Chapter 323: Deity’s Cured Meat and Potato Rice Festival
Chapter 323: Deity’s Cured Meat and Potato Rice Festival
Wang Chengen, the General of Shaanxi, was born into a prestigious family.
His ancestor Wang You was a hero who followed Zhu Di, the Ming Chengzu Emperor, during the Jingnan Campaign and was granted the title of Marquis of Qingyuan.
Wang Chengen inherited the hereditary position of Western Ning Guard Commandant at the age of eighteen and had been fighting against the cavalry units of ethnic minorities on the border ever since. He had not accomplished any earth-shattering feats of merit but had never made any mistakes, making him a very steady general.
He was completely incomparable to that scoundrel Wu Zimian, the Yansui General.
After Yang He became the Three Boundary Governor, in order to quickly deal with the peasant uprising army, he pulled Wang Chengen out from the border and appointed him as the General of Shaanxi, tasking him to cooperate with Liu Guangsheng, the Provincial Governor of Shaanxi, to swiftly resolve the bandit issues within Shaanxi.
Wang Chengen did not disappoint him either, as he had severely defeated Fan Shanyue, the leader of the He Yang bandits, a few months earlier, forcing Fan Shanyue to meekly accept appeasement, which led to the incident of the “returning bandits.”
Li Daoxuan saw this person coming to the county seat and thought to himself that he needed to take a closer look.
Good!
This person was still quite disciplined, unlike the Guerilla Li Ying who had come last time and allowed his soldiers to harass the local people. His soldiers were reasonably well-managed, stationed outside the county and not entering the county indiscriminately.
Seeing several cement roads constructed around Chengcheng County extending in multiple directions, Wang Chengen couldn’t help but mutter to himself: what was going on with this Chengcheng County? In a year of great disaster, they still had the capability for large-scale road construction?
He was spinning strange thoughts in his mind when County Magistrate Liang Shixian came out from the city to greet him. After exchanging some meaningless pleasantries, they got straight to the point.
Liang Shixian said, “May I ask why the General has come to this county?”
Wang Chengen sighed, “I was just passing through this place. The sky is growing dark, and my soldiers are all exhausted. I will camp beside the county seat and rest for the night, then set off again at dawn tomorrow to continue marching.”
Liang Shixian asked in surprise, “General, are you heading east?”
“Yes!” Wang Chengen’s face darkened, “I am going to Heyang County in the east. That Fan Shanyue is asking for trouble again.”
This put Liang Shixian on alert, “What happened?”
Wang Chengen said, “As you know, several months ago, I beat Fan Shanyue badly and forced him to obediently accept appeasement. The Deputy Minister gave him the position of Heyang Defender to pacify him.”
Liang Shixian nodded, “Of course, this official knows about that. When he disbanded his followers, those returning bandits caused some trouble for this county.”
Hearing this, Li Daoxuan couldn’t help but curse silently: you are putting it politely! It was hardly just a little trouble—it was more like a huge one, forcing me to constantly switch my view, nearly raising my APM to 300+, and using the Hand of Thanos several times. The Gaojia Village Militia, the labor offenders, and Bai Yuan’s large militia all intervened multiple times before finally subduing those ‘returning bandits.’
Wang Chengen said, “That Fan Shanyue kept his tail between his legs and obediently served as the Heyang Defender for several months. But a bandit is always a bandit—it didn’t take long for him to revert to his old ways, allowing his followers to extort wealthy families and plunder innocent people, exactly like the methods of Guerilla Li Ying. The county magistrate of Heyang was infuriated and reported this to Xi’an. The Provincial Governor was also very angry when he heard.”
Li Daoxuan thought: oh, so you know Guerilla Li Ying is like a bandit too?
He was only ranting silently from above, but Liang Shixian directly complained in front of Wang Chengen: “Scoundrels like Guerilla Li Ying are a disgrace to the Great Ming! They serve as officials but act like bandits. And that Yansui General Wu Zimian—even stories about reselling military provisions and military horses have reached this official. It is no surprise to this official that Fan Shanyue learned from them; such bandit scum should be dealt with as soon as possible.”
