The farm that Jiang Yanyi bought was not in a remote location, and he had it renovated after he bought it. Now it looks as good as new.
The couple in their fifties are responsible for cleaning the farm on weekdays.
Before leaving, Jiang Yanyi asked someone to pass a message and ask the maid on the farm to prepare the room.
By the time they got there, everything was in place.
Zhuangzi is surrounded by mountains and water. When you lift the curtain of the carriage and look out, all you can see is the fresh green of early spring. Farmers working in the fields will occasionally straighten up and look out for a while when they see a carriage passing by on the official road.
Children with pigtails followed the carriage curiously, making noises and laughing, full of life.
The carriage stopped in front of the farm, and the big dog tied at the gate immediately started barking. Mrs. Liu and her husband hurried out to greet them, "The boss is here."
Jiang Yanyi was in the same carriage as Madam An Shao. After she got off, she helped Madam An Shao. The dog was barking loudly and rushed forward with all its might. The leash around its neck could hardly hold it back. Madam An Shao protected her belly and dodged backward.
Seeing this, Jiang Yanyi took a half step forward to protect Madam An Shao, and said to the old man, "Uncle Liu, take the dog to the woodshed."
The old man quickly responded and took the barking dog away.
Chu Yangui, Chu Zhong and Duke Chen rode in a carriage together. Chu Zhong took the wheelchair down first, and then carried Chu Yangui down.
After entering the gate, there is no courtyard inside, but a long and quiet bluestone path. On both sides of the path, there are purple clouds. Upon closer inspection, I found that it is a patch of orchids. It is the season when orchids are in bloom, and the air is filled with an elegant orchid fragrance.
Duke Chen had seen many beautiful mountains and rivers before, and when he saw this secluded orchid path, he couldn't help but praise it: "It's a wonderful place."
The old woman who led the way said with a smile: "These orchids were planted by the owner when the manor was renovated."
In late winter and early spring, mountain orchids are not a rare sight in the countryside, but it took some effort to find this entire patch of them.
Madam An Shao smiled and said, "Yan Yi is a man of refined tastes, unlike me, who is a vulgar person. If I were really given a piece of land, I would not know how to prepare it."
Jiang Yanyi said, "Please don't tease me. I envy you for having such a leisurely life. General An has taken care of everything in and outside the mansion. There is no need for you to worry about anything."
A few people chatted and laughed as they walked along the orchid path.
At the end of the path is a crooked jujube tree with wisteria flowers entwined around it. The whole tree is wrapped in garlands of flowers, with thousands of purple flower spikes hanging down, forming a natural arch. The ground is also covered with a layer of lavender fallen flowers, making people reluctant to step on it.
When Jiang Yanyi passed by, he plucked a bunch of wisteria flowers, brought it to his nose and sniffed it, saying, "Pick some and make wisteria flower shortbread later, and send one to the Grand Empress Dowager and Grandmother."
When they got to the yard, Granny Liu took a teapot and made tea for them: "There's nothing good in the countryside, but the water for making tea is the spring water that the old man brought back from the mountain early in the morning. It's said that it makes tea taste better."
Jiang Yanyi and Madam An Shao knew little about the tea ceremony and drank a cup of tea purely to quench their thirst. Only Duke Chen squinted his eyes in satisfaction.
After drinking tea, Duke Chen and Chu Yangui set up the chessboard and started playing chess. Ever since he played a game of chess with Feng Shuo during the Chinese New Year, Chu Yangui has now devoted all his attention to chess.
There was still some time before noon, so Jiang Yanyi went to check on the peppers first. The peppers were well taken care of by Mrs. Chen and her husband, and had already been planted in the field.
To avoid any accidents, the several plots of land where peppers were planted were surrounded by fences made of thorn vines, and dogs were tied at the gates of the fences. If strangers approached the pepper fields, the big dogs would bark wildly.
Jiang Yanyi smiled and said to Chen Niangzi: "You are thoughtful."
