Chapter 440 Completed
Before the Lunar New Year, the division headquarters sent twenty lambs, each at least three months old, to the 18th Regiment.
Goat hair is short and coarse, so it doesn't look like it produces a lot of wool, while sheep wool looks like it produces a lot.
Song Lubai became the head of the new business office, but she wasn't alone. Wei Yang brought in three more people, two men and one woman, to be in charge of collecting wool and goat milk from Uyghur villages. He also went to a nearby Uyghur village to find the village chief and brought back a Uyghur family, assigning a Uyghur man with herding experience to take care of the twenty lambs.
The sheepfold was quickly built, and the Uyghur Balang family lived near it.
The Han and Uyghur peoples do not speak the same language and have very different customs. They each live in their own "villages". Song Lubai has to find a craftsman to learn how to make milk curds.
She had been learning Uyghur for the past few years, but she wasn't particularly proficient. So Wei Yang found Pang Fei, a young man who worked in a government agency and was fluent in both languages, and another male colleague to accompany Song Lubai.
Going to the village was risky, and Wei Yang was worried, but he had other things to do and couldn't go with them, so he asked three male comrades from the armed forces department to go with him.
Pang Fei's father is Han Chinese and his mother is Uyghur. His appearance is somewhat different from that of Han Chinese. His nose is noticeably higher than that of Han Chinese, and his facial features are more defined than those of pure Han Chinese. He can switch freely between Chinese and Uyghur.
Pang Fei has been appointed by Wei Yang as the teacher of Uyghur language in the organization, and he will teach everyone for three hours every week.
There were vendors selling milk curds at the Uyghur bazaar. By asking the Uyghurs selling the milk curds, they found the milk curd workshop in the county.
This county, which is almost entirely populated by Uyghurs, appears to be as poor as a military unit, yet it has large herds of sheep and cattle numbering in the dozens or even hundreds.
"Comrade Pang, ask them later if they're selling their lambs, and how much they're selling them for."
The six found the county's leaders. Pang Fei greeted them in fluent Uyghur, and Song Lubai also greeted them in Uyghur and shook hands with them.
These people were very hospitable and prepared hot tea and naan bread for them.
Under the withered grapevines, Song Lubai, following local customs, took off her shoes and sat down on the kang (a heated brick bed) covered with felt.
Pang Fei was the main speaker in this exchange, and he spoke too fast, so Song Lubai could only understand a few key words.
She could only judge how the talks were going by observing the expressions on both sides' faces.
This was the first time Song Lubai had been so passive. She made up her mind to master Uyghur as soon as possible and study it properly in the future, because she might need it sometime.
"Team leader, they said a lamb costs ten yuan. As for how to make milk curds, either send some grain to the county or give them fifty yuan and they will teach us how to make milk curds."
Song Lubai hadn't intended to take their production method for free, but she felt that fifty yuan was a bit too much.
Pang Fei whispered, "Fifty yuan is too expensive. Maybe I should ask my mom when I get back. She can help me find out. Many Kazakh women know how to make milk curds. I heard it's not complicated. I don't think it's worth fifty yuan."
Milk curds are actually a national delicacy of the Kazakh people, known as "Kurt". During the process of ethnic integration, many Uyghurs have also learned to make milk curds. Pang Fei used to go to visit relatives with her mother and occasionally get to eat milk curds at the homes of her Uyghur relatives.
Song Lubai nodded and said, "Okay, then you can ask for me. Also, can you give me a discount on the price of lambs?"
Pang Fei continued negotiating with the bearded men, and finally Pang Fei said, "They said the lowest price for a three-month-old is eight yuan."
Song Lubai nodded and said, "I think it's getting late. Let's come again next time. Let's head back today."
Seeing that they were about to leave, the bearded men became a little anxious. They were enthusiastic as they were, but when there was a profit to be made, they still wanted to exchange it for some money.
A bearded man grabbed Pang Fei's sleeve and mumbled a bunch of things.
After listening, Pang Fei turned to Song Lubai with a smile and said, "They said twenty yuan is fine, and they can let us go to the workshop to learn."
In the blink of an eye, the price dropped from fifty to twenty.
Song Lubai thought for a moment and then simply said, "Ten yuan, it's fine if it's okay, otherwise forget it."
It's inappropriate to learn from others for nothing, and it's also inappropriate to give too much money, since the troupe doesn't have much money to begin with.
Song Lubai felt that exchanging the price of a lamb for the method of making milk curds was barely acceptable.
She could wait for Pang Fei to ask, but there was no set timeframe for when she could get the information, and it would be more reliable to go to the workshop to learn in person.
Pang Fei and the bearded men argued for a while, and finally the bearded men agreed to ten yuan.
Fearing an accident, none of the six carried much money with them when they went out.
They searched their pockets and scraped together their money, finding that they had only a little over seven yuan in total.
These were considered a deposit; after the money was paid, they were allowed to enter the workshop.
After writing the note, they would send someone to the 18th Regiment to collect the remaining money.
Several women wearing headscarves, with only their eyes showing, were busy working in the workshop.
While asking questions, Pang Fei turned to Song Lubai and told her, and Song Lubai took notes and wrote them down in her notebook.
The method for making milk curds is indeed not complicated. After noting down the process, Song Lubai decided to go back and try it out. If there are any problems, she would have to come back here to learn more.
It was past five o'clock, and it would still be light when they went back. Song Lubai and the others didn't linger and rushed back to the regiment before dark.
The containers used for collecting goat milk were earthenware jars that were used for soy sauce, because they were afraid they would break during the bumpy ride, so the efficiency of collecting goat milk was not high.
Things that look simple are not simple to do; even something as simple as fermentation often causes problems.
Too much milk was wasted, and they never succeeded. In the end, Song Lubai borrowed a woman from a workshop in a Uyghur village and sent her to the 18th Regiment for a month or so to help her teach two other women.
Half a month later, Song Lubai tasted the first batch of milk curds produced in their workshop.
Because a small amount of salt is added during the production process, it tastes slightly salty with a hint of sourness, has a very rich milky flavor, and a very mild goaty smell.
She thought it smelled delicious, but the shape of the milk curds she made wasn't very nice. She needed to make a mold to make the milk curds look better.
Song Lubai took a few pieces of milk curd home and gave one to each of the children.
The rich milky flavor melts in your mouth, and kids absolutely love it.
Song Lubai threw a piece of milk curd into the teacup and stirred it vigorously in boiling water. Once the curd had completely dissolved, she got a cup of milk tea with a rich milky aroma. She added a little white sugar and took a sip. It really tasted just as good as milk powder and malted milk powder.
This is purely a nutritional supplement.
She regrets that although she can now produce the products, the output is a bit low. In the month and a half leading up to the Lunar New Year, the workshop only produced 39 jin (14.5 catties).
But the group traded cabbages and sweet potatoes for eight lambs, so now the group has twenty-eight sheep.
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