Cultivation of chastity

Chapter 4

Li Tai and Dou Jing bid farewell, and on the way back to Sinong Temple, he said to Zhao Yuankai, "Zhao Shaoqing, Dou Sinong said that you are familiar with the affairs of Sinong Temple, and I happened to ask for your help with something, I wonder if it bothers you."

"King Yue, you are serious. If you have anything to do, please tell me!" Zhao Yuankai respectfully said to Li Tai.

Li Taidao: "Dou Si Nong believes that only the gods can save the locust plague.

But in China, since ancient times, there has been a sky in the sky, Nuwa mended the sky, floods raged, Dayu controlled the floods, the common people cooked food, and Shen Nong plowed the valley.

The so-called heaven is healthy, the gentleman is self-improvement, if people do not help themselves, how can heaven save, if people do not help themselves, how can heaven help. "

Listening to Li Tai's words, Zhao Yuankai felt a little touched.

But after all, he is only an eight-year-old child, if he said that Zhao Yuankai would bow down and be frightened by the bastard's anger, it would be wishful thinking.

And when Li Tai said this, he only wanted to increase Zhao Yuankai's enthusiasm.

After all, I didn't give money, so I can only give spiritual encouragement.

Li Tai pondered for a while, then continued,

"I think that if you want to control locusts, you need to find their natural enemies, and when the locusts come, let them come and go, instead of praying to the locust god and resigning to fate!"

"Who is the natural enemy of locusts?" Zhao Yuankai asked.

Li Taidao: "As long as migratory locusts have not yet formed, birds that can eat grasshoppers can become their natural enemies.

Relatively speaking, ducks are easy to raise. At least find a way to raise them for one season, until July and August.

Therefore, I hope you can find a field outside the city and send people to raise chickens and ducks. The more the number, the better, it will be of great use. "

"Yuan Kai will definitely handle this matter properly." Zhao Yuankai agreed with a serious expression.

Li Tai looked at Zhao Yuankai's positive appearance, and felt a little uneasy in his heart. He was not a bastard, so how could he have the arrogance of a bastard to make him come closer like this.

Li Taidao: "Mr. Hardworking, please go back and make a charter. You can come to my house tomorrow to discuss with me in detail. Only with a thorough plan can we successfully implement this matter!"

"The king of Yue has a heart!" Zhao Yuankai clasped his fists when he heard Li Tai's words, and said respectfully to Li Tai.

After Li Tai and Zhao Yuankai finished speaking, they left and returned home, not even interested in going back to Sinong Temple.

Li Tai understood that he was not going to work in Sinong Temple, and it was meaningless to stay there to check the files. It was better to keep an eye on the matter of locust resistance and make achievements.

Li Tai understood that if Dou Jing hadn't seen the locust temple's uselessness in fighting locusts, then it was impossible for him to support his plan.

Therefore, the fight against locusts must be done slowly, and an opportunity must be found for him to join forces with him.

If you want to accomplish something, you can’t just watch other people’s jokes, but do your best to unite all the forces that can be united, and achieve the same goal by different routes. As long as the goal is the same, seeking common ground while reserving differences is the normal choice to attract more forces.

Li Tai returned to the Yue Palace, and after the roll call, Bai He immediately came out to welcome Li Tai and followed Li Tai.

Li Tai went back to the study, and he had to wait for Zhao Yuankai to come over to discuss the details of locust resistance.

After all, I can speak the truth, but it is not very clear how many people to hire, how many ducks to buy, where to graze, how much money is needed, etc.

Therefore, Zhao Yuankai needs to sort out the materials and come over tomorrow to discuss together.

As for myself, after asking Lu Anshou to inquire about Zhao Yuankai's affairs, I began to copy the "Book of Rites" honestly.

Although there are only more than 5000 characters, it was written with a brush. When I finished writing, I couldn't lift my hands.

Li Tai asked Bai He to tidy up, so she was asked to leave first. Li Tai opened a black drawer of his own, and even the space inside the drawer was black.

Li Tai looked at the hair lying on the side of the book as usual, but this time, the hair had been pressed under the diary.

"Mom finally remembered to read the diary. It's been so long since I came out. If my mother doesn't come to get the diary again, I don't know how to write it down!"

Li Tai smiled, took out this diary, and continued to write today's events.

At the age of six, after I finished studying "Thousand Characters", I officially started to write a diary, so as to communicate with my parents well.

At the beginning, I just wrote some words such as today is sunny and the sky is cloudy, but later it gradually increased to Aye’s compliment today, I was very happy, A Niang made new clothes for Qingque, etc., write down specific examples and Feel, pick up more words to make parents happy.

After writing, press it with a paperweight and wait for it to dry slowly.

