Chinese New Year

Chapter 1373 Village Feast
The snow stopped in the afternoon, as if giving Shao Xun a chance.

People from Laohuai Village, Caojiaqiao, Zhangli Village, and other places all came, because they heard there were benefits and possibly rewards.

The elderly men and women, leaning on their canes, squinted as they carefully observed Shao Xun, who was laughing loudly in the crowd.

The woman, holding a child, her face red from the cold, stared intently at the elaborately dressed palace woman beside Shao Xun.

The man, preoccupied, would glance at Shao Xun one moment and then at the imposing and valiant soldiers the next.

County and prefectural officials dared not come, and township heads, assistants, and village leaders also dared not show their faces. However, they secretly hid behind the scenes, organizing people to manage the banquet.

"Is that Xiaochong?" an old woman sighed. "Back then, his grandfather came to my house and said he wanted to marry my niece to Xiaochong. My uncle had already agreed, but unfortunately, Xiaochong left later."

"I remember your uncle didn't agree," someone said, tearing into the conversation. "Sun Da was the team leader back then, right? He even had Iron Armor at home. He wouldn't have looked down on the Shao family."

The old woman immediately became unhappy and said, "Xiaochong is tall and strong, and my niece likes him very much. My uncle also said that he must be strong enough to plow the fields. Why don't you agree?"

"Why don't you go ask your niece?"

"She broke her leg and didn't come today."

The older men burst into laughter.

"Sparrow, Black Dog, and Jin San haven't returned?" someone else asked.

"My family has all moved to Luoyang, why would they come back?"

“Wang Que’er came back once before, I saw her,” someone said. “She only brought a dozen or so attendants with her. She went home to see a few old people and left the next day. You didn’t know that.”

"Yes, I came back. I had just gone to the river to spear fish when I saw several fierce-looking martial artists with swords and bows at their sides, staring intently at me."

"Those are all old soldiers who have rolled out of piles of corpses. It's good enough that they didn't kill you. Even Xu Heizi thirty years ago wasn't as good as them."

"Xu Heizi is nothing but a bandit. He talks about being arbitrary in the village, but in the end, he was still caught and beheaded by the county magistrate. If he had encountered Xiaochong and Que'er's personal guards, he would have been down in no time."

"Xu Heizi should still be able to serve as a bodyguard, but he is a bad person. He doesn't even give face to his own relatives. In the end, he was captured at a dinner party, which is the end he deserved."

Those who were speaking were all veterans of the East China Sea Army, and they sighed with emotion as they recalled the past.

The younger generation listened to their fathers with blank expressions. They were no longer hereditary soldiers, but civilians, spending their days tilling the fields. The elders often said that being a civilian was better than being a soldier, but they had never experienced the hardships of being a soldier and didn't think so. They only felt that life was still very hard.

Many temporary thatched huts were set up outside the crowd. The soldiers of the Imperial Guard set up cooking stoves, took out the bronze pots and rice steamers from the army, and borrowed many pots and pans from the people's homes to cook on the spot.

Some commoners arrived carrying firewood, and Huan Wen, the censor, personally gave them money. Each bundle of firewood was worth a bolt of silk, an astonishingly high price, which was considered a disguised reward.

On the dirt road in the distance, the caravans herding pigs and sheep stretched as far as the eye could see.

Some people were carrying wine jars, saying they were newly brewed rice wine for the emperor to drink.

According to rumors, this banquet was to be a grand affair, lasting for three days, so that the villagers would have a good time eating and drinking.

Since the war with the Southern Dynasty ended, Xuzhou has become much more peaceful. The imperial court even exempted taxes once. All the previously abandoned and fallow lands were redistributed. To be honest, the people's lives were alright, and they had some savings at home, which they now had all taken over.

Shao Xun personally built an earthen stove out of stones, and then brought out his usual iron pot and asked someone to add firewood to start a fire.

He nimbly slipped into the chicken coop, picked up an old hen, and said with a smile, "This is for Yinling and Mi'e to nourish yourselves."

He had a chicken feather on his head while he was speaking.

