Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 647: Captive Village

She hopes that in the future, she will have the opportunity to compile all of these into a book and print it out. She does not expect to make a lot of money from this book, but only hopes that more people will see it in the future and put it into practice, which is the best reward.

One day, Hualei was tired from writing and was strolling in the yard when she saw Sister Hehua picking up some cabbages piled in the corner.

These cabbages were harvested from the fields some time ago. Most of them were put into the warehouse behind the restaurant. Because the warehouse could not hold more, they were temporarily placed here.

The weather is very cold now. There was a heavy snow a few days ago and the temperature at night was several degrees below zero.

Despite being covered with thick straw fans to keep them warm, the cabbages were still frozen to a crystal clear state and chilled to the bone in such severe cold.

Each cabbage is very hard. When you knock on it with your hand, it makes a "bang bang bang" sound, just like knocking on a lump of ice.

In Mobei, there is a way of eating cabbage, called fried cabbage. Before coming to Mobei, Hualei had never eaten it before, but after eating it once, I felt that this fried cabbage tasted very delicious.

Remove the outermost leaves of the frozen cabbage and wash it clean. Use a kitchen knife to cut it into four. However, this cannot be said to be cutting, it should be said to be chopping.

Because the cabbage was frozen so hard, it was almost the same as chopped pork ribs. After the cabbage was chopped, it was put into hot water for blanching. This is the "frying" of fried cabbage, which is completely different from what Hualei imagined, frying in oil.

Moreover, the blanching time for this method is different from other methods. Because it is frozen solid, it usually takes about a quarter of an hour to blanch.

Then use a strainer to scoop it out, soak it in a basin of cold water, wash it twice, and drain the water. If you have patience, you can peel off the skin on the stem, which will make it taste better.

After peeling off the skin, add oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and chili sauce, mix them slightly, and eat them with rice. It really tastes unique, especially when paired with fragrant rice, it is really delicious.

Looking at Jinnian waving a wooden spoon and eager to try, Hualei prepared another portion of fried cabbage with less oil and salt for him.

However, after eating Mobei's fried cabbage, Hualei was still unwilling to give up, thinking that since it was fried, it should be fried in oil.

So, I tried cutting the frozen cabbage into small pieces, coating them with flour paste and egg white, and deep-frying the frozen cabbage in hot oil over low heat. Then I sprinkled some seasonings and tossed them evenly.

After trying it, I realized that this is the real fried cabbage. The taste is completely different from the original fried cabbage. It has the freshness of vegetables and the fragrance of oil. It is really fragrant and crispy, and especially delicious.

However, it seems that it is not suitable for eating with rice, but it is really good to eat with wine or as a snack. Rong Jin drank a lot of wine with the fried cabbage that Hualei had just developed.

The weather was getting colder, but the Ministry of Industry was still working on selling the shop. Taking advantage of the winter break, the Ministry of War started working on setting up a prisoner village.

Over the past two years, the Ministry of War has been in charge of the more than 20,000 captives of the Xiaowan tribe who have been forced to open up wasteland and build the provincial capital. The pressure of management is very great.

The main reason is that some prisoners, seeing no future, often slack off, while some prisoners are still angry and dislike each other, and fights break out from time to time.

Even if there were many guards, if they weren't careful, several people would have already started fighting, and it was impossible to stop them. After all, the weak are afraid of the strong, the strong are afraid of the strong, and the strong are afraid of the desperate.

Therefore, in the previous year, prisoners died from fighting from time to time. When the military doctor saw this, he was very troubled. So after discussing with Li Shilang and Zhang Shilang, he dispersed these prisoners and interspersed them among the people.

Originally, they did the hardest work and ate the worst food. After they were mixed in with the people, they did the same work and ate the same food as the people.

They also asked the people to talk to them and taught them some simple Dasheng dialect. Hualei exchanged processed loach soup with the people, and also supplied them with black steamed buns.

Except for not paying monthly wages, all other treatments were given to them the same as the common people who were reclaiming and building the land, so that they could gradually integrate into the society.

The situation is much better now. Many people are no longer passive and lazy. The prisoners who were originally full of violent tempers have also become gentler. In addition, with the occasional education from the Ministry of War, they have gradually been assimilated spiritually.

Therefore, after asking for Emperor Shengwu's opinion in a memorial, the Ministry of War decided to organize the more than 20,000 prisoners into a prisoner village, allocate land and housing sites to them, and let them support themselves.

Of course, there will still be supervisors, and the areas where prisoners can move around will be restricted and require reporting. However, this is much better than being locked up in a cell all the time.

So, when the news was announced, all the captives were extremely excited.

To truly become a citizen of the Great Sheng Dynasty, the most important thing is to handle household registration. Therefore, Hua Lei and the officials of the Ministry of Households began to get busy again.

In order to assimilate the captives, the first thing is to make them recognize the culture of this dynasty. Therefore, the first step is to let them change their names and use the Hundred Family Surnames of the Great Sheng Dynasty to rename themselves.

However, many captives could only communicate with the common people in a simple way, but they still did not recognize the characters of the Great Sheng Dynasty. Therefore, before handling the household registration, Hua Lei and other officials had an additional task.

The captives were gathered in batches, and they were taught to recognize the Hundred Family Names, and then they were allowed to choose their own surnames. Zhao, Qian, Sun, Li, Zhou, Wu, Zheng, and Wang were explained one by one and taught to read.

After more than half a month, Hualei was exhausted from teaching, because after many captives heard the Hundred Family Surnames, many of them did not care about the meaning behind their surnames.

They simply and roughly chose surnames like "Wang" and "Huang", thinking that these two surnames were very majestic, as if having these two surnames would really make them kings and emperors.

What's worse, some captives even named themselves "Wang Shang" and "Huang Shang", which made Hua Lei sigh in silence.

Of course, these names would definitely not be accepted, as these barbarians had not yet learned the taboos of the Great Sheng Dynasty. Many people also chose surnames related to silver.

As a result, a large number of "Qian Moumou" and "Jin Moumou" came into being. "Qian Manzhuang" and "Jin Dingzi" also emerged in an endless stream.

This definitely wouldn't work. There were more than 20,000 prisoners. Could they only count their surnames on one hand? Plus, they were short of vocabulary and gave themselves names. Eight out of ten had the same name.

Among a hundred people, if you shout "Qian Manzhuang", forty or fifty of them will stand up at once. How can you tell them apart?