Yamafu Military Affairs

Chapter 298 Before the Banquet
Early the next morning, Qin Huai, who had a good night's sleep, stretched, got out of bed, looked at the drizzle outside the canvas tent, and took out a fire talisman from the bag around his waist.

"Qin Hunter."

Qin Huai responded and nodded to the White Tiger Guard who was on guard last night. He looked around and found that Cha Xiaodao was not there.

"Where's the knife?"

"The captain returned by boat in the middle of the night. Chef Cha was anxious and said he wanted to go to the boat first to prepare the pots, bowls, and pans that would be used for the meeting."

"Oh, it saves a lot of trouble."

Qin Huai put away the fire talisman and walked onto the deck of the warship. There was a teppanyaki table under the awning near the cabin. Cha Xiaodao was using a spatula to stir the freshly marinated pork belly beef breast. A tiger named Da Hu was lying nearby, staring at the barbecue.

"You got up so early, didn't you sleep well last night?"

Qin Huai picked up a piece of medium-rare beef breast and stuffed it into his mouth. Without even raising his head, Cha Xiaodao said, "It smells so good. I can't calm down."

"There's a lot more dirt in the river."

Qin Huai grabbed a piece of leg meat, dipped it in fine salt, opened the tiger's mouth, and fed it in.

"I did run into a lot of evil spirits while floating down the river last night. If it weren't for the incense of the kitchen god to comfort me, I'm afraid I wouldn't have been able to return safely this morning."

The head of the guards stood by the fence, staring intently at the incense stick in the copper stove that was already a quarter burned.

"Thanks for your hard work."

Looking at the cabin filled with all kinds of food, Qin Huai turned around and asked Cha Xiaodao: "With so many ingredients, do you want me to help you?"

"That's great. I was just worried that no one would cut the meat for me."

Cha Xiaodao knew that Qin Huai's cooking skills were not much lower than his. Although he was just an amateur who had never worked in the kitchen, he had no problem doing the preparatory work of cleaning and cutting.

"You are so rude."

Qin Huai smiled and walked into the cabin.

After spending these days together, the two of them have gotten to know each other's personalities. Lao Qin is serious and reliable, and he sticks to his guns; Daozi is approachable, and has a chivalrous nature. They can both be considered good companions.

Unfortunately, the gap in strength between the two is too great, and it is difficult to match the same Yanfu events, and they cannot become partners recognized by Yanfu.

Besides, Qin Huai didn't think that Yan Zhaohui and Three Eyes Global would agree to let a low-level person who was obviously more inclined towards logistics become his long-term partner. That would be too dangerous.

Shaking his head to get rid of all these nonsense from his mind, Qin Huai turned his attention back to the bamboo baskets in the cabin.

The pork belly with skin and fat and distinct layers; the tender meat, plucked and cleaned native chicken; the grayish-green, shelled and peeled fresh river shrimp; the fresh and juicy seasonal vegetables.
Qin Huai used [Glance] to roughly scan the ingredients provided by the Wild Hunting Bureau to the contestants, and the processing methods of these fish, meat, mushrooms and vegetables emerged in his mind.

After all, these are the various ingredients carefully prepared by the Wild Hunting Bureau for the contestants of the cooking competition. Although they are not up to standard, they are fresh and can be cleaned without much effort.

Picking up the iron basin and the kitchen knife, Qin Huai decided to start with the one-meter-long green carp.

The scales were scraped off, the belly was opened, the gills were removed, and the threads were pulled out. In just a few strokes, the kitchen knife with a cold gleam of light cut the dozens of kilograms of black carp into fish meat, fish bones and fish lips.

thump, thump, thump
The heavy kitchen knife chopped the delicate chicken breast into minced chicken, making a low, muffled sound like drumbeats. After finishing his work outside, Cha Xiaodao stepped into the room and said to Qin Huai, "Oh, you are quite skilled."

"Have you ever seen 99% of swordsmanship experts?"

Qin Huai glanced at Cha Xiaodao and spoke in a joking tone.

"never seen it."

"Hey, you saw it today."

Cha Xiaodao looked Qin Huai up and down, obviously not believing it.

"Don't believe it? If you don't believe me, let's have a fight and you'll know."

"Can a knife used in fighting be the same as a knife used for cutting vegetables?"

Cha Xiaodao lit a cigarette and said vaguely, "If you're capable, let's have a knife-cutting contest. Do you know Wensi tofu and蛆衣蛆 cucumber?"

"I know, it's like threading tofu into a needle."

Qin Huai slanted his knife and pointed at the two baskets of river shrimps next to him: "These two baskets of shrimps have not been processed yet, how about using these to compare?"

"no problem."

Cha Xiaodao said, "It's a good opportunity to show you my knife skills, which I have acquired through these two years of working as a handyman and four years of cutting wood."

"Then I'll just have to wait and see."

Qin Huai smiled, took two chopping boards and an iron basin, and placed a basket of river shrimps in front of Cha Xiaodao. The prawns inside were jumping around alive.

