While there are still five days off, the Zhang family plans to welcome Qi Niang past the door as soon as possible.

When the Ke family talked about this, the Ke family had no objection at all. They wanted Qi Niang to pass the house early. Now Zhang Tieqin is a big shot in Bashang, the founding baron of Ningmin County and the commander of the Qin Prince's Mansion. They were worried that it would be delayed for a long time. What if Zhang Juejue looked down on Qi Niang, a widow, with two children.

It is better to choose a day than to meet the day. The two families sit there for a discussion, so let’s go tomorrow. Tomorrow is a good day. When you look at the clouds in the sky today, you will know that tomorrow will definitely be a sunny day with the sun. This kind of day is the most suitable for marriage!

In fact, if Zhang Chao hadn't insisted on having a grand ceremony, the widows in the countryside would have been touched quietly. Normally, the big girl would always get married at dusk, while the widow would not slap in the middle of the night, so she would just get some people to help carry the bags. When they arrived at the man's house, there was not such a big show. The relatives and friends of the two families witnessed together that there was a wedding candle, and then clicked the wedding candle, posted two wedding words, and toasted the wedding, and it would be over.

No matter what Zhang Chao cares about, his father’s wedding must be more grand even if it’s a second marriage.

Now he gives Qi Niang more scenes, and Qi Niang will be grateful to him in the future, and it will be easier for the family to live and get along with each other. As for others' opinions, the Zhang family is now aristocrats in Bashang, so this is not a special thing.

Marriage is a major event in life. Even if Dad and Qi Niang are second marriages, it is a major event in life.

I have to write an invitation immediately to invite relatives and friends. Because Qi Niang is also from Zhangjiagou, Zhang Chao directly patted his chest and told the Ke family that the Zhang family would have all the banquets. Then the two families will hold the banquet together, which will save trouble.

However, when the banquet was held, the Zhang family's banquet was placed in the Xinkiao Caveyard, while the Ke family's relatives ate the meal at the Ke family, but they used the materials to spend money and asked someone to wait, and the Zhang family took care of them.

The Ke family was also happy to do this.

"It's better to use eight bowls and eight plates!" The father discussed the banquet dishes with Zhang Chao.

"Add a few more, I'll make twelve hot dishes and six cold dishes, and make eighteen dishes like this, and six dried fruits, hazelnuts and so on, and make twenty-four."

"It's too much, let's not let the show off when you say it's wide. Eight bowls and eight plates are good."

"That dish is more hearty than last time I put it in a cellar, add a few mutton dishes." Zhang Chao gave in.

The entire Zhangjia Village began to get busy, preparing for the marriage between my father and Qi Niang.

Bath ditch.

Zhang Chao rode his horse slowly downhill to the bottom of the ditch. The bathing ditch in winter was just a dry ditch, and there were only a few low-lying places with some water still accumulated.

In a bamboo forest on the slope, Zhao Siniang was digging winter bamboo shoots with a hoe.

Last time Zhang Chao saw Zhao Siniang digging winter bamboo shoots.

What a strange girl. The Zhao family said that it was a local tyrant with thousands of acres of land, but Zhao Siniang still used a hoe to dig bamboo shoots.

“How many have you dug?”

Zhang Chao asked immediately with a smile.

"I got a good harvest today. I just found a big one, at least two or three kilograms. Come and dig it up quickly." Zhao Siniang stopped the hoe and wiped the sweat from her forehead.

Zhang Chao dismounted, and Si Niang's maid Lu Liu hurried over to take the reins of the horse, and then took the horse to the side.

Zhang Chao stepped on the bamboo leaves and came to Si Niang. There was indeed a yellow bamboo shoot tip showing a small half. When you looked at the bamboo shoot tip, you knew that the bamboo shoot was definitely very big.

Winter bamboo shoots will die if they appear green. As long as the bamboo whip is on those slopes, they will be buried deep. Once the bamboo shoots are sprouted, they will grow very large without showing their heads.

These long, dark winter bamboo shoots have a particularly yellow color.

