When Xie Zhan returned to the south, he also received the news of Wu Huan's invasion of the northern border and the Yanmen snow disaster, and also learned that Zuo Anmin was not involved in these two things.

For these two things, Xie Zhan's decision is to wait and see and not interfere.

"Keep an eye on the progress of the war in the North." Xie Zhan ordered to go down.

"Yes!"

Xie Zhan's brows tightened, the victory or defeat of this battle in the north was very crucial. If you win, naturally there is nothing to say, and at present, the marshal generals in the north, Yan Zheng and Fu Jiangong and others will sit firmly in their seats. Defeated, there is a possibility that the emperor will reactivate the Qin family.

If the emperor activated the Qin family and the northern border fell back into the hands of the Qin family, wouldn't the forces of the Qin and Lu families occupy the northeast and northwest at the same time?

Thinking of this, Xie Zhan's brows furrowed even tighter.

After a long time, he sighed and decided to follow the original plan and wait and see.

The north was too far away from him, and there was Yanmen, which was three or four thousand miles away from the south, and such a long distance dispelled all his thoughts.

Of course, even if he had any ideas now, he couldn't reach for it.

The only thing he can do now is to develop the southland well and consolidate the southland.

Xie Zhan knows very well that the southern land is the capital for him to settle down and compete for the world in the future.

Pingzhou

Pingzhou is located in the northeast of Dali, which is too remote and the news is also closed.

Therefore, the war in the north and the snow disaster in Yanmen had little impact on the people in Pingzhou.

And it's almost the New Year, and the heavy snow can't stop people's enthusiasm for the New Year.

The common people are busy preparing for the New Year, sweeping the house, pasting window flowers, making cakes, steaming steamed buns, and the whole family works together, which is full of New Year's flavor.

After the young year, every household put on the big red window grille.

Looking from a high place, there is a touch of red in the silver, full of fireworks.

This year is a bumper harvest year, and when the people send the stove god to heaven, they are looking forward to next year's same, or better.

Because of the strong rise of the Liaodong Chamber of Commerce and its super ability to absorb money, its employees, as well as related prefectures and squares, the New Year's gifts are very rich.

Zhou Yuanhua was a traveling doctor with some medical skills, and when Liaodong County became famous because of Lu Desheng, he was wandering around a small village in Jizhou. At that time, a squire he knew learned that Lu Desheng was going to build a academy in Liaodong County, so he brought his son to visit.

He looked at the heat in his eyes and thought that there were also many good medicinal materials in Pingzhou, so he could go and see them. Besides, he is a traveling doctor who wanders around, where is he going? So I came to this Liaodong County.

After coming, he found that this place is very courteous to people who have the ability or have a skill, he just happened to see someone after coming to Houcheng, and after the people of the government knew about it, they not only found him a place to live in order for him to settle down, but the rent was also very cheap, and later helped him to open the hospital in Houcheng.

He obviously said that he came to Houcheng just to have a look, and he would stay for a short time. These people didn't care, they did it with a smile, and it didn't matter what they said, he stayed as long as he wanted, and he didn't force it, he just hoped that during his time in Liaodong County, he could treat the people as sick.

He is a doctor and generally does not refuse a patient's request to see a doctor. But Liaodong County is poisonous, he not only has to treat patients, but sometimes he is invited by them to treat animals?! It's outrageous!

And then, no more. He stayed until now, and judging from the current situation, it is very likely that he will spend the New Year in Houcheng.

Zhou Yuanhua looked at the New Year's gift sent by the government early in the morning, rice, flour, grain and oil, and a long piece of bacon, a little crazy, how did he leave? Yes!

He is a traveling doctor, and if the traveling doctor doesn't travel all over the world, where can he still be called a traveling doctor?!

Just then, there was a knock on the door of his house.

Someone came to him for medical treatment again, and Zhou Yuanhua was speechless. Obviously, now everyone is on holiday because of the heavy snow, and even the government and government are on duty. He also wanted to take the opportunity to rest for a few days.

Outside the door, Jing Laosan slapped the door and shouted inside, "Doctor Zhou, Doctor Zhou, are you here?" Open the door! ”

He is the feeder of the ranch, which has always been on a rotating basis, in teams of two. Today it was their turn to take the turn, and when it was time to hand over, the eldest brother in front told them that one of the several pregnant mares they were caring for was about to give birth, and asked them to pay more attention.

He listened and kept an eye on it. Half an hour ago, the mare was restless, he looked wrong, and told his companion to take good care of the mare, and he ran to find Dr. Zhou.

"Soul calling, screaming!" Zhou Yuanhua scolded and opened the door. The New Year's Day will not stop!

"Why are you again?" Zhou Yuanhua was even more speechless when he saw Jing Laoer.

"Doctor Zhou, there is a mare about to give birth to the herding horse, but I feel a little bad, please follow me to take a look."

