Chapter 25 Eating and Drinking The Fourth Prince Yinzhen is a few months older than Muxue. …

The fourth prince, Yinzhen, was a few months older than Muxue. The education of the prince was completely different from that of the princess. Like other princes, after he was enlightened, he was busy with school, homework, archery, and horseback riding. When he was older, he was assigned errands and was very busy. In addition, they were raised by their respective mothers, and the fourth princess was quiet by nature and rarely made any noise in the palace. Therefore, although the fourth prince and the fourth princess were siblings, they were not very close. They would only say a few auspicious words to each other during festivals in the palace.

It was not until she said "get out" that his impression of this sister finally changed. My goodness, he really thought she was as gentle and obedient as the third princess.

The Fourth Prince stood there expressionless. Then he saw the Fourth Princess actually turned her head and smiled.

"What's so funny?" he frowned.

"I'm sorry to have embarrassed you, Fourth Brother," Mu Xue tried to suppress the corners of her mouth, "Sorry, I thought it was the Prince Consort who came over, and I was teasing him."

"Husbands and wives should live in harmony, and even husbands and wives should talk to each other in a polite manner."

Mu Xue nodded and said perfunctorily: "Yeah, you are right."

"Okay, come out and have some snacks together."

The weather was clear tonight, and the stars were shining brightly, so we simply spread a blanket on the open space between several large tents, set up a table, and had some snacks.

Before leaving, Mu Xue specially asked someone to prepare some snacks for the journey, and now it was the perfect time to take them out for everyone to taste.

Considering the long journey and the bumpy ride, she asked the kitchen to prepare some tasty food, such as chicken feet with pickled peppers in a small jar. As soon as she opened the jar, the rich sour and spicy aroma hit her face.

Dorji was used to her snacks and knew that none of them were bad, so he immediately grabbed a chicken foot and ate it.

The Fifth Prince's nose twitched and he was a little excited when he smelled the aroma. After seeing his Fourth sister and her husband start eating, he immediately started eating as well.

"This is delicious, very appetizing." The Fifth Prince confirmed while gnawing on the chicken feet. He had no appetite before, and felt sick of the palace snacks, but he found the pickled pepper chicken feet delicious.

Only the Fourth Prince sat upright and did not touch the pickled pepper chicken feet.

Mu Xue asked, "Fourth brother, do you want to try it?"

The fourth prince shook his head. His previous eating habits were to follow Khan Ama, who insisted on "eating only one dish per meal", eating chicken if he wanted, eating lamb if he wanted, and the rest of the dishes were for others. The fourth prince followed suit and rarely ate snacks. Moreover, eating chicken feet did not look very proper and proper.

The Fifth Prince refused to let him go, and he took one and stuffed it into his mouth, saying noisily, "Eat one, eat one. This is the first time Fourth Sister has shared this snack with us, Fourth Brother is so kind as to give her face and have a bite."

The Fifth Prince’s loud voice gave him a headache, so the Fourth Prince had no choice but to take a chicken foot and taste it.

...seems to taste pretty good.

So he ate in silence.

Mu Xue was standing by and saw the Fourth Prince sitting upright and eating chicken feet. She wanted to laugh again.

After eating spicy food, Mu Xue wanted to eat something sweet, so she offered her improved version of nut shaqima. Although shaqima already existed these days, it was generally like a sacrificial snack, made in a large piece and filled with a lot of sugar. It might be delicious for people who usually don't eat much sugar, but for Mu Xue, it was a bit too sweet. She asked the kitchen to make the shaqima very small, one bite at a time, and put less sugar so that it wouldn't be too greasy.

The snacks whetted our appetites, so we urgently asked the kitchen staff to bring out a pot, cut a few plates of mutton and pork, and eat them with vegetables. We also asked the teahouse staff to bring out two jars of Songlin Wengtouchun wine and put them in wine glasses for everyone to taste.

As the aroma of the brass pot filled the air, the relationship between the few people became closer.

The Fifth Prince shouted, "Wait a little longer until we reach the river, I will definitely catch a few big fish and stew them in an iron pot."

"Is this possible?" Mu Xue widened her eyes.

