Chastity Layman

Qin Lang was holding a bowl, which contained a bowl of mush.

It was so mushy and dark that it couldn't see its true colors. It was a bowl of disaster relief porridge. The ingredients could be said to be very complicated. There were five grains, wild vegetables, and even some fish, shrimp, chicken, duck, pork, and mutton.

It also has salt in it.

The taste is indescribable, and it is too mixed, so it is by no means delicious.

This disaster relief porridge was also Qin Lang's invention.

Match all kinds of food and livestock that have been expropriated together.

After simple processing of whole grains, wild vegetables, various fish, shrimp, meat and eggs, etc., they are mixed in proportion, then mashed and crushed, salt is added, and then dried in the sun to become disaster relief porridge powder.

Now the people in Chang'an City and the entire pass eat this kind of food.

No grades, no grades, only this one.

Whether it's the left-behind prime minister, the assistant minister, the state governor, or the county magistrate, or the nobles of the state, they all eat this kind of food uniformly.

Every family's grain and livestock have been confiscated, so anyone who dares to secretly eat a bowl of white rice or a bowl of noodles at home is a serious crime.

Qin Lang didn't add any more meat to the porridge that Qin Lang ate, the same recipe and the same ingredients.

They are uniformly brought from the food distribution station, washed with boiling water, or boiled in a pot, and the porridge obtained is similar, the difference is that some are thinner and some are dry.

Qin Lang's porridge also contained a lot of bran and wild vegetables, even the bones were ground into powder and mixed with the porridge, and the rest could not taste the meat, after all, the amount of meat was limited.

This kind of porridge looks ugly and doesn't taste very good, but it's still good enough to satisfy one's hunger. It's even better than ordinary porridge. After all, no matter how little meat there is, there's still meat in it. There are even meat, vegetables, whole grains, and miscellaneous grains, which are also rich in protein and dietary fiber.

Qin Lang even joked with Changsun Wuji and the others that eating this would help them lose weight.

Changsun Wuji is roasting a bird.

This is a small sparrow that the eldest grandson caught in the yamen courtyard with his porridge as bait. He thought he had found food, but unexpectedly it became the eldest grandson's meal.

The little sparrow was scalded with boiling water, leaving a pitiful bit of flesh, but Changsun Wuji patiently removed the hairs, and then took a fiber and put it on the fire to roast.

He was very patient, and the little sparrow was roasted golden, even a little oily.

After eating too much disaster relief porridge, seeing the golden skin and dripping oil, it really makes people want to stretch out their hands in their throats.

"Finally an extra meal today!" Changsun Wuji said with a smile. He used to be quite fat, but he has lost nearly twenty catties recently. If this continues, it will be too much for him.

In fact, with the status of eldest grandson Wuji, it is of course no problem to open a small stove or something, but Qin Lang took the lead in setting an example, and it is not good for the eldest grandson to hold him back at this time.

The disaster relief porridge is indeed unpalatable, but everyone eats it like this, even His Royal Highness eats it once a day, so what can everyone say.

On the other hand, it has to be admitted that Qin Lang's method of mashing all the food he got together to make porridge, although a bit unpalatable, made the most of the food.

Grain bran, wheat bran, wild vegetables and grass roots, all edible ones are put in, everyone has a share.

Rice noodle broth, only those acne-prone children in the isolation camp can enjoy it.

But who wants to compare with those poor infected people?

In order to eat rice and broth, he was quarantined in a sick camp?

Even though the acne has taken many protective measures such as isolation, and it is only contagious among children, once it is infected, it still has a death rate of at least 5%.

Compared with the previous death rate, the death rate has been greatly reduced, but it is still amazing that at least five of the 100 children who are infected will die.

Every day in the isolation camp, many children die in miserable conditions.

Let the kids be special and have a few mouthfuls of noodles and broth, and no one will disagree.

Changsun Wuji roasted the sparrow and tore off a leg for Qin Lang.

"Mr. Zhao, eat by yourself."

"If there are good things, I can't eat alone." Changsun Wuji brought the almost half-torn sparrow to his mouth and gnawed it, just sprinkled some salt on it.

To be honest, this sparrow can smell a fishy smell without eating it. It is definitely not a delicious thing, but after eating porridge for many days, this kind of pure meat, that kind of texture, and that kind of chewiness The taste, let the eldest grandson enjoy it.

"If I roast a lamb now, I can eat half of it!"

"If this continues, we'll be able to eat whole roasted lamb in a short time." Qin Lang comforted him. With his abnormal disaster relief method, the disaster situation in the pass has stabilized now.

Chang'an City, which was originally the hardest-hit area, has not starved to death.

Everyone is still alive.

Grain is still being transported from outside the customs. Although the quantity is limited, under Qin Lang's management, Chang'an City is still slowly increasing the amount of food. In addition to the daily necessities, there is also a little stock.

And immediately from Shuofang Hetao and other places, several batches of cattle and sheep will arrive.

These were all forcibly taken from the hands of the Turks.

There's no way, it's better to be a dead fellow than a poor fellow.

Those Turkic people who died after the defeat of Jieli are now crowded on the front line of the Great Wall.

They were also suffering from the snowstorm and freezing, thinking that Datang could help them, but to be honest, Datang was too busy to take care of himself, who would care about them.

The frontier fortress also stockpiled some grain, which was left over from the preparations for the last Northern Expedition, but this grain was to be supplied to the frontier army. After all, so many Turkic people flocked to the Great Wall line, if something unexpected happened, it might be a war.

If the frontier army has no food, how can they defend the frontier?

The Central Plains has already been killed by famine and disease. If the Hu people are allowed to go south, it will really add chaos.

The imperial court has no results on how to resettle the Turkic people, and it is difficult to come up with a result.

