Liu Bang has not been out of the imperial city for a long time.
From Qin Hui's imprisonment to his death, for more than a month, the emperor was either in Concubine Chen's bed or discussing matters with ministers.
You can often hear a group of people arguing fiercely in Chui Gong Hall, either Zhang Taiwei roaring horribly, or Han Shizhong arguing with each other, and you can even hear Yue Fei arguing with them...
The monarchs and ministers of the Song Dynasty seemed to have been given a shot of chicken blood. Everyone seemed to have endless energy. The first thing everyone did when they opened their eyes every day was counting the days with their fingers.
It's just a thank you to the Food Bureau. After all, it's not a Chinese New Year or a holiday. There are a lot of extra mouths in the palace to eat. The extra work is divided among everyone, and the female officials and eunuchs will inevitably complain.
"Eat, eat, eat, just know how to eat!"
It's nothing to cook with the emperor, this is what I do.
But what kind of delicious food do those stinking Qiuba know?
The little palace maid's eyes widened, and she kept describing to the people next to her the eating appearance of the deputy general Yue Shaobao:
"Sister, I don't know. That man was like a starving ghost reincarnated. He swallowed three bowls of bird's nests in one bite!"
The people next to him showed expressions of surprise in unison, and from time to time they made a "tsk tsk" sound to express their amazement at this behavior.
And the starving ghost they talked about was Niu Gao.
This time, all the generals in the army have gained something. For example, Yue Yun, the emperor insisted on giving him a title of champion. The young general was very happy, but when he saw Yue Fei's face fell, he didn't dare to accept it.
In the end, the emperor pointed at Yue Shaobao's nose and scolded him for a long time, asking him if he felt that his title was low. If so, he would give Yue Yun the title of Duke!
This makes sense, Yue Yun is only a few years old, and his father is still just a county prince. If he becomes a prince, he will be on the same level as Zhang Jun and Han Shizhong, and have a higher title than Yue Fei.
The maid next to her was very interested and echoed:
"Yue Shaobao is too ignorant! The last time I saw it with my own eyes, when Taiwei Zhang asked for a job for his eldest son, he was scolded by the officials for a long time. In the end, he didn't agree. Now the officials want to take the initiative to grant him a title. , he actually refused to allow the young general to accept it!"
"Who says it's not the case!" The female officer answered, "The Major General is so handsome, and he has a Marquis at such a young age..." She held her hands between her chests with a imaginative expression:
"I don't know which girl is so lucky to marry him..."
Little girls of this age are most prone to yearning, but when the emperor gave the savage who had three bowls of bird's nests in his mouth a pair of pure gold maces, everyone became angry again.
"The officials are generous, but it's a pity that the wild man ruined things."
"Yes, it's made of pure gold. It costs hundreds of thousands of dollars at least."
Perhaps sensing something, Niu Gao, who had just accompanied the emperor out of the imperial city, sneezed several times in succession, which made Wang Gui complain several times in front of the emperor, saying that he had lost his manners in front of the emperor and should clean himself up. Study hard with Huang Yanjie.
These days, everyone is used to making jokes in front of the emperor, but... this is limited to a few of them.
It is strange to say that the higher the official position, the more serious people are in front of the officials, and the higher the official position is in front of the emperor, the more they look like unilateral bullying by the officials.
Just like last time, Captain Zhang somehow mentioned that he was visiting a girl in Sizhou City. The official just glanced at him and he kowtowed several times...
Niu Gao held the pair of maces wrapped in cloth. In addition to going into the palace to discuss matters every day, he even had to hold them while eating and sleeping. He was really closer than his own son.
But the emperor claims to be pure gold, but in fact...
It’s actually pure gold! Is it possible that Niu Gao can still sell this thing?
Yue Fei stopped Wang Gui and kept admitting his mistake to the emperor, but Liu Bang didn't pay much attention, but said with some confusion:
"What kind of holiday is today?"
There were dozens of people, not counting the guards. They thought for a long time and replied very firmly:
"no."
"Since it's not..." Liu Bang became even more confused, "Why are there so many people?"
