Chapter 111 First Attempt at Hot Pot
He took a sip of water to try to relieve the pain in his mouth, and seeing Zhu Mingyue eating slowly and calmly, he said admiringly, "The shopkeeper can actually eat so much spicy food."
Zhu Mingyue calmly said, "It's alright, not spicy." He then pursed his lips, his breath steaming, and no one noticed that his lips were now red and swollen, plump and extremely cute.
The more they ate, the more addictive it became, and everyone's chopsticks couldn't stop moving.
Zhu Mingyue's favorite food is potato chips, which are very filling. Zhu Mingyue was the first to finish eating, and after touching his slightly bulging belly, he wisely put down his chopsticks.
Xiao Cui glanced at him: "Shopkeeper, won't you have anything else to eat?"
"I'm full." Zhu Mingyue wiped the grease from the corner of her mouth and said, "You guys eat slowly, no rush." Hot pot is most comfortable to enjoy leisurely in this kind of cold weather.
The shopkeeper has a small appetite; he can't even eat as much as she can. Xiao Cui thought to herself, and quickly scooped up the duck intestines.
This thing is really strange. Before it goes into the pot, it looks disgusting and I don't want to touch it. But after it's been cooked in the hot pot, it's crispy, spicy, and refreshing. It's so delicious that I can't stop eating it.
Who would have thought that she was so sure she wouldn't touch it? She's been proven wrong, and this time she's really been proven wrong.
He An sighed and stopped eating, not because he didn't want to eat, but because his favorite beef was gone.
He sighed contentedly, "It's delicious!"
Then he changed the subject: "If Brother Xie were here, we probably wouldn't have a chance to eat."
Perhaps it was because he had warmed up, but Zhu Mingyue felt his face was a little hot. He gritted his teeth and said, "When have I ever missed out on your share?"
He An thought about it and realized that they had indeed been shortchanged. The shopkeeper treated them very kindly, but when it came to good food, he always gave it to Brother Xie first! It was only because Brother Xie wasn't here that they wouldn't have gotten any hot pot today.
After finishing the main dishes, the hot pot broth couldn't be wasted, so the cook tore off a couple of handfuls of noodles and threw them in, enjoying the meal immensely.
It's already mid-to-late December.
The weather was getting colder and colder. The sun was still shining in the sky, but a thin layer of ice had formed on the water tank in the yard. Zhu Mingyue kept her hand warmer with her at home and wrapped herself up like a ball, but even so, she still didn't feel warm.
This winter seems much colder than the previous two years; he doesn't recall December being this cold in previous years.
He vaguely remembered hearing a proverb that if winter comes early, the harvest will be good next year. But it hadn't rained or snowed for quite some time now, and this cold wasn't damp but dry. If it continued like this, it probably wasn't a good omen.
He licked his dry lips, feeling a stinging sensation from the fine cracks at the corners of his lips. Zhu Mingyue frowned, just about to boil some water to moisten them, when there was a knock on the door.
Li Zhengyang's mother came to visit, carrying a basket on her back, which was full of cabbages.
"Mingyue, these are Chinese cabbages from our field. They just ripened a few days ago, but we couldn't bear to eat them. We just pulled them up today, and they're still crisp and tender!" Chinese cabbages are quite heavy, and Li Zhengyang's mother was panting heavily. "I thought you didn't plant any this year, so I brought some over. Chinese cabbages keep well, enough for you to eat for a while."
Zhu Mingyue quickly took the basket down. Vegetables were indeed scarce in winter. He had been eating mostly meat dishes at Mingyue Tower these past few days. One or two meals wouldn't be a problem, but eating too much would cause internal heat. And when he went outside and was hit by the cold wind, his lips cracked.
The cabbage was so tender and juicy that it burst with juice when you pinched it. Zhu Mingyue's eyes lit up. He blamed himself for being too busy this year, and Xie Pei was not at home. The vegetable garden had been neglected. He vowed to plant vegetables again next spring.
"Thank you, Auntie." Zhu Mingyue stepped aside and said, "It's winter now, so there probably isn't much work to do. Please come in, Auntie, sit down and have some hot tea."
Li Zhengyang's mother had the same idea. When people have free time, they want to find something to do. Even if their hands are idle, their mouths can't be idle. The village isn't as lively as the county. If they don't chat with people, they'll be bored to death.
As the two passed through the courtyard, a gust of cold wind blew by, making Zhu Mingyue's ears ring. Li Zhengyang's mother muttered under her breath, "This damn weather! It's neither raining nor snowing, just constant wind. When will it ever end?"
Farmers are always very sensitive to the weather. They rely on the heavens for their livelihood and know exactly what kind of weather indicates rain or snow.
Zhu Mingyue rubbed her ears, which were sore from the cold wind, and asked, "Auntie, if the whole winter is dry and cold, won't the harvest be bad next year?"
Li Zhengyang's mother replied, "It's not necessarily because the harvest was bad."
Zhu Mingyue breathed a sigh of relief. "Then—" He was interrupted before he could finish saying "okay."
"It would be good if we could have a harvest at all. If things continue like this, we might face a drought next year."
