The big man has a living father

Chapter 259 (Long Chapter) The Last Artery

Huo Hai put his hands behind his back and glanced at the people in front of him: "You call me Uncle Huo here, so let me ask you, what should you call me when you go out?"

A group of children swarmed over and asked, "Uncle Huo?"

"Master Huo!"

"Old life!"

"Old man!"

Huo Hai was shocked: "Hey! Hey! Liu Ergou, don't recognize the wrong person as your father!"

"I've already told you to call me Brother Huo when you go out. It makes you look younger."

But the kids didn't care about that. They simply pulled Huo Hai's pants and long skirt, and forcibly pulled Huo Hai's hands down, and also took down the plate of fried lamb tail oil that Huo Hai was holding. They each grabbed a handful and took them away.

Huo Hai: "Hey! I haven't eaten yet!"

Huo Hai had only seen this thing in a short video in his previous life, but he had never really eaten it. Although this dish is called fried lamb tail oil, it is actually pork fat coated with batter and fried, and then coated with icing sugar. The sugar can offset the greasiness, and the fried oil is very fragrant. It is almost lost in later generations, but in this era it is undoubtedly one of the best snacks.

Huo Hai saw that only half a crumb was left on the plate, and a group of children ran away.

"The world is going downhill, the world is going downhill!"

"The children in South Village bully me because I am old and weak. They bully me because I am old and weak!"

Chengdu’s city center is located in the southern part and has two landmark cultures.

One is the Wuhou Temple and the other is Du Fu Thatched Cottage.

Huo Hai finally chose the location of Du Fu's Thatched Cottage, built a thatched house and a garden on the bank of Huanhua Creek.

As a place to cultivate one's character.

Of course, behind the thatched cottage, a large area of ​​Shu-style buildings was built as the residence of Princess Wei Chang and others.

Caotang is mainly about learning from Du Fu, just to show off.

After all, Huo Hai was not as miserable as Du Fu.

However, Huo Hai discovered something after he came here.

In this place where the eternal snow on the Xiling Mountains can be seen through the window and ships from Dongwu are moored at the door, in fact, you cannot see the Xiling Snow Mountain, but the Siguniang Mountain.

In this relatively unpolluted environment with no lights at night, you can see the snow-capped mountains to the west and the Milky Way in the sky.

Living in this place, it is hard not to write poetry, but Huo Hai resisted the urge.

Huo Hai lives here, and the motorcade has already gone on a national tour, so it’s better not to make any noise.

After tasting the remaining half of the fried lamb tail oil, Huo Hai licked his fingers and found it very savory-filled.

It was a rare day with good weather in Chengdu today, with the sun shining brightly, so Princess Wei Chang and Liu Xijun did not stay there, but came to Huo Hai's thatched cottage.

There is a large grassland here. Today Huo Hai set up a stove here and roasted meat.

We set up a tarpaulin to cover the sky and started camping.

Under the sun, Princess Wei Chang, wearing simple clothes, sat on a chair, quietly watching the water flow.

Sitting here and looking back, Princess Wei Chang suddenly remembered that she had actually known Huo Hai for half her life.

I met Huo Hai when I was seventeen years old, and now I am thirty-four.

At this time, Huo Hai was poking a cherry tomato with an iron skewer.

After stabbing it, the small round tomato rolled away. Huo Haifei didn't use his hands, but insisted on using an iron skewer to pierce it directly.

This iron skewer has not been sharpened to a point and has a blunt tip.

Huo Hai stabbed once but failed, so he continued to poke: "Huh?"

Seeing Huo Hai playing fencing with an iron stick, Princess Wei Chang glanced at Liu Xijun.

Liu Xijun also looked at Princess Wei Chang helplessly.

After the two looked at each other, Princess Wei Chang smiled, and her smile showed kindness.

It's hard not to be kind to someone who can bring Huo Yan up to this age and then leave him alone to play.

It has been three years since I came to Chengdu.

During these three years, Princess Wei Chang treated herself as an ordinary woman and lived like this for three years.

This empire is advancing on a path of rapid development that seems to have no limit in sight.

Everyone is climbing up.

Princess Wei Chang's position is several levels higher than the end point of everyone's efforts.

However, Princess Wei Chang likes this ordinary life.

