Landlord of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 367
The Golden Temple bird inspection is to let people catch a few birds at random among the birds going north, open their stomachs in public, and look at the food in their stomachs to know how the harvest was last year.Birds, especially sparrows, like to forage in the field. If there is rice in the stomach, it means that the harvest in the field is good. If the stomach is relatively empty, or it is full of worms and straw, it means that last year's harvest was relatively poor.However, it is obviously unreasonable to inspect the birds in the Golden Temple, because the sparrows flew from the south to the north, and the food in their stomachs must have been changed. What is known is not much about the harvest in the suburbs of Chang'an.

But there is always a form, and Xu Qing can't escape this time anyway.
-
In front of Taimiao

Li Yuan led the clansmen, Pei Ji led all the civil and military officials, and Xu Qing was also here.I don't know why Li Yuan chose such a time. The snow just finished yesterday. Although it has stopped now, there is still a lot of snow.The sparrows caught in this way have nothing but snow in their stomachs.Of course, as a person with both civil and military skills, and as a leader among the younger generation, Xu Qing was naturally assigned the position of "executioner".There were several other young people who inspected birds with Xu Qing.The older generation and those with high positions and weights will naturally not come, what if we can't catch them by then?
The first thing is to offer sacrifices to Li Yuan to report to God. I commanded my subordinates to kill birds for the sake of the people of the world. Don't blame me.Soothe the sparrow again, don't blame me when you die, you died for the people, and I will sacrifice you with five grains here, and let you sleep peacefully underground.

The son of heaven must have the virtue of being good at life and benevolence, so he will not move the axe easily.Of course, these are all face-saving projects. The emperor fights if he wants to, and he can take care of the little sparrow?

After the sacrifice, then catch sparrows.A group of civil and military ministers sat in the Taimiao and released Xu Qing and others.With a rice bag on his shoulder and a net in his right hand, Xu Qing found a corner of the wall, swept away the snow, sprinkled some rice, and nestled aside to wait for the birds to come.In this kind of weather, the sparrows could not find food in the field, even if Xu Qing was so close, he would take the risk to try pecking rice.If there are many birds, Xu Qing has a high chance of catching them.

It's not that Xu Qing has never done bird hunting before, but at that time, he used a stick to support the dustpan and held the rope from a distance. Whenever the birds pecked at the rice, he would pull the rope and catch the birds. Buckle in.Xu Qing has never tried this sudden attack.Even so, the rest of them are not as good as Xu Qing. Most of them are from rich families. Although their martial arts calligraphy and painting are worse than Xu Qing's, they really have no experience in catching birds.

Seeing that Xu Qing was doing well, they also chose a place, followed Xu Qing's example, swept away the snow, put some rice, and squatted aside.

The urn has been set up, just waiting for you to come.

Unfortunately, none of the birds showed up.Also, in such a snowy day, what kind of birds would come to the palace, and nothing could be found in the fields.Even if there were no birds, Xu Qing couldn't complain, because Li Yuan had already reported to heaven that the emperor asked the heavenly father for a sparrow. If the heavenly father refused to give it, wouldn't it mean that the emperor was not his own?Xu Qing dared to show impatient eyes, then Li Yuan had to peel him, Xu Qing really wanted to sit on the ground.

But at this moment, there was a chatter in the south, and a group of sparrows flew from the sky!

Xu Qing was overjoyed, moved his body and took a few steps back, trying to make the sparrow feel that eating rice is not dangerous.Seeing the rice on the ground, the sparrows hesitated for a while, as if they were not particularly hungry, and hadn't come down for a long time.Xu Qing waited and waited until he saw a few sparrows flapping their wings and flying to the ground.But still jumping around and refusing to get close.

At this time, Xu Qing heard an oops from behind, and then laughed loudly: "I caught it! I caught it!" Xu Qing looked back and saw a young general holding a lively sparrow in his hand.People from several other places also rushed to the sparrows one after another. They are more flexible in body shape. They don't want Xu Qing, only their fingers are flexible.

But this way, the bird became vigilant, and it became even more difficult for Xu Qing to catch the bird.

Xu Qing was thinking to himself, why can they catch birds?Could it be that catching birds depends on appearance?That’s right, it must be like this, looking at their bird-like appearance, they are very attractive to birds at first glance, my good looks, that’s... Just when Xu Qing was depressed, a silly bird flew over, Xu Qing had quick eyesight and quick hands Use a big net to pounce on it, and you will end up with a few bird feathers.

Alas, Xu Qing could hear the sighs of those ministers of civil and military affairs in the Taimiao. Unexpectedly, Xu Qing was an expert at first, but now he is an amateur.

But luckily, the sparrow whose feathers were thrown off by Xu Qing seemed to have injured its wings, fluttered a few times, and did not fly up.Xu Qing was overjoyed, and covered it with a big net, then caught it and took it out.

The hot, round, fluffy little sparrow was in Xu Qing's hands.Xu Qing shouted in his heart, I'm sorry little sparrow, just find old man Li Yuan after you die.

Then, the chief priest offered five grains, let these sparrows eat a few mouthfuls, and then caught them back, and asked Xu Qing and others to have their stomachs cut open.No matter how much he couldn't bear it, Xu Qing had no choice but to kill the bird, find out the bird's stomach and intestines, and open it to see.

This one in Xu Qing's hand, he saw a few grasses and the husk of the rice in it, so he turned it over. Xu Qing's one should be rated as "medium".Several other people also rated their bird one after another.At this time, it should be Li Yuan who expressed his opinion. What to say, the world is still not rich, and all officials should work hard.

But at this moment, something fell from the ground, Xu Qing somehow noticed it, and when he looked closely, it turned out to be the leg of a jumping gnat.Unexpectedly, Xu Qing sneaked a few glances at the sparrow bellies of several other people, and what he saw was a stomach full of limbs and a few grains of millet.

This is terrible, there is rice in the belly, which actually means that the harvest on the ground is good.Firstly, because the birds came from afar, they had already digested a lot, and secondly, because the birds ate food that was dropped during harvesting, and it had gone through such a big winter.Therefore, the chances of birds eating rice are very small.But the chances of eating hoppers are equally small, hoppers are the larvae of locusts, so there is a plague of locusts if the hoppers are full of stomachs?
Terrible, Xu Qing felt that this matter must be reported to Li Yuan.

"Master Xu? Hey, why are you stunned, Master Xu?" Someone reminded Xu Qing, Xu Qing just came out of his thoughts, but seeing that the ministers of civil and military affairs in the audience had rearranged their shifts, they just waited for Xu Qing go in.

Xu Qing thought, should I report the locust plague to Li Yuan here, or should I tell it in private?However, Xu Qing thought that once these disasters related to farming were spread, they would definitely cause panic. If there were no locust plagues, wouldn't I be spreading rumors and causing trouble?Still, it's good to say it in private.

(End of this chapter)