"Where are we going back?" Mao Shisan immediately became nervous. For sailors who are eager to return home, returning to Hong Kong means going home, but for Mao Shisan, who regards the Haitian Ship as a paradise, "going back" is a kind of return.
An unknown future.
"It's probably time to go back to Lingao. It's been too long since I've been out," Fu Ji said as he threw the washed radish into the basket and dropped the water drops on his hands. "When you get back to Lingao, you can enjoy the blessings." He added
Start saying this.
"Yes." Mao Shisan agreed absentmindedly. The originally beautiful day was immediately cast into a shadow.
Lunch is relatively simple. A "big catty" package of "navy rations" is packed with wax paper and thrown into a large pot. Chopped vegetables are added to it, and then water is added together to cook it into a gray paste. The chef will also add a little bit to the paste.
The food he takes out from the small jar, such as dried shrimps and the like. When the supply is relatively good, he will also add meat. In short, it is a hodgepodge of staple food and non-staple food.
Although this kind of hodgepodge does not look very good, it tastes quite delicious. However, when the voyage encounters strong winds and waves, this gray paste will not be supplied, and ready-to-eat military rations will be distributed directly to the soldiers.
In order to help the soldiers swallow, hot black tea with sugar is also provided. After the tea is distributed to the soldiers, the tea leaves at the bottom of the tea bucket will not be wasted. They will be dried on the steam stove and used as a topping for the next meal of porridge or paste.
Mix it in. Tea contains a lot of carotene, crude fiber and other nutrients, so it would be a pity to just throw it away, so tea leaves are also included in the food category.
Every time they saw bricks being served, the soldiers complained. Except for some who would put it in their pockets as a teething snack when they were hungry, others would chew on it with disgusted expressions.
The two of them were thrown out of the porthole, and the sergeants pretended not to see them.
"What a waste of natural resources." The fat chef always likes to use an idiom. The fat chef has always been very low-key, but from time to time he will burst out some difficult words. According to Fu Ji, the fat chef was originally a scholar, because he is obsessed with all kinds of delicious food.
He spent a lot of money to taste it, but in the end his family was devastated and he had no other choice but to seek refuge with the chief.
After understanding the meaning of this idiom, Fu Ji and Mao Shisan also shook their heads and sighed. Although Fat Chef and Fu Ji sighed, they would not chew the brick. For people in the kitchen, it is easy to open a small stove for themselves.
At least you can cook this ration before eating it. Mao Shisan once threw a small piece of dry food in front of the kitten Oscar. After smelling it, he walked away with an expression of disgust. This is a ration that the cat will not eat.
Mao Shisan always ate it with inertia. For a person who has been in a state of chronic hunger for a long time, wasting food is really regrettable from the heart. His adoptive father said that only the emperor only eats cabbage when eating cabbage. The rest is all
Throw it away. If others do this, they will be punished by God. So he once went out to collect it, and the soldiers would throw the rations to him casually. Within a few days, a pile of dry rations was piled in the corner where he slept. Until he was talisman
Ji discovered.
"Oh my god!" Fu Ji was shocked. "If the officers see you, they will think you are stealing military supplies. They will lift your mast and throw it away quickly."
Seeing Mao Shisan throwing rations into the sea with a look of pain on his face, the fat chef smoking a cigarette started boasting again: "I remember when we docked in Shandong, two pieces of rations could be exchanged for a yellow-flowered girl. Thirteen, you lost ten
Several wives have gone to sea."
"Bragging again," Fu Ji grabbed the advantage: "Why didn't I see you get a chef wife instead?"
"You have to be disciplined. For this matter, dozens of people have already been punished, lost their medals, and transferred to the White Horse Team and the Sword Team... Fortunately, most of them are from the Army..." Fatty
The chef's expression remained unchanged. "Besides, we, who run boats all year round, don't worry about having a wife at home. Aren't you afraid of being a cuckold? Do you understand cuckolding?"
Mao Shisan huddled in a corner and said nothing, but in his mind he thought of the beggar's hut-like settlement by the Port of Lushun, the dead babies abandoned on the roadside, being fought over by wild dogs, and the adoptive father who was so rare to see, and he burst into tears for a while.
.
"Why are you crying? Just wait and enjoy the blessings when you return to Lingao." Fu Ji began to mutter again.
After lunch was given to everyone, the three people in the kitchen drank the soupy version of the rations together. This is one of the small perks of working in the kitchen.
"Everyone should work harder for dinner today. The vice-captain said that this time is not only to support Commander Huang, but also a treat for the whole ship. Everyone must eat well and eat safely. There can be no problems." Fatty.
The chef drank the paste and wiped his mouth with a sense of satisfaction. As he said this, he took out a notebook bound with thick paper from under his buttocks, opened it and read it several times, and took care of everything he had to do.
Two helpers.
After lunch, the people in the kitchen began to work on the dinner. The two young men distributed the rice in each lunch box according to the quota, and then neatly stacked it in the rice steaming cabinet, where steam would pass through from the engine room.
