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

Chapter 70 The case is solved

A distinguished guest came to Du Ruhui's house.

He specially ordered the kitchen to prepare a sumptuous meal.

Li Yi also saw the delicacies of the nobles, which were really more than just the pomp.

First came the cold lamb dish. It looked a bit like boiled lamb, so Li Yi asked about it. He was told it was made by adding spices to the lamb, then removing the bones while hot, flattening the meat, and then slicing it thinly. It was a delicious dish in the summer.

Li Yi picked up a piece and tasted it. It had no smell of mutton or fish, but was firm, chewy, and full of color and flavor. Dipping it in the special sauce, it had a unique flavor, fatty but not greasy. The Lengxiu lamb, with the skin still on, had distinct layers and a lingering fragrance.

"Fragrant." Li Yi gave a thumbs up.

After tasting it, Li Shimin said it was a Tongzhou sheep.

"Your Highness is wise. This is indeed a sheep from Shayuan, Tongzhou." Du Ruhui said. Tongzhou sheep is the favorite sheep of Chang'an people. It is also the number one mutton in their hearts, more popular than Yanzhou beach sheep.

Du Ruhui's banquet for guests today mainly consists of mutton, with some Hu style.

Then came the Gulouzi, which is an advanced way of eating meat pie. Each Gulouzi uses a pound of mutton, which is sandwiched between several layers of pie, and then topped with fermented black beans, black pepper and other seasonings, plus cheese, and baked in a large oven. It is taken out and eaten when the meat is half cooked.

Township head Wang and village chief Wang also benefited from Li Yi's influence today and were both honored guests of the Du family. He cut open the ancient building in front of him and saw the black peppercorns inside. He was amazed and whispered to Li Yi beside him, "Do you know how expensive pepper is in Chang'an now? One ounce of peppercorns sells for one ounce of gold. It's called black gold, and a single grain of peppercorn is worth twenty or thirty coins. The most expensive thing in this ancient building is not the pound of mutton, but the peppercorns. The peppercorns in this ancient building must be worth five or six hundred coins."

Is this the low-key luxury of the aristocracy? Moutai in mineral water bottles?
They both ate Hu Bing. Li Yi bought the meat Hu Bing from Zou Luotuo's house in the East Market. It was filled with one or two taels of mutton and green onions. Sanniang sold the meat Hu Bing at Luojia Bridge. It was filled with frog meat and field mouse meat.

Du Ruhui's Hu Bing not only contains a pound of mutton, but also twenty or thirty grains of black pepper. The ingredients including the cake, mutton, pepper, etc. are worth a thousand coins.

This also reminded Li Yi once again that the Sogdian merchants were really making money by bringing spices from the Western Regions to the Central Plains. The Sogdians claimed that pepper came from India, but in fact, Southeast Asia was the main source of spices such as pepper and cloves. If a spice trade route could be opened from the Tang Dynasty to Southeast Asia, the profits would be unimaginable.

Du Ruhui was a fifth-rank official, and the court would provide him with nine sheep every month. Of course, given his status as a member of the Jingzhao Du family, he could still eat Tongzhou sheep every meal without the court's supply of sheep.

Whether mutton costs two hundred coins per pound or a few dozen coins per pound, it has no effect on the Du family's consumption of mutton.

There was no pork on the Du family's banquet. Du Ruhui said with a smile that neither pork nor dog meat could be served. "Pork can block the blood vessels, weaken the bones and muscles, and strengthen the qi. Anyone who eats it will suffer from the wind."

He also laughed and said that last time his two sons had a fight, he was so angry that he punished them to eat pork. The Du brothers vomited while eating, feeling extremely disgusted. Du Ruhui threatened that if they dared to fight again, he would not only punish them with pork but also with crispy pastry.

Li Yi wanted to laugh when he heard this. The punishment for a noble family was to eat pork?
If such a punishment were imposed on the villagers of Luojiabao, everyone would be eager to be punished. When he was repairing his house, he would buy some pig's trotters, pig's heads and pig's offal and stew them in water. Everyone would praise the village chief for being generous.

For people who are lacking in nutrition, pork does not have so many disadvantages. On the contrary, it can replenish qi and blood and strengthen muscles and bones.

