Chapter 83
When Mai Xiang called out "Sister Gu", Gu Ran thought of Mai Xiang's words, that the place where their family was exiled was called Nanyu Village?
It seems to be Nanyu Village.
Mai Xiang had already walked up to Gu Ran, put the wooden barrel down, and said happily: "It's really Sister Gu!"
"It's me. I haven't seen you in a while. Wow, you look good!"
"Sister Gu, you're still the same," Mai Xiang said excitedly. "Are you doing well now? Why did you come to our village?"
"Well, I know the Yang family in your village, so I came to take a look."
"You know someone from my family, so why not come over to my house? My mother will be surprised to see you." Mai Xiang laughed non-stop, grabbing Gu Ran's hand and pulling him towards the house: "Come on, you can come visit me."
"Okay, I'll talk to Aunt He first."
After informing Aunt He, Gu Ran followed Mai Xiang to the Mai family.
As expected, Aunt Mai saw Gu Ran suddenly appear and showed the same shocked expression as Mai Xiang: "Yes, it's Gu Er Niang? Are you, are you the Gu Er Niang we met at... at Qingyi?"
"Yes, it's me, Aunt Mai. It's been a while, and you're still the same."
"It's not the same as before. It's not like before. We are having a great time today!" Aunt Mai smiled and called into the house: "Dad, come and see who is coming to our house today.
"
"Who is it?"
It wasn't just Uncle Mai who popped his head out of the house, but also Mai Dong. They were both stunned for a long time, not daring to recognize her: "Mother, who is she?"
"Hey, it's Gu Er Niang, Gu Er Niang!" Aunt Mai laughed loudly, "It's Gu Er Niang who treated us to rabbit meat and taught us how to catch rabbits!"
"ah!"
“It’s you!”
"It's that Gu Erniang!"
Uncle Mai and Mai Dong ran out of the house, walked up to Gu Er Niang, and looked at her with curiosity.
"Oh, Gu Er Niang, you seem to look different from before. I don't even dare to recognize you." Mai Dong said with a grin.
"What's the difference? It's still me!" Gu Ran also laughed.
"That must mean you're living a comfortable life now, without having to suffer like you did back then."
"That's right, you too!" Gu Ran looked around the Mai family's house. "So you guys settled down here and now live in such a nice house. You must have made a lot of money, right?"
"Hey, what's the connection? This house isn't ours yet!" Aunt Mai waved her hands. "We haven't even built a house yet. We rented it from the village chief."
"That's good too, at least I have a place to stay!"
"But my parents are saving money. We're going to build a big house in the village someday." Mai Xiang carried the water to the kitchen and poured it into the water tank. She came over to greet her, "You want a big house like theirs, right, Mom?"
"That's right. We need our own house. It's comfortable and we can do whatever we want in it." Aunt Mai and her husband nodded. "What about you? Second Aunt Gu, which village do you live in now?"
"My village is far from here. I have to go to the prefectural capital, then take a boat to our county seat. I have to take another boat, and it takes at least half an hour to walk along the mountain road to the ferry." Gu Ran said, "If I take the water route, it will take a whole day!"
"Wow, that's quite far."
"Then why did you come to our village?"
Gu Ran then told him about the Yang family's affairs in Nanyu Village.
"The Yang family, yes. I heard that one of their daughters married to Yongchang County. So that's your city!"
"yes!"
"So, you're cooperating with the Yang family in the village to make a living?"
"I never thought you were so capable, Gu Erniang. You've only been here for a short time, but you're already doing business with the locals."
Aunt Mai and Uncle Mai were surprised.
"It's just a small business, earning some money to make a living." Gu Ran waved his hand and said modestly.
"Don't tell me, no matter where you are, doing some small business will earn you more than just digging in the fields." Mai Dong interjected, "I, too, want to find a way to do business later!"
"What are you bragging about? You're no match for me!" Uncle Mai knocked his son on the head. "Let's first reclaim our wasteland and cultivate it."
"That's right. We barely made it through last year. This year we have to be tight on food. The autumn harvest is almost here. You'd better put those thoughts aside for now." Aunt Mai also scolded.
Ophiopogon japonicus is silent.
Gu Ran just remembered that, yes, when these exiles first arrived at their place of settlement, they were only given ten acres of land. Fortunately for her, she hired people from the village to farm the land, and there was only one person in the village.
But the Mai family has four people, and after paying the autumn tax from the ten acres of land, there is not much left.
