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

Chapter 826 Good News

In the first month of the lunar calendar, it gets dark early.

The children played wildly all day and kept saying they were hungry.

Even Crown Prince Chengqian, who usually doesn't have a good appetite, was complaining of hunger today, following Li Shu and Li Cong around.

“Father, we want to eat those curved noodles.”

Li Yi instructed Ji Shi to remove the outer clothes from these guys and replace the sweat towels on their backs.

"Go wash your hands and face first. Tonight we're having copper hot pot, with beef balls, fish balls, shrimp paste, glutinous rice balls, sweet potato balls, and taro balls."
Lamb rolls, beef rolls...

The coconut chicken soup base is perfect for these children; it's sweet and delicious.

Those coconuts were picked from Luhuitou Bay in Sanya Bay, Zhenzhou, Hainan Island, where Li Yi almost became a hereditary prefect, and then transported all the way to Luoyang.
Although coconuts are not as difficult to transport as fresh lychees, the cost of transporting coconuts is still extremely high.

The copper pot was bubbling and boiling.
A group of children sat in a circle,
Li Shu, with her boss-like demeanor, said, "Once the broth is boiling, you can add the ingredients. Add whatever you want, start with the meat, and add the vegetables last."

Chengqian looked at the table full of side dishes.

I was dazzled by all the sights.

I didn't know where to start.

Li Shu picked up a plate of prawns and put several into it. These were fresh, frozen prawns, brought over by fast horse after being iced at the harbor, and they could only be eaten during this season.

It's not easy to keep them fresh and transport them under refrigeration during other seasons.

Li Cong picked up the large plate of fatty mutton rolls and put them all into the pot.

Li Shu glared at him.
"Don't put all of this in at once. Cook it piece by piece, that way it will be fresh and tender."

Although Li Cong was the eldest son in the family, he was a little intimidated by his older sister, saying, "There are many of us, so two slices each will be enough for us to finish."

"Okay, finish cooking this mutton first, then add the rest. Don't add anything else," Li Shu instructed.

Chengqian sat there looking at the meat rolls in the pot, smelling the overflowing aroma, and his stomach couldn't help but rumble.

"What are you still sitting there for? Go make your own dipping sauce. Make whatever you want to eat. We have sesame sauce, dry sauce, and oil sauce."
Add sesame oil if you like, add minced garlic if you like, and you can also add cilantro or chopped green onions if you prefer.

There's also chili powder, crushed peanuts, white sesame seeds, and so on...

Chengqian had no idea about these things.

"Alright, I'll make it for you. I'll get you one each of the oil dipping sauce, dry dipping sauce, and sesame sauce. Do you eat spicy food?"

Chengqian shook his head.

Do you eat cilantro?

"eat."

Little Chili ran over to prepare the dipping sauce, and she did it very skillfully, quickly making three dipping dishes.

"Come help me serve, just sit and wait to eat."

Chengqian quickly got up to help carry it.

That day, he was constantly lectured by Li Shu. He even protested to Li Shu that he was the Crown Prince, but Li Shu punched him and said that she was still the Princess of Daning County and her sister Li Wan was the Princess of Yong'an County. What kind of grandson does the Crown Prince have?

"Quick, the mutton rolls are ready, hurry up and scoop them out." Li Cong couldn't wait, so he used his long chopsticks to pick up several slices and put them into his bowl. He had prepared his own dipping sauce, with a base of minced garlic and cilantro, and then dipped the mutton into the sauce and ate it in big bites.

Seeing that he was still in a daze, Li Shu picked up a piece of food for him and said, "Hurry up and eat, your stomach is rumbling."

Li Yi sat at a distance, drinking tea.
Looking at the lively scene of the children at that table.

"If a child eats a lot, it means they have a good appetite."

A female official from the Empress's side came to check on the Crown Prince's condition under the pretext of giving Li Yi a gift of lotus root from Anlu.

As a result, it was observed that the Crown Prince got along quite well with the Li family children.
Especially when it comes to eating, they have an excellent appetite.

She knew that the Crown Prince's stomach and spleen had always been somewhat weak, and he usually ate like a cat.

