Chapter 828: The Supply and Sale of Meat

Changle successfully completed the trade at the Xuanyuan Tribe, because in this season, the Xuanyuan Tribe's main work was still gathering and hunting; the grain harvest had already ended, and now they were competing with the wild beasts for grass seeds in the mountains, forests, and wilderness.

However, the Xuanyuan Tribe was no longer so short of grain, so their gathering intensity was not very high. Even if they diverted a large number of people to gather things they would not eat, it was entirely doable, not to mention that those fruits could be exchanged for grain in the first place.

Almost all the Chinaberry fruits near the Xuanyuan Tribe had been gathered; one could not see many on a single tree. If people could not climb up to the branches, they would use sticks to hit them or shake them with force; in any case, they were unwilling to let even one go.

Regarding the Chinaberry Bark, Changle also followed his father's request, telling the people of the Xuanyuan Tribe to try to only take it from thicker branches when gathering, and not to touch the trunk. Once the bark on the trunk was taken, that tree basically had no possibility of living.

Changle even lent axes and saws to the people of the Xuanyuan Tribe so that their speed in taking branches could be faster; if they used Stone Axes to chop bit by bit, who knew how much time would be wasted.

The thick branches were chopped down, and then they used Dajian or Knives to peel off the bark, then brought it back to dry. However, even when it was weighed and sent to the Huaxia Boat, the bark was still relatively damp and not completely dried through.

Changle did not collect too much Chinaberry Bark from them, because this medicinal material was needed not only by Huaxia but also by the Xuanyuan Tribe. If they took everything that could be taken at once, that would be too unscrupulous. Furthermore, Count Qibo already knew the efficacy of the Chinaberry Bark, and he had already prepared some himself to try out within the Xuanyuan Tribe.

The Engineering Team had reached the time to stop work; if they were any later, it would be very difficult for them to return. After all, if they missed this Large Ship, they would have to wait another few dozen days. By then, even if the Dahe did not freeze, the weather certainly would not be very good, so they packed up the construction site and prepared to return to Huaxia with Changle.

Once three days had passed, Baifeng formally held a meeting to discuss promoting the Planned Economy. During these few days, he had not completely done nothing because of the death of the Shaman; besides caring about the Shaman's funeral, the design of various vouchers was also underway.

The proposal had been submitted for so long, and now there was finally a result. People from the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Agriculture all came to the meeting in an orderly fashion. People from other departments also basically knew some of the situation, but they did not understand the details, so they were still looking forward to today's meeting.

Baifeng presided over the meeting, then took the plans submitted by the two departments and began to speak.

"Everyone, through observing the lives of the people and some investigation results from the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Agriculture, I have discovered that our country still has some major problems.

One of the more obvious points is that everyone can eat their fill, but what they eat is not good. Our various Breeding Farms are getting bigger and bigger now, but for most people, the number of times they can eat meat throughout the year is still very few. The biggest reason is that they cannot snatch it.

Every day after slaughtering at the Breeding Farm and sending it to the store, the meat is immediately snatched up. Meat is supplied every day, but why can some people still not eat meat? Is it because they cannot afford it?

I think not, and the investigation results also show that this is not the case. Our meat prices are not set high; even for tenant farmers, eating meat once a year is not a big pressure, let alone those who have land and stored grain at home.

If everything else is fine, then it means this mechanism has a problem. If meat has to be snatched, then those who live close can snatch it, and those who are far from the store cannot.

I even have investigation results here showing that the store's staff are the first to buy meat every day, and almost every day. Although there is no rule against them buying it, do you think such a situation is reasonable?"

The person in charge of the store under the Ministry of Revenue immediately blushed and could not help but lower his head. He was not frontline staff, but the salespeople were his subordinates, and he naturally had a share in the meat-buying matter. The salespeople's wages were not high enough to eat meat every day, and besides, the taste of pork was just so-so after eating too much, and it even felt a bit unpalatable. As for mutton, especially the most delicious ribs, lamb spines, and such, that was their favorite.

In their department, every day someone would ask the salesperson to reserve a certain amount of mutton for him, and which part it was. Only after it was butchered and divided would the rest go to be sold.

Of course, they did not take it for free; they would give the grain that should be given. But the law did not prohibit this point. Although they sometimes felt it was not very good, no one managed it, so it continued like this. Who would not like to eat meat? What's more, for that whole family of theirs, even if they bought meat according to the highest standard, the family would not get much meat to divide.

The cattle at the Pasture were rarely slaughtered; it might take ten or twenty-plus days to kill one and send it over. Once the news was received, it would be snatched up immediately. The people from the Ministry of Agriculture wanted it, and the people from the Ministry of Revenue wanted it; there would almost be no beef left. Only on that day could mutton appear in the market in sufficient quantity.

Other officials also wanted meat, but they did not yet know how to collude, and the store had no convenience of their positions for them to take advantage of, so they could only let their families or servants go to snatch it. If they lived close, they could still often snatch meat.

The true Nobles did not need to snatch; meat was sent directly to them every day, so they never paid attention to these things. Instead, it was the people at the bottom who truly gained the benefits.

After they finished picking, those who already found it hard to snatch meat could only snatch the pork that the officials did not like. They could occasionally snatch mutton, but they could not see beef at all, and they could not even see cow hooves or cow tails, to the extent that they felt Huaxia would not slaughter cattle.

But in reality, the several Pastures in Huaxia were already in a virtuous cycle, and all the livestock were not in the thousands, but in the tens of thousands.

Six to eight pigs had to be slaughtered every day, and the daily stipulated meat output must be met, with an error within thirty jin being fine. But it was never more; less was not the case. If there was more, the people at the Pasture took it; if there was less, they used the offal to make up for it. Anyway, offal was also meat. Offal was generally defaulted to the butcher, but the heart, liver, and lungs had to be handed over, especially the heart; how many hearts there were indicated how many pigs were killed.

More than ten sheep had to be killed every day to ensure the meat output. After so many years of breeding, the numbers of pigs and sheep were stable and growing. The speed of slaughter was slower than the speed of breeding, so there was no fear of having no livestock to kill.

Only cattle, because they were also strong labor, could only have those that could not meet the domestication standards, old cattle, or injured cattle slaughtered. Naturally, there were very few cattle to kill. The butchers were also not very willing to kill cattle; who didn't have a plow ox at home? So they were reluctant. The Pasture also had very strict requirements for cattle; they would not kill them if they could avoid it.