In the letter, the great master said bluntly: His Royal Highness's visit to Thunderhorn City this time was obviously not as simple as "inspection", he had another purpose.

"The last time I came to Thunder Point City was a few years ago, when Big Brother Wei Bang was the patriarch. It was autumn and the weather was good, just in time for the hunting party to come back from the mountains, get a dozen chickens, and stew a pot full of them. ”

"Thunder Point is a good place, there is a river nearby, there is no shortage of water. I came from the north and watched as the snow melted along the way, and next year was another good year. ”

"The civilians look very good, both inside and outside the city. Ah Hao, you manage it well! ”

From the gate of the city to the palace hall, Niu Weifang's mouth never stopped, he praised almost everything in Thunderhorn City, even the newly built tower.

Tianhao has always had a smile on his face, the kind of politeness, harmless, but indispensable on this occasion. He knew that the prince was deliberately looking for something to say, but not all of these words were deliberate, and some of them did come from the heart.

He saw it accurately.

Niu Weifang's close attendants thought similar to Tianhao, and they were closer to the truth.

A few years ago, they accompanied Niu Weifang to Thunderhorn City. Although His Royal Highness's praise was somewhat deliberate, it must be admitted that the city had changed so much that it was simply shocking.

Huge stone towers rose from the ground, numbering as many as sixteen, and the defensive surface was relatively evenly set, in line with the status of Thunderhorn City as a royal city. The towers were very sturdy, with a spacious interior that was equivalent to a medium-sized warehouse, and could store a large amount of supplies, especially the heavy ballistas set on top of the towers, and the height and range of the towers would suppress the perimeter of the city, and attacking from any direction would have to pay a huge price.

Some of the buildings in the city have been demolished, and new houses are beginning to be built. Quite different from the traditional wooden or mud houses, these new buildings are all regular squares, and the difference is limited to their different volumes and heights. In this way, the whole city is planned in houses, which are cut in an orderly manner and connected by streets.

Niu Weifang was curious about the practice of paving the road with gravel, and before entering the palace hall, he stood on the newly built road to the north of the square and stared at the people under construction for a long time. In the face of the various problems raised by the second prince, Tianhao had to patiently explain one by one: on the ground mat large stones to form a roadbed, the upper layer is paved with gravel, then finer particles, and finally mixed with asphalt sand and gravel pavement, so that the strong Niu man dragged the heavy stone and repeatedly crushed it, leveled the ground, and completed the final hardening procedure.

Sufficient space was set aside between the road and the houses on both sides, on the one hand, for the construction of drainage ditches, and on the other hand, for the planting of trees for greening. These practices may seem incomprehensible to barbarians, but they are an important part of the beautification of a city.

The overall renovation project of the city first started from the royal palace and square, and was not fully rolled out in the entire city of Thunder Point. There are many limiting factors, manpower, food, weather, logical thinking...... Tianhao didn't blindly seek speed, he knew that there was still a huge gap between the barbarians and his fixed thinking, and not all good things seemed acceptable to them. It all takes time, to keep them fed, to be warmly clothed, to live a prosperous life before other aspects of "beauty" can be considered.

Niu Weifang's admiration for the people of Thunderhorn City came from the bottom of his heart.

A ruddy face meant health, and every civilian he saw in Thunderhorn City was strong. Whether it is the elderly, children, women...... Their eyes are full of anticipation, everyone is laboring, they are busy. The open gates were constantly coming and going, the ox carts were loaded with peat and ore, and the people were walking much faster than usual with tools in their hands.

This is completely different from what Niu Weifang has seen elsewhere. In his impression, in winter, all the northern barbarian tribes, including the Niu tribe, were in a state of dull silence. Hardly anyone goes out, everyone huddles at home to avoid the cold, and even when spring is approaching, people are also afraid of the cold and go out as often as possible.

In this regard, Tianhao gave Niu Weifang an explanation that he had never heard of and felt extremely novel.

"You have to give them a job, and if you want to be full, you have to move. Rations that exceed the normal ration by three times are not so easy to obtain. Strong men and women alike can organize themselves to either go to the mines of the north to dig peat, make iron, or build roads in the city...... There are many things that can be done, the elderly and children are responsible for smashing stones, the peat is made into honeycomb coal to be burned, and the other is to collect rattans and rub ropes, and weave baskets......"

