Chapter 193 Chapter 193 Update.
The news that Tian Gu's daughter had become a food official and could go to Ganquan Palace to offer sacrifices spread throughout Jiaomen City. Everyone was surprised and envious.
Others knew that the Tongtian Terrace there was the axis of communication with gods, where hundreds of gods gathered. So they went to Tian's house and asked her daughter to bring back some spiritual soil from the Tongtian Terrace.
Qiu Gu also took a fancy to the soil there and said:
"If it's convenient, please bring me two handfuls of rice. I want to build a small earthen altar and offer sacrifices to the God of Heaven, Taitian, and ask him to bless my son Wang to study hard and become an official like you in the future."
She sold the two rooms left by Yang Liu. Because Yang Liu contracted the plague and later died of the disease, people in the neighborhood thought the houses were unlucky, so she didn't sell them for a good price. The money she got was only enough to buy a house in Sangshu Lane, which fortunately could still accommodate her and her son.
Wang'er went back to elementary school to study, but she didn't force him to do so. He was willing to do so. Qiu Gu didn't expect him to study hard and have a bright future.
Two or three old women from the neighborhood came one after another, all wanting soil from there to make a private sacrifice. Tian heard this and said:
"You're so imaginative! Did you think my daughter was going there for a trip? She was going there as a sacrifice. She rode in the same carriage with others, saying she wanted to travel light. She didn't even take the fruit I prepared for her. She even had to carry soil for you. It was so heavy. She must have been exhausted!"
After sending them away, he also wanted to go up, and muttered to Ji Xu:
"My daughter, I heard that Tongtiantai is where the gods descended to the earth. Even the god Taitian has been there. When you return, bring some soil from there.
We can also set up an altar to worship the Kitchen God during Laba Festival. The soil there is sacred soil. The Kitchen God will see our sincerity and will surely bless our family with prosperity and peace for the whole year."
Tian believed in gods and immortals the most. How could she not be tempted when hearing about them? It was okay for other people's families, but she couldn't miss out on her own family.
"You must remember this for your mother. Don't forget it."
Ji Xu agreed, and that day, he followed the East and West Palaces, the Three Dukes and Nine Ministers, and other people in a mighty procession heading north.
Along the way, guards and escorts cleared the way and stopped people in front, ensuring strict vigilance for the emperor's journey. If any civilians did not give way and bumped into the carriage, it would be considered an offense and they would be punished.
At a glance, there were axe carts, carriages, carts, supply carts, and sedan chair carts, which filled the entire street.
According to the ritual system, the chariot wheels on both sides of the officials with a rank of two thousand stones were red, while the chariot wheels on only one side of the officials with a rank of six hundred to two thousand stones were red. The number of riding officials and accompanying carriages was different due to the different official ranks.
Some wheels were wrapped with soft cattail to reduce bumps and make the ride more comfortable, but this was a privilege not available to all officials.
Ji Xu was sitting in the carriage behind Tang Guanling. It was a supply cart with an open front shed. Not only was she sitting there, but there were also four other officials of the same rank as her, all women.
Kong the chef was riding in a carriage at the back that was reserved for men. People of their level did not have their own carriages, so they had to squeeze together.
Hua Shanren was one level higher than them and had a separate carriage with a driver to drive it for her.
At that time, there was a saying that the nobles rode in carriages and the lowly walked on foot. Later, there were some palace slaves and official slaves who walked on foot.
Zhou Ping was walking behind. The winter wind was cold and she was sweating. In front of her was a carriage that seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see. She really wanted to sit on it and rest her feet.
Little Gourd was out of the government office for the first time and was filled with excitement. He did not feel tired at all and just looked around curiously. He asked Zhou Ping:
"Your aunt is a chef. I see she has a carriage. You're tired, why don't you sit in her carriage and rest for a while?"
"What do you know? If I sit in the carriage, it will be against etiquette." Although she said that, of course she wanted to sit in the carriage. She glanced at the carriage that Ji Xu was sitting in. It was much more comfortable than walking, so she also wanted to become an official chef.
When they had walked halfway, someone came from the front to inform them to rest on the spot. However, they were kitchen maids in the catering department and could not rest for a while. They still had to make fire, cook, and set up the pot to cook. It was the same as being on duty in the Shaofu, but they had to cook in the wild.
They were relatively well off, doing some work like collecting firewood and making fire. The kitchen maids at the guide's place had to go to the river to fetch water. Now the river was frozen, so they had to chop the ice to melt water, which was not an easy task. But they were in charge of the raw materials for the Taiguan and Tangguan places, so this was their job and there was nothing they could do about it.
After resting, we continued our journey north and finally arrived near Ganquan Palace at dusk. The snow here was thicker than in Chang'an. From afar, we could see the fifty-meter-high Tongtian Terrace, standing in the magnificent palace, which was quite shocking.
Only the sides and the back of the carriage were covered by a shed. The front was open, without a curtain, which was just enough to give a good view of the front. The nuns in the same carriage all exclaimed in surprise:
"It's divine! This Tongtian Terrace is actually higher than the mountain, no wonder it's called Tongtian Terrace."
"The person who built this is really skilled."
Ji Xu was also surprised and stared at it for a while. Fifty zhang was equivalent to more than one hundred meters in later generations, which was about the height of a thirty-story building.
I heard from some old official slaves that tens of thousands of people must have worked to build this Tongtian Terrace, and a lot of manpower and material resources were poured into it. It really looks very majestic and magnificent, like a scroll reaching to heaven.
