"Locust eggs... Locust eggs..."Qin Dalang returned home and kept chanting in his mouth.

While his mother was weaving a straw mat, she listened to Qin Dalang's chatter, and couldn't help asking, "My son, what's wrong with you?" How do you keep saying... What do you say about eggs? ”

Qin Dalang scratched his head, and a stream of dust mixed with dandruff flew everywhere.

"Mother, just now there was a word in the county, saying that in order to prevent the locust plague next year, the fields will be burned, and if you catch locust larvae or eggs, you can exchange them for food."

Qin Mu immediately shook her head and smiled, "That insect egg is only a little bigger, even if you change the food, it's not enough for you to stuff your teeth, and the government will know how to fool around." ”

"The government said that it would be exchanged for grain by twelve times the weight! Mother, if we can find a pound of eggs, then we will have twelve pounds of rations! ”

"Twelve?"

"Yes, he also said that he could be exempted from forced labor if he received a lot of money... Since the second brother was captured by the passing army, I am alone by your side, if I serve as a conscription, who will take care of my mother. Qin Dalang said, and couldn't help but think about his second brother who didn't know life and death.

"In this way, you can look for it, hey, I remember when you were a child, didn't you tell me that you saw a lot of locusts crawling on the ground without wings on the river beach, and the old people said that the shrimp in the water are turning into locusts, I think there must be there!"

When Qin Dalang heard this, he felt justified, patted his head, and walked towards the river beach with a newly issued hoe.

When he arrived at the river beach, Qin Dalang first looked at the fish and shrimp in the water, and found that he didn't see any shrimp turning into locusts crawling to the shore, so he began to dig around the river beach to see if he could find the eggs.

Because the ancients knew little about locusts, and because locusts and shrimps had something in common, they believed that locusts and shrimps were one and could transform into creatures.

In fact, the most famous of this concept of metamorphosis is "There is a fish in the north of the underworld, and its name is Kun." The Kun is so big that I don't know how many thousands of miles it is; Turned into a bird, its name is Peng. ".

Including Gu worms, the same is true, the earliest meaning of Gu worms is actually a pest in the warehouse, that is, rice worms, because the ancients did not understand how rice worms appeared, only observed that there were insects in the originally clean rice jar, and they thought that rice turned into worms, which was reflected in the later famous general Du Pre's commentary on "Zuo Chuan", he annotated that "Gu Jiuji became a flying insect." It is the embodiment of this incarnate thought.

Qin Dalang dug twice, and suddenly dug out a ball of slender rice-grained things, and couldn't help but squat down with great joy to take a closer look, picked up one and pinched it, and suddenly the worm egg broke, and blood flowed out.

"It's eggs! It's an egg! ”

Qin Dalang looked at this long river beach, how much grain did it have... No, it's an egg.

"Dalang! What are you doing? ”

Some villagers looked at Qin Dalang on the edge of the river beach and asked curiously.

Qin Dalang was also honest, waving his hand and saying, "Worm eggs!" There are so many on the banks of this river! ”

"What? Eggs? I'll take a look! ”

The villagers immediately ran over to see, and saw that Qin Dalang really dug up a ball of insect eggs, although it was not much, a small group was probably less than a hundred, but if it was converted to twelve times, there would be a thousand grains of rice, then there must be half a tael, don't think it is less, this is just a lump, if Qin Dalang digs like this for a day, he must not dig out a few catties of grain.

"Is this really dug up by the river?"

"Yes, there is no place that is too close to the river, there is more dry here, and the land is harder, you see, I will dig and see!"

As he spoke, Qin Dalang dug a few more casually, and sure enough, he dug up a ball of insect eggs, and now, the villager believed it.

"Da Lang, you can't eat alone, take us to dig together, I'll call someone, let's dig the eggs together!"

The villager ran to his house excitedly, shouting as he ran, "Everyone, go back and get tools, Qin Dalang has found a lot of insect eggs on the river beach!" ”

"What? Eggs on the riverbank? ”

"Let's go! Come on! If it's slow, it's gone! ”

Qin Dalang has dug up more than ten insect eggs here, and it is still a little scary to pile them together, but in the eyes of others, where are these insect eggs, these are all food!

"Listen to me! Everyone digs in different places, and they are not allowed to rob! Da Lang, you tell everyone how to dig and what the trick is! The old man of the village put up his frame and began to act as the commander-in-chief.

But everyone in the village also recognized this, and they all honestly began to dig according to the divided area.

I saw that the edge of the river beach was quickly dug up, and looking at the eggs piled together, like a hill, everyone was happy and scared.