I want to resettle, but I can't. I want to appease, but I don't have money or food.

I want to talk about expulsion or other things, but I don't have the ability to dispatch troops at this time, and I dare not.

So just ignore it.

However, Qin Lang still sent an order to the north to ask the frontier officials there to find the leaders of the various Turkic tribes and ask them to find a way to pay tribute to the Tang Dynasty with some livestock in the midst of difficulties.

As a condition, Qin Lang asked the crown prince to appoint officials to these leaders, and let them stay at the foot of the Great Wall to escape the cold for the winter.

At the same time, Qin Lang also threatened the Turks with war.

At this time, if the cattle and sheep were not paid as tribute, the Tang Dynasty sent frontier troops to rob them. After robbing the livestock, they also robbed the people, and took the people to the Central Plains as slaves.

This kind of behavior can't help being a bit bullying, but facing the current predicament, Qin Lang doesn't care about being a rogue.

It has to be said that the effect is still there.

The Tang Dynasty had just destroyed the Turkic Khanate, and Jieli was now serving as a courtier beside the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, and even Tuli had gone to the emperor's side.

Therefore, no Turkic dared to stab Datang, and they are leaderless now.

So half forced to buy, Qin Lang managed to get a lot of cattle, sheep and livestock from the Turkic people. Although I heard that the Turkic people were also treacherous, they always offered some skinny livestock and some frozen meat. At least they are edible.

When these batches of livestock and meat are delivered, Chang'an City can be said to have survived the most difficult hurdle.

Li Jing entered with a cane.

The god of war has recently suffered from a foot problem and walks with a limp.

"Now that the hunger situation is improving, don't you need to kill the horse?" Li Jing sat next to Qin Lang and asked.

Qin Lang handed half of the sparrow to Li Jing.

"Well, as long as the current momentum continues, there is really no need to kill horses and cattle. When spring returns to the earth, there will be more edible wild vegetables. Another thing is that the glaciers will thaw, and the grain coming from the canal will also increase. So the most difficult thing A period of time has already survived. Next, we have to consider spring plowing, and cattle are a good helper for spring plowing."

"When the weather gets warmer, the Luso epidemic will improve." Qin Lang said.

The combination of famine and epidemic this year can be regarded as a heavy blow to the Tang court.

It also made the entire court truly realize that no matter how strong the army is, no matter how much tax revenue is paid, food is the most important thing for the people, and food security is the foundation of the country.

If there is no food for three to five years, let alone be strong in the future.

After this time, it is estimated that the emperor will endure it honestly for a few years, rest and recuperate at ease, and dare not to toss about it casually anymore.

The grievance is too high.

Seeing that the Daming Palace was almost completed, the work suddenly stopped and it became an unfinished project. After this incident, it is estimated that the work may not be restarted in three to five years.

Li Jing shook his head and rejected the half sparrow, looked at Zhengxiang's eldest grandson Wuji who was gnawing over there, feeling a little helpless.

Who would have imagined that the dignified prime minister of the court, and several left-behind ministers, gathered together in this political affairs hall, roasted sparrows and ate them, and even shared them?

But I heard that after the emperor arrived in Luoyang, the eastern capital, he personally took the forbidden army to hunt and fish to improve their lives, and the ministers who accompanied him to Luoyang, the eastern capital, also sent servants to pick wild vegetables outside the city to eat, so there is nothing to say.

"Dai Gong is inconvenient in his legs and feet, so he will rest at home more, and some of us will take care of it outside." Qin Lang smiled, he knew that Li Jing came with a limp, so he must have nothing to go to the Three Treasures Hall.

Although he is also one of the four assistant ministers, Li Jing is still the right servant of Shangshu. In terms of position, Li Jing is the highest among the four assistant ministers.

But Li Jing is relatively low-key, especially after he was impeached by Yushitai not long ago after returning to Beijing after the Northern Expedition victory, he became even more low-key.

Even if it's right servant shooting, it hardly takes care of it.

"I also know that there are Saburo and the auxiliary machine in Chang'an to assist His Highness the Crown Prince. I can rest assured. It's just that I heard some news recently. It is said that some of the Turkic people who gathered along the Great Wall in the north were seriously affected by the disaster."

Although the Turks are nomadic tribes, they are no better than the Han people in the Central Plains under the disaster of frost and snow. The grass on the grassland freezes to death early, and their cattle and sheep have no grass to eat.

Herdsmen who live entirely on cattle and sheep, once the cattle and sheep starve to death, it means that they are also finished.

Although cattle and sheep can be slaughtered and temporarily frozen, what about next year? Without ewes, where are the lambs? Without cows, there will be no more calves. A family and a tribe, without livestock, have no future.

Right now, hundreds of thousands of people are crowding to the north of the Great Wall, and Datang ignores them.

The leaderless Turkic people are now experiencing suffering.

Unsurprisingly, the Turkic tribes began to eat the small fish, and the stronger tribes began to rob the small tribes of livestock, frozen meat, and even their people, and then sold them to the Central Plains merchants in the Great Wall for money.

With money, maybe next year we can make a comeback.

Hundreds of thousands of people, countless tribes of all sizes crowded along the Great Wall, you fight me, I fight you, for the time being, it's just a small-scale robbery fight, but if this continues, a bigger war will break out sooner or later.

As an old commander, Li Jing was also the commander who had just destroyed the Turks in the Northern Expedition. He was very concerned about the infighting of these Turks.

He worried that when the Turkic strife escalated, the situation would be difficult to control, and eventually the Turkic tribes would cross the Great Wall and come to the Great Wall to plunder and survive.

"Prevention must be done early!"

Although Datang has stationed many troops on the border, it is difficult to carry out large-scale military operations under the conditions of hunger.

"What is the best way to deal with it?" Qin Lang humbly asked.