64. Talking and laughing at the imperial feast

The dishes of this banquet were served very quickly one by one, and the small bowl of golden phoenix pearl jade soup, although it was served in a delicate and small tea-glazed lotus leaf bowl, a bowl was only enough for seven or eight mouthfuls.

However, the refreshing taste in this soup is very ingenious. After taking a sip, it arouses the glutton in my mouth, and I just want to take a second sip immediately, as if I am addicted.Although the ministers wanted to pick up the bowl and drink it all in one gulp, how could they dare to act so indecent in front of His Majesty, it would be a hindrance to the view.

Therefore, the officials had no choice but to bear with it, and stuffed it gracefully mouthful by mouthful. The golden yellow tofu didn't dare to eat too much in one bite, for fear of falling out of the spoon.

So, before they finished drinking the soup, a new dish was served——

"—Assorted spring vegetables and vegetables."

The servants outside brought small pastel porcelain plates to the ministers one by one.

The spring vegetable assortment is made of seven or eight kinds of seasonal vegetables, plus fresh mushrooms, diced carrots, and magnolia slices.The color is mainly blue and white, mixed with bright red or yellow, which looks light and pleasant.

The ministers saw that although the assorted spring vegetables and vegetables were not big fish or meat, they took a sneak peek and found that the color arrangement and layout of everyone's plates were exactly the same.The leaves of those green vegetables are arranged in layers, like a vase of flowers, which is quite beautiful, and one can tell that it is from the hands of an expert.

Different from the soup dish that each person had a small cup just now, after this dish enters the banquet table, the imperial kitchen attendant next to each person is responsible for serving the dish.Lou Yefeng stood beside Pei Nianyu, raised his sleeves and lowered his hands to serve his master.

And Pei Nianyu watched his movements, and secretly glanced at the other royal servants, and found that Lou Yefeng's movements were exactly the same as the others.

You must know that for these servants who serve others, the various requirements at this banquet are as fine as a cow's hair, and every move must be done according to the standard, and it is impossible to remember it without long-term training.So Pei Nianyu couldn't help being secretly amazed, and wondered how his family Ye Feng learned it in such a short period of time... Is there really nothing in this world that his family Ye Feng doesn't know.

However, Pei Nianyu soon stopped laughing.

After the imperial kitchen attendants finished distributing the dishes, they all took half a step back, then folded their sleeves and knelt down behind the officials, completely hiding their figures behind the wide banquet table.

Pei Nianyu: "..."

Now, he only felt that Lou Yefeng was by his side, and he felt quite at ease, but for a moment he even forgot that he was pretending to be a royal servant, and he was going to kneel here for an hour or two!

After all, there are several rows of banquet tables in this hall, and these imperial ceremonial servants let them stand, they must block the sight of the ministers behind, so how can they listen to His Majesty's speech?

Pei Nianyu's heart ached in an instant, and he subconsciously clenched the chopsticks in his right hand fingers, then turned his head to look at Lou Yefeng who was kneeling on the ground, seeing his calm expression as usual, he didn't know what to do.

Previously, Pei Nianyu only felt that this year's winter solstice feast, Pei Niancheng took extra care of him, which saved a lot of red tape and made him much more comfortable than in previous years.

But Lou Yefeng insisted on sneaking in, and now Pei Nianyu felt as if he was sitting on pins and needles, thinking that Lou Yefeng had been kneeling here for a long time, he couldn't sit still.

However, the banquet has just begun, and if he finds an excuse to leave, of course Pei Niancheng will not stop him.But in the eyes of other ministers, it is too disrespectful to His Majesty, and it is unknown what impact it will have if it spreads.

Therefore, Pei Nianyu couldn't leave, and felt so uncomfortable that he didn't even have the mood to taste the delicate dishes in front of him.He only put his chopsticks lightly, lowered his right hand, and with the cover of the wide sleeve of the auspicious suit, pressed his palm on Lou Yefeng's shoulder, and slowly transmitted some internal force to him.

He was afraid that Lou Yefeng would be tired.

However, his hand was thrown away without a trace, and Lou Yefeng's very subtle low voice whispered in his ear:

"Master, don't let other people see the clues. But kneeling for an hour, it's okay."

Lou Yefeng took great pains to sneak in to find out what was abnormal.Now if the master cares about him too much, it will arouse the vigilance of the people in the dark, thus hiding his whereabouts, that would be bad.

Pei Nianyu sighed insignificantly.

