jdhmnovel Chapter 41: Drooling from the corner of his eye?
Chapter 41: Drooling from the corner of his eye?
While the man was blowing on the pig, someone in the yard had already started boiling water. After he finished blowing on the pig, he gave it a full-body massage with a wooden stick. Then, a strong young man scooped up boiling water with a ladle and splashed it onto the pig with a whoosh.
When exposed to hot water, the pig bristles, which were originally somewhat stiff, became soft. After a whole pot of hot water was poured out, several strong young men each picked up an iron scraper and began scraping off the pig bristles.
The scraper made a "swish, swish" sound on the pigskin, and the pig hair gradually came off.
These pig bristles are a valuable commodity.
Around the Tang Dynasty, people in the Central Plains began using pig bristles to make toothbrushes, but at that time they were not called toothbrushes; instead, they were called "chewing."
Yang Shaofeng wasn't particularly interested in making toothbrushes from pig bristles, but he was very interested in selling pig bristles to the Ming army. The Ming army was equipped with a large number of cannons, and they needed to clean the cannon barrels with brushes. If brushes made of other materials were used, any broken or remaining bristles could easily affect the lifespan of the cannon barrels and pose certain safety hazards. However, brushes made of pig bristles didn't have this problem at all. Even if any pig bristles broke and remained in the cannon barrel, the high temperature of the next cannon shot would burn the bristles to ashes, posing no danger whatsoever.
The only problem is that the pig bristle brush used to clean the cannon barrels cannot be made from just any pig bristles; it must be made from stiff pig bristles. And a pig only grows these stiff bristles, which are about five centimeters long, on its neck, back, and neck.
Moreover, white-skinned pigs were not introduced during the Ming Dynasty. The black-bristled pigs native to the Central Plains had a relatively slow growth cycle, with a pig taking about two to three years to reach market weight, which limited the production output.
But no problem.
Like I said, what more could you want?
It would be great if pig bristles could be turned into brushes that the Ming army needed to equip, giving pig farmers another way to make money besides selling pork by selling pig bristles.
What if this leads to the development of pig farming in the Ming Dynasty?
Having made up his mind, Yang Shaofeng said directly to Limpy Five, "Brother Limpy Five, have someone keep all those pig bristles, clean them thoroughly, and then have them made into the kind of brushes used in the army to clean cannon barrels."
"Also, don't throw away the bones that are left after everyone finishes eating. Have someone dry them, grind them up, and add them to the chicken feed."
Limpy Wu was completely numb.
Goodness, turning pig bristles into brushes and grinding up leftover bones to add to chicken feed, are you trying to avoid wasting even the slightest bit of food?
Just as Limpy Wu was secretly complaining to himself, the whole pig had already been shaved clean, and the man who slaughtered the pig took a sharp knife and began to "shave the pig's head".
First, use a sharp knife to make a circle around the pig's neck, and then use a thick-backed cleaver to cut off the pig's neck. A large pig's head, weighing about 20 pounds, is then chopped off.
After turning off the pig's head, the man slaughtering the pig then used a sharp knife to cut open the pig's belly, taking out the pig's heart, liver, spleen, stomach, kidneys, and other organs. Then, he split the whole pig in half along the spine and began to slowly disassemble it according to different parts.
The whole process was quick but orderly. Some boiled water, some dismembered the pig, and some cleaned the offal. The pig was quickly broken down, and then the women who had been prepared beforehand took over, starting to cut the meat, wash the meat, render the oil, braise the meat, and stir-fry the meat.
The only troublesome part is the pig's head, because there are too many wrinkles in the pig's head area, and the air blown on the pig's head cannot reach it. So the pig's head has to be turned into a whetstone first and then burned with fire. It is then branded with red-hot iron chopsticks and slowly scraped with a small scraper. Finally, the careful women have to check it again and pluck the remaining pig hair off the pig's head little by little by hand.
It can't be done carelessly, because the pig's head is something the county magistrate specifically requested, something the magistrate wants to eat. If the pig hair isn't cleaned properly, the villagers from all around will gossip and curse us behind our backs.
"Look, it's that so-and-so. I don't know if he's lazy or if his conscience has been eaten by dogs. He didn't even clean the pig's head properly when he was preparing it for the master."
This kind of infamy is destined to follow you for life, and may even affect your descendants. You won't be able to live a peaceful life, let alone be a human being, or even a pig.
Only after cleaning the pig thoroughly, ensuring there were no remaining pig hairs, did the butcher split the pig's head in half. He then disassembled the pig's ears and tongue before handing them over to the women to braise.
Before long, a faint fragrance began to waft through the air, and as time passed, the fragrance grew stronger and stronger.
The heads of the eight communities and sixteen villages summoned by Yang Shaofeng's men couldn't help but drool from the corners of their eyes just from smelling the aroma.
It smells so good, like meat!
The aroma of meat is so enticing that you can hardly smell it even during the Lunar New Year!
Seeing that the heads of the eight communities and sixteen villages all looked content with the smell of meat, Yang Shaofeng couldn't help but laugh and said, "No, I've seen tears come from the corners of your mouths, but I've never seen drool coming from the corners of your eyes like this."
Liu Sanshier, the head of Liumiao Village, smiled, but there was a hint of bitterness in his smile: "Sir, you jest. I'm thirty-six years old, and I've eaten meat less than a handful of times in total. Now..."
As he spoke, Liu Thirty-Two could no longer continue.
Wang Wuqi, the head of Xihe Village, chimed in: "Don't laugh at me, sir, but actually, we people rarely even get to smell meat, let alone eat it."
As Wang Wuqi finished speaking, the heads of the eight communities and sixteen neighborhoods fell silent, and the slightly noisy laughter in the courtyard gradually subsided.
In an era when people couldn't even get enough to eat and their lives were always at risk, eating meat was undoubtedly a luxury.
Even landlords or wealthy families living in the city would only prepare some pork as offerings to their ancestors during the New Year. The meat would be chopped up and made into dumplings the day after the ancestral worship.
Those who can truly eat meat to their heart's content... those people are not in a poor, remote county like Ningyang County, but only in Yidu, Yanzhou Prefecture, or Dadu.
Otherwise, the heads of the eight communities and sixteen villages wouldn't have been able to search the entire Ningyang County and only find two piglets.
Seeing that everyone was in low spirits, Yang Shaofeng suddenly burst into laughter and said loudly, "Are you all stupid? The reason we didn't have meat to eat before was because the Tartar court was incompetent. Now that the Tartars have been driven away and you've all reclaimed your own land, how could you possibly lack meat to eat in the future?"
As Yang Shaofeng finished speaking, the heads of the eight communities and sixteen villages, as well as the many young men and women who came to help slaughter pigs and cook, were slightly taken aback at first, and then they laughed.
Liu Thirty-Two wiped away his tears and smiled, "Yes, the master is right. We won't lack meat anymore."
Yang Shaofeng snorted and said, "Stop acting so pathetic. A grown man shedding tears? Aren't you ashamed?"
After reprimanding Liu Thirty-Two, Yang Shaofeng addressed the group of commune leaders and village chiefs, saying, "Those who are supposed to eat meat should eat more later. After you finish eating, you'll have to come with me to the artificial lake for another stroll."