When the moon rose before the sun set, it was time for the workers to rest. Those who lived nearby could go home, and those who lived far away could live in tents.
Three meals were provided a day. These days, dinner was always the best, and there was also a bowl of wine. It was the same as what the Zhang Family and Wang Family used to do.
Today, because Li Xun wanted to eat barbecue, the entire construction site started barbecuing. There were no vegetables, so they could only drink soup. The people here were not used to eating barbecued vegetables.
Li Xun ate different from the others. The others barbecued a small portion of mutton, mostly chicken and pork. Each person had a fish, as they did not like to eat barbecued fish.
During the preparation, Li Xun began to wander around with a few guards. He looked here and there, and occasionally stopped to talk to others.
The people working now knew who this person was. He was a member of the imperial family, Li Xun, Prince Tong 'an.
If it was just this name, the commoners would only talk about it occasionally in their free time for the sake of novelty. However, Li Xun was definitely not so easily forgotten. Who was good and who was bad, the commoners were not stupid. Of course, they knew. How the commoners of Shuzhou were doing now could be found out from the mouths of the merchants who came and went.
What they didn't expect was that this legendary member of the royal family was actually so amiable. He smiled at everyone he saw and didn't have a condescending tone when he spoke. He didn't wear the silk clothes of ordinary rich people, but light blue cloth clothes, which were said to be made of white fold.
This kind of clothes did not look rich at all. One could only tell the difference if they looked closely at the stitches, the workmanship, and the dark patterns embroidered on it.
"When you barbecue this kind of fish, remember to put oil on it. Look, yours is burnt. Also, turn it over immediately after you sprinkle the salt. Don't let the salt stay on the fish. It's not salted fish. We didn't catch enough prawns today. Otherwise, we would have barbecued them for you."
Li Xun walked to a barbecue table under the respectful gaze of the crowd and explained how to barbecue to the people sitting there.
In fact, other people knew how to barbecue, but they didn't do it that way. The barbecuers consciously dissolved the salt in the water, made a small plate, and gently brushed it on the fish. They flipped it diligently and didn't put any oil at all.
At this time, after hearing Li Xun's words, the person in charge of the roasting nodded and replied, "Your Highness, it's too wasteful to put oil on the roasted food. It's also not easy to use salt. It's better to save as much as possible."
"Don't, don't be thrifty. I'm letting you eat so that you can eat well. If you're thrifty, I wouldn't have prepared these for you. Just eat what you should eat. Don't worry, this little bit of food comes from your work. As long as you work hard, you'll be worthy of the food."
Li Xun finally understood. It turned out that he wasn't the only one who was smart. They weren't stupid either. They just couldn't bear to part with the food. He hurriedly persuaded them and gave the task of persuading them. He had the guards look everywhere.
After looking around, he returned. Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan had already prepared everything. In addition to the food for others, there were also the shrimp that they caught, and the cow that Li Xun had people look for during the day that accidentally fell to its death. He didn't know why the cow was so stupid. It threw a tantrum while plowing the field for a long time. In the end, someone secretly found someone to sell it. Didn't it fall to its death?
After picking up a piece of meat and putting it on the barbecue, Li Xun suddenly asked Zhang Xiaobao, "Xiao Bao, who do you think the imperial court will send to take over Feng Changgong's current position? I don't like him. He came here during the day again. He didn't know anything and just talked nonsense. He even brought a Taoist priest with him to look around. I don't think he has any good intentions. "
Zhang Xiaobao put two shrimp on the barbecue. He slowly flipped through it and said, "It doesn't matter who they send, as long as there is a result. If Feng Changgong didn't find a Taoist priest, he might be able to stay in an idle position for a while. Now that the Taoist priest has found him, he's finished.
Don't you want him to go to your place to spend money? You have to hurry up, or you won't have a chance. I have to teach him a lesson. In public, he doesn't have any ability. In order to promote Zhongxian to Shangxian, he actually sent people to other places to find refugees. I heard that he has a room in his house where the statue of Yama is enshrined.
Every day, he has to worship it and burn an incense stick. It's not a big deal. The problem is that he wants the surrounding places to suffer disasters so he can attract refugees to replenish the population.
In private, this is the most important thing. He has offended me and Cuckoo. He knew we wanted to divert the river, but he insisted on stopping us. Even if he's a saint, I won't let him have an easy time. Otherwise, if word of this spreads in the future, won't anyone be able to offend us? "
Li Xun could understand Zhang Xiaobao. Although Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan were usually easygoing, they would not have an easy time if someone targeted them. Even if they did not die, they would lose a layer of skin. Back then, when they were in Lu Zhou, how badly were those officials tortured by them? If they were dreaming now, it would be a nightmare.
