Li Xuanba was not delusional. He was sure that if his grandmother woke up, she would continue to call his mother to take care of her, regardless of her mother's fatigue.
Old Madam Dugu of the Duke of Tang's Mansion is a pitiful, respectable and great mother.
Old Lady Dugu and Old Duke of Tang Li Bing had four sons and one daughter. The eldest son, Li Cheng, married and died before having any children; the second son, Li Zhan, also died after leaving behind two young sons; the third son, Li Hong, died shortly after being born.
Of the five children, only the married daughter and the youngest son Li Yuan were left.
In 572 AD, Li Bing died of illness, and Li Yuan, who was only seven years old, inherited the title of Duke of Tang.
Old Lady Dugu took care of her two widowed daughters-in-law, raised her young son Li Yuan and two grandchildren, and shouldered the heavy burden of the Tang Mansion with great difficulty.
In 578 AD, the wise and brave Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, Yuwen Yong, died young, and the eccentric Emperor Yuwen Yun succeeded him. Li Yuan was only thirteen years old.
Three years later, in 581 AD, Yang Jian seized power and established the Sui Dynasty.
After Yang Jian became emperor, he immediately broke his promise, killed Emperor Jing of Northern Zhou who abdicated the throne to him, and massacred the Northern Zhou royal family according to the household registration book, leaving only two or three members of the side branch to show his mercy.
During these rapidly turbulent years, Old Lady Dugu protected Li Yuan and her grandson under her wings and managed to get through it with great difficulty.
The orphan and the widow had lived together for so many years, so naturally they had a deep bond. Li Yuan was very filial.
But this is not a good thing for Dou.
Dou was the daughter of Dou Yi, the supreme general of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, and the Princess of Xiangyang of the Northern Zhou Dynasty. She was raised by Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty. She was of noble birth, talented, beautiful, and knowledgeable. There was an endless stream of suitors, almost breaking down the door of the Dou family.
Dou Yi publicly recruited a son-in-law and asked the suitors to shoot the eyes of the peacock screen with a bow and arrow. Only Li Yuan succeeded. This is the story of "selecting the one in the peacock screen".
When Li Yuan was seeking to marry Dou, Old Lady Dugu was very active; but after Dou entered the house, Old Lady Dugu felt uncomfortable.
Dou was spoiled by her family and got a good husband. After marriage, she and Li Yuan were inseparable and immediately showed her talents and took charge of the internal affairs of the Tang Guogong Mansion.
There was only one Li Yuan, and the backyard of the Duke of Tang's mansion was only so big, so naturally there were conflicts between the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law. In the words of Lin Daiyu in later generations, either the east wind prevails over the west wind, or the west wind prevails over the east wind.
As soon as Dou became pregnant, Madam Dugu used the excuse that Dou was not feeling well and took in many concubines for Li Yuan. One of them was even from the Wan family of Jiangdu, and was more than qualified to be the wife of an ordinary official.
Li Yuan was very filial, so Dou Shi had to be filial to her mother-in-law. She could only endure it.
As for Dou's family, according to the standards of that era, it was natural for a man to take a concubine when his wife was pregnant. The Dou family not only did not think that their daughter was being blamed, but was also proud of their daughter's virtue, kindness and filial piety, and was a model of a good wife.
Behind the historical records of "keeping secrets for the sake of the respected", we can also get a glimpse of the bitterness of Dou's early years.
Dou's eldest and second sons were ten years apart, and during these ten years, she only had one daughter, Princess Pingyang Zhao. Before the second son Li Shimin was born, Li Yuan already had five daughters, and Princess Pingyang Zhao was Li Yuan's third daughter.
The history books also vaguely record that the old lady Dugu had a bad temper and was harsh to others. When she was bedridden, even her two widowed daughters-in-law who had shared her hardships refused to serve her, and only Dou worked hard without complaint.
The turning point in the relationship between Dou and her mother-in-law was the birth of Li Shimin and Li Xuanba.
Li Yuan had been marrying and taking concubines for nearly ten years, but only had one son, Li Jiancheng, and old lady Dugu was very worried. Finally, Dou gave Li Yuan two more sons.
By this time, Dou's temper had been smoothed over. She was cautious, respectful, and hardworking towards her mother-in-law. Old lady Dugu also suffered from illness due to the hard work in her early years and was often bedridden, and needed Dou's care.
The relationship between the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law finally eased, the disputes in the backyard of the Tang Guogong Mansion subsided, the relationship between Dou and Li Yuan deepened, and old lady Dugu often praised Dou as a good daughter-in-law.
People all over the world praised the deep love between Duke Tang and his wife, and the harmonious relationship between Lady Dou and Madam Dugu.
But Dou's life was not entirely smooth sailing.
