Chapter 529

Liu Tan was shocked. "How did he know? Did the scouts find out something?"

Liu Che directly pulled his son back to sit: "Let him in."

Liu Tan tugged at his collar, turned around and looked at Liu Che with wide eyes: Why don’t you give me some face in front of my men?

Liu Che smiled, let go of his hand and helped him straighten his collar.

After Wei Buyi came in, he politely performed the ceremony. Liu Che asked, "How did you know there were more than one tribe of natives here?"

Wei Buyi said frankly: "That's what the captured natives said."

Liu Tan was puzzled when he heard this: "What did you say? Do you understand?"

Wei Buyi thought for a moment and said, "I don't really understand, but I can barely grasp what they mean."

Liu Tan looked Wei Buzhi up and down for a long moment. "Could it be that my previous judgment was wrong? Perhaps the place you should go is the Honglu?"

Wei Buyi suddenly became very nervous: "Your Highness, I am good at leading troops in battle, but I am not good at the Honglu area. I am afraid that if I go there, I will offend all the envoys."

Liu Che smiled and said, "Based on your communication skills, perhaps those foreign envoys will even consider you as a close friend."

After all, when they arrived in the Han Dynasty, there were very few people who could fully understand what they were saying, and Wei Buyi looked righteous and very likable.

Wei Buzhi's face was about to fall. If he had known earlier, he should not have had the time to chat with those natives. Look, something bad happened after chatting, right?

Honglu has always been a relatively unpopular place. Although it sounds like it is involved in diplomacy, in fact, the Han Dynasty did not attach that much importance to diplomacy.

As far as the Han Dynasty is concerned, there are only two types of envoys in diplomacy: those sent by countries that the Han Dynasty can defeat and those sent by countries that the Han Dynasty cannot defeat.

According to the general understanding, when dealing with these two types of countries, we should be tougher towards the country that we can defeat, and be gentler towards the country that we cannot defeat, and try to avoid conflict.

However, in the Han Dynasty, the situation is actually the opposite. They are generally gentle towards countries that they can defeat and will not be too confrontational. On the contrary, they will be very tough towards countries that they cannot defeat and with which they do not have such a good relationship.

So it is not easy to be a Honglu. Wei Buyi never thought that he was suitable to be such a position.

Liu Che and Liu Tan, father and son, were about to make the honest man cry, so Liu Che finally said, "Anyway, the King of the Northern Territory has the final say on everything you do. It's no use begging me. Go back and beg your Highness."

Liu Tan: ...

Although Wei Buyi was not that smart, he figured out something at this moment, so he looked at Liu Tan pitifully.

Liu Tan coughed lightly and said, "I do have plans to replace the captain, but the Northern Kingdom is so short of people, who can I replace it with?"

After Liu Tan finished speaking, he also looked at Liu Che.

Liu Che burst into laughter: "Okay, okay, I will arrange it for you when I get back."

Alright, having poached another person from his father, Liu Tan happily turned to Wei Buyi and asked, "They said there are other indigenous people? Are they similar to the various tribes over there in Baiyue?"

Wei Buyi was stunned for a moment before realizing he had come full circle. He quickly said, "Yes, this island is said to be very vast. They don't even know its farthest point. However, they are one of the smaller tribes here. The largest tribe seems to be further south."

Liu Tan thought to himself, "How big is the Philippines in the future? How can you even figure it out?" If he had enough people, he wouldn't only know its size, but he'd even be able to tell you exactly what good food is nearby!

Liu Che asked, "Do the tribes here often clash?"

Wei Buyi said, "There will be conflicts, but not many. It is said that this is because they are not short of food."

Wei Buyi also felt a little emotional. This place seemed to be very blessed by nature. The grains matured quickly, and all kinds of crops matured quickly. It was also close to the sea, so they really didn't lack food.

However, the cooking skills of the locals here were too poor. They only knew how to bake or boil the food. As a result, whenever Wei Buyi took out a piece of yellow rice flour cake, they would fight over it. After all, they had never eaten such exquisitely prepared food before.

After hearing this, Liu Che said thoughtfully, "It would be much easier if no one dominated. Let them fight among themselves."

Liu Tan was shocked when he heard this, and immediately thought of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the Three Kingdoms Period, the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period... Oh, the last two are a bit far-fetched, but... the people of the Central Plains are very experienced in unification, and they also have a lot of experience in division.

If they really start playing the game of forming alliances, how can these natives be a match for the Han? I'm afraid they will be completely destroyed.

However, as Liu Che said, it is actually more convenient to have more than one indigenous people on this island. As for how to support them, that would be very easy.

However, he will not be involved too much in this aspect. Liu Che will recruit people to discuss and lay the foundation first, and then hand it over to the people below to handle the matter after returning to Chang'an.

