I was the richest man in Da Song

Chapter 2 Braised Pork
Just when He Shao was about to close the door and put on the boards, Jia Chang, the shopkeeper of the Jia's butcher shop next door, walked in with a smile on his face, holding a jug of wine in his left hand and a bag of stewed meat tied with reed leaves in his right hand.

"Feng Lang, go get a plate, I want to drink with your father"

Jia's Butcher Shop and Fragrant Butcher Shop are neighbors, but the business is much better than theirs.

"No need, just stand at the door and talk if you have anything to say."

The colleagues are enemies, and the kind He Anwen never treats Jia Chang well, even preventing him from entering the store.

That's what He Anwen said, and He Shao still let Jia Chang in. After all, Jia He and Jia He were almost a few years old, and they were already half-buried old people in Song Dynasty in their early fifties.

"Feng Lang, I saw Sun Mao coming just now? That's not a good thing, isn't your father borrowing a loan from the cabinet?" Jia Chang asked tentatively.

"Borrowed a hundred guan, now Sun Mao asked us to use this shop to pay off the debt"

No matter what feud He Anwen and Jia Chang had, He Shao felt that Jia Chang was a nice person, and would often give him and Badger Lang some snacks.

"Bah, this dog"

Jia Chang walked into the shop cursing, and sat down opposite He Anwen.

"Brother He, it's a good thing for me to come"

"What good can you do?" He Anwen snorted coldly.

"Brother He, to be honest, your personality is not suitable for business. You can't continue to open this fragrant meat shop. How about this? I will give you two hundred coins to pay off his debt first, and then wait for the limelight to pass. Yes, brother, you transfer the store to me..."

Jia Chang couldn't listen to He Anwen before he finished speaking, so he picked up a stick to support the door and made a gesture to hit him.

"Jia Changlian, get the hell out of here"

Jia Chang stumbled and ran out of the fragrant butcher shop, He Anwen limped and held a stick and chased him to the door before giving up.

"He lame, if you hold on, you'll starve to death," Jia Chang scolded.

The business of Jia's butcher shop is booming. Jia Chang wants to buy their shop and expand its business. This is not the first time he has visited the shop.

He Shao knew that his family needed money for food and drink every day, and his younger brother Badger also needed money to go to private school, plus the money owed to Sun Mao, the fragrant butcher shop could hardly even make ends meet.

It is true that He Anwen hates Jia Chang, but this is the only way out right now.

"Feng Lang, you said how about we sell this shop to him and buy a few acres of good land in the countryside.

Dad was a good hand at tending crops when he was young, and he was doing work in slack, so he was better than this fragrant butcher shop anyway," He Anwen said suddenly.

He Shao's original intention was to tell He Anwen that he couldn't do business, but he didn't expect that he would just throw away the shop in the center of the capital and go to the countryside to become a farmer?
He Shao felt annoyed and amused by this kind of anti-human thinking.

"This Sun Mao is notoriously black, he also said just now, no one would dare to pick up this store without his word."

"Why don't you try to hand over this fragrant butcher shop to me and let me run it"

He Shao once again put forward his own idea. As a modern person who traveled from later generations, if even a small butcher shop can't manage well, wouldn't it make other time-traveling colleagues laugh at him.

"No, I asked for a lottery at the Xiangguo Temple, and the fortune teller said that you were born to be a prime minister, how can you make a living like this?"

In He Anwen's eyes, there was still the insistence that "nobles don't follow lowly careers", and he expressed his opposition clearly, but He Shao knew that if he didn't intervene, the family of three would not be far away from drinking the northwest wind.

"Tomorrow and the day after tomorrow are holidays and it won't delay me from going to school, and you can rest at home for two days even if you are not in good health."

He Shao tried his best to reassure him, and finally got He Anwen to nod.

When He Anwen was young, he worked as a coolie in the south of the city. When he was old, his legs and feet were inconvenient and no one could hire him, so he gritted his teeth and rented this shop. After working for only one year, he lost half of his life savings. There is really no way out.

The Fragrant Meat Shop is similar to other shops in the surrounding area, with a shop in the front and a square in the back. There is a small corner shop along the side of the street, and the side with the yard behind the back door is used for living.

He Shao helped He Anwen, who had bad legs and feet, back to the backyard to rest, and then quietly returned to the shop. There was still some braised pork left on the table that he hadn't finished eating just now.

People in the Song Dynasty called salty taste stewed, and stewed meat was meat stewed with salt. He Shao tore off a strip of meat and put it in his mouth. It had no taste except the faint salty taste and the smell of mutton. .

In He Shao's mouth, the taste is really mediocre, but the stewed pork in Jia's butcher shop in Yujie Street is considered a must, and there are an endless stream of people coming to the door every day.

How to bring this fragrant butcher shop back to life, he already had a plan in mind.

