Chapter 90 Pulling out the tongue of the gossipy woman
When the two fighting women saw the officers coming, they quickly stood up and hid in the crowd.
Everyone was terrified. The highest official most of them had ever seen was the head of a village, and they had never even seen a county magistrate. What was going on today? Why were there so many officials, including a high-ranking official?
"Erya, this is Eunuch Cao from the emperor's palace, here to announce the decree. You should quickly take Eunuch Cao to your home," said the head of the village.
Shen Zhi walked over and bowed to the eunuch, "Greetings, eunuch."
Cao Rumo smiled and said, "But Miss Shen Zhi, the emperor praised her highly and sent us here to reward her."
Shen Zhi said yes respectfully, and took Eunuch Cao and his party back to the small courtyard at the foot of the mountain. The villagers also followed curiously. This was someone from the palace, and they went to see Erya's reward and share in the joy.
Shen was stunned when she saw this scene, and it was General Song who quietly reminded them to set up the incense table.
Everyone knelt down to receive the order, and even the villagers who were watching knelt down reverently.
Cao Rumo read the imperial edict, and Shen Zhi was confused. The general idea was to praise the eighteen heroes, restore their official positions, and reward them with a certain amount of gold. The emperor allowed them to go home to visit their families for several years, and to return to their posts after a month. Shen Zhi was praised for saving the country and making great contributions, and was named Xiangjun with the title of Yi. He was rewarded with 100 taels of gold and a 100-acre farm in the suburbs of the city.
Shen Zhi was ecstatic. It didn’t matter to him whether she was his country lady or not. Gold and Zhuangzi were his favorites.
After announcing the decree, Cao Rumo smiled and said to Shen Zhi: "Congratulations to Lord Yixiang, Lord Yixiang is righteous."
Shen Zhi thanked Cao Rumo and said solemnly, "Eunuch Cao, I am only doing what the people of the Great Xiao Dynasty should do. These eighteen warriors are the heroes of our Great Xiao Dynasty."
Cao Rumo nodded in satisfaction, and then said: "I just heard a report that someone said that our eighteen heroes are wild men who raped other people's wives and daughters. I want to see who is so bold as to slander them."
Widow Wang and Goudan's mother were also in the crowd, and their faces turned pale with fright.
"Commander Zhang, pull out the tongue of that gossipy woman," Eunuch Cao's face changed and he ordered the guards beside him. Immediately, two guards came out and dragged away Widow Wang and Goudan's mother.
Widow Wang and Goudan's mother kept begging for mercy, but no one responded to them.
General Song led Eunuch Cao in for tea, and Shen Zhi also told the village head about the rescue of the 18 heroes. The village head was quite shocked, and even more angry that Widow Wang and Goudan's mother didn't think before they spoke.
When the onlookers saw that everyone had gone into the house, they also dispersed.
Shen Zhi also entered the kitchen. It was time for dinner, and fortunately there were still fifteen wild boars.
Everyone helped, and several pots were boiling at the same time. One pot was for braised pork, and another pot was for pheasant stewed with mushrooms. A few big fish were fished out from the space, and a big pot of fish head and tofu soup was made, mixed with freshly made fish balls, which was extremely delicious. The remaining fish meat was boiled in water, which was spicy and delicious. The pig blood was not thrown away, and a large plate of Maoxuewang was cooked. Many of the vegetables harvested from the vegetable garden were stored in the cellar, and two cabbages, radishes and other things were taken to stir-fry a few vegetarian dishes.
It happened that at this time, Third Uncle, Great Grandfather and Shen Changlin came back from digging potatoes. The three of them pushed a trailer and pulled back several sacks of potatoes. Eunuch Cao was very curious and asked Third Uncle a lot of questions about potatoes.
Shen Zhi took some freshly harvested potatoes and made stir-fried potato shreds, cumin potato slices, spicy and sour potato shreds, and stewed potatoes with pork ribs.
The staple food is white flour buns and noodles with soybean paste made from minced meat.
The food had been placed on the big round table. This round table was bought by Shen Zhi from the space before, and it could rotate. Later, Shen Zhi saw that there were many people, so he ordered another one. Fortunately, the dining room was old, so it was more than enough to place two big round tables. Today's food was large, so all the dishes were made in double portions and filled two tables.
Shen and the others had already set the table, and had thoughtfully placed two jars of wine on each table.
Everyone took their seats smelling the aroma, especially Cao Rumo, who had long known from Zhan Xiao that the Shen family's maid cooked delicious food. As the emperor's personal eunuch, Cao Rumo had been a eunuch since childhood, and was not very interested in money or beauties, but was obsessed with food. This time, when he heard that the emperor was going to send someone to convey his order, it was reasonable that this task should be done by the eunuchs below, but Cao Rumo took the initiative to volunteer, and even asked the emperor to give him a few more days off in order to eat more food.
Cao Rumo looked at the dishes on the table, many of which he had never seen before, and his appetite was whetted. He told everyone to eat without restraint, and began to taste the food. Every dish he picked up with chopsticks was delicious. Cao Rumo threw aside his airs and ate heartily, because he found that the group of people around him were not polite at all, and they all ate voraciously. If he continued to be arrogant, he would not be able to eat anything.
It was already dark when they finished their meal. General Song said goodbye to Song Rou and the Shen family. He was now eager to go home to see his family whom he had been separated from for twelve years. General Song got on the carriage of his cousin Song Shijie and left.
The others decided to leave for home tomorrow morning. Zhuge Ling had no family, so he decided to stay with Shen Bi and go back with Cao Gonggong when he returned to Beijing. Although Zhuge Ling was a civil servant, his martial arts skills were unfathomable. He was captured last time only because of an intestinal abscess. The current emperor trusted him very much, so he sent him to Qingzhou Prefecture to investigate the matter of the King of Huainan.
"Yixiang Jun," Cao Rumo called out.
Shen Zhi didn't react for a moment, and it was only when Zhuge Ling reminded her that she realized that Eunuch Cao was calling her.
"I've heard that Yixiangjun is an excellent cook and that he makes countless delicious dishes. I'm shamelessly bothering you for a few days. I hope you won't mind."
Shen Zhi hurriedly smiled and said, "It is my honor that Eunuch Cao is willing to eat the food I made. Does Eunuch Cao have any dietary restrictions?"
Cao Rumo smiled and said, "We don't mind eating anything. Sweet, sour, bitter, spicy, as long as it's delicious, we love it."
Shen Zhi replied, "Okay, I will cook all my specialties for Eunuch Cao in the next few days."
Shen and the third aunt's wife helped Eunuch Cao clean up a room in the backyard. Later, they learned that there were several guards left and there were no empty rooms, so they added a few single beds to the room where General Song had lived before and managed to get him settled.
The uncle took them to the bathroom and taught them how to use the flush toilet, how to use the faucet, and how to take a shower with a solar water heater. This operation shocked Cao Gonggong and his group. They had seen all kinds of good things in the capital, but here they became country bumpkins who had never seen anything.
The next morning, Shen Zhi got up early. The heroes were all going home, so Shen Zhi got up early and made dumplings, with pork and cabbage fillings and pork and green onion fillings. He also baked a lot of pancakes and steamed a lot of buns for them to take with them on the road.
After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, they said goodbye and left one by one.