After burning the first fire in Shangluo, Li Chao led the team to continue heading eastward, without stopping in Shangluo, and sailed straight down the Danjiang River.

The boat crosses the Danjiangkou and enters the Han River, and then marchs upstream.

"Teacher, aren't we going to Dengzhou? Dengzhou is in the east, why are we going west?" Li Chengqian has had a good tutoring class recently. When he saw that the boats had entered a larger river, he also recognized that it was the Han River. But after entering the Han River, he did not go downstream, but went upstream, which made people wonder where he went.

It was already noon, and Li Chao called the boatman to the dock to cook.

His current location is the famous Danjiangkou Reservoir in later generations. In later generations, Danjiangkou Reservoir was a source of water for the south-to-north water diversion. The water quality is the best, and the lake is large and the water is clear. However, there is not such a huge reservoir here at this time. Danjiang River flows into the Han River here. In addition to the wider water area, it is still a river.

Affected by the continuous drought, the wide water surface of Danjiangkou has withered a lot, and most of the riverbed is exposed.

On the river, many ships came and went. It was the people who received the government notice and were busy fishing in the river. There were also many people who were fishing on the river bank. On the river bank, there were fishing on the river bank, and fish were dried and pickled.

This scene reminded Li Chao of some small salt factories I saw on the coast before. At that time, some places still retained some simple salt drying methods. Salters were drying salt at the beach and picking salt, while children were playing next to them. The scene was a bit similar to now.

Li Chao got off the boat and took the initiative to go over and take a look. He greeted the people from time to time. Many people couldn't even understand the official language and couldn't speak, and they had to rely on local officials who were traveling with him to help translate, which made Li Chao feel helpless.

Shannan is also considered to be the land of Chu, and the land of Chu is even different in ten miles. In the mountainous areas of many places in Jingxiang, many people live in them are even called barbarians. In fact, these barbarians should also be young people such as Tujia in later generations.

The water in the river has become less, and fishing seems to be more convenient.

After the Danjiang River flows into the Han River, it is bounded by the Danjiangkou, and belongs to Junzhou to the west and Xiangzhou to the east.

The governor of Junzhou was with Li Chao and introduced the fishing activities organized by the government to Li Chao.

After reading it, Li Chao was still very satisfied with the actions of the governor of Junzhou. At least he was not perfunctory, but was truly propaganda and organized.

After looking around, Li Chao was also a little hungry.

"Please take a boat back to Junzhou City for dinner."

"I have to go to Junzhou City for a meal and take a boat. It's not so troublesome to use. Let's eat here, just be simple!" Li Chao said.

The governor of Junzhou was a little helpless. What should I eat on the riverside in the wilderness? How to eat? He was in a difficult situation. He was not brought with him or her chef or ingredients. He was the noble Prince and the prime minister. Even the generals who were guarding were all real earls, and the group of children who picked up stones on the river beach were all the sons of the prime minister and the marquis, and His Majesty's horse.

Li Chao doesn't care so much about it.

Who said that you can’t cook on the riverside, and you can’t cook in the wild?

"But we are indeed not sure about cooking tools and not prepared ingredients."

Li Chao pointed to the boatmen and fishermen over there and said, "I'll ask the fellow villagers to borrow some pots, then buy some fish from them, make some wild vegetables and other things, and you can make it to eat."

In fact, even pots and fish are not necessary. Li Chao brought thousands of troops, various cooking tools and marching dry food, etc., which are all necessary to repay.

It’s just that Li Chao doesn’t like eating dry food very much.

It was already very cool in August. Under the shade of willow trees on the river beach, circle the stones and then set up firewood to burn the fire.

Li Chao looked at the borrowed pot and smiled, "It's actually still a hanging pot, that's right. Let's eat Shannan hanging pot today."

Hanging a pot is actually a very simple way to cook. There are many mountains in the south. In winter, the weather is very cold. People like to close the door and roast the fire at home. There are no warm kangs in the south. It is cold in winter, so it depends on the fire pit to keep warm.

Sometimes it rains outside and even the door doesn’t come out.

We gathered together all day long to cook. At noon, we were too lazy to go to cook, so we hung a pot on the fire pit, heated up the morning meal, and ate around the fire pit. After eating, we continued to cook.

This simple and trouble-free way to eat in winter is called hanging pot. Most people have hanging pots at home, but some people have pots in their homes, while others have iron or copper in their homes. These pots are usually covered with iron, and can be lifted like kettles, and they can be hung directly on the hooks hanging from the roof beams, which is equivalent to hanging on the fire.

Now outdoors, there are no hooks hanging from the beams, but it is not difficult for Li Chao to cut off a few wooden sticks, raise them diagonally, tie them up with a rope, and then tie a hook from it down.

Hang the iron pot directly on the fire.

A group of foodies who were happy to pick up shells and stones, saw Li Chao rolling up his sleeves and trying to cook, so he all surrounded him. Li Chao was not polite and directed them to fold firewood, add fire, and then washed the pot by himself and prepared the ingredients.

There are not many ingredients.

There are fresh fish cooked from the river, dried bamboo shoots, radish, sauerkraut, green vegetables and tofu brought by fellow villagers.

Li Chao asked Niu Jianhu and his friends to take a piece of ham and a piece of bacon from the dry rations of the march, and then took the seasonings he brought with him.

Cut off a piece of the smoked black and hard bacon, wash it in the river, then boil water in the pot, put the bacon in the pot for a while, take out the soft bacon, rinse it, and cut it into slices.

Li Chao cut a large piece.

