Chapter 23: What to Do Without Flower Pots?
The eunuch in charge of procuring the strawberry seedlings was surnamed Xu. Eunuch Xu was only in his thirties and was responsible for purchasing ingredients in the Imperial Household Department. His position was actually just a junior supervisor; being respectfully addressed as “Eunuch” was already a sign of respect. He didn’t have many opportunities to see the emperor and the noble consort. Therefore, when facing the brother of a favored noble consort like Zhao An, he didn’t put on airs and discussed the price of the strawberry seedlings in a pleasant manner.
However, Eunuch Xu never stepped out of the tent outside Zhaojia Village. He sat there, waiting for County Magistrate Feng to send yamen runners and villagers to the fields to pot the strawberry seedlings and bring them over. After eating a few strawberries from Zhao An’s small orchard, he offered a price of five qian of silver per seedling, and he wanted to purchase a total of ten thousand seedlings.
According to the price Zhao An sold to Ruyi House, three wen per strawberry, five qian of silver for a strawberry seedling was actually a very high price. But this involved another problem.
Zhao An said to Eunuch Xu, “Eunuch, you may not know, but our village has only just started growing strawberry seedlings. In total, we’ve only planted a little over six thousand two hundred. If all the seedlings have to be potted, the cost of the flower pots alone will be several hundred liang of silver. Our village has always been poor and simply can’t afford to pay for them upfront.”
“Then, may I ask what your plan is, Young Master Zhao?” Eunuch Xu’s voice rose, and his expression became a little displeased.
But Zhao An showed no intention of backing down. The strawberry seedlings he had the villagers grow were not hard to sell. Even if he were selling them to the emperor, he couldn’t do it at a loss. “I must ask the Eunuch to first provide a deposit of several hundred liang of silver so that we can go and buy some flower pots. I hope the number of strawberry seedlings to be purchased can be reduced to five thousand. We can provide five hundred extra to cover any losses during the journey.”
At this moment, County Magistrate Feng, who had been sitting beside them without speaking, said with a chuckle, “There’s no need for such trouble. This official will immediately order the Zhang and Wang families, who run the kilns in the north of the city, to send some flower pots over.”
Eunuch Xu immediately gave County Magistrate Feng a look that said, “You’re a sensible one.” He then turned back to Zhao An with a smile. “Young Master Zhao, don’t worry. Let the people below handle these matters. This is a tribute for His Majesty; no one dares to be careless.”
“Indeed, indeed. I see it’s getting late. Eunuch Xu, why don’t you return to the post station with me to rest? There’s nothing good to entertain you with in this humble place, but I have a cook who is skilled at making ham. I hope you won’t mind,” County Magistrate Feng said. He felt that since the price had been settled, it was his time to shine.
For a county magistrate, entertaining visiting officials was part of his duty, especially a procurement eunuch from the palace. So he held a very lavish banquet at the post station. The cook, who was skilled with ham, not only used it to make shark fin and abalone, dishes Eunuch Xu was accustomed to, but also made some unique local specialties like gastrodia and ham stewed with wild pheasant, and steamed perch with shredded ham, which were a refreshing and novel treat.
Zhao An was also invited to the banquet. Seeing the gastrodia in the chicken soup, he felt it was the same batch he had just sold, because it contained a faint trace of wood-elemental spiritual energy.
Therefore, Eunuch Xu was also very fond of the soup. He only stopped after drinking two bowls, which led County Magistrate Feng to even offer to give the cook to Eunuch Xu.
Fortunately, Eunuch Xu did not accept in the end; otherwise, Zhao An would have felt guilty for harming the cook. If he went to the capital and could no longer make dishes that suited Eunuch Xu’s taste, he would be in big trouble.
After the banquet came the song and dance entertainment. There were beautiful young ladies playing the pipa and singing, as well as synchronized dances. Although Zhao An didn’t understand much, judging by the way County Magistrate Feng and the several accompanying gentry and scholars clapped in appreciation, it must have been a high-level performance.
Eunuch Xu was also very happy. If he hadn’t taken the little pipa-playing lady with him at the end, Zhao An would have found the banquet quite interesting.
Unfortunately, the cruel reality told him it was not interesting. Not only was it not interesting, but it was very uninteresting. When County Magistrate Feng had a graceful dancer walk up to him to offer a toast, Zhao An of course understood what it meant. He could only force himself to say, “I need to go back to the village to check on the progress of the villagers transplanting the strawberry seedlings. Those villagers are all clumsy. I won’t be at ease if I don’t watch them.”
County Magistrate Feng clearly didn’t believe his reason, but he just smiled faintly and said nothing. After Zhao An left, one of the gentry couldn’t help but burst out laughing. “He’s still just a little kid who hasn’t even grown his hair yet.” This was followed by a roar of laughter.
Zhao An wasn’t unaware that his early departure would be met with ridicule, but he was not the type of person who would give up his principles just to fit in. Not to mention that he liked men, even if he liked women, he couldn’t casually indulge his desires with a group of greasy middle-aged men.
