A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 46 is booming
Covered with the afterglow of sunset,

Li Yi brought Luzhu and Sujun back to Luojiawan.

The crisscrossing rice fields, the towering poplars, the winding He River, and the high cliffs, well, Li Yi felt very comfortable looking at these.

He has gotten used to it here.

To be honest, he had not had a very good experience in Chang'an these days. There was no prosperous and bustling market as he had imagined. There were only high walls, straight streets, and military marquises and cavalrymen everywhere, showing the strict hierarchy everywhere.

Once night falls, you can’t go out and the market is only open in the afternoon.

"Brother Wuyi."

Several children came out from the river, all naked. They were the two brothers Stone and Mensuan, taking a bath in the river.

Seeing Li Yi coming back, they were very excited.

"Village Chief Wang said my brother is an official in Chang'an,"

"We thought Brother would never come back."

Li Yi looked at the little kids and said, "Hurry up and get dressed and go home. It's getting dark. You're still playing in the river. Your lips are all purple."

The kids quickly put on their clothes and followed Li Yi.
Shitou even ran home to tell everyone the good news first.

"I haven't been home these past few days, and there haven't been any classes. Have you been lazy? Have you not memorized your lessons?"

"We are in class. Mr. Dong has his grandson Dong Liulang teaching us," Gou Sheng said quickly, and then he took the lead in reciting the Three Character Classic, "Natures are similar, but habits make them different..."

Li Yi was a little surprised that some of them could recite more than 30 sentences in one breath.

I thought the school had been closed for the past few days and the students were just herding sheep.

After asking carefully, I found out.
Originally, the students were supposed to have a temporary holiday after he left, but in the end, all of them went to Wujiyuan because there was lunch at school, the classes were lively and fun, and the parents were also willing to let their children skip a meal at home. After all, there was only one class at noon, and it would not affect the work at home.

"It was Sanniang who went to Fengjiabao to find Dong Xiucai, and then Dong Xiucai brought Dong Liulang here. He taught for one day, and Dong Liulang taught the next two days."

Walking across Luojiawan Bridge,

North Bank Bridge,

Luo Sanniang stood there to greet her.

His eyes were filled with joy after a long separation, but when he saw the two girls on the mule behind Li Yi, his gaze stopped.

"How's everything going at home these days?"

Li Yi greeted with a smile,
Sanniang hummed woodenly, but her eyes were fixed on Ji and the others.

"These are Yu Shu and Su Jun, the maids I brought back from Chang'an."

"This is Sanniang, my neighbor and partner."

The two maids greeted Sanniang.
Sanniang just stared blankly without responding.
She looked at the two people Li Yi had brought back. They were young, beautiful, and fair-skinned. One had an oval face, almond-shaped eyes, and a double-knife bun, looking plump and sweet. The other had an oval face, phoenix eyes, and a double-ringed Wangxian bun. She gave her a sense of quietness, restraint, and elegance.

Looking at them, Luo Sanniang couldn't help feeling inferior.

She wore her hair in two simple buns, her clothes were patched, and she worked hard, so her hands and feet were rough and her skin was dark.

"It's getting late, let's close the stall. I brought you a gift," Li Yi said to his partner. Although some embarrassing things happened, they were partners after all.

If they were just neighbors and partners, Sanniang would actually be a pretty good person.

Luo Sanniang responded woodenly, as if she had lost her soul.
Li Yi helped to clean up the stall at the bridge head.

Everyone walked towards Wujiyuan. When they reached the gate, Luo Sanniang seemed to suddenly come to her senses and stopped.

"I won't go in. Wuyi, you've come so far from Chang'an, go back and rest."

"Wait."

Li Yi called her, took off his bag from his horse, and took out the gift he bought for Sanniang, a finely carved wooden box.
"This is a lip balm and facial medicine box. It contains lip balm and facial medicine."

Li Yi opened the box, which contained two kinds of lip balms that Ji had helped him select in the East Market. One was a lipstick to prevent chapped lips, and the other was a lipstick for lip makeup.

The noble ladies of the Tang Dynasty also loved lip makeup. There were a wide variety of lip balms in many colors, such as vermilion, purple, and flesh-colored. Not only were the colors rich, but various fragrant oils were also added.

