After noon, the competition began. Everyone was looking forward to it. Both the original students and those who joined later were slightly nervous. Some people even felt more nervous than during the imperial examinations. There were too many people watching.
After their identities were verified, they took their competition numbers and walked into the academy. The academy was a one-story building, but it occupied a large area. There were even some fertile fields. The yamen had made fake land deeds for them.
While the others went in, Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan got a boat and floated on the lake. The two of them did not want to see others compose poems. This kind of impromptu poem with a proposition was rarely outstanding. They did not want to suffer.
The old man went over. He still had to see who could enter the academy. Liu 'er and Xin Er were also brought along by the old man.
Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan went to the lake to play and see how the competition was going. If there was nothing else, the two of them would return to Huayuan County early the next morning. The construction there was one after another. The two of them were afraid that their father would be too busy and had to go back to help.
"Looking at the water, I want to jump in and float there instead of sitting on the boat." Zhang Xiaobao narrowed his eyes and looked at the sunlight reflecting on the water. He felt stuffy and hot. It would be very comfortable to swim in the water.
Wang Juan didn't feel anything at first, but after hearing what Zhang Xiaobao said, she started to feel hot. There was a shelter on the boat that the two of them were rowing. It blocked most of the sunlight, but the wind that blew was not as cool as the surface of the lake. It was also hot and stuffy.
"Xiao Bao, stop talking. Why don't we go back to Zhuangzi? There's a swimming pool there. We can swim there for a while and then sleep."
Wang Juan reached into the water and paddled a few times. This time, she finally felt cool.
"Okay, okay!" The two of them were playing on the lake when waves of shouts came from the direction of the academy. They did not know how many people were shouting, but they could hear it from so far away.
"Forget it. Let's go back to Zhuangzi. There are movements here too." Zhang Xiaobao had been rowing for less than an hour when he heard the cheers from time to time. He was a little annoyed, mainly because the weather was too hot, making it difficult for him to calm down.
The two of them rowed the boat to the dock Between the Clouds and the Water, and together they walked towards Zhuangzi. The main courtyard there was not abandoned, and there were still people there to clean it. As they walked along the road, they saw the villagers walking in a hurry, and they quickly left after greeting them.
"Xiao Bao, it seems that the farmers have earned quite a bit of money this time. They are all two-story houses and there are quite a few rooms. Renting out a room for ten copper coins a day is not much. I can smell the strong smell of stewed chicken. Did the farmers decide to stew chicken for their people at noon? After all, there are so many poultry here. "
Wang Juan sniffed twice and said. Zhang Xiaobao also smelled the strong smell. If only one family cooked it, it would not have been able to survive for so long after eating. He smiled and said, "It seems that the farmers want to deal with some of the chickens. Stewing chicken every day for 20 days. I don't know if those people will get sick from eating it. It's scary just thinking about it."
Wang Juan thought of the situation of eating chicken every day, covered her mouth and laughed softly. She said to Zhang Xiaobao, "The chickens we raise here are sold in different parts except for laying eggs. Although the price is not cheap, we can't make them into finished products and sell them to make money. Why don't we think of a way?"
"Think of what? Roast chicken? That's fine, but we need to have a market first. Otherwise, if no one buys the roast chicken, it will be ruined at home. Who likes to eat roast chicken? It's best if it can be preserved for a longer time. Without vacuum equipment, it won't work even if we freeze it. In the past, when the chickens were big, we could kill them and freeze them to sell. If the roast chicken is frozen, what will it taste like? "
When Zhang Xiaobao thought of the finished product processing, the image of roast chicken flashed in his mind.
Wang Juan thought about the frozen roast chicken and said, "I don't think it's a big deal. If it's frozen, it's frozen. The smell has already entered the chicken. When the time comes, if you want to eat cold, you can eat cold. If you want to eat hot, you can steam it. In addition to roast chicken, there is also smoking chicken. You can use some burning wood chips to smoke it.
Zhang Xiaobao sold thirteen spices, so he knew some recipes. It was a mess. Basically, the methods were different in every place, but the general ingredients were similar. When he heard Wang Juan's words, he nodded and said, "Then let's do both to increase the income of the farmers."
"Then, have you thought about how to sell it? Even if it's frozen, it can't be stored for too long. Otherwise, the price of one chicken won't be enough to cover the cost of the cold. "
Wang Juan also mentioned the problem of sales. Zhang Xiaobao said confidently, "Stupid people will directly roast and smoke the chicken in Zhuangzi before selling it. Can we open the roast chicken shop and the smoked chicken shop elsewhere and carry out the roast there? We can make more adjustments and see what flavors the people in the place like. We can specially cook according to what the people in that place like to eat.
Zhuangzi is responsible for delivering chickens to various places. Now that Zhuangzi is only planting rice, it's much more leisurely than before. We can let some of them go to other shops. It's like what we said before. We won't limit them to Zhuangzi. We can provide them with the recipes and ingredients. When the time comes, we only need 10% of the net profit.
