Chapter Seventy-Nine: Jinling

  Apart from the incident on Qixia Ridge, there were no more encounters with bandits along this road. Firstly, bandits did not dare to confront government troops and secondly, it was now the seventh year of the Zhenguan era, and all regions had basically stabilized. Ordinary people are like this - as long as they have food to eat and a place to live, they are satisfied, so there were not many troublemakers.

  Everyone was in a hurry to get there safely, and Wang would occasionally get off the horse carriage to ride a horse. Only Lin Xuanmu, who thought that the last time at Qi Xia Ridge was not exciting enough, would look around whenever they arrived at a place with few people or a dangerous location, hoping to see some bandits rush out from a hidden corner. But every time he was disappointed, and the soldiers also hoped for an opportunity to fight. After several years of peace, they were already feeling suffocated, but this time's achievement was already great enough, and no matter how much more merit they gained, it wouldn't bring more rewards. Therefore, they didn't have so much enthusiasm anymore. So every time they saw Lin Xuanmu's disappointed eyes, a soldier would joke: "Young master might as well go ahead alone to scout the road, and if he encounters bandits, just call us."

  Along the way, everyone's favorite was when they arrived at a place with no village in front and no store behind, just in time for mealtime. At this point, Wang Kuang would always show off his skills. Sometimes he would mix cooked rice with chopped smoked pork and stuff it into freshly cut green bamboo, then put it on the fire to simmer; sometimes he would slice the fish caught by the soldiers from the river into thin pieces, just so they could eat them raw with a dipping sauce made of chili peppers or Sichuan peppercorns. Sometimes when they encountered an area with plenty of reeds, Wang Kuang would have them peel off the tender shoots of the reeds and bring them back to stir-fry with fish slices or dried meat.

  What they found most unforgettable was that one time when they climbed over a small hill and stumbled upon a litter of wild boar piglets, seven or eight in total, which Wang Kuang then roasted for them to eat. Before it was even fully cooked, the aroma of the pork wafting up from the roasting meat after wine had been splashed onto it made their mouths water profusely. That day everyone ate until their bellies were round and full, and even Li Yexu exceptionally lifted the ban on alcohol for the soldiers (as mentioned earlier, the greatest secret to barbecuing is splashing wine; everyone can mix sauces, which are more or less the same, but what they won't do is splash wine. Nowadays supermarkets sell plenty of sauces, at least two times: once when it's half-cooked, in order to let the wine seep into the meat, and once when it's almost fully cooked, in order to let the wine mix thoroughly with the hot oil. If you grasp the timing of splashing wine, then you are a barbecue master among your peers).

  So, the soldiers gradually started to learn from him, every morning they would slowly make their way, hoping not to arrive at the town by noon. And once in the afternoon, they would quicken their pace and make up for the lost time in the morning. Li Yexu also turned a blind eye to this phenomenon, and sometimes even indulged them a bit. Wang Kuang was nonchalant, anyway he only moved his hands when eating, other things like gathering, hunting, fishing, or even cleaning didn't require him to lift a finger. How many people could understand the joy brought by fully devoting oneself to cooking? Cooking for Wang Kuang wasn't labor, but rather a rare pleasure, probably something that Ah Yong could also achieve. Besides, being able to get along well with these soldiers was also not bad, having more friends meant having more paths, and having fewer enemies meant having less trouble. And then there was the fact that in later generations, where could you find so many ingredients without any pollution, additives, growth hormones, or other stuff? Lin Xuan had his fun touring around, eating, and drinking, of course he didn't have any complaints. Sometimes he would even tease those soldiers to come up with something weird to eat, the stranger the better, he was always curious, what kind of dish could make Wang Erlang feel troubled?

  Actually, Wang Kuang's cooking skills are just three tricks, and he has been using them repeatedly. If there is an advantage, it is only that he has accumulated over a thousand years of cooking knowledge. Fortunately, the methods for handling ingredients in this world are limited to just a few, so nothing unexpected happened along the way. If anything unexpected did happen, it was after they changed their route from Yangzhou and encountered a situation where some soldiers caught a few pufferfish. This was during springtime when pufferfish are most toxic. Wang Kuang had never eaten or handled pufferfish before, so he didn't dare to touch them, and no one in the group knew how to handle them either, so they just released the pufferfish.

  In Yangzhou, they had to stay for a day or two. Firstly, they needed to contact the local authorities to change ships and take the water route. Secondly, after leaving Jian'an, they had been traveling for over ten days, and both men and horses were somewhat exhausted, needing a rest. At that time, the administrative center of Yangzhou was Jinling (now Nanjing), and it wasn't until the middle of the Tang Dynasty that the administrative center of Yangzhou was moved to today's Yangzhou, with another prefecture, Jiangning, set up in Jinling. Anyway, Yangzhou was a prosperous place, so they had to linger for a while. Huang Liang, the son of the Yangzhou military officer, whose name was Huang Qin, had already received a letter from his father and, after Wang Kuang and Lin Xuan met with the governor, he sent someone to take them to his home to rest. Xu Guoxun, being an imperial envoy, naturally had the governor's hospitality, as did Li Yexu.

