The First Great Ancestor of the Five Dynasties

Chapter 202: Domestic troubles are not over yet, and foreign troubles are added

Since the number of lambs produced at Pingliang Ranch exceeded [-], Zhu Xiu and Shi Kuangwei have basically achieved the freedom of mutton.

Zhu Xiu spent his own money to expand the underground ice cellar in Jiedu Mansion. He stocked up on fruits and vegetables, chickens, ducks, fish, sheep, pigs, goat's milk, and horse's milk. Everything he could eat was stocked up.

According to Zhu Xiu's words, he, Shi Lingyan, and Shi Xiangwen were growing up, and their nutrition must be sufficient.

Under the shade of the trees in the open courtyard, Zhu Xiu and Shi Xiangwen were grilling skewers.

A stone trough for feeding horses was simply converted into a ready-made grill. The trough was filled with charcoal, and bamboo skewers and meat skewers were placed. Shi Xiangwen held a cattail leaf fan in each hand to help add wind and add charcoal.

The fine work of controlling the heat was naturally left to Zhu Xiu. He rolled up his sleeves, grabbed a handful of meat skewers in each hand, and fiddled with them at an extremely fast rate.

"Fire!"

Zhu Xiu gave an order, Shi Xiangwen drew his bow from left to right, the cattail fan flapped, the wind poured into the stone trough, the charcoal fire burned scarlet, and sparks flew everywhere.

The mutton oil was poured down to help increase the fire, and the flames ignited. Under the fierce fire, the tender mutton quickly turned brown.

"stop!"

Shi Xiangwen ordered and stopped, and hurriedly stopped. The fire weakened instantly, and the strong aroma of burnt suet emerged. Shi Xiangwen sniffed hard and swallowed thickly.

Use high heat to quickly grill the lamb to lock in the moisture on the surface, and then use low heat and residual heat to sear the heart of the meat to ensure that the grilled meat skewers are charred on the surface and tender and juicy on the inside.

Sprinkle a handful of special spices including Anxi fennel, sesame seeds, dogwood seeds, and pepper, stir-fry until fragrant, and then grind them into powder, and the ceiling mutton skewers in the [-]th century skewers world are freshly baked.

Half of it was given to Shi Xiangwen, and the two of them squatted under the shade of a tree, slurping meat skewers, with bamboo sticks thrown all over the floor in front of them.

Zhu Xiu is proud of his craftsmanship and considers expanding the business of Taihe Building, launching night market food stalls, barbecue with ice juice, and once again leading the catering trend in Anding County.

In this way, Taihe Building provides one-stop services from breakfast to supper, and provides all the meals for the people in the county for one day.

"Is it delicious?" Zhu Xiu licked the oil stains around his mouth.

"It's delicious!" Shi Xiangwen nodded his big head vigorously, his face shiny after eating.

"I'll fan you, and you'll grill the skewers." Zhu Xiu grabbed two handfuls of meat skewers from the basin and gave them to him, then picked up the cattail leaf fan himself.

"Oh~ OK!" Shi Xiangwen imitated his movements, squatting in front of the grill and playing with the meat skewers.

Zhu Xiu gave instructions while fanning himself, and Shi Xiang was very serious about literature.

After twisting a dozen more bamboo sticks, Shi Xiangwen smacked his lips and muttered: "It's not as delicious as your roasted ones."

"It's okay, you're already very good at what you do. If you practice more, you will definitely bake better than me in the future!" Zhu Xiu leaned down on the recliner, picked his teeth with a bamboo skewer, and encouraged with a smile.

Shi Xiangwen grinned happily.

"Brother Tiger's roasted leg of lamb is also very fragrant, but he doesn't want to teach me, saying that I can't learn it. If I want to eat it, I can just let others roast it."

Shi Xiangwen shook his big head and said dullly: "But I want to learn by myself, and I learned how to bake it for dad and little wild goose to eat."

Zhu Xiu was lying down and said with a smile: "Which one is better, my mutton skewers or Brother Tiger's mutton legs?"

Shi Xiangwen thought about it seriously, and smiled naively: "Skewers are delicious!"

"Study hard and wait for Yan'er to come back and let her taste the meat skewers you grilled yourself."

Shi Xiangwen nodded vigorously with a smile, picked up a few skewers and squatted next to the grill to continue studying.

After eating and drinking, Zhu Xiugang wanted to stare for a while, but Yan Ping hurriedly came to find him.

"This is the material for the next issue of the newspaper, please take a look at it."

Zhu Xiuyi was waning and yawned: "Just let Wen Zhongping decide, there is no need to ask me."

"Secretary Wen Zhang has already seen it and was unsure about paying attention, so he asked me to ask the young envoy."

Yan Ping presented the materials: "There are two new submissions. Maybe the young envoy will be interested."

Zhu Xiu sat up and leaned forward, taking several documents and looking through them. Two new manuscripts caught his attention.

An article is signed by Xu Maocai, and a quatrain is signed by Zhongshan Yinren.

"Xu Maocai?!"

Zhu Xiu regained his energy and carefully read the signed article.

Yan Ping chuckled and said: "I have already found out clearly that these two people are staying in Shenghe Mansion and have three meals a day in Taihe Building. The man in Dishe said that Xu Maocai stayed at home every day and devoted himself to studying newspapers. , write an article, ask the clerk to buy a lot of pens, ink and inkstones.

The ugly boy who accompanied him went to Taihe Building every morning to eat a tray of steamed dumplings, buy two fried dough sticks, and then wander around on the street.Sometimes he would go to the chess hall to play two games, sometimes he would go to the tea stall to listen to books, and at night he would go to the theater and listen to music. This boy was very leisurely and at ease. "

Zhu Xiu couldn't help laughing after reading the article written by Xu Maocai.

No wonder Wen Zhongping couldn't decide to pay attention. It turned out that Xu Maocai wrote this article to refute him.

In the last issue of the tabloid, Zhu Xiu wrote an article encouraging people in Jingzhou to plant straw cotton, and asked Wen Zhongping to publish it on the front page.

This article written by Xu Maocai is a refutation of his views on advocating the planting of straw and cotton and reducing the planting of mulberry and hemp.

The article is eloquent and eloquent, clearly explaining the role of mulberry and linen planting in farming since ancient times, affirming the unshakable status of mulberry and linen planting, and refuting the proposal to replace mulberry and linen with straw and cotton.

At the end of the article, Xu Maocai also implicitly ridiculed Mr. Siyou for not understanding farming, making nonsense remarks, preaching the value of straw cotton, misleading the people, and disrupting normal agricultural production.

Xu Maocai even wrote extensively about the difference between "檰" and "cotton" and whether it is correct or not in his article, trying to prove the error of the word "cotton" and denying its economic value.

Zhu Xiu laughed dumbly, and after working on it for a long time, Xu Mao wrote this article specifically to criticize himself.

Come on, the article is indeed well written, citing scriptures and speaking in an orderly manner, which is eye-catching.

The Jingzhou lifestyle tabloid has been running for more than a dozen issues, and this is the first unofficial article that Zhu Xiu can take notice of.

The shocking article he wrote in the last issue was written in vernacular, and the rhetoric was gorgeous, far inferior to Xu Maocai's article.

Zhu Xiu knew his own weight. He had to write articles in the style of rhymes, four-liu prose, and contemporary prose. He was not as good as Pei Jin, who had a fake diploma.

This Xu Maocai's article is full of flowers and flowers, which shows at first glance that he has real talent and learning. In terms of writing skills, he is naturally far superior to him.

Zhu Xiu is not afraid of being criticized. The more gorgeous the article, the better. It must be meaningful and come up with practical information.

"It's interesting." Zhu Xiu said with a smile, "Let Wen Zhongping put Xu Maocai's article on the front page. I'll write another one later and ask Wen Zhongping to print a supplement. This guy wants to put on a show Argue with me as he wishes!”

Yan Ping hesitated for a moment: "Young Envoy, do you really want to argue with this person? If his words are offensive and he dares to insult the Young Envoy in his article, I will lead people to arrest him and torture him!"

Zhu Xiu said angrily: "Isn't it normal to have disputes with different opinions? Why arrest someone? It seems like I'm afraid of him."

Yan Ping scratched his head with a puzzled look on his face, writing articles and arguing in the distance, in his opinion, it would be better to have a fight in person.

Zhu Xiu picked up another manuscript, which contained only one poem. The name of the poem was "New Rain", and the person who signed it was Zhongshan Yinren.

"If the poem is so-so, you can pay the royalties first and postpone publication in a few issues."

Zhu Xiu was not very interested in this poem, but the pen name was somewhat interesting.

"I forgot to tell the young envoy that the poems and articles were sent by Xu Maocai." Yan Ping thought for a while and said.

"Oh? No wonder I haven't heard of this pen name before."

Yan Ping chuckled and said, "Xu Maocai wrote articles and poems under two names."

Zhu Xiu shook his head and said: "Maybe there is another person who wrote the poem. Xu Maocai's article is sophisticated, but this poem is a bit immature. It doesn't seem to be written by the same person."

