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Chapter 145
The business of the Chen family restaurant is booming, and the farmers who supply the restaurant are also very happy.
Since the restaurant opened, all the ingredients have come from Cangjia’s farm, farmers from Qi’s family in Shicun, and farmers from Ping’er Village.
Today's Ping'er Village has changed a lot. It is completely different from the lonely Liao Ji in the past. It has become a village with hundreds of people, which is almost as large as the neighboring Baihua Village.
The old cold and ground freeze are all gone, and it is late spring, and the front and back of Pinger Village are verdant and lush, with patches of vegetable beds, thriving.
After Chen Nianguan and the Liu family purchased real estate here, Shi Cunqi also thought about the tenant farmers. In addition to the farm, he also bought a lot of land with money and built simple farm houses for the tenant farmers.
Many of the people who went to work in Pinger Village in winter were later hired by Shi Cunqi to look after the farmland and manor, and settled down in Pinger Village.
As for Chen Nianguan, the farmhouse at the foot of the mountain she designed has already been built, not far from the big farmhouse of Liuhe, Liu Qing and others, and the house that Liu He built for his younger sister Liu Yun alone is also within easy reach.
After the house is built, it is natural for someone to take care of it.
Wasteland also needs manpower to reclaim it. After reclaiming, manpower is needed to cultivate the land, fertilize it, and cultivate it.
Liu He, the head steward who is resident in Ping'er Village, has also hired many guards to guard the yard and good hands to farm for them among the helpers doing work in Ping'er Village.
Now their wasteland has been opened up every mu and mu. After the opening, the few mu of land that can be planted are planted with crops in the spring: wild rice, Chinese cabbage, leeks, radishes, and so on.
Not only that, Liu He specially set up a courtyard and hired four young men to go to Yanzi Mountain to chop firewood and pick up dead branches, and then moved into the courtyard, sending a batch of firewood to the city every two days.
It is mainly supplied to restaurants and Xianggui Street, and the excess is naturally shipped directly to the market for sale.
Although there was not much money, it was enough to pay the wages of the four young men employed.
In the beginning of spring, the mountain is overgrown with mushrooms. In addition to chopping firewood, these young men also pick up mushrooms and dig spring bamboo shoots, which are specially sent to restaurants as ingredients, which is also a considerable income.
In addition, the chicken farm and duck shed built by Chen Nianguan, the seedlings caught in November last year survived the severe winter, and the chickens and ducks raised in batches have grown up, and now they are grown and shipped, has been able to fully meet the needs of restaurants.
The people of Ping'er Village, especially the village head of Ping'er Village, are full of joy when they see that Ping'er Village is becoming more and more prosperous day by day, and the population is increasing.
Originally they????? They were afraid that these outsiders would intrude on their living space, but now looking at Shi Dong’s family, Chen Dong’s family and Liu Daguan—well, this Liu Daguan is Liu He, in Ping’er VillageBuying land and building houses not only brought so many people, but also provided a lot of jobs.
In the past, the chickens and ducks raised by the family and the vegetables grown in the field had to find their own way to sell, but now as long as the chickens and ducks are raised well and the vegetables are grown more, there is no need to leave the village, and go directly to Manager Liu or ShiIt is not only fast and convenient, but also reasonably priced.
People in Ping'er Village like to deal with Steward Liu and Steward Shi's.
When the work in the first field at home is over, they all like to work for the Shi family and Liu's family to earn an extra penny.
Even the people from Baihua Village next door, since the last time Master Chen met to buy ice, know that there is a lot of work in Ping'er Village, and they like to come to Ping'er Village to find work.
There are also many long-term workers who work for the Liu family of the Shi family. They simply live in Ping'er Village and never leave. Those who have a lot of money also take advantage of this time to scrape together some money to buy a tael of wasteland to build their own houses., Has the number of people waiting in Ping'er Village gradually increased soon?
Small villages naturally became big villages.
And Liu Da, who is also resident in Pinger Village, is also very busy with his affairs. He rarely returns to Capital City. Not only does he have to take care of the farmland, chicken farm and duck shed, but also the purchasing team and transportation team.
Naturally, the buying team is responsible for the daily business of buying and selling crops in the village, and also includes buying chickens, ducks, vegetables, rice, wheat, etc. sent by Shi Cunqi's farm.
The transportation team is responsible for transporting the purchased ingredients and rations to the Capital City restaurant every day.