The Ganquan Residence Commander, who was in charge of the place, had been waiting for the carriage for a long time. The East and West Palaces, as well as some civil and military officials, each had their own assigned residence.
Ji Xu was also assigned a room with the nuns in the same car. They followed the clerk and walked and looked around. The outer circle here had palaces such as Shiguan, Fengluan, Zhique, Luhan, Tangli, and Shide, which looked really magnificent.
I heard from the clerk working here that there are several palaces deeper in the cave, namely Hongya, Panghuang, Chuxu and Nuyan.
However, their place of residence was in a small courtyard outside Fengluan Palace, so they had no chance to explore further.
After a night's rest, they began to prepare offerings for the sacrifice the next day. In addition to jade and silk, the offerings must include three kinds of meat: cattle, sheep, and pigs that meet the standards of Tailao; and the grains must include six types of grains: millet, sorghum, rice, sorghum, wheat, and foxtail millet.
These grains must be both unprocessed and processed, and the accompanying catering bureau will be responsible for processing these necessary offerings.
Hua Shanren led the kitchen and directed them to prepare forty-nine kinds of offerings in the cake and rice room, not counting those in the other three rooms and also those made by the imperial officials.
When Ji Xu went to deliver the sacrifice, he saw that the room was filled with sacrificial food: rice with foxtail millet, sorghum rice, wheat rice, five-color rice, five-color cakes, glutinous rice sticks, rice dumplings, dragon tongue, water-inducing cakes, and powder cakes...
After the sacrifice, all four rooms of Tangguan received rewards. As a small food official, Ji Xu also enriched his qualifications, which was beneficial for his future promotion.
Later, the general hosted a banquet for his ministers. Only three officials and three chancellors went to the food bureau. After Ji Xu and other small food officials finished their work, they finally had some free time.
The cunning cook in the fruit and vegetable room gathered some gambling-loving cooks to play sheep's shank bones in the corridor. Cook Kong was also there, and some little girls were chatting around the fire.
Ji Xu remembered what Tian had told him, went out, and told the clerk who was guarding Tongtian Terrace. He did not go in, but just wrapped some soil with a handkerchief near Tongtian Terrace.
After thinking about it, I decided to take another handkerchief and wrap more to give to the nuns at home who wanted them.
Just as I returned, I saw Little Gourd saying:
"Oh no! Oh no! Someone from the neighboring palace wants you to make a unique cake that no civil or military official has ever eaten."
This story starts with a banquet for ministers. There was a dish called roasted whole pig, which was made by putting a whole suckling pig on an iron grill and roasting it over a fire until the skin turned golden brown. Only then was it taken off and brought to the banquet.
This dish is not the responsibility of Ji Xu and her colleagues in the soup department, but is made by the chef from the Taiguan department.
When the whole roasted pig was presented, Li Dan used this opportunity to mock the background of the current Guanglu Xun, saying that he didn't need a servant to cut the meat for his portion, and that he could just give him a dagger and do it himself. He was secretly mocking that he used to be a butcher and was good at cutting meat with a knife. The officials from the Guannei faction who were of the same faction as him naturally understood the ridicule, and the Sili Xiaowei continued:
"We still have to serve the meat slices to Lord You. Wu is a remote place, and I'm afraid Lord You doesn't know how to prepare the meat from Guanzhong."
This also means that Youlu came from outside the Great Wall and was not like them who had been entrenched inside the Great Wall for generations and knew how to eat. Youlu's face turned pale with anger. As early as when Li Dan implied that his brother was a butcher, he pressed the handle of the knife to attack, but was stopped by Zhuang Gaiyi.
After enduring for a while, he listened to the words of the Sili Commandant and still couldn't help but say:
"You don't have to look far. In Ganquan Palace, we Wu people can make cakes and pastries that no other official has ever tasted!"
The Sili Commandant twirled his beard and laughed:
"That's impossible. Wu people eat rice, while Guanzhong people prefer wheat cakes. We've tried all kinds of cakes."
Yulu glanced at his brother and seeing that he did not stop him, he made a bet with the Si Li Xiao Wei. If he succeeded in making it and no official had ever eaten it, the Si Li Xiao Wei would be whipped by him, otherwise he would be whipped by him.
"Okay! Let's go with the Wu people from Ganquan Palace." Sili Xiaowei said, there was no way he could lose.
So Youlu sent his officials to find Jixu and asked her to make the steamed cakes that she used to sell in the village.
"Our elder said that he had eaten many cakes, but none of them were as good as the steamed cakes made by the girls."
"Steamed buns? How can that be possible? If you adults want this, won't you definitely lose?"
Little Gourd was puzzled. Even she, a humble official slave, had eaten a lot of steamed cakes, not to mention those high-ranking officials who often ate river turtles and abalone. This was not surprising at all.
The chefs who had been throwing the lamb shank bones gathered around. This was a chance to show off. If they could make some new and unusual cakes and bait, wouldn't they become famous overnight? So, with everyone talking, Chef Kong said:
"I know how to make suochou, so let me do it."
"It's not surprising to ask for cakes. Just leave it to me. I can make money cakes."
"Leave it to me!"
"Leave it to me!"
"You are not surprised by these things, and what's more,"
Yulu's official road,
"This cake needs to be made by someone from Wu."
"Wu people? Ji Pao Ren is the only one here who is from Wu. Can you do it? If you really make steamed buns that everyone has eaten, wouldn't it be embarrassing for our Tang Guanchu?"
The cooks looked at Ji Xu.
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