If everything has anything to do with the emperor, it will be complicated. For example, if this is a meal, it cannot be called a meal, but a meal.

Shen Mo couldn't imagine that one day he would have the opportunity to eat imperial food, and he was still very excited. Follow the emperor step by step, and walk to the Jiaming Hall where the meal is held, where half an hour before the emperor's meal, it has been strictly guarded by the Ouchi guards, and idlers are not allowed to pass.

When he and the emperor entered the Jiaming Palace, they saw a long table covered with a bright yellow tablecloth in this slightly smaller hall...... It is five feet five wide, but it is one and a half feet long. The utensils on the table were all gold and silver vessels of extremely fine workmanship, such as gold bowls, golden spoons, and golden forks; Silver cups, silver plates, silver chopsticks, dazzling; There are also some ceramic plates, looking at the style should be produced in Jingdezhen, but they have never seen delicate and exquisite. The dishes have not yet been served, just looking at the utensils on this table, it has already shown this royal style.

Looking at it silently, there was no second chair except for the dragon chair, and my heart said that I would be allowed to eat standing up? This is indeed the rule of the palace, fortunately, Emperor Jiajing is an emperor who hates rules, and waved his hand: "Give a seat." "Otherwise, if I want to say something later, I will have to tilt my head, how awkward it will be.

The palace maid who was waiting on the side moved a pestle over, and after Shen Mo Xie En sat down, Huang Jin, who was standing behind His Majesty, raised his voice and said, "Pass the meal......"

I only heard the soft sound of the bell, and there was a melodious music playing. Only then did Shen Mo notice that behind the veil on the side of the corner of the hall, there was a team of court musicians hidden, and he couldn't help but sigh secretly: "The emperor really enjoys it, and the band needs to be used to entertain the meal." ’

With the sound of this music, a team of dozens of neatly dressed purple-clothed eunuchs, holding dozens of vermilion lacquer boxes painted with golden dragons, entered the main hall in a neat and orderly manner, silently, knelt down on one side of the dining table, and raised the food boxes with both hands without a trace of shaking.

Huang Jin sang again: "Dial the food! There were more than a dozen people waiting in the hall, and the beautiful palace maid with a red Luo embroidered hand towel in her left hand stepped forward, opened the food box, and neatly placed the various imperial dishes inside on the dining table.

Shen Mo noticed that there was a small silver medal hanging outside each vessel containing the imperial meal, and in a strange moment, he saw the palace maids put the silver medal into the soup and try it, and after it did not change color, there was a team of little eunuchs, holding silver bowls and chopsticks, and sandwiching some out of each dish, Huang Jincai finally said: "Please Your Majesty eat!" ”

At this time, the dishes are cold...... Countless varieties of fresh fruits, dried fruits, candied fruits, dumplings and other snacks, the main dish is all vegetarian dishes.

Because Taoism pays attention to tranquility and nature, if you want to live forever, you basically can't eat meat, so Emperor Jiajing's imperial meal is also a vegetarian seat, Shen Mo has long heard of this, and he also sighed that Emperor Jiajing was thrifty...... Hearing that the Empress Dowager Cixi would eat two hundred taels of silver in one meal, and the cost of other emperors' imperial meals was similar, he felt that the emperor could save tens of thousands of taels of silver a year just for eating.

In fact, this can only show that he is a dirt bun who has never seen the world. But I don't want to think about it, the Taoist emperor is also the emperor, as long as he is the emperor, his selfish desires are difficult to control, those real vegetarian foods that fade out of the birds, occasionally eat them, and still feel interesting, but if you eat them every day...... It's okay if this immortality is not cultivated.

Therefore, the chief eunuch in charge of the imperial diet boiled out the most essence of all kinds of delicacies from the mountains and seas, and added them to various vegetarian meals, which tasted completely without the taste of green vegetables and radish, but was as delicious as bear's paw abalone.

Shen Mo ate a piece of tofu, felt that it was delicious, and said that he would go back and let Rou Niang make it for me, but he didn't know that such a simple plate of tofu needed more than a dozen pheasants to match. And this is only the cheapest of the dishes, and the rest of the dishes are all seemingly ordinary, but in fact extremely elaborate and expensive 'fake vegetarian meals'.

If Shen Mo knew that the cost of this table of imperial fasting was eighty taels of silver, he would probably not award the title of 'Thrifty Emperor' to Emperor Jiajing again.

When he was dining with the emperor, Shen Mo noticed that Huang Jin, the great eunuch who was waiting on the side, had a twitch in his cheeks, as if he was in pain. Silence said, 'Why is this man like this?' It's not that you pay for it, what do you feel sorry for? ’

But in fact, this meal was indeed paid for by Huang Jin. What the hell is going on? Because Xiyuan was not in the palace and far away from the kitchen of Guanglu Temple, which served the royal meals, Emperor Jiajing's diet was controlled by the great eunuchs close to him...... It is nothing more than a palm print and four pens of the celebrant supervisor, which is exactly the number of one hand.

