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

Chapter 806 Crunchy

In the sound of dusk drums,

The group returned to Luoyang.

After entering the city, he went straight to Li Yi's residence in Tongji Ward. Although Huixun Ward on the south bank of the Luo River had been granted to Li Yi, there were still relocation and construction to be done, so Li Yi didn't plan to do it for the time being.

More than 1,300 kilograms of locust eggs were brought back to the mansion.
When Li Yi summoned the cook from his household and asked her to use this to cook a dish...

The plump cook's face turned pale.
"Ah Lang, what is this? Can we eat it?"

"These are locust eggs, you can eat them."

"Locust eggs?"

"You've eaten silkworm pupae before, right? Just cook them the way you would silkworm pupae."

The plump cook looked at the locust eggs, which were as big as grains of rice, and said, "Silkworm pupae are this big, but these are so small."

"Although they are different in size, they are actually quite similar."

"Oh, silkworm pupae can be deep-fried, stir-fried, steamed, boiled, or stir-fried." The plump cook's skills were undeniable; otherwise, she wouldn't have had the opportunity to become a cook in Li Yi's home, a family that loves food.

The plump silkworm pupae are familiar to the people of Tang Dynasty, since almost every household grows mulberry trees and raises silkworms, and almost everyone has eaten silkworm pupae. She has mastered many ways to cook silkworm pupae.

"Just make some locust eggs the same way you would make silkworm pupae, and then prepare some other snacks to go with your drinks."

Wen Yanbo and Wang Gui did not come.

The other prime ministers also came.

As dusk fell,
Li Shimin watched with great interest as the plump cook processed the locust eggs, removing them from the nest, brushing off the dirt with a brush, and then soaking them in warm water for a while.
Brush it again with a soft brush, then rinse it several times with clean water.
These locusts, which are as small as grains of rice, are very clean.

However, blanching is still essential.

Put the ingredients in a pot of cold water, add ginger slices and a little cooking wine, bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer over low heat. Remove the ingredients and rinse with cold water.

This was the first time the cook had ever made this.

"Silkworm pupae need their internal organs removed??" she asked, looking at the locusts that were plump like grains of rice after being blanched.

"That's fine," Li Yi said.

The plump cook was busy at work, while the emperor and several prime ministers watched from the sidelines, which made the plump cook's round face turn bright red.

Stir-fried locust eggs, salt and pepper locust eggs, five-spice locust eggs, stir-fried locust eggs, spicy locust eggs, deep-fried locust eggs, crispy locust eggs, steamed locust eggs...

When the plump cook brought out nine dishes of locust eggs in a row...
Even Li Shimin couldn't help but marvel.
What used to look disgusting now smells incredibly tempting.

Especially those coated in flour and deep-fried, they look golden and tempting.

The dishes were served.
Bring the wine as well.

Li Yi poured wine for everyone.

Looking at the table full of locust eggs, no one touched their chopsticks for a moment.

Everyone looked at Li Yi.
Yuwen Shiji laughed and said, "Minister Si has spoken first."

“Okay.” Li Yi wasn’t afraid at all. He used to be a foodie. He had lived in Yunnan for a while and ate a lot of insects, in addition to mushrooms.

I've eaten everything from fried centipedes, bee pupae, bamboo worms, grasshoppers, to even spiders, dragonflies, scorpions, and stink bugs.

These locust eggs are nothing special.

Moreover, people in the Tang Dynasty also liked to eat silkworm pupae.

Use your chopsticks to pick up the fried dough coated in batter first.

It was also sprinkled with sesame seeds and chopped green onions.

It's impossible to tell what it originally looked like.

It's crispy and delicious in your mouth.

Crunchy, tastes like chicken.

Li Yi nodded.
"good to eat."

As he spoke, he reached for his chopsticks again to pick up more food.

When he took his third bite,

Wei Zheng finally swallowed hard and reached for his chopsticks.

"Hmm, it tastes good." Before Fang Du could even touch it, the emperor picked up his chopsticks as well.

Li Yi wasn't lying; everyone who tried it said it was delicious.

The plate was quickly finished.

While drinking, they sampled locust eggs prepared in various ways.