When Zhao An rode back from Changxi County again, he found that Feng Shaoping was still in the village and hadn’t left. He led his horse over and asked him to help take Hu Sheng’s horse back to the stables at Ruyi House.
He already had enough trouble raising a wolf at home. If he were to raise a horse as well, he had neither a place to keep it nor fodder to feed it.
However, Feng Shaoping didn’t take Zhao An’s words. He sniffed the air around him and said, “Not only do you smell of alcohol, but also of rouge and powder. You haven’t done anything to betray Brother Hu, have you?”
Although Feng Shaoping hadn’t gone to the banquet, he knew his father well. He knew that on such occasions, County Magistrate Feng would definitely summon all the official and private courtesans in the county to entertain the guests.
Zhao An said calmly, “What betrayal? I would never touch anyone other than the person I like.”
“Tsk tsk~ You should say that to Brother Hu’s face. What’s the point of telling me?” For some reason, Feng Shaoping felt that he had been hurt in some way.
He stopped bantering with Zhao An. “I’ve already sent people to the Zhang and Wang families who run the kilns. Their combined stock is not even eight hundred flower pots. Even if they fire up a new kiln, it will take at least five days to finish.”
Zhao An frowned and asked, “How many days would it take to buy them from the neighboring county or the prefectural city?”
But Feng Shaoping shook his head. “The Zhang and Wang families in the north of our Changxi County are the two households with the most pottery kilns in the entire prefecture. The others, like the prefectural kiln, only fire expensive porcelain, and the local kilns in the villages only fire low-grade bricks and tiles.”
“Is there no other way?” Although Zhao An was asking, he was also thinking about whether he should just build a simple kiln himself to fire some flower pots. After all, it was just pottery and didn’t require very high craftsmanship.
However, Feng Shaoping said with a smile, “It’s only a five-day wait. Why are you in such a hurry? My father can serve Eunuch Xu well and make him so happy he forgets to go home.”
“Ah~” Zhao An didn’t react for a moment.
Looking at the helpless expression on Feng Shaoping’s face, he finally realized that it seemed he had never been in a hurry from the beginning. He suddenly discovered that the ancient people’s concept of time was very different from his. Even for the country’s most urgent battle reports to be delayed on the road for ten days or half a month was a very normal thing.
So, a five-day delay for transplanting strawberry seedlings didn’t seem like a big deal. As if!
After returning home, Zhao An couldn’t sleep a wink. He dozed off for two hours and got up from bed before the sky was light. Then he ran to Liu Huan’s house, woke him up, and said, “Don’t you think it’s not worth it for us to pay several hundred liang of silver for flower pots?”
Liu Huan nodded in deep agreement. Although the strawberry seedlings becoming a tribute would bring a windfall to the entire village, which made Liu Huan, who had been following the matter closely, overjoyed, when he thought about having to pay several hundred liang of silver for flower pots after returning home, his heart ached.
So, Zhao An patted Liu Huan’s shoulder and said, “Why don’t our village start our own kiln?”
However, this slap seemed to wake Liu Huan up. He said with some hesitation, “But no one in our village knows how to fire a kiln. We have to hire a master from outside, and the wages alone would be dozens of liang of silver a year, not to mention the money needed to build the kiln at the beginning. Even if we need to fire flower pots every year, it doesn’t seem cost-effective.”
Zhao An showed a confident smile. “Don’t worry, I know how to fire a kiln.”
Alright, he only knew some theoretical knowledge. Some of this knowledge came from novels, but more of it came from some documentaries from before the spiritual energy revival era. In an age lacking entertainment, even documentaries about handicrafts would be watched over and over again.
In transmigration novels, the three things the protagonist loved to do the most were probably making cement, glass, and soap. And he just wanted to fire some pottery flower pots, which was not a difficult problem at all. Because he had once seen a documentary about a long kiln, also known as a dragon kiln, which was built on a mountainside. The highest sintering temperature could reach one thousand three hundred degrees, which was not a problem even for firing porcelain. Using the temperature of the flue, tens of thousands of ceramic products could be fired at once.
Zhao An confidently showed the sketch he had drawn to Liu Huan. “As long as our village builds this kiln, we won’t have to go elsewhere to buy bricks or tiles in the future. After the money from selling the strawberry seedlings is distributed, everyone’s pockets will be full, and we can also rebuild our houses.”
So, everyone probably wouldn’t mind being free labor for a while, right?
While Zhao An was still feeling a little embarrassed about using the villagers, the villagers who had been called to Liu Huan’s house early in the morning surrounded him. “Young Master Zhao, did you say that if we help build the kiln, we can get free bricks and tiles to repair our houses?”
Zhao An quickly raised his hand to quiet the noisy villagers. “After the kiln is built, you still have to participate in the work of making bricks and tiles. It’s a work exchange. You don’t have any objections, do you?”
“No objections, no objections.” How could there be any objections? Most of them still lived in thatched-roof houses. In an environment where it rained heavily outside and drizzled inside, to be able to get bricks and tiles to build a house without spending money, just by contributing a little labor, what fool would have an objection?