With so many eggs, if they all turn into locusts next year, will everyone still be alive?

- The next day

The two officials came to the village scolding, there were no cars and no buses in these years, they didn't have horses, they all relied on two pairs of iron feet, and they were almost tired to death all the way.

"It's been burned! It's been burned! How's it going? ”

"The two officials are ready, ready to light the fire at any time!" Several old people in the village stepped forward to answer with a smile.

"Then let's start burning... What's behind that? A servant pointed to something that the villagers had placed behind them covered with broken straw mats.

"It's all the eggs we dug up, and the two officials and masters have seen it!"

When I opened the straw mat covering it, I saw a coffin, which was full of insect eggs, and the two officials who saw it couldn't help but shudder.

"Are you crazy? What are you doing in a coffin? ”

The old man smiled bitterly and said, "We don't have anything good in our village, this is still my own longevity material." ”

"So much? You guys just yesterday day? ”

"Yes, digging until it was dark, we remembered that the burning of the field had not been done, and we were preparing to burn the field with torches, you see, everyone is tired."

"You can exchange a lot of food at this time, your village will be better next year, okay, I will send a few people to push this thing and us to the county office, and come back with food by the way!"

"Thank you! Thanks a lot! This is the fish we caught, the two masters worked the road, and took it back to make up for it. ”

"I know how to do things, let's start burning the fields!"

With a shout, the burning field began.

Burning fields to remove insects was not invented by Ma Qiang, but began in the pre-Qin period, and there is a saying in "Xiaoya Datian" that "remove its moths and its thieves, and it is harmless to my Tianzhi." Tian Zu has a god, and he is in flames. "It's about how to get rid of insect pests by burning fields.

Of course, the ancients of the pre-Qin period did not understand why burning the field could remove insect pests, but only thought that there was a god in the field, and as long as the fire burned it, the god would throw the pests into the fire and burn them to death.

Therefore, burning fields is definitely not a backward custom, but the most scientific, cheap and feasible method of exterminating and fertilizing fields discovered by the ancients from thousands of years of cultivation.

In Qingzhou at this time, such burned fields were everywhere.

- Plains Country

"Oh my God!" Ma Qiang looked at the gray sky caused by the concentrated burning of fields, and couldn't help but take a deep breath.

It's been a long time since I've seen such a sky with the flavor of the afterlife.

"It's a gray day, what's there to see?" Qingcheng asked puzzled.

"Hey, without such a day, I'm afraid we won't be able to eat enough next year!" Ma Qiang smiled and took Qingcheng's hand and walked towards the cafeteria.

"Brother Xiaoma, look, do I look good like this?" Everyone

Lin Zhi didn't know where to get out, his face was painted with colorful fat powder, and Ma Qiang was startled when he saw it.

Ma Qiang looked at Lin Zhi's face that was more exaggerated than a monkey's buttocks, and for some reason, a lyric flashed in his mind.

"Lang Jun~~~

Are you hungry and panicking, ho ho hey!

If you're hungry, panic~~

Please tell Xiangyu!

Xiangyu will give you fat intestines!"

Ma Qiang shook his head desperately, no, it's too brainwashing.

"Lin Zhi, who painted it?"

"Sister Zhang Ning, she said that Sister Diao Chan painted like this today, is it beautiful?" Lin Zhi looked at Zhang Ning behind him, and Zhang Ning nodded firmly.

"That's how Diao Chan draws it??"

Ma Qiang rubbed his eyes, could it be that there was something wrong with his aesthetics?

Isn't this still a monkey's ass!

As he spoke, Diao Chan walked over and looked at Diao Chan, his face was indeed coated with a very thick fat powder...

But how to say it, Diao Chan only felt more amazing when it was painted, and Linzhi was painted... I just feel atavistic ....

"I said Nyingchi... You better stop drawing in the future... It's a mirror, see for yourself. Ma Qiang asked Qingcheng for a small portable mirror for Lin Zhi, Lin Zhi took a look, then looked at Diao Chan, and with a scream, he threw himself on Zhang Ning.

"Zhang Ning! You're hurting me!! ”

"Lin Zhi, it's a problem with your looks, not my makeup skills!"

"Don't run! I'm going to paint it for you too!! ”

Watching the two little girls chase me and run away, Diao Chan has a question mark in his head.

"Diao Chan girl, are you going out?"

"Yes, a few days ago, some officials reacted that they couldn't see our faces on the stage clearly, and I thought maybe the makeup needed to be heavier, so I thought about it, and I will go on stage to see the effect."