"If you hadn't given me and Dalang such a good job, and borrowed money on credit to pay for my parents-in-law's medical treatment, our Chen family wouldn't be where we are today." Madam Chen also changed her way of addressing Jiang Yanyi. "Dalang and I are both rough people. We can only repay you for your kindness by taking good care of the pepper fields."
Jiang Yanyi knew that if she was asked to call him the same name as before, it might make Chen Niang uncomfortable, so she didn't dwell on the name and said, "Don't say that. We have known each other for a long time, and I treated your father and mother and prescribed medicine for them. How can I not have this little bit of affection?"
Madam Chen felt embarrassed by what Jiang Yanyi said, and she grinned, feeling even more grateful in her heart.
She learned that Jiang Yanyi wanted to catch snails in the fields. She was familiar with the area, so she took Jiang Yanyi to the nearby paddy fields.
There was a lot of silt in the fields. When you stepped on them and then lifted yourself up, the gray-black mud covered your calves.
Jiang Yanyi was wearing a light-colored floral skirt and couldn't go down to the fields to catch the snails herself, so she just stood on the shore and watched a few farmers called by Chen Niangzi help catch the snails.
After rinsing the snails in a bucket of clean water, Jiang Yanyi picked out the ones that were large, round and had thin shells. The difference in weight between the snails with more meat and those with less meat was very obvious when held in the hand.
While picking snails, Jiang Yanyi asked the farmers, "I see you have a lot of snails here. Have you taken them to the market to sell?"
A simple-looking man answered, "These are green snails grown in the lotus fields. They are at their plumpest after the Mid-Autumn Festival. At that time, many wealthy families in Xizhou City eat snails. But we are farmers, we don't have the means to buy them from restaurants, so we only carry a bucket of snails to sell on market days."
Jiang Yanyi asked: "How much is it?"
The man said, "What kind of meat can this thing have? It won't sell for more than a few copper coins. A good-looking live snail will only cost five cents per pound."
Farmers sell snails for five copper coins per pound, but if you buy snails from vendors at the market, it would cost at least eight copper coins.
Jiang Yanyi had an idea in mind and picked out half a bucket of snails. When he went back, Mrs. Chen wanted to ask a farmer to help deliver the snails to the farm, but she saw a skinny little girl following Jiang Yanyi lifting the wooden bucket with one hand, without any effort at all, so she took back the words that were on her lips.
Jiang Yanyi said to Chen Niangzi, "Before Qingming Festival, I will send people to the village to collect snails. The good ones are five copper coins per pound, and the inferior ones are four copper coins. Please send a message to the villagers."
When Mrs. Chen heard this, she was overjoyed: "Boss, you are not doing business, you are a living Bodhisattva!"
Farmers have few idle months, and April is doubly busy.
Farmers are busy with sowing seeds for the year. Even if they know that some people are collecting snails in March and transporting them to the city to sell, I am afraid that few people will have the time. But if Jiang Yanyi finds someone to collect them himself, the people in the village will definitely miss such a good opportunity to make money.
In the countryside, it is very difficult for people to earn a few coins except working hard in the fields.
When Jiang Yanyi returned to the farm, Mrs. Liu had already started a fire and was cooking in the kitchen. She took Huo Jianjia to take the snails over.
Mrs. An originally wanted to help in the kitchen, but she was suffering from severe morning sickness and could not stop dry heaving when she smelled the fishy smell of oil. Jiang Yanyi asked her to go to the yard and have a good rest.
"The snails in March this year are as big as those after the Mid-Autumn Festival in previous years. Do you plan to fry them?" Mrs. Liu glanced at the snails in the bucket and her face was almost wrinkled with laughter.
Jiang Yanyi added some salt to the bucket and said, "Spit out the sand for a day and do it tomorrow."
