Datang: Starting from a fortune-telling stall, Wu Zetian was suddenly abducted

Chapter 60: Fighting with the Locust God
The next day.

time.

Li Shimin, his eldest grandson, Li Chengqian, Li Tai and all the civil and military officials arrived at the place of sacrifice.

A bluestone altar about three stories high has been erected here.

At the top of the altar stand three statues of Sanqing gods about ten feet high.

Placed under the statue are large sacrifices of three animals and five animals.

Placed further down is a large plate full of fried locusts that are golden, crispy, attractive in color, and as thin as a finger.

The audience was already densely packed with people from surrounding counties, at least tens of thousands of people.

As the sacrificial official announced that the time had come, Li Shimin, his eldest grandson, and Li Chengqian slowly climbed onto the altar.

Kowtow, burn incense and pray in one go.

After everything was finished, Li Shimin turned around, looked at the dense crowd of people under the altar and said:
"Dear fellow villagers. I, Li Shimin, invite you here today to witness a few things."

"The first thing I want to do is let everyone see my wife and son."

As he said this, he asked Queen Changsun and Li Chengqian to come to him.

"Folks, you should have heard such rumors a few days ago, saying that because I, Li Shimin, offended the locust god by killing locusts, the locust god cursed my wife and son to die."

"Now you all see that they are all standing here properly, and the curse of the Locust God has no effect."

"But I want to ask everyone, why is Li Chengqian exterminating locusts? Is it for himself or for the villagers?"

After saying this, many people below had seen Li Chengqian and they were all talking about it.

"His Majesty the Emperor is right to ask. Why did the Prince kill the locusts? It was not just to make us stutter."

"For us, he fights against the Locust God every day. If you ask me, the Prince is much better than that cold-blooded Locust God."

"If you ask me, the Locust God will definitely not be able to defeat the Crown Prince. Look, the Crown Prince is just standing there properly now."

After everyone discussed for a while, Li Shimin then spoke:
"The Locust God is not scary. People who spread rumors and have ulterior motives are scary."

"Look at these people, do you recognize them?"

As he finished speaking, the Nanya Army escorted more than a dozen people wearing prison uniforms to the altar.

The people were surprised when they looked at this group of people.

"Isn't this our Nan Batian from Yunyang County? Why is this man spreading rumors about the Queen and the Crown Prince?"

"Isn't this Zhou Bapi from Huayuan County? Why is he spreading rumors?"

"I know this person"

As everyone was talking, Guo Xiaoke walked up with a writ in his hand and began to read out loud the charges against these ten people:

Running rampant in the countryside, the common people do evil things, bullying men and dominating women.
What these people have in common is that they maliciously spread rumors to slander the queen and prince in order to protect their own interests from losses.

After Guo Xiaoke finished his announcement, Li Shimin said again:
"If these people are just spreading rumors, I, Li Shimin, can tolerate it."

"But looking at the numerous evil deeds they have committed, I, Li Shimin, must kill them and give an explanation to the people."

"Everyone said, should we kill these evildoers?"

The common people will not care about these evil people spreading rumors about Li Shimin, because it does not involve their own vital interests.

But when Li Shimin talked about all the evil deeds they had committed, the people below were already very angry.

The people tied up on the stage are all bullies who are causing trouble for one party. Everyone has done harm to others. There are many victims who are here today.

When Li Shimin asked if he wanted to kill them, there was a sound like a landslide and tsunami from the audience:
"Kill them, kill them."

After Li Shimin heard this, he waved his hand to Guo Xiaoke, and Guo Xiaoke took the group of people into custody.

After a while, more than ten bloody human heads were presented and placed in a sacrificial position. The scene was quite bloody.

There were also some people in the crowd who spread rumors, but they were lucky enough not to be caught. Seeing this bloody scene, they were so frightened that their legs weakened.

Everyone secretly vowed never to spread rumors again.

Li Shimin looked at the performance of the people below and nodded with satisfaction.

Under his hard and soft tactics, these rumors against them will never happen again.

He looked at the people in the audience and said:

"Fellow folks, we have prepared a special food for you today: fried locusts." While he was speaking, someone had already lifted the plate of locusts to the low table beside him.

Li Shimin pointed to the plate of locusts and said: "Not counting people from the official family. Among the villagers, whoever dares to come up to eat locusts first will be rewarded with a hundred gold coins. The second one will be rewarded with fifty gold coins."

"The third one, until everyone has finished eating this plate of locusts."

Eating locusts?
And eating locusts in front of so many people?

What if I am cursed by the Locust God?
Many people in the audience fell into deep thought as they looked at the plate of locusts.

After a while,

I heard someone in the crowd shouting, "I'm coming."

Everyone looked around and saw a tall, strong man walking onto the stage.

He saluted Li Shimin and said:

"The Fourth King of Caomin has met His Majesty."

"I have never believed in ghosts and gods, but today I am willing to be the first to eat locusts in front of everyone."

Li Shimin stroked his beard and said, "A brave man is commendable for his courage."

Wang Si turned around and came to the plate of locusts. He reached out and grabbed a handful of locusts and stuffed them into his mouth.

The moment he entered his mouth, the people in the audience almost all let out worried exclamations.

After Wang Si chewed a few more mouthfuls, he stretched his neck and swallowed.

He said it was delicious, then grabbed another handful and ate it.

Just when he grabbed the second one, someone else was already walking towards the stage, "If you can't win the first one, you can't miss the second one."

When they got to the stage, after paying homage to Li Shimin, they came to Wang Si's side and started eating together.

third, fourth.
Soon a plate of locusts was eaten clean.

Those who had eaten the locusts happily counted their money and talked about the taste of the locusts. They all said that the locusts tasted good and they should eat them the same way when they got home.

Many people in the audience who did not eat locusts regretted it in their hearts even though they did not say anything.

But more people have eliminated their fear of the Locust God because of today's series of actions.

Li Shimin returned to the stage now and said to everyone in the audience:
"The fourth thing is that I, the True Dragon Emperor, will declare war on the Locust God."

"Let's see who is more powerful, the Locust God, or me, the True Dragon Emperor."

After speaking, he took the lead to get off the high platform, with Changsun and Li Chengqian following closely behind.

Under the gaze of everyone, Li Shimin went straight to the edge of the field, bent down and caught a locust that was eating the crops.

He said to the locust:
"How can the people live without food, but you have to eat the food? If the people do something wrong, then I will bear all the consequences.

"If you, the God of Locusts, are really efficacious, you can eat my heart."

After saying this, he put the locust into his mouth.

Immediately, a minister next to him knelt down and said, "No, Your Majesty. These locusts are extremely filthy. I'm afraid they may be poisonous and hurt Your Majesty."

Li Shimin laughed, "Today I am going to have a real encounter with this poisonous thing and this locust god."

After saying that, he threw the locust directly into his mouth.

The eldest grandson who watched all this did not say a word. After Li Shimin ate the locusts, he also went over to catch a locust and said to Li Shimin:

"Second brother, let me accompany you." After saying that, he put the locust into his mouth.

Li Chengqian walked over without hesitation, picked up a locust and put it in his mouth.

Changsun Wuji, Wei Zheng, Cheng Zhijie
All civil and military officials walked into the fields silently and supported Li Shimin with actions.

The people who saw this scene were all moved.

Your majesty is really desperate. For the sake of us common people, not to mention eating locusts, even the queen and the crown prince ate them. If something happens, no one in the family will be able to survive.

I don't know who shouted, "Fight with the Locust God."

"Yes, kill all the locusts."

Many people shouted and rushed to the fields to start catching locusts.

(End of this chapter)