Drive to the Tang Dynasty, where supplies are refreshed daily!

Chapter 58 Boiling Maltose!

Li Lizhi gave a brief introduction to Cheng Tiehuan and Li Wu, and the group headed east of the village.

"Uncle didn't come?"

"Yes, Father has something to do and can't leave," Li Lizhi said with a smile. "He often talks about his young master's cooking and fishing skills!"

Back next to the carriage, Li Lizhi gestured for the things to be moved inside.

"Fifth Sister, what are you doing? Why are you carrying so much stuff?" Xiao Ran saw the pastry boxes, which were even more than before, along with a lot of silks and satins, including Shu brocade.

"Young master, to be honest, I have a favor to ask of you. Please accept it."

"If I could help, I certainly would, but there's really no need for this." Xiao Ran knew these things were quite valuable.

"The things that need to be done are very important. Only you, young master, can do them. Compared to that, these mundane things are nothing."

Li Wu and Cheng Tiehuan carried their belongings into the courtyard.

Cheng Tiehuan gave Xiao Ran the feeling of "a girl next door has grown up, with strength to uproot mountains and a spirit to overshadow the world".

Xiao Ran did not refuse. These things were indeed precious, but they were nothing to the royal family.

"Fifth Sister, what is it you want to tell me?"

"The persimmon cakes that the young master gave me before have a white powdery coating that is very effective in treating qi-related ailments. I'd like to ask for some more, but I might need a bit too much," Li Lizhi said, a little embarrassed.

"Oh, this is nothing. I can still get some persimmon frost from the persimmon cakes. I don't plan to make any more at home, but there should be plenty in the village soon. I'll talk to everyone about it then, and we can scrape off the persimmon frost separately. It won't affect the price of the persimmons."

"Thank you in advance, young man!"

Third Aunt was very excited and took out the bread, calcium milk biscuits, and rock sugar that she had been reluctant to eat herself to treat the two little princesses.

The three little girls and the dog can play together.

Making persimmon cakes can be done by the women and children, but the men of the house still have to go to work by the pond.

Knowing that Princess Li Lizhi of Yuzhang needed persimmon frost, Zhang Erya found a bowl and said they would scrape the persimmon frost together later.

You can grab something to eat while you're at it.

"So many!" Yu Shu was a little excited.

You can eat as many persimmon cakes as you want here, but you shouldn't eat too many.

Cheng Tiehuan and Li Wu had never eaten persimmon cakes before, and they were pleasantly surprised to taste them.

"Fifth Sister, this is quite delicious," Cheng Tiehuan said with a smile.

"Hee hee hee~" The little princess also held one.

After arranging things at home, Zhang Jinhe strolled over.

I saw a small table set up by the door, with lots of persimmon cakes on it, and several people scraping the persimmon frost off with small bamboo strips.

"What's this for? Don't you like persimmon frost?" Zhang Jinhe asked.

“No, we need this persimmon frost. Young master, could you please help me scrape it off?” Li Lizhi explained.

"I see!" Zhang Jinhe also joined in to help.

The group planned to scrape off as much of the persimmon frost as possible from all the dried persimmons.

This job isn't tiring, but it's quite time-consuming.

Zhang Jinhe and Zhang Erya had their own things to do and were busy cooking.

The task of scraping the persimmon frost was mainly undertaken by Li Lizhi, Princess Yuzhang, and a few others.

Right now, every household is busy preparing to dry persimmon cakes.

The two little princesses played with their third aunt in the courtyard, trying not to disturb anyone else.

The wheat I prepared earlier is ready to use; today is the perfect day to make maltose.

The family needs a lot of firewood now, and the firewood that Zhang Dalang and Zhang Erya had stored before is not enough at all. Now they have to buy it from other families in the village.

Seeing Xiao Ran cooking something in the large pot used for roasting chestnuts, the three little girls also came over.

"Little Nang-jun~ What are you doing~" The little princess pointed at the big pot.

"Make some sugar, and you can try it later."

"Really~" Hearing that it was Princess Sugar, she immediately became excited.

"Young master, is it maltose?" Princess Yuzhang had seen the wheat earlier.

"Ok!"

"Young master, you know so much!" Princess Yuzhang said sincerely. "This isn't difficult!" It doesn't require any special skills, it just takes time, and you have to persevere for a long time.

You have to start cooking in the morning and it will take at least until the afternoon.

A considerable amount of firewood is needed.

Breakfast is ready; three deer carts are needed.

Judging by the time it would take, Zhang Dalang would bring people to help push it over.

"It seems there are quite a few more people than before!" Li Lizhi said thoughtfully.

“Right now, there are about eighty people working over there,” Xiao Ran said with a smile. “It’s much faster than we expected.”

"Have people from all the nearby villages come?" Li Lizhi knew that Kaolao Village didn't have many households.

"Yes, the two villages nearby are not far away. The village headman helped to call a lot of people over, so it shouldn't be long."

Xiao Ran's wall was built with stones; a rammed earth wall would have been even faster.

Scraping persimmon frost is an easy task for girls, but Cheng Tiehuan found it extremely difficult. She would rather carry heavy things than do this.

"Tiehuan, you can rest, we'll take care of it!" Li Lizhi could also tell that Cheng Tiehuan was not suited to do these things.

"It's okay, this isn't tiring." Everyone else is doing the work, so it wouldn't be right for Cheng Tiehuan to rest.

Princess Li Lizhi, of noble status, never stopped.

Normally, Xiao Ran, Zhang Erya, and the others would eat with the workers at this time.

However, today was a special day, so Xiao Ran and San Niang did not go.

I've already eaten bread, so I'm not hungry. I'll eat with the princesses at noon.

When Zhang Jinhe and Zhang Erya returned, the first thing they did was scrape the persimmon frost off.

"Wow~" The little princess picked up an egg from the corner of the wall.

"Hehe~ It's an egg~" The little princess held up an egg.

"Sizi, that's amazing." Third Aunt also looked down to search, as the chickens at home hadn't laid any eggs before.

Today is the first time.

Eggs are a rare treat, and people rarely get to eat them.

The little princess ran to Xiao Ran's side with the eggs, "Little Nangjun~ Here you go~"

Seeing the egg, Xiao Ran looked puzzled and a little confused.

He instinctively reached out and took it. "Sizi, where did you get this?"

The little princess pointed to the mud wall, "It's right there~ Hehe~"

"Were these eggs laid today?" Xiao Ran asked, taking a look.

"We'll eat eggs in a bit." This morning, Xiao Ran brought out some tomatoes from the cave, and even though the princesses weren't coming, he was going to cook anyway.

"Hmmmm~"

I just love the food Xiao Ran makes.

"Young master's cooking skills are superb; you can try some later," Princess Yuzhang said with a smile.

Cheng Tiehuan nodded repeatedly, "My father told me it was delicious, so I'll give it a try."

Upon hearing Cheng Tiehuan's words, Zhang Jinhe roughly guessed his identity.

It's obvious that it's neither Li Lizhi's family nor the Duke of Ji's mansion, so it must be another family.

Xiao Ran plans to make hand-pulled noodles later, to be served with tomato and egg soup.

They all like tomato and egg, so they should like this too.

Around noon, Xiao Ran asked Li Wu to help him watch the maltose being boiled.

"Fifth Uncle, I'm going!" Cheng Tiehuan was really on the verge of collapse when scraping the persimmon frost.

"it is good!"

Li Lizhi and the others were also quite helpless.

There are quite a few people, so we need to prepare more. The soup noodles of this era are similar to noodles, but not quite the same.

I've seen it before in Xishi; the soup dumplings didn't look very appealing.

(End of this chapter)