I didn't expect that the food at the Li family's house would be so good so soon.

"Actually, children need to be more active. Exercise helps with digestion, and when they're hungry, they'll eat anything with relish. Also, they need companions when they eat, so that they can eat more and enjoy it more."

“Your Highness, the Crown Prince has always had a weak spleen and stomach and cannot eat much.”

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. Hot pot is all about the fun. The Lu family and the Ji family are watching from the sidelines, and they've already calculated the amount of ingredients they've prepared."

A balanced diet of meat and vegetables,

There are many styles, but the quantity of each style is not large.

Chengqian ate until he was sweating profusely.

They quickly learned how to add ingredients to it.
He loves all kinds of meatballs, and he also likes tofu puffs, dried bean curd sticks, and fried tofu skin.
Mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms, bean sprouts, lettuce, cucumbers, cabbage, and rapeseed shoots—these vegetables are also incredibly delicious when blanched in this pot.

A group of children, each with a pair of long chopsticks, were scrambling and fighting over them, which was quite amusing.

The translucent potato noodles are very elastic after cooking.

The pea vermicelli is thin and soaked in the flavorful broth, making it incredibly delicious.

Despite not eating spicy food, he even tried the dry dipping sauce at Li Shu's suggestion. The chili powder there made his face turn red and his mouth water. He drank several mouthfuls of water but found it very enjoyable.

The lotus root, a gift from the Emperor and Empress, was washed, peeled, and sliced ​​by Li Yi, who then served a plate to the children.

"are you full?"

"I am full!"

A group of little kids patted their bellies contentedly.

Li Shu even lifted Chengqian's clothes to look at the Crown Prince's belly.

"If you're full, take a walk around the house to help with digestion. I'll give each of you a bowl of hawthorn sweet water later."

That night,
Li Chengqian slept very well.
Perhaps because they played and frolicked all day, they fell asleep early in the evening without any signs of being bothered by the bed or homesick.

the next morning,
When Li Yi got up, he saw a group of children chasing and running around again.

The Crown Prince is much more adapted today than he was yesterday.

noon,

The emperor specially invited Li Yi to dine with him.

The meals were very simple.
Cornbread mixed with locust egg powder, wild vegetables, and wheat bran

A row of chicken with ginger and vinegar, a plate of mutton, and two vegetable dishes: stir-fried bean sprouts and cold spinach salad. The emperor asked Chengqian if he was accustomed to staying at the residence.

"It's great. I had a lot of fun playing with my little rascals, and I ate happily. I went to bed early last night and slept soundly until dawn. This morning, we played happily together again."

Upon hearing this, Li Shimin smiled and breathed a sigh of relief.

He was somewhat skeptical of the report he received yesterday from the female official regarding the Crown Prince's situation at the Li family, especially his behavior while eating hot pot.

Later, I worried that eating too much might harm my spleen and stomach.

"We can't just play all the time; we can't neglect our studies either," Li Shimin said.

"It's still the first month of the lunar calendar, the New Year. No rush. Let the Crown Prince play for a few days, get to know my children, and adapt to the situation in my residence."

After the Lantern Festival,

So they were told to focus and start reading and doing their homework.

Li Shimin nodded.
"I feel at ease leaving the child with you,"

Then the emperor brought up the matter of the granary. He still wanted to kill a batch of people as a warning to others.

"Your Majesty, the most important thing now is to make up for the deficit in the granaries. If we spare their lives, they will try to make up for the deficit. If we kill them, some families will probably stop making up for it."

Li Shimin angrily said, "Then I will confiscate their property."

“Those corrupt officials will surely have multiple escape routes, and they won’t openly display all their wealth. It would be better to spare their lives on the condition that they raise the money, silk, and grain themselves to make up for the deficit.”

Regardless of whether they have that much money and food on hand, let them borrow from their family and relatives; they have to make up the difference first.

The deficit has been covered, so everything is fine.

Although some of the deficits were not generated by the current administration, they are being investigated one by one.

The Tang Dynasty had only been established for seven years.
We won't investigate the previous dynasty's grain reserves, but shouldn't we be able to figure out the grain reserves of this dynasty in recent years?