It's not like he has never visited Lin'an at night. He knows that although there are many people in Lin'an, they are not as crowded as today.
The emperor's reminder made everyone react... But besides His Majesty, who really regarded shopping as shopping, who among them would dare?
Not to mention the crowds outside Chaotianmen, but it is no exaggeration to step on the feet of three people with one step. When you look out of Chaotianmen, the whole Lin'an seems to have become a vegetable market.
There are fireworks everywhere.
As a group of people walked forward, Yang Yizhong sent someone to find out the news. At the same time, Zhao Mi and Zhong Feng, who were following, also asked people to send more people.
If something happens to this group of people, the Song Kingdom will be destroyed from top to bottom.
After a while, the person who inquired about the news came back... In fact, there was no need to inquire at all, after all, this matter had been spread throughout Lin'an City.
It's just that these noble people worry about important matters of their family and country all day long, so naturally they won't pay attention to such trivial matters.
After listening to what this person said, everyone present looked thoughtful...
Well, the main thing is to learn from the emperor.
"Qi Ming Yao Shu" says: "Soak the ointment ring with rice crumbs, water, and honey. It will be as strong and lustrous as soup cake noodles. Use your hands to scoop up the dough, which can be about eight inches long. Make the two ends meet each other, and cook it with oil. .”
This kind of fried pasta is not new. Back then, there was a hawker in Bianjing City who mixed the dough with glutinous rice flour, added a little salt, kneaded it and twisted it into the shape of a ring bracelet, and then fried it with oil... leaning against the fried ring Bing, that person just bought a house in Bianjing City with three entrances and exits.
And today's excitement comes from this thing.
It is said that there are two vendors under the Zhongan Bridge. The Li family sells sesame and green onion pancakes, and the Wang family sells fried glutinous rice balls.
On the day Qin Hui was tortured, more than 100,000 people crowded into Lin'an City, but Dali Temple was only so big, so there were only a few people who could witness this scene with their own eyes.
What about more people?
Apart from squeezing into the teahouse and listening to people's stories, I could only wander around... But when Qin Hui was being tortured, he came to Lin'an and treated him as if he had seen him before. When he went back to brag about it in the future, he already had the capital.
The two families under the Zhong'an Bridge were originally selling their food well. When the tragic news of Qin Hui being chopped up came out, the Li family who sold sesame seed cakes still felt uneasy and said to the Wang family:
"Let me deal with them!"
With that said, he unscrewed two pieces of dough and kneaded them into two little figures. One was Qin Hui with a raised eyebrow, and the other was Wang with a crooked mouth. He then used a kitchen knife and cut the two figures into noodles...
This attracted many people around who had not witnessed the big scene to applaud, and made his biscuit business become very prosperous.
The Wang family selling fried dumplings nearby saw them and said quickly:
"This is nothing to you, look at me!"
After saying that, he pinched out two little people, one male and one female, put their backs together, and then threw them into the oil pan together.
Cook and fry it in various ways, making it roll around in the pot, tossing and turning, until the skin is charred and the bones are crispy... The Wang family kept shouting:
"Come and see! Qin Hui is out of the frying pan!"
The passers-by all around clapped their hands and cheered. After the people on the other side fished it out, they tore off a bit of this one, broke off a piece of that one, and swallowed it, feeling relieved.
Everyone asked the Wang family to cook more and fry more... The two families formed a team, with the Li family responsible for cooking and the Wang family responsible for frying.
In one day, this fried little man became the most popular food in Lin'an City, attracting many restaurants to imitate it and named it:
Fried cypress.
If a restaurant can't provide this thing now, then his business will naturally lag behind others; when everyone has it, he will spend more time on the taste.
Some add sugar, some add salt, and some get soy milk for free...
What's so lively today is a fried cypress eating competition held in Lin'an City, led by several large restaurants... If not, people can bring business to Lin'an! With so many people, their daily expenses for food, clothing, housing and transportation are a huge expense. If they don't take advantage of this opportunity to make more money, even if Zhao Ding is cut into pieces next time, I'm afraid there won't be such a lively time.
In conjunction with this competition, vendors from other industries naturally benefited from the competition and came to join in the fun.