Moreover, this year is already the second year, and each member of their family has to reclaim ten acres of wasteland, which means forty acres in total. It is a huge responsibility.
If she had some spare money, she could just hire someone to open the business. But seeing that the Mai family couldn't even build their own house when they arrived in Nanyu Village, she was afraid that this wouldn't work and she would have to do it herself.
But this was not his own business, so Gu Ran did not care. After exchanging pleasantries for a while, Aunt Mai and her family invited Gu Ran to have breakfast with them. Gu Ran thought that it was a rare opportunity to come to Nanyu Village, and it was fate to meet acquaintances with whom he had a friendship in exile, so he agreed.
"Now that we're in Nanyu Village, we know how to cook the local food. Just wait, I'll treat you to some of the special pancakes here," Aunt Mai said proudly.
"That would be great."
"Then I'll help too."
The Mai family’s breakfast is very simple, just a pot of multi-grain vegetable porridge, but the freshly made pancakes that Aunt Mai brought out looked quite large.
Gu Ran recognized that this was a kind of flatbread from Fujian that Aunt Mai had learned to make, similar to Roujiamo.
But the difference is that what is sandwiched between the two pieces of golden fried dough is not meat, but fried oyster meat.
When she was searching for delicious food in the small restaurants in the county town and stocking up, she had seen these oyster cakes, each one filled with food, placed in a basket on the counter.
The dough is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, and very chewy.
The oyster meat inside is fried until fragrant and delicious.
It is a great pleasure to take a bite of this oyster cake and drink a sip of porridge.
Gu Ran and Mai Xiang's family finished breakfast. Everyone else went out to do their work, so she got up and said goodbye. Aunt Mai asked Mai Xiang to take Gu Ran back to the Yang family.
"It's just a two-step walk, no need."
"Well, it's just a two-step walk. It's no big deal if I send you off."
Aunt Mai saw Mai Xiang hesitating and reached out to push her daughter.
Mai Xiang was originally reluctant to leave, but after being pushed by her mother, she immediately moved closer to Gu Ran: "Sister Gu, I'm here to see you off and have a chat while I'm here!"
What are you talking about?
It tells the story of how the Mai family first came to Nanyu Village and settled down. Then, the family worked hard to fertilize the ten acres of land given by the government, and then learned to plow the soil and harrow the ridges like the people here, and then dug canals to divert water, and learned to grow rice little by little.
"We've planted two crops of rice now, so we've finally learned how to plant and fill the rice. The rice is really good," Mai Xiang said happily. "Although there wasn't much left after delivering the late rice last year, we've planted a lot this year, so we'll be able to have more rice to eat later."
When Maixiang's family lived in Zhengzhou, few people could afford to grow rice, and they had never planted it before, so they had to learn from scratch.
Fortunately, I have always been a farmer and have done a lot of farm work. Even though I am not familiar with it, I learn quickly.
Moreover, people in Zhengzhou used to not have enough food to eat, but now they grow their own rice. Of course, they hope that one day they can eat rice as their staple food like the local people.
In other words, Mai Jia is still eating coarse grains at the moment, unlike her, who has already achieved rice freedom early on.
Because they wanted to grow more rice and produce more millet, the Mai family worked very hard to reclaim wasteland. Last year, they reclaimed 20 acres of land for cultivation, and this year they reclaimed 30 acres for cultivation.
Ten acres have been opened this year, and only ten acres are left to be opened, but we are also working on it.
“Sister Gu, is your land open?”
Gu Ran shook his head.
Why, she hasn’t even had her turn to plow the horse yet!
"Sister Gu, you'd better ask the village chief. It's much easier for us to open up wasteland than it was back home. You can ask the village chief to rent a horse and some farm tools, and he can help you do it." Mai Xiang chuckled, "But we still need to prepare some money to hire people. Most of our mother's money is spent on hiring people to open up wasteland and farming."
Well, it turns out that this is the reason why the Mai family couldn’t build their own house.
"Sister Gu, what is the name of the village where you live? When can I visit your village?" Mai Xiang asked.
"Okay, I live in Xiaxi Village."
Gu Ran recounted the journey from Xiaxi Village to Nanyu Village. "However, the two villages we live in are too far apart. If you really want to come and see me, you'd better be careful on the way."
Mai Xiang nodded.
"Sister Gu, you are so amazing. You dare to divorce your husband's family and stop being the daughter-in-law of the prime minister. You can still live a good life on your own." Mai Xiang looked at Gu Ran and said enviously.
"But you still have your mother and father by your side. It's good for your family to live in harmony."
