At dawn, Liu Pei summoned his guards and asked, "Has there been any news coming from the direction of Jinan recently?"

The guard said: "There is news. It has been placed in the Marshal's study."

Liu Pei sent the guards and went directly into the study room. As expected, he saw a pile of documents on the table. After Liu Pei approved several documents, there was only one report left. This report was a report on the locust plague from Jinan.

After Liu Pei opened the file and browsed it carefully, his heart sank. This locust plague was more serious than he expected. He thought that it would take at least ten days for the locusts to form a swarm, but he was wrong. He replied

In less than ten days in modern times, signs of a locust plague have appeared in the villages around Jinan and Yanzhou Prefectures.

The villagers have been trying hard to find ways to kill the locusts, but there are too many locusts and little effect has been achieved. As for the government, there is no action. Liu Pei knows that even if the government takes action, it may be too late. Now that the locusts have appeared,

On the surface, that means they have gradually transformed from the larvae state into the adult state. Within a few days, they will fully grow into adults. Then the overwhelming army of locusts will devour everything.

Thinking of this, Liu Pei immediately pulled the rope hanging from the roof. The end of the rope was in the guard room, and there was a bell tied to it. When the bell rang, the guards knew that it was Liu Pei who was calling.

A moment later, a guard opened the door and came in, saluted and said, "Commander, what are your orders?"

Liu Pei pointed to a pile of documents on the table and said: "Send these documents to the Government Affairs Council. Also ask Fang Degang to come see me immediately."

The guard stepped forward, picked up the documents, and turned around. After a while, Fang De just opened the door and came in. The Government Affairs Office sounds very grand, but in fact it is just a small courtyard next to Liu Pei's residence. After all, Liu Pei currently controls too little territory.

, not many people are needed. But in a few days, Fang Degang and the others will move to Ryukyu, where they will show off their talents.

As soon as Fang De entered the door, he said: "Commander, you are looking for me."

Liu Pei said: "Brother Gui Ren, come in quickly and sit down."

As soon as Fang De came in and sat down, the guards brought tea and left. Liu Pei picked up the tea cup and said: "Brother Gui Ren, how are the locust prevention and control measures in each village doing during my absence?"

Fang Degang said with a smile: "Everything has been arranged! Although I didn't go there in person, I asked my guard to walk around. He said that the execution was good in various places! Speaking of which, it must be said that the commander is very far-sighted!

"

Liu Pei smiled and said: "Oh, why do you say that? It's rare to hear you praise me!"

Fang Degang laughed and said: "The commander sent those disabled soldiers down to serve as village chiefs and militia instructors.

, what a stroke of genius! In the past, it was always difficult to implement any orders from above at the village level. Those village chiefs and wise elders in the village always had a way to change your orders into chaos! But we sent

People who go there don’t have to worry about these things anymore! They do everything very strictly. I think they still listen to government orders as military orders!”

Liu Pei nodded and said: "These people's own interests are closely related to ours. Naturally, they will not disobey our orders. And those village chiefs and elders are different! They have to consider more their own interests and those behind them.

Human interests. Forget it, let’s not talk about this. How are they doing in preventing the locust plague?”

Fang Degang said: "They did a good job! Four fires were lit in each village at night. Five people were responsible for guarding each fire to prevent water from leaking. According to my guards, in the first few days when the fires were lit, the locusts fought hard

He jumped into the fire all night long! It wasn't until he came back that the number was much smaller. In addition, each village raised chickens and ducks, and they were released during the day. Someone guided them, and everyone

It is said that the results of cleaning up the land area by area are also good. Moreover, the chickens and ducks have gained weight!"

Liu Pei said: "This is what we have to do! Once the locusts gather into a swarm and fly, they cannot be contained! We can only control them before the locust disaster occurs! From now on, we must observe the growth of locusts every year and must list

One of the necessary tasks for the village chief."

Fang Degang nodded and said: "I understand, I will make arrangements later."

Liu Pei then asked: "What's going on over there in Jinan Mansion now?"

When Liu Pei asked this question, Fang Degang's face became serious and he said: "It's very serious!"

Liu Pei frowned and said, "How serious is it?"

Fang Degang said solemnly: "It's a rare occurrence in a hundred years! The people we sent asked many local farmers who have long lives, and they all said that they have never seen so many locusts in the past years!"

In fact, what everyone may not know is that a locust plague does not mean a billion locusts, but a locust plague of hundreds of millions. In fact, small-scale locust plagues have never stopped. They just swirled and disappeared, and were not recorded in history books.

China's land is so large that it is rare in the world. Therefore, disasters in various places naturally occur one after another. It sounds like natural disasters and man-made disasters are endless, but in fact, nothing happens in most areas. But the disasters that can be entered into the history books are not minor disasters!

If you put it on a small country, it can destroy the country!

Liu Pei sighed and said, "Will the government take any action?"

Fang Degang sneered and said: "How could they do anything? They are hoarding grain at the moment, and they are harming the people together with those profiteers! Marshal, do you know how much food costs per stone in Jinan City now?"

Upon hearing this, Liu Pei knew that the price was certainly not low, so he tentatively said, "Fifty taels of silver?"

Fang Degang stretched out his hand and made a gesture and said: "Eight taels and one stone! It's still grains!"

After hearing this, Liu Pei slammed the table angrily and said loudly: "What are these bastards going to do? Kill people?"

Don’t blame Liu Pei for scolding people. Eight taels of silver is nothing to the rich, but for those ordinary people, it is a huge number! Many people work hard all year round and cannot earn two or three taels of silver.

.But now that the food price has reached eighty taels and one stone, how can these small people with no savings survive? Don’t forget, the locust plague has just begun at this time, and the skyrocketing food prices are still to come!

Fang Degang said: "In addition, I got news that the government's granary is empty, there is not a grain of food! I'm afraid we won't be able to help the victims!"

Liu Pei said in surprise: "How is this possible? Even if they are corrupt, it is impossible for them to swallow all the food, right?"

Fang Degang said: "I'm afraid we have all underestimated these people! Don't forget, the Wenxiang Sect's thieves rebelled a while ago. In order to quell the thieves, the government shipped a large amount of food from the treasury to supply military supplies. They also sent

The rich households have borrowed a lot. In the past few years, they have successively returned all the grain to the rich households during the autumn harvest. Coupled with the large and small officials taking advantage of it, it is no wonder that the food in the treasury is not empty!"

At this point, both of them were silent. Both of them were frightened by the terrible scene in the future. This time, they are afraid that they will starve to death everywhere and the ground will be thousands of miles away!

After a while, Liu Pei said in a deep voice: "Have all our people been sent out? Have the communication with the traffickers been completed?"

Fang Degang said: "No problem, I took care of these things personally. Three food stations were secretly set up along the way. The places where the victims ate along the way were in the wild, so they were not easy to be discovered. Temporary camps and trestles were also set up on the seaside.

Okay. We have also contacted a group of human traffickers. If they buy people who meet our requirements, they will send them directly to Rizhao."

Liu Pei looked at the map on the wall, sighed and said: "There is no good way, I can only do my best and obey fate!"

Fang Degang also sighed and said: "That's the only way it can be!"

Then the two people looked at each other speechlessly.

The reason why temporary camps and trestles need to be built is because not all the victims brought from Jinan, Dongchang and Yanzhou will be taken to Jiaozhou. Some of the victims will be taken directly to the junction of Yanzhou and Qingzhou.

We boarded the ship and went straight to Ryukyu. Although the sea route became longer from there, the victims had to travel less than a hundred miles on the land. Maybe if they traveled less than a hundred miles, many people would survive.
Chapter completed!