Chapter 41

The spring in the northwest is still cold, and the wind in the wilderness outside the Great Wall makes the flags rustle.

Marquis Jingyuan looked solemn, holding a talisman in his hand, and announced the imperial edict of the Emperor of Great Yan. Everyone bowed in worship, while the envoys from the Xiye Kingdom held their breath and listened to the edict.

When they heard that "the two countries established diplomatic relations, exchanged friendly exchanges, and bestowed gold seals and purple ribbons on King Wutumi of Xiya and Prince Talan...", the eyes of the entire delegation lit up.

They originally thought that the Emperor of Dayan would hold them accountable, but unexpectedly he would grant them gold seals and purple ribbons. With these, they were nominally officials of Dayan, and the purpose of this trip was accomplished.

Lin Shuge thought: This can also be considered as a way of "ruling barbarians with barbarians". Those who surrender will be granted seals and ribbons. These people will not only be the rulers of the Western Regions, but can also serve as officials of Dayan to help Dayan make friends with all four quarters.

As the chief envoy of Xiya Kingdom, Taran announced to everyone the amount of gems, horses, wheat and millet that Xiya Kingdom paid as tribute to Dayan. Dayan Ze gave them beautiful and precious items, most of which were silk. This could be regarded as a way to achieve diplomatic relations between the two countries through "barter" and demonstrate the power of Dayan.

Marquis Jingyuan added some information from the Emperor of Dayan regarding the Yuerong trade. Taran felt a surge of emotion when he heard it. He looked at Lin Shuge through the crowd. Lin Shuge quickly lowered his eyes and stared at his toes.

After an unknown amount of time, Lin Shuge's knees were sore from kneeling, and finally the ceremony was over. The envoys of the two countries returned to their respective post stations. Next, they had to go to Yandu to pay homage to the Emperor of Great Yan.

Taran ran over excitedly, "Lin County Magistrate, the Emperor of Yan Dynasty did not blame us and agreed to trade between the two countries. Thank you for your mediation."

Lin Shuge was a little embarrassed. "Your Highness, we still have to rely on the mercy of our emperor. However, since this is related to the eldest prince, you must write a letter to King Xiye as soon as possible and hand it over to our envoy as soon as possible."

Taran's bright eyes dropped. "My father wrote to me saying that my brother would be escorted to Ganzhou tomorrow. We were brothers, but I never thought he would end up like this."

As a Dayan native, Lin Shuge couldn't say some things, so he could only change the subject, "How is Ale recovering? I was too busy these days and didn't go to see him."

"He's almost well. He should be able to follow the delegation to Yandu. By the way, he's clamoring to see you." Taran had indeed forgotten about the eldest prince and had a sly smile on his face.

As soon as Lin Shuge saw his expression, he knew that Ale was bound to do something bad.

"Tell me, what do you want me to do?"

"He said you still owe him a barbecue. If you don't honor your promise, we'll have to go to Yandu."

Well, compared to the disappearance and assassination, barbecue is nothing, a small matter.

"Let's go to the outskirts of the city tomorrow." A winter has passed, and the prey should be out and about.

But looking at Taran and Ale, they don't look like hunters. Why don't he just buy ready-made meat tomorrow? .

"Okay, it's settled. I'll go tell Ale the good news."

Taran ran off in great joy.

Lin Shuge shook his head and turned to find Zhou Du. How could such a thing happen without him?

"What? Going hunting and barbecuing tomorrow? Go, go, I will definitely go." When Zhou Du heard that they were going out to eat, drink and have fun, he spoke so loudly that all the officials passing by stopped to look at him.

He quickly whispered, "But I have something I haven't dealt with yet. Look, which officer even counted the number of horses wrong. And this, the horse was sick but he didn't find a doctor. Why did he report it to me?"

These horses were tributes from the Xiya Kingdom to Dayan. If they suffered heavy losses after passing through Ganzhou, wouldn't they all be held accountable?

Zhou Du was so angry that he pounded the table and said, "Help me deal with this pile of documents. I'll go with you after you finish it."

Lin Shuge took it and sat down to help him review it.

Seeing Lin Shuge's calm and composed look, Zhou Du asked curiously, "Have you finished your official duties?"

Lin Shuge spread his hands, "It's over, there's no rush for spring ploughing."

"Tell me quickly how you did it. We were all on duty together, so how did you run around everywhere and still finish your work?" Zhou Du was so busy that he took the time to ask him.

"Oh, maybe it's because I'm using the time that some people spend slacking off to work."

"Slacking off? What does slacking off mean?"

"You're just slacking off right now."

"You mean gossiping while handling official business?" Zhou Du said, touching his chin.

"You could say that."

"That's a good word. Come on, I'll finish it soon and let's go fishing."

He is good and can apply what he has learned.

While Lin Shuge was reviewing official documents, he replied, "Okay."

…

The next day.

The weather is nice today, the sun is shining, the air is especially fresh in the morning, the water is gurgling along the shore, and the stream has completely thawed.

Lin Shuge was sitting in a recliner, squinting his eyes and basking in the sun. From time to time, he could hear the noise of Zhou Du and the other two in the distance, but he didn't feel it was noisy, he just felt particularly comfortable.

It's rare to have a little time to relax in this busy life.

They still came to Zhou Du's family's farm. There was a forest not far from the farm. Zhou Du and his two companions were responsible for hunting today, while Lin Shuge was responsible for being the cook and barbecuing meat for the three people who had worked hard hunting.

Unfortunately, half a day passed and the three men still didn't come with the prey.

