allonlinenovel Chapter 64 No one can escape the "it's actually delicious" law!
Chapter 64 No one can escape the "it's actually delicious" law!
Liu Sanshier's act of roasting young locusts finally had a ripple effect, and some of the heads of the other seven communities and sixteen villages also rushed into the fields to catch locusts and roast them to eat.
Yang Shaofeng smiled with satisfaction and turned to Wang Qiong, saying, "Brother Wang, look, I ate the nymphs, and they were also hunting them down, but I didn't see the Locust God punish me at all?"
Wang Qiong opened her mouth, her heart filled with a thousand curses she wanted to hurl, but she didn't know who to curse or where to even begin.
Since Li Erfeng swallowed a locust alive, the Central Plains sects during the Tang and Song dynasties began to focus on locust extermination, no longer simply worshipping the locust god. However, after the puppet emperor Shi Jingtang ceded the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun, the north was successively ruled by the Liao, Jin, and Yuan dynasties. Unfortunately, none of these three dynasties knew how to catch and exterminate locusts. When faced with locust plagues, they would only worship the locust god. Gradually, the northern regions shifted to focusing on worship.
When the Song Dynasty completely collapsed and the south fell, people gradually forgot about the locust eradication efforts during the Tang and Song Dynasties. Instead, they viewed locust eradication as a great disrespect to the locust god.
Now, not only did Magistrate Yang Shaofeng roast locusts himself, but he also incited the people of Ningyang County to catch and exterminate locusts. Wang Qiong, who had only heard of worshipping the locust god since childhood and even thought that Li Erfeng swallowing locusts was just a show, suddenly felt that her worldview had been greatly impacted.
But Wang Qiong couldn't quite put her finger on what was wrong.
Did Magistrate Yang Shaofeng eat the barbecued locusts?
Did Liu Sanshier and the other commune leaders and village chiefs also barbecue and eat locusts?
Where is the Locust God?
The sky remained cloudless, and locusts continued to hop around in the fields, devouring the crops. The small bonfire nearby seemed to still retain the smoky aroma of roasted locusts, but not a single locust god could be seen.
What Wang Qiong found even more unacceptable was that Liu Sanshier, who had just eaten barbecued locusts, went and caught a few more locusts, grilled them, and then forced them on Geng Erdan, the head of Gengzhuang Village, who was hiding to the side.
"Eat it," Liu Thirty-Two said, stuffing locusts into Geng Erdan's hand while patiently persuading him, "This thing is meat after all. Doesn't it smell good? Just like the old man said, it eats our crops, so we should eat its meat. You can eat chicken and pork, so why can't you eat locust meat?"
"Look, I ate it, and so did President Yang, President Wang, Zhang Luzhang, and Wang Luzhang. Look at us, aren't we all fine? Since we're all okay, what else are you afraid to eat?"
"Eat it. If you don't eat it, it will eat your crops. Then your mother, your wife and children will have to go hungry. Are you willing to do that?"
As Liu Sanshier continued to persuade him, the aroma of roasted locusts kept wafting into Geng Erdan's nose. After swallowing his saliva several times, Geng Erdan finally couldn't resist and opened his mouth to bite into the roasted locust in Liu Sanshier's hand.
"It's so fragrant!"
Wang Qiong felt something was wrong. Her mouth felt thirsty, and her stomach felt hungry. The locusts, which had looked ferocious at first, were slowly becoming somewhat tempting.
Yang Shaofeng simply ran to the field and caught a few more locusts. After roasting them, he handed them to Wang Qiong: "Brother Wang, why don't you try some? Locusts are meat after all. Look how thick their hind legs are. They can molt into adulthood in just a few days and soon the mother locust will lay eggs. As the saying goes, you are what you eat..."
At this moment, Yang Shaofeng was like a devil tempting a little girl with candy, and Wang Qiong was like the little girl being tempted.
Then, Wang Qiong felt as if her hand was no longer under her control, and it slowly reached towards the roasted locust in Yang Shaofeng's hand.
Then, Wang Qiong couldn't help but exclaim, "It smells so good!"
Yang Shaofeng chuckled to himself, thinking: See? I told you no one can escape the "it's actually delicious" law!
When dealing with ordinary people, if you tell them that locusts will devour their crops and that without a harvest, their parents, wives, and children may starve to death, the people will be eager to eat all the locusts immediately.
When dealing with officials like Wang Qiong, they don't need to worry about the grain harvest, so you can't talk to them about hunger. You can only exaggerate the locusts' reproductive capacity and then tell them that you are what you eat.
Just like now, after eating the locusts, Wang Qiong even turned her gaze to the locusts in the field, as if those locusts had turned into strings of delicious food.
Just as Yang Shaofeng was secretly laughing to himself, Limpy Wu, who had rushed back to the county town, was already leading a group of women, slowly herding a large flock of ducks towards the east of the town.
The ducks were ecstatic—humans might be afraid of the Locust God, but the ducks weren't. In their eyes, these weren't the Locust God's descendants at all; this was a buffet of unimaginable abundance!
quack quack!
quack quack!
Thousands of ducks, like wild dogs that had broken free of their reins, swayed and rushed into the field, quacking and frantically pecking at the nymphs that were jumping around everywhere.
Yang Shaofeng chuckled and turned to look at the group of commune leaders and village chiefs: "Look, the ducks are eating happily, but where is the Locust God? If you ask me, the Locust God is just a coward who bullies the weak and fears the strong. As long as you dare to kill locusts, the so-called Locust God will never amount to anything!"
Liu Thirty-Two bowed and scraped with a fawning smile: "Yes, sir, you are right. We were the fools."
Yang Shaofeng snorted, and after pondering for a moment, he said to Liu Sanshier and the others, "When you go back, tell the people in your respective villages and neighborhoods that the county government wants to buy a batch of locusts, which must be cooked and dried, for five coins a pound. Whoever sends the most to the county government will be rewarded with an extra tael of silver by me."
Wang Qiong stared wide-eyed at Yang Shaofeng and asked, "Magistrate Yang, this..."
Yang Shaofeng chuckled and said, "Brother Wang, rest assured, I have made arrangements and you will not suffer any losses."
Simply relying on ducks to eat locusts cannot solve the locust plague. After all, ducks can only eat locusts during the day, and locusts reproduce at an extremely fast rate. While the larvae are relatively easy to catch, once they molt and learn to fly, the ducks may not be able to keep up with them.
Therefore, to solve the locust plague, we must take a multi-pronged approach. During the day, we should feed the locusts with ducks, and at night we should find ways to lure them with fire, either by catching them or burning them directly.
However, the best way to quickly solve the locust problem is to lure people with incentives, such as buying locusts to encourage them to catch them.
As for the locusts that were captured, Yang Shaofeng had already come up with a plan.
A textbook on time travel once mentioned that locusts are highly nutritious and can be dried and ground into powder. Xu Da and Chang Yuchun had a total of 200,000 troops under their command. Marching and fighting was a tough job, so it was only right that they ate some locust powder to supplement their nutrition.
Even if Xu Da and Chang Yuchun's troops don't like eating locust powder, can't I mix locust powder into flour to make steamed buns?
Anyway, they'll eventually sell.
Even if things don't go well, the locusts we buy can be stored and used as a supplement for the chickens and ducks after winter.
Absolutely no waste.
Besides, even if it's wasteful, how much can it really be?
After all, Magistrate Yang Shaofeng was talking about buying locusts that had been cooked and then dried—locusts that wouldn't weigh as much!