Chapter 117: The Locust Plague

Liu Zhao has always been breathless and depressed since the Empress Dowager Dou was banned, and every time he thinks of everything that the Empress Dowager Dou and Wang Yin'er have done to him since he was a child, sometimes he smiles, sometimes he is warm and sweet, and sometimes he grits his teeth and hates him.

In the midst of such difficulties, in July, the locust plague in Sili Prefecture was rampant, and the seven counties under its jurisdiction, one hundred and six counties, were all worried about locusts. Seeing that it was about to cause a famine, the peasants had no harvest, and they had been reported to the Third Division by Dasi Nong, and Taiwei Ding Hong dragged the sick body and reported the matter to Liu Zhao.

Liu Zhaocai, who was upset by the affairs in the palace, came out of the depression, and he first found Liu Qing and asked if there was any unjust imprisonment recently.

Han Ling has always been in charge of the Tingwei Division, serving as the chief officer of the Tingwei, Han Ling began to clean up the unjust prisons in accordance with the instructions, and explicitly ordered all divisions, counties, and counties to have a division yamen, find out the files over the years, re-check whether there are grievances, and explicitly order that those who have been wronged throughout the country can directly report to the Tingwei Division. As a result, the whole country shook, and for a while, there was a long queue at the door of the Tingwei Division. There was an endless stream of complainants.

However, the handling of unjust cases did not alleviate the locust plague that was getting worse every day, Liu Zhao ordered the widows and widows to be compassionate and the lonely and weak, and asked the local authorities to register the widows, widows, orphans and the weak, and took out the money from the state treasury, set up righteous warehouses, and set up orphanage homes in various places to manage orphans without parents.

Liu Zhao issued another edict saying, "The difference between locusts and locusts is not in vain, and all parties are guilty, and they are given to one person." "The heart of the people is visible. To cure locusts. Liu Zhao personally came out of the palace, took Yuan Xian and Ren Tun, and was escorted by Zhou Rong to the Mintian to check.

The weather was on fire. There was not a single cloud in the sky, the sun was blazing overhead, there was not a single wind, and all the trees stood listlessly and lazily. The leaves hung with dust and curled on the branches, and the branches did not move, like clouds and not clouds, like fog and not fog. Floating low in the air, it makes people feel breathless.

Liu Zhao did not ride a horse and sat in the car. I opened the curtains on all sides, but I still felt uncomfortably hot. Suddenly, a big locust flew into the car and flew straight to Liu Zhao's head, with a pair of wings making a sound. The six legs are strong and powerful. Jagged teeth bit down on Liu Zhao's face.

"Ahh Liu Zhao screamed, grabbed it with his hand, threw it the car, and trampled it to death. But he was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat again.

"Your Majesty!" Zhou Rong was catching the car, and when he heard the shouting, he was so frightened that he hurriedly stopped the car and looked back at him.

"It's all right, a locust. I've trampled it to death, I didn't expect there to be so many locusts! Liu Zhao frowned. The face was covered with clouds.

Zhou Rong got out of the car and picked up the locust to take a look, and said, "Your Majesty, such a big locust can eat people." ”

"Cannibalism?" Liu Zhao was taken aback and asked, "How can this insect eat people?" ”

Ren Tun and Yuan Xian also dismounted, came to see the situation, and were surprised when they heard it, so they asked, "Is this true?" ”

Zhou Rong shook his head and said, "Your Majesty, when I was young, I heard my grandmother tell a story about locusts. It is said that there was a serious locust plague before. When the locusts had eaten up the crops and the reeds, they poured into the village like a flood, and ate up the silk cloth on the windows and the grass on the eaves. In one Li family, adults went out to hunt locusts during the day and left a baby under the age of one at home. When he came back, he heard the child crying from afar, and when he entered the house, he saw that the house was full of locusts, and the child's face and body were crawling all over, and Li hurriedly picked up the child, only to see that the child's face and ears were bitten by locusts, and the blood flowed, and he really escaped death. When he grew up, everyone called him "locust leftover", which means that locusts eat leftovers. Your Majesty, you see, this locust is so big, it is not an exaggeration to say that it can eat people. ”

Liu Zhao remembered that the insect was going to bite him just now, and his face changed in fright, and he said in his heart: "Such an evil thing, it must be removed." ”

A few people walked forward again, and saw a large town on the high ground, on which grain was grown, and from a distance, the sky and the earth became dark, as if there was no sunlight. couldn't help but be shocked: "Zhou Aiqing, the thing that flies in the air to block the sun is a locust." ”

Zhou Rong stood on the roof of the car and looked into the distance, got down and said back and forth: "Your Majesty, it is exactly, covering the sky and the sun, those grains are no longer edible, and they are moving towards the town." ”

They drove up the high slope and looked far away into the town, which was dark and dark, as if there was going to be a great catastrophe. Liu Zhao sighed and said, "Natural disaster, natural disaster, is this God punishing me?" ”。

He thought of the Empress Dowager Dou, did she trap her mother and anger the heavens? It was only then that such a great calamity came to punish him. He sighed and thought wildly, and felt very sad in his heart. That is, I feel sorry for the small people, I don't have the ability to resist at all, and I am worried that I have done something to anger the heavens, so I will come to the disaster, and my heart is like being poisoned by the sun, and it seems that white smoke has begun to rise.