"Could he be the ugly boy following Xu Maocai?" Yan Ping laughed casually.

"Ugly boy?" Zhu Xiu noticed that when Yan Ping mentioned the boy around Xu Maocai twice, he always used the word "ugly" to describe him.

"Why do you say he is an ugly boy? Have you ever seen him?" Zhu Xiu asked.Yan Ping smiled and said: "That's how Dishe's guy described it. Before I left my humble post, I happened to run into that kid coming back from wandering around and bumped into him head-on."

"What an ugly trick, please tell me carefully."

Yan Ping thought for a while and said: "It's not that he is ugly, but that kid looks too weird, with a big head and two eyes in one eye. He looks scary at first glance. His two front teeth are sticking out, and his mouth is still protruding. , like a rabbit”

The more Zhu Xiu listened, the more he felt something was wrong. This appearance was so extraordinary that he could count on his fingers the number of people with the same appearance in history.

In this era, the only person recorded in history is the one from the south who sang the songs of spring flowers and autumn moons.

"How old do you think that boy is?" Zhu Xiu said solemnly.

Yan Ping said: "He is only about [-] or [-] years old. He is chubby and looks a little silly. But he is quite polite. If he bumps into me when I go out, he will take the initiative to avoid me and salute."

Zhu Xiu took a breath and hurriedly grabbed a few pieces of paper from Yan Ping's hand and found the poem.

"The Hidden Man of Zhongshan. Zhongshan is twelve or thirteen years old, he has double eyes and side teeth, and they all match. Is it really him?"

Zhu Xiu was stunned, his expression seemed extremely strange, as if he was smiling or infatuated.

But then I thought about it, how could that person with such a distinguished status travel thousands of miles to Jingzhou for no reason?

"Immediately send an order to Monk Hun to detain that group of southerners and interrogate them strictly. You must get the detailed origins of these people from their mouths! The identities of these people are definitely extraordinary!"

"I obey the order!" Yan Ping asked again, "How to deal with Xu Maocai and that ugly boy?"

Zhu Xiu paced with his hands behind his back, pondered for a moment and said, "It's better not to alert them, monitor them closely, and at the same time ensure their safety."

"Yes!"

Zhu Xiu thought: "Since Xu Maocai pawned all his belongings in exchange for money, doesn't it mean that the two of him are currently in a pinch? In this way, you ask Dishe to find a reason to make them pay off the room fee and force them to pay a large sum. money, then"

Zhu Xiu whispered a few words into Yan Ping's ear.

"Young Envoy, what are you doing?" Yan Ping didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"Hey, just do as you're told, go ahead!"

Zhu Xiu smiled evilly and waved her hand.

Yan Ping clasped his fists and resigned.

Zhu Xiu lay down again, resting his head on his hands and looking up at the shade of the trees above his head.

If that person really comes to Jingzhou, you should get to know him well. If you can't live in the north in the future, you can still cross the Yangtze River and regain wealth. As the saying goes, many friends bring many paths.

Shi Xiangwen handed over a few skewers of mutton skewers. The mutton oil was still bubbling. Zhu Xiubi blew on it and exhaled when her mouth was hot.

"It's delicious!" Zhu Xiu affirmed with a thumbs up.

It’s not that I’m kidding on purpose, but it really tastes good, and I’ve initially mastered the essence of kebabs.

Shi Xiangwen smiled shyly, stuffed the meat skewers to Zhu Xiu, took a large handful from the basin, and continued to add charcoal and light the fire with great interest.

Shi Kuangwei came from the corridor with his hands behind his back, his brows furrowed and his face dark. Zhu Xiu glanced at him and saw an official document in his hand.

"It's so urgent. Do you still have the time to hide in this kebab?"

Lao Shi threw down the official document, snatched the last few strings from Zhu Xiu's hand without any courtesy, and swallowed them all with his mouth wide open.

Zhu Xiu was a little confused. He opened the official document and took out the letter. It turned out to be from Luoyang, stamped with the seal of staying in Luoyang.

Wang Shouen, the former envoy of the Jingnan Army Jiedu, made great contributions to suppressing the rebellion, and was transferred to stay in Xijing to succeed Gao Xingzhou in guarding Luoyang.

The official letter was sent by Wang Shouen, notifying the Zhangyi Army that the official appointed Feilong Envoy Houzan as the Deputy Envoy of the Zhangyi Army, and concurrently as the Pizhou Liuhou. He also asked him to come with an imperial edict to read out the counterinsurgency war against the Zhangyi Army in Guanzhong. Rewards for those who have meritorious service.

Wang Shou'en sent someone to escort Houzan to his appointment, so that Zhangyi's army could prepare to welcome him.

