North and South groceries

Si Niang and the others brought these bunches of grapes back from the aunt. When they were enjoying the cool in the yard after dinner that day, everyone ate a small half of it, and tied the rest with ropes and hung them in the well.

Master Zhao came to class the next day, and when he returned at noon, he asked him to bring back two skewers, and the remaining ones were taken out to eat in the evening, and they were no longer as fresh as the day before.

In the next few days, there was no fruit at home. The peaches and plums were out of season, and the persimmons, dates and pears hadn't come down yet. There were grapes, but they were too expensive.

Si Niang and the others don't have much money in their hands, and they can't spend it as generously as the aunt. Someone picked grapes and sold them. Si Niang looked at the goods and asked the price. After all, they didn't buy them. It's not as good as their elder sister bought Well, the price is more expensive than what my sister bought, so I won't buy it.

Wulang and Liulang brought back snacks from the school, nothing more than some preserved candies.

These two are adapting well in school now, the main reason is that Wulang is relatively popular, and Liulang basically can't suffer much if he is under his cover.

That kid Liu Lang looks refined and a bit timid. In the eyes of outsiders, he may be a bit of a bitch, but after entering school this time, Luo Yong found that Liu Lang's personality is actually quite strong.

The little guy is quite serious about his studies. After returning home from school every day, no one talks about him, but he can finish the homework assigned by his husband seriously, which is very rare at such a young age.

When they were young, they chattered at home all day, just like little chicks. Now that they are older, they gradually reveal their own personalities.

Children always grow up very quickly, and within a few years, they will all grow up and have their own lives.

"The Mid-Autumn Festival will be in a few days, what do you all want to eat?" During breakfast that day, Luo Yong asked the family.

"I want to eat grapes!" Qiniang's girl was the first to say it. In fact, what she wanted to eat most was cold melons, but my sister said that cold melons are out of season, and they won't be available until next year, but grapes haven't been out yet. Ji, it's just that the price is too expensive, and Si Niang is always unwilling to buy it for her.

"I want canned food!" Siniang also said.

"What else?" Luo Yong asked again.

"Dumplings." Goro said.

"What does Liu Lang want to eat?" Luo Yong asked Liu Lang when he saw that he was hesitant to speak.

"Pancake Guozi." Liu Lang said.

Luo Yong laughed as soon as he heard it. What kind of pancakes do you eat during the festival, so he said to him: "We don't eat that during the Mid-Autumn Festival. If you like it, I will make it with you tomorrow."

Several children were very happy when they heard that there would be pancakes tomorrow.

Luo Yong asked A Zhiheng and Qiao Junlin if they had anything they wanted to eat, and they all said no.As for Hou Lin, on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival, he will go out with others to enjoy the moon and drink.

A colleague at Taixue also invited Luo Yong to go out for a drink, but he pushed him away. They are not very close friends, so why not have a drink together during the festival.

In the next few days, Luo Yong started to prepare for the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet at home. For such a big festival, it is necessary to buy a chicken. This can be bought in advance and kept in the yard, so as not to be unable to find a suitable one temporarily.

Mutton must also be ordered in advance. After autumn, the price of mutton in Chang'an City will become very high. They all want to keep long cashmere, and it will be winter in a few months. Be willing to slaughter sheep, resulting in high mutton prices.

As for the wishes of the children in the family, they must be satisfied unconditionally. Dumplings and grapes are easy to handle. Say hello to Aunt Luo in advance and ask her to bring them over there. On the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Aunt Luo will definitely come over for dinner.

It's the canned food. It's the big festival. Luo Yong wanted to get something for the children in the family that they don't usually eat. Canned peach meat and canned pears are sold at sister's food shop, and they are not fresh. Luo Yong thought I wondered whether to go to the Wang family to buy two canned oranges, but this year's new cans must have not been shipped, and I don't know if there are any old cans from last year.

Luo Yong didn't find time to go to the Wang family's shop, but they found it by themselves, and brought him some canned food from the south.

These cans are very big, each of them is as big as a wine-making jar, and it is estimated that they can hold at least 30 catties. Adding the weight of the jar, it will be about [-] catties or more.