Madam Dugu had been strong all her life, and now that Li Yuan was sent out to serve as an official, she could only rely on her daughter-in-law, and her fear was understandable. For a sense of security, she urgently needed to verify Dou's filial piety.
According to common sense, in a family as big as the Duke of Tang's Mansion, the daughter-in-law only needs to stay by the side to take care of her sick mother-in-law, and leave the trivial matters to the servants.
Although the other two widowed daughters-in-law of Madam Dugu pretended to be sick and could not come, they had to come to take care of her as long as a doctor was invited to expose their lies. Dou should not have been too tired.
But old lady Dugu turned a blind eye to the excuses of her two widowed daughters-in-law, and she also didn't like servants to serve her, and insisted that Dou take care of her personally.
Dou also had to do housework and educate the children. She could only take a nap, have a quick meal, or do housework after her mother-in-law fell asleep.
As soon as old lady Dugu opened her eyes, she had to immediately appear by her mother-in-law's bedside and obey her orders.
From the perspective of later generations, Li Xuanba believed that his grandmother was torturing his mother.
But whenever someone visited my grandmother, she would always praise my mother. Everyone who heard about this could only sigh that my grandmother and mother had a deep relationship and my mother was kind and filial.
Perhaps the two parties involved, the grandmother and the mother, also thought this was a normal thing.
Li Xuanba felt sorry for his mother, but he couldn't go against the trend of the times. Fortunately, his grandmother was very kind to him and his second brother, so he would occasionally pretend to be sick so that his mother could rest at his place.
The excuse he found this time should allow his mother to have a good meal and take a nap.
Things turned out just as Li Xuanba had expected.
The food had just been placed on the table when Old Lady Dugu sent someone to look for Dou.
After hearing that Li Jiancheng played with his friends until midnight, causing Li Xuanba to feel unwell due to lack of sleep, old lady Dugu did not continue to send people to urge Dou out of love for her two grandsons.
When Lady Dou learned about this, she said nothing but picked up Li Xuanba and kissed him on the forehead.
Li Xuanba was so embarrassed that Dou laughed like a silver bell.
Li Shimin immediately went to Dou's arms and said, "I want one too!"
Dou smiled and hugged Li Shimin, and also kissed Li Shimin on his bald forehead.
Li Shimin was so happy that he twisted and turned like a pretzel and almost squeezed Li Xuanba out.
Li Xuanba originally wanted to escape, but Li Shimin grabbed Li Xuanba, who was about to be squeezed out, and insisted that Li Xuanba stay in his mother's arms with him.
Li Xuanba rolled his eyes. It's so hot!
[Brother, it's time to eat.] Li Xuanba reminded.
Only then did Li Shimin stop acting like a spoiled child and returned to his seat obediently.
The servants had brought all the food up.
The food of the Sui and Tang dynasties was influenced by the ethnic integration after the Wei and Jin dynasties. The nobles liked to eat non-Chinese food, and the cooking ingredients tended to be beef, mutton, dairy products and pasta. The cooking method was mostly roasting with a lot of spices. The more magnificent the dishes, the more noble the host seemed.
For example, the giant Hu pancake "Gulouzi" with a pound of mutton as filling is a must-have dish at aristocratic banquets.
The living standards of the nobles and commoners in the Sui and Tang dynasties were very different. For commoners, barbaric food was a luxury. Their food mainly consisted of corn, brown rice, wheat rice and bean rice, supplemented by vegetables and fruits. Vegetables rarely appeared on the tables of nobles, who believed that vegetables were low-quality food that only commoners would eat.
Of course, although the nobles did not eat vegetables, they would not lack vitamins and dietary fiber, because they would eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables after dinner, and would also eat mushrooms, fresh bamboo shoots, lotus roots and other wild delicacies together with beef and mutton.
Commercial catering was not prosperous at that time.
After Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty built Daxing City, he implemented the Fangshi system. Except for a few festivals, shops could only be opened during the day. Therefore, the food culture of the common people was very rough, and the Fangshi restaurants mostly provided food to fill the stomach. The nobles had "private dishes" at their own homes.
At that time, recipes were family heirlooms, and every woman would bring one or two recipes with her when she got married.
It was not until the late Zhenguan period and the heyday of the Tang Dynasty that people's lives improved and more restaurants appeared. However, the upper class followed suit and the upper class restaurants also served bold and unrestrained food.
During the Song Dynasty, the trend of respecting culture and suppressing military power prevailed, and the emphasis on agriculture and suppression of commerce was no longer emphasized. The diet of the aristocracy changed from being heroic to being elegant, and the food culture spread from the aristocracy to the common people.
