The Ming Dynasty’s Prodigal Son - Chapter 1583

[1583. Chapter 1504 It smells so good]

. I am really hungry after listening to the show in the middle of the night.

When the county magistrate Zhu Wenjing heard that your majesty wanted to eat something, he hurriedly said: “I will order someone to cook some food right now, for fear that it will not suit your majesty’s taste.”

Emperor Hongzhi shook his head: “Didn’t I say that? I want to eat this dried fish.”

“There’s no need to bother the cook. He’s already asleep after midnight, so why not…” Emperor Hongzhi glanced at Zhu Wenjing: “Does the Qing family know how to cook?”

Zhu Wenjing shook her head hurriedly. : “A gentleman is far away from the kitchen, how can I…how do you do this?”

Emperor Hongzhi said calmly: “Wen Yansheng, the former magistrate of Ningbo, was good at this. I think he is also a gentleman.”

Zhu Wenjing: “…”

Emperor Hongzhi said He then said: “Where is the chef? Successor…” He cheered up and seemed to have developed a strong interest in trivial household matters.

Zhu Wenjing was surprised and dumbfounded for a moment, but at this time she had to bite the bullet and lead Emperor Hongzhi to the kitchen.

Emperor Hongzhi said: “Wen Qing’s family is good at cooking, and I want to try it. Come on, light a fire for me.”

Fang Jifan just held the dried fish aside and said nothing.

However, Zhu Wenjing was horrified and said hurriedly: “Your Majesty, Your Majesty… How can your Majesty, with his rich body,… be able to do such a thing?”

Cooking, in the eyes of the scholar-bureaucrats of this era, was considered unworthy. Zhu Wenjing was obviously anxious. He felt that His Majesty was committing suicide. Could it be… that he was deliberately showing his dissatisfaction with the reception?

He is just a small county magistrate, located in a remote place, and people are like that. For many people, the emperor who is so high above has been sanctified, as if he is not a human being, and will always sit on the plaque of the ancestor of the heaven. The clay statues below are just enjoying fireworks and have no humanity.

Just like Mr. Ye loves dragons, when the dragon actually appeared in front of him, Zhu Wenjing felt horrified in her heart. Oh, the emperor still eats midnight snacks.

Emperor Hongzhi frowned and looked at Zhu Wenjing strangely: “I am a rich man. Isn’t it possible that I won’t be hungry? If I’m hungry, why don’t I eat something? Eat, don’t cook. What’s the point?”

Zhu Wenjing was Dizzy.

Seeing Emperor Hongzhi directing Xiao Jing to light the fire, he himself rolled up his sleeves, looking eager to try.

Zhu Wenjing suddenly stretched her neck, as if she had made a lot of determination, and said solemnly: “Your Majesty, I… I can do it for you.”

Emperor Hongzhi said: “Don’t you know how to cook?”

Zhu Wenjing said with a sullen face: ” Yes.”

Emperor Hongzhi smiled and said, “So you are deceiving the emperor?”

“This…” Zhu Wenjing smiled bitterly: “Even if you know how to cook, you must not show it to others, otherwise you will inevitably be laughed at. I will die.”

Fang Jifan was convinced.

Zhu Wenjing seemed to show that she could do all the work for her, so she started to get busy and said: “Your Majesty, I am inconvenienced at night, and it is not advisable to eat too much. You might as well make porridge and serve it with dried fish. Put in the rice first.” “This porridge needs to be cooked over slow fire, but… I’m afraid I can’t wait any longer, so I have to cook it over high heat. This dried fish…”

He took the dried fish from Fang Jifan and rolled up his sleeves. , took a kitchen knife, chopped onions and garlic, minced them, and took dried fish to wash. Fang Jifan asked him to put more chili peppers.

He took the chili peppers familiarly, chopped them into pieces with his excellent knife skills, soaked the chili peppers in oil, and burned the oil pan on the other side. After a moment, he threw in the main dishes and accessories, and picked up the pot. Come, stir-fry back and forth, and say: “These dishes need to be stir-fried over high heat. If the heat is not enough, the flavor will be insufficient. Please turn on the air bag.

Then, the wind blew directly into the stove, and the fire jumped up. The red oil mixed with chili peppers boiled and splashed in the pot. Zhu Wenjing raised the pot with his hand, and flames burst out in the pot. He took advantage of the fire, his hands were flying, and in a moment, he covered the oil pot again, The pot was crackling with hot oil boiling, and he breathed a sigh of relief: “Okay, you can put out the fire. “

After that, he opened the pot again, added onions and garlic, mixed with a little vinegar, and said: “When frying this dried fish, be sure not to add too much salt, and be careful. ” He squeezed it with his hands, slurped a little salt and threw it in.

Then he put the fried golden dried fish on the pot.

At this time… the aroma of the dried fish began to overflow.

Emperor Hongzhi stood aside and watched silently. , actually a little confused.

Zhu Wenjing obviously said he didn’t know how to cook, but just looking at his skills, he was probably a ‘wizard’.

At this time, Zhu Wenjing said: “Your Majesty, eat this spicy fish now. But it’s not appropriate. Firstly, the porridge water is not yet cooked. Secondly, other vegetables are best eaten while they are hot, but dried fish does not need to be eaten while it is hot. When it is cool, it is eaten with the porridge, which makes it more delicious. Your Majesty, I beg your Majesty to move and take a rest in the hall. There is a lot of oil smoke here. It will take an hour and a half before you can have your meal. “

Emperor Hongzhi and Fang Jifan were both dumbstruck.

