A general said with a smile: "Governor, in fact, these locusts can't jump for a few days, and it's going to be cold soon, and they will all freeze to death when it snows. ”

Liang Wu smiled bitterly and said: "That's no way to say this, it can only prove that we are incompetent, hey!" Once the locusts go to Lingzhou, it will be a big trouble, and we will try our best to stop them in Xiaoguan. ”

At this time, Liang Wu saw the three county officials and asked, "Is the Xiaoguan County Order coming?" ”

Xie Changming stood up and clasped his fists and saluted, "Xiaguan Xie Changming, I just took office as the commander of Xiaoguan County!" ”

"You're young!"

Liang Wu smiled and asked, "How did you Xiao Guan prepare?" ”

"Back to Liang Dudu, we prepared 30,000 ducks and tens of thousands of chickens, mobilized more than 4,000 people, and prepared to beat them with brooms, catch them with nets, and then burn them intensively."

Everyone laughed, they actually used chickens and ducks to exterminate locusts, you can think of it! Liang Wu couldn't help but smile and asked, "How effective will it be to use ducks and chickens?" ”

"This is Hebei's experience in controlling locusts, it is said that a duck can eat 300 locusts a day, a chicken can eat 100, and the chickens and ducks we prepare can eat more than 10 million locusts a day."

This data moved everyone, they didn't expect chickens and ducks to be so powerful, if this is the case, with chickens and ducks plus manpower, it is enough to deal with locusts.

"Can a duck really eat 300 locusts a day?" Liang Wu asked in disbelief.

Xie Changming said with a smile: "The villagers say this, and I haven't seen it with my own eyes, so I don't dare to make a guarantee!" ”

A senior general raised his hand and said: "Dudu, it should be true, ducks can eat, I have seen it with my own eyes, I can eat a few catties of small fish a day, and it should be no problem for a sturdy duck to eat three hundred locusts a day." ”

Liang Wu is a native of Lingzhou, and he knows that many families in Lingzhou raise ducks by the Yellow River, so he immediately decided: "If you go to Lingzhou to collect ducks and make an army of 100,000 ducks, I estimate that you will be able to solve the problem." ”

..........

Liang Wu immediately wrote a letter to the Lingzhou prefecture and county governments, asking them to immediately collect all the ducks from the people and transport them to Xiaoguan in a cart to catch locusts.

Destroying locusts was the first important task, and Lingzhou immediately mobilized, and within three days, 100,000 ducks were collected and transported to Xiaoguan County in thousands of carts.

At this time, a part of the locust swarm in Pinggao County, Yuanzhou began to move north along the gourd water, and the situation began to become severe, everyone hoped that the locusts would go south, and the crops in the south would be harvested, and the locusts would not have much impact, but the wheat in Lingzhou and Fengzhou could not mature until October, and it became the top priority to intercept the locusts going north.

The 30,000 troops dug a trench five miles long on a high ground about 300 steps away from Xiao Pass, which was covered with pine branches and sprinkled with 5,000 catties of sulfur powder, this trench formed a smoke and fire interception barrier, in addition to burning a part of the locusts, most of the locusts will become sluggish after being fumigated by the smell of sulfur, which is very beneficial to hunting and killing locusts.

Liang Wu accompanied Wei Yingwu to inspect the preparations of the army, he pointed to the endless grassland and said: "Everyone thinks that locusts will rest and lay eggs in this grassland, so in addition to using fire as a barrier, we mainly rely on manpower to hunt and fight, and chickens and ducks to help exterminate locusts, mainly ducks, we have prepared 130,000 ducks, and we count on them to destroy locusts." ”

Wei Yingwu nodded again and again, "Good way, using ducks is a clever plan, who thought of it?" ”

"It's the idea of the Xiaoguan County Order, he is there!"

Liang Wu saw from afar that Xie Changming, the county magistrate, was explaining something to a group of people, so he waved his hand and shouted: "Xie county order!" ”

Xie Changming heard the shout and hurriedly ran over, "Governor Liang, what do you have to tell me?" ”

Liang Wu pointed at Wei Yingwu and said, "This is Wei Shilang of the household department, who came to inspect the situation of our locust extermination on behalf of the imperial court. ”

Xie Changming knew Wei Yingwu, and when Wei Yingwu was the assassin of Suzhou, he often interacted with Xie Changming's father.

"Xiaguan Xie Changming, see Wei Shilang!"

Wei Yingwu looked at him and asked with a smile: "Xie Xianling seems to be a little familiar!" Have we met? ”

Xie Changming hurriedly said: "My father is Changzhou Xie Kuan!" ”

Wei Yingwu was stunned, pointed at Xie Changming and said with a smile: "It turns out that you are Lao Xie's son, I should have seen you a few years ago, you were still young at that time!" ”

"Six years ago in Tiger Hill, Wei Shilang also pointed out the poems of the younger generation."

