That night, the father and son stayed at an inn outside the south gate of Haimen County, which served as a restaurant in the front and a hotel in the back.

Haimen City was actually a defensive city built in the 40th year of Jiajing to defend against the Japanese pirates. The square city wall was two miles long, which was considered too big in this remote place at that time.

Who could have thought that Haimen would develop so fast in the past 20 years? Hundreds of livestock farms and millions of acres of cotton fields have sprung up like mushrooms after rain. Merchants gather in the city all day long, and the carts that come to pull livestock, collect cotton, and buy leather and oil fill the small city of Haimen.

In this place full of martial virtue and safe and worry-free, the center of trade soon moved to the outside of the city. Today, the area outside the South Gate is larger and more prosperous than that inside the city. On the street, there are cotton shops, cloth shops, wool shops, leather shops, butcher shops, live cattle and sheep shops, oil shops, inns, taverns, and brothels lined up one after another.

It was dark now, and the streets were lit up with lanterns of all colors. Merchants, workers, and farmers who had been busy all day came out to shop, eat, and drink, and then play with the sword for a while. If it weren't for the lingering smell of animal feces, you would really think this was a big city.

Hai Rui stared in a trance at the diners who came into the restaurant wearing cotton-padded gowns and fur coats, talking and laughing loudly in different dialects. Hai Zhongping, on the other hand, only stared at the mutton stewing in the big iron pot on the stove, swallowing his saliva.

Haimen mutton soup is known as the best recipe in Tonghai Plain. The goat meat used is a local specialty. The secret lies in fattening the goats after castration. In this way, the goats have no worldly desires and only eat grass quietly every day. They grow fast, and the meat is plump and tender without any smell.

When cooking mutton for soup, generally choose a one-year-old sheep weighing 30 to 40 kilograms with thin bones and strong bones. After blanching a large piece of raw mutton to remove the blood, put it into a large pot of clean water, add simple seasonings such as ginger, onion, radish, and rice wine, and boil it. First boil it over high heat to remove the floating foam, continue to boil it over high heat for a quarter of an hour, and then switch to low heat to cook for about an hour. When the mutton is crispy, take it out, remove the bones while it is hot, keep each part intact, and put them in the basin separately, and do not stack or mix them.

The mutton in the pot should be boiled several times with the original soup, so that the sheepskin facing upward is white and smooth, and there is no bone or meat left in the mutton. Remove the ginger, onion, white radish and other things from the pot, add a little refined salt, boil it, and pour the mutton soup into a clean container for later use.

The shop owner had noticed the young man's greed, and as soon as the meat came out of the pot, he scooped a large bowl, topped it with vermicelli and green vegetables, poured a spoonful of mutton soup, and placed it in front of him. He said in Haimen dialect: "Cut it, if it's not enough, there's more."

Hai Zhongping hurriedly thanked him, then handed the bowl of braised lamb to Hai Rui and asked his father to eat it first.

Seeing that the young man was so greedy and still hadn't forgotten his manners, the shopkeeper couldn't help but laugh and said, "Your father is old, so you should cut some braised ones, which won't tax your teeth."

He then opened another small pot, which also contained roasted mutton, but it was stewed for a longer time with soy sauce, rock sugar and a little mutton fat.

The store owner scooped up a plate of red braised lamb and brought it to the table, and also brought a plate of cold-cut lamb sprinkled with pepper and served with sweet noodle sauce. Hai Rui was about to refuse, but the store owner smiled and said, "Don't worry, father-in-law, these two plates are from me, and they're free."

The diners who were chewing on the sheep's head and sheep's feet nearby started to make a noise, "Boss, can we eat for free too?"

"Dream on." The shopkeeper put another pot of Yinchen Daqu on the table of the father and son and said, "I saw that my father-in-law is getting old and looks more and more friendly. You guys look so fat and you still want me to treat you. That's really crazy!"

The diners laughed and looked at Hai Rui. He looked very familiar, and I felt like I had seen him somewhere before, but I didn't know him...

They all asked the father-in-law where he was from, whether he had been to Haimen before, and whether he was visiting relatives or just passing through during the New Year.

Hai Rui smiled and said that he was from Qiongshan and was passing by here on his way to the north. He had been here once more than 40 years ago.

"Did you eat his mutton soup more than 40 years ago?" A diner laughed and said, "Boss Hu boasted that his restaurant is a century-old brand."

"Hahaha," Hai Rui shook his head and said, "We were so poor back then that we only had dry food and cold water along the way. How could we afford meat?"

"Even if my father-in-law was rich back then, he couldn't have eaten our Hu family's mutton soup." The shopkeeper laughed and said, "How many sheep were there in the whole county at that time? All of them were taken away by the wealthy people in Yangzhou. My grandfather was making mutton for the big salt merchants at that time."

"So, thanks to you, we can also eat the delicious food of the salt merchant?" everyone laughed.

"Haha, I dare not take credit for it." The shopkeeper laughed and said, "To put it bluntly, it is because I can make money doing business in my hometown that I can open this shop back home."

"That's right. You sell it so expensively. We couldn't afford it back then." The diners nodded and said, "Damn it. At that time, we were thankful to have a full meal all year round. Eating meat? You're dreaming!"

