Chapter 135: Oil-splashed Noodles Contain A Profound Truth
The wheat ground from the stone mill is not very white, stained with a little yellow.
Noodles made from such wheat flour taste the best, although they still have a bit of coarseness, which pairs perfectly with the wild eating style of oil-splashed noodles.
Dry the spicy grass in the sun, smash it in a stone mortar, and it turns brownish-yellow. After splashing it with hot oil, the parts that receive more heat deepen in color to dark red, while the parts with less heat turn brown. Mixed with light yellow wide noodles, green wild onions, and green sour broadleaf vegetables tinged with yellow, the color surpasses many foods.
However, this is still not enough. Mash the garlic root grass, extract its juice, and add it to the oil-splashed noodles, then its flavor can reach a higher level.
As for the red, shiny, soft braised meat, cut it into large slices, fully covering the oil-splashed noodles. Only then is a bowl of oil-splashed noodles that whets the appetite truly formed.
When eating this noodles, first mix them evenly. It’s best to let the soft braised meat hide at the bottom of the bowl, allowing it to quietly continue fusing with the other ingredients, waiting for new composite flavors to emerge.
At this time, pick up a chopstick of oil-splashed noodles, stuff them into the mouth while hot, and after various flavors fully stimulate the taste buds, chew the noodles three times and swallow them down the throat into the stomach.
When chewing the noodles, it’s best not to bite them off. Just chew the whole strand full of holes, so that the front part of the noodle has already warmly entered the stomach, the flavors in the middle are still stimulating the throat, and the noodles in the mouth are continuously stimulating your taste buds, secreting saliva…
The first bite of oil-splashed noodles is the climax. This climax continues until the noodles in the bowl are eaten up. Only when still savoring it, pick up a piece of braised meat with chopsticks, watch the meat slice wrapped in sauce trembling on the chopsticks, best to swallow it in one bite. Press it with the tongue, the fat meat immediately crushes, then use teeth to shred the skin and lean meat, and it can go down.
When eating meat, the speed should not be too fast, and the amount should not be too little. At least three palm-sized, one-fen-thick meat slices need to be eaten continuously to let the body feel a different kind of satisfaction from the noodles.
1 Finally, while the aftertaste of the noodles and braised meat still lingers in the body, pour a bowl of noodle soup. The noodle soup must be hot, to reprocess the various ingredients at the bottom of the bowl.
1 Wait for it to cool slightly, then pick up the bowl and drink the noodle soup clean like a whale sucking water, slamming the clean-as-new rice bowl on the table with a clank.
1 A meal of oil-splashed noodles with a touch of wildness and the rough northwest style is finally eaten.
1 Originally, after they finished the noodles and soup, they could continue laboring like cattle and horses, but E Ji was merciful and specially gave them the time of one incense stick to digest. When the time was up, they were driven to work.
1 Regarding the assassination attempt on the Grand Marshal, Yun Ce did not mention it, E Ji did not say, Feng An and Liang Kun also did not say. Only Zhang Min was talkative, and after finishing the meal, she quietly analyzed the pros and cons with Yun Ce.
1 “Assassinations are very common in Chang’an. Young Master need not worry about it. Panxing Tower records that just in the first half of this year, Chang’an City had one hundred eighty-six nobles above Grand Master Rank assassinated, among which twenty-seven families were exterminated, oh, including the Ren family that you personally handled.”
1 Yun Ce drew in a cold breath and said: “So, even someone like the Grand Marshal being assassinated is commonplace?”
1 Zhang Min shook her head and said: “Generally speaking, the higher the position and power, the less people are willing to assassinate, because ordinary people cannot withstand the backlash after assassination. However, once it starts, it means they are irreconcilable.”
1 Yun Ce said: “Politics should not be like this. Politics should be a discipline of mutual compromise and concession, not a result of mutual destruction.”
1 Zhang Min sighed and said: “Everyone used to think that way before. Perhaps the time of compromise was too long, many contradictions accumulated to the point where consensus cannot be reached through compromise anymore.
2 Three hundred fifteen years ago, the then renowned Young Master of the Jiang Clan, Jiang Yu, galloped on horseback after drinking in Chang’an City, and accidentally trampled a servant of the Han Clan to death. The Jiang Clan even proactively sent people to apologize, and the Han Clan accepted the apology.
2 As a result, ten days later at night, while the Jiang Clan was worshiping ancestors in the old residence at Ji Ming Post Station, they were besieged by six hundred black-clothed men. In just half a night, the Jiang Clan of one hundred thirty-three members, along with more than two hundred guards and servants, were killed clean.
2 This matter was said to be done by the Han Clan, and then the Han Clan was jointly taken out by several families with old grudges against them.
2 From then on, even if the nobles offended someone, they no longer had the habit of apologizing at the door, holding the thought that if you can take me out, come on; if you can’t, endure it, and continue living their days.”
2 Yun Ce looked at Zhang Min and said: “What about the Emperor?”
2 Zhang Min shook her head: “For clan grudges, the Emperor generally does not interfere.”
2 Yun Ce thought for a moment and said: “So, the Emperor actually has no power to constrain Chang’an’s great clans, right?”
