Villager of Daming

Chapter 1271: Discussing the Tablets in the Full Moon

"Hiccup! Let's go together. This wine..."

Surrender is a fact, and resentment towards others cannot be exchanged for a chance to start over. After Nahachu explained a few words, Qiqili chose everlasting friendship.

He took a few big gulps of beer and burped. The refreshing feeling in his esophagus made him feel happy both physically and mentally. However, as he had never drunk carbonated beer before, he was at a loss.

“They brought several sets of equipment for brewing beer. This kind of beer has a lot of gas, is cheap, and the good ones take a long time to brew, so you get drunk easily.

They say that the expensiveness or cheapness of beer does not lie in how much it costs, but in how much more money they want the rich to spend on it.

A barrel of beer now costs about ten cents, and a good one costs thirty cents. A ten-cent beer sells for twenty cents, and a thirty-cent beer sells for a string.

There is also one that costs fifty coins and sells for five strings of cash. You can drink it if you want, I won’t force you, I only make a little each time…”

Nahachu told Qiqili what he had heard about the cost and price of beer. The cheap beer was for ordinary people to drink, while the good beer was used to distinguish one's status, which was measured by money.

"It's expensive for a reason, but it tastes delicious! This big bucket costs twenty cents, not much."

Qi Qili is rich and discovered that ordinary people cannot afford the five-stringed bottle, so drinking it himself shows his status.

“They also have a kind of beer, which costs ten cents a barrel, and six cents for the capital, and is a mixture of barley and wheat.

They brew beer mainly to solve the problem of wheat sprouting due to rain during harvest. After the wheat sprouts, they can be used to make sugar or brew beer.

There must always be wine. The people will drink it, and you and I will drink it too. The sprouted wheat will be turned into beer, and the good ones will be kept for drinking. Those who want to drink will also have wine to drink.

It is easy to grow barley here, but it is too difficult to grow wheat, and we only have spring wheat.

After we leave, when the grain is harvested, they will take it away and give us money, which will be considered as buying it.”

"I see! That's great! They can use our land to grow barley, which is easy to grow."

"No, they want to grow rice. They say the rice here is delicious. Indica rice is delicious when used to make rice noodles and rice vermicelli."

"Growing rice is more troublesome than growing other crops. Are there enough people migrating from other places?"

"They said they would throw the seedlings instead of transplanting them to save manpower. On large flat lands, they would use their machines. Yes, they call them machines, because they transplant rice faster."

"How can that thing move by eating coal and drinking water? It can light lamps and dig holes."

"Steam engine, not steaming buns to save face."

"Oh! That's it!"

The two chatted while watching the palace maids perform singing and dancing. Meat skewers were brought up from time to time, but not much each time and the meat on the skewers was small, not intended to fill people up, but for drinking.

Otherwise, after eating a five-pound skewer of meat, you won’t have to do anything else and no one can drink it.

The dipping sauce includes dry and wet ingredients. The dry ingredients are refined salt, cornus officinalis powder, and cumin grains, while the wet ingredients are chive sauce, cornus officinalis sauce, and cumin powder.

Now is the time when chives are in bloom. We harvested a lot of chives, crushed them and added salt to make chive sauce.

Freshly made chive sauce should either be eaten within three days or wait half a month before eating it, otherwise it will contain nitrite.

Ordinary people usually keep pickles for twenty days, and some even for a month, for fear that someone would die from eating them. This is an experience passed down from ancient China, summarized with human lives.

Including sauerkraut, pickles, salted eggs, bacon, sausage...

"This skewer of meat tastes better than our grilled one. What's that thing brushed on top?"

Qiqili was curious about the ingredients of the skewers. Beef and mutton are very smelly in this season, but he is not afraid of the smell because he is used to it.

Feeding hay in winter will make the meat less smelly.

The Ming army's troops figured out how to make the meat that should smell good become less smelly. It's a real skill!
"A bunch of medicinal herbs. People in Xiaqiu Village like to cook. Have you ever eaten stretched noodles? Knead the noodles, stretch them with your arms, bring the two ends together and stretch them again. After stretching them a few times, the noodles will become thinner."

Nahachu had eaten a lot of good food with the team. He had never seen stretched noodles before, so he introduced them to Qiqili. "So it's broken? But I know how to make dried noodles."

Qi Qili thought about it, shook his head, and realized that the noodles would break if they were stretched.

"They put other things in it. Have you ever eaten dry noodles that are hollow in the middle? You can put other fillings in it. They are very thin."

Nahachu mentioned another food that he had also eaten.

Qiqili didn't need to think about it this time, and continued to shake his head. How could the thin noodles be sandwiched in the middle? Stuffed in?
"They have it. Wait until they are not busy and discuss it with them. The people in Xiaqiu Village are very easy to talk to, especially when it comes to ordering. They have a menu and can make it as long as the ingredients are available."

Nahachu thinks the people of Xiaqiu Village are nice. He likes to read cookbooks the most. The cookbooks have large, colorful photos, so you can see what the dishes look like when they are cooked. They are book after book.

……

The full moon is in the sky...

"My ancestors... I, Zhu Yichang, am incompetent... Today, I can only help Daming to clear out the remaining forces of the Northern Yuan Dynasty in the northeast! There is still the southwest that I haven't gone to. I am a waste, I..."

In Zhu Wentian's room, the head of the village knelt down and howled...

It is the fifteenth day of July, the Ghost Festival, also known as the Zhongyuan Festival, and the following ceremony is held.

We have just dealt with the remaining forces of the Northern Yuan Dynasty in the northeast. The head of the village has something to say. The other villagers are watching and are really happy that the head of the village has had a good time today.

Especially Hanhan carved so many names, which was very hard work. Our ancestors must have been very touched.

The headman's voice was so loud that everyone outside could hear it. Nahachu and Qiqili felt so uncomfortable! The headman of Xiaqiu Village took himself as a show of merit.

The other princes and others were used to it and came all the way here. Whenever there was a time to worship their ancestors, Head of the Village Zhu would come.

The key is that the tablet is always new and is burned once it is made, just like burning paper.

I have had the honor of seeing the tablet. The words on it are so beautiful, but the key is that the font seems to be different every time.

There are several types of official script, several types of Wei stele, several types of regular script, and even small seal script, but there is definitely no cursive script.

So why did the master write the ancestral tablets for Xiaqiu Village? No one I have seen in the Xiaqiu Village team could write such words.

Everyone else has written, except the village guard Hanhan. He can't even do arithmetic with his fingers, so how can you expect him to be able to write in so many font styles?
"Why don't you write a set and keep it? And carve it every time?"

Qi Qili also saw the tablets this time. He heard from others that a new set was changed each time, and he couldn't understand why.

"The tablet cannot be placed randomly, there are rules. They think it is troublesome. This way they can find wood to carve and burn it at any time, which is convenient."

Zhu Chong understood the situation. The last time he went on a long journey to Helin, Xiaqiao Village did the same thing.

If there are many tablets, it would take up space if they were made of good wood and placed carefully.

It is difficult to preserve the wood you find temporarily, so it is best to burn it. Burning paper is burning anyway, so just invite the ancestors first and then send them away.

The tablets in Xiaqiao Village are not burned, but made of stone. There are two sets, one at the original location of the village, and one outside Chaoyang Gate.

"Will our ancestors be unhappy?" Qi Qili tried to put himself in their shoes.

"I've dealt with you all, what's there to be unhappy about?"

The fifth brother, Zhu Su, spoke in a very casual and unintentional manner, without saying a word.

Qiqili and Nahachu: "..."

They both felt heartbroken, as if someone was rubbing salt into their wounds.

(End of this chapter)