She turned around and saw the bacon washed by Mrs. Liu on the stove, and thought of the Chinese toon tree she saw on the way back: "This bacon will taste better when mixed with Chinese toon."
Mrs. Liu smiled and said, "There is a Chinese toon tree on the farm. I asked the old man to pick some. I will kill an old hen and make soup later. What do you think, boss?"
Jiang Yanyi said, "The lady who came with me had morning sickness and couldn't eat. So I killed a duck and cooked some duck soup with pickled radish."
"Okay." Mrs. Liu responded and went out.
Jiang Yanyi cut the washed bacon into palm-sized cubes, boiled it until chopsticks could easily pierce the pig skin, then took it out and let it cool a little before cutting it into slices of appropriate thickness.
This piece of bacon is half fat and half lean, the lean meat is dark red and the fat is light golden, which looks quite delicious.
After picking the Chinese toon, Mr. Liu went to help his wife prepare the duck meat.
If Chinese toon is used directly in cooking, it may contain trace amounts of toxins, so it needs to be blanched in water to remove the toxins.
Jiang Yanyi blanched the toon and cut it into small pieces. After the pan was hot, he put a small spoonful of sesame oil along the edge of the pan. He waited until the oil was hot before frying the bacon. The bottom of the pan was moistened with oil, so the bacon did not stick to the pan at all. After some of the fat was fried out, he poured the toon in and stir-fried it.
Chinese toon is very fragrant in itself, and after being fried in hot oil, the aroma will overflow into the kitchen.
Jiang Yanyi added some rice wine and a small spoonful of salt, stir-fried it evenly and then removed it from the pan. No other spices were used to avoid covering up the original aroma of the bacon and toon.
Mrs. Liu had already cleaned the duck. Under the guidance of Jiang Yanyi, Mrs. Liu blanched the duck to remove the blood, then added ginger, cooking wine, star anise, and cinnamon and stewed it for an hour before adding the chopped pickled radish. After boiling over high heat, turn to low heat and simmer for half an hour before serving.
During this period, several villagers who heard Chen Niangzi's words, some brought a basket of spring bamboo shoots, some caught an old hen, and some picked up a dozen eggs... They all came to the village to give gifts to Jiang Yanyi, thanking him profusely and asking when they would come to collect snails. After Jiang Yanyi gave them the OK, they left one after another.
Madam An Shao smiled and said, "I finally understand what my grandmother meant when she said that doing good deeds for business would bring good fortune."
Jiang Yanyi said: "Most of the good farmland in this village is used to grow lotus roots. If the roads were easier to navigate, we could use ox carts to pull the lotus roots to other places and sell them. That would also be a solution."
Due to transportation constraints, many things here can only be produced and sold locally.
Since we had spring bamboo shoots, we added a dish of braised spring bamboo shoots with meat to the lunch dish.
Mr. Su Dongpo, the "glutton", once wrote a doggerel for bamboo shoots stewed with pork: No bamboo makes people vulgar, no meat makes people thin, neither vulgar nor thin, bamboo shoots stewed with pork.
Since it has won such praise from Mr. Dongpo, this stewed pork with bamboo shoots must be a delicious dish.
The spring bamboo shoots are fresh and tender, but have a bitter taste. Jiang Yanyi blanchs them in water to remove the bitterness and then cuts them into slices. The pork, which is 70% lean and 30% fat, is cut into small pieces and blanched with ginger slices for later use.
Pour oil into the pot, add the meat first when the oil temperature comes up, stir-fry until it changes color, then add salt, onion, ginger, garlic, pepper, star anise, bay leaves, and a spoonful of cooking wine. The pot immediately makes a "sizzling" sound and steam comes out. Jiang Yanyi quickly stir-frys with a spatula.
When the aroma is fully integrated into the meat, add sugar and soy sauce, stir-fry until the sugar turns brown, add water and simmer for a quarter of an hour. When the meat is 70% cooked, add the spring bamboo shoots and continue to simmer for half a quarter of an hour to reduce the juice. After serving, not only the meat but also the bamboo shoots will be covered with a beautiful reddish-brown color.
