Mountain and Forest Kingdom

February, ninth year of the New Calendar

The cold winter has not passed yet, and you can still see a lot of snow near the castle.

"The roads on the mountain have been cleared, and now the traffic and some shops and workshops are being cleaned and ready to open in two days."

Emma came from Pumexiu Town and reported the general situation of Pumexiu Town.

Lawrence nodded and said, "Okay, by the way, let's arrange for those young people to familiarize themselves with life on the mountain in advance."

Emma smiled, "They are very adaptable. These children have been running up and down the mountain since they were young."

Lawrence felt a little strange, "The children born here have not grown up yet, and it will take five or six years before they are considered teenagers. Who are you talking about?"

Emma explained: "It's not the Pumixiu people, it's the former Sidel and Valkyrie people, and some forest children."

The year Lawrence came here for the first time was considered the first year of the New Calendar. It has been nine years since he came here, which is the ninth year of the New Calendar.

The first batch of large-scale births of children should be in the second to third years, such as the children of Iti and some children of the Durila people.

From this year forward, more children will be born every year, and more and more.

There are more newborns in the Kingdom of Stars this year than in the previous years combined. War, eternal night, and a special family model have made the desire to have children very strong.

"That's right." Lawrence also thought of the children who joined when they were young. "I haven't gone to the forest for a long time. I will go there when the spring is suitable."

When Emma saw that nothing happened, she was ready to go down to work.

At this time, Sofia was also like a child waiting for the adults to talk so she could talk about her own affairs. Seeing that Lawrence had finished talking about the business, she couldn't wait to sit down next to Lawrence.

"Master, I have learned about buoyancy. What will you teach me today?"

Lawrence felt that there was nothing left to teach, even electromagnetism had been taught, but it was impossible to express it without electronic equipment. However, in terms of theory, Heidi and Sophia both learned very quickly and remembered it quickly.

Sophia herself is not a girl who loves to study. Ever since she had Heidi as her opponent, she has studied for the sake of competition and used learning knowledge as a tool of struggle.

"The next step is for you to study on your own. I have told you and Heidi the principles of the steam engine. Now you can cooperate or work separately. If you need anything, just ask Delen and I for it, but remember to pay attention to safety. , someone should be watching during the experiment.”

Sofia nodded quickly, "Yes, Master, what are you doing, Master?"

Sophia blinked and looked at Lawrence. If Lawrence wanted to go out, Sophia, who was in charge of security work, would definitely follow him.

In the past ten years, a lot of knowledge has been taught in both language and mathematics, physics and chemistry, and gradually I have discovered the differences between the two worlds.

The knowledge in memory is somewhat useful, but in this cruel world, what I think more about is how to protect myself.

This world also has the mental control that time travelers and dictators are most afraid of. The terrible thing is that there are more than one or two people who understand this.

The main way to survive is in the barbarian areas where people don't like to use their brains. If they want to make a name in outside city-states and commercial cities, they will either be dogs or materials.

Lawrence, who shared his wisdom, no longer taught complicated words and formulas, and began to develop in the direction of a chef.

Nowadays, whether it is the knowledge in textbooks or crafts such as carpentry and craftsmanship, there are people to replace him. The only places where Lawrence can display his skills are fighting and cooking.

The farming techniques were all developed by Kharan. Lawrence's method has actually never been suitable for the local environment. Kharan and Lathander helped to improve it. Lawrence mainly provided tools and planting concepts. The concept has opened up the minds of many farmers in this era.

The pea cultivation was not done well, the potatoes were planted by Kehalan, and the wheat was also bred with the help of Kehalan. Later, when he went to sea to fight, he handed over the farming to Lathander. When he came back, he found that Lathander did a better job than him.

After that, all agricultural matters were handed over to Emma and Lathander. Lawrence actually had no expertise in farming, but he knew better than others that he had to pay more for the land, and he couldn't just spread seeds and leave things alone.

Fighting is for self-defense, cooking is for enjoyment.

Lawrence smiled and said, "I'm going to make something to eat today. Spring is coming soon, so it's time to eat some fresh food."

"What is that?" Sophia was very curious.

Lawrence stood up from the sofa.

“There are a lot of spring foods. Since they are fresh and delicious, let’s make spring rolls!!”

Sofia couldn't wait to ask: "What are spring rolls?"

Lawrence smiled confidently, "It's more delicious than dumplings. It's a fried dumpling with a better texture."

Sofia said happily: "I will cook with the master!"

