Saltpeter can make ice, but it can also make gunpowder.
Li Yao didn't plan to produce this stuff now, but thinking about the strange movements of the barbarians this year, she felt uneasy and thought she should make some preparations in advance.
"Also, please put more effort into acquiring rubber."
"This..." Liu Yuan hesitated for a moment and said, "It's not rubber harvesting season yet. Several large stockades on the Nanzhao Kingdom border seem to be deliberately hoarding too, so...so the prices are already sky high."
"Is there any way to trade directly with merchants inside the Nanzhao Kingdom?"
When Liu Yuan heard this, he shook his head directly.
Relations between Great Ling and the Nanzhao Kingdom were tense now, and small-scale friction often occurred over border issues, so even a big merchant like him didn't dare go too deep into the Nanzhao Kingdom.
The Nanzhao Kingdom's merchants were even more unwilling to come and trade easily.
Trade between the two countries was almost at a standstill.
So the only way to get rubber was to buy it in the stockades on the border.
"Go take a look at the situation first and let someone send a letter back after you figure it out clearly, and I'll come up with a countermeasure."
"Yes."
After Liu Yuan left, Li Yao was idle again. Every day she just went to check on the situation in the workshops, and then went to the back hill to look at the thriving sweet potatoes and various vegetable seedlings.
Under Da Zhuang's careful care, the crops in the back hill were growing well, and the chickens, ducks, geese, pigs and cattle raised were also gradually growing up.
Especially that group of wild chickens. Because the feed was sufficient, the biggest ones were already three catties. Seeing them made Li Yao's index finger move.
How long had it been since she had eaten chicken stir-fried with chili peppers?
But the chili seedlings in the fields were blooming now. She had to wait at least a month before she could eat them, and Li Yao didn't want to wait that long.
"Xiaoya, how much pickled chili do we have left at home?"
"Not much left," He Xiaoya thought about it and said, "If we eat sparingly, there's probably enough for two more meals."
"Then let's eat it all today." She added, "Just the two of us eating."
"Mother, that's not good, is it?"
After all, Ninth Prince Liu Yun ate at home every day now. Making something delicious and hiding it from him, how would he feel if he knew?
"Don't care about him, is there any lack of exotic delicacies for him to eat?"
Saying to do, Li Yao nimbly caught one of the biggest roosters and walked home.
The kitchen at home was now almost entirely occupied by several chefs who had come specifically to cook for Ninth Prince Liu Yun. Li Yao had originally wanted to object, because having so many more people in the house was very inconvenient.
But now everyone was busy, and Xiaoya's belly was big too, no longer suitable for climbing onto the stove, so she left it to them.
It was just nice that the family could eat some ready-made food with Liu Yun.
"Greetings to Lady Li." When she walked into the kitchen, Chef Wang, the head chef, smiled and came forward to bow, "I wonder why Lady Li has come to the kitchen. Would you like me to prepare some dishes?"
"No dishes today. I'm coming to cook a dish myself."
"So Lady Li's skills are itching to be used," Chef Wang said. "I wonder if you would allow us to observe nearby?"
"Watch if you want."
Li Yao briskly slaughtered the rooster.
Bleeding, scalding, disemboweling, chopping...
Watching her skilled movements, the chefs were full of admiration: "Lady Li's knife skills are superior by more than twenty years of experience compared to us! We are ashamed."
Li Yao thought, when I was playing with knives, you were probably still herding cattle in the mountains. How could we compare?
The chopped chicken was cut into small pieces, oil was heated in the wok, and the chopped chicken was added to stir fry until both sides were slightly charred and the oil in the chicken skin was rendered out. Only then were a handful of Sichuan peppercorns, garlic, ginger, and chili paste added.
After stir-frying over low heat briefly, red oil came out. Then she poured in the last bowl of pickled chilies, and the familiar fragrance wafted up.
Chef Wang and the others had observed the whole process. In their opinion, the stir-frying technique was quite normal, something everyone could do. But the only thing they didn't understand was why the oil turned out red and shiny after stir-frying.
What were the ingredients added later?
The smell was a little pungent, but there was also an unfamiliar fragrance they had never seen before.
As a chef from the imperial palace, Chef Wang suddenly felt that with his learned skills, he could not even identify this.
"May I ask Lady Li, what dish is this?"
"Chili peppers."
They looked at each other, none of them knowing what chili peppers were.
"It's gathered from the mountains. We also grow it at home," Li Yao said. "But if you want to eat it, you'll have to wait another month."
I'm done, you can slowly cook.
Watching Li Yao take away a large plate of chicken stir-fried with chili peppers, Chef Wang couldn't help swallowing.
He thought to himself that he had tasted exotic delicacies everywhere, yet he was drooling over a plate of ordinary chicken. This really was strange.
When Lady Li's chili peppers were ripe, he must try them carefully.
Li Yao brought the plate of chicken stir-fried with chili peppers to the bedroom, where she and He Xiaoya ate heartily with two bowls of rice and a large plate of freshly pickled vegetables.
He Xiaoya didn't like hawthorn, but had always liked chili peppers. She barely touched the chicken in the plate, while the chili peppers were almost finished by the two.
But as they were eating, He Xiaoya suddenly stopped her chopsticks.
"Too spicy?"
"No."
He Xiaoya shook her head, put two slices of pickles in her bowl, and started shovelling rice with the pickles.
With one glance, Li Yao could see she had something on her mind, so she put down her chopsticks and asked, "What's the matter?"
"I..." He Xiaoya hemmed and hawed, and said, "Mother, yesterday I heard Aunt Zhang say that craving sour meant a boy and craving spicy meant a girl. Since I like spicy food so much, there must be a girl in my belly..."
"Just because of this?"
Li Yao didn't know what to say either.
"I told you long ago, boys and girls are the same. Why are you still worried about this?"
"But I just want to have a son, so people won't gossip about our family."
"What do you care what people say?" Li Yao put all the remaining chili peppers from the plate into her bowl, and added a pile of tender chicken legs, "Don't overthink this and that, it's not good for your health."
"Okay, I know."
Seeing He Xiaoya cheer up again, Li Yao sighed inwardly. The moods of pregnant women were indeed unstable. Da Zhuang was also busy and didn't have much time to accompany her.
It seemed that she had to find someone with experience to keep Xiaoya company and chat with her every day, so that she wouldn't have random thoughts.
But finding someone was really a dilemma.
The villagers were definitely out. The younger ones didn't understand, while the older ones with old ideas would keep instilling the idea of son preference, which was even more unbearable.
"Something smells so good!"
Wang Er and the others had returned outside the room. Before even entering, Liu Yun had started shouting.
"Wang Shangshan, hurry and serve the dishes!"
"Yes!"
Six or seven exquisitely prepared dishes were brought up quickly.
It seemed Liu Yun was starving today. He picked up his chopsticks and started eating.
But after sampling each dish, he frowned. Chef Wang observed his expression and realized something was wrong. He quickly came over and asked, "Your Highness, are the dishes today not to your taste?"
"That's not it," Liu Yun thought for a moment and said, "Just now when I entered the room, I smelled a fragrance, but I didn't taste it in any of these dishes."