Yuan Xi looked at the expressions of the three people in front of him and secretly laughed in his heart.
In this era, most of the gentry were relatively simple and honest, although they were somewhat reserved and arrogant.
For Yuan Xi, who had seen three religions and nine schools of thought on the construction site, there was no limit to the behavior that was derived for various purposes. The nobles of this era should have never experienced this.
A young maid came up, cleaned up the broken wine glasses on the floor, and then left silently.
Only then did Yuan Xi smile and say, "I frightened everyone by mistake. You won't blame me, right?"
Yuan Tan's face turned red and he coughed dryly: "How come, everyone makes mistakes sometimes, hahaha."
At this time, another maid came up and placed a pot of soft stewed elbows in front of everyone. The oily and mellow sauce was poured on them. The heat of the elbows mixed with the aroma of the meat gradually rose up, flowing into everyone.
A person's nostrils make people move their index fingers.
Yuan Tan, Xun Chen and others picked up the wooden chopsticks and hesitated when they saw that they were obviously pork knuckles.
At that time, the method of castrating pigs was not popular, and pork often had a fishy smell. Even in the Song Dynasty before the emergence of Dongpo pork, cooking pork was quite a headache.
Gao Lan hesitantly picked up a piece of skinned elbow meat, put it in his mouth and chewed it for a few mouthfuls. Suddenly his eyes widened and he exclaimed: "Good meat!"
When Yuan Tan Xun Chen saw it, he also put the meat into his mouth, savored the taste, and was surprised.
Although I don’t know what method was used to make this pork, a lot of the peculiar smell was removed, and with the addition of soy sauce, it tasted extremely delicious.
Compared with the meat they had eaten before, this pot of elbows was far beyond their expectations!
Soy sauce had already appeared in the Western Han Dynasty, but most of the food was steamed. Although many spices were introduced from the Western Regions, it was not widely used in cooking like in later generations. Most of the time it was still used in portable sachets and other items.
.
Fortunately, Yuan Xi killed Liu Bao this time and found some rare spices among the belongings he robbed.
When he was making this pork elbow, he roasted it over fire, blanched it several times, and added several spices to improve the taste of the originally difficult-to-handle pork. No wonder Yuan Tan and the others were surprised.
Yuan Xi smiled, pointed to the dozens of girls dancing and playing music below and said, "These women are all civilian women captured by the Southern Huns during their rebellion in the Luoyang area of Chang'an."
"They were taken north and tortured all the way."
"At that time, I was confronting General Zhao Zilong, who was in Gongsun Zan's army. I felt dissatisfied when I saw how those wild dogs treated my children of the Han family, so I temporarily joined forces with him to kill them all and rescue them.
Come down."
After hearing this, all the women in the hall knelt down and said, "Thank you, Master, for saving your life. I will not forget it."
Yuan Xi waved his hand, and the women got up to play music again.
He said to the three of them: "The families of these women were all killed by wild dogs and they are homeless. However, it is difficult to relocate them in the city. I have selected dozens of them who are good at musical instruments and cooking to stay temporarily."
"But this is not a long-term solution. If you are short of maids and maids at home, please do me a favor and take her back and place her in your mansion."
At that time, it was extremely common for noble families to give each other maids and concubines as gifts. Yuan Xi's words were not outrageous.
After hearing this, Yuan Tan smiled and said: "The second brother is so thoughtful, but the eldest brother is disrespectful. Will they all do this elbow?"
Yuan Xi smiled and said: "It's natural. Regardless of their cooking skills, each of them can make a dozen dishes that are not inferior to this."
As soon as these words came out, even Xun Chen seemed to be moved. He looked at the maid with his eyes and said with a smile: "It is extremely rare for a maid to be proficient in both the elegant music and the cooking style. I am very rare."
interested in."
At this time, Xun Chen's evaluation of Yuan Xi was even higher. During the banquet, the three of them were led by Yuan Xi. In fact, they didn't even ask the truth about the conflict with the Xiongnu tribe.
However, as soon as Yuan Xi opened his mouth, he switched to his righteousness and gifted his concubine, which made it difficult for Xun Chen to speak again.
Yuan Xi saw that both Yuan Tan and Xun Chen were interested. This was what he expected, but what surprised him the most was Gao Lan's reaction.
Although Gao Lan's eyes have never left those maids, for some reason, he has not asked for them until now.
This isn't right!
You must know that most counselors come from noble families, have noble status, and have deep family backgrounds. What they want is a civil servant position that is comfortable in the rear.
The military generals were different. Most of them came from humble backgrounds. Compared with the nobles who could read and write, they did not have much choice at all. They could only take the position of military generals who licked blood on the edge of the sword to earn their lives.
This is also the reason why most generals are looked down upon by counselors and civilian officials.
Family heritage.
Therefore, many generals can only slowly improve their status by clinging to the nobles and making friends with them.
Because the gentry were not only landowners, but also powerful men. They not only monopolized land knowledge, but also monopolized public opinion. The so-called Yuedan Commentary was one of the representatives.
Without the recognition of the nobles, it will be very difficult to do things, and you will get twice the result with half the effort.
This was the case for Dong Zhuo. He was born in Yingchuan County, but his family status was in decline. Compared with a wealthy family like the Xun family of Yingchuan, he was not worthy of attention at all, so he chose the path of a hero and a knight to build his own reputation.
Even so, he still couldn't squeeze into the circle. Even though he had fought in Liangzhou for many years and had numerous military exploits, he was still only a middle-level official with a few hundred dan.
However, after he attached himself to Situ Yuan Wei, he served as the governor of Bingzhou and the governor of Hedong County, and his salary was raised to two thousand dan.
The same was true for Liu Bei. After taking refuge with Gongsun Zan, he was promoted to the rank of Pingyuan Prime Minister with two thousand stones and rose to the sky in one step.
But Liu Bei at least had the status of an imperial uncle by birth, but Dong Zhuo could not. Even after he became the Grand Master, he tried his best to make friends with the nobles and hired a large number of scholars, but many people still looked down on him because of his birth.
In the aristocratic society, there is no high-ranking family, and those who rise to the top by military merit alone have never successfully entered the court and died well. This is the case with Lu Lin and Red Eyebrow before him, and Hou Jing and Dong Zhuo after him.
Dong Zhuo's death was certainly due to his rebellious behavior and cruelty, but even if he treated others with respect, he could not get far.
Because common people are in charge of the court, which is a shame for scholars.
Dong Zhuo was like this, and so was Lu Bu and Sun Ce, so they were both ruthless people, doing things that broke the bottom line again and again, just to gain recognition from the nobles.
Yuan Xi was very fortunate to be reincarnated in this life and was extremely lucky to have an identity that did not require consideration of family differences.
If he were reincarnated into a civilian family, he really had no confidence that he would be able to accomplish anything in this troubled world.
Therefore, as a nobleman now, even if he attacks the noblemen and kills the noblemen of Beixin City who are tending grain, Yuan Tan Xunchen cannot criticize him too much.
After all, is this considered an internal conflict within the gentry?
If Yuan Xi were a commoner, he would be rebelling.
This is truly a logical closed loop.
Yuan Xi is now staring at Gao Lan and giving him a concubine. This is a common thing in the gentry circle. Yuan Tan, Xun Chen and others are accustomed to it and do not object to it.
As a military commander, Gao Lan should have been arty, but now he didn't say a word, which shows that there is something on his mind!