A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 805 Self-deception
One acre of riverbank land,

More than 300,000 locust eggs were unearthed.

Li Yi's trypophobia is about to flare up.

"Keep digging!"

After a long silence, the emperor stood on the riverbank of the Yellow River. The cold wind was like a knife, stinging his face, but the emperor showed no intention of returning to Luoyang.

Instead, they decided to continue digging.

More than a thousand people, with heavy hearts, rolled up their sleeves and continued working.

They dug from morning until noon.
The emperor still refused to stop.
They dug from noon until dusk.
The emperor was like an old farmer, digging up a large area of ​​land, his body covered in mud.

More and more egg masses are being unearthed.
"Your Majesty, it's getting dark. Let's return to the palace."

Li Shimin straightened his aching back, leaned on his hoe, and looked at the large expanse of land that had been turned over. "Zhou Qing."

“Your subject is here.” The tall Zhou Xiaofan stepped forward, also covered in mud, having dug all day.

"How many locust eggs did I dig up?"

"One pound and three ounces." Zhou Xiaofan told the emperor with admiration. Most of the imperial guards had only dug up about one pound, but the emperor had dug up nineteen ounces.

Li Shimin smiled wryly, "If it's a contest of horsemanship and archery, I'm very confident, but when it comes to digging, I'm a complete novice. How many have you dug the most today?"

"The one who dug the most was Wu An, the head of the Imperial Guard, who dug up two and a half jin by himself."

"Let's do some statistics."

Several prime ministers also dug around all day and were exhausted, especially scholars like Wen Yanbo, Wang Gui, Fang Xuanling, and Du Ruhui. They were eloquent and skilled with their pens, but lacked physical strength, especially when it came to digging for eggs.

I'm so tired I can barely straighten my back.

Li Yi and Wei Zheng were a bit better off. They had been Taoist priests before and had experienced hardship. Taoist priests didn't enjoy life like monks; they basically had to do everything themselves.

Wei Zheng dug up fourteen liang, which was two liang short of one jin.

Li Yi dug up eighteen taels, which was two taels more than a jin, but he dug up one tael less than the emperor.

These more than a thousand people spent a whole day digging on the Yellow River beach.
They dug up a total of about 1,300 jin (500 catties).

Wei Zheng stroked his dust-covered beard as he calculated that one pound of locust eggs could hatch 28,000 locust nymphs.

"Two locusts ate a grain seedling. According to the planting method recorded in the book of Fan Shengzhi of the Han Dynasty, about 45,000 wheat plants per mu."

Twenty-two thousand five hundred locusts can eat up one acre of wheat, so about one pound of locust eggs can eat up one acre of wheat.

Today we dug up more than 1,300 kilograms of locust eggs. If these locust eggs hatch into adult locusts, they can eat 1,300 acres of wheat in a single day.

"Our group of over a thousand people worked hard all day, which is equivalent to each person saving an acre of wheat."

Fang Xuanling shook his head, "Prime Minister Wei underestimated something. Wu Yi said that if these locusts aren't eradicated in time, they can reproduce three more times a year, each time with hundreds of eggs. And when the locust eggs grow up, they can reproduce again. If a locust reproduces like this for several generations, it can become 100,000."

Exhausted and panting heavily, Wen Yanbo's face turned grim upon hearing the number.

Li Yi listened silently, without correcting them.

The hatching rate of locust eggs is not high. A single egg mass contains dozens or hundreds of eggs, and it is considered good if twenty or thirty eggs hatch.

River and lake beaches, where eggs are most abundant, are easily killed by winter snow and spring and summer rains.

In special circumstances such as mild winters or droughts, even a hatching rate of 10% to 20% is still quite remarkable.

Looking at the fruits of a day's labor,

Over 1,300 pounds of eggs,
The dense, countless dots were enough to make one's scalp tingle.

What should we do with these?

All eyes turned to Li Yi.

“It can be fed directly to chickens and pigs, or dried and ground into powder to make feed, or even mixed with grains to make grain.”

Looking at these insect eggs, no one thought they would be anything edible.

"Can you really eat that much?"

"What's inedible? When I was traveling with my master in Jiannan, there was a dish among the barbarians of western Yunnan called ant eggs."
Fry the salt until slightly yellow, then add oil and water and bring to a boil. Add the chives and bring to a boil again. Finally, add the grasshopper eggs and cook until done.

The broth of this dish is clear and sweet, delicious and appetizing, leaving a lingering aftertaste.

