Because An Dashan and his friends had returned, Xianhua specially prepared a large table of food at noon to welcome them.
Several people from the An family and Uncle Gao sat at one table, and the guards who came back with them sat at another table. The table was full of food, and mostly meat dishes.
The leading guard said, "Thank you, Lord Rongchang, for your hospitality."
An Dashan waved his hand and said, "If you want to thank someone, I should thank you. You have worked really hard on the way. Today, there is plenty of good wine, so everyone can eat as much as they want."
Although An Dashan's words were rude, these guards were rough people to begin with. After hearing what An Dashan said, they all burst into laughter and said that they would definitely not save any money for An Dashan.
After greeting the guards, An Dashan sat in the main seat and ate while chatting with Uncle Gao.
Gao Da simply told An Dashan and the others about what had happened at home recently, and emphasized the wheat yield this year. Gao Da said excitedly, "Dashan, you don't know that your family harvested a total of 250,000 kilograms of wheat this year. Your family made a lot of money this year."
An Dashan already knew the yield of wheat. He smiled and said, "How is your wheat yield this year?"
Uncle Gao chuckled and said, "Although not as much as your family, it is much better than in previous years. My family sold all the wheat seeds except for the ones left to the county government. With the money from the sales and the family savings, I bought a lot of land near our village. Now my family has more than 100 acres of land, and this is all thanks to your family's help."
An Dashan said with a smile: "Brother, what you said is out of line. We are a family and we should not have different opinions."
An Dashan thought for a moment and said, "Brother, I plan to build another workshop on the vacant land next to my house. You should stay and help me."
Uncle Gao thought that it was just work no matter where he worked, so he might as well help his sister, so he nodded and said, "Okay, I'll go home tomorrow and come back when the work starts."
An Dashan nodded, and the others started talking about other things.
The next day, An Dashan brought gifts to the village chief's house. The village chief was very enthusiastic when he saw An Dashan coming. He pulled An Dashan aside and asked him about his life. After asking, he said, "Dashan, thanks to your winter wheat, most families in our village have made money from this winter wheat. Look at our village, those who need to build new houses have built new houses, and those who need to repair their houses have repaired their houses. It's really a scene that has never been seen before. This is all thanks to your family!"
An Dashan scratched his head a little embarrassedly and said, "Uncle Village Chief, you are embarrassing me."
The two exchanged pleasantries for a while before the village chief said, "Look, I'm old, and I'm always talking nonsense to you. What do you want from me?"
An Dashan smiled and said, "Uncle Village Chief, I came here this time to trouble you with something."
The village chief waved his hand and said, "If you have anything to say, just tell me directly. Don't worry about whether it's a bother or not."
An Dashan continued, "Uncle Village Chief, this is what happened. I want to build a workshop on the vacant land next to my house."
The village chief became interested and asked quickly, "What kind of workshop do you want to build?"
An Dashan explained: "My daughter Ningning has developed a method to extract soybean oil, so I thought of building a workshop. This way, we can sell the soybeans of our fellow villagers and earn money. It's a win-win situation."
The village chief nodded and said, "This is a good thing. The land next to your house is unowned. Tomorrow you and I will go to the county government office and buy the land."
An Dashan bowed and said, "Thank you very much, uncle, the village chief." After finishing their business, the two chatted for a while before going home.
The next day, An Dashan and the village chief went to the county government office early in the morning. As soon as they arrived at the gate of the county government office, they met the county magistrate. When the county magistrate learned that An Dashan was here to buy land, he asked the clerk and symbolically collected a little silver and sold the land next to the An family to the An family.
After the vacant land was purchased, An Dashan asked the village chief to help him find a good day, and then started looking for someone to build a workshop.
An Dashan was responsible for building the workshop, while An Ning bought ten servants who had signed life contracts. He divided the oil pressing method into five steps and taught them in groups of two.
A month later, the workshop was completed and several servants had already mastered the method of oil extraction.
An Dashan picked a good day and the workshop officially started operation.
When the workshop first started, the oil produced every day was not much because the raw materials were limited. Because soybeans cannot be used as a staple food, people do not grow them on a large scale, and each family only grows some in newly reclaimed land.
Because An Ning said that his family would buy soybeans at the price of ten cents per catty, families who had soybeans sold them to the An family. However, even so, soybeans were in short supply.
An Ning brought the first batch of soybean oil directly to the largest restaurant in the county. Because of the previous cooperation experience, the shopkeeper was very polite to An Ning. He smiled and said, "What is the matter with the county lady coming here this time?"
An Ning did not beat around the bush and said directly: "Boss, I will not beat around the bush with you. The jars outside are filled with soybean oil extracted using my new oil refining method. It is very good for frying and cooking."
The shopkeeper had already seen the jars outside. When he heard An Ning say this, he stood up and opened one of the jars. As soon as the jar was opened, a unique fragrance wafted out. The shopkeeper took a deep breath and said, "This fragrance is indeed very unique, but why does it smell like beans?"
An Ning nodded and said with a smile, "The shopkeeper is amazing. This oil is extracted from soybeans. The dishes cooked with this soybean oil are not greasy at all, and it won't solidify after it cools down. You can ask the chef to cook two dishes for you to try."
The shopkeeper nodded and told the waiter next to him, "Go take this jar of oil to the kitchen and ask the chef to cook two dishes."
The waiter responded and went to the kitchen with a jar of soybean oil.
The ingredients in the kitchen had been prepared long ago, and the two dishes didn't take much effort to prepare. After about a quarter of an hour, the waiter came back with two plates of stir-fried dishes.
The shopkeeper took up his chopsticks and tasted it. His eyes lit up immediately. The dishes cooked with soybean oil were not worse than those cooked with lard. Moreover, the two oils had their own flavors. After being used to the dishes cooked with lard, the dishes cooked with soybean oil were refreshing.
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