A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 815 A Piece of Cake Leads to Dismissal

After the court session ended,

Wen Yanbo returned home by carriage and immediately instructed the steward, "Go to the market and get a bowl of duck."

The butler knew which family's duck his master was referring to. Ever since his master tasted the Osmanthus Duck from Li Situ's family, he had been longing for that flavor.

Lately, if I don't eat for a day, I lose the taste of food.

"Hurry up, the West Market will close soon."

The steward then withdrew and instructed someone to ride a donkey to buy it.

The West Market was actually located in the southwesternmost corner of Luoyang City, covering an area of ​​1,600 mu and containing 220 trades. It was called Liren Market in the previous dynasty. Because it was connected to the Silk Road to the west and was close to Jinguang Gate and Kaiyuan Gate, it was once extremely prosperous and thriving after the Sui Dynasty opened up the Western Regions, and was known as the Golden Market.

At its peak, the Daye era boasted over 40,000 merchants, convenient land and water transportation that attracted merchants from all over the world, and even included a Persian residence.

However, after years of war and turmoil

The gold market is no longer as glorious as it once was.

But the ducks from Li Yi's family became a favorite among the people of Luoyang.

Previously, only people in Nanjing, Jiangnan, loved to eat duck. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Nanjing built a city to raise ducks. Later, King Fuchai of Wu even designated a large area within the city specifically for raising ducks.

By the time of the Six Dynasties, Nanjing salted duck had become famous.

Claimed to be the flavor of the Six Dynasties, a fine product of Baimen.

The Southern Dynasties, whose capital was Jinling, even when fighting, would send thousands of ducks along with their army's supplies, in addition to the necessary rice and grain.

When the Southern Chen army clashed with the Northern Qi army, the soldiers ate rice wrapped in duck meat to boost their morale and ultimately defeated the Northern Qi army with fewer troops.

People in Nanjing have always loved eating duck, but in the past, apart from people from Jiangnan, people in Luoyang didn't seem to enjoy it as much.

But now,
Even Wen Yanbo, a native of Hedong, who used to only like mutton, has now come to enjoy the Osmanthus Duck.

Go inside and change your clothes.

Sitting in the study writing,

He is now the Grand Censor, still serving as the Acting Chancellor, and also concurrently as the Left Vice-Chancellor to the Crown Prince. Not only does he hold several important positions, but the emperor has also entrusted him with the task of inspecting the nation's granaries.
This kept him extremely busy.

Before I knew it, it was getting dark.

His wife sent someone to call him for dinner.

He put down his pen and went into the hall.

The Wen family had a lavish dinner.

Wen Yanbo was the prime minister of the imperial court, and also held the title of Duke of the County. He came from a prominent family in Hedong and was very wealthy.

The emperor, adhering to frugality, reduced his meals, changing from four meals a day to two, and replacing his staple food with coarse grains, wild vegetables, and cornbread.

Li Yi, Fang Xuanling, and others took the lead and followed suit.
They also changed to two meals a day, with mixed grain steamed buns as the staple food.

But Wen Yanbo did not follow.

The last time the emperor bestowed upon him a basket of cornbread made from mixed grains and wild vegetables, it was made by the empress herself. Wen Yanbo felt very honored to receive this reward.

When he got home, he called his wife and children over.
The whole family shared the six cornbreads. Although they were mixed with bran and wild vegetables, they felt it was a gift from the Emperor, a great favor.

Who knew that the next day,
After the court discussion, the emperor bestowed food upon the prime ministers in the corridor, including these coarse grain steamed buns.

Wen Yanbo ate several, but the emperor told him that the cornbread contained not only corn and soybean flour, but also bran, wild vegetables, and locust eggs.

The dried locust eggs are ground into powder and added to the steamed buns; quite a lot of them are added.

At that moment, Wen Yanbo's expression changed drastically.
I felt nauseous, my stomach was churning, so I ran to the side and vomited, almost bringing up bile.

then,

The Imperial Censor Liu Ji also impeached him for serious breaches of etiquette while eating in the corridor.

In the end, the emperor only punished him with a month's salary.

