Queen of Nongmen: Hexagrams determine the universe

Chapter 74 Eye-catching
The nitrate crystals absorb a lot of heat when they meet water, and soon all the cold water in the clay pot freezes into ice.

"It's done!" Ye Qiongdan took out a jar of ice and said enthusiastically, "I will hire a few people to scrape saltpeter on the nearby Gongshan Mountain, and find some carpenters to collect wood chips. Wood chips are waste for carpenters, but for me. But a good thing! If you use sawdust to insulate the ice cubes, the storage time of the ice cubes can be extended by twice!"

"Let's gather more saltpeter and boil more saltpeter crystals," Ye Qiongdan continued, "After making ice with a pot of saltpeter crystals, put it in the sun to let the water vapor evaporate and crystallize the saltpetre in the water again. , Recycling. The summer in the Northland is very hot. Presumably, a pot of nitrate-containing water will be exposed to the sun for three or four days, and the nitrate crystals will be precipitated again, which can be used to continue making ice. Our business has low cost and high profit, and we will definitely make a lot of money! "

"Well, I'll arrange it," Ye Qinghan saw her smiling so happily, he curled his lips very lightly, reached out to take the jar in her hand, and put it on the stove, "Don't freeze your hands."

"I went back to the house and took a quilt to wrap it up. I saved some for my family to quench their thirst. I took the rest to the shop and added some ice cubes to the cold boiled water that diners drink at noon. The business will definitely be better!" Ye Qiongdan He ran away briskly.

After a while, people in the new house got up one after another, and Ye Qiongdan cooked a pot of shepherd's purse lean meat wonton with the leftover pork bone soup from last night.

The exquisite wontons are lying on the bottom of the bowl, with a few drops of sesame oil, a few strands of seaweed, a pinch of dried shrimp and a piece of green onion floating on the surface of the bowl, the fragrance is very attractive.

Others thought that eating a bowl of hot wontons in the morning would make them sweat again, but they didn't expect that the kitchen was extremely cool after they came in.They thought that the ice was bought, Ye Qingyu always doted on the third sister, so naturally she would not say anything, but Xueyatou and Haiyatou secretly felt sorry for the money.

After the family finished their breakfast, Xue girl said with emotion: "This breakfast is really comfortable, I really wish there was a pot of ice in the kitchen every morning to cool down, but the ice sold outside is too expensive. It's a big expense to buy."

The others nodded, and the fourth uncle simply held the wooden basin and didn't let go, as if he regarded it as the most precious thing.

"Don't worry, our house will have a lot of ice every summer in the future!" Ye Qiongdan said.

"Then you have to count on Brother Qingyu's legs to recover, go to school to study, and then obtain fame and become a high-ranking official?" Xue Yatou said with a smile, "The bigger the official Qingyu is, the more rewards you can get." ice!"

The ice trade in this era was not developed, and the long-distance transportation of ice cubes was very difficult, and very little ice could be transported to the south after a long journey.

In the north, every third or fourth day of November, the government will order people to cut and store ice. After the beginning of summer in the following year, a grand ceremony of offering sacrifices will be held first, and then the officials will be rewarded according to their ranks. They issued ice tickets and asked the officials to collect the ice themselves.

In the capital city, in addition to ice tickets, the emperor will also give ice.

The ice cubes given by the emperor will be distributed by the yamen according to the official ranks, starting from Xia Fushu and continuing to Liqiu.

Of course, there are also businessmen in the north who have specially dug ice cellars and do ice business in summer, but the cost is huge and the cost is extremely high. Therefore, the price of ice among the people is also extremely high.

"Of course my second brother will become a high-ranking official," Ye Qiongdan nodded in agreement, "However, the distant water cannot save the nearby fire. If we want to have ice every day in summer, we still have to rely on ourselves!"

"But the ice at the market is too expensive, why don't you buy it? This house is cool in summer." Xue girl said distressedly.

"You don't need to go to the market to buy, the mountain people have their own clever ideas! After a while, you will know! My eldest brother and I went to the town first, so you stay at home," Ye Qiongdan confessed, "after this basin of ice melts , don’t pour the water out, help me put this basin of water under the sun.”

Ye Qiongdan chipped some ice cubes from the water jug ​​and put them in the water jug ​​at home, and went to the town with Ye Qinghan with the water jug ​​wrapped in a quilt.

At noon, she chopped up the ice with a sharp awl and threw it into a pot of cold water.

As soon as the diners who came to eat drank the cold boiled water with ice, they immediately felt that half of the summer heat had disappeared.

"Little shopkeeper, I'm already in ambush. The ice in the market is not cheap. How can you be willing to spend money to buy so much ice and put it in cold water?"

"Yes, but drinking a bowl of ice water on a hot day is really refreshing! If the little shopkeeper adds ice to the cold boiled water every day in summer, even if the repeat customers are not for the five cents a meal, they will rush With this refreshing ice water, you can come more diligently!"

"You know, the iced sour plum soup on the market is very expensive!"

……

"It is precisely because I know that the price of ice in the market is expensive, and it is very difficult for us ordinary people to eat something cold, so I add ice cubes to the cold boiled water," Ye Qiongdan said with a smile, "However, ice water is only available at noon, and it is available at night. there is none left."

As a result, there was a sigh of regret all around.