The fat chef took Fu Ji off the boat and took a full set of guys to cut the beef and prepare the ingredients for cooking in the evening. The weather was warm in the afternoon, and the frozen beef thawed quickly in the sun. Despite this, the two of them still spent time
Not only did he do it himself, he also called two strong sailors to help with the hard work.
Put the butter and beef bones separately. Fu Ji set up a big pot on the river beach, threw in the various kinds of divided beef fats and set up a fire to refine the oil. There was a sizzling sound in the pot, and the smell was everywhere on the river.
yes.
Mao Shisan helped light the fire and watched Fu Ji stirring the oil pan from time to time. The butter inside was bubbling constantly - he had never seen so much oil in his life.
"Why, are you greedy?" Fu Ji saw his eyes drooling, and couldn't help but tease him, "You can't eat this thing, take it back and give it to the factory for use..."
Butter has a high melting point and is basically not absorbed by the stomach if eaten directly. It is only used to enhance flavor in meals.
You can't eat good oil. Mao Shisan couldn't accept this weird argument, but he couldn't decide what he could and couldn't eat - including the reward at night. He didn't dare to have any extravagant hopes that he could finally get some.
He was satisfied with the soup base.
A cow may seem like a lot, but for the seventy or eighty pot-bellied people who seldom eat, it is just a piece of cake. The fat cook thought twice, and in order to ensure that everyone could eat meat, he decided to make a random stew. In addition to giving
Except for the good meat left by the chief and the sick, all the other meat was removed and cut into pieces, and then stewed in a pot with potatoes, radish, cabbage and onions.
While the stew was cooking, steam puffed out from the edge of the lid, and the whole kitchen was filled with the earth-shattering aroma of meat and coriander. It came out from the vents on the deck, making the off-duty soldiers come to watch the fun, and all of them drooled.
Mao Shisan, who was shaking the fan, made a roaring sound in his throat. This was like giving him a second punishment. It was even worse than when he was refining oil. During oil refining, in addition to the fragrance, there was also a smell, and the oil could not be directly used.
At the entrance, there is now a pot full of meat tumbling in the soup - you must know that freshly cooked meat is not often available in heaven.
The fat chef opened the lid, picked up a piece of beef, tasted it, and smiled with satisfaction. He cut a small piece and threw it to Oscar, who had been wandering around his feet, and the remaining piece of meat went into Mao Shisan's mouth.
At this moment, Mao Shisan felt as if he had gone to heaven and had an out-of-body experience.
"Thirteen, turn off the damper. We have a dinner today after completing our mission. I'll go get the food and drinks on time," the fat chef ordered, wiping his hands.
Before dinner was done, Huang Yuanlao, who had gone to the Tatar capital a few days ago, had returned. Mao Thirteen happened to go to the deck to dump the ashes and saw the team coming from Zhenjiang Fort. There were hundreds of Tatar cavalry and servants.
The carriages surrounding Huang Yuanlao looked really majestic.
To be an official, one must be as talented as the chief, Mao Shisan thought.
"Thirteen! Come to the island and boil water!" Fu Ji called him in a panic.
A large pot of boiling water was boiled on Duozhi Island for the "primary purification" of the newly arrived slaves. Mao Shisan also helped. When these newcomers were stripped naked and rushed into the steam bath for fumigation, he used
The long wooden fork picked up the clothes taken off by these people one by one and put them into a large pot of boiling water to cook and wash them. The quality of these clothes was so low that they were only boiled and washed to repel insects and disinfected, and then recycled as pulp raw materials.
"Here, it's time to shave your head!" The barber on the Haitian was standing at the door of the bathroom with a shiny razor. There was a bench and he had one foot on it. When someone came out, he asked him to sit down and grabbed his head.
The braids were cut off with one stroke of brushing, and then with a few turns of the knife, nothing was left on the head that originally had a little hair, only a blue scalp. Seeing this scene, Mao Shisan only felt that his scalp was
It's cool now - he has grown some hair now.
Mao Shisan was busy boiling water, delivering water, and running back and forth. His bones and muscles were so busy that he couldn't even hold firewood. He finally returned to the kitchen in heaven after finishing all the tasks.
As soon as he entered the kitchen, he lay on the floor unable to move.
"Why are you pretending? Get up and work!" The fat cook kicked him unceremoniously, "dinner will be served in a while. You have eaten my flesh, why don't you work?"
Mao Shisan got up unsteadily and helped Fu Ji prepare the wine to be distributed in the evening.
Rum is distributed every day according to a certain quota on the ship. Unlike the Europeans who distributed rum mainly to cover up the odor of drinking water, the Haitian has good water purification equipment and disinfectants, so the problem of stinky fresh water is very easy.
To solve the problem, alcohol is mainly for soldiers to have fun at sea and to keep out the cold in high latitudes. Of course, you cannot drink alcohol while on duty.
The sailors have already lined up outside the kitchen. The news of today's reward has spread a long time ago, and the soldiers have already smelled the aroma of the stew. Now they all have full appetites and are waiting to feast. (Unfinished) To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature, the novel will be better and updated faster!