Beloved Concubine

Chapter 118 From Grilled Fish to Politics
"This kind of fish may not be fresh enough for soup, but it is delicious when baked."

Chen Xiao's voice continued:
"It needs to be scratched from the back. You see, this is a dissection. Open up and remove the internal organs. The black membrane must be removed. This is where the fishy smell comes from. The black membrane will not be fishy after being removed."

Fang Yu walked into the kitchen and saw Chen Xiao killing fish, while the cook, woman, and Su Xiaowan were watching.

"After washing it, marinate it with salt, sliced ​​ginger, and scallion." Chen Xiao picked up the washed scallion and ginger from the kitchen counter, and began to chop it skillfully with a knife.

Chen Xiao passed by the kitchen before and heard Su Xiaowan say that this kind of fish was not wanted, so she went over to have a look when she had nothing to do, and found that the one that said she didn't want was tilapia.

Of course, they are not called tilapia, but "flat crucian carp" to distinguish the real crucian carp from "round crucian carp".

In the afternoon, the fishmonger brought a bucket of fish, and what Su Xiaowan said was crucian carp, with a few flat crucian carp mixed in it.This is also true, in their cognition, they are all crucian carp.However, Su Xiaowan thinks that flat crucian carp has a strong fishy smell and is not tasty.She wanted to feed the princes and grandchildren, so she had to choose the right ones, so she said that she didn't want these flat crucian carp.

Chen Xiao took a look: tilapia.This kind of fish has thick meat and few spines, so she likes to eat fish with few spines, so she said "give it to me".

Tilapia is a tropical fish. In modern times, if it is not cultivated artificially, the native area of ​​this fish in China is actually very small.Chen Xiao happens to be in a place suitable for tilapia farming, and she is very experienced in tilapia farming.

There are many ways to prepare tilapia, such as frying, steaming and frying, and Chen Xiao likes grilling it.Grilled tilapia is marinated with different seasonings, and the taste of grilled tilapia is also different.There are those pickled with spicy millet and minced garlic; those pickled with chili noodles and cumin powder; and those pickled with lemongrass and coriander.

The condiments here are limited, so Chen Xiao marinated in the simplest way.When roasting for a while, dry it a little, and the fish will be very fragrant.

The cook and mother-in-law look at Chen Xiao's salted fish.Seeing Fang Yu, Su Xiaowan smiled and nodded as a greeting.

Fang Yu scanned the kitchen and said to Su Xiaowan, "Can you give us some of that meat?" He pointed to a piece of pork.

"Ah?" Su Xiaowan was slightly stunned: "Yes."

Fang Yu said to Chen Xiao: "Marinate the meat together, we will have barbecue at night."

Chen Xiao raised his head and let out a sneer.

Fang Yu walked around the kitchen and asked Chen Xiao, "What else can I bake?"

"Okay." Before Chen Xiao asked for fish, she didn't think much of it, but now Fang Yu asked for pork, and she suddenly realized: The two of them seem to be a little... How should I put it, she is not a person who likes to take advantage, and she suddenly feels a little uncomfortable. Excuse me.

Chen Xiao asked Su Xiaowan: "Where is there any bamboo around here?" She got a fresh bamboo tube before and explained that there should be bamboo.

"Beside the wall in the backyard of the post house, there is a clump of bamboo."

Chen Xiao said to Fang Yu: "Go and chop a bamboo, I will make bamboo sticks and skewer meat."

Fang Yu knew how to barbecue and understood what she needed, so he took a hatchet from the kitchen and went to chop bamboo.

After a while, Fang Yu came back carrying three bamboos.The bamboo in the post house is mainly planted for ornamental purposes, and they are relatively thin. He felt that one was not enough, so he chopped two more.

At this time, Chen Xiao had already cut up the meat and marinated it.The cook and the wife are preparing the dinner for the masters.

Chen Xiao cut the bamboo with a knife, but Fang Yu stopped him: "Let me come, be careful not to hurt your hand."

Chen Xiaodao: "Alright. But I'll get you a knife again."

She went back to the room and entered the space to get the dagger.What I took was the multifunctional army thorn and field knife equipped by special forces that I lent to Fang Yu when I came to Nanzhong County to fight wolves last time.

Fang Yu used a dagger to cut bamboo. Su Xiaowan saw that the dagger had a unique shape and was extremely sharp, and asked, "What metal is this dagger made of?" Because she thought the material of this dagger was very special.

