Han Hai Tang Ergui

Chapter 534

Wang Silang is a peddler in Dongniuma Street, Fucheng, Kaifeng, Tokyo, which can be regarded as old Tokyo.

When the loyal minister Zhu Quanzhong of the Tang Dynasty destroyed and abandoned Luoyang and moved the capital to Daliang, their family moved here from Luoyang.

Wang Silang makes flax cakes first-hand, and serving pig and badger meat is also a must, and the family has been doing this for generations.

In the past, he sold flax cakes in the morning and pig and badger meat in the afternoon. Although he was not considered wealthy, his family was above the food and clothing line.

It's just that the current situation in these years has become more and more unstable. Wang Silang has gradually sold several furnaces of flax cakes a day, to only one furnace, and then only a few days to sell one furnace. Now, he can no longer open the furnace. up.

The biggest reason is that Kaifeng Prefecture in Tokyo is facing an unprecedented food shortage.

Coarse grains such as millet, millet, and black millet are in short supply, let alone polished rice and white flour.

Even though Wang Silang has a fairy-like culinary skill, he can't conjure flax cakes out of thin air without flour.

This year's winter is surprisingly cold, as if the high heavens do not want to give the poor a way out.

Wang Silang was holding two catfish in his hands, his lower body was almost soaked.

Before entering the door, I heard a few kitten-like, weak cries.

Sitting on the kang, he squeezed his shriveled breasts with his hands, and muddy tears fell from his slightly swollen face, showing deep self-blame in his haggardness.

On the kang, two little dolls, not much bigger than a kitten, were crying silently, and even the crying sound was very weak because of extreme hunger.

At a time when adults are short of food, the most difficult thing is the babies of common people.

Due to nutritional reasons, many mothers cannot produce milk at all. The only source of food for babies is to boil corn continuously to produce a thin layer of rice oil.

But corn is not cheap in today's Kaifeng Prefecture in Tokyo, and its nutrition is not comparable to that of breast milk. Therefore, these babies are the first to fall into hunger in the whole of Tokyo.

Wang Silang looked at the child whose hungry voice was almost gone, two lines of cold teardrops rolled out of his eyes in an instant.

He didn't even have time to take off his trousers soaked in river water, so he started to cook the two kitten fish in his hand, hoping to produce some milk for his wife.

Although he knew in his heart that his pair of twins probably wouldn't make it through this winter.

But the instinct of being a parent drove Wang Silang to devote all his energy to it.

How can a father be willing to give up his child?

The fish soup was ready soon, and the child who had fainted from crying (hungry) suddenly woke up when he smelled the fishy smell, and howled with all his strength.

But this can't be given to them. The baby's stomach can't withstand the impact of meat, and it might cause diarrhea. Moreover, this fish soup is still not as hungry as breast milk.

The wife was devouring the fish soup, while Wang Silang stared at the wife's chest in a daze. If it was night, I could have some milk, that would be great, otherwise...

There was a creaking sound of the courtyard door being pushed open, followed by Fang Lao's broken gong-like voice. Wang Silang hurriedly opened the door of the inner room, wanting to greet him.

A slightly dazzling sunlight shone in, Wang Silang squinted his eyes, he used his right hand to block the upper part of his eyebrows, and vaguely saw the short Mr. Fang and a man in a white round-neck robe with tangled lotus patterns. nobleman.

"Silang, hurry up and meet the nobleman!" Seeing that Wang Silang opened the door, Mr. Fang hurriedly beckoned him to go.

Wang Silang's heart was extremely heavy, he turned his head and glanced at the extremely frightened wife in the room, and then he didn't dare to hesitate, so he could only hurry over with his heavy legs.

Generally, when a commoner is approached by a nobleman, there is a high probability that nothing good will happen.

"You are Wang Silang? A certain family is a servant of Yongxun Palace. I heard that you have newly born twins. I have come to congratulate you by the order of the saint."

Saying this, the white-robed man who claimed to be the Sheren of Yongxun Palace put a clay pot on the ground.

Wang Silang was still a little dazed, he didn't know what the visitor meant, so a figure beside him jumped up, and then slapped Wang Silang hard on the head with his big palm-like hand.

Mr. Fang yelled at Wang Silang, "What are you doing in a daze? If you don't thank the saint for his kindness, take a look at what's inside?"