"Wen Dalin and Wang Shujie have missed out on such a delicious meal," Li Shimin said with a smile.

As the emperor,

They ate the locust eggs, which were considered divinely ordained.
Li Shimin felt a special sense of exhilaration.

He dared not say that man can conquer nature, but he was unwilling to accept so-called divine retribution.

The emperor and his ministers enjoyed a feast of locust eggs.

In fact, it was also a statement of their respective positions: they were willing to follow the emperor and resist divine retribution.

"Give me ten catties of those locust eggs later. I will take them back to the palace and have them made into food as well."

After the emperor said that,
Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui, and others also said they wanted to take a few pounds home to eat.

As for the remaining large pieces, Li Yi suggested that they be washed, blanched, and then stir-fried with salt until dry, and then distributed to the Imperial Guards.

Everyone worked hard digging today.

Stir-fry it, and you can eat it as a snack; after all, it's a good source of protein.

"Yes, this is an excellent idea," Li Shimin praised.

After dinner,

Brew a pot of tea,

The emperor and several prime ministers sat around the stove.

"Does Wu Yi really think that mobilizing the people to dig up locust eggs can control the locusts?"

“In a normal year, even if we don’t dig, it won’t cause a disaster. But a severe drought is always followed by a locust plague. Judging from the current situation, there is a high probability of drought and locusts next year, so it’s better to take some precautions than to sit and wait for death.”

"But, one mu of riverbank land can yield ten or twenty jin of locust eggs, and one jin of locust eggs contains twenty or thirty thousand eggs. Is it possible to dig them all up?" the emperor sighed.

"In my opinion, we must be proactive in fighting locusts, striking early, striking when they are small, and striking them decisively. If we dig up a pound of locust eggs, that's equivalent to twenty or thirty thousand locust eggs."

Although it's impossible to eradicate them all, mobilizing the people, even if each person digs out ten kilograms, can reduce the number of locusts hatched by hundreds of thousands.

These locust eggs, once dug up, can be dried and ground into powder for use as animal feed or grain.

Collect as many locust eggs as you can.
When the locust eggs hatch into nymphs next year, we can continue to kill and catch the locusts.

Locusts that can't fly are easier to catch, and they're also bigger. If we dry them, grind them into powder, and mix them with grain, wouldn't that be a way to fight famine and provide disaster relief?

“A strong man can dig up at least one pound of locust eggs a day. I think the court can use grain to collect the eggs, exchanging three pounds of millet for one pound of locust eggs.”

This can be considered a form of work relief, which can reduce locust eggs and also provide relief to the people.

The collected eggs can be ground into powder and used as food, so nothing will be wasted.

Although Li Yi didn't say that digging up locust eggs would solve the problem, doing something is better than doing nothing.

Fang Xuanling held his teacup and said, “A family of four or five people can go out together to dig locust eggs during the winter and spring off-season. If they can dig three or four catties a day, they can exchange them for ten catties of millet.”

The people will definitely be happy. This is more than a bushel of grain. There's not much work to do during the off-season, and it's hard to find any labor, let alone earn this much grain.

Du Ruhui nodded, "Even if we calculate it less, a household can dig two catties a day and exchange them for six catties of millet. For ordinary people, two or three liters of grain are enough for two meals a day or even one meal a day in winter."

"Digging for locust eggs for a day can earn enough for two to three days' worth of food; the people will definitely be happy."

Digging up locust eggs isn't particularly tiring, since locust eggs aren't laid deep, and even the elderly and children can help dig them up.

Find places with many locust eggs, such as riverbanks and lakeshores, and dig them up. It shouldn't be a problem for one family to dig up two kilograms a day.

Yuwen Shiji asked, "If one pound of locust eggs can be exchanged for three pounds of millet, the people will naturally be happy to dig them up and exchange them. But does the imperial court have that much grain to exchange?"

Although locust eggs can be dried, ground into flour, and used as grain, a pound of dried locust eggs doesn't yield much flour.

Li Yi smiled and said, "Lord Yuwen, when disaster strikes and the people suffer from famine, does the imperial court not open the granaries to provide relief? Now, allowing the people to dig up locust eggs in exchange for grain is also a form of relief."

(End of this chapter)