A thousand-year-old family begins with one fighting against ten thousand.

For the same weight, the nutritional value of slugs is no less than that of beef, and may even be significantly higher.

However, the two are drastically different in price.

Beef is prohibited from being slaughtered by the state; only cattle that accidentally fall into the ground are allowed to be slaughtered.

Therefore, beef is extremely expensive.

However, some cheaper mutton, venison, and other meats are not cheap. They are delicacies that ordinary people can only enjoy during festivals.

Even if locusts are edible, they won't be very expensive. If we could buy them in large quantities and let their tenants eat them to supplement their nutrition, they would have more energy to farm.

The amount of labor contributed by tenant farmers who eat meat is completely different from that of tenant farmers who eat grain, and these large clans would naturally calculate this.

As for the locusts' disgusting nature, that's not something they should be concerned about. Being able to eat meat is already a blessing; how could those tenant farmers have the luxury of being picky?

They're just a bunch of slaves. Whatever they're told to eat, they have to eat. Whether it's locusts or meat, they'd eat pig swill if they were told to.

Therefore, the feelings of these tenants were not taken into consideration at all.

News of the emperor's banquet for his ministers and elders had already spread, and countless people were curious about what Li Shimin was up to.

After the officials and the three elders left the palace, news of what had happened in the palace quickly spread throughout Luoyang.

The entire city of Luoyang was in an uproar. The locusts were not a punishment from heaven, but something that could be eaten, even meat. Moreover, the emperor, the many high-ranking officials, and even the heir of the Prince of Yan had all eaten them.

I heard that the imperial chef's cooking was excellent, and many ministers praised it as being very delicious.

Moreover, the Crown Prince of Yan himself admitted that its nutritional value is extremely high, even higher than that of the legendary beef.

It is several times more than that of ordinary chicken or mutton.

With the Wei family's reputation as a guarantee, many parents who wanted to supplement their children's nutrition came to the fields to catch nymphs. Following the message from the palace, they cut off the heads, removed the internal organs, cleaned them, and steamed or boiled them for their children to eat.

Although some people still have doubts about this, people have a herd mentality.

Many people rushed to the field. There are only so many nymphs in the field. If you are any later, they will all be snatched up.

And since so many people went to catch them, it must be true.

More and more people left their homes and went to the fields. Some people, seeing so many people scrambling for loot, knew they couldn't out-snatch it from the others, and even if they could, they wouldn't get much.

They simply went to their relatives living elsewhere to deliver the news, and before others knew about it, they began to capture nymphs on a large scale.

Under these circumstances, the news spread rapidly throughout the Tang Dynasty, driven by the spontaneous interests of the people.

Many people began to catch nymphs, and after catching them on their own land, they would instinctively go to other people's land to catch them.

At this point, the others became unhappy, asking, "Why are you catching nymphs in my field?"

Since this nymph is in my house, it is naturally my property. This is a precious delicacy, and you actually want to steal it?

Numerous bloody conflicts erupted over the competition for the nymphs.

This was something neither Li Shimin nor Wei Zu had expected.

With the help of the local people, it didn't take long for all the nymphs in the fields to be caught, almost to the point of extinction.

Even the newly hatched one-year-old nymphs were not spared by the people; they were all caught and put into their mouths.

During the Zhenguan era, the locust plague that caused famine throughout Guanzhong and the north was thus devoured by the gluttonous Chinese people and disappeared into the long river of history.

Some early adopters caught a large number of nymphs, cooked them, and ate them. They felt a significant increase in their physical strength.

This led them to pursue the leaping nymph even more. Where there is demand, there is market. Some businessmen keenly realized that this was also a huge business opportunity.

Jumping nymphs are so easy to live; they can survive as long as there are some green leaves, even grass.

Moreover, the adult insects have a strong reproductive capacity, with a single brood producing hundreds of offspring.

If one can master the methods of locust breeding, one can raise locusts on a large scale, requiring only some readily available leaves and weeds, which are worthless and extremely profitable.

Under the influence of the food-loving genes of the Chinese nation, another overpopulated race has been nearly driven to extinction by overeating, and can only be reproduced through artificial breeding.

"The locust plagues of the past were horrific in history books, leaving thousands of miles of vegetation withered, countless people starving to death, and the land barren and red."

"It's been completely resolved just like that, and it'll never happen again."

Li Shimin, dressed in plain clothes, walked between the fields, with Empress Zhangsun and Crown Prince Li Chengqian beside him.

"Guanyinbi, why does this feel so unreal to me?"

Empress Zhangsun covered her mouth and laughed, "His Majesty naturally feels it's unreal to have received such a great merit for no reason."

Then Empress Zhangsun patted Li Chengqian on the back of the head, "Ah!"

"Mother, why did you hit me?"

Li Chengqian asked, puzzled.

"Chengqian, does it hurt?"

Empress Zhangsun rubbed the back of Li Chengqian's head and asked with concern.

"pain!"

Li Chengqian pouted, somewhat dissatisfied.

"Your Majesty, the fact that Chengqian feels pain means this is not a dream; one doesn't feel pain in dreams."

"All of this is true. Your Majesty really solved the locust plague with ease."

"Since the Zhenguan era, there have been no more locust plagues in the land! Countless people in later generations will remember Your Majesty's benevolence."

Empress Zhangsun, with the air of an empress dowager, slowly persuaded Li Shimin.

"I know, but I still feel it's not quite real."

Li Shimin smiled wryly.

Li Chengqian, standing to the side, pouted; his lips were so pouty they could hang an oil bottle on them.

"Mother, if you want to prove this isn't Father's dream, shouldn't you hit him?"

Why did you hit me?

Empress Zhangsun patted the back of her son's head again, "Because your mother can't bear to part with him."

Li Chengqian rolled his eyes. He couldn't bear to hit his father, but he could bear to hit his own son, the crown prince, right?!

With the locust plague gone, the Tang Dynasty was rapidly recovering the national strength it had lost due to the war.

In the third year of the Zhenguan era, Changsun Wuji, who had gone to the Great Xia Dynasty, brought news that, under his instigation, the Great Xia Dynasty had been completely divided into two forces.

One faction was led by Prince Wuping and his relatives, while the other faction was led by the Prime Minister.

Even the newly enthroned young emperor was fooled by the prime minister, handing over all power to him and regarding Prince Wuping as a treacherous minister.

The two sides fought fiercely for power in the capital of the Great Xia Dynasty.

Especially with the cunning old fox Changsun Wuji stirring things up, important figures on both sides kept dying at the hands of the other due to various accidents.

The conflict between the two sides continued to escalate, and finally this year, the Prime Minister decided to take action against the Prince of Wuping, holding the young prince in his hands, using the emperor to command the feudal lords, and following the path of Cao Cao.