"How can you cook?" Lawrence felt relaxed. "Go and study. I will call you when you eat. It will take a while, but you should be able to eat it at dinner tonight."

"Yes, Master!" Sophia quickly agreed.

Lawrence looked at Emma, ​​"Go to the kitchen and have a look. What kind of meat is there in the kitchen now?"

Emma knows the kitchen very well and checks it every day.

"There's beef, mutton, pork, chicken, fish, venison, goose, goose, bear and snake."

Lawrence heard bear meat and snake meat and knew it was hunted from near the Agama Mountains.

Since the population increased, Lawrence encouraged adventurers from all over to hunt bears and giant beasts in the mountains in exchange for money and wine.

Bears are the prey with the highest bounty. There are many bears active in the Agama Mountains. In recent years, a large number of hunts have made these man-eating beasts almost impossible to see nearby.

Bearskin coats, snake gall, snake skin, snake teeth and snake venom are all very good materials and are very popular among local people. As long as traces of bears are found nearby, it is easy to call helpers from further towns and production teams to kill the bears together.

Lawrence ruled out bear and snake meat and quickly noticed the goose meat hanging in the cold storage area of ​​the kitchen.

A wild goose with a gray back and a white belly was tied by its feet and hung on a rope. This wild goose had been dead for at least more than a month.

This was definitely not suitable for eating. Lawrence asked, "Why is this not pickled and just hanging here like this?"

Emma replied: "It's the prey that was sent before. It was still alive and hung here. Later, I may have forgotten it when I got busy."

"I usually eat a lot of things, including prepared beef and mutton. No one likes to eat this, so I didn't make it."

Lawrence looked at the dead goose that could no longer be eaten. Remember, this thing belongs to the Anatidae family. Can it be domesticated into a duck?

"Do we have this kind of bird here in spring and summer?"

Emma replied: "There are some on the river downstream. I didn't know it before, but there have been more and more in the past few years."

Lawrence quickly guessed that it was because the material conditions on his side had improved. The geese did not feed on small fish and shrimps, but on grass, green leaves, and some plants such as aquatic plants.

There are suitable habitats for wild geese on nearby rivers and hillsides, and there is a lack of their natural enemies. Animals such as foxes and wolves have been killed and driven away by humans, and humans who are busy fighting and working have no time to deal with these birds. .

"You can try it later, or you can raise some."

Lawrence had no expectations for this. The domestication of ducks did not happen overnight, and most wild birds do not lay eggs all the time like chickens.

And raising chickens is safer than raising gray geese.

Emma remembered this, "Yes, Master."

Lawrence quickly returned to making spring rolls, choosing the filling meat between the kitchen cold storage and the chicken and lamb that had just been processed today.

"Try it with mutton first. After the snow on the road dries in a few days, we will have some fish and shrimp shipped from Dumu Port. Then we will try long strips of meat stuffing made of fish and shrimp meat."

"Spring roll skin..."

Lawrence remembered that the spring roll skin seemed to be made of tofu skin. Although soybeans are now available, he has been busy and has not had time to make soy milk, tofu, tofu skin and other foods.

Soy milk and bean skin are definitely not as good as milk and beef. Lawrence thinks that the family must prefer to eat animal oil instead of soybean oil, so he has not been anxious about this matter.

“Try using thin dough, let’s try it!”

Lawrence decided to use dough to wrap the meat filling, a thin dough like Chaos.

Wrap the meat filling in layers with thin dough and then fry or steam it.

Lawrence has eaten it but not made it, and he lacks a lot of specific experience and skills.

But this is what makes me more interested, and I don’t want to cook when I really know how to cook.

When I have nothing to do, I don’t want to go to war and invade other countries. I don’t want to go to the classroom and school to teach my already exhausted knowledge reserve, let alone discuss any major national affairs.

With a table, a cutting board, a few chairs, oil, salt, sauce and vinegar, Lawrence soon sat down with a few capable young women, making noodles, cooking pots, chopping vegetables and chatting.

Soon Salil knew from somewhere that Lawrence wanted to cook delicious food, and quickly walked from the outside into the spacious kitchen that could accommodate forty people cooking at the same time.

"Lawrence, are your spring rolls ready?"

Salil came over happily, looking like a glutton.

Lawrence smiled and said: "Not yet, we are studying how to do it."

"Don't you know how to make it?" Salil was a little confused and looked at the meat fillings and vegetable flour on the table. "Why don't you just make dumplings?"

