Chapter 27: The Relationship Between Ideals and Spring Dreams

  Beishan doesn't show its face without snow, so Yun Zheng can only have a meal by himself at the seaside. Although the cooking skills of the chef in Yun's house are not bad, but for Yun Zheng, it lacks an important flavor - chili peppers, no chili peppers!

  Yun Zuo was a native of Hunan before crossing over, and the people of Hunan are typical in that they cannot do without chili peppers. Reprinted from Wo Kan Shu Zhai The living habits of the people of Hunan are inseparable from chili peppers. Just like the people of Shanxi love to add vinegar to their dishes, and the people of Fujian like to add shrimp oil, the people of Hunan feel that the flavor is not good if there are no chili peppers on the table. The people of Hunan eat chili peppers in many ways, including making dishes with them, using them as a seasoning, chopping them up, pickling them, soaking them, roasting them, and making white chili peppers, fermented soybean chili peppers, rice noodle chili peppers, chili pepper paste, chili pepper oil, and so on.

  However, the big problem that has been troubling Yunzhong is: chili peppers are an imported product. This good thing was only introduced to China in the late Ming Dynasty in its own world. Although before the end of the Ming Dynasty, Hunan also ate spicy food. As early as the Book of Songs, it mentions salt, sauce, honey, maltose, ginger, cinnamon, and pepper as seasonings, among which ginger and pepper are of course spicy. During the Warring States period, Qu Yuan in "Li Sao" has a sentence: "Da ku xian suan, xin gan xing xie." This includes the five flavors of bitter, salty, sour, spicy, and sweet.

  But that being said, Ke Yunzheng was a person who was used to eating chili peppers. Without the chili peppers, he would have to use something else as a substitute, and it's likely that he wouldn't be able to get used to it. Although chili peppers may seem like just one thing, in Hunan cuisine, the spiciness is actually a technical skill. It can be divided into different types such as fragrant spicy, numbing spicy, sour spicy, sticky spicy, oily spicy, fresh spicy, and bitter spicy. When combined with other seasonings, it will not make the dishes taste monotonous, and it's also different from the spiciness of Sichuan cuisine.

  For example, the famous Hunan dish "Dong'anzi Chicken" is made by cooking yellow chicken from Dong'an County until it's well done, then cutting it into large pieces. The chicken broth, which has been seasoned with chili peppers, ginger, and salt, is poured over the chicken, and a large bowl is used to cover it. This process is repeated several times until the flavors have penetrated the meat. Dong'anzi Chicken is mainly sour and spicy, and eating it makes one feel refreshed and leaves a lingering aftertaste.

  Another traditional dish "Malaizi Chicken" is made by deboning the chicken and cutting it into small pieces. It's then coated with a mixture of Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, and wet starch, and deep-fried until crispy. Red chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorns are stir-fried together, and vinegar, soy sauce, and scallions are added to create the sauce. Malaizi Chicken is characterized by its red and green colors, and it's both numbing and spicy, similar to but also different from Sichuan cuisine.

  There are many other dishes such as "Sesame Fragrant Crispy Chicken" and "Five Elements Divine Chicken", which all have different levels of spiciness due to the different cooking methods and ingredients used. The flavors are also unique and varied. This is just talking about chicken dishes, but if we expand it to other types of dishes, there's even more variety.

  Yun Cong thought that he couldn't eat chili peppers in the future, and his heart felt depressed. He even wished to build a ship immediately and send people to Nanyang to find chili peppers - this was of course idealistic thinking. At present, the coastline controlled by Yun's family is not long, and there is no navy, let alone a "navy" with such technicalization. However, this did not prevent him from leaving a layer of thought in his heart. Who knows if there will be enough conditions in the future? People always have to have some ideals. As a Hunanese, bringing chili peppers to China earlier is also a good ideal, isn't it?

  Yun Cong rubbed his nose, forcing himself to put aside such grand ideals for now, waved his hand to let the servants clean up the remaining banquet, and returned to his room to begin acting as "The Thinker".

