I'm watching the gate in the jail

Ten years later

In July, autumn came very early in the 12th year of Chenghua, and there was still some time before the August Festival, but the cool wind blew in at night, and frost condensed on the ground the next morning.

To say that this year is really a strange year, in the first month, the Qin Tianjian is watching the sky at night.On the seventh day of the first lunar month, the moon offends the sky and the stars.On the eighth day of the first lunar month, the moon offender is the strange star. (Note 1)

Because I didn't know where to go, it caused panic in the palace.

At the end of last year, His Majesty the Emperor had just rehabilitated the name of Emperor Jingtai and restored the title of Emperor Zhu Qiyu who had been demoted to the king of Ying.

After the cabinet deliberated, his posthumous title was designated as Emperor Gongrenkang Dingjing.

Emperor Zhu Jianshen sent Zhang Mao, the British Duke, to lead Jin Yiwei and eunuchs to Jingtai Mausoleum in Xishan to enshrine the treasures of Emperor Jing and pay homage to him.

When Yingzong was dying, he repeatedly told his son that "the Jingtai case will never be overturned."

Now more than ten years later, Zhu Jianshen not only reversed the case for Yu Qian and other ministers, but also restored his uncle's title of emperor, which completely violated the will of the late emperor.

Is this weird celestial phenomenon expressing the dissatisfaction of the first emperor?

On the [-]th day of the first lunar month, when Zhu Jianshen went to the southern suburbs to offer sacrifices, not only the incense on the altar was blown down suddenly, but also the chess player holding the flag froze to death on the side of the road.

There was even a rumor circulating in the Forbidden City that someone saw the ghost of His Majesty the old emperor wandering around in the palace.His majesty was wearing a gown uniform and a crown of two dragons with black wings and wings on his head. His face was terrifying, as if he was dying, staring at the eyes of the boss.

Wherever the ghost shadow went, the utensils in the palace were destroyed for no reason, and the palace people suffered sudden chills and fell ill one after another.

Faced with such rumors, Zhu Jianshen strictly prohibited the palace people from doing nothing and spreading rumors for no reason. On the other hand, he also ordered all Buddhist temples and Taoist temples in the palace to pray for blessings and hold a funeral for the palace to eliminate disasters and disasters.

After a few months, the ghost rumors finally died down, and half the year passed.

Except for the extremely cold spring and the end of summer earlier than in previous years, the weather has been smooth for the past six months, and no major incidents have occurred.

Longfu Temple is a famous temple in Beijing, with majestic halls and frosty bells.The temple was first built in the third year of Jingtai, and it is a rare large temple where monks and monks reside together.Because it is far away from Huguo Temple in the west of the city, it is also called "East Temple".

Incense here is extremely prosperous, especially the grand temple fairs held every January, February, September, and October, with daily sales of more than one million yuan, comparable to the Daxiangguo Temple in Kaifeng Prefecture in the Northern Song Dynasty.

A few years ago, a huge restaurant opened on the street in front of Longfu Temple.

It would be biased to say that it is a restaurant, because its official name is Xinghai Entertainment...I don't know who came up with it.Because the name is too difficult to pronounce, it has never been heard of, so the people in the capital simply called it "Xinghaihui".

It is said that the behind-the-scenes boss of this "Xinghaihui" is a well-known gourmet gourmet in Beijing, the author of "Kyoto Tiaodinglu", "Kyoto Food Treasures Record", "Jinghua Huangliang Collection", and "Master Xinghai".

Since the publication of "Kyoto Ding Ding Lu" 12 years ago, the master of Ding Ding, whose pseudonym is "Xing Hai", has become a gourmet leader in the hearts of foodies in Beizhili.

Each of his monographs, as soon as they are published, will cause heated discussions in the city, and even attract Luoyang paper money.

Among them, "Kyoto Tiao Ding Lu" records more than 20 home-cooked food recipes.Although it is homely, it is expensive in its fineness.According to the chefs of several well-known restaurants in Beijing, many of the cooking techniques recorded in this book are not known to top chefs who have 30 to [-] years of knife skills and fire skills.

This kind of technique is basically only passed on between father and son and master and apprentice. This "Master Xinghai" actually made him public to the world, instead of keeping it private, which shows his demeanor of a "grandmaster of a generation".

Since then, the word "Xinghai" has been equated with "Grandmaster".

"Kyoto Food Treasures" was published in the third year after "Tiao Ding Lu".