As he said this, he took a big bite of the greasy sheep's head to avenge his previous poverty.

"There aren't that many sheep for you to eat." The shop owner sighed.

"It seems that a lot has changed in the past ten years." Hai Rui smiled and twirled his beard.

"Big, very big!" Everyone nodded. A diner in his forties said with emotion, "The hard life that has remained the same for generations has suddenly become different!"

"Yes, I feel like I have something to gain," an old man in his fifties said loudly, waving the sheep's hoof in his hand, "I feel full of energy!"

"The main thing is to eat meat..." someone joked.

"Hahahaha!" the diners burst into laughter.

At this moment, the door curtain was suddenly lifted, and a figure with a cold air came in suddenly, threw something on the counter, and then went out suddenly.

The diners were used to it, and one of them said to the waiter with a smile: "Today's daily newspaper is here, read it out to me!"

Hai Rui then realized that the person who just came in was a newspaper delivery boy. He couldn't help but ask in surprise, "Can we see today's edition of Jiangnan Daily here?"

As the official newspaper of Jiangnan Newspaper Group, Jiangnan Daily can be seen even in overseas administrative regions. However, most of the news was published several days ago, or even last month. Only the Suzhou and Songjiang areas can see the news of the day.

"It's just across the Yangtze River." The store owner explained, "We will leave from Taicang in the morning and cross the river. If you're lucky, you'll arrive in the county on the same day. If you're unlucky, you'll have to wait until the next day."

"It's because the county has so many newspaper orders that they deliver it so quickly." Someone said depressedly: "Our farm is only ten miles away from here, but they won't deliver it."

"There are dozens of people on your farm, and you only order one newspaper. Of course they won't deliver it!" The shopkeeper laughed and scolded, "If you deliver too much, it will be a sign to the sheep!"

"The meat of sheep that have read the newspaper may taste better." The shepherd joked.

"Stop talking nonsense, Qian, and read the newspaper quickly to see if there's anything new." The diners urged him.

"Okay." The clerk picked up the newspaper and cleared his throat. The noisy lobby immediately became quiet.

"Today's front-page headline is - the 4th and 5th Five-Year Plan has entered the final sprint stage!"

"With the successful conclusion of the 20th anniversary conference, the Group's 4th Five-Year Plan has also entered its final year. Over the past four years, all companies, departments and overseas regions of the Group have been forging ahead along the grand blueprint formulated by the Group Conference, and have worked hard and finally reached the critical sprint stage..."

Although the Jiangnan Daily was distributed to the general public and its reports were all written in plain language, Hai Rui believed that ordinary people would not be interested in such boring official documents.

However, the diners listened very attentively and no one interrupted.

When the headline article was finished, the guy suddenly cheered and said, "Today's representative is our Haimen's Niu Dashuai!"

People cheered, and some shouted "Niu Bie Niu Bie" or something like that...

"Marshal Niu?" Hai Rui asked in surprise, "Which town's governor is he? Niu Pingtian?"

“Hahahaha…” The diners finally burst into laughter. The shepherd wiped his tears and said, “Father, Marshal Niu is in the same line of work as us. I herd sheep and he raises cattle.”

"Don't flatter yourself. People call you Marshal Niu, so why doesn't anyone call you General Yang?" others teased him.

"I heard that the representative of Jiangnan Group is very powerful." Hai Rui said with a smile.

"Of course. The group representatives are very powerful. Not only can they hold meetings and listen to reports, but they also have to raise their hands to agree to major matters of the group." The young man said with admiration:

"They can also report situations to their superiors on behalf of their subordinates, and their superiors must respond promptly. If someone does something wrong, they can report it and participate in the entire investigation."

"Can raising cattle help you become a group representative?" Hai Rui asked again.

"Father, we in Jiangnan Group don't believe in the idea that everything is inferior." The young man said proudly, "If you do anything well, you can get ahead! For example, our Niu Dashuai is really good at raising cattle! A few years ago, the group imported a batch of black and white spotted cattle from the Red Haired Devil. It is said that the milk production of one cow is equivalent to that of several of our yellow cattle and water buffaloes."

"But this cow is not used to the local climate. After coming all the way here, it just won't produce milk." Someone else said, "It's not just here. The ranches in Tamra and Taiwan are similar. They either don't produce milk or produce very little. The problem that the experts at the Agricultural College couldn't solve was finally solved by our Great Marshal Niu."

"How did you solve it?" Hai Rui asked with interest.

"It seems that they bred with yellow cattle, and the calves born are fine." Everyone said in confusion: "Anyway, now the students can drink a glass of milk every day, thanks to the little cows bred by Marshal Niu. Do you think the cows are flat or not?"

"He has been named a first-class model worker and has become the representative of the group." The shepherd said enviously, "If I had known this, I would have gone to raise cattle too."

"Come on." Everyone laughed and continued to listen to the newspaper.

After reading the group news on the front page, the waiter turned to the second page, the overseas edition, and continued:

"The headline of this page is - Great news, Mangyingli was defeated in Siam, and the defense of Ayutthaya was won!"

Hai Rui was once again surprised to see that all the diners were cheering excitedly, and some even jumped onto their stools and danced.

The shop owner was not angry at all. He even laughed happily and said, "Okay, okay, today's meal is free!"