This Northern Song Dynasty is a bit weird

Chapter 288 Su Shi's Careful Plan
Izumo Shrine is not having a good time recently, mainly because Abe's family suddenly cut off the supply.

In order to create a sense of mystery, the Izumo Shrine naturally had to be built in the mountains, and the main supplies were all from the Abe family.

Then recently, the support suddenly disappeared, and they received the news that...the main family is at war with the Yuan family.

Then came a series of bad news. The Abe family was defeated by the Yuan family, lost their armor and armor, and a large area of ​​land changed hands in a short period of time.

The people at the Izumo Shrine originally thought that since they were located in a remote mountain, the Yuan family would not be interested in them, but... they didn't feel at ease for a few days, and the army surrounded the foot of the mountain.

In fact, it is not considered a large army, at most no more than 2000 people, but here in Dongpu, such a force is already a real large army.

In previous wars, when the total strength of both sides combined exceeded one thousand, it was already a large-scale war.Under such a concept, how could the people of the Izumo Shrine, who were surrounded by troops of more than a thousand people at the foot of the mountain, not be as good as facing a big enemy, and panicked.

In the main hall of the shrine, Shota Izumo sat kneeling in a circle with the backbone of the shrine, gloomy.

"The foot of the mountain has been besieged by the Genji thieves." Shota Izumo was wearing a white safari, and he looked quite handsome, but his appearance was already aging: "The exit where the secret path is also happens to be within their encirclement. "

As a large society with a history of hundreds of years, they naturally took emergency measures to avoid danger.

It's just that this method is aimed at small battles. The encirclement circle of this army is too large, directly blocking all the secret passages.

He continued depressedly: "Thanks to the God of the Great Country, although we have some divine power, we can use it to deal with the villagers and women, but we can't deal with the army. Originally, I planned to let the witches leave the secret path, but now... oh .”

Maidens serve the gods, and they cannot have affairs with mortals before taking off their maiden clothes. If they really want to get married, it will be digested internally.

But when these soldiers came and broke the shrine, they didn't care whether you were a witch or not, they grabbed them and dragged them into the grass.

If such a situation really occurs, for Izumo Shrine, it is not a simple matter of humiliation.

Fortunately, his two daughters, Izumo Akuni and Izumo Mariko both left the shrine.

Although this idea is a bit despicable, in the heart of Izumo Shota, the father, it is a kind of real joy.

Other shrine maidens are also very important to the shrine, but there is always a difference between closeness and distance.

"Why don't we fight them, we are dead anyway."

"We can't force it, we can't break the inheritance of the shrine."

"Hey, I hope the God of the Great Country will bless us."

"This is the trial of the Lord God of the Great Country for us."

"Gongji Izumo, you make the next decision, whether to fight or surrender, you have the final say. After all, you are the incarnation of the God Lord."

A group of backbones discussed for a meeting, and finally put the decision-making power in the hands of Izumo Shota.

After all, the more it is like this, the more it needs a backbone.

"Let's fight." Izumo Shota said calmly: "It is better to die in battle than to be insulted to death. The Abe family and the Minamoto family are already immortal. There is no reason for us to have a chance of being spared."

When everyone heard this, they agreed, but also felt a little sad.

Who wants to die if they can live, if they can save some dignity for them to live?

Several backbones also stood up, ready to mobilize all the staff in the shrine to fight to the death.

But at this moment, a little witch ran in in surprise, flustered, and even stumbled with her left foot and fell over her right foot after entering.

After Pu Tong let out a sound, the little witch sat up in pain, looking a little aggrieved.

The people around had already seen the strangeness, and Izumo Shota asked, "Qing Zi, why are you running in such a hurry?"

"Sister Ah Guo and Sister Mariko are back." The little witch jumped up and shouted happily: "I also brought back two very powerful shikigami."

When everyone heard this, they were silent for a while, and then burst out laughing, thinking that Qingzi was extremely cute.

God formula?

In this era when the spells of both humans and gods have faded, shikigami have already become legends.

Almost all of them, the priests of the Izumo Shrine, also practice the spells of Onmyoji. After all, the family is the Abe family, so they have this condition.

Therefore, they know very well that no one can drive shikigami now, and their weak mana can barely be used to fool villagers and peasants.

But Izumo Shota frowned again, his two daughters came back?

How did the two of them get through the encirclement of the army?
Or are they related to the big shots in Genji?

Izumo Shota found it very strange, he did not doubt that Kiyoko had lied to him, although this kid escaped, he could not deceive others.

