"Oh! Tofu and natto are also delicious. Especially the 'donatto' from Kyoto Temple Shrine, it's a perfect match with rice! ...Any more?"
"Uh...and there's more..."
The sun sets to the west and falls into the sea of ice and snow. The four of them ate as hard as they could, and the pot of venison porridge was about to reach the bottom soon. The horse breeder Sukeichiro licked his dry lips, looked at the last bit of meat porridge in the pot, then looked at the monk soldier Watanabe Masumi, and said cautiously.
"Watanabe-sama, do you still want to eat porridge?"
"Huh?...Oh! No, I'm full. Buddha said, 'Don't eat indiscriminately'... I'll leave this last bowl to you!"
"Hi Yi! Thank you, sir!"
Sukeichiro rushed to the pot and scraped off the last bits of rice porridge. Murakami Kidomi smiled, looked at Masumi Watanabe who was chatting enthusiastically, and continued the conversation.
"Master Watanabe, in addition to the six staple foods of rice, wheat, millet, barnyard millet, taro, and beans, there is another excellent food that is regarded as a staple food by the villagers and a supplementary food by the adults..."
"Oh! Murakami-kun, you mean the big root (radish)?"
"Exactly! The most delicious and life-saving food is naturally the big root! The big root is easy to grow and live well. It can be eaten raw and can be stored for a long time. It is the life-saving food for the villagers!... When I was young, there was no spring famine at home. For food, a large sweet stem can last you a whole day!…And radish leaves can also be eaten, much more delicious than leaves…”
Murakami Jitong looked sad, recalling the spring famine that farmers in the Republic of China feared the most, a time when people really died like grass. Elderly people in the village would be carried on their backs by children and sent to the mountains to commit suicide in order to save food rations. The "Narayama Jiekao", which shocked later generations, was a very common custom in mountain villages in this era. After all, the mage in the temple also said that if the old man takes the initiative to starve to death in the mountains, he will be saved by the Bodhisattva after his death, which is far better than starving to death in the village!
Because the country is prone to disasters frequently and has a dense population. Once it encounters severe droughts, floods, typhoons, or earthquakes, whole villages often starve to death. At that time, let alone eating leaves, roots, bark, It is very common for insects to eat humans! But if someone eats it into their stomach, they will fall into the realm of animals...
"Oh! Daikon! My favorite food is daikon pickles! Sakurajima's daikon pickles are the most famous in Kyushu. One of them is so big!..."
Hearing this, Watanabe Masumi, the monk warrior, licked his lips and thought of Sakurajima radish from Kyushu. Well, although Sakurajima is in the southernmost part of Kyushu, it still feels like home!
The Korean people's love for radish, especially white radish, is almost as deep in their bones as the Korean people's love for kimchi. And farmers in the Republic of China have cultivated white radish for generations, and they have also cultivated white radish to become bigger and bigger. This is an important ration to survive the spring famine. If you don't grow it well, people will starve to death.
“Sakurajima’s Daikon pickles…”
Hearing this unfamiliar place name, Murakami Kidomi touched Tsukiyo's head in confusion. Although he has been to the North Sea and the Far North Sea, he has never left Ezo Mutsu, let alone Kyushu that far south. He looked at Watanabe, a monk who was from a martial arts family, with a nostalgic look on his face, and for a moment he felt like he was talking to a duck.
However, the country upholds Buddhism and officially prohibits meat eating. There are neither pigs, sheep, chickens, or ducks in the village community. The meat that villagers can secretly hunt and eat is wild dogs, cranes, monkeys, cats, frogs and birds. Among them, dog meat is the most common and popular in the black market. The relatively wealthy daimyo and merchants would eat fish and shellfish that were not prohibited by Buddhism... Therefore, the only livestock that could be obtained from Japan were cattle!
"Sukeichiro, have you finished eating?"
"Uh-huh...oooo...the rice porridge is so delicious!..."
"Hey! Suichiro, why are there still two pieces of venison left in the pot?..."
"Well... the mage in the village said that whatever you eat will change your shape. If you eat a deer, you will turn into a deer in your next life..."
"Yeah, that's right. You can chat with Mr. Watanabe for a while!..."
