Inside the Taicang Silver Vault, there is a guard post every five steps and a sentry every ten steps, and the security is extremely strict.
Zhu Ping'an silently observed the strict defense of the Taicang silver vault while dealing with the greetings of Jia Langzhong and others. After walking in the vault area for about five or six minutes, he arrived at the Taicang dining room.
This is a large dining hall, long from east to west and narrow from north to south. It can accommodate about seventy to eighty people dining at the same time. There are about ten tables inside, and the tables and chairs are relatively simple.
There was food on one of the tables, eight dishes and two soups, or to be exact, four dishes and one soup, but each dish was served in duplicate.
The dishes were very ordinary, two meat dishes and two vegetable dishes. The meat dishes were braised meat with tofu and stir-fried meat with Chinese cabbage, the vegetable dishes were smashed cucumber and braised eggplant, and the soup was a large bowl of gluten soup.
Eight dishes and two large pots of gluten soup filled the table.
"Come, Master Zhu, please take a seat."
Zhang Guanku stood in front of the chair facing west and east, smiled warmly, and extended his right hand to invite Zhu Ping'an to take the seat.
In ancient times, people paid great attention to seating arrangements when holding banquets. On the one hand, this was because of the tradition of a country of etiquette, and on the other hand, it was because of the hierarchy. For a dining room that is long from east to west and narrow from north to south, the most honorable seat in the dining room is to sit in the west facing east, followed by sitting in the north facing south, then sitting in the south facing north, and the most humble is to sit in the east facing west.
The seat where Zhang Guanku asked Zhu Ping'an to sit was the most honorable seat in the kitchen.
"Please come in, Sir Zhang." Zhu Ping'an smiled and shook his head, then extended his hand to invite Zhang Guanku to take a seat.
The Ming Dynasty was a feudal society that was very particular about hierarchy. The most obvious manifestation of this was the seating arrangement. There were strict rules for what seats the high-ranking people took and what seats the low-ranking people took. Sitting randomly would be considered as usurping the throne and would also be considered as insubordination.
Zhu Ping'an would never make such a low-level mistake and leave any handle for others.
Moreover, Zhang Guanku is the local boss of Taicang Silver Treasury. It is said that even a strong dragon cannot defeat a local snake. What's more, I am not even a strong dragon. Compared with the third-rank officials Zhang Guanku and others, I, a sixth-rank official, am at most a small earthworm.
In addition, when he was outside the treasury gate just now, Doctor Jia and others looked at him with contempt and did not take him seriously.
In this case, I can't let them down.
After some pushing and shoving, Zhang Guanku finally sat in the first seat, and Zhu Pingan sat below Zhang Guanku.
Seeing Zhu Ping'an being so tactful, the Taicang officials felt more relieved. In their opinion, this aggressive inspection was easier than any previous ones.
"Oh, there are four meat dishes, not bad, thanks to Master Zhu, we finally get to eat meat."
After sitting down, Taicang Doctor Zhao Dingtian glanced at the food on the table with disdain in his eyes, but his face showed a look of surprise. He thanked Zhu Pingan in surprise, as if he really had not tasted meat for three months.
Zhu Ping'an curled his lips slightly. Haha, the performance was quite good. It would be even more perfect if you could wipe off the bear paw smell on your body and the shiny oil stains on your mouth...
Zhang Guanku glared at Doctor Zhao, and Doctor Zhao then shut up in displeasure, with an unhappy look on his face, as if he was wrong to tell the truth.
"Haha, we are in Taicang, a remote and poor place. We can't compare to your city. We have only simple meals. I hope Lord Zhu won't be offended by our poor hospitality." Zhang Guanku said to Zhu Ping'an with a smile.
After the words fell, Zhu Pingan looked up at Zhang Guanku, then glanced at the people present, his eyes were deep, and his eyebrows wrinkled...
Zhang Guanku and the other Taicang officials present were frightened by Zhu Ping'an's look, especially Doctor Zhao, who was even more frightened and thought that Zhu Ping'an had seen through some flaw.
Next second
But Zhu Ping'an's eyes became more and more serious, and his brows were furrowed more and more.
The people present in Taicang felt increasingly uneasy.
However, in the next second, Zhu Ping'an's deep eyes were moistened, his eyebrows were knitted together, he opened his mouth and took a deep breath, and said with a very touched face: "Master Zhang and other masters guard the Taicang Treasury, but they are so strict with themselves. This kind of sentiment really makes Ping'an admire it. Master Zhang made an exception for Ping'an and prepared such a rich and delicious table. How could Ping'an not be satisfied?"
Hi Nima!
It turns out that this guy was moved by our "thriftiness". Damn, I thought this guy had discovered some flaw.
Damn, I worried for nothing.
I said, how could he see the flaw? Haha, it turned out that I was worrying for nothing. A young calf is a young calf, and a rookie is a rookie! He was fooled so easily. What a bullshit champion, just a nerd. This kind of person is good at writing eight-part essays, but if you ask him to do other things... Haha...
After this incident, everyone looked down on Zhu Ping'an even more.
Four dishes and one soup, two meat and two vegetable.
Except for Zhu Ping'an, everyone else at the table was not interested and basically did not move their chopsticks.
It is easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but it is difficult to go from extravagance to frug
They had just come out of the "Midnight Diner", where they had been eating bear paws, abalone, and other delicacies from land and sea. Now asking them to eat cabbage and tofu would be too difficult for them. How could they pick up their chopsticks
However, Zhu Ping'an ate very happily.
Zhu Ping'an has not had a sip of water or eaten a grain of rice since early morning.
But a lot of things happened that day. He got up early in the morning and went to the Dali Temple first. It turned out that the deputy envoy of the Dali Temple, Qu Tongyang, had a stroke. Then he heard the news that Si Nan was beaten with a stick in the court, and he went to the Meridian Gate without stopping.
Then he rode with Gao Rui to Taicang Silver Vault, but Gao Rui fell off his horse and escaped halfway, so he turned back to the city to find a doctor.
Then I basked in the sun for half an hour outside the gate of Taicang...
Zhu Ping'an had been extremely hungry and thirsty.
In addition, the "thrifty set meal" launched by Mr. Zhang with ulterior motives also gave Zhu Ping'an a surprise. It looked like cabbage and tofu, but sometimes the same ingredients, after being cooked by different chefs, tasted very different.
Zhu Ping'an was sure that the chef in Taicang was as skilled as the imperial chef.
This seemingly ordinary cabbage, tofu and cucumber tastes surprisingly good and is so popular that people can’t stop eating it.
Zhu Pingan was like a glutton, eating non-stop. Everyone in Taicang looked down on Zhu Pingan's good appetite, thinking he was really a bumpkin from the countryside...
"Well, Master Zhang, you guys can eat too. You don't have to take special care of me. Come, Master Zhao, this braised meat with tofu tastes good."
While Zhu Ping'an was eating, he looked up at everyone. Seeing that no one was eating much, he was "touched" and advised everyone to eat the food and not to take extra care of themselves. In particular, he gave Doctor Zhao a special helping of tofu and meat with a serving chopstick, because you were so surprised to finally see meat.
"Ahem, no, no, I can do it myself."
Doctor Zhao looked at the big piece of meat in the bowl and felt sick. Who the hell would eat such pork? Facing Zhu Ping'an's enthusiastic eyes, Doctor Zhao stuffed a big piece of meat into his mouth as if swallowing a fly...