The spring water in Jie Mountain was undoubtedly of high quality. It was sweet and clean. It was the water source that the people of the Zhan Clan and the Lang Clan would definitely drink when they went hunting and gathering in the mountains. The spring water in this place was of utmost importance to the two clans.
If there was no spring water in the middle of Jie Mountain, then the hunters who went hunting in the mountains would have to store more water at the foot of the mountain. This would definitely make them more tired. Moreover, when they needed to stay in the mountains for a few more days, they would have to go down the mountain frequently to find water. It was very troublesome. However, there was a spring in the middle of the mountain, which could avoid these problems. When the hunters pursued their prey for many days, they could easily replenish their water in the mountains and avoid a lot of trouble.
Although the spring water was sweet, it could only be felt when one was thirsty. Once one was full, there would no longer be a sweet feeling.
As for how to distinguish the spring water, first of all, the water source of the spring must come from a specific protected mountain area. There was no pollution in the area, and no other pollution entered the water source area. Therefore, if the water source did not meet this requirement, it was not real spring water.
Secondly, the water source itself needed to be purified by the mountain and contained a certain amount of minerals. Drinking water from natural and pollution-free lakes and reservoirs lacked this self-purification and mineralization, so the mineral content was low and the water source was not clean enough. It often needed to be simply filtered manually before it was suitable for drinking. Therefore, if the water source did not come from a mountain area, it was not real spring water. It could only be called well spring water, lake spring water or reservoir spring water.
First of all, the water quality should be zero pollution, and there should be no human habitation in a large area around the water source. Second, the degree of mineralization should be moderate, and the human body should not have a burden on metabolism after drinking it. Third, the total organic carbon and total phosphorus in the water source should be small. If the water was naturally low in deuterium, it should be rich in natural trace elements, and the proportion should be balanced. The water with these conditions should be naturally weak in alkalinity. Generally, the water with these conditions should be high-quality spring water, and it was the most nourishing kind of beverage.
Not only was the spring water suitable for drinking, it was also very suitable for making tea. Of course, the spring water had to be boiled first before it could be made into tea.
There were tea trees in Jie Mountain, but they were not planted by humans. They were wild tea trees on the mountain. The locals were not unaware that tea was a cash crop. Planting tea could make money, but the local land was very limited. If it was used to plant tea, there would not be enough land to plant food. That would cause hunger. For the common people, there was nothing more terrible than hunger. Without food, people could not survive. Without tea to drink, they would not die. Therefore, in the case of limited land resources, it was natural to give priority to planting food crops. As for the mountains that were not suitable for planting crops, because it was particularly troublesome to manage and was relatively far from residential areas, it was also not suitable for large-scale planting. Some wild tea trees might have been planted by the ancestors of the local people. Later, they found that the commercial value was too low, so they gave up. As long as there was no management for a long time, these tea trees could be regarded as wild.
Just like the wild dogs in some areas, in fact, they were domestic dogs. Many pioneers brought their domestic dogs to a new continent, and then these people left. When they left, they did not take their domestic dogs with them. Over time, these domestic dogs that were raised by people became wild dogs. After a few generations, they were completely wild.
Li An looked around. The tea trees that occasionally appeared in the mountains were all ordinary varieties. There were no expensive varieties. Moreover, tea leaves required a lot of processes to be made into drinkable tea leaves. Even if he were to collect tea leaves locally, he wouldn't have the time or tools to make them into commercial tea leaves. Therefore, Li An could only count on using the tea leaves he brought.
Because everyone was tired and hungry, they took a rest at the spring water and had some snacks. A few guards were on guard nearby, and more people sat down to rest.
A pot of spring water was quickly set up. These spring water were prepared to cook food. However, before cooking food, some of it had to be used to brew tea, and the rest was used to cook food.
The tea leaves would be enjoyed by Li An alone, while the food he cooked would be shared with everyone. This time, the food he cooked was lamb chops. According to the number of people in the group, he cooked a few dozen kilograms of lamb chops. When it was first put into the pot, there wasn't much of a smell, but after cooking for a while, there was a mutton aroma. After adding all kinds of seasonings, the aroma became even stronger.
Ang Lee gently tasted the brewed tea and felt that it was very sweet. After the good tea was soaked in the spring water, the taste would be even better. After drinking it, the mouth would be full of fragrance, and the teeth would be wrapped in a layer of faint fragrance. The feeling was wonderful.
However, not everyone was so artificial. Chen Long next to him didn't like the taste of tea very much. He would rather drink plain water than drink tea. Of course, he preferred wine.
"Assistant Minister Li, the mutton soup will be ready soon. Why do you want to drink the water soaked in the leaves?"
Chen Long said.
"Soaked in the leaves? Don't you know that this is tea? Are you deliberately trying to make me angry? "
Ang Lee said.
Chen Long said with a smile, "Of course I know that this is tea, but how can the taste of tea water be compared to mutton soup? Of course, the mutton soup is better. "
Ang Lee said with a smile, "The mutton soup is good, but it's too greasy. You can't drink too much. It's more comfortable to drink tea."
"Then I'll drink the mutton soup!"
"I didn't say that I'll give you tea."
Ang Lee said.
After the mutton was cooked, Ang Lee shared it with everyone. Several Zhan clansmen also got a few pieces of mutton, which made them overjoyed. They didn't expect that they could also get delicious mutton.
The local people didn't raise cattle and sheep because the land was used to plant crops. Jie Mountain was far from the residential area. It was very unrealistic to come so far to graze. If they were not careful on the way, it would cause the cattle and sheep to eat the crops. In this way, a year's hard work would be in vain.
They didn't raise cattle and sheep, and the local economic situation was relatively bad. Therefore, the people here could rarely eat meat. The meat they ate the most was the chickens and ducks raised at home. The chickens could eat the leftovers of people, and it was easier to raise them.
