Ten Capitals, Nine Observations, Eight Poles, Seven Yuans, Six Divisions, Five Elders Compete for Da

Chapter 41 I just starved to death, died outside, jumped from here...

"Could it be that this is Luo—"

Jiang Chen suddenly covered his mouth and remained silent.

Some things are better left unsaid.

Compared with those real big men, his own strength is too weak after all, even the scavengers have only digested one-third of their medicinal properties, and they have mastered two insignificant fates.

No matter what kind of intersection they have about the big events at the level of "Mother Wusheng" and "Overlord of Western Chu", the less they know, the safer and longer they will live.

Using Chen Buhung's philosophy of life when he knocked on melon seeds and spit out a lot of melon seed shells, "you should eat and drink, ignorance is a kind of happiness!"

"Whoo~"

Jiang Chen let out a sullen breath, determined to forget all the speculation just now, and concentrate on the immediate matter.

"We still have to increase our strength as soon as possible!"

"Becoming stronger is king!"

Jiang Chen took a few deep breaths, gradually regained his usual calmness, and walked slowly back to the civilian husband's camp.

Look up.

But he found that at the gate of the camp, the businessman Yi Qiu was standing and waiting at the gate, and Chen Buhung and Xiao Wu also looked like they had been waiting for a long time.

Seeing Jiang Chen's return, Yi Qiu immediately went up to meet him, and said loudly:

"Master Jiang, I'm finally waiting for you."

"What's the matter?"

Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows, and couldn't help guessing in his heart, could it be that Yi Qiu had finished negotiating with those big local households and was willing to cooperate with Zhengxi Army?
as predicted.

Yi Qiu pointed at the dozens of grain trucks in the civilian camp, and said respectfully:
"Master Jiang is a great benefactor of our people in Dongli to protect the environment and the people, but I heard that your army is in a hurry and the amount of grain and grass they carry is limited, so I took two thousand stones of wheat from Yi's warehouse and with the support of many local big families. Grain, as well as five hundred liters of wine, two hundred bolts of cotton cloth, fifty baskets of fruits and vegetables, and twenty altars of oil, are offered to your lord."

Jiang Chen was overjoyed, and praised in his heart:
"This Yiqiu is really smart, and the local big family behind it is not stupid. The first thing they did was to solve my urgent need."

The Western Expedition Army was ordered by the emperor, and the soldiers of Kyushu were divided into six groups to conquer the 36 countries in the Western Regions.

It was fine to search for some food and grass during the siege, but now most of the food has been burned in the flames of war, and the food shortage in the city is extreme. Forcibly expropriating a large amount of rations will inevitably lead to public resentment, endless troubles, and is not conducive to long-term rule.

And if they slaughter big households and search for food...

There are only a very small number of people in the city who can understand David's official language. Before "books with the same text, cars with the same track", the small and medium-sized landlord and merchant class represented by Yiqiu was an essential part of maintaining the system and had the value of the united front , cannot be killed.

Jiang Chen nodded secretly:

"Having food without a knife is always a good thing."

A thousand Qingzhou soldiers, even if they are not in a combat state, each eat no less than six catties of rice grains per day, and have to be rationed with two catties of meat and one catty of fruits and vegetables;
Most of the [-] peasants are responsible for the heavy labor of building granaries, which consumes a lot of energy, and their daily diet must not be less than four catties.

More than 2000 people need to consume hundreds of stones of food every day. The things that Chen Buhung worries about most every day are rice grains, meat, vegetables and fruits, and glutinous rice juice.

The rice has long been exhausted, and there is not much chestnut rice left. It can only be supplied to a few military officials. The civilians and ordinary soldiers can only save some rice and rice. It is really sad...

With the amount of grain sent by Yi Qiu and the local big family, it was enough for Zhang Longxiang's Qingzhou soldiers and many civilians to last until the next batch of grain and grass arrived.

There was a hint of joy on Jiang Chen's face, but Chen Buhung's face on the side curled his lips and said in disgust:
"Hey, it's all wheat rice. We folks don't like to eat this stuff, let alone those Qingzhou soldiers with eyes above their heads?"

Yi Qiu bowed slightly, with an apologetic look on his face:

"I'm really sorry, the city was first hit by war, and more than half of the food stored was burned. It is already the limit of the local big households to be able to come up with these surplus food."