Wang Yinling covered her mouth and laughed, saying, "At least you have a conscience."

Duan looked at him. She had felt quite uncomfortable being stared at by so many people before, but now she was much calmer. Her gaze followed Shao Xun wherever he went, as if only in this way could she avoid feeling so lost and helpless.

Shao Xun drew his dagger and skillfully slit the chicken's neck. Then, he held the hen upside down and dripped all the blood into a bowl.

A guard brought over a basin of hot water, and Shao Xun began plucking feathers over the hot water, saying, "You all go sit in the carriage for a while, I'll bring the soup over when it's ready."

"Grandpa!" A voice called out from not far away.

The three looked in the direction of the sound and saw Yuan Zhen, Shao Hou, Shao Ji, and Shao Wo walking over excitedly.

Yuan Zhen and Shao Ji each held a pheasant in their hands and laughed, "We hunted them in the graveyard."

"Don't disturb our ancestors," Shao Xun said with a laugh.

“I didn’t disturb my ancestors; I went to the cemetery to the north,” Yuanzhen said.

"Truly my son." Shao Xun began to gut the old hen, saying, "I'll take you to pay respects to our ancestors in a couple of days."

Yuan Zhen and the others nodded.

Wang then beckoned to Yuanzhen and said, "Go to a farmhouse and find some winter bamboo shoots to stew with pheasant. Your grandfather likes to eat that."

Yuan Zhen responded, and the four of them left in unison.

Duan had a rather peculiar feeling.

Why would a queen of Yan and a Khan of the Murong Xianbei come to Donghai County to worship her ancestors?
Thinking of this, my hand unconsciously stroked my lower abdomen, where life was growing vigorously.

******
Tables and desks were set out, and even the imperial desk that Shao Xun often used for writing was brought out to display food.

The soldiers spread felt blankets on the ground for people to kneel or sit cross-legged.

If there weren't enough felt blankets, they would use reeds instead. They were all farmers, and no one minded the dirt. Moreover, they had been hungry for a long time, so they all sat down to eat, and one group would finish eating before the next group finished.

It wasn't some fancy seafood or land cuisine; it was just a stew of farm vegetables and meat, along with soft steamed buns and golden millet rice. But everyone raved about it.

Shao Xun then went to a carriage and helped Yang Xianrong, Shan Yinan, Zhuge Wenbiao and others down.

Palace servants followed closely behind, holding up her skirt. Over her palace dress, she wore a pure white sable fur coat, which accentuated her rosy cheeks, making her exceptionally alluring. Not far away, several tables of elderly people, all distant and close relatives of Shao Xun, were sitting, and they were all somewhat dumbfounded upon seeing her.

Lu Jin wondered to himself, "Could this be the Empress?"

Yang Xianrong glared at Shao Xun, who pretended not to notice. He looked at Lu Jin and said with a smile, "Dashan, this is minced meat that I made especially for you. Eat slowly."

Before Lu Jin could speak, several elders of the Shao family sighed, "His Majesty was kind-hearted even as a child, and he remains so as an adult. He is truly deserving to be the emperor."

"I've lost almost all my teeth, so I can only eat minced meat. Your Majesty is kind-hearted."

"To see His Majesty before I die, my wish has been fulfilled."

The men speaking had wrinkled faces and rough, even cracked, fingers, but their clothes were nice, making them look like wealthy country folk.

Perhaps, in the years after Shao Xun became emperor, their families also prospered. They were not extremely wealthy, but they were obviously much more well-off than Lu Jin's family.

"Uncle, why do you say that?" Shao Xun laughed and said, "When I was a child, I fell while trying to steal a bird's nest from a tree branch at your house, and you were the one who caught me from below."

Although he is said to be a distant uncle, he is actually more than five degrees of kinship away. He has passed the New Year and is seventy years old, which is considered a long life in the countryside.

“I remember.” Uncle grinned. “Your mother chased you with a broom for a long time. How is she? I haven’t seen her in so many years.”

“My mother has passed away,” Shao Xun said, his smile fading.

"Huh?" Uncle Cong was stunned, then sighed deeply.