2 Zhang Min smiled and said: “This is why Yu Heng dared to openly cuckold the Emperor, and in the end, not only did the Emperor swallow this bitter fruit, but he also issued an edict to pardon Yu Heng.”
2 “Since when did the Great Han Emperor become ineffective?”
2 “The Emperor has never been able to. They were forcibly propped up by King Huo back then. Later, when they were not obedient, King Huo killed three of them. You tell me, under such circumstances, how much prestige can the Emperor have?
3 Moreover, the Yellow Emperor who was expelled back then, that is, the Xuanyuan clan, they allied with the Gui Fang people and ultimately created a powerful enemy for us. So, neither the Yellow Emperor nor the Emperor has ever been a very important role in the hearts of Great Han people.
3 Of course, except during the sacrifice to heaven.”
3 Yun Ce pondered for a long time before saying: “Then, what is the spirit of Great Han, the spiritual strength that has kept Great Han unified for thousands of years?”
3 Zhang Min’s eyes lit up, and without thinking she said: “Naturally, it is Iron Enclosure Pass, and those warriors in Iron Enclosure Pass who don armor and wield sharp weapons for Great Han.
3 It is because of them that Great Han people can live the peaceful and happy days they have now. It is because of their desperate blocking of the Gui Fang people who are more ferocious than evil ghosts that Great Han exists.
3 In Great Han, every warrior’s ultimate dream is to go to Iron Enclosure Pass to kill Gui Fang people. Every scholar’s ultimate dream is also to enter Iron Enclosure Pass, to strategize for those warriors, to organize and arm them, to praise their merits.
3 Great Han’s women take pride in them, Great Han’s children take them as vanguard.
3 Yun Ce, this time going north of the Great Wall, you will meet the best, most sincere, bravest, and kindest group of people in Great Han.
3 They are fundamentally different from those in the country. You will surely like them. With your abilities, you will surely become one of them.”
3 Yun Ce looked at Zhang Min’s delicate face and suddenly smiled, patting her little hand: “Do you remember the Chang’an you told me about before?
4 You said it is the most prosperous city in the world, and that it is the most beautiful and noblest city in the world. As a result, I found it to be a pigsty decorated very luxuriously.
4 Every fat pig there is fat to the point of dripping oil. Every fat pig there feeds on people. They do not produce, they are sorry to their ancestors above and to the people who supplied them to high positions below. They only know to feed on human blood and take pleasure in tormenting others.
4 Tell me, what is good about such a Chang’an?”
4 Zhang Min’s pretty face turned pale from Yun Ce’s words, and after a long time she said: “What kind of place is the one you like?”
4 “Yun City!” Yun Ce said without hesitation.
4 “You mean the Yun City you are about to build?”
4 “That’s right. At that time, open your eyes wide and see clearly what a city is. Also open your eyes wide and see clearly what kind of city is called a city.
4 In the future Yun City, as long as one is human, they can enter. As long as they abide by Yun City’s rules, Yun City will guarantee they are treated fairly. As long as they do not commit crimes, their family and property will always be safe. There, as long as they labor, they will surely get food. As long as they support Yun City, Yun City will unhesitatingly support them.
4 In that city, there is no distinction of high or low nobility. If people must be divided into nine grades, then those with high morality are upper, those who defend the country are upper, those who bravely do what is right are upper, those who sacrifice for others are upper, those who diligently teach and nurture are upper, those who work hard are upper, those who are benevolent and kind are upper.
4 We do not judge high or low by nobility of bloodline, nor by amount of money, nor by level of power.
5 In this city, we only judge right and wrong, only contribution determines nobility. An old farmer who can grow the best grain may become a distinguished guest at a celebratory banquet. A person in high position may not become the focus of attention under everyone’s gaze.
5 Beauty lies in the heart, not the skin. Wisdom is high in usefulness, not in rhetoric. Bravery is measured by how many enemy heads are piled under the tent, not by dazzling armor or flashy martial skill.
5 To be honest, Zhang Min, I came from the wasteland. I even mixed with a pig pack for a while. Even in the pig pack, there is no example of the herd killing each other. Even in the pig pack, when fighting bear packs, the sturdy wild boars charge in front. They also know to protect pregnant sows and piglets. Even in the fiercest fighting, their king, despite heavy wounds, fights to the death without retreating.
5 Zhang Min, do you really think your so-called Great Han is better than pigs?”
5 Yun Ce’s words shocked not only Zhang Min, but even E Ji, Feng An, and Liang Kun involuntarily gathered around, admiringly looking at Yun Ce in the middle.
5 E Ji’s eyes brimmed with tears, pointing at Zhang Min: “That brave Pig King was taken out by you all at Fanzi Mountain, and in the end divided into pieces and eaten by the doggies.”
5 Zhang Min was stunned by E Ji’s inexplicable accusation, then suddenly stood up, pointing at Yun Ce and roaring: “I knew it, I knew it. In the end, it was you who took the Dragon Pearl!”
