"It's time to eat, it's time to eat."
In the blink of an eye, it was December. Today was the first day of the lunar month.
Li Longji's family was not around. There was a court meeting at Hanyuan Palace in the morning, and all officials of rank five and above had to attend.
The captives took some time to get used to it. When they heard that it was time to eat and the sound of pots knocking, they lined up as fast as they could.
Each of them held half a bamboo tube and a pair of chopsticks in their hands, waiting for the others to get their food.
The ten-man squad leaders were responsible for taking care of their own food. When it was their turn, they got their food first.
The rice was steamed from old wheat with some bran in it. Li Yi said that bran was coarse grain and was good for the body.
The vegetables were pickled vegetables. They were given a chopstick and placed in the bamboo tube at the same time.
The ten-man squad leaders had an extra spoon of stewed vegetables. The oil of the pickled vegetables could be seen.
They were also given an extra spoon of rice.
The 100-man squad leaders had it much better. They had a plate with the same staple food, but they could eat whatever they wanted.
Other than the pickled vegetables stew, there was also a meat stew.
For the past two days, they had been eating chicken bones stewed with grey cabbage. The grey cabbage was wild vegetables collected by the roadside and the river to dry in the summer.
Chickens, ducks, and geese could be eaten. Occasionally, people would eat it too.
The chicken bones were indeed chicken bones. Most of the meat had been shaved off, but some of the internal organs were still attached.
Even so, the squad leaders had to be careful when eating. They were afraid that it would be gone if they ate too much.
While eating, they looked at the squad leaders of other squads with hostility in their eyes. Oh, it was called competition.
The Li Family Zhuangzi's people had agreed with them that there would be competitions in the future. There would be competitions in terms of work, learning the Tang dynasty dialect, and management personnel.
When the reveille was blown, the squad that was the fastest would get extra points, and the slowest would get points deducted.
After a month, on the first of January, the evaluation would begin.
There was a month from December to January to improve. When it came to January, the evaluation would be held once every ten days.
The squad leader with the least points would be replaced as the ten-man squad leader, and the squad leader with the best performance would be selected as the squad leader.
Squad leaders competed with squad leaders, and so did ten-man squad leaders. If they could not do it, they would be removed.
In order to have more rice and dishes, the squad leaders and ten-man squad leaders were extra strict with their subordinates.
There was no luck involved in the elimination of the last team. It was guaranteed that a team leader and a squad leader would be eliminated every ten days.
As for the Patrol Inspector, he brought a hundred men with him, so he had one more dish to eat.
It was the meat that was shaved off from the chicken skeleton. It was all minced meat that was directly fried in chicken oil.
They thought that everyone was a bad guy. If anyone in the group was caught breaking the rules, they could add an extra dish to the stew for the next ten days.
The Sixteen Guards, who were in charge of watching over them, seemed very relaxed and didn't need to worry at all.
Every team had people from different tribes. They used to be comrades, but now they had become spies.
Actually, in the southwest, the various tribes were also at war with each other.
The fight against the Tang dynasty was a temporary alliance driven by Tubo.
Tubo did not expect them to defeat the Tang dynasty. Tubo only needed people to harass the Tang dynasty.
"This year's Tubo people are very powerful. Instead of fighting the Abbasid Caliphate, they have to think of a way to fight the Tang dynasty. Moreover, they can even ally with the Abbasid Caliphate, the Turks, the southwest barbarians, and the Khitans to fight the Tang dynasty."
Li Yi gave Tubo a positive evaluation when he and Li Chengqi were having breakfast.
"I wonder how they did it." Li Chengqi frowned.
"The most important thing is to break the enemy's plans. The Tang dynasty was unstable in the past few years, so it gave others some ideas.
At the same time, the Tang dynasty was too arrogant. They never took the initiative to ally with the Turks and always waited for foreign countries to come to their court.
Tubo fought the various tribes while lowering their status to ally with them.
The Tang dynasty needed a reason to attack, so Tubo could attack whoever he wanted. "
Li Yi analyzed the reason for the current situation.
"Should we also lower our status to get in touch with the other tribes?" Li Chengqi asked for a solution.
"No, no, no. We can't lower our dignity as a big country. Others are used to the strength of the Tang dynasty. Once you show weakness, they will bite even harder. "
Li Yi refused to take the initiative to make peace with others. If the Wolf King showed weakness to the other wolves in the wolf pack, he would not be far from death.
"This won't do, that won't do, sigh!" Li Chengqi felt uncomfortable.
"Let's have a meeting. Gather all the tribes and send people to participate in the malaria medicine distribution meeting led by the Tang dynasty."
Li Yi thought of a good idea.
Previously, he was still thinking of selling the malaria medicine directly and exchanging it for horses and other things.
Now, he had a new idea. The medicine could not be bought with money. It had to be accompanied by political concessions and compromises.
"They will come?" Li Chengqi's eyes were filled with expectation.
He understood. The Tang dynasty would hold a meeting. All of them would come and discuss how many large honey pills to give to each other.
"Do they have malaria? Do they die after getting it? "Li Yi asked.
"Yes, they have a lot of malaria. Sometimes they die of malaria. Some can survive, but then they get sick again. I don't know the reason."
Li Chengqi felt that he had a high chance of success. In the face of life and death, if there was a way to solve it, people would naturally rush to get it.
"Mosquitoes can be spread by adding wormwood toilet water to prevent it. I can even develop a soap with wormwood.
There is only one thing that can cure this disease.
There is another thing that has a lot of side effects, Cinchona. It is in a place far away in the sea. This thing is … "
"Don't tell me. I don't want to know. You can keep it a secret in Zhuangzi."
When Li Chengqi heard that Li Yi was going to talk about the specific thing, he refused to listen.
"It's okay. They won't do it. When I was talking to Zhou Gang, in order to not let him know, I even mentioned that I heated it."
Li Yi said with a smile. He even guarded against Zhou Gang.
Li Chengqi also smiled. This was his Brother Yi. He was muddle-headed when he needed to be, and shrewd when he needed to be.
Sometimes, those who looked silly always suffered losses. Once he was serious about something, others couldn't stop him even if they wanted to.
"The people of the Tang dynasty also need to eat it. Honey is too rare. Some people eat it casually and make incense. The incense will burn out in a little bit."
Li Yi mentioned the main raw material for making big honey balls, honey.
Sugar was expensive enough. The price of honey could be imagined.
"Beekeepers need to chase flowers. Another way to raise bees … is also okay. At the beginning of spring next year, let the people of the 20 counties in the capital government raise bees."
Li Yi wished that he could raise thousands of boxes of bees himself, but he knew that he couldn't. There were not enough flowers.
"It's really hard for beekeepers. They have to put the beehives in the car and pick them by themselves. They have to go to wherever the flowers bloom.
If the weather is bad and there is a heavy rain, many bees will die.
How can we raise bees with the traditional method? Buy a box of bees from the beekeeper? "
Li Chengqi knew a little about beekeepers, but he didn't know much about the traditional method. No one told him about it.
"The traditional method of beekeeping is to let the bees fly by themselves. In winter, if you make a box of bamboo or wood, sparrows will fly in and make it their nest.
The same is true for bees. Build a home for them first. When they find it, they will find it when the beehive is divided.
In spring and summer, there will be bees flying around the eaves. Some bumblebees will make nests in the cracks of the walls. "
Li Yi said slowly and let Li Chengqi recall.
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