Chapter 33: Eating Locusts Raw

In the Wuying Palace, it is rare that there are so many people.

The five governors of the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies came, as well as more than a dozen nobles such as Chengguo Gong, Wei Guogong, and Xining Marquis who were ready to be sent this time, wearing armor and standing in the Wuying Palace.

Yang Shiqi and the cabinet are on one side.

The locusts outside today are not as ferocious as they were yesterday.

Although there are tens of millions of locusts, Beijing is a big city with a population of one million after all.

And the army with the most of them is essentially a military city.

So let's work together to clean up the locusts that fell yesterday.

But that doesn't mean there are no more locusts.

Although locusts have small brains, they are not fools after all. Seeing the death of their companions in large numbers, they all bypassed the city of Beijing, swept the sky from east to west, and wanted to go west.

Zhu Qizhen's face was serious, and he said: "You all know about today's situation, I won't say much, if the locust plague is not controlled, there will be nothing in the north of Zhili, and even the locust plague will spread to Shanxi, Shandong, Henan, Shaanxi, and the military food in the north, but it will not be guaranteed." ”

"Jinyiwei has found out that this time the locust plague originated in Hejian Mansion, Baoding Mansion, and Shandong. Wei Guogong went to Shandong to exterminate locusts, and because of the grain in Shandong. Chengguo Gong exterminated the locusts in Beizhili. ”

This is also proposed by Yang Shiqi, let them go south, on the one hand, there is the intention of exterminating locusts, and on the other hand. But it has the meaning of food.

After all, in such a situation, how long can Beijing's grain last? Yang Shiqi's heart was also destroyed. Therefore, let them go south for more than 100,000 people, especially to Shandong, so that they can quickly get grain from the south of the Yangtze River.

You must know that the canal is in Shandong, known as the sluice river, there are more than a dozen sluice gates, and it is very wasteful when passing the boat, so there are granaries along the river, which are temporarily docked at the layers of transshipment.

The Shandong section is the bottleneck of the canal, but the south canal south of Shandong is much more spacious than the north one, and if you actively transfer grain from the south of the Yangtze River, you can save half the distance.

Moreover, Li Xian, the Marquis of Fengcheng, is already moving in Nanjing at the moment, and he will do everything to get food, on the one hand, he wants to supply the northern disaster relief, and on the other hand, he wants to support the Luchuan war situation.

Yang Shiqi almost didn't sleep all night last night, cheered up, and saved food everywhere he could. Not to mention anything else, even the Jingguan's Yulu, in addition to ensuring the family's rations, most of the rest were converted into silver.

If it was an ordinary season, the Jingguan was naturally willing, after all, when the price of grain was the lowest a few years ago, it was only 300 wen and one stone, which was worthless.

But that's no longer the case.

Before the locust plague, because last year's harvest was not good, now it is green and yellow. The price of grain has climbed to nearly 500 wen, and when the locust plague came, the price of grain flew average

rose to 600 Wen, or even higher.

This is also why Yang Shiqi used various means, both soft and hard, to suppress the price of grain below 600 Wen. At least the price of food is not outrageous.

At this moment, Yang Shiqi burst out with vigorous energy, and he didn't close his eyes all night. But standing in the hall, he was still radiant.

Zhu Qizhen still wanted to say something, but for a while he felt that he was running out of words.

Because there is nothing to say.

As for the plague of locusts, they know much more than Zhu Qizhen. I also know how terrible the famine is. Now if the locusts eat more, the people will have less.

Yes, locusts cannot eat people, but the great famine that follows the plague of locusts can eat people.

Zhu Qizhen gritted his teeth and said: "I won't say anything, come to serve food, and I will practice for the generals." ”

But I saw many eunuchs coming up, and none of them were carrying the plates, but the dishes in the plates were locusts, and they were still alive, although they plucked their legs and cut off their wings, so that they would not jump out of the plates. But it's still alive. It is on the plate and gently squirms.

Above the main hall, there is a sense of noise. No one thought that the emperor would let them eat this.

Zhu Qizhen said: "The sky is above, now there are locusts to abuse and cruel my people, I am inseparable from it, hundreds of officials and soldiers, should treat it with this heart, and be sure to eliminate the evil." ”

Then he pinched the locusts in one hand, and the wriggling locusts swallowed them in one gulp.

