These locusts are very large and extremely ferocious. Not only are they not afraid of humans, they even dare to bite humans, and they reproduce at a terrifyingly fast rate.
"What a ghost!"
Shen Lie cursed and raised his head, looking at the table next to the window. Zhang Jingxiu was quickly flipping through the book in his hand under the dim oil lamp.
She had brought these books from home, and she had been reading them in the same posture all afternoon without moving.
It seems that there is some good way to save the world hidden in that book.
Shen Lie had no choice but to walk over slowly and said softly: "What are you looking for?"
Zhang Jingxiu flipped through the book and whispered: "Look at the notes... it contains records of all the large-scale locust plagues since the founding of the Ming Dynasty."
Shen Lie was stunned, looking at the shocking words on the note, he couldn't help but concentrate and said: "Tell me about it."
So under the dim light, Zhang Jingxiu spoke eloquently: "In May of the seventh year of Hongwu, a locust plague occurred in Hejian Prefecture, Yongping Prefecture, Baoding Prefecture, Zhending Prefecture, and Shunde Prefecture. In the 22nd year of Yongle, a locust plague occurred in Junxian County, Daming Prefecture. There was a locust plague. In October of the 10th year of Xuande, there was a locust plague in the four prefectures of Shuntian, Baoding, Shunde and Zhending..."
Shen Lie was so nervous that he was secretly shocked. Aren't these all in the Ming Dynasty grain-producing areas in the Gyeonggi area, south of the Great Wall and north of the Qinling Mountains?
"In September of the sixth year of Zhengtong, locusts damaged crops in Baoding, Daming, Guangping, Yongping, Shuntian, Hejian, Lulong, and Funing."
"In September of the seventh year of Jingtai, Yingtian was directly under the control of seven prefectures and counties in Taiping; in April of the eighth year of Hongzhi, it was directly under the control of Dangtu County; in August of the third year of Jiajing, Shuntian, Yongping, Baoding, and Hejian prefectures and counties were Drought locust plague.”
During the reign of almost every emperor, locust plagues occurred. Among them, the Zhengtong years had the most locust plagues, with a total of twenty-two occurrences!
And according to the records in this note, as the timeline goes by, locust plagues in the north of the Ming Dynasty have become more and more frequent and serious.
This is really surprising!
Zhengtong is the reign name of Yingzong. It lasted only fourteen years, but there were twenty-two locust plagues, and some years even twice.
The locust plague must be accompanied by severe drought, which shows that Emperor Yingzong was too unlucky...
Not to mention.
Shen Lie came back to his senses, looked at his sweetheart's slightly chapped lips, felt his heart tightening, and comforted him: "Okay... go back to your room and rest early."
It's really getting late, and reading books can't solve the problem.
Seeing her nodding slowly, Shen Lie cleared the table for her, closed the opened pages, and stacked them neatly.
Then prepare to send her back to her room...
But Zhang Jingxiu didn't get up. Instead, her pretty face turned slightly red and her voice sounded like a gnat: "I don't want to go back to the room right now..."
That bright and beautiful face exuded a crystal luster under the dim oil lamp, and also had a hint of imperceptible ruddy color.
Shen Lie was stunned, and his heart became hot.
If you don't want to go back to your room, just stay.
Zhang Jingxiu lowered his head in shock. Su Bairu took the medicine and her plump legs tightened unconsciously, but those little feet could not move forward.
Shen Lie walked over, closed the door, and locked the door bolt.
After all, Zhang Jingxiu was the daughter of an innocent daughter. As the door was bolted, she couldn't hide her shyness. She lowered her snow-white neck, looked at her bulging heart, and bit her red lips to argue.
"This lady is not greedy for gentleness, nor is she afraid of locusts..."
Shen Lie smiled slightly and said perfunctorily, intentionally or unintentionally: "Okay... Got it... Go to sleep."
After another moment.
The night is already deep.
The dim oil lamp had been extinguished, and the bedroom was silent. There was a rustling sound from outside the slightly lit window.
That's a swarm of locusts eating crops.
On the bed, feeling uneasy, Shen Lie and Zhang Jingxiu were lying back to back. Although they were only sleeping with their clothes on, they could still feel the warmth of each other's back through the thin clothes.
I don’t know how much time passed.
At midnight.
Only then did a delicate female voice sound in the room: "Are you asleep?"
Shen Lie closed his eyes slightly and responded softly: "Yes."
In the darkness, the beauty let out a chuckle: "Can you still talk when you're asleep?"
Shen Lie smiled slightly and opened his eyes.
Then, in the moonlight outside the window, he watched her turn around shyly, biting her red lips, and squeezed her soft and graceful body into her arms.
The beauty is in my arms.
The familiar soft and scorching heat made Shen Lie twitch his nose involuntarily, greedily sniffing the scent of her hair, body, and daughter.
Zhang Jingxiu also let out a soft groan of pleasure, closed his bright eyes happily, and rubbed Shen Lie's chest with his smooth chin.
It's like hugging her sweetheart tightly, which can bring her a great sense of security.
The hazy moonlight shone on the kraft paper on the window lattice, and the shadows of huge locusts were clearly visible. This scene extinguished the fire in their hearts.
A long time passed.
Zhang Jingxiu let out a sigh and said worriedly: "As soon as three to five days, or as slowly as ten days and a half, the crops in the capital area will be exhausted."
Shen Lie hugged her, his heart sank, and then nodded.
"Um."
The two hugged each other silently, having the same thought in their hearts.
When the locust swarms finish eating the crops in the Gyeongsang Province, they will probably continue to move south in large numbers, migrating to Hebei, Shanxi, Henan, and Shandong provinces, flying and breeding crazily along the way.
Until then……
Shen Lie couldn't help but shudder, fearing that the provinces north of the Qinling Mountains would not be spared and would become a field of Shura thousands of miles away.
"Why."
As Zhang Jingxiu sighed again, she buried her bright face in the arms of her sweetheart, feeling so weak and helpless at the moment.
There was mist in those bright eyes.
Shen Lie's heart tightened and he began to think hard. Is this seemingly unsolvable locust plague really irreversible?
etc!
As his body stiffened, a flash of light seemed to flash through Shen Lie's mind, and he suddenly thought of a hot news item he had seen.
In the past few years, locust plagues occurred in Africa and India, and the noise was very loud. The locust swarms even entered the Yunnan and Sichuan areas of our country through the influence of air currents.
At that time, the local government came up with a strange strategy to control the locust plague. They recruited hundreds of thousands of ducks from all over the country to form a duck army and marched directly towards the locust swarms.
And then……
Shen Lie's eyes lit up, and he suddenly turned over and sat up from the bed. His eyes flickered. Will this move work?
he does not know.
But it's worth a try anyway.
Thinking of this, Shen Lie quickly grabbed his clothes and put them on in a hurry, and then put on his boots. He was going to leave overnight for the capital.
In this way, at dawn, as soon as the city gate opens, he can enter the palace to meet the saint.
On the bed.
Zhang Jingxiu sat up in surprise, supported his slender body with his jade arms, and said in surprise: "It's so late... what are you doing?"
Shen Lie hurriedly said: "Get dressed and let's go!"
No time to explain.
Zhang Jingxiu quickly responded: "Oh."
After she got dressed, the two of them hurried out of the room and called Tian Hong, Zhang Kui and the others.
At midnight, there was a sudden knock on the door in Shenjiazhuang.