Chapter 64: Hualí and Chángshēng Miáo

  The next day, a notice was posted on the bulletin board in front of the Fula Inn, saying that a large sum of money was being offered to buy a piece of rosewood with a diameter of one arm or more, and it must have been submerged for three years or more.

  The growth of Padauk is very slow, and it usually takes hundreds of years for a tree with a trunk as thick as a person's arms to grow. If it grows thicker than that, only about half of the core can be used, while the outer part is all white waste material. Only the inner core has a dark brown color with rich and varied grain patterns, making it top-quality wood. If it is buried in muddy water for more than three years, its color will turn to glossy black, and the grain pattern will become layered and distinct due to the different time of growth, resembling majestic mountains and rivers like Chinese landscape paintings. The longer it is buried, the denser and harder the wood becomes, with a texture as hard as iron.

  In comparison, the rosewood from Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces (these three places were known as Minyue in ancient times, and will be referred to as Minyue from now on) is not as famous as Hainan Huanghuali. This is probably because it grows deep in the mountains and forests, making it extremely difficult to harvest and transport. The terrain of Minyue is also mountainous and treacherous, with very few roads connecting it to the outside world. Even during the early years of the Republic of China, there was only one railway line connecting Minyue to the rest of the country, and not many highways either. However, if vehicles from northern provinces tried to drive through, they would often turn back at Qiuxia Ridge, awestruck by the scenery. In the 1980s, Wang Kuang personally witnessed a convoy from Shandong Province turning back halfway up Qiuxia Ridge due to the driver's fear of continuing on. Nevertheless, Wang Kuang still prefers Minyue rosewood over Huanghuali because the former has more varied and rich patterns, and is also harder and shinier after polishing than Hainan Huanghuali.

  Although the remaining quantity of Muong Vu wood is not much, it's already a blessing to find logs with a diameter of 10 cm. Fortunately, people in the land of Minyue still have a subconscious reverence for the wood, and they take good care of the seedlings and small trees. Some deep mountains and forests are even considered sacred by locals, who generally do not easily enter them, so it's not as rare as Hainan Muong Vu.

  From Huang Liang's suggestion to prepare several soft cushions and backrests, Wang Kuang had the idea of using fragrant wood. If at this time, the reputation of Fujian fragrant wood was spread out, with the ability of ordinary people at that time, it would not cause damage to the fragrant wood. After the price of Fujian fragrant wood skyrocketed, he could take advantage of the situation and guide people to consciously cultivate fragrant wood on a large scale. Although it takes hundreds of years for the trees to mature, which family's fields and mountains do not last for hundreds of years? Even if the dynasty changes, there won't be much change, unless the family commits a heinous crime or becomes a loser in the struggle for power. Therefore, from a theoretical point of view, it is still feasible to guide people to plant fragrant wood artificially with the purpose of family inheritance.

  It has to be said that the appeal of Fulaiguesthouse is still very strong. The recruitment notice was posted for less than a month, and then two large pieces of rosewood were delivered from Pucheng (Grey Sparrow searched many places but couldn't find any other name for Pucheng in the Tang Dynasty, so it's called that). They had been soaked in the pond for five years. Originally, they were meant to be used at home, but when they heard that Fulaiguesthouse was building, they sent them over as a gift. The only condition was that they wanted chili sauce in return.

  It's said that this is the residence of the Shěn family, and Wang Kuang's curiosity was piqued. The Shěn family, it turns out, is the ancestral home of Zhēn Déxiù (originally named Shěn Déxiù, but changed his surname to Zhēn to avoid the taboo name of Emperor Sòng Xiàozōng), a renowned scholar and statesman of the Southern Song Dynasty. Currently, scholars claim that Zhēn Déxiù was from Jìnyáng in Púchéng, but I'm baffled - where did this Jìnyáng come from? There's only Xiānyáng! And it just so happens that I visited Zhēn Déxiù's former residence in Xiānyáng a few times when I was in middle school. Zhēn Déxiù is almost a household name in Púchéng, and although Wang Kuang has always been dismissive of Confucianism, this Zhēn Déxiù was an exceptionally good official who did many practical things for the people under his governance, such as building bridges, repairing roads, developing water conservancy projects, and constructing granaries. Unlike Zhu Xi (also from northern Fujian), who only talked but didn't act. However, I'm not sure if this Shěn family is indeed the ancestral home of Zhēn Déxiù's family. Wang Kuang knew that Zhēn Déxiù's family was extremely poor when he was young, which seems inconsistent with their current status as a local aristocratic family.

  After meeting the visitor from the Shen family, he learned that there was only one Shen family in Xianyang. This Shen family was indeed the same as the other Shen family, and it was estimated that they had declined later on.

  Wang Kuang originally wanted to help the Shen family by selling them the retail rights of chili sauce in Jiangnan at a low price, but then he thought that if he did so, he would be changing the fate of the Shen family. He wondered if there would still be a Zhen De Xiu appearing in the future.

  From now until the appearance of Zhen De Xiu, there were still several hundred years' time. If the Shen family's fortunes really declined, Wang Kuang's efforts would be in vain. So he decided to give up.

  However, when the visitor from the Shen family came, Wang Kuang did not haggle over the price. As soon as the other party asked for 100 jars of chili sauce, Wang Kuang readily agreed. The manager of the Shen family was so surprised that he thought he had misheard. He had originally planned to ask for 10 jars, which would have been a good deal, considering that each jar was worth 300 wen in Chang'an.

  The two huai trees were valuable, but they were not worth more than three guan of money. When Wang Kuang agreed to give him 100 jars without even discussing the price, he was overjoyed and promised to send two more huai trees from his family's collection to Wang Kuang in return. Wang Kuang then promised to give them another 200 jars of chili sauce next year.