"Huh! I met the son of an old man here, but you should only be in your twenties! How did you get so old? ”

Xie Changming's skin was dark and rough, his face was full of frost, and he looked like he was thirty years old, no wonder Wei Yingwu was surprised.

Xie Changming smiled bitterly and said: "The junior is the Jinshi of the year before last, he first served as a county lieutenant in Baiquan County, and just now he was promoted to the commander of Xiaoguan County, the conditions here are more difficult, and the wind and sand are big, so the skin is a little darker." ”

Of course, Wei Yingwu knew why Xie Changming was promoted to the county magistrate in less than three years, which was also the meaning of the King of Jin, and he enveloped the Jiangnan Shi clan, so the children of several major families in Jiangnan were exceptionally promoted.

If nothing else, next year's imperial examination will also be biased towards Jiangnan.

Wei Yingwu nodded, "Not bad!" Not bad! Do a good job and don't let your father down. ”

"May I ask Wei Shilang, what is the current situation in Baiquan County?" Xie Changming asked.

"You should know a little bit!"

"The lowly official only knows that the drought is very serious, and the lowly official has led the people to dig wells to fight the drought, but the situation of the locust plague is not clear."

Wei Yingwu sighed and said: "Baiquan County is also a locust disaster area, today's harvest is estimated to be only forty percent of last year's, the imperial court has urgently transferred food relief, you don't have to worry too much, the imperial court will not let the victims appear." ”

Xie Changming nodded, "There's nothing else to do, I'll go and get busy first." ”

"Go ahead!"

Xie Changming saluted Wei Yingwu and Liang Wu and hurried away.

Liang Wu looked at his back and smiled: "A very pragmatic young official, he has been in office for less than ten days, and the people of the entire county know him and are full of praise for him. ”

"Yes! My father and I have a very good relationship with poetry, and I know that their Xie family has a very strict upbringing, and the children they have cultivated are generally excellent. ”

At this time, a soldier rushed over from Xiao Pass, bowed down and said, "The latest news, a swarm of locusts flying north has been found fifty miles away from Xiao Pass. ”

Wei Yingwu suddenly remembered something and asked, "If the locust swarm is constantly flying, how long can the fire barrier last?" ”

"We have prepared three batches of pine branches, which can be burned for more than two hours each time, and the rest can only be destroyed by manpower and chickens and ducks."

Wei Yingwu was also a little worried in his heart, he didn't know how many locusts would fly in, and whether he could stop them under Xiao Guan City.

.........

On the morning of the next day, although the soldiers and civilians were all in full array, at this time, there was a buzzing sound in the distance, and soon, a large swarm of locusts appeared in the sky above Xiaoguan, covering the sky and the sun, and the momentum was very spectacular.

"Ignition!" Liang Wu ordered in a loud voice.

The pine branches in the trench were poured with fire oil, and the soldiers threw torches into the trench, and the flames burst into flames, and soon they were joined together.

In an instant, smoke billowed into the air, the air was filled with a rich smell of pine resin and pungent sulfur, and the dense swarm of locusts crossed the pass, they spotted the grassland below, and swooped down.

In fact, the flames were too low to have little effect on the locusts, the key was smoke, and the locusts kept crackling and falling from the sky, but there were still a large number of locusts rushing through the wall of fireworks and flying into the endless meadows.

Flocks of ducks were released, and soon 130,000 ducks and 40,000 chickens began to be distributed across the steppe, like a mighty army, devouring the delicious locusts of the ground with impunity.

Thirty thousand soldiers and thousands of civilians were also joined by the army of locusts, and they worked in pairs, one of them with a pine branch, and with one blow, dozens of locusts were injured and could not move, and the other quickly swept the wounded locusts into a pile, loaded them into sacks, and soon filled a bag.

The soldier quickly poured the locusts from the bag into a burning fire pit, and the grassland was full of fire pits burning locust corpses, and the air was filled with a pungent stench of burning.

Although the soldiers have a strong ability to catch locusts, they can't deal with the eggs of locusts, but the ducks are like a carpet to hunt, even the eggs are not spared, in just two days, the first batch of locusts that flew was killed most of them, and in the next few days, as the second and third groups of locust swarms flew through Xiaoguan, they fell into the endless grassland, where they mated and reproduced.

More than 300 million locusts flew through the Xiaoguan in three batches, but they encountered powerful natural enemies here, in addition to the 30,000 locust extermination army, there were also more than 100,000 chickens and ducks preyed, and they swarmed to exterminate locusts on the grassland.

In early October, the wheat harvest in Lingzhou was finally completed, but no locusts were found to invade the north, and this huge invasion army was completely wiped out in the grassland outside Xiaoguan.