It's not just because he's tired... The most important thing is that Lou Yefeng is clearly the concubine appointed by His Royal Highness King Yu, who will be with him for the rest of his life.But to accompany him to a banquet, but he couldn't sit openly on the family seats in the inner hall, so he could only sneak in and kneel in the shadows with this identity.

He lowered his head and said quietly:

"Ye Feng, you... you really... why did you bother to suffer this grievance?"

Lou Yefeng knew what the master meant, and by standing up to hold the food for him, he replied in the usual tone:

"The subordinates are the master's shadow guards, and it is their duty to serve the master. What is wrong with them? Could it be that the master still wants his subordinates to sit with those imperial wives?"

Seeing that he really wasn't dissatisfied with his position at all, Pei Nianyu couldn't help sighing again when he was delighted to sneak in and kneel beside him.

His Ye Feng...how could he be so distressed.

Seeing this, Pei Nianyu knew that there was nothing else to say. Lou Yefeng insisted on coming here to suffer this grievance. He couldn't do anything except feel sorry for him. After all, Lou Yefeng made the decision, but he, the master, is veryDifficult to change his decision.

So he could only absent-mindedly put on a business smile dedicated to the court, and stuffed a piece of white and crisp magnolia into his mouth without taste.

All the ministers didn't notice the incident at the table. After all, Pei Nianyu's identity was here, and no one dared to take a look at it.

After serving the dishes at the imperial dining ceremony, they were full of curiosity and put the green leaves and white slices into their chopsticks one after another.As soon as you bite into the mouth, you will feel that the green and tender vegetable juice is pumped into the mouth, mixed with the soft, salty and fragrant Gorgon juice on the leaves, which has a special fresh flavor.

There are many seasonal vegetables with different tastes.The celery is crisp, the cabbage is pretty thin, the mushrooms are flexible, the kidney beans are plump, and the magnolia slices are thick and fresh. Each chopstick has a different taste.

Although these ministers who are not used to eating vegetarian dishes don't know any of them, it doesn't prevent them from filling their mouths one after another.

It's just that Qin Taifu saw that it was another vegetarian dish, so he couldn't help but feel even more puzzled.But of course he learned his lesson this time, thought for a moment, and then shut up.

However, Pei Niancheng felt wicked and didn't intend to let him go, so he didn't move his chopsticks, but asked:

"Qin Aiqing has always been knowledgeable and knowledgeable. I wonder if Aiqing can recognize the names of these crops on the plate?"

Taifu Qin: "..."

How did he know!

The cooking method of the Dajing Dynasty has been very simple for many years. The dishes eaten by the upper class are not different from the previous recipes in Pei Nianyu's palace, but they are all kinds of rare birds and meat.

Vegetables have always been regarded as lowly and unworthy of the table. Farmers have no more conditions to use complicated methods to process them, and they have always been boiled.Over time, nature is defaulted to be something that tastes bad.

So Qin Taifu was directly confused by Pei Niancheng's question this time.

"This... forgive me for my shallow knowledge, I really don't know."

When Pei Niancheng heard this, he showed a very satisfied smile:

"These are all crops born in my ten thousand mu of fertile land in Da Jing, and every branch and leaf comes from the hard work of the farmers. Qin Taifu seemed to have some criticisms about the affairs of my newly established Ministry of Agriculture. I thought thatQin Taifu is good at farming, so he gives advice to Chang."

Taifu Qin: "..."

Pei Niancheng's voice was not loud, and he could only be heard in the first few seats.However, Li Zongbing and other warriors on the opposite side had internal strength, and they couldn't help laughing inwardly while eating when they heard that Qin Taifu was being teased so vaguely by His Majesty.

Relying on his seniority and his seniority, this idiot Taifu has never been in close contact with other courtiers, so he often pissed off people in court on weekdays.Being bullied by His Majesty this time, they naturally felt comfortable for a while.

Unexpectedly, before he was happy for a while, Pei Niancheng suddenly said loudly:

"Dear dear ones, all the dishes presented at this year's Winter Solstice Banquet are produced in my Da Jing fertile land. All the food eaten by the tens of thousands of people in my Da Jing can be seen today, and there are almost no omissions."

"You are all the pillars of the country, how can you ignore the sentiments of the people. Let's take this assortment of spring vegetables and vegetables as an example. Would you please tell me how many kinds of ingredients are in it? If what you say is reasonable, I will greatly reward you."

Everyone: "..."

No, we are eating, how can your majesty be like you?

