Daming Crazy Emperor

Chapter 515 Prepare New Year’s goods for soldiers

Taichang came to Xintongzhou City early in the morning, because the boat to Dongying to fetch medicine had already returned yesterday.

What's more, Ma Xianglin, Qin Yiming and others have already led their men to deal with the tortoise. They stayed up all night, and the finished product will be produced this morning.

He ran outside the barracks of several people and saw that there were several large pots of light black medicinal soup steaming there, and the whole camp area was filled with a faint medicinal fragrance.

These medicinal soups exude a really clear fragrance, unlike other prescriptions, the medicinal soups that are boiled out have a burnt bitter apricot smell.

When Ma Xianglin saw him coming, he quickly ordered several guards to pull a piece of gauze over the empty pot, and then slowly poured a large pot of medicinal soup on the gauze.

This is filtering the dregs.

Taichang curiously picked up the filtered tortoise shell and broke it, and the tortoise shell was broken immediately.

Seeing this, Ma Xianglin quickly put down the pot and introduced: "Your Majesty, this is tortoise shell Poria soup. It has been boiled for six hours. The other medicinal materials are boiled separately, so there is no need to boil it for so long."

Immediately afterwards, he ordered his personal guards to pull a piece of gauze over another empty pot, and then slowly poured a large pot of medicinal soup onto the gauze.

Sure enough, there was no tortoise shell in this pot of soup dregs.

These two pots of soup are only light black, and they are not mushy.

Seeing this, Taichang couldn't help asking curiously: "Should the two pots of soup still be boiled together?"

This is of course unnecessary, if you really want to boil the water dry, it will take at least a few hours.

Ma Xianglin directly ordered his guards to light the firewood under the Guijia Poria soup, and then picked up a bag of flour-like things and introduced: "Your Majesty, the reason why this Guiling jelly becomes paste is because of the addition of this raw powder."

After that, he poured the raw powder into the pot of unheated medicinal soup and stirred it with a spatula.

He stirred it for a while, until the tortoise shell Poria soup over there boiled, and then he ordered people to put out the fire, and then took the pot of medicinal soup and poured it directly into the boiling tortoise shell and poria soup to stir it up.

Sure enough, the medicinal soup in the pot quickly turned into a paste.

At this time, Qin Yiming and Qin Gongming each brought a stack of bowls, and scooped the paste into the bowls with a spoon.

Ma Xianglin introduced again: "After it cools down, it will become the same as soft tofu. When it looks like soft tofu, it will become Guiling jelly."

Taichang nodded slightly when he heard this, and said: "Well, when the tortoise jelly is ready, you can start cutting down the trees on the east side. How about it, the three of you will bring a hundred thousand soldiers to cut down. You can roughly estimate how long it will take to finish cutting down."

Ma Xianglin thought about it carefully and then estimated: "It should be finished before the Chinese New Year."

New Year's Eve?

When Taichang heard the words, he couldn't help but be stunned.

The weather here is so hot that he didn't even realize that the Chinese New Year is coming soon.

After Ma Xianglin said this, he just remembered that the Chinese New Year is less than a month away!
Alas, this year has to be outside again.

Looking at the empty barracks, he couldn't help but sigh slightly.

These soldiers are really working hard, and I am afraid that they will have to rush to dig the canal on New Year's Day.

No way, hurry up!

This year's festival soldiers can't rest as usual, and they have to eat like New Year's.

It seems that we have to hurry up to prepare New Year's goods for the soldiers.

Thinking of this, he decisively waved his hand and said, "Okay, you all work hard, and lead the soldiers to cut down the tree before the Chinese New Year, and I will prepare some New Year's goods."

After speaking, he went straight to the flagship.

What kind of New Year's goods should I prepare for this New Year?
The shad is definitely needed, they have already found the area where the shad often eats, and they can catch as much as they want.

