Chapter 4 Taste If it doesn't suit your taste, you'll be beheaded

The soup in the pot was boiling.

Amid the gurgling sound of boiling water, Jiang Yanyi picked up the kitchen knife on the chopping board.

The knife was a bit heavy, far less light than the knives Jiang Yanyi used before. She frowned slightly, but soon relaxed.

She picked up the chicken breast soaked in water and spread it on the chopping board. She quickly sliced ​​it into thin slices, and then used the knife technique to cut the thin slices into thin strips.

Dozens of eyes stared at this scene in a daze. The whole kitchen was silent except for the sound of boiling water in the pot.

Jiang Yanyi quickly cut the ham and bamboo shoots with the same knife technique.

When she put down the knife, she frowned slightly. She was still a little unfamiliar with using a knife to cut vegetables in this body. Otherwise, she could have cut them more finely.

Chef Li was a little surprised. This was the first time in his life that he had misjudged someone. Jiang Yanyi's knife skills would not be as good as his without five or six years of practice.

But he still had a stern face, as if he thought that Jiang Yanyi's ability to cut vegetables was nothing. "Come to the kitchen and help me in the future." If she

could enter the Huotouying, at least she could make a living by her own skills.

Jiang Yanyi hurriedly said, "Thank you, Master Jun!"

She thought that she had to make at least a few signature dishes to get Chef Li's words, but now it was much easier than she expected.

Chef Li ignored her warmth and turned around to do his own thing: "When you work in the Fire Camp, you must be diligent and don't think of being sly. Make tofu pudding with the remaining tender tofu."

He didn't know what he was thinking of, but he gave another instruction: "The taste should be stronger, because it is for the generals, and there can be no mistakes."

Jiang Yanyi didn't quite understand what Chef Li said.

But the other people in the kitchen looked at her with some sympathy.

Jiang Yanyi was a little confused. She was just making tofu pudding, why did these people look like she was going to be executed?

Jiang Yanyi returned to the stove, and the round-faced woman who was helping her light the fire was hesitant to speak.

Jiang Yanyi recognized that this round-faced woman was the one who saw her being bullied by Chunxiang at noon and was about to come over to mediate. She looked kind and seemed to be easy to talk to.

She asked tentatively, "Does the general have a bad temper?"

The round-faced woman pursed her lips, glanced around, and then whispered, "This newly appointed general is the uncle of the current emperor. When the late emperor was alive, he was named King of Liaoning. He has 100,000 cavalry under his command and has the power of life and death. Now, somehow he suddenly comes to take over the Xizhou camp."

"I heard that when he was a child, that general ate a bowl of tofu pudding made by the Yu kitchen in the palace and said it had no taste. The chef in the Yu kitchen was so scared that he remade several bowls and added several times more seasoning. But he still said it had no taste after tasting it, so the chef in the Yu kitchen was beheaded. Since then, no matter where he goes, he must have tofu pudding for every meal..."

After hearing the round-faced woman's words, Jiang Yanyi got goosebumps all over his body.

The newly appointed general of the Xizhou camp is actually the King of Liaoning!

Although the King of Liaoning has never officially appeared in the original book, he is a person who cannot be provoked in the eyes of the hero and the court officials. The hero did not inherit

the throne from his father, but from his grandfather. The hero's father was the crown prince for his whole life, but he died young.

On the contrary, the hero's grandfather is still strong and in his later years, he and his favorite concubine gave birth to a little son. He doted on the little son to no end. The little son is naturally the King of Liaoning.

When the hero was still the eldest grandson of the emperor, the court officials were divided into two factions, one supporting the hero and the other supporting the King of Liaoning.

Many people thought that the late emperor would pass the throne to his youngest son because of his love for him. However, two imperial decrees were issued after the late emperor passed away.

One was to pass the throne to the male protagonist, and the other was to let the youngest son be crowned king.

In the original book, the male protagonist was jealous of his uncle from beginning to end.

