People catch locusts and bury them alive on the spot, but little do they know that not only cannot they be completely killed, but they may also create greater hidden dangers.

There are also people who take advantage of the space at the edge of their own land or on the edge of the land to dig a deep trench about a foot wide, and let the locusts crawl to the bottom of the trench to a certain thickness and seal it with a layer of soil until the trench is full and compacted.

Children are still happier than adults because they are young and don’t know what kind of suffering they are about to face.

They follow the adults to the fields every day and are active among the locust swarms, clasping their hands, scratching with their fingers, and stamping their feet. They are also busy non-stop.

Some of the more sensible children had their fingers cut open by the locust's toothed thighs, but they still endured the pain and persisted in catching them.

After six or seven days of busy work, there were no fewer locusts. Instead, the seedlings in the ground were eaten to pieces. There was nothing left for the locusts to nibble, so they flew up in groups and flew away in the sky.

People's sad faces just showed a little joy. However, no one expected that locusts followed one after another, and the number density continued to increase. At this time, most of the seedlings had been eaten.

In order to ensure that they can harvest twenty-eight kilograms or one and a half bowls of grain in the autumn, the common people have to support their exhausted bodies, insist on going out early and returning home late, getting into the crops every day, and using all their strength to coax and catch them.

In this way, day after day, from locust to locust departure, it took more than ten days before the locust swarm was over.

After the locusts passed, the crops in this generation's fields were endless. Except for a small number of beans, which the locusts did not eat, the rest of the millet, corn, sorghum, etc. were all destroyed by the locusts, and there was no harvest.

The leaves of tens of thousands of acres of sorghum and corn planted in more than ten villages in the surrounding area have been basically eaten away, the ears have been eaten away, and the young stalks have been chewed off, leaving only incomplete and damaged stalks standing there.

Sad and crying.

Just after June, all the hopes of the old and young who were waiting for Xia Liang to make ends meet came to nothing.

All they can get is to scald the captured locusts with boiling water viciously and sadly, dry them in the sun, and store them in sacks to satisfy their hunger. During the locust hunting, someone sang:

"Locust meat also cures hunger.

You have to catch them when you are full,

If you don’t eat it, it will eat you.”

It seems to be balancing the fear and hatred of the Locust God.

However, local officials are still intensifying the collection of summer taxes as usual. As long as they find someone dumping grain on the millstone, they will forcibly remove the grain from the millstone and carry it away, no matter how hard you borrow it from here and there.

People's hearts are paralyzed and society is in chaos.

Beggars suddenly appeared like locusts, and they were constantly flowing through the market. There were people grabbing steamed buns, digging out bags, banging stalls, and robbing goods everywhere in the market.

In order to make ends meet and save their lives, the farmers did not hesitate to sell their belongings and land.

Even one or two buckets of grain, half an acre of land, and a few thatched houses have to be sold.

Others took their children away from home and left the county and government to escape famine and beg for food.

Refugees are everywhere.

Some even became so cruel that they sold their own children to traffickers with tears in their eyes, just to exchange for food.

When people are hungry to a certain level, they lose their dignity. For half a piece of cake, a woman can take off her clothes and spread her legs, and a man can lick the dirt on the toes of other people's boots.

If you can eat glutinous rice bran, you are already considered rich.

There are more people who stuff leaves, bark, and wild goose droppings into their mouths and swallow them.

When a person is starved to the extreme, he not only loses his dignity, but also loses his humanity. Those who still have half a breath of sanity left will think of starving corpses; and those who don’t have even a sliver of sanity, when they see a child or someone who is better than themselves

Those who are weaker will be knocked down and stoned to death, and then...

There are families in every village who have died to the point of extinction.

In ditches, roadsides, villages, and temples, corpses left unattended and powerless can be seen everywhere.

If you die in a ditch, you will be buried in a ditch; if you die on the road, you will be buried on the road.

