In the second year of Zhenguan, there was a drought in Beijing, and locusts rose greatly.

When Taizong entered the garden to see the grass, he saw the locusts, picked up a few pieces and cursed: "People take grain as their life, and you eat it, which is harmful to the people." The people have had, and they have a spirit in one person, but when they erode my heart, they will not harm the people. ”

will swallow it, and the left and right will admonish: "I am afraid of becoming a disease, no." ”

Taizong said: "I hope to move the disaster, what is the way to avoid it?" and swallowed it.

...... excerpt from "Zhenguan Political Dignitaries" of Taizong swallowing locusts;

didn't care to talk more to the Tang monarchs, Bai Yuqi asked Li Shimin to tell the Tang government to help inform the world that [Wujimen] would buy locusts in unlimited quantities at the price of a penny voucher and a catty, as many as there were!

Bai Yuqi's request made the Tang Dynasty monarchs stunned, but he didn't have time to explain to them in detail, so he hurried back to Zhongnan Mountain.

The preparations he left before leaving, because these arrogant Tang monarchs love face, and they don't ask for help from [Wujimen], so they have been idle and haven't started, and he has to rush back as soon as possible to activate the emergency mechanism.

Locusts and emperors have the same sound, and I don't know who came up with the phrase "extermination of locusts = extermination of the emperor", implying that the killing of locusts is dissatisfied with the emperor and intends to rebel.

In addition, the ancients did not understand the principles of the formation of various natural phenomena and natural disasters, and feared that they were God's warnings and punishments to the world.

In order to relieve the locust plague, he did not want to eliminate the locust, but instead opened the altar to pray for the sacrifice to the heavens, asking God to forgive his sins.

He also believed that all kinds of locust plagues and natural disasters in the world were due to the emperor's moral failures, and a group of literati forced the emperor to confess his own mistakes in governance.

Bai Yuqi felt that this was purely an idle egg pain, or some people used the topic to play.

Why not let the locusts be exterminated?

Without the locust plague, wouldn't there be a bumper harvest?

When the grain is harvested, how do some people hoard Juqi and make disaster money?

As for the emperor's failure of virtue and the fact that he wants to be guilty of his own edict or something, it is even more public opinion provoked by some people in order to achieve their own political goals.

If the emperor doesn't admit his mistake, how can they make demands? As for the lives of the people? Whatever their business? Anyway, they can't go hungry.

Bai Yuqi is very suspicious that this taboo and that taboo in ancient times are just marketing methods made up by some well-intentioned people.

Ordinary people who have faced the loess all their lives with their backs to the sky, how can they expect to get these twists and turns?

The common people in some remote areas can't even know the emperor's surname, what virtue does the emperor care about their affairs?

The crops in the field are the lifeblood of the common people, and the locusts gnaw their lifeblood, what do you say will be the reaction of the common people?

Snatching people's money is like killing their parents, not to mention taking the food of their lives, and the common people can't eat enough to even kill the gods to show you, where will they care about locusts?

Therefore, the conspiracy lurking behind these various scruples is worth pondering.

However, in the Zhenguan Dynasty, these habitual methods are not easy to use, who called Zhongnan Mountain to sit as a true god?

As long as Emperor Wuji doesn't speak, no one will dare to take out these old words to fry leftovers, and the fool also knows that jumping out at this time is definitely a slap in the face at the speed of light, is the emperor wrong, the gods and goddesses didn't speak, what are they beeping there.

Therefore, when His Majesty the Emperor issued an edict ordering the state and county governments affected by the locust plague in Guanzhong to fully cooperate with the [Wujimen] to purchase locusts, there was an uproar in the government and the opposition!

[Wujimen] under the voucher issued by the issuing firm, a penny can be exchanged for a penny equivalent to a Kaiyuan Tongbao!

Now, with the opening of waterway transportation, a large number of southern grain sources have gone north, which has suppressed the high grain prices that were originally as high as a horse and a bucket of grain.

Although because of the problem of freight and labor, the rice is still as high as 400 yuan, far exceeding the price of the rice in the harvest year.

But it has been like opening a heavy mountain that weighs on the hearts of the people, making everyone involuntarily relaxed.

And a locust is the size of a palm, and it is estimated that there can be a pound if you touch a hundred or so dozens, and you can grab a small half a catty by taking a dustpan and deducting it in the field.

At this moment, there are many locusts flying in the sky outside, and there are simply overwhelming, covering the clouds and the sun, even if it is a child, it is not a problem to catch a hundred and ten catties a day, let alone a strong adult.

If you do the math, if an adult can catch a thousand catties of locusts a day and send them to the purchase station set up by the local government [Wujimen], he can exchange them for a "ten-yuan voucher (worth a thousand yuan)" equivalent to the usual money.

Isn't that a family that can earn several buckets of rice in a day? This is much faster than growing their own food!

No one is a fool, exchanging locusts that plague the crops for food, and the fool also knows that this is the benevolent Emperor Wuji, and he is trying to find a way for the people to live.

After all, the crops sown in the field are finished, and this year is destined to be a no-brainer.

When it comes to autumn and winter, there will be another terrible famine, and Emperor Wuji is changing his way to stock up on some food for everyone to survive this year!

Emperor Wuji's current reputation is in the Tang Dynasty, and to put it mildly, it is more reputable than today's saints.

After hearing the news announced by the government, the people took out the dustpans and baskets without any suspicion, and no longer hid at home and waited for the dead to catch locusts.

Not to mention that the people who captured the locusts, Emperor Wuji also exchanged food, even if they didn't exchange food, this was to eliminate the locust plague, and if the locusts were eliminated earlier, they could replant the crops one day earlier, and when they arrived at the autumn harvest, they could grab back a little bit of the harvest, and the people would still calculate this account.

So being idle is also idle, instead of guarding so little food at home and waiting for death, it is better to go out and catch more locusts, even if it is not for food, simply kill these pests to vent your anger?

As a result, a large-scale locust extermination operation was vigorously launched in various parts of Gyeonggi.

Children take basket buckles and pockets to pounce, adults take brooms and clothes to draw, and some smart people bring sheets from home to cover them, and the husband and wife can bring back more than ten catties of locusts by running one end and running back and forth between the ridges!

And with Bai Yuqi's return to the mountain, the entire [Wujimen] system also began to operate like a huge machine.

A large number of convoys went straight to various parts of Gyeonggi to collect locusts caught by villagers in the fields of the villages.

When the huge trucks passed by, the people were waiting on the roadside with baskets and sacks of locusts.

As soon as he waved, a disciple of Wujimen stopped and weighed on the spot, shook the locusts into the sealed carriage, and immediately took out a handful of vouchers for settlement, and kindly told them that with these vouchers, they could go to any store under the name of Wujimen to exchange food and buy what they needed.

This kind of voucher small piece of paper has been circulating in the Gyeonggi area for a long time recently, and I have never heard of it that cannot be redeemed, so it has an excellent reputation!

When the people saw that the locusts could really be exchanged for money, the doubts that were still there were were gone, and they became more and more energetic to catch the locusts, and by the way, they contributed an endless tide of faith to Emperor Wuji.