The indescribable juice exploded in his mouth, bitter and vicious, and he couldn't control the squirming of his throat. He had never eaten anything so disgusting in his two lives.

Not to mention that this locust is still making its last struggle in Zhu Qizhen's mouth.

It even moved Zhu Qizhen to turn over the river and the sea, and he couldn't wait to spit it out. It's just that at this time, he can't spit it out anyway.

It's not that Zhu Qizhen has to eat locusts alive.

But what can he do? The court was well organized under Yang Shiqi's arrangement, even if he had the heart to interfere beyond Yang Shiqi, he was not sure that he did better than Yang Shiqi.

The only way he showed his attitude was to let the courtiers below know the emperor's intentions. This is what allows them to burst out to the fullest.

Ma Yu's insinuation to Yang Shiqi before made Zhu Qizhen understand.

As the Empress Dowager said to him, natural disasters large and small, for the Ming Dynasty, almost every year. It's nothing more than big or small.

Most people deal with natural disasters and don't pay as much attention to them as Zhu Qizhen.

Zhu Qizhen has regarded this locust plague as a war, and almost all manpower and material resources must be invested. But such as Ma Yu and others, they still have the heart to engage in personnel struggles.

Therefore, the only thing he can do is to unify his thoughts and let everyone know that he, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, attaches great importance to this matter.

In this way, it must be decisive

Show attitude.

Yes, this locust is fried once, even if anyone bakes it once, it tastes much better when boiled once, and it is definitely not as disgusting as this.

But the people below, not without eyes, who can't see the cat.

So, he eats political attitudes.

No matter how unpalatable this thing is, think about the fact that if the locusts are not done well, hundreds of people will die. He's going to swallow it anyway. His face was flushed, he coughed repeatedly, raised his wine glass, drank it all, and said, "Gentlemen, drink to win." ”

Seeing Zhu Qizhen like this, the ministers below, no matter how ugly their faces were, could only swallow them stiffly.

However, in Zhu Qizhen's view, on the contrary, these veterans don't care much, such as when Zhang Fu swallowed locusts, his face simply did not change. Even Yang Shiqi and Yang Pu simply swallowed it, although it looked like they were taking medicine.

On the contrary, the generals of the younger generation below had a difficult look on their faces, and a few of them spit out, making a loss of honor in front of the king.

Zhu Qizhen secretly said in his heart: "The younger generation of Da Ming Xungui can't do it." ”

The older generation either raised troops in Jingnan, or followed Taizong's Northern Expedition, marching immediately, what kind of hardship has not been seen, swallowing a locust, although it is a little disgusting, but it is comparable to the thousands of troops on the battlefield, guns and arrows.

Even Yang Shiqi and Yang Pu have also served on several expeditions, although they have followed Emperor Taizong, Emperor Taizong has always been the first to take the lead, although he has not fought before the battle, but the pain of the march has been tasted.

And the other people below are also from Jinshi, and they have studied hard for ten years, and they still have this willpower. Only the second generation of Xungui, these people grew up after Yongle, between Renxuan, the war basically subsided, most of them grew up with brocade clothes and jade food, where did they suffer like this.

Nature can't bear it.

But even the locusts don't dare to swallow alive, hoping that they can be on the battlefield, what can they do?

Zhu Qizhen secretly wrote down the names of these people. Label it as not useful. It is estimated that they never imagined that swallowing locusts just today would directly affect their future.

Everyone swallowed locusts alive, as if they were oaths.

Immediately, Zhu Qizhen asked them all to start acting.

Zhang Fu and Zhu Yong, the Duke of Chengguo, walked out of the palace together, Zhang Fu suddenly looked back and said, "There is the wind of Emperor Taizong today. When you go out this time, you must do a good job, otherwise Your Majesty's pass will not be so easy. ”

The influence of Zhu Yong, the Duke of Chengguo, on Zhu Qizhen has also changed greatly, and he is even a little afraid.

Hating others is just brutality, but hating oneself is a powerful character, Zhu Qizhen, as the king of a country, he doesn't want to, no one is forced to eat this disgusting thing. Even Zhu Yong still feels a little uncomfortable in his stomach.

Zhu Yong said: "Yes." But he secretly said in his heart: "I don't know if it's good or bad." ”