There was a woman who starved to death on the roadside fleeing from famine. Her son, who was too weak to cry out, tore a piece of cloth from another dead man's clothes, covered his mother's face, and knelt down with his fellow travelers.

Some of the corpses were naked and had been eaten by wild dogs and crows, and their skeletons were exposed to decay.

The old man who hated himself for not dying said sadly: "If you die early, someone will bury you; if you die late, no one will care about you."

*****************

"Bang!" The emperor's fist hit the imperial case hard.

Eunuch Li knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, don't hurt the dragon's body!"

"Bastard! Bastard! Bastard!" Emperor Qingde was so furious that he spoke without hesitation.

If he had not taken early measures regarding the locust plague, it would not be unfair to where he is today.

However, he even issued detailed orders on how to turn over the soil, how to dispose of insect eggs, how to graze chickens and ducks, and how to train chickens and ducks. It was almost every detail, but it still caused such serious disasters in several state capitals.

Once upon a time, why did the emperor issue the "Edict of Sin"? Is it just because of the locust plague?

No!

It’s because disasters are followed by death, disease, rebellion, war, and... internal and external troubles!

In order to control the development of the situation, my father had to compromise. That kind of compromise was humiliating.

Is it now his turn to suffer such humiliation?

The emperor tried his best to suppress his emotions. There were still many things that needed to be dealt with.

On the imperial case, there are several reports side by side, sent by Hu Hengqiu.

The first one: Drought, locust plague, food production in Jishun Prefecture, and widespread public dissatisfaction. College students jointly wrote an abstract banner: "The country will suffer unethical defeats, and God will send disasters first to warn them." "The country will be prosperous."

, there must be good fortune; when the country is about to perish, there must be monsters";

The second report: A large-scale chicken plague and duck plague occurred in the southern part of Xinlun Prefecture. After investigation, the prefect Song Tingshan was related to the old Donglun nobles. He did not dare to make arbitrary decisions and has applied for a joint investigation with the Board of Directors;

The third part: Grain merchants in six prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River reserve grain from farmers before the summer harvest, so that after the summer tax, farmers sell their surplus grain, and tenants have no grain to eat;

The fourth part: After the Hesuote tribe purchased grain from Chu Qing, King Vos sent the fourth prince Kailidi to recruit, which caused dissatisfaction with Zuo Xian King Suo Nanjia. King Pazhuo of Guli took the opportunity to advise King Vos: Zuo Xian

The wise king colluded with Daxuan and plotted against evil.

The emperor pointed to the first report and said nothing.

Hu Hengqiu immediately explained: "The academy is called Hongzhe Academy, and the chief is the cousin of Qin Gaojin, the prefect of Jishun."

Could it be more obvious? It's not good to govern the place yourself, put the blame on the emperor, and describe the locust plague as a divine punishment!

The emperor nodded at the second report.

Hu Hengqiu continued to explain: "Song Tingshan found out that someone deliberately released sick chickens and ducks into farmers' homes at night, causing the plague to spread. These people have been arrested, and it was revealed that the instigators were several old nobles;

However, raising poultry was a decree issued by Song Tingshan on the advice of Chu Qing, and chicken and duck seedlings were provided by Chu Qing, and farmers purchased them on credit in advance. Therefore, Song Tingshan suspected that the plague was targeting Chu Qing;

In addition, there is no locust disaster in Xinlunzhou this year, and the breeding of chickens and ducks has almost no impact on the food here;

However, when Jishun Prefecture encountered a locust plague, a large number of chickens and ducks died, and Song Tingshan also suspected that it contributed to the locust plague, because the wind direction this month has turned to the southwest, which is conducive for locusts to enter the country along the wind."

Although the terrain of Xinlun Prefecture is higher than that of the mainland, its southern part is relatively flat and is also an important planting area for its food crops.

If it is true as Song Tingshan judged, then these old nobles... their intentions are worthy of death!


Chapter completed!