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

Chapter 197 Kitchen God and the Kang

The 24th day of the twelfth lunar month
It is the day when the Tang people worship the Kitchen God. The Kitchen God worship originated from the Five Sacrifices in the pre-Qin period and has been passed down for more than a thousand years.

The Kitchen God has had different images in different eras. It is said that the earliest one to be worshipped was Emperor Yan, and later it was worshipped as Zhurong. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, some people said that the Kitchen God was an old woman who invented cooking. However, Sima Biao of the Jin Dynasty said that the Kitchen God was a beautiful woman in red clothes.

But no matter who the Kitchen God is, he will keep people safe.

Of course, the Kitchen God also likes to tell tales. Ge Hong of the Eastern Jin Dynasty said that on the night of the new moon, the Kitchen God would report people's crimes to heaven. If the crime was serious, he would take away their life span; if the crime was minor, he would take away their life expectancy.

One era consists of three hundred days, which is equal to three days.

If you make a serious mistake, your life span will be reduced by 300 days; if you make a minor mistake, your life span will be reduced by three days.

Because the Kitchen God protects people's safety and investigates and prosecutes complaints, the people love and fear him. Every year in the twelfth lunar month, they hold a grand ceremony to offer sacrifices to him.

In the Han Dynasty, yellow sheep were used to offer sacrifices to the Kitchen God. In the Tang Dynasty, people would use wine dregs to smear the stove door, which was called "Drunk Siming". When the Kitchen God was drunk, he could not report to the heavens.

Early in the morning, Du Shiniang ordered the cook to make malt sugar.
The malt has been fermented in advance at home. Just like bean sprouts, the wheat is soaked in water and kept away from light for five or six days, and long sprouts will grow. Cut the malt, clean it, and chop it. Steam the glutinous rice and mix it with the chopped malt to ferment. Finally, put it into an iron pot and boil it until it is in the flag-like state.

Maltose is also called taro, which is sweet and sticky. It is used to wrap fried beans, which become taro beans.

"Are you trying to seal the Kitchen God's mouth?"

Li Yi watched everyone making candy beans with a smile, and ate a few himself. They were really sweet, but also very sticky.

Du Shiniang said that we should be filial to the Kitchen God.
The Kitchen God will report to heaven once at the end of every month, and at the end of the year he will also make a big report to heaven. We must show him respect and honor him well.

Rich families pay more and more attention to worshipping the Kitchen God.
Not only yellow sheep are needed, but also pigs, wild geese, rice, as well as wine, fermented beans, vegetables, etc.

We need to prepare a large banquet.
Li Yi thought that the wealthy people might have done some shameful things and were afraid that the Kitchen God would report them and reduce their scores.

He was somewhat surprised that the Tang people at that time had the tradition of offering sacrifices to the Kitchen God on 24 occasions, but did not have the tradition of celebrating the Little New Year.

Li Yi returned to his room, cut two pieces of red paper, and wrote two sentences on them.

"May good things happen to the heavens above, and may peace prevail in the world below."

Li Yi pasted the two pieces of red paper next to the stove, which was where the Kitchen God stayed at home. He didn't know whether the Kitchen God was a man or a woman, an old woman or a beauty, but he still had to show respect to her.

Everyone offers sacrifices to the Kitchen God, but perhaps the Kitchen God doesn't remember.

But if anyone doesn't offer sacrifices to the Kitchen God and show respect, the Kitchen God will surely remember it and report it to the authorities. That would be terrible. After all, if you really want to find fault with something, everyone has their share of minor faults.

Liu Heizi and his men were outside slaughtering pigs and sheep.
Black pigs, yellow sheep, and wild geese.

The Kitchen God had a good meal today. Of course, after the sacrifice, these will still be eaten by humans.

Li Yi thought that if he carved a plate with the image of the Kitchen God on it, printed it, and then sold it to the people, asking them to take it home and stick it on their stoves, it would probably be very popular and would be a good business.

But considering that there seemed to be no woodblock printing technology at that time,

Although woodblock printing sounds simple, the printing ink requires very high technology, so it can only be thought about. However, he thought he could first note down the woodblock printing and movable type printing, and maybe think about it and study it in the future.
If successful, printing books will be another incredible blue ocean.

