A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 136: Dragon and Phoenix
Eating men and women, human desires.

On a late autumn night,
Light up the oil lamp, invite a few good friends and have a meal together, it is very pleasant.

Braised wild boar meat is a rare game delicacy. A nobleman like Li Dejiang usually does not eat domestic pork, but he will eat wild boar meat.

The only difference from his previous impression was that Li Yi's braised wild boar meat tasted very tempting.

"The meat is firm, but not tough or dry, and has no fishy or fishy smell. The color of the dish is also beautiful, a bright red, like agate."

Li Erlang praised it highly.

Xiao Shisanlang used to disdain eating pork, but in recent years he has endured all kinds of hardships, including rats, toads, and snakes, in order to survive.

After he picked up a piece of pork, his eyes lit up.

"Young lady, try this. This braised wild boar meat is really good."

Li Yi smiled and said, "This isn't really red-braised pork. I'll skin the wild boar and make some skin-on pork belly someday. I'll make a real red-braised pork dish for you to try. That's what we call delicious."

Young lady wasn't picky.
After picking up a piece of wild boar meat and tasting it, he also gave it high praise.

"For this roast pork, you need to cook it slowly and with minimal water. It will be delicious when cooked to perfection. If conditions permit, simmer it in rice wine. Of course, ginger, cinnamon, bay leaves, and star anise are essential."

"If you add some rock sugar or soy sauce, the color will be better."

"Compared to domestic pigs, wild boar meat has a stronger flavor and firmer meat, so it takes more time to prepare. But once it's prepared well, it has a unique flavor."

Li Yi introduced another dish of pig stomach and chicken to them.

Made with wild boar stomach and pheasant,

"Women can drink more of this pig tripe and chicken soup. Wild boar tripe is also known as the treasure bag, which has the effect of strengthening the stomach and replenishing the body. Wild boars have a varied diet, including bamboo shoots, herbs, bird eggs, mushrooms, rabbits, mountain rats, poisonous snakes, and centipedes. As long as they can eat, they will eat it. The wild boar's stomach can be said to be immune to all poisons.
According to the older generation, after a wild boar swallows a poisonous snake, even if the snake's fangs bite the inner wall of the wild boar's stomach, the wild boar's stomach, which has been soaked in various herbs for a long time, can resist the poison and only a small boil will be left.
The more boils a wild boar's stomach has, the higher its medicinal value.

If you have stomach problems, whether it's stomach pain, acid reflux, or stomach bleeding, eating wild boar stomach is very effective."

Upon hearing this, Yu Youniang immediately said to Xiao Shisan, "Xiao Lang's stomach has always been bad, so he needs to eat more."

"Then Thirteen can buy more wild boar tripe to stew in the future. Remember to use fresh ones and simmer them slowly to make soup."

After hearing Li Yi describe the wild boar stomach as miraculous, several people also scooped a small bowl of soup to drink.

Li Yi spent a lot of effort to clean the wild boar's stomach, and even rubbed it several times with flour and salt. This alone was enough to shock the women in Afu's family so much that they couldn't close their mouths. How could it be such a waste?

Not to mention the addition of Codonopsis pilosula, Astragalus membranaceus, dried longan, red dates, Yam yam, chestnuts, and most importantly, a handful of white peppercorns.

"This dish of chicken wrapped in pig stomach has another nickname, the Phoenix Reincarnation."

"When cooking, stuff the cleaned pheasant into the cleaned wild boar meat, then add various herbs and other ingredients and cook until done.
Then, remove the whole chicken wrapped in pork tripe from the soup, chop the chicken and pork tripe into pieces and strips, and return them to the pot. After the soup boils again, the tripe absorbs the chicken flavor, the chicken dissolves in the tripe, and the medicinal properties are absorbed. It is not only delicious, but also has medicinal and tonic effects.

The name "Phoenix Reincarnation" was heard by everyone, and everyone felt that it was extremely noble.

Li Erlang started drinking immediately.