  Xu Guoxu saw Wang Kuang being led back home by Huang Qin, and at first, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. However, after having a meal at the governor's mansion, he made an excuse about not being used to the local water and soil, and ran to Huang Qin's house for food. This was followed by Li Yexu also coming over for the next meal. The governor couldn't help but feel puzzled, wondering if there was something special about Huang Qin's household that attracted them. Or perhaps Huang Qin or his father would be promoted in the future, and Xu Guoxu, being from the palace, and Li Yexu, whose grandfather was the Minister of War, had heard some rumors and were trying to curry favor with him in advance? Just because Wang Kuang was famous in Jianzhou didn't mean he was also famous in Yangzhou. In Yangzhou, only the name of the rich guesthouse in Jian'an was well-known. Therefore, the governor couldn't have imagined that Xu and Li had come solely for Wang Kuang's food. Along the way, even when they stopped to rest in towns, because they weren't used to the sweet dishes of Jianghuai, Wang Kuang would personally cook some food.

  According to the plan, we were supposed to rest in Jinling for three days. On the first day, everyone felt a bit tired and didn't go out. After being jolted on horseback for over a dozen days, with no shock absorption and poor road conditions, everyone was dizzy and had headaches. They rested overnight before feeling slightly better.

  The next morning, after breakfast, Wang Kuang, Wang Xian and Sun Jia Ying were taken out for a stroll by Lin Quanmiao. Wang Xian was the youngest of the three and had also recovered from his fatigue the fastest. He couldn't wait to go out anymore. From childhood till now, he had never been so far away from home. Along the way, he kept pulling at Wang Kuang's sleeve, asking him this and that. Over the years, he had come to regard Wang Kuang as an all-knowing great man.

  Wang Kuang just nibbled on a pancake to fill his stomach, but he wanted to save room for the famous snacks of Jinling. The snacks of Nanjing were extremely well-known in later generations, especially the salted duck and duck blood noodles. He had often heard people mention them, but had never had the chance to try them before. This time, he came to see if he could find some.

  Wang Xian and the other two saw that Wang Kuang had only nibbled on a pancake, and when they heard him mention Jinling snacks, they also just drank a bowl of goat's milk. Drinking goat's milk in the morning was also something that Wang Kuang had started doing in recent years. In his opinion, it was better for people to drink cow's or goat's milk for breakfast than soy milk. Those so-called nutritionists were always advocating for eating more soy products, saying they were high in nutrients. But when it came down to it, the only nutrient that soy products had was protein.

  In the past, there hadn't been access to meat, so soy products weren't a bad source of protein. However, plant-based proteins were fundamentally different from animal-based proteins, and their quality was far inferior. Moreover, many of their components couldn't be absorbed by the human body.

  Therefore, Wang Kuang had always believed that if possible, it was better to get protein from animals. Why eat soy products when you could eat meat? Wasn't that just sacrificing the essential for the non-essential?

  As for soy milk, people with poor digestive systems should avoid it as much as possible. This was a conclusion Wang Kuang had drawn from his own experience. He himself had poor digestion and used to drink soy milk all the time, which would always give him stomach pain. After he stopped drinking it, the pain went away (goat's milk has nourishing properties for the stomach, so if you have digestive issues, it's recommended to drink more goat's milk).

  Huang's home was not far from the Qinhuai River. As soon as Wang Kuang went out, he asked people about the location of Fuzi Temple, but those who were asked all shook their heads and said that there was no such place name. It wasn't until then that Wang Kuang remembered that Fuzi Temple wouldn't be built for several hundred years. He had never been to Nanjing before and didn't know where to go, so he had to turn back and find a servant from the Huang's house to guide him.

  This family's youngest son was also a clever person, and upon learning that Wang Kuang wanted to find local food in Jinling, he took Wang Kuang to the banks of the Qinhuai River, saying that all the famous restaurants and wine houses in Jinling were located on the riverbanks, and at night when the lanterns were lit, there were still many people carrying poles selling things along the river.

  "If you want to eat something truly delicious, it's got to be from those vendors who carry their goods on poles. Since they're small businesses, they put more heart into their cooking and the flavors are just right." The servant continued as he walked, "If young master goes there at night, that's when it gets really lively. The girls from the painted boats on the river will come out to sing and dance, and the scholars and poets from the city will gather in groups of three or five to recite poetry or compose couplets."