Chapter 1037 Five Years of Longevity, Big Roots, Acorns and Fake Chestnuts, Life-Saving Food for the Famine in the Country

"Oh! Tofu and natto are also delicious. Especially the 'Donnatto' from temples in Kyoto is a perfect match with rice!...Do you have any more?"

"Uh... and more..."

The sun goes west and falls into the sea of ​​ice and snow. The four of them ate wildly, and the pot of venison porridge would soon bottom out. The horse breeder Suichiro licked his dry lips, glanced at the last bit of meat porridge in the pot, then at the monk Watanabe Masumi, and said cautiously.

"Master Watanabe, do you still eat porridge?"

"Huh?...Oh! No, I'm full. The Buddha said, 'Don't eat indiscriminately'...I'll leave this last bowl to you!"

"Hi Yi! Thank you, sir!"

Suichiro rushed to the side of the pot and scraped off the last rice porridge. Murakami Jitong smiled, then looked at Masumi Watanabe, who was having a good time talking, and continued the conversation.

"Master Watanabe, in addition to the six staple foods of rice, wheat, millet, barnyardgrass, taro, and beans, there is another excellent food that is regarded as a staple food by villagers and a supplementary food by adults..."

"Oh! Murakami-kun, you mean Daikon (radish)?"

"Exactly! The most delicious and life-saving, of course, is the big root! The big root is good to grow and easy to live. It can be eaten raw or stored for a long time. It is the life-saving food of the villagers! When I was young, there was no spring famine at home. What to eat, a big sweet root, it can last for a whole day!...And the radish leaves can also be eaten, much more delicious than the leaves..."

Murakami Jitong sighed, recalling the spring famine that farmers in He country feared most, that was the time when people really died like grass. The old people in the village will be carried by their children and sent to the mountains to commit suicide in order to save food rations. The shocking "Narayama Festival Kao" in later generations is a very common mountain village custom in this era. After all, the mage in the temple also said that if the old man voluntarily starves to death in the mountains, he will be rescued by the Bodhisattva after death, which is far better than starving to death in the village!

Because disasters occur frequently and the country is densely populated. Once encountering severe drought, flood, typhoon, or earthquake, the whole village will often starve to death. At that time, let alone eating leaves, roots, bark, Insects, even cannibalism, are very common! But to be eaten into the stomach is to fall into the animal realm...

"Oh! Big root! My favorite is big root pickles! Sakurajima's big root pickles are the most famous in Kyushu, one is so big!..."

Hearing this, the monk Watanabe Masumi licked his lips, thinking of the Sakurajima radish in Kyushu. Well, although Sakurajima is in the southernmost part of Kyushu, it is also the taste of hometown!

The Japanese people's love for radishes, especially white radishes, almost goes deep into the bone marrow, just like the Korean people's love for kimchi. And the peasants of the Republic of China have cultivated the white radish for generations, and they have also grown the white radish bigger and bigger. This is an important ration to survive the spring famine. If it is not grown well, people will starve to death.

"Sakurajima's Daikon Pickles..."

Hearing this strange place name, Murakami Jitong touched Tsukiyo's head blankly. Although he has been to the North Sea and the Extreme North Sea, he has never left Ezo Mutsu, let alone Kyushu, which is so south. He looked at Watanabe, a monk with a nostalgic face and a family background, and felt like talking to a duck for a while.

However, Heguo advocated Buddhism, and the government strictly prohibited eating meat. There were neither pigs, sheep, nor chickens and ducks in the village. The meat that villagers can secretly hunt and eat is wild dogs, cranes, monkeys, cats, frogs and birds, among which dog meat is the most common and most popular on the black market. The richer daimyos and merchants would eat fish and shellfish that were not prohibited by Buddhism... Therefore, the only livestock that can be obtained from Wakoku is actually only farm cattle!

"Sukichiro, are you finished eating?"

"Yeah... woo... The rice porridge is so delicious!..."

"Hey! Suichiro, why are there two pieces of venison left in the pot?..."

"Well... the mage in the village said that what you eat will change you. If you eat a deer, you will become a deer in your next life..."

