Carrying AK into Ming Dynasty

Chapter 482 Come out to mix, always have to pay back

The plague of locusts is a species that has plagued humans around the world for thousands of years. They are as weak as ants and are despised by humans. However, for thousands of years, humans have extinct one species after another, but locusts have never been truly defeated.

Locust plagues are generally accompanied by drought. There is an old saying that when drought is extreme, locusts will come, and everything will disappear when the sky is covered and the sun is covered.

The moment he heard the news, Liu Hongjian knew that even if the dam was flooded as planned, this year's autumn seed production in the north would probably be greatly reduced.

Shanxi and Shaanxi were fine. After all, they had a bumper crop of potatoes and sweet potatoes, and even if they failed to harvest in autumn, they could temporarily cope with it.

The locusts tend to move towards water and like low-lying depressions. The terrain of Shanxi is slightly higher than that of Henan and Shandong. The locust disaster may be transferred to these two places within a month.

This was tantamount to a catastrophe for the two populous provinces. Under Chongzhen's roar, the cabinet urgently discussed and mobilized grain and rice from the south to the north via water transport.

The disaster was even more violent than expected. On the third day of September, the locust plague in northern Henan was full of starvation.

Chongzhen was so anxious that he ordered Liu Hongjian to rush to Henan for disaster relief with the first batch of relief food.

On the Double Ninth Festival on the ninth day of September, Liu Hongjian led [-] cavalry guards to arrive at Liyangcang, Junxian County, Henan Province.

Jun County is a locust plague-stricken area, and almost all of the county was affected. Although Liu Yongshan, the county magistrate, loves the people like a son, he is helpless. It will take half a month for the food transportation team to arrive.

The population of Henan is too large, and the production in the north is reduced, and the rice in the south is simply not enough to meet such a huge gap.

Moreover, the treasury was empty and there was no more money to collect grain. What made Chongzhen and Liu Hongjian even more angry was that Zheng Zhilong took the opportunity to raise the price of rice and grain to amass money wantonly.

Anger is all about anger, but this account has to be written down first, and one day Liu Hongjian will let this old bastard spit out the money with interest.

"Liuzhi County, go and prepare some locusts for this king, and order a few people from each village and town to come. This king will teach the people something tomorrow."

Liu Hongjian's strange order made Liu Yongshan puzzled, but there were so many locusts that he could catch a large basket with just a few yamen servants walking around with net bags.

In the morning of the second day, the county government had already gathered village officials from all over the country, a total of one hundred people.

According to Liu Hongjian's arrangement, several large iron pots were set up at the entrance of the county government office, with all kinds of oil, salt, sauce and vinegar, and several stoves were burning with charcoal fire.

"Folks, Henan was severely affected by the disaster. Your Majesty was worried about disturbing the people in Henan and could not sleep at night. He sent me to come here to relieve the disaster. However, the food is far away on the way. Today, the king summoned you to teach you a little bit.

Grasshoppers can eat our food, can't we eat grasshoppers? "Liu Hongjian's words were astonishing, and as soon as he finished speaking, the people surrounding him exploded.

It is also said that the imperial envoys came to distribute food and relief, but they did not expect to let them eat disgusting locusts. Isn't this humiliating them?
Liu Hongjian knew that it was difficult to convince the public. After all, the people at this time were not later generations. People of later generations ate too much good food, so they wanted to try something new when they had nothing to do. Scorpions, centipedes, poisonous snakes and grasshoppers, as long as you can think of them, foodie We can reach new heights.

And this group of idle foodies threatened that as long as the round-trip travel expenses are reimbursed, you will eat up all the oysters from the Netherlands, carp from the country M, and hairy crabs from Australia.

Although the people at this time were simple and simple, they had lived on whole grains since ancient times, even with little meat, so that even when they were hungry, they never thought of eating insects even when they were hungry.

Liu Hongjian just wanted to change their thinking, telling them that as long as the Chinese are willing to use their brains, they will not be troubled by eating. Grasshoppers eat our food, so we will eat grasshoppers. , always have to pay back.