"Is this really the belly of the wild boar I hunted today?"

"That's not wrong, the chicken you used to make pheasant soup is also the one you hunted."

Li Dejiang made a request, "My mother's stomach isn't very good either. Can I send a bowl to her?"

"Brother Dejiang, what you said is my fault for not considering it carefully. I will send it over right away."

"I'll deliver it myself. It's just across the street anyway."

Li Yi quickly asked Ji to get a food box and put a portion of each dish on the table. Li Dejiang personally carried it to his mother.

After returning, he said happily: "My mother likes this pig stomach and chicken soup very much. She praised me for being filial."

Xiao Shisan was also a nobleman in the past, so he could still taste the dishes today. Although they were just ordinary ingredients, such as deer, wild boar, pheasant, rabbit, with some bean curd sheets, tofu, etc.,

But the cooking is done with great care and a lot of expensive seasonings are added.

For example, the pig stomach and chicken dish not only contains Codonopsis pilosula, Astragalus membranaceus, etc., but also a lot of white peppercorns. The braised wild boar meat also contains rock sugar.

These condiments are much more expensive than the main ingredients.

Of course, it is rare to be able to cook these wild game so deliciously.

"Erlang, why haven't you seen your master recently?"

"My master has been heading southeast since returning from Jingzhou. He said he had some new ideas after talking to you, so he decided to go and try them out. I wanted to go too, but my mother wouldn't let me."

Li Yi understood that it might be because of the South Sea spices and Indian sugar frosting that they talked about during their last drink in Jingzhou. Originally, Zhang San, the sea merchant with curly beard, mainly traded rhinoceros horns, ivory, corals and gemstones in the South Seas, and also traded some Kunlun slaves.
Li Yi said that there is a spice island in the South Seas, which is the largest spice producing area. This probably stimulated Zhang San. After all, spices are called black gold.

One ounce of pepper is worth one ounce of gold. If Zhang San could successfully smuggle a shipload of pepper from Southeast Asia back to the Central Plains, hundreds of stones of pepper would be worth hundreds of thousands of ounces of gold, wouldn't that be?
This is indeed too tempting.

As for what Li Yi said about the extremely high price of frosted sugar in the Tang Dynasty, which makes huge profits, the Tang Dynasty itself also grows sugarcane and produces sugar, but its technology is relatively backward. If they can get some sugar-making craftsmen from India, wouldn't that also break the huge profits of Indian frosted sugar?

Before arriving in Chang'an, Zhang San also had fierce competition with the Sogdian merchants. The main commodities of the Sogdian merchants were spices, frosted sugar, gold, silver, and Hu Ji.

"Come, drink." Li Er raised his glass.
He followed Zhang San mainly to practice martial arts. He loved spending money, and Zhang San was a wealthy sea merchant, so he could pay for anything. But Li Er had no interest in business. He had originally just wanted to go to the sea to take a look, but Zhang Chuchen forbade him to go, so he didn't go.

The wine is yellow wine brewed from soft millet.
The price is really expensive,

Li Yi is looking forward to the launch of his persimmon wine. Although he anticipates that many scholars and literati may not be able to get used to this kind of distilled liquor, generals and soldiers, as well as people in the market and docks should be able to accept it. If you drink a few bowls of rice wine, two small glasses of this liquor may be enough to satisfy you. For many people who want to drink it but don't have enough money, persimmon wine will definitely be a good substitute.

As long as you capture these precise customers, you will never have to worry about the market.

This meal was a delight.

Especially for Xiao Shisan and Yu Youniang, this was the first time in thirteen years that they could eat and drink together openly.
Yu Youniang, who had a good alcohol tolerance, got drunk without realizing it.

She borrowed a sword from Li Yi and wanted to perform a sword dance.

With a little bit of alcohol in her body, Yu Youniang danced with the sword in her hand, with the steps of a dragon and a tiger, playing with dragons and phoenixes. With the sword in her hand, Yu Youniang was like a female knight, combining strength and flexibility, being elegant and heroic, and colorful.

