v2 Chapter 71
“You are a slave under the Rongshang, so do you know Changling?” Before Qi You could recover, the little beggar behind him asked in a low voice.
Qi You pursed his lips and nodded slightly: “Well, we came from there.”
Listening to his answer, the little beggar didn’t even care about the pain on his body.
He ran over in three steps and two steps, and asked, “How about Changling? How can people outside the fort be allowed in?”
Qi You turned to look at him.
“You want to escape to Changling?” he asked.
The little beggar nodded firmly.
The corners of Qi You’s mouth curved slightly, and he asked again, “This kind of big event…why did you tell me?”
The little beggar widened his eyes and replied, “You are not a bad person.”
As he spoke, he tightened the bean dregs cake in his arms.
Qi You was about to say something, but heard Qi San’s call from outside.
He knew that things couldn’t be rushed, so he said to the little beggar, “I have to go.”
The little beggar didn’t make a sound to keep him, but just stood there blankly, watching him take two steps forward.
“Our caravan will leave in five days.” As Qi You walked, he turned around and said the last sentence: “If you want to know about Changling, you can come to me again.”
Before leaving the alley, he saw the little beggar and nodded indistinctly.
After returning to Qi San, the two returned to the team together.
Then, as usual, they packed up as if nothing had happened, and skillfully carried the things Geer brought back to the carriage one by one.
——
At the end of August, Cannes.
Qi An and Qi Ran spent their fourth birthday in the palace.
The housekeeper brought gifts to the two children on behalf of Qi You, while Cao Mi took advantage of this opportunity to tinker with the cake.
Ordinary small cakes do not have much technical content to make.
Cao Mi told the cook about the general method, focusing on the process of “spitting the egg whites”, and hired a few masons to build a rough version of the “oven” with loess and cement.
After a few experiments, the cook found the trick to baking.
That night, the maids brought a boxy cake.
The three children were born in the palace, and they have never stopped eating exquisitely on weekdays, but the novel taste of the cake has quickly won unanimous praise.
The third child was undoubtedly the happiest of them all, his mouth was covered with white cream after eating.
Cao Mi was also very satisfied, and turned around to add this dessert to Feng Deng Lou’s menu.
But this incident also brought a little follow-up trouble to Cao Mi.
Since the birthday banquet, Qi Ran has been thinking about cakes, and has to talk to Cao Mi almost every day.
Cao Miji cared about his health, so naturally she couldn’t do what he wished every time, but every time she looked at the third child’s aggrieved eyes, and it was funny, she couldn’t bear it.
But soon, Rongguang Villa helped her solve this problem.
It is almost late autumn, and Liaozhou, which is located at the northernmost end of the Sheng Dynasty, finally ushered in the harvest season.
After a lively autumn harvest, Rongguang Villa brought the sweet potatoes and corn that Cao Mi was thinking about.
Sweet potatoes have been confirmed to be edible, while corn is troublesome for Cao Mi, so he directly wrote to Beisi to explain.
She lied that she had found a record of corn in an ancient book, and attached the letter with the method of harvesting and eating corn.
After receiving the letter, Beisi did not dare to neglect, and led people to pay close attention to the situation of the corn field and sweet potato field.
Although Shanzhuang expanded a batch of sweet potatoes at Cao Mi’s request this summer, the total planting area of both corn and sweet potatoes is still small.
When the time came, Beisi took people to complete the harvesting work.
This time, everyone in the villa was surprised.
The corn field was fine, but the yield in the sweet potato field directly broke through the cognition of this group of people.
Now that the sweet potatoes are fully grown, the sweet potatoes collected from the field are no longer the same as when Cao Mi went before, only the size of a baby’s fist.
There are many sweet potato fruits falling under the sweet potato vines, each as thick as a baby’s arm. Obviously, the planting area is less than one mu, but the sweet potatoes harvested are more than 2,000 catties.
Bei Si couldn’t wait to deliver the letter at all, so he went directly to the palace with the convoy of sweet potatoes, and personally informed Cao Mi about the relevant situation.
Cao Mi knew this, so he wasn’t too surprised to hear that.
Sweet potato is a high-yield crop, and there is even a precedent for a modern yield of more than 10,000 catties. In her opinion, this yield is nothing.
After Beisi finished speaking, he suppressed his excitement and asked: “Wang, Princess, the villain has reserved enough corn seeds and seed potatoes. Will you directly open up a few hectares of new fields next year to plant sweet potatoes?”
Several methods of planting sweet potatoes have been tested in the villa before. Under Cao Mi’s intentional prompting, they soon discovered the real method of raising sweet potatoes.
Cao Mi nodded: “The planting area of sweet potatoes must be expanded, but remember, it must not affect the planting of major crops such as rice and wheat.”
The main component of sweet potatoes is starch, and the protein content is low. There is no way to replace rice and wheat as a staple food.
Cao Mi planted sweet potatoes, and he was really jealous of its output, but he also knew that he could not give up the basics and let it threaten the status of the real staple food.
Bei Si calmed down a little, and cupped his hands: “Yes, the villain will make careful arrangements.”
Cao Mi looked at what he had brought over, this year’s harvest, and was actually a little worried.
