A pot of whale oil is boiled out, but looking at the whale carcass, it is still a small mountain, even the best oil refining craftsmen in Hangzhou have never experienced this kind of thing, one barrel, two barrels, ten barrels, all the barrels that can be found are used, and they are still not finished. In the end, there were really no barrels, so they dragged the empty boats over and used them as barrels, and loaded them one by one.

Nearly 100,000 catties of grease are naturally cooled in the port and gradually solidified.

A pot of oil, enough nearly 100,000 catties, after heating and cooling, put it into the basin, and gradually began to solidify.

In this era, people can rarely eat fat. Most people can't afford meat, and ordinary fish has almost no fat. With so much oil, it's natural to be coveted.

But when they secretly put the fat in their mouths, they found that the fat was not delicious, and there was a strange taste, and they couldn't help but draw a question mark in their hearts, can this thing be eaten? If you can't eat it, what's the use of boiling?

Gu Sizhi also tasted it, but his thoughts were different from ordinary people. Li Mu has been deified in his heart, Hou Ye will not be wrong, Hou Ye let the oil refining, then it must be able to eat, now the oil that has been practiced cannot be eaten, it must be something wrong on his side, how to explain this to Hou Ye?

With a nervous mood, Gu Sizhi came to the Yuelai Inn and stammered to tell the matter. Unexpectedly, Li Mu laughed.

"You let me refine oil for food?"

Gu Sizhi was stunned: "Isn't it? ”

"It's used to make lamp oil, and I always want to eat it in my head!" Li Mu didn't have a good airway, he couldn't explain to Gu Sizhi, before human beings used oil, that is, before the middle of the nineteenth century, most of the Western seafaring countries used whale oil for lighting at night. At that time, whale oil was a scarce resource that only wealthy families could afford.

Later, when humans developed oil, whale oil came off the altar and was replaced by kerosene.

After thinking about it, Li Mu said: "Have you heard of the ever-bright lantern of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang?" ”

Gu Siyi was stunned, when he was young, he had also read a lot of wild history miscellaneous records, of course he had an impression, nodded and said, "I have heard a little." ”

"It is rumored that the everlasting lamp of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang is whale oil. Whale oil is the finest lamp oil, and it is rare to get it, right? I asked you to refine oil, just to make lamp oil, 100,000 catties of lamp oil, if in the name of Yangzhou Port, dedicated to Your Majesty, is Your Majesty a dragon? ”

Li Mu squeezed his eyes, Gu Sizhi understood now, and immediately echoed: "Master Hou is right, such a rare thing cannot be enjoyed by His Majesty. The old man will go to supervise the work, and if anyone dares to hide it privately, he will be severely punished. His Majesty ...... the day" Gu Sizhi was vague for a moment, and said: "Let Your Majesty's mausoleum use the everlasting lamp of Qin Shi Huang!" ”

"Fart!" Li Mu didn't care about Gu Sizhi's age, picked up the fan and knocked him, and said, "You want to die yourself, don't kill me!" What is His Majesty's mausoleum, who told you that this lamp oil must be used in the mausoleum? You bastard, dare to curse Your Majesty, believe it or not I cut off your head with Shang Fang's sword? ”

Gu Sizhi hurriedly knelt down: "Master Hou, this is not what the lower official meant, there is no such meaning!" ”

"I don't dare!" Li Mu snorted coldly and said: "Punish you to write Your Majesty's longevity a thousand times, and show it to me tomorrow, you want to be in block letters, dare to have a word scribbled, I want your dog life!" Get lost! ”

Gu Sizhi didn't say anything, and ran away. At the same time, a shopkeeper passing by the door, his steps slowed down for a moment, and then he went to the next room to deliver refreshments as if nothing had happened.

When Gu Sizhi returned to Gu Yuan, he found a pen and paper, and meticulously began to write, 'Your Majesty has no borders', writing is writing, but what he said in front of Li Mu was not so sincere.

What must only be enjoyed by His Majesty? Since whale oil is so good, can't I save some of it? Hundreds of thousands of catties of whale oil, hundreds of craftsmen refining oil, who doesn't steal some, can you watch it? If there is one less than 3,000 catties and 5,000 catties, how can you find out?

I asked the housekeeper to bring a bowl of whale oil, and lit it with a fire twister, and the light was much brighter than the ordinary candle flame, and compared with the candle, it was not much better. 100,000 catties of lamp oil, equivalent to 100,000 catties of wax, and the rare bonus of 'whale', if it is sold on the market, how much does it have to be sold?

