A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 13 Oil is as precious as gold
"Before frying the tofu, we need to buy some oil first."

"What kind of oil should I use?"

“Rapeseed oil is best. It makes the tofu puffs look better and improves the taste and aroma.”

"Then go directly to Fengjiabao to buy it. There is an oil mill in Fengjiabao."

Fengjiabao is located on the slope behind Luojiabao, only three miles away. There are three major surnames in Fengjiabao, Feng, Dong and Zhang. The workshops are prosperous, including oil mills, dyeing mills, wine mills, incense mills, etc.

Sanniang told Li Yi, "This Fengjiabao, the Feng family has a lot of land, the Dong family is powerful, and the Zhang family has many servants."

The Feng family is divided into Baoxi Feng and Baodong Feng. Baodong Feng is the local Feng family, while Baoxi Feng is originally from Hedong and moved here in recent years. However, in terms of wealth and power, Baoxi Feng, the outsider, is richer and more powerful than Baodong Feng, Dong and Zhang, and owns more than 2,000 acres of land.

"There's more than one oil mill in Fengjiabao, but the one in the west of the fort has the best reputation. Their oil is good and the price is affordable."

"Then go buy it from him."

Feng Liulang, the head of the Feng family in Baoxi, is also one of the two village chiefs in Yusu Township. When Li Yi put up the beam last time, he sent someone to deliver a bucket of white flour to congratulate him.

Sanniang first put the tofu at Li Yi's house, and then led Li Yi to Fengjiabao on the slope of the plateau.

The fort is located right on the main road between the upper and lower plateaus. To the west and south are plateau cliffs, under the cliffs is Luojiabao, and to the east is a deep ditch, which the locals are superstitious about.

"That ditch is called Dead Baby Ditch. Don't go near it if you don't have anything to do with it."

"Why is it called Dead Baby Valley?" Li Yi was curious about the existence of such a place.

"Many babies died at birth. It was said that such babies were filled with resentment and could not be buried in the ancestral tomb or near their own village. So, in the villages within the surrounding area, if a baby died, they would be buried in that deep ditch. Later, not only were newborns buried there, but also those who died before the age of 21, who were called short-lived ghosts, were buried there as well. So that place became known as the Dead Baby Ditch. It was said that the sun never shines there all year round, and the gloomy atmosphere is very heavy. You can often hear babies crying at night."

As she spoke, Sanniang seemed to be scared herself. She got goose bumps under the scorching June sun. She couldn't speak anymore and her face turned pale.

Li Yi smiled and walked closer to her side by side.

"Don't be afraid, we're not going that way."

In ancient times, many infants died prematurely, and many mothers died from difficult labor or postpartum infections. Giving birth in that era was a daunting task, and the survival rate of newborns was very low.

Wuyi was abandoned shortly after birth for unknown reasons. Fortunately, he met Taoist Li, who took him back to the Taoist temple and raised him.

When they arrived at Fengjiabao, Sanniang led him to the west side of the village main road.

Feng Liulang, who came from Hedong, was called Feng Banbao because he built two large courtyards, north and south, to the west of the original fort. The north courtyard was a family residence, and the south courtyard was the Feng family's garden. The two courtyards were larger than the original fort.

Even the south courtyard of his house was built on a hill made of earth on the top of the plateau, so the mountain was called Fengjia Mountain. People passing by could not help but look at Fengjia Mountain.

Li Yi also saw the earthen hill in the south courtyard of the Feng family from afar. There were pavilions and towers on the hill, which was the commanding height of this area.

In addition to the north and south courtyards, Feng Liulang also built many workshops and shops along the west side of the village road.

You can smell the aroma of oil and wine from a distance.

Sanniang often came to Fengjiabaozi to sell tofu, and the workers in the oil mill were all familiar with her.

"Boss, this is Li Dalang, the new village chief of our Luojiabao. He came to you today to buy some oil."

The owner of Feng's Oil Mill did not wear a futou, but simply tied a scarf on his head. He was a strong man. When he heard that there was a business coming, he immediately stepped forward to greet him.

"I heard that Luojiabao got a new village chief, and I've always wanted to go and pay him a visit, but I just haven't had the time to spare."

The shopkeeper smiled and said, "We have all kinds of oils in our oil mill, sesame oil, hemp seed oil, neem seed oil, safflower oil, and rapeseed oil. Among these oils, sesame oil is the best, whether it is for frying, boiling, or deep-frying. We have both raw and cooked sesame oils. You can see directly that the sesame oil being pressed over there is raw sesame oil, and this batch is black sesame oil. The oil yield of black sesame is 10% lower than that of white sesame, but it is better..."

Li Yi followed to visit the oil mill where sesame oil was pressed.