Niu Weifang had an incredulous look on his face: "More than three times the ration, so much?" ”

"Sounds like a lot, but it's not much." Tianhao sighed: "Your Highness, you haven't tasted hunger, the normal ration of food is too small. It's just summer, and with insects and wild vegetables, it's barely enough to eat. Not in winter, the colder it gets, the more uncomfortable it gets. The king of the clan is not so easy to be, and to sit in this position is to feed the people below. Build roads, build cities, mine ores...... These things seem simple and are actually useful. I can send caravans along the main road to trade with the lion and tiger people, and exchange peat for food from them. In this way, everyone gets what they want. ”

This is a statement that Tianhao has thought of from the beginning, explaining the source of food, which is reasonable.

Looking at the old people and children who were making honeycomb coal in the workshop, Niu Weifang nodded thoughtfully: "...... Yes, peat is a good thing, it is more resistant to burning than firewood, and it is not difficult to send someone to dig it out of the ground...... Why haven't I thought about it? ”

Tianhao smiled and skillfully changed the topic: "These things can only last until spring, and there will be a period of time before spring ploughing." At that time, the construction of the city had to be stopped, leaving a small number of people to continue building roads, and the rest of the people had to work in the fields. ”

Niu Weifang smiled, he was very satisfied with Tianhao's attitude, and felt that he had not hidden anything from himself.

The group walked into the palace.

……

The luncheon was relatively simple, the reason was that Niu Weifang came very suddenly, and in a hurry, Tianhao didn't have time to prepare, so he ordered the kitchen to make some affordable and beautiful dishes, along with ready-made dishes, which were served one after another.

Sichuan pepper, thyme, and ginger are the main ingredients, plus some other variant spices that can be found in the northern region, put them into fist-sized muslin bags, sew the mouth of the bag, add soy sauce made from soybeans, and stew in a pot with slaughtered and washed chicken.

This method is similar to braised pork, but the taste is more delicious. There were hundreds of guards on duty in the palace, and in order to make the new currency better circulating, Tianhao specially trained a group of chefs to teach the relevant dishes of the civilized era.

Human beings have always had little ability to resist food, and as long as they are willing to spend money to buy it, the transaction of money and goods will naturally take shape.

The name of "Roast Chicken in Thunder Point City" is very loud, but due to the limitation of ingredients, the palace kitchen can only make 200 finished products a day.

As soon as the roast chicken in a large plate was served, Niu Weifang was immediately attracted by this novel food in front of him. The yellow chicken skin looks very attractive, exuding a strong smell unique to deliciousness, and the hot steam is mixed with a strong aroma that even Niu Weifang, who grows freely in the inner court of the palace, can hardly resist. He swallowed his saliva hard, reached out and picked up the roast chicken in front of him, but was surprised to find that the chicken was too crispy, and he separated it with a light grab, stuffed it into his mouth, and even the bones were crispy, and he could swallow it casually.

Delicious!

The chicken's belly was stuffed with braised eggs, both in quantity and in taste, to the satisfaction of the prince and his entourage.

The side dish is shredded and salad, and there is also cabbage from the cellar, which is simple and difficult to eat in this season.

The staple food served at the end is rice cakes, which are steamed in the era of civilization, hammered repeatedly with a wooden mallet until they become sticky, shaped and fixed, and then cooled. According to the method taught by Tianhao, the chef of Lei Jiaocheng soaked red beans in water and steamed them, mixed with a certain proportion of sugar, made into bean paste, and filled with the middle layer of rice cakes to make the filling...... This delicious food was quickly scrambled for, and everyone who tasted it raved about it.