"The noodle medicine in this box comes from the largest pharmacy in the East Market, Song Dalang's. It is said that this noodle medicine comes from the prescription of the Medicine King Sun Simiao, and is called Yueren Noodle Medicine.

It not only beautifies the face, nourishes the skin, removes wrinkles and prevents acne, but can even remove blemishes and sores. The ingredients used are also very good, including deer marrow, musk, gardenia, galangal, angelica, angelica root, Chuanxiong and more than a dozen other medicinal herbs and spices."

These lip balms and facial creams are very popular in the East Market and are sold at a very high price.

Not only for women, but men in the Tang Dynasty also used lip balm and facial medicine, as well as bath beans. The royal family even had a special workshop for their production, for the emperor to reward his ministers.

It makes much more money than Li Yi selling tofu puffs.
In Li Yi's opinion, whether it is lipstick, facial medicine, bath beans, etc., they are not too complicated and there is nothing too high-tech. They mainly rely on marketing, just like the cosmetics and skin care products of later generations.
Essentially, it's just some cleaning and skin care stuff.

This secret recipe, that formula, adding this spice, that medicinal ingredient, are mostly marketing gimmicks.

Li Yi used to use Safeguard red pomegranate soaps, which cost only 20 yuan for three. They could definitely beat most of the facial medicines and bath beans in Chang'an East City.

The pomegranate soap he bought not only has a beautiful color but also a long-lasting fragrance. Most importantly, it cleans effectively and can even be used as a car diffuser. The advertisement also features top notes of citrus and pomegranate, middle notes of gardenia and nectarine, and base notes of amber and white musk.

"Thank you."

Luo Sanniang looked at the lip balm box that Li Yi handed over with a complicated expression. It was obvious that he had carefully selected this gift, and it was definitely not cheap.

After hesitating for a moment, she accepted it.

"I'm going back first. I just moved back home, and there are still many places that haven't been cleaned up yet."

Li Yi watched her go away.
I hope she can adjust her attitude. She is a good girl.

He didn't have the idea that if she was a girl, she wouldn't be wasted.
Wujiyuan has changed a lot.

The gate of the courtyard was installed,

The two wooden doors of the courtyard are very thick and solid. The craftsmen also made a roof on the doors and covered it with yellow grass.

The gate of the courtyard is not very big. It has no black-headed pillars and no red doors. It looks like a small house, but it gives people a warm and comfortable feeling.

Push the door and enter,

The courtyard has also changed a lot.
There are four side rooms and five back rooms. When he left, they had just started to build the Huji wall, and now they have all been built.

Just waiting for Li Yi to come back and put up the beams.

The well next to the west wing has also been dug.

It turned out that the doors of the main house and the side rooms had been installed. In the yard, several carpenters and their apprentices were busy making furniture and would not stop working until dark.

A stone table and stone bench were added under the ginkgo tree and the big elm tree in the courtyard, which were also made by a stonemason.

Under the big persimmon tree, there was also a stone mill.

This stone mill is much larger than a stone grinder. The millstone is about one foot thick. There are also patterns of fish playing with lotus leaves carved on both sides of the stone mill, which symbolizes good harvests and surplus every year.

The millstone plate is about seven feet in diameter, with a roller weighing eight hundred pounds on top, and a puller made of old Yulin that has been dried in the shade.

This millstone is big enough. You can imagine that to pull such a large millstone plate into the yard, it must have been pulled up by everyone who was building houses, digging wells, and making furniture at home these days, shouting and working together.

Although tofu shops don't use rollers,

But both rice and wheat require a millstone to remove the husks and a grinder to grind the flour.

The tofu workshop is still busy.

Buckets of soybeans were soaking beside the newly dug well.
In the west wing, a blindfolded donkey was grinding soy milk, while in the kitchen on the other side, twenty large flat-bottomed iron pots were lined up in a row, boiling soy milk and peeling the skins.

Now there are four village women in charge of this process, one is responsible for five pots, they have to control the heat well, and also take off the cooked pulp and hang it up to dry.

This is a delicate job that requires a lot of skills. If the heat is not controlled well, the bottom will get burnt and the color and taste of the bean curd sheets will be bad.

Sanniang's two sisters-in-law, one leading a village woman, are both very skilled.