However, Li Yi also knew why the upper class nobles disliked pork. In this era, the common people raised pigs and kept them next to the toilet. Pigs and dogs really ate feces.

How could the nobles who were high and mighty not feel sick at the thought of this?

The core of the Guanlong Group is the Wuchuan nobles, who are also known as a mixed-blood family. Even though they founded the Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui and Tang dynasties, they still had a strong Hu style.

They also particularly like mutton.

Before Gu Louzi finished eating, the maid brought him another dish.

"This is Yujian noodles, steamed with bear and deer as fillings."

Li Yi looked at the dish that the young maid brought to his table. Aren’t they just buns?

What are "Xiaoxiong" and "Zhanlu"? Are they bear meat and venison buns?
Li Yi's confusion made Li Shimin burst into laughter. "Xiaoxiong is bear fat, the fat on the bear's back. This is the most essential part of the bear fat. Zhanlu is a carefully raised deer. Bear fat and venison are mixed into a fine filling, then wrapped in dough into a thin pointed shape and steamed. This is Xijian noodles."

Bear fat and venison stuffed buns, Li Yi had never heard of them before.

Try one now.
The bun skin was very tender, and the venison filling inside was very fresh. He also tasted the flavor of mushrooms.

Bear oil is not as fishy as I imagined, but the bear oil buns are very fragrant.

The noodles were not big, and Li Yi showed off four of them in one breath.

Everyone laughed at the way he ate, and Li Yi didn't feel embarrassed at all.

"It's delicious."

Du Ruhui said that the Du family had their own deer farm where they raised deer. If ordinary nobles wanted to eat deer, they had to buy them from the royal deer farm. The emperor had the largest deer farm in Chang'an, which not only supplied the palace but also sold some to the nobles.

Of course, the nobles could also hunt deer themselves or buy deer hunted by others, but it was not as convenient to eat as those raised at home.

As for bear fat, that's what you hunt.

The dish continued, this time it was a soup. The maid introduced it, "This soup is called Huitang Wuku. It is made with thirteen kinds of ingredients: lamb, cattle, deer, fish, pigeon, rabbit, goose, chicken, and duck. After the soup is ready, you can add the pancakes."

Li Yi looked at the big bowl in front of him.

It is just a bowl of noodles, but thirteen kinds of meat ingredients are used to make soup first and then cook the noodles. It can be said to be the ultimate advanced version of Motou.

First, scoop some soup.

Fresh, extremely delicious.

Rich and mellow aroma,

I scooped some more noodles, hmm, they were tender and smooth yet chewy.

This bowl of food is rich in texture but not too flavorful, which is rare. The last dish is fish.

Fresh crucian carp and silver carp, celery and green stream soup.

The big crucian carp was served and the cook cut it up right away. The cook was very skilled. She removed the scales and gills of the live fish, cut the tail and drained the blood, removed the internal organs and the meat, peeled it, sliced it, and then cut it into silver threads.
There is no unnecessary movement.

Soon, the silver thread was placed on a plate and one portion was placed in front of each person.

There are also side dishes, including sour buckwheat, coriander, perilla leaves, shredded ginger and more than 20 other ingredients.

Li Yi looked at the crystal clear fish dish in front of him.

Didn't taste it.

He is afraid of parasites.

This is a freshwater fish.
My cousins from Guangxi eat sashimi with a briefcase.

Li Yi patted his belly and said, "I'm full. I can't eat any more. If I had known there would be such delicious food later, I should have eaten less just now."

This made Li Shimin and others laugh again.

Everyone likes this dish of fresh crucian carp and silver thread, especially Hou Junji and Xu Luoren, two fierce generals under Li Shimin. They are his inseparable captains of the guards and his friends who grew up together. They are so fierce when eating sashimi.
After the sashimi, there is a mountain of pastry. The ice stored in the kiln is broken and piled into a rockery. Liquid pastry is poured on the crushed ice, and then some flowers and plants are added for decoration. A summer dessert mountain of pastry is ready.

In the hot summer, eating a piece of frozen milk puff and chewing a piece of crushed ice with a crunchy sound is really pleasant.

"Please forgive me for the poor hospitality."

After the meal, tea is served.