"Oh, yes, the people below are far away, and the actors above have to wear heavy makeup. You don't have to save rouge gouache or something, just go directly to the house. ”

Ma Qiang thinks that if this continues, Diao Chan will not invent the face mask of Chinese opera in later generations.

As the saying goes, Tang and Song poems and Yuan songs, the formation system of opera masks in later generations is to wait until the Yuan Dynasty, and the purpose of painting masks is also very simple, that is, to let the audience below recognize what role the actors above are.

Diao Chan saluted Ma Qiang and left, and Ma Qiang reluctantly looked at Diao Chan's back until his waist hurt his heart.

"Pain, pain, pain! Orange, tap! ”

"I see your eyes are coming out! Hum!! Qingcheng snorted, took two steps forward, and stretched his hand back to Ma Qiang, who stuck out his tongue and grabbed Qingcheng's hand and continued to walk towards the cafeteria.

After eating, the two walked to the laboratory again, opened the door, and saw Li Jue and Lime leading a group of people to be busy.

Ma Qiang and Qingcheng changed clothes, and today Ma Qiang can rarely leave the mundane and become a laboratory boss again.

"Lime, deserved, how's it going?"

"I'm making roundworm pills now, but this time Dr. Li changed the recipe and used pomegranate peel and neem peel, and it will be fine immediately!" Lime said, and the assistant next to her came over with a black paste and began to prepare the pills.

"Okay, I'll see!" Ma Qiang sat aside and said.

Probably because of the poor health since childhood, the scientific research direction of lime has gradually changed to medicine.

And what she is doing now is the subject that Ma Qiang gave her and Li Jue - insect repellent pills!

Most of the Chinese people in later generations have a memory in their childhood, that is, they will be given insect pills to eat when they were young.

The colorful, pagoda-shaped pills had a sweet taste, a rare delicacy in the era of scarcity of materials at that time.

What's even more impressive is that after taking this pill, my parents got up in the middle of the night to pick up their pants to see if there were any bugs coming out, and some people only knew at that time that they could have such long bugs in their stomachs, and I don't know how many people were scared to cry at that time.

The pagoda sugar horse is known a little, it is actually made of artemisia as the main material, and the purpose is to remove human parasites led by roundworms.

And Artemisia annua, China did not, it was the Soviet Union in 1952 to give our country 20 grams of precious seeds, under the protection of armed personnel, divided into four places to plant, in the end only Weifang Farm a trial success, and then, the popular pagoda sugar began to be produced.

But unfortunately, due to various chaos and the elimination of medicines, the seeds of Artemisia annua have become extinct in China.

Ma Qiang naturally can't get such a thing, but the problem of deworming can't be solved, you know, the parasite problem of the people in the Han Dynasty is only stronger than after liberation.

"Ming Gong! Mr. Jia was outside, saying that there was news to report! Huang Xu came in and said to Ma Qiang, Ma Qiang couldn't help sighing, he wanted to see the experiment, but the result was still inseparable.

"Okay, everyone get busy first, I'll be back later." Ma Qiang said and walked out.

Qingcheng squeezed away the assistant on the side of the lime, and said while helping the lime, "Sister, you don't know, Brother Xiao Ma is watching Diao Chan again today." ”

"Diao Chan has been in for so long, can you still go out?" Lime said with a smile.

Hearing Qingcheng and Lime talking about Ma Qiang's things, the assistant on the side was so frightened that he hurriedly hid to the side, eager to poke his ears.

"I know... Sister, do you want to be with Brother Xiaoma? ”

The movement in Lime's hand paused for a moment, then moved again.

"I didn't think about it, did my father ask you to ask?"

"Hey, hey... I'm afraid... I'm going to be weak in the future. As he spoke, Qingcheng touched his stomach, and a trace of sadness appeared in his eyes.

Speaking of which, Qingcheng and Ma Qiang have been together for a long time, but until now, Qingcheng's stomach has not moved.

Ma Qiang naturally doesn't care, according to the standards of later generations, Qingcheng is still early when he should have a child, but Qingcheng is in a hurry, as long as his body can recently, he will make Ma Qiang sore.

"Don't worry, this matter is not in a hurry."

“... Brother Xiao Ma is already a thorn in history, and I don't know where it will go in the future, sister... I'm scared. ”

Lime looked at Qingcheng, and before she knew it, the sister who had risked her life to find medicine for herself had grown so big.

"I'll let Dr. Li show you first, don't be afraid, my sister is here."

Lime reassured, holding Orange's hand tightly, as if it would give her strength.