After the Fairy Disappeared

  Chapter 264 Boiled noodles as a delicacy

  Wu Qing choked: "Grandma, how dare I?"

"For so many years, Hong Lang didn't say anything, but I know that he misses the days when he commanded thousands of troops. Finally, he wants to swim in the sea again." A Jin exhaled, "I have dragged him down for long enough, You can't do it over and over again. If you refuse to give it, I will look for you every day."

  Wu Qing wandered around in the same place for a long time, but was finally helpless: "Okay, okay, I'll get it, don't tell me you missed it."

  ￥￥￥￥￥￥

  When the food **** team arrived at Xinhuang, the setting sun was already falling on the top of the mountain, and it was about to sink in a blink of an eye.

  The timing was just right.

  Xinhuang is just a small town with a thousand people. Hundreds of food trucks drove in mightily, filling up the open space in the west of the town. The guards led by the company servants were more numerous than the townspeople.

  The convoy has been on the road for a whole day, and the people and horses are tired. When they stop, they have to eat, drink and rest. The whole town is very busy.

  The reception capacity of the small place is limited, so the news that the food delivery team is coming is actually delivered more than ten hours in advance, so that the townspeople can prepare early. In this way, the manger can be filled with clean water, the fodder for cattle and horses can be removed in advance and the staff can have hot food to eat.

   When you are tired and hungry, there is nothing more soothing than a hot meal. Although what the servants received was nothing more than coarse grain steamed buns, at least they were steamed hot and could be dipped in bean paste.

  Soldiers can get more stewed beans, and some even get pickled cabbage, which they eat together with steamed buns.

  He Chunhua and his son, dressed in plain clothes, got off their horses and handed over the mounts to the soldiers to serve them. He Lingchuan only wore ordinary armor.

  Although Xinhuang has received food transportation teams many times, its ability is limited after all. When He Chunhua inspected the soldiers to eat, it was common for people to fall on their backs and the supply could not be met.

  The only thing that made him gratified was that the military doctor executed the orders well, and the food and water for humans and animals had been tested for poison and there was no abnormality.

  In fact, the army has the strength to be close to them, and their resistance to common poisons is greatly increased. The only people who are prone to bad luck are slaves and livestock. He Chunhua was careful, fearing that the enemy would suffocate him in secret, he tirelessly asked for a poison test, otherwise the enemy would put some croton powder in the drinking water, and humans and animals would be killed along the way?

  Walking around the camp for a couple of times, He Lingchuan yelled out against his belly: "Father, it's our turn to eat." People are like iron and rice, and if you don't eat, you will be hungry.

   On the contrary, the medicine ape has no burden to eat corn bread, and the rock wolf also has its own ration, and no one can lose it. I only found out on the road in He Lingchuan that it can also eat apples and miscellaneous grains!

  He Chunhua pointed to the wotou and said, "Two?"

"I've eaten this stuff all the way, haven't I had enough?" He Lingchuan rolled his eyes, "Dad, don't you want to understand the people's sentiments? If you can understand a P while you are in the army, then you have to go to the town and eat it Look around."

  He Chunhua smiled helplessly: "All right."

   At this moment, the county magistrate came to invite the chiefs of the grain **** team, saying that he had reserved a table at the restaurant in the town and wanted to welcome the chiefs.

  Xinhuang belongs to Baiyun County, and the county government is not here, but the arrival of the grain transportation team is the top priority, so the county magistrate rushed over.

  He Chunhua made a simple trip to the north, wanting to inspect the people's sentiments, and kept quiet to the outside world, so the nominally highest officer of the food security team was Mo Zhe Jingxuan, who was his former staff member, and now Xiazhou Biejia is in charge.

  Invited by the county magistrate, Mo Zhe Jingxuan happily went. There is nothing delicious in this small place, but the meat dishes should be enough to entertain distinguished guests. He can eat and drink in restaurants, but He Chunhua has to solve his own dinner problem.

  The father and son quietly left the camp without the two monsters, followed by Mao Tao, Shan Youjun and Jiao Tai.

  This town is very small. There are no more than two hundred houses, sheds, and shops in total. The main street is only a hundred meters away. You can go shopping in a few steps, and there is a lot of dust, and the houses are all gray and unsophisticated.

  There is only one restaurant in the town, and it was used by the county magistrate to treat Mo Zhe Jingxuan, so the father and son didn't want to go there.

   A few people walked around and found that there were not many shops and pedestrians, but there were people queuing up as soon as they got to the well. Seeing his father's serious face, He Lingchuan asked him, "What's wrong?"

   "It's pitch black, and few households light their lamps." Lamp oil and candles have to be bought, so how can the poor be willing? However, people in Dunyu don't turn off their lights until at least after dinner time. The people here probably have to eat early and go to bed after dark.

   "People here are too poor."

  He Chunhua sighed, with a worried expression on his face: "The further north you go, the worse it will be."

  On this trip, he realized that Dunyu's wealth is dozens of times that of other places! The farther north you go, the poorer the people, the fewer households, the more desolate the fields, the more chaotic the government, and the worse the people's livelihood.

  He has seen poor people selling their children and daughters in the market, boasting to everyone they meet that their children eat less and work more, and keep begging the other party to buy them back. The whole family was skinny, and the child was expressionless when he was sold.

  He even heard from the people that the army "killed the good and pretended to be meritorious". All kinds of chaos and failures are simply shocking.