Du Ruhui even complained that the hospitality was not good enough, but Li Yi thought he was showing off. Li Yi couldn't make those dishes even if he had money.

"I will invite everyone to come to my manor in Fanchuan someday. I'll make preparations in advance, so it won't be so simple." Du Ruhui said with a smile.

Li Yi felt that it was not simple at all. Although there were only a few dishes, they were all classics, including Leng Xiu Lamb, Gulouzi, Yujian Noodles, Huitang Wuku, Fresh Crucian Carp with Silver Threads, and Sushan. Don't underestimate the six dishes.

But outside, you can’t eat even if you have money.

Even ordinary chefs don’t know how to make it. For example, Sushan requires ice, which is only available in the seventh month of summer and only by powerful aristocratic families.

luxury,

This is a famous family.

They were going to visit Li Yi's home, and the only dishes Li Yi could think of were braised pork, braised pork feet with soybeans, sweet and sour spareribs, hand-held mutton, three-fresh stew with bean curd sheets, fried tofu soup, steamed fish, and stir-fried dried tofu with leeks.
The maid of the Du family was also very pleasant to watch when she made tea. She was pretty and her movements were graceful.

Today I am cooking Xishan Bailu produced in Hongzhou in the south of the Yangtze River. While cooking, the maid introduced that Bailu from Xishan in Hongzhou is one of the top ten famous teas in the world, along with Huangya from Huoshan in Shouzhou, Jiuchen from Muzhou, Zisun from Huzhou and Mengding Shihua from Yazhou.

There are sixteen states in the world that produce tribute tea, all of which are in the south, such as Bashu, Shannan, Huainan, Jiangnan and other places.

What is rare is that the Xishan Bailu I drink today is not the most common cake tea, but a rare loose tea, or a loose leaf tea made from young leaves, which is not much different from the green tea of later generations.
What Li Yi found difficult to accept was that although the tea was loose tea made from tender buds, the Tang people still used the same old method when drinking it: roast it first, grind it into powder, boil it, and add various ingredients.

What a waste of natural resources.

Li Yi couldn't help but ask the tea maid for some loose tea, and then brewed a pot for himself.

When everyone saw Li Yi like this, they thought he was just a cow chewing on a peony and had no idea of elegance.

Li Yi looked at the Bailu tea he brewed. The soup was bright in color and had a warm fragrance like orchid. He took a sip and found it very pure and had an endless aftertaste. This was the best tea he had tasted since he came to the Tang Dynasty.

Unfortunately, Li Shimin, Du Ruhui, Fang Xuanling and others did not know how to drink.

Hou Junji and Xu Luoren, two warriors, also specifically asked the maid who made tea to add milk.

Li Yi was at ease.
You have your milk tea, and I have my green tea.

"I used to travel around the world with my master and was used to drinking this kind of brewed loose tea. It only has the original flavor of tea, clear green leaves, beautiful shape, color, fragrance and rich taste."

"Since Wuyi likes to drink loose tea, you can take a few pounds back to drink later." Du Ruhui said generously.

Tea room,
The Qin Palace's treasurer Zhenpilou Wuche came in and stood before Li Shimin. "Your Highness, we have found some clues about the missing villagers of Luojiabao."

"speak,"

"We've found that Luo Tuzi and his family from Luojiabao are now in Jiangjunying Village at the head of Shenheyuan."

"Have you found out who took them away?"

Pilou Wuche glanced at Li Yi and continued, "He is an external manager of the Jingzhao Wei family's official house."

The Jingzhao Wei clan was a prosperous and diverse clan with at least nine major branches, known as the Nine Dukes of the Wei clan. Among them, the Xun Gong branch descended from Wei Xiaokuan, the Grand Marshal, Supreme General, and Duke of Yun of the Northern Zhou Dynasty. Therefore, descendants of the Xun Gong branch were known as the Yun Gong branch. Wei Xiaokuan was the younger brother of Wei Xiaokuan, Duke of Xiaoyao. Both the Xiaoyao and Xun Gong branches were descended from the Dongjuan branch.

"How dare you," Li Shimin snorted, then turned to Li Yi and said, "Wuyi, the missing villagers in your village have been found."

(End of this chapter)