Mai Xiang pursed her lips, wanting to say something but stopping herself. When she reached the door of the Yang family, Yang's second aunt looked at Mai Xiang and shouted, "Oh, it's Xiang Xiang from the Mai family!"
"Hello, Second Aunt, I'm here to bring Sister Gu back." Mai Xiang said awkwardly.
"So, you, Gu Er Niang, know Xiangxiang's family? Acquaintances?" Aunt Yang asked curiously.
"Yes, we are quite familiar with them." Gu Ran patted Mai Xiang's shoulder gently, "Xiang Xiang and her family have just moved to this village. If it is convenient for your family, Aunt Yang, you have to take care of them!"
When Mai Xiang heard this, she lowered her head in embarrassment.
"Why do they need us to take care of them? Xiangxiang's family is so hardworking. They knew how to work the fields and cultivate the land right away. They learned how to grow rice from us very quickly." Aunt Yang laughed. "Don't worry, Aunt Gu. There aren't many bad people in our village. They've been here for a while. Xiangxiang, you tell me, right?"
Mai Xiang glanced quickly at Aunt Yang and nodded.
It happened that Aunt He, He Qinghuan and the others were about to leave, so Mai Xiang sent them to the village entrance. When they parted, she was reluctant to leave: "Sister Gu, if you have time, please come and see us!"
"Okay!" Gu Ran nodded in agreement, looked at Mai Xiang with pity, and went back to the provincial capital with Aunt He and the others in a donkey cart.
When they returned to Jianzhou Prefecture, Gu Ran signed the contract with He Qinghuan and Uncle Yang, and went to the government office to wait for the case to be entered.
Because Old Man Yang had just started growing the herb and couldn't supply it, if the shop in the city was to open, the He family would have to use the dried herb bought from Gu Ran to cook the herb.
In order to ensure that the store and the stall would not be out of stock, Gu Ran went into the forest again, dug up the remaining konjac, and picked all the fairy grass that could be picked. After drying them, he sent them all to the county town.
Gu Ran also told He Qinghuan about several other frozen products that can be sold together with roasted grass jelly: milky grass jelly jelly with milk, sweet roasted grass jelly with honey, fragrant roasted grass jelly with lentils and longans, and various bean ingredients can be mixed and sold, so seven or eight different flavors of roasted grass jelly can be launched at once.
Konjac can be sold alone or added to grass jelly to add another flavor.
However, since it was a new product, it was first trial-sold at the stall, and the effect was quite good, so it was officially included as one of the snacks in the new store.
Like the fairy grass, planting konjac should also be put on the agenda.
However, knowing that the current production of konjac is still small, we plan to limit the supply, so as to whet the appetite of diners and perhaps attract a wave of customers who are interested in konjac desserts.
Because He Qinghuan had already started planning to open the store. Once the ingredients are fully prepared, the store will be ready for opening in late July.
As one of the partners, Gu Ran naturally went as well.
Because of the presence of Uncle Yang as the manager, a lot of customers were attracted. In addition, many merchants who frequently traveled between Fucheng Port and Yongchang County had already tasted the taste of roasted grass jelly and became old customers. When they saw the opening sign of the roasted grass jelly store at Fucheng Port, they also came to patronize it spontaneously.
He Qinghuan even took a special break and went to the port with his cousin Yang to solicit customers and promote the product, with excellent results.
After all, roasted grass jelly and konjac desserts are new delicacies in the port of the city. The merchants who love to try new things and have no shortage of money also came to He's grass jelly shop if they could find a place to rest.
Well, their restaurant is called He’s Herbal Juice Shop.
So on the first day, guests came in droves.
Gu Ran, who was helping to greet the diners, and Uncle Yang, who had specially put down his chores to maintain law and order in his own store on this day, were both quite satisfied with the crowded scene inside and outside the store.
It seems that we will make a lot of money today.
Sure enough, after closing the business that day, they calculated the revenue and found that they had already made a profit of two taels of silver on the first day of opening, which made the partners laugh out loud.
The same thing happened for the next two days. After the sixth day, the flow of people gradually slowed down, but I could still make a steady profit of about one or two taels of silver.
Taking the minimum value, one tael a day, then ten taels for ten days, and thirty taels for thirty days.
Even if it is the peak period when the business just opened, if converted into an ordinary store, it would definitely cost more than thirty taels of silver a month.
Excluding the taxes and rents paid to the government office, one can still earn more than twenty taels, which is quite impressive.