Is it that serious? Zhu Mingyue put the pastries back in her hand.
“My aunt encountered this once when she was young. Zhengyang and Zhengming were still little back then! It was like this in winter too, and the following year there was a drought, and the Ji River dried up. Our people suffered terribly. The crops couldn’t be grown. The emperor was kind back then and exempted the taxes, but we had no choice. The fields yielded no harvest and people were starving.”
Li Zhengyang's mother recalled the past and sighed deeply: "Our family still had some leftover food, and we survived for a long time on two meals of thin rice soup a day. Later, when the thin rice soup ran out, we scraped elm bark and pulled grass roots to eat. All the elm bark on the mountain was scraped off by the villagers. Some of the elderly in the village thought that living was a waste of food and did not want to compete with the young people for food. As if they had agreed, they starved to death in their homes one after another."
Zhu Mingyue sighed deeply. Disasters are merciless, and humans are so small and helpless in the face of natural calamities.
At the same time, I had a vague feeling that something was wrong and hoped that there would be no drought next year.
After seeing Li Zhengyang's mother off, the sun was about to set.
Zhu Mingyue looked at the pile of cabbages in the corner of the kitchen, licked her lips, and reached her paws over them.
For dinner, he stewed half a head of cabbage. Since he was eating alone, he kept it simple, adding two flatbreads to the pot as his main dish. The cabbage was sweet and delicious, and Zhu Mingyue, unusually, finished it all off. He then leaned back in his chair and began to drift off into a daze.
Since Brother Cui left, he has never returned. However, at the end of last month, someone sent him a letter. The letter only said that everything was fine and that he should not worry about him. He probably knew that he was very concerned about the affairs of Jizhou. He also told him some recent events, which were not very important information, but they were Zhu Mingyue's only channel to obtain information about Jizhou.
There was good news, but also a lot of bad news. The good news was that Brother Cui's grain was delivered successfully, but the bad news was that by the time he received the letter, the grain had been almost completely consumed.
With the year drawing to a close, where can we get grain to send to Jizhou? The imperial court is indifferent and doesn't care. They want the horse to run but don't feed it. What kind of logic is that?
The soldiers of Jizhou Camp were clearly fighting with all their might to resist the encirclement of Dali by the Southern Barbarians, but the court's actions made it seem as if they had abandoned the Jizhou soldiers. It was truly pathetic...
"Fuck you—"
A furious curse came from the general's tent in Jizhou.
Guan Shao felt as if a raging fire was burning in his chest. In his rage, his anger surged forth as if he wanted to burn the entire camp to the ground.
"General, please calm down!" the lieutenant stepped forward to persuade him, though he too seemed to be suppressing his anger.
All the generals in the tent, except Xie Pei, were angry. Only Xie Pei sat upright in his chair, his face showing no emotion.
The deputy general glanced at Xie Pei and couldn't help but admire him. Even in this situation, he could still keep his emotions in check; he was truly a remarkable person.
Guan Shao was furious and slammed his fist on the table: "Damn it, this is outrageous! I'm going back to the capital right now and I'm going to find out which brain-dead old bastard in the court came up with this terrible idea."
Finally, someone couldn't contain their anger and chimed in: "That's right, our Jizhou camp has 100,000 troops. If we run out of food, we won't even be able to get through the New Year. Not to mention, the Southern Barbarians are still eyeing us menacingly outside the city, hoping to take advantage of our unpreparedness and break through the city gates in one fell swoop. But these old fools in the court who only know how to eat are doing this. They don't give us a single grain of food and even make the soldiers reclaim wasteland in Jizhou to grow crops and be self-sufficient."
"What's the point of planting in the dead of winter? What's the point of clearing wasteland? Let alone the fact that the land can't be cultivated, clearing wasteland, you make it sound so easy! Those old bastards who hold their positions without doing any work don't understand, are they some kind of saint—"
"General Wei!" The lieutenant shook his head at the speaker: "Be careful what you say."
The general surnamed Wei realized that he had almost said something treasonous in his moment of anger and recklessness, and broke out in a cold sweat. He looked around and saw that apart from the newly promoted Xie Pei, everyone else was an old friend who had gone through thick and thin with him, and his heart eased slightly.
Xie Pei is an upright man, and usually taciturn; surely he wouldn't speak carelessly? He cleared his throat twice and tentatively asked, "Young General Xie, what are your thoughts on this matter?"
Upon hearing this, everyone turned their attention to Xie Pei, and even Guan Jing suppressed his anger slightly, wanting to hear what Xie Pei had to say.
They cursed each other for ages in the tent, but couldn't come up with anything of value, and they were all very frustrated.
Xie Pei remained silent, simply watching them vent their anger, but this did not diminish his presence.
This rising star in the army fought a brilliant battle recently, and it's clear to everyone that his abilities are not to be underestimated. Even someone as arrogant as Guan Shao admires him greatly.
Xie Pei was not unangry; he simply ignored the accusations hurled at him. When the imperial edict from the capital reached the army, he remained completely unmoved until the eunuch finished reading it.
He never had any hope for the court, so where did his disappointment come from? And without the gap between hope and disappointment, where did his anger come from?
