Before dark, the carpenter and the blacksmith had finished the table and the copper stove.
Zhang Hulan spent the afternoon at home cooking hot pot base.
The hot pot base is also simple. Use butter, pepper, star anise, cinnamon, geranium, cloves and other spices, then add fermented black beans, ginger and garlic and slowly simmer.
Since there was no chili pepper, I added some dogwood to increase the spiciness.
Ye Hongyun is pregnant and can't eat anything too spicy.
And Mrs. Cai Lai was also brought over. I guess the old lady can’t eat too spicy food.
Zhang Hulan has already prepared the ingredients for the hot pot, including beef, mutton, and vegetables, and the base of the pot is made from bone broth.
The rich aroma wafts around, whetting your appetite.
Seeing Zhang Hulan placing plates of raw vegetables and raw meat on the table and a pot in the middle of the table, Ye Hongyun asked, "Are we going to cook and eat at the same time?"
Zhang Hulan nodded, "Yes, that's it."
Isn't hotpot something you eat while cooking?
Zhang Hulan also prepared dipping sauce, including chopped green onions, coriander, minced ginger, minced garlic and fermented black beans.
When Zhang Hulan was making the dipping sauce, she asked them one by one about their tastes. Some people didn't like coriander, some didn't like garlic, and everyone's taste was different.
Zhang Hulan knew that there were many rules here, so she used a pair of serving chopsticks when no one was around, and used serving chopsticks when blanching or picking up food.
Zhang Hulan picked up a piece of mutton and put it into the pot. Both the mutton and beef were cut by a chef with good knife skills. The slices of meat were very thin and were cooked after being put into the pot for a few times.
Zhang Hulan passed the blanched meat slices to Madam Cai, "Madam, please try it and see how it tastes. Mix it in the bowl when you eat it."
Old Madam Cai picked up her chopsticks, mixed the meat in the bowl, and then put it into her mouth.
After chewing a few times, he nodded repeatedly, "Mm, this tastes good. The mutton is very tender and has no smell of mutton."
Zhang Hulan greeted them with a smile, "Come on, come on, everyone, just put whatever you want in the pot. Mutton and beef cook quickly, so you have to eat them when they are cooked. If you cook them for too long, the meat will become tough."
Everyone started putting vegetables into the pot, but mostly meat.
There were only three adults at the table: Zhang Hulan, Ye Hongyun and Old Madam Cai, and the rest were all children.
Don’t all children like to eat meat?
Ye Hongyun blanched a piece of meat and tasted it, and also thought it tasted good.
She said, "Hu Lan, I have seen the booming business after our restaurant opened."
Zhang Hulan said: "This one is red soup, and the other one is clear soup, which is lighter.
From now on, this pot will be made in two ways. One is like this, and the other is to divide the middle of the pot, with red soup on one side and clear soup on the other. This is called a shuangyang pot.
It is easy to learn how to make clear soup, but this red soup requires special hot pot base, which is not easy for people to learn.
Sister needs to find someone reliable, and I will teach him how to make the hot pot base."
"You can rest assured that the person I'm looking for is definitely reliable."
In the next few days, the atmosphere in the capital became increasingly tense.
But Zhang Hulan, Ye Hongyun and others were not affected by the atmosphere outside at all.
The restaurant was being renovated in a hurry. Zhang Hulan drew the grill, special plates and stove for grilling fish, and also asked craftsmen to make the tables, hot pot and stove for the hot pot.
…
The atmosphere in the capital was tense, and the atmosphere outside the capital was not much better.
Marquis Jing'an, Wu Bangtai and Yan Xiongxin suddenly took action at the same time, catching many people off guard.
Jing'an Hou was faster than Wu Bangtai and Yan Xiongxin. He didn't need to investigate slowly. After transferring a large army from the border to Maozhou, he sent 2,000 people to surround the Maozhou government office and then took over Maozhou City. The army had also surrounded Miyun Mountain, Dayan Mountain and Tieshuling.
Marquis Jing'an did not let the army enter the mountains, but surrounded the three mountains and had people cut down trees at the foot of the mountains.
At this time, a three-meter-wide isolation zone had been cleared at the foot of the three mountains.
Marquis Jing'an did not call on the people on the mountain to come down and surrender. As soon as the isolation zone was cleared, he ordered people to set fire to the mountain.
Marquis Jing'an left no gaps and set fire all along the foot of the mountain.
It was just a small fire at first, but once the fire started, the wildfire spread quickly with a breeze.
Thick smoke billowed from the Three Mountains, and the birds in the forests fled into the distance.
The other animals inside suffered.
Rats and rabbits that can dig holes are better off, as they may be able to escape the fire by crawling into the holes. Other animals can only watch the fire burn them to death.
The fire burned from the afternoon to the evening, and the flames dyed the sky red.
The fire could not reach the top of the mountain yet, but thick smoke was already spreading from the bottom to the top, and the people on the mountain were choked by the smoke and coughing.
"General, the fire is about to come up, what should we do?"
The people on the mountain were anxious. If they didn't find a solution, they would all be burned to death.
What can I do now?
The leading general gritted his teeth and said, "We can't wait until daybreak. Let's notify them and charge down immediately."
"General, the fire is so big, how do we rush in?"
"We have no choice but to charge, or we'll all be burned to death."
The people on the mountain picked up their weapons and started rushing down the mountain. They looked for places where the fire was smaller and rushed forward.
But the moment they rushed out of the sea of fire, they were greeted by rows of rain of arrows.
The soldiers at the foot of the mountain were more than ten feet away from the wildfire, drawing their bows at the full moon, and shooting anyone they saw coming out.
Some people rushed forward, while others retreated, and the scene was in chaos.
By dawn, the wildfire had almost reached the top of the mountain.
There were many corpses lying halfway up the mountain, but most people still gathered at the top of the mountain.
They have nowhere to escape. If they rush out, they will die. If they don't rush out, they will also die.
Someone shouted down the mountain: "We surrender, we surrender..."
Marquis Jing'an also did not sleep all night. When he heard the people on the mountain shouting to surrender, he raised his hand slightly, signaling the archers to stop shooting.
Some people rushed out from the mountain, and seeing that they were not shot, more and more people rushed out from the sea of fire one after another.
Those people threw away their weapons and allowed the soldiers at the foot of the mountain to tie them up and take them down the mountain.
The three mountains were almost completely burned, with only some tree trunks left standing.
After the wildfire, the soldiers began to count the bodies.
A total of more than 20,000 people died in the three mountains, and more than 40,000 people surrendered.
There were zero casualties on Marquis Jing'an's side.
Faced with such a great victory, there was not a single smile on Marquis Jing'an's face.
Because those who died and surrendered were basically ordinary soldiers.
They had previously guessed that there were cavalry.
But all three hills were burned, and no cavalry was found.
Although there were some horses, they were just ordinary horses, not war horses.
Marquis Jing'an immediately interrogated those who surrendered.
But the results of the interrogation still made Marquis Jing'an feel that something was wrong.
The data obtained from the count and the interrogation of the people on the mountain were similar. The people on the mountain said there were no cavalry.
But according to the calculations of the pension silver by Qin Bingrong and Marquis Jing'an, there shouldn't be only this number of people.
Moreover, Marquis Jing'an didn't believe that since he had hidden the troops and was planning a rebellion, he would definitely not fail to raise cavalry.
If the hidden cavalry is not found, it will be troublesome...
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