Whether or not to be rewarded is actually secondary, after all, none of those here have ever been rewarded.The question is...who wants to eat while someone else is speaking?If no one said something to make His Majesty happy, wouldn't it be impossible to eat it all the time...

The generals and military officers on the opposite side frantically flew through a row of MMPs-what does farming have to do with us!

And Pei Nianyu's complexion also quickly darkened, and he looked at Pei Niancheng on the throne with extremely unfriendly eyes, and the resentment in those eyes seemed to overflow:

I don't object to you wanting to punish that stupid grand master, but didn't your eyes see that Lou Yefeng is still kneeling here?

To be honest, Pei Niancheng really forgot about Lou Yefeng just now, and only after receiving his dear brother's loving eyes did he realize that his order was really inappropriate.However, how could he take back what he said under the eyes of everyone, so he had no choice but to ignore it.

All the officials in the hall slowly put down their chopsticks with great reluctance, and began to rack their brains to think of what to say.There is no way, they don't know what's in it at all, but where do they start.

However, the people in this temple are all human beings after all, and all of them have top-notch political and emotional intelligence.It doesn't matter if you don't know each other, it's okay to flatter.

So from Qin Taifu down, the civil servants began to talk like a river and spit out lotus flowers.The content is nothing more than this year's bumper harvest, the people's life is good, Your Majesty is diligent in government and farmers, Your Majesty is honest and thrifty, Your Majesty's policies are good, Your Majesty's path is right, and Your Majesty leads Da Jing to move forward...

The flattering words rolled out one after another like pearls and jade, just hoping to quickly praise His Majesty so that they can continue to eat.

Pei Nianyu watched the officials in the palace flattering with a blank face. It was the first time that he, who was always well-mannered, felt a little restless in such a formal occasion.He counted the sycophants of the officials sentence by sentence, and whoever recited a little longer would be recorded in the small notebook in his heart.

And Pei Niancheng finally started to panic when he saw his brother's face change from blue to black until now there was no ripple.

So Pei Niancheng immediately stopped their flattery, briefly summed up the useless speeches just now, and ordered the next dish.

The order of the banquet dishes was determined by Pei Nianyu, so he naturally knew that the next dish would be...

Jiqing braised pork.

The so-called Jiqing Braised Pork is actually the Dajing version of Dongpo Pork. Although the two dishes were different in his previous world, because there is no Dongpo in this world, he chose the red one.The red hot color, changed its name to Jiqing Braised Pork.

When he designed it, the weight was still not much, each person had one big piece, and there was only one big piece, which was stored in a jar.

The servants who served food lined up again and came in with wooden trays. Each tray contained a handful of small jars, and the jars were still covered.However, after putting them one by one on the banquet table and lifting the lid, the aroma of the braised pork filled the entire hall in an instant.

Everyone stared at the small jar in front of them. A piece of meat in the jar was wrapped in the surrounding red sauce, steaming outwards, the piece of meat was crumbling in the soup, and it was obvious at a glance that it was extremely soft and rotten.

And the crimson flesh has distinct layers from top to bottom, and the uppermost cortex is clear and translucent, like a gemstone.The meat below is fat and thin, and the oil juice in the layers slowly seeps out, directly reflecting the four characters of soft, glutinous and plump on the vision.

Have they ever seen such a delicate method of making such a single piece of meat?Coupled with the continuous intrusion into the nose of the meaty aroma, various layers of rich and distinct sauce aroma plus three points of sweetness, just looking at it is already delicious.

Even the ministers couldn't help but want to do it themselves, poking the fragile skin with chopsticks.It's just that His Majesty hasn't moved the chopsticks yet, they still resist the desire to pick up the chopsticks.

Pei Niancheng is no exception.He didn't know how Pei Nianyu designed it in advance, so when he heard the name of the dish, his eyes straightened instantly.

He heard right!His brother actually made Dongpo pork!It's still the sweet Jiangsu-Zhejiang version of Dongpo meat, he can smell the sugar through the lid of the jar!

Pei Niancheng hid behind the crown and almost burst into tears. The Dongpo pork that he hadn't seen for twenty years... He really didn't expect that he could still eat such authentic braised pork in this life.

It's not that he didn't let Yushanfang try to do it before, but he himself is a code farmer who only orders takeaway every day, and he can't tell a single thing about the ingredients in the process.This Dongpo meat is also a classic and famous dish, and the deep seasoning skills in it have been perfected over the years. How could the people in the imperial dining room research it.

And Pei Nianyu, who was sitting at the table, looked at Pei Niancheng, then at the officials, and suddenly a slight sneer appeared on the corner of his mouth.

