Volume 1 The Empire in the Morning Chapter 188 An ox cart is coming
Volume One: The Empire in the Morning, Chapter 188: An Ox Cart Arrives
An ox cart came up the wasteland.
The car is an ordinary wooden cart. The wheels have been slightly deformed after traveling thousands of miles. As it walks on the slightly hard grassland, it makes soft squeaks from time to time, rises and falls, and vibrates, leaving a trace mark that cannot be seen anywhere. Walking across the grass
In the wet and soft mud, the ruts were quite deep, and there were a few tiny fish jumping around in the turbid water that seeped out.
The cow is an ordinary big ox. Its legs and hooves are still strong after traveling thousands of miles. It walks on the slightly hard grassland, mooing low from time to time, eating grass up and down, leaving a trace of grass that cannot be seen anywhere. OK.
Crossing the wet grass and soft mud, the hooves of the cattle stepped a little deep, and in the shallow depression created by the steps, there were a few white weeds lying silently.
The ordinary wooden carts on the official roads of the Central Plains and the ordinary big oxen in the fields of the Central Plains appear in the wilderness, and they look extremely extraordinary. If someone can see this scene, they will definitely find it very magical.
The driver of the bullock cart was a scholar with bright eyebrows. The old cotton robe on his body looked even older due to the journey, but the expression on his face became more simple and approachable. The pair of broken straw sandals on the single shaft,
I don’t know why it hasn’t fallen apart after walking on the road for more than a year. The water ladle around my waist swayed slightly with the ups and downs of the oxcart.
Suddenly a song came from the bullock cart.
"I'm always not allowed to go home...it makes people sad and sad...yoyo."
The scholar driving the car smiled, stretched out his palm and patted the big ox on the back to signal it to stop, then turned to the car behind him and said, "Master, do you want to go home?"
The car curtain was lifted. A tall old man with gray hair came out. He rubbed his waist, stretched his arms, looked at the boundless wilderness, and said angrily: "I have been here for more than a year, and all these birds are here."
Who wouldn't want to go back to Chang'an if we were wandering around in a place where there was no smoke, with nothing to eat and nothing to do?"
The old man is the master, so the scholar is naturally the senior brother of the academy.
The elder brother smiled slightly, supported the master's arm and got out of the car. Then he took out a low bench from the cart and asked the master to sit down. He comforted the master and said, "It's good to see the scenery along the way."
The master was very tall, sitting on a short bench, and the bench was completely covered by the hem of his cotton coat. He looked like he was squatting on the grassland, which looked a bit funny.
The master said displeased: "What scenery is there to see? Atami is really freezing. Even if you want to take a bath in the hot springs, you can't!"
"Although you can't bathe in a hot spring, at least there are peony fish you can eat." Senior Brother comforted me.
There is a sea in the cold area of the extreme north, and there are volcanoes on the bottom of the sea, which are not frozen all year round, so it is called the Atami. There is a fish in the depths of the Atami, which is named peony. It is described as plump, tender and delicate. If you cut it vertically with a knife, each piece of fish will look like a peony.
This kind of statement can probably only be known by figures such as Master and Master.
Listening to the words "peony fish", the master gently stroked the long beard on his lower jaw, nodded in agreement, and said: "My son, I couldn't agree more with your statement. As long as there is a peony fish in my belly, no matter how long and arduous the journey is, it will be worth it."
."
The senior brother took out things like a kitchen knife and a chopping board from the cart, and then took out a bucket. He held the ice cubes with his palms and melted out the fat and tender peony fish frozen in it. When the fish meat had softened to seven minutes, he cut it diagonally with a knife and started
Cut raw.
The master looked at the peony fish that was still fresh on the chopping board and started to bounce slightly. He stroked his beard and praised: "Of course food must be fresher and rarer to be delicious. If it weren't for the fact that this kind of fish is only produced in the arctic cold
How can the hot sea of the region be so hot and cold that it can produce such meat? How can a person have the beauty of enduring thousands of miles of hardship?"
The senior brother smiled and did not answer, but concentrated on cutting. The peony fish was extremely fat, tender and elastic, and even if the knife was sharp, it was difficult to penetrate the skin without messing up. He cut it very slowly and carefully, hitting the gap between the two knives one after another.
There seemed to be no distance, but when the knife was raised, a layer of white fish fillets as thin as cicada wings was already attached to the surface of the knife.
"If the river fish is cut raw, it should not be too thin, because if it is too thin, it will lose its taste. Peony fish is produced in the deep sea and has extremely elastic meat, so the thinner the better. My dear, you have basically mastered some principles of the world in these years."
The master shook his head in admiration. He took out soy sauce, a green seasoning and ginger juice from his left hand and poured it into the bowl. His right hand stretched out to the chopping board very naturally, and picked up the thin piece of white fish with his middle index finger.
The slices swung gently in the bowl like a koi fish's tail, and were quickly put into the lips.
While chewing, the master closed his eyes and enjoyed it, with an expression on his face that was as sweet as the peony fish meat in his mouth. After a while, he opened his eyes, looked at the kitchen knife that was slowly cutting on the chopping board, and said anxiously: "Hurry up, faster.
"
The senior brother smiled, but the speed of his hands did not become faster at all, and he was still cutting meticulously, steadily and slowly.
The master couldn't wait any longer, so he grabbed the kitchen knife from his hand and sighed: "You are good at everything, but you are so slow in everything. I am really worried about this."
The senior brother respectfully explained: "Students are stupid in nature, so they are always willing to think more before doing things."
"You have to learn from Xiaomo in this regard. Think when you should think, and don't think blindly when you shouldn't."
"Second junior brother is astonishingly talented and brilliant, beyond my comparison."
