Sichuan-style hot pot

  People who engage in geological exploration often have to stay with fellow villagers, so Su Hao is no stranger to rural life. In his impression, the countryside in southern China used to burn straw as fuel, but later, with economic development, more and more people could afford coal, and even liquefied gas, and the situation of burning straw gradually decreased.

  In this house now, he clearly saw that Yang Gennian used straw to cook fire, why did Lu Xiuer still go to pick up firewood?

  Yang Genjian saw her son's confused face and had to explain reluctantly: "Of course, cooking is burning grass, but the grass is not enough to burn. The straw collected from the fields can only be burned for half a year. How can it be enough without picking firewood? Every household in this village is like this. Last year, Xiuer was bitten by a snake when she went to pick firewood, don't you remember?"

  "Ah, it seems to be the case." Su Huan nodded. In the past, Su Huan, a scholar, lived in his own book all day long. When his sister and fiancée Lu Xiuer was bitten by a snake, he knew about it but didn't react much. It wasn't until several neighbors helped out and sent Lu Xiuer to the nearby Shitandun town to see a doctor that she was saved.

  "Why don't you go and warm up the book?" Yang Genjian saw her son looking around, asking this and that, and was quite surprised. In the past, her son had never been concerned about household matters, unless he was looking for something to eat, otherwise he would not set foot in the kitchen. Why was he suddenly interested in these things today?

  Su Hao smiled at his mother and said, "Mom, let me help you with cooking."

  "Can you cook?" Yang Gen's eyes widened, in her memory, her son seemed to have never cooked before, no matter how busy she and Lu Xiu'er were, Su Hang would never take the initiative to say a word of help.

  Su Hao walked to the stove, sat on a small stool by the fire, picked up a handful of dry straw, broke it apart with his hands, let the straw spread out a bit, and then stuffed it into the furnace.

  Yang Genjian stood aside and asked in surprise: "Haoye, when did you learn how to cook?"

  "Do you need to learn how to cook too?" Su Hao retorted.

  Actually, burning the village's earth stove also requires some skills. First, straw cannot be grasped into a bundle and stuffed into the furnace to burn, because it is not easy to burn through. Secondly, when stuffing straw into the furnace, you need to put in a little first, wait for the front to finish burning before putting in the back. If you don't understand these skills, directly stuffing the straw very stiffly into the furnace will disperse the fire inside the furnace, and it is even possible to extinguish the fire.

  Su Hao's skills were something he had practiced countless times in his past life as a farmhand, how could he possibly explain it clearly to Yang Genie?

  "My son is really clever, he can do anything after just one look. Even when Xiuer first helped me with cooking, she wasn't as good at it as you are." Yang Genjie said with a pleased expression, watching her son's skilled movements.

  "Mom, I understand now. The problem is with our stove at home. This is the reason why we don't have enough straw to burn." Su Hang sat down to light the fire, but he didn't just want to help Yang Genyi do some chores. Earlier when he was standing there, he had already examined the stove at home and found that it was designed very unreasonably. After trying to burn a few handfuls of straw, he became even more convinced of his judgment, knowing that this was the main reason why they didn't have enough straw to burn at home.

  Yang Genjian, however, was not convinced. She said, "Hao'er, what are you talking about? This stove was built by a mud doctor from Shitandan Town when your grandfather was still alive. Among all the stoves in the village, except for the one at the Li family's house, ours is the best."

  The word "doctor" is used locally to refer to a carpenter. However, if other craftsmen have exceptional skills, people will also call them "doctors", with a prefix indicating their profession. Yang Gendi's "mud doctor" refers to a well-known bricklayer in the town. Building a stove is also a skill that requires some expertise, and a professional bricklayer can build a much better one than an amateur.

  But in Su Hang's eyes, this stove, which was rated as the second best in the village by Yang Genjian, was full of loopholes.

  First, the furnace wall of this stove is too thin and cannot keep warm. Only a small part of the heat generated by the combustion of fuel in the furnace is absorbed by the pot on it, and most of it is radiated out through the furnace wall, resulting in extremely wasteful energy consumption.

  Secondly, the furnace design is too small, and the position of the flue also has problems, resulting in poor air circulation inside the furnace. This leads to incomplete combustion of the fuel in the furnace, causing the stove to emit black smoke, which are actually unburned carbon particles.