For this reason, Liu He specially built an extra house ten steps away from his big farm, which was used as a base for purchasing food materials. In addition, he also raised four donkeys and two horses, built six carts, and built his own house.The transportation team of Chen's Restaurant mainly supplies to Chen's Restaurant, and also undertakes other delivery business in their spare time.
The people of Ping'er Village, including the workers hired to work in Ping'er Village, know that their main buyer is the largest and most famous Chen's restaurant in the city, and the younger sister of Manager Liu is from the Chen's restaurant.All the chefs with superb cooking skills admired Steward Liu greatly.
According to Chen Nianguan's employment habits, those who pass the assessment and can sign a contract with Manager Liu will sign a ten-year contract.
These ten-year-old workers who are not afraid of not having a job, after actually getting their wages, dare not look down on this young manager who is only about fourteen years old, and he is very obedient.
Liu He is a respected butler and lives in a spacious and clean farmhouse, so he can't think of leaving every day.
And that day, Manager Liu was about to receive the chickens and ducks sent to the restaurant, that Uncle Mao hurried over: "Manager Liu, Manager Liu!"
"What's wrong? Uncle Mao?"
"No, it's not good, Mr. Liu is in charge, we, our ducks seem to be sick." Uncle Mao looked flustered.
Liu He was taken aback, and quickly handed over the work at hand to the Shi family steward, and followed Uncle Mao to the duck shed to see what happened.
The duck house for Uncle Mao’s ducks was built as large as a 150-square yard. In addition to the duck house, it also included an open space for ducks to move around.
There are also eight young guys raising ducks with Uncle Mao, in groups of four, one group is responsible for raising ducklings in the duck shed to feed the ducks, and the other group is responsible for driving the ducks out to play in the tidal flats.
When Liu He went to the duck shed, he saw many sick ducks. Although they still swayed, they walked slowly, obviously sick.
After entering the duck house, saw that each of the young men who stayed behind was carrying dead ducks in their hands and putting them in baskets on one side.
Look at the dead ducks in the basket, there are no fewer than fifty.
"It can't be the plague?" Liu He also panicked.
"It's not like, I've been raising ducks for so many years, and I've never seen something like this that gets sick overnight, and the symptoms don't look like plague." Uncle Mao shook his head.
"Did you call the doctor to see it?"
"Already called." Uncle Mao said.
The first time he discovered something was wrong, Uncle Mao had already distinguished the diseased ducks from the seemingly normal ones. Liu He turned around and counted roughly, and there were actually more than sixty ducks.
They are all adult ducks that can be shipped.
Fortunately, the ducklings were raised separately from these ducks, otherwise, more ducklings would be lost.
"Uncle Mao, wait for the doctor to come here to see what's going on? I have to tell Master Chen first."
Uncle Mao nodded.
Of course, what happened in the duck house needs to be investigated. Before checking whether the other ducks are also sick ducks, you can't just send sick ducks to the restaurant. The most urgent thing is to tell the cousin and Shi Dong's about it.
The special roasted duck is the signature dish sold in Chenjia Restaurant. It is impossible to cook without duck.
Back at the acquisition site, Liu He first called a guy who delivered the ingredients and rushed into Capital City to tell the Chen family restaurant about it.
There were no ducks in Shi Dong's farm, and the only family that raised ducks in Ping'er Village was Uncle Mao.
Raising ducks is actually a technical job. It is not just anyone who can raise them successfully. Inexperienced farmers, whether raising chickens, ducks or cattle, are easy to raise to death.Not too many, three or four is already the limit.
He might not be able to buy enough ducks for a while, so he might as well ask his cousin to buy ducks at the market in Capital City, and deal with it first.
Chen Nianguan and Shi Cunqi soon found out about the sickness of the ducks in the duck shed in Pinger Village, and immediately sent people to the market and the duck sheds in the suburbs of Beijing to buy ducks.
Nowadays, the roast duck in the restaurant is not only for meat, but also many diners like to chop the roast duck and put it in a food box and take it home to eat. It coincides with the honeymoon period, and the demand for roast duck is large, basically one day can consume 100.There are about 20 roasted ducks with such a large number. There are 50 ducks that have been marinated and dried in the morning and can be braised today. I want to buy about 70 more tender ducks. If it is not for the duck farm, it should be difficult to buy enough such a large quantity in the market.
Sure enough, the clerk sent to the market only bought a dozen or so back, while the ones who went to the duck farm to negotiate were only 30, and after hearing that the Chen family restaurant wanted them, they raised the price by 20%, becauseMaster Chen said no matter what the price is, buy the duck first, and then buy the duck at a high price.