"If he hears what you say, won't he be as ashamed as he was when he was a child?"
The master slashed with the knife like the wind, and in just a moment, the chopping board was covered with thin slices of fish like snowflakes, which really looked like a blooming white peony.
The remaining fish bones and internal organs are wrapped in a thin film and look as beautiful as a piece of amber.
The second senior brother had his hands free at this time, so he got into the car and got two pairs of chopsticks. After the master was satisfied with the meal, he picked up a few pieces of the peony fish and tasted them carefully, and then put the amber-like fish bone innards into the mouth of the big ox.
forward.
It is natural for a big yellow cow to eat grass, but... this big yellow cow ate fish. It opened its mouth and swallowed it, chewed it, and shook its head from time to time, looking extremely happy.
The master was holding a small wine pot and sipping slowly. He suddenly saw this scene in his peripheral vision and couldn't help but angrily yelled: "The cow chews the peony, it is really a waste of food! How can fish eat like this!"
After saying this, the master took out another precious peony fish from the ice bucket, rolled up the sleeves of his cotton coat, raised and lowered the kitchen knife, and in a moment, another pile of white peony-like fish fillets appeared on the chopping board.
The master picked up a piece of peony fish with chopsticks, dipped it in some seasoning, and threw it into the big ox's mouth.
It turns out that the waste mentioned by Master is not that the big ox eats the peony fish, but that the food is spoiled by not being able to taste the taste of the peony fish.
The big yellow ox chewed twice, and was startled at first, then shed two lines of clear tears from the corners of its eyes, and then began to shake its head, flick its front hooves, and moo.
The elder brother hesitated and asked: "Master, is he happy or is he angry?"
The Master said: "Of course I am happy."
The elder brother thought to himself that Master's words were always correct, so he took the chopsticks and continued to feed the big ox and peony fish.
…
…
In the extremely cold regions of the North where even barren people can no longer survive, this big ox can pull a cart for a while and come back safe and sound without fear of the cold. It still maintains such a strong body. Of course it is not an ordinary big ox, so it
It is not difficult to understand whether one eats fish but not grass.
The eldest brother cleaned the chopping board, knives, chopsticks and dishes, then sat on the couch and looked south for a while, dazed, and said, "I wonder how the academy is doing now, and how much impact the desolate people will have if they go south."
The Master was sitting cross-legged on the bullock cart, reading a book in his hand, and casually replied: "I'll find out when I get back."
The senior brother smiled, looked at the teacher and said, "The students are very curious about who entered the second floor."
The Master looked at the pages of the book, lowered his head and said, "If you want to know, just read it yourself."
The senior brother shook his head and said with a smile: "It's too far away. I won't be able to go back for a while."
After saying this, he suddenly stood up and looked at the north of the grassland, with a very clean smile on his face.
A row of extremely tall black shadows faintly appeared there. If you look closely, you will see that they are the giant snowfield wolves that were forced southward with the desert people in the extreme northern cold regions. Hundreds of giant wolves lined up like warriors, as huge as a mountain.
His figure gave people a great sense of pressure, but neither the master nor him had any big reaction.
On the contrary, the reaction of the giant snowfield wolves was very strange. For them, the big ox from the Central Plains is as rare as the peony fish and the people of the Central Plains must be delicious. But for some reason, the giant snowfield wolves, which are famous for their ferocity and bloodthirsty, must be delicious.
Instead of swooping over, they all let out shrill wails and retreated back in horror, as if they sensed some kind of terrifying aura that was far beyond their imagination.
This group of giant snow wolves was the same group of giant wolves that had a fierce battle with the Tang brothers and sisters at the pass that day. I saw the thin male wolf, leading the female wolf as beautiful as a snow mountain, away from the wolf group, slowly
He walked slowly towards the bullock cart. When he reached a place about a few hundred steps away from the bullock cart, the ordinary male wolf stopped and did not dare to move forward again.
The thin ordinary male wolf looked at the bullock cart and looked very excited and restless. His body trembled slightly and he squatted down and raised his two front paws. He looked like a human student performing a discipleship ceremony in front of his teacher.
The senior brother looked at the male wolf and said in surprise: "Teacher, isn't this the wolf from seven years ago? They are actually married."
The Master smiled slightly and said nothing.
The elder brother glanced at the master and found that he had no objection. He left the oxcart and took a few steps closer to the ordinary male wolf. He raised his hand and pointed to the northwest of the grassland and said: "Don't continue going south. There are too many people there. Go there."
Go over there, and after another five hundred miles, there is a large coniferous forest."
The ordinary male wolf waved its front paws in salute, leaned down and touched the ground with its head for a long time, then stood up, glanced at the cart reluctantly, roared, and ran towards the northwest with his wife and subordinates.
"Let's go back to Chang'an."
The Master rolled up his book, raised the curtain and walked into the bullock cart.
The second senior brother turned around and looked at the meadow in the distance with a smile, then sat on the single shaft and patted the cow's back.
Squeak, squeak, squeak, the oxcart is heading south.
…
…
Looking at the oxcart gradually disappearing at the end of the grassland, Tang Xiaotang stood up with the sleeping little Snow Wolf in his arms. His face was full of confusion. After a long time, he murmured: "This...is the Master?"
Tang stood beside her, looking at the ruts left on the grassland, and nodded.
Tang Xiaotang shook his head, feeling that the greedy old man just now was completely different from the master he imagined.
After a moment of silence, Tang said: "I wanted to see if there would be an opportunity for you to become my master, but since the master didn't say anything, it means that the opportunity is not available. We will talk about it when we have the opportunity in the future."
Tang Xiaotang asked in surprise: "You mean Master knows that we are peeking here?"
Tang turned around and walked down the meadow and said, "Since you are a master, you naturally know everything."