Xiao Shisan looked at him infatuatedly.

"Youniang's sword dance is wonderful. It's a pity that I didn't bring her sword today. Her special sword has a special movable mechanism. When she swings and rotates the sword, it will make a rhythmic sound, which complements her graceful dance.
Accompanied by instruments such as drums and flutes, it makes people immersed in the battle."

Li Yi was surprised at Yu Youniang, a seemingly delicate beauty, and he didn't expect her to be so good at sword dancing.

"Not only does her sword dance look beautiful, but she's also really good at using a sword, right?"

"It's no problem to deal with two or three people," Xiao Shisan said with a smile.

Li Yi was amazed. There were many hidden talents in Chang'an. "I have to ask Youniang to teach Ji and Jin a lesson in the future."

One is Xiao Shisan, who can fly over eaves and walk on walls, and the other is Yu Youniang, who is also a master of swordsmanship.

There are also the bearded guest Zhang San and his apprentice Li Erlang, who are both masters.

Li Yi felt that he should practice martial arts and improve his riding and archery skills, and also practice sword, mace, and spear.

"When you have time later, you can teach me martial arts."

"Okay." Xiao Shisan agreed with a smile, and then said, "But I heard that you are good at the Five Thunders Method. It is quite powerful. No one can resist it. In a flash of lightning, people will collapse to the ground. This method is a thousand times stronger than our martial arts."

Li Yi laughed,
This thing cannot be explained. He used the so-called Five Thunders Method and really knocked down many people. Xiao Shisan stared at him for a long time and probably heard some rumors about this.

"When can we have a competition?" Xiao Shisan said with a smile.

"No need,"

"Let's spar, people who practice martial arts all like to spar."

"Row."

Li Yi met his request.
As a result, Xiao Shisan insisted on dragging Li Yi to have a live competition.
No room for rejection.

no way,
Li Yi had no choice but to stand up.
Follow Xiao Shisan to the courtyard,

The two stood facing each other.

Xiao Shisan was very conceited, with his hands behind his back,

"Please come in, sir,"

Li Yi held the electric baton with the safety turned off in his sleeve, muttering something,

"Lightning Mother and Thunder God, quickly send down your magical powers. I obey the orders of the Supreme Lord Laozi!"

Xiao Shisan was concentrating.

Li Yi first punched with his left hand,
Xiao Shisan blocked with his hand, and Li Yi took the opportunity to use the electric baton in his right hand to quickly push his thigh.
"Give me boom boom boom boom!"

Following Li Yi's loud shout,
Xiao Shisan stiffened, then fell straight to the ground.

Yu Youniang screamed and stood up, running over quickly.

"Xiao Lang,"

"Don't worry, Madam Yu. He was hit by my palm thunder and is temporarily numb. He will be fine in a while."

After a while,
Xiao Shisan was finally able to stand up.

When he looked at Li Yi again, he looked at him with reverence as if he were a god.

At that moment, his whole body was numb and weak. He couldn't even stand. He lost the ability to resist in an instant. It was much stronger than the legendary acupoint pressing kung fu.

Although he has recovered now, the place on his thigh where he was hit is still extremely painful.

He prided himself on his martial arts skills, but unexpectedly, he couldn't even withstand a single blow from Li Yi's magic.

"The county lord's palm thunder is truly unfathomable and extremely powerful. Xiao Shisan, I admire you!"

Li Yi had already secretly taken back the electric baton.
He clasped his fists in a pretentious manner and said, "Thank you."

Li Er, who was standing next to him, was also stunned. He ran over and grabbed Li Yi's hands, looking here and there. He had just seen a flash of lightning in Li Yi's sleeves before he attacked Xiao Shisan.
I checked both hands over and over again, but didn't find anything abnormal.

But Xiao Shisan's reaction just now was definitely not acting.

"Brother Wuyi, no, Master, please accept me as your disciple and teach me this Palm Thunder!"

(End of this chapter)