Except for Ta Lei, everyone who attended the banquet at the City Lord's Mansion that day came.
The reason why Tare did not come was because, firstly, he did not have much demand for Ming Dynasty goods. The Timurid Empire could have continuously obtained Ming Dynasty goods from the Silk Road, and they even resold them. Secondly, he
He also didn’t want to meet Handu again. As a personal guard, Tare knew better than anyone how much the Great Khan valued Handu. What’s more, even if the Great Khan didn’t care about Handu, what about the goddess? Tare was not the only one.
Once I heard with my own ears that the Great Khan could not forget the goddess.
As the sun gradually rose, there were more and more people in the banquet hall. When the city lord finally came to the banquet hall, the maid guided him to sit on a chair.
A melodious sound of the piano sounded, and the clear and ethereal sound made people feel relieved. Only art and music in the world have no national boundaries, and both of them can transcend the expression of language. Even if two people cannot speak the same language,
You can also resonate with a piece of music.
Beauty is beauty, regardless of language or national boundaries.
With the melodious sound of the piano, the gauze used as a partition on the aisles on both sides of the banquet hall was slowly opened. Several women wearing Ming Dynasty silk clothes, looking like ladies, were sitting behind a long table. The long table
There is a large bowl with a built-in long spoon, a white porcelain tea cup with a black holder, a small green-glazed jar, and an amphorae. A woman kneels in front of the table, holding a stick in her left hand to stir the charcoal fire, and her right hand holding a pot in the charcoal fire. Three people behind the table
People: A woman on the right, holding a tea cup in her hand; a woman in the middle, holding a pot with both hands, pouring water into the cup in the hand of the woman beside her; a woman on the left holding a bowl in one hand and red chopsticks in the other to stir.
There are six tea-making tables like this on both sides of the banquet hall. The smooth tea-making and tea-making movements are pleasing to the eye.
As the water vapor rose, the refreshing fragrance of tea spread out, covering the entire banquet hall.
Everyone sitting in the banquet hall was already intoxicated by the rich aroma of tea, even before they started drinking tea.
Zhu Biao stood behind the scenes, saw the maids making tea, and asked Han Du with a smile: "Where did you get these people?"
You must know that this is Hurumos. It was almost impossible to find a person with an oriental face here before Han Du and others came here. Where did Han Du find these women who are obviously from the Ming Dynasty?
maid?
What's more, are these maids who really understand tea at first glance and are obviously rigorously trained?
Han Du smiled and replied: "Have you forgotten, Your Highness? Fu Yong and those businessmen came with us. I didn't expect that they would enjoy it so much. Not only were they equipped with complete living facilities on the ship, they even prepared elegant guest rooms.
, with a maid
Serve them. They even raise pigs, grow vegetables, herbs, make wine, and grow bonsai and some flowers on the ship."
"I'm just asking them to borrow some maids to help. Do they dare not to borrow them?"
Zhu Biao did not expect that Fu Yong and those maritime merchants were so good at playing, but thinking about the hard work of sailing, he just shook his head and did not say anything about it.
After the maid made the tea, the servants carried the trays and served the tea cup by cup to everyone present.
The city lord and others are no strangers to tea. After all, given their status, they are naturally able to drink tea, but they have never seen such a way of drinking tea.
In the past, they had two ways of drinking tea, one was to boil it, and the other was to add random things into it and mix it together and boil it together. For example, milk and the like.
This is the first time they know how to drink tea like this. Such a pleasing way makes people feel very advanced at first sight.
At this time, Han Du also walked out from behind the scenes with a cup of tea and stood in the middle of a high platform. He raised his cup and gestured to everyone, and said with a smile: "You may not be unfamiliar with tea. Everyone here may have drank it more than once.
You have experienced tea, and maybe you have tea leaves in your home now. But what I want to tell you today is that tea also has to be divided into three, six, and nine grades."
Han Du said something, and Hade told him something.
When the people below heard that tea had to be graded, there was a sudden uproar.
Han Du ignored them and continued: "Ordinary tea leaves come from the homes of ordinary people. Common people plant three or five cages of tea trees in front and behind their houses, pick and make tea every year, and keep some for themselves to entertain guests.
Most of them are sold to traders who travel from village to village. Such tea leaves are collected by traders and then travel tens of thousands of miles to reach this place, where they become precious items in your hands."
As soon as Han Du finished speaking, everyone in the banquet hall opened their mouths. The noisy voice suddenly drowned out Han Du's words. Han Du also closed his mouth just right and looked at the people talking in front of him with a smile on his face.
.
Hard on the side could not tell Han Du the meaning of everyone's words. There were too many people talking, and the content of what everyone said was different, and Hard could not tell Han Du the meaning of everyone's words.
