North and South groceries

When Lv San came back from the cashmere workshop and passed the vegetable shop on the street, he saw several servants helping Cui Weng to collect dried winter melons, so he also went to help.

Last year, the county dried up a lot of dried winter melons, all of which were eaten up. The dried winter melons are really good for making soup, as long as you add some sliced ​​meat and cook them in a pottery pot, the taste will be very delicious.

At the beginning of spring this year, the price of dried winter melon in their shop has increased, but there are still people willing to pay for it.

I heard that many farmers are planting wax gourds on the deserted Gobi Desert in the countryside this year. They don’t care whether they can survive or grow well. They plant them indiscriminately. A few winter melons.

So they have a lot of winter melons in Changle County this year, and the price is cheap. The government-run vegetable shop in the county receives them from the end of summer to autumn. It's all dried winter melon.There are so many, I don't know if they can be sold out.

"There are so many, I'm afraid they will be sold until next summer."

"It may not be sold out next summer."

"In my opinion, it must not be sold out."

"At that time, we are afraid that we will have to eat this every day."

"Ugh……"

"Although this dried wax gourd is good, it can't stand to be eaten every day."

"What's so good about dried winter melon?"

"It's just drying out with wax gourd."

Looking at so many dried wax gourds all day, for more than two months, I got tired of watching them.

It's not over yet, there's still more to come, and I don't know when it will be received, the vacant houses in this yard are almost full.

That night, when the county government was having dinner, the guards told Luo Yong that there were too many dried wax gourds in the vegetable shop, and several rooms were full, so why not collect so much this year? Well, there is no place to put any more.

"There's no place to put it? Then eat some first." County Magistrate Luo said.

"..." All the officers: They expected that these dried winter melons would enter their stomachs sooner or later, but they didn't expect this day to come so soon.

Early the next morning, a servant brought a large bag of dried wax gourd from the vegetable shop.

The freshly dried winter melon has a delicate fragrance, and it smells better when carried on the shoulder. Even the whole house of dried winter melon that I saw in the vegetable shop just now looks a bit sad.

In the morning, these officers were working and patrolling. They were still free these two days, and they would be called busy when they started to collect taxes two days later.

I heard that the sages are going to pay corvee in their Hexi this year. The official document from the court has not yet come down, so I don’t know if it’s true or not. If it’s true, then many people in this rent and mediocrity will not have to pay the corvee. First of all, it depends on how many civilian husbands the imperial court wants.

I don’t know what the sage wants them to do with this corvée this year. There are rumors that the post road will be paved with concrete roads. Farther away, it is more bitter. If you go to mine, it will be too bitter.

The guards have been walking in the city for the past two days, and people often ask them about this matter. How do they know about this matter, even the county magistrate Luo doesn't know about it.

The reason why the people in the city inquire about this is mostly to find out whether it is worthwhile to lose mediocrity or lose money.

There are also some very timid ones, who are afraid that they will be arrested by force to dig mines after the official document is issued. Although the family has money, if the government wants people without money, what can they do?

In the past two days, there have been some rumors on the streets, saying that the sage wants to make a lot of weapons, but there is a shortage of iron in the warehouse, so he will start a big corvée and ask people to dig iron.

Luo Yong felt it was funny when he heard about it, whether the emperor lacks iron or not, how can he let the ordinary people in the border town of Changle County know?

The Bai family had written him a letter before, saying that a few days ago, the sage mentioned in the court hall that he wanted to build a cement road in the Hexi Corridor, and most of the officials in the court opposed it.

Because the Hexi Corridor is sparsely populated and has little output, building this road is purely a waste of money, and don't expect it to produce any economic benefits.

It takes money to govern the country. In the past two years, there have been floods in Henan, and I don’t know how much money was spent on disaster relief.

There are wars in the frontier from time to time, do you need money to raise soldiers, do you need money to fight wars?The Turkic people have been restless recently, and Xue Yantuo in the north is also a little bit ready to move. At this juncture, spend money to build roads in Hexi?

At that time in the court hall, some people even said such important words: "Has the saint forgotten the matter of the previous court?"

What's going on in front?It's not that Yang Guang has been tossing too much, making the people in the world miserable, and the great country has been tossed down by him.

It's just paving a concrete road. With the current national strength of the Tang Dynasty, such words are too much. Some officials in the court are like this, always citing the classics and lessons from the previous dynasty.