After looking around, he discovered a problem. The sesame oil in the Tang Dynasty was not the sesame oil of later generations in the northwest, but sesame oil. The Tang people called the sesame introduced from the Western Regions during the Han Dynasty "Hu Ma" and the oil extracted from sesame "Hu Ma Oil".

He remembered that the sesame oil in the northwest in later generations seemed to be linseed oil.
The Feng family workshop also has a kind of sesame oil called hemp seed oil, which has a stronger smell and is cheaper than sesame oil.

The best and most expensive one is sesame oil, followed by sesame oil, which is also known as perilla oil. This oil is green and lovely, and has a delicious aroma. There is also perilla oil.

In the shopkeeper's words, for pancakes, Renzi oil is not as good as sesame oil, but better than lard, hempseed oil, etc. As for the rapeseed oil that Li Yi wanted, it was called rapanseed oil in the workshop. Rapeseed is a kind of oily cabbage similar to radish, and its seeds can be used to extract oil. When rapanseed blooms, it looks very similar to rapeseed flowers in later generations.

Rapeseed oil is much cheaper than sesame oil and radish oil.

Li Yi checked the rapeseed oil in the oil mill. It was golden yellow with a strong green smell. This was exactly the oil he wanted.

"How much is rapeseed oil?"

The shopkeeper smiled and said, "The best raw sesame oil is 240 coins per catty, and the best raw rapeseed oil is 200 coins per catty."

"What about the inferior and lower classes?"

"Inferior rapeseed oil costs one hundred and ninety coins a jin, and the lower quality costs one hundred and eighty coins."

Li Yi looked at all the three grades of rapeseed oil and asked, "What are the prices of the three grades of ripe rapeseed oil?"

"Raw-pressed oil is warming and nourishing, and can be used as medicine. It is lighter in color, has less oily residue, and can be stored longer. Ripe-pressed oil is more fragrant, but cannot be used as medicine. It can only be eaten and used for lighting. It costs 15 cents less per serving than raw-pressed oil."

"Then I'll give you 100 pounds of the low-quality, ripe-squeezed stuff. Can you make it cheaper?"

He asked for 100 kilograms, which surprised the shopkeeper.
Oil is so expensive these days that most people choose to eat less or even not eat it. Even if they buy oil, they would rather buy relatively cheaper animal fats.
This high-quality sesame oil costs 240 coins per catty, pork only costs 150 coins per catty, and high-quality pork lard only costs 160 coins per catty.

Although rapeseed oil is cheap, the cheapest low-quality cooked oil costs 165 yuan per catty, which is still expensive for ordinary people.

The shopkeeper hadn't met a big customer who asked for a hundred kilograms for a long time.

The shopkeeper's attitude became more enthusiastic.

"Boss, to be honest with you, I may come here often to buy in larger quantities." Li Yi offered another tempting condition.

The shopkeeper gritted his teeth and said, "It was originally 165 coins per catty. I'll give you a discount of 1 coin."

"One hundred and sixty, round off the zero."

The shopkeeper was embarrassed. "It's really a small business with little profit. Five cents per pound of oil, that's not even a penny earned. Look at all the guys in this oil mill, they're exposed to smoke and sweat every day. It's really hard work."

"I'll pay you in gold. Two ounces of gold is worth exactly sixteen thousand coins. I'll come back often to support your business."

The shopkeeper was quite surprised when he heard about gold. This Village Chief Li was no ordinary person. These days, people who have Kaihuang Wuzhu coins hide them away and usually use Daye Wuzhu coins, or even white coins or privately minted coins. Good coins are not circulated, and those who have real gold and silver will not take them out easily.

It is easy to collect those cheap and inferior coins, but it is difficult to pay them back. They are worthless.

Only real money is truly valuable.

Li Yi really took out two taels of gold, two very small gold bars, which were quite heavy in his hand.

The golden light made the shopkeeper's eyes widen. It's not that he had never seen gold before, but it was rare to see people using gold to buy cooking oil.

"Can I have it tested?"

"Of course no problem, feel free to test it."

This gold was given to him by Guo Erlang. He had already used it in Wangquji and Wang Lizheng's mill in Nianwan, so there was no problem.

After the shopkeeper carefully checked and confirmed that everything was correct, he hesitated for a moment and finally agreed to round off the price, and the deal was done.

"Thank you for your patronage, Li Dalang. I'll have my waiter take it home right away."

"Boss, I heard you have a blacksmith workshop? Can you make custom iron pots?"

"My blacksmith workshop is staffed by experienced blacksmiths who can make all kinds of cooking utensils, including tripods, woks, pots, cauldrons, griddles, stir-fries, and cauldrons. We have ready-made ones, and we can also customize the sizes as required. We can make them from pig iron or wrought iron, and even copper is fine if you want one." The shopkeeper agreed with a smile.

"That's good. I'll go order some iron pots."

"I'll take Li Dalang with me. Our blacksmith can satisfy you with whatever you want."

(End of this chapter)