Rebirth: Don't Be the Best

After Zhang Shu and Li Mujin came back, they saw his grandma was washing the autumn potatoes and talking about something.

"Grandma, what are you muttering all by yourself?"

"It's nothing, just calculate how much firewood is left in the house, it will be a waste of firewood to cook all these."

"Grandma, don't worry, this time it doesn't need much firewood. Don't wash it yet, I'll get some hot water to mix it in, so as not to freeze your hands."

"No need! The water brought up from the well is still steaming, so we need to mix it with hot water. You and Jin'er have been tired all morning, go and rest first, I can wash these things by myself."

Of course, Zhang Shu and Li Muzhen couldn't watch Grandma Zhang wash off all these things by herself. Li Muzhen squatted down, took an autumn potato and started scrubbing. Underneath, one sits by itself.

Grandma Zhang looked at the two of them, and smiled with her mouth pursed. They, Shu, are considerate people. This is not something that can be seen by how much money they give you. You have to focus on some ordinary little things, and you can always think of these subtleties Yours is a good man!

The six baskets of autumn potatoes were not so easy to scrub and wash. Until Grandpa Zhang came back from the village, their autumn potatoes hadn't been washed yet.

"Grandpa, why did you go?" You weren't there all afternoon.

"This year's corvee has come down, and the village head called us old folks to discuss it."

In addition to the mandatory person tax, field mu tax and other taxes every year, they also have to perform corvee.When the imperial court was full of waste, corvee service was basically once a month, and the content was usually to build river embankments, dig mountains and pave roads, or build some houses that the government was responsible for.In the past few years, there hasn't been so much work done, which is a waste of money and people. This corvee has been stipulated, and it is enough to do it twice a year.

And these two times are not the same group of people, that is to say, if you serve in the summer, you don't have to go in the winter.The common people still have to farm to make ends meet, so the time of corvee labor is usually put in the slack time. After all, the land is the foundation of the court.

The Zhang family didn't have their turn in the summer batch, and the winter batch couldn't escape.In fact, the current imperial court is quite lenient to the people. The imperial court stipulates that if there are males in the family, one must serve in the military service, but those over 55 and under 16 years old may not be included in this rank.

When Zhang Shu was young, his parents passed away, and the old and the young in the family naturally didn't have to serve in the military.

"What is this year's corvee?"

"Let everyone go to the river to repair the embankment. It will take ten days in total. It is said that there has been a lot of rain in the past two years. I am afraid that the river will rise too fast, so the river embankment must be built higher. This is also a good thing."

"Then this year's corvee can still be redeemed with money?"

"Yes, two taels of silver per person." Two taels of silver can be redeemed for ten days, which is almost 150 Wen for one day.The imperial court set the money so high, which means that they don't want everyone to use money to redeem corvee, otherwise who would work?

Ordinary people can only earn the money for one day's redemption after several days, so naturally they will not spend two taels of silver for this mere ten days.

But Zhang Shu has to spend it, because he is preparing to start a business, and this business can't do without him. If the ten days are wasted, it will definitely affect his plan.

With the participation of Grandpa Zhang, the autumn potatoes were finally washed before dark. The family had bent over for so long, and they almost couldn't straighten up.

Naturally, dinner was a makeshift one. After washing up and laying down on the soft bed, everyone sighed comfortably.

Zhang Shu put his arms around Li Mujin, and whispered privately, "If this business can be done well, we have to hire some helpers, so we can't make you and grandma so tired."

"I'm not afraid of being tired. I'm afraid of hardships and tiredness when I'm young, but can I enjoy the blessings when I'm old? But grandparents really can't be so tired. I think their waists can't bear it."

"Well, it depends on whether this can be done."

……

The autumn potatoes had to be cut into pieces first, and then put into the mill to grind them into a paste. Li Mujin took a large wooden basin, and put a small cutting board inside, put a few autumn potatoes in, and chopped them with two knives. .

It doesn't matter if the cut piece is bigger or smaller, anyway, it has to be taken out for grinding.

There is a stone mill at home, but it has not been used for a long time.Grandma Zhang quickly poured a few scoops of water to scrub, and soon the stone mill was clean.She put the cut pieces in buckets and put them into the stone mill bit by bit.

Grandpa Zhang drove the family's cows round and round to pull the mill. In fact, donkeys are good for pulling the mill. However, they don't produce donkeys here. Someone shipped a few donkeys to sell the year before last, and they were basically sold by the county. People who come to the tofu shop in the village or town buy it. A donkey can save a lot of effort!

