"It's such a bother." Magistrate Song put down his chopsticks and fisted his hands, and continued eating, staring at the egg-stuffed meatballs, not eating them.
"Yichang, this dish is..." I asked if I didn't know.
"Meatballs stuffed with eggs, boil the eggs, peel them, fry them in oil until brown, cut the egg yolks in half, stuff the meat filling inside, steam them in a pot, pour the seasoned gravy over them, and it's done. If the egg yolks If you don’t have anywhere to put it, just cover it with the minced meat.”
There are two sentences in it that describe the preparation process of the dish. It’s simple.
"So complicated? Why didn't you see the yolk?" Magistrate Song found that the meatballs were big and the yolk was missing.
"I don't even like to eat it. I use it to make medicine. I boil egg butter, also called chicken oil and phoenix oil. It can treat all fire poisons, such as aphthous sores and minor burns in children."
The village chief also introduced that there is no shortage of eggs in the village, and people don’t like to eat boiled egg yolks. Salted eggs are fine, and they are delicious when they are oily.
Fortunately, there was Hanhan who boiled the egg yolks into medicine and fed the remaining dregs to the livestock.
The family of the daughter-in-law who married in the village sent chicken oil to be used when she was suffering from fire poisoning.
"I see." Magistrate Song knew that the village was too wealthy, and there was nothing he didn't like about egg yolks?
He picked one up and took a bite, and found that adding egg yolk would really affect the taste.
The taste of fried egg white is much different from that of direct egg white, and the sauce is the finishing touch.
Who thought up the dish? How much free time do you have? Boil eggs, fry eggs, steam meat fillings, and pour soup and gravy.
After finishing an egg-stuffed meatball, he looked at another dish, which he had also never seen before, and asked: "Yichang, this..."
"Mei Cai Braised Pork, choose such a large piece of pork belly with skin, put it in a pot and cook it first. When it's cooked, take it out and soak it in cold water, fry it in oil, turn it over and slice it without cutting off the skin.
Stir-fry the musty dried vegetables first until fragrant and then brown. After frying, put the meat skin side down in a bowl, put the pickles on top, put it on a plate, and steam it in the pot.
After steaming, flip the plate and bowl so that the plate is at the bottom and the bowl is at the top. Take away the bowl and it's ready. "
The director introduced it again, look, how simple it is, just a few steps and you're done.
Magistrate Song and other officials: "..."
Can’t your Xiaqiu Village cook food normally? Stir-fried shredded pork with cowpeas is good and simple.
Li Zhixian looked at the fish: "How did this fish get so weird?"
"Oh, this one is also simple, squirrel mandarin fish, it..." The director explained again, this one tests the knife skills and the temperature control of the oil.
After everyone listened, they sighed and had no other ideas. Xiaqiu Village really knows how to eat.
"This must be smoked chicken. I ate it last time and it seemed a little different?"
Guan Xian Cheng looked at the chicken and compared it with the smoked chicken he had eaten in the village, and found that it was slightly different.
"It's not smoked chicken, it's five-spice braised chicken. It's..." The director continued, saying that this braised chicken is equally complicated and requires many kinds of herbs as seasonings.
The officials felt that they were lucky to have this meal! Today is not in vain.
Master Zheng took a bite of the crystal elbow from the cold plate: "Yichang, if you open a restaurant, you will definitely make a lot of money... Forget it, just eat by yourself."
He wanted to say that he could make a lot of money, but suddenly he realized that this was Xiaqiu Village. There was no shortage of money at all. Money was always available when he wanted it.
Today is the Dragon Boat Festival, so you are showing off your skills, right? Thank you for coming, otherwise it won't be these dishes next time, it will be mutton soup or something.
"Is this a cold dessert? Such a white dough?" Li Zhi County Chief Secretary changed the subject.
"Oh! This is simple, snowy bean paste, here's how..." The director introduced again, this was a dish that made the chef frown.
The required operation is too detailed, and the key point is that it won't sell for much, so the energy spent on making this dish is not worth it.
