Chapter 34: The Arrogant Envoy (Part 2)

  The words were really too severe, and several messengers were so frightened that they hastily knelt down on the ground to apologize, and dared not mention the request to perform in Tianchao again. Everyone let out a long sigh of relief, although this borrowing topic was also a bit tricky, but at this time, where could we find someone familiar with this technique to come over? Even if there were such people, it would be hard to say whether they could be more skilled than that foreign butcher.

  Despite this, the officials present still felt somewhat depressed in their hearts. Could it be that in this one move, they would actually be surpassed by these small vassal states? The emperor's heart was also not feeling too good, as these vassal states were not being very honest and always wanted to find back their face in other places which they could not get on the battlefield. But if it was going to be turned around like this, it would indeed be somewhat troublesome.

  The several eunuchs below still knelt on the ground to apologize, the Emperor slightly tilted his head, and the chief eunuch immediately leaned in close. The Emperor whispered a few words, and the chief eunuch took orders and left. Although unable to vent anger over this butcher's skill, he could still severely scold them for their impolite request, which somewhat lifted his mood.

  After being reprimanded, the several envoys did not dare to mention any more requests, but only begged the emperor to allow them to present their later food performances. However, looking at their appearance, although they were reprimanded, there was an uncontrollable smile on their faces, which made the dignitaries both angry and anxious, but unfortunately, there was no decent excuse to suppress them.

  It's indeed somewhat embarrassing to say, but the ultimate technique originally recorded in the ancient classics of Zhongyuan Tianchao is now appearing on a barbarian. The Central Plains have always regarded butchers as lowly occupations, how could there be scholars who would engage in such a profession? Searching throughout the entire Tianchao, it's already not easy to find a butcher who knows the allusion of Pao Ding cutting up an ox, let alone expecting them to refine their skills to this level.

  Of course, it's not that there is absolutely no one, just now the emperor has already ordered the eunuch general manager to go to the imperial kitchen to ask if there are any such masters of the ultimate technique. Can't just sit back and watch these barbarian envoys flaunt their military power without being able to fight back!

  Next, it was still the turn of those barbarians to perform. After obtaining the emperor's permission and undergoing a thorough inspection, a chef dressed in barbarian attire entered the scene. This time, the chef held an ordinary-looking kitchen knife and carefully selected a piece from the freshly slaughtered beef, cutting it into a square block about one inch thick on the chopping board, then placed it on the chopping board and stopped moving.

  Everyone didn't know what he was going to do, but he took out a ruler and measured it. It was exactly one inch thick. Then the chef bowed deeply to everyone and began to introduce what he was going to do.

  After listening to the introduction, everyone finally understood that this guy was going to cut this inch-thick fresh beef into a hundred slices, and each slice had to be intact. This piece of beef is the most delicious part of the whole cow's body, cut into such thin slices, it's really delicious when eaten raw.

  "Raw food! At that moment, there were officials jumping out, isn't this a case of 'drinking blood and eating flesh'? Let the Jiuwu Zunzhong eat raw beef, deceive the emperor, and commit great evil. Taking advantage of the situation, they wanted to drive the barbarian envoy away on the spot."

  It turns out that the envoy had made preparations earlier, and this was actually a specialty of the vassal state prepared for the emperor. He had already asked for the emperor's instructions and received his golden words of approval. Moreover, although it was raw food, it was indeed a local specialty, and it couldn't be considered deceiving the monarch. Besides, in the time of the Three Emperors and Five Sovereigns, when people were first cultivating the land with knives and burning seeds, didn't the ancients also eat raw meat and drink blood? This move can't be considered a great rebellion or heresy.

  With this statement, others also cannot refute it. The emperor had indeed granted permission before, if he were to go back on his word now, wouldn't that make the Son of Heaven appear untrustworthy? Who can bear such a responsibility?

  Helpless, can only let this barbarian chef continue. Speaking of which, knife skills have always been the foundation of cooking, it's just that they appear on these people who everyone thinks are uncivilized, and it feels a bit awkward. Fortunately, they ran into the muzzle, don't dare say anything else, but when it comes to cutting meat, the imperial kitchen can definitely find a bunch of masters.

  The chef's knife skills were not as impressive as the butcher's earlier, but watching him hold the knife in one hand and press down on the meat with the other, his knife-wielding hand pulled towards his chest to slice off a large, thin piece of meat. The movement was not as elegant as the butcher's, but it was still quite rhythmic.

  It was probably a great honor for the chef to cook in front of the emperor, and his skills were so impressive that he seemed completely relaxed, without any nervousness at all.

  Each piece of meat cut off was placed separately on a small plate and served to the emperor and each minister. The extra people could only choose to cut beef again. Someone counted clearly, one-inch thick pieces of meat, this guy actually cut out 100 pieces, each with exactly the same size and thickness, not a single piece was cut badly.

  The last piece, thinly spread on the chopping board, the chef seemed to want to show off a bit, his hand holding the kitchen knife drew a fancy knife flower, and then, the sound of the knife and the chopping board intersecting several times, the chef stretched out his hand from the chopping board along the edge of the meat slice, slowly lifting it up. However, this time the lifted meat slice had many holes in it, but the chef opened his mouth and swallowed the hole-ridden meat slice whole, then picked up the small chopping board and presented it to a nearby eunuch.

  The eunuch received the chopping board, looked down and took a glance, didn't dare to say anything, and directly presented it to the Emperor. Just at this moment, the last piece of meat was cut into four neat and uniform characters "Wan Shou Wu Jiang"! Even with a brush, it would be impossible to write out four characters in such a short time, and yet they were so neatly written.

  Cutting out characters is more difficult than writing, requiring a mental outline of the four characters beforehand. The knife must be cut along the edge of the character, cleanly and neatly cutting off, otherwise this thin slice of meat will curl up with just one carelessness, making it difficult to form a character. This move indirectly showed off the chef's exquisite knife skills.

  A master of the imperial kitchen, a one-inch thick piece of meat can be cut into a hundred slices, perhaps someone can do it, but the last slice of this meat carving skills, now it can be determined that no one can do it.

  Looking at the bright red meat slices in front of him, and then looking at those somewhat smug faces, the emperor really didn't have much appetite to put this thin slice of beef into his mouth. A faint bitterness arose in his heart, could it be that my great dynasty has no one who can suppress these people's arrogance? The self-proclaimed "delicacies are not disliked for their subtlety" empire, actually wants to concede defeat in culinary skills?