Today is the ninth of the 20 solar terms - mangzhong. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

It's already very hot during the mango planting season.

Zhong Hao still gave some guidance in the restaurant in the morning, and after having lunch in the restaurant, he returned home early.

Mango seeds are the season of wheat harvest in later generations, but the wheat of the Great Song Dynasty will have to wait for more than two months to mature. There was no winter wheat in the Great Song Dynasty, and the wheat planted in the north at this time was spring wheat, which was planted in spring and harvested in autumn. After the autumn harvest, some vegetables such as spinach, weads, and radishes are planted in the field, which are either sold or prepared for their own winter consumption.

Before and after the miscanthus planting is also the latest time for sweet potato seedlings, and the sweet potato seedlings planted after the miscanthus planting will have a small harvest.

Zhong Hao returned home and went to see the potatoes and sweet potatoes he had grown.

The potato leaves are green and look good. Those sweet potatoes that were planted early have not been short of branches. The sweet potatoes in the manhole no longer sprout new seedlings, Zhong Hao decided to pinch the branches and plant them one last time today, and he will not plant them again in the future. However, it is not possible to pinch the branches and vines now, it is too hot at noon, and you have to wait for the evening to cool down and pinch and then plant.

Zhong Hao saw the sweet potatoes and potatoes, so he came to the stone table resting in the shade of the osmanthus tree in the courtyard, picked up the pen and began to write "The Rhyme of the Flowers". Zhong Hao has a headache about reading, but he has no resistance to learning calligraphy, and he has been used to practicing calligraphy when he has nothing to do. It is a very beneficial thing to write well-written books in this era.

Every day when Xu went home, he was quite relieved to see Zhong Hao learning calligraphy seriously.

However, Zhong Hao's calligraphy is not practiced at will, Zhong Hao has already silently come out of the "Three Character Classic", of course, the passages about the things after the Great Song Dynasty have been deleted by Zhong Hao. Zhong Hao is now writing "The Rhyme of the Hat".

"Three Character Classic" is catchy, popular, smooth, and easy to remember, and is a very precious textbook for children. The Great Song Dynasty is like Chengping today, the people are rich, and they attach great importance to culture and education, Zhong Hao feels that if the classic enlightenment reading book "Three Character Classic" is printed and sold, it should not worry about sales, and it will definitely be sold at a good price.

As for "The Rhyme of the Couplet", it is a book for systematically learning to write poetry, which is very beneficial for getting familiar with the battle, using rhyme, and organizing words. The main test of the Great Song Dynasty Jinshi is poetry, and now there is no such systematic combing of battles and rhyme readings, Zhong Hao feels that this "Liweng Rhyme" will also be very popular, and it should not be sold when printed.

After Zhong Hao planned to sort it out, he went to a bookseller to discuss the printing and publishing matters. The Great Song Dynasty had a well-developed cultural and educational career, and there was also some protection for the genuine edition, although piracy could not be eliminated, but the profit from publishing a best-selling book was still quite large.

In fact, Zhong Hao felt that he should be able to make a lot of money by writing "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Journey to the West" as scripts, whether it is sold to the storyteller of the teahouse bookstore, or printed and sold directly to those citizens who have great entertainment needs. Nowadays, the Great Song Dynasty has been peaceful and peaceful, and the citizen class has risen, and the demand for various entertainment has also increased greatly, and the demand for legends and scripts is still quite strong.

It's a pity that Zhong Hao tried to write some, but he didn't feel satisfied. After all, Zhong Hao can only roughly remember the storylines of these two books, and it is difficult to remember the text descriptions of such a large number of books. According to the plot in the book in his memory, Zhong Hao's own script, the writing is always poorly polished, and the plot is not exciting enough, so he had to give up.

Zhong Hao had just been writing "The Rhyme of Liweng" on the stone table for a while, when he heard the sound of the unique iron wheel of Xu's small food cart coming into contact with the ground outside the door. "Yu Zi tied his hair, and read the Xuanzhong...... Living in the middle of nowhere, for a long time, can distinguish people with the sound of their feet", Zhong Hao somehow suddenly thought of the "Xiang Zhi Xuan Zhi" that he had read in later generations. "Yu Zi tied his hair, in the courtyard of learning words, for a long time, he can distinguish people by the sound of the wheel", which seems to be quite similar to his current situation.

"Da Lang is learning calligraphy again!" Xu pushed a small food cart into the courtyard, and when he saw Zhong Hao practicing calligraphy again, he couldn't help but feel a little relieved.

"Auntie is back, sit down and rest!" Zhong Hao put down the brush in his hand, helped Xu take over the small food cart, and let Xu sit down and rest.

"Brother Hao, do you like to eat apricots or peaches? I'll wash you", Wan'er carried a bamboo basket containing some apricots and peaches. The season of mango planting is the season when apricots are ripe, and there are many early-maturing varieties of peaches on the market.

"I like them all!" Zhong Hao said with a smile.

Wan'er scooped water from the water tank, washed the basket of peaches and apricots, and the three of them sat at the stone table to eat and chat.

"Dalang, my aunt has something she wants you to come up with. Although our fritters and coke rings are delicious, they are too greasy. Nowadays, the weather is getting hotter and hotter, and business is good in the morning, but when it is hot at noon, no one wants to eat. My aunt wants to do churros business only in the morning and sell some fragrant drinks during the day, what do you think? ”

Zhong Hao listened to it and felt that it was also, now that the weather is so hot, it is really a bit nauseous to eat greasy things such as fritters, and it is a good idea to make some fragrant drinks, especially cold drinks.

