Chapter 260: White Boiled Noodles as Delicacy

Wu Qing choked, "Grandma, how could I dare?"

"For all these years, although Hong Lang never said it, I know he misses the days of leading thousands of troops. Now, with great difficulty, he's about to soar like a dragon into the ocean again." A'jin let out a breath. "I've been a burden to him long enough; I can't keep doing it over and over. If you don't give it to me, I'll bother you every single day."

Wu Qing hesitated for a long time, then finally conceded, "Alright, alright, I'll get it. Just don't let it slip."

By the time the grain escort team arrived in Xinhuang, the setting sun had already dipped to the mountain peaks, about to disappear in the blink of an eye.

The timing was perfect.

Xinhuang was just a small town of about a thousand people. Hundreds of grain carts rumbled in, completely filling the open space west of the town. Including the porters and the escort guard, there were more people than town residents.

The convoy had been traveling all day, and both people and horses were exhausted. As soon as they stopped, everyone needed food, drink, and rest, turning the entire town into a chaotic scene.

Small places have limited reception capacity, so news of the grain convoy's arrival had to be sent more than ten hours in advance, allowing townspeople to prepare. This ensured that troughs could be filled with fresh water, feed for cattle and horses could be de-rooted and sifted for ash beforehand, and personnel would have hot food to eat.

When tired and hungry, nothing calms people more than a hot meal. Although the porters only received coarse grain steamed buns, at least they were steamed piping hot and could be dipped in some soybean paste.

Soldiers could get extra stewed beans, and some even received pickled cabbage to eat wrapped in their steamed buns.

He Chunhua and his son, dressed in civilian clothes, dismounted and handed their mounts to their personal guards. He Lingchuan was only wearing ordinary armor.

Although Xinhuang had hosted grain transport teams many times, its capacity was limited. As He Chunhua inspected the soldiers' mealtime, he often saw chaotic scenes and insufficient supplies.

The only thing that pleased him was how well the army doctors carried out their orders; food and water for both people and animals had been tested for poison and showed no irregularities.

In fact, with their primal energy, the soldiers had greatly increased resistance to common poisons, so it was mostly the porters and livestock who would suffer misfortune. He Chunhua was meticulous, fearing hidden enemy schemes, and painstakingly insisted on poison testing. Otherwise, if the enemy put croton powder in the food and water, wouldn't people and animals suffer from diarrhea all the way?

After walking around the camp a couple of times, He Lingchuan clutched his stomach and groaned, "Dad, it's our turn to eat now." Food is like iron and steel to people; if they don't eat soon, they'll starve.

In contrast, the medicine ape ate the steamed buns without any fuss, and the rock wolf also had its own ration; no one was shortchanging it. He Lingchuan only found out on the road that it could also eat apples and mixed grains!

He Chunhua pointed at the steamed buns and asked, "Want two?"

"We've been eating these the whole way; haven't we had enough?" He Lingchuan's eyes darted around. "Dad, aren't you supposed to observe the local populace? You can't observe a thing holed up in the army camp. We should go into town, eat, and see things for ourselves."

He Chunhua smiled helplessly. "Alright then."

Just then, the county magistrate arrived to invite the grain escort team's officers, saying he had booked a banquet at the town's restaurant to welcome them.

Xinhuang belonged to Baiyun County, and the county office was not originally located there, but the arrival of the grain convoy was a top priority, so the magistrate had rushed over.

He Chunhua's journey north was low-key and unannounced, as he intended to observe the local conditions. Therefore, the nominal highest-ranking officer of the grain escort team was Mozhe Jingxuan, who was originally his aide and now the Assistant Prefect of Xiazhou.

When invited by the magistrate, Mozhe Jingxuan gladly went. There wasn't much good food in such a small place, but there should be plenty of meat and vegetables for honored guests. He could feast at the restaurant, while He Chunhua had to sort out his own dinner.

The father and son quietly left the camp without their two monsters, followed by Maotao, Shan Youjun, and Jiao Tai.

The town was very small, with only about two hundred houses, sheds, and shops combined. The main street was barely a hundred meters long, easily walked through in a few steps. It was also very dusty, and the buildings were all drab gray.

There was only one restaurant in town, which the magistrate had reserved to entertain Mozhe Jingxuan, so the father and son didn't want to go there.

The group walked around and found there were few shops and not many pedestrians, but people were queuing at every well. He Lingchuan saw his father's stern face and asked him, "What's wrong?"

"It's pitch black, and hardly any households have lit lamps." Lamp oil and candles cost money; how could poor people afford them? People in Dunyu at least kept their lights on past dinner, but here, the common folk probably ate early and went to bed at dusk.

"The people here are too poor."

He Chunhua sighed, a worried expression on his face. "The further north we go, the worse it gets."

Only on this trip did he realize that Dunyu's prosperity was not just dozens of times greater than other places! The further north they went, the poorer the people became, the fewer households there were, the more land lay desolate, the more corrupt the governance, and the more impoverished the livelihood.

He had seen impoverished people at markets putting up signs to sell their children, praising their kids to everyone they met, saying they ate little and worked hard, desperately begging people to buy them. The whole family was emaciated, and the children showed no expression when they were sold.

He had even heard from the common folk about the army's practice of "killing innocents to claim merit." The various signs of chaos and decay were truly shocking.

Poverty breeds chaos.

Without a doubt, if he wanted to govern Xiazhou well, he still had a long way to go.

