Landlord of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 423 Picnic Locust
"No, no, your majesty, you must eat this locust. I can eat it with you, no problem." Xu Qing said with a smile: "I once ate this locust when I was wandering outside when I was young. The chicken was even better, juicy and tasty."

Li Yuan looked at Xu Qing in surprise and said, "Are you serious? Let's talk about the one in your hand. How should you eat it?"

"Well, this one is not easy to fight, let them go to the field to catch some locusts." Xu Qing threw away the insects in his hand and said to Li Yuan: "Although there are no locust plagues around Chang'an, there are still locusts."

Li Yuan hesitated for a moment, summoned a cavalry general and said, "Go, catch a hundred locusts for me?"

The cavalry general was about to take the order, but Xu Qing stopped him and said, "Slow down, take the hanging money, and you go outside to hire people to catch insects. The price will be high, and one penny is fine for one locust. Less For the money, you should pay in advance, and when you come back to the official, no, the imperial court will give you more."

Li Yuan wondered: "Xu Qing, why did the common people catch this bug? Are you afraid that my flying cavalry won't be able to catch the bug?"

Xu Qing bought a pass, and just said: "Your Majesty, you can take care of it, the money is definitely worth the money."

Chang'an wild suburbs:

All the peasant households were sitting on the ridges of the fields chatting, looking sad and frowning.It is said that good things do not go out and bad things spread thousands of miles away. The locust plague has already made the farmers in Chang'an very scared before it reached Chang'an Mansion.They are all discussing whether the locusts will fly here, how to live when the green and yellow are not picked up, and so on.

But seeing a farmer trampling on a bug on the ground, he stamped vigorously and said, "Hmph, this locust should be trampled to death, as many as it comes, I trample on as many as possible."

An old man hurriedly stopped him and said, "Young man, don't say that. If the Locust God hears this, he might invite locusts to eat up our crops."

The farmer was about to retort, another Zhuang man pointed to the distance and said: "Hey, look, is it the forbidden army in Chang'an city? It's cavalry. That horse is really big. If I have one, I won't borrow it to plow the field." The Landlord Wang's cattle."

But the old man was startled and said: "Don't stare, the imperial guards are all vicious, if you find you staring at him, maybe they will whip you. Hurry up, let's go far away."

"Hey, why are you so timid?"

But at this moment, the cavalryman drove his horse and rushed towards these farmers.The old man patted his thigh and called it unlucky. The other farmers also became scared.But they didn't dare to walk, their legs were half weak, even if they walked, they couldn't go very far.In the blink of an eye, the cavalryman arrived in front of him.Looking down from the heights, he looked at the crowd and said, "Are you working in the fields here?"

It was the old man who was well-informed and came out and said, "Master Jun, this is where the villains work in the fields. I don't know what orders Master Jun has?"

The cavalryman smiled, and then said to everyone: "Today, I will give you an errand that I would envy. Here, you go to the fields to look for locusts. As long as you find them, I will pay you one penny."

"Om." The old man became confused when he heard this, and asked, "Master Jun, what did you say?"

The cavalryman was also unhappy, and said with a stern face: "Hmph, you old fool, can't you hear what I'm going to say? Go and find locusts. If you want to live, you can pay a penny for each."

"No, no, Mr. Jun, you want chickens, ducks, it's okay to pay a penny, but this locust, uh, I dare not..."

Usually, there are indeed many people who go out of the city to buy things at ordinary people's homes, but they usually buy and sell by force, and buy at low prices, such as selling charcoal, that is to say.No wonder the old man was so scared.The cavalryman was speechless, and he explained it several times, and the Zhuang Han really believed it, and they scattered to find the locusts.

For one penny, five locusts can cut a catty of meat, buy a bucket and a half of rice, plant the ground, and plant the ground, and the crops can't run away by themselves.After a while, hundreds of locusts were caught in front of them, still holding a basket.The cavalry threw out more than three hundred renminbi and returned with the locusts.

Those Zhuang Han held the copper coins in their palms and couldn't believe their eyes.Although those locusts didn't count the money one by one, but the money in front of them was something they couldn't earn even if they worked odd jobs for a month.After a long while, these people collected their money with satisfaction and put it in their close pockets.

First I went to the grass market to buy a piglet, carried it on my shoulders, and boasted to everyone. Today, I got the favor of the court, a locust costs a penny, and I went to the blacksmith's shop to order a new hoe.He went home with a smile and blew all the way, and the next day there were many Zhuang Han, secretly staring at the locusts in the field.

Outside Xuanfu Gate, Xu Qingzao had already lit a fire and brought the seasoning.Baskets of locusts were delivered, and Li Yuan sat on the ground with a dark face and watched Xu Qing messing around.Xu Qing broke some branches from the tree, cut them and put them by the fire to roast some of the trunk sap.Locusts eat grass and have a short digestive tract. The stomach is basically just undigested grass, and the digested grass has already been excreted.Therefore, there is no need to pinch anything, just skewer the locusts one by one, brush with sesame oil, and roast them on the fire.

The locusts on the fire sizzled, salt and pepper were sprinkled, and after a while, the smell of barbecue came.Li Yuan closed his eyes and sniffed it, and his tongue was slightly salivating, but when he opened his eyes, he still felt a little disgusted.Looking at Xu Qing, he thought to himself, this child has been homeless since he was a child, and he has developed such a skill.Unexpectedly, a little worm that he fed on when he was young could save the imperial court today.It seems that we still have to take the children from poor families. Although they don't know how to play piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, they don't know how to entertain themselves, but they have many ideas and are honest.

In fact, Xu Qing ate these locusts when he was traveling. He only ate a bunch of locusts at that time, knowing that they could be eaten.

Brush the oil one last time, and the first bunch of roasted locusts will come out.Xu Qing knew that Li Yuan's psychological barrier was relatively large, so he tried one himself.

"Bajibaji, crunchy, chicken flavor..." Xu Qing said a famous saying of Mr. Pei.Afterwards, he ate another one, and then handed it to Li Yuan and said, "Your Majesty, the taste is not bad, you can try one."

"What?" The eunuch next to him was startled, and hurriedly asked Xu Qing, "Master Xu, don't be joking, you are not eating this food yourself, but you still want to give it to the emperor?"

When Xu Qing and Li Yuan were talking, they didn't listen too much. They thought Xu Qing was fond of eating locusts, so they didn't ask any questions.But now, if you actually want to feed it to the emperor, that's no good.

Li Yuan saw that Xu Qing ate two, but he refused in his heart, but actually went a lot.He stopped the eunuch, took the locust, and looked at both sides.Looking at the golden and oily locusts, and smelling the disgust of the roasted locusts, Li Yuan only had the words "full of color, fragrance and taste" in his heart at this time.Well, for the sake of the common people in the world, for the sake of the country, I will go all out.

Just as he was about to finish his mouth, the eunuch snatched it up and said: "Your Majesty, let this old servant try to eat for the Emperor, woo woo..." The eunuch swallowed a bunch of locusts into his stomach.Xu Qing yelled, if this is for future generations, it would be "Chuanba"!

(End of this chapter)