Finally, Huo Hai managed to put the little tomato on, although it was crooked.

Roasting over the fire.

Eleven years ago, tomatoes were brought back to Dahan and began to be planted. Over the years, due to various reasons, tomatoes grown in different places have begun to show their own different characteristics.

Some of them may be very different because of genetic mutations.

For today's agricultural science, variation is very important, because targeted cultivation is actually very difficult.

If there is a mutated original species, half of the hard work can be saved and the subsequent targeted cultivation will be much simpler.

When Huo Hai has nothing to do, he will try out the taste of these mutated things.

If Huo Hai says it’s good, then it’s really good and can be further cultivated.

Unfortunately, watermelons and other fruits cannot be cultivated in a short period of time, and Huo Hai doesn’t know whether he will be able to eat cabbage and watermelons in this life.

The family was eating barbecue when a figure appeared. Huo Hai was overwhelmed when he saw the figure.

Gongsun Jingsheng.

At the beginning, Huo Hai told Gongsun He bluntly that Gongsun Jingsheng was not fit to be an official and keeping him in Chang'an would only harm him.

However, Gongsun He did not dare to send him back to his fiefdom, because if he did, Gongsun Jingsheng would surely become a rich second-generation who harmed the people within a year.

The reason is simple. He is not smart and has poor self-control, but he has power.

As long as he returns to his fiefdom where he has the final say, if his subordinates try to push him a little in order to climb up the ladder, he will behave like a human being.

When the time comes, will Liu Che kill him or not?
So, Gongsun He let Gongsun Jingsheng go and do business.

On the other side, the couple was also trying to practice another trumpet.

I don’t know if it was because Huo Hai asked Liu Che to collect deer antlers and sell them a few years ago, but many nobles who had given birth to a child and then never had any other children gave birth to a second or third child. The Gongsun He family also successfully gave birth to a little boy.

Gongsun Jingsheng was also in the business world... He kept fighting and failing.

He started out with a small business and lost money on everything he did.

It's not easy for him to do business and make losses in the Han environment!

Most people really can’t do this!
But Gongsun He didn't care. As long as Gongsun Jingsheng didn't go down the path of crime, he could do whatever he wanted!
What's the big deal about losing some money?

How many businesses does the Wei Huo family have?
Except for those involving state capital, Huo Hai's profitable businesses would also give a share to his family. Huo Qubing and Wei Qing were also developing their own businesses. Now a large amount of education in the world was in the hands of Huo Qubing. As long as he wanted to make money, there was no reason why he could not make money.

It was the same with Gongsun He. Every year he received money, but he had no idea how to spend it. He just kept on acquiring properties, hoping to leave more for his descendants after he died.

By then, you can live forever just by doing profits without doing anything else.

Especially shares of various enterprises.

Gongsun He buys a wide variety of items and is not afraid that some companies will go bankrupt.

But Gongsun Jingsheng still has the heart of an apprentice. When doing business, if you lose, you can make a comeback.

Besides, even if you sit on the top of the pyramid and wrestle hard, you are still at the top. Even if you pat your butt and stand up, your starting point is still much higher than others.

Until... two years ago, Gongsun Jingsheng met a man on the streets of Chengdu.

That day, Gongsun Jingsheng carried the bird cage in his left hand and the teacup in his right hand and went to the Fu River to reserve a seat.

If you go too late, those fishermen won't be polite to you.

It's so hard to get a spot to bask in the sun.

That day, Gongsun Jingsheng was walking when he suddenly saw a familiar person.

"cousin?!"

Huo Hai, who was strolling, was stunned when he saw Gongsun Jingsheng, and then told him to shut up.

But few people know that Huo Hai settled in Chengdu.

Chengdu is still too small in this era, and such things can happen.

Although Gongsun Jingsheng is stupid, he is not dumb.

He knew he was not good at business, but his cousin was the best businessman in the world.

So Gongsun Jingsheng asked Huo Hai how to do business.

If Huo Hai didn't tell him, he would pester Huo Hai.

Huo Hai told him a trick.

Open a teahouse in Chengdu.

If Huo Hai didn't look down on him, Gongsun Jingsheng would not have the ability to open a teahouse in Chengdu and make a loss.