Yang Xianrong gently took Shao Xun's arm, her eyes no longer showing any reproach, and quietly looked at his profile.

Shan Yinan also stepped forward and took Shao Xun's arm.

Shao Xun changed the subject, asking, "How has your family been these past few years?"

Uncle nodded repeatedly and said, "That's good. The family's descendants are useless and can't help His Majesty. They can only be minor officials in the prefectures and counties. If only they were as talented as Tiger Tooth (Shao Guang) and Mailang (Shao Jie)."

Shao Xun sat down next to him and said, "I'm relieved to see that you're all doing well."

After saying that, he picked up a piece of pickled vegetable, put it in his mouth and tasted it, praising, "This is the taste! I've been eating it since I was a child, it's priceless."

“Little bug—” another old man said.

Before he could even finish speaking, Shao Xun's uncle berated him: "Shi Nu, what else can you do besides slaughtering dogs? You've never been fit for respectable people. How dare you address His Majesty by his childhood name? If you can't speak properly, then shut up."

“We’re all from the same village, there’s no need for that,” Shao Xun said with a smile.

To be precise, Shi Nu's wife, Shao, was a distant cousin of Shao Xun's grandfather; their relationship was neither too close nor too distant.

That's how it is in the countryside; people don't marry off their children to people from far away. It's very regional, and in the end, they're all related by blood or marriage.

Shi Nu was also wearing a silk and cotton coat, which clearly indicated that he came from a well-off family, to the point that Shao Xun suspected that he was a "trust" in the dog slaughtering industry in the surrounding area.

Shi Nu glared at Shao Xun, his domineering aura, honed over a lifetime on dogs, suddenly emanating from him with considerable imposing presence. However, perhaps due to his age, his mind was somewhat muddled, and after Shao Xun inquired about his recent situation, he rambled on about many trivial matters.

They couldn't help but talk about everything from the harvest in the fields to who got a new bride, who had a healthy baby boy, and even the birth of a calf in their cow.

Finally, he said, "Of all the generals along the Huai River back then, Zhuge Daoming of Langya was the most conscientious; he didn't come to the East Sea to plunder..."

Shao Xun chuckled and turned to look at Zhuge Wenbiao.

Zhuge Wenbiao smiled but said nothing.

Zhuge Wenbao, being a young girl, suddenly said, "Lord Shi is right, Your Majesty should treat the Zhuge family better."

Shi Nu nodded emphatically and said, "The Zhuge family is so famous that their descendants can become prime ministers and their daughters can become empresses."

"Just based on the dog meat I ate as a child, I will certainly do as you say," Shao Xun laughed loudly.

Zhuge Wenbiao couldn't help but glance at Shao Xun.

Shao Xun also looked at her, leaned closer and whispered, "I have long admired Zhuge Daoming's daughter. Even if this hadn't happened today, I would have treated her well for the rest of my life."

Zhuge Wenbiao's face flushed slightly, but he felt a warm glow in his heart.

Shao Xun chatted with him for a while longer, then got up to serve some old hen soup and quickly walked toward the imperial carriage that was parked not far away.

Duan was about to get up to take it, but Shao Xun stopped her, saying, "You're pregnant, it's my turn to take care of you."

Duan was silent for a moment, then gave a soft "hmm".

She wasn't sure if it was just her imagination, but for the first time, she felt a liking for this child.

This is, after all, her child.

Wang Yinling calmly accepted the drink and slowly sipped it.

The man called her over just to have his way with her, didn't he? Now that she's pregnant, he should take responsibility for the mess he made, so he feels perfectly justified in drinking this chicken soup.

Shao Xun sat down between the two women and said, "I am very pleased to see that my fellow villagers have recovered from the war. Next year, I will exempt them from taxes and corvée labor for five years, and their lives should be even better."

"How long are you staying here?" Wang Yinling asked.

"Let's wait until the twelfth lunar month to leave," Shao Xun said. "Now that the country is at peace, the younger generation can handle some of the mundane affairs, so there's no rush."

After saying that, he added, "Perhaps we should go to Yuzhou Island to open a seaport to facilitate maritime transport."

(End of this chapter)