Feng Xing - Chapter 124

Insects for food?

This is probably the most absurd thing at the moment, but not only the governor’s office has posted notices, but also county offices in various places have posted notices, and all townships are also actively telling the villagers.

It seems that ten catties of worms can only be exchanged for half a catty of food, but now many people only eat weeds and gnaw bark, and half a catty of grain is used to cook gruel, which can last at least half a month for a family of three.

Of course, more people don’t believe it, but some people believe it, and they dragged their swollen bodies to the ground to catch insects. Half a sack of insects was exchanged for half a bag of grain. The man who was eating food was crying so hard.

Finally, there is food, and the elderly and children in the family finally have a way to survive. It doesn’t matter if there is little food, as long as the insects can be exchanged, that is hope.

After that, people rushed to the farmland and countryside without any further advocacy. Not only country people, but even many people in the city dragged their families to the countryside, just to catch insects for food.

All of a sudden, the people in the market and the public stopped like never before.

In the past, there was a rumor in the market every day, and the government sent people to catch it. It seems that people are especially prone to believe all kinds of rumors in times of famine. What is the snowstorm this year after the drought? God is determined not to let people live. All living beings are guilty, and only by believing in the God of ×× can they redeem their sins.

However, people have the nature of following the crowd, so they naturally follow others’ opinions, causing panic. People don’t do production and only know how to live in ignorance. Especially in the countryside, there are often violent incidents, which are likely to cause civil disturbances.

Now that they have things to do, they are all busy catching insects for food, who cares about these things.

In the governor’s yamen, Zhou Hui was almost heartbroken to death, seeing that the amount of food left in the account book was getting less and less, on the contrary, the people outside who had exchanged for food were smiling happily.

After a few days like this, people were overjoyed and couldn’t help guessing that the imperial envoys brought relief food, if not, why would they exchange some worms for food.

Until now, many people still do not understand the purpose of this decree. Hu Demao and others know some shadows, but they only know one of them and don’t know the other.

No, Zhou Hui had come to look for King Wei more than once because of the fact that the remaining food was getting less and less, but it was a pity that King Wei ignored him.

Of course, on the surface, he would definitely not behave like this. He would only say that King Wei was busy with his affairs, and in fact he was not. In the past few days, the king of Wei asked the people below to prepare a lot of lists, and he is taking the lists to visit one by one, just to persuade the donation.

Unfortunately no progress.

“This old man did it on purpose?!”

After getting in the car, Dewang couldn’t help cursing.

Everyone knew that the other party did it on purpose, but unfortunately they didn’t get the handle, and they didn’t admit it, so they could only helplessly hold their breath.

This is not the first time. Since he came to Taiyuan, King Wei has visited several rich local households. Each family is more difficult to deal with. I don’t know who ordered it or what. They don’t insist on you. Come, I only found the old people of that clan to come to cry poor and pitiful, and the family’s great business is too big to support.

If you add in the fact that you gave generously to the government last year, it is a pity that the government has not yet paid back the debts, so that the whole family is famine, so even though King Wei’s face is thicker than the city wall, he is embarrassed to force him to persuade him again. If you donate, you can only run away.

“Your Highness, I think that if I can persuade you to donate, I’m afraid those people would have already taken the credit for themselves, and it’s impossible to let you go and wait for you to come.”

In fact, the kings of Wei knew it well, but this was not the reason for him not to come to the door. There was no progress in the relief work. If he stayed behind closed doors all day and just waited for the sky to fall, he might not have to wait for him to return to Beijing. How the king of Wei is so useless and dereliction of duty will spread throughout the capital.

Those good brothers of his were all waiting to catch his mistakes. Now it seems that everything is going smoothly, and Hu Demao and others are also cooperating with him. In fact, there are more than one or two people who are secretly waiting for an opportunity to trick him. King Wei is also worried about this matter. I know it well.

But what can I do if I know it well, I can only act carefully and step by step.

“Let’s go back first.”

Back at the Governor’s Yamen, Zhou Hui came looking for King Wei just as he entered.