Although he was puzzled, Izumo Xiangta was both happy and worried when he heard his daughter came back.

The daughter was ordered by the Abe family to approach a mysterious person, but he himself did not know the details. It has been more than a year without any news.

Now hearing back and knowing that she is safe, I am naturally happy.

The emotions in his heart were complicated and difficult to understand, but he still walked out of the hall quickly and walked towards the vestibule.

The backbone of the other temples quickly followed.

Soon they came to the vestibule, and saw a group of witches happily surrounding the four women.

Two of them were obviously his daughters, and the other two...Izumo Xiangtai looked intently and was shocked.

Not only him, but also the backbone priests of other temples.

In their eyes, Lu Xianxian and Xuenv's 'monstrous aura' was too obvious.

A priest couldn't help but swallowed, and muttered to himself, "Big monster."

And Izumo Shota's expression was even more horrified. As the "Miyaji" of Izumo Shrine, he had been exposed to many core secrets of the Abe family.

For example, in the legend, the portrait of Nine-Tailed Fox Tamamomae, the strongest shikigami under Seimei Abe!
Just like the woman in front of me.

The big demon...has the same appearance as the legendary Tamamo-mae, isn't the answer obvious?

Izumo Shota straightened his clothes subconsciously, then walked over respectfully.

Seeing Izumo Gongji approaching, the witches immediately opened up a passage.

And under the watchful eyes of everyone, Izumo Shota knelt down in front of Lu Xianxian and made a heartfelt gift.

"Izumo god Shi Gongji Shota, pay homage to Tamamo former great god."

There is no distinction between demons and gods in Dongying. From another perspective, a big monster is a great god.

The surrounding priests and witches were all stunned for a moment, then reacted and knelt down on the ground in unison.

Lu Xianxian nodded slightly: "Get up, I didn't expect to be recognized by you so soon."

In fact, she didn't really want to use Yu Zaoqian's identity to get along with Dongying people. After all, she was Lu Xianxian now, not the legendary man-eating demon fox.

If it gets out, it will not have a good impact on Lang Jun's identity.

But since he was recognized, there was nothing he could do about it.

Izumo Shota stood up, lowered his eyebrows and dared not look at the other party, because he felt that the other party's identity was too dazzling: "May I ask the ex-Great God Tamamo, why did you come to our Izumo Shrine?"

Rumor has it that Yu Zaoqian has been suppressed into a killing stone, but now it seems... the information given by the family is also incomplete and untrue.

"Genji surrounded the Izumo Shrine. Akuni and Mariko were very upset when they heard about it. After obtaining the consent of your husband, we came to help rescue the siege!"

The language they use now is also Song dialect, which has always been the case in the communication between the upper echelons of Dongying.

And Izumo Shota has a deep study of Sinology. Not only does he write good calligraphy, he can even write poems and lyrics by himself. Of course, this level is very average.

But it is also true, he knows the meaning of the word 'Lang Jun' in modern Chinese.

So it turned out that the gods that my two daughters served were the immortals from the kingdom of heaven?
That all makes sense. It is rumored that Yu Zaoqian came from the west. She can be a domineering here in Dongying, but she must not be in the Central Plains.

It is estimated that only the immortals of the Central Plains can suppress Yuzaoqian, and in Japan, even Abe Seimei can hardly restrain this peerless monster.

All the doubts pressing in Izumo Shota's heart were solved, and at the same time he breathed a sigh of relief, the crisis of Izumo Shrine was lifted.

Not only him, but the priests also figured it out, and the entire Izumo Shrine was filled with joy.

On the other side of Hangzhou, Lu Sen returned home, stayed for one night, and was about to leave for Dingzhou the next day, but he didn't expect his general, Ah Huang, to come and report: "Mr. Negotiate matters."

Although Lu Sen was in a hurry to go to Dingzhou, it would be alright to meet Su Shi some time, so he took the initiative to go to the government office in Hangzhou.

The two still met in the backyard of the government office, and Su Shi was brushing the pork with sauce.

Thanks to the establishment of the Spice Islands route, the culinary level of the entire Northern Song Dynasty has been greatly improved. As one of the outstanding culinary arts and the pioneer of certain dishes, Su Shi is even more proficient in using spices.

"This is my original Su Family Thirteen Fragrances. You are the first person to taste it, Master Lu."

Lu Sen couldn't help curling his lips when he heard it. He seemed to have heard this name somewhere before.

