Li Tai said goodbye to Dou Jing, and on the way back to Sinong Temple, he said to Zhao Yuankai, "Zhao Shaoqing, Dou Sinong said that you are familiar with the affairs of Sinong Temple. I happen to need your help with something. I wonder if it will trouble you."
"King Yue, your words are serious. If you have anything to do, please feel free to tell me!" Zhao Yuankai said respectfully to Li Tai.
Li Tai said: "Dou Sinong believes that only God can save the locust plague.
But since ancient times, China has a firmament in the sky, Nuwa mended the sky, floods were raging, Dayu controlled the floods, the people had food, and Shennong plowed the valleys.
As the saying goes, "God moves vigorously, and a gentleman keeps improving himself. If people don't help themselves, how can God save them? If people don't help themselves, who can help them."
Listening to Li Tai's words, Zhao Yuankai felt slightly touched.
But after all, he was just an eight-year-old child. If he asked Zhao Yuankai to bow before him and be frightened by the bastard's anger, it would naturally be wishful thinking.
And when Li Tai said this, he just wanted to increase Zhao Yuankai's enthusiasm.
After all, I didn’t give him any money, so I could only give him spiritual encouragement.
Li Tai pondered for a while and continued, "I think if you want to control locusts, you need to find their natural enemies. When the locusts come, let them go without returning, instead of praying to the locust god and leaving it to fate!"
"What are the natural enemies of locusts?" Zhao Yuankai asked next.
Li Tai said: "As long as migratory locusts have not yet formed, birds that can eat grasshoppers can become their natural enemies.
Relatively speaking, ducks are easy to raise. You need to find a way to raise them for at least one season, until July and August.
Therefore, I hope you can find a field outside the city and send people to raise chickens and ducks. The more chickens and ducks, the better. It will definitely be of great use when the time comes."
"Yuan Kai will definitely handle this matter properly." Zhao Yuan Kai agreed with a serious expression.
Li Tai looked at Zhao Yuankai's positive look and felt a little uneasy. He was not a bastard, so where could he get the bastard's energy to make him come so close to him.
Li Tai said: "Please, Sir, please go back and draw up a charter. You can come to my house tomorrow to discuss it in detail. Only by planning everything can we successfully implement this matter!"
"The King of Yue is interested!" Upon hearing Li Tai's words, Zhao Yuankai clasped his hands and said respectfully to Li Tai.
After Li Tai finished talking to Zhao Yuankai, he said goodbye and went back home. He didn't even have the interest to go back to Sinong Temple.
Li Tai understood that he was not going to work in Sinong Temple, and there was no point in staying there to check the files. It was better to keep an eye on the fight against locusts and make achievements.
Li Tai understood that if Dou Jing had not seen with his own eyes that the Locust Temple was useless against locusts, then he would not have been able to support his plan.
Therefore, the fight against locusts must be carried out slowly, and an opportunity must be found for him to join forces with himself.
If you want to accomplish something, you can't just watch other people's jokes. Instead, you must do your best to unite all the forces that can be united. The road will lead to the same goal. As long as you have the same goal and seek common ground while reserving differences, it is a normal choice.
Li Tai returned to Prince Yue's Mansion, and after the roll call, Bai He immediately came out and followed Li Tai.
Li Tai went directly back to the study. The specific details of the fight against locusts had to wait for Zhao Yuankai to come over before we could discuss them together.
After all, I can talk about general principles, but the actual implementation of how many people to hire, how many ducks to buy, where to graze, how much money it will cost, etc. is not very clear, so Zhao Yuankai needs to sort out the information and come over tomorrow to discuss it together.
As for himself, after asking Lu Anshou about Zhao Yuankai, he began to copy the "Book of Rites" honestly.
Although there are only more than 5,000 words, it was written with a brush. By the time I finished writing, I could hardly lift my hand.
Li Tai asked Bai He to clean up, and then asked her to leave first. Li Tai opened one of his black drawers, and even the space inside the drawer was ink-colored.
Li Tai looked at the hair lying sideways on the side of the book as usual, but this time, the hair had been pressed under the diary.
"Mom finally remembered to read the diary. It's been so long since she came out. If mother doesn't come to get the diary, I don't know how to write anymore!" Li Tai smiled, took out the diary, and continued to write about today's events.
When I was six years old, after I finished studying "The Thousand Character Essay", I officially started writing a diary to communicate with my parents.
At first, I just wrote some words such as "it will be sunny and tomorrow will be cloudy", but later it gradually increased to "Aye praised me today, I was very happy", "My mother-in-law made new clothes for Qingque, her hands are really good", etc., write down specific examples and
Feelings, pick up more words to write that will make your parents happy.
After writing, press it with a paperweight and wait for it to dry slowly.