"Well, that's right. You can talk to Mr. Watanabe again!..."

Murakami Jitong thought for a while, and gave the last two pieces of venison to Jin Xishan, a boat builder who was careful to eat porridge and kept silent. The other party nodded gratefully at Murakami, and began to eat meat without any taboo.

"Bless Buddha Maitreya! Master Watanabe, radishes are eaten in spring. Then acorns and false chestnuts are eaten in autumn!..."

"Acorns? False chestnuts?"

"Yes! Acorns, the seeds of the oak tree, are crushed in a bowl, scoured for flour and cooked to eat! Very filling..."

Suichiro pursed his lips, thinking of the bitterness and fullness of the acorns, but somehow felt relieved. The villagers of the He Kingdom were able to survive the heavy taxation, and they did order a wide range of recipes. Like acorns, living fruits with a high starch content.

In a village in the countryside of Heguo, a big oak tree with fruit is the treasure of the village, and it will be enshrined as a sacred tree! As for the fake chestnuts...

"False chestnuts are horse chestnuts! They drop a bunch of fruits in autumn, the ones that look like chestnuts!..."

"What? Horse chestnut? Fruit of the lime tree?"

Hearing this, the monk Watanabe Masumi was a little surprised. The horse chestnut is also called the soil bodhi tree, and its flowers bloom like a bodhi tree. It is a very common tree in the country. It is said that Master Xuanzang of the Tang Dynasty brought back the Buddhist tree from Tianzhu, and it is also one of the "Four Sacred Trees" that Buddha Sakyamuni often said. And the country believes in Buddhism, and this kind of Buddhist tree is planted everywhere along with the promotion of temples and monks.

"The chestnut fruit of the linden tree... isn't that fruit poisonous?"

"That's right! False chestnuts are not chestnuts, they are poisonous! They are bitter and astringent when eaten raw, and they can cause stomach upsets and death... But there are many such trees in the mountain, and there are many outside the temple, and there are also many fake chestnuts!..."

Speaking of this, a smile appeared on Suichiro'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, but after peeling off the skin, throw the fruit into the burnt plant ash water, soak vigorously...soak for a day, the bitterness will be much less...then boil it again, it is rare to eat Full of life-saving food!..."

"Blessed by the Buddha! Soak the bodhi fruit for a day, then boil it again, will it not be poisonous?"

"Uh... it's still a bit bitter, and it's easy to get stomachaches and headaches after eating it. But it's actually a good thing, not a bad thing..."

"Ah? Is it a good thing? How do you say that?"

"Maitreya Buddha bless you! Because the fruit is bitter and a bit poisonous, it hurts my stomach after eating it...Samurai masters won't eat it, and won't snatch it from us!"

Suichiro smiled innocently, but the look in his eyes was clear and bright, even with a hint of gratitude. Seeing this kind of gaze, Seng Bing Watanabe pursed his lips, and couldn't help but tilt his head slightly, unwilling to look directly.

"Master Watanabe, the lives of the villagers are cheap, even if they are poisoned a little bit, just survive the pain! It doesn't matter if you eat the poisonous fruit, people will starve to death if you don't eat it!..."

After hearing these words, the soldier monk Watanabe Masumi remained silent for a long time, feeling a little uncomfortable all over.

When he was a samurai in Kyushu, he never paid attention to the life and death of the villagers under his rule. He just sent samurai to collect rent. And after going to Gyeonggi to become a monk soldier, although I have seen the countryside around Gyeonggi, it is the most developed place in the whole country, and it is more or less decent. Only when he came to the Northland this time, did he truly understand the hardship and patience of farmers in the Republic of China, which far surpassed the North Korea he had been to by boat...

Thinking of North Korea, which is separated from Kyushu by a river, Watanabe Masumi turned his head, looked at the cautious and taciturn shipwright Kim Sun-ju, and asked in a deep voice.

"Hachiman Bodhisattva blesses you! Goldboatsmith, you were born in North Korea and came to Gyeonggi later... How do the villagers in your hometown live, what do they grow and what do they eat?"