For the next two days, Ye Qiongdan would still provide ice water at noon every day, which made the food business in the shop a little better. The second wife looked at her increasing dividends every day, grinning from ear to ear, even doing things. They are all more active, often rushing to help Ye Qiongdan with work.

Due to the extremely high price of ice on the market, diners can greedily drink four or five glasses of ice water when they have lunch at noon. Fortunately, a lot of saltpeter has been harvested in the past two days, and several cans of ice can be shipped over every day. Only then will the late diners leave without regret.

The business of selling ice cannot be rushed. Picking nitrate, buying sawdust, and renting shops... all have to be done slowly. They also need a large evaporation site, so that the used nitrate can be recycled quickly. This has to be done slowly. Picture it.

Two days later, the county magistrate sent seven or eight people to carry the plaque, and came to Jiuwei Restaurant at the busiest time of noon.

When the diners saw the people from the yamen coming, they all became cautious.The surrounding merchants saw it, and their eyes were full of envy and jealousy.

On this street, who else has this honor and can be given the word by the county magistrate?

It's fine to give the word, but I gave it twice!
And for the second time, the magistrate of the county appointed so many yamen servants to deliver plaques, which really gave Ye Qiongdan enough face!With these two words written by the magistrate, Ye Qiongdan's business will be able to do smoothly during at least the past few years of the magistrate's tenure!

"Master Ye, the business of your shop is really good!" Wang De, who often works with the magistrate, said with a smile, "I was ordered by the magistrate to bring you a plaque, and I will buy it for you by the way." Go back with a few meals."

"Small business, thanks to the favor of the county magistrate." Ye Qiongdan took out a bag of five taels of broken silver and handed it to Wang De, "I'm sorry to trouble you to come here specially in the hot weather, and treat the silver as a treat for everyone to drink. You haven't eaten yet, right? I invite you to a restaurant for dinner."

"No need, the yamen is busy with business, so we can eat here. Besides, the food in your family is very popular with adults. Can the food that adults like to eat be worse?"

"Ah Xiang, bring some meals and pack more!" Ye Qiongdan shouted.

"Here we come." The dexterous girl Xiang quickly brought some meals, and Ye Qiongdan personally poured them a few glasses of ice water.

"Your shop still provides ice water for free? Doesn't that increase the cost?" Wang De asked suspiciously.

"It's only a few bucks," Ye Qiongdan greeted with a slight smile, "It's hot, and there's enough ice water, everyone just drink."

"It seems that the shopkeeper Ye is a person who wants to do big business. He is rich and powerful, and he doesn't care about the 'small' money for buying ice. He really answered the four words that the adults gave you—high quality and low price!"

With that said, everyone laughed.

There is no doubt about Ye Qiongdan's culinary skills, and Xiangyatou also got her true biography. After the servants finished eating, they were full of praise for her family's food.

Ye Qiongdan asked Xiang Yatou to pack a few more meals for these yamen servants, and then personally added some fresh and delicious cold bracken to the meal packed for the county magistrate's family.

Soon, what happened at Jiuwei Restaurant in the past few days spread throughout Qili Town.

Nowadays, everyone in Qili Town is saying that there is an extraordinary little girl at the wharf. After being robbed of her marriage by the daughter of the richest man in Zhao, she is not depressed, and she is not weak after being separated from her family. Confronting head-on, and now being able to establish a relationship with the county magistrate, has cleaned up a group of unscrupulous businessmen who intend to poison!

She is so extraordinary at such a young age, she will be nothing in the pool in the future!

The heavy punishment imposed on these merchants by the county magistrate not only spread throughout Qili Town, but also spread to Qinghe County.

The steward of the Wu family in Qinghe County knew about this from the chats of the servants.

Some time ago, the patriarch of the Wu family favored his concubine and killed his wife. After the main room passed away due to depression, the patriarch of the Wu family immediately straightened the side room.

Because of Pianfang's skillful skills at home, Wu Jinghong, the son of the head of the Wu family, was accidentally defeated in the family struggle, and was sent to this remote Guazhou to be in charge.

Unexpectedly, less than a month after Wu Jinghong came here, he was called back to the capital again, saying that the clan wanted to open an ancestral hall to discuss important matters.

The major affairs of the Wu family have nothing to do with the management of Qinghe County, but he guessed that this time Wu Jinghong would only make life more difficult in the family. The son born to the supportive eccentric house should be reused by the head of the Wu family.

Once the power of the Wu family changes, the assessment of the following will follow.

The steward from Qinghe County wanted to be promoted to the steward of Yiling County, so he came up with the idea of ​​Jiuwei Restaurant.

Jiuwei Restaurant followed the path of small profits but quick turnover, and its business was very prosperous. Ye Qiongdan made a lot of money with just a pier in Qili Town.

What if there is a Jiuwei Restaurant on every pier of the North-South Grand Canal?

What a fortune that would be!
If he obtained from Ye Qiongdan the method of dealing with pig offal, wild bracken and the pile of recipes in her hand, it would be a great credit, enough for him to be promoted to the steward of the Wu family in Yiling County, right?

Thinking of this, the steward sent a servant to Jiuwei Restaurant to invite Ye Qiongdan.

He felt that no matter how powerful Ye Qiongdan was, she was only a teenage girl, not as good as an old fox like him who had been up and down in the business world for more than ten years. The girl, obediently handed over the secret recipe.

It shouldn't be difficult to do this!
This is a promotion opportunity given to him by God, and the secret recipe will definitely be in his pocket!
(End of this chapter)