Mei Bo bowed and replied, "Don't worry, the old slave will set out now and will never miss the grand affairs of the grandfather."

"Slow down, wait a moment!"

Mei Bo asked, "What are the instructions for the prince?"

"Didn't this news be found from Ji Boyan?"

"It's true that Zhongwen is so energetic that he is so tired that he needs to put pressure on his brother to cry and entangle. There is nothing wrong with that."

Zhou Gongding narrowed his eyes and said, "It's so good. But if you use this trick too much, people won't care. If there are no key joints in the future, don't move this line."

"promise!"

On the winter solstice, King Li of Zhou held a small palace banquet at Luoyi Palace, and only invited close ministers to attend.

The winter solstice is when winter comes. After that, after the two solar terms of Little Cold and Great Cold, the beginning of spring is when all things are revived. In the pre-Qin period, the countries in the Central Plains called the Winter Solstice solar term, the long and short.

"Soul" takes its original meaning - this day is the coldest, and winter is coming! "Long arrives" takes its longest day and night in the year. Short arrives, take its shortest day and day in the year. No matter what the title is, in the ancients, the winter solstice is an extremely important solar term. The fundamental point is that the winter solstice is the transition period when the cold winter is about to begin. The long dormant nest winter is about to end, and the vibrant spring is coming.

Because the winter solstice is cold and it is a symbol of the coldness of spring, the Central Plains countries have the custom of warming soup and glutinous rice in winter. Warm soup is a hot food. glutinous rice is a gathering of relatives and friends to eat a hot and hot soup rice. This is a romantic life that has spread to later generations. When eating hot soup dumplings in the winter solstice, if you don’t eat hot dumplings, it is "not winter". There is also a proverb: "The winter solstice is not winter, and there is no right to the market." This is a later story.

Although Ji Hu didn't care about the good and bad, he couldn't resist the persuasion of the eunuch Jia. The emperor had to step on a lucky step when he was out on patrol. Besides, Zhao Bohu and his two brothers were in Haojing, Ji Hu couldn't help feeling lonely and wanted to take this opportunity to have a lively atmosphere, so he agreed to hold a banquet in the side courtyard of another palace, and only entertained his close ministers such as Rong Yi.

With the eunuchs Jia and Qi Zhong in charge, all the affairs of the palace were very smooth. At noon on the winter solstice, the Luoyi Palace was in a festive and peaceful state. Ji Hu did not inform the other princes and officials, but only invited Rongyi, Chongli, Wei and these three. He wanted to invite Ji Duoyou, but the Chengzhou Daying Committee was unable to leave, so he had to give up.

Because Ji Hu didn't like to be restrained, he naturally didn't like those regular palaces and pavilions. The winter solstice banquet was arranged to be held in the side courtyard of the palace. The three-enter courtyard was located on the hillside, with waterfalls and springs gurgling down, bamboo forests green, poplar golden red, and thatched huts and pavilions scattered between the mountains and rivers, making it a quiet and unconventional atmosphere.

The second six-bedroom and a row of blue brick houses into the yard are the main hall, which is spacious and bright. Apart from the brand new red felt and the same colored ebony case, there is no other elegant furnishings.

At this time, the door in the hall had already opened. Qi Kuo and the eunuch Jia Yi stood on the stone steps on the hall with a serious face on the left and right. Seeing Ji Hu and his party coming from afar, Qi Zhong shouted: "The king is here, all the guests are in the seat-"

With this shout, everyone was also seriously dressed in a straight dress and crowned manner. Ji Hu naturally sat in the king's ranks with his own ranks with his left hand, Wei He was behind the table with his right hand, Rong Yi was behind the table with his lower head, and Chongqing Li was opposite. Because Wei He was the commander of the Eighth Division of Chengzhou and the princes of the State of Wei, he naturally had to be higher.

“Bujiu Bucai——”

The eunuch Jia shouted, and six palace maids brought wine and food in succession. The wine was three barrels per table, one sweet wine, one week wine, and one Lanling wine. The dishes were a cauldron, one basin, and one plate. Before they were put on the desk, the steaming fragrance had already spread with the heat of the four large burning furnaces in the four corners of the hall.

Wei He smiled with his nose, "What kind of meat is this? It smells so attractive?"

The eunuch Jia smiled and explained, "Hehe, these three strange smells are so bad that I'm afraid that the old slave will tell Xiaowei Hou a little bit."

Wei He shrugged his nose dissatisfiedly: "Marquis Wei is Marquis Wei, why do you want to add the word "small"?"

After all, he was young and had such a cute and naive voice that made the crowd laugh. Ji Hu interrupted, "Let's say it alone. The meat of this tripod is called bear steaming, which is steaming bear meat. The method of steaming bear is the first in the palace: hunt a big bear, peel it, open the belly, chop it into five or seven pieces with its head and feet, add a piece of green salt, stew it thoroughly over high heat, but the skin and flesh must be intact. Then seal it with a large cage, steam it for half an hour, and then tear it into a piece of meat the size of a palm after it is out of the cage, dip it into bitter wine, soy sauce, minced green onion, and garlic, and everyone salivates!"

"I'm hunting and steaming bears, it's really true!" Chongqing Li, who has always been speechless, rose today and slapped the table and said, "It's just that the method is different from that in the palace, and it's not as strong as the king."

"In this way, there are two ways to steam bears?" Wei Heda was curious.

Chongli chanted: "Southern bears have to remove their heads and feet, then rip them open them, cut the bear meat into two inches squares, add sour sauce and sour rice thoroughly, then use the fine orange peel, small garlic, celery and sour rice to form a sprout, spread it into a large cage, steam it for half an hour, take it out, cut it into six inches long and thick pieces of meat, spread it into a large plate, and the surrounding sour rice is very high!"

He was vivid in his words, and even Ji Hu was also interested: "I think General Chongli must have been born in the Dajiang River Basin. The auxiliary materials used for steaming bears are indeed different from those of the Central Plains. When I go to the south in the future, I must try what the flavor of steamed bears with the sour rice that the general said?"

Wei He also slapped the table and said, "No wonder General Chongli is very good at killing the dragon. He was originally good at Hehan since childhood, and he has such skills!"

After hearing these words, Chongli felt that he was speechless and glanced at Rong Yi, but saw that the master was still calmly holding the slender copper handle to pour wine for him. He immediately calmed down: "I'm going to talk too far, so please ask the Lord Wangcheng to tell the rest of the smell!"

The eunuch Jia smiled and knocked on the lid of the large pottery plate: "This is a roasted pig, black fungus. It's past noon, and the old slave will no longer talk. Please ask my king to open the order!"

Ji Hu raised the wine and smiled and said, "On the day of the winter solstice, the cold is over and the spring is coming. Do this one hot wine!"

"Together with King He, the world will turn around! Do it!" He sat in one voice and drank it all with a croaking sound.

Qi Zhong knocked on the cover of the tripod: "The king opened the tripod and started—"

Ji Hu laughed: "Good rules, start with the tripod!" He picked up a copper hook in the wooden plate in the case and lifted it up. A ball of hot air suddenly swelled up: "Eating bear meat during the winter is warm, warming your lungs, please get started!"

"Get started!" Everyone laughed and shouted, and the Dingdang hook opened the cauldron cover, then hooked out a thick piece of steamed bear meat. They tore it apart with both hands, dipped it in the bitter wine cup of onion, garlic and chewed it.
Chapter completed!