Murakami thought for a moment and gave the last two pieces of venison to the shipwright Jin Xishan, who was carefully eating the porridge and kept silent. The other party nodded gratefully to Murakami and started eating the meat without any taboo.
"Buddha Maitreya bless you! Lord Watanabe, radishes are eaten in spring. Then acorns and chestnuts are eaten in autumn!..."
"Acorns? Fake chestnuts?"
"Yes! Acorns, the seeds produced by oak trees, are put into a bowl and crushed, and then the powder is found out and cooked to eat! It is very filling..."
Sukeichiro pursed his lips, thinking of the bitterness and satiety of acorns, but felt inexplicably relieved. The villagers of the Republic of China were able to survive from the heavy taxes, and they indeed ordered a wide range of recipes. Acorns, for example, are living fruits with high starch content.
In a village in the countryside of the Republic of China, a large oak tree with fruit is the treasure of the village and must be enshrined as a sacred tree! As for fake chestnuts...
"Fake chestnuts are horse chestnuts! They drop a bunch of fruits in autumn and look like chestnuts!..."
"What? Horse chestnut? The fruit of the Bodhi tree?"
Hearing this, Monk Soldier Watanabe Masumi was a little surprised. The horse chestnut tree is also called the bodhi tree. Its flowers bloom like bodhi trees. It is a very common tree in the Republic of China. It is said that the Buddhist tree was brought back from Tianzhu by Master Xuanzang of Tang Dynasty. It is also one of the "Four Holy Trees" that Buddha Sakyamuni often preached to. Since Heguo was a devout believer in Buddhism, such Buddhist trees were planted everywhere with the promotion of temples and monks.
"The chestnut fruit of the Bodhi tree...isn't the fruit poisonous?"
"Yes! Fake chestnuts are not chestnuts, they are poisonous! Eating them raw is bitter and astringent, and can cause stomach upset and death... But there are many such trees in the mountains and outside temples, and they produce a lot of fake chestnuts!..."
Speaking of this, a smile appeared on Sukeichiro's face, and he talked about the benefits of fake chestnuts and how to eat them.
"Blessed by Maitreya Buddha! Although the fake chestnuts are poisonous, peel them off, throw the fruits into the burned vegetation ash water, and soak them vigorously... Soak them for a day, and the bitter taste will be much less... Then boil them again, and they will hardly be edible. Full of life-saving food!…”
"Buddha's blessing! Soak the Tubodhi fruit for a day and boil it again. Will it be no longer poisonous?"
"Well...it's still a little bitter, and you may get a stomachache or a headache after eating it. But this is actually a good thing, not a bad thing..."
"Ah? Is it a good thing? How do you say that?"
"Buddha Maitreya bless you! Because the fruit is bitter and a bit poisonous, and your stomach hurts after eating it... the warriors won't eat it, and won't steal it from us!"
Sukeichiro smiled innocently, but the look in his eyes was clear and bright, and even a little grateful. Seeing such a look, Monk Soldier Watanabe pursed his lips and couldn't help but tilt his head slightly, unwilling to look directly.
"Mr. Watanabe, the lives of the villagers are cheap. Even if you are poisoned, it will hurt for a while and you will be fine! It doesn't matter if you eat poisonous fruit, people will starve to death if they don't eat it!..."
After hearing these words, the monk warrior Watanabe Masumi was silent for a long time, feeling a little uncomfortable all over.
When he was a martial artist in Kyushu, he never paid attention to the life and death of the villagers under his rule. He only sent samurai to collect rent. After I went to Gyeonggi and became a monk soldier, I had seen the countryside around Gyeonggi, but it was the most developed place in the entire country and was somewhat decent. Only this time when he came to the Northland, did he truly understand the hardship and endurance of farmers in the Republic of China, which far exceeded the North Korea he had visited by boat...
Thinking of North Korea, which is separated from Kyushu by water, the monk soldier Watanabe Masumi turned his head, looked at the cautious and taciturn shipwright Jin Shanshu, and asked in a deep voice.
"Blessed by Hachiman Bodhisattva! Jin Shipiang, you were born in Korea and later came to Gyeonggi... How are the villagers in your hometown living? What do they grow and eat?"