Gu Ran calculated that he could get at least four or five taels of silver a month, which meant that he had doubled the rent he invested, and he was very satisfied.
The share from this store, plus the fixed profits from the two stalls in the county town, and the money from selling fairy grass and konjac, is estimated to be able to maintain at least six taels of silver per month. As long as the He family business continues, she can live a comfortable life just by lying down and collecting money without doing anything else.
very nice!
After returning to Xiaxi Village, Gu Ran became particularly interested in tending to the fairy grass and konjac.
From now on, this will be the guy she feeds, so she has to serve him carefully.
However, the Yang family has taken over the cultivation of fairy grass, and after harvesting so many small tubers of konjac, they need to find a place to plant them.
Gu Ran thought of the ten acres of wasteland that he still had to reclaim.
If it blooms, wouldn’t it be great to use it to grow konjac?
The red-stamped land deed that was obtained from the government after the wasteland was measured was taken back by Village Chief Wu for herself, but she said that there were many people renting oxen and farm tools at that time, so she was not assigned one and had to wait for the second round.
Gu Ran was not in a hurry to open up the land, so he just waited quietly.
I didn’t expect that there is still no news until now.
So Gu Ran decided to go and ask.
The head of the Donglin Township is surnamed Weng, an old man over forty years old.
He is the old head of the village who is in charge of the affairs of five villages including Donglin Township, and he exudes majesty.
Gu Ran had never dealt with Village Chief Weng before, but there had been an incident before where hunters from Donglin Township broke into her small house and stole things, so Village Chief Weng had an impression of her.
"Is it Gu Erniang from Xiaxi Village?"
"That's right. I just wanted to ask. I paid a deposit to rent a plow horse and farm tools. There were so many people there at the time, so I didn't get a turn. I wonder if there are still many people now? If not, could you, the village head, help me arrange some first?"
"To rent a plow-horse!"
Village Chief Weng looked at her, glanced at the several books on the desk, picked up a book and flipped through it. After reading it, he said, "The plow horses and farm tools have all been rented out for the time being. You can go back now. When the arrangements are made, I will tell your village chief Wu, okay?"
"Isn't it my turn yet?"
"Yes, there are only a few plow horses, but they have to supply five villages. There are many people renting them. You haven't got a turn yet, so you can only wait!"
Hearing what the head of the village, Weng, said, Gu Ran was helpless.
Okay, anyway, konjac is a limited snack now, and we don’t make much every day, so there’s no rush, just keep waiting!
When I was about to go back, I thought that since I was already here, I might as well go to the market to see what I could buy. So I walked around the Donglin Township market, bought some goods, and then walked back to Xiaxi Village.
Before he approached the cottage, Gu Ran saw a carriage parked in front of his yard from afar. He was puzzled, and then he was happy: Could it be Liu Niang coming back?
Thinking of this, Gu Ran quickened his pace. Only when he eagerly reached the cottage did he see the person clearly.
Not Liu Niang.
"Gu Erniang! You're finally back?"
"What a rare guest, Xu Sanlang, how did you suddenly find time to come to Xiaxi Village?"
The person who came was Xu San, who was sitting on a stone bench under the osmanthus tree with Manager Xu who had been to her house before. It seemed that they had been waiting for a while.
"I came to Donglin Township and happened to be passing by Xiaxi Village, so I stopped by to see you."
"What a coincidence! I just came back from Donglin Township as well." Gu Ran opened the door to the small house and welcomed Xu San and Manager Xu in. "It's rare for you to come in person, Xu San. Did you close some big deal in Donglin Township?"
"Tsk, don't mention it!"
When it comes to big business, both Xu San and Manager Xu look gloomy.
After Gu Ran brewed tea, brought out the almost, and sat in the patio to chat slowly, they learned that Xu San had gone to Donglin Township for the Liu family's orange grove.
At the beginning, Xu San paid a large sum of money in advance for the Liu family's autumn orange harvest.
It was the season when orange trees were in bloom. Xu San and Manager Xu also went to inspect the Liu family's orange orchard in person. Seeing the orange trees all over the mountains and the orange blossoms covering the snow-covered fields, they thought that this year's orange harvest was sure to be good, so they made such a generous advance payment.
It is now August, the time when the orange flowers have faded and the trees are bearing small fruits.
But bad news came from the Liu family's orange orchard: for some unknown reason, the Liu family's orange trees did not bear fruit this year.
"This is really strange. The orange flowers are blooming so luxuriantly, but now they don't produce any fruit. It's unheard of." Xu San sighed, his brows furrowed. "I've asked around a few times and I'm sure the Liu family's oranges have always been in good condition. But this year, something so strange happened to me. It's really unlucky."
