Me and Empress Dowager Cixi

Chapter 59 The Royal Garden (2)
After everything was ready, Zhang De lifted the lid of the stove, and all the fragrance inside burst out in an instant.Zhang De held the lid and did not put it down, the purpose was to facilitate the re-closing.After the lid was lifted, the Empress Dowager personally picked a few slices of sashimi and put them down, and Zhang De put the stove's lid back on.Five or six minutes later, Zhang De lifted the lid again, and the sashimi was basically cooked through. Afterwards, the Queen Mother or us female officials took some chrysanthemums as appropriate and put them in the stove.Cover and cook again for about 6 minutes, and this special food is cooked successfully.Every process of cooking is directed by the Empress Dowager herself. In fact, there is no need for her to work so hard. We have practiced repeatedly many times, and there will be no mistakes at all.The most important thing about cooking food with chrysanthemums is deliciousness. The chicken soup is already very delicious. Adding the sashimi after being boiled, the taste becomes more intense, and the freshly picked chrysanthemums are added. The degree of deliciousness is beyond words. described.The chrysanthemum itself has no taste, but after being enhanced by chicken soup and fish slices, its taste suddenly becomes delicious. When the queen mother is in a happy mood and has a strong appetite, she often has to eat a lot of slices by herself.Seeing the queen mother eat such delicious food by herself, we who stood aside were really uncomfortable, and our stomachs were gurgling like a sea.Occasionally, the Queen Mother would show mercy and allow us to share the leftover food, but none of us would give in, wishing we could swallow the whole stove into our stomachs.

In addition to using chrysanthemums as ingredients, the Queen Mother also likes to use chrysanthemums as soap for washing hands.It is called washing hands in name, but in fact it should be called playing, not because of any dirt on the body, but purely out of interest.The queen mother always likes to take a flower that is not in bloom from a vase or a flower branch in the garden, and after disassembling it, put it in the palm of her hand and rub it vigorously until the pink petals turn into flower residues before letting go.After letting go of her hands, the queen mother did not let us dry her hands, but waited for them to dry naturally.In this way, the fragrance of chrysanthemums remained on the queen mother's palm, and it would last for quite a long time.Afterwards, the Queen Mother also liked to smell the palms she wiped with chrysanthemums with her nose, as if some incredible fragrance had been applied to them.The queen mother not only likes to do it by herself, but often asks us to do it with her.I don't know how other people think about this matter in their hearts. I personally find it quite boring, and I still can't reach the Queen Mother's high interest.Of course, I also use flower petals to wipe my hands, most of which are after going to the toilet or when I get some stench. I never have the heart to spoil those beautiful flowers in my spare time.

There are thousands of flowers and colors in the world, and the rarest color is probably green.As early as a few years ago, I heard that there is a famous species called "green chrysanthemum". Not only the branches and leaves are green, but the flowers that bloom are also green.Although I have heard many gardeners mention this kind of flower, I have never seen it, and I don't know if there is such a flower in the world.The queen mother loves chrysanthemums so much, of course she has heard of this kind of chrysanthemums, so she specially ordered people to go to various places to search for them.

Knowing that the Queen Mother was looking for green chrysanthemums, those who wanted to please the Queen Mother immediately sent hundreds of pots, but most of the flowers from those chrysanthemums were only a little green, or there were some green spots on them, not to mention What a beautiful, but also ugly.Although the results of the first search were not very good, the queen mother was not discouraged, and then sent people to search everywhere.

When the chrysanthemums were in full bloom in the second year, someone sent four pots of "green chrysanthemums".When I first saw it, it was really green and lovely, and the Queen Mother liked it very much.Unfortunately, not long after, the green color gradually faded, revealing a white texture. After careful inspection, it was found that the green color was artificially dyed with paint.This angered the queen mother, and the person who presented the flowers was thrown into prison.However, although this person deceived the queen mother, she also gave the queen mother a revelation from another aspect. She decided to cultivate green chrysanthemums by herself.The Empress Dowager specially set aside a piece of land in the Summer Palace and sowed the best chrysanthemum seeds there.These chrysanthemums have been cultivated from the beginning. Although the fertilizer used is the same as other chrysanthemums, there is one thing completely different, that is, green pigment is mixed in the water. The Queen Mother wants to make those white chrysanthemums absorb the green pigment. Then green flowers bloom.Unfortunately, those white chrysanthemums didn't understand the queen mother's mood, and the flowers that bloomed in the end were still white, at most, there were some traces of green on the white petals.In the end, the project of cultivating green chrysanthemums failed completely, and the empress dowager slammed green chrysanthemums, which made people look very funny.