However, the words from anyone's mouth are not so polite.
Hader took a step closer to Han Du with a somewhat unpleasant look on his face, and asked in confusion: "Why did the Marquis tell them this?"
Looking sideways at the lively crowd, Harder continued: "Now they all think that it was an insult to the Ming Dynasty to sell the tea that the common people drank to nobles like them. I'm afraid they won't do it again from now on.
Someone is buying tea."
Hader shook his head and sighed, with a face full of regret. Such a good tea business would probably be destroyed by Handu from now on. At the same time, his heart was bleeding with heartache, knowing that he had brought back the goods of Hulumos.
There was a lot of tea inside. If the tea couldn't be sold, he would lose a lot of money.
Han Du turned to look at Hade and said with a meaningful smile: "You said you don't drink tea, but why didn't you see anyone put down the tea cup?"
Harder looked back and saw that, sure enough, no matter how loud the noise in the banquet hall was, not a single person put down the tea cup in his hand, not a single one!
"How is this going?"
Yes, even though he was still criticizing the tea leaves, he was holding the tea cup firmly in his hands, not even shaking it at all, for fear of spilling some tea.
"What is so difficult to understand? Of course they are not willing to lower their status to drink ordinary tea, but what they have in their hands is not ordinary tea." Han Du explained with a smile.
"What kind of tea is that?" Harder asked hurriedly.
Han Du smiled and did not answer him. He just said, "You will know later." .??.
Sure enough, the noisy crowd soon fell silent, and the banquet hall became silent again.
Finally, the city lord stood up and broke the silence and asked: "Since there are different grades of tea, is there any tea that is better than the tea that common people drink?"
Hard heard this and quickly relayed the city lord's intention to Han Du.
Han Du smiled and nodded.
Everyone saw Han Du's actions and subconsciously lowered their heads to look at the teacup in their hands. The tea in front of them was bright yellow in color, and the tea buds were all green, as if they had just been picked from the branches. They were floating in the tea. The tea buds gathered together like
The mountain peaks spread out like pines, giving people a panoramic view of a natural picture.
Coupled with the refreshing fragrance of tea, the smell makes your heart moisturized and your whole body clear, giving you a feeling of being ethereal and far away, and all your worries are gone.
Such tea is naturally much better than what they have drunk before. To be honest, if not
When they came today, they had no idea that there was such tea in the world.
Therefore, everyone thought that what Han Du wanted to introduce was the tea in their hands.
Unexpectedly, Han Du just looked at them with a faint smile, then changed his tone and said: "Don't look! The tea in your hands is tribute tea, which is tea specially supplied to the royal family of the Ming Empire. Even in the Ming Dynasty,
Among the imperial royal family, only a few people can drink such tea."
As soon as they heard that tea could only be drunk by the royal family of the Ming Dynasty, everyone in the banquet hall became excited. They even began to imagine that they could also drink the same tea as the royal family of the Ming Dynasty.
The city lord even asked excitedly: "Do you want to sell this tribute tea? If your merchant is willing to sell it, the price can be easily negotiated."
Han Du shook his head with a smile on his face.
"Not selling?" The city lord thought that this Ming businessman didn't want to sell, but wanted to bargain with him, but he didn't care. The quality of such tea was indeed far better than what he had tasted before.
"In the past, the price of tea was ten pounds of gold per pound. I am willing to raise the price to one hundred pounds of gold."
The city lord raised the price tenfold without any hesitation. He believed that such tea was worth the price.
Hard's eyes were shining when he relayed the complaint. One pound of tea leaves and one hundred pounds of gold were a sky-high price. He didn't think Han Du would disagree.
Unexpectedly, Han Du just smiled and shook his head and said, "You don't know what tribute tea is. If you did, you would understand that such tea cannot be bought with gold."
If you can't buy gold, how can you buy it? After hearing Han Du's words, the people in the banquet hall couldn't help but whisper to each other.
Han Du sighed and explained to everyone: "In addition to the tea and tribute tea drank by common people, there is also a kind of tea for the nobles of the Ming Dynasty."
After hearing Han Du's words, everyone came back to their senses. 'Yes! Since there are teas and tribute teas that common people drink, there should naturally be teas that nobles drink.'
"The tea that the nobles drink is grown on high mountains. There are lush vegetation and mist all year round. Wisps of mist wrap around the tender green tea leaves over and over again. Only with perseverance can they grow high-quality tea.
Tea buds. Such tea buds are picked by a girl of fifteen or sixteen years old with bare hands, and after careful cultivation, they can become truly high-quality tea. Isn’t it possible that such high-quality tea can be found in Hurumos?