But Luo Yong thinks that among these people who opposed the road construction, those who were originally at odds with Luo Yong must be the ones who yelled loudest. He didn't know what the others thought. Don't look at these people speaking righteously, in fact, many people have their own little calculations.

The court was full of turmoil, and the forces of all parties competed and fought, and nothing would be pure there.

I just don't know if the emperor's old man can bear it this time and build their cement road in Hexi.Since the emperor wanted to explore the Western Regions, he definitely wanted to build the Hexi road.

Road construction is good. If you want to get rich, you must first build roads. Let's see how prosperous Mengmen Pass on Hedong Road is now.

"County magistrate, do you want to peel this shallot?"

It was almost noon in the Changle county government office, and it was almost time for lunch, and all the other meals were already ready, except for the last one, the county magistrate said that he had to give instructions in person.

At this time, an old woman was pointing to a handful of shallots and asking Luo Yong.

Luo Yong looked at the shallots that had been peeled in the pot, made a rough estimate, and said, "That's enough, that's all."

A younger woman took the pot of onions to wash.

Over there, there were some people who were cutting dried winter melons, and County Magistrate Luo asked them to cut the dried winter melons after soaking in water into small pieces, not too particular, just like cutting reeds and cabbage.

In the county government compound this autumn, County Magistrate Luo sat on a mustache stool brought by the women for him, instructing them to cook a new dish—braised dried wax gourd in sauce.

In the past two days, the government servants in the county told him not to collect winter melons anymore. If they were collected again, they would not be sold or eaten. Luo Yong went to the vegetable shop to have a look, and he was shocked. Jump, the sacks of dried winter melons are almost piled up on the beams of the house, and there is more than one room.

But how can this be done without harvesting winter melons? Many farmers in the countryside still point to selling winter melons for some money.

Luo Yong rummaged in the space for a long time, and finally he found a new way to eat this dried winter melon.

"Put some oil in the iron pan first."

"Correct."

"Put in the onions."

"Save the scallion leaves first, and put them later."

"It's time to put the meat in."

"It's okay if you don't have meat on weekdays. This lard already has a meaty smell in it."

"The meat is almost fried, it's time to dry the winter melon."

"Let's put this much first, and fry the rest in another pot. As the saying goes, there are only a few dozen people eating in our county government. Don't try to save trouble, just divide as many pots as you want." Wok fried..."

"Here." The women responded while frying the vegetables.

As for the common saying about big pots of rice and small pots of dishes, they have never heard of it, maybe it is the saying of Hedong Road or Chang'an City.

When the dried wax gourd in the pot became fragrant, Luo Yong asked them to add the sauce.

This sauce also has a lot of specialties. Today, we use this kind of sauce to braise dried winter melon. Tomorrow, if we want to cook cucumbers, we need to use another kind of sauce. If we want to eat pancakes and noodles with fried sauce, we need to use a different sauce.

These women have never seen so many kinds of sauces before, but now they are good, the vegetable shop in their county sells all kinds of sauces, and the price is not very expensive.

When it was time to eat at noon, as soon as the guards entered the yard, they could smell a strong fragrance.

"There is meat at noon today?" These people are very happy. It is not yet winter, and the local meat price in Changle County is quite expensive. meat to eat.

This is the case in their poor place. Take the matter of eating meat as an example. When there is drought, they will die from drought, and when it is flooded, they will die from waterlogging.

"What kind of meat is this?" On the other side, a cooking woman was waving a large spoon to cook with those officials who arrived early and their family members. , it looks a bit less like meat.

"You'll know when you eat it." The woman said with a smile.

"It's actually dried winter melon?" How could he fail to recognize it after dealing with these dried winter melons all day long.

"The taste is not bad."

"It seems to have a meaty taste."

"There's meat here, haven't you eaten it?"

"No."

"Yes, look for it carefully."

"Oh, here it is, that's all."

"It's good to have this, and don't look at what time it is."

"If we hadn't heard that the merchants from Gaochang were coming, we wouldn't be able to eat this meat."

"..."

This afternoon, Cui Weng and his two grandchildren were cutting winter melons and drying them in the yard. Several servants saw them when they passed by, and went to help.

Although the taste of this dried wax gourd is somewhat different from that of meat, but with some sauce and stew, it can barely pass off as a meat dish, and you can count on it during the period before winter.