I went to see Chili Pepper,
This baby eats when he wakes up and sleeps after eating. Apart from the fact that he urinates a lot and wets many diapers a day, he doesn't cry or make a fuss and is not difficult to take care of.

Zhang Fengshi's milk supply was good, and when she came to the Li family, there were special milk-increasing meals.
Li Yi came to the West Wing,
Zhang Fengshi is breastfeeding.
So big and so white.

When Zhang Feng saw Li Yi coming, she didn't feel shy at all. It seemed that women would always become calm at this time.

It was Li Yi who withdrew awkwardly.
Zhang Feng also asked him what was the matter.

"Just to see if Auntie is okay?"

"Okay, he's very well behaved. I've given birth to four children, and none of them are as easy to take care of as you are."

"Is the kang in this room easy to use? Is it hot? Will it be scalding? Will it still be hot in the second half of the night? Are you used to sleeping in it?" Li Yi asked.

There are now many fire kangs built by Li Yi in Wuji Castle. Luo San and his companions are becoming more and more adept at it, and can even lead several apprentices to build them separately.

The kang is ready and can be used in two or three days.

The room where the wet nurse Zhang Fengshi and the nanny Gao Wangshi lived has also been bought and is already in use.

"It's very useful. This kang is warm and spacious with a kang mat on it. It's comfortable to sleep on at night in the cold winter, and it's also warm to sit on during the day.
You don’t have to worry about Auntie getting cold.”

Zhang Fengshi called Li Yi to sit on the kang.

"As long as it's useful, if you need anything, just tell Madam Yu directly, or you can tell Madam Ji," and then Li Yi pushed open the curtain and went out.

Came to the front yard to watch the pig being slaughtered,
Today, every household is busy preparing offerings to the Kitchen God.

Rich families like Li Yi would slaughter pigs and sheep, and prepare wild geese, sugar beans, and a lot of food and wine. Ordinary farmers would also prepare fermented beans and vegetables. If they could, they would cut a piece of meat and cook it. If they couldn't, they would buy a fish. If that didn't work, they would still cook a bowl of rice.

No matter how poor one is, one has to pawn his clothes to buy offerings to the Kitchen God.

Li Yi watched Liu Heizi and his men skillfully slaughtering and cutting the meat, which was steaming hot.

The pig farming business has already begun. Although it is not suitable to raise piglets in winter due to the lack of pig grass and the cold weather, Wujibao and the Society have already discussed cooperative pig farming with tenants and farmers.
The pigpen that was agreed upon is already under construction.
Li Yi's pig farm in Wuji Fort has selected some sows to raise. The sows can give birth to a litter after three months of gestation, two litters a year, and some can even give birth to three litters.

Piglets can be weaned in just twenty days. If managed well, they have great potential. "I've also built a pigpen with four stalls. I plan to keep two pigs in each stall, so eight piglets in total." Liu Heizi lifted half a pig with ease.

"Can you raise eight? I suggest you start with two or three, to practice and gain some experience. Don't take too big a step."

Heizi was quite bold, "I hired a long-term worker, and asked his wife to help me raise the child, and I paid her wages."

"As for experience, she helps out at Alang's pig farm whenever she's free, and she can learn a lot. I also go over there to watch and learn when I'm free. Raising pigs isn't that difficult. I've raised pigs for others before, but they were mostly free-range. But it's all about raising pigs."

As for the problem of raising too many pigs to feed, he thought it was not difficult. The Wang family's mill in Nianwan had rice bran and wheat bran, and the Feng family's oil mill could buy oil cakes to make feed.
"When the piglets are small, buy more rice bran. When they grow up, feed them more coarse bran. Our winery also has a lot of persimmon residue that has been used to steam wine, which can also be used to feed the pigs. We can also ask the children of the farmhands to pick grass for the pigs. We can raise eight pigs."

Heizi is very optimistic about the prospects of pig farming.
A pig can produce forty to fifty dan of pig manure a year. One dan can increase grain production by ten kilograms. Raising eight pigs can increase grain production by three to four thousand kilograms. What's more, pork is valuable now, so it's profitable no matter how you calculate it.

