Chapter 56
Under Li Zheng's careful company, Zhang County Captain and two other people sat at a small table alone.
He was also worldly wise, but still couldn't stop praising the scale and quality of this banquet.
After three rounds of drinks, Zhang County Captain's conversation box opened up.
"You don't know," Zhang County Captain said, "The county magistrate spoke very highly of Li Yao, and immediately went to Yizhou Prefecture overnight and wrote a memo to report to the imperial court. If nothing unexpected happens, even His Majesty will probably get to know about this."
Li Zheng couldn't help but gasp.
He knew it was reported to the imperial court, but shocking His Majesty... wasn't that too exaggerated?
It was just digging a big well!
"Don't underestimate a well," Zhang County Captain said, "This well can save the whole world from famine!" In my opinion, I won't be surprised even if Li Yao gets a title. "
Li Zheng was shocked.
For a woman to get a title, she was usually a relative of an official, but Li Yao was just a commoner!
"But don't go around telling people about this," Zhang County Captain said, "Who knows what will happen in the imperial court?"
"Of course, I absolutely won't say it randomly."
Li Yao heard their conversation from afar, but didn't care much.
She had no interest in titles. Being a landlord freely was more comfortable.
...
This meal took a full hour before it ended. After the meal, some villagers took the initiative to help clean up the leftovers.
Although a lot of dishes were prepared, there was really not much left. Basically everything was eaten cleanly. After Wang Xueshi poured the soup into the vegetable residue and distributed it to those who came to help, nothing was wasted.
After the roof beam was installed, the remaining work was basically carpentry.
Nailing rafters, installing doors and windows, making tables, chairs, benches, wardrobes, etc., and finally tiling the roof, then the house would be completed and ready for selecting an auspicious day to move in.
It was estimated that it would take at least half a month.
So during this free time, Li Yao decided to make some new things for the specialty store. Otherwise, letting Zou Boss only sell some alfalfa ointment, the buddy he hired at the store would be bored to sleep every day.
As for what to make, Li Yao had already thought about it.
Soap and fragrant soap.
Sell soap to ordinary people, and fragrant soap as a high-end item, specially to earn money from wealthy families.
Soap was easy to make with lard and soda ash, and its cleaning effect was many times better than pancreatin. As for fragrant soap, it was just adding some fragrance and color to the soap.
"Xiaoya, boil the lard later. Remember not to boil it too long. It must be boiled snow white."
"Okay, ma'am."
After arranging Xiaoya to boil the lard, Li Yao took a blueprint to the new house and found the busy carpenter Qiu.
"Can you make this?"
Carpenter Qiu looked at the pattern. It was a square wooden tray divided into 20 small grids.
"It's not difficult," Carpenter Qiu said, "But you said the words and patterns in each grid have to be exactly the same, which is a bit tricky. Even those who specialize in wood carving probably can't do it."
"It's okay. I had the blacksmith make an iron mold a few days ago," Li Yao said. "After heating it up and putting it in the grid, it can burn the same words and patterns. This way, carving won't deviate too much."
"This..." Carpenter Qiu had never heard of this method before, but after thinking about it, he suddenly felt enlightened, "What a good way, why didn't I think of it before?"
"Then I'll leave it to you. How long will it take to finish?"
"Very soon, I can finish it today."
Carpenter Qiu handed over the work at hand to his apprentice, and went to find some large enough wooden boards. Then he took out the inkstone, ruler, and started marking.
As an experienced carpenter for decades, it didn't take long for him to make a basic wooden board.
Next, he heated up the iron mold again and again, and put it in the small grids to burn the black patterns.
The most time-consuming was the carving. It was delicate work, but Carpenter Qiu was skilled. He spent most of the day and finally made the first mold.
"The carving is still a bit rough. I don't know if it can be used?"
"Let me take it back and try it first," Li Yao said. "If the effect is good, please help me make more."
"Okay."
When she returned home, it was already evening. The lard boiled by Xiaoya had cooled and solidified, filling up a large basin, snowy white.
Li Yao took out soda ash and quicklime, as well as some jars and pots, and started working.
"Boil a large pot of water first, then learn from me," Li Yao said to Xiaoya. "You'll have to do this in the future."
"En."
Although she still didn't know what to do, Xiaoya nodded very seriously, and busied herself filling the pot with water and started boiling it.
The reason for boiling so much water was because soap stock needed distilled water.
When the water in the pot boiled, Li Yao took out a wooden lid. This lid was different from ordinary ones. It was arched with a small hole at the top, and inserted with several sections of hollow bamboo, with a small hole at the bottom to drip water onto the bamboo.
The steam cooled down when going through the bamboo and soon liquefied again, flowing back into a clean crock through the bamboo. This was a simple distiller.
Of course this method was very crude. For large-scale production in the future, they would definitely need to find a blacksmith to build more professional equipment.
With the distilled water, they could start the formal production process.
First, take half a pound of soda ash and put it in a jar, add one and a half pounds of warm distilled water, stir to make an alkaline solution, then pour in three and a half pounds of melted lard.
Then place the jar on a low flame for heating, while constantly stirring with a wooden spoon, allowing the lard and alkaline solution to fully integrate, and it quickly became a creamy paste like cream.
After about ten minutes, the paste became very viscous. The ripples left by the stirring spoon took a long time to disappear. This was the simplest soap, also called soap stock.
Pour it into the mold and it would solidify in about half an hour.
When time was up, Li Yao dismantled the mold and got 20 rectangular handmade soap bars.
Li Yao picked one up and smelled it first. It was the familiar smell of soap. She pressed it with her fingernail and found that the hardness was not enough, a little soft.
This was possibly because the boiling time was a little short, or the ratio of alkali to lard was off, but it was not a big problem. Just pay attention to adjust it later.
Xiaoya also picked up a piece and smelled it, and her face was quickly filled with puzzlement: "Ma'am, how do you eat this?"
Li Yao: ...
"This is not for eating."
"Ah?"
Xiaoya blushed.
Seeing Li Yao added so much lard, she thought it was some kind of pastry.
"Then what is this for?"
"For washing clothes."
"Is it pancreatin?" Xiaoya asked.
Pancreatin was made by pounding animal pancreas and plant ash together and drying it.
In short, it also used saponification, but animal pancreas contained a lot of non-fatty tissues, and plant ash also had many impurities, and the alkalinity was very weak, so the effect was not very good when used.
"Ours is stronger than pancreatin. You can try it now," Li Yao said. "Just wash your apron."
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