The King of Liaoning was indeed notorious for his cruelty and violence.

Jiang Yanyi thought of the pot of tofu that Liu Cheng had ruined, and suddenly understood in his heart: Liu Cheng probably did it on purpose, and he was also worried about losing his head.

Was he now a scapegoat?

The round-faced woman saw Jiang Yanyi's fear and comforted her, "Just be more careful. I haven't heard of a general chopping off someone's head because the tofu pudding was not to his taste in recent years."

In the barracks, people are called by their military titles, so everyone in the barracks calls the King of Liaoning the general.

Jiang Yanyi forced a smile and nodded at her.

This is an evil feudal society! If a chef doesn't cook well, his head will be chopped off!

Can she ask for a bad review instead of chopping off the head?

Jiang Yan sighed and put away the messy thoughts in her head. She knew that only by making a good tofu pudding could she save her life.

She found some green onions and coriander, chopped them up, smashed and minced the garlic, sprinkled a little salt, and poured soy sauce and aged vinegar on it!

But he couldn't find any chili peppers. He asked the round-faced woman and found out that there was no such thing as chili peppers in this dynasty. Cornus officinalis was used to adjust the spicy taste.

Jiang Yanyi suddenly had an idea. The general said it had no taste. Did he think it was not spicy enough? After all, the spiciness of cornus officinalis is far less than that of chili peppers.

In the world where Jiang Yanyi originally lived, chili peppers were introduced to her country in the Ming Dynasty. However, they were not used for eating at first, but were used as potted plants for viewing.

Eating spicy food became popular in the Qing Dynasty, and Sichuan cuisine also originated at that time.

Jiang Yanyi felt that after she settled down, it was necessary to travel around and take a look. Maybe there were already chili peppers here, but they had not been put on the table yet.

With chili peppers, she must let the ancient people here see what a delicacy hot pot is!

Then she can open a hot pot restaurant!

Thinking about the future, Jiang Yanyi worked harder.

She followed the method of making spicy oil, heated the oil in a pot and poured it on the dogwood mixed with spice powder in the bowl to make a bowl of dogwood sauce.

The fragrance and spiciness of dogwood are far inferior to chili peppers, but the spicy aroma stimulated by the hot oil still attracted several firemen who were cutting vegetables nearby.

"It smells so good! What kind of sauce is this?"

"With this sauce, I can eat ten coarse rice balls!"

Jiang Yanyi felt relieved and poured the dogwood sauce on the tofu pudding, hoping that the general would be satisfied.

In the commander's tent.

Feng Shuo looked at the memorial in his hand, his narrow and long phoenix eyes narrowed slightly.

As dusk fell, candles were already lit in the tent.

He took off his heavy armor and changed into a dark robe. His fierce aura faded a little, and he looked like a noble young man from an aristocratic family who had been well-read in poetry and books since childhood.

Half of his handsome face was reflected in the candlelight, and the other half was hidden in the darkness. His expression was unclear, and only the slightly raised corners of his mouth showed a bit of mockery.

"There has been no war in Xizhou in the past few years. I'm afraid that the millions of taels of silver allocated by the court for the army have all gone into Fan Wei's pocket."

Fan Wei was the previous general of the Xizhou camp. He had a daughter who was a concubine in the palace. Now he was transferred to Dazhou as a general.

Military strategist Chi Qing had just entered the tent with a potted plant in his arms. Hearing this, he said, "I thought you didn't feel bad! You've traded the rich land of Dazhou for such a poor and remote place like Xizhou. The so-called Xizhou camp is now just an empty shell. It's a huge loss!"

Feng Shuo raised his eyes and glanced at him. Chi Qing shrugged and shut up.

After a while, he muttered again, "I just hope that the one on the dragon throne can keep his promise. If you hand over Dazhou, he will allow the Queen Mother to leave the palace and enjoy her old age."

Feng Shuo's eyes flashed with a chill, "He dare not break his promise."