"Let me do it."

When Zhang Chao was a child, he liked to dig winter bamboo shoots. At that time, his grandfather's house was in the countryside, and there was a bamboo forest behind the house. Every winter, there were many winter bamboo shoots in the bamboo forest, but they needed skills. People without skills were like wild boars scattering the ground, but they could not dig a few winter bamboo shoots.

However, experienced people only need to look at the leaves of the bamboo, the direction of the bamboo tips, and the direction of the first bamboo branch, and find the direction of the bamboo whip without leaving any distance, and know the depth. You can easily find winter bamboo shoots, dig them accurately.

Zhang Chao used to be a master of digging winter bamboo shoots. Every winter vacation, Zhang Chao likes to dig winter bamboo shoots with his grandfather. Every time, he can dig enough to stir-fry a large plate of winter bamboo shoots. Every time his grandfather didn't dig too much, he would go home if he could dig enough to cook a plate of winter bamboo shoots.

When he digs winter bamboo shoots, he will never hurt the bamboo whip.

As long as the bamboo whip is not damaged, it doesn’t matter if the winter bamboo shoots are dug, and it doesn’t affect the bamboo. Winter bamboo shoots don’t grow big and will die as soon as they appear. Digging winter bamboo shoots is actually equivalent to loosening the soil for the bamboo, which is conducive to the growth of spring bamboo shoots in the coming year.

Fried pork slices with winter bamboo shoots, fried ham with winter bamboo shoots, and fried bacon are all delicious.

Zhang Chao picked up Si Niang's hoe and skillfully dialed the soil beside the winter bamboo shoots. When the bamboo whip below was exposed, he waved the hoe and hoeed it, and cut off the place where the winter bamboo shoots were connected to the bamboo whip. A complete winter bamboo shoot was harvested, and it did not hurt the bamboo whip at all.

Picking up the winter bamboo shoots, Zhang Chao took a hoe and covered the exposed bamboo whip again.

"I didn't expect that Saburo is still a master of digging bamboo shoots. Last time I heard you say that, I just thought you were boasting." Si Niang picked up the big winter bamboo shoot, slapped the soil on it, and said with a smile.

"I haven't dug it for a long time. I think I used to dig a lot of winter bamboo shoots when I was in the mountains with me and my master."

"The bamboo shoots are quite big, probably three pounds, which is rare to see."

Three pounds of winter bamboo shoots are indeed rare.

The two of them were very happy to dig a big winter bamboo shoot, and they each took the bamboo shoots and thought about them for a long time.

They no longer dug bamboo shoots. After packing the bamboo shoots, the two sat in the bamboo forest and chatted.

"Sanlang, I'll give you this bamboo shoot, you have to do me a favor." Zhao Siniang looked at Zhang Chao and said.

That day, Zhang Chao had no time to tell Zhao Siniang in detail that today Zhao Siniang took the initiative to ask Zhang Chao to meet here. Zhang Chao thought about it but did not refuse. It was not that he was greedy for Zhao Siniang's beauty or something. In fact, Zhao Siniang had no beauty either. She looked quite an ordinary girl and had a bit of heroism.

Zhang Chao just felt that he was a little guilty to the Zhao family when he bought the Zhao family last time. If he could help, he wouldn't mind helping. Sometimes, helping others is also helping himself.

"Tell me carefully what's going on in your home right now."

Zhao Siniang clapped the mud on her hands and sighed helplessly.

After all, it was still about food. The grain stored by the Zhao family has always been a time bomb. Last time, he sold a farm and paid more than 5,000 chunks of donkeys to roll, which was considered as untied the rope around his neck. But the Zhao family was not stable. Their family had also asked people to turn over a lot of money to buy grain. Although these turnovers were much better and the interest rate for lending was low, it would be troublesome if they could not pay it off. They all used the farm shop as collateral. If they could not pay the money, others would have to buy the shops and farms.

Zhao Siniang has always believed that the war in Hebei will last for a year or two, and the judgment is that the Tang army has lost consecutive battles before, and Li Yi and Li Shiji, who are known as famous generals, have been defeated one after another.

