ps: One chapter tonight, three more tomorrow

Wang Sunsheng is the grandson of the king of Chu, his background is not high, he is also the righteous son of Wu Zixu, in the state of Wu for 20 years, and traveled north to the princes, and finally returned to the Zhao family, the experience is not rich. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Therefore, Wang Sunsheng tasted almost all the food in the north and south of the river: the rice and soup fish of Wu are fresh and sweet, and the fragrant mushrooms of Yue are also a must; There are countless mountain treasures in Chu State, the rucus of Huayang Mountain, the celery of Yunmeng Lake, and the lips of the orangutan, and the palm of the badger are stewed together, which can be called a delicacy in the world; The seafood of Qi country, shark fin and sea cucumber are all good, but the most famous is the oolitic stew in the East China Sea......

After arriving in the Jin Kingdom, in addition to the traditional leopard fetus and other rare items, I also tasted the popular noodles here, such as water primers, scones, starch sweets, and tofu, which is said to taste better than meat.

Although Wang Sunsheng is not a disciple of Confucius, he also has a sense of food and food, and he is the second in his knowledge of food, but he is afraid that no one dares to call him the first.

However, the banquet held today in the mansion of the eldest son county guard, and the dishes served opened his eyes.

"It's really different......"

Wang Sunsheng muttered in his heart, but his eyes were staring at the dish in front of him, without blinking.

The golden color, with the freshly sprinkled green salt, exudes a mouth-watering burnt aroma, this is undoubtedly the food that has just come out of the kettle, but the ingredients made people are stunned, it is actually locusts!

In the office of the eldest son county guard, thirty or forty tables were set up, and those who could attend the banquet were either ministers above the eldest son's county doctor, or the local three elders and elders of the township who were highly respected, or Wang Sunsheng, a general who followed Zhao Wuxian to lead the army to exterminate locusts, all looked at the locust feast on the table, and did not dare to put down the chopsticks.

"We are all decent nobles, how can we eat cheap worms?" That's what everybody thinks.

"Why, don't you eat it?"

Above the chief, Zhao Wuxian's desk was no exception, there was a plate of dishes made of locusts, he said: "This is the live locust that I just caught yesterday, I have it, and I ordered the kitchen to wash all the dust and sand, remove its head and wings, fry it in soybean oil, and only get out of the pot until it is crispy." He eats the valley of man, and the man eats his flesh, so that the rest of the head will be tasted, and the second and third sons will taste it. ”

Zhao Wuxian was the one who had swallowed the locusts raw, and he was even more afraid of cooking them, so he immediately picked up a little fried locusts and put them in his mouth, chewed them a few times and swallowed them.

After a while, Zhao Wuxian opened his eyes and praised: "The color is golden, crisp and delicious, and the aftertaste is endless, it is really a delicacy to accompany wine and entertain guests!" ”

All the ministers in the official office moved their Adam's apple with his swallowing, but they were skeptical of his words, but the lord had already eaten locusts twice, and it was really unreasonable for him not to do something about it.

Then, Zhao Wuxian asked the vertical people to bring the remaining dishes, each ate a few spoons, and then made a "please" gesture to the ministers, Zhao Wuxian had already set an example, and now it was their turn.

The ministers were helpless, and they picked up the chopsticks one after another, but there was someone ahead of them, that was the fierce general Tian Ben under the command of Zhao Wuxian, he recovered well from the injuries he suffered in the Qin State, but his gratitude to the lord became stronger and stronger, and he was called to the banquet by Zhao Wuxian today, not to mention that the locusts were served, even if it was broken iron, he would eat it for you!

He aimed at a bowl of honey locusts, grabbed them one by one with his big hands, stuffed them into his mouth and chewed them crunching. These locusts are first rolled with spices and then poured with hot honey, so they are sweet and hot, and Tian Ben eats them with great pleasure and deliciousness.

When the others saw that someone was setting an example, they picked up a chopstick, closed their eyes and put it in their mouths......

"Hey, it tastes really good...... Wang Sunsheng was taken aback, he ate a skewer of locust skewers cooked on bamboo skewers. The locusts are flanked and legged, and the locusts are slowly roasted on a bamboo skewer with charcoal fire, and the locusts should be brushed with soybean oil when roasting, so as to ensure that the roasted locusts are charred on the outside and tender on the inside. After sprinkling salt and peppercorns, it produces a fragrant crisp that makes people want to chew quickly.

The ministers followed suit, and after eating it, they found that Tian Ben and Wang Sunsheng did not lie to them, although these fried and barbecued locusts looked average and looked terrible, but the taste was indeed very good!

The courtiers praised one after another: "The food is like dried shrimp, but this little mantis turned out to be a delicacy in the world." ”

Zhao Wuxian smiled and said nothing, eating locusts was not a new thing in China in later generations, Tianjin people and Yunnan people are good at this, looking at the world, the Japanese and Thai people also have a soft spot for locusts. Due to its high protein content, fried locusts taste a bit like fried chicken, and the nutritional value is comparable to that of fish and meat, making it a good snack.

After all, many people have the experience of eating bee pupae or silkworm pupa, and in terms of nausea, locusts really dare not be called the first. And under the encouragement of Zhao Wuxian's "He eats the valley of people, and people also eat their flesh", everyone seemed to be punishing the crime of locusts, eating with peace of mind, and every bite was righteous and awe-inspiring.

After everyone's appetite was aroused, the main dish of today's locust feast was long overdue, "pancake roll locust", a famous snack in Tianjin in later generations.