He could only lie in the sun with nothing to do.

I don’t know how long it was, until Lin Shuge was almost asleep, I heard a sound of footsteps. They were very sparse and it didn’t sound like good news.

His face was still covered with a random book, and he asked casually, "Did you hit him?"

There was sudden silence.

Zhou Du said first: "It's all Ale's fault. The rabbit was about to be shot, but he shouted loudly and the rabbit ran away."

Ale was not convinced, "How can you blame me? It's your poor archery skills that missed the target."

Taran looked at Lin Shuge for help, "What should we do? If we can't win today, then this trip will be in vain."

Lin Shuge took off the book that was covering his face and looked at them with disappointment, which made the three of them wish they could crawl into the ground.

"Come on, follow me to get things from the carriage." He waved his hand and walked ahead.

The three were left completely confused.

Everyone followed him and carried the things down. Zhou Du took a look and was shocked: "You are ready and you still ask us to go hunting."

Lin Shuge sneered, "This is for emergency use."

Ale and Taran didn't care about that. They hadn't eaten anything in the whole morning and were almost starving, so they urged Lin Shuge to start quickly.

Lin Shuge asked them to cut the meat into skewers. Since it was a farewell to Taran and A'er, he prepared a sumptuous meal and also prepared hot pot and barbecue.

The farm was fully equipped with pots, pans, and utensils. Lin Shuge lit a fire and prepared to boil the soup base. The pork shanks would take half an hour to boil.

You can also pick out some ribs to make braised pork bones, which will surely keep people coming back for more after eating them this time.

Ale was cutting meat while craning his neck to look over here. Taran didn't know how to cut the meat at all, and A'er was afraid that he would cut his hand, so he arranged for him to skewer the meat nearby. The two of them worked in sync with their subordinates, but their eyes were always fixed on Lin Shuge.

"Stop staring and be careful with your hands." Lin Shuge reminded while preparing the dipping sauce.

The two of them turned their heads slowly and synchronously and lowered their heads to work.

Zhou Du was washing vegetables at the side. He was a little thirsty from working, so he raised his head to drink water. When he saw what they were doing, the water almost sprayed out of his mouth.

Lin Shuge was quick and agile and quickly prepared the sauce. He prepared several dipping sauces, and it would depend on personal preference.

Seeing that the three people had almost finished skewering the meat, he began to grill it. The cut pieces of meat sizzled on the fire. Lin Shuge sprinkled seasoning and cumin on it, and suddenly the whole village was filled with the aroma of barbecue.

A few greedy people who had been hungry all morning immediately started drooling. As soon as Lin Shuge said "OK", they stuffed one into their mouths.

Although Taran was born into a royal family, he was able to maintain his aristocratic demeanor. He took a light bite and was burned. When he took another bite, his eyes lit up and he nodded repeatedly.

All he could do was wolf down the food, like Zhu Bajie eating a ginseng fruit. He finished it in a few bites without even tasting the flavor. He could only stare at the string of food that Zhou Du had not eaten yet, as Zhou Du had just quickly snatched two strings.

Zhou Du guarded his barbecue vigilantly, and A'er could only squat beside Lin Shuge, with urging in his puppy eyes.

"It will be ready soon." Lin Shuge said to him while quickly turning the barbecue with his hands.

Seeing that he was a little overwhelmed, Ale reached out to help him turn the barbecue on the side and asked casually, "We also eat barbecue in Xiye, why do yours smell so good? I just saw it, is it because of the spices?"

"Yes, I bought cumin from a merchant in the Western Regions." Many countries in the Western Regions are rich in spices, and perhaps Xiye Country has some as well.

“This is it. You can also use it to make cumin lamb, which tastes pretty good too.” Lin Shuge freed his hand and handed him a small bag of cumin.

"I don't think I've seen this before. I'll look for it when I get out." Ale looked through the cumin and tried to recall the various plants he had seen.

"It's ready. Take these and eat them. Don't eat too much, because we'll have hot pot later."

Ale took the plate and grabbed two skewers for himself first, "Hot pot?"

"You'll know in a moment." Lin Shuge picked up a skewer of beef and took a bite before saying.

After several rounds of grilling, they gave up. Lin Shuge then took out a special pot and started cooking hot pot.

The bright white soup base was poured into each small pot, it was so fresh and fragrant that everyone gathered around.

"We have spicy hotpot, mushroom soup pot and red date pot. You can choose." He asked several people to bring various ingredients over.

"This is hot pot. I've seen you people in the Central Plains eat it this way before, but this is the first time I've seen you eat it so elaborately."

He walked around several pots, still undecided which one to choose.

Seeing that he was in a dilemma, Zhou Du quickly chose the spicy hotpot, and A'er quickly chose the one with red dates.

Um? Al is actually a sweet person.

Taran chose spicy hotpot, and Lin Shuge, who loves spicy food, naturally also chose spicy hotpot.

It's a pity that when I was making the mold, I didn't make a nine-square grid mold. To save trouble, I only made a few small pots. If there is a chance, I will definitely ask the craftsman to make a nine-square grid mold, so that I don't have to worry about which one to eat.

Taran followed Lin Shuge's example and chose a pot. He added charcoal to his stove and started putting the meat in. The meat had been marinated in advance and was already well-seasoned. He put it in the boiling pot and cooked it for a while, then took it out and dipped it in the sauce.

"Hmm" Taran was amazed after taking just one bite.

"How is it?" Ale asked anxiously.

"Delicious, fresh and tender. What's the saying in the Central Plains?"

"It leaves a lingering fragrance on your lips and teeth."