There are currently three people in the He family, father He Anwen, Fenglang He Shao, and badger He Jing who is just ten years old.

In fact, He Anwen has never been married in his life. He first adopted He Shao, and then met the abandoned baby He Jing at the gate of the Salesian Bureau, and brought him home.

He Shao and He Jing are not related by blood, but He Anwen has always regarded him as his own.

He Jing was in a private school on the other side of Kaifeng City, and he would not come back until the door was closed every day. After learning about He Shao's plan, He Jing couldn't wait to participate in it.

Brothers He Shao and He Jing got up early the next morning before dawn. He Anwen would shop on time every day, and prepare the meat sold in the fragrant butcher shop in advance.

Xiuyi Square in the south of the city is also known as the butcher's market. The two streets in the alley are engaged in the business of slaughtering, which supplies most of the raw meat in Kaifeng Prefecture.

After arriving at Xiuyifang, you can hear the sound of slaughtering sheep everywhere. Many wealthy households in Kaifeng City consume a lot of meat, but most of them eat lamb. Pork is something that the rich do not want to eat, and the poor are puzzled. Boiled meat.

This has also led to a ridiculous price gap between mutton and pork. Lamb is [-] yuan per catty, while pork is only [-] to [-] yuan.

The fragrant meat shop sells pork, and there are not many places to slaughter pork in the whole slaughterhouse. He Shao came to a shop that He Anwen often visited. There were various wooden frames in the shop, and there were more than a dozen side pigs hanging on each side.

"Feng Lang? Why are you here?"

Wu Cheng, the butcher, is no stranger to He Shao because he has delivered meat several times before.

"Father is not in good health and has bad legs and feet, so let me bring the meat these two days"

"Okay, you pick that one and tell me I'll send someone to send it to you, it's still the old price"

Because the business in the store was not good, there was still some leftover meat from yesterday, so He Shao only had the usual money. If he bought meat at this price, he would not even be able to buy a side of meat.

While hesitating, He Shao noticed that there were a lot of offcuts left over after slaughtering pigs, such as pig heads, pig feet, etc., piled up in the corner.

Not many people in Kaifeng eat pork, let alone these parts.

"Uncle Wu, what's the price of this pig's head and pig's feet?"

"Why do you want these?" Wu Cheng was a little surprised.

"Business in the store is not very good, so I want to change something to sell"

"Feng Lang, no one wants these things except for sacrifices, and the price is also cheap. If you really want to buy a pig's head for twenty yuan, and a pig's foot for ten yuan each."

Wu Cheng also specially reminded him, for fear that He Shao would end up losing money if he didn't understand.

"For this price, I want five pig heads and twenty pig feet"

He Shao took out the money and handed it to Wu Cheng, and Wu Cheng asked someone to send it back to the fragrant meat shop.

The two brothers split into two groups. He Shao was in charge of selling meat in Xiuyifang, while He Jing went to the medicinal material store to buy medicinal materials according to He Shao's instructions. There are several seasonings that cannot be bought in other places except drugstores.

It was just noon when the two brothers prepared all the ingredients and returned to the fragrant meat shop. The summer weather in Kaifeng was hot, and there were not many people in the fragrant meat shop during the day. He Shao simply closed the shop and concentrated on preparing for the evening.

"Brother, why did you buy this pig's head and pig's feet?"

He Jing didn't understand, he couldn't even sell much meat, and it was even more unlikely that someone would buy the pig's head and pig's feet. The butchers in Xiuyifang usually threw away these parts after slaughtering the live pigs.

"Don't be as knowledgeable as those mediocre people, in fact, these are the real delicacies"

He Shao wiped his saliva, forgetting how long he hadn't eaten.

"Then why do you want me to buy these herbs?" He Jing asked again.

"It's really a waste of these things to be used as medicinal materials. My brother tells you, in fact, this is the best condiment. From now on, this will be our family's secret formula."

The kitchen of the fragrant butcher shop is complete with everything. Turn on the fire, blanch the pig's feet in water to remove the blood foam, and stir-fry the old ginger and garlic into the pot.

In addition to pouring soy sauce, He Shao's biggest secret recipe is star anise cinnamon and bay leaves, add water and simmer slowly.

People in Kaifeng City regard these things as medicinal materials, but no one knows that they are high-quality spices.

The price of these condiments alone is more expensive than the sum of pig's feet and pig's head.

The pig's head was a little troublesome to deal with. Sheng Xia stayed beside the hot fire to scald the pig's head. His clothes were soaked in sweat like rain. Even He Jing, who was just ten years old, imitated He Shao's style.

What He Shao is going to do is the signature dish he prepared for the fragrant meat shop, and it is also his favorite dish!

After everything was ready, it was already dark, and He Shao smelled the aroma from the pot on the table while slicing the pork head.

(End of this chapter)