Traveling through the Gaowu Tang Dynasty, Li Kuan and Li Shimin became the second sons of the Prince

Li Kuan, who had had lunch, was not able to go back to the side hall to take a nap with his siblings today. Instead, he was called aside by his eldest grandson.

"Kuan'er," the eldest grandson first stretched out his hand to straighten his son's somewhat scattered clothes, and then said in a gentle tone: "How about you take the food box to deliver meals to your father and your uncle later?"

"Ah?" After hearing his mother's arrangement, Li Kuan looked up at his eldest grandson with some gloominess, and then reluctantly said: "Oh..."

"Mom is also doing your best..." The eldest grandson, who wanted to mend the relationship between Li Er and Li Kuan, sighed. In private, she never called herself "mother" to her son, who felt she owed a lot.

Just like Li Kuan never wanted to call Li Er "father", although the child never complained about himself as a mother, the eldest grandson knew that it was because the child was filial and did not want to make him sad.

However, from the perspective of her eldest grandson, she always felt that her son's perverse personality might not be a good thing in the future, but she couldn't be too hasty now.

After all, when this child first came to Chang'an and caused such a big incident, Li Er and Chang Sun were frightened. In Li Er's words, "This child has a beast living in his heart."

Therefore, the eldest grandson always treated Li Kuan with gentle words and kind words. Fortunately, Li Kuan also accepted her teachings and rarely went against her wishes.

"Let's talk about it first." Li Kuan refused the help of the palace man and stepped forward to lift the two food boxes on the table. Then he turned to look at the smiling eldest grandson: "I do it for your sake, mother." , the reason why I am willing to make this trip is not because I am afraid of that faint king..."

"Kuan'er..." Changsun raised the corners of his mouth slightly, looked at Li Kuan with some annoyance and said, "Be careful what you say!"

"Ha... I'm used to it... I'm used to it..." Li Kuan smiled awkwardly and said hello: "Mom, I'll go over first." After saying that, he turned around and left without waiting for his eldest grandson to speak. The gate of the palace went in the direction of Tai Chi Palace.

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In Tai Chi Palace, Li Er was in a bad mood today.

In the summer of the second year of Zhenguan, the locust plague in Guanzhong came faster than before.

And the scale is far greater than before.

As for the reason?

Probably because last winter was a warm winter, and there was never a single snowfall in Guanzhong.

Li Er, who knew both military affairs and farming, had actually known about this for a long time. He even made some preparations in advance and stocked up a lot of food for disaster relief.

But... Li Er obviously underestimated God's determination to test him, the eternal emperor.

In the first year of Zhenguan, three months after a certain Tiance general took the throne of the emperor after the battle of Xuanwumen, it was late autumn, the harvest season, and a rare frost disaster swept across the Tang Empire. In the north, several major grain-producing areas throughout the Tang Dynasty were severely damaged, and widespread famine swept across the country.

This is not the end, together with the current large-scale locust plague that is almost inevitable, in addition to being destined to cause another tragedy of starvation for thousands of miles, those court officials and people who believe in the "Mandate of Destiny" will probably also bring this disaster from heaven. The cause of all the disasters was attributed to Li Er, who was not in the right position.

There is no way, the emperor, the emperor! Since he is the son of God, then this son risked the disapproval of the world and took this position, which made God angry, so he sent disasters as a punishment to you, the emperor who killed his brother and usurped the throne!

In this feudal era, who can refute this view?

The wheel of history is rolling forward. Dong Zhongshu's political thought of "imperial power and heavenly right" was trying to kill Li Er, who was the pinnacle of the feudal ruling class. At this moment, Li Er finally felt what it meant to be miserable. .

"Your Majesty..." In the Taiji Hall, among the confidants who were called by Li Er to discuss matters, in addition to Changsun Wuji, Fang Xuanling, and Du Ruhui, there was also a general who came to ask for help from Li Er's worries, Niu Xiu.

He was the one speaking now.

"Niu Qing..." Li Er, who was sitting at the top, looked at the rough-looking general with a dark beard in front of him. He knew very well that the other man came here today for no selfish reasons. He just wanted to do something for those who might starve to death in the future. Thousands of people are seeking a way to survive.

Niu Xiu, also known as Jinda, was a subordinate of Wang Shiyun in his early years. He was bold and decisive. When the Wagang army failed, he, Cheng Yaojin, Qin Qiong and others surrendered to Wang Shichong and served for him.

