Chapter Ten: The Cricket Continues

  Newcomers are not easy, I sincerely ask all of you who pass by to support me!

  Li Shimin and Empress Changsun both knew that Changsun Wuji and Cheng Yaojin would absolutely not harm them, so they felt very at ease with this dish.

  Empress Zhangsun saw that her elder brother and Cheng Yaojin had also eaten some, so she took one and put it in her mouth, chewing slowly. It seemed like she was reminded of something, and said: "Your Majesty, in the past when we often went to work in the fields, I saw chickens eating locusts, but never saw any chicken being poisoned by eating locusts. On the contrary, because they ate locusts, their eggs were bigger and the yolks were bigger."

  Li Shimin listened and deeply agreed with it. He was not an emperor who didn't care about the people's affairs, but instead often went on secret visits in plain clothes to chat with old farmers and understood many things about the people's livelihood!

  "Assistant, this isn't what you thought, is it?" Li Shimin asked calmly.

  "It was the good son and grandson of Assistant General Xian's family, Long Sun Chong. My subordinate happened to see Chong Xian Sheng and the refugees burning locusts to eat outside the city today." Cheng Yaojin hastily mentioned Long Sun Chong, if it could alleviate the locust disaster, that would be a great achievement.

  Chang Sun Wuji looked at Cheng Yaojin with gratitude and nodded, although the ancients said that promoting the virtuous does not avoid relatives, but if it comes from someone else's mouth, isn't it more credible than his own incompetent son doing things?

  "A young boy had a dream at night, saying that an old Taoist with a white beard appeared in his dream and told him that the locusts were not gods, but rather pests that harmed crops, leaving people without food. Therefore, it was acceptable to eat their meat to solve hunger. The boy even gave this locust meat a elegant name: 'Tian E Meat!' Longsun Wuji repeated what Longsun Chong had just said, regardless of whether he believed it or not. As long as they confirmed that eating locusts wouldn't starve people to death, that was enough. As for punishment, they would deal with it later."

  The Empress Dowager Changsun was extremely surprised, this nephew was clever and quick-witted when he was young, but as he grew up, he became disobedient and often fought, causing his older brother and sister-in-law a lot of headaches. Unexpectedly, this time he actually started to care about the state's governance and people's livelihood.

  Li Shimin nodded after listening, picked one up and ate it, and said: "This is a good locust meat! I am the Tang Emperor, as long as my people don't starve to death, if heaven wants to punish me, let it punish me alone. Cheng Aiqing, now have someone go out and find more locusts for me, cook them tonight for the prisoners on death row, and if nothing happens tomorrow, we'll invite the Minister of Culture to eat this locust meat!"

  "Long live Your Majesty!" Chong Yujin and Zhangsun Wuji immediately knelt down.

  Cheng Yaojin left the palace gate, holding the emperor's token, and went out of the city overnight to catch locusts. He spent the whole night preparing them for the prisoners in the heavenly prison to eat, and indeed nothing happened.

  Actually, locusts are something that everyone often sees, and a locust plague is just a bit more than usual. Humans can eat chicken, ducks, snakes, so why can't they eat locusts?

  Li Ji handled the formalities and returned to Empress Changsun's palace, where he saw that Empress Changsun was taking care of the newborn Li Zhi - the third son between her and Emperor Taizong.

  "Guanyin, you said that letting people all over the world eat locusts, is it because this emperor-catching business of mine is useless?" Li Shimin only put down his hard disguise when he was with his beloved wife, Empress Changsun. No one understood this magnificent and talented man better than Empress Changsun.

  Empress Changsun ordered a palace maid to take out her younger son Li Zhi, and then slowly walked over, rubbing Li Er's temples.

  "Your Majesty, you're overthinking this. Everything in the world is for humans to use! We can eat grains, chicken, duck, fish and meat, why can't we eat locusts? Besides, Chong'er, that child, even gave it a elegant name - 'field cricket meat'!" Empress Changsun smiled, they all ate the locust meat and nothing happened, proving that this thing is feasible.

  Li Er is indeed a heroic and broad-minded person, who doesn't believe in ghosts or gods, but only believes in himself. He laughed and said: "Well, the words '田蛾肉' (grasshopper meat) and '天鹅肉' (swan meat) are homophones. There's a folk saying that goes like this: '癞蛤蟆 eats swan meat', but actually 癞蛤蟆 is eating grasshoppers, isn't it? It's just a play on words!"

  "This humble concubine doesn't know, but if this locust meat can save the disaster-stricken masses, then they won't be completely useless." Empress Changsun said with a smile, this time her brother and nephew are going to achieve great merit, she's extremely delighted.

  Li Er hugged Princess Changsun and said with a smile: "Guanyin said so, tomorrow will see the outcome."

