Chapter 181 Breaking out of the shell
Town Fusi.
Qin Lang finally welcomed the long-awaited envoy of the emperor.
"Duke Yi, His Majesty has a message for you."
"Minister Qin Lang respectfully listens to the holy edict!"
"Get lost to the East Palace immediately."
The oracle is very short, just one sentence. After Qin Lang heard this, he thought it was a good thing, probably Li Shimin was angry, and he felt relieved when he finally served as the governor.
The servant who came to announce the oral order thought that Qin Lang was worried, but secretly reminded, "Duke Yi, please rest assured. Your Majesty was in a good mood when he issued this oral order. He was still smiling when he said this."
Qin Lang was stunned, and after thanking the servant who boldly revealed the forbidden secret, he couldn't understand it.
Eastern Palace.
Li Shimin sent Qin Qiong away, returned to the couch, took a sip of tea, and laughed.
"This little **** wants to steal and dodge all day long. At such a critical time, he still wants to hide. If it weren't for this little **** who did such a shocking case these days, I might really have believed Wei Zheng's nonsense. Dereliction of duty? If you really want to defile yourself, you should make more, it’s a fart to make such two stones!"
Although there are indeed irregularities in the matter of privately distributing food, but not all of it was put into Qin Lang's own pocket, and someone secretly told Qin Lang that he was buying people's hearts by kindness, Li Shimin didn't believe it, Qin Lang was How can a sixteen-year-old boy have a bad heart.
If it is Qin Qiong who is secretly dividing tens of thousands of shi of grain, maybe he really needs to think about it.
Qin Lang, forget it.
"Chen..."
As soon as Qin Lang entered the palace, he just opened his mouth when Li Shimin glared at him, "No, come with me."
"Where to?"
"The chicken is out of its shell." Li Shimin said, almost making Qin Lang shiver.
He has been busy investigating the case these days, and he almost raised the entire Chang'an city, so he really forgot about the house warming. Counting the time, it seems that it has indeed been about twenty days.
Followed Li Shimin to the warming room, only to find that Li Lizhi was there, Chengqian, Li Tai, Li Ke were also there, and even Empress Changsun was there.
In the greenhouse, a group of chicks were chirping.
Princess Changle grabbed a handful of small broken rice in her hand, and was sprinkling two grains here and there on the ground, attracting the fluffy chickens chasing happily.
These little chicks Chirp Chirp and jump around, they are really cute.
"Xiaobai, Xiaobai, come here to eat rice."
"Xiao Hei, let Xiao Bai eat a little too."
Li Lizhi is very concerned about the chicken cubs she named.
After Li Shimin came in, he was very happy to see the appearance of his wife, children and children, with smiles on his face.
"Unexpectedly, your method of not using an old hen actually hatched chicks. This morning, chickens began to hatch out of their shells, and there are already so many chicks."
Chengqian said loudly, "Father, a total of thirty-seven chicks have hatched, and they are all healthy."
And Li Tai shouted, "We checked according to the bachelor's method, thirty-seven chicks, a total of thirteen roosters and twenty-four hens."
A group of princes and princesses have even divided up and claimed this group of chicken cubs, and have named their chicken cubs one after another.
"Hahaha!" Li Shimin laughed.
The chick broke out of its shell, making Li Shimin take another high look at the young son-in-law.
After staying in the greenhouse for a while, Li Shimin took Qin Lang out.
"After hatching, can these chicks grow up without the hen belt?"
"Of course it is possible. Just pay attention to feeding and keep warm at night. At the beginning, give these chickens some small broken rice, and then you can slowly add some bran, green vegetables, etc. It doesn't matter when they grow up, just raise them normally. Just fine."
Li Shimin was more concerned about how many eggs Qin Lang had collected and were hatching.
"a lot of."
"How do you plan to raise so many chickens?"
"Building sheds for breeding, feeding feed, and semi-free-range farming."
"If you just feed the chickens, the more you raise the chickens, the more you will lose money?" Nowadays, the price of food is so high, and even if you have money, you may not be able to buy so much food.
"So I'm planning to raise some maggots and some earthworms. In addition, the feed doesn't have to be grain. Aren't there a lot of locust eggs in river beaches and other places now? I have sent people to spread the word everywhere and buy these locust eggs from the people. I collect locust eggs to make chicken feed, and mix some young grass and fish bones into powder, and the effect of raising chickens is very good."
Li Shimin was skeptical, but since chickens hatched without hens, he felt that what Qin Lang said was also possible.
"Could it be possible that you, kid, have already thought out a way out for yourself, and plan to resign from the township envoy to raise chickens?"
"Your Majesty, I'm not raising chickens, I'm just looking for a way to relieve disasters and control locusts, and I'm also doing my part for the famine."
After a long time, he took the initiative to say, "Before you suggested to me that I should take hundreds of officials and soldiers to Luoyang for food, and to start moving the people to Shannan, Huainan and other places for food in advance. After thinking about it, I think Forget it."
"Your Majesty, why?"
Li Shimin said, "Back then the Turks invaded several times, and once the situation was critical. The emperor thought about moving the capital to Shannan, and I firmly opposed it. Although the situation is severe now, I don't think it will be more critical than that time. As long as the court is united , can always overcome difficulties and get through this pass.”
As the emperor, he has his own considerations.
The case of the two kings' rebellion that happened just now reminded Li Shimin that he has not completely controlled the world yet, and there are still many people who do not accept him.
If such a large-scale move eastward at this time, even if it is only a temporary refuge for food, it will easily cause a lot of turmoil, and many unpredictable situations may occur.
In this case, Li Shimin intends to stop with static.
Qin Lang was not too disappointed when he heard the result, because he had already guessed it.