Speaking of the things in the capital, Chi Qing remembered the two soldiers he met when he came here, carrying coffins out of the camp to bury people.

He frowned, "The death of the daughter of the Jiang family in the Xizhou camp is definitely a conspiracy. The Jiang family now says that their daughter died suddenly, but in the future they may change their words and say that they did not dare to seek justice for their daughter because of your power."

"The daughter of the Jiang family is dead?"

"Dead."

Chi Qing was stunned by the question, "Why are you asking me? Didn't you send someone to collect the body?"

He saw someone carrying a coffin out of the camp, and after asking one more question, he found out that it was Feng Shuo who ordered people to bury the dead camp prostitute in a coffin.

The soldier in charge did not know the identity of the dead camp prostitute, but how could he not know?

Three days ago, the daughter of the Jiang family hit her head against the wall to commit suicide, and her head was broken and bleeding. Chi Qing felt that she would definitely not survive.

Feng Shuo did not explain much, only saying: "Send someone to investigate how the Jiang family got into trouble with the little emperor."

When he lowered his eyes, he saw Chi Qing holding a pot of flowers.

It was called a flower, but it didn't look like a flower, because the plant in the pot was full of fruits, both green and red, shaped like the tip of a pen.

Feng Shuo raised his eyebrows and asked, "What is this?"

Chi Qing placed the potted plant in front of Feng Shuo like a treasure and said, "The situation in Xizhou has changed. Naturally, the merchants in the city have to find new relationships. Not only did they send us gold, silver, jade and stones, but they also brought some specialties from outside the Great Wall. I think this potted plant they sent is very interesting, so I brought it to you. It is said to be brought back from the Western Regions and is called chili pepper."

Feng Shuo obviously had no interest in this potted plant. He looked at Chi Qing coldly and said, "I asked you to clean up the spy left by Fan Wei, and you spent the whole afternoon doing this?"

Chi Qing broke out in cold sweat on his back and his eyes flickered, "Well... I'll go right away, I'll go right away..."

He then fled out of the tent.

The personal guard brought dinner from Huotouying and was almost bumped by Chi Qing when he entered the tent. He was used to it.

When he was preparing to set the table, he saw a potted plant on the table. It was full of green and red fruits and looked very beautiful.

The personal guard moved the potted plant to a high table nearby. After setting the table, he said to Feng Shuo who was still reading official documents, "Master, eat first."

Feng Shuo only hummed lightly, and his eyes never moved away from the documents.

The personal guard knew that his master never cared about food. He had never been picky about anything, nor did he like any particular dishes. After

waiting for a long time, Feng Shuo finished reviewing the official documents and came to eat. Most of the dishes were already cold.

The personal guard hurriedly said, "I'll take it to Huotouying to heat it up."

"No need."

Feng Shuo glanced at the dishes sent by Huotouying.

When he was young, he ate a bowl of poisoned tofu pudding in the palace. After saving his life, he lost his sense of taste. The palace people who knew about this were executed. Now only the Grand Empress Dowager knows this secret.

In the past ten years, he could only taste any delicious delicacies.

No matter how exquisite the food made by the army assistants is, it can't compare with the chef in the palace.

His eyes touched the bowl of tofu pudding and stayed on it for a few more seconds.

The tofu pudding in the small white porcelain bowl was tender and trembling, as if it was just a ball of slightly solidified milk. It was covered with a layer of tempting red oil dogwood, dotted with green scallions and coriander, and sprinkled with fried soybeans and crushed peanuts. It looked very delicious.

The bodyguard hurriedly handed over the silver spoon.

Feng Shuo scooped a small spoonful and tasted it.

Because there was soup in the bowl, the tofu pudding was still warm, tender, smooth and soft, and melted in the mouth.

It had a light salty and spicy taste, which was not bad.

Wait, salty and spicy?

Feng Shuo's hand holding the spoon suddenly stopped.