In the evening, the carriage pulled wooden barrels towards the porridge shed.
Piracy is rampant and fishermen have not gone out to sea for a long time to fish. Many fishermen rely on soup kitchen to survive every day.
Outside the porridge shed, the fishermen and people who got the news had already crowded the open space.
Since porridge is given based on head count and cannot be packed, people bring their families with them.
Jin Feng saw many fishermen carrying old people or children on their backs.
"Damn pirates!"
Tang Xiaobei said: "Mr. Sir, why don't you give the navy a group of speedboats and clean up the pirates!"
"It has been approved for them!" Jin Feng nodded.
The last time I came to the East China Sea, the pirate situation was not so serious.
But starting from the end of last year, the number of pirates suddenly increased.
Zheng Chiyuan once captured a pirate ship. Under normal circumstances, that pirate ship could accommodate dozens of people. However, Zheng Chiyuan discovered that there were more than two hundred Japanese pirates living on the ship. There were people in the cabin and on the deck.
There was also a lot of standing.
According to the pirates' account, the Japanese country encountered a super typhoon that it had never encountered before last summer, followed by drought in some places and floods in other places. In winter, it was too cold to go out.
By the end of the year, they really couldn't survive anymore, and rebellions began in many places.
In order to divert the conflict, the local government secretly colluded with the pirates and organized people to come to Dakang to plunder.
When it set off from Japan, the ship carried more than 400 people, and the deck was full of people. However, many people died of cold and starvation on the way here.
Many pirate ships are converted fishing boats and do not have the ability to sail long distances at all.
Although the sea in winter is not as rough as in summer, more than 70% of pirate ships still sank before they could reach Dakang.
They risked life and death to come to Dakang, but once they landed on the shore, they were like hungry wolves, grabbing everything they saw, and it was almost impossible to say that there was not a blade of grass growing in their path.
In addition, when some people along the East China Sea coast can no longer survive, they will pretend to be pirates and go to other villages and towns to rob.
Some fishermen even make a career out of it.
Zheng Chiyuan once intercepted a pirate fleet, disguised as fishermen dozens of miles away.
At that time, they had already robbed a village. During the robbery, many fake pirates spoke of Dakang. In order to prevent being discovered, they massacred all the people in the village just like the real pirates.
In Zheng Chiyuan's heart, such people were more hateful than real pirates, so he directly ordered the pirate fleet to be destroyed.
Zheng Chiyuan's attitude is not resolute, but there are still more and more pirates.
In fact, Zheng Chiyuan wrote a memorial to the Ninth Princess to apply for a speedboat many years ago. However, Jin Feng was trapped in Xizhou at that time. The speedboat was responsible for transporting supplies and transmitting information. Sichuan and Shu itself were not enough, and the Ninth Princess did not trust Zheng Chiyuan and was afraid.
He kidnapped the speedboat and ran away without consent, nor did he tell Jin Feng about it.
After Jin Feng came to the East China Sea, he discovered that pirates were so rampant.
Although there are still not enough speedboats, Jin Feng still approved two speedboat formations for the navy.
Zheng Chiyuan also selected several fastest ships from the naval fleet and cooperated with speedboats to form a rapid response team.
Now the speedboat has entered the navy camp and is undergoing initial communication and running-in.
Maolang Island will be their first target.
In normal porridge soup, the food is brought to the porridge shed and the porridge is cooked on the spot, but today's porridge was prepared and brought over at the escort cooking station, and the time was a little later than usual.
Many people came and queued up after being notified by their clan elders in the afternoon. When they saw the porridge coming, they immediately rushed towards the porridge shed.
Fortunately, Zheng Chiyuan had anticipated this and arranged for navy soldiers to come over in advance to help maintain order.
Even so, it barely stopped the hungry people.
When the bodyguards saw this, they quickly surrounded the porridge carriage, fearing that the people would snatch the porridge.
Zheng Chi saw that the situation was about to get out of control, so he quickly ordered his men to ring the gongs to temporarily suppress the noise of the people, and then asked the navy soldiers to hold up the tin trumpets and shout.
"Don't be too crowded. Today, the Imperial Master and Mrs. Xiaobei are working together to give out porridge to ensure that everyone has something. If anyone is crowded and doesn't line up, I will remember him in a small book and don't even think about it again in the future.
The porridge shed is getting porridge!”
It has to be said that those in the navy know fishermen best.
When the navy soldiers shouted this, the fishermen were really frightened, and they stopped crowding and lined up obediently according to the navy's arrangements.
Only then did the bodyguard dare to lift the porridge bucket from the carriage.
The porridge shed usually serves porridge, usually millet mixed with a little sorghum, and occasionally a little wheat grain.
But today when I opened the lid of the porridge bucket, there was a completely new kind of porridge inside.
"Wow, the porridge is so thick, and there are even fish fillets in the porridge... Hey, is that rice?"
The fishermen standing in front immediately noticed that today’s porridge was different from usual.
Usually the porridge is very thin, but today's porridge is very thick, with fish fillets floating on it, and it's also white.
Since they are fishermen, fish fillets are much less attractive to them, but rice is not yet popular in Dakang, so it is a rare high-end ingredient for fishermen and is relatively rare.
"It's rice. When my father and my brother were still alive, the three of us caught a big fish and sold it for hundreds of coins. When we came back from the county government, my father bought two kilograms of rice, and the porridge we cooked was like this
of!"
“I heard that rice is much more expensive than millet, sorghum and wheat!”
"That's right, my uncle's hometown grows rice. This thing is different from millet, sorghum and wheat. To grow sorghum, you just need to scatter the seeds into the ground and forget about it. But to grow rice, you need to cultivate the seedlings first and then pull them up.
They are inserted into the paddy field one by one. After planting, it is very troublesome to remove the shells!"
“No wonder rice is so expensive, it’s so troublesome!”
"I never thought I would be able to eat rice porridge one day!"
"The Imperial Master and Mrs. Xiaobei are too extravagant. They even use rice to serve porridge!"
"Hey, haven't you heard of Jinchuan Daily? Who is the National Master? He is a fairy-like figure. He comes to the East China Sea to give porridge. If he doesn't make it better, how can he be worthy of his status as an old man!"
"Haha, after you said that, today's porridge is still stained with fairy spirit!"
"Jinchuan Daily said that Master Guoshi has the heart of a Bodhisattva. It is indeed true. Today's porridge is too thick. One bowl can hold three bowls more than usual!"
"What are those black things in the porridge?"
"I don't know, but the Imperial Master will definitely not harm us, and it must be delicious!"
"Hai Bazi, stop talking, the military master has moved the spoon, hurry up and get the porridge!"
The fishermen lined up and chatted while receiving porridge.
They were so hungry that almost all the fishermen turned around and started eating after receiving the porridge.
Fortunately, the porridge has been cooked for a while, and it was brought here from the escort camp. It is no longer very hot, otherwise some people would have burned their mouths.
Haibazi was the first person in the queue. After receiving the porridge, he immediately took a small sip.
The fishermen at the back swallowed their saliva and asked, "Haibazi, how does it taste?"