This book records the production methods of various snacks and cakes in the north and south of the Ming Dynasty.Including "Jiahu fine point" in the south and "official tea and food" in the north.Especially the various pastries and crispy pastries that are popular in the south are vividly written by Master Xinghai. Just reading the words makes my index finger twitch.

Someone has personally restored all kinds of pastries according to the method written in the book. It is said that beauty is beauty, but there is only one thing that is not good-not sweet enough.

It is said that according to the amount mentioned by the master, plus double the sugar, the taste of the dim sum is just right.If you have a sweet tooth, you may wish to double the sugar, or simply pour honey.

Based on this, everyone speculates that the great master of Xinghai may be a person from the coast of eastern Zhejiang. As we all know, people from eastern Zhejiang in the coastal area prefer to eat salty food.

The third "Jinghua Huangliang Collection" was published three years ago.It has been many years since the publication of the last "Food Treasures", and the moment he showed up at the bookstore, it shocked everyone.

Many people speculated that Grandmaster Xinghai hadn't published a new book for so many years, and it is very likely that he is no longer alive.

It is said that there is no great master in the world, only legends about the great master are left.

Who knew that Master Xinghai not only came out again, but also shocked the entire food circle of the Ming Dynasty as soon as he made a move.

If the dishes and snacks recorded in the first two books are still foods that can be seen in the Ming Dynasty, the dishes written in this third book are completely unheard of.

What are "Pei Lengcui Meat Sauce Mixed Noodles", "Seafood Supreme Double Cheese Pizza", "Taixi Vanilla Baked Snail", "Chenla Lemongrass Sour Soup Fish", etc., recorded more than ten dishes that no one has ever seen before... …The names of these dishes are all Chinese characters, but when they are connected together, Monk Zhanger can't figure it out.

According to the textual research of old scholars, "Taixi" and "Chenla" should refer to foreign countries.But what is "Pei Lengcui"?Is it eaten with emeralds?Isn't this the same as the immortals written in ancient books, who feed on "broken jade" and drink "true dew"?

And what is "cheese"?There were "Bachelors" and "Doctors" in the Ming Dynasty, but there was no "cheese".Could it be that it refers to a high-ranking person with Laneige's rich character?If so, how does "pizza" explain it?

In short, this "Huang Liang Ji" is written in a cloud, although it also records specific ingredients and cooking methods, but the names of many ingredients are incomprehensible, even if you know how to cook, what's the use?

According to the bookseller who published the book, the reason why this book is called "Huang Liang Ji" is that the great master Xinghai recorded the treasures in his dream after he traveled to other countries in his dream.

It is the food in the sky, which is rare in the world. The great master is "revealing the secret of heaven"!

Everyone suddenly realized that Master Xinghai had reached the realm of transformation, and this book was not written for people of their time, but for people hundreds of years later.It is the same as the "Tui Bei Tu" handed down from the Tang Dynasty.

It really makes people admire besides admiration!

It is said that such a popular book will soon attract reprints and pirated copies by Fujian Jianyang booksellers, which is the famous "Masha Ben".After all, the Masha bookseller dared to openly reprint even the Four Books and Five Classics and the Laws of the Criminal System. Since the Northern Song Dynasty, he has been a well-known "veteran stealing dog".

But for the works of Grandmaster Xinghai, these people have no way to start.

Firstly, the printing of the book is really exquisite. It adopts the method of multi-layered sets of pictures. The illustrations show every process of the dishes and the final product. It makes people feel the hot fragrance just by looking at the pictures, which is impossible for the Masha version.

The second reason is that once reprinted works are found in several famous pirated book producing areas, no matter whether they are circulated in bookstores or on the black market, people from Jinyiwei or Dongchang will definitely kill them within a few days.Not only are books destroyed, but stereotypes are burned, and even pirated booksellers are sent to jail—that’s not a problem that can be solved by redeeming copper, it will cost your life.

It is said that once there was a Jianyang bookseller lurking in the capital who didn't believe in evil, paid a high price to poach the artisans of a large bookstore in the capital, and wanted to pirate Xinghai's monographs.Who knew that the finished products would enter Beijing's black market from printing workshops in the suburbs on the first day, and even the artisans and booksellers would be sent to jail the next day!

You must know that this Jianyang bookseller has been dealing with Masha books for generations, and even the local people use it as an industry. Even if they are caught by the government, they will be fined a little money.