There were more than 30 dogs still owed, but after Liu Feng heard about it, he volunteered to find it for his cousin.
"Cousin, I met a farmer in Dafo Temple who is just outside the capital city. He seems to have ducks in his family. How about I help you?"
Since Liu Feng said there was a way, Chen Nianguan of course asked him to help, so Liu Feng rented a carriage and went out of the city.
In fact, where did he know the farm owner? The farm owner he was talking about was himself.
After the beginning of spring, he went to the farm from time to time. Seeing the big lotus pond after the ice thawed, he remembered that the ducks in the Chen’s restaurant were all raised in Ping’er Village, and he had to specially raise the tidal flats. There are such ducks in his own farm.Isn't it good to raise ducks in a big lotus pond?
So he ordered Tian Guanshi to learn how to raise a group of ducks.
Tian Guanshi is also a capable person. Since the owner said he wanted to raise ducks, he raised them immediately. At first, he raised a group of ducks to death because he didn’t know how to raise ducks. Later, he asked someone who knew how to raise ducks in a nearby farm to start raising ducks again.After buying ducklings, it was hard to feed a batch.
When Liu Feng went to the farm, groups of ducks in the lotus pond were swimming happily!
Tian Guanshi heard that the main family wanted thirty-five ducks, and it was a bit difficult. The farm just started raising ducks, not many, and now there are only about ten adult ducks that can be shipped, so Tian Guanshi went to the nearby farm to raise ducks.The duck man bought another twenty, and made up thirty-six for Liu Feng.
Liu Feng brought back thirty-six ducks and relieved his cousin's urgent need, so he was very happy.
Chen Nianguan saw that there were enough tender ducks, so he took Liu Feng to Ping'er Village to see what happened to the restaurant's duck farm!
By the time they arrived at Ping'er Village, the doctor Liu He called Uncle Mao had already found out why so many ducks died in the duck coop.
The ducks that showed signs of illness did not suffer from any plague, but the rice bran that was last fed to the ducks yesterday was poisonous, causing the ducks that had eaten this batch of rice bran to show symptoms of poisoning one after another.
The ducks that ate too much were poisoned to death, and the ducks that ate too little died soon. The only ones that survived were the ducks that were full after rushing to the tidal flat yesterday and returned to the duck house without eating rice bran.
"Is there something wrong with the rice bran you brought back?"
"No, we asked the doctor to check the rice bran stored in the duck house, and other shriveled rice husks, barnyard millet, and found no poison."
The only thing that is poisonous is the rice bran that was fed yesterday, which is the poison found in the remaining rice bran in the feeding trough.
"So someone poisoned it?"
Who was responsible for feeding the ducks yesterday?
The eight people in the duck house, including Uncle Mao, were all questioned by Liuhe one by one. It was confirmed that the two people who were responsible for picking up the rice bran yesterday were from the village of Pinger Village.I found it as soon as I was in charge.
For these two guys, Uncle Mao patted his chest to ensure that they were trustworthy, and he was also dedicated to feeding and caring for the ducks. He had no reason to poison the rice bran to kill the adult ducks he raised.
And the two Ping'er Villagers also assured that they had never poisoned themselves.
The locals are very happy to get a long-term and stable job. How could they do such a thing like killing live ducks?
After questioning the other guys, it was found that there was no suspicion, so the murderer who poisoned was transferred to the outside.
If it wasn't done by the people in the duck house, it was done by outsiders who can enter and exit the duck house.
The nine people in the duck house recalled a bit, and wrote down all the people who came into the duck house yesterday. They were all familiar with them.Those who do the work, excluding the people who were not feeding the rice bran after the ducks rushed back to the duck house, there were still four people left.
Then it was discovered that one of them was from the village, and the other three were all newly hired by Liu He to work in the fields.
"Should we ask the village head to help investigate this kind of thing?" Chen Nianguan asked.
Poisoning and killing villagers' livestock is considered a poisoning case, and it is not a small incident.
"Cousin, don't worry, the village chief knows about this, he has already called someone to inform Chief Bai, and the two of them are talking to them."
It's just that the head of Ping'er Village and Chief Bai interrogated the four of them for a long time, but they couldn't find anything suspicious.
This matter has to be put aside for the time being.
Chen Nianguan took down the names of the four people and planned to look them up later.
At present, it is a blind sheep repair. After such things happen, people should pay special attention to the people who enter and exit the duck house, and they should not let people in casually.
