Wei and Jin cooks

The other party looked Ming Yu up and down, and saw that although the guard behind him was strong, he himself looked very frail, and his face was a little pale, indicating that he was in poor health.

So he felt relieved, turned around and went to the edge of the field to get a big bamboo tube, "Here, I'll give you this tube of water."

Ming Yu took it, unscrewed his own water bag and filled it with water.

After filling, he returned the bamboo tube to the farmer. He looked down at the millet, couldn't help but stretched out his hand to touch it, and sighed: "The ears of these millet are averagely long. Is it because I missed the farming season?"

He said: "I came from Chen County. The millet there was harvested as early as early ten days, but it seems to be ten days late here."

When it came to farming, the farmer couldn't help but talk too much. Moreover, he had already poured water in advance. It looked like he was really here to borrow water, and he came from Chen County, so he was also friendly. We are at war, but fortunately Zhao envoy Jun Kuanren sent us seeds and farm tools so that we can cultivate with peace of mind, otherwise we would not even have this little grain this year."

He was already very satisfied, "I have planted five acres of millet this year. It's not a lot, but harvesting it all will last until next summer. This year, the envoy will also give us wheat seeds, which can be sown in autumn. Next year we will have enough wheat seeds." We can collect it in the summer, just in time, no accidents, and maybe we won’t have to suffer from the shortage next year.”

"Does the harvest of these five acres belong to you? I remember that the court has laws that adults must pay four hu of grain as tax."

"No, no, no," the farmer was startled, and waved his hand quickly: "Your Majesty, please allow us to pay only two acres of Ding tax this year. Second Ding and Ding daughter only pay one mu. I only have one." Wife and grandson, the grandson is still young and can’t even be considered a second daughter, so my family only needs to pay the grain tax on three acres.”

He touched his heart and said: "Mr. Lang, please don't mention four hu of dendrobium. Now I feel flustered and dizzy when I hear this number. The year before last and the year before last, the court first collected six hu of dendrobium from my family, and then said that my six-year-old grandson was also a ding." Now that I am a man, I have to collect four more husks of dendrobium. Soon, the court will send troops to attack Yuzhou, so I have to collect two more husks of dendrobium from each household."

"Last year, there was a famine in Luoyang, and we were already in dire straits. The court said that we should provide for His Majesty, and each household was taxed on grain. My family went to Sihu again. Alas~" The farmer sighed: "But I heard that there was no food. When it was in the hands of the emperor, the King of Donghai took it for himself and ran away with his people. We sold everything that could be sold at home, and we didn’t have a single ration of food. We even ate the grain seeds, so we didn’t follow him, thinking that we would all die. , it would be better to die in my hometown."

"Fortunately, God finally opened his eyes, and Ambassador Zhao is here." The farmer couldn't help but smile, "Mr. Zhao said that His Majesty Emperor Wu's land occupation order is very good, and she will follow it, but this time One bad thing about the law is that it occupies too many acres of land and pays a lot of taxes. Obviously, one male and female can't cultivate so many fields, so she ordered that all male and female males should occupy half of the fields in accordance with the land occupation order. , the tax is also halved. Life is difficult this year, so it is even less. My family only has to pay land tax on three acres."

He raised a big smile and said: "I only pay two buckets and four liters."

Ming Yu couldn't help but smile, "This tax is indeed not heavy. Congratulations to my father-in-law."

The farmer grinned and said, "Same joy, same joy. Langjun is from Chen County, so he is a fellow countryman of the envoy, but he came to join the envoy?"

Ming Yu nodded with a smile, "I'm not from Yuzhou, but I know the name of Ambassador Zhao very well. I am convinced by it, so I came to join him."

"Then you've come to the right place. Our envoy is a virtuous and tolerant man. He treats untouchables like us so well, not to mention his subordinates. I heard that all those with great talents will be assigned a house as soon as they enter Luoyang. As for the fields, there are still people helping to cultivate the fields."

"Even people with average talents can rent very cheap houses from the county government, and the cost is not high at all."

Ming Yu smiled and nodded, "I heard people say that, so I came here to join him."

The farmer glanced behind him and saw that his servants were strong and had carriages and horses. He felt that his status was not low, and his knowledge must be high, so he wanted to form a good relationship.

He turned around and took out something wrapped in lotus leaves from his wooden bucket. He opened it and found dry biscuits inside. He reluctantly gave one to Ming Yu and said with a smile, "You must be hungry, sir. This is for you."

Mingxue knew how important the rations were and quickly declined.

The farmer forcefully stuffed it into his hand and said, "This is bean cake mixed with soy flour. It's not worth much. Eat it, eat it."

He smiled and said: "My millet has also been harvested. It can be eaten after drying for a few days. There is no shortage of food at home for the time being. You can rest assured to eat."

Only then did Ming Yu take it, and he took a bite. It was not as hard as he expected, nor was it particularly unpalatable. It still had the aroma of beans, and it tasted a little bit like wheat cakes.

Ming Zu chewed it carefully, swallowed it, and asked with a smile: "Is this using soy flour to make bean cakes?"

"Yes, it's made from bean flour. My family also planted three acres of beans this year. They harvested them not long ago and dried them in the sun. Unfortunately, we don't have a water mill or a water pressing mill here. We can only grind the bean flour ourselves, otherwise we will send it to you. After arriving at the water mill, the powder was quickly ground out. The oil extracted from the beans was also very delicious. Alas, I was lucky enough to eat it only once. It takes a lot of effort and labor to extract the oil. I have a small family, so I really can’t spare the time. Get it done.”

Ming Yu also knew that the method of extracting oil from beans came from Yuzhou. She heard that it was occasionally made in Zhao Hanzhang's workshop. She did not hide the method of extracting oil, but instead spread it to everyone in the world.

He and Yan Heng tried it privately with others and found that cooking with soybean oil did have a unique flavor, so they also opened several workshops in Yanzhou, specializing in the business of pressing oil with others.

"Is there no oil pressing mill in the nearby county?"

"Yes, there is, but it's a long way. You have to transport the beans to such a far place for pressing. In fact, you can't squeeze out much oil. It's better to keep them for yourself. Beans and rice, and occasionally ground into bean powder, are also a portion. Not a bad ration.”

"There are still people collecting beans, or selling them, so that they can save some money for emergencies." He said happily: "We have money now, and those who come to collect beans give us money. Unlike before, they didn’t bring money, and were only willing to exchange cloth and other items, but some of the cloth was so good that the price was high, so we had to buy it again before we could get burlap for our own use.”

Ming Yu didn't know that Zhao Hanzhang had minted new money himself, because this money was currently only popular in Luoyang, not even in Yuzhou.

So at this time, he thought that what the farmers were saying was that the merchants in Luoyang were rich and made money, so they were willing to use money to do transactions with the farmers.

By the time he realized something was wrong, he had already entered the territory of Luoyang and was running all the way. He stopped for lunch in a teahouse on the outskirts of Luoyang. While waiting, he glanced at someone taking seven or eight copper coins for the shop owner. He got up and left. Walk.

He stared at the few copper plates with sharp eyes, vaguely feeling that something was not right.