There are tools for making tofu in the village. Zhang Shu borrowed gauze and poles, and then washed out several large vats, put the cloth on the poles, hung them on the vats, and poured the ground paste on the cloth. After adding a ladle of water and shaking it a few times, white water seeped out from the gauze and flowed into the vat.

After repeating this several times, when the outflowing water has no more white pulp, it can be poured aside and replaced with another bucket.

Several people worked together, and Zhang Shu and Li Mujin changed jobs from time to time. In a day's work, three large vats of powder were washed out.Of course, this is not considered ready yet. It is not considered as powder until all the powder has settled at the bottom to form a lump, and then the water on top is scooped out and poured out.

Use a large spatula to dig out the powder at the bottom of the tank, then add alum and hot water to stir it into a slightly transparent paste, boil the large pot, put a colander on it, scoop a spoonful of the paste and pour it down, and the long vermicelli will be It slipped from the hole of the colander into the pot, and it was taken out after a while, and it was put on the bamboo plaque outside to dry, and then it was made into vermicelli.

These autumn potatoes contain a lot of flour, so about three catties of autumn potatoes can produce one catty of starch, and one catty of starch can produce one catty of vermicelli.

After working hard for two or three days, they made a total of 26 catties of dried vermicelli.

One catty of dry vermicelli soaked can make about seven to eight bowls of hot and sour vermicelli. Zhang Shu decided to make seven bowls, so that basically those ordinary laborers can be full with a bowl of hot and sour vermicelli and a steamed bun.In this way, they can also sell steamed buns along the way, which is also an income.

Then there is the seasoning for cooking hot and sour vermicelli, crushed peanuts and fried with spicy peppers, then cut some sauerkraut into it, put two or three slices of Chinese cabbage in each bowl, pour a spoonful of soup, sprinkle some green onion or The coriander is all alive.

The soup is boiled with broken bones, and it costs about six to seven yuan at a time.

Calculated in this way, the cost price of a bowl of hot and sour vermicelli is about one and a half pennies. Zhang Shu decided to sell it for four pennies a bowl, which is a penny more expensive than noodles, and they would not be reluctant to eat it.

After all accounts were settled, Zhang Shu and Li Mujin took their guys out again the next day.They made an agreement with the second elder that if this one sold well today, they would collect more autumn potatoes and make vermicelli. The family paid for two people to help wash and cut the pieces, and then they would rent a room on the edge of the county. Yes, the province has to go back and forth every day.

As soon as it was dawn, the two had already seen the county seat. This time they set off earlier than last time, because the people working on the river had to eat early.

After entering the county town, they went straight to the river outside the city. The river was full of people, and there were countless people coming and going, some carrying baskets, some pushing canoes, and some in good clothes. There are also poorly dressed ones.

Most of the people in cotton shirts were merchants who came off the boats to find something to eat.Those who wear rough blue shirts are basically servants of rich families, and those who wear rough linen shirts with patches on them are the people who work here.Generally, gentlemen in silk and satin would not disembark to eat. They asked the servants to buy and carry them up. What's more, they went out with the cook directly, so they didn't have to go down to buy food at all.

This time it was outside the city, so it was not easy for the cattle to be tethered to Lin’s house, so Zhang Shu took the cattle to a yard by the river. The aspect is still very good, and the cows can be fed with hay, but it will cost a little more.

Naturally, Zhang Shu didn't have time to feed the cows, so he spent two pennies to post the cows here for a day. The owner gave him a wooden sign with a small rope tied to it, and Zhang Shu's name on it, so he let him go. Walk.In this way, you will not be afraid of losing the wooden sign and others will lead your cattle.

There are already many breakfast shops beside the river, some sell steamed buns with vegetarian stuffing, the ones cost a penny, some sell salted bean curd, a small bowl costs a penny, and some sell noodles, plain noodles cost three pennies, and meat ones cost five pennies , there is also a rice cake seller, not very big, with a lot of ingredients, and it costs two yuan a piece.

There are also some miscellaneous shops, the business is very prosperous, and there are quite a few families in each family.

As soon as Zhang Shu and Li Mujin set up the stall on the side, someone came over and said that they had to pay five cents a day for the stall fee, and they were in charge of watching the stall, so as to save themselves from being bullied later.

You have to pay this money if you don’t want to, as long as you still want to hang around here.However, seeing so many rich people buying food here, Zhang Shu temporarily decided that the price of this hot and sour vermicelli should be increased to five yuan a bowl.

Firstly, this is a novelty, secondly, people who are suffering in the cold weather here must earn more, thirdly, before they make any money, they spend seven cents, and if they sell cheap, they will lose money.Labor is also money, and they didn't count it.