  Furthermore, if the stove opening is too large, it will also lead to heat loss; the height of the chimney on the roof is definitely not enough, and it cannot achieve the effect of air intake, which is also one of the reasons why the air in the furnace is not circulating.

  Su Hao was able to see these problems, and it wasn't without reason. In his previous life, he had come into contact with a design called "Sheng Chai Zao", and the above points were all key points of that design.

  Talking about the firewood-saving stove, this is actually a major achievement of the Ministry of Agriculture. In the 1980s, the Ministry of Agriculture launched a project to promote the firewood-saving stove, and over a period of 10 years, it subsidized 100 counties every year to popularize the firewood-saving stove in rural areas, covering 1,000 counties across the country during this period.

  For thousands of years, the stoves used in rural China have had defects like those of Su Huang's stove, resulting in extremely low thermal efficiency, averaging less than 10%. This is also a major reason why fuel is not enough for burning in many parts of rural China. The fuel-efficient stove promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture was developed jointly by a series of experts, with simple structure and almost no extra investment needed, but it can increase the thermal efficiency of stoves to over 25%.

  Farmers use the fuel-efficient stove, which can save more than 60% of straw, and basically no longer need to cut firewood. This is very beneficial for soil and water conservation in rural areas.

  Not only that, but also due to the improvement in thermal efficiency, greenhouse gas emissions have been greatly reduced. In later generations, the United Nations has specially studied China's experience in promoting fuel-efficient stoves, regarding it as a very great undertaking.

  Su Hao was a person who liked to learn new things in his previous life. When he was in the countryside, he had specially learned from the technicians who promoted the provincial stove technology and now that he looked at his own stove, he naturally understood where the problem lay.

  As for this knowledge, Su Hao naturally couldn't explain it to Yang Genie. From his understanding of Yang Genie, he knew that if he proposed digging a new well for the family, Yang Genie would definitely strongly oppose it. This was partly due to her distrust of his skills and partly because she didn't want him to work hard.

  Having understood all this, Su Hao didn't say anything else. He lit the fire and chatted with Yang Genie about some trivial matters. The mother and son had a good laugh together, and they were quite happy.

  Lu Xiuer picked up firewood and came back, Yang Genie had already cooked the meal, using three large sea bowls to serve it, placed on the eight immortal tables in the main room, one bowl for each of the three family members. As for the dishes served with the meal, there was a small dish of bean sprouts and two pieces of moldy tofu.

  "Hurry up and eat, didn't you say you were hungry?" Yang Genjian said to Su Hang.

  "What's wrong with your porridge?" Su Hao looked at his own bowl, then at Yang Gen and Lu Xiu'er's bowls, feeling a bit dry in his eyes.

  In the evening, they had a meal of boiled vegetables and porridge. Su Huan's bowl was filled with thick rice grains, while Yang Genyi and Lu Xiuer's bowls were mostly filled with vegetable leaves, with only a few grains of rice visible here and there. In fact, this was how meals were always eaten at home, and to the scholar Su Huan, it seemed like a matter of course, not worth mentioning. But now, Su Huan couldn't accept this kind of care for himself - he, a grown man, eating thick rice, while his mother and sister ate thin porridge, was this still human?

  "Haoer, you should study hard and use your brain. Eat a bit more, it's okay if Xiu'er and I eat less." Yang Genjie explained.

  "You just eat, which day is not like this?" Lu Xiuer also said with a sour tone.

  Su Hao picked up his bowl, not allowing any discussion, and scooped one-third of the rice from his own bowl into Yang Genyi's bowl, then another third into Lu Xiuer's bowl. Yang Genyi and Lu Xiuer were both stunned by his actions, and after a long while, Yang Genyi finally said: "Hao'er, you..."

  "Mom, you and Xiuer are working in the fields, expending a lot of energy, so you should eat more. From now on, our whole family will eat together, if we're full, we'll be full together, if we're hungry, we'll be hungry together," Su Hang said.

  "Silly child." Yang Genjian didn't know whether to be happy or sad, she had the heart to return the rice grains that Su Huan had just given her, but the firm gaze in Su Huan's eyes made her hesitate.

  "Mom, I was ignorant in the past and made you and Xiu Er suffer. Don't worry, from now on, I will change my ways completely. I swear that within a month, I will make sure you can eat well and live comfortably, and absolutely won't let you go hungry for even one day!" Su Hang solemnly promised his mother.