When the meal started, Jiang Yanyi asked Mrs. An to drink a bowl of sour radish and old duck soup to whet her appetite. Mrs. An finally enjoyed the meal and did not vomit again.
Duke Chen's favorite dish was braised pork with spring bamboo shoots, and he asked Jiang Yanyi to cook this dish often when he returned home.
Chu Yangui was as silent as ever at the table, and basically only picked at the dish in front of him. Jiang Yanyi picked up two pieces of braised meat for him: "Yangui is in the growth period, so eat more."
After Chu Yangui's return, his height grew rapidly. His figure was still thin, but his shoulders and back were much broader than before. As his facial features opened up, the contours of his face became clearer, and he looked vaguely like an adult man.
His legs can no longer walk like a normal person, but he can still get out of bed with the help of crutches, and more often he uses a wheelchair.
When Jiang Yanyi was learning how to use the crossbow, he also learned a set of sword techniques from Chu Zhong. In his own words, he didn't expect to become famous with it, he just wanted to strengthen his body.
Jiang Yanyi was a little skeptical that he would get up after the rooster crowed three times and use a wheelchair to practice swordplay just to strengthen his body.
There is only so much she can do for Chu Yangui. She has already given him all the advice he needs in a roundabout way. Jiang Yanyi cannot influence what path he will take in the future.
***
Before going to sleep that night, Jiang Yan saw Madam An looking at the moon in the yard in a daze. Knowing that she was probably thinking about An Yongyuan, he joked, "We've only been apart for one day, and you're already missing each other by looking at the moon?"
Madam An smiled awkwardly: "No matter how busy the general was, he would always send someone to my yard to tell me to go to bed early and not wait for him. Sometimes he came back late, and because he was afraid of disturbing me, he would just come to my bedside to take a look, and then go to sleep on the soft couch outside..."
Jiang Yanyi felt somewhat yearning after hearing this, but he said, "Okay, I wanted to keep you for ten days or half a month, but you've been missing me for only one day, so I'll send you back tomorrow."
Madam An Shao said with emotion: "I admire you from the bottom of my heart. You are a capable person. You can make a way for yourself in this life without relying on anyone. I am not very promising, so I only care about my family and myself."
Jiang Yanyi said: "You miss him so much, that person is worthy of your miss."
She rolled her eyes and suddenly asked, "Have you ever had an argument with General An?"
Mrs. Anshao nodded.
Jiang Yanyi asked curiously, "Did you lower yourself to coax him, or did he coax you?"
Mrs. An Shao didn't know what she was thinking of. Her face gradually turned red and her voice was as soft as a mosquito's hum: "All of them."
She knew that Jiang Yanyi and Feng Shuo were engaged, and thought that Jiang Yanyi might want to learn something from her. After hesitating for a moment, she said, "The general has a dull personality and doesn't talk much..."
Her face turned even redder, and she finally said, "Yanyi, you will marry the prince in the future, so just indulge him as much as possible in those matters. If a man gets the sweetness in those matters, he will indulge a woman in other things in return."
Jiang Yanyi was just curious at first, but she didn't expect Madam An to say such a thing, and her face turned red.
Madam An Shao said uncomfortably: "Yan Yi, I... I only tell you these things because I treat you as my own sister. It's really embarrassing."
Jiang Yanyi nodded quickly: "I know, I know."
Perhaps because the conversation before going to bed was too shocking, Jiang Yanyi had a beautiful dream for the first time that night.
In the dream, she was in the study room of Feng Mansion. Feng Shuo held her hand and taught her calligraphy as he did in the past. He was always frivolous in front of her and would secretly kiss her on the face.
She raised her head to look at him, but her chin was clamped again, forcing her head back to accept his kiss.