Liu Tan thought for a moment, then stood up and said, "I'll go watch them cook dinner."

Liu Che glanced at him, and Liu Tan immediately covered the back of his neck and walked backwards with a vigilant look on his face - he was afraid that his father would drag him back again.

Liu Che smiled as he watched his son walk out backwards.

After Liu Tan went out, he actually ran to the kitchen.

This kitchen had been doing very well before. It is the characteristic of people in the Central Plains that they will never treat their stomach badly no matter where they go, especially for someone like Liu Che. Even if the place is not good, the kitchen must be good.

After Liu Tan arrived, he sent someone to clean up the kitchen - mainly to follow hygiene standards and sterilize and disinfect. This broken place was too hot and it was very easy for bacteria to breed. He also happened to bring a lot of lime, so he just scrubbed the kitchen inside and out.

Although many people felt uncomfortable looking at the white house, Liu Che let his son do it, and others could not afford to offend Liu Tan. Now even the King of Qi had given up in front of the King of the Northern Territory, so what else could they say?

After Liu talked about that place, he asked, "Have you found all the old coconuts?"

Someone immediately said, "Your Highness, we've found it."

After answering, the man asked in confusion, "Your Highness, why don't you want tender coconuts but old ones?"

Liu Tan casually said, "Younger coconuts are only suitable for drinking. Older coconuts are of course used for cooking."

Old Coconut was later known as the Coconut Emperor, but in those days, the word "Emperor" could not be used casually, so he simply called him Old Coconut.

He had previously said that he wanted to make coconut chicken for Liu Che. This dish is actually quite simple. It tastes fresh and sweet by nature and does not require heavy seasoning.

The chickens chosen are naturally local pheasants. These natives do not know how to raise animals in captivity, and they rely on hunting for meat. I don’t know why they are so stupid that they have to go hunting too. In order to choose the tenderest chicken, the chicken coops outside are already full of wild pheasants.

Nowadays, there is actually no such thing as free-range chickens being tastier than farmed chickens. After all, there is no such thing as feed nowadays. Even farmed chickens are fed grains and insects, or allowed to find food on their own. The fundamental reason is the same.

Now I don’t know what the chicken on this island tastes like. It seems that the fat is not rich enough, but fortunately coconut also has oil.

Liu Tan had the coconuts opened and the coconut milk poured out, then mixed the coconut milk with cooking wine, soy sauce, salt and sugar. He also tasted it to make sure the proportions were perfect and that no flavor was too strong.

Then put the chopped chicken pieces in, pour in the prepared coconut milk, and add a little ginger. Finally, put it directly into the pot, pour in water and steam for an hour, and the dish is done.

Compared to the dishes he had made before, this one was quite simple.

Then there is pineapple rice. According to Liu Tan’s understanding, pineapple rice is actually pineapple fried rice with various seasonings.

After preparing the marinated meat, chicken and other ingredients, Liu Tan suddenly remembered that they had brought yellow rice, but Liu Tan suddenly thought that he didn't know if there was rice on this island?

He remembered that rice actually appeared quite early, but due to the harsh growing conditions, it had never been introduced to the Central Plains. Previously, the southern part was not under the control of the Han Dynasty, so naturally no one knew about the existence of such a crop. Now the natural climate conditions on this island can be said to be unique, but... these natives don't know how to farm, so he doesn't know if they can find wild rice.

When Liu Tan thought of this, he glanced at the sky and found that it was still early, so he decided to go out for a walk. He calculated that it was already May, and if it was early rice, it should have been ripe by now.

Of course, he was not too sure. After all, he had never come into contact with these things. He just had a vague impression. If it was not mature, he would just come back and continue to use yellow rice.

He went out on horseback, and the places he went to were all lakes and wetlands with water. As the name suggests, rice, rice, this kind of thing has a relatively large demand for water,

On the way, he did encounter some things with fruits that looked like rice, but when he peeled them open, he realized that they were not rice.

Finally, he finally saw the thing that looked most like rice in a small field. This rice was not the same as the picture he saw that year, but it didn’t matter. The rice in later generations had undergone many hybridization and improvement varieties, so it must be different from the wild rice today.

Anyway, he identifies rice based on its appearance. He can basically tell whether it looks similar to rice by just taking it and seeing if it looks like rice.

He asked people to pick those things that looked like rice, and carefully peeled off the yellow skin to reveal the plant seeds inside.

Liu Tan fell into deep thought, looking at the grains of something in his palm, which he didn't know whether they were rice or not.

Yes, it does look very similar, just a bit smaller than later rice. But why is this thing pale yellow? In Liu Tan's memory, rice is always white, some even have a translucent, crystal-clear color. He has never seen pale yellow rice before. Could it be a unique variety of this era that has not fully evolved?