The celebrant is the chief steward of 100,000 eunuchs, and there are many places to make money, and the people below are very filial, and Emperor Jiajing knows that they are very rich. I didn't know the price of firewood and rice, and I felt that I didn't even eat meat and couldn't spend a few dollars, so I asked a few big eunuchs around me to take turns to invite him to dinner, and no longer spend money from the public account.

It's okay if it's one or two meals, but it's been the case for a long time, even if the big eunuchs are all embezzlers, they can't bear it. For example, Huang Jin has already sold a big mansion near Shichahai, which he is going to use for retirement! But he could only hold on for another month, so worried that Huang Gonggong secretly cried in distress, and he didn't dare to say it clearly, so he could only hold on for one day.

Huang Jin's pain was silent and didn't understand. Anyway, Shen Mo was very happy, and just after the curtain, he saw the most exciting battle of monkeys. The little bit of reverence for the emperor that had just been established had disappeared with Yan Song's success in playing the monkey.

Yes, in that confrontation, it seemed that Emperor Jiajing turned the tide and won an overwhelming victory, but in fact, Yan Song was not damaged at all, and he also resolved Zhao Wenhua's crisis, took out the governor of the southeast, and dealt a heavy blow to Li Mo's momentum. It can be said that this time it was Jiajing who won face and had a bright face; was made by Yan Song, and went home to steal the fun.

In retrospect, Shen Mo found that Yan Song was in an extremely unfavorable situation, unscathed and achieved such a rich result, all because of the emperor's emotional changes, so he thought that the emperor was tricked, and what was even more sad was that Jiajing didn't realize it, and only thought that others were tricked by himself.

After figuring out this matter, Shen Mo secretly applauded Elder Yan Ge...... Not for anything else, just for himself to kneel and kneel today, more than a lifetime of kneeling, which makes him very depressed, if there is no Yan Ge Lao to relieve him, this meal will not be good.

Accompanying the emperor to finish eating, Jiajing moved to the side hall and drank Lu'an melon slices to eat. Shen Mo didn't sit down anymore, so he had to stand honestly, and comforted himself in his heart: 'Standing helps digestion, and it is more useful than drinking tea......

The emperor held the teacup and asked Shen Mo, "What do you think of today's events?" ”

"Forgive Weichen's words, several adults are not the same." Shen Mo replied in a low voice, and then said no more, for this kind of topic that is easy to touch thunder, it is better to cherish words like gold.

"That's right," Jiajing nodded and said: "People's hearts are separated from their stomachs, no two people are really one heart, this is the case between ministers, and they are ......like this with me," he said with some sentimentality: "Widows, lonely people, people who will never have friends......"

Shen Mo knew that this was pure innocent moaning, so he didn't answer, just kept listening attentively.

Sure enough, Emperor Jiajing put away his feelings and asked, "Today, Yan Song's interpretation of the word 'rape' is very exciting." I came to ask you, do you think that Yan Ge Lao and Li Shangshu, which one is loyal and which one is annihilated? ”

Shen Moxin said that you have a pastime after eating, and you can't let people search your intestines and scrape your stomach, you will have indigestion. Because this can no longer be shirked, the emperor let him hide behind the curtain and watch the highest meeting of the Ming Dynasty, which obviously has a deep meaning...... When the opportunity comes, you have to seize it, otherwise there will be no drama for the rest of your life, he thought for a while, and then hurriedly said respectfully: "Weichen is brave, and I feel that the two adults are like two rivers." ”

"The two rivers?" Jiajing became interested, sat up straight and said, "Let's hear it." ”

"The Yangtze River and the Yellow River ......," said silently.

"Yangtze River, Yellow River?" Emperor Jiajing laughed and said, "Hehe...... You're holding them up too high, aren't you? ”

"Your Majesty has the Quartet of Kyushu in his heart, even the Yangtze River and the Yellow River are just a part of your heart." Shen Mo said very slowly: "But in the eyes of Weichen and the people, the adults who are in charge of the world's government affairs on behalf of the sky are like the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, which is related to whether our children can live or not, whether they are good or not." ”

"This analogy is a bit interesting," Jiajing said with a smile, "Then which do you think is the Yangtze River and which is the Yellow River?" ”

Shen Mo did not answer directly, but said softly: "Whether it is the Yangtze River or the Yellow River, both banks are irrigated, and they will also flood......"

Emperor Jiajing fell into deep thought, and said to himself: "The Yangtze River is clearer, and the Yellow River is muddy, but both have useful and disadvantageous, and they are essentially the same." After speaking, his face finally showed appreciation: "It is very good, clever and honest; Vivid but incisive. ”

Shen Mo hurriedly humbled himself, Emperor Jiajing got up and said: "What you said is right, in fact, they are all raccoon dogs, but I can't do without them." As he spoke, he walked up to Shen Mo, looked at him with two eyes and said, "Do you want to be the Yangtze River or the Yellow River in the future?" ”

(To be continued)