To be honest, the food in this box made him have a lot more appetite. At least it looked more appetizing than the "main meal" during the banquet. Compared with Ping Qiusheng before, Qiao Tianzhi and others mentioned that they went to Japan to eat
The various "Japanese food" in Ryukyu are really good. At least they eat better than the samurai masters. Not only do they have more meat, the varieties and cooking techniques are also much richer. It can be seen that they are deeply influenced by Chinese food culture.
Impact.
After serving awamori, the atmosphere immediately became more lively. King Shangfeng raised the rhinoceros horn cup in tribute and said: "A small glass of wine is not disrespectful. I wish the Song Dynasty prosperity, and I wish the hundreds of elders such as Wang Shi and others to be blessed with descendants and princes for generations to come."
"
Zhao Yanhao thought to himself: There is too much talk in this scene, you old boy can't even speak Mandarin and your tongue is tied! So he also raised his glass and said: "I wish Zhongshan will be prosperous and your highness will live a long life."
King Shangfeng gave Cai Jian a few more instructions, and Cai Jian bowed and complimented him: "Today is not only a four-day festival, but also a feast for the envoy to watch the boat. It was originally the rainy season in Ryukyu, so when the envoy came to the banquet, he said
The fog cleared. This 'crawling dragon' (dragon boat) was introduced to Ryukyu by the former Nanshan King Wang Yingzu, who saw the grand Chinese dragon boat race when he was visiting the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty envoys could only watch this climbing dragon during the Double Ninth Festival, and the envoys
Your Excellency, you are able to catch up with the season. It must be said that it is God's will. Please take a look, Your Excellency."
I saw six dragons rowing in the center of the Longtan. The dragon boat was more than ten meters long and about two meters wide. The bow of the boat was exquisitely carved with a dragon head, and the stern of the boat was also decorated with a corresponding dragon tail. The dragon boat held its head high and had a hyena with bright scales;
The whole body is blue and decorated with ripple patterns. A person sits on the bow of the dragon boat and plays the gong to direct the boat, while a boy in colorful clothes sits in the middle of the boat and plays the drum as the trumpet. The helmsmen of the boat sit in two rows on both sides of the narrow and long cabin.
They were all dressed in the same color. Zhao Yanhao counted in his mind that there were as many as twenty-eight people. Each of them held a short oar in his hand. In response to the gongs and drums of the ship, they rose and fell in unison, rowing the ship as if it were free of charge.
The reined horse is like an arrow leaving the string.
The dragon boats here have a Fujian flavor in both shape and decoration. In addition to the fact that most of the local Chinese immigrants are from Fujian, it is also because the Ryukyu tribute boat docking port is Fuzhou, so it is deeply influenced by the local dragon boat races.
There are nine other singing boys in each dragon boat. They are dressed in colorful long clothes and fan-shaped headdresses decorated with golden butterflies. They hold gold-painted walking sticks and stand firmly in the speeding dragon boat.
Vocal chorus "Dragon Boat Taiping Ci":
"If your holiness spreads far and wide, you will enjoy peace forever; if you are a country on the sea, you will be favored and you will repay your loyalty with all your heart."
There is no starting point or end point in the Longtan. The six dragon boats sometimes go together in the Longtan, and sometimes circle left and right. It is more like some kind of water performance than a competition. It is also more suitable for the king's feasting.
Zhao Yanhao heard a series of shouts from the nearby shore, so he looked to the north shore, but he saw hundreds of men, women, and children from the Ryukyu gentry gathered here to watch the boat.
"The king of Zhongshan enjoyed himself with the people, quite like the wise kings of ancient times."
"Don't dare." King Shang Feng bowed quickly.
What followed was nothing more than a round of drinks, with the Ryukyu officials saying flattering words. After three drinks, King Shangfeng ordered the Ryukyu princes and nobles present to tell some interesting domestic stories to entertain.
The Ryukyu officials elected the magistrates on duty, with Tomikata Motayuki as the representative. Mao Taiyun pondered for a moment, then stood up and said: "I heard something the next day. It was said that a fisherman in the area of Kanashi Castle in Nanshan was caught in a storm while fishing.
, lost his fishing boat and fishing gear, so he borrowed a sum of money from the samurai of the Satsuma clan to buy a new fishing boat and fishing gear."
"But unfortunately, the fishing situation was not good that year, and the fisherman couldn't pay off his debt, so he asked the samurai to extend it for another year. But there was still no harvest the next year - so the fisherman fled to a cave near the coast for refuge."
"What was even more unfortunate was that the fisherman was discovered by the warrior. The warrior wanted to kill him in anger. The fisherman begged: 'My lord, even if you kill me, you will not be able to recover your losses. I am now helpless.
For a penny, I can only give you a saying passed down from my ancestors: Never take action when you are motivated, and never take action when you are motivated. I will definitely make up for it next year."
"After the samurai returned to his hometown in Satsuma, he found that his wife was sleeping with another man. The samurai was so angry that he drew his sword and wanted to kill the adulterer and adulterer."
"But the samurai thought about what the fisherman said and put away his sword. When he got closer, he realized that it was his old mother who was worried about his wife, so she put on men's clothes and guarded the door for him."
"The samurai couldn't help but be grateful to the fisherman for reminding him. When he returned to Ryukyu the next year, the fisherman had been waiting for him for a long time with the principal and interest. The samurai insisted on not wanting the fisherman's money, so the two used the money to build a small shrine.
That is the 'Shirogintang' in Jincheng."