The mixed wheat noodles are first rolled out into thin cakes with a rolling pin, sprinkled with fine salt, soaked soybean oil, sprinkled with chopped green onions, and then rolled into cakes. The heat of the pancake should be handled properly, and the baked cake will be slightly charred on the outside and soft on the inside. Then pick a female locust with a belly full of cubs, take off the wings, pinch off the thighs, leave a pocket of boys' fat body, put it in the kettle and fry it brown, scoop up and drain the oil, sprinkle it with fine salt, mix it with green onion soy sauce, spread it on the cake and roll it up to eat, one bite down, it is simply crispy and attractive!

After the main course was eaten clean, the cups and plates were in disarray, and the feast was over, Zhao Wuxian finally confided in them his original intention of holding a locust feast.

"The locusts that the people have caught with great effort will be exchanged for one with surplus food, and it would be too wasteful to dispose of them as waste. After drying, it can be stored and fed to chickens and ducks, or it can be used as fertilizer in the next year, which is a method. ”

"And if bee pupae and silkworm pupae can be eaten, and fish roe can be eaten, why can't locusts eat them? Mr. Bian Que said, this thing is not only nutritious like fish and shrimp, but also has the effect of relieving cough and asthma, it can be eaten as a non-staple food, after the second or third son goes down, you can promote this way of eating, pour it with hot soybean oil, sprinkle a little coarse salt is a delicacy, no compassion and incompetence, can not do everyone have meat to eat, in this famine year, temporarily take the locusts as pigs and sheep to eat. ”

Everyone said yes, so under Zhao Wuxian's intentional publicity, today's events soon became known to the whole county, and then the "Eight Laws of Locust Eating" was spread. Of course, these various methods will be tried by wealthy people one by one, it is worth noting that this method is also specially emphasized that it is best to use the black salt of the East China Sea produced in Langya, and the salt of Anyi should not be used......

It is very easy for the people to catch locusts, and the people will taste the locusts drenched in oil under suspicion, and immediately their thumbs and begin to fall in love with this kind of food, after all, meat is difficult to obtain, and fish and shrimp are not easy to catch, which is like locusts, and they can put a basket on the ground at will, and they can cage half a basket at sunset.

As a result, the consumption of locusts has quietly become popular in Changzi County, and some people have even preferred to eat them themselves rather than use them in exchange for rice and grain. By mid-August, the number of locusts that had been dispersed was declining, either because of the fierce catches in the area, and they flew elsewhere, or because the weather was getting colder, and the date of the most rampant locusts had passed, and the local locusts began to disappear.

There is a habit of eating locusts, coupled with the previous preventive measures, even if the locusts in the eldest son county breed every year, it will be difficult to become a disaster, and the eldest son county guard Yin Duo also said with a smile: "I'm afraid that the people will still think this delicacy is not easy to catch in the coming year." ”

And the Wei Clan's territory has finally ushered in the end of the locust plague......

……

In August, after half a month of rage, the locusts left, and unlike their compatriots who were wiped out in the county of the eldest son, here they were able to preserve their populations under the reputation of "divine locusts".

On that day, it was like hearing a unified command, and almost at the same time, a swarm of locusts spread their wings and flew into the sky, and they had stored enough energy to go to a suitable place to lay eggs. For a moment, it was dark again, and everything was shrouded in black shadows, and after a few hours, Yanchi-eup slowly revealed light on the edge of the locust swarm.

"Finally gone." The daughter of the salt clan peeked out of the room and breathed a sigh of relief.

It's a pity that under the sun, only a sad piece of cleanliness remains, their grain has been eaten cleanly, and all the plants and trees have been gnawed, and Yanchiyi has become a white land.

Most of the families in Yanchi-eup did not have enough surplus grain left, and they had already calculated that after paying the taxes, the grain in the rice jar would be enough to eat until the corn was ripe. However, now, there is not a single grain of new millet, and as the grain in the rice jar is decreasing little by little, the mood of the villagers is also getting heavier day by day.

"The locusts are gone, but what should I do in winter......"

Late autumn has arrived, the weather is getting colder day by day, and in their township alone, several families who farm have given up their farmland and gone to seek refuge with distant relatives. There are also a few families who leave the elderly and children at home, and those who are stronger take the initiative to enlist in Anyi. The Wei clan did not have food to help the victims, but they had food to maintain the sporadic wars between the Hexi front and the Qin state, they could finish their labor, carry grain to Hexi, and eat all the way on their backs, and they could not eat enough, but at least they would not starve to death.

But the father of the daughter of the Yan family said that it was looking for death, and I heard that the war between Qin and Wei was fierce, and when he arrived in Hexi, it was probably a dead end to fill in the ravine.

As for the salt workers, there is still a glimmer of hope.

The father of the daughter of the Yan clan stood up from the field where there were no survivors and said to the family: "Don't panic, the salt official will come to collect salt, and when the salt is sold, you can go to the city to exchange for food!" “

The whole family saw hope again, however, the salt officials who usually went to the townships by the salt pond every month to collect salt did not come left or right, and the father of the daughter of the salt family was anxious, so he took her and her eldest brother to pull the salt in a rickshaw and took the initiative to run to Anyi to see what was going on. After entering the Anyi market, I found that the salt workers from all ten miles and eight towns were anxiously pulling salt around the city, communicating with each other, but there was no useful information.

So he waited all day, and at sunset, when everyone was hungry, and at last the steward came out to speak.

The city official of the Wei clan lazily dialed the abacus, increased the price of grain from 100 Zhao Qian to 110 yuan, and lowered the price of salt by two times, and then said to the salt workers: "There is something that has not been told to the second and third sons, from this month onwards, the salt officials of Anyi will not accept salt for the time being...... )