After winter, the temperature gradually drops, and everyone puts on clothes and animals puts on weight to protect themselves from the long cold.
Since the twelfth lunar month, the lake has gradually become noisy. There are more than three or four times more fishing boats on the lake than in the previous months. These fishermen from nearby counties all come here for the seasonal mandarin fish and lake bream in the lake.
Fish and even delicious meat are much easier to obtain than chickens, ducks, pigs, cattle, game, etc. They can be found almost everywhere in fields, canals, streams, and rivers, as long as there is water.
However, on ordinary days, ordinary people would rather eat wild apples than fish, so that the fish in fields, canals, streams, and rivers and ponds are almost overflowing.
It’s not that people don’t like to eat fish, it’s just that the fish is cooked in a way that makes it difficult to remove the fishy smell without oil or salt.
Fishing is easy to come by, while oil and salt prices are high.
However, after November, more and more fishermen came out of their boats near Jinlan Lake. As long as their boats could enter the water, almost all fishermen went out to catch fish.
Although the seasonal mandarin fish and lake bream in winter are fresh and delicious, if they were just to offer sacrifices to the Five Zang Temple, they would not go to the lake so frequently to catch fish. What they do is mainly for the fat in their bellies.
The unified purchase law promulgated by Dahua clearly stipulates that the price of lard per kilogram must not be less than 600 yuan, and the maximum price must not be higher than 720 yuan, which is equivalent to about 4 to 5 yuan in silver.
A pound of millet only costs 13 to 16 cents, and a pound of lard can buy 40 to 50 pounds of dry grain. It is an expensive commodity.
The taste and texture of fish oil are far inferior to lard. However, its price is 400 Wen per pound. Even if you don't sell it and keep it for your own use, it is still used by every household all year round and is indispensable.
There was always oil for three meals a day. Since I couldn't afford it, I had no choice but to go fishing and refine oil.
"Sir, along the way, the doors of every house in Lingdu County are covered with dry season flower mandarin fish and dried lake bream. I'm afraid it's enough to last for half a year. Lingdu County is not considered rich among Cangsheng County. The people's livelihood is such that those products Not to mention the fertile land." Duanmu Jing tilted his head and addressed Duanmu Yudao beside him in a deep voice.
After Yu Lingyi returned to Yinyang, he reported the demands of the An, Xu, and Chen families to Duanmuyu and Xu Qianmeng.
After learning the wealth of the three families, Duanmuyu was so shocked that he almost stood up from his seat immediately. He originally asked Yu Lingyi to make this trip with the intention of giving it a try. Unexpectedly, it actually happened.
Moreover, after three hundred years of accumulation, the three descendants of the two kings have become giants, not even inferior to the two kings when they were powerful.
With such help, how could Duanmuyu be willing to abandon it due to danger? All their requests were granted in one fell swoop.
Xu Qianmeng, Yu Lingyi, and Duanmu Jing failed to persuade him, so they had no choice but to obey and arrange his itinerary.
Five days ago, Duanmu Yu was escorted by Yu Lingyi, Xie Tianyao, Zhu Xiaochen, Tong Gaoge, Mulunyan, Duanmu Jing, Mu Lu and thirty-five experts from the Jingji Battalion, from Wudang Mountain to Qizhou, Shengjun County. , arrived at Lingdu County in Pengzhou City, Cangsheng County last night.
There was still half a month before the Ruozhou Alliance Meeting on December 12th, so Duanmuyu and his party were not in a hurry and were checking the people's livelihood of Dahua along the way.
"There is an old saying in Dahua that 'you eat mountains when you rely on mountains, and you eat water when you rely on water'. This is true. Our country has many miasma forests and saline-alkali lands but few lakes, so fishing is a rare product. This Dahua is different, with lakes dotted all over the place. , with waterways crisscrossing it, fishing is extremely easy to come by. In the prefectures and counties adjacent to the lakes and lakes, there is insufficient cultivated land, so the people have fewer acres of land. The income from the two seasons of grain is limited, which is often not enough to eat, so they turn their livelihoods to In the lake." Duanmuyu replied with a smile.
There is no exact statement about how wide the Lake is. I only heard that a good person once rode a horse around the lake for ten days. According to the distance traveled, it was more than three thousand miles.
For thousands of years, Jinlan Lake has supported millions of people living in the three neighboring counties. Even some counties further away would travel hundreds of miles to survive in times of famine. Where there is a lake, there are fish, and if there are fish, people will not starve to death.
Every year in Dahua, there are famines in prefectures and counties, but Pengzhou is not among them.
Mu Ye smacked his lips a few times and murmured: "Oh, Jihua mandarin fish and Huquan are rare delicacies. I have never eaten them in Jue country for so many years, but the ordinary people here can eat three meals as they please. Eat, tsk tsk... it brings you a good life!"
"Haha, that's not necessarily true." Duanmu Jing sneered, "Mu Jing, it's rare for you to eat it once before you find it delicious. If you eat this dried fish three times a day, you won't be able to taste any delicacies. Tasty."
Mu Ji curled his lips, with a look of disdain on his face, and retorted: "You are a very uninterested person, and you don't pay attention to food. I don't care if I tell you."
Yu Lingyi, Xie Tianyao and the others laughed loudly after hearing this.
"Sir, why don't we find an inn to stay and let the inn cook a few fish banquets tonight?" Yu Lingyi said to Duanmu Yudao with a smile, "I think Mu Jie is so greedy that he is drooling."
The forty-three of them marched in three groups, with seven personal guards and Duan Muyu in the middle, and seventeen and eighteen Gyeonggi battalion warriors leading the way and rearing behind respectively.
"That's very good. What Mr. Yu said makes sense." When Mu Jie heard that he could have a fish dinner tonight, he hurriedly agreed.
Duan Muyu frowned and thought for a while, then said with a smile: "How about this. Apparently the people on the two sides are resting at the inn. Let's find a farmhouse and experience the whole fish feast of ordinary people in Dahua?"
He did not come to Dahua just to eat or drink. In addition to swearing an alliance with the two queens and descendants, another purpose of his visit was to understand the people's livelihood and customs in order to prepare for war.
Although the seven guards often quarreled, when they heard Duan Muyu speak, no one dared to say anything. They all cupped their hands and replied: "What the young master said is absolutely true."
The sky was getting dark, and the village was sparsely dotted with sporadic firelight.
When Baqi entered the village, dogs barked all around.
"Hey, these dogs are really annoying!" Mu Jie complained helplessly as he listened to the barking one after another.
Xie Tianyao was also quite bored and answered, "How come every household in Dahua has dogs? Could it be that they all like to eat dog meat?"
"No!" Duanmu Jing replied with a smile, "The Chinese don't keep dogs to eat their meat, but to prevent thieves and thefts. There are many people in Dahua who eat in the world, and there are both good and bad. Some are bad and have no taste. They would go to farmhouses to steal money and supplies, so people kept dogs at home to be wary of them."
"Oh, that's it!" Mu Jie suddenly realized, and his disgust towards these watchdogs disappeared instantly.
"In that case, our country, Jue, is better!" Xie Tianyao sighed.
Jue State has always encouraged people to engage in farming, and the practice of martial arts among the people is not popular. Such incidents of using force to break into houses and rob houses are not common.
"Yes, when it comes to the people, the people of our country are better." Mu Ju said with deep understanding.