The wind howled against the tents, and Xie Pei's thoughts were even faster than the wind, already reaching a village in Ganzhou.
The weather was exceptionally cold this year. He was sensitive to the cold and must have wrapped himself up like a chubby little ball. The image of him moving clumsily because he was wearing so many clothes came to mind. A sweet feeling appeared on Xie Pei's lips, and the corners of his lips unconsciously curled up.
He heard someone call his name, and his brow furrowed slightly as he regretfully stopped the scene he was imagining.
Guan Shao stared straight at him: "Xie Pei, what do you say?"
Xie Pei raised his eyes and said seriously, "They occupied the granaries of the Southern Barbarians."
The general surnamed Wei couldn't help but wonder, "Our current situation is that the army is short of food and fodder, but the imperial court is not giving us any, and is telling us to be self-sufficient." This kid must have been lost in thought just now; did he even read the question properly?
Xie Pei showed no impatience and added, "Take the initiative and recapture Suiyuan in one fell swoop, seizing their granary."
The previously noisy camp instantly fell silent.
Even Guan Shao remained silent for a long time, seemingly stunned by his audacious idea.
After a long silence, the lieutenant stammered, "This...this can't be!"
General Wei then realized what was happening. He seemed startled and swallowed hard. "Young General Xie, I admire your courage in having this idea, but it's far too hasty."
"Yes! This idea is not advisable."
"Alas! I thought General Xie was brave and resourceful, and that he would say something useful, but I never expected this... Alas!"
Some people shook their heads, some sighed, but Xie Pei remained unmoved.
Guan Shao shouted, "Shut up, all of you!"
Once everyone fell silent, Guan Shao turned to Xie Pei and said, "Go on, we're all on the same side, so why don't you tell us what's on your mind?"
Xie Pei nodded slightly: "The national treasury is empty and the court cannot produce any grain. The wasteland cannot grow any food. It is winter, and even the people in the city do not have much surplus grain. May I ask where we can obtain grain to get through the winter? Even if we get through the winter, what will happen then?" Xie Pei asked a soul-searching question.
Guan Shao's voice was hoarse: "Yes, and then what?" They argued about how to obtain food and supplies to get through the winter, and after the winter, what would happen?
Despite the court's inaction, they were still stationed in Jizhou, guarding against the menacing Southern Barbarian army and worrying about the shortage of food supplies.
None of the problems have been resolved.
The deputy general seemed to have figured this out as well, and his mind raced: "General Xie means that instead of wasting time with the Southern Barbarians, we should take the initiative to attack as soon as possible, while the army still has some food left."
After careful consideration, everyone realized that this move of cutting off the enemy's supply lines was indeed tempting, but the risk was too great; it was either success or failure.
The general surnamed Wei blushed and gritted his teeth: "It's either victory or defeat. If we keep dragging this out, our soldiers will starve to death. We might as well have a good fight with the Southern Barbarians."
Guan Shao seemed to be deep in thought, pondering the feasibility of his approach.
After a long while, the anger on his face slowly subsided. He got up and walked to the sand table. He planted a small flag steadily in the coordinates of Suiyuan and laughed out loud for the first time ever.
The strong wind outside the tent continued to blow, and it had been blowing for who knows how many days, with no sign of stopping.
The tents swayed slightly in the wind, as if they would be uprooted if the wind were any stronger. Guan Shao murmured, "This wind, why don't we let it blow even stronger!"
The lieutenant steadied himself: "General, what do you mean by that?" The strong winds have been blowing for days, making it difficult for the soldiers to train. They all hope that the wind will subside, so why does General Guan want the wind to get even stronger?
Guan Shao gestured with his chin toward Xie Pei, indicating that he should explain.
Upon receiving the instruction, Xie Pei succinctly replied, "North wind."
Huh? What's wrong with the north wind? Everyone was confused.
Guan Shao: ...
He knew that Xie Pei's stingy nature was incurable, so he figured it was better to do it himself than to have Xie Pei do the talking.
Guan Shao took a deep breath and cursed, "Haven't attacked in so long, your defense has rusted your brain?"
The lieutenant lowered his head in shame, but then a flash of inspiration struck him, and he exclaimed, "I understand now! The north wind is my divine help!" General Guan was right. Wind direction is extremely important on the battlefield, and there are many instances where battles are fought by taking advantage of the wind. If used properly, it can be a great asset to victory.
Everyone suddenly realized what was going on.
Guan Shao knew he had become attached to appearances. Since arriving in Jizhou, he seemed to have lost his fighting spirit and was now worrying about food supplies every day.
He glanced at Xie Pei indifferently, a satisfied expression on his face.
This guy is great in every way, it's a pity he fell for his sister-in-law.
He even privately inquired with Li Zhengyang and finally understood that his sister-in-law was good in every way, but her only flaw was that she didn't like her own brother-in-law.
It's more than just disliking it! Given Xie Pei's personality, the other person is probably still in the dark!
Night fell, and all was quiet.
Unaware of what was going on, Zhu Mingyue rolled over in his blankets. As the cold air seeped in through the gaps, he shrank his neck and muttered, "Xie Pei, stop messing around."
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