The salted fish couple is fleeing famine

Chapter 102 The style of the state banquet

This year's New Year's Eve, the snow fell heavily, Xiao Wu and Xiao Liu finally learned a short sentence: auspicious snow heralds a good year!
I also learned a lot of auspicious words for New Year's greetings. Although they still don't understand what the New Year's money can be used for, but the brothers are rare, it is a good thing, and they want it too!

At the end of the year, Cuihua was exhausted this month, and this year's New Year's Eve dinner was handed over to Aunt Qiu, who also wanted to eat a ready-made feast.

Aunt Qiu has often competed with Cuihua in culinary skills this year, and she has long wanted to show her skills at the banquet. Although Sichuan cuisine is indeed delicious, court cuisine is not bad.

She has several special palace dishes and very delicious medicinal meals, which she intends to offer on New Year's Eve.

Crab Stuffed Oranges, Mandarin Duck Fried Belly, Crab Soup, Three Crisp Soup, and Five Treasures, all delicate and delicious. Compared with previous years, this high-end banquet opened the eyes of everyone in the Yuan Mansion.

After the lively New Year’s Eve dinner, Hei Wa took a group of boys to the front yard to play with firecrackers. The sound of the thunderbolt blasted the green flowers as if they had passed away. In modern times, the firecrackers on the New Year’s Eve can really wish to resound throughout the night ah.

In the palace, compared to last year, when the Empress Dowager Shangsheng gave birth and beat her from time to time, this year it was extraordinarily quiet, Concubine Xu Wan'er couldn't hide her haggard look.

She hadn't seen Xia Hongdi for a whole year, and the entire harem was another year of infertility. Except for the few concubines who came in before enthroning, the emperor did not accept any new concubines in the past two years.

Not only did the harem have opinions, but the previous court also had criticisms. It was supposed to be an annual selection of concubines, but was shirked by the new emperor in various ways.

Thinking of this, Xu Wan'er's face was full of bitterness. There were as many as three beautiful concubine sisters in the family for this draft, and one was Xu Mengniang, one of the "Twin Shus of Kyoto". She is a beautiful woman who is ashamed of herself.

Sighing in my heart, what pride does the Xu family have now?They have all fallen to relying on Israel to serve the king!What an irony!
On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of this year, the imperial palace will entertain all officials and family members and watch a fireworks show.

Heiwa and Cuihua wanted to attend in formal attire. Cuihua, who hadn't put on makeup for a long time, put on a banquet makeup in front of the bronze mirror after Aunt Xia gave her a complicated hairstyle.

Seeing the beauties in red palace costumes approaching Tingting, Uncle Zhongqin's breath was stagnant. If Heiwa had enough knowledge in literature, he would say a poem: Lazy to draw eyebrows, and late to make up and wash.Looking at the front and rear mirrors of the flower, the flower surface complements each other.

Right now, he can only say: Fuck me!My mother-in-law is so beautiful!
To elaborate, the eyes are really big, the eyelashes are so long, the bridge of the nose is straight, and the lips are as red as cherries, um, ripe cherries.

"Daughter-in-law, this dress really suits you, and it doesn't even suppress your beautiful appearance!"

"Hehe, I've been searching my stomach for a long time, tsk tsk, no matter how hard I hold back, I can't say anything polite!"

This is too knowledgeable, and it's not a good thing. Sometimes, I like to expose people's background at every turn.

The angry man leaned close to his daughter-in-law's ear and whispered, "I really don't know how to speak, I only know how to do it! Just wait for me when you come back tonight!"

Cuihua smiled provocatively, ha ha!

Walking out of the door, they met the twins who came to make trouble. Xiao Wu and Xiao Liu, who had never seen their mother dressed like this, were stunned.

Xiao Liu came to his senses first: "Mother, it's the most beautiful, mother beauty!"

Xiao Wu nodded fiercely: "Mother's skirt is beautiful, the most beautiful!"

