In Xiangyang City, at an inn.
Zhen Zhuge Liang sat by the window, holding a bamboo slip and reading the words on it. This was a letter from his third brother, Zhuge Jun.
It was, in fact, the first letter he had received from his third brother since they had parted ways.
Zhuge Liang was filled with joy at first, but as he read the contents, his expression turned solemn, and he was greatly astonished.
Just as he had anticipated, Yanzhou had indeed fallen into chaos. Cao Cao was attacking Xuzhou, the Prefect of Chenliu, Zhang Miao, had betrayed him, Lu Bu led the Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry in a surprise attack on Yanzhou, and the Governor of Yuzhou, Guo Gong, was fishing in troubled waters.
The entire Yanzhou seemed to be on the verge of collapse.
But… the letter from his third brother mentioned that all these crises were resolved by one person.
Lu Yu, Cao Cao's official, Lu Yu…
This was the first time Zhuge Liang had heard this name, and what shocked him even more than the name was the sharp methods behind the handling of the Yanzhou crisis.
From setting up an ambush in Chenliu, to stabilizing the situation, to rescuing the Qingzhou soldiers, each and every one of these events…
It was as if he knew what was going to happen before it did, as if he had woven a large net, just waiting for Lu Bu to jump into it.
The entire chaos in Yanzhou had come like surging waves and disappeared like a light breeze, leaving not a single trace.
Incredible, truly incredible. Zhuge Liang silently committed the name "Lu Yu" to memory. It seemed… his third brother's letter mentioned that he was not very old, only three years older than Zhuge Liang, but at such an age, could he already be so cunning and calculating?
Zhuge Liang reread his third brother's letter several times.
Among them, Lu Yu's explanation of "Bai Gong" (various crafts/trades) also brought Zhuge Liang great clarity.
To be honest, Zhuge Liang was only thirteen years old this year. After all, he was still young, and even a peerless genius couldn't be knowledgeable in every aspect.
At the very least… he hadn't paid much attention to "Bai Gong" before.
This was also related to the rise of the Zhuge family in recent years, and Zhuge Liang's privileged upbringing from a young age…
Many "Bai Gong" tasks were done by servants for Zhuge Liang, giving him the direct impression that "Bai Gong" was useless, something done by servants.
But now, carefully considering Lu Yu's pronouncements on "Bai Gong" in his third brother's letter, especially the sentence "Heaven has its seasons, earth its energies, materials their beauty, and crafts their skill," Zhuge Liang suddenly felt that there was profound knowledge hidden within "Bai Gong" and developed a strong curiosity for this field of study.
"Lu Yu, what kind of young master is he?"
After a long while, Zhuge Liang put down the bamboo slip and murmured to himself…
Of course, in the bamboo slip, Zhuge Jun had also specifically mentioned that Lu Yu and Miss Cai Yan had taken good care of him, being as strict as a mentor to a disciple yet full of care. From the words, Zhuge Liang could feel that his third brother was benefiting greatly in both knowledge and experience every day by their side.
Apart from this, Zhuge Liang automatically ignored another matter mentioned by Zhuge Jun, regarding him and his two elder sisters also going to Yanzhou.
Zhuge Liang was a person with strong opinions. Over the years, he had already planned his future. Becoming a disciple of the renowned and truly talented Mr. Shui Jing in Xiangyang City was the first, and most crucial, step…
Zhuge Liang would never believe that his planned path was inferior to his third brother's "chance encounter" that fell from the sky!
"Third brother, now that the situation in Yanzhou is stable and Young Master Lu and Miss Cai are taking good care of you, I am relieved."
Speaking of this, Zhuge Liang raised his eyes and looked towards the sky, his voice continuing. "However, I still feel that although Lu Yu has some talent, he is ultimately too young. He is nowhere near as knowledgeable as Mr. Shui Jing, who is proficient in Qimen Bazhen and the Five Elements numerology… I can learn more skills from him."
