Republic of China: Guandong Ginseng King

Chapter 264: Flour mill leaks flour
Qu Shaoyang was busy collecting mountain products and skins, and visiting large ginseng gardens and farmers. On the other side of Maoer Mountain, Chen Xiuyun was also busy at home.

Qu Jiang is already an adult, and he has finally met a good girl, so he has to hurry up and arrange the marriage.

Chen Xiuyun is my brother's wife, so it is not easy for her to get involved in the marriage proposal for my eldest uncle.

So they had to ask Liu Dongshan and his wife for help, and find Yang to be the matchmaker.

On October 12, Qu Jiang changed into new clothes and, accompanied by Liu Dongshan and his wife, and Yang, took gifts and went to the Hulucao Yang family to propose marriage.

The Yang family had already learned the news from Yang.

The Yang family was also very satisfied with Qujiang.

The young man is good-looking, works hard, and has a younger brother who is an inspector. With his status, he can marry any kind of wife he wants.

The Yang family is new and hasn't established itself yet. He has nothing and his family is extremely poor. Naturally, he would be happy to have such a marriage.

With Yang's help, Qu Jiang was also very generous and brought a lot of gifts.

What else did the Yang family have to say? They agreed to the marriage without hesitation.

After some discussion, the two sides decided to get engaged on October 18th, and then choose a date for the wedding after Qu Shaoyang returned.

Anyway, Qu Jiang's parents are not around, and the Yang family can't afford a grand wedding. Both sides can discuss it and try to make the wedding as simple as possible.

The Yang family really liked Qu Jiang, and they were not like other families who insisted on a certain amount of dowry, clothes, fabrics, gold and silver jewelry.

Qionghua's parents didn't have any requirements. They just wanted their daughter to be good to them.

In this way, the marriage proposal went smoothly. The Yang family even specially prepared meals and invited the guests to have lunch at home.

Liu Dongshan and his wife and Qu Jiang were discussing their marriage at Yang's house. Chen Xiuyun was not idle either, as she was invited to the flour mill.

The flour mill started work in the fall, but it has been doing the preparatory work before leaking the flour, such as crushing, sedimentation, and drying.

Qujia Flour Shop is quite large. It is not a small workshop that only operates in winter, but is intended to operate all year round.

This autumn, the flour mill harvested a lot of sweet potatoes and potatoes from the surrounding areas of Maoer Mountain.

Before it freezes, most of it is made into dry flour and stored in warehouses for later use.

In recent days, there are not many fresh sweet potatoes and potatoes left, so the noodle shop owner discussed with several noodle makers and decided to start leaking the noodles.

The noodle makers and shop assistants of Qujia Noodle Shop were all brought over from their hometown in Shandong by Jiang Chunfu and his colleagues at the beginning of spring.

There is a large sweet potato planting area in Shandong, and almost every village has a noodle maker who can make noodle.

In recent years, disasters have hit the land of Qi and Lu, and the people are living in poverty. Many noodle craftsmen have lost their livelihoods and have no choice but to come to Guandong to make a living.

When it comes to the status of vermicelli in Northeast China, it is definitely ranked number one and is unshakable.

This thing can be paired with anything, pork, chicken, sauerkraut, cabbage, celery, all can be paired together to perform a duet.

During the coldest days of winter, when it's freezing outside, we stew a pot of sauerkraut vermicelli and pork and cabbage vermicelli at home and serve it steaming hot on the table.

The vermicelli has absorbed all the soup, and is shiny, soft and sticky. When you slurp it into your mouth, it is meaty and full of flavor. It is even better than eating meat.

Precisely because vermicelli holds a very high status in the hearts of people in Northeast China, there are many vermicelli shops in the Northeast.

Of course, most noodle shops are just empty shells on weekdays, meaning that only the shopkeeper is in charge of the business on a daily basis, and there are no full-time noodle makers.

Only in late autumn and early winter does the powder start to leak out, and we have to temporarily hire a powder craftsman to do it.

There are very few flour mills that can employ flour makers all year round, and those have to be large flour mills.

Under these circumstances, the flour craftsmen were like the swordsmen who cut wheat in the northwest Guanzhong area, a mobile profession. They would move from one shop to another after finishing their work, and they could work from late autumn to winter.

This kind of mobile pastry craftsman usually does not work alone, but has a complete team, including four or five experienced pastry craftsmen and apprentices who do odd jobs.

Among the noodle craftsmen, the leader is also called the big cabinet. He is an all-round player who can do everything.

Generally responsible for command and overall control, similar to a technical director.

The other noodle makers are called "piao", "ge".

The Qu family's flour mill was large, employing several skilled flour makers and many apprentices, so there was naturally no need to hire temporary flour makers.

The procedures of crushing, skimming, bagging and drying the powder blocks are all completed in advance.

Therefore, on the day when the powder is officially leaked, the general procedure is to insert the dough, prepare the starch, stir the starch, beat the starch, grab the alum, call the ladle, put the ladle on, remove the pot, pound the powder, lift the powder, and hang it to dry.

If any error occurs in any of the steps, the quality of the vermicelli will be affected at best, or it will fail to take shape and turn into a pile of waste at worst.

In mid-October, the cold wind grew stronger in Kanto, and it was white outside.

The northwest wind blows day and night, and walking for a while outside will make you feel cold to the bone.

At this time, the Qu Family Flour Mill was filled with smoke and steam. People who were lighting the fire, carrying water buckets, inserting noodles, and calling flour ladles were all busy under the command of the head waiter.

"Madam, the flour has been stirred. Let's try it later.

If there is no problem, we will start to put the scoop on and beat the scoop formally." The chief cabinet came to Chen Xiuyun and asked for instructions.

In the past, the servants in the family called Chen Xiuyun "the boss's wife". Ever since Qu Shaoyang became the inspector, these people changed the way they addressed her and called her "Madam".

"Well, just let the cabinet take care of it. I don't understand these things, so I'll just follow your instructions." Chen Xiuyun nodded towards the cabinet.

There is no need to interfere in things you don't understand. Just leave it to people who know the subject.

After getting the master's nod of approval, the chef immediately ordered his people to make a large lump of flour and try to leak the flour out, which is called "scooping".

It’s no secret that this group of noodle makers have quite good skills. With just a push of the scoop, the vermicelli is formed.

The chef tested the toughness of the vermicelli and found it acceptable, then he told people to put the scoop on and beat it.

The guys in charge of each process all took their positions and started working in an orderly manner.

Xiaozhi, who was originally studying in the school, was dragged by several classmates to the flour mill to watch the fun.

They quietly opened the door of the flour mill while the adults were not paying attention, and a cloud of white smoke rushed out of the house.

A few children also took the opportunity to sneak into the flour mill and watch the fun.

They were not afraid of being discovered. The naughty kids acted coquettishly and cutely, making the powder craftsmen happy.

Then, I heard the waiter say, "Xiao Jiang, make some baked buns for the young master and the others to try."

On this side, a guy heard it and quickly got some powder dough that had not yet leaked powder and wrapped it around the branches.

Then put it into the stove and roast it over a strong fire until it becomes golden brown, crispy on the outside and white on the inside.

Afterwards, the waiter handed the cooked baked buns to the children.

Several children each held one and took a bite quickly. It tasted so delicious.

The children didn't care whether it was hot or not. They finished the baked buns in a few bites, wiped their mouths, thought for a while, and then quietly left the flour mill and went back to school.

(End of this chapter)