Gu Ran was stunned.
"real?"
Xu San and Manager Xu both nodded.
"This is a big deal, why would I lie to you?"
"That's not right. The Liu family had a very good orange harvest last year. I even went to their house to pick oranges!"
"We didn't believe it either, but we just went to check today and there's really no result. I also ordered a large quantity of Liu's oranges because they have a good reputation. Now it's all over."
Xu Sanshi ordered the earliest batch of tangerines and planned to ship them back to the north immediately in late autumn.
Now that this has happened, first of all, each family has a fixed number of tangerines, which are usually reserved early like Xu San's. Now if it changes, I don't know if I can find a large number of tangerines with good appearance, good taste and early maturity.
None of the three can be missing.
First of all, if you spend a lot of money to buy oranges shipped to the north, you have to ensure the quality. Otherwise, if you spend a lot of effort to transport them to Zhengzhou or Beijing, but they can't be sold because of the bad taste, then you will lose money.
The second is early-maturing varieties of oranges.
The south cools down slowly, so the waterways are open until November, but this is not the case in the north.
Often, inland or offshore waterways in the north begin to freeze in October, so oranges should be transported from the south to the north as early as possible. Even after traveling through the unfrozen waterways in the south, it is necessary to immediately change to land transportation. If this is delayed further, the more waterways that are closed, the more time will be spent on land transportation, and the slower the transportation will be.
Citrus fruits are not something that can be kept fresh for a long time. Even when the temperature drops, they must be transported to their destination as quickly as possible to maintain their optimal taste.
If Xu San wanted to sell a batch of oranges at a high price, he naturally had to ship them back before the New Year so that he could make a big profit.
Therefore, he was forced to choose the first batch of Fukuman oranges that ripened in the south. Not to mention, perhaps there were buyers in the north who had already reserved a batch of Fukuman oranges from him and paid a deposit.
Now that he saw that the Liu family’s lucky oranges were in short supply, he naturally felt that the situation was difficult.
"Has anyone looked at it?"
"We've looked for several old farmers who have been growing oranges for many years, but they haven't found the cause yet." Xu San stroked his forehead.
Gu Ran suddenly remembered: "I seem to remember that there was a family growing oranges in Donglin Township. It seems that their orchard didn't produce oranges last year."
Xu San and Manager Xu were both stunned for a moment.
"Which one?"
"Well, I heard it was the family in Donglin Township that followed the Liu family in growing oranges? I only heard about it once, but I can't remember it." Gu Ran said, "Before you asked someone to order oranges, you asked around in the villages about the families that grow oranges, right? Haven't you heard of them?"
"I……"
"My dear, it's the Zhu family." Manager Xu also remembered and said excitedly, "Yes, it's the Zhu family!"
"Zhu family? Why haven't I heard you mention it?"
"Because the Zhu family's orange trees didn't bear fruit last year, I naturally didn't report this to you, my lord. I wasn't sure if their orange trees would bear fruit normally this year, so when I placed the order, I naturally excluded this family."
"His orchard didn't produce any fruit last year. What about this year?" Gu Ran asked Manager Xu.
"I didn't notice."
"Then you can go ask the Zhu family. If their orange trees bore fruit last year and they bear fruit this year, maybe they have found the cause of the disease. If they still don't bear fruit this year, you can ask them or ask an experienced farmer to find out what's going on and whether it can be cured." Gu Ran suggested.
"Yes, yes, I'll ask right away."
Fortunately, Xiaxi Village is not far from Donglin Township, so Manager Xu immediately drove a horse-drawn carriage to find the Zhu family. An hour later, he reported: The Zhu family’s orange trees did not bear fruit this year!
"Not cured?"
It seems that it is not cured.
"Has anyone figured out what the reason is?"
"No, I've asked the Zhu family. They say that Master Zhu has consulted many people over the past two years, but still can't figure out why the orange trees aren't bearing fruit." Steward Xu shook his head. "And this year, the Zhu family's orange trees were in full bloom, but even after the flowers faded, there were still no fruits, just like last year."
"Hey, isn't this similar to the Liu family's orange tree this year? It also has a lot of flowers but no fruits." Xu San was surprised.
"The people from the Zhu family said the same thing when they heard about the Liu family."
"That's not right. How could it happen to both families one after another?"
Gu Ran, whose family used to run an orange orchard, also fell silent.