In Chengdu, if one could run a teahouse and make a loss, he must be an outstanding talent. It would be a pity not to send him to Rome and serve the Romans.

However, after Gongsun Jingsheng asked carefully and learned that to open a high-end teahouse, he would have to borrow his aristocratic status to use the clustering effect to attract customers, he gave up.

"Cousin, although I am stupid, I have a backbone. It's not that I can't afford to lose. Anyway, I have already suffered so many losses. I am numb to losing and don't care anymore. Then what's the point of using the reputation of the Gongsun family and the Weihuo family to do business?"

"Cousin, please find me another job!"

Huo Hai patted Gongsun Jingsheng on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry. With your ability, it will be difficult to ruin the Wei Huo family's reputation in business."

The reason Gongsun Jingsheng is so stupid is that he is stubborn and refuses to do anything.

But what good industry can Huo Hai entrust to Gongsun Jingsheng? That industry Mingdeng, isn't that irresponsible to this industry?

Therefore, Huo Hai did not give any other attention and let Gongsun Jingsheng open the teahouse.

After more than a year, Gongsun Jingsheng was ready to obey, but then he heard that the Han Dynasty banned gambling and gambling in groups was illegal.

The Han Dynasty now only allows legal gambling in Jincheng in the Western Regions, and gambling is not allowed in other places.

The teahouse business in Chengdu means card-playing hall.

So, Gongsun Jingsheng quit again.

Huo Hai told Gongsun Jingsheng that he wrote the law against gambling himself. Small gambling is for fun. Neighbors and friends playing for small amounts of money do not count as gambling and will not be arrested.

But Gongsun Jingsheng refused.

Because Gongsun He and his mother had told Gongsun Jingsheng that if he dared to break the law, all the family property would be given to his younger brother and he would not get a single cent.

You may say Gongsun Jingsheng is stupid, but he is actually quite smart and he is determined not to cross the line.

As a result, he began to beg Huo Hai to ask again.

The weather is really nice today, and the sun is shining brightly. Huo Hai is going to lie down and bask in the sun.

Seeing Gongsun Jingsheng coming again, I felt overwhelmed.

Gongsun Jingsheng spoke sweetly as soon as he arrived: "Sister-in-law! Little sister-in-law!"

Princess Wei Chang handed a skewer of pork belly to Gongsun Jingsheng, who took it and ate it.

"Ouch, it's so hot..."

Gongsun Jingsheng went to the river to take a look, and found that he had not gotten any blisters, so he came back happily.

Huo Hai: "Are you stupid? You just took it off the stove and you bite it?"

Gongsun Jingsheng: "Hey, I saw my sister-in-law here, and greeted her, but I didn't pay attention."

Princess Wei Chang took a few more skewers and said, "Let them cool down before eating."

Huo Hai: "Don't ask me every day. Why don't you open a barbecue restaurant in Chengdu? You can't lose money in Chengdu. You can sell barbecue for five times more than other places, and people will still eat it."

Gongsun Jingsheng: "Everyone knows how to make grilled skewers, but this can't be made to quality."

Huo Hai: "That's different. The chefs here in Chengdu are very sensitive to complex seasonings. With a little practice, they can reach a very high level of taste. It tastes better than what we had in Chang'an."

Gongsun Jingsheng is not stupid: "Cousin, the success of the store is due to the chef's ability, not me. What if the chef runs away?"

Huo Hai: "If he runs away, then he runs away. We can hire a new cook after he runs away."

Gongsun Jingsheng said as he was eating skewers: "Cousin, please teach me a trick."

Huo Hai: It’s not that I don’t want to teach you, but if I teach you, I will let this industry down…

Gongsun Jingsheng: "People outside have said that you are a god, cousin, and you can turn beans into soldiers..."

Huo Hai: "Stop, don't confuse Journey to the West with reality."

However, when Huo Hai heard about the idea of ​​turning beans into soldiers, he had an inspiration.

Sorry for the industry...

This kind of thing depends on the situation.

For example, some things have several sides. As long as one side survives, the other sides can be straightened out even if they are messed up.

For example...Maocai.

In Sichuan cuisine, there is a series called the boiled series.

