Datang Nongsheng

Chapter 566 First Experience in Dingxiang City
Sometimes the more anxious you are to do something, the less you can get what you want.

This is the case for Sun Xiangfu. Now he really wants to rush to Wangjiang Tower to make final preparations for the banquet. However, the main road of Dingxiang City, which is several feet wide, is blocked to death.

"What's going on ahead?"

"Grandpa, those foreign delegations entered the city like bumpkins, looking here and there. The officials in charge tried their best to persuade them, but there were too many people and their language was mixed, so it was hard to restrain them."

"Let the soldiers in charge of the realm pay attention to law and order, let's go up the city wall and detour."

In fact, Sun Xiangfu had already expected the current situation. No matter how knowledgeable people are in this era, when they come to Datang for the first time or enter Dingxiang City for the first time, they will be attracted by the things here. The same is true for the crown prince of the strongest empire in the West like Heraclius.

In fact, it was he who was at the front and ordered to slow down, which slowed down all the teams behind. After that, everyone was attracted by the offices on both sides of the street.

First of all, what made Chirac a little bit impassable was the visual impact, because he was riding in an open carriage with a very good perspective, and he walked to the door of a large fresh fruit shop. Here, there are bright yellow bananas, mangoes, Green-skinned, yellow-skinned pears, bright red and bright red apples, crabapple fruit, lychees with crushed ice slag from the cold storage, longan, green-skinned, yellow-skinned citrus, cantaloupe, papaya, cantaloupe, bigger than the head Watermelon with flower skin, thick and long black sugar cane...

He never imagined that in a shop along the street, there would be dozens of kinds of fruits, most of which he had never seen before. Could it be that the fruits of Datang grow regardless of season?

Further down, it is still a food store. What makes him unable to walk this time is the stimulation of the sense of smell, which is too fragrant. He is a majestic imperial prince. The smell of food in the side shop, but can't stop my saliva.

Freshly baked flower cakes, moon cakes, the smell is really very tempting, especially when Heraclius saw those moon cakes printed with Chinese characters and carved with beautiful patterns, he was very suspicious of life. Are all the food so delicate?

Even in Constantinople, such a beautiful thing should be regarded as a handicraft!

Without thinking too much, he asked the maid in charge of his daily life to take out a handful of gold coins and wanted to go to the shop to buy them. However, after a while, the maid came back with gold coins and told him that Datang did not accept foreign currency. If they wanted to use money, they had to go to the mint or bank in the city to exchange gold and silver into the official currency of the Tang Dynasty.

Moreover, it is difficult for many shop owners to give change when buying things with gold coins like him.

Because, one gold coin officially issued by Datang is worth one hundred guan, while in the bakery, the most expensive lotus paste mooncake is only sold for five Wen, and one gold coin can buy two thousand.

"crooked?"

The drooling Heraclius looked at the Tang translator led by the bearer in surprise.

The interpreter understood what he meant, and said, "If your highness wants to eat moon cakes, I can treat them to you. However, I advise you to eat less, because the food in our Tang Dynasty is so delicious."

After finishing speaking, the translator of the Ministry of Rites named Chen Jun took out a silver coin made by the Datang Minting Department from his purse, went to the street, handed it to the shopkeeper, discussed a few words, and then , the guy in the shop came to the carriage with several exquisite cardboard boxes in his arms.

Chen Jun opened the top box and said, "This box of moon cakes is called Seven Stars with the Moon. It is eaten by the people of Tang Dynasty when we celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. There are seven small ones and one big moon cake. Eight moon cakes are made of eight different kinds of moon cakes. The biggest mooncake is made of lotus paste, with two eggs in it, just out of the pan, it is sweet and delicious, your highness can have a bite."

As he said that, he skillfully cut the big mooncake into small pieces with the wooden knife in the carton, and then used a wooden fork to fork a small piece with egg yolk and lotus seed paste, and handed it to Heraclius.

Heraclius got up before dawn this morning and went on his way. Now, it’s past noon, he hasn’t eaten yet, and he’s already starving. He swallowed the saliva in his mouth, took the fork handed over by Chen Jun, and I ate the mooncake on top in one bite.

"Well, it's delicious."

In this era, due to the backward sugar making technology, it is difficult for people to feel the sweet taste in other foods except fruits. However, the sweet taste of this mooncake makes Chirac have a taste that is better than eating the sweetest grapes. The sweet feeling immediately made the whole mood happy.

He was still waiting to eat, but was stopped by Chen Jun, and said, "Your Highness, have you forgotten, our Datang, there are many more delicious things than this, you have to save your stomach, and taste the food in other boxes first." food bar!
This, called flower cake, is a specialty of Shanyang, and this box alone contains sixteen kinds of floral scents..."

When Chen Jun opened the next box, Heraclius gained insight, and when he opened the next box, he gained insight again. Unexpectedly, just a cake to eat, the people of Datang can Dozens of flavors and hundreds of exquisite styles are made, which are tens of thousands of times more delicious than the hard, tasteless pancakes they usually eat.

What frustrates him the most is that with just one silver coin, you can buy several boxes of nearly two hundred cakes with different tastes and styles. This price is much cheaper than their Byzantine Empire. Heraclius thinks that if Take these cakes to Constantinople and sell them to the nobles in the city, and you can sell them for at least several gold coins.