Books that should be printed should continue to be printed, and books that should be sold should continue to be sold. If the author scolds, then continue to scold. Anyway, the imperial court has never said that pirated books are illegal.

Who knew that the Jinyiwei in the capital would not speak the slightest bit of reason. They actually said that the author of the book, Master Xinghai, had already registered at the Yamen of Shuntian Mansion and was waiting to arrest them.

According to Master Xinghai, he has just finished writing his third book, and the engraving blocks of these books are all at home waiting to be printed.One day, thieves suddenly fell from the sky, and without explanation, they beat Master Xinghai severely and ransacked his house.

That time his family lost thousands of dollars in silver, as well as countless antique calligraphy and paintings.Not only that, including this batch of books, the engraving blocks of the previous two books were also taken away by thieves.

In desperation, Master Xinghai had no choice but to borrow money and spend a lot of money to re-engrav the plate, so that his hard work could see the light of day again.

For so many years, Master Xinghai has been searching for these ruthless gangsters.

Once there are printed books that are the same as these published books, there is only one possibility—the bookseller who published the books is the group of gangsters who broke into his house and robbed people!

The bookseller who was caught in the imperial prison almost couldn't catch his breath.

You must know that this "Great Master of Xinghai" has been written anonymously for so many years. He is male or female, old or young, and no one knows where he lives in the capital. How did they rob him?

Besides, who wrote a book and kept the engraving block at home?This, this is clearly a crime of wanting to impose.

But the Jin Yiwei couldn't control this, they tortured him for a while after arresting him, until the Jianyang bookseller knelt down and begged for mercy, and contributed almost half of his net worth before the Jin Yiwei released him from the imperial prison.

From then on, no one dared to steal Master Yin Xinghai's works in the entire Ming Dynasty.

The booksellers had nothing to do with Master Xinghai, they could only secretly scold him for having the title of "Grand Master" without the measure of "Grand Master"—"stealing books", can that also be called "stealing"?This is called "Fengya".

After all, we are all gentlemen, why don't we save some face for each other?

After this incident, some people began to doubt the true identity of this "Master Xinghai".

Although it is said that the Jinyiwei Yamen is responsible for supervising the national books, various newspapers, and public opinion, but in the past they only checked banned books and various books that threatened ethics and imperial power.

No matter how good Master Xinghai wrote, it was just a cookbook. Why did he need to use Shangjinyiwei and Dongchang?

As we all know, the younger brother of the imperial concubine, the commander of Jinyiwei Beizhen Fusi, Mr. Wanda Wan, was 28 years old at the time and was already an important official of the fourth rank.

And this Mr. Wan's name, isn't it the word "Xinghai"!

If this "Xinghai" is not the other "Xinghai", would Jin Yiwei be guilty of arresting people like this?

Jinyiwei is only cracking down on pirated booksellers in Beijing, but Dongchang is cracking down nationwide.If it wasn't for Concubine Wan Gui's younger brother, would the eunuchs care so much about a recipe?

It can be seen that the "Great Master of Xinghai" who has a mysterious identity is the current holy uncle Guo who has the name of "Living Yama" in Jinyiwei, and Wanda, whose hands are covered with the blood of thousands of people—Wan, Xing, ocean!

However, this speculation was quickly slapped in the face by Master Xinghai's fans, who were criticized as a rumor deliberately released by some wicked people to target Grand Master and discredit Grand Master.

As we all know, many years ago, when Master Xinghai's first book came out, Mr. Wan was just a 17-year-old boy. Teach gangsters, where's the time to write a book.

Even if he has the time, does he have the ability?

He is a "big master"!

Mr. Wan, as we all know, is a semi-literate man who writes all the notes... He may have reached the level of a "grand master" in homicide handling.

After all, after more than ten years, Jin Yiwei's power has spread to the sky, and he has become a standard "confidant of the court", isn't it because of the blessing of the country's uncle.

The human life in his hands is no longer a "vehicle load", but can only be described as "a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood".

The word "Wanda" can stop children crying at night in the entire Ming Dynasty.

Some bandits even claimed, "I don't know that there are criminal laws in the world, but I only know that Grandpa Wan is on top, and I dare not make mistakes."

There are rumors in the world that ten years ago, Master Wan became more and more ruthless after being injured and inhumane.Handling cases and killing people is no longer enough to satisfy this "living Hades".

