The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

"Grow wheat?"

As soon as Neishiteng heard what Heifu said, he knew what he was planning.

"You plan to let all counties in Neishiteng plant more Sumai around the beginning of autumn..."

The "Sumai" that Neishiteng mentioned is the name for winter wheat these days. Wheat is an imported variety that was introduced to the Central Plains during the Yin and Zhou dynasties. Initially, the cultivation season of wheat was the same as that of the original millet and sorghum, that is, it was planted in spring and harvested in autumn.

But gradually, the Zhou farmers who were good at growing crops found that wheat was more resistant to cold than millet but less resistant to drought. The best time for wheat to grow is not spring but autumn. So, when an unknown Zhou farmer tried to save a handful of wheat seeds until early autumn to plant them, winter wheat, also known as "Sumai", came into being.

Since most of the grain crops in the north are planted in spring and harvested in autumn, there is often a shortage of food in summer every year, which leads to a food crisis. Winter wheat is harvested in summer and can fill the gap and alleviate food shortages. Therefore, it has been valued and successfully became one of the five grains.

Hei Fu bowed his hands: "That's right! In this way, we can harvest a lot of wheat in early summer next year, and let the hundreds of thousands of exiled captives eat wheat!"

Nei Shi Teng was a little unconvinced, and asked Hei Fu: "Have you ever eaten wheat rice?"

"There is little wheat in the south, I only ate it once or twice when there was a famine when I was a child."

"Is it delicious?"

Hei Fu answered honestly: "No matter how much wheat rice is cooked, it is hard to chew and swallow, and the taste is far worse than corn and rice."

"Yes."

Nei Shi Teng said: "In some dangerous and mountainous places in Han, the food grown by the people is either beans or wheat, so I often see it."

"Wheat is the food of wild farmers. If it were ordinary people, it would be fine. If they could eat wheat rice, they would be grateful. But those exiled captives are mostly rich families in Shandong. Many of them must eat Liang meat and wear embroidered clothes. Letting them eat wheat will probably make the public opinion, which is already dissatisfied after being forcibly relocated, even more angry."

Heifu was surprised. Although wheat has become one of the five grains, it does not mean that people like to eat wheat. Steamed wheat rice is hard to chew and difficult to digest, so wheat rice is considered by the world as "food for wild farmers". Compared with millet and rice, the planting area is not large and it is only considered "coarse grains".

In the Qin State, wheat rice was generally given to prisoners. Officials who ate wheat rice were considered poor and honest officials, and the same was true among civilians. Heifu remembered that when he was in Yangwu County, a case occurred there. A daughter-in-law ate corn herself and let her mother-in-law eat wheat rice, so she was scolded by neighbors as "unfilial"...

Feeding the rich families who moved from Guandong with wheat that the prisoners disliked might really make them angry.

But Heifu had another idea.

He asked the attendant behind him to open the "gift" he brought, but found that it contained "jù nǚ" (a kind of fried dough twist) similar to fried dough twist.

This kind of dessert snack is made in Mai's workshop. After a lawsuit, the unlucky honey and sugar vendors were put in jail, and the two sides reconciled under the mediation of Wu Shiyan.

Although brown sugar has caused a certain impact on the honey and sugar industry in Nanshi, it has not completely taken away the jobs of Mai and Shi. Moreover, it is only produced in the south and not much is shipped in a year. Therefore, the three families tacitly reached an unwritten agreement to share three parts of the honey and sugar market.

However, the stones from other mountains can be used to polish jade. Mai and Shi sent some jù nǚ and honey bait to please Heifu, which aroused his interest.

After asking around, he found out that the ancestors of the Mai family were originally from Qi. In Qi and Lu, the stone mill invented by Lu Ban was already a common household item for wealthy families, and it had been introduced to Qin for at least several decades...

Unfortunately, the Qin people only used the ground wheat flour to make snacks and never tried to use it as a staple food. Therefore, the rumor that "the Qin army unified the six kingdoms and relied on pot-fried bread as military rations" was pure misrepresentation.

So Hei Fu pointed at these snacks and said, "Does Nei Shi know what this glutinous rice is made of?"

Nei Shi Teng certainly knew, and he laughed dumbly: "Do you want to make glutinous rice with the wheat harvested this year and let the exiled captives eat it as food? No, no, the price is too high."

Hei Fu said, "That's not the case. It's just that I accidentally discovered that after wheat is ground into powder with a stone mill, it can not only be used to make desserts, but also used as food with a little cooking. It tastes more than ten times better than wheat rice!"

Nowadays, people eat wheat, either directly cooking porridge, or using it to make maltose and expensive snacks. This waste of natural resources is unbearable even for Hei Fu, a southerner who doesn't like pasta!

Since both wheat and stone mills are available, pasta is about to come out.

"Just grinding it into powder, can it have such a magical effect of turning decay into something magical?"

Nei Shiteng was a little skeptical of Heifu's idea. At this time, Lady Ye came up with her maid to serve wine. Hearing her father's doubts, she smiled and asked, "Father, what are you arguing about with the guest?"

Heifu turned around and found that Zijin was wearing a plain white dress today. Maybe she ate too many red dates and brown sugar, her complexion was ruddy, and her hair was black and tied behind her, making her look more like a lady from a noble family.

After Heifu stood up and greeted her, he glanced at Ye Teng again. Seeing that he had no intention of asking the woman to avoid him, he briefly told her what had just happened.

Hearing this, Zijin was not very surprised.

