Except for Ta Lei, everyone who attended the banquet at the City Lord's Mansion that day came.
The reason why Tare didn't come was because he didn't have much demand for Ming goods. The Timurid Empire could have continuously obtained Ming goods from the Silk Road, and they even resold them. Secondly, he was unwilling to meet Han Du again. As a personal guard, Tare knew better than anyone else how much the Great Khan valued Handu. What's more, even if the Great Khan doesn't care about Han Du, what about the goddess? Tare heard with his own ears that the Great Khan was obsessed with the goddess more than once.
As the sun gradually rose, there were more and more people in the banquet hall. When the city lord finally arrived at the banquet hall, the maid guided him to sit on a chair.
A melodious sound of the piano sounded, and the sound was clear and ethereal, which made people feel restless. Only art and music have no national boundaries in the world, and both of them can transcend language expression. Even two people who don't understand each other can resonate with each other because of a piece of music.
Beauty is beauty, regardless of language or national boundaries.
With the melodious sound of the piano, the gauze used as partitions on the aisles on both sides of the banquet hall was slowly opened. Several women wearing silk clothes from the Ming Dynasty, looking like ladies, were sitting behind a long table. On the long table are a large bowl with a built-in long spoon, a white porcelain tea cup with a black holder, a small green-glazed jar, and an amphora. There is a woman kneeling in front of the table, holding a stick in her left hand to stir the charcoal fire, and holding a pot in the charcoal fire with her right hand. There are three people behind the table: a woman on the right, holding a tea cup in her hand; a woman in the middle, holding a pot in both hands, filling the cup in the woman's hand; the woman on the left is holding a bowl in one hand and red chopsticks in the other to stir.
There are six tea-making tables like this on both sides of the banquet hall. The smooth and flowing movements of brewing and brewing tea are a pleasure to watch.
As the water vapor rose, the refreshing aroma of tea spread and enveloped the entire banquet hall.
Everyone sitting in the banquet hall was already intoxicated by the rich aroma of tea, even before they started drinking tea.
Zhu Biao stood behind the scenes and saw the maids making tea. He smiled and asked Han Du: "Where did you get these people?"
You must know that this is Hurumos. It was almost impossible to find a person with an oriental face here before Han Du and others came here. Where did Han Du find these maids who were obviously women from the Ming Dynasty?
What's more, are these maids who really understand tea at first glance and are obviously rigorously trained?
Han Du smiled and replied: "Have you forgotten, Your Highness? Fu Yong and those businessmen came with us. I didn't expect that they would enjoy themselves so much. Not only were they equipped with complete living facilities on the ship, they even prepared elegant guest rooms. , and they have maids to serve them. They even raise pigs, grow vegetables, herbs, make wine, and plant bonsai and some flowers on the ship."
"I just asked them to borrow some maids to help. Do they dare not to borrow them?"
Zhu Biao didn't expect that Fu Yong and those maritime merchants were so good at playing, but thinking about the hard work of sailing, he just shook his head and didn't say anything about it.
After the maid made the tea, the servants brought the tea to everyone present on the plate, cup by cup.
The city lord and others are no strangers to tea. After all, given their status, they are naturally able to drink tea, but they have never seen such a way of drinking tea.
In the past, they had two ways of drinking tea, one was to boil it, and the other was to add random things into it and mix it and cook it together. For example, milk or something like that.
This is the first time they know how to drink tea like this. Such a pleasing way makes people feel very high-end at first glance.
At this time, Han Du also walked out from behind the scenes with a cup of tea and stood in the middle of a high platform. He raised his cup and gestured to everyone, and said with a smile: "You may be familiar with tea. Everyone here may have drank tea more than once, and maybe you have tea leaves in your home now. But what I want to tell you today is , tea also has to be divided into three, six or nine grades."
Han Du said something, and Hade told him something.
When the people below heard that tea had to be graded, there was a sudden uproar.
Han Du ignored them and continued: "Ordinary tea leaves come from the homes of ordinary people. Common people plant three or five cages of tea trees in front and behind their houses, pick and make tea every year, and keep some for themselves to entertain guests. Most of them are sold to traders who travel from village to village. Such tea leaves are collected by traders and then travel tens of thousands of miles to reach this place, where they become precious items in your hands."
As soon as Han Du finished speaking, everyone in the banquet hall opened their mouths. The noisy voice suddenly drowned out Han Du's words, and Han Du closed his mouth just right, looking at the people talking in front of him with a smile on his face.
Hard on the side could not tell Han Du the meaning of everyone's words. There were too many people talking, and the content of what everyone said was different, and Hard could not tell Han Du the meaning of the words.
