Faced with Xiao Weijing's doubts, Shen Ning said firmly: "I guarantee it with my character."
Today's locusts have not been poisoned by pesticides, chemical fertilizers and insecticides, and their toxicity is still relatively low.
Locusts can also be used medicinally to treat coughs, shortness of breath, tetanus, acute and chronic convulsions, high blood pressure, etc.
"I believe in you once."
Xiao Weijing ordered to go outside the city to catch brightly colored locusts. The more the better.
The mythical beasts went out one after another. Not only did they do it themselves, but they also paid to hire children. They actually brought back a large basket of locusts from morning to night.
Pondersong and others are particularly spicy, half fried and half slowly roasted over firewood.
"Princess, do you want to try it?"
The impact of the perspective was too great. Shen Ning, who said one thing and did another, hid behind Xiao Weijing, "You guys eat more."
"What are you afraid of? The prince ate a lot back then." Pang Desong threw a handful of fried food into his mouth, "Well, it's so delicious!"
Shen Ning was shocked and instantly felt that the villain was unclean.
What about his mysophobia, was it eaten by a dog?
Pang Desong had the experience of locust poisoning. After eating a large bowl of fried locusts, he sat down and waited for the poison to develop. "Princess, my subordinate will be poisoned later. You must rescue him." He has not yet married a wife and does not want to die. Woolen cloth.
Han Qing ate baked food.
It was easy to break when baked, and the visual impact of the corpses was too great. Zhuqing helped grind it into powder and mixed it with some black batter.
It smells good, but a little disgusting.
But when a famine is coming, the most important thing is to keep food on the table and survive. Who cares whether it tastes good or not?
After eating for three days in a row, the two of them were full of food. They felt like vomiting when they saw the locusts, but there was nothing serious about their health. It was just a physiological disorder.
"Your Majesty, this subordinate does not feel poisoned."
"If locusts can really be caught and eaten, it can greatly alleviate the famine in the north."
Pang Desong and Han Qing looked at Shen Ning as if they were worshiping a Bodhisattva, with both admiration and respect.
Shen Ning took the opportunity to claim credit, "Your Majesty, the court is asking for rewards to control the locusts. I think you can do it. We will share the rewards equally."
Xiao Weijing, "..." fell in love with money.
The mythical beasts nodded one after another, "My lord, this is your chance to make a name for yourself."
Since locusts are eliminated, some food shortages can be alleviated.
"There is no rush to control locusts." Xiao Weijing told Han Qing, "Send people 800 miles back to the north in a hurry, buy locusts at a price of five cents per catty, bake or fry them first, and store them."
Pang Deson was stunned, "Buy it with money?"
Yes, the locusts are approaching the northern border, and the people are panicked. Many people have the idea of abandoning their homes and businesses to flee. Only money can increase the enthusiasm of the people to catch locusts.
Five cents is not cheap. In non-famine years, it is the price of coarse grains, but in famine times, rice and noodles have been sold for hundreds of cents.
After hearing this, Shen Ning suddenly came up with an idea, "Collect as much as you can and treat it as a business."
Eating locusts alone is unbearable. If mixed with other grains to make compressed biscuits, it is easy to carry when fleeing famine or fighting, and it is especially easy to fill your stomach.
Without further ado, the locusts were about to enter the country, so Han Qing sent people to the northern border to make arrangements. We will talk about the rest later.
We have to receive enough locusts before the imperial court implements the locust control policy. Otherwise, once the policy is implemented, someone will cause harm?
After catching two baskets of locusts, Shen Ning took Zhuqing and Pang Xingxiu to make food puffed powder.
She asked Pondersong to make a simple mechanical extruder, which mixed a variety of grains, then repeatedly squeezed and crushed them, and then steamed and puffed at high temperatures.
I didn't do much, but the tools were limited and it was very laborious. It took me a long time to make the puffed powder.
Then add wheat flour, locust powder, sugar, oil, and dairy products, and then cool, stir, and compress, finally making a gray compressed biscuit.
