Song Sanniang's Journey to Wealth

Chapter 240 Barbecue

Zhang Tieshan rowed the boat next to Uncle Huang's boat and put the fish on the boat into the bucket.

When Little Brother Song saw that they were going to release the fish, he stopped playing and rushed to help. However, Sister-in-law Song pulled him back because she was afraid that he would fall into the water.

Since they were going to dry the fish, they had to prepare them properly before drying them. Aunt Niu and the others had set up their gear on the shore.

Then I took the fish out of the bucket, knocked it unconscious with a sharp knife, scraped off the scales and belly, removed the black line, and put it aside to continue processing the next one.

For a moment, all kinds of sounds were heard on the shore, including the sounds of killing fish, catching fish, and the voices of Song Sanniang and the others talking, which gradually echoed above the Bi Bo Lake.

Since everyone was at the lake and there were so many fish, Song Sanniang decided to have a barbecue together at noon.

Song Sanniang gave some instructions and those who had nothing to do went to catch chickens and pick vegetables, some brought bricks to build a stove, and then got the barbecue utensils, and waited for the ingredients to be ready before lighting the fire.

Song Xiaodi has stopped playing with fish. He is eager to go pick vegetables with Song Sanniang.

Song Sanniang knew that there was a vegetable garden where many vegetables suitable for barbecue were grown, so she wanted to go and see if the aunts had finished eating them all.

The vegetable garden of Wuyou Manor is not just the one within the fence. If there were only that, it would not be enough for the people of Wuyou Manor to eat.

Aunt Niu and her family also opened up several vegetable gardens outside the village, planting fruits, vegetables and melons.

Song Sanniang and Si Niang carried their baskets to one of the vegetable plots, while the aunts in the village went to pick the vegetables they liked.

Song Sanniang and her companions came to the vegetable fields, which were well planned by the aunts. From a distance, the fields were neatly arranged from left to right.

The ones on the left are all without vines. One is planted with lettuce, one is planted with leeks, one is planted with Chinese cabbage, and one is planted with eggplant.

There are also several other different vegetables, arranged in order, and each bed is planted with only the same vegetable.

On the right are melons and vegetables with vines, with rows of them set up with bamboo trellises.

The vines on top are full of vitality and have climbed all over the frame. Looking at the rows, there are loofahs, cucumbers, beans, green beans, etc.

Song Sanniang swallowed her saliva when she thought of roasted eggplants. Roasted eggplants dipped in garlic sauce tasted so good.

There is also Chinese cabbage. It is not so sweet when it is boiled on weekdays, but it tastes particularly sweet when grilled. I don’t know why.

Leeks are a common choice for barbecue, and green beans are also delicious. Unlike other leafy vegetables that absorb oil, they are the best choice for barbecue if you are afraid of greasiness.

There are also mushrooms. Roasted mushrooms lose moisture and taste crispy, but the inside is tender and smooth. It's a pity that there are no fresh mushrooms.

Thinking of this, Song Sanniang didn't think much about it anymore and started to instruct everyone to pick some vegetables she wanted to grill.

Song Xiaodi was short, so she asked him to pick leeks, and she was responsible for picking eggplants. Si Niang and the others picked beans, one picked green beans, and Master Hu picked cabbages.

Everyone worked together in the vegetable field, and the two vegetable baskets they brought were soon filled.

Now that it was full, everyone stopped and carried the baskets back to the lake together.

Everyone was busy killing fish, chickens and ducks by the lake. When Song Sanniang and her friends brought the vegetables back, an aunt took them to the waterfall to wash them.

Song Sanniang looked at the existing meat, including fish, chicken, duck, and shrimp. Today, everyone was busy catching fish and had not had time to go down the mountain to buy pork.

Song Sanniang simply asked everyone to kill a pig, and the pigs in the pigpen were raised separately because Song Sanniang was afraid of swine fever.

All the boars were castrated. There were pigs of different sizes. Song Sanniang picked out a pig weighing about 60 kilograms and had it slaughtered.

The people in the village were cheering, because pigs were usually slaughtered during the Chinese New Year, and not every family had the money to slaughter a pig. But they slaughtered a pig before the Chinese New Year, and everyone seemed to be celebrating the Chinese New Year.

The whole pig was disassembled by everyone, including the pig head, pig trotters, pig offal, pork chops, pig head, and even the pig skin. Every part of the pig has its fans.

Aunt Gan and her friends killed three chickens and two ducks, and chopped the chicken and duck meat into pieces suitable for barbecue according to Song Sanniang's instructions.

Then the legs and wings of the chicken and duck were separated, as well as the chicken intestines, chicken hearts, chicken gizzards and other chicken offal. The duck was also processed in the same way.

Next, all the ingredients were processed and pickled under the guidance of Aunt Gan. The leaves of cabbage and other ingredients were broken open one by one, and the green beans were cut into sections.

The young people in the village went to cut bamboo to make skewers for the barbecue. There were also a dozen children in the village, and Song was having fun with them.

In fact, when Song Sanniang first wanted to buy the mountain, the villagers at the foot of the mountain disagreed because they had lived here for generations and were afraid that their fields would be lost if the mountain was bought by someone else.

It’s not that no one had their eyes on this mountain, but when they saw that they couldn’t convince Old Liu and his group, they gave up. Only Song Sanniang offered conditions that satisfied Old Liu and his group.

First of all, although they bought the land themselves, they still let each family cultivate it.

The price was to ask them to help open up fields in the valley, and Song Sanniang would only take 50% of the harvest from the fields, and the rest would be given to them.

Second, people from their village can work in Wuyou Village, with food and accommodation provided, and they can also receive monthly wages.

Besides, the mountains also need people to look after them, so Song Sanniang would hire villagers to look after them, which was also an opportunity for them to work and get paid.

Third, they hired a teacher to teach in their village. All the children in the village could go to private school, and the writing brushes, inkstones, and paper were all provided by Song Sanniang.

Song Sanniang was not doing charity. She built a private school, and the villagers and parents were responsible for providing food for the children and teachers.

The villagers were a little hesitant about the first and second conditions, but when the third condition came out,

The more knowledgeable scholars, village chief, and elders in Taohua Village agreed to let Song Sanniang buy the mountain without much hesitation.

You have to know how important it is for people of this era to be literate. People don't study not because they don't want to, but because they can't afford to.

Shu Xiu is really just a small part of the cost. The big part is the writing brush, ink, paper, and inkstone, as well as the various expenses along the way.

This is also the reason why some families have to pool the efforts of the entire family to barely support a scholar.

Moreover, the scholars educated in this way may not necessarily pass the imperial examinations to become scholars or juren. At most, they can be expected to learn to read and do math and become shopkeepers.

The only thing that made the villagers unhappy was that Song Sanniang required that all girls of school age be sent to school. If a girl was not allowed to go to school, the boys in the family would have no school to go to.

The villagers discussed this a lot and all disagreed at first, until Song Sanniang said that if all the boys and girls in the village could learn to read and write, then whoever learned well could work in her shop.

There will be plenty of opportunities to become a shop owner in the future. If you marry your daughter off early, she will not have the chance to make money in her own store.

With Song Sanniang's words, all the girls in Taohua Village could go to school.

So every time they knew Song Sanniang came to the farm, they wanted to listen to her talk to them.

Song Sanniang told them a lot about the outside world and encouraged them to study hard.

I will take them out to see the world when I have the chance in the future, so they study much harder than boys.