Uncle Mao naturally agreed, and then carried a large number of poisoned ducks, about one hundred and sixty adult ducks, to the mountain and buried them.
"Tsk, what a pity."
This batch of adult ducks, but Uncle Mao worked so hard to take care of them during the winter, and it never occurred to me that the ducklings would grow into big ducks, but they died in vain.
"It's also fortunate that several duck houses were divided into several duck houses. Otherwise, I am afraid that all the ducks will be poisoned to death, and there will be no harvest."
After this incident, Uncle Mao became extra careful when taking care of these ducks in the future.
Chen Nianguan also helped to formulate the rules and regulations for entering and leaving the duck house, and asked Uncle Mao and the two groups of duck breeders to follow them carefully.
Not only the duck sheds, but also the chicken farms, and the people in the farmland farms reminded them to be careful not to be sabotaged by someone secretly.
In the end, he asked Liu He to secretly send a reliable man to watch the four suspects in private, to see if he could wait for one of them to show his feet, and then arrest him at that time.
After all, he had the guts to poison, and this time the loss was livestock, but it would be a disaster if he directly attacked people next time.
On the way back to Capital City, Liu Feng couldn't help asking: "Cousin, is this person who poisoned us at our Chen's restaurant? Who is so evil?"
Naturally, it was done by a competitor who was jealous of the prosperous business of Chen's Restaurant.
Chen Nianguan was the first to suspect Yueman Building.
After all, Uncle Shi targeted Chen's restaurant not once or twice because of Shi Cunqi.
However, the Chen family restaurant is now so powerful that it has also taken away many customers from other restaurants. Perhaps there is also the possibility that people from other restaurants may be involved.
Ping'er Village is the biggest source of supply for Chen's restaurant. If something happens to Ping'er Village, the food in the restaurant will not be able to supply, and it will be difficult for the restaurant to cook without rice, which will damage the interests of diners and cause dissatisfaction, and even there will be a shortage of food every three days, so the business will be natural.will be blocked.
But if Chen's restaurant can't provide food, the diners will naturally disperse to other restaurants, and they will not only lose customers, but also damage their reputation.
So this matter must have been instigated by other restaurants involving competing interests.
In this way, all the properties of Ping'er Village must be handled with care.
When Chen Nianguan returned to Chen's Restaurant, the sky had already darkened, and when he told Shi Cunqi about this, Shi Cunqi also looked dignified.
Ever since his eldest brother played tricks behind his back, he has repeatedly confirmed that the candidates who recruited the Chen family restaurant as employees are reliable and credible, and in Ping'er Village, he also specially instructed his own stewards to pay special attention to those who usually behave suspiciously or behave badly.People, I am afraid that something will happen again.
But take precautions, didn't expect that something happened to the duck shed.
"I think it's better to hire a few more guards these days and go to Ping'er Village to watch." Shi Cunqi said helplessly.
Chen Nianguan also nodded in agreement.
With the current income of the restaurant, it is not difficult to hire a few more guards, the difficulty is whether the hired guards can act as a deterrent.
"Even if we take precautions, it won't work in the long run. Apart from the output of the Cang family's farm, we have to find other sources of supply, so as not to cause an accident in Ping'er Village. The supply of ingredients at the Cang family's end is insufficient.It is difficult to meet the needs of Chen's restaurant by buying ingredients at the market."
The Chen family restaurant is full of seats every day, business is good, and there are many diners, which means that more ingredients are consumed.
This is all thanks to the supply of food materials from Pinger Village. The Cangjia Farm has much less meat and vegetables, so it can only be used as a supplement. If the supply from Pinger Village cannot be supplied, then the Cangjia Farm alone will not be enough.
That is, when both sides are supplying goods, the kitchen team sees that there are missing ingredients, and every day they will ask the purchasing team to go to the market to buy more.
Just like today's situation, if Liu Feng didn't know Xiaowai's farm, he wouldn't have filled up today's meat duck in time.
Speaking of the farmer Liu Feng knew, Chen Nianguan couldn't help asking his cousin: "Xiaofeng, the farmer you know is very close to you?"
"Ah!" Liu Feng nodded.
Naturally, they are familiar, so the owner of the farm is himself, how can he not be familiar with himself?
"Does the farmer raise other than ducks?"
Hearing her cousin's question, Liu Feng rolled her eyes twice.
"Hey, he only raises ducks so far, but he is a very rich farm owner. The farm has hundreds of acres of fertile land and a big lotus pond."
Liu Fengxu counted the crops in the field, which made Chen Nianguan quite moved.