Killing people won't solve the problem.

However, while the death penalty may be avoided, punishment is still inevitable. Making up for the deficit will only save one from the death penalty. In the end, whether one is dismissed from office, removed from the list of officials, or exiled, the punishment will still be imposed.

"I never expected this,"
The Tang Dynasty has been established for seven years, and it's already the first year of the Zhenguan era, yet the bureaucracy is still so corrupt.

"It seems we must thoroughly rectify official corruption."

"Your Majesty, many officials today are either retained from the previous dynasty or temporarily appointed, and quite a few are indeed unqualified."

Your subject suggests that the court first send ministers to inspect the various provinces and assess the officials.

The capable rise and the mediocre are eliminated. Officials undergo a minor examination every year and a major examination every four years, and are promoted based on their performance.

Strengthen and expand the imperial examination system, and gradually replace mediocre officials with those selected through the examinations.

Li Shimin nodded.
When they were vying for power, the court was very generous to those who surrendered, granting them official positions and titles, and even assigning official positions to their subordinates.

Often, if a county were to submit to the emperor, the court would then elevate it to the status of a prefecture.

Furthermore, in the conquered prefectures and counties, either the original officials were retained, or some local scholars or even former clerks were temporarily promoted and appointed as officials to manage the local areas.

These were all temporary measures.

But now, the government offices of the prefectures and counties of the Tang Dynasty are filled with such officials.

This should have been rectified and cleaned up long ago.

But it has been delayed until now.

"Your Majesty, we must proceed step by step. We must assess officials, dismiss corrupt and incompetent officials, merge prefectures and counties to streamline government offices. All of these must be done step by step."

As long as the direction is right.

Li Shimin sighed, "Every day I face this country riddled with holes and in ruins, and I am always worried and unable to eat or sleep peacefully."

"I have good news to report."

"After the imperial court issued the edict to exchange locust eggs for millet, the people were quite enthusiastic. During the winter off-season, many families worked together."
Even if you only dig up a pound or two of locust eggs a day, you can still exchange them for several pounds of millet.

For many poor people, this was nothing short of a blessing from a saint.

The imperial granaries are spending more and more grain, with one pound of locust eggs being exchanged for three pounds of millet. Some officials feel that if this exchange continues, the imperial court will suffer a great loss.

But Li Yi insisted on continuing to replace them, accepting as many as possible.

When the locusts hatch in spring and summer, we'll have to replace them with locust nymphs.

The locust eggs collected were not wasted. They were dried in the sun or oven and ground into powder. In the future, during famines, they could be mixed with cornmeal, soybean flour, etc., to make disaster relief food to help starving people.

What locust god, divine punishment,
Faced with the real question of food security, the vast majority of ordinary people choose millet, which is enough to sustain them.

"Any other good news?"

"Your subject has discovered the immortal herb left by your master. This herb is called Phoenix Eye Blue, commonly known as Water Hyacinth. Its flowers are blue-purple, and the petals have markings like phoenix eyes."

This miraculous herb can survive in water, especially in the south. One plant can multiply into countless plants in a year, and within a hundred days, one plant can multiply and cover six acres of water.

Its tender stems and leaves are edible.

It can also be ground into dry powder, and if mixed with grains such as corn, it can become a very good disaster relief food.

In ordinary years,

This can be used to feed livestock such as pigs, sheep, chickens, and ducks...

Li Shimin was stunned after hearing what Li Yi had described.

"Does such a thing really exist? A single plant can cover six acres of water in a hundred days? In which year?"

In peaceful times, it can be used to feed chickens, ducks, cattle, and sheep; in times of famine, it can be used as disaster relief food; and in ordinary times, it is also a delicious vegetable.

However, it can live as long as there is water, without the need for careful cultivation.

"The divine herb left behind by Master Li is in no way inferior to auspicious crops like sweet potatoes and corn."

Where is this divine object?

“It is kept in my study at home.”

"Take me to see it immediately!" Li Shimin stood up abruptly, eager to witness this miraculous herb with his own eyes.

(End of this chapter)