After Su Shi brought out several dishes, Lu Sen looked at them for a while, then raised his head and asked, "Are they all pork?"

"Yes, try it, I think it tastes good."

Under Su Shi's expectant gaze, Lu Sen picked up a piece of pork ribs and put it in his mouth. After eating, he nodded, "Not bad, the taste is good."

"How many of these are there?" Su Shi's expression was even flattering at this time: "Try them all."

Lu Sen was a little strange. Su Shi was not the kind of person who loves to flatter Shangguan, but he didn't care too much. He continued to taste the remaining pork dishes, and then said: "The taste is good, I can see that you cook Very carefully."

"All delicious?" Su Shi asked expectantly with his eyes wide open.

Lu Sen nodded.

It's really good, with enough spices to taste. Although the meat is a little bit tough, the taste is really good, but it's not suitable for the elderly.

"That's great."

Su Shi yelled, slammed the table, and then took out a pen and ink from the side, and immediately began to dance around.

"Early Winter and Banxian Eat Pig Mi Quatrains".

Lu Sen was a little strange at first, but when he saw the beginning of the sentence, he realized that Su Shi had put away the paper, folded it and put it in his clothes.

He couldn't help being curious: "What are you planning to do?"

"Really Lu said it was good to eat pork, so I have to write it down anyway." Su Shi said with a simple smile: "As long as this word comes out, the price of pork will definitely increase in the future."

After thinking for a while, Lu Sen understood: "Oh, you want to give farmers a way out?"

"As expected of Master Lu, he really sees clearly." Su Shi expressed admiration.

The pork at this time is extremely cheap, not the cheap one that can be consumed by ordinary people, but the cheap one that is completely worthless.

Not to mention rich people, but anyone with a little money would disdain to eat this stuff.

In many cases, the pork raised by farmers or the wild boars hunted cannot be sold at all, and they have to rot in their hands, and they have to throw them away if they can't finish eating.

As for making bacon?

For poor people, salt is a "precious commodity", and they can't eat a few grains usually, so it is absolutely not worthwhile to use it to marinate pork.

As for other processing methods such as air-drying and smoking, they are not within the grasp of ordinary farmers.

The cheapness of pork is that the dignitaries and nobles in the entire Central Plains don't like to eat pigs.It works from top to bottom, so naturally the whole society doesn't like to eat pork.

Su Shi's purpose is very simple, to use Lu Sen's fame to forcibly push up the price of pork.

In this way, in addition to raising chickens, ducks and sheep, farmers may have another way to make money.Pigs are very easy to feed, and they can increase their meat by picking some weeds in the fields.

Using himself like this... Lu Sen didn't feel angry at all, because he thought pork was delicious.

Although lamb and beef are better.

Lu Sen took another rib and put it in his mouth, and asked while eating, "You invited me here not just for the pork, right? Is there anything else, I have to go to Dingzhou after eating. "

"I really envy you, an immortal like you, who flies here and there, and Jiangnan and Mobei are like the front and back of a courtyard." After sighing, Su Shi said, "Some time ago, two groups of foreign envoys came to Hangzhou, and one group was from Korea. , another group claiming to be Jiluo people."

"What does this have to do with me?" Lu Sen was a little surprised.

"Why has nothing to do with you!" Su Shi's tone was strange: "Lu Zhenren, Lu Longtu, Lu Shilang... Don't forget, you are still the servant of the Ministry of Rites."

Lu Sen remembered that he had real power, and was in charge of monks, nuns and Taoists all over the world.

The position was also promoted from the original rites doctor to the rites minister. It stands to reason that he is indeed qualified to manage these foreign envoys.

It's just that he didn't take these titles and positions seriously, and he forgot them over time.

Su Shi's fat face was full of disbelief: "No way, you actually forgot your official position?"

Lu Sen laughed dryly, and then said: "Then you should also know that I don't care about this."

"I know you don't care." Su Shi admired Lu Sen's indifferent fame and fortune: "It's just that I find it strange that these two groups of people don't seem right."

"How's that?"

"They all said that they had the certificates of envoys, and they were official envoys." Su Shi thought for a while and said, "But I see their appearance, rough skin and rough temperament, they are more like sailors than envoys. "

Lu Sen raised his eyebrows slightly, and he vaguely remembered that before he had traveled through time, he had heard that many foreign missions who came to the Central Plains to pay tribute in ancient times were actually fake.

Some even help outsiders to fake their own people.

It is to defraud the court of a high amount of 'reciprocity'.

(End of this chapter)