Dumplings are rarely eaten here, mainly because they are rich in food. Everyone prefers meat to dumplings. The witches have a big appetite, so eating dumplings is too troublesome for everyone.

Lawrence said casually: "You can eat whatever you want. There are a lot of ingredients here."

Saryl soon sat in an empty chair nearby and began cooking together.

The topic of what to eat was quickly put aside. Now the family is more curious about novel food and not as obsessive about it as children.

After a long period of screening, Salil and others knew that food they didn’t know might not be delicious, especially the foreign food passed down from outside. Many of them were not as delicious as Lawrence’s.

Even the food developed by Lawrence is not all delicious, and some are not suitable for everyone's taste.

Salil talked about what happened today, "Andersen was calling his parents just now, and Delen was taking care of him. He can now walk on his own."

Lawrence sighed: "It's so fast. I remember this time last year we were still at war with the Kingdom of Gran. He was just born at that time."

Salil also felt that it was very fast, but Lawrence's child basically had no sense of existence.

"Where will you go to farm when spring comes? Ititi wants me to ask you about this. Seravan is ready."

Lawrence said: "We certainly won't go too far, somewhere between Pumexiu and Oak Hill, and grow beans in those previously reclaimed wastelands."

Salil added: "Do you still remember the swamp fish pond we dug a few years ago?"

"Remember, what happened?" Lawrence showed curiosity, but quickly continued kneading the dough, thinking about how to make the dough thinner and more sticky.

Salil lowered her head to add water to the flour in her basin, and said smoothly while making bread as usual: "The fish eaten in the manor are all raised in the fish pond. I wonder if we can also dig a big fish. pond, so that there will be fish to eat in the future.”

Lawrence smiled and said: "The entire mountain is ours, this land is also ours, and the streams and rivers outside are our fish ponds."

When Sariel heard Lawrence say this, she retorted: "Then if we want to eat fish, don't we still have to catch it? There is a fish pond nearby, so it is convenient to eat fish."

"We can have people catch some and bring it up. We don't need to dig puddles in front of our homes." Lawrence has a different concept. "We don't need to hide so much food at home like squirrels."

Lawrence said seriously: "We are tigers!"

Saryl blinked at Lawrence, "What is a tiger?"

Lawrence just remembered that there were only bears and wild boars in this mountain corner, not lions or tigers.

It felt like he couldn't explain it to Sariel. After Lawrence had this idea, he continued to talk about cooking.

"Saryl, do you know how to make thinner dough?"

Salil thought for a second and quickly answered: "Like pancakes, right?"

"Thinner than pancakes," Lawrence said.

"How thin?" Salil thought about that kind of skin.

"About one-fifth." Lawrence felt that this was about the same.

Salil asked directly: "It's so thin, how can you eat it? You won't be full! You have to eat a lot to be full!"

Lawrence nodded. Salil was indeed right. Making something so thin was troublesome, and it was not as filling as a solid steamed bun.

Seeing that Lawrence was silent, Salil quickly asked curiously: "Is it delicious?"

"It's delicious." Lawrence replied in the affirmative.

Salil no longer thought about whether she was full or not, but seriously thought about how to make thinner pancakes.

"Let me give it a try!" Salil quickly took over the important task and said rationally: "It's like making pancakes. Apply a layer of batter on the pan. Just put less oil. The dough is made.”

Lawrence quickly assisted Salil in cooking, and called several good cooks in the kitchen to study together.

There are many kinds of spring roll dough made quickly, not only white dough, but also rice dough.

Lawrence discovered that the dough could not only be used for spring rolls, but also for roast duck.

Salil and others are not fools either. After making the dough, they quickly opened their minds and excitedly showed off: "You can use this dough to wrap side dishes!"

"Yes, you can also add two eggs." Lawrence agreed.

The kitchen quickly figured out how to make spring rolls, and also clicked on the technology tree for rolls.

***

The snow outside quickly began to melt, and although the cold winter had not left yet, the temperature remained very low.

However, the country of stars has become hotter, and people have begun to get busy, preparing for farming in the new year.

In the past cold winter, the population of the Ice Land has increased sharply. A large number of children are waiting for food, like birds with their mouths open, constantly asking for all kinds of food, and they will not stop until they are full. Some, fall asleep quietly.

As the eternal night came to an end, merchants and merchant ships from all over the country also gathered here, sending a large amount of food that was not needed by outside nobles in exchange for medicine, iron tools, as well as various spices and spirits.