The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 504 Hunhe Local Specialties

As the Eastern Expedition to Korea on September 15th draws closer, the army still has a shortage of 10,000 dan of food and fodder.

As the saying goes, "food and fodder must be prepared before an army moves." Now that there's a food and fodder problem, if it ultimately delays the Emperor's personal expedition, it's a capital offense. With Liu Zhaosun's current personality, he'll definitely not show mercy.

Liu Zhaosun gave full responsibility for raising food and fodder for the army to Xie Yang and Ge Yewen.

Xie Yang was the head of the civil administration system of the Great Qi State, and Ge Yewen was currently the Minister of Revenue of the State of Qi. Despite their best efforts, the two civil servants were unable to turn the tide.

Like other power institutions, Qi's civil affairs also had a two-horse carriage structure, with the two carriages moving forward at the same pace.

One set is the original Kaiyuan system, namely civil officials, and the other set is inherited from the previous Ming Dynasty, which is the familiar Ministry of Revenue.

The two carriages run in parallel, interconnected but independent of each other. All government affairs related to people's livelihood are under the charge of civil affairs officials and Ministry of Revenue officials.

Of course, this is just a special phenomenon in the transition period, and it will definitely change in the future.

Xie Yang and Ge Yewen were anxious.

In early August, the Eastern Expedition Army arrived in Kuandian one after another, and the vanguard of the cavalry corps crossed the Yalu River and entered Sinuiju, where they would meet up with Qi Jin's Third Corps stationed in Korea, and then wait for Emperor Mujeong to cross the river and launch an attack on the Korean army in Hwanghae Province together.

The Eastern Expeditionary Army, along with its accompanying civilian laborers and auxiliary troops, numbered over 300,000 men. Just like the Battle of Sarhu, this large force could not have been deployed in a single day or two, nor could it have been marched in a single line. The 80,000-man army was divided into four routes, each comprising 20,000 men: East, Central, West, and South. Deng Changxiong was the commander of the Eastern Route, Qi Jin was the commander of the Western Route, and Wu Aheng led the Southern Route, landing at Incheon. The Central Route was led by Emperor Wu Ding himself.

It would take more than one or two days for such a large number of troops to reach the battlefield. After the vanguard crossed the Yalu River, more than 70,000 follow-up troops remained in Liaodong. The amount of food and grass consumed by these troops every day was an astronomical figure.

Xie Yang and Ge Yewen looked at the list of supplies consumed by the army with fear and trepidation.

After the flood and plague, there was a shortage of food and clothing everywhere. The Tunbu Chamber of Commerce School, Tieling Kaiyuan Qinghe, all the disaster-stricken areas were looking for Xie Guangkun and his men for food and cotton clothes. The winter of the third year of Taichu was coming soon.

Xie Guangkun is not like Master Zhang who can fool the emperor by saying that he can turn beans into soldiers.

He didn't know any magic, and couldn't conjure up food, so he was so anxious that the last few unruly hairs on his head fell off completely, and he became a real bald man.