By the way, it's the king crab fishing season right now, and it's still too late to send ten fishing boats to the northern waters to catch a few million catties. Anyway, it's freezing over there right now, so go ahead and get some ice. It should be no problem to catch the king crab all the way over the ice.

Also, it shouldn't be a problem to send a wolf-toothed warship to plant thousands of cavalry and horses from the Shenwu Battalion into the Columbia River, and go directly into the nearby grasslands to hunt more than a thousand bison.

In addition, meat shrimp, octopus, etc. have also been found in the fishing area, and there is no problem with fresh catch.

There is also wine, you can also find a way to order someone to brew some, anyway, the governorate of New Spain is nearby, and he has ordered 1000 million shi of grain with others, and there is no shortage of grain.

As the New Year's Eve is approaching, the large and small ships sent by Taichang are constantly shuttling back and forth, and the New Year's goods that are tens of millions of catties are also constantly gathering at the port on the side of Xintongzhou City.

To be honest, like him, most of the soldiers didn't realize that the New Year's Eve is coming, because the weather here is not like the New Year's weather, it's not cold at all, but very hot, it can be said that there is no sign of the New Year's Eve , How many people would think of the new year.

Of course, whether you think about it or not, the New Year's Day will still come as scheduled.

The day before the Chinese New Year, Taichang ordered Lu Xiangsheng to inform all the soldiers that the [-]th day and the first day of the Lunar New Year were off, and everyone had a good rest.

In the early morning of the 31st of the Lunar New Year, the sailors unloaded the New Year’s goods that had been prepared and sent them outside the barracks.

Braised shrimp in white water, steamed shad, spicy king crab, stir-fried octopus, cold asparagus, braised venison, grilled steak with cumin, and beef offal soup, a total of eight dishes.

These are prepared by the imperial chef in advance. No matter whether you know how to cook them or not, as long as you cook the ingredients according to the steps set by the imperial chef and mix the seasoning well, the taste will not be bad.

In addition, there is pure grain shochu, which is sold in barrels, which is enough.

Of course, this bucket is not a bucket for carrying water, but a beer bucket, which Zhang Zhiji and Xu Yunzhen specially obtained from Cordoba.

In order for Taichang to make the soldiers eat better during the New Year's Day, it really took a lot of trouble.

On the flagship, it was naturally more abundant. He called all the accompanying civil servants, military generals and guard masters, and the two sides of the long table outside the top deck were almost full.

The imperial chef kept bringing up all kinds of delicacies, filling up the huge long table.

Seeing this posture, Concubine Su couldn't help asking curiously: "Your Majesty, what is this for? Why are there so many dishes?"

Taichang smiled slightly and said, "Today is the most important festival in Ming Dynasty, Chinese New Year, so everyone should get together and have a good meal."

Concubine Su was even more curious: "What does Chinese New Year mean?"

Uh, how to explain this?
There seem to be quite a lot of meanings to this Chinese New Year, such as removing the old and bringing forth the new, exorcising evil spirits and avoiding disasters, worshiping gods and ancestors, praying for blessings and praying for a new year, etc., are all contained in it.

The problem, he said that, the little girl must not understand!
Taichang thought for a while, and then explained: "The Chinese New Year means that everyone has worked hard for a year. We should celebrate the harvest of the past year, and at the same time, we should also take a break to prepare for the arrival of the new year."

Concubine Su asked again: "What does one year mean?"

When Taichang heard the words, he couldn't help but be stunned.

It doesn't seem to be in this book.

No way, he could only explain in detail: "A year consists of twelve months, and each month has 29 or 30 days. A year is also a reincarnation. The alternation of seasons in spring, summer, autumn and winter is a year."

Concubine Su continued to ask: "What do the four seasons mean?"

Uh, forget it, drink!
Taichang patted Concubine Su's hand slightly, and signaled: "Let's not talk about this now, let's start eating, I want to get up and toast, otherwise, everyone won't move their chopsticks."

What does a toast mean?
Concubine Su was still full of question marks.

(End of this chapter)