In a word.

The landlord's house has no surplus food!
Xiao Wu's family is poor, and he said calmly:

"What about wheat rice? I have grown up eating wheat rice chaff since I was a child, and I am satisfied if I can have a full mouthful."

Hearing everyone's words, Jiang Chen was taken aback for a moment, and then recalled his recent life experience. He had always ate with the rich farmer Chen Buhung, and his three meals a day were chestnut rice, so he never noticed one thing——

In this world, due to the powerful military forces and the premature development of the south, high-yielding rice is prevalent, and wheat has not been widely promoted. Only in the colder Western Regions, on both sides of some rivers, there is a phenomenon of large-scale planting.

Therefore, flour has never been born so far!

Urban residents generally eat southern rice.

Wealthy farmers often eat corn.

Only the poorer farmers eat wheat rice, which is difficult to chew and swallow, and the taste is far inferior to that of rice chestnut.

And the poorest families even live on chaff.

The corners of Jiang Chen's mouth rose slightly. He grew up eating noodles, steamed buns, and meat buns. He had already learned how to make various kinds of pasta. He laughed loudly and said:

"Then eat the wheat. After the wheat is finely ground into powder with a stone mill, after a little cooking, it can be made delicious in the world.

I assure you, after a few days, even if the chestnut rice is delivered to your bowl, you will never want to eat half a mouthful. "

heard.

Both Xiao Wu and Chen Buxie looked strange, the wheat was crushed into powder...wheat flour soup?

What kind of weird way is this?
Even Yi Qiu couldn't help the corners of his mouth twitching, and kindly reminded:

"Master Jiang, wheat is far more cold-resistant than chestnut rice, and is suitable for the environment in the Western Regions. Therefore, Loulan has established three cities, Dongli, Guodu, and Xili, from east to west with the Kongque River as the center, and planted a large number of wheat seedlings in the fields along both sides of the river. , but we have eaten wheat rice for so many years, but we have never heard of the method of crushing it into powder?"

Jiang Chen said with a smile:

"Uncle Chen, Xiao Wu, shopkeeper Yi, I will make delicious food later, please be the first to taste it."

Chen Buhung pouted:

"I don't have any hobbies in this life, so I just try to eat and drink. I have a stomach that is used to eating chestnut rice and rice. Even if I die of starvation or poverty, I will never eat a grain of wheat or rice."

Jiang Chen didn't refute. He rubbed his hands together and asked for a bag of husked wheat grains, weighing about two catties. Knead into a large dough.

After standing for a few minutes, knead into fifteen small noodle cakes.

Jiang Chen smiled slightly, spread a little meat oil on the fifteen small doughs, and stuck them in the cauldron burning on low heat.

Soon.

The bread was baked until both sides were golden. Although the surface was slightly browned, the tangy aroma immediately made everyone present salivate.

"Is this wheat rice?"

"Can I eat it?"

"Why does this barley rice look like it's made of gold?"

Jiang Chen smiled and distributed fifteen sesame seed cakes to the three of them.

Chen Buhung curled his lips and turned his head to express that he would not eat.

Xiao Wu was the first to take the biscuits and took a big bite.

He was already prepared to be extremely unpalatable, and then he said "it's okay" against his will to save some face for the "boss", but the crunchy and delicious taste in his mouth immediately made Xiao Wu even have no time to talk , chewing on the delicious biscuits.

After a while, he ate a whole three big and round sesame seed cakes.

Yi Qiu saw that Xiao Wu didn't even have time to talk, frantically swirling the biscuits into his mouth like a vortex, he was also curious, squeezed the thing in his hand, couldn't help but took a bite, and said pleasantly:
"It's ten times better than wheat rice, and it's almost as good as rice in the south!"

Its novel, fragrant and crispy taste immediately moved Yi Qiu's index finger, and he couldn't help persuading:
"Brother Chen, why don't you try it too?"

Seeing that the two of them had eaten up the five pieces of "wheat rice" in their hands, Chen Buhung blushed, and secretly took a small bite of sesame seed cakes. The crispy taste made his eyes widen, and he couldn't help admiring:
"It's so fragrant!"

(End of this chapter)