Because there is a sacred object, Houzan is equivalent to an angel, and the reception standards are higher. When the team enters Jingzhou, they must be protected by troops from the Zhangyi Army.

Zhu Xiu was shocked: "You are so good, how could you suddenly send down a deputy envoy?"

Shi Kuangwei sat down on the grass pier and sneered: "The imperial court is worried about us and wants to decentralize power! I know that his grandma will not be able to escape sooner or later."

Zhu Xiu read the official letter a few more times, and his face was also a little ugly.

Liu Chengyou parachuted a deputy envoy to Jingzhou. Should he recognize it or not?

If you admit it, you will hand over half of the power of Changyi Army for nothing.

If you don't admit it, you are blatantly confronting the imperial court and disobeying the holy will. It is not an exaggeration to say that you are rebelling.

Houzan also served as the post of Pizhou Liu, which was equivalent to controlling the military power of the Jingnan Army.

As soon as Wang Shouen left, the Jingnan Army was left in a mess, and Pizhou was a mess. Hou Zan came to clean up the mess.

"I know this man. He was a close official and started his career as a cruel official. His mother Hou Shi was a prostitute. I don't know who his biological father was. After Hou Shi's death, Hou Zan followed his father to Kaifeng, and his father found him a position as a subordinate official. , and no longer care about him.

This post is quite commendable. In more than ten years, he has risen from a small official to a flying dragon envoy, and is also a former minister of the official family. He is deeply favored."

Shi Kuangwei chewed the mutton and said vaguely: "In short, this guy is a vicious and difficult person. The official sent him here with the intention of fighting for power and not leaving us a way to survive!"

Zhu Xiu's face was serious, he also knew the name of Houzan, the original name was Houkuangzan, but it was changed to Houzan in the historical records to avoid taboo.

To be able to rise from a humble official to the high position of a close minister of the emperor is enough to show that his mental ability and endurance are far beyond ordinary people and should never be underestimated.

"It's so damn good that good things don't go out, and bad things spread thousands of miles. Those merchants from Chang'an all have big fucking mouths and spread the news. Now the whole city knows that the Zhangyi Army is coming soon. A deputy envoy of Jiedu."

Shi Kuangwei cursed and took the freshly grilled meat skewers from Shi Xiangwen's hand.

"I have thought about it. If Houzan is determined to seize power, I will simply give it to him and let him take charge of the Changyi Army! Then, the three of us will hide here all day long and eat barbecue!"

Shi Kuangwei spoke angrily, but his movements with the bamboo stick were not slow at all.

Zhu Xiu smiled, looked up at the blue sky, and suddenly said: "Autumn is coming soon, it's almost here."

"What's so quick?" Old Shi's oily black face looked very suspicious.

Zhu Xiu did not answer, but said sternly: "The latter is a bad person, but we must not conflict with him head-on, and we must not let the court find an excuse to punish him! We must be prepared to endure it for a year!"

"Do you really want me to be a tortoise for a year?"

Shi Kuangwei yelled angrily, "I was really pushed into a hurry, so I led my people to Wuzhou to become bandits! Anyway, that place is now the territory of the Tubo people, and the court has no control over it. Zhu Xiaozi, will you follow me then?" go?"

Zhu Xiu picked up the cattail leaf fan and squatted beside the grill to fan himself, and said with a smile: "If you really want to fall into the trap of being a bandit, we can do something great with just a few of us."

Shi Kuangwei laughed proudly: "That's right! My elder brother has the courage that no man can match, and with you as a dog-headed strategist, he can make a name for himself wherever he goes!"

Zhu Xiu glared at him fiercely and concentrated on grilling the skewers.

"Hey, boy Zhu, what did you mean by 'almost' just now?" Lao Shi leaned forward with a frown on his face, "Is there another warning from the sky?"

Zhu Xiu glanced at him sideways and smiled strangely: "The celestial phenomena told me that you will become a father when you are 45 years old. Congratulations, Lao Shi!~"

Shi Kuangwei glared and jumped angrily: "You bastard! Ask for a beating!"

Zhu Xiu ran away and laughed loudly: "In the past few days, Aunt Li, who is helping to cook at home, often goes to see you in private. You two are fooling around, isn't this a sign that you are going to be a father?"

Lao Shi was so angry that his face turned red and his neck was thick. He was ashamed and coquettish. He took off one of his shoes and threw it at Zhu Xiu: "You bastard! Don't let me catch you~"

The two of them laughed, cursed and chased each other in the courtyard, while Shi Xiangwen watched happily.

(End of this chapter)