The rise of the poor

Chapter 417 Jiajing Passes Another Note
Among the many buildings in Xiyuan, there is a building that cannot be ignored. You can smell the mouth-watering fragrance near this building.

This building complex is the Imperial Dining Room.

Emperor Jiajing practiced immortality and made alchemy day and night, but apart from granting himself one after another long immortal titles that people can't finish reading in one breath, there is nothing in his body that is connected with immortals. Three meals a day are inseparable from the wind and dew, so this imperial dining room is the key department in Xiyuan.

The imperial dining room was originally located in the southeast of the Forbidden City. According to the Eight Diagrams of the Book of Changes, the east is dominated by wood and the south is dominated by fire.However, after Emperor Jiajing avoided living in Xiyuan, the imperial dining room was moved from the Forbidden City to Xiyuan, and the direction was also in the southeast of Xiyuan.

The imperial dining room in Xiyuan is mainly the kitchen serving Emperor Jiajing. Most of the most delicious delicacies in the world are produced here. Although the imperial dining room only serves Emperor Jiajing, the scale of this imperial dining room is not small.The Imperial Dining Room is an independent hall. There are more than 50 large rooms. There are more than 30 imperial cooks in the Imperial Dining Room. , responsible for picking vegetables, washing vegetables, cutting meat and noodles and other manual work; in addition, there are 80 husbands and servants who do some manual work, fetching water, carrying vegetables, etc.In addition to these people, there are more than [-] cooking eunuchs in the imperial dining room. The imperial cooks are not allowed to walk in Xiyuan.

In fact, it has to be said that Emperor Jiajing was a frugal emperor in terms of diet. The size of these personnel is generally less than a hundred people than his predecessors such as Zhengde, let alone compared with later generations of Manchus. Compared with the Empress Dowager Cixi who had more than 100 dishes, Emperor Jiajing's diet can be described as simple.

It was already past noon, and the sunlight reflected colorful lights on the glazed tiles of the imperial dining room.

There were two cooking eunuchs at the entrance of the imperial dining room. They looked out anxiously at the entrance of the imperial dining room, pacing back and forth holding Buddha dust in their hands, sighing softly one after another.The two had been waiting here for more than an hour, but they had not seen the return of the young eunuch who had gone to deliver the meal order, and had already sent two young eunuchs to inquire about the news, and the news that came was only temporary.

"Your Majesty, I haven't eaten two meals here, so what can I do if the dragon's body is starved to death?" A slightly shorter eunuch who served food sighed while pacing.

"That's not it, our family's heart is agitated, it can't be that our imperial kitchen has done something wrong." Another eunuch who was in charge of food was also anxious, with unjust worries.

"What are you talking nonsense about, crow's mouth, you were rewarded for dinner last night." The slightly shorter cooking eunuch quickly waved the Buddha dust twice, as if he could shake off his bad luck.

"Yes, what Eunuch Liu said is true." The other eunuch serving food nodded repeatedly, feeling a little relieved.

No wonder he was worried at the beginning. Emperor Jiajing can be said to be the most severe emperor to eunuchs besides Emperor Yuanzhang and Emperor Yongle. Emperor Jiajing looked down on eunuchs very much. He felt that eunuchs were only worthy of cleaning toilets and toilets. However, if Emperor Jiajing found out that the eunuch had made a mistake, the punishment would be light.

"Dare to ask the two father-in-laws, has the meal order arrived yet? What kind of dishes are you going to cook?"

While the two were waiting, Liu Yuchu, the chef of the imperial dining room, came out and asked the two eunuchs who were standing at the door.

"Lord Liu, our family is in a hurry than you, but today is not the same as before. The Holy Majesty has not eaten for two meals, and we have to ask for instructions before we can sit. If we do not suit the Holy Majesty's taste, we will be punished. It's a big deal for the holy majesty to starve the dragon's body." The eunuch Si Shan was also in a hurry.

"His Majesty has fasted for half a month and has been a vegetarian for half a month, so he needs to supplement with meat and meat." Liu Yuchu said.

"Our family understands what Mr. Liu said, but the meal list has not been sent back, or Mr. Liu should prepare the meal list according to your proposal first." The eunuch serving food thought for a while and said to Liu Yuchu.

"That's the only way to go." Liu Yuchu nodded, and was about to return to the imperial dining room to prepare meals for the Holy One.

At this moment, I suddenly heard the excited voice of another eunuch serving food, "Hurry up, see Xiao Dezi is back."

The little Dezi that the food eunuch said was the little eunuch they sent to present the meal order. Xiao Dezi ran very fast, and ran over out of breath, like a general who had won a big battle, excited He solemnly handed the meal order in his hand to the eunuch who was waiting at the door.

The eunuch serving meals took the meal list and looked at it impatiently, with a strange expression on his face after reading it.

It wasn't until Liu Yuchu saw the meal list that he realized why the two eunuchs had weird expressions. The meal list sent back was completely different from what they submitted, and none of the dishes were the same.

Braised pork with bamboo shoots, steamed fish head, braised eggplant, braised chicken in oil, fish-flavored shredded pork, braised chicken legs, steamed crab (no salt), sweet and sour fish, spicy chicken wings.
The more Yuchu Liu looked at the menu, the more strange it became. Generally speaking, these dishes are a bit unrefined. I don't know why the Holy One suddenly wants to eat these dishes.

However, I finally know what to do.

Liu Yuchu took the meal list and quickly returned to the imperial dining room, passed the menu in his hand to the chefs, and then the gourmet machine in the imperial dining room started to work.The imperial chef is worthy of being an imperial chef, and the dishes on the menu are presented in front of everyone's eyes one by one quickly.

There were a total of nine dishes on the meal list. For ordinary people, nine dishes for a meal must be extravagant, but for the emperor, it was still too little.

In order to enrich the delicacies of the Holy King, the imperial chefs also prepared six additional dishes, and made up fifteen dishes, which were passed on by the food eunuch to the palace where Emperor Jiajing lived.

When Zhu Ping'an was arranging the tenth bookshelf, Zhang Siwei came again, saying that the Holy Majesty had sent another small note.Hearing that the Holy Majesty had sent another note, Zhu Ping'an put down the book in his hand and followed Zhang Siwei to the hall of the Imperial Academy.

This time, it was Xiao Huangmen who came to deliver the note on errands for Emperor Jiajing. It was Zhu Pingan's acquaintance Feng Bao, and it was no longer Huang Jin in the morning.That's right, Huang Jin was a big celebrity next to Emperor Jiajing, and he was also in charge of the East Factory for the first time, so how could he have so much time to do errands.

When Zhu Ping'an entered the hall, he felt that the atmosphere in the hall was a bit strange, and the Hanlin people in the hall were all looking at him.

"Lord Zhu, the Holy Majesty gave you this." Feng Bao unfolded the note in his hand and said to Zhu Ping'an.

Uh

for me?
No wonder the atmosphere in the hall is so strange, no wonder they all looked at him, it turned out that the Holy Majesty gave him a small piece of paper this time.When I first arrived, I received a small note from Emperor Jiajing, so it's no wonder they let them do this.It's just, what kind of note did Emperor Jiajing pass on to him? He just joined the job, and Zhu Ping'an was very curious about the content of the note.

"Sir, take the decree." Zhu Pingan knelt down and took the note.

After Zhu Pingan took the note, he opened it. After reading the contents of the small piece of paper, he was a little bit dumbfounded, because there was only a simple sentence on it:

“Sweet and sour fish is better with rice.”

(End of this chapter)