Cuihua laughed loudly, the little bastards really had vision, but when they learned that they couldn't get out of the way, they immediately refused.

"Mother, let's go together!" "Mother, let's be good!" "Daddy, go by yourself!" "Daddy"

Q: How to clean up the mess?Cuihua: I have an older son and a second son!Make treasures with treasures.

After being pestered by these two boys, when they arrived at the gate of the palace, their carriage was already relatively late, and they still had to wait in line to enter the palace.

The palace banquet was held in a large hall of the imperial palace. Men gathered in the largest Youwen Hall, which was the largest place for the Great Xia state banquet. The emperor’s spring and autumn banquets and palace examinations were held here. It was spacious and bright enough to accommodate men and women. Hall of thousands of people.

On the right side of the artificial lake, the women's family members are also a group of buildings with stacked palace gates. Deep in the courtyard, there is a more exquisite palace that can accommodate more than 200 people, named: Qiuhua Palace.

The husband and wife separated, Cuihua took Madam Chun, and turned right with the maid who came to guide the way. With Madam Chun, an old man who was familiar with the palace, Cuihua was not worried. It was the first time for her to eat a state banquet. I'm a little excited.

Empress Gao sat upright in the main hall, wearing a court gown with crimson gold and silver silk phoenix embroidered with a phoenix pattern.He also blinked at Cuihua who got up, and the two looked at each other and smiled.

Seeing Cuihua go to the hall with all the imperial wives, Empress Gao calmed down, she would continue to be a tool person!

Seventy to eighty wives were invited to the banquet today, Cuihua looked very young in this group of people, her gorgeous face dazzled everyone's eyes.

Mrs. Gao brought her eldest daughter-in-law, Mrs. Meng, among them. Mrs. Meng moved to Cuihua. Her husband was the heir of the Duke of Wei, and Mrs. Gao basically took her with her when the family members of the Duke's mansion were entertaining.

Laugh before saying anything, this wife of the eldest son is an exquisite person, she whispered to Cuihua: "I heard that the fireworks tonight are very interesting, we will feast our eyes later!"

Cuihua blinked, and returned in a low voice: "Actually, I want to see what dinner tonight! Hehe!"

Meng's eyes widened: "Your family has a lot of delicacies, and you can tell that you are delicious!"

The two muttered to each other, and occasionally laughed lightly, which made the old ladies frown.

Heiwa's side was full of voices, the emperor hadn't come yet, the ministers greeted each other and greeted each other, this young man Zhongqin was known to most people, and this was the first time they had seen him in person.

Well, the first impression, apart from being young, is a very ordinary young man, only looking at his energetic and energetic appearance.

Seeing Yan Zhong who was also unfamiliar, Hei Wa had no choice but to chat with him.

Fortunately, Xia Hongdi came without waiting too long, and everyone lined up according to rank to salute the emperor.

At Shenshi, the ministers were seated on both sides of the hall one after another. Before the banquet was opened, singing and dancing went first. Dozens of court ladies entered the center of the hall lightly, and there were musicians playing music on both sides of the corner.

I saw the palace ladies: misty skirts wrapped tightly in silk and satin clothes, dancing, showing exquisite and alluring figures.There is a little vermilion on the forehead, but it seems charming and charming, sometimes light and sometimes free and easy, what a feast of ancient dance.

Different from Heiwa's pure admiration, many military commanders all looked red and their veins swelled, and clapped their hands after the dance.

After a few high-quality dances, the banquet began to be served.

First served four dried fruits: Yuanyan, Xianglian, Torreya nuts, and pine nuts.

Then four candied fruits were served: dried pears, gum dates, black plums, and raisins.

The seven appetizers are: Phoenix Wing, Crab Shrimp, Winter Bamboo Shoot Seed, Spiced Mandarin Fish, Grilled Chicken Breast, Hot and Sour Cucumber, and Tangerine Peel Beef.

