"Diversity?" Li Jing and Li Shimin looked at each other. Each word of what Tang Ping said could be understood separately, but when put together, it was... hard to understand.
"Yes, Datang's food source is too single now, which results in low disaster resistance."
Tang Ping held his cell phone and read word for word: "So, we should try our best to give the people of Tang Dynasty more food choices."
“More food options?”
"Yes, I think potato planting needs to be put on the schedule in advance."
Originally, the plan was to let Datang officials see the potato yield before promoting it nationwide, but the arrival of the locust plague made Tang Ping know that potatoes must be planted in advance.
In terms of time, if he returned to modern times and brought back a large amount of potatoes this time, and then started planting them on a large scale, the locust plague would be around the time when the potatoes would mature.
In this way, even if the locusts can eat all the potato leaves by then, the potatoes buried in the ground can become life-saving food.
But this depends on the courage of the Tang government. After all, large-scale cultivation of potatoes requires a certain amount of farmland and manpower.
This will inevitably affect the cultivation of other foods. Replacing the original crops with a new crop with an unknown yield will inevitably lead to considerable resistance.
Li Shimin nodded: "I will try my best to promote this matter!"
Although he was the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, could the emperor really control what crops everyone planted in their fields?
It could be said that this matter must be difficult, but he also knew that if it was true as Tang Ping said, it would be the people's greatest chance of survival.
"Is there more?" Li Jing asked. He also knew that although Tang Ping could only say a few words, it was definitely not easy to do it.
"Nothing else for now."
"Okay, General Li, we will go back to the palace immediately!" Li Shimin stood up, thought for a moment and then said, "Thank you, little brother Tang!"
"You're welcome! If the imperial court is willing to plant potatoes on a large scale, please come to Shanghe Village in six days."
Five days later it will be the day for him to return to modern times. This time he will bring as many crops as possible that are less affected by the locust plague.
As for other ways to prevent and control locusts, such as putting up insect-proof nets, we can only talk about it slowly.
Li Shimin and Li Jing hurried back to the palace. At this time, Fang and Du had already summoned the chief officials of various ministries in the Xiande Hall.
From Gao Shilian, the Minister of Rites, to Duan Lun, the Minister of Industry, the six ministers are all here. In addition, Wei Zheng, the inspector of the school, has already served as a subordinate to all the provincial officials. The most powerful people in the entire Tang Dynasty are basically concentrated here.
"Where did this news come from?" Dai Zhou, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, asked. He was in charge of the Ministry of Revenue. Fang and Du talked about the locust plague one by one. After thinking about it carefully, he felt that it was very possible, but he still wanted to know what the news was. Who said that.
Fang and Du looked at each other and shook their heads. They were also very curious, but if His Majesty didn't tell them, how would they know.
Just when everyone was talking about it, Li Shimin came back with Li Jing.
"Everyone knows about the locust plague, right? What are your countermeasures?"
Sitting in his seat, Li Shimin looked at the ministers below.
Dai Zhou was the first to go out. This was his job: "Your Majesty, please issue an order to let the common people hunt and kill more."
This time he was smart and didn't say anything about worshiping the Locust God and asking His Majesty to accuse God of his sins.
Human hunting is also a commonly used method of killing locusts in this era. Specifically, there are various methods such as smoking and burning.
However, this method is actually only effective for small-scale locust plagues. Once the scale becomes too large, manpower becomes insignificant.
"anything else?"
Dai Zhou stopped talking this time, because that was all he could do. As for the others, they could only look down at their toes.
Li Shimin was a little helpless. Not to mention the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty, at least the people in charge of the central affairs of the Tang Dynasty were all here, but not a single child had any knowledge.
Well, Tang Ping was directly classified as a child in his place.
"Since everyone can't think of a way, I will give you two ways to discuss how to promote it."
Li Shimin did not directly ask whether these two methods were feasible, but asked them to directly discuss how to promote them, which is already very illustrative of the problem.
"First, promote it nationwide and raise ducks!"
"Duck?"
"National promotion?"
The people below didn’t understand. Isn’t it talking about a locust plague? Why did the emperor suddenly mention raising ducks?
Li Shimin looked at his senior executives below who were amused and angry, and told Tang Ping's ducks about their restraint against locust larvae and the benefits of raising ducks.
Unlike Tang Ping, he had to read on his phone. He could basically repeat what Tang Ping said after listening to it once.
"So ducks can still have such a function?"
"When you think about it, it seems possible! Locusts cannot fly when they are young, so they are food for chickens and ducks."
"It's such a simple thing, why didn't everyone think of it?"
It has to be said that this group of people is still very receptive, and after getting connected, they quickly accepted this plan.
However, it is useless for them to accept it. The most difficult thing is to implement it.
Apart from anything else, if you want to breed ducks, you must have ducklings, right? This is not a one-to-one breeding, but a nationwide promotion, so the number of ducklings will be astronomical.
This is the biggest problem with this plan.
At this time, Dou Lukuan, the Minister of Rites, stood up and said: "Your Majesty, when I was on a mission to East Vietnam, I saw many people raising chickens and ducks. This time we need so many ducklings. It is estimated that only East Vietnam has so many ducklings." ."
"But our relationship with Dongyue..." Wei Zheng did not finish what he said, but everyone knew that the relationship between Datang and Dongyue was not good.
Well, to be precise, the relationship between Datang and the surrounding countries is not very good at this time.
The reason is that everyone turned out to be ministers of the former Sui Dynasty. The former Sui Dynasty was immoral, wars broke out everywhere, and all rebels raised high flags of righteousness against the king.
After attacking each other, they established their own countries one after another.
The Tang Dynasty occupied the lands in Guanzhong and Chang'an, which was also the center of the Sui Dynasty, so it often regarded itself as orthodox, but the surrounding countries were naturally not too convinced.
Although they no longer fight each other in the past few years, it is just because each of them needs to recuperate and recuperate.
When the Turks besieged the city at the beginning of the year, Chang'an's troops were stretched thin. This was also due to the huge pressure on the borders of the surrounding countries. Once the defense was neglected, the other party was likely to take advantage of the situation.
Therefore, it is not easy to trade large quantities of ducklings with East Vietnam.
"What is scarce in East Vietnam?" Li Shimin asked with a frown. After all, everything is inseparable from the word "profit".
If Datang can come up with something that makes Dongyue excited, the other party will be willing to trade.
At this time, Dongyue actually occupied the Jiangnan region, which has been a land of plenty since ancient times, with rich products and a pleasant climate.
In terms of natural conditions in a single round, they are no better than Datang.
It was Doulu Kuan who replied: "In East Vietnam, iron tools should be the most scarce!"