Gu Sizhi looked at it for a while, picked up the pen and continued to write, and said: This lamp is indeed quite bright.

A thousand times Your Majesty has a long life, and it is a regular letter, you can't finish writing it in two or three hours, Gu Sizhi doesn't remember the last time he wrote so many words, maybe it was the time of the former Sui Dynasty, the year he participated in the imperial examination? The memory is very long, but looking at my own words, I am still very satisfied, and my skills for decades are not as good as everyone's, but I can really be called a house.

The rooster crowed in the middle of the night, and finally finished writing the last word, his neck and waist were already sore, Gu Sizhi called a maid to massage and knead himself, and asked people to pack up all the papers and put them in the box, and they had to send Li Mu over to check the homework tomorrow morning.

Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of the lamp oil in his spare eyes, and was stunned, and couldn't help but lean over to look at it, and said in surprise: "This whale oil, after being lit for so long, there is almost no loss?" ”

He asked the maid who was waiting next to him, and said, "When the old man was writing, did anyone change the lamp oil?" ”

"The slave and maid have been serving here, and no one has ever changed the lamp oil."

"That's amazing!" Gu Sizhi was amazed, he had to re-evaluate the value of whale oil, originally, he thought that 100,000 catties of whale oil was equivalent to 100,000 catties of wax, but now it seems that this is 100,000 catties of wax, if it is this level of loss, 300,000 catties can also deserve it!

No wonder the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang used this thing to make an ever-bright lamp, if it is 300,000 catties of whale oil as the lamp oil of the ever-bright lamp, isn't it Changming! At least you can order it for 1,800 years!

After careful observation, Gu Sizhi found that this whale oil is not only durable, but also smokeless, without the black ash produced after the candle is burned, and it is simply crushing the candle in all directions without dead ends.

"It's a treasure." Gu Sizhi hurriedly called the housekeeper and asked him to send more people to the dock to keep an eye on it, now this whale oil is not something that ordinary people can use, and it must be strictly guarded, otherwise he will not be able to bear it if he is held accountable.

Of course, it's still okay to hide 1,800 catties at home.

"One whale can make so much oil, if so, catch more, how much can this produce per year?"

He just weighed it, and when the housekeeper brought it, the lamp was full, about half a catty, and now he weighed it, and it burned less than one or two, and one or two oils could burn for three hours, which was enough for ordinary people for three or four days.

100,000 catties of oil, converted into candles, can produce at least a million, and it is only a whale, even if a candle is only sold for 50 yuan, the market price is cut in half, and the profit generated by a whale from oil alone is also breathtaking.

Gu Sizhi couldn't help but calculate the account in his heart, if he could have a 10,000-stone boat specializing in hunting whales, he would make a lot of money.

Of course, he just thought about it, the patent of the Wanshi boat was in the Xiao family, how to use it was managed by Li Mu, and it would not be his turn.

He is almost seventy years old, and he will not see the Gu family have a 10,000-stone boat in his lifetime.

……

Yangzhou celebrity chef, Liu Sanwei.

He took this name because he had a father who was deeply Taoist. His father is also a cook, and it is rumored that when Emperor Yang of Sui went down to the south of the Yangtze River, it was his father who served him, but no one had seen it, and it became a legend.

Daddy Liu firmly believes that the cook is inseparable from the fire. So, between heaven and earth, what fire is the most powerful? Of course, it was Sanwei Zhenhuo, so he named his son Liu Sanwei.

But Liu Sanwei himself doesn't like this name. He's a cook, how can he only have three flavors? In contrast, he prefers his other nickname, Liu Sanscoo, because he pays attention to excellence in cooking, and each dish is not much, and it is served from the pot with a maximum of three stir-fry spoons.

He was originally the chef of Haihelou, the best restaurant in Yangzhou, but Li Mu came to Hangzhou, and in order to serve Li Mu well, he specially transferred all the cooks, and Liu Sanshao was also among them.

Yesterday, Yuelai Inn also brought a piece of whale meat. All the chefs are eager to try, and everyone knows that this is a good opportunity to become famous. Whoever can cook whale meat well will be an instant hit.

But the whale meat was too fishy, and the ordinary cooking method could not get rid of the fishy smell in the meat, and after an afternoon of tinkering, most of the cooks gave up. This is destined to be cheap meat eaten by ordinary people, and dignitaries and nobles will not eat such fishy meat.

They are all famous chefs in Yangzhou, and they are serving dignitaries, so there is no need to waste time on the ingredients of the common people.