The extremely distorted Master Wan took pleasure in torturing criminals and even humiliating them.

Anyone who commits a crime, if it falls into the hands of the Six Doors and the Ministry of Criminal Justice, will die anyway.If it falls into Master Wan's hands... then it's impossible to survive, and it's impossible to seek death.

The younger brother of the Wan family is so arrogant, and the concubine Wan Gui in the palace is even more extraordinary.

Although Concubine Wan Gui never gave birth to an heir for His Majesty after the death of the eldest son of the Emperor, His Majesty still favors her constantly.Afterwards, princes and princesses were born in the palace one after another, and His Majesty also granted other concubines and beauties, but no one can take away the limelight of Concubine Wan Gui.

It is said that this old woman who is nearly fifty years old has learned some sorcery, her appearance and figure are no different from that of a young girl, and she is even more charming than ten years ago, fascinated by the emperor.

And the Wan family's power is even more powerful. After the old Marquis Wan Gui passed away last year, his eldest son Wan Tong inherited the title and Marquis Mansion of Marquis Xinle.Concubine Wan Gui's favorite younger brother Wanda even opened another mansion, and now he is Baron Anle.

So how could this bloody, fame-loving Master Wan be the otherworldly "Master of Xinghai"?

Does he deserve it?

He has a key!

So this conjecture was quickly cast aside.

Many years after the publication of "Huang Liang Lu", ordinary people have lost interest in digging into the background of Xinghai.Only the super fans of Master Xinghai would be keen to search for the master's traces all over the country and guess the master's background.

Until—"Xinghaihui" suddenly appeared!

Three years ago, the entire piece of land opposite Ryufukuji, the largest incense temple in Kyoto, started construction, and two five-story buildings were built at the same time.There are two flying bridges connecting the two buildings, with bead curtains hanging on the windows and brilliant lights.

The first building is a restaurant, which sells dishes from Sichuan, Shandong, Guangdong, Huaihe and other places. It is known as "all kinds of delicacies in the world". As long as you report the name of the dish, there is nothing their chefs can't cook.The daily consumption of seafood, fresh fish, mountain delicacies, and vegetables is immeasurable, and may be more than the entire inner court.

The other building is even more exciting, and there are all kinds of entertainment in the whole building.Storytellers, singers of North-South Opera, drummers, puppet theater performers, jugglers, fish and insect players, fruit-making players, shadow puppeteers, everything is included.In the building, private rooms and walking barriers are specially set up for female guests, so that they can play freely without being disturbed.

It opens at noon and closes before the curfew. As long as you enter this "Xinghaihui", you will have a good time playing until you run out of money, and you don't want to come out at all.

On the bridge connecting the two high-rise buildings, there are many tourists every day.No matter day or night, sunny or rainy, there is a lot of traffic here, people don't know what time it is.

Why do you associate this "Xinghaihui" with "Xinghai Master"?

It's a long story, a rich man who claims to be the lackey of "Master Xinghai", after hearing that "Xinghaihui" boasted that Haikou can make all the delicacies in the world, he deliberately killed them and ordered a dish from "Huanglianglu". The dishes recorded are intended to be killed. This obviously wants to steal the limelight of the master's famous restaurant.

The man took 100 taels of silver and said that if he made this dish today, the 100 taels would be the money for the dish.

If the chef of Xinghaihui can't cook this dish, this "Xinghaihui" is deceiving the world and stealing its name, and the word "Xinghai" can no longer be used as a signboard from now on.And a notice must be pasted at the door, admitting that this restaurant is fishing for fame, deceiving people when it is deceitful, and apologizing to the people of the world.

This person thought he was sure of winning, but who knew that within a quarter of an hour after sitting in his seat, a dish of "foie gras stewed with wine from the Western Regions" and a dish of "oxtail stewed in red" were brought up by the waiter.

This person firmly does not believe that the food written in this book can actually be made.After he took a sip, he immediately shed tears of excitement—the taste, the touch on the tip of his tongue, was exactly the same as described in "Huang Liang Lu".

It turns out that the delicacies in "Huang Liang Lu" can really be made.

Grandmaster!

It must have been cooked by Master Xinghai himself!

"Xinghaihui" is the property of "Master Xinghai". The rumor that the great master would appear in the restaurant from time to time and personally cook dishes for mysterious guests spread like wildfire.

Book fans from all over the country can't wait to come here, see the great master with their own eyes, and taste the dishes cooked by him.