However, the words coming out of anyone's mouth were not so kind.
Hader took a step closer to Han Du with a somewhat unpleasant look on his face, and asked in confusion: "Why did the Marquis tell them this?"
Looking sideways at the lively crowd, Harder continued: "Now they all think that it was an insult to the Ming Dynasty to sell the tea that the common people drank to nobles like them. I'm afraid they won't do it again from now on. Someone is buying tea."
Hader shook his head and talked about it, his face full of regret. Such a good tea business may be destroyed by Han Du from now on. At the same time, his heart was bleeding with heartache. You must know that there was a lot of tea in the goods he brought back to Horumos. If the tea cannot be sold, he will lose a lot of money.
Han Du turned to look at Harder and said with a meaningful smile: "You said you don't drink tea, but why didn't you see someone put down the teacup in his hand?"
Harder glanced back, and sure enough, no matter how loud the noise in the banquet hall was, not a single person put down the tea cup in their hands, not a single one!
"How is this going?"
Yes, he was obviously still criticizing the tea leaves, but he was holding the teacup firmly in his hand, not even shaking at all, for fear of spilling a little tea.
"What's so difficult to understand? Of course they are not willing to lower their status to drink ordinary tea, but what they have in their hands is not ordinary tea." Han Du explained with a smile.
"What kind of tea is that?" Harder asked hurriedly.
Han Du smiled and did not answer him. He just said, "You will know later."
Sure enough, the noisy crowd soon fell silent, and the banquet hall became silent again.
Finally, the city lord stood up and broke the silence and asked: "Since there are different grades of tea, is there any tea that is better than the tea that common people drink?"
Hard heard this and quickly conveyed the city lord's intention to Han Du.
Han Du smiled and nodded.
When everyone saw Han Du's actions, they subconsciously lowered their heads and looked at the teacup in their hands. The tea in front of you is bright yellow in color, and the tea buds are all green, as if they were just picked from the branches, floating in the tea. The tea buds gather like mountain peaks and spread out like pine trees, giving people a panoramic view of a natural picture.
Coupled with the refreshing fragrance of tea, the smell makes your heart moisturized and your whole body translucent, giving you a sense of emptiness and distant worries.
This kind of tea is naturally much better than what they have drunk before. To be honest, if they had not come here today, they would not have known that there would be such tea in the world.
Therefore, everyone thought that what Han Du wanted to introduce was the tea in their hands.
Unexpectedly, Han Du just looked at them with a faint smile, then changed his tone and said: "Don't look! The tea in your hands is tribute tea, which is tea specially supplied to the royal family of the Ming Empire. Even in the Ming Dynasty Among the imperial royal family, only a few people can drink such tea."
As soon as they heard that the tea was only available to the royal family of the Ming Empire, everyone in the banquet hall became excited. They have even begun to imagine that they can also drink the same tea as the Ming Dynasty royal family.
The city lord even asked excitedly: "Do you want to sell this tribute tea? If your merchant is willing to sell it, the price can be easily negotiated."
Han Du shook his head with a smile on his face.
"Not selling?" The city lord thought that this Ming businessman didn't want to sell, but wanted to bargain with him, but he didn't care. The quality of this kind of tea was indeed far superior to what he had tasted before.
"In the past, the price of tea was ten pounds of gold per pound. I am willing to raise the price to one hundred pounds of gold."
The city lord raised the price tenfold without any hesitation. He believed that such tea was worth the price.
Hard's eyes were shining as he relayed his complaint. One pound of tea costs one hundred pounds of gold. Such a price is simply astronomical. He doesn't think Han Du would disagree.
Unexpectedly, Han Du just smiled and shook his head and said, "You don't know what tribute tea is. If you did, you would understand that such tea cannot be bought with gold."
If you can’t buy gold, what can you use to buy it? After hearing Han Du's words, people in the banquet hall couldn't help but whisper to each other.
Han Du sighed and explained to everyone: "In addition to the tea and tribute tea for common people, there is also a kind of tea for the nobles of the Ming Dynasty."
After hearing Han Du's words, everyone came back to their senses. 'yes! Since there is tea and tribute tea for common people, there should naturally be tea for nobles to drink. '
"The tea that the nobles drink is grown on high mountains. There are lush vegetation and mist all year round. Wisps of mist wrap around the tender green tea leaves, over and over again. Only with perseverance can they grow the best quality. Tea buds. Such tea buds are picked by a girl of fifteen or sixteen years old with bare hands, and after careful cultivation, they can become truly high-quality tea. Isn’t such a high-quality tea in Hulumos? Can you sell it for a hundred pounds of gold?"
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