After listening to these words, you will know that this person is… very capable.

He is a talent.

Emperor Hongzhi nodded and went back to the hall with Fang Jifan. After waiting for half an hour, a plate was served as expected. Dried fish and hot porridge were brought up.

Fang Jifan said first, “Your Majesty, be careful. I will try the poison first. “

So I picked up the chopsticks, took the dried fish first, and ate it with the hot porridge. I felt a spiciness spreading on my tongue first, and then the chewy dried fish neutralized the porridge water, which immediately made the taste stronger in my mouth. .

At this time, his stomach was a little hungry, and he suddenly felt like he had a big appetite.

Seeing that Fang Jifan was eating well, he also took out the chopsticks.

The food in the palace is the same as the moderation emphasized by the scholar-bureaucrats. It is always neither salty nor bland, nor spicy nor sweet. The reason is that if the sweetness or spicyness is too much and the nobles don’t like it, that is sin.

But if the taste is just right, or neither good nor bad, there is no merit, but no fault.

This is the survival instinct of the royal chefs.

Therefore, the sudden and spicy taste caused Emperor Hongzhi to eat it suddenly, and his tongue was greatly irritated. After a while, he was covered in hot sweat and his face turned red.

There was a sense of discomfort throughout his taste buds, and Emperor Hongzhi hurriedly mixed the porridge with the dried fish and ate it together.

But after the feeling passed, I felt an inexplicable urge to stop.

“It tastes good.” Emperor Hongzhi praised it, and then continued to sweat and eat the porridge. It actually felt like eating on the stove.

Especially the dried fish, which is chewy and spicy, which makes it very enjoyable.

After finishing the bowl of porridge, Xiao Jing handed over the handkerchief. Emperor Hongzhi wiped his sweat and felt a little more satisfied. He couldn’t help but smile: “The Qing family said they don’t know how to cook, but who would have expected that they are actually experts.”

Zhu Wenjing With a face of shame, shame and anger, he hurriedly said: “I… I… I have nothing to do.”

“There is nothing I can do?” Emperor Hongzhi gave Zhu Wenjing a strange look.

Zhu Wenjing hesitated for a moment, and finally said: “The salary of the imperial court is really meager. With such a small amount of money and food, I still need to bear the expenses of bearers, cooks, and handymen. Although there are occasional filial piety from below, I still have some money. I really don’t dare to take it. On the one hand, I can’t bear to exploit the people. On the other hand, if I take some money, I will inevitably be controlled by others. But how can I support my family with this salary? In fact, my family is pretty good. With some money and food sent from home, it was barely enough, but I didn’t dare to use it for unnecessary expenses such as cooking, so… I have always… made the fire by myself.”

Emperor Hongzhi listened. Extremely surprised.

A dignified official with his parents actually had to rely on money sent from home to barely support himself? Not only that, but… he

couldn’t afford to hire a cook? Emperor Hongzhi couldn’t help but look at Fang Jifan: “Has Jifan heard about this?”

Fang Jifan was a little more surprised .

Not surprisingly, he said: “This salary was set by Emperor Taizu Gao. At that time… it was actually a bit meager. But over the past hundred years, the depreciation of silver prices, coupled with inflation, in fact, …Although there are occasional measures to increase salaries, they are only a drop in the bucket. Even the current salary and salary are compared with those of Emperor Taizu and Gao. After taking into account inflation, in total, they are actually higher than those of Emperor Taizu and Gao. Difficult.”

Emperor Hongzhi looked dumbfounded: “Since the blame can’t be revealed, why didn’t anyone come forward?”

Fang Jifan said awkwardly: “What is involved here is the delicate human heart. If they are bad officials, they have other sources of wealth. If the salary is less than this, even if the imperial court raises the salary, it will be limited. It doesn’t mean much to them, so they just let it go. But if they are good officials… they have already determined to be good officials. , Of course they don’t bother mentioning such immoral things as money and food. They don’t talk about money, so just eat rice bran.”

Emperor Hongzhi: “…”

Emperor Hongzhi seemed to have spent a lot of brain cells digesting what Fang Jifan said. these words.

He sighed for a long time: “I didn’t expect that… Zhu Wenjing, your family wants to support you as an official, how much money and food do you send every month.”

“It’s not much.” Now that everything has been said, Zhu Wen Jing didn’t hesitate any more and said truthfully: “It’s probably ten taels of money and food, but… if you are an official, you will always need a carriage and a sedan when you go out, and you have to hire some people, so…”

Emperor Hongzhi understood, and then He asked Fang Jifan, “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

Fang Jifan couldn’t help complaining in his heart. Didn’t His Majesty talk to me every day about how to be frugal and brag about how to save money? I dare to mention this?

Of course, Fang Jifan couldn’t say what was in his heart, so he smiled and said: “I will die.”

“It seems that we need to discuss this matter with Liu Qing and others, discuss it first, and then come up with a feasible solution .

“Emperor Hongzhi picked up the tea cup, sipped the tea, and then said: “This dried fish is very delicious. There is no such delicacy in the imperial palace. The clear soup in the imperial dining room is not as good as the dried fish. The man named Zhao Er is quite conscientious. I can’t let him suffer even if I eat his dried fish. When I return to the palace, I will order someone to send him 100,000 gold.”

(End of Chapter)