The river shrimps provided by the Wild Hunting Bureau are the Yangzhou specialty shrimps in Kyushu. They are large and fresh. Excluding the head, the body is as long as the index finger, and the strong and powerful shrimp tail is almost as thick as an adult man's finger.

Each one was waving its claws and teeth in the bamboo basket, holding up its long pincers and waving them left and right, looking very energetic.

"I don't know what the principle of this [fresh cage] is. Ingredients like shrimps and crabs can be kept fresh in it for such a long time. It is much better than a refrigerator."

Although it was not the first time that Cha Xiaodao used the [Fresh Cage] to store and retrieve food, he couldn't help but feel a little emotional when he saw the river shrimps still baring their claws.

"Come on, this is a lot of work."

After Qin Huai filled two iron basins with clean water, he handed over a thin soft-bristled brush, signaling Cha Xiaodao that he could take action.

"go!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Qin Huai began to clean each shrimp one by one, even the head and claws that needed to be thrown away soon were cleaned thoroughly. Every tiny part was carefully brushed with a soft-bristle brush, becoming as smooth as new.

The shrimps being brushed became much quieter under the stimulation of the slight golden-red light. Qin Huai's fingers were like pliers, firmly holding the prawns. After brushing all the shrimps, he put down the soft-bristle brush and carried out other cleaning.

The river shrimps that had been cleaned looked extremely lazy, with their tails particularly stretched out. At this time, Qin Huai picked up a shrimp, opened its back quickly, and completely removed the shrimp line from the back. With a turn of his left hand and a wipe of his right hand, he instantly removed the black line from the front abdomen.

Then pinch off the head, peel off the shrimp shell, and while the shrimp tail is still stretched out, immediately move it to a clean white plate aside for later use, and continue to extend your claws to the next one.

Qin Huai moved extremely quickly. Soon, the white shrimps with open backs were neatly arranged on the porcelain plate like jelly.

On the other side of the cabin, unlike Qin Huai who was simple and rough and relied on physical strength, Cha Xiaodao's approach was more pleasing and smarter.

He did not clean them one by one, but took out salt and poured it into an iron basin filled with water, then put the prawns in, dripped two drops of oil on them, and the prawns inside began to spit out the mud and sand obediently.
'Forming a thin film of oil on the water surface, and then taking advantage of the shrimp's difficulty breathing, forcing them to spit out sand?'

Qin Huai saw Cha Xiaodao's actions, thought about it for a moment, and understood his intention.

A quarter of an hour passed in a flash. Cha Xiaodao calculated the time and began to fish out the river shrimps that had been spitting out sand.

I saw him holding a pair of bamboo chopsticks and stirring the water clockwise to form a small whirlpool. Then he changed a pair of bamboo chopsticks to pick up the river shrimps from the whirlpool one by one, carefully avoiding the oil drops so that the picked up river shrimps were completely free of any oily smell. After a quick wash, he was ready to process the shrimps.

However, Cha Xiaodao's method of handling shrimps is different from Qin Huai's. He pinches the shrimp tail with one hand, follows the scale in the middle of the tail, pinches it with his thumb and index finger, and then pulls it. A complete shrimp thread is peeled out, and then the shrimp head is removed.

"After all, he is a professional, so he is definitely different."

Qin Huai was multitasking as he watched Cha Xiaodao pick up the thin-backed kitchen knife: "Next it's time to show your knife skills. Yi Yin's knife must be somewhat special, right?" Cha Xiaodao picked up the prawns and processed them directly in his hand. He cut each one with two knives. His technique was clean, and the knife edge was complete and clear from top to bottom, with the same thickness on both sides. He used one knife to cut the shrimp tails, and the other knife to directly pick out the shrimp meat.

After working for more than an hour, the two finally cleaned up two large baskets of thousands of river shrimps, leaving only the crystal clear shrimp meat.

"How is it? Is this flower carving okay?"

However, Qin Huai, who had already cooked the river shrimps, took the opportunity when Cha Xiaodao was catching up with the work to carve a lifelike flaming paulownia flower out of a carrot.

This paulownia flower looks like a real flower and exudes a fragrance. The petals look as delicate and transparent as satin, and the stamens inside are clearly visible.

Cha Xiaodao wiped the sweat off his face with a towel and stared at the paulownia flower in amazement.

"No, Lao Qin, you have to fight me."

Cha Xiaodao suddenly became serious and waved the kitchen knife as if he was about to pounce.

"Ah? You? Me? Seriously?"

Qin Huai blinked.

"Well, hold back a little and be more serious, otherwise I don't think I'll be able to get the sword skills essence when I settle the account."

After hearing Cha Xiaodao's explanation, Qin Huai remembered something he had almost forgotten.

That was the fourth-level ancient martial arts essence (Wing Chun) and the fifth-level ancient martial arts essence (Bagua) that he had obtained in the Xin Chou July 7th incident.

The former comes from Wing Chun master Zhao Qianhua, while the latter comes from Bagua master Ding Lianshan.

According to what Cha Xiaodao had said, and combined with his own situation, Qin Huai had some guesses about the production rules of essence items.

