Chapter 304: The troubled Tang Dynasty Zhenguan Dynasty
Coming out of the third uncle's house with the final version of the Qu Yuan Plow, a group of people, including Patriarch Lin who came from behind, went straight to the back mountain.
When Hongyan passed the side door of the house, he quickly turned into the house and called Ranxiang to bring out a cow.
Arriving at a gentle wasteland in the mountains, Xiao Chong hitched the oxen to a plow and went directly to the ground to test the effectiveness of the new farm tools.
The precision farming techniques centered on plowing, harrowing and tilling were used one by one. Even a nobleman like Xiao Chong who did not do farming on a daily basis, with the help of high-efficiency agricultural tools, could plow the land in a decent manner.
Patriarch Lin was very excited when he saw it. As a common man in the countryside, he knew very well what the appearance of this farm tool meant, so he couldn't help but rush forward and try it out.
After plowing a small piece of wasteland, Chief Lin looked at Xiao Chong with tears in his eyes: "Xiao Mingfu cares about all the people in the world. He is really a god descending to earth! We are so lucky!"
Xiao Chong said modestly: "Clan Chief Lin is overly praised. This is not due to Xiao alone. I don't dare to be greedy for fame."
Lin Wanwan smiled and said: "Although it is just a small step from Qu to Qu, I know that there is great wisdom in it. Ordinary people may not be able to take this step in their lifetime. My cousin is very powerful if he can think of it. My little sister admires it!"
This sentence is not a pure compliment. If Lin Wanwan's butterfly wings hadn't saved Xiao Chong, then the appearance of Quyuan Li would have been a hundred or two hundred years later (unless Lin Wanwan was greedy for this and moved it directly from modern times).
There is news in the modern United States that a motor in the Ford company's workshop unexpectedly broke down, causing the entire workshop to shut down.
So Ford called in countless repairmen and experts to find the problem, but they still couldn't find a solution and didn't understand what the problem was.
This made Ford's leaders very anxious and angry. Every minute of shutdown was a huge loss!
Later, someone suggested asking motor expert Steinmenz for help, and the latter lived up to expectations. After checking the motor, he drew a line on the motor casing with chalk and said lightly: "Reduce the coil by 16 turns at the mark."
The maintenance man did as he was told, and sure enough, the motor returned to normal!
For this small line, Ford paid $10,000.
Some people who were unconvinced muttered: "Didn't we just draw a line? It's such a simple thing that requires no effort, but it actually costs 10,000 US dollars."
Steinmets turned around and wrote a detailed note to Ford: $1 to draw a line, $9,999 to know where to draw the line.
Some things look simple, but are actually very difficult. The progress of human society often comes in that flash of inspiration.
Xiao Chong received Lin Wanwan's not very sincere words of admiration, and smiled lightly: "My cousin and Secretary Wang have made great contributions to this step. Well, let's have a few drinks to celebrate tonight. What does my cousin think?"
The food and wine at Lin Wanwan's house always captured Xiao Chong's soul, and he would come here to eat and drink whenever he had the chance.
"Okay, but although the wine is good, cousin, please don't be greedy. My little sister doesn't want to learn how to do it today!"
"Cousin, you are too worried." Xiao Chong touched his nose, wondering which pot should not be opened?
As they walked back, they passed through the sweet potato fields and corn fields on the hillside. Xiao Chong was talking happily, but he caught a glimpse of something small out of the corner of his eye and then suppressed his smile.
He immediately stopped and caught a locust larvae on the corn stalk, his face suddenly became solemn.
Look carefully, there is more than one locust here!
"What's wrong, what's in your hand? Is it a praying mantis?" Lin Wanwan saw the green bug held by Xiao Chong's fingertips. She was not afraid of these. She turned around and found one on another corn stalk.
.
"This thing is chewing leaves. We need to catch insects in the fields." Lin Wanwan said casually. Recently, the tribe's thoughts were actually on cotton, and they did not take care of the sweet potato and corn fields carefully.
And these locusts reproduce very quickly, as if they appeared overnight.
When Wang Lang saw this, his expression suddenly changed and he said, "It's locusts!"
"Ah! Is this a locust?" Lin Wanwan and Patriarch Lin were both shocked.
And Wang Lang was even more uncomfortable!
Having lived in the north before, he knew very well what locusts meant! Their family lost their loved ones because of the locust plague!
People can die in any way, but they shouldn't starve to death! Starving to death, what a cruel thing! This was still a thing in the late Sui Dynasty and early Tang Dynasty.
The locust plague that followed the severe drought did not give ordinary people any way to survive.
Locusts are crossing the border and there is no harvest!
Historical data records that in June of the second year of Zhenguan, a severe drought broke out in the Chang'an area, followed by a locust plague. A large number of crops were eaten away by locusts.
It is said among the people that Li Shimin killed his brother and imprisoned his father, which led to the great disaster. In order to appease the people, the new emperor Li Shimin caught a locust in the field and ate it alive!
This incident is recorded in various historical materials. After Li Shimin took the lead in eating locusts to show his determination, the locusts did not cause a major disaster that year.
But will the locust plague only come in one year?
no!
In the 289th year of the reign of Emperor Zuo of the Tang Dynasty, the entire period was in a warm period. There were as many as 40 recorded locust plagues, occurring once every 7.25 years on average, mostly concentrated in the early and late Tang Dynasty.
However, in the early Tang Dynasty, because Li Shimin's locust extermination measures were appropriate and his subordinates implemented them well, no major disaster occurred.
In the late Tang Dynasty, people were already afraid of the frequent attacks of locusts. They even believed that killing too many locusts would harm the peace of the world, which would lead to frequent locust plagues.
The court did not act and the scholars did not pay attention to it, which led to great disaster.
There were two locust plagues in the first year of Yongshun. The first locust plague occurred in March in Chang'an, Gyeonggi Province, and ate up all the surrounding wheat seedlings.
The second time in June, another locust plague occurred in Yong, Qi, Long and other prefectures. The history of this disaster records: "The locusts eat each other."
In just five words, the crimes of the imperial court were revealed.
At that time, Gaozong was seriously ill and died the next year. Wu Zetian was busy with political struggles, and the ministers in the court were busy with their positions, so they could not care about the lives of the people.
It was also the people's luck that a locust plague occurred during Wu Zetian's reign.
Then in the late Tang Dynasty, the eunuchs in the imperial court were in power, the vassal towns were divided, and local officials were corrupt.
The common people are ignorant and only know how to set up sacrifices to worship, but do not dare to hunt and kill, allowing locusts to eat their crops.
Even literati who have read poetry and books are very resistant to killing locusts, saying that locusts are a punishment from heaven and that the subjects need to cultivate their moral character and the disaster will go away.
If the court did not act, the people had no way to survive, and the phenomenon of cannibalism was common. The history books only have three words: "people cannibalize", but they are bloody and tragic for the people.
A grain of sand in history is a mountain for the people.
Lin Wanwan felt a lot heavier when she thought of the information she had read about the locust plague.
It is now the fourth year of Zhenguan. Historical records do indicate that there was a locust plague, but it was clearly not in the south of the Yangtze River. Why are there locusts now in Luan County?
Lin Wanwan didn't know that this was also the butterfly effect caused by her. Everything has two sides. This chapter has been completed!