Reborn in Dunhuang, I am farming and doing business in the desert

Chapter 27 Build a Big Stove
In the kitchen, Shen Zhao was cleaning the bowls and yellow basins when he heard his second brother muttering, "The food is so clean, you don't even need to wash it, right?"

Shen Zhao took a look at the two yellow bowls containing the dishes. There was not even a drop of soup left in them, only some scattered chicken bones.

The elderly people had very good teeth. They managed to finish all the old hen meat even though it was not even overcooked.

"Second brother, go find some fine grass. Mother said that in order to rebuild the stove, we need to use fine grass and mud." The mud for building the stove must be mixed with fibrous grass. Ordinary tree leaves and water chestnut leaves will not work, otherwise the stove chamber will crack.

Shen Zhao said as he cleaned the pots and bowls: "Once the new stove is ready, we can make tofu."

When Shen Heng heard about making tofu, he nodded immediately: "Okay, I'll go to my cousin's house to see if there is any fine grass."

After saying that, he went out and went straight to his cousin's house.

After Shen Zhao cleaned up the kitchen, his father had already led two guards back to the post station.

Before leaving, he invited two elderly neighbors to rebuild the stove for his home.

Shen Zhao seized the opportunity and asked his second brother to bring a few friends to bring a lot of clay and pile it outside the yard.

She wanted to try to build a kang like the one she saw in the small bronze mirror.

To this end, she and her mother spent the entire afternoon making leek pancakes to entertain her second brother's friends and two elderly neighbors.

Shen Zhao followed the method in the bronze mirror, rolling the dough into thin skins, wrapping them with chopped leek stuffing, and shaping them into large dumplings.

Then put it in an iron pot and simmer over low heat.

When the first pot was cooked, Shen Zhao handed a piece to his mother: "Mom, can you try it and see if it works?"

Zhang Shanyue took the leek dumplings and took a bite: "Hmm, the pancakes made this way are indeed better than steamed ones."

Shen Zhao also picked up a piece and took a bite. The hot leeks were steaming and almost burned her tongue.

Blow on it and continue eating, the delicious flavor will fill your mouth.

This is indeed the right thing to do, as it saves more firewood than steaming.

"I'll take a few pieces for Grandpa and the others to try." Shen Zhao picked up a piece with a pottery bowl and brought it to the two old men who were kneading clay to make molds for them to taste.

The two old men were both in their fifties or sixties, with white hair and wearing thin and tattered jackets.

Shen Zhao handed over a few leek dumplings and said, "Aunt, take a rest for a while and eat a few dumplings to fill your stomach."

The old man didn't hesitate to wipe his muddy hands on his pants, took the ceramic bowl, and the two of them knelt down on the spot and slowly picked up the dumplings to eat.

Unlike the Shen family, their two families did not have someone who received public grain. The garrison soldiers who lived solely on farming were very poor and seldom had access to such fine food.

But even though they thought it was delicious, the two men did not make a fuss, but observed etiquette and did not talk too much with the unmarried girl.

Shen Zhao brought them some hot tea and placed it on the small table that they had brought over, then went back to continue making the steamed cakes.

At this time, Shen Heng came back from playing with clay with some of his childhood friends. When he saw the big dumplings that Grandpa was eating, he immediately ran into the kitchen and asked, "Ah Zhao! Are the chive pancakes ready?"

Shen Zhao picked up a piece of cooked dumpling with chopsticks and placed it on the sieve, nodding his head and saying, "Okay, one pot is just cooked."

Shen Heng grinned, picked up a piece, poured it over from his left hand to his right hand twice, and took a bite.

Even though it was scalded, he was reluctant to let go of the dumpling and quickly finished it.

Zhang Shanyue glared at his son and said, "Don't just eat it yourself. Take some out for Ah Zhu to try."

Shen Heng agreed and took the grate out of the kitchen.

"Come on! Try the big noodle bait my sister made!" He called a few friends over. The young men came over shyly and each took a piece.

Ah Zhu even took two more pieces and gave them to the old man outside: "Aunt, you guys eat too."

"We're done eating, you can eat by yourself." The old man waved his hand, stood up, patted the dirt off his butt, and continued to step on the mud pile with his bare feet.

In order to make strong and durable clay molds, the mud and grass must be fully blended. If conditions permit, cow dung will be added to the mud to make the clay mold denser.

Two days later, hundreds of clay blocks were finally made. Shen Zhao took out a piece of wood and showed it to the two elders: "Grandpa, build the stove according to the pattern I drew. You need two stove openings, one large and one small, and a soup pot opening in the middle. No matter which side of the stove is lit, the pot in the middle can be burned."

The old man leaned over to take a look, and saw a picture of an earthen stove painted with charcoal on the wide piece of wood, with even the size marked on it.

Both of them knew a little bit of masonry work, and they understood the meaning after watching it.

But even though I understood it, I still had a question: "Isn't this stove eye too big?" When I usually helped people build stoves, the stove eyes were small, just enough to hold a clay pot for cooking. But the stove eye in this picture looked a bit strange.

"Not big. We need a big pot at home, so the stove must be this big." Shen Zhao pointed to the big iron pot in the middle of the kitchen: "This is the pot we use."

The old man suddenly realized and said no more. He took the wood chips and started to build the stove according to the pattern.

Shen Zhao was watching from the side, handing over a piece of clay from time to time.

In less than a day, a large stove was built, and the inside and outside were covered with yellow mud, and even the chimney was covered with yellow mud several times.

During this time, Shen Zhao bought a smaller pot and placed it on the stove together with the previous one.

I watched the old man smear yellow mud under the edge of the pot and evenly spread it on the stove, and I secretly memorized the order in my mind.

She knew that the seemingly simple craft was not easy to do.

Later, I used this method to build a brick bed in the house and also built a stove.

In winter, he and his mother slept on the kang in the side room. Anyway, his father only came back once every few days, so there was no need for two kangs for the time being.

By the way, we also need to build a house for the second brother and the eldest brother, but that would waste a lot of firewood.

After another day, the stove was finally dry and could be used to make fire.

In the afternoon, Shen Zhao specially cooked a big pot of rice, bought some dishes from the small bronze mirror, and cooked a big pot of cabbage, radish, tofu and vermicelli stew in a small iron pot.

Just then, Shen Ang came back from Tingyi, and brought back a camel with two bulging bags hanging on its back.

Along the way, neighbors kept asking, "What did Mr. Shen bring back? Two big bags like this?"

Shen Ang said with a smile: "I met merchants from the Western Regions and bought some rare goods."

"Hey, what kind of goods is that? Can you show it to us?" someone asked with a smile.

Shen Ang laughed: "Okay! I'll tell you when I get back and sort it out."

What was in the two large bags? In fact, it was just the dry grass picked up near the post station, filling up the two large bags.

Since there was nothing to do at the post station today, he borrowed a camel to transport the goods back home.

Leading the camel into his yard, Shen Ang pretended to unload the two large bags and called his wife over to help.

Of course Zhang Shanyue knew what was going on. Under the gaze of his neighbors, he calmly dragged the big bag to his daughter's room.

At the same time, Xue Lingyao and her brother were also observing the Shen family not far away from the yard, and they did not leave quietly until the Shen family dragged the big bag into the house.

(End of this chapter)