The Prodigal Son of Zhenguan

Even court officials dared not do this, nor did they dare to say such words, let alone ordinary people.

They were even more in awe of the locust god.

Locusts are the descendants of the locust god. If you kill too many of them, you will be punished by the locust god.

Locusts come and go, but it is just a loss of food in the field, and it is just a year of suffering.

If the locust god is angered, and locust plagues are sent down every year to punish people, then in the future, it will not be a year of hardship, but there will be no harvest every year.

"Apart from offering sacrifices to the locust god or catching and killing locusts, is there no other way?" Li Shimin asked, "Or, how to resettle and relieve the people after the locust plague is also OK."

When the disaster comes, no matter how to prevent it before, it will still cause certain losses, but the size of the losses will be different.

Now that the court knows about it, it must prepare in advance.

"Ministry of Revenue." Li Shimin looked at Pei Ju.

"Your Majesty, the Ministry of Revenue can prepare money and food in advance to help the people." Pei Ju said with a bow.

"What about the others?" Li Shimin asked again.

The whole hall was silent.

Xiao Yu also stopped talking.

The method he just mentioned had been refuted by the people in the court.

They didn't dare to do it, not even to mention it.

I'm afraid your majesty wouldn't dare to issue such an order, allowing the people to kill locusts on their own...

If the court issued such an order, the subsequent crime of offending the locust god would be borne by your majesty.

The morning court ended in silence.

Li Shimin went to Liangyi Hall.

The important officials in the court who could discuss matters also followed Li Shimin to Liangyi Hall, which was greeted yesterday.

Li Shimin sat in Liangyi Hall with the officials, and continued to remain silent on this topic.

"Your Majesty." Changsun Wuji spoke first, breaking the tormenting silence.

"Well?" Li Shimin looked up in response.

The people below were silent. He would not sit there idly, but sat behind the table to read the memorials sent in from various places.

"The sacrifice mentioned in the court is feasible. This matter can be prepared and done first." Changsun Wuji said: "This is your Majesty's attitude to the people of the world."

Li Shimin thought about it and nodded.

"Well, this is feasible." Li Shimin said: "What if the locust plague still occurs after the sacrifice? Or, what if the locusts come and don't retreat?"

Changsun Wuji thought about it and continued: "Since the Ministry of Revenue has made preparations, then this matter is not considered to be ignored by the court. The court will definitely take care of it, but there is no better way..."

Li Shimin sighed.

So many preparations were made earlier, but these things cannot be told to the court officials. I just hope that the preparations made earlier can work.

Once there is an effect, then it means that the locust plague is not invincible.

With this precedent, people in the future don't have to be so timid when they want to deal with the locust plague.

"The King of Jingyang has arrived~~" the eunuch outside the palace shouted loudly.

Not long after, Li Fu came in.

"Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you." Li Fu bowed his hands and saluted.

"You are just in time, sit down." Li Shimin pointed to the empty seat below his left.

After Li Fu sat down, he smiled and said, "You are all here, what are you talking about?"

"Talking about the locust plague." Li Shimin said, "Didn't I tell you about it in the letter I wrote to you yesterday?"

"Oh? So what did you talk about? What should the court do?" Li Fu asked curiously.

These big guys sitting together, they can always talk about something, right?

Everyone was silent after hearing this.......

The smile on Li Fu's face froze.

What's wrong? Why don't you say anything?

Didn't you do a lot of preparations before? I heard that the Sino-Agricultural Temple was also involved. A lot of poultry "youngsters" appeared in the West Market of Chang'an City. People bought them and raised them. The supply was almost insufficient.

Why are you silent now?

"Now the discussion has come out that Lingzong is preparing for the sacrificial ceremony. I will lead the civil and military officials to sacrifice to the locust god. As for the people, they will go to the local Ba La Temple to burn incense." Li Shimin said.

Li Fu frowned.

Isn't this nonsense?

If sacrificing to the locust god was useful, there would be no record of locust plagues in history.

Are the people who worship not sincere?

Kneeling in front of the statue of the locust god, as sincere as possible, every winter, in December, when the farming work is completed, sacrifice to the gods to pray for a good harvest next year, and do this every year.

But is there a good harvest every year?

So many years have passed, don't you have any experience at all?

There is also a Ba La Temple in Jingyang County. The so-called Ba La refers to eight gods: Xian Se, namely Shennong;It is said that he was abandoned by his mother and was not raised, so he was named Qi. Later, he became Shun's agricultural official and was granted the title of Tai and was named Hou Ji. The third is agriculture, which is the ancient field; the fourth is post and field, post is the farm house, the field is the road, and the field is the boundary of the field; the fifth is cat and tiger; the sixth is the embankment; the seventh is the water ditch; the eighth is insects, which are locusts and moths.

Every winter, we worship the sacrifices, and we also worshiped the sacrifices last winter. Didn't we still come this spring and summer?

"Then what?" Li Fu asked, "That's it?"

Li Shimin said unhappily.

"That's it."

Then he looked at Li Fu and asked again.

"What good ideas do you have?"

"Didn't I tell your majesty about my ideas earlier?" Li Fu spread his hands.

"But I'm afraid I can't cope with it at the last minute." Li Shimin said.

He knew that Li Fu's methods might be useful, but it was too late.

It was like a girl getting her ears pierced when she was about to get married.

It was like building a hut when shit was about to happen.

Li Fu let out a long breath.

"To be frank, if you think that worshipping gods is useful, there would not be starving people everywhere during the locust plagues in all dynasties. I heard that the Ba La Temple existed during the Xia Dynasty, right, Mr. Xiao?" Li Fu looked at Xiao Yu.

Xiao Yu nodded.

"It was called Jiaping during the Xia Dynasty, Qingsi during the Yin Dynasty, and Dala during the Zhou Dynasty." Xiao Yu said.

"Yes, worshipping gods began during the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties. Isn't it still happening? Isn't it still coming?

What does this mean? Worshiping the locust god is useless. Worshiping gods is worse than worshiping me." Li Fu said with a smile.

The officials present all widened their eyes and stared at Li Fu when they heard Li Fu's outrageous words.

But due to Li Fu's status, they dared not scold him.

But King Jingyang was too rude.

"I think that since it is going to happen, the court should prepare for rescue as soon as possible. This is what should be done." Li Fu said.

Pei Ju nodded.

"Master Li, the Ministry of Revenue has decided to prepare money and food."

"This is one aspect. In addition, the court should also provide ways for the people to participate in self-help. It is not very effective to just pray to God."