"The people over there eat all sorts of insects, including insect eggs and pupae. They roast them or boil them, and they all taste pretty good."

Roasted locusts and stir-fried locust eggs are also delicacies on the table. "These 1,300-plus pounds of locust eggs would be a huge deal over there!"

Wen Yanbo felt nauseous and wanted to vomit.

Wei Zheng, who usually enjoys spinach and pickled celery with his wine, became interested in the ant eggs, roasted locusts, and stir-fried locust eggs that Li Yi mentioned.

"I've been digging all day, my back and waist are aching. How about we bring some back tonight, you can roast some locust eggs and have a few drinks?"

Wen Yanbo vomited. He was one of the three outstanding members of the Wen family and a member of the Wang family of Taiyuan, Hedong, which was a top-tier clan in Hedong, second only to the Wang family.

Scholarly family,

"These locust eggs look like maggots, do you want to eat them?"

Before he could finish speaking, the nausea surged up again, so Wen Dalin had no choice but to turn his head away and vomit.

After he finished vomiting,
Li Yi chuckled, “Lord Wen, actually maggots are edible. For example, in Lingnan, there are the Tanka people who live on the sea year-round and never live on land.”

Their fishing rafts and boats, having been at sea for a long time, develop ship maggots in their timbers, which damage the vessels. However, these maggots are considered a delicacy by the Tanka people. They fry, stir-fry, boil, and even eat the ship maggots raw.

"In Jiannan, a type of bamboo worm often grows in the bamboo forests. The eggs of the bamboo worm are also called bamboo maggots, and the locals like to eat them."

Wen Yanbo, who had just vomited, retched upon hearing this.

Vomited bile.

Li Shimin was alright; he had survived countless bloody battles and seen all sorts of disgusting scenes.

"Alright, Wu Yi, stop making things difficult for Wen Gong."

"Your Majesty, I didn't lie to Lord Wen. Although many of these things look disgusting, they are actually quite nutritious, and if cooked well, they can be quite delicious," Li Yi said with a smile.

Wen Yanbo waved his hand, telling Li Yi not to say anything more.

Li Yi asked, "Prime Minister Wei, are you really willing to try these locust eggs?"

“You said you can eat, and you’ve even eaten before, so I believe you.” Wei Zheng said dismissively, “But it has to be good wine. You have so many fine wines in your collection, I have to be able to choose whatever I want.”

"OK,"

Looking at the locust eggs scattered all over the ground, Li Shimin said, "I will also go to the Situ residence to taste some locust eggs."

"Your Majesty, you absolutely mustn't!" Wen Yanbo, disregarding his nausea, earnestly pleaded with the emperor, using the same old tactic.
Any calamities or strange occurrences from heaven are divine retribution. The ruler should reflect on his own actions and cultivate benevolence and virtue.

For example, the crackdown on temples spearheaded by Li Yi.

Forcibly requisitioning grain from the people through public purchases at a rate of two dou per mu, and borrowing money and grain from wealthy households—these are not benevolent policies, but tyrannical ones.

It was looting.

Li Shimin couldn't stand it anymore.
If you keep going, are you going to say that I seized the throne through a palace coup and imprisoned my father and brothers?
Should I be allowed to return the throne to the Emperor Emeritus?

If issuing an edict of self-reproach, offering sacrifices to God, and building temples to ward off locusts could solve the famine, Li Shimin would absolutely be willing.

But he knew very well that
Even if you burn incense and pray every day, it won't help.

Aside from deceiving oneself and comforting the people, what real purpose does it serve?

During famine, only food that can be eaten is truly useful.

Li Shimin came from a military background. He believed that supplies were essential before an army could move, as soldiers could not win battles on an empty stomach without provisions.

"His Majesty,
This locust plague is divine retribution.

Even if we dig up locust eggs, what's the use? There are millions of acres of rivers, lakes, and wetlands across the world; can we possibly dig them all up?

Li Yi went up and took Wen Yanbo's hand. "Prime Minister Wen, look how tender these locust eggs are. Come on, let's go to my house. I'll make you a dish of locust eggs myself."

"Hey!"

Wen Yanbo vomited again.

"Since Lord Wen doesn't like it, then we won't force him."

As the sun sets,

After a long and arduous day, the emperor and his officials returned to Luoyang with over 1,300 catties of locust eggs, braving the fierce north wind.

The nearly 100 acres of riverbed that were dug up are left behind, resembling a huge patch.

(End of this chapter)