But this made him feel uncomfortable for a long time. Just thinking about the locust eggs he dug out on the riverbank, their dense and disgusting appearance, gave him goosebumps and made him feel horrified.

"Has the duck been chopped up yet?"

Wen Yanbo sat down and asked, "Since then, I've always felt uncomfortable in my stomach and haven't had much of an appetite."

The only thing I was thinking about was the Osmanthus Duck from the Li family.

These days,
He had to have someone chop up ducks every day.
A bowl of osmanthus-flavored duck, a bowl of millet wine, and a plate of chilled watermelon salad grown in a greenhouse.

Osmanthus duck is savory, tender, and flavorful, while cucumber is tangy, crisp, and sweet. Paired with the Yellow River, it can wash away the fatigue of the day.

“Behead him,” the maid replied.

Wen Yanbo only ate half a salted duck per meal.

Half a duck, half a head, and half a neck, chopped into half-inch pieces, are placed at the bottom of a bowl.

When the Wen family servants went to chop the duck, they brought their own bowls with them.

Wen Xianggong's tableware was quite exquisite, consisting of fine porcelain. He would bring his own bowl, and the waiter at Li's Duck Shop would chop up half a duck and place it in the bowl.

When Wen Yanbo saw the duck that was served, a smile appeared on his face. "That Li Yi is indeed capable. Even the duck shop assistants at his duck shop are so skilled at chopping ducks and arranging them so well."

Those eyes seemed to be cut with a ruler, the thickness just right.

The spine and ribs are chopped into small pieces and used as a base, followed by the wing tips, then a layer of duck breast and a layer of duck legs.
Each slice is of uniform thickness, without being cut twice or connected together.

Chop the duck and arrange it on top of the bowl; this will make the dish look exceptionally appealing.

Finally, drain the duck fat and braising liquid into a bowl. This is Wen Yanbo's favorite dish; you can't eat a chopped duck without this.

It's like eating noodles without garlic.

Picking up his chopsticks, he took a piece of the beautiful duck breast, glistening with the braising sauce and duck fat, and put it in his mouth, prompting Wen Yanbo to exclaim in admiration.

I never imagined that quacking duck could be cooked so deliciously.

He had eaten duck before, but he always felt it had a strange, fishy taste compared to chicken. The Wen family ate meals separately.
One case per person
Each person received a portion of food.

The emperor bestowed coarse grains, wild vegetables, and cornbread upon Wen Yanbo today, but Wen Yanbo placed them on the incense table. He would never eat a second bite of this cornbread, which was mixed with locust egg powder, in his entire life.

On the tables of the wives and concubines were also ducks chopped from the Li family's shop, including roast duck and braised duck.
On Wen Yanbo's desk, there was only salted duck; of all the ducks, he preferred this one.

The family ate quietly.
"No talking while eating or sleeping" is a family rule.

After the meal, Wen Yanbo looked contentedly at the pile of bones on the table.
Cutting half a osmanthus duck is just right.

The waiter at the duck shop said that eating Osmanthus Duck is all about gnawing on it, using your teeth to pick out the meat from between the bones—that's a real treat.

Those who know how to eat will chew up the small bones and savor the flavor.

But the dignified prime minister
How can you eat a duck like that?

Wen Yanbo didn't know how to eat duck. He put the untouched duck bones, which still had a lot of meat in the crevices, on the plate.
The reward was given to the maid who had been standing by her side.

He would eat duck every day and would give the bones to a maidservant; if it was Chunhua today, it would be Qiuyue tomorrow.

Both rain and dew are touched.

The servants were overjoyed to receive this reward; they would even chew up the small bones and swallow them whole, since even the bone fragments contained oil and salt.

Within two days,

Wen Yanbo was impeached.
The one who impeached him was Zhang Liang, the Minister of the Imperial Household and concurrently the Imperial Censor.

The charge against him was that Wen Yanbo was disrespectful to the emperor and empress. He took home the cornbread that the empress had made as a gift from the emperor, but did not eat it. Instead, he threw it to the servants the next day.

The second charge against him was that, in the face of natural disasters, the emperor reduced his meals, eating only two meals a day and skipping lunch, living a frugal and simple life.