Pei Niancheng was so excited that he was about to poke it with his chopsticks, but Pei Nianyu, who could only hear the first song, cleared his throat and said suddenly:

"May I ask Your Majesty, this auspicious braised pork, but the meat of the black dolphin from the Cloud Province in the north?"

How did Pei Niancheng know?But since my brother asked, he had to cooperate, so he pretended to be authentic:

"Exactly, King Yu really has good eyesight."

Pei Nianyu shook his head:

"I can't talk about eyesight, it's just that I happened to have eaten this Cloud Province black dolphin many years ago."

Pei Niancheng: ...?

Pei Nianyu suddenly expressed emotion and sighed:

"Speaking of which, there is still a story between the Cloud Province black dolphin and Chen..."

Pei Niancheng: ...??

He could only hear him continue to speak slowly:

"Six or seven years ago, the first emperor sent ministers to govern Cloud Province. On the way to take office, they passed by a village in North County of Cloud Province. In that village..."

Pei Niancheng: ...???

All the ministers looked at each other in blank dismay, and only listened to His Royal Highness King Yu talking about the origin of the Yunzhou black dolphin: from the hard work of the farmers in breeding, to the development of the Yunzhou black dolphin market trade to the Yunzhou economy; from the difficulty of managing the harvest, talked about the importance of livestock epidemic prevention.

His Royal Highness King Yu's speech did not stop, so they couldn't move their chopsticks, so they could only continue to listen attentively while enduring the torment of the aroma from the tip of their noses.

Pei Niancheng looked at his brother who had an expression of serving the country and the people, and then at the top-quality Cloud Province pork belly that was glowing red in the bowl, he was dumbfounded.

No, isn't his brother always known for his generosity and kindness? When did he become so vindictive?

However, the thing that stunned him, Emperor Da Jing, was still below.

Halfway through Pei Nianyu's speech, he suddenly said:

"Everyone, please look carefully, how many layers of fat and thin are there in the meat of this Cloud Province black dolphin?"

The ministers did not dare to pretend that they could not hear them, so they lowered their heads to look one by one, and began to count: one, two, three, four...

And Pei Nianyu looked around the hall, seeing that everyone's eyes were shifted to the table, he calmly picked up the chopsticks, and picked up a piece of the pork belly with ease.

Then he turned around slightly, and sent the best part of the meat into the mouth of the man kneeling in the shadow beside him.

Lou Yefeng was astonished, but seeing that he couldn't delay, he had no choice but to skillfully swallow that mouthful of pork belly.

Pei Niancheng sat at the top and saw it clearly: "..."

Is there any Wang Fa!As co-author, you show off that you brought shadow guards in, right?!

Pei Nianyu looked at Lou Yefeng's flustered expression, and suddenly felt cute, so he couldn't help but pause, and stopped his speech.And Pei Niancheng seized this opportunity and hurriedly said:

"King Yu's words are very reasonable, and his deep understanding of the people's sentiments in Cloud Province really makes me ashamed. Come on, since raising this Cloud Province black dolphin is extremely difficult, why don't you all come and taste it?"

Naturally, Pei Nianyu didn't insist anymore, he just absent-mindedly thought about finding some reason to feed his Ye Feng something next time.

Who knows that Pei Nianyu was thinking about it, but suddenly he saw Pei Niancheng gesturing upwards, and then a black shadow fell down, who is it not Li Han?

Pei Niancheng didn't say much, and pointed to the jar of Jiqing braised pork, which meant to let him test the poison.

The shadow guard was testing poison, the ministers were not surprised by this, and didn't think much about it.

On the other hand, Pei Niancheng and his brother looked at each other, then slightly raised his head, which seemed to mean:

You see, I can feed my shadow guards in a fair manner, but you can't.

Pei Nianyu: "..."

What the hell, there is only one piece of braised pork, but even Xiao Sheng would rather give up half of his favorite braised pork to show him off...

What the hell!

He made another note for his younger brother in his heart.

In fact, the food presented to Pei Niancheng was naturally tested for poison in advance, but now Li Han suddenly asked him to test it again when he saw Pei Niancheng, could it be that His Majesty noticed something wrong?

Li Han couldn't help but tense up immediately, and swallowed half a piece of braised pork cut out by the master with lightning speed.

The speed was so fast that he didn't even have a good taste of the ecstasy, and immediately began to secretly look around.

Pei Niancheng: "..."

Pei Nianyu smiled, very happily - my good brother, let's show your love to fools!