Wang Silang untied the lid in a daze, and suddenly a strong fragrance overflowed from inside. As a cook, Wang Silang smelled it immediately. This is goat milk, and there is goat milk in the clay pot!

Elder Fang on the side was choked with sobs, "It's good luck for the two boys. The saint heard that your family can't get milk, and the child is crying from hunger. He deliberately saved his own food and sent this goat's milk to save your son. Life!"

The white-robed Sheren also nodded at Wang Silang, "From now on, I will wait outside the Daning Palace by myself every two days, report my name, and have goat's milk or human milk."

It was as if a thunderbolt struck Wang Silang's heart from the nine heavens. He never thought that the one who could save his child's life and save his own food to help the common people was the saint in the deep palace.

Hearing that there was goat's milk, Wang Silang's family, who was eager to save his son, had already run out with two children in his arms. No matter what happened to him, as long as there was goat's milk to save her child's life.

In the cold wind, the kitten-sized baby stopped crying and drank goat milk with a flushed face. His greedy appearance made people unable to hold back the tears.

Wang Silang let out a cry of gratitude that he suppressed in his heart, he knelt down in the direction of Daning Palace, kowtowed sincerely and crazily.

"Caomin Wang Silang! Kowtow to the saint!"

Just at this time, the cry of the donkey next door on Wednesday also came over, and there was also a baby waiting to be fed in his house.

. . . .

But for Zhang Zhao, the goat's milk was sent out, but it was far from enough, because the ewes that were still producing milk in the winter were of the kind that were against the sky.

Because although the lactation period of sheep is always in rotation, theoretically they can produce milk all year round, but most of the habits still allow ewes to conceive in winter.

During pregnancy, there is no milk. If milk is needed, the ewes can only have their cubs in winter, so there must not be too much.

"There are about [-] babies in Tokyo, and [-] of them are short of milk, and the worst three hundred are already struggling on the verge of death. Our goat milk can feed up to [-] babies."

As the secret service department established by Zhang Zhao, Jinyi Envoy has also become a collector of folk information at this time, and Zhang Liecheng is reporting to Zhang Zhao.

Zhang Zhao nodded, he already had a plan, "Notify Cao Wantong of the Hexi Chamber of Commerce and your father-in-law Kang Jinshan, and ask them to transport a thousand catties of our sugar reserves to Tokyo.

Then let Chang'an stay at Cao Yuanzhong's side to send more soybeans and less corn, and prepare to grind soybean milk! "

If there is not enough goat milk, then use sweetened soy milk instead, and the bean dregs left over from grinding soy milk can also be given to pregnant women. As long as they are full, many people should still be able to produce milk.

"Here! Let's do it, baby!" Zhang Liecheng crossed his arms in response, and was about to leave when Zhang Zhao stopped him again.

"I heard that Erniang gave birth to a daughter again? Send it to the palace sometime so that someone can see this little granddaughter."

Zhang Liecheng had a look of joy on his face. He was an orphan picked up by Zhang Zhao from the Krakumzi desert. Since the day he followed Zhang Zhao, he really regarded Zhang Zhao as his father.

And because he didn't enjoy much warmth from his father when he was young, he especially cherishes Zhang Zhao's intimacy with him.

"When the mother arrives in Tokyo, the boy will ask the second mother to bring the children into the palace to pay homage."

As he said that, Zhang Liecheng felt a little disappointed, "It's a pity that the second mother and the third child are all daughters, and they couldn't give father a grandson."

Zhang Zhao smiled lightly. He knew that Zhang Liecheng had always wanted a son, but it was strange to say that he married one wife and two concubines, and gave birth to five daughters, but he couldn't bear a son. This has almost become Zhang Liecheng's heart disease up.

Zhang Zhao stroked his chin and thought for a while, then said to Zhang Liecheng.

"It may be that you and the Hexi woman can't have a son. In this way, Wang Gao Conghui of Nanping recently offended me. He heard that the daughter of the Gao family is gentle and virtuous, so let Gao Conghui send a niece to be your concubine. Maybe it's a different party. water and soil, a son will be born."

Hearing that Zhang Zhao cared so much about him and could still get a daughter of the Gao family, Zhang Liecheng couldn't help being overjoyed.

This is how he is. Because of his low background, he is very fond of family status.

The Gao family in Nanping is the head of a country, even if it is a niece, it can be called a noble daughter, which is exactly what Zhang Liecheng wants.

Immediately, he bowed to the bottom and thanked loudly: "Boy, thank you father for your gift."