"Third brother, let's wait and see. I dare not be certain… that this path of overcoming obstacles will be better than yours. Let's wait and see. I hope we can compete in ten years and see whose path is the true way, the right path!"
With that, Zhuge Liang was about to put pen to paper to reply to Zhuge Jun…
But at this moment.
"Kongming…" Zhuge Liang's elder sister, Zhuge Ruoxue, burst in. "It's confirmed. The day after tomorrow, Mr. Shui Jing, Sima Hui, will select eight people from among his aspiring disciples to become his closed-door disciples. The recluse Pang Degong and the renowned scholar Huang Chengyan from near Xiangyang will also come to assist their friend."
"In the wine shops and tea stalls, some people have suggested that the reason Mr. Shui Jing is taking eight disciples is due to the guidance of a fangshi. Eight disciples, the so-called Eight Wonders of Shui Jing! I don't know if these rumors are true."
Zhuge Ruoxue slowly revealed the intelligence she had gathered. It had cost them a lot of grain to obtain this information.
Hoo…
Hearing this, Zhuge Liang let out a soft breath and asked, "Elder sister, among the candidates, there are probably many scions of noble families, right?"
"Just as Kongming said." Zhuge Ruoxue nodded. "There are indeed many scions of noble families. Liu Qi, the eldest son of the Governor of Jingzhou, Liu Biao, and Pang Degong's son will also participate. There is also the local young talent with considerable fame, Pang Shiyuan, and the swordsman known as Dan Fu… listing them all, there are over a hundred people, a true gathering of strong contenders. Kongming, do you have confidence in standing out among them…"
Confidence?
Ha, Zhuge Liang chuckled. He only knew that Mr. Shui Jing did not covet fame or wealth, and would certainly not accept disciples based on their family background. In the end, it was still about competing in true talent…
And in this disciple recruitment, Mr. Shui Jing had deliberately added an age limit, to be under the age of Wuxiang.
At this point, no one had absolute certainty, but… if one couldn't become one of the Eight Wonders of Shui Jing, then the future path would be narrower!
Must I really retreat shamefully to Yanzhou and seek refuge with my third brother?
Although he thought this, Zhuge Liang still appeared calm and composed. "Tomorrow there will be so many talented young people. Haha, Elder Sister and Second Sister, you must keep your eyes wide open and choose carefully!"
This… Zhuge Ruoxue's cheeks suddenly turned red. What time is it, and Kongming still has the leisure to tease his two sisters?
Is this confidence in victory?
…
…
Yanzhou, Chenliu Prefecture.
Today, Lu Yu took Zhuge Jun and did nothing else but go on a massive shopping spree. He bought sesame from the East Market, rapeseed from the West Market, tea seeds from the South Market, and red dates from the North Market.
Before the drought arrived and grain prices rose, Lu Yu really wanted to stock up several warehouses, but the key problem was that even if you wanted to buy, there wasn't enough quantity available to sell.
This was awkward. Last year, grain was already tight, and most of the grain purchased with the money Cao Cao earned from grave robbing was stored in Puyang City, making the market very tight for grain. Everyone was waiting for the big harvest in July.
However… with drought in April and locusts in June, the harvest in July was impossible. It was truly unbearable.
As for… the reason Lu Yu was buying these strange ingredients, it was because he wanted to refine oil, vegetable oil.
If we delve deeper, it's because Lu Yu wants to fry locusts! Fried locusts for everyone!
Of course, achieving this was not easy. Lu Yu pondered that if the "Seven States Locusts" appeared at the end of June, then April and May would be the locust development period.
If you don't target them during their development period, won't it be difficult to fight them during the battle period?
Coincidentally, the best way to target locust development was not the ten thousand duck army, but the hundreds of thousands of people in Yanzhou and Xuzhou. They were much more effective than the duck army.
Of course, there was a big prerequisite, and that was to let them do the same happy thing as the ducks, treating locusts as delicious delicacies.