  The manager of the Shen family was so delighted that he almost fainted with joy.

  With the huai wood, Wang Kuang found a carpenter and made six backrest stools according to the style of the second and third floors of the guest house. The stool legs were no longer straight but curved along the grain of the huai wood. The surface material was changed to thick cowhide, which could be removed for cleaning. The cowhide was not nailed to the stool surface but fixed with four copper hoops, making it easy to replace when worn out. With two remaining pieces of huai wood, Wang Kuang thought of Empress Longsun's illness and made a reclining chair for her to sunbathe.

  When it was finished, it was already the end of November, and it had entered deep winter. Huang Liang saw that Hu Zhong's work was not sloppy, so he wrote a memorial overnight, roughly saying that he had heard that Empress Changsun was slightly unwell, and he was moved by her kindness. He joined forces with Huang, the governor of Hubei, to rush out several tiger chairs and reclining chairs to facilitate the empress's daily life. In the memorial, Huang Liang also wrote about the delicious food served at Fuli Inn, which opened people's appetites, and mentioned that Sun Zhanggui was "rejuvenated" after eating there for many years. He also praised Wang Kuang as extremely intelligent and well-liked by the people of Jian'an, and noted that Wang Kuang himself was one of the survivors of the wrongly accused Wang Village bandits.

  Huang Liang was worried that Wang Kuang would suspect him of stealing credit, so he specially read out the unimportant parts of the memorial to Wang Kuang. As for the other state affairs mentioned in the memorial, Wang Kuang naturally had no right to know. Huang Liang didn't think about taking credit for himself either. The court would naturally give him a share of the credit for pacifying the province and its people. He didn't need to compete with Wang Kuang for credit, besides, he might still need Wang Kuang's cleverness in the future, especially when his own son would need it.

  As it was not an urgent military or political matter, it could not be sent by express post, but if calculated in time, it would arrive before the new year. Huang Liang called the postal officer and instructed him to send Hu Zhong to Chang'an at the fastest speed, ensuring that it would arrive before the new year.

  Since Fuli Inn usually sends food to officials who stay at the post station, the postal officer has received praise from many officials, so when he saw that this matter involved someone from Fuli Inn, he naturally instructed his men to choose the best horse carriage and the best postal soldiers to do their best. Of course, for the same reason, these postal soldiers also promised not to delay the task of Master Wang and Xiao Dongjia.

  Naturally, Wang Kuang also gave these postal soldiers a lot of braised sauce and chili paste, so that they would leave some at each post station they passed through, and in this way, the post stations along the way would naturally give them priority to change horses and prepare the best food and grass. Even if they had not received any benefits, they did not dare to slack off, one was Master Wang, and the other was the younger brother of Wang Ling, the head of the provincial government office, who had been nicknamed "Wang Lao Hu". If they were slow, Wang Lao Hu would not let them off easily.

  Everything has been arranged, and Wang Kuang is idle again. In fact, he was never busy at all. Many times, he just moved his lips, and the hard work was done by others.

  It's clear that there are fewer varieties of vegetables this winter, and Wang Kuang is starting to worry. He's a person who can't eat without green vegetables, but at the same time, if he doesn't eat meat for three days, he'll be uncomfortable enough to get out of bed in the middle of the night to find something to eat. Nowadays, meat isn't a problem, what worries him is how to grow greenhouse vegetables. Without plastic film or glass, just thinking about covering them with straw mats at night and uncovering them during the day won't work. The winter in Jian'an was colder than later generations, and ice would form even during the day, so it's easy to imagine what would happen if the vegetables were exposed to the cold wind. Even burning a kang under the vegetable field can only warm the soil, but the vegetables are still exposed to the cold air, which doesn't solve the problem.

  It's good that there were bean sprouts at this time, and at least in the winter, there were still bean sprouts to eat. Moreover, Wang Kuang had specifically instructed them to wait until the bean sprouts had two leaves before cooking them. When they got tired of eating bean sprouts, they would switch to peanut sprouts. The germination period of peanut sprouts was longer than that of bean sprouts, and the plants were also more robust, slightly thicker than chopsticks. The taste was naturally very different. However, when it came to growing peanut sprouts, Wang Kuang instructed Zhu Si Niangzi to hide them so that no one could see them. He used another name for peanuts, "Longshengguo", and gave them a new name called "Longshengmiao". Before cooking, he asked Kuang Da to pinch off the heads and tails, and then use fine bamboo silk to remove the cores from the sprouts. After that, they were quickly scalded in boiling water and stir-fried with lard. As a result, when Longshengmiao appeared on the tables of the guests at Fuli Inn, it caused a sensation. Everyone rushed to try the new dish under the name of Longshengmiao, who wouldn't want to? Those who had eaten it said that it was similar to bean sprouts but definitely not bean sprouts, with a unique flavor and fragrance. The texture in their mouths was crunchy, unlike ordinary bean sprouts which would leave some residue behind.

  Lin Kuangmiao also came, after tasting it, he wanted to leave with a few catties of the Longsheng sprouts. Wang Kuang didn't hide it from him and directly told him that this was peanut sprout, and detailed the cooking method. Wang Kuang already knew that Lin's family had opened a wine house in Chang'an, and these Longsheng sprouts should be helpful to their business. In Jiankang's winter, there were fewer vegetables, let alone in northwest Chang'an?

  "Second Brother is awesome!" Lin Xuanmiao, who had drunk a bit too much, learned from Wang Kuang's tone, raised his thumb and blew a mouthful of wine air at Wang Kuang, smiling slyly.

  Division -

  Votes are sought, collections are sought, and recommendations are sought. Your support is the motivation for Ash Sparrow.

  Also recruiting book review area function familiar book friends as deputy editor of book reviews, Grey Sparrow is really clumsy, so many days still haven't figured it out.