  Not long after, Li Er slept his first sound sleep at Empress Changsun's place after the disaster!

  Soon after Zhang Sun Chong returned to the mansion, Han Qiang sent over a bag of locusts. Zhang Sun Chong was afraid of startling the people in the house, so he had them delivered directly to his own courtyard, where there happened to be a small kitchen.

  "Little Baozi, Little Mantou, hurry up and boil some water for me, prepare something to eat for yourselves!" Chang Sun let out, prompting Little Baozi and Little Mantou to quickly get to work, just in time for a midnight snack.

  Chang Sun-chung scalded the locusts with hot water, frightening Xiao Mantou and Xiao Baozi into hiding behind his back. Chang Sun-chung had to let them out and do it himself, frying the locusts in oil, sprinkling salt on top, and creating a rich aroma that attracted Xiao Mantou and Xiao Baozi to stand at the door, sniffing the air with their noses twitching.

  Seeing Zhang Sun Chong eating so happily, Xiao Mantou plucked up the courage and slowly made his way to Zhang Sun Chong's side. He picked up a fried grasshopper and put it in his mouth, savoring the taste, and instantly revealed a satisfied smile. The masters rarely ate meat, let alone their servants.

  Xiao Baozi saw Xiao Mantou eating, and also picked some up to eat. Feeling that it was delicious, she directly snatched the plate from Zhang Sun's hand and said in a spoiled tone: "Young Master, it's really delicious, get more of them!"

  Chang Sun Chong looked at these half-grown girls and shook his head, "These are not the ones who will be serving me!"

  Chang Sun exploded with excitement, waiting for Xiao Baozi and Xiao Mantou to finish eating. He said: "Take it to my mother, aunt, and those younger brothers and sisters, and have them eat it as a midnight snack. Just say that I specially prepared this field cricket meat!"

  Little baozi, little mantou took a food box and packed a lot of them, delivering one by one.

  Dong Shi heard that someone sent over some fried taro, and she didn't think much of it, so she ate a few bites, found it too greasy, and gave the rest to her maid.

  Two aunts were afraid of getting fat, they ate a few and then stopped eating.

  But those chubby brothers and sisters, who love to eat meat, heard that there is "swan meat", which is both fragrant and sweet. They are all willing to be "toads" and finish the plate clean, not forgetting to lick the oil stains on their hands!

  The next morning, while having breakfast in the dining hall, Fat Brother and Fat Sister saw Zhangsun rush over, and they rushed over to surround him.

  "Brother, I want to eat swan meat!"

  "I want to eat too!"

  Chang Sun Ceng squatted down, stretched out his hand and scooped up one of them. He hugged both his chubby younger brother and the smallest chubby little sister, saying: "Alright, big brother promises you, at noon I'll let you eat cicada meat! There's none left at home, so big brother will go catch some!"

  "Big brother, swan meat is delicious, Little Ten likes to eat it, Little Ten will help big brother catch it together!" Fat little brother Long Sun Tenlang, with a runny nose, looked up at his brother with admiration.

  "Big brother, Sixth Sister will help you catch it!" Little girl patted the fat and chubby hand, unwilling to fall behind.

  "Alright, they're all good brothers and sisters of ours. We have them in our own home too, those flying grasshoppers in the garden!" Chang Sun Chong laughed and said, "Let's hurry up and eat breakfast, big brother will take you to catch some!"

  Li Yiniang and Liu Yiniang, as soon as they heard it was fried locusts, suddenly felt nauseous and ran outside to vomit. Dounuo's face didn't look good either, scolding: "You child, how can you be so reckless! How can that thing be eaten!"

  "How can it be inedible! Does everyone say that cicada meat is delicious?" Chang Sun shouted, waving his arm and causing the many young followers below to echo him.

  "Delicious, I want to eat!"

  "I want to eat too!"

  Chubby girl, chubby brothers are very obedient after eating breakfast, pulling big brother Changsun to the garden, and also letting the maidservants catch grasshoppers together.

  In a child's mind, locusts are just like other small animals, nothing to be afraid of. When it comes to food, everything else is insignificant.

  At noon, fat brothers and sisters eat very happily.

  Chang Sun Wuji and Cheng Yaojin took the lead in handling the matter of using locusts as food, and many officials unknowingly ate the locust meat. Even if they wanted to vomit, they had to hold it back in their stomachs.

  Issue a notice and call on all citizens to catch locusts together and eat them!

  Faced with starving refugees, after learning that locusts are edible, the news spread quickly and people started catching them. When they couldn't finish eating them, they cooked, dried, and ground them into powder for preservation, which also served as a food source.

  Since eating locusts, very few people have starved to death, and disaster relief has achieved phased success.