As a foodie in his past life, Lu Yu had considerable research into the culinary traditions passed down through thousands of years in China. For example… people in later generations treated locusts as a delicacy. The methods were to wash the locusts clean, fry them in oil, sprinkle them with cumin powder, MSG, and chili powder, and they could be eaten directly. They tasted even better with wine.
The book "Edible Insects and Recipes" states that locusts contain 73.5% protein and 18 types of amino acids, with a total content of 20.3%.
In addition, locusts also contain vitamins B1, B2, E, A, carotene, and a rich variety of vitamins, four types of fatty acids, and abundant trace elements. Not only can they fill the stomach, but they are also great tonics!
They could even invigorate a weakened man.
Lu Yu was quite poor in his previous life and could only afford scrambled eggs with tomatoes when eating at restaurants. Being able to eat a plate of fried locusts for over seventy yuan would be as joyous as the New Year.
It's just that people of this era could not yet appreciate such delicacies and joy.
In fact, all this talk is very simple. Lu Yu mused that since he couldn't stop the locusts from eating the crops, then humanity, unable to bear it any longer, could only eat the locusts to vent their anger.
Of course, there was a big prerequisite here: not all types of locusts are edible. The commonly eaten types are the Chinese rice grasshopper and the East Asian migratory locust…
Among them, the tastiest and plumpest is the Chinese rice grasshopper, with a full belly and a loud, pleasant chirping sound. This is the type found in our great Chinese rice paddies.
Another point to note is that if locusts form a large-scale plague, then they cannot be eaten. At this time, the locusts are in swarms and are poisonous!
So… it's simple. Since the "Seven States Locusts" appear at the end of June, then hundreds of thousands of people can catch Chinese rice grasshoppers in April, May, and early June…
These things reproduce quickly and have high nutritional value. With the foodie nature of the great Chinese people, they might even be eaten into an endangered species.
Of course, to get the people to spontaneously catch locusts and eat them… the traditional Han Dynasty cooking method of steaming is not enough. They must be fried… this is the so-called fried locusts!
And to achieve this, the first step is to extract oil. Animal oil is too expensive and unacceptable to the common people, so only vegetable oil can be extracted…
This is why Lu Yu spent the entire day with Zhuge Jun visiting four markets, all to purchase all the ingredients that could be used to extract oil.
"Young Master, look quickly, I have excellent sesame seeds…"
A vendor, seeing Lu Yu in his fine silk robes, thought he was a rich patron and eagerly approached him.
"Take it all… wrap it up and send it to the Cai Mansion on the east side of the city," Lu Yu waved his hand grandly, not even bothering to ask the price…
Sesame is commonly known as sesame, and it was introduced to the Central Plains by Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions. This thing is very oily, commonly known as sesame oil, and it can yield a large amount of oil. Lu Yu was very happy to buy more.
"Young Master, I have three carts of rapeseed here…"
"Rapeseed is good, send it all to the Cai Mansion as well. Also, if you can get more rapeseed recently, I'll take as much as you have."
Lu Yu's tone was still very commanding, and even more so when paying.
Such customers are favored by all merchants, who wish they could kiss them.
Of course, rapeseed flowers are also an important material for extracting vegetable oil, and… many people plant this thing, and the yield is very large… Jia Sixie's "Qi Min Yao Shu" from the Northern Wei Dynasty even has a special chapter that details the method of extracting rapeseed oil!
In addition, Lu Yu purchased all the red dates and tea seeds grown in the Jianghuai region. The former is for date oil.
"Qi Min Yao Shu," Volume Four, "Date Oil Method," mentions: "Date oil, pound date fruits, mix with paste and apply to silk. It dries and resembles oil, then it is formed."
From this, it can be seen that the method of brewing date oil is the simplest. Even in some areas of the Han Dynasty, this school of thought has emerged, but it has not been popularized. The latter, tea seed oil extracted from tea seeds, has a rich tea aroma, and the method is also similar.
In short, Lu Yu spent a fortune today, plundering… no, purchasing all the sesame seeds, rapeseed flowers, red dates, and tea seeds he could see in the market.
Very extravagant, outrageously extravagant.
