While drying the lotus root powder, Zhang Hulan made wine yeast with Polygonum hydropiper flowers.
It is very simple to make wine yeast with Polygonum hydropiper flowers. Just crush the Polygonum hydropiper flowers, mix the juice with glutinous rice flour into a dough and ferment it. It takes about half a month.
After the starch was dried, Zhang Hulan began to teach the villagers how to make vermicelli.
First, mix some starch with water, then thicken it with boiling water.
When adding boiling water, use a wooden stick to quickly stir it into a paste, then start adding dry starch. Don't add too much at a time, continue stirring while adding the starch. This is the most tiring time.
Ma said, "It's just like kneading dough."
Zhang Hulan nodded. "It's the same as kneading dough, but a little more tiring."
Zhang Hulan continued: "If it feels dry, add warm water. The dough should not be too dry or too watery."
When the dough was almost ready, Zhang Hulan took a piece of dough and put it in the colander to test it.
"Look, just put the dough in there, and the dough will slowly flow down and stay there."
Then he placed the colander over a large pot with boiling water in it.
One end of the colander is hung with a rope to save effort.
Zhang Hulan asked Zhang Hujun to hold the colander steady with one hand and hit the dough in the colander with a wooden hammer with the other hand.
The vermicelli fell into the boiling water from the bottom of the colander. Zhang Hulan used a stick to scoop the vermicelli out of the pot and put it into a wooden barrel filled with cold water next to it.
Rinse the vermicelli, then hang it with thin bamboo sticks and dry it on the rack.
It’s not difficult to make, all you need to do is knead the dough.
Zhou asked: "Hu Lan, is that all?"
Zhang Hulan nodded, "Okay, we can sell it after it's dried."
Seeing Zhang Hulan's skillful movements, some villagers became eager and wanted to try it out as well.
Ma rolled up her sleeves and said, "Hulan, let me try. You just watch from the side."
Zhang Hulan smiled and nodded, "Okay, you can try it."
Ma was about to eat it, and Zhang Hulan hurriedly said, "Wash your hands. If you don't wash your hands, how can I eat it in the future?"
Ma smiled awkwardly and hurried to wash her hands. Then Zhang Hulan taught her step by step.
The villagers who wanted to give it a try washed their hands and did it themselves. Zhang Hulan only had dozens of kilograms of flour and finished it in no time.
Seeing so many people gathered around, Ma immediately went to get her own noodles and continued making them.
She said to everyone, "Come on, my fans, anyone who wants to practice can come, it's okay if it's wasted."
Zhang Hulan found it funny. This Ma was really cunning. She made the villagers work for her for free.
There is no waste when making vermicelli. Just keep the smaller pieces for yourself.
Last year, not many people planted lotus roots, and the first batch produced little vermicelli. In two days, all the families who planted lotus roots made a batch of vermicelli.
After that, we made them in batches every day, with each family making about 100 kilograms. This way it was not tiring and every family could get a place in the queue.
Zhang Hulan stared at Zhao Guoliang. "Uncle Lizheng, the powder pulverizer must be cleaned after each use. When the water truck is not in use at night, the water must be turned off. Otherwise, it will be running all day and night, and its use time will be much shorter. Also, in the summer, do not expose the water truck and the powder pulverizer to the sun."
Zhao Guoliang said, "I'll have everyone build a shed here to cover the flour mill and water truck."
Zhang Hulan nodded, and then said: "I just made this one. In the future, more people in the village will grow lotus roots, and this powder mill will definitely not be enough.
When the time comes, you can ask everyone to pool their money and ask the carpenters and blacksmiths in the county to build a few more based on this one.
With the physical object, they can also create it.
If you want to install it, select the location below. "
Zhao Guoliang nodded continuously, "Okay, I'll arrange it then."
Zhang Hulan thought about it, then called Zhao Guoliang aside and said, "Uncle Lizheng, you can ask Brother Zhao Cheng to collect vermicelli from the villagers and sell them in the city.
The villagers are basically illiterate and don’t know how to do business. When the quantity is small, they can take them to the market and the city to sell them.
But when the quantity increases, the vermicelli in the village has to be sold to other places.
At that time, let Brother Zhao Cheng buy it at a cheaper price of one or half a cent per pound, and then take it to other counties or the provincial capital to sell it.
"Brother Zhao Cheng can earn a lot of money by pulling hundreds or thousands of kilograms at a time."
Zhao Guoliang's eyes flashed. This was indeed a good business.
But then Zhao Guoliang frowned and said, "Isn't it a bad idea to make money from big guys like this?"
Zhang Hulan said, "Uncle Lizheng, if the villagers go to sell the goods themselves, they will be easily cheated and it will also waste their time. It is reasonable for Brother Zhao Cheng to earn less per pound. We can't work in vain, right?
In the future, there will definitely be merchants coming to the village to buy vermicelli. We will see what price they offer, and then Brother Zhao Cheng will say that he is here to buy it. Then the villagers will have nothing to say."
Zhao Guoliang asked: "Hu Lan, you are going to make vermicelli too, right? Then it will be the same if everyone sells it to you, right?"
"Uncle Lizheng, I don't want to make vermicelli. I want to use my lotus roots to make wine."
Zhao Guoliang was surprised, "You can also make wine? Or you are smart, Hulan, you can do everything."
Zhao Guoliang didn't say anything more. If Zhao Cheng bought the vermicelli from the villagers and sold it in the city, it would be good. It would be a stable income in the future. With the lotus roots grown by himself, the family would definitely earn dozens of taels of silver every year.
Zhao Guoliang finally said to Zhang Hulan: "Hulan, you still have some time before you go to the capital. When my family sells the vermicelli, I will find someone to collect the money and return the remaining silver to you first."
Zhao Cheng had already paid back some of it last year, but he still had more than ten taels of silver to pay back. After selling the vermicelli, he probably still needed a few taels of silver.
"There's no rush. Wait until your family has money and then you can ask Brother Zhao Cheng to give the money to my parents."
Thinking that Zhang Hulan was leaving, Zhao Guoliang felt reluctant to let her go.
"Alas, I don't know how many times I can see you again in the future?"
He is not young anymore. As he gets older, he might die at any time.
Zhang Hulan smiled and said, "Uncle Lizheng, I won't be able to stay in the capital for long. I guess it will only be three to five years. I might come back to the village."
Zhao Guoliang asked in confusion: "Why?"
Zhao Guoliang was really confused. It would be so nice to be an official in the capital, why did he want to return to the village?
Zhang Hulan knew exactly how capable she was. Once she had developed hybrid rice, she would ask Emperor Yongxing to resign and return home.
Emperor Yongxing let her be an official because she was useful to him and the Yongning Kingdom.
But she knew that the officialdom was very dark, full of smiling tigers scheming against each other.
Now she is not worried that anyone will target her, because she is useful to the emperor and the emperor will definitely protect her.
When she has no value, it's hard to say...
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