The banquet hall is divided into two floors, with the two main seats directly above and the secondary seats on either side of the steps at the bottom of the stairs about five meters apart. Niu Weifang's interest was very good, he drank several glasses of wine in a row, and with a slight drunkenness, he moved his chair in the direction of Tianhao, raised his hand to point to the messy chicken bones on the plate, and said with a smile: "The hunting team in Thunderhorn City is very capable, and it can catch so many pheasants in this season." ”

Tianhao shook his head and explained with a smile: "Your Highness, these chickens were not caught in the mountains, but raised by the people in the city themselves. ”

"Raised?" Niu Weifang was a little puzzled, he raised his head, looked around, and quickly counted the number of people attending the banquet: "Two for one person, this meal will cost more than 300 chickens, plus eggs...... Tut-tut, this meal is really expensive to eat. ”

In the food ranking table of the northern barbarians, chickens and eggs are "of the highest quality". On the one hand, the amount of meat produced by chickens is small, far inferior to that of large livestock, and on the other hand, the taste and texture of chicken are very good, far exceeding the natural umami factor of beef and pork, especially chicken, and surpassing any known four-legged beast.

Barbarians have a fanatical love for eggs, and this logic is of course a continuation of genetic memory. In most cases, eggs are seen as a nutrient rather than a simple food. Regardless of tribe, city or village, the best treatment for a barbarian woman after giving birth is a bowl of honey boiled eggs. People love this food so much that it is even written in songs and sung over and over again.

The eggs that were exchanged from the great masters with their military exploits at the beginning have now spread out and multiplied.

The Rock City Chicken Farm maintains a population of 100,000 chickens all year round, providing a steady supply of live poultry and eggs.

The new capital city under development and construction is a trump card in the hands of Tianhao. The chicken farm established at the beginning of last year has achieved remarkable results, and currently has 60,000 laying hens and 140,000 broilers.

Poultry farming is an extremely important part of the history of human civilization. In addition to the normal need for food, the use of poultry down is also essential———— the inner layer of the Winter Training Uniforms of the members of the Rock City Warband is much more advanced than the civilian ones. In addition to normal cotton, there is also a large amount of down that has been crushed and dried.

In Tianhao's words: "Ducks and chickens can't die in vain, except for eating meat, they are full of treasures." ”

Raising chickens and ducks in captivity does not have much technical content, and the poultry farms in each walled city are far apart. According to Tianhao's order, the number of chickens and ducks in each farm must be kept at 50,000, and the number cannot exceed 1,000. And all farms must be equipped with quicklime, regularly disinfect the enclosures, spray water and clean them.

Chicken plague is no joke, and although the barbarian genes were fully strengthened at the end of the civilization era, the hens did not have the strong immunity of the northern barbarians. For the sake of delicious food, for the sake of eggs, you can't be too cautious.

Niu Weifang didn't have much contact with Tianhao, and he didn't know anything about the changes in the Rock Collar and the Thunder Cow Division. "Raising chickens" is an unfamiliar topic for him, unfamiliar with it, unable to insert into it to deepen his understanding, and it is difficult to understand the inevitable connection between poultry farming and population growth in a short period of time.

He was a smart guy and quickly shifted the conversation to something he was familiar with.

"Hao, congratulations on your victory." Niu Weifang did not hide his envy, he stretched out his right hand, raised his thumb high, and praised Tianhao: "You have taught the deer people a lesson, it's great!" ”

The praise from the second prince was so warm, even if Tianhao had been mentally prepared, he was a little embarrassed. He turned to the side, lowered his voice, and said humbly, "Your Highness, this is what I should do. ”

"You're doing a great job!" Niu Weifang's train of thought was obviously not on the same channel as Tianhao, his face was full of smiles, and his praise was louder than just now: "I heard Yuan Meng of the Crazy Bull Department say that the total number of prisoners of your three departments combined is at least more than 500,000. Hahahaha, this is a deer people, a real deer people! ”

His pronunciation focused on the three words "deer people", and Tianhao suddenly realized that he understood the key point of Niu Weifang's praise and joy...... So he smiled and nodded in agreement: "Yes, we don't have to worry about fabrics in the future." ”

"I've got to reward you!" Maybe it was because he drank too much, or maybe he was sincere, Niu Weifang moved the chair again, almost sitting with Tianhao's legs close to his legs, he reached out and hugged Tianhao's shoulders, leaned into the other party's ear, and spat hot wine: "Say, what do you want?" As long as I can say yes, there's no problem. ”

Tianhao glanced at him in surprise.

To say that you are not tempted is absolutely a lie.

Niu Weifang's movements and expressions didn't look like he was lying, he was indeed deliberately selling himself well and getting closer.

Tianhao faintly felt that the purpose of the second prince's visit to Thunder Horn City this time was not simple.