However, Chen Jun told him that the things sold in these street shops are not high-end goods. If you want to buy better things, you have to go to the Times Mall in the city. The things there can represent the most high-end craftsmanship of Datang. , As for the types that can be bought, there are already too many to calculate.

Soon, Heraclius knew what it meant to have so many types of goods that it was impossible to count them. There were dozens of shops selling food in this area, not only food, but also many kinds of drinks. Now , it uses a straw straw to suck a large cup of mixed fruit and honey milk tea.

He also saw a car with two wheels in the city, and also a car with three wheels or five wheels. Riding, you can also take people, or pull a lot of goods.

He also saw hundreds of shops with different styles of clothes and fabrics. As for the shops of handicrafts and furniture decorations, there were too many to count until he came to a two-story building. When he was in front of the big hotel more than ten meters away, he was a little dazed.

Ever since he walked through Ningyuan County, the concrete road that seemed to grow out of the ground had already shocked him, but only after arriving in this building did he know what luxury is.

The gate is made of colored glaze, and expensive and exquisite porcelain is actually used to pave the ground. How much does it cost to build such a building?I'm afraid it's no less than they built a palace in Constantinople!
What surprised him even more was that there were more than 3000 people in his line of service in this hotel, but in just a few minutes, under the leadership of hundreds of waiters, there were only two people in one room and four in one room. , and entered their respective rooms. As for things like horses, luggage, and special places for storage, feeding and care, they don’t need their staff to do anything, and the waiters will arrange them for them.

Moreover, this so-called hotel is not just for his team. The delegations from Persia, Dashi, Tianzhu, and several major delegations total more than [-] people, and they can all stay here together.

"How many rooms are there in this hotel?"

Yisiqi, Abu Bakr, and Boni, who came later, all had the same questions as Heraclius.

I saw a man wearing long-sleeved trousers and looking very upright, explaining to them with a smile, "My Wang's Hotel is one of the two largest hotels in Dingxiang City. The main building has 5000 guest rooms. Six hundred rooms, two auxiliary buildings on the left and right, each with [-] guest rooms, which can provide accommodation and catering services for [-] people at the same time. In addition, our hotel also has various entertainment venues, sauna bathing and massage for male guests , Aromatherapy spa for female guests, warm water swimming pool, chess and card room, exercise ground, everything you need. After checking in, you can play in all the entertainment venues in the restaurant. If you have any needs, you can tell our waiter, we will We will do our best to serve all our guests.”

A hotel can provide accommodation and entertainment for 5000 people, which gives these bumpkins from the West a new orientation towards the power of Datang.

However, after they were taken to their guest rooms by the waiters and translators of the restaurant, they were shocked again.

In the luxury suite on the fifth floor, everything gives people a sense of refinement. Comparing the room they originally lived with with this room, it is not appropriate to describe it as simple. It should be said that it is more or less dilapidated. .

In each luxury suite, there is a beautiful bearded girl as a full-time waiter. They will teach the people living here to use all the things in the room. These bearded girls have been trained for a long time Yes, even, they can translate for people like Heraclius who can't understand Chinese at all.

Soon, they brought over a dozen kinds of fruit, a very beautifully arranged fruit plate, as well as various pastries and drinks, and, in a white porcelain jar in one of the rooms, turned on the faucet to release water.

"Your Highness, the translator said that you are going to the Duke's banquet soon, so let me help you take a bath and get dressed!"

Heraclius was brought up to be served by maids since he was a child. He didn't resist this. However, looking at his own maids, they looked at the things in the room like bumpkins, or stared at the exquisite food on the table. Swallowing, Heraclius felt that it would be better for him to follow the arrangement of the hotel waiter.

Soon, the water in the bathtub was put away. After the waitress Hu poured some fragrant things into the slightly steaming bathtub, she began to help him undress. After a while, both of them entered the white room cleanly. Inside the jar.

Normally, it is clear that Heraclius should have made the first move at this time. The barbarians are so open about this. For example, in the Kingdom of Greece, many women's clothes are no different from wearing nothing. However, now his His attention was not on these things, he was curious why the metal pipe above the bathtub would keep warm water coming out.

He was even more curious, why his skin became so smooth after entering the bathtub, and then, a lot of fragrant foam rose up in the bathtub.

He clearly felt that the stains on his body were emptied with the scrubbing of the waiter, and the skin all over his body exuded an unprecedented sense of comfort.

Those who felt the same as him, Yi Siqi, Abu Bakr, He Poni, and some senior officials in their entourage, gathered in the hall after half an hour, full of fragrance, with their faces She couldn't hide her amazement at all.

At this time, the translators of the Ministry of Rites had asked the hotel to arrange rickshaws for them. The luxurious and exquisite five-wheeled carts had long been lined up outside the gate.

It was only then that Heraclius and the others realized that riding in a horse-drawn carriage in Dingxiang City was a shameful thing to do. The real rich and powerful all took this kind of five-wheeled or tricycle with soft sofas, which was safe and comfortable. The most important thing is that they will not pollute everyone's environment on the streets with feces and urine like cattle and horses.

From their point of view, the people of Tang Dynasty are really very particular, and the life in Dingxiang City is as comfortable as in heaven, there is no more comfortable place in the world than here.

(End of this chapter)