However, he could not think of how Zhang Xiaobao would deal with Feng Changgong. Hence, he asked, "Xiao Bao, you can't just let him do it there, right? The people will believe you. "
"Of course, I can't let them do that. It won't be effective. I have to help them do it. I have to let the people know that there's a Daoist priest called Dream Chaser who's very powerful. He can reach the heavens and the earth. Let alone the rise and fall of Xin Cai County, he can even see the major events in the world.
I've decided. I'll meet him tomorrow and see what he's capable of. If he's really powerful, I'll commend him for it. I can't let a capable person overlook it. "
Zhang Xiaobao said to Li Xun. At this time, the prawns had turned red. He took the ones that were hot and skinned them bit by bit. When the first prawn was placed on the plate that Wang Juan brought over, he said to Wang Juan, "Peel the next one yourself. Don't always bully me."
"The ones I peel aren't as fragrant as the ones you peel. Xiao Bao, where's the Daoist priest we hired? Didn't you say you wanted to fight poison with poison? "Wang Juan bit off a third of the prawn and smiled at Zhang Xiaobao.
"He's here. Our master is His Royal Highness, Prince Tong 'an." Zhang Xiaobao raised his chin and pointed at Li Xun.
"How can it be me? I don't know how to do it. "Li Xun quickly shook his head and refused.
"How can it not be you? You ate the meat I made, so you have to do some work. If you don't know how to do it, you can learn. In fact, you don't need to know too much. Tomorrow, I'll put on a disguise for you. You just need to do as I say. You'll definitely be able to make Feng Changgong apologize. Otherwise, not only him, but his family will be finished."
Zhang Xiaobao said to Li Xun as he roasted a prawn for Wang Juan.
Li Xun stared at Zhang Xiaobao's movements. "Then I'll try. But don't blame me if I mess up. Slow down, let me see clearly."
Li Xun also wanted to learn Zhang Xiaobao's cooking skills. When the time came, she could either cook for herself or for her future wife. Even if she could cook for the servants, it would be good to get a few compliments.
Ever since he met Zhang Xiaobao and Wang Juan, he never thought that there was anything wrong with men cooking. Which of the real good cooks were not men?
Zhang Xiaobao really couldn't understand Li Xun's thoughts. He tried to slow down and said while roasting the prawns, "The best prawns are actually turned by hand. I don't want to burn my hands. If the prawns become blisters and become calluses, it will affect the sensitivity of my hands. I can also write and draw. Many scholars don't want to do rough work because of this.
The advantage of roasting prawns by hand is that you can pinch them during the roasting process. If you use chopsticks for a long time, your wrist will be sore. Besides, it's not as good as your hands. When Cuckoo and I eat salted prawns, the shells are still intact. In fact, the same goes for roasted prawns. If you pinch them accurately, Weiwei will lift the head and pinch the tail, and the whole shell will come off. "
"Oh, so that's the case. Then don't you know how to wear gloves?" Li Xun was really thinking about how to cook.
"You can wear gloves, but you need to practice for a long time. Otherwise, it won't feel good. If you want your hands to be soft, remember to soak more milk." Zhang Xiaobao finished roasting the prawns and blew on them a few times before peeling them. The peeled meat naturally went into Wang Juan's open mouth.
Just as Li Xun nodded, he suddenly reacted, "What do you mean by not being able to write and draw well? You want to use a flying knife, but you're afraid that you won't be able to do it properly, right?"
"Same, same. Don't always talk about such violent things. We're civilized people. Don't eat that burnt meat. Take the fins from the side. After roasting the beef once, you can eat slowly. I'll take the fins away and show you how to roast the whole fish. That thing's tail can easily be roasted off if you're not careful."
Zhang Xiaobao put his prawn into his mouth and chewed it together with the shell.
*****
Night finally came. Some of the people who worked during the day went home, while others went into the tent to sleep. They didn't chat, so as not to delay tomorrow's work.
Numerous torches were lit. Another group of people came here and began to continue their work during the day. There were people working 24 hours non-stop, hoping to finish the work as soon as possible.
Zhang Xiaobao finally persuaded Li Xun to go to sleep. He and Wang Juan lay in the tent, but they couldn't fall asleep. The two of them opened the skylight above the tent and covered the blanket tightly, only revealing a pair of eyes to look at the stars.
"It seems that there won't be rain tomorrow. The sky is clear." Wang Juan looked at the stars and said.
"That's not necessarily true. Maybe there will be a rain shower. If it were in Shanghai, who dares to say whether there will be rain or not?" Zhang Xiaobao's mind was not on the weather, but his ears were listening to the sound of mosquitoes flying around and said.
"What's the situation in Shanghai like now? I hate mosquitoes. If they want to sting, hurry up and do it. They're buzzing and annoying. "Wang Juan tidied up the blanket to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes." I haven't seen it yet.
It should still be connected to here. It's said that it was later separated because of the movement of the earth's crust. It's useless to go there now. It's impossible to develop foreign trade there. The only advantage is to build a port so that other warships won't dare to go there easily. "
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