The meat is boiled in spicy soup, and then additional chili peppers, minced garlic, chili segments, etc. are added on top, and oil is drizzled on top to stimulate the aroma again.

The most classic is boiled beef.

This boiled beef is also the ancestor of the entire Jianghu cuisine.

Over time, this method gave rise to the eating method of maoxuewang, which later inspired hotpot and became hotpot.

This way of eating spread northward to Chengdu, where it changed the local oil-hot dishes and gave rise to maocai.

The so-called "mao" is a verb, which means putting food in boiling water, and letting the boiling water wash it out, using extreme high temperature to cook the food. Therefore, hot pot, skewers, maocai and other things derived from this series all have their own characteristics.

If we simplify the soup base of maocai, it would become malatang.

Use spicy soup base to blanch the food.

Malatang first appeared in mountain cities. When it spread outside, outsiders could not distinguish between Chengdu and Chongqing and just said it was Chengdu's Malatang.

After a long time, Chengdu Malatang became famous.

Later, the population began to move, and when people went to Chengdu, they found that there was no malatang in Chengdu.

As a result, Malatang had no place to belong, so the name was removed. It was no longer called Shancheng Malatang or Chengdu Malatang, but just Malatang. Finally, it became popular in the north.

These things are multifaceted.

You have to know that people in the north didn’t eat very spicy food in the beginning, but as the culture of spicy Jianghu cuisine began to become popular, the convergence of this type of food was inevitable because of its high sales.

So, if Malatang was taught to Gongsun Jingsheng, and Maocai was taught to other chefs in Chengdu.

So even if Gongsun Jingsheng makes Malatang too bad, it will be won back by the market over time. As long as the traditional maocai is there, it will definitely be corrected twice.

In this way, there is no need to worry about the devastating blow from Gongsun Jingsheng, the industry's dark lamp.

Huo Hai took a bite of Sichuan sausage and said, "I'll teach you a dish that will definitely be a big hit."

Gongsun Jingsheng was excited: "Oh, Heaven! Oh, Earth! My cousin finally gave in!"

Huo Hai: "This dish is called soybean meeting."

Gongsun Jingsheng: "?"

Huo Hai: "You know soybeans, right? We like to eat edamame with wine. It is the young state of soybeans, and the old state of edamame."

Gongsun Jingsheng understood when he mentioned drinking: "I know that."

"Huo Hai, okay, soybeans plus water will make bean sprouts, remember this."

"Soybeans are ground into soy milk. The thin film on the surface of the soy milk is yuba, and soy milk and brine are solidified to become tofu pudding. The tofu pudding is put into a mold, squeezed dry and solidified into old tofu."

"Old tofu is cut into pieces and deep-fried, and it becomes fried tofu. The fried tofu can be hollowed out and stuffed with meat."

"The tofu pudding is spread in a thin layer in the mold and separated by a cloth, which is the thousand sheets of tofu skin."

Gongsun Jingsheng: "I've got it all down!"

Huo Hai: "Okay, now make a pot of spicy soup base, add bean sprouts, bean curd, old tofu, tofu pudding, fried tofu, fried tofu with meat, and thousand sheets of tofu skin. You can also make brine, make braised tofu skin with slightly tender tofu skin, and cook it in the soup base."

"A bowl like this, with some other vegetables, is full of protein and is the perfect tonic for workers."

"Get another bowl and use the roasted soybeans to grind into powder, mix with chili powder, and use it as a dipping sauce."

"Invincible."

Gongsun Jingsheng: "Can I make money?!"

Huo Hai: "That's your problem. Remember, if you don't make money from running a store, you can say it's called a soybean meeting."

“If you make money, you can put up a sign saying that I invented it, call it Malatang, and then open a chain, and then the business will be successful.”

Gongsun Jingsheng: "Wow, cousin, you don't trust me at all, and you even gave two dish names!"

Huo Hai: “Go ahead and do it.”

Malatang is usually eaten more vegetarian and less oily, while maocai is eaten more meaty and more oily.

These two things look similar, but in this era, they are targeting completely different customer groups.

There should be no large-scale catering exchanges in the early stages.

After Gongsun Jingsheng is established, we can change the name and open a chain store. We shouldn’t be squeezed out by Maocai.

Gongsun Jingsheng has already learned how to make spicy hot pot, so he must also teach others how to make maocai.