Next, everyone stopped asking and just ate. It felt sad to ask. There were twelve dishes on the table, but none of them seemed easy to prepare.
The villagers were not in a hurry to finish eating today, chatting with each other, and those who did not drink would drink some fermented rice.
After the children ate, they ran to see if the glass lanterns had been wiped clean and if the lanterns for the evening had not been placed properly. Then they came back and continued eating.
After eating for an hour, the villagers evacuated. The children were taken to bed by Brother Hanhan, and they got up again at night. Today's dinner will be very late, and they will be eaten under the lamp.
After another half an hour, the village leader finished eating, and everyone was walking around the village.
Officials are willing to inspect Xiaqiu Village, and everything they see is pleasing to the eye. It would be heart-wrenching to change it to a poor village! The key is that there is no good solution.
"I visited various villages before, and they bought large livestock. Some villages bought fifty animals, and some villages bought thirty animals. It was a fight."
Li Zhixian talked with the head of the village about the situation in other villages. Xihe Village bought fifty large animals. The villagers even sold the harvest but it was not enough. Each family pawned their jewelry like they did in Xiaqiu Village.
When buying livestock, I ask people from Xiaqiu Village for help and redeem the pawned jewelry during the autumn harvest.
Now I sell things to Xiaqiu Village, including medicinal materials and dried vegetables that are available nearby. If there is not enough food in winter, I have already said hello, and Xiaqiu Village will borrow the food and return it when the wheat, rapeseed, and ramie are harvested.
As for why not just borrow money to buy it? Because if you have something you can pawn, why should you borrow it if you don’t reach the end of your rope?
The headmaster nodded: "It'll be fine if we last another year."
"Now they can also eat meat. It's because I, the county magistrate, didn't do my job well and was too slow." Magistrate Li said as he glanced at Magistrate Song.
Magistrate Song: "..."
Ningguo Prefecture has six counties, with Xuancheng County as the prefectural government, Nanling County, Jing County, Ningguo County, Jingde County and Taiping County.
Now seeing the 22 villages in Xuancheng County becoming rich together, other counties are under great pressure.
As the prefect, he has an even bigger headache. In two years, the income of the people in Xuancheng County will exceed that of the other counties combined. Wouldn't that make him look incompetent?
Xiaqiu Village in Xuancheng County has led the people to run with all their strength. Why won’t other counties learn from it? What does a prefect do?
I have already asked officials from the other five counties to come to a meeting. The officials from the five counties complained that they did not have large livestock to borrow, let alone afford to buy.
"Alas!" Magistrate Li sighed: "Yichang, if your village doesn't have rock candy making and other ways to make a lot of money, how can you plant more crops?"
"The prefect means a county, right? My village rented from other villages first, and if a county is moved, then there is nothing to rent, right?"
Now that the village chief is studying with Hanhan, he already has an overall view, and Hanhan knows too much.
"Of course!" Magistrate Song admitted, that's what he meant.
"Those who sell livestock are responsible for the rent! If you don't have money to buy livestock, why don't you bite the bullet and you can't afford to rent livestock?"
Even Ningguo Mansion can rent out the money from livestock, such as renting it now, to open up wasteland and plant wheat in late autumn.
When the wheat was harvested, they paid back the money to Ningguo Mansion with interest. Even if they came home at the end of the day, they would still have a lot of money left after harvesting the wheat, so they could rent livestock themselves. "
The head of the village naturally said the solution. If the people have no money, the government can help.
When Magistrate Song heard this, he nodded repeatedly: "It's a good idea. You won't have to go out nine times and come back thirteen times. If you lend money and debts privately and pawn property, you can't get more than three points of interest every month."
Three cents per month, one and eighty cents in six months, the wheat harvest is more than that. The government can reduce the profit to one point per month. "
"What the prefect said is absolutely true. When people have money, they can buy more things. If they sell more things, they will pay more taxes. Every time they buy or sell, they will get an extra tax."
Li Chang said from the relationship between local economy and taxation, the simplest one, the complicated one... I am naive to understand.