Li Yi took Ji and the others on a tour and asked about the situation.

There were four bamboo poles hanging beside each pot, with the scooped pulp hanging on them. The room was steaming hot. Although it was already dusk, the women were still sweating all over.

Because it was too hot, everyone wore light clothes.

"We now have a pot of soy milk of 30 kilograms, which can be peeled off 30 sheets of bean curd."

The first ten pieces are of high quality, with a light yellowish color. The middle piece is of medium quality, with a golden color. The last ten pieces are of low quality, with a darker color.

The key to making good tofu skin is boiling the pulp and peeling it. There are three key factors for success: First, if the oven temperature drops, the charcoal fire won't keep up, resulting in a large temperature difference within the pot, which will cause the tofu to pudding to form and prevent the skin from forming. Second, if the pot temperature doesn't drop and continues to boil, the bottom of the tofu will become burnt, reducing both yield and quality. Finally, the white foam in the pot must be removed, otherwise it will also affect the formation of the skin.

In the words of my sister-in-law,

They have now figured out the tricks and can process it skillfully.

"We've mastered the battering method you mentioned earlier, Village Chief. We can get an extra two ounces of dried bean curd sheets from every pound of dried beans."

Not all of the soy milk can be cooked into pulp skin for scooping out bean curd sheets. In the end, a lot of waste pulp will be left that cannot be made into skin.

Originally, one pound of beans could only produce ten ounces of bean curd sheets, and the remaining waste pulp could only be drunk by oneself or fed to donkeys, cows, and horses.

But now, after using Li Yi's pulping method, the output can be increased by two taels.

This method is not difficult. After taking out the bean curd sheets and air-drying them until they are 70% to 80% complete, immerse them in concentrated waste pulp that has been simmered over low heat to coat them with a layer of pulp.

This is not only the recycling of waste pulp, saving costs and increasing production, but also the concentrated soy milk can make the bean curd sheets richer in layers, more fragrant in bean flavor and chewier in taste after being hung.

Especially the quality of the last ten skins of bean curd sheets has been further improved.

At the beginning, I sold eight taels of beans, and after I became proficient, I sold ten taels of beans per catty. Now I sell twelve taels of beans per catty, and a catty of bean curd sheets is sold for 240 coins. These two taels have increased the profit by dozens of coins.

"Thank you for your hard work. Sister-in-law and Sister-in-law will each receive two liters of millet as a reward, and Aunt Hong and you two will each receive one liter of millet. From now on, your monthly wages will be increased by one bushel of millet."

Li Yi was so happy that he generously gave the reward.

The four women shouted with joy, and even though they were covered in smoke and sweat, it was all worth it at this moment.

"We will definitely do a good job."

"By the way, why are you still making yuba so late today?"

"The bean curd sheets are selling very well recently. Ma Ti Temple needs dozens of kilograms a day. The Du and Wei families also keep asking for more. Several big temples in Fanchuan also come to buy. They want so much that we can't handle it all.
My grandfather had the craftsmen quickly build a drying room. Now, not only do we make bean curd sheets during the day and dry them in the sun, but we also make them at night and dry them with firewood.”

Li Yi smiled and said, "We only have 20 pots now, and we can't keep working non-stop. It's getting late. Let's take a break after we finish this pot. We can never make enough money."

"Village chief, please order some more iron pots quickly. Each of us can take care of ten pots." The eldest and second sisters-in-law who received the reward money hurriedly said,
"Okay, I'll go order it right away."

After becoming proficient, one pot can produce more than ten pounds of bean curd sheets a day. If there are twenty pots, the output can reach an astonishing two to three hundred pounds, and the gross profit is tens of thousands of coins a day. He is rich. However, when he thinks that one pot can earn as much as a cow, Li Yi feels pain again.
If we add ten more pots, we will need another hundred pieces of silk.

Just thinking about it makes me feel sick.

"Lüzhu, I will give you the money and silk from our family for safekeeping. Sujun, you will be in charge of the accounts."

There is a cashier and an accountant. The cashier is in charge of money and materials, and the accountant is responsible for bookkeeping and supervision.

The two maids had actually been curious since they entered the courtyard. Now, when they heard that Li Yi trusted them so much and entrusted them with important tasks, they were both surprised and happy.

(End of this chapter)