It's a pity that in these years, very few people have seen the master make a move.

After all, is he a "grand master", how can he appear every day?Everyone understands.

In the past few years, the business of "Xinghaihui" has been booming. It does not rely on gambling or sex, but relies on food and entertainment to dominate the capital and become the number one scenic spot in Ming Dynasty.

The Jiaozhi Kingdom in the south, the Fusang Kingdom in the east, the Mongols in the north, and the Wala people in the west, as long as they come to the capital, they will definitely come here.

Over time, this place has also become the largest gathering place for news in Beijing. Countless Jianghu halls and even foreign countries will set up spies and stakes here.

Compared with the "Xinghaihui" and the nondescript "Xinghai Entertainment Complex" in the mouth of the common people, they prefer to call this place - the first floor in the world.

On this day, a young man dressed in fancy clothes and wearing a beaded crown appeared at the front of the first floor, leading a well-dressed little black donkey.

"Stop...you are here, please come inside."

The staff of Xinghaihui greeted him graciously, and took the reins from the young man.

"Is your shopkeeper here?"

the boy asked in a low voice.

"The shopkeeper is still on duty in the yamen, and he won't be back until dinner time."

"Understood, let's go down."

The boy nodded, with his hands behind his back, he walked slowly into the building.

It's still early, and the singing on the first and second floors are all small roles that belong to the warming scene.It is true that the famous actors will not appear until the sun goes down, and the finale will be even later.So those who are sitting in the building now are either really free to pass the time, or they are here to trade information.

These people sat in the field in twos and threes, each with their own territory, and on the surface they were all indifferent.

Of course, even the most powerful gang in Jianghu would not dare to make trouble on the first floor. After all, the head of the first guy who made trouble was still hanging on the railing of the West Fourth archway.It was only after that one fight that everyone knew that there were hidden piles of Jin Yiwei stationed in the first floor.

The people don't fight with the officials, the rivers and lakes are the affairs of the rivers and lakes, and there is no need to offend the people in the yamen.So this "No. [-] Building in the World" maintains harmony at least on the surface, forming a unique balance of power.

These few people entrenched in the library, no matter where they are facing, whether they are pretending to chat their teeth or are really eating melon seeds, their eyes are fixed on the direction of the door, and they are always vigilant.

After seeing that the person who came was actually a child, everyone was taken aback for a moment, and then each smiled, not taking him seriously.

At first glance, he looks like the son of a wealthy family. He doesn't have a servant or a book boy, and he looks like he played truant from school.

Wang Zhi was used to being treated like this, so he didn't care.

I found a place to sit down and ordered a pot of jasmine tea and a snack box.

"Your dim sum... hey, less..."

When Dr. Cha saw Wang Zhi, he was about to greet him when he received Wang Zhi's warning look, and immediately swallowed the salutation that came to his lips.

Wang Zhi pretended to be watching a play while eating his snacks, but he was actually listening to the conversations of the people around him.

He is already 17 years old this year, and he is no longer the kid who only wandered around Wan Guifei's skirt in Zhaode Palace.

At the age of 14, Wang directly served the deceased Liu Yongcheng, and was appointed by His Majesty the Emperor as the eunuch of the Royal Horse Supervisor of the [-]th Regiment Battalion in Kyoto.From now on, I can freely enter and leave the palace, and inquire about the news of all parties for your majesty and empress.

He is a little shorter in stature than his peers. Although he is already a boy of sixteen or seventeen, his face is still childish.So no matter where he goes, others will only treat him as a child, and will not set their hearts on him.

He also used this as a cover, leading the little donkey from time to time, wandering around in various restaurants, teahouses and even fireworks places in Beijing.Putting on an innocent and lovely face, but actually pretending to be a pig and eating a tiger, I heard a lot of interesting news for His Majesty and Empress.

Three years ago, "Xinghaihui" opened and became the largest information distribution center in Beizhili. Wang Zhi would come here every time he went out of the palace. His Royal Highness, the eldest son of the emperor, who is ten years old.

After the actors on the stage sang a piece of Peking opera, the audience applauded sparsely. Wang Zhi shook his legs and clapped his hands twice.Faintly, I heard someone whispering next door.

"Have you heard? Something serious happened in the palace."

The author has something to say: Note 1: "Ming Xianzong Pure Emperor's Memoir Volume [-] Shijiu"