'People with more than 90% expertise will produce level 100 essence, and people with more than % of the colorful bubbles will provide level essence.'

Qin Huai recalled the demeanor of Bagua Grand Master Ding Lianshan, and felt more and more that this speculation was most likely correct.

just
"Can we take advantage of Yanfu's loopholes in our walking competition?"

Qin Huai weighed the light kitchen knife in his hand, raised his eyes and asked Cha Xiaodao.

"I don't know, let's give it a try. It's a no-cost business anyway, so if you don't lose, you're making money."

Cha Xiaodao shrugged, pointed his toes, and chopped towards Qin Huai with the thin-ribbed kitchen knife with great force.

Looking at Cha Xiaodao who was very serious and trying his best, Qin Huai raised his eyebrows slightly and casually stretched out the knife in his hand.

The blade and the back of the knife collided with each other, making a clanging sound.

Inside the cabin, Cha Xiaodao retreated repeatedly, his two swords struggling to move left and right, and several deep and shallow blood marks appeared on his chest, abdomen and ribs from time to time.

The Qinhuai sword flowers swirled, forcing Cha Xiaodao into danger.

After playing for a few minutes, Cha Xiaodao was breathing heavily, his face was red, and he was a little exhausted.

"Okay, let's stop here."

Qin Huai put away the kitchen knife and waved his hand. A nectar talisman burned out of thin air, healing all the wounds on Cha Xiaodao's body.

"I say, Lao Qin, you can't be that skilled, right? I feel like a naked daughter-in-law in front of you. How come every one of my moves is broken?"

"45% of the swordsmanship, if it's any worse, Yanfu won't show it, what do you think?"

Qin Huai took a quick glance at Cha Xiaodao's status bar and replied unhappily.

"99% expertise, how long have you been practicing, Lao Qin? Tongzi Kungfu?"

Cha Xiaodao rubbed his shoulders, feeling quite curious.

"If you had stayed in Yanfu for four or five years, it would probably be about the same."

Qin Huai washed the kitchen knife with clean water and did not reveal anything more.

Cha Xiaodao understood, wiped the sweat off his forehead, composed himself, and prepared to continue cutting and preparing ingredients with Qin Huai.

Outside the cabin, three White Tiger Guards and a mighty mountain king were patrolling along the deck to prevent any demons, ghosts, elves or alien species who could not suppress their appetite from boarding the ship and endangering the chef's safety.

Of course, because the venue chosen by Cha Xiaodao for the banquet this time was the [Death Heart Vortex] in the center of Qujiang, the non-human creatures they could see were generally water monsters and Jiang's evil spirits.

The former has a physical form and can taste the five flavors; the latter is almost invisible and usually eats essence but not taste.

Therefore, the preparation of the two dishes is also different. The reference catalog issued by the Spirit Chef Competition states:

Ghosts, whose bodies have passed away, prefer long-lasting and fragrant dishes. Their banquets often use grains, chickens, ducks, fish and other ingredients related to sacrificial offerings.

Aquatic monsters, who have achieved great spiritual success in their practice, have a sense of taste that is no less sensitive than that of humans. Instead, they prefer wild game, and prefer stronger flavors such as Jiubian (spicy) and Konggu (salty).

When Cha Xiaodao prepared the [Eight Coarse and Fine Bowls], he naturally took all these into consideration.

He had specially set aside chicken, duck and fish bones to make the soup base, and then rinsed and washed them with a mixture of millet and rice, preparing to cook a few pots of meat porridge as the staple food.

After all, the main audience of this banquet is a group of ghosts, or a group of river minions who fell into the water and drowned. They are not very powerful and have fierce temperaments. If you want to resolve their resentment, it doesn’t matter whether the dishes are exquisite or not. The key is to make them full.

As for those monsters with profound skills and picky tastes, Cha Xiaodao was quite confident in the [Eight Bowls of Coarse and Fine Foods] he had prepared.

Not long after noon, a strong wind suddenly blew over the river. The drizzle turned into a downpour. A four-clawed carp dragon with a body as red as fire flew out. Thunder and lightning flashed in the sky. The [Red Carp Dragon] transformed itself into the dragon-headed man in the red armor and golden helmet, and slammed heavily onto the deck.

A group of sailors broke through the waves and lined up on both sides of the warship to guard.

The head of the guards looked up, feeling awe-inspiring, and saw:

The expedition flags flutter with embroidered belts, and the painted halberds line up in the bright clouds.

The sword is shining brightly, and the spear's tassel is surrounded by flowers.

The bow is as small as the moon, and the arrows are like wolf teeth.

The broadsword shines brightly, and the short stick makes a rustling sound.

Crocodiles and clams, crabs and turtles, fish and shrimps.

Big and small, all in line, weapons are densely packed.

Without the general's order, who dares to crawl around?

Before the head of the guards could say hello to the Red Carp Dragon whom he had met before, a hornless dragon head about three to five meters long emerged from the water, revealing its monster body covered with black and gold scales.

"Li Yu, how could a chef who presides over a banquet be hiding on this small boat? Don't lie to me!"

(End of this chapter)