Zhuge Jun and his young men were stunned. Can you buy things like this? Without asking about the quantity or the price, you just buy everything?
The most important thing was when paying, it was bags and bags of five-zhu coins, and he didn't ask for change!
Zhuge Jun felt his worldview shift. In his impression, the wealthier families were usually more stingy, as the saying goes, money is saved by being stingy!
As the former richest family in Xuzhou, the Zhuge family had a deep understanding of this…
He was very thrifty, and his second brother, elder brother, and uncle were all very thrifty…
But Lu Yu seemed to have a vendetta against money, not happy unless he spent it!
Of course, Zhuge Jun didn't understand…
Lu Yu was now also troubled. He was so poor that he only had money left. He had a pile of gold and jewels that hurt his eyes every day in his residence.
The key point is, although these gold and jewels were dazzling now, in fact… when the great drought and locust plague arrived, this stuff wouldn't buy much grain. To put it bluntly, it was paper…
Regular mahjong players know that the first to win is paper, and the one who wins later is money.
Besides, even if he were short of money, wouldn't there be Cheng Yu's tomb-robbing team? Wouldn't there be those more than two hundred useless sons of King Jing of Zhongshan?
Not lacking money, not lacking money at all. Spending lavishly now was just a drop in the bucket.
Seeing this, Zhuge Jun finally couldn't help but ask, "Master Lu, how much money do we… really have?"
As for this… Lu Yu thought for a moment and answered truthfully, "I estimate it's enough to buy all the houses in Chenliu Prefecture, and perhaps even have some left over!"
Uh… Zhuge Jun was suddenly a little dazed. He thought their Zhuge family was quite rich, but it seemed… compared to Lu Yu, it was like the difference between heaven and earth.
It's no wonder that the Zhuge family was in legitimate business, while Lu Yu was in illicit business with no capital but huge profits.
"Then… Master Lu, why are we buying so many strange grains, and these grains… don't seem to fill the stomach easily?"
According to Zhuge Jun's idea, even if hoarding grain, they should hoard the "Five Grains"—rice, millet, glutinous millet, wheat, and beans… Why hoard sesame seeds, rapeseed flowers, tea seeds, and red dates…
Not that these things are bad, but these things don't store well!
"Haha…" Seeing Zhuge Jun's naive and innocent eyes, Lu Yu couldn't help but laugh, then reached out and tapped his forehead. "Kongming, Kongming, no wonder they say you're not enlightened. Reading dead books, studying books blindly is useless!"
"What is learned on paper is ultimately shallow; to know it thoroughly, one must practice it oneself… I'll tell you later how to store the sesame seeds, rapeseed flowers, tea seeds, and red dates we've purchased!"
Thinking of extracting oil, Lu Yu suddenly missed the taste of stir-fried dishes…
He felt that in the Great Han, the thing he was most indebted to was the part below his crotch… and the most wronged was his tongue.
Can dishes cooked without plenty of oil be called dishes?
The so-called cooking method of the Han Dynasty—steaming—from today onwards, take it away, get out of the way!
Stir-frying over high heat, and deep-frying are the kings of the culinary world!
…
…
Jingzhou, Xiangyang City.
Countless phoenix trees stood like beautiful maidens in the fields, their treetops holding clusters of gray-brown flower buds, looking forward to the dreamlike lover called "Spring Wind," who was rarely seen and often parted.
Mr. Shui Jing, Sima Hui's farmstead, was located in the countryside outside Xiangyang City. As Zhuge Liang and his two sisters, Zhuge Ruoxue and Zhuge Ruolan, walked, they felt refreshed and invigorated.
At this moment, a crowd of students seeking discipleship had already gathered in front of the farmstead.
Seeing this scene, Zhuge Liang mustered his spirits to the fullest. He knew that an entrance examination that could determine the future of these talented scholars was about to begin.
Mr. Shui Jing's disciples, the rumored guidance of a fangshi, the future Eight Wonders of Shui Jing…
It was truly inspiring!
…
…