The various drinks sold in the Da Song Xiang Drink Shop include various fruits boiled with rock sugar to make fruit drinks, as well as summer health drinks such as perilla and qi soup, osmanthus Eryi soup, five-flavor soup, and magnolia soup made with one or two flavors of Chinese herbs, which are generally iced with freshly drawn well water. Drinking a bowl on a hot summer day is really refreshing.

Of course, if you want to be a little more refreshing, you can also add some ice. However, the summer eclipse of ice in this era is a very luxurious period. Nowadays, there is no refrigeration equipment, and the ice in summer is taken from the river in winter and placed in a very deep, well-sealed cellar to be preserved.

Zhong Hao has been going to the natural residence a lot recently, and when he passed by the Wu Ji Xiang Drink Shop on Yaqian Street in the county, he often went in to buy some cold drinks. Wu Ji fragrant drink shop is very large, such as sweet bean soup, bean water, fragrant drink, coconut wine, pear pulp, braised plum water, ginger ****, papaya juice, agarwood and other fragrant drinks are bought. There are not only fragrant drinks soaked in cool well water, but also chilled ones. On this hot day, it is a good enjoyment to drink a bowl of sweet and sour cold fragrant drinks.

"Auntie's idea is really good, such as it's too hot today, the fritters are too greasy, and the business is really not good at noon! It is indeed a good business to make some fragrant drinks to sell. ”

Xu couldn't help but be very happy when he heard Zhong Hao's approval. She knew that Zhong Hao had the right idea and trusted Zhong Hao very much, since Zhong Hao thought it was good, Xu felt that he should have a good prospect. At that moment, Xu said: "Then my aunt will use these peaches and apricots to make some rock sugar and fruit fragrant drinks today, let you and Wan'er taste them first!" "Xu is just doing what he says, and he has a resolute and resolute temperament.

"Auntie, just do it, I'll make sure your business is good!" The reason why Zhong Hao said this was because he suddenly thought of a way to make ice.

……

In the afternoon, Xu boiled fragrant drinks at home, and Zhong Hao went to the fur shop.

Zhong Hao went to the fur shop to buy saltpeter, and the fur shop generally purchased saltpeter for nitrate leather.

After the saltpeter was bought, Zhong Hao decided to test it first to see if saltpeter ice making was feasible.

Half a bucket of cold well water was made in a wooden barrel, and half a basin of well water was filled with a small white iron basin and placed in the bucket.

When Wan'er heard that Zhong Hao was going to make ice, she also ran over and squatted next to the wooden barrel to stare at it.

Zhong Hao added a few pieces of saltpeter to the wooden barrel, and soon the saltpeter reacted with the water and began to absorb heat violently, and thin stubble of ice began to slowly form in the white iron basin. Zhong Hao added a few more saltpeters to the barrel, and the well water in the iron basin began to turn into broken ice, and it seemed that the test was very good.

Scoop out some crushed ice with a spoon and pour it into Xu's boiled rock sugar yellow peach fragrant drink, and the three of them each tasted a bowl, which was cool and refreshing.

With this ice, Xu's immediately had confidence in his own fragrant drink stall, and as long as the incense drink with ice was sold cheaper, would he still be worried that no one would buy it?

In the next two days, after Xu came back from the stall in the morning, he immediately began to develop various fragrant drinks with Zhong Hao, of course, most of them were made of fruits.

It's just that in midsummer, there are only a few kinds of fresh fruits such as yellow peaches, apricots, and watermelons, and there are not too many types. Most of the fruits in the north are not available until autumn.

So, on the premise of focusing on fresh fruit fragrant drinks, Xu's made sugar loquat drinks, rock sugar pear drinks, sour plum soup and other fragrant drinks with loquat paste, autumn pear paste, and sour plum soup.

In addition to fruit drinks, Xu also used chrysanthemums, mung beans, lotus seeds, licorice, etc. to make rock sugar mung bean soup, rock sugar lotus seed soup and other seasonal drinks to cool off.

As for all kinds of soups that replenish qi and maintain health, Xu Shi doesn't plan to do them. One is that there are too many types, and they are too busy. Moreover, those soups that nourish qi and maintain health are mainly drunk by people who are particular about it. The paving at the intersection of Crescent Street is mainly consumed by ordinary people, and there is no market for those soups that replenish qi and maintain health. Of course, Xu is not very proficient in pharmacology, and she does not dare to do those soups with Chinese herbs at will.

Xu's fragrant drink stall was very popular as soon as it was launched.

Of course, many people come for Xu's iced drinks, because Xu's fragrant drink stalls sell chilled fragrant drinks, which are half cheaper than those big fragrant drink shops. In general, there are no iced drinks at the small fragrant drink stalls, so Xu's fragrant drink stalls are naturally doing very well.

On a hot summer day, drinking a bowl of fruit-flavored drinks with ice is really a wonderful enjoyment.

Every day, after Xu's came back from selling soy milk fritters at the morning stall, he began to make all kinds of fragrant drinks. Zhong Hao is responsible for helping Xu's ice making, making a barrel full of crushed ice every day. To prevent the ice from melting, the barrel is tightly wrapped in two layers of wadding and covered with a tightly fitting lid.

Every morning when the weather is hot, Xu goes out to sell fragrant drinks, and when the sky starts to cool down in the afternoon, he closes the stall and goes home.

Xu's ice is generally used up before the stall closes in the afternoon, and of course, even if it can't be used up, the ice cubes will melt under such rudimentary thermal insulation conditions. Xu's not only sells fragrant drinks with ice, but also fragrant drinks with cold well water, after all, ordinary people are reluctant to spend money to buy fragrant drinks with ice.

The business of the fragrant drink stall is getting better and better, and the smile on Xu's face has increased. Although he is very tired every day, Xu is willing to eat.