The next day, Zhu Youxiao invited local officials and people in Yizhou to hold a grand locust feast.

The three natural disasters in Chinese history, one is flood, one is drought, and one is locust plague, before the locusts come to the table, the locusts have always been "eating people", since the birth of human civilization, the number of people who died due to the locust plague is definitely an astronomical number. For a long period of human history, humans and locusts have been said to be enemies of life and death.

According to the statistics of the official history, from the Han Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty, there will be a major locust plague almost every three years on average, but in fact this number is very inaccurate, Zhu Youxiao speculated that there should be at least one locust plague outbreak every year on average. As for how many people died due to the locust plague, there is no record, and the history books generally record that "the locusts cover the sun, the red land is thousands of miles", or "the great hunger in such and such a region", etc., in a word, the locust plague is full of corpses.

Zhu Youxiao didn't know how to put an end to the locust plague, and there were no pesticides at this time, so Zhu Youxiao chose the simplest and rude way - that is, to eat locusts, as long as there were three adults in the empire who ate locusts, the locust plague should not become a threat. So Zhu Youxiao chose two methods that he thought were the best and easiest to eat locusts, one was barbecue and the other was fried.

"The locusts should be starved for an hour, so that the feces in the insects are emptied, and then scalded with boiling water to brown them, and then the wings are fished out to prick the legs, and this first process is completed." Zhu Youxiao said.

Zhu Youxiao picked up a plate of locusts and said, "First of all, I will teach everyone to make fried locusts, drain the locusts, and fry them in boiling oil. ”

After Zhu Youxiao finished speaking, he poured all the locusts in his hand into the oil pot, this time it was the chef himself, and Zhu Youxiao commanded the locusts to be fried to brown, and then scooped them up.

After the oil was drained, Zhu Youxiao picked one, drank it in the oil dish, ate it in one bite, and said: "Fat but not greasy, crispy, fragrant and crispy, the taste is really good, this is the real delicacies of the mountains and seas, everyone come to taste it." ”

Not everyone can eat locusts, although Zhu Youxiao ate it with relish, except for Wu Youxing, the others were still a little hesitant.

"The minister also comes and tastes it!" Wu Youxing said first.

"Eat! It's really delicious! Zhu Youxiao then ate another one.

"Concubine, come and taste it!" Gu Mei also picked up a piece of learning from Zhu Youxiao's method and ate it.

……

Soon a plate of locusts was divided.

"How's it taste?" Zhu Youxiao asked.

In front of Zhu Youxiao, even if it is not delicious, no one dares to say that it is not delicious, many people are saying that it is delicious against their will, and only a few people may approve it, and Wu Youxing said from the bottom of his heart: "It tastes really good!" ”

"You don't have to force yourself to eat it, but I tell you that as long as I set up a banquet in the future, locusts will definitely be a dish, and I require every prince to get used to eating locusts, which means that locusts will become a staple dish on the imperial table from now on, and I suggest that you must like this dish." Zhu Youxiao said with a smile.

"Come on, fry another plate, I've just become addicted. After eating this plate, I will teach everyone the new method of locusts, which requires a lot of rapeseed oil after all, and the new method also tastes very good. Zhu Youxiao said.

……

A locust feast cost Zhu Youxiao tens of thousands of taels of silver, but Zhu Youxiao felt that it was worth it, although the acceptance of adults was not high, but the acceptance of children was extremely high. And Zhu Youxiao's purpose is to cultivate people's habit of eating locusts.

After staying in Yizhou for five days, Zhu Youxiao and his party set off for Suzhou again. Historically, the provinces of Zhili, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Henan in the north have always been the hardest-hit areas, while in the south, Suzhou has also become a hard-hit area in the past two years.

Although he only stayed in Yizhou for five days, he won great prestige for Zhu Youxiao and Zhang Yan. When Zhu Youxiao and the others left, the people spontaneously went to see them off. As Zhu Youxiao said, after the Tianfu of Yizhou was exempted forever, the local people of Yizhou were really grateful to Zhang Yan, and soon after, Zhang Yan's ancestral hall appeared in Yizhou, which was really "the Buddha of ten thousand families burned incense".

The "Imperial Daily" also reported on Zhu Youxiao's trip in detail, and even gave a large introduction to locusts and how to eat them.

In Suzhou, the procedure was the same as in Yizhou, with soup kitchens, blankets, permanent exemption from Suzhou's field endowment, and eating locusts, which Zhu Youxiao brought from Yizhou. The successive permanent exemptions from the fields in Yizhou and Suzhou have won Zhang Yan an unprecedented reputation, and the title of "Bodhisattva Niangniang" has spread far and wide.

What Zhu Youxiao didn't expect was that here he met Dong Xiaowan again.

The appearance of Zhu Youxiao changed the fate of the entire empire, and also changed the fate of Dong Xiaowan, in history, Dong Jiaxiuzhuang lost thousands of taels of silver due to being ghosted by his guys, and Dong Xiaowan had to go to the painting boat on the bank of the Qinhuai River to make a living. In time and space, because Dong Xiaowan inadvertently got acquainted with Xiaoxiao and Gu Mei, Dongjia Xiuzhuang was able to maintain, but people are not as good as heaven, in this flood that swept the Yangtze River Delta, Dongjia Xiuzhuang still went bankrupt, and the Dong family also owed thousands of taels of silver.

Gu Mei saw that Dong Xiaowan was in a desperate situation, so she took the initiative to help Dong Xiaowan, and then brought her to Zhang Yan.

"Niangniang, this is Dong Bai who was read by the emperor, it is also a coincidence, when the emperor patrolled the south of the Yangtze River, Dong Bai had not yet taken the word, that day the concubine arranged a box meeting, the emperor asked Dong Xiaowan, but at that time there was no person called Dong Xiaowan on the bank of the Qinhuai River, after Dong Bai and Lu, the word Xiaowan was taken, and this year's floods, Dong's embroidery village went bankrupt, and the Dong family was burdened with a debt of thousands of taels of silver, in order to repay the debt, Dong Xiaowan had to prepare to go to the Qinhuai River to perform arts, the concubine couldn't bear to let Dong Xiaowan fall, so she brought, If the concubine doesn't bring her this time, when the emperor asks Dong Xiaowan by the Qinhuai River again this year, Dong Xiaowan will really already have it. Gu Mei said.

Hearing Gu Mei's words, Dong Xiaowan was stunned. At this moment, Dong Xiaowan's heart was full of shock and curiosity, and what shocked and curious her was Zhu Youxiao's unpredictable prophet. She knew that Zhu Youxiao would definitely not design her, if Zhu Youxiao wanted to get her, he only needed one sentence, and her Dong family went bankrupt after a natural disaster.

"Since you have a fate with the emperor, then you should stay by the side of this palace. Your family's debts, this palace will arrange someone to deal with them. Zhang Yan said.

"Xiao Wan is not happy, thank you Niangniang." Gu Mei said.

"Slave and maid, thank the queen for her mother!" Dong Xiaowan said respectfully.

(End of chapter)