"Dad, you can worry about the country and its people after you've eaten your fill," He Lingchuan said, pointing ahead. "How about this place?"

A restaurant ahead showed lights and emitted the aroma of food.

Three horses were tied up outside.

Only then did He Chunhua's stomach rumble. "Let's go in."

Pushing aside the windbreak curtain and entering, everyone saw that the eatery was simple, with old tables and chairs. Fortunately, it was quite spacious, able to fit seven or eight square tables, and one table of guests was already eating.

The five of them sat down, and Maotao immediately called out, "Shopkeeper, get us some food!"

The shopkeeper had a bitter expression. "We only have sour noodles and mixed-grain steamed buns."

He Lingchuan had already seen people at the front and back tables slurping their noodles, and he swallowed, "Bring it all, and add extra ingredients if you have them!"

Most of it was already prepared, and in about half the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, five large bowls were placed before them.

This bowl of sour noodles consisted of only three ingredients: coarse noodles, pickled cabbage, and roasted peanuts.

Mung beans were locally produced, so these were bean noodles. The cabbage, pickled for half a winter, was already sour enough, perfect for mixing with the noodles without needing a rare commodity like vinegar.

As for the peanuts, they were simply roasted over a fire; don't even think about luxurious deep-frying. The entire bowl of sour noodles had no trace of meat or even a single drop of oil.

Everyone was famished. They picked up their chopsticks, slurped a mouthful, and found it quite refreshing.

Maotao looked at the other tables, and following suit, asked for a few heads of garlic. Everyone slurped a mouthful of noodles, then took a bite of garlic—sour, spicy, and pungent.

Invigorating!

They also offered "sliced noodle soup," which was simply noodles boiled in plain water, with two pieces of pickled cabbage and a few beans added. A dish of soybean paste was provided for dipping the mixed-grain steamed buns.

Because there was no meat, He Lingchuan ate a large bowl of sour noodles but still felt empty inside, so he ordered two more bowls of sliced noodle soup and four large steamed buns.

Although the prices were cheap, they seemed unaffordable for the locals.

As he ate, He Chunhua asked the shopkeeper, "Do you usually get much business?"

The shopkeeper waved his hand. "No money, no profit!"

Maotao interjected, "This is a necessary route for north-south travel, and I see some merchant caravans passing through. It's surely better than those villages inland." Those were truly dirt-poor, with nothing to eat but dirt.

The shopkeeper looked disgusted. "The taxes and rent are so high; all the money goes to others, to the officials!"

He Chunhua asked, "How much are the taxes and rent?" Taxes and rent were unavoidable for running a business.

"If I earn ten copper coins, eight of them go out. What money do you think I can make?" The shopkeeper stirred the soup, scoffing at himself. "It's just barely enough to get by, so I don't have to sell my daughter."

A customer eating noodles nearby suddenly chimed in, "Don't listen to him complain; no one else can even open a shop like this. Today, with the large convoy here, all the town's water carts were used for them, leaving us with no water. Look, there are queues at every well. But him, he has a well behind his shop, and no one else competes for it."

If selling noodles could at least earn enough for food, why didn't others sell them?

He Lingchuan wanted to laugh but couldn't.

There were three customers at that table, all dressed as merchants. He Chunhua asked them, "What kind of business are you gentlemen in?"

"Fabrics, lamp oil, and the like. On our way back, we'll carry some local products to sell."

All essential goods. "How's business?"

The three sighed. "Not good, not good. It's less than 40% of previous years. We won't be coming next year."

They looked at He Chunhua and the others, then asked, "Are you also government soldiers?"

He Chunhua immediately denied it. "We're heading north and following behind the soldiers for safety."

"What's up north?"

He Chunhua casually replied, "We want to buy some sugar."

Hearing this, the shopkeeper interjected, "You'll go for nothing; you won't find anything good."

"How so?"

"About thirty or forty years ago, Xinhuang Town was famous throughout Xiazhou for its brown sugar. The area around the town was covered with vast fields of sugar beets. The old folks in town say that back then, brown sugar was never a problem to sell; as soon as it was made, people from miles around would rush to buy it, and it could even be sold all the way to Dunyu."

He Chunhua murmured, "Oh? We didn't see any sugar beet fields on our way here."

"Those are long gone. Now, most of Xiazhou uses yellow sugar from the Northern Demon Kingdom. It's said to be one of the agreed-upon conditions between our Great Yuan and the Northern Demon Kingdom: we must buy hundreds of thousands of catties of sugar from them every year, sigh!"

He Lingchuan said, "I've tasted it; it's delicious and keeps well."

Young Master He had never actually tasted brown sugar. Whether in Shihuan or Dunyu, all the pastries he ate were made with yellow sugar; in Blackwater City, he ate locally produced coarse sugar.

"Yes, and yellow sugar isn't expensive. After that, Xinhuang Town's brown sugar couldn't be sold anymore. Gradually, no one made sugar, and everyone switched to growing grain, but the land here doesn't produce good grain either."

The merchant next to them chimed in, "You don't even know how powerful the Northern Demon Kingdom is; they produce tens of millions of catties of sugar every year!"

The shopkeeper was indignant. "It's truly hateful!"

Just then, Shan Youjun slapped He Lingchuan firmly on the back, his voice neither too loud nor too soft: "Hey, I'm full, I'm full. I need to find a place to relieve myself. Are you coming?"

He never usually showed such disrespect for his elders. He Lingchuan blinked and said, "Let's go."