"Steel." Fang Yu replied: "The so-called steel can be made through one thousand tempering, and pig iron becomes steel after thousands of tempering."

Su Xiaowan doesn't know smelting, but she has heard of "smelting into steel".The price of steel is very expensive, and you may not be able to buy it with silver.

She recalled King De's introduction before, saying that Fang Yu was once a captain of Yueqi in the army of Xiling Kingdom.asked:
"Is Xiling's smelting technology much better than Nanyue's?"

"Yes, not only stronger than Nanyue, but also stronger than Xia Guo." This is a fact.

"May I ask, are you related to Sheng'an?" Su Xiaowan had heard about Fang Yu's wolf-beating deeds, and knew that he was not from Sheng'an, but he was from Xiling.The Sheng'an has a great influence and snobbery in the Nanyue Kingdom, and the Xiling people in the Nanyue Kingdom are more or less related to the Sheng'an.

"Relationship? What do you mean?" Fang Yu was puzzled.

"That is, such as having business dealings with the Sheng'an, or relying on the Sheng'an to seek asylum."

"My peppers are stored in the Sheng'an warehouse. I don't know if this counts."

Su Xiaowan doesn't know what "pepper" is, but he is from Xiling, and the things are stored in the warehouse of Sheng'an, so it seems that they are related.

Chen Xiao didn't understand what she meant by asking this, and asked, "Miss Su, what are you asking...?"

"It's nothing." Su Xiaowan smiled.

"Not everyone in Xiling is related to the Sheng'an. The Dingtai has a cooperative relationship with the Sheng'an, and the Longshun has a business relationship with the Sheng'an. According to this, they are all related." Fang Yudao.

"Yes, you are right." Su Xiaowan smiled apologetically.

Fang Yu asked: "So, you asked if there is any connection, what do you want to say in the end?"

"It's nothing. It's just..." Su Xiaowan hesitated, thought for a while and said: "It may be offensive to say it, I think the snobbery of the Xiling people in Nanyue has too much influence, especially the Sheng'an company. The Xia people said that Nanyue is Xiling Although this is a bit exaggerated, in fact..." Some things cannot be said clearly.In fact, she felt that South Vietnam was indeed like a vassal state of Xiling.

Chen Xiaodao: "Using foreign technology to develop our own country does have to pay some price." Once chatting with Nie Feng, he introduced why Nanyue relies so much on the Sheng'an.They brought advanced smelting technology, and also had textile technology different from Xia Guo.

"Yes." Su Xiaowan smiled politely.She didn't want to argue with the Xiling people how many benefits they took from Nanyue, so much that the Xia people would laugh at them.

Fang Yu said: "So what do you want to say to me in the end? I still don't understand."

Su Xiaowan said: "I want to say that His Highness Taisun trusts you so much, he may bring you back to the capital in the future. If you can serve the court, I hope you can start from the interests of South Vietnam." There is another sentence behind, she did not say .She hoped that Fang Yu could be a South Vietnamese.

In fact, there are two schools of thought in the imperial court today: one believes that they should continue to rely on Xiling to develop their country; the other believes that South Vietnam no longer needs to rely on Xiling and should weaken its influence.

Among the former, some are "surrenderers". They feel that even if South Vietnam becomes a vassal state of Xiling, there is nothing wrong with it. Xiling has a strong army and can protect South Vietnam.

Among the latter, some are actually "surrenderers", but they surrendered to Xia Guo.The so-called weakening of Xiling's influence is actually to increase Xia's influence.

Excluding these two "surrender factions", in fact, there is still room for discussion in the previous two schools of thought.As an independent country, it cannot always rely on foreign countries.However, South Vietnam could not afford to offend these two foreign countries.

Although Su Xiaowan is a girl, she still has some knowledge.This time the grandson's assassination, she felt that it might have something to do with the dispute between the two factions.Although she didn't know which faction Taisun supported, but the last time Taisun passed by Nanzhong, she overheard that Taisun hoped that Nanyue would rise by itself.

Needless to say, she misunderstood.The grandson was assassinated because Princess Leping wanted to cover up the scandal, but she failed for the first time.

Robbery on the road, you can not find the murderer.Princess Leping continued to chase and besiege him because he could not be allowed to leave alive, otherwise not only Princess Leping would be finished, but all the court officials who had affairs with her would also be finished.

In this matter, there is no national righteousness, only to kill and silence for self-protection.

(End of this chapter)