During this process, a servant in the study would come in to tidy up, and even Empress Changsun would occasionally come in to check on her homework.

Even if Empress Changsun didn't peep, she would take the initiative to organize the diary into a book as an excuse, and ask someone to bind the diary into a book every month for safekeeping. The process will naturally become more operable.

Creatures like parents, as long as they are literate, will basically look at the diary after knowing that you keep a diary.

The purpose is to understand children as much as possible. For children, perhaps this is the only channel for parents to listen to their own voices.

As for the effect... Occasionally, I will remember the little things between myself and my brothers and sisters.

For example, my elder brother robbed my dessert Yulu Tuan and ate it, and my sister saw that my Yulu Tuan was snatched away by my brother, so she gave me her share.

Then the next day, Li Chengqian was fined to stand because he couldn't recite Chunqiu Zuozhuan.

Anyway, during that time, as long as Li Chengqian did something bad, it would be a disaster.

I originally thought that after I opened the mansion, the method of writing a diary might not be useful.

So I originally planned to keep it for a year and then quit slowly, but it is not necessary now. A stable channel to communicate with parents is still very important.

After all, the person who writes the diary can have any bad thoughts, but he just talks to himself.

At this moment, Li Tai wrote all his different ideas from Dou Jing's and his desire to try to domesticate poultry to control locust resistance in the diary, and then carefully put the diary back into the wooden grid.

Li Tai looked at the hair, and instead of putting it in the dark compartment, he flicked the hair away casually.

Li Tai murmured, "Since it is known that my mother has moved the diary, then this warning is unnecessary, and it will be discovered if there are too many times.

What I originally wanted was to send the diary to Aye and his mother, but now the channel has been re-established.

In my study room, only Bai He can enter alone in Yue Wangfu, and it is Bai He who wants to touch this diary. "

To be honest, in any wealthy family, the study room is an important place, and those who can enter and leave the study room are basically confidantes.

And Bai He is the big maid arranged by Empress Changsun. Basically, when there is no mistress, Bai He manages the entire inner courtyard of the Yue Palace.

Therefore, Bai He was the only one who could enter and leave his study reasonably without causing suspicion.

And Baihe's loyalty to the eldest grandson empress or Li Shimin, rather than to his eight-year-old self, is taken for granted in Li Tai's view.

After all, as long as it is a normal person, it will not be loyal to an eight-year-old child, at most it is based on the care of the child's parents.

Therefore, Li Tai didn't feel too much about the eyeliner of many parents around him, but felt a little lucky.

Only purely selfish people will pursue the so-called absolute loyalty, and no flaws can be tolerated.

But the reality is that we require the same while reserving differences, and the vast majority of people in this world are the ones with the light and the same dust.

As long as people have their own different positions and wills, what the superior needs is like-minded comrades-in-arms, not just numb and loyal slaves.

Soon the next day came, Li Tai got up under the care of Bai He as usual, and followed Lu Anshou to exercise.

And he had just finished exercising, Zhao Yuankai came to ask to see him early in the morning, he was a little too attentive.

However, Li Tai also inquired about Zhao Yuankai's deeds a little yesterday, and learned some gossip about Zhao Yuankai.

Zhao Yuankai was recently publicly criticized by Dou Jing in the Sinong Temple, so the bureaucrats under the Sinong Temple always walked around seeing Zhao Yuankai, so as not to be implicated by Zhao Yuankai.

Of course, Zhao Yuankai has status and ability in Sinong Temple, and he can still do it if he wants to order people around.

However, Dou Jing was trusted by Li Shimin at the top, and supported by the officials of Sinong Temple, and Zhao Yuankai was publicly criticized by Dou Jing, so naturally he was a little bit embarrassed in the Temple of Sinong.

So now Zhao Yuankai is also holding his breath, wanting to make some meritorious deeds.

This time against locusts, since Dou Jing didn't even have a cold butt to stick to, so when Li Tai, an unexpected person, appeared, Zhao Yuankai decisively came over to burn the cold stove.

In particular, Zhao Yuankai himself is similar to a courtier, and he is strictly from a Legalist background, so he doesn't really believe in the theory of the induction between heaven and man, and feels that Li Tai's method is more or less reliable.

For this kind of people, as long as they are motivated enough, it is actually easy to become a capable official.

"Meet the King of Yue!" Zhao Yuankai saluted Li Tai respectfully when he saw Li Tai.

"Excuse me, Zhao Shaoqing, have you had breakfast yet? Why don't we have it together?" Zhao Yuankai asked while Li Tai was eating breakfast.

"King Xie Yue, I have already eaten in the mansion." Zhao Yuankai shook his head and said.