"Father always said that you always have wonderful ideas, such as the water mill, and..."

She smiled mischievously, skipped the invention that made Heifu blush, and directly mentioned the brown sugar, and then persuaded Neishiteng:

"People often say that hearing is not as good as seeing; seeing is not as good as doing. Since the guest is so sure, why not go get some wheat flour and try it at home?"

Heifu also said: "I just brought the chef here today, so I can let them try to make some."

Heifu did this a few days ago. He bought a stone of finely ground wheat flour directly from Mai, took it home, and threw it to the chef to tinker with it for a few days, and at least there were some results.

Of course, asking a southerner who has never kneaded dough and even the stuffing of dumplings to invent pasta will naturally encounter many setbacks. Even how to make the "leavened dough" described by Heifu is almost difficult for the chef. First, we have to find a way to find the "limited purchase" wine yeast for brewing, which is used to ferment the wheat-yellow dough. However, the steamed dough is not fluffy enough and has a sour smell that is difficult to remove.

Heifu calculated that he would come to Ye Teng's house to present treasures today. He couldn't wait for the kitchen to study, so he simply told the cook not to worry about fermentation and try to make some unleavened pasta first, at least there are two things to show off.

"You are well prepared."

Nei Shiteng glanced at Heifu, but agreed to it...

...

There are two kitchens in Heifu's family, a couple, who are the girl "Yuan" he rescued from the Blind Mountain. She married a mute kitchen cook. Three years ago, the couple followed Yuan's father Ju to Heifu's new house. Ju raised cattle and horses for Heifu, while Yuan and her husband were in charge of the kitchen.

Now that Heifu has come to Xianyang, his mother is worried and thinks that her son will definitely not be used to northern food, so she sends the young couple to take care of his diet.

After arriving in Xianyang, he has been staying near the small house on Zhangtai Street. Although he can see the majestic and tall emperor's palace as soon as he goes out, he doesn't feel anything after staying there for a long time. Until today, when the couple was brought to the Neishi Mansion by Heifu and entered their kitchen, Yuan and her husband were stunned.

The Neishi family's kitchen is located on the east side of the mansion, called "East Kitchen", and it occupies a very large area, catching up with the two-entry courtyard where Heifu lives.

There are more than ten people helping in the kitchen. Several people are washing food by the well. When they look up, they see smoked fish and elbows hanging on the beams.

After entering the room, it is divided into the outer kitchen and the kitchen. The outer kitchen is full of jars, basins, and jars for serving; knives and sacrificial plates for cutting food; cauldrons, tripods, and steamers for cooking, all of which are bronze and lacquerware. There are five or six stoves in the kitchen, and each stove is busy. One person kneels in front of the stove, holding a fire stick to cook food, and a cauldron is placed on the stove to cook food...

Looking at the staple food being cooked, there are rice, millet, and yellow sorghum, all of which have been cleaned and prepared for steaming. The side dishes include stewed bear paws, and the chef is blending the flavors, stewed turtle soup, roasted lamb, swan meat, wild duck pieces, and plucked wild geese and pigeons are about to be roasted.

After visiting the kitchen of a wealthy family, the couple who came here with only a bag of wheat flour were stunned and felt ashamed.

"Just to entertain a guest like Zuo Shuzhang, so many people are needed? So much food is needed?" Yuan was shocked.

It was not until a pleasant voice came from behind that the couple came to their senses.

"The only thing missing from the banquet is food made of wheat flour, why haven't we started yet? Is there any utensil missing?"

Turning back, it was Lady Ye who came to the kitchen in person. Everyone in the kitchen saluted her, but she was very kind and asked the kitchen staff to waive their formalities. She began to ask Yuan what utensils she needed and asked Yongren to prepare them for her one by one.

"We need a wooden basin and water, and a hot iron pot. Oh, and can we make some mutton soup? It's better to cook it soft!"

Then, Yuan and her husband mixed yellow wheat flour with water in a large wooden basin and began to knead the dough. Lady Ye knelt on the mat, watching her movements carefully, and suddenly asked: "Who came up with the idea of using wheat flour to make food?"

Yuan's husband immediately gestured in the direction of the main hall. Yuan quickly stopped him and answered honestly: "Lady, this was all taught by Zuo Shuchang."

"Where did he know this? And, does he often go into the kitchen?"

Zijin was very curious. Men usually used the excuse of "gentlemen stay away from the kitchen" and did not want to see killing, so they stayed away from the kitchen.

"Zuo Shuzhang really likes to go in and out of the kitchen."

Ye Zijin did not put on the airs of an official lady, and Yuan also had a good impression of her, so she smiled and said: "He has a good taste and likes to teach us to make some new foods. When he was in Nanjun, he made rice cakes, rice noodles, and rice dumplings, and then shared these foods with his family. We could also get some. Every time that happened, the family was full of laughter."

"When we arrived in the north, Zuo Shuzhang asked us to make noodles with wheat flour. Although we still couldn't get used to it, it was much better than wheat rice..."

Zijin nodded slightly. Just like that, in the kitchen of the Neishi Mansion, through the narration of a little cook, she began to understand the side of Heifu that was unknown to outsiders. After asking Heifu about his taste and how he liked to instruct his servants on how to cook, he even dug up Heifu's crimes when he was a small pavilion chief...

When it was almost night, when Nei Shiteng's banquet for Heifu began, foods called "pancakes" and "mutton soup steamed buns" also appeared on the Qin people's table for the first time...