During this process, a chamberlain would come in to tidy up the study, and even Empress Changsun would occasionally come in to check on the homework.
Even if Empress Changsun didn't peep, she would take the initiative to organize the diary into a volume as an excuse to have the diary bound into a volume and stored in a volume every month. This process would naturally become more maneuverable.
Parents, as long as they are literate, will basically take a look at your diary after learning that you write it.
The purpose is to understand the children as much as possible. For children, perhaps this is the only channel for parents to listen to their voices.
As for the effect... I occasionally write down the little things between myself and my brothers and sisters.
For example, my brother robbed me of my dessert Gyokuro dumplings and ate them. When my sister saw that my Gyokuro dumplings were taken away by my brother, she gave me her own share. But if I took my sister's Gyokuro dumplings, it would be no different from my brother's, so I refused.
Then the next day, Li Chengqian was punished because he could not recite Chunqiu Zuozhuan.
Anyway, during that period, as long as Li Chengqian did something bad, he would be in trouble.
I originally thought that writing a diary might not be useful after I opened my own house. So I originally planned to keep it for a year and then slowly stop it, but now it is no longer necessary. A stable channel of communication with my parents is still important.
of.
After all, a person who writes a diary can have any bad thoughts, but they are just telling themselves what is on their mind.
At this moment, Li Tai wrote all the differences between his and Dou Jing's ideas in his diary, as well as his desire to try to domesticate poultry to control locusts, and then carefully put the diary back into the wooden grid.
Li Tai looked at the hair, and instead of putting it in the secret compartment, he flicked the hair away.
Li Tai murmured, "Since it is known that mother has touched the diary, then this warning is not necessary. If it happens too many times, it will be discovered.
I originally wanted to send the diary to Aye and my mother, but now this channel has been re-established.
In my study, only Bai He can enter alone in Prince Yue's Mansion, so he is the one who wants to touch this diary."
To be honest, in any wealthy family, the study room is an important place, and those who can enter and exit the study room are basically confidants.
Bai He was the eldest maid assigned to her by Empress Changsun. Basically, Bai He was in charge of the entire inner courtyard of the Yue Prince's Mansion when the mistress was away. Therefore, only Bai He could reasonably enter and leave his study without causing suspicion.
But Bai He's loyalty to Empress Changsun or Li Shimin, rather than to his eight-year-old self, seemed to Li Tai to be a matter of course.
After all, no normal person would be loyal to an eight-year-old child. At most, they would take care of the child based on his parents.
Therefore, Li Tai didn't feel too much about the eyeliners from his parents around him. Instead, he felt a little lucky.
Only purely selfish people will pursue the so-called absolute loyalty and cannot tolerate any flaws.
But the reality is that we seek common ground while reserving differences, and harmony with light and dust is the overwhelming majority in this world.
As long as people are human, they have their own different positions and wills. What the superiors need are like-minded comrades, but numb and loyal slaves.
Soon the next day came, and Li Tai got up as usual under Bai He's care, and exercised with Lu Anshou.
And he had just finished training, and Zhao Yuankai came to see him early in the morning, and he was really too attentive.
However, yesterday Li Tai came to inquire about Zhao Yuankai's deeds and learned some gossip about Zhao Yuankai.
Zhao Yuankai was recently publicly criticized by Dou Jing in Sinong Temple, so the subordinate officials of Sinong Temple walked around when they saw Zhao Yuankai to avoid being implicated by Zhao Yuankai.
Of course, Zhao Yuankai had status and ability in Sinong Temple, so he could still order people if he wanted to.
However, Dou Jing was trusted by Li Shimin and supported by the officials of Sinong Temple. Zhao Yuankai was publicly criticized by Dou Jing, so naturally he could not hold his head high in Sinong Temple.
So now Zhao Yuankai is holding his breath and wants to make some great achievements.
In the fight against locusts this time, since Dou Jing didn't even have a chance to stick to his side, when an unexpected person like Li Tai showed up, Zhao Yuankai decisively came over to burn the cold stove.
In particular, Zhao Yuankai himself is similar to a sycophant. Strictly speaking, he is from a Legalist background, so he doesn't believe much in the theory of telepathy between heaven and humans. He feels that Li Tai's theory is more or less reliable.
For this kind of people, as long as they are motivated enough, it is actually easy to become a capable minister and official.
"I have met the King of Yue!" Zhao Yuankai saluted Li Tai respectfully when he saw him.
"Excuse me, Zhao Shaoqing, have you had breakfast? How about we eat together." Zhao Yuankai asked while Li Tai was eating breakfast.
"Thank you King Yue, I have already eaten in the mansion." Zhao Yuankai shook his head.