Huo Hai has actually already chosen the candidate.

Although Wen Weng lived a long life, he has made many contributions to Chengdu in recent years. He has also made great contributions in the imperial examinations, and continued to observe the new changes in Chang'an and lead the development of Chengdu.

Now that he is over seventy-five, news of his death has come.

Huo Hai wanted to teach the cooking method of maocai to the second son of the Wen family.

Wen Weng was definitely a typical selfless person in his life. Even if we write the Book of Han again today, he is still ranked first on the list of good officials of the Han Dynasty.

But good people cannot just have a good reputation.

Wen Weng was no longer in Chengdu to manage his power, and the power was smoothly transferred to Zhang Qian over the years.

Now Huo Hai is giving some benefits to the descendants of the Wen family, which can be regarded as a repayment for Wen Weng's help in taking the blame during the imperial examination.

Although nothing serious happened afterwards, there might be people who hold a grudge and step on the descendants of the Wen family in the future.

If the Wen family can make some money in these years, the future will depend on their luck.

After Gongsun Jingsheng left, Huo Hai wrote down the recipe for maocai and asked someone to deliver it to the Wen family.

Seeing Huo Hai busy with work again, Princess Wei Chang asked casually, "Urbanization is underway across the country now. The urban population has reached 40%, close to 50%. Cities like the Five Capitals and Three Ports have an urbanization rate of more than 70%."

"Chengdu's local finances have now accumulated a huge amount of funds."

"In the past three years, the profits from the things we brought back from India have been increasing. Why don't we spend the money?"

"Is it time to build a railway from Chengdu to Chang'an?"

Huo Hai picked up the toasted flour sausage and took a bite, then turned around and said, "This is not a matter of money. If we don't kill thousands of workers to build a road from Chengdu to Chang'an, it will never be completed. Unless we wait for technology to improve, we have to wait another ten years."

If Princess Wei Chang didn't say anything, this matter would always be in Huo Hai's mind.

Logically speaking, for someone in Huo Hai's position, it is a good deal to exchange the lives of thousands of people for a vital artery of a big man.

However, this does not seem to be so cost-effective.

But, without this road, Chengdu would definitely be in trouble.

When Huo Hai persuaded Princess Wei Chang to stay in this rainy little town, he said that if no one was in charge, Chengdu would surely rebel.

No matter who comes, it will be useless, and whoever comes will rebel.

Sending a powerful general to take charge here would be harmful to them.

It’s just like Zhao Tuo and the Nanyue Kingdom, and Wei Man and Korea.

Actually, wired electricity can solve this problem.

However, Huo Hai had been waiting and watching. Huo Hai was afraid that Liu Che would really suffer from dementia in his old age, and it would be absolutely unwise to develop wired electricity.

If there is a railway, it can also solve the possible separatist situation in Chengdu.

After all, the reason why Chengdu was easy to secede was that the entire Yizhou was located in a very independent geographical unit, and the central Chengdu had fertile land and abundant resources.

This natural wall, this natural granary, does not require anyone to comprehend. A general who arrives here will naturally understand Zhu Yuanzhang's top strategy of "Build high walls and store up grain, and slowly become king."

Moreover, you don’t need to do anything.

There are walls several thousand meters high on all sides of Yizhou, so you don't need to store up grain. The grain in Chengdu will never be eaten up by the people you support here.

The more food you eat, the more you have.

In the past, when modern technology had not yet developed, in order to suppress various possible situations, the proportion of grain collected from Shu was extremely high.

The disaster even led to people starving to death in this land of abundance.

But it is something that must be done.

It is similar to the situation Huo Hai is facing now.

Building a railway can solve the problem.

The problem is that thousands of workers will die in the construction of this railway.

Huo Hai still couldn't make up his mind.

Actually, you can just wait.

As long as Huo Hai stayed in Chengdu, no matter who sat on the position of Shu County Governor, it would be impossible for him to rebel.

Because if he wanted to rebel, Huo Hai would know it before he did.

As long as Huo Hai can stay in Chengdu and receive first-hand information from the Huo family and the royal family, no one can rebel.

The question is how long Huo Hai can stay here.

If I can stay for a full ten years, I can wait until the technology for building railways is further improved and then build this railway.

