Chapter 374: Investigating People’s Livelihood
Candles are very precious items. They started to become popular among the upper class during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, but they were still quite valuable. When Shi Chong and Wang Kai competed for wealth, one of the ways they did it was by burning candles as firewood.

It is now the Sui Dynasty. There are candle shops in the East Market, but they are very expensive. A candle costs at least a hundred coins. I didn’t expect that Zhangye also produces candles.

“Does Zhangye also produce candles?” Xiao Xia asked with a smile, pointing at the store sign.

Fan Zigai was also a little surprised, “I didn’t know that!”

“Have a look!”

The two men dismounted and walked into the candle shop. The shop was not big. On the counter were packages of candles, two in a package. They were brown in color, one foot long, and about the thickness of a baby’s wrist. There were prices on them, one hundred coins in a package, which meant fifty coins per candle.

“Hey! Sir, would you like to buy some candles?” The short and fat shopkeeper came out from the inner room with a smile on his face.

“How can candles be produced in Zhangye? I’ve been to Zhangye, but I didn’t know about it.”

The shopkeeper smiled and said, “Sir, you must have been here a few years ago! In fact, Zhangye candles were only made last year. A candle merchant named Zhang from Jizhou brought a dozen apprentices and opened a candle workshop in Zhangye. Business is very good. The nobles in Tuyuhun like it very much. There are now more than a hundred people in the candle workshop.”

“Does Zhangye have raw materials?”

“Of course, it’s because the raw materials are cheap. Zhangye is rich in honey, you should know that!”

Xiao Xia suddenly realized that it was beeswax. There were too many bees on the Zhangye grassland, and honey was indeed produced in abundance. Honey has always been a specialty of Zhangye and is sold in large quantities to the Central Plains. Half of the honey in Chang’an is supplied by Zhangye.

Where there is honey, there is naturally beeswax. In addition, beef and mutton tallow in Zhangye are particularly cheap, so beeswax is also extremely cheap, so candle manufacturers came.

Xiao Xia turned around and said to his personal soldiers: “Buy a hundred first.”

After leaving the store, Xiao Xia said to Fan Zigai, “This is a very good business. Let the army raise bees in large quantities and sell honey and candles. Beef and sheep fat can also be used to make laundry soap. It is no problem to earn more than 100,000 strings of cash a year, which can greatly improve the living conditions of the soldiers.”

“What is laundry soap?”

Xiao Xia smiled and said, “It’s a relatively new thing, only available in the imperial palace, but it’s also very simple. I’ll teach the craftsmen how to make it later.”

Xiao Xia knew that the shrubs on the edge of the Gobi Desert contained a high level of alkali, and burning them into ashes would produce natural baking soda, which could then undergo a saponification reaction, which was very simple, and rock salt was also easy to obtain.

Xiao Xia considered that Zhangye produced candles and Wuwei produced soap. With these special products, the military would have tertiary industry income, which would be of great benefit to the improvement of the conditions of the garrison and could be regarded as a political achievement he left for the Hexi Army.

After a walk around, Xiao Xia discovered that many beggars gathered in the City God Temple.

“Why are there so many beggars here?” Xiao Xia asked puzzled.

Fan Zigai sighed and said, “Winter is coming soon. The beggars in Guzang County will gather at the City God Temple to spend the winter. The government has piled up a lot of wheat straw here. They go into the straw pile to sleep at night, but they are not allowed to burn the straw because it is very easy to cause a fire. This is also a way for the government to give them a way to survive.”

“Will they be obedient? They won’t burn the straw.”

“They will be obedient. The beggar leader will restrain them.”

Xiao Xia nodded and asked, “Hundreds of people freeze to death in Chang’an every winter. How is it here?”

“Not a few. Last winter, 61 people froze to death in Guzang County, and 180 people froze to death in the entire Wuwei County. In fact, they didn’t freeze to death, but it was too cold. Many elderly people couldn’t survive. The main reason was that fuel was too expensive in winter. Wheat straw was not durable. A load of firewood sold for more than 100 coins. Every winter, the lower-class people had a hard time getting through it.”

Xiao Xia sighed softly. The seven necessities of life are firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea, and firewood comes first!

“We can learn from Zhangye and use cow dung as fuel in winter, or find a way to use coal as fuel.”

Fan Zigai smiled bitterly and said, “Charcoal can only be used if you have money, so it’s not realistic. But cow dung can be used. The Qiang people here use cow dung as fuel in winter. Every household stores a lot of it and dries it. Han farmers also buy it, but they use it as fertilizer.”