Pang Desong, who was watching from the side, wiped his hands with cold sweat and said, "Princess, making this is much more laborious than going into battle to kill the enemy. It took me a long time to do so much. It's too cheap to sell it for half a tael of silver per kilogram."
"Is this a matter of money?" Shen Ning, who was panting from exhaustion, rolled her eyes at him, "We are already starving. Who cares about labor? Survival is the most important thing."
Pang Desong thought about it and was the first to try it.
How should I put it? The aroma is there, but it can only be said to be edible, but it is by no means delicious.
I drank water while eating, and felt full after eating two pieces.
Shen Ning was full of expectations, "How do you feel?"
"It's easy to bloat after drinking water." Pang Desong touched his belly, "It tastes better than our dry food."
"What's your food during the war?"
"There are fried noodles, fried dry rice, and brick cakes."
The so-called brick cake is made by brushing rice paste or batter layer by layer. Each layer should be dried in the sun, and then brushed again to make it into a brick-sized cake that is not sticky when exposed to moisture or water. Knock off half a piece and put it in a pot to cook porridge. It can be made into a paste to satisfy your hunger.
This is the most common dry food for hungry people fleeing famine or for troops on the march. It is much tastier than the compressed biscuits made by Shen Ning.
That night, Pang Deson didn't eat, and he wasn't hungry the next morning.
It wasn't until noon that I barely felt hungry, "Princess, I didn't expect this biscuit to be so resistant to hunger, and it tastes crunchier and more delicious than brick cakes. It's really a good thing." If you resist hunger for a day, you can kill more enemy troops on the battlefield.
"If you add minced meat or nuts to it, it will make it more resistant to hunger."
Other mythical beasts started to taste it one after another. Even though they can enjoy the delicious food now, they have never experienced any hardship in the north. This kind of biscuit is more hungry than their homemade biscuits.
"My lord, if there is really going to be a war in winter, we can definitely fight them back to grandma's house while eating biscuits and chewing the snow."
"Yes, let them go back to the north!"
The method is given, and the decision-making power rests with Xiao Weijing.
This is not only a problem of famine, but more importantly, the storage of military rations.
Xiao Weijing agreed. As for the mechanical extrusion problem, we can find a skilled craftsman to design and solve it.
Shen Ning added a few herbs to the formula to prevent moisture and mildew, promote puffing, and extend the shelf life.
At the same time, it also comes with prescriptions and treatment methods for locust poisoning.
Xiao Weijing felt complicated, but still handed over the locust control strategy.
The locust plague is certainly terrifying, but if you can fill your stomach, the hungry people will be afraid of eating locusts to the point of danger based on their survival consciousness.
The locust control strategy needed to be verified and discussed. Officials who had nothing to do with themselves were like old scalpers, doing things slowly and slowly. It took five or six days to confirm that it was feasible.
The emperor was very happy and looked at Xiao Weijing's eyes with a trace of rare kindness.
But before I could reward him, a big event happened in Yuzhou in the north. Thousands of victims were fleeing the famine and passing through the Misty Ridge. They accidentally found a granary, and they looted and smashed it wildly. It took them three days and three nights to move it.
When the officials heard the news and arrived, they were shocked by the scene before them.
The entire mountain of Misty Ridge was hollowed out, and judging from the traces inside, there were no less than 100,000 dans of grain hidden there.
Judging from the grains scattered on site, rice, wheat, buckwheat, and sorghum were old grains from last year and the year before, but they were well preserved.
As the news spread, the court was in uproar.
Hollow out a mountain and hoard 100,000 dans of grain?
Rice, wheat, buckwheat, and sorghum grow in different seasons and places, but some people hide them together in Misty Ridge. What does this mean?
One hundred thousand dan of grain? That is, one million kilograms of grain, which is equivalent to the tax grain of the entire northern territory. How many people can be fed?
Even the largest grain merchant in the Min Dynasty would not be able to hoard and purchase so much grain.
Qi and blood kept rushing to his mind, and the emperor was so angry that his liver and gallbladder trembled, "Have you thoroughly investigated who is hoarding the food?"