Railways are now being built in the north, and even in addition to the main roads, there are some branch roads.

Building a railway in the north is no easier than connecting Chengdu with Chang'an.

There will be deaths over there too.

However, on the Dingling side, tens of thousands or even more people died in wars every year.

And people were dying like that, and everyone still couldn’t get enough food to eat.

Now we have food to eat and money to earn, and all we have to do is build railways, but it will only kill a quarter of the people who died in the past.

Who wouldn't?

The problem is that the situation in Chengdu is different.

The business reform in Chengdu has been going on for sixteen years.

A child born sixteen years ago will live in the Industrial Revolution all his life and know nothing about the sufferings in history.

They started eating rock sugar at the age of two, upgraded to fructose and milk candy at the age of three, and started eating pepper candy, which has a strong local Shu flavor, at the age of four. They have lived a sweet life all their lives.

In a city like Chengdu, if it takes thousands of lives to build a railway, it will inevitably leave a deep mark in history and become a trauma.

Huo Hai is not afraid of being scolded.

What Huo Hai was afraid of was giving future generations any excuse or reason to cause trouble.

Behind Princess Wei Chang, Bu Qiang, who had been hesitating, finally spoke up: "Mobilize the Qiang tribes."

Huo Hai: "There are no Qiang tribes now. They are also Han people."

Bu Qiang: "But they live in the mountains and don't care about these things. It's a blessing for them to be railway workers."

Huo Hai looked at Bu Qiang: "Is it appropriate?"

Bu Qiang himself is a Qiang people.

The little girl has grown up and is still Princess Wei Chang's maid, but she was married to Huo Hai and is considered Huo Hai's concubine.

The Buqiang people have a very high status in the current Qiang tribe, or should we say, among the mountain people in the snowy area.

If we follow Bu Qiang's suggestion, it might be Bu Qiang who gets scolded in the future.

Huo Hai has no habit of letting women take the blame.

In addition, the concept of Qiang people was finally eliminated, and all tribes were made to consider themselves as Han people, just living in closed mountain areas. Now that the world is connected, they can come out.

If the concept of Qiang people is revived because of a railway.

Not worth the candle.

Bu Qiang: "If I could become a railway worker, why would I curse afterwards?"

Huo Hai looked up at Bu Qiang.

Here's the problem.

There are no permanent railway workers.

People can live wherever there is water and grass, but it is impossible for them to migrate along the railway.

Once people make money, it is impossible for them to keep moving with their wife and children.

So, railway workers can do it, but only for about twenty years.

After all, it’s not a matter of who can do this and who can’t do this, or a matter of high or low.

It’s a question of discourse power.

Once a group identity is formed, this group will inevitably gain the right to speak.

It’s just that the more developed and wealthy the region, the more say people have, and so they need to be treated with more care.

This is the most difficult problem facing the Han people today.

Liu Xijun: "Can we try to give the deceased a high compensation?"

"No." Huo Hai: "If someone deliberately murders me, what if I use this method to make money?"

It is not a matter of ifs or nots, but it will definitely happen, and in massive quantities.

Princess Wei Chang hesitated for a moment: "Actually, there is another possibility that can circumvent this problem."

Huo Hai also knew what Princess Wei Chang meant.

In fact, it is very simple. The people of Shu County themselves proposed to build the railway, so no matter how much hardship they had to endure, they had to swallow it with gritted teeth.

In fact, Huo Hai could get the representatives from Shu to shout the slogan of building a railway by simply guiding public opinion.

However, Huo Hai doesn't like to falsify public opinion.

After thinking about it, Huo Hai finally decided to solve the problem through economic means.

"Let all parts of the north increase their consumption of sesame oil and tea leaves."

Once the prices of tea and sesame oil continue to rise and human transportation cannot keep up, the construction of railways will still be proposed.

This railway may be funded and built by people from Shu, and Huo Hai will not participate in the revenue.

But no one knows that in fact, Huo Hai was the one who led the whole process from planning to construction.

Princess Wei Chang held Huo Hai's hand and said, "Just do it. In fact, everyone supports you. It's just that you think too much and put too much pressure on yourself."

Huo Hai knew it, but since he had done it, why not do it better?

(End of this chapter)