"Get up! Get up quickly!" Zhang Zhao pretended to be disgusted and pulled Zhang Liecheng up, and then asked calmly.

"I heard that Er Niang has a lot of milk this time? The child can't eat at all."

Zhang Liecheng was stunned for a second or two, and then he understood the meaning of Zhang Zhao's words.

"The boy also felt that it was a waste, and the mother-in-law who had two servants at home also had milk and the child couldn't finish it. The boy immediately went back and ordered someone to collect it and distribute it to the children of the common people in Tokyo."

Zhang Zhao nodded in satisfaction, and patted Zhang Liecheng on the shoulder.

"Father didn't tell you the truth, you have always been a kind-hearted child, and you understand it.

Let's just talk about it from a small perspective. People's hearts are fleshy. In a disaster year, if we can save one, I will have one more loyal minister and righteous man in the future. "

Zhang Liecheng thought for a while, "Since this is the case, there are hundreds of noble and wealthy households in Tokyo, why don't the children take the lead in writing a letter, so that each family can share some milk and send it to the palace, and donate it to those babies who are short of milk every day?" .”

Zhang Zhao looked at Zhang Liecheng with comfort, "My son has good intentions in his heart, and in the future he will be full of seven sons and eight sons-in-law like King Fenyang of the Great Dynasty!"

Hearing these words, Zhang Liecheng was even more elated. Fenyang King Guo Ziyi had made great contributions to the state and he had no doubts about it. In the end, his children and grandchildren were all high-ranking officials in the court. It is not an exaggeration to say that this is the highest pursuit of a minister.

In a few words, Zhang Liecheng said as if he was stepping on cotton, and immediately went out to contact the wealthy households of Tokyo's honorable ministers, and donated milk to the babies of the common people's homes in Tokyo.

A few smiles appeared on Zhang Zhao's face, and then he began to write letters to Cao Nineniang Yanxi at the desk.

In addition to babies who need relief in this Tokyo city, there are also a large number of women who need relief.

These women were basically captured when the Khitan people entered the Central Plains, some were from Kaifeng Prefecture in Tokyo, and some were from prefectures and counties in Henan and Hebei.

Many of these family members have already been murdered and have nowhere to go. Many of those who have family members are also unable to return home.

Because these women who were robbed were all raped, and many of them were pregnant.

Although chastity is not particularly strict at this time, it is difficult for family members to accept those who have been raped by the Khitan people and even corrupted.

Taking a step back, the family can accept them and wrap themselves in it, but it is also difficult to accept the evil seeds in their stomachs.

At this time, there was no abortion operation. In order to return to their families, some of these women were three or four months pregnant, and they would take the risk of hitting the sharp corners of the stove and furniture with their belly to abort. Many of them died directly.

As for abandoned babies, those who were strangled to death after birth, or women who had no way to survive were frozen to death and starved to death everywhere.

The average number of these women is conservatively estimated to be more than 6000 people. Zhang Zhao plans to set up a comfort bureau to take them in and help them through this difficult time.

Those who can return to their families and normal society after giving birth, the children will be raised by the comfort bureau.

Those who can't return to the family can do something in the comfort bureau, and arrange for marriage or work in the palace in the future.

But Zhang Zhao is so busy all day, it is impossible to put too much energy on this place, so he can only hope that Cao Yanxi will come quickly. These things should be done by the empress who is the mother of the world.

After writing the letter to Cao Yanxi, Zhang Zhao walked outside the palace gate and looked at the dark Tokyo city outside.

He still had a lot of things to do, Liu Zhiyuan was growing stronger, and he was trying to rob Fulin and Linzhou from him, and Li Jing of the Southern Tang Dynasty was even more arrogant, extremely arrogant.

His big Zhou currently only occupies the Yellow River area from Guanzhong to Huazhou Baimadu, but it seems to be the first target to be attacked by all parties.

Originally, he wanted to cut through the chaos and defeat the enemy quickly, but the reality forced Zhang Zhao to adopt a strategy to calm the people.

Li Xiaojie dragged a long robe and walked to Zhang Zhao, Zhang Zhao waved his hand, indicating no need.

"Our next move can begin."

Zhang Zhao's so-called second-step plan is to give the baby's mother milk with bean dregs and offal of pigs, sheep, chickens and ducks after giving goat milk, human milk and sugar soy milk.

As for the taste being really bad, that's out of Zhang Zhao's consideration.