After being extremely disappointed, there is nothing to be disappointed, after all, hope has long been lost.
"Huailiang, I have allocated 30,000 horses to you. I hope you can guard Chang'an City for me at this critical time and take good care of your home. Although you are young, I know you are loyal and trustworthy."
Qin Lang could only smile wryly.
"Your Majesty, in this way, the responsibility of the Zhen Fusi is too great. I am young, and I am afraid that I cannot afford it."
"With Zhen supporting you, what are you afraid of?"
"Your Majesty, my father is the general of the left guard, and it is a matter of peace. The left and right guards are in charge of the palace guards and are responsible for guarding the imperial city. Now your majesty has asked the minister and admiral Jiumen to lead the six streets. The outer city of the imperial city is controlled by the father and son. It is really a taboo thing to take it together, and I ask you to avoid it."
"I trust Shubao and you!"
"Your Majesty, the subject and father are naturally loyal to His Majesty and the court, but avoidance is a system and cannot be broken because of it, otherwise it will be a bad start and there will be endless troubles."
"Actually, you don't have to worry about this matter. It's okay to tell you now. I have decided before that I want to worship your father as Minister of the Ministry of War, so he will step down as General Zuowei at that time, so you don't need to avoid it."
"Your Majesty, if my father is Minister of the Ministry of War, I should also avoid it."
"The Ministry of War doesn't care about the Zhen Fu Division, so you don't need to avoid it." Li Shimin didn't give Qin Lang a chance to refuse. "Don't push back and hold back, just do this job well."
"Your Majesty, I have arrested all the people who should be arrested, tried all the people who should be tried, and copied all the people who should be copied. There is nothing to do."
Li Shimin glared at him angrily, "Fart, the town governor has a heavy responsibility, so there is nothing to do? How many Li Xiaochang, Li Youliang, and Liu Deyu are still conspiring in this whole court? How many Li Yi are still plotting against each other? Not to mention anything else, now that there is a shortage of food in Chang'an, and you said that the locust plague is coming, can't you think of a way to tide over this difficulty for me?"
"Your Majesty, what solution can I come up with? It's nothing more than soldiers coming to block, water coming and soil flooding. It's nothing more than treating the head with a headache and treating the foot with a pain in the foot. Now that Chang'an is short of food, we can only find a way to bring food in from outside the pass. Plus throttling. Increase food imports, and at the same time strengthen control over the imported precious food, so that it can no longer flow into the hands of those profiteers, and can’t be reduced to a tool for them to make money.”
Li Shimin nodded, "You are right, so I entrust this task to you."
Qin Lang was helpless.
"Your Majesty, I suggest that the food emergency management order be implemented immediately in Gyeonggi. The food in the Gyeonggi area, except for the people's own rations, will be uniformly collected by the imperial court, bought at market prices, and then put into official warehouses for unified storage and management. Rationing and supply at a fair price, prohibiting random trading and hoarding, so that all the grain in Gyeonggi can be used for disaster relief.”
Li Shimin thought for a while, "If you act like this, you may be prone to chaos."
"In extraordinary times, we can only use extraordinary methods. Otherwise, if the people in Chang'an can no longer buy food or cannot afford food, there will be even greater chaos."
"I authorize you, if there are treacherous people who take advantage of this crisis to rob, the Zhenfu Department can severely crack down."
"Your Majesty, I think that at this critical moment, the imperial court can issue a decree to encourage merchants and people to transport grain into the customs. It can imitate the Han Dynasty's system of conferring millet for exporting millet, and for every amount of grain transported into Chang'an, one will be awarded a first-level honor, or a first-level official. In this way, merchants and people are encouraged to transport grain into the customs.”
In the Han Dynasty, the conferment of nobles by transporting millet was actually to spend grain to buy titles. Now Qin Lang proposes to encourage everyone to buy honors and titles with grain, which can be regarded as a temporary emergency measure.
"Okay, let the prime ministers discuss it and come up with a standard." Li Shimin has no objection to this. After all, at the beginning of the founding of the Tang Dynasty, in order to win people's hearts or win support, various honorary officials were awarded all over the sky. , Even the princes were awarded many titles.
The rank of honor is not a substantive official job, so the impact will not be too great.
Li Shimin chatted with Qin Lang for a long time, and finally they parted with satisfaction.
"Keep an eye on Xiao Gong and other family clans, and don't forget Li Yi in the local area, and Pei Ji who has returned to Puzhou..." Li Shimin repeatedly confessed that he must strengthen the surveillance of those types of people, After all, these people are not his people.
Qin Lang finally left the East Palace, and rode back to Pingkangfang Duke Yi’s mansion. When he asked, the eggs in his greenhouse were breaking open one after another, and the hatching rate was astonishing.
"Start to inform everyone to come and pick up the chicks."
"Ten eggs for one chick is still valid!"
"Exchange as much as you have!"
"Organize some manpower and transport some chicks to the following counties for sale."
Qin Lang calculated the time, the locust eggs were about to hatch, and now it was a race against time to see how many chickens and ducks he could hatch, and how many chickens and ducks he could raise for the common people.
"Also, continue to buy locust eggs. Locust eggs can be exchanged for money, chickens and ducks, or food. We can exchange as much as we have."
Qin Lang believes that with the listing of his chickens and ducks, everyone will be very interested in trading eggs for chickens, and this transaction volume is expected to usher in a period of explosion. While there is still some time, try to Collect eggs and hatch as many chickens and ducks as possible.
He only hopes that when the locusts come, there will be countless chickens and ducks in the fields all over Gyeonggi.
Li Shimin now basically believes that there will be an outbreak of autumn locusts this year, but he doesn't have any good countermeasures for the locust plague, basically he is passively coping with the situation.
Qin Lang can only do his best!
(end of this chapter)