When Zhou Yuanhua heard this, he subconsciously wanted to go back and get the medicine box.

When he took the medicine box, he slowly stopped, "I'm treating people, not animals!" Zhou Yuanhua emphasized again.

Jing Lao Er nodded, "Okay, okay, I know, Doctor Zhou, let's go quickly." This mare has been restless for half an hour, will it be fine? ”

Dr. Zhou rolled his eyes violently, daring to love what he had just said in vain!

"Lead the way!" He said angrily.

"Doctor Zhou, let's go this way!"

……

The Qin family is also preparing for the New Year, cleaning, sticking sugar melons, cutting window flowers, worshipping the god of the stove, making tofu, killing chickens and ducks and filling blood sausages, saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new.

For a year, almost the whole family got involved. Lu Songli, like the children, was turned around.

This will, the Qin family is making Jiang rice noodles.

Lu Songli and the children watched in wonder as Qin's mother and several sisters-in-law made maltose and Jiang rice sticks, occasionally taking a hand.

At this time, many snacks had to be done by themselves, unlike later generations, where you could buy whatever you wanted to eat.

In order to make this snack, the Qin family prepared it early.

First of all, the maltose should be made. The first step is to select the plump and large grains of wheat produced in the current year, wash and soak it for a day and a night, then remove the wheat and spread it on a dustpan covered with a layer of gauze, and then cover it with a layer of gauze to shade the light. Spray three or four times a day to keep it moist until the wheat has sprouted and grown to about a finger's height, then you can pull it out and set aside.

The malt is then cleaned and then chopped.

Then put the glutinous rice that has been soaked for two hours into a pot and cook it into glutinous rice.

After the sticky rice is cooled slightly, the malt that has been chopped up earlier is mixed together and left to ferment in the house.

After fermentation, the juice is squeezed out with gauze. Put the juice in a large pot and boil, bring the heat to medium and stir constantly, until the juice in the pot turns the color of syrup and can be hung with a spatula, the maltose is ready.

In short, it's very troublesome, Lu Songli is the same as the children, and she looks at it with relish.

When the first pot of Jiang rice noodles came out of the pot, everyone ate two pieces each.

"Aunt Six, this Jiang rice strip is so fragrant and sweet." The children's eyes narrowed with happiness.

No child can resist the attraction of sugar.

Lu Songli ate a piece and also showed a happy smile. Sugar secretes dopamine, and eating sugar can make people feel happy.

At this moment, Lu Songli was suddenly stuffed with two pieces of Jiang rice noodles in her hand, and when she looked up, she saw Qin Sheng whispering to her, "Pear pear, you eat." ”

Lu Songli directly picked up one of them and handed it to his mouth.

Qin Sheng grabbed her hand, "Lili, I don't like to eat sugar." ”

Lu Songli insisted on letting him eat it.

What candy did she not eat in her later life? The heart does not crave sugar. But how could people in this age not like to eat sugar?

At this time, the sugar is mainly starch syrup, that is, maltose, followed by sucrose, as well as natural honey. At this time, sugar was even more rare than in later generations.

It is no exaggeration to say that in this era, some people have never eaten a mouthful of sugar in their lives, which shows the scarcity of sugar.

Seeing that she insisted, Qin Sheng could only open his mouth helplessly.

Qin Sheng was holding Jiang rice noodles in his mouth, his mouth was very sweet, and his heart was also sweet.

At this time, Qin Han had already finished eating the Jiang rice noodles he had been distributed, and he came over and sat next to her, holding his cheeks with both hands, and reminiscing with a look on his face, "Aunt Six, the sugar is delicious." ”

"yes." While speaking, Lu Songli smiled and ate another piece, this is his intention, accepting the kindness of others in a timely manner will make the relationship between the two parties closer.

Sure enough, when Qin Sheng saw her eat, he was happier than he was when he ate it.

Qin Han sighed and said, "If only I could eat sugar every day in the future." ”

The other children had finished eating, and they would hear him and talk back.

"It's impossible, it's good to eat it once in a while."

"Yes, eating sugar every day? What do you want to do? ”

Lu Songli listened quietly, if the children's wishes were placed in the future generations, it would actually be quite simple, but in the present, it is difficult to be satisfied.

There are a lot of people out of the Liaodong Chamber of Commerce, and some people travel around the north and south of the river, and when they see some good crops, they will get some seeds and send them back.

At this time, there were no sugar beets yet, otherwise they could have grown sugar beets in large quantities and used them to make sugar.

In the south, there is sugarcane, which can be used to make sugar. Unfortunately, the northeast is not suitable for growing sugarcane. Otherwise, she would have to get some sugarcane tails and take cuttings.

Lu Songli suddenly thought of Xue Xu's slang tribe, they can't plant it in the northeast, but they can plant it in the slang tribe. In addition, after the sugar cane is grown, it is also easy to transport into sugar cubes.