The pen, ink, paper and inkstone were all knocked over, and she was pressed down on the desk by him. The instigator kissed her neck, and picked up a pen and handed it to her, his voice low and hoarse: "Ayi, if your handwriting is not good, you will be punished."
The ending tone with a hint of smile was so seductive, like a hook that almost made her lose her soul.
Her hands were shaking so much that she could barely hold the brush, tears welled up in her eyes, but the corners of her eyes were an alluring red...
****
In the darkness, Feng Shuo suddenly opened his eyes. After a moment, his eyes adjusted to the light and he found himself in the Yuzhou military tent. After slowly exhaling a breath of foul air, his breathing was still a little heavy.
He stood up and washed his face casually with the cold water in the wooden basin, and only then did he suppress the lustful thoughts caused by the absurdity of the dream.
At that age when he was full of vigor and vitality and with someone in his heart, he had dreamed about Jiang Yanyi many times, but none of them could make him so moved.
Maybe he really missed her.
Feng Shuo was distracted for a moment as he looked at his reflection in the basin under the candlelight.
It was still early in the morning. When he walked out of the tent, the bonfire in the brazier was still burning, and there was only a streak of gray in the distant sky.
"Your Highness." The guards in front of the big tent clasped their fists respectfully towards him.
Feng Shuo said: "Bring the dark cloud here."
I can't fall asleep now, so I might as well go out on horseback and patrol the camp.
The Yuzhou garrison had just fought with the imperial heavy cavalry. After the casualties, only a few hundred people were left in Han Tuo's heavy cavalry, and they were unable to fight against the imperial heavy cavalry at all.
Chu Changping is good at commanding troops, but facing the heavy cavalry that is unstoppable in front of the formation, he feels somewhat helpless, as if "a good cook cannot cook without rice".
If Feng Shuo had not arrived in time with his troops and charged into the infantry phalanx behind the imperial army, causing the heavy cavalry to turn around, the gate of Yuzhou would have been captured.
Having just experienced a tough battle, Yuzhou was exhausted from inside to outside.
The soldiers who had just changed shifts had no time to return to their tents and fell asleep leaning against the wall.
The dark clouds were human-like, and the sound of horse hooves became quieter as they passed by the city wall.
Feng Shuo looked at this city that had just experienced war, and his eyes became silent.
Doctor Hu also followed the army south this time. He stayed up all night to boil medicine for the injured soldiers. He dozed off while watching the fire beside the stove because he was too tired. He woke up with his head tilted. When he saw Feng Shuo, he quickly stood up and bowed: "Greetings, Your Majesty."
Feng Shuo said: "No need to be polite."
He glanced at the wounded soldiers who were either sleeping or groaning in pain in the large bunk bed in the tent and asked, "What's the situation?"
Doctor Hu said, "We have brought in all the medicines from all the pharmacies in Yuzhou City, and called in all the doctors who can be used, but if we continue like this, I'm afraid there won't be enough medicine."
"What medicinal materials are missing?"
Doctor Hu sighed and said, "The more hemostatic herbs such as pollen, Imperata root, Agrimoniae, and Sanguisorba officinalis, the better."
Feng Shuo's face was grim: "I will send someone to Yuzhou to buy it."
The author has something to say: Happy New Year, babies!
Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or irrigated nutrient solution during 2021-02-09 00:07:07~2021-02-11 16:48:22~
Thanks to the little angel who cast the deep-water torpedo: 1 fat furry bear;
Thanks to the little angel who threw the rocket launcher: pp 3;
Thanks to the little angels who cast mines: How can you rule the world without a flat chest, myvanillaworld 1;
Thanks to the little angels who irrigated the nutrient solution: Chen xx 50 bottles; Dudu 30 bottles; Xun is Xunxun 20 bottles; Ran Ranran 18 bottles; How can you rule the world without a flat chest 15 bottles; Huan Ye 11 bottles; Ying Ying 5 bottles; Yang Yupian 1 bottle;
Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!