A sedan came in the distance, moving very slowly, but not in a hurry, as if looking at the scenery along the way, and from time to time there was a giggling woman's laughter in the car, which made people's hearts feel refreshed. But at this moment, Liu Zhao didn't have the heart to see what others were doing, just a passerby, so why worry. But the sedan stopped in front of him, followed by a man on horseback, walked up to Liu Zhao and said, "I didn't expect to meet the emperor here, and Xiaomin gave the emperor a salute." ”

Liu Zhao was stunned for a moment, looked at it fixedly, and recognized that it was Li Xia who had saved him back then. couldn't help but be overjoyed, pulled him up and said, "Li Zhuangshi, I didn't expect it to be you?" How did you get here? ”

Li Xia said with a smile: "Xiaomin was passing by here, and when he saw the emperor here, he came to see it." Why is the emperor here? ”

Liu Zhao sighed: "Look at this day, the sun is as white as wax, and the ground is steaming, but there is a locust plague, and I am very worried in my heart, so I came here to take a look." I didn't expect the locust plague to be so serious, over there, on the other side of the town, I saw the locusts covering the sky and the sun, and I was shocked to see it! ”

Li Xia smiled and said, "Your Majesty, Xiaomin has a recipe, can the emperor use it?" ”

Liu Zhao was stunned for a moment and said happily: "What kind of prescription is the way to control the locust plague?" ”

Li Xia said: "Yes, the emperor, exactly!" ”

"Okay, you say it quickly, if it is feasible, I will let people implement it immediately." The more Liu Zhao looked at it, the more he liked Li Xia, and felt that this person could be reused.

"The emperor is not in a hurry, I am also selling and using!" As he spoke, he glanced at the car with his eyes.

Liu Zhao also followed his gaze, but saw that the curtains of the car were covered, and he couldn't see who was in the car, but he heard the voice of a woman just now, and thought it was a woman.

He suddenly moved in his heart, thinking that Li Xia was Deng Sui's family, could it be that Deng Sui was sitting in the car that he longed to see? My heart jumped wildly, staring at the car, but I couldn't move.

"Your Majesty! Emperor! Li Xia shouted twice, Liu Zhao heard it, turned around and asked, "Is Sui'er in the car?" ”

"Your Majesty, it's not Sui'er, Sui'er can't go out to keep filial piety, but this is what Miss asked me to tell the emperor."

"Is it really Sui'er? She told you to tell me? Liu Zhao was overjoyed, rubbed his hands, turned around twice on the ground, looked at the car with suspicious eyes and asked, "I just heard the woman's laughter, who is sitting in the car?" ”

"Oh, it's Sui'er's personal maid!" Li Xia replied unhurriedly.

"Maid?" Liu Zhao was disappointed when he heard this, so he had to ask, "What is the solution?" ”

"Your Majesty, this locust multiplies very quickly, so while fighting locusts, you must dig out the eggs of locusts, otherwise it is useless to shoot as much as you want, only more, not less."

"Has anyone ever used this method?" Liu Zhao turned around and asked Ren Tundao.

"Back to the emperor, no one has used this method yet."

"Okay, that's it!" Liu Zhao was overjoyed.

Li Xia said again: "Your Majesty, this insect is afraid of fire, so you can put fire on the ground to drive it away, and then burn the locusts that are killed, or dig a ditch and bury it." ”

Liu Zhao asked again: "Has anyone used this method?" ”。 Ren Tun replied again: "Back to the emperor, no, the people just beat with poles, beat away here, and came out there, and they couldn't catch many, and they sent people to catch them day and night, but they didn't see any effect, and they drove away and came back, and they were overwhelmed." ”

"It's great, just use this method to let people pass down the order, and organize officials to go down to the fields to fight locusts with the people, and don't slack off." Liu Zhao commanded.

"And the most important point, Your Majesty, locusts are natural disasters, not human actions, breaking grievances and prisons, and benefiting the people's hearts are all good things, but they are not the way to cure locusts. The emperor's virtue and talent can be seen in the world, but you can't think about yourself, and everything is in the people, not in the sky. There is no such thing as Heaven punishing people. As long as the emperor makes the officials, the people, and the Son of Heaven work together, the locusts will gradually stop. Then with tax reductions and exemptions, the law of helping the victims, the world is safe! ”

After Li Xia finished speaking, he smiled and said: "Your Majesty, everything that Xiaomin should say is finished, Your Majesty, the people are united, the world is decided, quickly get rid of the locusts, I will also leave." With that, he bowed again, turned the car around, and turned back the way he came.

Liu Zhao was stunned and watched the carriage go away, and he couldn't say what expression it was, as if he was smiling but not smiling, and revealing sadness. Yuan Xiang said: "Your Majesty, people are far away, do you want to chase them?" ”。

Liu Zhao shook his head, "Don't worry, I'm waiting for her, she thinks about me in her heart, thinks about my world, thinks about the people, such a smart woman, I can afford to wait." ”

He sat back in the carriage and ordered: "Go back to the palace, according to what Li Xia said just now, use fire to drive, burn, bury with soil, and dig up insect eggs!" Immediately inform Prime Minister Changshi and Hu Cao that Dasi Nong and the relevant officials of the Division, all the officials of the Prefecture and all the officials of the 106 counties under the division will go down to the fields to control the locusts with the people, and from tomorrow onwards, I will bring the hundred officials and also to the people and govern with the people. (To be continued......)

Chapter 117: The Locust Plague: