Chapter 468 [Taste the Imperial City]
Because the rebel army entered the city without a major battle, only small groups of practitioners engaged in sporadic battles, and they often relied on their numerical superiority to destroy the imperial city, so they did not cause any damage to the imperial city.
Combined with the strict discipline of the rebel army, it can be roughly said that Qiu has committed no crimes, so the people quickly restored order in the city.
The bolder ones came out to walk and make a living as early as yesterday, while most of the rest did not get rid of their panic until today and started their normal lives.
So the residents in the city were working hard, transporting goods, and carrying baskets to buy, visiting relatives and friends, and the whole imperial city instantly came alive. This scene, compared to what Fang Chang and Lu Ze saw when they sneaked into the city before, was much more lively and made people look happy.
"Guest officer, would you like a basket of plum blossom buns?"
A hawker is neatly tidying up the case in front of him and is attracting customers.
His business was very good, so he kept responding to customers' requests, taking out one or two from the exquisite stack of small drawers and handing them out, while also taking care of collecting money and sorting out. The peddler's movements were rhythmic, and he didn't stop for a moment. For those with poor eyesight, his hands seemed to have afterimages.
While his wife and daughter guarded a large magnetic basin of fillings and a chopping board full of dough, they kept making buns for a while.
I saw them hold the thin dough in the palm of their hands, use a small spoon to pick up some fillings, and gently spread it on the center of the dough, no more and no less, and then twisted gently, the dough was closed, finely Twirling the long clean fingers a few times, the pleats are formed evenly and beautifully, and the buns are quickly closed.
When the steamed stuffed bun is placed on the small cage drawer, there are exactly five folds on it, making the steamed stuffed bun bloom in the cage drawer like a plum blossom, very beautiful.
Fang Chang heard the solicitation and saw that the things here are very popular, so he stepped forward with interest and asked:
"Shop, how do you sell buns?"
"Guest officer, you have two drawers of steamed stuffed buns—the plum-blossom buns each draw 18 Wen, and there are four of them. Sir, can you have a taste?" The hawker handed the two drawers of steamed buns to the customer in front of him, and said to Fang Chang After asking the price, I asked attentively.
The price is not cheap. After all, although the buns are filled with meat, they are too small.
But it is also understandable that the imperial city is big and it is not easy to live in it, which has always been the case.
But Fang Chang is rich and doesn't care about these things. He opened the backpack and took out two strings of coins, and said to the vendor: "First come to the five drawers to try something new. I want more delicious ones."
The vendor was overjoyed, and immediately fetched buns for Fang Chang.
But he also knows that his buns are more expensive. Customers who come here often visit once every few days, order one or two baskets to taste the taste, and then go home half full or half full with the lingering aftertaste of plum blossom buns in their mouths. Full to work.
Like the person in front of me, a high-roller who wants to come up with five baskets, although his business here is good, it is rare to see him in a leisurely manner.
He took five baskets of steamed buns graciously and handed them to Fang Chang. Seeing that he seemed unfamiliar, he quickly ordered:
"Guest officer, please sit down and eat slowly. Remember to bite open and let it cool down, drink up the juice before eating, and be careful not to burn it."
"Okay, thank you."
Unlike other steamed stuffed bun stalls, this place does not come with various seasonings such as vinegar, soy sauce, mashed garlic, garlic cloves, but only chopsticks and spoons for customers to use.
There are exactly four plum-blossom buns in a drawer. They are much smaller than ordinary big buns, but larger than small buns. Following the movement of bringing the cage drawer over and putting it on the table just now, they are trembling, as if the stuffing inside is about to break through the thin skin like cicada's wings and rush out.
Not like the diners around, Fang Chang stretched out his chopsticks to pick up a bun and bit it.
Bite out a small mouthful, he sucked briskly, and the delicious soup inside came into his mouth, and the rich aroma filled his mouth. But this plum blossom bun, the stuffing is mixed with pork skin jelly, which turns into juice after steaming, and the flavor of other ingredients is infused into it, thus forming this delicious soup.
Fang Chang was not afraid of being hot, so he ate the buns right after drinking the soup. Although he chewed them carefully and deeply, he was also very fast.
After finishing the five-cage steamed stuffed bun, Fang Chang didn't want any more, so he got up and continued walking on the street.
The density of people in the imperial city is many times higher than that in the other places. The crowds on the street come and go like weaving, and the shouts on both sides are also endless.
These hawkers, relying on their ancestral or self-created craftsmanship, can live safely in this expensive imperial city, which is considered to be beyond many people. Of course, they can't make a lot of money by relying on these crafts. The cost of living in this imperial city is not low. Although the money from crafts is quite a lot, it is not enough to make a fortune.
Next, Fang Chang swept the street from beginning to end.
He doesn't care about those fun things, he only looks for food.
Rotating roasted pigskin, crispy crystal roti, gourd soup, wide coke cake, pith cake, sugar and ice cold yuanzi, golden silk party plum, bad ginger... and other delicacies that are rare in other places. They are all here, and there are all kinds of special products from far away. Although there are few fresh products from other places because of the war, there are all kinds of dry goods. It is indeed a place where the best of the world gathers.
The various discussions of the common people also showed their joy for the early end of the war, as well as the joy of the excellent style of the rebels, and their hope for the continuation of this situation.
Fang Chang can hear that many people have already made preparations for the critical moment and only want to save their lives. As a result, after the rebels entered the city, even though they occasionally offended the common people, they were quickly caught by the department in charge of military discipline and dealt with according to military law.
So the citizens of the imperial city discovered that the situation was even better than the best they had imagined, and the new dynasty won the hearts of the people here for a while.
The turmoil in the world is gradually calming down, people's minds are calm, and people's minds are at peace.
This turbulent trend of thought has formed the current general trend, calling for the establishment of a new order everywhere.
However, before Fang Chang left, he had already learned from Liu Dan and Liu Yuande that the rebels were not planning to build their capital here. The capital of the dynasty.
Fang Chang wandered around while enjoying the special snacks here in the streets and alleys.
He first found a few wine shops, added a lot of stock to his gourd, and then bought a lot of seeds. There are flowers, medicinal materials, and various crops. There is a vast open space on Yunzhong Mountain, and time is tight, so why not plant something and have some fun.
When Fang Chang walked out of the imperial city, he saw that the practitioners in the rebel army had already started to leave.
They were not mortals in the first place. They joined the rebel army just to make the world peaceful as soon as possible. Now that the matter is over, they naturally left one after another. I don't know if anyone will stay and take up an official position in the new dynasty.
Maybe, that is also a kind of practice.
But Fang Chang is ready to go back to the mountain.
(end of this chapter)