Wang Chengen sighed, “In short, we cannot let him continue like this, so the Provincial Governor ordered this general to go to Heyang County, apprehend Fan Shanyue, and bring him back to Xi’an to await punishment.”
Li Daoxuan scoffed; the behaviors of Li Ying, Wu Zimian, and Fan Shanyue were pretty similar, but while Li Ying and Wu Zimian faced no repercussions, Fan Shanyue was to be “taken back to Xi’an.” From this, it was clear that whether an official of the court was punished for wrongdoing had no necessary connection to what they did—what truly mattered was “whether they had backing.”
Li Ying and Wu Zimian had backing, so they could do bad things without worry.
But Fan Shanyue was a surrendering bandit general with no backing, so if he learned from other imperial military officials and acted tyrannically, he would be “dealt with.”
Scoff! Scoff! Scoff!
Li Daoxuan just wanted to curse.
Liang Shixian sighed and said, “This official can only wish General Wang a victorious and speedy capture of Fan Shanyue.”
Wang Chengen nodded; this counted as finishing the greeting with Liang Shixian, so he led his trusted bodyguards back to his tent without disturbing the county seat.
Li Daoxuan saw that he governed his army fairly and modestly; such military officers seemed rare in the late Ming Dynasty.
His view swept over Wang Chengen’s military camp; the soldiers were eating very poorly, nothing but dry cakes that barely filled their stomachs, taking bites and washing them down with plain water…
How pitiful!
But even in such misery, they managed not to harm innocent people or extort the wealthy families of Chengcheng County for food, which only increased his favorable impression.
Simply send him a good meal.
Li Daoxuan often held various strange festivals for the villagers of Gaojia Village, like the “Deity’s Unexpected Festival” or the “Deity Hot Pot Festival.” Last time, after giving the Eight Great Bowls to Zao Ying, the extra dishes were bestowed upon the villagers, creating the “Deity Eight Great Bowls Festival.”
But he had not yet allowed the tens of thousands of people in the county seat to celebrate a good festival.
He pondered and decided to do it precisely on this occasion.
He shifted his “focus” back to Liang Shixian, saw that he had returned to the county office, and printed a piece of paper to place before Liang Shixian: “In half an hour, I will provide delicious food for all the county residents. You gather the porters, prepare the food, and send some to Wang Chengen’s army as well.”
Liang Shixian hurriedly bowed deeply toward the sky and said, “The Deity is benevolent!”
Li Daoxuan took out his phone and ordered takeout.
Having just moved to the Zhaomu Mountain villa area, he wasn’t very familiar with the local takeout options yet. After a quick search, he found a shop called “Tujia Cured Meat and Potato Rice.” The fragrant rice was mixed with chunks of potatoes and diced cured meat—it looked appetizing.
In the late Ming Dynasty, potatoes hadn’t been popularized yet, and most people in the northwest had never eaten them, so he wanted to broaden their horizons. He also considered it a promotional tasting event for potatoes to make people enjoy the taste first, so they might be willing to plant them later.
Order placed!
Half an hour later, the potato rice arrived.
Li Daoxuan grabbed a large rice spoon and scooped a generous serving onto the main square in front of the county office.
The porters Liang Shixian had prepared in advance swarmed over. They used various tools to chop the massive rice grains, potatoes, and diced cured meat into smaller bits, remixed them in bowls, and then distributed them to the people in the county.
…
Wang Chengen was a fascinating military officer. He held a high rank and participated in many battles—against the Mongolia forces, the peasant uprising army, and the Manchus—often serving on the front lines of wars. He was eventually promoted to Crown Prince’s Grand Tutor and Left Deputy Governor. In the seventeenth year of the Chongzhen reign, responding to the emperor’s call to defend the capital, he died amidst the scattered troops at the age of fifty-seven.
But such a military officer was never slandered by the Manchus.
Everyone knew that the Manchus later revised the history of the Ming Dynasty, vilifying all the emperors and high-ranking officials of the Ming Dynasty.
Why wasn’t Wang Chengen vilified?
It could only be said that this man probably had no flaws at all.