In this way, we have what we have today.
Everyone saw the emperor thinking for a long time, but they didn't know what he meant.
He only thinks that officials are people who have read the books of sages after all. Now that the people hate the prime minister so much, he may be a little unhappy in his heart.
After all, this is the person he personally singled out.
Unexpectedly, the emperor thought for a while and asked:
"Could it be that Ling Chi was a little more merciful that day? We should actually fry Qin Hui?"
No one answered the emperor's question, because soon his eyes lit up:
"Let's go! Let's try the fried cypress too!"
That day in Dali Temple, many people had already met the emperor.
So when he went out today, he followed Hu Quan's example and got a lot of beard on himself.
With just one look, this group of people knew that they all had identities, and with the number of forbidden troops hidden secretly, wherever they went, others avoided them.
I don’t know how many times I was scolded by these vendors behind my back.
But the good thing is that they don't have to queue.
When they saw these people spending money generously again, the dealers changed their expressions again, and all of them were happy.
There were a lot of them, and they ate from Chaotianmen to Yuhangmen for almost an entire hour... This food was very greasy, so they basically bought a few portions, and everyone shared it, and the handkerchief Liu Bang used to wipe his mouth was on , now all stained with oil.
Even so, one family after another ate it, and even Niu Gao felt tired of it, let alone others.
Finally, we found a shop selling mung bean soup. Everyone seemed to have seen a savior and sat down quickly.
After the mung bean soup was eaten, everyone felt relieved... They couldn't help but think that Prime Minister Qin was probably the first person in ancient and modern times to use this method to make his name famous throughout the ages.
Liu Bang looked at the people at the same table and said with a smile:
"Look, the way the people express their likes and dislikes is so simple and direct. This is to change the way and express it with this fried cypress... If Qin Hui is really handed over to them, let them do whatever they want. , our Prime Minister Qin will probably be a lot worse."
I don’t know why the emperor suddenly lamented this, and everyone agreed.
"What I mean is..." He changed his words, "Do you know how long it took Liu Bang to pacify the Three Qin Dynasty when he came out of seclusion?"
Everyone knows the words "Huan Ding San Qin" and "Secretly saving Chencang". Now that the emperor asked, they started talking about it one after another.
Some say four months, some say six months, and some say eight months.
It's not a memory error, it's just that when it comes to pinging the Three Qin Dynasties, what is considered pinging is when Zhang Han dies or enters Xianyang.
Everyone had different opinions. Liu Bang listened for a while and then motioned for them to quiet down.
"Actually, it only took..." He raised a finger, "One day."
Everyone didn't know what the emperor was selling. Only Yue Fei was thinking seriously... Yue Yun told him last time that Zhao Guan's family knew a lot about war.
To be honest, Yue Fei himself doesn’t know whether it’s too much or not.
"From the day he decided to enter the customs, Sanqin was already decided."
"Whether it's Zhang Han, Sima Xin, or Dong Yi, these three are all ministers of the Qin State, and the people of the Three Qin Dynasties hate them with all their heart."
"What I mean when I say this is that the people are very important. Even if the people of the Three Qin Land do not resist with Liu Ji, as long as they do not help and watch all this happen, no matter how strong Zhang Han resists and how determined he is, it will be useless."
Someone has told him this truth before, and he will tell it again today to the officials of the Song Dynasty.
It's not complicated, it can even be said to be very simple, and basically any general with a little level of skill can realize it.
"Now, I have transformed the Song army into three Han armies, because whether it is the Han family army or the Yue family army, it would be fine if you chose these names on your own, and I will deal with you... But unfortunately, And it was the people who called it out themselves."
The three privy envoys were sitting on pins and needles, with thorns on their backs and throats. Unexpectedly, even though the military power was handed over to them, the emperor still couldn't forget this matter.
Just the next moment, that inexplicable feeling disappeared completely.
The emperor took out the jade charm from his pocket and threw it on the table. Then he seemed to remember something and picked one back.
They are extremely familiar with this thing. If it's not a military talisman, what is it?
"Zhang Jun, Han Laowu, keep your own things. If this thing is lost, you know what will happen."
