Xiuxiu brought the breakfast back, but three steamed buns and a bowl of millet porridge. This has been the case these days, and Xu Ping didn't care either, so he took the steamed buns and ate them.

After taking a bite, I found that Xiuxiu was looking at her strangely, and couldn't help but ask her: "Why are you watching me like this? Don't you eat it? There is one more today."

Xiuxiu said stutteringly: "I went to the kitchen, and Grandma Hong said that she would just order anything for the officials. Anyway, the officials wouldn't eat anything, and they would go to the town for wine."

Xu Ping said: "That old pious woman is hateful! Don't listen to her, you can eat it too."

But I felt a little impatient. When I was a playboy, I didn’t really eat at home. I just had to go to a restaurant to set up a table. This is what the children in the capital do.

Xiuxiu stood aside, pinched a steamed bun, secretly glanced at Xu Ping, and took a light bite.

After breakfast, Xiuxiu cleaned up. Xu Ping sat at the table and rinsed his mouth, closed his eyes to calm down.

I have been adapting to this identity and the world these days, and I haven't thought too much about it. Since I have accepted this change, my life cannot be so confused. At least when it comes to eating, although I am not very particular, with the conditions, who doesn't want to eat more easily?

The steamed buns and porridge are good and bad, but the children of rich families are better or worse. It is better than eating well in your previous life, and you can never continue like this again.

Speaking of the food from the Song Dynasty, if it were in the previous life, I would definitely have a little yearning for it. The bustling and prosperous Tokyo Bianliang is a myth in Chinese history.

But this is not Tokyo City, it is the countryside of Kaifeng Prefecture. Although it is only a few dozen miles away from Tokyo, it is completely two worlds.

In the previous life, the Central Plains must have been fertile and densely populated, but now it is not like that. At this time, the Central Plains were covered with yellow sand and sparsely populated, and many places were half-agricultural and half-pastoral. In the chaotic times of more than a hundred years, they were killed thousands of miles away again and again, and the vitality of the Central Plains had been drained.

At this time, China, or the two largest cities in the world, are located in the Central Plains, Tokyo Kaifeng, and Xijing Luoyang, but around these two capitals, there is a different scene. There are wastelands everywhere, no one can cultivate them, and they can only be used to grazle sheep and horses. Take Zhengzhou between the two capitals as an example. In later generations, it was a city with an explosion in population, claiming that the population density exceeded that in Beijing. At this time, the population was only one hundredth of that in later generations, and even less than one-tenth of that in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. People at that time described it as "there are no three temples in the north and south, and only one street in the east and west. There is no banquet for the four seasons and eight festivals, and there are boundary cards in the middle of the night." Not to mention other rural places.

If we make a metaphor in later generations, the east and west capitals are surrounded by the two capitals, and it is much more serious than the previous life's poverty zone. The land here is no longer suitable for cultivation due to the flooding of the Yellow River, and is sparsely populated, and there is not enough manpower to manage it. Because it is located around the two capitals, a large number of people are sucked away, hundreds of thousands of soldiers, public officials, royal families, government officials at all levels in the east and west capitals, imperial tombs, and of course countless corvee labor on the Yellow River and Bian River, the small population is not enough to develop production.

It is often said that since the Tang Dynasty, China's economic center has moved to the southeast. This often refers to the development of the south of the Yangtze River, but rarely mentions the decline of the Central Plains. At this time, the more the center of China, the more desolate it is. On the contrary, the two wings are much better. Jingdong East Road to the east is the north of Shandong and Shaanxi Road to the west. These two places are still prosperous. However, around the two capitals in the center, there are almost no hope.

Xu Ping is now in the farm in Zhongmu. It is said to be the best area under the emperor's feet. In fact, the conditions are as difficult as the border. If you want to eat well, you either go to Tokyo or do it yourself.

Xiuxiu finished packing and came back to stand beside Xu Ping, without saying a word.

Xu Ping opened his eyes and asked her: "Can you cook?"

Xiuxiu replied, "Yes, mom wants to do life, I cook."

"That's good."

Xu Ping stood up and saw that Xiuxiu was still holding her little bag tightly, and said to her: "Let me find a place for you to live in first."

Xu Ping's small courtyard has three main rooms, facing east and west, one used as a living room, one is a bedroom, and the other is a study. There is an ear room on both sides of the main room.

Xu Ping led Xiuxiu to the left ear room and said to her: "You will live here from now on, go in and clean up, I still have something to do later."

Xiuxiu opened the door and saw that there were all bedding inside and all the bedding was complete. She hesitated: "I am a servant, how can I live in such a place?"

Xu Ping said: "This place was originally a guest room, and I didn't have any customers to come, so I'm just fine. Just stay there and tell me what you need."

Xiuxiu hesitated and dared not go in.

Xu Ping said: "Why are you so unhappy?"

Xiuxiu then took the small bag and closed the door, not knowing what to do inside.

Not long after, Xiuxiu opened the door and came out, with a smile between her eyebrows and eyes. She greeted Xu Ping and whispered: "Thank you, official."

Xu Ping said: "Follow me, and we will start a small cooking stove in the future."

Then there were two wing rooms in Xiuxiu's room, used to make kitchens. These were all plans when building the house, but in fact they had never been fired.

