The sky was darkened by locusts, the sun was blood-red, the smoke was thick, and the air was filled with the smell of smoke and burnt locusts.

Millions of locusts pounced on them in waves, and despite the smoke, they were still unstoppable, rushing through the smoke intensively, crackling and hitting people, and the people fought bravely to exterminate the locusts, and the locusts were burned to death and dumped, and the locust corpses on the ground were piled up an inch thick, and children and women kept screaming, and the locusts should have hit their eyes or faces.

The first pine branch was mostly burned, but the smoke gradually died out, and the locust carcasses piled up so much that the fire was extinguished.

On the high platform, Guo Song's expression was grim, he knew that the locust swarm was large, but he didn't expect it to be so much, the locusts flew for more than half an hour and did not stop.

"Envoy, the locusts have broken through the defense line and entered the wheat field!" A soldier shouted.

Guo Song also realized that if he didn't retreat, once the locusts had eaten the wheat fields in Feng'an County, they would pounce on Jiuyuan County, and if they retreated too late, they would not be able to establish a defense, and it would be all over.

Guo Song immediately ordered, "Order the soldiers and young men to retreat westward immediately, and other women, children, and old and young will also retreat!" ”

'When! While! While! ’

The bell for retreat rang, and the six thousand soldiers and six thousand young men quickly retreated to the west, in which case they could not take care of the women and children, and they had to rush to establish the defensive front of Jiuyuan County first.

The second line of defense is located between Jiuyuan County and Feng'an County, about sixty miles away from Feng'an County, it will take a day to rush over, and it will take a day or two for the locusts to eat the wheat fields in Feng'an County, and they just have time to deploy a new defense line, of course, this is not a coincidence, but a plan carefully calculated by everyone.

Tens of thousands of people did not bother to pack up their tents, each of them only brought a little dry food and water kettles and hurried to the second line of defense sixty miles away, a large car full of women, children and old people, mighty to the west to evacuate, but some frail old people do not need to participate anymore, although locusts do not hurt people, but the smoke and pungent smell still make many old people unbearable,

The defense line of Jiuyuan County is stronger than that of Feng'an County, not only piled up hundreds of thousands of pine branches, but also thousands of big trees directly dragged in, the width of pine branches in Feng'an County is more than ten zhang, and the width of pine branches and pine trees in Jiuyuan County is more than 40 zhang.

This is the last line of defense in Toyosu, and once the locusts break through this line again, the entire wheat fields in Toyosu will be completely gone.

At that time, when this line of defense was built, it was still quite controversial, and many people thought that the manpower and material resources spent on the second line of defense were too great, and in the end, it was Guo Song who made the decision to establish the second line of defense to the maximum extent at all costs.

It was only after experiencing the plague of locusts that everyone realized how wise it was to strengthen the second line of defense.

Six thousand soldiers and six thousand strong men rushed to the second line of defense first, they quickly deployed, some soldiers brought hundreds of loads of sulfur from the warehouse in Jiuyuan County, smashed into powder on the spot, and sprinkled on pine branches, this is the lesson learned in the defense of Feng'an County, the fire in the defense line of Feng'an County is too weak, it can't stop the locust swarm at all, only let the locust swarm be afraid, they will be rerouted.

The number of defenders in Jiuyuan County has decreased, children under the age of 13 and elderly people over 60 years old have returned, plus young and strong men, there are about 20,000 locust people in Jiuyuan County, although the number is smaller, but the action will be more orderly.

The command platform was also canceled, and in the thick smoke, everyone could not see the command flag on the high platform at all.

At noon the next day, several soldiers galloped on horseback and reported to Guo Songyu in a loud voice: "Envoy Qiyu, the locust swarm has taken off, but half of them are still grazing the wheat field, and it is estimated that they will fly in two batches." ”

Guo Song was overjoyed, this is the best situation, the locusts are scattered, which will greatly reduce the difficulty of their extermination.

Guo Song immediately ordered: "The pine branches in the back road don't need to be ignited, keep them to deal with the second batch of locusts!" ”

A quarter of an hour later, the strange sound of the locusts was heard again in the sky, and it was now known to everyone that it was the sound of locusts flapping their wings.

The sky had only slightly darkened, and from the sound and the change of color in the sky, everyone could see that there were far fewer locusts coming in today than there were yesterday mornings.

In fact, this is also inevitable, they have already eliminated thirty percent of the locusts in Feng'an County, and the remaining seventy percent came in two batches, and the first wave they faced was of course much less than yesterday.

"Ignition!" Guo Song gave the order.

Thousands of torches were thrown into the pile of pine branches, and the fire rose into the air, sprinkled with sulfur powder, and ignited at a moment, and the fire burned extremely fast, and the smoke billowed out, forming a dense wall of fireworks in an instant.