This is a bit like the cause of the disease in the Zhu family's orange trees spreading to the Liu family's orange orchard, causing many flowers to bloom but no fruits to be produced. She has heard of several types, but she can only know which one it is by seeing it with her own eyes.
"Well, can I go to the Liu and Zhu family's orange orchards?" Gu Ran asked.
Xu San and Manager Xu looked at Gu Ran together.
"Why? You want to go on this journey?"
"I want to go and take a look. Maybe I know what's going on with this orange tree?" Gu Ran said uncertainly.
After all, when the family had an orange orchard, it was taken care of by her parents, and she had only heard and seen about it and knew a little bit of the details.
"Would you take care of an orange tree? Have you ever planted one?"
"I've never planted one, but I've heard a lot about the symptoms of orange trees not bearing fruit. Perhaps I just happen to know." Gu Ran smiled to hide his guilty conscience, and then pointed to the red orange tree next to him: "Look, I have an orange tree at home, so I know a little bit."
Xu San and Manager Xu both turned to look at the red tangerine tree.
It was obviously a well-cared-for orange tree.
The flowers gradually withered and produced thumb-sized fruits.
It seems that what Gu Er Niang said makes sense?
Seeing that Xu San and his servant were still skeptical, Gu Ran added, "As for that konjac sauce, I've also heard of it, so I was able to make it by imitation!"
Xu San looked at Gu Ran steadily for a long time, then raised his hand and said, "Okay, I have to go to Liu's house anyway, so it's not a problem for me to take you with me." He might as well try it out.
Although we wanted to go to Liu's Orange Garden, it was already late outside, so we could only go the next day.
That night, Xu San and Manager Xu planned to spend the night in Xiaxi Village.
Gu Ran was the only one living in the Gu family's small house, and the only vacant room was a side wing, so Xu San and his servant had to squeeze in for the night. Xu San pointed to the west wing and asked, "Isn't that room empty?"
Gu Ran also glanced at the west wing: "That's for Pei Liuniang to live in."
When Xu San heard this, he did not forget who Pei Liuniang was, so he obediently agreed to live in the side room.
Gu Ran also took out two mats for Manager Xu and made sleeping mats for him and the guards.
Xu San is considered to be Gu Ran's major customer. In recent days, the business done with Xu San is the most and the most profitable. Naturally, he has to hold on to this thigh well, so if he lets them stay overnight, he naturally has to treat them well.
Only if this relationship is established well can sustainable development be achieved in the future!
Originally, Gu Ran planned to take food out directly from the workshop, but then she thought that Xu San had been to the county town many times and had probably eaten food in restaurants like Zuiyuelou. He wanted to taste the same food as in the county town. Food would go bad if left for too long these days, and she couldn't explain what was going on, so she gave up the idea and cooked a meal herself.
Whenever Xu San went out, besides a steward, there was also a coachman and two guards, all of whom did heavy labor and had big appetites, so Gu Ran simply gave them rice as the staple food, which was enough to keep them full.
Anyway, the autumn harvest is approaching and the early rice will have a good harvest. She can buy a new batch of rice and will not have to worry about the shortage of rice.
There are many people, so the food is simple:
For the main dish, I'll make steamed chicken with bamboo fungus;
The side dishes were a dish of raw fish fillet and a dish of braised wild rice stem;
As for the soup, taro is freshly on the market now, so you can make taro mushroom soup.
Cut bamboo fungus steamed chicken into pieces, put bamboo fungus at the bottom and chicken pieces on top, it can be steamed in less than a quarter of an hour.
To make fish sashimi, just use fresh river fish, slice it and place it on a plate filled with ice.
Wild rice stem is a seasonal vegetable at this time, just wash it and slice it.
To make taro mushroom soup, just prepare the ingredients, put them into the soup pot, and then pay attention to the heat.
So Gu Ran quickly prepared three dishes and a soup.
Because Xu San was very particular, they had two tables, she and Xu San at one table, and Manager Xu with the groom and two guards at another table. But the order of eating was reversed: there were more people at Manager Xu's table, so he was called to the hall to eat, while Gu Ran and Xu □□ ate at the tea table in the courtyard.
In order to make the dining environment more relaxing, Gu Ran pretended to move two pots of icebergs from the warehouse above the kitchen, placing one pot in the hall and the other next to the patio.
The weather is hot, and although I specially made a plate of cool fish sashimi, how can it be as comfortable as enjoying the iceberg air conditioning?
Gu Ran doesn't want to put himself in a difficult position.
Xu San and others who had dinner in such an environment were obviously very pleased.