Wen Yanbo, however, ate ducks and fish and meat every day, and still ate four meals a day.

Thirdly, the emperor put him in charge of supervising the grain reserves, but Wen Yanbo was passive and negligent.

Zhang Liang directly impeached Wen Yanbo for being disloyal and disrespectful, and even more so for being unworthy of his position.

The emperor announced the impeachment in court and asked Wen Yanbo to explain it himself.

Wen Yanbo's attitude towards the emperor

He was also self-aware and asked to resign in court.

The emperor did not try to persuade them to stay, not even making a show of it, and simply granted their request.

The emperor dismissed Wen Yanbo from his position as prime minister, and at the same time removed him from his positions as censor-in-chief and right vice-minister to the crown prince, demoting him to the position of governor of Yongzhou.

The next day,

The emperor appointed his elder brother, Wen Yanhong, as Minister of Rites and granted him the title of Duke of Li.

Wen Yanhong, whose given name was Da Ya, had served as Huangmen Shilang and the Minister of Works of the Shaanxi East Circuit. In terms of relationships, he was closer to the emperor.

However, Wen Daya has been recuperating at home for the past few years.
The sudden promotion of him to Minister of Rites and the title of Duke of Li was somewhat puzzling.

Ma Zhou was somewhat puzzled by this.

How could Wen Yanbo be dismissed from his post so easily? He had previously held three important positions and one important post.

Now that Wen Yanbo has been dismissed, his brother Wen Yanhong has been given a new title. What is the meaning of this?

"The three Wen brothers were all founding fathers and meritorious officials."

Wen Yan was promoted to Vice Minister of the Chancellery and enfeoffed as Duke of Qinghe in the first year of the Wude era, but he died of illness that same year.

Wen Yanhong once served as the Grand Administrator of Shaanxi East Circuit and supported His Majesty; now he too is dying of illness.
His Majesty intended to replace Wen Yanbo as prime minister, but originally planned to appoint him as censor-in-chief and remove him from the position of chief secretary.

But he was too out of touch with reality, so this time they simply demoted him to the position of Prefect of Yongzhou and sent him back to Chang'an.

Ma Zhou finally understood.

Wen Yanhong was promoted because he was about to die, and also because the punishment he gave to Wen Yanbo was somewhat severe.

Is Wen Daya really going to die?

“Well, it might have been able to drag on for another two years, but now, with Wen Dalin’s situation, I doubt he’ll live to see the New Year,” Li Yi said.

Ma Zhou sighed.

"He lost his position as prime minister because he refused to eat cornbread made from locust eggs. He is probably the first person in history to do so."

"I guess so."

Wen Yanbo's refusal to eat cornbread was not as simple as it seemed on the surface.

He ate quite well when he didn't know, but his strong reaction after finding out was largely because he believed in the concept of divine intervention.
They believed that locust plagues were divine punishment, a sign of God's dissatisfaction with the ruler's governance, and a result of the ruler's lack of virtue.

That's why he refused to eat locusts; he was so psychologically resistant to it.

His performance

This greatly displeased Li Shimin, so he originally intended to have him leave the Council of State Affairs and become a full-time Imperial Censor.

But now we might as well go all the way.
He was directly transferred to Chang'an to serve as the governor of Yongzhou.

In Yongzhou, the position of Zhizhong was merely a fifth-rank official.

Above him is the Prefect of Yongzhou, and above him is the Governor of Yongzhou.

Although it is customary for the Governor of Yongzhou to be a prince holding a nominal position, the one who truly oversees the overall situation in Yongzhou is the Prefectural Governor of Yongzhou, not the Governor of Yongzhou.

The positions of Biejia and Zhizhong were equivalent to the positions of Zhouchangshi and Sima.

Ultimately, it all boils down to Wen Yanbo's inability to be of one mind with the emperor.

How could a high-ranking official like the Grand Chancellor or the Grand Secretary hold such a position for long if he couldn't keep up with the emperor's pace?

Besides,

He was originally just a junior official in charge of the Imperial Secretariat, and hadn't been officially appointed yet. Yet he went against the emperor like this, so it was inevitable that he would end up like this.

(End of this chapter)