The two people whose names were called quickly put it away after hearing this... Officials, this is, this is...
"To be honest, I've been thinking about it for a long time. I get angry just looking at you guys. Why should I worry about this?"
"It's up to you what to do when the things are returned to you!"
The two of them were determined, as long as they could still serve as generals, and as long as they could still lead their own soldiers...and lead the officials' soldiers, everything would be fine.
Only Yue Fei, after waiting for a long time, did not see any reaction from the emperor. Compared to the other two, he was an honest man after all, so he felt a little restless.
It was Yue Yun who said: "Your Majesty! Please don't embarrass yourself..."
Before he finished speaking, Yue Fei stared at him: "You don't have anything to say..."
Before he finished speaking, Liu Bang stared at him: "It's about to start again, isn't it?"
Everyone has seen this unique chain of bullying many times, and seeing it again now makes you laugh.
After finishing the last mouthful of mung bean soup, Liu Bang took the soldier talisman in his hand and played with it between his fingers.
Seeing that Yue Fei's eyes were staring at this thing without blinking, he felt a little funny and said:
"I ask you a question. When you answer it, this thing will naturally be yours."
Yue Fei nodded and said, "If you ask me, I will tell you everything I know."
"Well..." Liu Bang nodded, "How many troops do you think I can lead?"
No one expected that the emperor would ask this.
Zhao Ding and Hu Quan, who were standing next to them, seemed to have thought of something at the same time, and stopped them together:
"In the official family, a gentleman will not stand under a dangerous wall, and a son of rich wealth will not sit down in the hall. The generals will do the marching and fighting. You..."
Liu Bang looked at Hu Quan and motioned for him not to move.
Then, he pulled out another beard from his face, twisted it between his fingers, blew it lightly, and flew far away.
"I'm asking about Yue Fei, not you. If you dare to talk too much, I'll give you ten thousand...one hundred thousand killing sticks for each person."
Yue Pengju's answer was similar to these two, but he remembered what the emperor had just said, so he replied:
"Your Majesty was the military marshal worshiped by Emperor Xiaociyuan. When it comes to commanding the army, Your Majesty should command all the soldiers in the world. And all the soldiers in the world are your soldiers. When it comes to commanding the army, The responsibility of the army has come, and only you can command the armies of this world."
Liu Bang was silent for a while and then handed the things to him.
"Actually, I know it well. Some people said before that it would be enough for me to bring 100,000 people, but those are 100,000 people who are not afraid of death."
When everyone heard what the emperor said, they couldn't help but curse a few words in their hearts.
One hundred thousand soldiers and horses... The officials really treat war as a child's play.
However, this is not the most surprising thing.
"If it were now, if the warriors of the Song Dynasty were like you, the world's soldiers and horses you mentioned, I think it might be really possible."
Before everyone could chew the emperor's words carefully, a bang was heard, which startled everyone.
Liu Bang almost ran away. If it weren't for the quick recovery of the expressions of the people before him, he really thought there was an accident.
Then there was a flash in the sky, and he was even more confused:
"This, what is this?"
Whenever the emperor loses common sense, everyone can remember that he has just recovered from his injury. At this time, Lu Zai whispered:
"The officials are just playing fireworks."
Hearing that it was a trick, Liu Bang felt a little calmer, and now he led everyone outside.
I saw several shelves two or three rows high in the open space not far away. On the top of the shelves were flowers and lanterns, connected with several copper wires, all the way to the ground.
At the other end, there were several clay seats, like stoves. He saw with his own eyes that someone poured something into them and then lit a fire...
The paper tube placed on the stove flew into the sky with another 'bang', and then exploded and scattered into many stars.
Damn it, I have been the emperor twice, and this is the first time I have seen such a thing!
He was not only horrified, but also angry that he had worried so much about Song Guo that he had never even seen such a treasure.
After the people under the shelves lit the fire, soon, the shelves became like several fire trees, with silver flowers blooming again, and they started to flicker from the top.
When all the stoves were lit, the sky above Lin'an City turned from night to day.
The kings and ministers of the Song Dynasty looked up, and in everyone's eyes...
All have light.
(End of chapter)