Seeing his cousin's expression, Liu Feng was secretly happy.
"Cousin, do you want to do business with this farm owner?"
Now the output from his own village, if Manager Tian wanted to send it to his house in the city, Liu Feng would naturally not allow it.
How could he just reap the benefits of Zhuangzi?
Once Tian Guanshi gave it away, wouldn't it reveal that he owns the farm?
So asked Tian Guanshi to take the prospect directly to the market and sell it.
He was worried about how to connect his Zhuangzi with Chen's restaurant, and the opportunity came now?
The cousin is afraid that something will happen to Pinger Village, and the supply of ingredients will not be available, so she wants to find another source of supply. Couldn't his farm be the source of supply?
"Yes, can you tell the farm owner that our restaurant is willing to cooperate with him for a long time, and all the seasonal vegetables from their farm can be shipped to our restaurant. If the restaurant needs it, we will pay 10% higher than the market price.price purchase."
"Okay, no problem." Liu Feng was about to pat his chest to agree, seeing his cousin's surprised eyes, then stretched out his hand to scratch his head, "I'm very good with this farmer, don't worry, cousin, somedayIf the restaurant lacks any ingredients, just tell me, and I'll contact the farm owner to get you the goods."
"Can you talk to the farm owner?" Shi Cunqi asked, "It's best to sign the supply contract face to face."
"No problem, I'll talk to him, okay?" Liu Feng felt helpless and smiled.
"Okay, Xiaofeng, I'll leave it to you to take full responsibility for this matter."
"I will handle it."
On the second day, Liu Feng went to the farm to look for a field manager.
After all, Liu Feng has been working with Chen Nianguan since Funing County, and now he is a partner. He knows exactly what ingredients are needed in the restaurant. When the spring started, he saw what was planted in the farmland of Pinger Village., He asked Tian Guanshi to plant something, and there were still things in Pinger Village that had not been planted in time. He planned ahead and ordered Tian Guanshi to plant them first when it was time for farming.
Therefore, the production in his village fully meets the needs of the restaurant.
Normally, he doesn’t need the benefits of his farm, Tian Guanshi sells to other customers according to his orders, or sends them to the market for sale, and he can also earn money. Now Tian Guanshi can also directly transport things to Chen’s RestaurantThat's it.
That is, the deed is a bit troublesome.
As soon as I signed the contract, my cousin and the others must have been exposed when they saw their name.
How to do?
Liu Feng scratched his head and thought for a while, and finally came up with a good idea, he asked Tian Guanshi to sign the contract on behalf of the farm owner, right?
He gave Guanshi Tian such instructions, and Guanshi Tian shook his head again and again, "My lord, you must come to sign the contract. This servant dare not."
"Hey, what are you afraid of? You call us the master, and if the master asks you to sign, just sign!"
But Guanshi Tian was timid, he refused to live and die, and when he was in a hurry, he knelt down in front of Liu Feng.
Liu Feng was very melancholy, so he had to give up.
Then think about it again, hey, isn't this farm owned by him? He negotiated conditions with the farm owner on behalf of the Chen family restaurant. Now that he is literate with his elder brother, he can draw up his own.
After drawing up the deed, I asked my cousin to sign it, and then took it back by myself. Does it matter what name you sign?
Ah, I'm afraid of being caught in a basket, so I can do it with another chapter!
Then ask Tian Guanshi to fill in the name of the person who handled it.
Immediately Liu Feng drew up the deed, took it home and showed it to Chen Nianguan, and after revising it twice, he returned to the farm with the agreement in duplicate, took out the seal he had engraved, and pressed it firmly.Go up, and then ask Tian Guanshi to sign one, and it will be considered as a job.
Chen Nianguan didn't doubt that there was him, looked at the two names, and wondered: "Why are the two names different?"
"Hey, this chapter is stamped with the name of the owner of the farm. This Tian An is the name of the manager of the farm. Usually the owner of the farm is very busy, and it is the manager of the farm who takes care of the farm. If there is anything for the people in our restaurant, please go to Tian An directly.Just take care of it."
Chen Nianguan nodded, and carefully looked at the name on the seal, "Ugi-san? Is this the name of the farm owner?"
"Ah!" Liu Feng's eyelids twitched, and he nodded as if nothing had happened.
"What a strange name!" Chen Nianguan looked at Liu Feng again, muttering, but didn't go into details.
Liu Feng secretly heaved a sigh of relief.
Since then, the matter of the backup supply source has come to an end.