Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 695: Divine Bowl

Were the two of them too close and were they protecting each other? Or were they not on good terms and Xiang Tongzhi took advantage of the situation to do something bad?

Then, while Prefect Cui was on leave, did he do something shameful in the government office? Or did the Xiang family simply sideline Prefect Cui?

Hua Lei thought about it. This time, she and Rong Jin came here, so they didn't bring many guards with them in order not to attract attention. In order to allow the guards to secretly investigate the problem of the Anbang soldiers, five more were removed.

Therefore, except for Qingqi and Qinghua's personal guards, there were only about 15 or 16 guards following behind him. When he was pretending to be a traveling merchant, he had about the same number of people.

However, if Xiang Tongzhi is really a local bully and the Xiang family is the only force here, then the fifteen or sixteen of us would not be enough.

Hua Lei sighed softly, temporarily suppressed her doubts, and continued to look through the account book. Looking at Hua Lei's expression, Xiang Tongzhi didn't dare to speak.

In fact, the reason why Cui Zhizhou broke his leg was that he went to a brothel and drank too much. He stepped on empty air and fell down the stairs and was unable to walk, so he did not go to the government office for the meeting at that time.

And I didn't go either, because I didn't know how to deal with this matter? Otherwise, if the prefect asked me why Cui Zhizhou didn't go to the government office, what would I say as a subordinate?

If I help to cover it up, I will be deceiving the prefect. If I don't cover it up, I will offend the prefect Cui. This is not a matter for people, so I'd better hide if I can.

On the other hand, it was also because the state capital had not completed the taxation task, but this was not something Xiang Tongzhi could solve alone.

The people really can't pay the taxes. After paying the taxes, many families can only eat for half a month at most. If they are pressed for more, someone will die.

Therefore, Xiang Tongzhi found an excuse to shirk Cui Zhizhou's request for him to go to the government office for a meeting. But he did not expect that the prefect would come in person.

Now that he was the one receiving the guests, it seemed that he could not escape the scolding. Xiang Zhizhou lowered his head, acting like a quail.

After reading the account books that were sent to her, Hua Lei looked at Xiang Tongzhi who was sitting like a quail on the side, and reluctantly agreed with Xiang Tongzhi.

I didn't say anything unpleasant. Those who fulfill their tax obligations are not necessarily honest officials, and those who fail to fulfill their tax obligations are not necessarily derelict in their duties.

After learning some information from other people in the prefecture government, the situation is indeed not optimistic. The entire prefecture city seems to be resigned to fate and muddle through.

Hua Lei and his group stayed in the official post. The next day, Hua Lei and Rong Jin, accompanied by Xiang Tongzhi, went to visit Cui Zhifu who was sick at home.

Cui Zhifu's left leg was indeed tied with a wooden strip, and he lay in bed, unable to move. After asking the doctor next to him, Hua Lei was told that it would take about a month before he could get out of bed. After giving Cui Zhifu a few words, Hua Lei came out.

In the next few days, she and Rong Jin walked around Changliang Prefecture for several days. They unexpectedly learned that Cui Zhizhou broke his leg because he was drunk from drinking prostitute wine.

I was speechless for a moment. No wonder Xiang Tongzhi was so hesitant when I asked him. It turned out to be because of this reason.

That's right. In front of the boss's boss, one would at least help cover up for his boss. After all, drinking and having sex with prostitutes is not a decent thing.

Moreover, although Xiang Tongzhi looks fat and big, Hualei found out after learning more about him that the Xiang family has a very good reputation in Changliang Prefecture and often helps poor people.

He is fat because of genetics. He has been fat since he was a child and is still fat now. It seems that the saying "You can't judge a book by its cover" is true.

In addition, Hualei also visited several other counties and found that the spring plowing work was barely completed because no corn was planted.

Therefore, the fields are mostly planted with paddy rice and upland rice. However, the germination rate is not good, and the villagers are digging in the fields listlessly.

As for the fruit trees on the hill, after visiting Huabud, we found out that they are indeed naturally grown. Almost every family has one, and they are not valuable at all in the local area.

Even if there were a lot of lychees, they could only be eaten at home and could not be sold. However, lychees are easy to cause internal heat and cannot be eaten too much, so the people did not care about the output of the fruit.

Therefore, Hualei suggested that the people take good care of the fruit trees during the slack season, and then when the trees bear fruit, she would find a way to help sell them.

Xiang Tongzhi was very skeptical when he heard Hualei say that he had a way to help the people of Changliang Prefecture sell their lychees. However, he did not dare to show it. Since the prefect asked him to maintain the trees, he would maintain the fruit trees first.

Anyway, it would take a little longer, just in case it was sold out by then. So, the people of Changliang Prefecture received a notice from the prefecture capital.

Let everyone try their best to maintain the fruit trees, and the state capital will ask the people to purchase them. So, with the attitude of giving it a try, the people began to maintain the fruit trees either attentively or perfunctorily.

Hua Lei thought that there were no lychees in Shangjing City. If she transported the lychees back to Shangjing City and sold them to those wealthy families, she would make a lot of money, if not a fortune.

However, things here are different from the previous life. In the previous life, there was a complete cold chain system, fruits were easy to preserve, and transportation was developed, so transportation was relatively convenient.

In the Great Sheng Dynasty, it was not easy to transport lychees back to the capital. If it was transported by horse, it would take more than half a month to travel day and night. If it was transported by boat, it would be even slower, perhaps one and a half months.

If the fresh lychees were sent directly to Shangjing City without any protection, they would definitely be inedible. Therefore, we had to find a way to keep the lychees fresh.

Of course, the best thing is to use saltpeter to make ice cubes, and then send the lychees back to Shangjing City. However, saltpeter is strictly restricted here, and the people cannot use it without permission, so Hualei cannot try this method.

Even if the flower buds were used in the name of the government, they would still need to be approved. Even if they were approved, they would still need to spend a lot of money to buy saltpeter from the Ministry of Rites, so the cost of keeping them fresh was too high. We still had to think of another way.

Hualei was thinking hard this morning, and she suddenly remembered that when she was leading a tour group in her previous life, she once saw a country where people used a good way to preserve grapes.

Mix the soil, straw and water, then use a mold to shape it into a suitable mud bowl size, and then place it in the sun to dry for a while.

When it is done, it can be filled with about two kilograms of grapes. Then cover the other half of the mud bowl and seal it with mud to form a sealed container.

Then store this airtight container in a cool, dry corner. The grapes inside can be kept fresh for about six months. Hualei calls this container the "magic bowl". If the magic bowl is buried underground, the storage time will be longer.

Why can the Magic Bowl preserve grapes for such a long time? In fact, from the perspective of food science, this is a controlled atmosphere storage technology.