  It's strange to say, but since crossing over into this world, I've been surprisingly busy - although it seems like I haven't accomplished anything, I just haven't had the chance to think about how I should spend the rest of my life in this world.

  Go back? That's impossible now. This world will absolutely not suddenly produce an Audi A6 for itself to come and "rush kiss".

  Then just do your own young marshal with peace of mind? No, the young marshal will eventually become a big marshal and sit in the border for a lifetime. That's not a joke, that's tiring! The northern nomadic tribes, first the Khitan, then the Jurchen, and finally the Mongols... Do we have to spend our whole lives helping others keep watch? What, loyalty to the emperor? Please, we were born in New China and grew up under the red flag. Loyalty to the emperor is such an outdated thing, it's not something we should be doing!

  However, this statement is a bit of an exaggeration. Although I don't have the audacity to do so, loving one's country is a great righteousness that has been instilled in me since childhood. I may not love the monarch or the imperial court, but this national righteousness and patriotism are things that cannot be abandoned. Otherwise, I would make an effort to subdue those Khitans, Jurchens, and Mongols, and then achieve national integration as soon as possible, singing "the 56 ethnic groups are one family"? Hmm, but isn't this task a bit too difficult? With the military strength of our Yun family, even with all our troops combined, we only have around 200,000 soldiers. We can barely withstand the Liao State, thanks to the great advantage of our Han people's strong armor and deep moats. As for subduing the Khitans, Jurchens, and Mongols... Ha! I'm not Xiang Yu, nor am I Chen Qingzhi or Yue Fei. Although I'm a top-notch strategic gamer, playing games is just playing games - who knows how high the simulation degree of those games is? War is not something that can be simulated with just a few lines of code!

  So forget about "sweeping across the battlefield" - what should we do instead? Should we follow Uncle's example and become a civil official? Hmm, although I'm currently just a nominal title holder as a Flower Candidate, politics is the most unpredictable game in the world. Based on those historical dramas I've seen, being a civil official isn't easy either - even if you manage to become Prime Minister, it's not secure... aren't there plenty of examples of yesterday's Prime Minister becoming today's dead man? No way, this path is even more unreliable than being a young marshal. With the Cloud family's background, being "Young Marshal Cloud" may be tiring and bitter, but at least my head would still be relatively stable - as long as I don't do anything stupid on the battlefield.

  It seems that the emperor's power is the greatest, and his head should be the most stable. But it's not easy to get an emperor to play with? No, no, although the Central Army has fewer battles, they are well-equipped after all. Moreover, the 36 guards of Kanto and the 72 guards directly under the central government add up to 108 regular army guards in the emperor's hands, a large army of over 600,000! Not to mention that the imperial family is wealthy and the Zhou family has a bad relationship with us... This matter is too dangerous, let's not think about it.

  So depressing!

  Forget it, we're still young, let's just muddle through life for now and see how things go in a few years. Eh...

  Yun Cong's mind suddenly flashed: wasn't it said that the 13th prince would be sealed as the Prince of Huai'an? Huai'an is a good place, and in this era, Huai'an includes Haizhou, which is Lianyungang in later generations. What a great naval base! According to the system of the Great Wei, Princess Huai'an can get 30% of the income from Huai'an. If overseas trade is developed, wouldn't the money come pouring in? With more money, people won't be resentful, even if it's the emperor himself, seeing the increasing revenue will surely make him happy.

  Alas, it seems that I have also been corrupted by the Western devils' ideology to some extent. Why do I like money so much? However... Hehe, if I, Yun Shuai, were to marry Princess Huai'an, wouldn't I be holding both the gun and the purse in my hands? How refreshing! It seems that the key to this matter still lies with my little clever spirit...

  Yun Teng has been rushing along the road for several days, after all, he was so tired that he fell asleep as soon as he thought about it, his brain didn't know what kind of nonsense he was thinking about, and a string of saliva flowed out of the corner of his mouth, not to mention that he even revealed a sly smile.

  If winter comes, can spring be far behind?

  If spring is approaching, isn't it normal to have a little foretaste of spring dreams?