Chapter 225: Lamb Oil-Poured Noodles

Riding through Youzhou City, the horse hooves rang crisp and clear—what does that show? They actually paved the whole city with stone slabs!

Now the heavy snow on this road has been cleared; the folk's clothing may not be fine, but at least one sees people neat and clean, faces washed—you'd say they were passersby from Chang'an, and they'd believe it.

Moreover…… why are many of the men dressed in the same clothing?

"……What's the reason? Is this style of clothing popular in Youzhou?"

Dongdu Hou added: "Besides, there are no patches; the fabric looks good."

Ge Zhong simply couldn't fathom it—is this still the Youzhou City he knew?

This Youzhou seems to have lost its former frontier prefecture character; the dusty, stinking streets and the numb, dirty frontier folk have all vanished from Youzhou.

Outside, the causeway and city walls—you could say Youwang is rich, perhaps he extorts the people, but you've never seen extorted people dressed so neatly and cleanly.

When they went deeper into the city, they saw the newly completed Wufang Yijiao; a group with leisure time deliberately detoured to have a look.

"This is the first time I've seen this kind of house design…… it's actually quite nice."

The resident area rebuilt by the system consists uniformly of large houses facing south, with blue bricks, white walls, black tiles, flying eaves and dougong brackets—very much in the style of northern cities, spacious and grand, possessing both beauty and area.

The vast expanse of new buildings stretches out of sight, with one- and two-story structures; after the king allocated these houses to the relocated populace by area, half remained, and he already had a use in mind for them.

Ge Zhong sucked in a breath: "Did Youwang strike a gold mine? These houses are obviously uniformly built—look closely and they're all the same."

"Who knows? Maybe… I'm numb."

Following the city's main thoroughfare onward, they saw the old city wall on the north side not yet demolished. Case closed—it had indeed been expanded considerably.

Going further, Ge Zhong recognized it: past the old city gate lies that dazzling Zhuque Avenue.

This street was already bustling early in the morning; formerly closed shops along it had opened many, with clerks busily preparing to open for business.

Ge Zhong, being familiar, hailed the clerk at the street-end rice shop: "Little clerk, ask if there's any eatery on this street that opens in the morning?" They'd been rushing half a day and the whole party was hungry.

The clerk was very enthusiastic: "Yes, yes, yes—Sir Officer, go straight down this street; over fifty meters ahead on the left is a porridge shop; go another hundred meters or so to the right, and you'll find the best tavern in Youzhou City, which also opens in the morning."

Upon hearing that, Ge Zhong said: "Let's just go to the tavern—I don't believe the dry rations sold in Youzhou could be that expensive; fill up on congee, right, General?"

He deliberately put on a hungry look at Dongdu Hou, waiting for his response; Dongdu Hou shook his head: "Fine, I'll go along with you. We're nearly a hundred strong—if we can't pay the bill, we'll make you stay to work off the debt." His personal guards nearby heard and started laughing.

After guarding the frontier pass for so many years, arriving at this ostentatious Zhuque Avenue while hungry—who would still be willing to settle for just a bowl of congee?

"I don't care anyway—anyway the General will pay! If worse comes to worst, we'll drop the Prince's name; that'll surely work."

"That's still not embarrassing enough! This marquis has only one face—you can throw it away as you please."

Ge Zhong darted forward; upon noticing the wine flag fluttering upstairs, he stopped to observe the tavern—ah, truly there were already guests this early morning! Youzhou, this place is great—anyway it's better than their Shanggu Pass.

The whole party led their horses; the shop's greeter, seeing them, remained quite composed.

"Welcome, sir—please follow this servant to the rear stables to stable your horses."

"We number nearly a hundred—can your stables accommodate them?"

"Rest assured, sir—we share a large stable with the neighboring inn; even if another hundred arrive we have space. Leave your horses with us and you'll be at ease—there's water and fodder, and a dedicated keeper."

Dongdu Hou brought Ge Zhong and a few personal guards to sit at a table on the second floor; downstairs was left for the other soldiers, and as soon as they sat down the server brought over the menu.

Ge Zhong waved a hand: "No trouble—just bring us your specialty!"

Ge Zhong couldn't read, but Dongdu Hou could; he glanced at the menu, gave Ge Zhong a meaningful look, his tone turned grand, still wanting the specialty—with so many of you, are you really planning to stay and work off the debt until ransom?

He closed the menu: "We're many, just arrived in Youzhou after the journey—let's have something easy to digest and filling."

The server politely took back the menu: "All right, please wait. The kitchen's already fired up, but with so many people it might not be that fast."

After the server left, Ge Zhong didn't mind the chill, opened a window to watch the street outside gradually begin to see people moving about.

"Although I've never been to Chang'an, I reckon its main street is probably about like this."

Dongdu Hou shook his head: "If we're talking about houses, this street really is the best; the rest…… who knows."

They waited two quarters of an hour; the soldiers downstairs were first served food—soft tofu pudding and steamed corn-pumpkin cake.

The table of Dongdu Hou upstairs waited a moment longer; by then the table had become quite lively, and after this long the tavern keeper already knew the identity of these guests.

Besides one serving each of the two items downstairs, their main course here also included lamb oil-poured noodles, followed by a continual arrival of some meaty and vegetarian early-morning side dishes.

When the lamb oil-poured noodles were served, the whole second floor was filled with their domineering, rich aroma.

That bowl was also interesting—it was white porcelain with blue floral patterns, larger than Ge Zhong's head.

The server introduced them as the shop's new offerings: lamb oil-poured noodles and white porcelain with blue-flower bowls, both specialties of Youzhou.

The Great Jin people still don't have this way of eating—snow-white noodle sheets, reddish seasoning, topped with a thick layer of lamb.

Dongdu Hou, having glanced at those two menu pages, no longer wanted to know the table's price, fearing that asking would kill his appetite.

The lamb was fatty yet not greasy, melting in the mouth; the noodles were coated with oily, spicy seasoning—fragrant, spicy, and satisfying.

Plus the hot, superb-textured tofu pudding, this meal on a winter morning was thoroughly satisfying. Having eaten his fill, Ge Zhong also insisted on stuffing the golden-yellow steamed cake alongside a cold plate.

"This pastry is sweet!... Damn, Youzhou's food is too fragrant! Compared to it, what we eat every day doesn't even deserve to be called food."

Dongdu Hou also praised the lamb oil-poured noodles without reserve; the whole party completely changed their view of Youzhou—before, no one wanted to come to this backwater, but from now on, mentioning it will surely make them constantly crave Youzhou's food.

Ge Zhong remained quite interested in the street's shops, earnestly urging Dongdu Hou to leave the brothers here while they went out to stroll alone—after all, the whole group was too conspicuous.

Seeing that it was still early, Dongdu Hou simply went along with him.

When they went downstairs to settle the bill at the counter, the proprietor smiled and refused: "Honored guests, you must be invited to attend the celebration, right? This shop is Prince You's property—we don't charge money."

Tsk tsk.

Dongdu Hou, following the flow, thanked them and left; a few people went to Wanxiang City for a stroll, coming back empty-handed, their eyes having fallen out from all the sights.

Dongdu Hou thought it was too exotic for his taste, while the others simply had no money to buy.

When the time was about right, they returned and summoned the main force to head for the prince's residence. After leaving Zhuque Avenue they finally understood why they'd seen hardly anyone along the way—they'd thought everyone was staying home to hibernate in the cold, but it turned out the whole crowd was queuing up here!

A dark mass of people, under the soldiers' direction, formed a line—it felt like tens of thousands!