Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 271 It's Not Easy to Make Money

Of course, Hualei did not give up the meat-flavored mooncakes this year, but added a lot of flavors. On the basis of the original ones, carrot meat mooncakes and pickled cabbage meat mooncakes also came into being. This is not to reduce costs, but to add different flavors. Therefore, the meat filling is still sufficient, without cutting corners.

In early August, Hualei's mooncakes began to be sold. In addition to individual sales, there are also packaged mooncake gift boxes. The bamboo baskets are large and small, suitable for mooncakes of various flavors, satisfying the tastes of different levels and different people.

Once it was launched, it was welcomed by many people, especially the new egg yolk flavor, which was in short supply. Orders from wealthy families also came one after another. Money also flowed in.

Similarly, according to the custom of previous years, Hualei also sent mooncakes to each room of Dingbei Marquis's Mansion, and she didn't forget the big thighs she wanted to hug, Gui Jijiu and Bai Houye. Anyway, Hualei sent mooncakes as festival gifts to almost everyone she had an intersection with, of course, the mooncake gift boxes were also big and small.

What she didn't know was that the largest and most complete mooncake gift box was placed on the desk in the imperial study. There were also toothbrushes, soap, moxa sticks, meat floss, sausages, preserved duck, salted duck eggs..., and a goose feather bed on a chair next to the desk. Next to it was a corn stalk that had just been pulled out of the ground. It was green and had a corn cob on it, but it seemed to be shriveled and not yet ripe.

Emperor Shengwu looked at the items in front of him, dumbfounded. This... this is too much. Also, what is this thing that has just been pulled out of the ground? Why haven't I seen it before? Emperor Shengwu stepped forward and looked at the corn stalks carefully, confirming again that he had never seen it before.

"You said, this is called corn?" Emperor Shengwu turned to the shadow guard below and asked.

"I heard Miss Hua call it that. I have never seen this thing, so I don't know if Miss Hua's way of calling it is correct." The shadow guard answered respectfully.

Emperor Shengwu nodded, returned to his desk, and began to look at the list presented by the shadow guard.

Hmm? Did this little girl come up with the idea of ​​using the grid pattern, the field pattern, and the printing method for the imperial examination?

Are there any cured sausages made specifically for the soldiers in Mobei who lack poultry to eat? Are there any down vests and chicken feather sleeping bags made specifically for the soldiers in Mobei to keep warm? They can't be bought in Shangjing City?

And was this girl the one who specially provided the idea of ​​fried rice noodles to Lord Bo? It was to prevent the patrolling soldiers from eating spoiled food. Lotus root powder, fermented bean curd, dried vegetables, and the slightly pungent moxa sticks and incense pills were also specially customized for the soldiers in Western Xinjiang?

Hey, you also took the initiative to offer experience to lead the transformation of puddles in South City?

The more Emperor Shengwu looked at her, the more surprised he became. When did such a kind and thoughtful girl appear in the capital? How come there was no news about her? Oh, they said that this girl had just finished her mourning period and had not yet reached the age of marriage? No wonder she was so low-key.

Emperor Shengwu opened the mooncake gift box on the table. In the verdant little bamboo basket, the mooncakes, separated by oil paper, were yellow and moist, and the lotus patterns on them were lifelike. He seemed to see a lotus that grew out of the mud without being stained, and washed by the clear water without being coquettish, with no vines or branches, standing tall and clean, and there seemed to be a faint fragrance wafting over him.

Fu, the steward next to him, stepped forward and used a thin piece of wood to divide the egg yolk mooncake into several small pieces. Emperor Shengwu picked up a piece, put it in his mouth, and chewed it slowly. Hmm, the lotus paste is soft, glutinous and sweet, and the egg yolk is salty and fragrant. The taste is really good, much better than the sweet and greasy mooncakes he had eaten before. He couldn't help but pick up another piece and put it in his mouth.

At the same time, he ordered the shadow guard who was still standing below, "Send someone to secretly protect this cornfield. Don't make any mistakes, and don't alarm the people on the farm." The shadow guard nodded and retreated respectfully.

Hualei never thought that her mooncakes would be eaten by the emperor of the Great Sheng Dynasty, nor did she expect that the corn she planted would attract the attention of Emperor Shengwu. At this moment, she was upset by the aphid disease in the corn field.

At first, I only saw a small number of mold spots on the surface of the leaves of a few corn plants. Because the area was not large and the number was not large, and I was not very familiar with these insect diseases, I asked someone to manually wipe the surface of these corn leaves with wet wipes.

But after a few days, more corn leaves would be covered with such mold spots, and the affected area of ​​corn fields became larger and larger. Moreover, many corn leaves began to turn yellow and red. Only then did I realize how childish and ridiculous my method of stroking the leaves with a wet cloth was.

I immediately called Uncle Fu and my great uncle to come to Baihua Village to help check, and then I confirmed that it was aphid disease. Many green crops such as wheat seedlings and rice seedlings are prone to aphid disease. What should I do? There is no pesticide now.

Fortunately, Uncle Fu had a solution. He went to the kitchen and the preserved food group on the farm and found a lot of plant ash, mixed it with water in a certain proportion and soaked it for more than ten hours. Then, he asked the farmers to start spraying the corn stalks with the water mixed with plant ash. It took more than ten days to complete the spraying.

But Hualei was still worried, so he spread some wood ash on the surface of the field. After ten days, the corn leaves finally turned green again, and he was relieved. The wisdom of the ancient working people is really amazing.

It's not easy to make money, Hualei wiped the sweat off his head. He was really worried every day for the past half month. Seeing that the corn ears were about to mature, he didn't want to fail.

When I returned to the Marquis' Mansion from Baihua Manor, Xiaoyuan and Rongjue also came back from the Imperial College. It turned out that they were going to take a three-day break. No wonder they came back even though it was not the end of the ten-day period. They also brought back a message saying that a large number of osmanthus flowers in the "Ten Miles of Osmanthus" garden in the west of the city had already bloomed. The Imperial College and the Ministry of Rites would hold a grand osmanthus appreciation event there to share the joy with the people.

During the osmanthus appreciation activities, there will be various talent shows such as reciting poems, painting, playing the zither, and playing chess. There will also be activities such as pitching pots, backgammon, archery, and cricket fighting. Rong Jue and Xiao Yuan are already mumbling about how to play in the next few days.

The news of this osmanthus appreciation activity had already spread in Shangjing City at the beginning of the month, so Hualei had already made preparations. Now that the news was confirmed, it was immediately deployed according to the previous preparations.

There would surely be a lot of people visiting the Ten-Li Osmanthus Garden, so Hua Lei withdrew all the mule cart stalls in front of the academy.