"Then wait for me. After we finish eating, we will go to the study to talk." Li Tai wolfed down his breakfast in a hurry.
After eating, he wiped his mouth with a sweat towel and put it on the table for his servants to clean up.
Just as he was about to leave, Li Tai turned around and said to Bai He, "Come together and record the discussion between Zhao Shaoqing and I. With this as a reference, we can do things better in the future."
"No!" Bai He heard Li Tai's words and replied respectfully to Li Tai.
Soon, Li Tai and Zhao Shaoqing came to the study, and Zhao Shaoqing said: "According to the request of the King of Yue, ducks need to be built to resist the plague. Yesterday I went to Taipu Temple to find the Dian Husbandry Office to count the number of ducks and birds. There were about over ten thousand.
!”
"Over ten thousand...is the quantity so small?" Li Tai couldn't help but be a little stunned. These are Chang'an ducks. Is it reasonable to have so many ducks?
"The royal court's main business is raising horses and cattle. Most of the chickens, ducks and poultry are only for occasional food in the palace, and..."
Zhao Shaoqing said cautiously,
"If you raise too many chickens and ducks, they are prone to plague, and a large number of them will die when they die. However, there may be wealthy households who raise a few chickens and ducks to supplement their family income."
"How many ducks can we bring and send special personnel to manage them?" Li Tai asked seriously.
"Five thousand at most. After all, we can't let the Animal Husbandry Department cut off the duck category!" Zhao Shaoqing replied, obviously prepared.
"Then borrow these five thousand!" Li Tai took a deep breath and said, "You need to find a group of experts in raising ducks and breed the ducks in batches of five hundred or one thousand. Even if something goes wrong,
At least they won’t all die.”
Zhao Shaoqing said calmly: "Please rest assured, King Yue, I can handle this matter.
Because of the locust plague, most of the land outside the city is vacant. It is not difficult to find a place to raise ducks!
As for manpower, I have also borrowed 20 people from the Animal Husbandry and Animal Husbandry Department. We at Sinong Temple can send some more people to temporarily take care of the five thousand ducks."
"Not enough!" Li Tai shook his head and said, "With only five thousand ducks, it is impossible to resist the locusts in May.
At the very least, we must withstand this wave of locusts in July and August to gain the last chance for winter wheat planting.
So if we want to contain the locust plague in Guanzhong, the number of ducks would be at least 200,000!"
"Two hundred thousand..." Zhao Shaoqing was stunned and murmured, "King Yue, did I overhear ten thousand more!"
Even Bai He, who had been taking minutes of the meeting, put down his pen and looked at Li Tai in astonishment. He couldn't write down this number at the moment!
When the Sui and Tang Dynasties reached the stage of prosperity, due to the demand for chicken, understanding of the impact of poultry breeding and egg selection, and the male-to-female ratio in poultry breeding on hatching and brooding, chickens and ducks began to be raised on a large scale among the people.
As for the emergence of artificial egg hatching technologies such as "cow dung incubation method", "fire roasting method" and "soup (fire) method", it can be traced back to the Song Dynasty!
But now it is still the early days of Zhenguan, and even disasters have occurred, so no one even thinks about artificial incubation of eggs.
So when Li Tai said this goal, both Zhao Shaoqing and Bai He were filled with shock.
"So to do this, we need talents, land and funds!" Li Tai said seriously.
"Please let the King of Yue elaborate!" After hearing Li Tai's words, Zhao Shaoqing couldn't help but look serious.
Li Tai explained: “First of all, we need artificial egg hatching technology, which requires artificial egg hatching talents.
Whether we can succeed in fighting locusts and whether we can overcome the technology of artificial egg hatching is the most critical one.
After overcoming this step, we need a large number of breeding talents, at least when the number of ducks reaches 200,000, it will not cause a plague.
To avoid the locust plague, the duck plague came first, which requires us to have sufficient talent reserves.
On the land, I know that the place where ducks live needs to have water, and the living place cannot be too small, otherwise it will be easy to get sick.
When we get outside the city, we need to consider whether the hungry and anxious people will attack the ducks and whether they want to protect them.
At the same time, when the number of ducks increases, the food provided to the ducks will also become a burden.
There are 200,000 ducks. It is unrealistic to rely on them to forage on their own. We definitely need to subsidize their food.
So to accomplish all of this, money is necessary, and a lot of money is needed!”
"Can't we ask the court for this?" Zhao Shaoqing asked with some doubts.
Li Tai looked at Zhao Shaoqing in shock and said, "Do you think the court will allocate funds to you for something that has not been confirmed yet?!"
Zhao Shaoqing thought for a while and gave up reluctantly, because he found that at least in the early stage, he could only work with subsidies and expect the court to allocate funds, which was unrealistic.