The bacon must be large and thick. If you bite it in one bite, it will be oily, fragrant, salty and a little sweet. Li Chao cuts a piece of bacon as big as a small slap. The bacon is very hard and tacit, dark red and dark red. But the fat inside is transparent. The lean meat part below is red brick-colored.

Li Chao cut two pieces of waxy fat and threw them into the pot.

On the red pot, the oil on the bacon is so fragrant that it smells like. When the aroma becomes stronger and the oil is stir-frying out, Li Chao will put the dried bamboo shoots, radish, and sauerkraut into it. Then stir-fry it a little, then add the bacon, cook it almost, add half a pot of water.

When the water boils, put the river fish segments cut into large pieces into the pot, pour in a little wine, and then let him cook.

This is the easiest way to make it, a chowder hanging pot.

Add salt, add some ginger slices and some dogwood sauce.

The boiled in the pot was bursting with fragrance.

"It's almost done. Have the rice been cooked? Put it on and come here to eat the food." Li Chao greeted him, without any rules. Anyway, the little guys he brought were used to it.

Neither is the Junzhou Governor Station nor is it the seat.

Looking at His Royal Highness the Prince, he held a bowl, squatted beside Li Chao, and looked at the hanging pot with anticipation, feeling very complicated.

Li Chao ignored them and took an empty bowl and handed it to the prince, "Put a bowl of rice for me!"

The prince took it naturally in the surprised gaze of the Governor of Junzhou, and then turned to serve the rice. This made him sweat a lot. Shouldn't it be the Prime Minister who served the rice for His Highness the Prince?

The governor couldn't stand it anymore, and there was no ruler or minister. Although Li Chao was a prime minister, the crown prince was a deputy ruler. If there was a difference between ruler and minister, how could he do things randomly?

He turned around and came to the prince.

"Your Highness, please let me come."

Who knows that the prince doesn't appreciate it. "No need, you can do it on your side, governor Wang, I'll bring you a bowl of rice later."

"I dare not do this, the Crown Prince killed the minister." The governor was frightened and trepidated.

The prince was willing to serve him, but he never dared to accept it. Li Chengqian said a few words, but when he saw this, he was too lazy to talk to the pedantic old man. He just made two bowls of rice. Li Chao turned and left one bowl after another.

The governor wanted to help get the food, but Li Chengqian was unhappy.

"Did the King Envoy think that Gu can't even get two bowls of rice? I think Gu is the kind of person who needs food to open his mouth and clothes to reach out and have no ability to do it?"

This is a bit heavy, and the governor Wang's face turned pale. How dare he say such words?

"I must not dare, nor dare to think so."

"Since that's the case, the king's envoy doesn't need to be too polite to Gu."

Li Chao took the meal at will, and did not even express his gratitude. The prince was very natural. The relationship between the prince and the Prime Minister Li made the governor Wang envious.

Li Chao called Governor Wang to have dinner together, but he refused.

So Li Chao ignored him and called his disciples, Cheng Chumo and others. A group of people gathered in a circle, squatting, standing or sitting, without any noble or inferiority.

The air emits a faint fragrance of osmanthus, listening to the birds' chirping, the sound of water flowing, and the sound of people catching fish and drying fish in the distance. The kind of serene and leisurely feeling is something that governor Wang cannot experience.

Although it is not a wild boar or a pheasant hanging pot, and there are fewer ingredients, everyone is still very happy to eat it.

"Actually, you don't have to see you outside the governor Wang. This place is not under the court, so you can just sit there."

"I'll just stand." Governor Wang is very old, with half-white hair and aged in his fifties, but he still abides by many rules. Li Chao likes such officials, but he doesn't like them. What he likes is that they follow rules and do not like, and that they are too polite and stick to the rules and even do things. They rely entirely on the instructions from the above. They will not think about creating, but just follow orders.

"I heard that the King of Envoy was sick at the beginning of the year. Now I don't know if my health is getting better. You should pay more attention to recuperation. Don't be too tired and hurt your body. You are still young."

"I'm in good health. Thank you for your concern. But I'm old and over the age of knowing my destiny, I'm almost sixty."

"I'm in my fifties, this is not what it was in the past." Li Chao picked up a piece of fish. The hot fish pieces had no fishy smell and were very smooth and tender. He ate them a few bites and spit out the bones. Li Chao continued, "The drought is getting worse now, and I can also reveal to you something. The situation in which the court is now in control is that the autumn drought this year will continue."

"It's going to continue?"

"Well, it will be very serious, and there will even be autumn locusts. But this is still the most troublesome. The most troublesome thing is that there may still be drought next summer, and there will be severe summer locusts next year. The kind of big locust plague that occurs once in a decade will be severe. The entire Central Plains will suffer major disasters, and even the Central Plains, Shandong, Huainan and other places will be greatly affected. After the drought and locusts, there will be great famine. Therefore, the court asked the local government to step up food management and mobilize, and in addition, they asked all places to find ways to get food, dry vegetables, hunt and fish, just to prepare for the great famine next year."

"I have already explained it to you clearly. In the future, you can also think of a way to put the food preparation first. You must cooperate with the court and speed up immigration."

In fact, Li Chaolai originally wanted to go to Wudang Mountain first, but Wudang Mountain is in Junzhou, not far from here. But now, Li Chao suddenly lost interest.

"After this meal, the prince and I went to Xiangyang, then from Yushui to Xinye, and then from Tuanshui to Rangcheng, Dengzhou!"

"I will arrange ships and wait now, and send someone to notify the Xiangzhou area." Governor Wang said hurriedly.
Chapter completed!