"Then wait for me, we'll go to the study to talk about things after we finish eating." Li Tai wolfed down his breakfast in a hurry.

After eating, he wiped his mouth with a sweat towel and put it on the table for the servants to clean up.

Just as he was about to leave, Li Tai turned around and said to Bai He, "Come together, and record the discussion between me and Zhao Shaoqing. With this as a reference, we can do things better in the future."

"No!" Bai He respectfully replied to Li Tai upon hearing Li Tai's words.

Soon, Li Tai and Zhao Shaoqing came to the study, and Zhao Shaoqing said: "According to the request of the king of Yue, it is necessary to build a flock of ducks to resist the locust plague. I went to the Taipu Temple yesterday to count the number of ducks and poultry. There are about ten thousand ducks. number!"

"More than [-]...is the number so small?" Li Tai couldn't help being a little stunned. These are Chang'an ducks. Is it reasonable to have so many?
"The imperial court's business is to raise horses and cattle. Most chickens, ducks and poultry are only used for occasional food in the palace, and..."

Zhao Shaoqing said cautiously,

"If there are too many chickens and ducks, it is easy to suffer from plague, and if they die, a large number of them will die. However, there may be rich folks who raise a few chickens and ducks as a subsidy for their family."

"How many ducks can we have, and send a special person to manage them." Li Tai asked seriously.

"Five thousand at most. After all, the Department of Food and Animal Husbandry cannot stop the duck category!" Zhao Shaoqing replied, obviously prepared.

"Then borrow the five thousand!" Li Tai took a deep breath and said, "You need to find a group of experts who are good at raising ducks, and raise the ducks in batches of five hundred or one thousand. At least not all of them died."

Zhao Shaoqing said calmly: "Please rest assured, King Yue, this matter can be settled.

Because of the locust plague, most of the land outside the city is empty, so it is not difficult to find a place to raise ducks!

As for the manpower, I have already borrowed 20 people from the Shepherd's Office, and our Sinong Temple will send some more people. It is no problem to take care of the [-] ducks temporarily. "

"It's not enough!" Li Tai shook his head and said, "There are only five thousand ducks, it is impossible to resist the locusts in May.

And we must at least resist the wave of locusts in July and August, and fight for the last chance for winter wheat planting.

So if you want to contain the locust plague in the entire Guanzhong, the number of ducks must be at least 20! "

"20..." Zhao Shaoqing was stunned, and murmured, "King Yue, did I hear too many twos!"

Even Bai He, who had been taking minutes of the meeting, put down the pen in his hand and looked at Li Tai in astonishment. This number really cannot be written at the moment!

The Sui and Tang Dynasties reached the prosperous stage. Because of the demand for chicken, the selection of poultry breeds and eggs, and the impact of the ratio of male and female in poultry breeding on hatching and brooding, chickens and ducks began to be raised on a large scale among the people.

As for the emergence of artificial hatching techniques such as "cow dung hatching method", "fire roasting method" and "soup (fire search) method", it can be traced back to the Song Dynasty!
But now it's only the early days of Zhenguan, even after a disaster, no one thinks about artificial hatching at all.

So Li Tai said this goal, both Zhao Shaoqing and Bai He were full of astonishment.

"So doing this requires talents, land and funds!" Li Tai said seriously.

"King Yue please explain in detail!" Hearing Li Tai's words, Zhao Shaoqing couldn't help saying seriously.

Li Tai explained: "First of all, we need the technology of artificial egg incubation, which requires the talents of artificial egg incubation.

Whether we can succeed in fighting locusts and whether the technology of artificial egg incubation can be overcome are the most critical ones.

After conquering this step, we need a large number of breeding talents, at least after the number of ducks reaches 20, no plague will be caused.

Avoiding locust plagues has not yet gone, but duck plague has come first, which requires us to have enough talent reserves.

On the land, I know that the place where ducks live needs to have water, and at the same time, the place where they live should not be too small, otherwise they will easily get sick.

Outside the city, whether those hungry people will do something to the ducks, and whether they want to protect them, this also needs to be considered.

At the same time, when the number of ducks increases, the food for the ducks will also become a burden.

With 20 ducks, it is unrealistic to rely on them to find food on their own. We definitely need to subsidize their food.

So to do all of this, money is a must, and a lot of it! "

"Can't I ask the court for this?" Zhao Shaoqing asked with some doubts.

Li Tai looked at Zhao Shaoqing in shock, and said, "Do you think the imperial court will allocate funds to you for things that haven't been confirmed?!"

Zhao Shaoqing thought about it for a while, and gave up helplessly, because he found that at least in the early stage, he could only work with subsidized money, and it was unrealistic to expect the imperial court to allocate money.

(End of this chapter)