"I didn't realize you had cooking skills, Gu Erniang." Xu San smiled as he fanned himself and sipped his freshly brewed tea. "You could even open a restaurant and be a chef."
"Ha, that won't do." Gu Ran also took a sip of tea, "Being a chef is a job, and cooking is a hobby."
If you work for a long time, you will inevitably lose interest. Now is the perfect time. If you want to cook, you can cook. If you don’t want to cook, you can just go out to a restaurant or buy some food to fill your stomach. It’s very comfortable.
Xu San smiled and said nothing.
Nothing happened that night, and the next day they went straight to the Liu family orange orchard in Donglin Township.
When they arrived at the Liu family farm where they had been to pick oranges last year, Xu San and Manager Xu went to negotiate directly with the Liu family, and were then invited into the orange orchard by the manager she had met.
In the orange orchard that was full of oranges last year, the mountain of orange trees is still growing vigorously, but compared with the lush green in my memory, the color seems to be much dimmer.
Gu Ran's heart skipped a beat.
When you get closer and look carefully, you will find that the leaves on the fruit trees, especially the fruiting branches - that is, the branches that usually bear oranges, are more or less withered and yellow.
It's not just one plant, it's every plant.
In severe cases, all the leaves on an entire fruiting branch turned yellow.
This is clearly the phenomenon of yellowing branches and leaves.
After spending a day looking at all the orange trees on the mountain, Gu Ran determined that half of the trees in the orange orchard showed this chlorosis. Among them, more than half of the branches and leaves had become mottled with green and yellow, and many of the remaining trees had turned completely yellow with no green left.
She looked more and more like she was waiting for death, thinking about how the Liu family's orange orchard could still produce a good harvest last year, but the Zhu family's orange orchard had no fruit at all, and the same was true for the Zhu family this year. She was afraid that the news had spread from the Zhu family's orange orchard to here.
So I went to visit Zhu's orange orchard again.
When he saw that the orange trees in the Zhu family orange orchard were also showing more serious yellowing, and even heard that the new leaves of the orange trees in the spring of this year were also yellow, and even cutting off the yellowed branches could not save the orange trees and restore the branches and leaves to green, Gu Ran could basically conclude that the Zhu family orange orchard and the Liu family orange orchard had the same problem.
This was the most difficult pest and disease that she often heard her parents mention when she was running her family's orange orchard in her early life.
Huanglongbing.
She thought that Huanglongbing only existed in the early world, but she didn't expect to encounter it in the orange orchard of the prosperous dynasty.
Huanglong means the yellowing of citrus branches, also known as yellow tip disease.
This is a bacterial virus. Citrus fruits infected with Huanglongbing are equivalent to having cancer. The entire orange tree - whether it is the roots, stems or leaves, will be infected with the pathogen. Even in the early days, Huanglongbing was uncontrollable. The most effective way to eliminate the lesions after the disease broke out was to cut down and burn all the orange trees that had this symptom.
My parents were also very afraid of Huanglongbing disease. Every year they would spend a lot of manpower and resources on early prevention and control, and be wary of any orange tree that might develop this kind of mutation.
It is said that this disease once spread around the world and was regarded as an agricultural terrorist attack by a certain country. It even caused another tropical country to lose at least 800,000 citrus trees in just four years.
Yes, citrus trees.
Huanglongbing is only contagious among citrus trees, such as mandarin oranges, tangerines, and grapefruits. If Huanglongbing breaks out in an area, all citrus trees of the same type will be infected with the disease if it is not properly handled.
According to the current situation, the disease first occurred in the Zhu family orange orchard, and in less than a year, it spread to the Liu family orange orchard.
Originally, if the citrus trees had been dealt with in time when the disease broke out in the Zhu family orange orchard, the disease might have been suppressed. However, the fact that it was able to spread to the Liu family orange orchard meant that there must have been a medium that allowed the Huanglongbing disease in the Zhu family orange orchard to infect the Liu family orange orchard.
And this medium is most likely the psyllid.
There are many types of psyllids, which usually parasitize on trees and feed on tree sap. The one that likes to parasitize on citrus trees is called citrus psyllid.
If a citrus tree is infected with Huanglongbing, the Huanglongbing cause will sneak into the body of the citrus psyllid when it sucks the juice. When the citrus psyllid flies to another tree, it will bring the Huanglongbing cause to the other tree. This will happen repeatedly, and the citrus psyllid will spread the Huanglongbing cause to the entire citrus grove.
