"Greetings, Young Master. I have been waiting for you for a long time.”
Beside a village a hundred miles away from Xianyang, Fu Su had just dismounted from his horse when a figure suddenly flashed out from a small forest.
Fu Su immediately smiled and looked at that person."
"Sir, you're really fast. I was followed by Lu Buwei and the Yin-Yang School, so I was delayed for a while.
Also, I'm going out in plain clothes this time as the son of a merchant. You can call me Young Master from now on.”
To be able to make Fu Su directly address him as Mister, other than Sima Zhong Da, who else could it be?
Hearing Fu Su's words, Sima Yi smiled."
"It's good that Young Master is fine."
After saying that, Sima Yi turned around and pointed at the small village behind him."
"Young Master, this is the place I chose according to Young Master's request. This village is called Shanggu Village. The terrain is wide and flat, and there are more than 2,800 mu of fertile farmland.
However, the rivers and wells in the village had all dried up. The fields at the edge of the village were hundreds of steps away from the nearest river.
Furthermore, the water level in the rivers had dropped significantly due to the drought.
If the villagers wanted to carry water for irrigation, they had to cross the steep and dangerous river bank. To the old and weak in the village, it would take at least an hour to go back and forth. It was no different from using a cup of water to save the seedlings in the fields.
Moreover, many villagers had fallen and injured themselves because they had gone down the dike to fetch water. Two people had even fallen into the water and drowned.
If they wanted to dig a canal, they would have to dig a canal at least twenty feet deep to let the river flow to the fertile farmland.
Such an amount of work was impossible for the village's young and strong people to guard the border. There were only a few hundred old, weak, women, and children left.”
When Fu Su heard Sima Yi's introduction, his expression turned solemn. Fu Su knew that the Qin Country was suffering from a drought and that it was not easy for the commoners to fight against the drought. However, he did not expect the commoners to be in such a tragic state that they had to pay with their lives to carry water for irrigation.
Just a few trips to fetch water had already caused such casualties, let alone letting these old and weak people dig a twenty feet deep, mile long canal project?
One had to know that if a village was already like this, then what would happen if all the affected places in the entire Qin country started working?
A hoarse shout pulled Fu Su back to reality. He looked in the direction of the sound and saw a group of old and weak people. They were using buckets to carry water up the steep river bank.
There was only one ox cart to transport water. Most of the people relied on the elderly, women, and children to pass the buckets every few steps.
Because the elderly, women, and children had limited strength, each bucket could only hold half a bucket of water at most. Any more and most people would not be able to lift it.
Some of the old men had white hair and beard, and their upper bodies were bare and bony. After passing a bucket of water for a few steps, they were already panting, and their breathing was like a broken window that was blown by a strong wind.
Some of the children even used all their strength to drink milk, but they were still swayed by the heavy buckets. Their steps were staggering, and it looked extremely heart-wrenching.
Fu Su did not disturb them. He only let out a long sigh of relief and walked into the village.
As most of the old and weak in the village were drawing water from the river, there were only a few weak old women left in the village to take care of the infants who could not even walk.
This small group of villagers could be said to be the old and weak among the old and weak. When Fu Su entered the village, the old women were gathering to cook for the villagers.
"Granny, we are traveling merchants from Xianyang. We have run out of dry food here, so we want to ask you for a meal. We will give you money.”
Fu Su smiled warmly at an old granny who was cooking.
Although Fu Su was only twelve years old, he was born in the Wang family and had good genes and nutrition. Therefore, he was taller than the average fifteen or sixteen-year-old youth in the village.
He looked like a young master of a trading firm who had gone out to gain experience, so he did not arouse any suspicion.
"Sit down quickly. There are only a few of you. You can't eat much, so how can I ask for your money?
We mountain villagers don't have much to eat in a year of drought. We only have some bean water to fill our stomachs. It's fine as long as we don't find it difficult to swallow.”
"Yes, it's not easy for a foreigner to be outside. Hurry up and sit down.”
Although the old ladies lived a poor life, they were very hospitable, which warmed Fu Su's heart.
Not long after, the mothers-in-law served Fu Su, Sima Yi, and the others a few bowls of boiling hot bean water.
Fu Su took a look and realized what this so-called bean water was.
Bean was one of the five grains, which was what later generations called beans.
As for the bean water, it was boiled beans.
However, although beans were also included in the five grains of this era, they were not very delicious food. Most of them were only eaten by poor people. Therefore, the Book of Songs said:
"There are beans in the Central Plains. I'll pick them."
Moreover, the beans of this era were much smaller than the beans that were carefully cultivated in the future, and the smell was very strong.
The villagers also lacked salt and oil. In this era, there were no seasoning crops such as peppers. Therefore, the taste of boiled beans could be imagined.
Even though Fu Su wasn't a pampered person and wasn't the kind of person who couldn't live without a luxurious life, he still found the beans hard to swallow.
" Congratulations, host. You have triggered the mission 'improve your diet.'
[Mission Requirement: On the basis of the existing ingredients, improve the villagers 'diet.]
[Mission reward: Depending on the completion of the mission.]”
Fu Su was stunned for a moment. He did not expect that before he could complete his main mission of saving the people, he would trigger a new branch mission from the system.
At this time, the villagers had also returned to eat. The villagers were no longer surprised by Fu Su and his group. The village was close to the official road, and merchants and scholars often passed by in the past.
Fu Su noticed that when the villagers ate the bean water, they looked bitter.
After all, no matter how tough the villagers were and how they could force themselves to eat the bean water to fill their stomachs, the fishy smell of the bean water itself could not be concealed.
Seeing this, Fu Su instantly had an idea.
"Sir, there was already tofu at the end of the Han Dynasty, right?”
Fu Su looked at Sima Yi and said softly in a voice that the villagers could not hear.
"Young master, there is indeed.
Liu An, King of Huainan of the Han Dynasty, was obsessed with immortality. When he was burning medicine and refining pills, he used plaster to add soy milk, so he invented tofu.
However, the tofu was like dregs and not delicious. Could it be that Young Master wanted to use these beans to make tofu?”
Sima Yi was extremely smart. When Fu Su mentioned this, Sima Yi immediately understood and was a little suspicious.
"Sir, you might not know this, but the tofu invented by Liu An did not heat the soybean milk, so its solidifying property and taste were not very good. It was rejected by people in your era.
Actually, after making the soybean milk, he still needed to heat the soybean milk, remove the floating foam, and then add some bittern to the soybean milk to make it solidify into tofu.
The tofu made in this way was truly delicious!”
Fu Su smiled and revealed the crux of the matter…
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