People in Tokyo don't even care, people are going to starve to death, so they don't care about whether it's delicious or not.

Of course, this continues to give things, in addition to solving the problem of lack of milk for lactating women at the root, it is also to make other people feel unfair, thereby amplifying their gratitude.

People's hearts have always been more concerned about unevenness than scarcity, and it is not uncommon for Sheng Mien and Dou Michou to happen.

There are many examples of Shi En not paying attention to methods and strategies, but in the end it backfired.

Sure enough, after Zhang Zhao bestowed milk and food on breastfeeding women, strange voices from the people rose up.

Famine years are not easy for any family. There are no babies in this family, but there are many children of a few years old. They eat more and the burden on the family is heavier.

This time there were babies, but there were no children. Some people dared not speak out, but they complained a lot in private.

What kind of sage is eccentric, only cares about the baby and doesn't care about other things, there must be treacherous ministers who deceived the sage, so he came out.

Wang Silang was holding a bowl of milk. With tears in his eyes, he watched his son swallow it mouthful, and said to his wife very gratefully.

"This was sent from the Zhang Mansion in the north of the city. This is the food of the saint's granddaughter. Save it for us children in Qianshou."

His wife also nodded gratefully, "Eat the mouth of the saint's granddaughter, their life will belong to the saint. When they grow up, they will not learn how to make flax cakes, but practice guns and sticks to kill enemies for the saint."

Wang Silang was about to nod his head in agreement, when a strange voice came through the narrow fence.

"Hmph! Your son is still peeing his pants. When he kills the enemy for the saint, the day lily will be cold. My Hutou is nine years old, and he will be able to pick up a gun in a few years.

such a pity!The sage is eccentric, he only loves the little ones and doesn't care about the older ones, this is in my hometown, whichever ancestors do this, they must not want someone to die. "

Wang Silang was at the moment when he was most grateful to Zhang Zhao, how could he bear these words, and it was not a day or two that Zhao Jiulang next door said such sarcastic remarks.

In the past, the short Wang Silang would never have dared to clash with Zhao Jiulang, but at this moment, Wang Silang would not allow anyone to slander the saint even a little bit.

With a roar, Wang Silang slammed through the fence, rushed directly to Zhao Jiulang's house, and fought with him.

However, Zhao Jiulang was a helper in a butcher's shop, and he had pigs and sheep in the water on weekdays, and he had nothing to eat every day, so he was stronger than Wang Silang by a whole ring.

This Zhao Jiulang's family is about to run out of food, and the child is a bit older, and he has not been rewarded, and his heart is suffocating.

As soon as the two started fighting, although Wang Silang yelled and resisted vigorously, he was quickly pushed to the ground and received several severe blows on his body.

"Zhao Jiulang who fell into your mother, you dare to say that you are not a saint, I will beat you to death!"

At this time, there was a roar, and the donkey on Wednesday, who also had a baby at home, ran over to help.

Although the donkey was quite thin on Wednesday, the two-on-one immediately reversed the situation. Zhao Jiulang could only be tired of resisting and took several hits.

When the man started fighting, the woman naturally wouldn't watch from the sidelines.

Wang Silang's daughter-in-law also ran over while still breastfeeding, so when the three men fought, the three women also fought together.

It's just that the situation is different from the men's side. Zhao Jiulang's wife is a well-known heavyweight.

The word heavy is heavy in the literal sense.

This woman was about the same size as Zhao Jiulang, and she was notoriously difficult to mess with. Both Mrs. Wang and Mrs. Zhou were beat up by Mrs. Zhao until they cried like hell.

There was a fight here, which quickly alarmed the neighbors around. After hearing what happened, the crowd quickly split and the noise became louder.

At this moment, Mr. Fang ran over with a ding ding dong dong, and when he saw that there was a fight here, he was very angry.

However, given that the battle had entered a fever pitch, Mr. Fang did not notify Marquis Wu. With his old body, he really didn't dare to go up to try to persuade him to fight.

Moreover, Mr. Fang could clearly see that the emotions of the neighbors around him were not quite right, and he immediately knew what was going on. It was all caused by this reward, but now he has a big killer.

Mr. Fang took out a piece of silk cloth full of characters, and with some difficulty, he read it out with an unusually loud voice.