But not long after that, Niu Jinda saw that Wang Shiyun was good at being suspicious and deceitful, so he joined his friends Cheng Yaojin and Qin Qiong, and defected to the Tang army together during the Battle of Jiuqu. After that, the three of them stayed together The Prince of Qin's Mansion became a general under Li Shimin.

Then, the world-famous Conglong skill made this fierce Zhang Fei-like figure become the general of Zuowu Guard.

Although Niu Xiu Niu Jinda is often ridiculed by others as the ugliest general because of his fierce look. But he is kind-hearted and fair in his dealings. Even after he was made a general, Niu Jinda still maintained a hard and simple life style and was quite low-key, not even in line with the aura of a general.

At home, apart from his wife and a son with a broken leg, there was only an old woman to help them with household chores.

This is a good minister in the true sense and an upright official.

The reason for this is because of his miserable childhood.

The Niu family was originally a heirloom of poetry and calligraphy. Because Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty made three expeditions to Korea and used a lot of national power, the people were hungry all day long and had no food to eat. Niu Jinda's father, as a county magistrate, was extremely honest as an official. For this reason, even if his family was originally well-off, in the turbulent era, there were often situations where he could not finish his meal.

If the officials are like this, one can imagine the situation of those who are promoted to ordinary people.

What should the people do if they have no way to survive?

Many people therefore embarked on the road of becoming bandits.

There were even some deserters who came down from the battlefield and eventually turned into bandits, took over the mountains and became kings, and began to cause trouble for one side.

When Niu Jinda was a child, he lived in an environment surrounded by bandits.

Although his father was the county magistrate, the family occasionally ran out of food and had no food to satisfy his hunger. Being so poor, even if they want to maintain local security, they are often unable to do so.

When Niu Jinda was young, his home was ransacked by bandits. First, his father was killed, and then his mother and sister committed suicide to protect their innocence. Finally, he watched his remaining relatives starve to death one after another.

There were dozens of people in the family, but Niu Jinda was the only one in the end, struggling to survive like a weed growing out of a crack in a rock.

Niu Jinda, who came from a scholarly family, could not become a scholar.

So later, in the turbulent years of the late Sui Dynasty, the lonely and helpless young man could only rely on his own hands to bet his surviving life for himself, for his father who was a scholar, and for his father who was a scholar. He talked about the illusory "peace in the world" and walked into the world of great strife with a knife. From then on, the knife's edge licked blood, and life and death were determined.

Fortunately, he finally got through it all.

But the bad thing is that this locust plague made him fall into the memories of that unbearable past.

He was scared, really scared.

A battle-hardened man is not afraid of his own death, but he is afraid that the lives of the people of the empire will be worse than death.

"When there is a famine, people eat each other." - This is just a sentence often used in history books to record the years of famine.

Just five words.

But when these five words jumped out of the history books and hit this world.

That's like heaven!

That is a scene of a tragic human tragedy!

Niu Jinda had experienced all this personally, so he swore that no matter what, such a tragedy should never happen again or be allowed to happen again.

Because once people cannot get the most basic guarantee of survival, there is no difference between humans and beasts.

dignity? ethics? human nature?

Those victims who have eaten bran and eaten bran and eaten bran and gnawed tree bark, like locusts, have used all the edible things around them to satisfy their hunger. In the end, when there is still nothing to eat, except for those who have the courage The poor people who were small or had no strength to fight, and in order not to starve to death, used "Guanyin soil" to satisfy their hunger before death, but the stomach and intestines burst and died, and the rest became real beasts.

At that time, the human world will no longer be considered a human world, but will become purgatory.

In the main hall, Niu Jinda only called "Your Majesty".

He wanted to say that I am willing to work tirelessly for His Majesty and die in service.

But he knew that the young man who wiped away his tears and walked into troubled times could not kill the enemy called "Famine" with the long knife in his hand.

And when Li Er said "Niu Qing", he understood Niu Jinda's mood, but who could understand his mood?

For a moment, none of the five monarchs and ministers in the palace spoke.

"father?"

Just when everything was quiet here, a "little cutie" lay at the door of the palace. He blinked at the father and his good ministers in the palace. The young man was confused about the scene in front of him.

what's the situation?

Why did that stupid guy kneeling on the ground still have tears on his face when he looked back at me?

I've never heard of... a minister who can be made to cry by his father?

It’s puzzling, it’s really puzzling.