The queen mother always thinks that she can make the best use of everything. When chatting with us, she often said that judging whether a flower is top-grade or not cannot only be judged by its color. A good-looking color can only please people's eyes, and it needs other functions to assist, otherwise It will lose some flavor.The above-mentioned use of chrysanthemums as seasoning or for washing hands is the idea of ​​the Queen Mother, and the purpose is to practice what she said to make the best use of everything.Not only that, but the queen mother also made a sweet sauce with rose petals and some sucrose, which tasted very delicious. If there were bread sellers in the capital at that time, I would definitely eat bread with this sauce every morning.In the past, rich and noble families advocated drinking tea, and tea was considered an elegant thing. The best tea was very expensive, and it was never sold by the catty. Even one tael would cost 20 taels of silver, which ordinary people could not afford high price.Because the tea is elegant and expensive, it is appreciated by the Queen Mother.It's hard for me to decide whether the Queen Mother likes to drink tea because it tastes good, or because it's arty.All the tea she uses is of the highest quality, which is very expensive. Every time she drinks tea, she only needs new tea leaves, which wastes a lot of money.When drinking tea, the queen mother likes to throw one or two dried petals into it. Among the many flowers, she likes to use winter wild flowers most, and praises them for their ice and snow.Every time the Queen Mother drank tea, there would always be one or two wild flowers floating in the bowl.

Chrysanthemums are not the only flowers that the Empress Dowager eats, lotus is also one of her favorites, especially in summer.Every summer, the queen mother will order the imperial dining room to collect many fresh lotus flowers, pick off their complete petals, soak them in flour mixed with eggs, take them out, and make them into sweet and salty types, and then put them in Deep-fried inside the oil pan, this makes for a very refreshing snack.In spring, whenever the magnolia flowers bloom brightly, the queen mother will order people to pick the magnolia petals, and then make magnolia slices according to the lotus method, and the queen mother often takes them out to eat when she is resting.

There are many flowers planted in the Summer Palace, and those gardeners work really hard.Although the queen mother arranged a lot of people for the gardeners, they were still very busy.The queen mother has a wide range of interests, and every flower and tree requires them to take care of them with all their strength, so they seldom have a rest throughout the year.Chrysanthemum is a seasonal flower, relatively in better condition, no matter how busy it is, it is only autumn and winter.But even so, when autumn comes, none of the dozens of gardeners who are responsible for taking care of chrysanthemums can rest for a while.They are busy watering, fertilizing, and replanting every day, building sheds for the chrysanthemums when the sun is strong, and covering them with mats when it rains, and removing the mats after the rain stops, so that they can fully absorb the chrysanthemums. dew.In addition, since there was no insecticide at that time, it took a lot of time to catch insects.I don't know why, but chrysanthemums are particularly easy to provoke insects. There are many insects that can harm them, and the most hateful ones are those small caterpillars that are specially drilled in the center of the flower.The little caterpillars are very cunning. Not only is it difficult to predict the exact channel where they come to the chrysanthemum, but it is also difficult to find them, because they are all cunningly hiding in the flower center, and you can't find them without careful searching.When the chrysanthemums haven’t bloomed, you can’t see them at all. When the flowers bloom, they seem to emerge from the ground, and there are more overnight.They often gather in groups of several, devour the stamens day and night, and even eat all the flowers on a branch of flowers.Because of this, when the chrysanthemums bloomed, those eunuchs were extremely busy. More than 20 gardeners were divided into more than ten groups, two in groups, one was responsible for shaking the small caterpillars out of the flowers, and the other was responsible for picking up the small caterpillars with a big iron cup.Just this is not enough, those people have to check the stamens one by one, otherwise it will be difficult to eradicate the roots.Generally speaking, it takes them six to seven minutes for each pot of flowers. There are more than 7 pots in the entire Summer Palace. How long does it take? No wonder those gardeners are so busy all day long.Many times I wonder whether it is worth it for the Queen Mother to spend so much manpower and material resources on these flowers.However, if these eunuchs are not allowed to do these jobs, what do you let them do?If so much labor is not put into it, the expected results will not be achieved at all. If the efforts of these eunuchs can win the Queen Mother a smile, at least their labor will be somewhat rewarded.

(End of this chapter)