Zhao Yanhao only thought it sounded familiar. He didn't know where he had heard similar stories. However, on a whim, he also told a few stories from "Liao Zhai" pretending to be set in the Song Dynasty, and mixed in a few stories pretending to be from Australia.
Urban legends that circulate in the past, such as the "disappearing passengers" who rode a public carriage late at night. Even though they could not understand Mandarin, several senior Ryukyu officials listened with interest to the interpreter's narration, nodding in agreement from time to time, and through the interpreter
He echoed the praise with a few words, "Sir, you are really talented and knowledgeable."
Then the last dish, "Host Basin", was seen. The palace maids laid out a hexagonal vermilion "pig's blood" lacquerware box, with a very gorgeous mother-of-pearl phoenix pattern on the lid.
Zhao Yanhao opened the box and found that the periphery of the box was evenly divided into six compartments. Each of the six compartments contained meals of different flavors. There were steamed sesame tenderloin topped with sauce, and some oil-based snacks similar to wheat rolls.
Miso-filled "bubbles" (pastry), sweet and spicy, pork-filled kelp rolls, fried potato slices and bitter melon tempura. There is a small hexagon in the center of the box.
In the space, there is a Ryukyu royal chef showing off his knife skills, specially cutting crab-like lace and slicing cuttlefish dyed red. In addition, there is hangover tea, as well as "Dahira" consisting of honey fish cake, prawns, shiitake mushrooms, duck celery, etc.
”.
"There is also 'kelp' in Ryukyu?" Zhao Yanhao was a little surprised. In this era, the Kitamaefune traveling to Hokkaido didn't know where it was, but he could actually see kelp here. "Could this thing be produced in Ezo?"
"Your Majesty," Cai Jian sweated a little. The envoy from the Song Dynasty's thirst for knowledge had already exceeded his knowledge reserve, so he could only reply with an awkward smile: "This dry kelp was brought to Ryukyu with the Zhusin ship. It is extremely rare. I hope you can taste it."
"
Kelp, also known as kelp, is the most common and cheap seafood today. On the seashores of many places, you can even fish it directly on the beach during the harvest season. However, in the 17th century, this kind of seaweed could not be seen in the entire East Asian sea.
Giant seaweed.
Because kelp belongs to subarctic zone algae, it is a local species endemic to the North Pacific. Most kelp with economic value is mostly distributed in coastal areas of high latitudes such as the Sea of Japan and Hokkaido. It was not until the 20th century that it began to be introduced to the Korean Peninsula.
The eastern and southern coastal areas. Then spread to Liaodong Peninsula, Shandong Peninsula and other places.
In the time and space where Zhao Yanhao lived, kelp could not be seen in either China or Ryukyu. In another time and space, China only broke through artificial breeding technology in the 1950s and cultivated kelp on a large scale. Before that,
, this kind of seaweed, which is very useful in industry and agriculture, is imported from Japan and Russia.
The kombu used in Ryukyu banquets is naturally imported from Japan. Of course, even in Japan, kelp is not an ordinary thing. After all, Hokkaido, one of the largest kelp producing areas at this time, is not technically a territory of Japan. As a kind of mounting
It is a very precious local specialty.
Cai Jian saw that the angel was very interested in the ingredients, so he picked up another bowl of sweet porridge that looked like rice. "This is Western rice produced in Aceh and Borneo. Although it looks like rice, it is actually the trunk of Western coconut trees."
The powder produced in it is made by adding water and purifying it. Cycads are also eaten in this way in our country's millet island."
Zhao Yanhao thought to himself that I don’t dare to eat sago processed from cycads. If you don’t pay attention when processing this stuff, it will be poisonous. So he didn’t respond. He just took this opportunity to propose to King Shang Feng: “Your Highness, as for me the day before yesterday
I mentioned the matter of inspecting Nanshan, the Seven Southern Islands, and the Nine Southwest Islands..."
The Ryukyu monarchs and ministers did not pay much attention to Zhao Yanhao. Although these islands belong to Ryukyu territory, they are mostly remote places with very small population and production, and there are no special products. Since this "angel" of the Song Dynasty is willing to go sightseeing
After a while, the inconvenience naturally spoiled his interest.
King Shang Feng gave Cai Jian a few instructions, and Cai Jian translated: "Of course it is as per your lord's convenience. Your Highness has no objection."
"The land of Sankuli..."
At this time, King Shangfeng looked troubled and looked at Cai Jian. Cai Jian couldn't help but be stunned, with a bitter look on his face, and bowed: "Your Excellency, you don't know that Sankuli is a forbidden place for men. Even His Highness, if you are lucky enough,
Women’s clothing is also required to enter here…”
"That's okay..." Mr. Zhao couldn't help scratching his head: Do you really want to see the Australian and Song Dynasty boss wearing women's clothing?
Since he was willing to wear women's clothing, the Ryukyu monarchs and ministers no longer stopped him and immediately agreed.
Seeing that it was getting late, the dragon boats that had been competing before were also parked at the pier one after another. More than fifty children in colorful clothes on the six dragon boats disembarked and lined up in front of the pavilion, chanting "Song of Peace" in unison.
": "When an angel comes, the whole country rejoices; the king's virtue is like the sea, the parents of the people; he is entrusted to heaven, and he is strengthened forever."
Then the children divided into teams, and one team after another performed Ryukyuan dances such as group fan songs, palm festival songs, etc., gathering and dispersing freely and orderly until dark. After the performance, Zhao Yanhao and King Shang Feng said goodbye to each other.
, each took a sedan chair and returned to the Angel Hall and Shuri Castle.