There is only Liu Sanscoop, and he hasn't given up yet. He found that after the whale meat was cooked, although it was fishy, the taste of the bite was similar to that of beef.

Beef, but it is a rare thing, the Tang Dynasty law stipulates that cattle cannot be slaughtered, and can only be eaten when they die of old age. Don't talk about ordinary people, even family valves like Gu Sizhi, if you want to eat beef, you have to make up a reason, you can't eat it a few times a year.

After all, not everyone's surname is Cheng, and not everyone's cattle are so unlucky that a foot of ditch can fall to death.

If the whale meat can be cooked well, more than 100,000 catties of whale meat can be eaten as beef, and the value will be multiplied?

It's just to get fishy, can't you do such a thing?

After trying it for half a night, it still can't be done. Steaming and cooking are not good, and expensive imported spices are thrown in, and they cannot be completely fishy, and now, only dry frying is possible. ”

If he could, Liu Sanspoon didn't want to fry it, because stir-frying costs oil. Edible oil, very expensive. But now that I've tried something else, there's no choice but to try.

Boom, expensive oil poured into the pot. Liu Sanspoon put his hand on the top of the pot, felt the temperature of the oil, it was almost, took peppercorns, sauce, green onion and ginger and other things and put them in, fried them for a while, and then fished them out to get their taste. Cut the thinly sliced whale meat, stir-fry in the pot, after frying, put a small handful of celery, after serving it, take advantage of the hot spot two drops of aged vinegar, a spoonful of rice wine, the fragrance instantly diffuses. ”

"It's a matter of success or failure!"

Liu Sanshao picked up the chopsticks, calmed down, picked up a piece of meat, and put it in his mouth. After only two chews, he burst into laughter.

The entrance of the meat slice is tender and tendony, which is the chewiness of beef, but there is no old cow's meat firewood, and it melts in the mouth! It's done!

"Liu Sanshao, you are really a genius!"

……

Although the whale meat is not very tasty, because of its rarity, it was still sold in just two days.

All the money from the sale was distributed to the sailors and their families who participated in the sale in the past few days, and each of them shared a dozen dollars!

Even the children who joined in the fun to help run errands also got three times. After getting the real benefits, the sailors were all smiling, more energetic, and working harder and harder.

On the other side, Liu Sanscoo, who concocted whale dishes overnight, finally gathered a table of whale meat feast and presented it to Li Mu to try it.

Li Muyang is pampered, and almost all the good things that Datang can eat have been eaten. And there is such a good uncle as Cheng Biting Jin, there is never a shortage of beef to eat at home, and after the whale meat has removed the fishy smell, it has the taste of beef, but compared with pure beef, it is still a little different.

Li Mu is used to eating beef and whale meat, but he hasn't eaten anything particularly good. But for the sake of Liu Sanscoop's sake, he still said some words of encouragement, and paid for his formula patent, which was published and published, so that all the people who bought whale meat could also taste the taste of this fake beef.

After eating the whale meat, Li Mu closed the door, wrote a letter and a letter, together with the skeleton of the giant whale, and ordered someone to transport it to Chang'an quickly.

……

There are two eyes, the bad guy and Dongchang, what happened to Li Mu's side, Li Shimin always knew for the first time, not long after the report was completed, Li Mu's recital and letter arrived. Li Shimin opened the fold first and looked at it carefully.

“…… If you want the country to be rich and strong, you can't ignore the ocean. Wealth comes from the sea, and danger comes from the sea. If the Tang Dynasty wants to be strong, it must control the sea, once the king of another country wins the Western Ocean, the crisis is on the verge of the coast, and the land of the Tang Dynasty is under the watchful eye of the enemy...... After the fleet is built, it can be used to communicate and do business, subdue foreign lands, and make them dare not covet it. ”

After reading the recital, Li Shimin took out the letter again, it was a private matter, and Liu Sanscoo's recipe was also in it.

"Above the ocean, there are countless fish, which are inexhaustible and inexhaustible. If fishing, it can alleviate the dilemma of the imperial court without food, and can also make the people satisfy their appetites, killing two birds with one stone. The minister was lucky, got a whale, the transportation was inconvenient, and the essence was specially extracted and dedicated to His Majesty, there was a Yangzhou famous chef recipe, please use it at the discretion of the imperial chef. In addition, whale oil will be shipped to Chang'an one after another, and whale oil is the best lamp oil that Chen has found so far. Compared to regular candles, it is more durable, brighter and smokeless. There are about 100,000 catties, which can be used by His Majesty for a while, and if it is not enough, the minister will definitely be able to capture another head and give it to His Majesty......"