Song Gexing

Chapter 35 I was tricked by my father again

Zhao Fang was driven away, and the ministers laughed wildly behind him. Lu Yijian laughed even more, saying that he was afraid of the queen, and he would catch his painful feet in the future.

Zhao Fang silently despised these old and unrepentant people, and ran back to Queen Cao's palace. Seeing that he looked unhappy, Queen Cao asked him strangely, and he quickly looked around and said something else.

Seeing him coming back, Zhao Xin moved closer, stretched out her hand to pull his sleeves, and asked cautiously: "Da Guo, can we eat mutton tonight? Xin'er hasn't eaten meat for a long time."

Zhao Fang rubbed his younger brother's head with a headache and said: "Brother will teach you martial arts. You spend three days fishing and two days drying nets. I can only control your diet. As long as you are not lazy, my brother will not let you go." Eat meat.”

"Does eating meat have anything to do with practicing martial arts? The big pot will lie to me."

The little guy muttered, but he was standing next to Zhao Fang, so he couldn't hear it. He immediately lowered his face and said: "You forgot, the third brother almost died in the first month. If brother hadn't been guarding him every day, we would have died." You have lost your younger brother and you still dare to be so stubborn."

Zhao Xin was startled and immediately shrank his neck. Two years ago, they had a younger brother. His mother was Zhu Cairen. In the first month of this year, he suddenly became seriously ill, just like Zhao Xin had before.

Fortunately, Zhao Fang had taken precautions a long time ago and retained the zhenqi he had recently developed to protect his cerebral blood vessels, and he survived after acupuncture.

This also made Miao Meiren no longer dare to be careless. It turned out that Zhao Fang had said something, but she gradually ignored it over time. This time gave her a warning.

In order to save her son's life, she didn't take him with her and sent him directly to Empress Cao to raise her, so as not to feel sorry for her son and break the precept again after being unable to withstand his pleading.

"Okay, brother allows you to eat a little tonight, but there is only one piece of meat, not more."

Seeing his younger brother's crying face, Zhao Fang felt distressed. He pinched his little face to comfort him. The little guy immediately jumped up and said, "The big pot is really good, you can eat meat!"

The meat of the Song Dynasty was mainly mutton. For this reason, the Song Dynasty imported a large number of sheep from Liao and Xixia every year. This should be the largest import expenditure of the Song Dynasty.

Just one palace consumes 50 kilograms of mutton every year. The emperor also rewards ministers with a number of sheep every month. Because mutton is expensive, the ministers are worried that they cannot afford it.

According to statistics, each family of courtiers in the Northern Song Dynasty ate at least ten sheep a month. During the Zhenzong period of the Song Dynasty, 350 sheep were killed every day in the palace alone.

People in the Song Dynasty were crazy about eating mutton. Su Shi was demoted that year because there were not so many sheep in small southern counties, so he bought sheep bones to eat at home every day, which became a classic dish "Sheep Scorpion" in later generations.

Originally, people in the Song Dynasty tried to raise sheep by themselves, but found that raising sheep by themselves was more expensive than importing them, so they had to give up raising sheep and buy them directly.

Regardless of whether it was Daliao or Xixia, there was no prohibition on exporting sheep to the Song Dynasty. This thing was not a strategic material, and why not do it if it could still make money.

Speaking of why the Song Dynasty loves to eat mutton so much, it is because pork has always been considered dirty and poisonous, and beef cannot be eaten. Farming cattle has always been a taboo in the Central Plains Dynasty.

It wasn't until Su Shi cooked pork in a different way that people started to eat pork, otherwise it would have been used by the Lower Riba people to satisfy their cravings.

Another point is probably caused by Zhao Kuangyin. Zhao Kuangyin, who lived during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, had living habits closer to those of the northern nomads.

During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the five regimes in the north were originally a mixture of Han and Hu. Neither Zhu Wen who established the Later Liang, nor Li Keyong who established the Later Tang were not Han.

In the later Jin Dynasty, Shi Jingtang joined the Khitan people again, so Zhao Kuangyin's living habits were deeply influenced by the Hu people. In addition, Emperor Zhao and Song Dynasty always advocated benevolence and righteousness in governing the country and did not allow tribute to those cherished ingredients.

Therefore, mutton became the first choice food. It is said that when the King of Wuyue surrendered to the Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin served him mutton, but it made him disgusted as a person who grew up eating seafood.

The emperor liked to eat mutton. After the good practices followed, mutton naturally became popular all over the country during the Song Dynasty. In the end, even the descendants of the King of Wu and Yue also liked mutton.

"By the way, brother, Han Qing's daughter will enter the palace the day after tomorrow. Mom wants to keep you here for a few days. After she becomes familiar with the rules of the palace, you can move back."

After dinner, while playing with her younger brother, Queen Cao suddenly mentioned this matter.Zhao Fang quietly rolled his eyes and replied helplessly: "The eldest lady has decided, and my son will listen to her anyway."

Queen Cao smiled softly: "Brother seems to be aggrieved, what he said is so false!"

Zhao Fang immediately jumped up, grabbed her hand and shook it: "My son is not wronged at all. The eldest lady must have seen it wrong..."

There was a lot of banging, banging, banging, the two sisters covered their mouths and snickered, while the younger brother blinked and looked at it, looking very envious.

Zhao Xin was timid and didn't dare to be coquettish with Empress Cao, but she was left here to be raised, so she would be a fool if she didn't envy her brother.

At this time, there was a sound from outside, "The officials are here", and the two sisters jumped up and ran to the door.

Zhao Zhen's laughter rang out: "Good news, brother, your suggestion has caused a sensation. The Jiaofang Secretary has come to report, and the musicians are kneeling facing the palace to set up a longevity tablet for you."

Before Zhao Fang could be surprised, Empress Cao said anxiously: "What suggestions did the eldest brother make? Why did it alert the Jiaofang Secretary?"

Zhao Zhen excitedly told the queen what had happened. Zhao Fang wanted to interrupt several times, but his father, who was in the middle of a conversation, ignored him at all.

Seeing that he couldn't be interrupted, Zhao Fang quietly walked along the edge and planned to sneak away.

Sure enough, as he was talking, Zhao Zhen forgot to say the last sentence. As a result, before Zhao Fang reached the door, he heard a scolding: "Where are you going, you little bastard! Get over here."

"finished"

With a sigh, Zhao Fang turned back to look at the unscrupulous father with a resentful look, and walked back with his bound feet.

Immediately, his ears were grabbed: "Tell me! Where did you learn these bastard words? Did you go to a place like that when you were outside the palace? If you don't make it clear today, I'll wait for you!"

In his heart, he cursed that Queen Cao was a violent woman, but he didn't reply honestly, and explained that he heard those words accidentally.

"Humph! You know that kind of thing at a young age. It looks like I'm going to prepare a concubine for you."

Zhao Fang, who was worried about what happened to his butt, was shocked by these words. My mother has such an incomparable brain, how could she have thought of such a thing.

Even Zhao Zhen was stunned, hesitating for a moment and faltering: "This, could it be... Could it be too early, Fang'er is only seven years old..."

"Is it early? It seems so."

Queen Cao then remembered that her precious son was still a little kid, and many people at this age still wet the bed.

But when I thought about it, it was wrong: "He is a bit young, but our child may mature prematurely. It is better to be prepared. What do you think, Guanjia?"

Zhao Zhen was right when he thought about it. His son did seem to be very mature, otherwise how could he have thoughts that could sort out major military and political matters.

"Then prepare two?"

He looked tentatively at Empress Cao and asked, and immediately got a response. Zhao Fang cried with a mournful face, "Father, mother, I don't need my son before he grows up!"

(End of this chapter)