".During the past ten years, Tokyo was devastated and devastated. People's livelihood was very difficult. However, there is no king in the world. The scholars and common people are all my sons. Today, a special allocation of corn, thousands of stones, and a number of melons and fruits are given to children from one year old to ten years old. . . ”

Old Fang stammered and finished reading, the surrounding neighbors and the six people who were fighting were all stunned.

At this time on Wednesday, the donkey was pulling Zhao Jiulang's hair, Wang Silang was holding Zhao Jiulang's thigh to bite, and Zhao Jiulang's fist had already hit Wang Silang's face.

Suddenly, Zhao Jiulang pushed away the two people beside him, his red and swollen face showed a look of joy, he looked at Mr. Fang, and asked in surprise.

"Everyone has not forgotten me, my tiger head can be fed by everyone?"

In fact, Zhao Jiulang's family's food was still barely enough to support them, but they were barely enough to eat, so they could only eat half full.

What he cared most about was actually that his son did not get the light of the imperial bestowal.

Old Fang's nose puffed, and he didn't care whether Zhao Jiulang could read or not, so he pointed to one of the passages for him to read.

"You are an idiot, look at this place, do you know what it means that the common people are all my sons? That is to say, the saint is the father of all of us, and the father will not treat one more than another."

Zhao Jiulang was illiterate at first, but he seemed to understand it. His round face was full of joy again.

He stretched out his hand and pulled his son's tiger's head like lightning, and ran towards Daning Palace as if flying.

Hutou had just knocked over Donkey's eldest son on Wednesday, and was still panting, and was immediately held by his father, like a kite, fluttering and disappearing from the eyes of the neighbors.

A thousand stones of corn sounds like a lot, but after one point, it is definitely not much.

Zhao Jiulang wouldn't have cared much about this reward if he hadn't been stimulated by Wang Silang and the donkey family on Wednesday.

But this time, he was as happy as if Zhang Zhao only gave his family a thousand shi of corn.

Babies got the meals given by the emperor, and children under the age of ten also got the food, and the impetuousness of the people in Tokyo calmed down immediately.

But everyone was looking forward to it, looking forward to the saint in the Daning Palace. They felt that something good would definitely happen.

Sure enough, on the third day, a super heavy news spread throughout Tokyo.

The emperor mobilized 150,000 shi of military rations and allowed the people of Tokyo to buy military rations at the price of the previous year's good harvest to tide over the difficulties. If the merchants were willing to sell, the difference in price would be subsidized by the emperor himself.

You must know that the price of grain at this time is almost five times lower than that in the good year. If you can buy the grain at the price of the good year, it will undoubtedly greatly strengthen the ability of ordinary people to deal with the disaster year.

As soon as this order came out, the city of Tokyo cheered, and everyone praised the saint's benevolence.

Word spread that the sage had said that no citizen in Tokyo would starve to death.

Things have come to this point, but Zhang Zhao doesn't even feel relieved. All this depends on the changes in the next few days, because he actually doesn't have 150,000 shi of extra military rations available.

Even if there was, he would not dare to use it indiscriminately. If the army is in chaos, it will really be over.

It's just that he doesn't have 150,000 shi of grain, but others do.

That is to occupy more than [-]% of the land in Kaifeng Prefecture, Tokyo, and even the entire Henan area. They are still building docks and training rural soldiers to protect themselves.

Although the past two years have been disaster years, there is a saying in the countryside that it is called to have enough food in three years of severe drought.

This is not to say that the crops will grow well after three years of drought, but that after three years of drought, people will almost die, and the remaining people will have enough to eat.

This is the situation now, after three years of natural disasters and man-made disasters, almost everyone in the countryside will die.

The people who survived and were able to enter Wubao can still squeeze out some food, but they dare not transport it out.

This is another important reason why Zhang Zhao did not dare to provide military food relief in Tokyo.

If you open military rations, the price of food will go down, and the food from the surrounding countryside will not enter Tokyo. Unless you can use military rations to keep up, otherwise, the price of food will inevitably increase in retaliation.

But Zhang Zhao’s current edict is to show that he has a lot of food, and second, to admit in disguise the current price of food, the people buy it at a low price, and the government subsidizes it.

In the past, there must be some people who would not believe it, but after two summons to implement benevolent government, the reputation has been established somewhat, and the food in the countryside may dare to enter Tokyo and other cities.

However, Zhang Zhao still felt that it was not safe, so the last resort, returning the gold and silver jewelry of the common people, was immediately on the agenda.

(End of this chapter)