Regardless of the complaints of the people, Liu Hongjian started to arrange lunch, and several large net bags of fresh grasshoppers were piled up next to the cauldron.

At this time, the crops are free of pesticides and pollution, and the grasshoppers eat pure natural and pollution-free weed crops.

The washed grasshoppers are dipped in cornmeal, white noodles, mung bean noodles and other miscellaneous grains, and put them in the hot oil pan, and the oily yellow oranges are fried in a moment.

Sprinkle with salt, pepper and other seasonings, and a pot of fried grasshoppers will be freshly baked in a short time.

When the aroma of fried grasshoppers overflowed, the common people had already stopped making noise, and even their taste buds had been mobilized by the aroma. They hadn't had a full meal for a long time, let alone meat.

All the people stared at the imperial envoy with bated breath, or stared at the fried grasshoppers in the bamboo basket. Even Liu Yongshan, the magistrate, swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

Liu Hongjian was not hypocritical, and directly picked up a fried grasshopper, looked at it against the sun, and put it in his mouth.

"Mmm - delicious! Everyone try it, chicken tastes good, is crunchy, and the protein content is four times that of beef!" Liu Hongjian immediately began to boast about the king's wife selling melons.

It's not a lie, in fact, the taste is really not bad, it's just that the people's ideas can't be changed for a while.

A few villages were brave enough to go forward and pinch one closed eye and put it in their mouth as if to execute a torture, but after chewing it twice, they opened their eyes, and the eyes even shone.

"Delicious! Delicious! Wang Ermazi, Li Erlian, you should try it too, I'm not lying to you." The man immediately grabbed a handful from the bamboo basket and stuffed his mouth full.

One person started, and the grasshoppers were eaten up in the first pot of fried grasshoppers in an instant, and the common people were still a little bit unsatisfied.

"How is it? Is the taste okay?" Liu Hongjian asked the people in a circle with a smile on his face.

"Medium, it's delicious, it's great!" Several villages were still full of ideas, but some people were also frowning.

"It's just that the imperial envoy, grain and oil are precious, we are all poor people, how can there be so much oil to fry this grasshopper." A villager said with courage.

"Well said, I will teach you another trick today." Liu Hongjian immediately ordered, and several county clerks took out a bundle of thinly sliced ​​bamboo sticks, and began to string grasshoppers and put them on the charcoal fire Smoked.

While smoked and grilled, soy sauce and other condiments were spread on it, and after a while, there was another smell of meat.

"This is a roasted grasshopper. If you are really poor, you only need to smear it with salt water. If there is no salt, the king is in charge. Every family can come to the county government to get three qian of green salt every day."

Grasshoppers can be eaten in many ways. They can be deep-fried, smoked and grilled, steamed, vinegared, and even made into grasshopper sauce. Grilled grasshoppers with grasshopper sauce are even more delicious.

Liu Hongjian felt a lot more relieved when he saw the people in Jun County commenting on their food and eating happily.

It is conceivable that within a few days, the news that grasshoppers are edible and delicious will spread like wildfire, and it is even more conceivable that in a short time, hardworking people will catch grasshoppers all over the crops.

Yes, grasshoppers eat our food, why don't we eat grasshoppers?

The disaster relief food arrived as scheduled, but the drop in the bucket was not enough at all, and the court was short of money and could not make ends meet.

Speaking of which, Liu Hongjian dug this hole. A year ago, Liu Hongjian proposed that Chongzhen reduce the national land tax to relieve the pressure on the people. Now it seems that the broken teeth have to be swallowed.

But Liu Hongjian didn't regret it at all. The wine and meat of the wealthy family stinks, and the roads are frozen to death. It's not terrible that the court is poor.

After patrolling Henan for half a month to find out the situation of the disaster, Liu Hongjian took his personal guards and headed for the capital.

Da Ming has plenty of money, and he knows who owns it.

Since they are unwilling to obediently hand it over, this time, I will make you kneel and sing Conquer!
(End of this chapter)