  Poverty leads to chaos.

   Without a doubt, he still has a long way to go if he wants to govern Xiazhou well.

   "Father, you can worry about the country and the people after you are full." He Lingchuan pointed forward, "How is this place?"

  A restaurant in front of the restaurant has lights, and the smell of rice wafts out.

  There are three horses tied outside.

  He Chunhua felt his belly growling: "Go in."

  Open the windshield curtain and go in. Everyone sees that the restaurant is simple and shabby, with worn-out tables and chairs. Fortunately, the place is quite large, and it can accommodate seven or eight square tables. There is also a table of guests eating.

  The five people were seated, and Mao Tao shouted: "Shopkeeper, get some food!"

  The storekeeper looked bitter: "There are only sour powder and Zamian steamed buns."

  He Lingchuan saw that the people at the front and back tables were sucking powder, and he swallowed his saliva: "Everyone come, come, add ingredients if you have ingredients!"

   Almost all of them were ready-made, and after about half a stick of incense, five large bowls were placed in front of everyone.

   This bowl of sour powder is nothing more than three things: coarse powder, pickled cabbage, and roasted peanuts.

  Mung beans are grown locally, so this is soybean flour. The cabbage that has been marinated for half a winter is already sour enough, and it is just right for mixing with flour, and there is no need for such a rare thing as vinegar.

  As for the peanuts, simply toast them on the fire, don’t think about frying them so extravagantly. The whole bowl of sour powder does not have a trace of meat, not even oily flowers.

  Everyone was starving, and it felt quite refreshing to take such a bite with chopsticks.

  Mao Tao looked at other tables, and asked for a few heads of garlic. Everyone took a sip of noodles and gnawed a mouthful of garlic, which was sour, spicy and rushing.

   Work hard!

  Here also provides boiled slice soup, that is, white boiled noodles, also add two pickled cabbage, a few beans, and a plate of bean paste, which can be dipped in mixed noodles and steamed buns.

  Because there was no meat, He Lingchuan felt empty after eating a large bowl of sour powder, so he ordered two bowls of boiled sliced ​​soup and four large steamed buns.

  Although the price is cheap, it is not like what locals can afford.

  He Chunhua asked the shopkeeper while eating: "Can you usually have business?"

  The shopkeeper waved his hand: "You can't make money, you can't make money!"

  Mao Tao interjected: "This is the only way from north to south. I think there are still some caravans coming and going. It's better than those villages in the interior."

  The store owner looked disgusted: "The tax and rent are so high, the money is earned by others, and the government earns it!"

  He Chunhua asked: "How much tax and rent do I have to pay?" Taxes and rent cannot be bypassed by opening a store.

   "I earn ten copper coins, and I have to hand over eight. What do you think I can earn?" The shopkeeper laughed at himself while stirring the soup, "It's just barely making ends meet, so I don't have to sell my daughter."

The customer eating noodles next to him suddenly answered: "Don't listen to his complaints, others can't open this store. Today a large group of people came here, and the water trucks in the whole town were used there, so we have no water to use. Look There is a queue at every well. As for him, there is a well behind him, but others don’t come to fight for it.”

  Since selling fans can earn me some money for food, why don’t others sell them?

  He Lingchuan wanted to laugh, but couldn't.

  There were three guests at that table, all dressed as merchants. He Chunhua asked them: "What business do you guys do?"

   "cloth, lamp oil, etc., and bring some local products to sell on the return journey."

   are must-sell items. "How is business?"

  The three of them sighed: "Not good, not good, 40% less than in previous years, and I won't come next year."

  They looked at He Chunhua and others, and asked, "Are you also officers and soldiers?"

  He Chunhua denied it outright: "We are going north, and we will follow behind the officers and soldiers for safety."

   "What's in the north?"

  He Chunhua said casually: "I want to collect some candy."

  The shopkeeper interrupted after hearing the words: "It's useless to go, and you won't receive any good ones."

"How to say?"

"About 30 to 40 years ago, Xinhuang Town was rich in brown sugar, and the whole Xiazhou was famous. Beets were planted around the town. When you come out, people from all over the world are scrambling for it, and you can sell it all the way to Dunyu."

  He Chunhua snorted: "We walked all the way, but we didn't see any beet fields."

"That's gone long ago. Most of Xiazhou now uses sugar from the Northern Demon Kingdom, brown sugar. It is said that this is one of the conditions agreed between Da Yuan and the Northern Demon Kingdom. We must buy hundreds of thousands of catties from there every year." Sugar, hey!"

  He Lingchuan said: "I have eaten it, and it tastes good and lasts longer."

   Young Master He has never tasted any brown sugar at all. Whether in Shihuan or Dunyu, all the dim sum he ate was made of brown sugar; in Heishui City, he ate local sugar.

"Yes, brown sugar is not expensive. After that, the brown sugar in Xinhuang Town could not be sold. Gradually, no one made sugar. Everyone changed to planting grain, but the land was not very productive. Good food."

  The businessman next to him answered: "You don't even know how powerful the northern demon country is. They can produce tens of millions of catties of sugar every year!"

  The shopkeeper was angry: "It's so hateful!"

   At this moment, Shan Youjun slapped He Lingchuan again, with a moderate voice: "Hey, I'm full, I'm going to find a place to shit, can you go?"

  He has never been so disrespectful, He Lingchuan blinked: "Let's go."

  (end of this chapter)