Liu Tan didn't know that Liu Che was sulking, and he didn't mean to leave Liu Che behind. The main reason was that high-quality jade was not easy to come by, and his craftsmen couldn't carve so many things in ten days.
The seventh prince’s full-month ceremony cannot be perfunctory, and the gifts given to Liu Che cannot be perfunctory even more.
Besides, what kind of fine jade had Liu Che not seen? Dunhuang jade was newly discovered and not well-known, so the best quality jade had to be obtained, and it had to be large.
Not to mention that such jade is impossible to find, even if it is found, it will take several months to carve it out. His craftsmen have been working overtime to prepare the set for the seventh prince, and with this one added, it will probably take them forty-eight hours a day to complete it.
Even the donkeys in the production team were not exploited like this.
Liu Tan thought that Liu Che was about to come here to escape the summer heat, so why should he give him a gift? He could just wait until he arrived.
Of course, the most important thing is that the gift for Liu Che must be high-end, classy and novel. Liu Tan has to focus on other things now and has no time to deal with this jade.
Before getting busy with other things, Liu Tan took the time to meet Jiang Chong's fellow villager Ji Fei.
The first impression Ji Feiqi gives people is that he is thin, extremely thin. It is not an exaggeration to say that he is as thin as a stick.
He was so thin that Liu Tan hesitated when he saw him: "Your health..."
Ji Fei smiled and said, "Don't worry, Your Highness. I can eat and sleep well, and I can eat five meals a day. I will never gain weight."
Liu Tan raised his chin slightly and said, "Sit down first."
Ji Fei sat down, and Liu Tan asked, "How much do you know about Tongda City and Guan City?"
Ji Fei probably did his homework, but the basic information Jiang Chong gave him was probably also true. Ji Fei knew more about these two places than he did.
Liu Tan's expression was calm after hearing this, and Ji Fei felt a little uneasy. This King of the Northern Territory was not very old, but his experience was too legendary. Nothing he did was unprofitable. Even if it was just the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, he could make a lot of money out of it. When he came to the Northern Territory before, he vowed that he would have his own place here.
But when he got here, he found that he seemed to be wrong.
Because there is someone here who is more skilled than him.
While he was thinking about this, Liu Tan suddenly said, "I need someone with executive ability."
Ji Fei was startled and looked up at Liu Tan. Liu Tan continued, "It doesn't matter if he has great ideas, as long as he can execute my requirements."
After hearing this, Ji Fei's confidence suddenly increased. He certainly couldn't compete with the King of the North in terms of originality, but if it came to execution, he still had some ability.
Ji Fei immediately said, "I think I can satisfy His Highness."
Liu Tan laughed and said, "Oh? You know, my request is not that easy to do."
Ji Fei smiled reservedly and said, "If it were easy to do, why would Your Highness come to see me in person?"
Liu Tan turned to look at Miao Rui and said, "Give him the document."
Ji Fei was excited, knowing that he should have passed the first level. However, this excitement was completely extinguished after he saw Liu Tan's document.
That document... although it's called a document, it's basically just a piece of paper. It divides the shops in Tongda City into several categories, and then the items written below divide the shops into various styles according to their locations, such as Chang'an style, Zhao style, etc.
Ji Fei looked at this with a bit of confusion: "What do you mean, Your Highness?"
Liu Tan asked, "Don't you understand?"
These three words really made Ji Fei's mouth dry and his tongue parched - anxious.
It was not until now that he understood that his friend's words, "It's not easy to work under His Highness. You can never figure out what he is thinking," were real advice.
He originally thought that Jiang Chong was just reminding him not to speculate about his superiors' intentions. After all, the main reason he became a businessman was that he was naturally good at observing people's words and expressions.
This special skill allowed him to be successful in dealing with anyone and feel at ease. However, this time he found that he really couldn't understand what this prince meant.
I don’t know whether he is satisfied with himself or not, and I don’t understand what the words he wrote mean.
Ji Fei hesitated again and again, but decided to trust his friend and said honestly, "I don't understand."
He remembered Jiang Chong saying that he should never pretend to know everything in front of their prince, otherwise he would be kicked out.
Liu Tan chuckled. "It's not hard to understand. Tongda City is a whole street. If you want to retain people, you need to have unique characteristics. Tongda City is bound to attract merchants from all corners of the world, so I want to create a comprehensive commercial street so that people from all corners of the world can find things that belong to their hometown on this commercial street, and also see the characteristics of other places. In short, it should be both innovative and make people feel at home."
Ji Fei was stunned for a moment, but at the end he couldn't help but clapped his hands and exclaimed, "Great!"
Liu Tan waved his hand and said, "Similarly, we can also open a comprehensive store like this in Guan City. I only have a few shops there, and the area is not large. I may not be able to do the same as Tongda City, so I can only open a comprehensive store."
Ji Fei swallowed his saliva: "Your Highness...Your Highness...please slow down."
This was the first time he encountered a situation where he couldn't keep up with the other person's thinking. In the past, he was the one who persuaded and explained things to others, but now it was the other way around... He was not used to it.
On the one hand, he was not used to it, and on the other hand, he wondered if the King of the North would kick him out if he continued to be so unclear.
Liu Tan looked at Ji Fei and said, "Do you understand what I said before?"