The local ordinary clansmen would only be able to eat delicious beef and mutton during the New Year. Usually, they wouldn't be able to eat it. If they were lucky, they might be able to eat wild mutton, which was the wild goat meat obtained from hunting in the mountains. However, wild goats were very agile. It wasn't easy to hunt them down. Only when they were lucky would they be able to hunt them down.
Wild rabbits and pheasants were relatively common. They were the most common prey that the local people hunted. However, hunting prey didn't mean that they could eat a lot. Sometimes, in order to exchange for money, these clansmen would kill the prey they hunted and pickle it. Then, after accumulating more, they would sell it in Central Sichuan in exchange for some money to improve their living standards.
Looking at the Zhan clansmen gobbling up the food, Ang Lee could basically confirm his judgment. These Zhan clansmen rarely ate meat. Otherwise, they wouldn't be so greedy.
"Do you usually eat meat?"
Ang Lee asked.
A Zhan clansman opened his mouth and replied, "Eat meat often? How is that possible? We usually only eat meat during the New Year. Most of the time, it's chicken. Only the clan leader can eat mutton. "
"Even if we hunt in the mountains, it's to sell for money, not to eat."
Another Zhan Clan Patriarch spoke.
The answers of the two Zhan clansmen had confirmed Ang Lee's judgment. The local clansmen were too poor. Even if they hunted prey, they couldn't bear to eat it. They had to sell it for money to supplement their family. The chickens they raised were only slaughtered during the New Year. At most, they could only eat eggs. This was because there was no local market. Eggs weren't easy to sell and were easy to spoil on the way.
Although Ang Lee was surprised by the poor life of the Zhan clansmen, when he thought about it carefully, his life as a child in his previous life was the same as the Zhan clansmen. In that era of poverty, Ang Lee often didn't eat meat when he was young. Only during the New Year could he really eat meat.
Usually, if he wanted to satisfy his cravings, the only measure was to go to the fields to catch loaches, fish, and shrimp. Fortunately, the fields of that era weren't polluted. There were all kinds of loaches, fish, and shrimp. After catching these, he could find some hay in the field and burn it to eat.
Ang Lee clearly remembered that he once caught a very thick loach. At that time, he used a very thin branch to insert into the loach's mouth. Then, he directly pierced through the loach's tail. After that, he roasted the loach over the fire. When he could smell the aroma, he directly put it in his mouth and chewed. In fact, the loach at this time wasn't completely cooked. However, for Ang Lee at that time, as long as the aroma of the meat was roasted, it was considered cooked. Even if only the skin was cooked, it was still considered cooked.
Sometimes, when he ate it, he could still eat the loach's blood flowing inside. This was enough to prove that the loach wasn't completely cooked. The loach meat inside was still raw meat. However, for Ang Lee, even if it was raw meat, it was still a rare delicacy.
Loaches were eaten directly with the fire. Correspondingly, lobsters, wild fish, and sparrows were also eaten casually after roasting. Sometimes, even roasted frogs were eaten, but only the limbs of the frog were eaten. The body of the frog would be left to fish for lobsters.
Of course, this was completely because he was too greedy to eat these things. From a scientific point of view, this was very dangerous because these aquatic products were very likely to contain a lot of parasites. These parasites could only be killed in completely boiling water. Ang Lee's operation obviously didn't kill the parasites in these aquatic products. The chances of being infected were very high, and this was very dangerous.
Perhaps Ang Lee's luck was good enough. After eating so many half-cooked aquatic products, he was actually not infected by parasites. No one had such luck.
At the thought of these happy childhood times, Li An's mouth would unconsciously reveal a smile. Although there would be a lot of happiness after adulthood, the happiness of childhood was undoubtedly the happiest. The feelings between one's friends and oneself were also the most sincere. After adulthood, it was very difficult for people to have such sincere feelings. Therefore, almost everyone would miss the happy childhood times.
The people of the Zhan Clan and the Lang Clan undoubtedly lived in extreme poverty. The living situation of the children here was not much different from the environment of Ang Lee's childhood in his previous life. Therefore, Ang Lee believed that the feelings between them were also very deep.
Although the lives of the people here were very poor, their lives were not necessarily unhappy. There was no gap between poverty and happiness. At least, for very young children, this was the case. For adults, the situation might be slightly different. After all, adults faced greater pressure to survive, and they would consider problems more realistically.
For example, when young people were looking for a partner, they would consider the collision of souls and whether the person's appearance made them feel comfortable. As for whether this person had money, a car, and a house, it did not seem so important. Once they grew older, their thoughts would change. They would think more about money and income. They would want a car and a house. Not only a house, but a good house in a good location. Otherwise, they would not think about anything else. To borrow a famous saying, if you married a person who could not improve your living standards, you would be asking for trouble. As such, it would be better to live freely by yourself.
It was said that the world of the rich also had troubles. There were as many troubles in poverty as there were in wealth. Many of the happiness that could be experienced during the period of poverty could not be experienced at all when one was rich. However, the poor people all yearned for wealth. Although the rich people yearned for the happiness of poverty, they were unwilling to return to the life of poverty. No rich person would let himself become a poor person in order to experience the happiness of poverty.
People still yearned for wealth. Although a rich life would make people lose the happiness of poverty, compared to the happiness of poverty, people still cared more about a rich life. In order to live a rich life, people were willing to give up the happiness of poverty. They did not even care about sacrificing their health. The attraction of a rich life to people was huge, exceeding people's needs for health and happiness.
Many people put themselves in a very difficult and dangerous environment in order to make money, making themselves lose their lives and health at any time. However, in order to be rich, people did not seem to care about these. It seemed that there was no power that could stop people from pursuing a rich life.
The Peak
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