Xiao Xia was talking about coal, not charcoal. There was probably no coal in Hexi, so Fan Zigai had no idea about it.

Xiao Xia is not considering coal for the time being. If cow dung is used as fuel, it can solve a big problem. In fact, not only cow dung, but also sheep dung and horse dung can be used.

This is the Hexi Corridor, is there still a lack of feces for herbivorous livestock? Seeing that it was still early, Xiao Xia rode his horse to the outskirts of the city to inspect the farmland. The Mother River and the Shimacheng River in Guzang County both originated from the Qilian Mountains. After the snow-capped mountains melted, countless streams were formed. The streams converged into rivers and flowed to the plains, and finally formed huge lakes, not as good as the Xiutu Lake and Guiting Lake in the north of Wuwei County, the Juyan Lake formed by the rivers in Zhangye County, and the Daze formed by the rivers in Dunhuang County. This is the unique geographical landscape of the Hexi Corridor.

Over the past few hundred years, the Han people have developed thousands of hectares of wheat fields on both sides of the Macheng River, planting wheat and hemp, but the wheat grown here can only feed ordinary people, and the army’s food mainly comes from the Hehuang Valley in Longyou.

But not all the fields are wheat fields on both sides of the Macheng River. In fact, the wheat fields are mainly concentrated on the east bank, while the west bank is an endless pasture.

Xiao Xia crossed the bridge and came to the west bank. After running for only a dozen miles, he found that the grass on the shore was full of sheep dung. The herdsmen only used cow dung and not sheep dung. In fact, after sheep dung was dried, its burning power was even greater than that of cow dung.

Xiao Xia knew that in later generations, people would mix cow, sheep and horse manure into small round blocks, which would become a very high-quality fuel. When it burned in the tent, it had no odor at all and even had a faint milky fragrance.

Even if the people are unwilling to use it, at least the army’s winter heating fuel problem is solved.

As night fell, Xiao Xia returned to the Prince of Chu’s Mansion. She was surprised by how vast the mansion was. Today was the first day and many things were incomplete, so she couldn’t cook.

It’s funny that we bought rice, flour, meat and vegetables, but in the end there was no firewood.

Butler Liu said to Xiao Xia, “I have bought several thousand kilograms of charcoal and a large amount of firewood, but they will not be delivered until tomorrow. The princess asked me to go to the restaurant to order food today.”

Xiao Xia nodded, “Are you short of anything else? Various cooking utensils and the like.”

“We have everything. Oh, and I have to buy a few dozen water jars tomorrow.”

Every household in the Central Plains has to prepare a water tank. On the one hand, it is convenient for daily use of water. On the other hand, it is to prevent fire. The stored water is used for firefighting, so it is also called a Taiping tank.

Otherwise it would be too troublesome to draw water from the well every time.

“Besides that, aren’t there too few servants?”

Butler Liu nodded and said, “Yes, we are short of them. I have reported this to the princess, and she said she would consider it.”

There is a large restaurant diagonally opposite the palace, called Liangzhou Restaurant, which is one of the three largest restaurants in Guzang County.

Now that the prince is back, send someone to urge for food.

Xiao Xia came to the backyard and saw his wife still packing up, so he asked with a smile, “Have you been packing up all day today?”

Cui Yu stood up, patted his lower back and said with a smile: “Not really! I drank tea and chatted for a long time in the afternoon, and was too lazy to clean up. I thought my husband was coming back, so I hurried to pretend.”

Xiao Xia laughed, hugged her and said, “Pack up slowly. One day is not enough for ten days, ten days are not enough for a month, and one month is not enough for a year.”

“It won’t take a month. I’ll have it all ready tomorrow. Oh, and the housekeeper said he wants to hire servants. I’m a bit overwhelmed. This is the first time I’ve done something like this. Please teach me, husband!”

“It’s very simple. Let Butler Liu give you a plan first.”

Cui Yu quickly said: “He has already given it, and we need to recruit thirty people.”

“Isn’t that simple? Let Butler Liu and Ah Chu recruit the people from the outer courtyard together, and the recruits will be reviewed by Sister Li. You will interview the maids from the inner courtyard, and Xiaoqing and Ah Chu will accompany you. Finally, they will also be reviewed by Sister Li.”

“Why do you need Sister Li to review it?”

“The main concern is that some highly skilled martial artists might sneak in. The people we recruit must have clean backgrounds, and we also need to investigate their backgrounds. We can’t be careless.”

Cui Yu nodded, “I understand now!”

At this time, the maid came to report that the food had been delivered.

Xiao Xia nodded, “Let’s eat it while it’s hot! It will be troublesome if it gets cold.”

(End of this chapter)