One vegetable soup: shredded chicken and bird's nest.

Five main dishes: stewed deer tendons, prawns with pipa, braised quail in sauce, beef tenderloin in oyster sauce, golden toad emerald shield fish.

Looking at the dazzling array of state banquets, Heiwa and Cuihua are on the same frequency. They really have seen the world.

Xia Hongdi said a short toast, had a drink, and the dinner was over.

After everyone in the middle of the hall made a toast to the emperor, they began to sing and dance one after another. Hei Wa also drank a few glasses and became slightly tipsy.

I didn't have the mind to watch the singing and dancing, and started to taste these state banquet dishes. Well, the quality of this bird's nest was first-class, much better than his wife's hoarding.

The deer tendons are also stewed very soft, and there is no fishy smell. It is said that this stuff is very nourishing, hehe.
While eating, he communicated with Yan Zhong next to him: "General Yan, try this beef tenderloin, alas, it tastes fresh with the addition of oil consumption, and the meat is also very tender, you and I are lucky!"

It was also Yan Zhong's first time to eat a state banquet, and he had some sympathy with Hei Wa.His wife's cooking skills are very average. After entering Beijing, the family only bought a cook.

In the past, for him, as long as there was meat, there was nothing good or bad about it, but once this professional cook got started, he felt that what he had eaten in the past few years was pig food.

There are so many types of meat in this exquisite state banquet, he was also very rambunctious, commenting on each other with Hei Wa, and drank a few drinks in succession when they were happy.

Just when Heiwa was drinking happily and the spirit of the wine was coming up, a familiar father-in-law walked up behind him quietly and whispered in his ear: "Uncle, the Empress sent me to look for you, Mrs. Uncle was surrounded by some ladies If you are drunk, Madam Chun can't help Mrs. Yuan alone, so please wait for Mrs. Yuan at the Emerald Pavilion next to the Qiuhua Hall."

The person who came here was the young eunuch, Eunuch Tang, the empress's confidant who had been to the Yuan Mansion many times.

Seeing that it was an old acquaintance, Hei Wa shook his head, and saw that the emperor had already left the banquet, and some of the senior officials also went to the small hall next to them to rest, and he also left the banquet with Mr. Tang.

My daughter-in-law knows that she is going to get drunk, no one can stop her, so don't be drunk.

He staggered a few steps, and followed Little Eunuch Tang out of the hall. When the night wind blew, he shivered. Fortunately, it didn't snow tonight, so he was wrapped in a cloak and chatted with Little Eunuch Tang in a low voice while walking.

"Eunuch, there are all female family members over there, so I won't break any taboos if I go?"

"I took you to the back door of the side palace. Don't worry, all the women who come here today are elderly wives. Empresses from other palaces are sitting in another place."

"That's good, that's good, Mr. Tang, how many years have you been in the palace?"

"I entered the palace at the age of five, but it has been 20 years. Before Your Majesty entered Beijing, I worked as an errand in the Palace of the Queen Mother!"

"Then, father-in-law, you are a veteran."

While talking and chatting, Eunuch Tang took half a step behind Heiwa, and carrying an oil lamp, the two of them walked across the artificial island connected by wooden bridges and came to the Jade Pavilion next to Qiuhua Hall.

Through the door, her daughter-in-law could be heard shouting: "Have another drink, I'm not drunk!" She shouted until her voice broke.

Hei Wa raised her forehead, this woman is so courageous, she even dared to get drunk in the palace, he really wants to deal with her when he goes back tonight!
Whispering in his heart, he kept stepping, pushed open the door, stepped into the hall, and walked towards the beauty couch behind the screen. Unexpectedly, the door behind him was suddenly closed, and there was a sound of locking.

He was already in his head, with a sliver of clarity, turned around, saw the closed door, and before he could speak, a pair of delicate hands had wrapped around his waist.
(End of this chapter)