Li Yi felt that he had gotten a great deal. Breeding animals also has risks. As the old saying goes, even if you have a fortune, the fur doesn't count.

"Alang, is it comfortable to sleep on the kang?" Heizi asked with a smile.

"Well, everyone who has slept with you says it's good. You guys are pretty good at it."

"That was all Alang's idea. We just helped out by building the bricks and plastering the mud."

Luo San and his friends were very happy to hear that the kang was really useful.

"You can also build one at home. It's much more comfortable than burning a stove, and it doesn't use much firewood."

“Can we also make our own dishes?”

"You already know how to do it, so why not?"

Luo Dafu scratched his head, "This skill belongs to Alang, how can we use it casually?"

"It's just a kang," Li Yi said with a smile.

Old man Luo Er said seriously, "This is a good skill. It can support your family, just like digging caves and building houses. With this skill, you can make money during the slack season."

Li Yi laughed and said, "You are all my managers now, so how can you have the time to earn such a small amount of money?"

Luo Er said that he could take an apprentice, and the apprentice would go to build kangs for people and use the money he earned to offer as tribute to his master.

"I don't need it. You can do whatever you want."

Old man Luo Er was a man who followed the rules. He proposed a compromise plan, asking Li Yi to recruit some young men from the village to become his apprentices. They would teach them the techniques of making kangs, and then they could go out to take jobs.
Just like a workshop, these young men are equivalent to the workshop's assistants or apprentices. They are paid wages, but the money they earn belongs to the workshop, that is, Li Yi.

Luo San and his colleagues act as both masters and managers, earning some hard work fees.

Li Yi thought it was a trivial matter, but they did not dare to use Li Yi's technology to make money directly. They set up a workshop or a kang team just to let Li Yi make the biggest profit.

Although Li Yi is not short of these small things now, they feel that this rule cannot be broken.

"Since you insist, then fine, we'll form a kang-making team and recruit some apprentices. You can teach them how to build a kang and take them on jobs. If we make any money, we'll split it equally."

"That won't work. All the money earned belongs to Alang. We just need to take some wages."

After slaughtering the pigs, sheep, chickens and ducks, Li Yi called Heizi, Luo Er, Luo San and others to the front yard of the main courtyard.
There is a big kang there, which is ready for use.

The fire is warm,
Ask them to get on the kang and experience it together.
Luo Er, Luo San, Luo Wu, Da Fu, Da Gui, Fu Gui, Hei Zi and other Li Yi's managers said that the house was very warm as soon as they entered.

After taking off my shoes and getting on the kang,
I was even more amazed.

"It's beautiful,"

"It's warm and comfortable. I thought there was a fire burning down there and people up there would get roasted, but it's just warm."

"Yes, this big kang is like a huge couch."

"Ah Lang, does heating the kang waste firewood?"

Li Yi smiled and said, "This kang is not like a big pot. You don't have to chop all the firewood. Any rotten branches and leaves will do. Twenty to thirty pounds a day is enough. In fact, it saves firewood and is warmer than burning directly in the fire pit."

"That's definitely a better deal. Let's buy one this afternoon."

Everyone decided to build a kang at home as soon as possible. With this kang in winter, their wives and children no longer have to worry about the cold.

"Eat early and feel warm and comfortable early."

Luo San felt the comfortable kang that made him want to moan, "We have to recruit apprentices quickly. This is such a good thing, who wouldn't want to get one after seeing it?
Our kang team will probably be so busy they can't stop."

"Yes, let's recruit more apprentices. Now that we have nothing to do during the winter, we can each lead a team."

Luo Wu even said that Li Yi didn't take out this good thing earlier. Now the New Year is coming soon, and he has missed a good opportunity to make money in the winter.

Several people enthusiastically began to discuss how many apprentices a team should have, how much money to charge for making a kang, and how much salary each apprentice should be paid.

Although in Li Yi's eyes, this is just a small job, but they think it is a good job, and even a good skill that can be passed on to their children and grandchildren.

(End of this chapter)