The allure of achieving lasting fame was strong enough that Xiao Wu was indeed tempted.
"I am very grateful for your kindness, Madam. I am willing to serve you with utmost loyalty."
“Very good,” Yang Cui said. “Of the original forty-six people in the mansion, except for the Qiao siblings, all the others have been assigned to the breeding farm. Two people will be assigned to the kitchen, and the people who herd sheep and raise chickens will be separated.”
The first batch of sheep is only about three hundred to four hundred. They are divided into two groups of four people each. The chickens are also raised by four people in a group. Each group takes care of about four hundred chickens. You divide them into groups and then select a group leader.
"Both the team leader and you must be literate and learn arithmetic, otherwise you won't be able to count how many livestock you're raising. The team leader has a three-month probationary period; after that, your allowance will increase by twenty coins per month."
"I will arrange it as soon as possible."
Now that we have a general manager and an accountant, we should take advantage of the construction of the farm to have them learn to read and do arithmetic. They must learn common characters and simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division within a month.
Just after giving these instructions, the slave trader brought a group of people who stood in the courtyard like merchandise, allowing people to choose them at will.
Yang Cui selected a maid for each of Er Ya and San Ya.
Three people were put in the kitchen. Granny Zhuang would be in charge of the kitchen from now on. She was someone he brought from Anjia Village, and he knew her character better, so he trusted her more.
The female tutor and governess found for Er Ya and San Ya will also be coming to the mansion in a few days, so each of them will need to arrange someone to serve them.
The general's mansion is so big that it would take at least ten people to clean and do laundry, and we would also need to assign a servant to Xiaohu and Qiuqiu.
Bao Lan and Xi Hongmei sometimes need to help her with other things, so she needs two maids by her side so that they can serve tea and water to guests in the future.
In total, Yang Cui bought twenty-five people.
Adding to the expenses already paid by her family, Yang Cui felt she needed to work even harder, as the fixed monthly wage expenditure was already a large sum.
With so many people, so many things to do, and so many disputes, managing such a large general's mansion is no easy task.
With business to keep her busy outside, Yang Cui couldn't help but sigh: It's so hard to be a rich person, and it's even harder to be a rich person's wife.
The training of the new servants was entrusted to Cui Jiu.
Cui Jiu was recruited by Cen Xiao. He was once the head steward of a wealthy family in the riverside region. He was highly capable. Due to internal strife within his former family, he was hunted down. He was later rescued by Cen Xiao, which is why he was willing to serve Cen Xiao.
If there were a capable steward in the manor, Yang Cui could have an easier time.
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Xiao Wu has strong execution skills. He quickly divided the list into groups and selected group leaders. When forming groups, he also grouped people with hand and foot disabilities together, which made it easier for them to cooperate.
Next came the training: arithmetic was taught to Bao Lan, and literacy was taught to Song Zhigao.
Yang Cui received many invitations, but she declined them all. She was too busy and didn't have time for these unnecessary social engagements.
These people who invited her to admire the flowers were really just curious and wanted to see her.
It was no secret in the capital that Cen Xiao had married Lin Shikang's ex-wife as his legal wife. They just wanted to know what Yang Cui was really capable of, and why a country woman with no background and a second marriage was the general's legal wife.
Yang Cui didn't want to deal with such a group of people; she didn't want to interfere with her making money.
After the custom-made hot pot table, barbecue grill, and other hardware arrived, Yang Cui sent letters to Su Murong, Guo Zhenyu, Chen Shaoyun, and Chen Shiqi, inviting them to have hot pot and barbecue in two days.
The weather is already cold now, so eating hot pot warms you up and is the most comfortable thing to do.
Barbecue is more suitable for late-night snacks, so we decided to have barbecue for dinner.
Yang Cui, along with Granny Zhuang and other cooks, had been preparing the ingredients for the past two days for this hot pot and barbecue meal.
Cen Xiao knew that Yang Cui liked to eat beef, so he brought back another fifty catties of beef.
Although laws prohibit the slaughter of draft cattle, for the powerful and influential, obtaining a cattle slaughtering permit is incredibly easy, as getting a permit is a simple matter.
Part of the beef is cut into small pieces to make cured beef. Cured beef stir-fried with chopped chili peppers is a dish that my family loves to eat.
The rest are sliced thinly, and some are made into beef skewers for barbecue.
The soup base is chicken broth. I stewed three chicken carcasses in the morning. Why chicken carcasses?
Because Yang Cui disassembled the chicken wings and drumsticks to make barbecue.
In fact, Yang Cui had twenty chickens killed. The chicken giblets were stir-fried and eaten the day before. The remaining chicken carcasses were used to make soup, and some were made into Sichuan-style spicy chicken carcasses for everyone to taste. The rest were refrigerated for future use. In short, nothing could be wasted.
Yang Cui also made quite a few fish balls. Making these is really time-consuming, but fortunately there are many people. In total, she made about ten kilograms of fish balls. The ones that couldn't be finished were frozen and will be eaten next time.
Hot pot and barbecue are of course inseparable from lamb rolls, lamb skewers, and pork belly. The only regret is that there are no mushrooms or sweet potatoes in winter these days. Sweet potatoes can be made into sweet potato noodles, which are also delicious in hot pot.
Since there was no sweet potato starch, Yang Cui made noodles instead. However, these weren't the dried noodles, but rather chewy hot pot noodles, which served as the main dish for the day.
The guests arrived around noon.
But unexpectedly, the emperor, the third prince, the eldest grandson of the emperor, and Qiu Tianyun all came.
"Greetings, Your Majesty."
"Rise. I heard there's a lavish feast at your residence today. I'm here as a guest, so please make yourselves at home." The emperor walked to the hot pot table. "This is hot pot?"
"Your Majesty, this is a hot pot table. There can be charcoal underneath the pot. If you remove the pot and put on an iron plate or wire rack, you can barbecue. Your Majesty can have dinner before going back. We will have the barbecue in the evening," Yang Cui explained.
"That sounds interesting, let's try it."
It's already past eleven o'clock, so it's not early to have lunch.
Luckily, we have two hot pot tables at home, each 1.6 meters long, with two pots on each table for cooking vegetables; otherwise, there wouldn't be enough seats for so many people today.
Now the men sit at one table, and the women and children sit at another, which is just right.
Worried that there wouldn't be enough food, Yang Cui told her to quickly prepare some more lamb rolls and lamb skewers, as well as more chicken wings and drumsticks for dinner.
Granny Zhuang was reliable in her work; she immediately led her people to get to work.
“Your Majesty, this dish is more enjoyable when you cook it yourself.” After saying that, Cen Xiao picked up a piece of beef and dipped it in the pot. “Don’t cook the beef for too long, or it won’t taste good.”
Yang Cui: "We'll eat meat dishes first, then vegetables, and finally noodles. Today's noodles aren't the usual dried noodles; everyone should try them later."
Cen Xiao and Yang Cui demonstrated for everyone, and they followed suit, putting vegetables into the pot one after another.
The novel and unique way of eating, paired with the signature sauce, makes it taste absolutely delicious.
Eating hot pot in winter is all about enjoying yourself.
The Emperor asked, "What are these white dumplings? They smell like fish."
"Your Majesty, these are called fish balls, made with grass carp meat," Yang Cui explained.
“Mrs. Cen, Mr. Yang, you’re being really unfair. You’re only bringing out this delicious hot pot now. We should have had it back in Wan’an County.” Su Murong said, slurping his words.
"Your Stargazing Tower keeps coming up with new products, how can the people of Wan'an County possibly keep up?"
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