If he didn't wear a hat or wig, Xie Guangkun would look more like a monk than a monk.

~~~~
August 15th, the third year of Taichu, Mid-Autumn Festival, Qixing Tower in Shenyang.

A bright moon rises over the west building, and a few stars dot the night sky. The night sky appears exceptionally clear, as if it had been washed by water.

There was a huge octagonal table in the private room by the window on the third floor. Liu Zhaosun held the wine pot and poured wine for his men one by one.

Sitting next to the retired emperor were Ma Shiying, Sun Chuanting, Song Yingxing, Xu Guangqi, Zhang Dong, Pei Dahu, Xie Yang, Wu Xiao, Ge Yewen, Jin Yinghe, Francisco and others. The area above and below the Seven Star Tower was not cleared, but not a single civilian could be seen on the surrounding streets.

After the flood and plague, Shenyang's economy collapsed, and the farmers' and merchants' associations suffered heavy losses. The people's daily grain rations were reduced from one catty per person to five ounces, and they could only eat porridge. Sugar and tea supplies were also halved, and coal and wood were almost nonexistent.

The winter of the third year of Taichu is destined to be a little cold.

Therefore, this year's Emperor Wuding's family banquet was much more shabby than in previous years.

First of all, the venue of the family banquet was moved from the main hall of the Qianqing Palace to the Qixing Tower, which was equivalent to being downgraded from the imperial palace to an inn. The dishes were also reduced from the original 108 main dishes to only a dozen plates, and most of the meat was leftovers such as frogs, fish, snakes, and toads, which made Emperor Wuding, who loved meat, very unhappy.

The two remaining pork elbows were placed on the Eight Immortals table. Everyone just looked at them without daring to pick up their chopsticks. Half an hour later, the pork elbows were still the same, without any change. It was not because Emperor Wu Ding was present, but because everyone had heard that this meat was not clean.

Emperor Wuding called today's dishes "local specialties of Hunhe River".

As the name suggests, these frogs, snakes and insects were all caught from the Hunhe River.

Considering the poor sanitary conditions of Hunhe River, no one dares to guarantee whether the meat in front of them is still edible and whether eating it will cause plague and death.

However, Emperor Wuding seemed to enjoy the meal.

Many of Liu Zhaosun's old subordinates were not invited to the banquet. Dongfang Zhu, Linyu, Fujiwara Kyoji and others were blackmailing the Zheng family in Weihaiwei and have not returned yet. The commanders of each corps rushed to Kuandian, and the rest of the people were also busy and could not make it.

Liu Zhaosun drank three cups of sake mixed with water, raised his chopsticks with a smile, and moved the tips of his chopsticks back and forth among several cooked toads. Finally, he picked up a cooked silver ring snake and invited everyone to come.

"Don't be polite, everyone. This is a year of great disaster, and I'm not rich either. I've removed the poison from the venomous snakes and cooked the toads to 80% done. They're all specialties of Hunhe. Eat them, eat them."

When Francisco heard that it was a "specialty of Hunhe River", he quickly spat out the piece of fish he had just swallowed, pinched his neck and his face turned red.

Liu Zhaosun picked up the fish as if nothing had happened and swallowed it in another gulp.

"In a year of great disaster, you should be thankful if you have something to eat. It's not like you're a fish that eats dead flesh."

After hearing what the retired emperor said, the group of people all frowned and sat there not daring to pick up their chopsticks. The retired emperor grabbed another piece of pork elbow and swallowed it in one gulp again.

Xie Yang couldn't help but interrupt the emperor's meal and frowned, saying, "Your Majesty, despite our best efforts, we are still short of 10,000 dan of grain. It is really difficult to gather them. Yesterday, Magistrate Lu came to ask me for food again. I..."

Ge Yewen also quickly complained:

"Your Majesty, the Ministry of Revenue now has only 35,000 taels of silver left. The grain in the granary has all been taken away by Deng Changxiong and his men. Now Zhu Changling has heard that Da Qi has suffered a flood and is refusing to sell us any more grain. Smuggling trade with the south is unsustainable. They are asking too high a price, five taels of silver per dan of rice... If this continues, let alone the Eastern Expedition to Korea, people in Liaodong will starve to death."

Liu Zhaosun waved his hand, not caring about the complaints of his two subordinates at all. He tilted his head back and gulped down half a bottle of cheap white wine mixed with water, then continued to eat the "specialties of Hunhe River", feeling full of energy.

"Director Xie, if you really can't bear it anymore, then follow Master Zhang south and become a monk on Mount Wudang. I see your hair is almost falling out. By the way, where is Master Zhang now?"

Wu Xiao put down a drop of his untouched wine and quickly replied, "Your Majesty, I estimate we're almost at Fucheng County."

"If we chase him now, when will we be able to catch up?"

Wu Xiao calculated with his fingers for a moment, and then said confidently, "Tomorrow night."

Emperor Wuding slammed the table and stood up.

Just when Wu Xiao thought that the emperor was going to send him to hunt down Taoist Zhang, he heard Liu Zhaosun say to the two debt collectors:
"There's really no other way, so I'll just allocate some from the military rations to you."

Sun Sun Chuanting heard this and quickly stopped him:
"Your Majesty, you must not do this! Absolutely not!"

(End of this chapter)