Chapter 219 Disaster victims, are they still human?

The old eunuch said with a smile: “According to the little Princess Yunying, this is a new way of eating invented by Mr. Fu Cheng. It’s called hot pot! No matter the vegetables or the meat, they are all raw, but they are all cut into thin slices.” Just put them in boiling water, boil them, add some seasonings, and you’re ready to eat!”

“Really? It sounds very interesting! I’m going to try it today. What’s so amazing about this hot pot!” The empress’ interest was aroused.

Then, the old eunuch put soup base and charcoal fire on the table, as well as lettuce, raw meat, and various condiments, all neatly placed on the table.

These were all brought over by the small group leader. The charcoal fire is burning hot, and the soup is boiling, so you can eat it right away.

The Empress looked at the hot soup in front of her eyes, and at the lettuce and raw meat in front of her, so she picked up a piece of raw meat with chopsticks, put it into the soup, rolled it, and scalded it according to Lin Beifan’s wishes.

Because the raw meat is very thin, it was already cooked by the soup within a few seconds.

Then, she was put into an empty bowl by the empress, and tasted it cautiously.

Although the ingredients are delicious and warm, the taste is a bit off.

At this time, she saw a lot of condiments on the side, including onion, ginger, garlic, sesame, soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper, etc., and thought of what the old eunuch said, and poured them into the bowl according to her appetite.

Let the meat in your hands be fully stirred and put into your mouth again.

“Hmm! It’s delicious to eat like this!”

At this moment, the empress knew exactly how to eat hot pot.

With great interest, he picked up another piece of meat and put it into the soup. After it was cooked through, he put it into a bowl with seasoning.

At this time, the meat contaminated by the seasoning was no longer so hot, but it still had the fresh fragrance of the seasoning. This bite was really just right, and the empress was full of satisfaction.

“It’s comfortable to eat like this!”

Next, the Empress’s chopsticks could hardly stop, and she ate one piece after another, at a faster and faster speed.

The old eunuch next to him saw it, and his eyes popped out.

Is it really that delicious?

Or, turn around and set up a table by yourself?

After about half an hour, the empress finally ate and drank enough.

Although she is the Ninth Five-Year Honorable, she rarely has the opportunity to eat so happily.

Because she is usually busy with state affairs, she rarely eats on time.

Moreover, the imperial dining room is a bit far away.

When the food was served, it was basically already warm, and some of it was even cold.

So, it’s really hard for her, the emperor, to eat a mouthful of hot food.

Especially in the severe winter like now, it is even more difficult to eat a bite of hot food.

But now, with hot pot, it’s different. You can eat the hottest and freshest dishes directly, you can eat whatever you want, and you can eat whatever you want. It’s completely free and refreshing!

“The way of eating hot pot invented by Aiqing is so in line with my wishes! Tell the imperial dining room that I will cook according to the style of hot pot these days!”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

After eating and drinking enough, the empress began to worry about state affairs again.

However, when she saw a memorial, she frowned: “In the south of the Yangtze River, the weather is cold and rainy for days…”

Day after day of rain in winter is not a good thing.

It’s cold in winter, and it’s easy to freeze to death.

Coupled with the continuous rainfall, the water level is likely to skyrocket, and the river backflows, submerging fertile fields and villages, and causing people to be displaced.

The weather is cold and there is no food, so it is easier to die.

This kind of thing is not uncommon.

The empress shook her head: “I hope that I am just worrying about nothing!”

However, Murphy’s Law works everywhere.

If there is a possibility of things changing, no matter how small the possibility is, it will always happen.

In other words, the less you want something to happen, the more it will happen.

For several days in a row, the Empress received bad news from the Jiangnan region every day. The rainfall has not decreased, but has a tendency to increase.

The middle and low-lying areas in the countryside are basically submerged by water, making it very difficult to travel.

Some fertile fields and villages are also flooded now.

Fortunately, the farmers living inside have already moved away.

However, the most dangerous thing is the Qinhuai River. The river has gradually overflowed the embankment.

Once the embankment cannot be kept and the river overflows, the two river basins will be affected, and millions of people will be displaced.

The empress issued several imperial decrees in succession, ordering the government in the south of the Yangtze River to guard the embankment no matter what, and at the same time quickly transfer the people in the two river basins to reduce the disaster.

However, the most terrifying thing happened!

In the face of horrific natural disasters, manpower is sometimes poor, but in the end it is impossible to hold the embankment. The river overflows and surges, flooding all the villages and fertile fields along the way, destroying everything, and millions of people lose their homes!

The only good news is that due to the timely transfer, the civilian casualties were not large.

However, the food was washed away before it could be transferred.

What should we do if there are over a million people without food?

The empress immediately issued an order to the officials in the south of the Yangtze River: open warehouses to release grain, and do everything possible to relieve the victims!

However, the answer given by the Jiangnan officials was: There is no food in the south of the Yangtze River, and I implore the court to support it!