That's why he asked Mr. Zhao not to rush to clear the grain, but to wait for the grain price to rise and rebound. But after a few days of rising grain prices, the King of Qin captured and killed Liu Heita. Although there were Gao Kaidao and Xu Yuanlang, everyone knew that they could not hold on for a few days.

Without war, food consumption will be much less. The most important thing is that without a big war, the food market will be very stable.

"Many people say that food will fall a lot this year."

"You plan to clear the grain now? Now, the price is cleared, I'm afraid the losses will not be small, right?" Zhang Chao said.

"Even if you cut the stock, there is no way. If you don't sell the grain and pay it back, my shop will become someone else's." Zhao Siniang was helpless, but it was not so easy to clear the stock. Unless Zhao Siniang got a real clearance price, it would be easier to cash out all kinds of grains in one go.

Now Zhao Siniang has set her sights on Zhang Chao.

She received news that Zhang Chao became a member of the Ministry of Works and was responsible for building two workshops, one was a pharmacy and the other was a winery. The winery must have to buy grain. If Zhang Chao could help buy grain from the Zhao family and buy the Zhao family's stored grain, the Zhao family would not only not have to sell the grain at the clearance price, but could even quickly cash it in and pay back the money.

After Zhang Chao met Si Niang yesterday, he was also considering this issue.

When the imperial court wants to make alcohol, of course it will not directly use rice wine to distillate it, as that will be too expensive. The winery will collect grain according to normal conditions and make wine to distillate it. Of course, for the sake of cost, if it is just brewing alcohol, it actually does not require any good food at all.

The best type of wine-making food is sorghum.

Sorghum was planted in the Tang Dynasty, but because of the taste of sorghum, it was always used as feed. Only in the years of famine do they use sorghum as food.

Sorghum is not expensive, but it is very good to brew distilled alcohol. The sorghum wine from later generations is a good wine among white wine.

In fact, if there are sweet potatoes, then using sweet potatoes is actually more cost-effective. But now there are no sweet potatoes, sorghum is more cost-effective.

Using rice to make medical alcohol is simply too luxurious.

However, Zhang Chao was also thinking that it would be a waste to have a distillation method and only use it to make alcohol. He believed that high-quality liquor such as Erguotou must be very marketable. People who don’t drink alcohol all say it’s good if they drink it.

Zhang Chao really wanted to build a winery by himself and then make Erguotou to sell. The wine tips could be sold to the court's wine shop and continued to be processed into alcohol. Unfortunately, it is stuck in Li Shimin's place. If you want to make Erguotou, you can only open up Li Shimin's checkpoint first, and even in the court's wine shop, Erguotou was also used, so that the pot tip and the wine tip would be processed into alcohol without delay.

But Zhang Chao doesn't want to do this, because no matter how good he does, he won't give him a penny, so what can he do?

As expected, I have no motivation to work with a big pot. If it were Zhang Chao’s own winery, he would definitely do everything possible to save costs, improve efficiency, and tap potential.

Zhang Chao sighed.

"Does there sorghum in your food stored in your home?"

"Yes, but not much. Have you used sorghum for brewing wine? I haven't heard of it."

Sorghum is also called sorghum, which was used to make wine during the Ming Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, there was not too much sorghum planting. Many people directly grind sorghum into rice and cooked rice or make porridge. Some people would grind sorghum into flour to make cakes. However, sorghum contains tannins and has a very astringent taste. Most people are unwilling to eat sorghum. They usually use it as livestock feed and only eat it in famine years. Therefore, sorghum is also called disaster relief grain.

Zhao Siniang’s family sells grain, but I haven’t heard of anyone using sorghum to make wine.

Zhang Chao laughed but said nothing. Of course, ordinary rice wine made of sorghum is not good to drink, but it is an excellent ingredient for brewing white wine. Good sorghum wine has a strong taste but is not spicy, sweet and soft, and has a unique aroma.
Chapter completed!