“Liaozhou, most of the time, it can only be cooked once a year, which is still too slow.” She said with a frown.
In the warm and humid south, as long as the fertility can keep up, crops can achieve three crops a year.
Cao Mi’s grandmother is from the south. She once mentioned to Cao Mi that in her hometown, it does not snow at all in winter. People sow seeds around Qingming and harvest rice in summer. After the spring rice is harvested, the second round of planting is carried out immediately, and the second crop of this year can be harvested in late autumn.
In winter, the weather turns cold, and it is the right season to plant wheat. Winter wheat will survive the whole winter and will mature before the next year’s Qingming Festival.
The land in the south is like this, with the Qingming Festival as the boundary, the beautiful rotation of three crops a year is realized.
“North Temple, do you know the south?” Cao Mi suddenly asked, “Those places where food can be harvested three times a year.”
Beisi was stunned for a while, and asked, “Is that area in Lizhou?”
Lizhou is the southernmost area of the Sheng Dynasty.
Cao Mi nodded: “Almost, there shouldn’t be much snow at the southern end of Lizhou, right? How about a little further south?”
“Is it further south… South of Lizhou, it is the territory of the southern indigenous people.” Beisi explained: “There are many miasma poisonous insects in that area, and ordinary people cannot set foot there.”
When Cao Mi heard this, he knocked on the table unconsciously: “Well, I’ve heard of it too.”
She nodded thoughtfully, and when she came back to her senses, she saw that Bei Si was still standing in confusion, and smiled and said, “Well, I see.
“You have done a good job this year. After the autumn harvest is over, as in previous years, kill a few pigs to let everyone rest for a while.
“If you don’t have anything else to do, you can go back. I’ll send a letter to you again.”
Beisi nodded, bowed and left.
Cao Mi temporarily put the affairs aside, and asked someone to pick up the three children for a meal together.
As soon as Qi Ran saw her, she naturally asked for cake again.
Cao Mi picked him up and said, “I haven’t had any cakes in the past few days, but the villa has brought a new thing that I can ask you to try.”
Hearing this, Qi Ran still had a disappointed expression on his face.
He murmured, “Something new? Is it delicious?”
Cao Mi smiled: “Then see if it suits your taste.”
Soon, the steamed sweet potatoes were brought up.
Cao Mi asked the maid next to him to help break up the sweet potatoes, but the three children were not allowed to eat them directly.
The temperature inside the sweet potato is extremely high, and it is easy to burn.
Qi Ran had no interest in this kind of thing at first, but after smelling it, she couldn’t help it, and kept asking, “Mother, are you all right?”
Cao Mi shook his head and stopped him: “It’s very hot, wait a little longer.”
Qi Rui sat next to him, tilted his head and studied for a long time, then asked, “Mother, what is this?”
Cao Mi smiled and said, “It’s called ‘sweet potato’.
“Didn’t my mother help people collect some strange crops before? This is what the people in Danba found. I planted some in the villa, but I found that they were edible, so I asked the villa to plant some. I brought some over here for you to taste together.”
Qi Rui nodded.
Qi An also widened his eyes: “It’s strange, it smells so sweet…”
Cao Mi smiled: “Yeah, it tastes sweet too.”
Speaking of this, she glanced at Qi Ran meaningfully, and said, “It’s even better than cake!”
“Really?” Qi Ran turned to look at her.
Cao Mi coughed and didn’t answer directly, but changed the subject and said: “Cough, this, not only can it be steamed and eaten, but it can also be made into dried sweet potatoes, sweet potato flour and other things, there are more patterns than cakes. .”
Of course, these things, she has roughly given ideas, let the kitchen go to study.
In short, there are many ways to eat sweet potatoes, just waiting for the chefs of the palace to develop them little by little.
Qi Ran took a sip of saliva and shouted directly, “I want to eat it.”
Cao Mi smiled and pinched his fat face, nodded and said, “In that time, don’t worry about the cake, and try this with your mother, okay?”
Sweet potatoes are natural crops, although you can’t eat more, but they are definitely healthier than cakes.
At this point, the sweet potatoes on the side were almost cooled. Cao Mi asked the maid to bring things over, and gave each of the three children a small spoon so that they could scoop and eat.
Qi Ran couldn’t wait for a long time, and directly stuffed a big mouth into his mouth.
Cao Mi couldn’t help but rejoice that he had foresight. At this time, the temperature of the sweet potatoes had dropped, otherwise he would have been scalded and jumped up.
Unaware of Cao Mi’s thoughts, he chewed it, and then swallowed all the sweet potatoes in his mouth.
After the sweet potato is steamed, it is soft and soft, and it has a melt-in-your-mouth feeling. After swallowing, there is only a mouthful of sweetness left.
Little Fatty’s eyes widened and he shouted, “Delicious!”
The author has something to say: Thanks to the little angel who threw the grenade: Mu Yue and Yun Zuo 1;
Thanks to the little angels who threw the mines: Mu Yue, Mo Yuan 2; Yun Zuo, Blizzard, Rou Rou 1;
Thanks to the little angel who irrigated the nutrient solution: the name is hard to get, Mr. Mao 10 bottles; cjl 5 bottles; 19856408, Zhanzhan, Shen 1 bottle;
Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!