In this era, there are two kinds of things that people light at night, one is a torch made of oil pine, and the other is an oil lamp made of animal fat.

However, no matter which one you have, it has inevitable drawbacks, a lot of smoke when burned, and an unpleasant smell.

If you read a book or do needlework under such conditions, your eyes will not be blind, and your vision will be greatly affected. Moreover, the price of oil is also very expensive, and not the average person can afford it.

Therefore, the people of this era generally go to bed at night when it is dark, and rarely stay up late with a lamp, even in wealthy families.

Of course, there are also things that are more suitable for lighting, which are honey candles, which are made from the honey of bees and are very expensive.

When Gaozu Liu Bang, the king of Minyue presented Liu Bang stone honey five Hu, 200 honey candles as a tribute, Liu Bang Longyan Dayue, rewarded a lot of gifts. It can be used as a tribute to the emperor, which shows the preciousness of honey candles!

Therefore, honey candles are definitely luxury jewelry in this era, and only royal or real rich families can afford to use them, and the price is naturally very expensive.

Although Zhang Yu had never seen a honey candle, he had heard of this kind of thing and knew the preciousness of this thing.

Isn't it money that the whole Weng Zhong is cooking now!!

"Where did you get so many hives?" Zhang Yu asked with a trembling voice. The liquid of this weng can make at least dozens or hundreds of honey candles, and if it can be sold to a wealthy family, it should be no problem to exchange it for thousands of dollars, at least enough food for the whole village to eat for several months! The Zhang family is saved!

"Father is it the candle, oh, the honey candle? It's scraped on the tree. Zhang Miao said lightly.

What honey candle is just a candle, but the candles of later generations are mostly mineral paraffin, and this kind of candle is insect wax, that is, it is made from the ash tree scraping off the secretion of ash insects. It's just that in this era, people haven't found this kind of candle yet. It wasn't until the Song Dynasty eight hundred years later that insect wax was widely used, and before, even in the Tang Dynasty, there was only beeswax!

"Scraped on the tree? Hugh's nonsense! Zhang Yu said unhappily, thinking that Zhang Miao was teasing him.

"Patriarch, it's really scraped on the tree." At this time, Zhang Ping stammered, in fact, Zhang Ping couldn't believe it now, this kind of dirty thing that was common on the willow could make expensive honey candles!

Well? Zhang Yu's expression became solemn, because he knew that Zhang Ping would not lie.

Early the next morning, Zhang Yu personally followed Zhang Miao to the valley, watched him scrape off the white patchy secretions on the willows, watched Zhang Miao put this secretion into the fire and boiled it, and watched Zhang Miao pour the boiled liquid into the bamboo tube, condensed it into a honey candle, and then he believed it.

"This ubiquitous thing can turn into a honey candle!" Zhang Yu muttered.

"Big brother, we're rich!" Zhang Qi exclaimed in surprise.

Yes, if you get rich, even if you only scrape off the secretion of ash in this valley, it will not be a problem to make two or three hundred honey candles, and the money in exchange for buying food is enough for the whole village to spend this winter!

The hearts of Zhang Yu and the others were pounding, and they saw the hope of their families surviving.

"This honey candle must be kept strictly secret and cannot be known to outsiders!" Zhang Jin, who has always been cautious, suddenly reminded.

With this honey candle, Sanshui Village will have a steady stream of wealth, if it is secretly passed out, the honey candle will be worthless. Naturally, everyone understands this truth.

"Pass it on, those who know it must keep their mouths shut, and anyone who dares to spread it will be removed from the family tree!" Zhang Yu said in a deep voice.

In this era, the clan is the basis for people's survival, and in the eyes of the Han people, the clan is even greater than the imperial court, and being expelled from the clan means that everyone knows what it means, and it is much more serious than expulsion from the nationality!

On this day, Zhang Yu personally took his confidants and reliable clansmen to search for all the flowers in the valley, scraped off all the white secretions on the trees, and then secretly boiled them into honey candles, and finally got more than 500 of them!

There are 100 ash trees in this valley, all of which have grown for many years, and many of them need several people to surround them, and almost every one of them has worms, and the secretions of ash worms are layer after layer on top, and it is understandable that you can get so much.

It's just a one-time deal, and now it's a pity that it's gone.

"We can plant ash on a large scale, raise ash worms on it, and specialize in making candles." Zhang Miao suggested.

Everyone's eyes lit up, and the artificial planting of a large area of ash can not get a steady stream of honey candles? That means a steady stream of money!

Of course, that is what needs to be done in the future, and the immediate priority is to sell these 500 honey candles and exchange them for food and other daily necessities.

And if you want to sell these honey candles at a high price, there is only one place to go, and that is Xiangyang, which is hundreds of miles away.

After the governance of Jingzhou Mu Liu Biao, Jingxiang has not had a major war for more than ten years, compared to the Central Plains of the war, the lives of the miserable, here is simply a paradise on earth, countless Central Plains scholars and countless Central Plains people, have moved to Xiangyang with their families, resulting in the extraordinary prosperity of Xiangyang. It has faintly become the cultural center of the Han Kingdom, and the most prosperous metropolis, that is, the current Xuchang of the Han Kingdom, cannot be compared with it.

Jingzhou is only more than 100 miles away from Sanshui Village, and from Xinye to the south, it is under the control of Jingzhou Mu Liu Biao, and in terms of safety, it is also the first choice to go to Xiangyang.

"I'll personally lead people to Xiangyang!" Zhang Yu said in a deep voice.

Zhang Miao shook her head: "Father, it's more appropriate for you to stay in the village." ”

"Why is that?" Zhang Yu asked. In the matter of honey candles, Zhang Miao is the biggest hero, and his right to speak has naturally increased greatly, at least Zhang Yu has been able to listen to his son's speech calmly.

Zhang Miao said: "The journey from here to Xiangyang is quite peaceful, Uncle Jin has always done things safely enough to be competent for this, and then I will bring a few strong men to assist to ensure that nothing goes wrong." The village has just undergone great changes, and it is necessary for Father and you to be in charge to stabilize people's hearts, and there are more important things that Father needs to do. ”

"What's the matter?" Zhang Yu hurriedly asked, no one noticed it, and unconsciously, Zhang Miao had already controlled the situation and had the right to speak.

"The village has been looted by thieves, and the houses need to be rebuilt, so in order to prevent this from happening again, it is better to build a strong fort wall, so that when the thieves come in the future, we can rely on the fort wall to resist. We can't come back with thieves in the future, so let's try to run away this time.

Moreover, it is not yet winter, and if we hurry up, we can plant another crop of wheat before the ground freezes. Father, you and your people can plow the fields first, and we will buy a batch of wheat seeds after we go to Xiangyang to sell the honey candles.

In this way, by the time we wait until next summer, we will be able to harvest a crop of wheat, which will be harvested a few months earlier than the grain planting in the spring and the harvest in the autumn, which can greatly reduce the grain shortage.

After all, it takes at least a year to grow up a little bit of ash, and for a long time, it may not be easy for us to make money from honey candles. ”

Zhang Miao said it very methodically, so that Zhang Yu nodded in agreement unconsciously. However, he quickly reacted and hurriedly asked, "Are you going to Xiangyang too?" ”

Zhang Miao nodded as a matter of course: "Uncle Jin is safe, but just in case, I'd better help Uncle Jin." ”

Xiangyang, the cultural center of the Han Dynasty in this era, Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, Xu Shu, these cattle are all there, well, and I heard that Huang Yueying, who looks a little ugly, I don't know if I married Zhuge Liang?

Xiangyang is so fun, as a traverser, how can you not go over to see it!