10% of the profit for each shop is like a membership fee. Let's make it cheaper and not so much. The money we collect from nine shops is the same as the money from one shop. Let's open shops in the entire prefecture first. When it's about time, we don't have to worry. There will naturally be people who want to learn or buy the recipes.
Let's try and see if there are such people. If there are, we'll let them join. We'll sell them the chickens and the seasonings. We can't take the net profit because we don't have that many accountants to calculate how much they've sold the chickens for. We can only add the price to the seasonings. "
Zhang Xiaobao actually didn't expect many outsiders to join. If there were, he would take them. If there weren't, he could just use the village to sell them, especially those who were in a hurry. If they bought a roast chicken, they could eat it as both a meal and a dish. It was convenient. It was even more so for boaters. They could eat it at any time. They could even hold a chicken leg in their mouth while working.
The cost was low, so it wouldn't be too expensive. The chickens also didn't need to be raised that big. Although most roast and smoked chickens were roosters, hens could also be made. Chicks could be raised for three months before they could be used for cooking. They could be sold by weight and could be bought in half. Half a chicken would cost about 20 copper coins. It wasn't expensive at all.
A chicken that laid eggs could be sold for a few dozen copper coins. Who would say that the chicken hadn't laid eggs yet and couldn't be sold for such a high price when they bought a roast chicken?
Wang Juan had also thought of this point. If they did this, they could raise the chickens for a short period of time. As long as they sold the chickens quickly, they would earn more money than waiting for them to lay eggs. The chickens that laid eggs had to be specially supplemented with calcium. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to lay eggs or they would be soft-shelled eggs. The ordinary people in the area might eat less, but they could specially open their shops in places with high traffic.
"Xiao Bao, since chickens can be smoked, then we can also use a better method to smoke the meat. The people here who have some money don't like to eat pork. First, it's because there aren't many people who usually raise pigs. Unless it's at the foot of the mountain where they can cut some pigweed to feed the pigs, people won't be able to eat, let alone feed the pigs.
Another reason is that pigs always like to roll around in the mud. Even their feces and urine will be stained on their bodies. But after all, there are still people who eat it, especially the ordinary people. They can't eat other kinds of meat. The fatty parts of the pork can be oily, and the lean parts can also be used as food. We can get people to smoke it and sell it to such people.
I think that the feces of poultry can be fed to the pigs. In addition to the grass on the mountain, there won't be a need for too much food. The pig feces can also be used to feed the fish and raise the earthworms. When we go to Hua Yuan County, we can leave this matter to the farmers and provide them with ideas. What do you think? "
"Of course, why not? Even if we fail in the end, we won't lose too much money. People always have to try again and again. Maybe the farmers will be able to come up with more ideas. We'll do this when we go back. Let's not swim for now."
Zhang Xiaobao agreed with this idea very much. At first, he also thought of something like this, but he was delayed by other things and didn't have time to do it. After the pork was smoked, it tasted good. Moreover, it was different from the smoked chicken. After smoking the chicken, it couldn't be scattered after smoking. That way, people would specially choose a good place to buy it.
After the pork was smoked, it could be cut into slices or made into strips and turned into smoked pork jerky. It could be stored for a long time and was convenient to carry around. When they went out, they would bring some with them. It was better than the smoked meat and the kind that was directly smoked here. The rich people didn't eat it, but they also didn't sell it to them.
Because of an idea, the two people who had been idle began to work again. Zhang Xiaobao wanted to mix ingredients. Some of the ingredients that he didn't have, he had to replace them with other similar ingredients. After this kind of prescription was mixed, it was too difficult for outsiders to distinguish it by taste.
Many spices were not used at all by people nowadays. They were only sold in medicine shops as medicinal materials. All kinds of medicinal materials were ground into powder and then some spices were added. Unless a doctor who was proficient in cooking carefully tasted it, there might be some hope.
However, Zhang Xiaobao wouldn't give this opportunity to someone who was both a cook and a doctor. According to the different prescriptions, the spices were mixed into the wine or soy sauce. Even if they couldn't be mixed, they would be taken out separately and mixed with some neutral spices that didn't affect the taste.
Zhang Xiaobao was in charge of concocting, and each time he concocted a sack of it, Wang Juan would write down the manufacturing method. When the time came, all she had to do was give it to the villagers in the farmstead. Some of the villagers could read a few words by now, but even if they couldn't, it was fine. The children in the farmstead were all studying in school.
After a lot of work, the sky was already dark. Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan found the people in the inner courtyard who stayed behind and asked them to bring the oven. They were going to roast a few animals first. At the same time, they were going to let the farmers see what they were going to sell in the future.
When the two of them were busy, they didn't feel hot. Now that they stopped, they realized that they were sweating.
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