During banquets in the Sui and Tang dynasties, the host and the guests ate meat and drank wine with big mouthfuls, held hands and sang and danced together; during banquets in the Song dynasty, the host and the guests chewed slowly, rubbed their beards and sipped wine, and watched the singing and dancing girls. Being bold and elegant is just a difference in customs, not a distinction between high and low.
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The Duke of Tang's Mansion was one of the most powerful noble families in the Sui Dynasty, so naturally every meal at home was very extravagant.
The main dish prepared in the kitchen today is roasted suckling pig. The golden skin is spread with honey mixed with Western spices worth a fortune, and the suckling pig's belly is filled with half-fat and half-lean diced lamb.
After the chef carefully controls the heat, the fat from the mutton and suckling pig mix together with the stimulating aroma of spices such as pepper, which makes your mouth water as soon as you smell it.
In addition to the roasted suckling pig, there was also a huge stack of roasted Hu cakes on the table.
A single Hu pancake without any fillings would take up half a liter of refined flour. An average adult only needs two Hu pancakes to be full.
The Hu pancakes at Duke Tang's house were not plain. They were piled with cheese and diced meat, the melted cheese overflowed onto the plate, and the aroma of milk filled the air.
Dou asked the servants to leave. After washing her hands in the water sprinkled with flower petals, she took a small curved knife as bright as snow and cut the meat and biscuits for the two children herself.
Li Shimin did not use chopsticks. He held the knife in one hand and the meat in the other, and his mouth was full of oil.
Li Xuanba asked someone to make a small knife and fork. He slowly cut the bread and meat into small pieces and put them into his mouth politely.
Li Xuanba: [The orthodox Western cuisine is Tang cuisine. What pizza? Please call me Hu Bing! ]
Li Shimin looked up at Li Xuanba while holding the meat in his mouth: "What bullshit... cough cough cough."
Dou, who had just washed the oil off her hands, quickly patted the back of the choking Li Shimin.
She looked at Li Xuanba helplessly: "Sanlang, what did you say to Erlang?"
Li Xuan said: "I didn't speak to him."
Li Shimin drank a large bowl of milk to wash the flesh in his throat down, and grew a circle of milk beard: "You said it! What did you say about Western food? Bullshit!"
Li Xuan said domineeringly: "I was talking to myself, not letting you listen."
Li Shimin said: "I don't want to hear it either. So what is fart?"
Li Xuan said: "Hu Bing, as the Hu people call it."
"Oh." Li Shimin lost interest and was too lazy to wipe his moustache. He continued to chew on the pork elbow.
Dou smiled and started eating.
Li Xuanba glanced at his mother, who ate even slower than he did: [Quickly ask mom if the food is not to your liking.]
Li Shimin swallowed the meat in his mouth and said: "Why don't you ask yourself? Ah Xuan, don't be lazy, please ask yourself. Mother! Ah Xuan asked you if the food is not to your liking!"
Dou smiled tiredly: "It's a bit greasy. I'll just eat more fruits later."
Li Xuanba looked at the table full of roasted meat and roasted Hu pancakes. When people are extremely tired, they cannot stand the smell of meat. It seems that mother is exhausted.
Li Xuanba had a small appetite and after eating two small bowls of meat and bread, he was full.
He put down his knife and fork: [Tell Mom, I'm going to the kitchen to ask the cook to make some light food for Mom.]
Li Shimin: "Ah Xuan, you speak for yourself!"
Li Xuanba had already jumped off the chair and trotted away.
Dou was puzzled: "What's wrong with Sanlang? Are you in a hurry?"
Li Shimin sighed deeply and said in a mature manner, "Ah Xuan went to ask the kitchen to make light food for mother. Oh, can he speak for himself? I'm really afraid that he will become mute."
After hearing this, Dou also felt a little sad.
The author has something to say:
I lost the bet with Yi Luo and owed him +10, and I owed him +1 for 10,000 nutrient solution. I currently owe 11 chapters. Lie down and be at peace.
Here are some tips for getting started, and I'll emphasize them again:
Note:
1. This article is not for textual research. It is adapted from official history, mixed with a lot of unofficial history, supplemented by numerous private settings, and the tone of address and dialogue is not based on the Tang Dynasty. It is very modern and colloquial, and it is a semi-fictional brain massage.
In this article, Emperor Yang of Sui and Li Jiancheng are not the forgotten emperors of all ages; Li Shimin is not perfect either, he has the limitations of a feudal emperor; Li Xuanba is not a good person either, he takes his own good life as the standard for everything and has a plagiarism complex.
This article contains stories of family fights, palace fights, brothers fighting, and fathers and sons killing each other. Compared with the original history, it's just that when Li Shimin took every step in his life, there was a Li Xuanba lying on his back and nagging him.
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