did not like to eat and it could be grown nearby, I ate it in large quantities.
Although the Ashigaru people are a little regretful, they mainly eat yellow rice most of the time, so they are still adaptable to returning at this time.
The same iron pot was set up, and then the yellow rice was placed in the wooden basin and washed with the cool mountain spring from the well. When cleaning millet, it is quite different from rice. They did not wash it by hand but only stirred it gently with a spoon. After that, the impurities that floated up were poured out, but they were not put into the pot directly.
The grains of yellow rice are smaller than rice and tend to stick to the pan, so wash them, drain off the water, and set them aside. First, heat the iron pot over high heat until the water boils, then pour in the yellow rice and stir briefly with a spoon to avoid sticking to the pot. After a while, use a wooden stick to remove the large pieces of firewood from the bottom of the pot, reduce the fire to a simmer, cover the lid and start simmering.
Yellow rice for more than a dozen people takes a long time to cook. Fortunately, the Ashigaru who are responsible for handling the food are very skillful in controlling the heat. It is a blessing for others that they did not defect or die in the previous confrontation. .
This statement sounds a bit cruel, as if the death of others is not a pity. But no matter how gorgeous the words are, no matter how much emphasis is placed on fairness, human value is still unequal. People who are indispensable to others must be valued more than those who are dispensable. Losing an ashigaru who can cook a pot of good rice is more regrettable than losing a high-ranking samurai who can only point fingers. .
——The words return to their original place.
When everything else is sorted and ready to be repaired here, the yellow rice is just about to start.
The taste of grains smaller than rice is quite different, and it will taste quite strange to people who are not used to it. And because a lot of side dishes and non-staple food are also consumed, the side dishes purchased in Ziyun are also very different from before.
The nameless sauce made by fermenting soybeans mixed with salt has a unique flavor, and they retain larger particles compared to miso and soy sauce. The missionaries who were born in Rigar frowned and showed great resistance after smelling the smell, but they still accepted it because of hunger. Henry, Mira, who were born as mercenaries, and Galeva, who was born as a lower-class civilian, were very accepting of it. In contrast, the samurai and the doctor's lady, members of Kazuto's upper class society, looked at these common people's food with surprise.
A bowl of yellow rice, and a spoonful of sauce mixed with the rice. If you are lucky, it will be garnished with pickled radish crisps or fresh wild vegetables. If you live by the sea, it will be replaced with seaweed. This was a common daily home-cooked meal among farmers and lower-class ashigaru.
There was no big fish or meat, and dried fish could only be eaten occasionally. Especially during the march, only yellow rice and sauces were available.
Chestnuts that have been dried can withstand long-distance marches, and sauces that have been fermented and added with a lot of salt can be stored sealed in stoneware jars for a year and a half without any problem.
This is the staple food of low-income people in most areas, and people who go out will use such a simple combination to satisfy their needs if they can bring a pot. If you don’t have the means to bring a pot, use thin biscuits made from chestnuts or potato starch and drink them with fresh water.
Simple, no tricks, but able to manage.
It was much simpler than before, but after all, we were on a journey, and our hunger finally gained the upper hand, and the pot of yellow rice was finally consumed in silence.
After finishing lunch, the samurai happily took out another thing they bought before leaving Ziyun - sake in a small clay pot.
Rice is in short supply, but there is a large inventory of wine made from rice. This strange imbalance is proof that this province was established for the children of the nobles to waste their lives. Relying on the supply of grain-producing areas, these children of the Wu family who had nowhere to go and no place to display their talents had all the money in their hands. It was consumed and circulated in the society of the Moon Country.
Sake, which has a lighter alcohol content than the wines of Rigar and the spirits of Roan, would not make you drunk even if you drink it with water by the standards of foreigners.
But for Kazuto who has a low alcohol capacity, a few drinks is enough to make them drunk.
But he started drinking just after noon, looking as decadent as those young warriors in Ziyun.
But it was hard work all the way and he was restrained enough not to get drunk in one sitting, so Narumi turned a blind eye to it, and even drank a small drink himself.
The hot sunshine shines on the ground in front of the temple, while sitting in the shade under the eaves, blowing the mountain breeze and looking at the endless scenery in the distance.
In midsummer, the emerald green leaves rustle in the wind, and the white cranes unique to Crescent Continent fly into the sky in a row in the distance.