Xiuxiu said carefully: "Official, I don't know if I should speak or not. It's getting late now. Wouldn't you go to pay tribute to Xiucai Lin?"

Xu Ping was stunned. This era emphasizes respecting teachers and respecting the truth. When his teacher comes, he should get up early every day to greet him.

But thinking of his poor ancient Chinese mastery, Xu Ping said to Xiuxiu: "Sir, I'm tired of traveling, so I won't bother you anymore, and it's not too late to go again tomorrow."

Xiuxiu stopped saying anything and followed Xu Ping obediently.

When Xiuxiuyi said this, Xu Ping felt a little uncomfortable and comforted himself: "The teacher just failed the imperial examination and must be uncomfortable. Letting him calm himself down is also for his own good."

The imperial examination system at this time is moving towards standardization, which is very different from later ones. If you were studying the textbook of Fan Jin in the previous life, you would definitely be wondering what you would be happy about if you were to pass the examination. At this time, you rarely say that you just say that you have passed the examination, called a tribute student, or a tribute Jinshi, or a tribute Jinshi in the township, and you can take the provincial examination. If you pass the examination, you will also have a palace examination. As long as you fail in the last level, everything must be started over again. The examination is a one-time qualification examination, and you will have to do it again next time, so once you fail, you will be nothing.

Even if the juren doesn't count, there will be no scholar. At this time, scholar is a respectful title for scholars, which means good knowledge, so Xiuxiu and Zhang Sanniang both call him Lin Wensi and Lin Xiucai, although Xu Ping finds it strange.

When he entered the kitchen, he saw a large pot on the stove, which made Xu Ping a little friendly and similar to the local stove in the countryside in later generations. However, it was not popular to stir-fry like later generations. The so-called stir-fry is mostly dry, rather than stir-frying with oil. This large pot is used to steam and cook things. If Xu Ping wants to eat food that suits his taste, there are still many things to do.

There are many small kitchen utensils next to them, which are used to make current food. Xu Ping is not interested, and his goal is this big pot.

When he arrived at the edge of the pot, Xu Ping saw that the pot was clean and said to Xiuxiu: "Create the fire."

Xiuxiu went to the side to get firewood and said, "Didn't the official eat enough just now?"

Xu Ping shook his head and didn't say anything.

I don’t know when the firewood was placed here, it was almost rotten. Xiuxiu took the firewood, fired it, and then started a fire under the stove.

Xu Ping touched the pot with his hands. Xiuxiu saw it and hurriedly said, "Officials, don't do these things. This is done by our servants. Wait a minute, I'll make some water to brush the pot."

Xu Ping said: "No need."

After saying that, the hand he held was spread out in front of Xiuxiu, and there were five or six peanuts inside.

Seeing Xiuxiu's confused expression, Xu Ping smiled and sprinkled the peanuts in his hand into the pot like dice, and flipped them a few times.

Xiuxiu screamed "ah", hurriedly stood up, and said to Xu Ping: "Stay away from the official position, let me do it."

"Currently, you can't control the fire."

After Xu Ping finished speaking, he stirred the peanuts in the pot with his hands a few times. The hot temperature came and the warm feeling penetrated into his heart.

Seeing that the peanut skin changed color, Xu Ping asked Xiuxiu to turn off the heat, and casually took out the peanuts from the pot, took one and put it in Xiuxiu's hand.

Xiuxiu stuck out her tongue: "It's so hot!"

Xu Ping taught Xiuxiu to peel off the peanuts and ate two pills.

Xiuxiu praised her for being so fragrant and asked Xu Ping: "Why didn't the officials fry the others?"

Xu Ping patted her head: "You are also a child from a poor family. Don't you know you would rather go hungry than eat seeds? By the way, have your family never fried before?"

Xiuxiu avoided and whispered: "Our hands are so dirty, please wait, I'll get some water to wash."

Although she said this, her feet did not move. She was an eight-year-old girl, so how could she make water? As for fried peanuts, how could it be eaten by poor people? Such a big iron pot costs a lot of money. They even use clay pots to cook at home. Anyway, cooking is not popular now, so how can I get the spare money to make up for the power?

Xu Ping didn't care, and took her hand back to his residence, brought out a large porcelain bowl. It was clear water inside, soaked other peanuts, and said to Xiuxiu: "Let's go farm."

Xiuxiu had no idea, just followed Xu Ping.

After leaving the yard, I was about to meet Xu Chang standing in front of his residence. The yard he had originally lived in had been given to Grandma Hong, moved to the doorman, and was also working as a guardian.

Seeing Xu Ping bringing out a bowl, Xu Chang said, "Dalang, where are you going?"

Xu Ping said: "I'm going to plant this. By the way, follow me with a hoe."

Xu Chang didn't know what Xu Ping was doing, so he went to Curry to get a hoe.

After a while, five or six idle men followed behind him, all of whom were farmers in the farm. There are more than twenty farmers in this farm. Due to the drought, there is no work to do, so they are all idle at home, but they just raise pigs and feed chickens. The farm is more than ten miles in a radius of tens of thousands of acres of land, and more than twenty people can't grow it at all. However, the preferential policies when buying land have not been paid in the past few years, and the Xu family doesn't care.
Chapter completed!