Ji Fei nodded frantically, but this time he didn't say anything nonsense.
Liu Tan nodded. "Okay, I'll give you the framework. Based on this, write a proposal. What would you do if it were you?"
Ji Fei was stunned for a moment: "Let...let me write it?"
Liu Tan took a sip of water and said, "Yes, I'm busy with other things right now and don't have time to worry about so much. I'll give you the framework. Since Prime Minister Huo and Chief Justice Jiang both recommended you, I'm sure you have your own strengths. I heard you've traveled a lot over the years, and I hope you can give me a surprise."
Ji Fei took a deep breath, feeling that whether he could reach the pinnacle of his life depended on this one move, and quickly said, "Your Highness, don't worry. I will go right away. I wonder when Your Highness will need it?"
Liu Tan did some calculations and said, "Anyway, before Guan City opens, everything must be in place. Tongda City will open earlier, so you can decide the timing yourself."
Ji Fei was very excited: "I will definitely not let your highness down."
Liu Tan waved his hand at him and said, "Go ahead."
Ji Fei left happily. Liu Tan took a deep breath and said to himself, "It's time for me to get busy with my own things."
What Liu Tan is busy with this time is not anything else but researching new dishes.
The last time Liu Che came, he gave Liu Che a garden-style palace. This time he will definitely stay in Changshou Palace, but it is not easy to make changes to the appearance of Changshou Palace.
So this time we have to start with the details of food, clothing, housing and transportation.
Liu Tan had already planned to make some dishes with soybeans as the main food, but he never had much time, so this time was just the right time.
He wanted to prepare a table of healthy dishes for Liu Che.
He doesn't have the elixir of immortality, but he knows a lot about health preservation methods to prolong life.
Those health-preserving methods became popular in later generations, and even ordinary people who had not studied medicine knew a lot about them, but they were novel in this era.
However, health preservation is usually accompanied by an insatiable appetite, so Liu Tan plans to relax the boundaries of health preservation a little and work on the taste at the same time.
The first thing he thought of was a vegetarian meal, which only appeared during the Qing Dynasty. Liu Tan didn't know how many dishes there were in total, but he knew that most of them were made with bean curd sheets, winter bamboo shoots, fresh mushrooms, and magnolia slices, and the taste was mainly sweet and fresh.
However, the focus of Liu Tan’s vegetarian food is not on the vegetables, but on the “meat dishes”, that is, using ingredients to make the appearance of meat dishes, and at the same time the taste must be as close to meat dishes as possible.
Both vegetarian chicken and vegetarian duck are not difficult to make. The vegetarian chicken is made purely with bean curd skin, but unlike real vegetarian food, Liu Tan uses broth to cook it.
Anyway, he doesn't want to make real vegetarian food, he just wants to make healthy dishes with less oil and salt.
Unlike vegetarian chicken, vegetarian duck needs to be filled with bean curd skin. The filling is made of winter bamboo shoots and mushrooms, which are shredded, stir-fried in oil, then wrapped in bean curd skin to form a shape similar to duck breast, and then fried in a pan.
There is actually nothing that can easily fail in making these two dishes. The only thing is that you need to study the taste and ingredients a little bit, as well as the appearance.
But he doesn't need to do it himself, he just needs to tell the chef to do it.
Although the vegetarian banquet mainly features soy products, it cannot consist entirely of these things. Otherwise, after the meal, I am afraid that everyone will vomit when they see the word "bean".
Liu Tan thought about it and put another ingredient on the menu: lotus root.
Such food is not difficult to come by for the Northern Kingdom, since there are so many oxbow lakes in its territory.
There are many things that can be made with lotus root, such as braised lotus root, glutinous rice and osmanthus lotus root, fried lotus root boxes, sweet and sour lotus root slices, and stir-fried lotus root cubes... Liu Tan has listed many dishes in his list. If you add these to dishes made with soy products, you can make a lot of different dishes.
Anyway, he only serves vegetarian food once or twice at most, and that once or twice is because the taste is fresh. If everyone eats too much, I'm afraid some people will wonder if he is reluctant to give everyone meat.
In particular, Liu Che often suspected that Liu Tan was short of money, and giving him some money at that time would be too eye-catching.
After preparing the main course, Liu Tan started thinking about the dessert.
His father really liked sweets, and he thought that in the hot summer, smoothies or something like that would definitely help him cool down. He asked the kitchen to make various jams and prepare ice.
However, what he didn't expect was that there was not enough ice!
Liu Tan was a little confused and asked, "Why is there not enough ice?"
Bigo quickly said, "There's no edible ice."
In summer, ice is generally used to cool houses or fruits. No one would eat ice directly, so the hygiene level of the ice cellars used for storage is generally average.
Liu Tan was also surprised. He sighed deeply and said, "Since there is nothing, then we can only make some edible ice."
Bigao whispered, "Your Highness, summer is almost here."
How to make ice in this weather? Generally, ice is frozen in winter and stored in ice cellars to meet the demand for the whole summer. Then the cycle repeats. During this process, the ice in the ice cellar is constantly melting. Making ice in summer is unheard of.
Liu Tan smiled at him and said, "Come, I'll show you some magic. Go, get some saltpeter."
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