The evening palace banquet was hosted by Zhao Hanzhang with frugality in mind, yet there was both meat and vegetables, ensuring everyone ate their fill. The taste was excellent, and most importantly, the wine she brought out was superb, perfectly suited to wine enthusiasts’ preferences.
It was generously sponsored by Zhao Hu.
Since Fu Tinghan had helped improve the brewing equipment, and Zhao Hu was particularly pleased about receiving his marquisate this year, he was feeling very generous.
At the banquet, Zhao Hu was especially boastful, publicly inviting everyone to attend a plum-viewing banquet at his residence on the fifth day of the new year. Anyone could come without needing an invitation.
The banquet he had originally decided not to hold was being planned anew. Moreover, since Zhao Cheng had returned and wouldn’t leave until after the Lantern Festival, Zhao Hu felt his family had experienced three joys this year (setting aside Zhao Cheng’s resignation). Therefore, the newly planned banquet would be even larger and more luxurious.
At noon today, all the merchants and workers had received the news and were excitedly sharing it with their families. “Master Zhao Seventh is generous—he’s added another two hundred jin of fish. I’ll go to the village tomorrow to see if I can secure this business. If I do, we could earn two strings of cash before the year ends.”
His wife was delighted. “That much?”
“I’ll try to get you in as a helper too. Just washing vegetables and dishes in the kitchen, you could earn fifty wen a day. I heard the banquet will run for three consecutive days—that’s one hundred fifty wen right there.”
His wife hesitated. “That’s a place of nobility. If I go and accidentally offend someone important…”
“You’ll be working in the kitchen—you won’t encounter any nobles. The servants attending guests in the front are all carefully trained maids and attendants from the household,” the merchant said. “In the past, I wouldn’t have dared let you go even to work in the kitchen, but now it’s different. General Zhao cares for the people, and the Zhao family members don’t dare act arrogantly. Last time, when that Zhao family youth galloped his horse through the streets and frightened someone who fell and injured their leg, the case was brought before General Zhao. She personally wielded the whip to punish that dandy, and also ordered them to compensate all the street vendors. The person who fell received ten strings of cash on the spot.”
Since then, no more powerful nobles dared gallop horses through the streets.
There were also cases of household servants being wrongfully killed that were brought to Zhao Hanzhang, and she handled all of them severely. This had greatly improved Luoyang’s atmosphere, and relations between common people and the powerful had become much more harmonious.
So the merchant now dared to send his wife into noble households as a worker to earn quick money.
Many others had the same idea, especially cooks and helpers from restaurants and inns—they had long been engaged by the Zhao family.
Now that the banquet was expanding and more hands were needed, they naturally thought first of their relatives and friends.
So on New Year’s Eve, everyone ate their reunion dinner and kept vigil, while happily imagining going out to earn money in a few days.
Along the Yellow River, the laborers and soldiers who had finished work early and were preparing to eat their New Year’s Eve dinner were also very happy.
Since it was New Year’s Day, they only worked until noon. After noon, the entire camp began preparing the New Year’s Eve feast together.
Fu Tinghan had long arranged for meat and vegetables to be prepared for the New Year. For this, many grain sacks were opened, and wheat was hulled and ground into flour on the spot. Mixed with thirty percent bean flour, it was rolled into wrappers for dumplings.
Both meat and flour were distributed by squad. Each squad of one hundred men had their own cooks, so despite the large camp and many people, there was no chaos—everything was orderly.
Two sturdy women lifted a large pot and set it on a stone stove. Stepping on stools, once the pot heated up, they immediately poured in two large ladles of soybean oil, then added meat slices…
With a sizzling sound, the aroma of meat spread along with the noise. Skinny Zhu, who was among the first batch to bathe, passed by and couldn’t help running over to stand on tiptoe and peek into the pot. Seeing the pot bottom covered with meat slices, he couldn’t help swallowing. “We get to eat this much meat tonight?”
“Go, go, go! Don’t let your drool drip into the pot. There’s still time before dinner. If you’re free, go gather some firewood—we’ll be celebrating around bonfires tonight.”
“Sister Feng, I’m just looking, not getting close. Smelling this fragrance, I feel like I could live another ten years. Besides, where is there any firewood left around here? We’ve long since gathered it all.”
“Don’t call me Sister Feng, call me Big Sister Feng. Call me wrong again and I’ll give you a smack with the spatula.”
“Yes, yes, Big Sister Feng.”
People gradually returned from bathing, also smelling the aroma. They gathered around to watch while happily complaining, “The master is really particular—insisting we bathe, and we can’t refuse. Alas, I hadn’t bathed in half a year, and when I went in, I nearly couldn’t come out.”
“The master is doing this for our good. To let us bathe in hot water, he had people haul those black lumps from far away, and specially dug bathing pools and built shelters for us to bathe in. I haven’t had such a comfortable bath since I was eight years old.”
“Me too. Before, when the master forced us to bathe, I was afraid we’d catch cold. I was thinking how could we bathe in such cold weather, but who knew it would be so comfortable.”
One camp had over ten thousand people and ten bathhouses. The same was true on the opposite bank.
And along the Yellow River, both upstream and downstream, there were twelve more camps like this. Fu Tinghan had made arrangements early on, requiring each camp to strictly follow the standards of Camp One.
Whatever Camp One had, all other camps had. And he ate meals together with the laborers.
Fu Tinghan had a separate tent here, which served not only as his residence but also as his office. Everyone held meetings there too.
The tent contained a simple bookshelf that Fu Tinghan had nailed together himself from several wooden boards found in the camp. This wasn’t because he was poor or particular, but because they had too many materials, drawings, and other documents. The tent wasn’t large, and if they didn’t organize things, just piling these materials would fill it completely.
In the corner of the tent, three chests stood side by side, filled entirely with Yellow River observation data and various materials from years of Yellow River management.
Fu Tinghan stood before the table with his hands on his hips, staring for a long time before asking Fu’an, “Did Camp Five send today’s temperature readings?”
Fu’an replied, “Not yet.”
Fu Tinghan said nothing more.
Fu’an advised, “Master, today is New Year’s Day. You should rest for half a day and celebrate the New Year properly.”
Fu Tinghan said, “Aren’t I waiting to celebrate right now? Send someone to check how the kitchens in each camp are doing with preparations. We’ll start the afternoon meal at the Hour of the Monkey. Tell them not to be too late.”
After eating while it was still light, everyone could chat, sing, and dance. Later, they could gather around bonfires, symbolically keep vigil for a while, then disperse.
Seeing that he didn’t seem bored at all, Fu’an couldn’t help shaking his head as he went off to inspect and supervise.
Fu’an had barely left when a soldier immediately came to report, “Reporting to the Minister, Camp Five’s temperature readings have arrived.”
Fu Tinghan immediately took the recorded paper and opened it. Seeing the temperature, he couldn’t help frowning. This year, the temperature in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River was unusually high, so that even now the Yellow River only had thin floating ice.
This was good for their current work of clearing the silted riverbed, but…
Comparing it with historical temperatures, he felt somewhat uneasy.
Hanzhang had said there would be continuous torrential rains next year. Was this the omen?
The weather was already becoming abnormal.