In the early morning, the empress slapped the dragon chair vigorously, and Lei Ting said angrily, “How dare you say that there is no food in the south of the Yangtze River? I have already investigated and found out that they have enough food, but the king of the south of the Yangtze River took it as military rations!”

“Your Majesty, calm down!” All the officials said in unison.

“How do you let me calm my anger?” The empress continued to be furious: “The Jiangnan king is ambitious and has been coveting my throne! He has not taken that position yet, and he has already ignored the people in the territory! Such a selfish and greedy person, if let If he ascends to the throne, will the people of the world still have a way out?”

“Your Majesty, calm down!” All the officials said in unison again.

“I’ll talk about the matter of the King of Jiangnan later. The most important thing now is to help the victims!” The empress said with a headache, “My loves, if the King of Jiangnan doesn’t release food, what good strategy do you have?”

As he spoke, he looked at Qian Yuanshen, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs.

The Secretary of the Household Department stood up and raised his hand and said: “Your Majesty, the weather in my court this year is unpredictable, and the grain harvest has been affected, and the production has been reduced by about 20%! In the Household Department, food is limited, and it may be more difficult to help millions of victims. Difficult!”

The empress’ eyes darkened.

Hubu Shangshu said again: “And Your Majesty, our capital is far away from the south of the Yangtze River. Even if we go fast, it will take two days! Even if we transport the grain there now, it may be too late!”

“Ah!” The empress sighed heavily.

Lin Beifan couldn’t help but look away, with a hint of expectation.

However, it soon dimmed again.

Even if he is extremely smart, what’s the use of being resourceful?

What is lacking now is food. Without food, everything is empty talk. Could it be that he can conjure up food?

He is a human being, not a fairy!

Just then, a soldier rushed in hastily.

“Report! The King of Jiangnan and the various officials in the south of the Yangtze River drove all the affected people out of the land of the south of the Yangtze River! At the same time, they loudly publicized that there is food in the capital! If you want to live, go to the capital to ask for food!”

“Boom”

The empress was furious again: “What a Jiangnan king! What a poisonous plan!”

“This plan is indeed vicious!” Gao Tianyao, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, smiled wryly: “The king of Jiangnan’s plan is clearly throwing the burden of millions of people to our court! If we ignore it, we will lose the hearts of the people and the court will be in danger!”

“If we take care of it and let go of the granary to help the victims, the victims will be rescued, but we have no food, and the impact will be even greater! If there is a war or other things, it will be absolutely detrimental to us!”

The other officials nodded.

“Yes, this plan is quite vicious! No matter whether we manage the victims or not, they will suffer!”

“Either lose popular support or lose food!”

“It’s not good for my court, what should I do?”

……

All the officials have a headache, and the empress is even more troubled: “My dear friends, what are some good strategies?”

“This…” All the officials shook their heads.

“Your Majesty, I have something to say!” Minister of the Ministry of War stood up.

“Li Aiqing, what do you have to say?” the Empress asked.

“Your Majesty, nowadays, all the feudal lords are aggressively fighting, and there are also major countries outside the country spying on us. Our court can be said to be precarious and very dangerous! Therefore, we must ensure that we have sufficient food in hand to deal with all adverse events!”

“If we use this amount of food to help the victims now, at best we will gain some good reputation! What use is it to us? Can this reputation be eaten?”

“No! The vassal lords will still fight if they should! Other countries will continue to spy on our dynasty, waiting for the opportunity to send troops! Therefore, the lesser of two evils, we must keep food! As for the victims, it can only depend on God’s will Already!”

The Minister of Rites was furious: “Master Li, do you want us to ignore the disaster victims? You have read the sage books all your life, where have you read them? Are you still a human being?”

“Lord Zhao, I understand your anger very well! But now, getting angry won’t help! A country needs a country before we can have a family. We can’t even keep our country, so how can we keep our people?”< /p>

Li Kaiguang, Shangshu of the Ministry of War, asked loudly: “If the country is destroyed, the sacrifice will not be the millions of victims, but tens of millions of ordinary people! Mr. Zhao, I ask you, can you afford this loss? “

“This…” The Minister of Rites was speechless, and shrank back angrily.

“Besides, even if you go to save them now, can you save them?” The Minister of the Ministry of War said loudly: “We are more than 800 miles away from Jiangnan. It will take 10 days at the fastest to transport food to Jiangnan. People are starving to death. How can we save it? Tell me, how can we save it? Can we save it?”

Everyone was speechless when asked.

Li Kaiguang, Shangshu of the Ministry of War, bowed and said: “Your Majesty, if you say something ugly, the victims of the disaster at this time can no longer be counted as human beings! They are hungry and even eat people, regardless of all etiquette and shame, they are no different from animals! Most importantly, don’t save these people, let them fend for themselves!”

All the officials sighed one after another, and the empress closed her eyes in pain.

Chaotang fell silent.

At this moment, a loud voice resounded through the court.

“I believe that the disaster victims should be rescued!”.