With his face full of lawsuits, King Wei knew why he came here this time without opening his mouth.

“My lord, look…”

Zhou Hui was holding the account book in his hand, with a smile on his face, and before he could put up the airs, King Wei raised his hand and interrupted him.

“This king knows your reason for coming, and a batch of food will arrive in a few days, so it’s good to last for a while.”

These words directly suppressed what Zhou Hui wanted to say. He didn’t expect that Wei Wang would suddenly let go of the news that there would be food. He had a weird expression for a while, as if he was choked by something, and he took a long time to relax. energy.

“It’s so good, all the adults are worried about this matter, but I don’t know where this batch of food came from, and how much is it?”

Zhou Huiben said this with a smile, but gradually faded away in the meaningful eyes of King Wei. I don’t know whether it’s out of guilty conscience or why, the smile on his face became more and more stiff, and he was angry and annoyed in his heart.

He was angry that King Wei didn’t give him face, but also guilty that King Wei suspected that he deliberately inquired about news. At this sensitive time, the role of food is greater than the sky. Now that the food has not arrived, if the news leaks from him, and there is any trouble in it, will it be the king of Wei or him?

In fact, this is indeed the case. After Wei Wang arrived in Shanxi, it was not that he did not borrow food from other provinces in the name of an imperial envoy, not to mention that there were disasters in various provinces around Shanxi. Can’t find anything wrong with it.

Where did King Wei borrow this batch of grain?

Until Zhou Hui left, this question was still lurking in his heart and had not been answered.

The king of Wei did not hide the news, and soon the news that the imperial envoy had borrowed a batch of grain spread in the governor’s yamen.

But only a limited number of people in the governor’s yamen know. As for where the food comes from and how much it is, no one still knows.

The exchange of insects for food is still going on in an orderly manner. With the encouragement of these two incidents, the several county magistrates who stayed in Taiyuan City returned to their own rule and presided over the overall situation of the county.

In addition to supervising the food exchange, they also had to guard against local civil unrest and epidemics. Epidemics always follow disasters. For this reason, each state and county has specially formulated epidemic prevention regulations, and told all villagers to remember to abide by them.

For example, limited water sources need to be guarded by special personnel, people who suffer from diseases need to be isolated, they cannot drink raw water, they need to be boiled before drinking, they cannot defecate anywhere, they need to dig soil and bury them, etc.

Under strict precautions in various places, even if some villagers were infected with the disease, it did not spread. It’s a pity that after the epidemic was prevented, another incident happened, which caused the death toll to rise steadily everywhere.

The dead people all have one characteristic, that is, they are swollen all over.

It’s obviously a disaster year, and everyone can’t eat enough to eat, but there is a certain type of people who seem to be fat when everyone is skinny.

Some young people don’t understand that if there are those elderly farmers who have experienced more than one famine, they will know that they are generally skinny and can be saved, but it is precisely this kind of people who are hopeless.

They don’t know a single word, and they can’t say what the disease is. They only know that when people are hungry to the extreme, their bodies start to break down, and they will swell all over and die soon.

Because of the large-scale outbreak of the edema disease, a wave of chaos was triggered in the relatively peaceful places. For several days in a row, small groups of people rioted in every state and county, causing He Longcheng to curse inwardly that he was so hungry.

Naturally, these words would not be put on the surface, but in fact, no one here does not understand this truth. Part of the reason why Hu Demao Zhouhui and others have been pressing the last batch of food is because of this.

It’s okay to be hungry all the time, the most fearful thing is to hang with a small amount of food, which can’t solve the root of the problem, and hang those hungry people, and troubles are most likely to happen when people are half dead. Still the same sentence, officials are not afraid of ruling the dead, especially the victims of disasters, what they fear most is stirring up civil uprisings.

Of course, this edema disease is not incurable, and it does not need medicine to cure it. As long as there is food, as long as it can be fed with nutritious things, it will gradually heal.

It is precisely this simplest that has now become a big problem.

…

“Is this method really useful?”

King Wei frowned and looked at the dustpan in front of him. There were many brown-black powdery objects in the dustpan, which were not crushed very well. If you looked carefully, you could find many strange ‘objects’ inside.

