She picked up the young prime minister while fleeing famine

"Banxia, ​​is this really oil you pressed from soybeans? Soybeans can be pressed into oil?" Yao Lizheng held a small jar of soybean oil, his face full of disbelief.

If soybeans can be pressed for oil, wouldn't the soybeans they planted this year be of great use?

It's important to know that because they've missed the season for planting staple grains like wheat and rice, most of their fields are planted with soybeans, a type of coarse grain that matures quickly.

“Uncle Village Head, not all soybeans can be pressed for oil; only the yellow ones can.”

"Moreover, the method I've developed can't guarantee the oil yield for now, so we'll only use a portion of the soybeans to extract oil," Banxia explained, seeing through Yao Lizheng's thoughts.

She was afraid that if Yao Lizheng saw that soybeans could be pressed for oil, he would use them all to press oil, which would make the oil yield of this traditional method too low. They still had to use soybeans sparingly.

Although everyone was growing soybeans, a coarse grain, they were a life-saving food for the winter and couldn't be wasted. Banxia told Yao Lizheng only because she wanted to improve everyone's meals.

Otherwise, eating oil-free rice and vegetables every day would be bad for their health in the long run. Fortunately, they had enough salt stored up to last at least a year. Otherwise, Banxia would have had to find a way to get salt.

She didn't think that just her master and the old-fashioned boy could bring back much salt, especially since they weren't going out to get salt.

"It would be good if we could press oil. You don't know, many families in the village are out of oil. They were discussing with me whether we should go up the mountain to hunt wild boar again. But wild boars are not so easy to hunt. I have never agreed."

Yao Lizheng regained some of his composure, but he was still delighted.

Previously, the whole village sent people to hunt wild boars, firstly to hold a banquet to celebrate and worship their ancestors, and secondly because they were lucky enough to find a nest of wild boars.

Although it's only the beginning of winter, the wild animals on the mountain must be very ferocious, and Yao Lizheng doesn't want the villagers to take any risks unless absolutely necessary.

It's not easy for everyone to survive in this chaotic world, and besides, not everyone got injured last time we hunted wild boars.

Now that's great, if soybeans can be pressed for oil, then why would they need to risk their lives to hunt wild boars?

Speaking of which, the people of Yaoli Village are quite clever. Even though they have more than a dozen wild boar piglets in the village, no one has ever thought of harming them. After all, these are the resources for everyone's sustainable development in the future, and they would rather risk hunting them in the mountains.

“These Hundred Thousand Mountains are still very dangerous. My master has cleared out the wild beasts in the valley. It’s best for everyone to avoid going up the mountain, and if you do go, it should be in a large group.” Banxia agreed with Yao Lizheng’s idea.

They encountered a litter of wild boars after climbing only halfway up the mountain, which shows that there are quite a few ferocious beasts on this mountain. It's just unknown what method their master used to prevent them from coming down the mountain to disturb them.

Besides, if it weren't for Xiao Guban's formation, how easy would it be to hunt so many wild boars in the village? And now that Xiao Guban isn't home, it's best not to take any risks.

As for creating formations herself, forget it. It seems that Banxia was born without that talent. What are these life gates and death gates, the ever-changing Qiankun Bagua? Banxia's head is spinning. She can see them but doesn't understand them.

Just like Lian Chengmo learning medicine, he could remember the effects and efficacy of each medicinal herb, but he couldn't understand why several medicinal herbs together would have various therapeutic effects, let alone understand the prescription.

He could only memorize and copy the prescriptions, while Banxia couldn't even copy the formations. It just goes to show that there's a reason why this skill is so unpopular.

Yao Lizheng nodded repeatedly. He had been hesitant about whether to go up the mountain to try his luck when the young master returned, but now that he had soybean oil, there was no need to try his luck anymore.

They immediately went to find Carpenter Yao and gathered several strong young men from the village to prepare to build a workshop.

These days, the village has renovated the ancestral hall for the Yao and Li clans. Although it is very simple, at least the ancestors have a place to stay now.

The ancestral hall also enshrines their respective ancestors. Although the clan leaders of the Yao and Li clans are not very literate, they have insisted on asking literate people from the neighboring village to write their genealogy for generations. Therefore, it is not a problem to carve the ancestral tablets according to the genealogy.

Because the ancestral hall was large, Yao Lizheng had people set up the oil pressing machine that Banxia had mentioned in the courtyard. In order to press more oil at once, it was necessary to make it larger.

Traditional oil pressing machines are made of wood. A thick, long piece of wood serves as the pressing trough for storing the oil cake, and another piece of wood is used to forcefully strike the pressing trough to achieve the effect of pressing oil.

In short, this project is quite significant.

Fortunately, the villagers had stored up a lot of sturdy timber for roof beams, and there was some left over, which they used directly.

Carpenter Yao started hammering away at the blueprints drawn by Banxia, ​​while the others set up a stove to fry soybeans, with Banxia supervising the work.

After a morning of work, the machine was finally finished, and the stove was already set up with a large iron pot ready for use.

Everything was ready. Banxia told everyone to go back for lunch and continue in the afternoon, but Yao Lizheng had to call some more aunties to pick beans.

With such a commotion here, and it being the off-season for farming, apart from a few families who are too busy building houses, everyone else is quite idle.

When the people who were busy in the morning told us that the girl Banxia had figured out a way to extract oil from soybeans, everyone was stunned. In the afternoon, they all gathered around without anyone having to call them.

The ancestral hall was packed with people, three layers deep. When Yao, the village head, called for help to pick up the beans, everyone eagerly rushed out, almost squeezing Banxia out.

Banxia was busy protecting her younger siblings. She had originally planned to bring the children to help pick beans and have some fun, but now it seemed she wouldn't need them.

"Changshan Ayu, you and your younger siblings should play around here. Don't run around, okay?" Banxia earnestly instructed the children.

Their family lived at the end of the village, while the ancestral hall was built at the beginning. Although the road wasn't far, they couldn't rush back after bringing the child out.

Fortunately, the children were used to being left around by their older siblings, and even Xiao Shuang'er said she would behave, so Banxia finally entered the courtyard of the ancestral hall.

She had to oversee the process of frying beans, and since she wasn't very skilled herself, she even took a notebook to record things in case she needed to adjust the time and heat as needed.

With many hands making light work, the plump soybeans were quickly picked out and put into the pot to stir-fry. There were three large iron pots in total, and the man's arms were tightly clenched as he kept waving the spatula, afraid that he might accidentally burn them.

A stone mill from Carpenter Yao's house was also brought over and was waiting to be used. Of course, Banxia's mule was also waiting.

After the soybeans are fried, they need to be cooled down, and the burnt ones are picked out. But they are not thrown away; they are given to the workers on the spot to chew and eat as snacks.

Banxia received a large bunch, and she smiled and called her younger siblings over to share it with them.