I

   Chapter 967 963 [Second Prince]

  Prince Hayi expressed his inner desire, but received a reprimand from Zhao Han, saying that the Celestial Dynasty would not covet the territory of the vassal state.

  When he returned to Zhongshan Temple, he was soon rewarded again.

  Officials from Honglu Temple came to pass the decree, saying that although the imperial court did not want to annex the country, Prince Hayi was commendable for his loyalty, and specially rewarded ten gold dollars and one hundred silver dollars.

  Prince Hayi held gold and silver coins in his hand, pondered for a long time, and probably understood what it meant, and then went to play happily.

  A Yangtze River Navy ship sailed quickly from downstream, and eleven soldiers landed one by one.

  Looking at their clothes, you can tell that they are naval reserve officers.

  All canvas military uniforms, and a large navy cap, but the epaulets are blank.

  The second prince, Zhao Kuangyi, will soon be twenty-one years old.

  He first graduated from Huangcheng Middle School, and went to Jinling University for four years, but without any suspense, he didn't get his diploma. At this time, you can become a king, or you can extend your studies for one year (under the adjusted policy, college students can repeat for one year), and after you get your graduation certificate, you can take the imperial examination.

  The royal family and the imperial family have already set the rules, and there are nothing more than two choices. One is to get the title honestly, with a dead salary, except not to rebel, and the rest is up to you;

   Zhao Kuangtang wanted to try the third way. After graduating from Jinling University, he went to Chongming Naval Academy.

  This military academy was built on Chongming Island, and some officials suggested changing the name of Chongming Island. Zhao Han snapped back: "There was a theory of Chongming in the Tang Dynasty. Did the Tang people know that there would be a Ming Dynasty?"

   Now, Zhao Kuangyi has successfully graduated, and he can serve as a naval officer while being a prince (the upper limit is that he cannot enter the Navy's Governor's Mansion).

  Going back to Nanjing with Zhao Kuangtang, eight of them were his bodyguards, and the remaining two were classmates who returned home after graduation. They have already been assigned work, and after the Chinese New Year, they will report to their respective ships.

   "Unexpectedly, this rich and expensive car has already spread to Nanjing." Zhao Kuangchen rubbed his hands and breathed out. This winter has been pretty good, and the Yangtze River has not formed ice floes.

  Classmate Cui Wenmao stomped his feet and said, "The weather is getting colder and colder. I never heard that the Yangtze River has been frozen for several years."

  Classmate Wang Chongxi smiled and said: "What is this? I heard that the sea outside Chongming Island was frozen more than a hundred years ago."

  Zhao Kuangcheng teased: "Cui Er, what are you afraid of? The Qiulong you will serve next year will be stationed in Malacca for a long time. The winter there is very warm. Don't be afraid of the cold, you can bask in the sun every day."

   Cui Wenmao was quite speechless: "I would rather serve as a soldier in Guangzhou, and Malacca is too far away."

   "Your Highness, do you want to go back to the palace first?" A guard reminded.

   "Let's talk about shopping, I haven't been back to Beijing for a long time." Zhao Kuangyi has long since gone wild, so he doesn't want to go back to the Forbidden City and hold back.

  As for the eight guards, although they accompanied the second prince to the naval school, they will no longer be responsible for protecting the second prince as long as he officially serves. You can continue to be a guard in Nanjing, or you can obey the arrangement and go to the navy as an officer.

  Zhao Kuangchen didn't even want to enter the city, he walked all the way from the pier to the base of the city wall, and wandered around along the city wall.

  Walking to the northeast corner outside the city, Cui Wenmao covered his nose and said, "It stinks!"

  Wang Chongxi cheered up: "There must be a store that sells Jinling Shuangqi. I haven't eaten it for a long time. Let's go and try it."

  Jinling Shuangchou is pig large intestine and stinky tofu, which can be fried together, boiled together, or steamed together. The negative is positive, and the smell is fragrant. It belongs to the delicacies of the middle and lower classes.

   Zhao Kuangchen became interested: "I've heard about Jinling's double stinky name for a long time, but I haven't eaten it yet. Today I want to try something new."

  Cui Wenmao came from a powerful family, he shook his head again and again: "Your Highness, it's better not to eat, pig intestines... Eh, I don't have an appetite when I say it."

   "Try it before we talk." Zhao Kuangtang laughed.

  The crowd went looking for the smell, but saw that there were many roadside stalls set up by the river outside the city. This place is relatively far away, not only away from the pier, but also away from the north and east city gates. But judging from their standardized appearance, these stalls have probably been rectified, and they also need to pay booth fees.

  It was almost noon at this time, and coolies continued to come in batches, and some people even came to eat with rich carts.

   "Isn't it Jinling Shuangqi?"

  Wang Chongxi walked to a stall, but saw a steaming cauldron of boiling soup.

  The soup noodles are full of red oil flowers, and there are some cheap spices floating.

  Several coolies sat around the table, and the strongest one shouted: "Old rules, two or two water, three bowls of white rice!"

   Two or two drops of water, three bowls of white rice, this is the amount of food for one person.

   If you don’t eat so much, you won’t be able to work hard.

  Wang Chongxi was quite curious: "The coolies also have money to eat three bowls of white rice?"

   Waiting for the stall owner to bring the meal over, I realized that it was just a nice way of saying it.

   There is indeed rice, but it is all old rice that has turned yellow and black. Most of them are old grains from the official warehouses, which are almost too old to eat, and they are taken out and sold to the common people at a low price.

  In addition to old rice, it is also mixed with crushed corn and cooked together into rice.

  As for the practice of launching into the water, it is similar to Malatang and Maocai.