These citrus psyllids are particularly fond of sucking fresh juice, so the newly sprouted orange branches every year will be the first to be infected and destroyed by them.
The most troublesome thing is that the winters in Fujian are not cold, so these psyllid eggs carrying the cause of Huanglong disease will not freeze to death even after a winter, so they will come back again in the spring of the following year.
Citrus trees infected with Huanglongbing will easily wither and their roots will rot, so the soil buried underground will also be contaminated by the disease, which will aggravate the symptoms of Huanglongbing. This is why people are helpless against citrus trees infected with Huanglongbing. They can only cut down and burn large areas of citrus trees, or even plow and burn the soil. It will take decades to restore the diseased soil to health.
In order to confirm this, Gu Ran asked the Zhu family to send people to the orange orchard for a long time, and soon caught a lot of citrus psyllids on the fruiting branches.
After hearing Gu Ran talk about the reason why his orange trees were turning yellow and withering, Zhu Dongjia, who was looking at the psyllid, was stunned for a long time, and then said: "Last year, our orange trees didn't bear fruit, and we thought it was just an orange tree insect infestation. But this year, the leaves of the oranges planted in our other garden also started to turn yellow, and we thought..."
Everyone was shocked, so they went to see the oranges planted by the Zhu family and found that as expected, half of the orange trees had turned yellow.
"There are fewer oranges this year, more than half as many as last year," Zhu Dongjia said dejectedly. "It's the same as the tangerine trees. Is it infected with that yellow tip disease?"
According to Gu Ran's common sense, the word "dragon" cannot be used casually in the Great Sheng Dynasty, so Gu Ran did not tell them that this was Huanglong disease, but only said it was Huangtiao disease.
"That's right, this orange is just like the tangerine tree. It probably won't bear fruit next year."
"What should we do then?"
"There's nothing to do."
Even in the first world, there was no effective treatment for Huanglongbing. "These orange trees are sick from root to tip. They are useless. Let's cut them all down!"
"All, all cut down?" Zhu Dongjia gasped. He looked at his oranges, then at the vast expanse of orange trees in the orchard, feeling extremely distressed. "So many trees, are we going to cut them all down?"
"If we don't cut it down, will there be any use in keeping it?" Gu Ran asked back.
I wish the boss to remain silent.
"You didn't cut down the trees last year when they were sick. So, aren't you leaving them this year without any oranges? Not only is it a waste of manpower and resources, but it's also spreading the disease to the orange trees. You might as well not cut them down. Leaving these orange trees alone will only serve as a breeding ground for psyllids, which will then plague all the surrounding citrus trees year after year."
Zhu Dongjia looked at the orange tree that had suffered and sighed deeply.
Ever since the orange tree stopped bearing fruit, he had asked many old farmers to come and look at it, but no one could figure out the reason. Today, this Gu Er Niang told him the cause of the disease. Although he was skeptical at first, she predicted all the symptoms of the orange tree's disease, and even the condition of his orange tree.
No one knows the situation of this orange grove better than him.
Last year the orange tree did not bear fruit, and I thought it would be saved this year after treatment. However, this year the orange tree still did not bear fruit, and the orange tree also developed a similar disease.
There was really no point in keeping this orange grove. He would have to hire workers to water and fertilize it, and it would take a lot of effort to look after it.
If this continues, you won't make any money, but will have to pay a lot of money out of pocket.
When doing business, if you can lose once or twice, can you be willing to lose three times?
Moreover, according to her, the reason why the Liu family's orange orchard did not bear fruit this year was also because the disease was transmitted from their own orange orchard.
He didn't quite understand the mechanism of the citrus psyllid disease, but he did know that human lice could infect humans. In other words, if he continued to keep his own orange orchard, sooner or later the infection would spread to other orange trees around it.
This is simply a disaster!
Zhu Dongjia stared blankly at the orange grove for a long time before he said quietly, "Okay, Second Lady Gu, tell me how to destroy this orange grove and manage the soil on this mountain."
"Not only this orange grove, but also your orange trees must be destroyed as soon as possible."
"Those who are sick?"
"We need to take it for everyone, whether they are sick or not, just in case." This is to prevent any fish from slipping through the net.
The next day, Gu Ran heard that the Zhu family had started organizing people to cut down and burn the fruit trees in their own orange orchard.
Those who didn't know the inside story sighed.
Soon, word of this spread to the Liu family. Liu Dongjia's eyelids twitched: "What? Are they saying that all the orange trees in my yard have to be cut down? Whose reason is this?"
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