"Of course, Khan Ama remembered to fish for the prince when he came back from the battle. We are not on the march, so it won't take much time to fish or hunt on the way." The Fifth Prince looked at Dorji, "You are good at horse riding, so you must show your skills to my Fourth Sister. Hunt some deer or wild boars and we can barbecue them."

Dorji nodded: "Okay, I remember it."

He turned to Mu Xue and asked, "Do you like venison or wild boar meat?"

This statement is like "I will hunt whatever you like to eat". Mu Xue thought about it and said, "I think wild rabbits are more delicious."

The Fifth Prince laughed out loud: "Fourth sister, his archery skills when used to catch rabbits are like using a butcher knife to kill a chicken."

Dorji also laughed: "As long as the princess likes it, venison is not as good as rabbit meat."

While chatting, Muxue inadvertently saw a person looking at the stars with a telescope on a slightly higher ground in front of her, and she couldn't help but feel curious.

“Who is that person looking at the stars?”

Several people looked in the direction she pointed, and the Fourth Prince said, "It's Zhang Cheng. He's probably observing the celestial phenomena again."

"Is there such a person in our team?" Mu Xue asked.

The fourth prince nodded: "Khan Ama approved it. He just happened to be going to draw a map of Mobei on this trip."

Hearing the words "Mobei Map", Mu Xue's heart was moved. She also wanted to have a map in her hands.

She deliberately said, "I don't know what I'm looking at with my hands. Call him over so that I can see it too."

"That's a telescope, a Western thing." The Fifth Prince explained while asking the eunuch to call for help.

Not long after, Zhang Cheng came running over. He was wearing the common clothes of the Qing Dynasty. With this simple name, Mu Xue thought he was an official of the Imperial Observatory. But when he looked up, he was a man with a high nose and blue eyes.

He is actually a Westerner!

Mu Xue suddenly became a little excited.

Seeing her expression, the Fourth Prince thought she was a little scared, so he put down his wine glass and said, "Don't be afraid, he is a missionary from the West."

The Fifth Prince also agreed: "Ah, I forgot, you probably didn't see him before you got married. It's okay, he even taught Khan Ama the principles of geometry."

Mu Xue smiled and indicated that she was fine.

She wasn't afraid at all, she was just a little excited! Meeting the foreigners, she felt like the village finally had internet access and was reconnected to the world.

She stared at Zhang Cheng fiercely and asked, "Which country are you from?"

"Your Highness, I am a Frenchman."

"So who is the emperor there?"

"Our version is somewhat different from the Qing court's. We can probably say it's Emperor Louis XIV."

Muxue asked in Manchu and Zhang Cheng also answered in Manchu.

She praised: "This foreigner has learned the language very well."

The Fifth Prince said in Mongolian: "He is quite good at languages. He can speak Manchu, Chinese, and even Rakshasa. Last time, Uncle Tong went to Rakshasa for negotiations, he brought him along."

He suddenly remembered something and said to Dorji, "Hey, didn't you say you wanted to learn Chinese? This foreigner is good at learning Chinese and can teach you."

Dorji laughed. He wanted to learn Chinese, but he wanted the Fourth Princess to teach him. He didn't want to respond to the Fifth Prince's question, so he turned to ask Zhang Cheng, "Did you go to Luosha?"

"I went there on loan from your Mobei land," Zhang Cheng said in Mongolian, "and I was lucky enough to meet your great uncle, the Great Lama."

Mu Xue listened and thought silently. Luosha... is it referring to Russia? Then the Russian negotiations during the reign of Emperor Kangxi were probably the Treaty of Nerchinsk?

She was afraid that she had mixed it up, so she asked, "Negotiation, what are you negotiating about?"

The fourth prince said briefly: "The Russians have gone crazy and always wanted to occupy some border areas. Khan Ama sent people over to negotiate the border."

This means that this is a person who is proficient in multiple languages, is relatively familiar with the terrain of Mobei, understands the French and Russian situations, and also serves as a teacher of astronomy, geography, and mathematics.

Mu Xue suddenly felt a bit like Liu Xuande looking at Zhuge Kongming.

She could use this person to figure out the current situation in the world.