"But this year's canned oranges came out?" Luo Yong guessed.

Calculating the time, it is not too early, this season is almost the time when the oranges are ripe, it will take a month to make cans and then transport them to Chang'an City.

"This time it's not canned oranges." The elder of the Wang family smiled all over his face, "Sanlang is well-informed, so he should know about this."

"What is this?" Luo Yong was surprised when he heard it.

"Litchi." The man said solemnly with a smile on his face.

litchi! ! ?

Luo Yong opened his eyes wide!

It is still the early Tang Dynasty, and there are still hundreds of years before Yang Guifei's era when "a concubine riding in the world of mortals laughs, no one knows that it is litchi". Even after a hundred years, not everyone knows litchi, let alone the early Tang Dynasty. At this moment.

This Wang family is also vigorous enough. At this time in the 12th year of Zhenguan, they even produced canned lychees!

"Sanlang really knows about this thing!" Seeing that Luo Yong knew litchi, the visitor was even more happy.

"Lingnan is far away, and these canned foods are hard to come by." The so-called Lingnan refers to the south of the Nanling, that is, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan and other places in later generations. For many people nowadays, it is very far away and wild. The place.

"It's really hard to come by, please Saburo to taste it carefully." The man cupped his hands at Luo.

Their Wang family did a lot of business in the past, but after all, it was just an ordinary merchant selling silk rice, and they could still rank well in Lishi. How many people knew about their Lishi Wang family when they came out.

The situation is quite different now. The canned food business in the past two years has not only earned a lot of money, but in Chang'an City, almost everyone knows that there is a Wang family who sells canned food in Lishi. Or ordinary people, speaking of it, most of them know about it.

Their Wang family was able to open up the situation today, naturally they have to thank Luo Yong, he was the one who brought a few cans to the Wang family to discuss cooperation, and gave them a great opportunity.

After all, their Wang family still has some good men who dare to fight and break through, and now they have brought back a batch of canned lychees from Lingnan. As the elder of the Wang family, he is naturally very proud.

Sending off the Wang family, Luo Yong was also emotional in his heart.

A few days ago, he talked about the concept of logistics with Wang Dang and others, and Wang Dang led his group of brothers without hesitation to come up with a Dingda Express.In the past two years, he cooperated with Wang Huaijin in canning production and taught him the technique of canning. Now the Wang family has opened a canning workshop to Lingnan.Tang Ren's hard work and aggressiveness far exceeded his imagination.

A few days ago, Luo Yong saw some content about livestock breeding in Qimin Yaoshu, and there was a paragraph about the domestication and management of horses. The book said that the black sheep must be eliminated.

When Luo Yong saw this passage, he felt a little complicated.What are black sheep are naturally those free-spirited, rebellious horses.

This is true of horses, so why not human beings.It's just that people at this time in the early Tang Dynasty probably haven't been completely domesticated.

People like Wang Dang, those from the Zhao family, and the Wang family who dared to go to Lingnan to open a canning workshop, etc. If they were replaced by horses, these horses were probably still in a semi-wild state.

Unable to wait for the Mid-Autumn Festival, Luo Yongdang even opened a can of lychees.

Probably in order to avoid air leakage due to bumping, a layer of mud was sealed outside the can.

Knock off the mud seal, wipe the canning bottle clean with a cloth towel, then pry the bottle cap with a knife, and there is a soft bang, and soon, a faint scent of lychee spreads in the room.

"Brother, what is this?" None of the children in the family had eaten lychees, and when they smelled the smell of lychees for the first time, they couldn't help but salivate.

"Brother, is this canned food delicious?" Si Niang has already quickly brought out the pottery bowl and spoon and placed it on the table.

"Who knows." Luo Yong said with a smile, he has never eaten lychees in this life.

Hou Lin, Qiao Junlin were all in his room, and they all came over at this time. Azhi was in the courtyard, and he was thinking whether he should avoid it, but she didn't move, so Luo Yong called her to hurry up. Used to eat canned.