Compared with Feng'an County, the fire here is larger, the black smoke is thicker, and the blocking effect will be better.

At this time, the overwhelming flying locusts rushed in, dense as raindrops, and the speed was very fast, but compared with the large array of flying locusts yesterday morning, the number was significantly reduced, and the momentum was much weaker.

The black smoke had its effect, and before it had even come close to the fire, the dense locusts turned around and flew northward, forming a noticeable turn, as if crashing into an invisible wall, and the soldiers and civilians immediately cheered.

Guo Song could see clearly, the locust swarm turned before it got close to the smoke, they should not be smoked, and they were afraid of a certain smell, the pine tree burning could only be the smell of pine resin, and the smell of pine resin was also very strong yesterday morning, but why are the locusts not afraid?

At this time, Guo Song suddenly smelled a strong sulfur breath, and he suddenly realized, sulfur! Locusts are afraid of the smell of sulfur.

He immediately rushed forward and asked in a loud voice, "How much brimstone is there?" ”

Liang Wu hugged his fists and said: "It has all been broken into powder and sprinkled on the pine branches." ”

"How many are in the warehouse?"

"About two hundred or so loads left!"

"All of them were brought in, crushed into powder, and sprinkled on the second pine branch, and the locusts might be afraid of the smell of sulfur."

In fact, not only Guo Song, but many people found out, and at this time, Xue Changshou rushed forward and shouted: "Envoy, locusts are afraid of sulfur!" ”

Guo Song nodded, "I also discovered this secret, I asked Liang Wu to bring all the sulfur from the warehouse." ”

"There are also a lot of people in their homes and shops, and I have seen them before."

It's possible that there is a sulfur mine on the other side of Daqingshan.

Guo Song immediately ordered someone to find the county magistrate Xie Changzhi and said to him: "You go and tell the people of Jiuyuan County that if you have sulfur at home, take it out quickly, the government will buy it at a high price, and the locusts are very likely to be afraid of sulfur." ”

"Ignorance, understood!"

Xie Changzhi immediately urged the horse to gallop away.

With the smoke wall in the way, the soldiers and the young men took the initiative to attack, and they went around to both sides to drive away the locusts and prevent them from bypassing the smoke wall.

The locust array lasted for a quarter of an hour, and nearly a million locusts left behind their corpses and flew north.

The first victory in the battle encouraged the soldiers and civilians of Fengzhou, but they did not have time to celebrate, and the flying locusts that had eaten the wheat fields in Feng'an County would soon be murderous, and it would be their final decisive battle.

Two hours later, the soldiers came from the county town to bring in thousands of quintals of sulphur, and one of the merchants who sold sulphur took out 600 quintals.

Thousands of soldiers brought in a large number of bean stalks and piled them up on the second line of pine branch defense, and the first batch of 500 quintals of sulfur did not have time to be mashed, but was scattered directly into the pine branches.

It was nearly dusk, and the fire on the first line of defense a mile away had weakened significantly, and only a few hundred pine trees remained burning.

Just then, a rapid horn sound was heard in the distance, 'Woo-woo-'

The second batch of locusts finally came, and the second batch of locusts was much more numerous than the one at noon. Airplanes! 'Sound, magnificent.

But the military and civilians of Toyosu also went all out, and a fire broke out on the second line of defense, with thick smoke billowing and the smell of sulfur even thicker.

The dense storm of locusts flew all over the world, and the sulfur in the first line of defense was gone, and the fire was very small to stop the invasion of locusts, and they passed through the line of fire and pounced densely.

Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians pounced on the dense locusts in a long clearing one mile wide.

The soldiers and civilians of Toyosu have made a desperate bet and rushed through the last line of defense, and the locusts will fly into the endless wheat fields.

Nearly 1,000 soldiers constantly threw pine branches, bean stalks, and sulfur into the fire, maintaining the intensity of the fire and the thick smell of sulfur.

Guo Song and all the officials' hearts were raised to their throats, whether the sulfur worked or not, and they fought here.

Pieces of flying locusts roared, close to the thick smoke, suddenly a big chaos, like hitting the transparent glass, have turned north, this is the nature of locusts sensitive, the south is the vast desert, and the north is the endless grassland, the smell of grass is luring them, so that they instinctively fly to the north.

Guo Song raised his fists high and shouted excitedly, and several officials next to him hugged each other excitedly, jumping and jumping.

The sulfur worked, and the strong smell of sulfur made the locusts dare not fly west anymore, and turned around and flew north.

Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians were jubilant, and although Fengzhou also suffered huge losses in Yulin County and Feng'an County, they finally defeated the locust plague and saved the most important Jiuyuan County.