There was a plate next to the dustpan, and there were several brown and black steamed buns on the plate. It was obvious that the steamed buns were made of the worst sorghum noodles, and there might be other things mixed in, but it was invisible to the naked eye. out.

Dewang picked up a Wowotou from the plate before King Wei reached out.

To be a slave is to have the cognition to die before the master, and it is right to be a slave when you are suffering and tired. So Dewang was obviously terrified, but still forced a smile and broke off a small piece from the wowotou.

“Master, how can I let you taste this pickle, it’s still a slave.”

Don’t look at what he said well, the hesitant action of sending it to his mouth is enough to show Dewang’s inner entanglement.

It’s not that Dewang is hypocritical, but even if he is a eunuch, he claims to have suffered a lot when he was a child before entering the palace, and he has never eaten worms.

Especially locusts, or buns made of locusts.

In the past, Dewang thought that the little old man Shu Yongtai was also considered a talent, but since he suggested to King Wei to make this kind of stuffed rice buns as relief food, the other party completely changed his image in his eyes. In particular, Shu Yongtai must say “experienced”, which made Dewang look at him even more strangely.

Between forced laughter and entanglement, Dewang had already fed something into his mouth.

In fact, after you eat it, you will know that it is not so difficult to eat. It is certain that the throat will be dry and bitter, because in addition to the dried insect powder, the content of sorghum noodles is not much, but it is also mixed with sorghum husks and stems. , bran and the like.

It has to be said that Shu Yongtai and others played a big role in traveling with King Wei this time, especially the older masters headed by Shu Yongtai and Wang Liangcheng. The experience you have is priceless.

Just like this improved Wowotou, it was made by this group of people after brainstorming. It can save food to the greatest extent and avoid edema while ensuring the lives of hungry people.

Before De Wang ate it and made a conclusion, Wei Wang had already reached out and picked up one, and under everyone’s surprised eyes, broke off a piece and fed it into his mouth.

“Your Highness…”

“The disaster victims can eat it, so naturally this king can eat it.” After saying this with a calm expression, King Wei said again: “You can eat it, but if you leave it for a few days, it will be difficult to eat it.”

In the past two days, Shu Yongtai and others ate a lot of this kind of steamed buns, all in order to better adjust the proportion of ingredients inside. Hearing what King Wei said at this time, he naturally understood what he meant.

“Now that the weather is getting colder, this thing can last for half a month. If it is too hard, soak it in water to relieve hunger. In this way, it can also save the victims from the trouble of finding water to make a fire. As for His Highness, he is worried about whether it can cure the edema disease. The thing is, in the place where my subordinates were at that time, there were also victims who were too hungry to eat insects. Afterwards, my subordinates found that most of the victims who had eaten insects did not suffer from edema. Afterwards, I asked the doctor about edema. Originally, I lacked the nutrition of meat for a long time. Although the worms are small, they are still meat. Now this improved steamed corn bread can not only relieve hunger, but also provide nutrition for hungry people, and my subordinates feel that it can be implemented.”

After all, it is still caused by people’s own habits. Humans are the king of all souls, and no one will eat insects unless they have to. At the beginning, the king of Wei did not have the idea of ​​encouraging the hungry people to catch worms to satisfy their hunger. It can be seen that so many hungry people caught worms in exchange for food, and no one left them to eat.

Coupled with the fact that eating worms is shocking to the world, it is obvious that he has many difficulties in coming this time, and there are more than one or two people who secretly want to deal with him. Enough to shake the current situation.

At that time, the hearts of the people will lose hope, and the riots of the hungry people will only be in an instant, and his trip to disaster relief will fall short.

That’s why I thought of this method, which can not only save food, but also settle the hungry people, and also consume a large number of locusts sent in exchange for food.

It’s just that this news can’t be leaked, so the king of Wei will have a clever trick to collect all the relief food in one place, and then make this improved Wowotou.

In fact, he did not borrow grain, but a large amount of bran mixed with a small amount of grain.

This is an empty city plan.