That kid Hengzhi is also a lucky guy, he doesn't see anyone on weekdays, but he is at home today, so he naturally got a bowl of canned lychees.

It was the first time for the children in Luo's family to eat lychees, and they all ate lychees, wanting more after eating, but Luo Yong didn't stop them, and made another bowl for them.

After Hou Lin and the others finished eating a bowl, they didn't want any more. Since the lychees were produced in Lingnan, they were canned there, and they hired porters to bring them to Chang'an City one by one. It is conceivable how precious they are.

And look at those children in the Luo family who eat without lifting their heads...

Forget it, the elder brother can afford it, what else can others say, besides, they still eat the canned food they use.

"I heard that Lingnan Road is steep, so it's not easy to carry the burden." After eating the sweet and delicious canned food, the school secretary waiting couldn't help but sigh again.

"As long as there are people in Chang'an City who want to eat canned food, there will always be people who will build roads in the future." Luo Yong said with a smile.For those southerners, the production of canned fruit may not be an opportunity for development.

Those gentry always said that the people were suffering, and advised the king to lighten corvees and taxes.

It is true to lighten corvees and lighten taxes, but it often does not change the living conditions of most people. Only development is the fundamental solution to this problem.The people living in the Central Plains, even if the taxes and corvee were slightly heavier, would probably still live better than the people in the barren lands.

In a place like Lingnan, there is no question of how much tax there is throughout the year, whether it is collected or not, but do the people in Lingnan live well?

In those places where the sky is high and the emperor is far away, no one knows how many corrupt officials and bandits will be born.People at the time said that Lingnan people were barbaric and vicious. If they weren't barbaric and vicious enough, how could they survive in such an environment.

"Do you have any plans for the Mid-Autumn Festival?" Luo Yong asked Qiao Junlin.

"No." Qiao Junlin finished eating the canned food at this time, and was fiddling with the spoon in the clay bowl.

"Then you can come and help me. I'm going to hold a buffet dinner at the Ma's guest house that day." Luo Yong said with a smile.

These few canned lychees can't be eaten for nothing, and they need to help with some publicity. Besides, Luo Yong was originally planning to promote a few more spicy dishes, so he took this opportunity to go together.

"You guys will go over there to eat at that time."

"Ow!!!"

The author has something to say:

I saw a tube in the comment area saying that ancient watermelons had more white flesh and less red flesh, and had septal petals.

I searched on the Internet, and the reason for this view seems to be because of a painter named Giovanni Stanchi in the seventeenth century, and several of his oil paintings.

Because of a few oil paintings, it is too hasty to assume that watermelons have grown like that in the past thousands of years. Besides, this artist was born in the seventeenth century, which is not a few hundred years away from now, and the history of watermelon planting began in ancient Egypt. It has been four 5000 years.

I think his watermelon is just not ripe, or it may be that there are too few sunny days in their place, and the watermelon does not grow well.The watermelon that is not fully ripe is basically what he drew, and it is similar even now. I posted a picture on Weibo, and those who are interested can go and have a look.

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In addition, I searched for some ancient Chinese poems describing watermelons, let's judge for ourselves.

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Southern Song Dynasty/Fan Chengda: "Eating Watermelon": "The spit on the jasper on the long flowered shirt, the red blood on the scars pinches the skin red. The fragrant smile speaks to the teeth and water, and the wind blows into the breast bone of the clothes"

Ming Dynasty/Zhai You: "Red Flesh Melon": "The Green Gate Green Jade House was harvested, and the scarlet blood was skillfully poured into the center, forming the three dangerous dews of the sun, and pouring out the nine brewing clouds."

Early Qing Dynasty/Chen Weisong: "Dongxian Song·Watermelon": "The tender flesh is cool, and the red ice is congealing. The blue saliva and the rosy cream are fighting Fangjie. Next to the silver bed, it affects the cold spring of a hundred feet. The misty color reflects the coldness of the jade pot thorough."

Qing Dynasty/Xu Jinhua: "Ode to Watermelon Poem": "The crystal ball has light smoky green, and the emerald cage contains cold flame red"