  Nanjing, there is no feast without ducks. In the Ming Dynasty, the people at the bottom would eat ducks and go into the water. Needless to say, pigs into the water have always been the favorite of the common people.

   During the two years when Zhao Han first took over Nanjing, the city consumed about a thousand pigs a day, but now it consumes 4,000 pigs a day (including the Forbidden City), and about 300 people eat one pig a day.

   This surprised Zhao Han very much. How did the author of "Tokyo Menghualu" calculate that Bianliang consumes tens of thousands of pigs every day?

   At the same time, the first Portuguese book describing China calculated the daily food consumption of the city of Guangzhou as five or six thousand pigs and eleven thousand ducks. This data is also weird. Could it be that the Nanjing of my Datong New Dynasty is not as good as Guangzhou during the Jiajing period?

  No matter what, Nanjing has 4,000 pigs per day, thousands of ducks, hundreds of sheep and a small amount of cattle, and animal offal resources are very rich.

  Some people boil the excess fat from pig large intestines into lard after repeated cleaning. This kind of oil has a foul smell, but I don't want to throw it away, so I add spices such as chili and pepper, mix it together and cook it as a base soup, add various internal organs and stinky tofu to cook together.

   Well, it still stinks, but this stuff is delicious. Heavy oil, spicy and cheap, is very popular with the people at the bottom, especially those coolies on the docks.

   But I saw those coolies, holding a big bowl of old rice and corn rice, without eating offal first, pouring oily and spicy soup into the bowl to mix rice. There is very little water in two taels, and three bowls of rice are not enough to eat, but the soup is also delicious, salty, spicy and oily, which is very comfortable.

  In the cold winter, a bowl of pork intestine stinky oil soup and rice is enough to warm the coolies. What's more, there are two taels of offal, these are the essence, save the last bowl of rice.

  The coolies wiped out the three bowls of rice and licked clean the soup around the bowls.

   "Hic!"

  A coolie burped for a long time, stood up and stretched his body, exhaled white air and said: "This day is comfortable, and I have strength to go to work!"

  The coolies left and hurried to work on the pier, and another group of coolies sat down again.

Cui Wenmao looked at the oil stains on the table, looked at the dirty cauldron, and the soup with complex colors, and smelled the strong smell in the air, and felt sick for a while: "Your Highness, it is better not to eat this, you will be afraid if you eat it." I'm going to have a stomachache."

  Zhao Kuangtang laughed and said, "Why don't these coolies get sick after eating them? I see that they taste delicious, and I'm afraid they taste very good."

   "Store, half a catty of offal for each person, and a bowl of rice is enough!" Wang Chongxi had already shouted.

  The owner of the stall was a couple. Seeing that they were military officers, the proprietress smiled and said, "Gentlemen, I'm really sorry, all the tables are full, even Maza is gone."

  Wang Chongxi glanced around and saw many diners eating squatting, so he said with a smile: "We squat too."

  As soon as the words came out, the coolie next to him stood up and said, "Masters, sit at the table, we can just squat down."

   "I'm so sorry," Wang Chongxi smiled and cupped his hands, "Thank you very much!"

  Zhao Kuangchen said, "I'll treat them to this table."

  The coolies who gave up the table were happier, and even borrowed a rag to help Zhao Kuangtang wipe the table clean.

  Zhao Kuangchen asked: "Is there any wine?"

  The proprietress said: "I come here for lunch, and I have to work hard in the afternoon, and no one drinks normally..."

  Zhao Kuangchen said to the guards beside him: "Go buy a jug of wine, no matter whether the wine is good or bad, the sooner you buy it, the better."

  A guard left in a hurry and trotted to buy wine.

  The rest sat down around the table. There were not enough benches, so they stood by the table. The guards also ate at the same table as the second prince.

  Zhao Kuangchen scooped up a ball of duck intestines in the soup, and nodded repeatedly: "It smells bad, but it tastes good, just a little spicy."

  Not spicy can't hide the taste, the oil in the soup is all made from pork intestine oil.

  Peppers used to be very expensive, but now they are cheap condiments as the planting area expands. In the early Ming Dynasty, pepper, which was priced like gold, can be consumed by ordinary people today.

  Wang Chongxi knew how to eat, imitating the coolie’s way of eating, pouring the soup into the rice, mixing it well, and taking a bite, he immediately smiled: “Good stuff!”

  Cui Wenmao does not want to eat offal, nor does he want to touch soup. But he had to give the second prince some face, so he picked up a mouthful of rice with chopsticks, chewed it twice and almost spit it out. Old rice and crushed corn, let alone, the rice has not been pounded clean, and it is still mixed with rice bran shells.

   "Not delicious?" Zhao Kuangchen asked with a grin, with a malicious smile on his face.

   "Delicious, delicious!" Cui Wenmao swallowed it whole, and quickly took two more mouthfuls into his mouth.

  Zhao Kuangchen said: "What did the teacher at the naval school say? If you encounter a storm when you go out to sea, and you are left in a desolate place without supplies, you will have to fill your stomach with everything. If you are not used to bad food, don't be a navy."

  Cui Wenmao hurriedly said: "What Your Highness said is very true."

  It's a pity that he comes from a rich and powerful family, and his cultural studies are not very good, so he was thrown to the Naval Academy by his father. After a few years of suffering, I still have to eat this kind of pig food.

  The guard who bought the wine came back soon, and because the second prince asked for speed, he only bought a pot of ordinary wine.

   "Come, come, let's celebrate our graduation!" Zhao Kuangtang raised his glass and shouted.

  This second prince was spoiled and raised in Nanjing. After several years of military school, he is now full of recklessness. Eating and drinking, drinking bad wine, chatting and laughing at roadside stalls.

  (end of this chapter)