"Xiao Xuanzi, hurry up and bring the cloth bag, I can't fit this big net bag!"

With Zhu Youxiao's absolutely violent eyesight and hand speed, the efficiency of catching locusts is unimaginably high.

Looking at the locusts that were "buzzing" in most of his net pockets, Zhu Youxiao shouted to Xiao Xuanzi, who was not far behind him.

"Your Majesty, the slave is here!"

Xiao Xuanzi held a large net bag in one hand and dragged a large cloth bag in the other, and hurriedly ran over.

"Xiao Xuanzi, you go and get a big cloth bag yourself, I can just collect it while netting it."

Zhu Youxiao simply held a big net bag in one hand and a big cloth bag in the other, said to Xiao Xuanzi, and acted alone.

This kind of large net bag is specially made by various workshops in various parts of the imperial court, and it is quite strong.

Of course, Zhu Youxiao's this is specially made by himself.

His strength is too great, his force value is too high, and it is obviously very inappropriate to use the kind of large net used by ordinary people, which is only five square feet in circumference.

The soldiers and all the adults, including the women, were given one of the large nets, and there were at least ten catties of nets down, and the efficiency of catching locusts was quite high.

Although there are countless locusts, there are also many people in the big farms.

Almost half of the locusts were thrown at the large piles of blazing bonfires, and they threw themselves into the nets, like moths to the fire, fearless and fearless.

The remaining half or so of the locusts had just rushed down and had not had time to devour the crops, and more than seventy percent of them were captured by everyone.

The rest of the locusts also entered the bellies of the chickens, ducks and geese that were running around.

These poultry, after tasting the unprecedented deliciousness, became more and more excited, and fluttered around more cheerfully.

For everyone in the big farm, this is an unprecedented battle of people and insects, and the big battle together is to die until the two sides decide the winner.

After dawn, it finally came to an end with the people of the big farm winning.

Zhu Youxiao did not dare to be careless at all, so he simply divided all the people in the village into two groups, one group went back to rest, and the other group continued to catch those locusts that slipped through the net, and quietly waited for the arrival of the next wave of locusts.

You must know that when the locust plague came, it was wave after wave and without interruption, and the round of attacks that had just ended was just the vanguard army of locusts.

The scale of this locust plague covers such a wide and huge area, and the main army of locusts will come in the future.

The locust plague lasted for a long time, and it could not be ended in a day or two, but it was an extremely difficult and protracted war.

Before waiting for the arrival of the next batch of locusts, Zhu Youxiao took Xiao Xuanzi and Xiao Guizi and others to a bonfire that had been extinguished after dawn.

He looked at a large pile of charred black locusts, and couldn't help but move his index finger, picked up a few scorched locusts, peeled off the charred black shell three times and two times, and threw the white, fragrant insect flesh inside into his big mouth.

"Come on! Everyone come to try it, this kind of thing is very delicious, fragrant, crispy and nutritious, you still want to eat it. ”

A rich fragrance immediately filled his lungs, Zhu Youxiao suddenly looked a little intoxicated, and immediately greeted everyone.

Xiao Xuanzi and Xiao Guizi know how good His Majesty the Emperor's taste is, and the ordinary delicacy will not enter Zhu Youxiao's eyes at all.

Xiao Guizi, a foodie, had never eaten locust meat before, and when he saw His Majesty the Emperor's expression, he couldn't bear it for the first time.

He strode to the side of the campfire, and began to eat like His Majesty the Emperor, and in a short time he stuffed his mouth full of locust meat.

The next moment, his eyes immediately widened, and his hands began to be busy, opening the bow left and right, and the locusts that had been roasted one by one were torn apart by him, and he ate happily.

As soon as everyone saw this situation, they immediately started to move one by one, and they couldn't care so much, so they immediately gathered around.

Everyone squatted beside the extinguished bonfire, picked up the charred locusts one by one, immediately peeled off the shells, took out the fragrant white tender insect meat, and ate it.

After a while, there was a "tsk" sound at the scene, which attracted the attention of a large number of children not far away, who were very interested in surrounding and joined the ranks of binge eating after a while.

Soon there were crowds of people around several large fires in the main square, one by one holding a roasted locust, and they were eating it one after another.

People didn't dare to eat locusts before, where did they think that after they were roasted, they would be so delicious?

"It's so fragrant, after this locust is cooked, it's so delicious, Your Majesty is the best at eating it."

Xiao Xuanzi and Xiao Guizi ate happily, their faces were gray and white, and they kept praising the emperor.

"Hey, hey! You don't understand, wait until lunch and dinner today, ask someone to wash them and dry them, fry them in an oil pot, and then drink a sip of good wine and eat a mouthful of locust meat, that is the life of the gods. ”

Zhu Youxiao said a little proudly.

He knew that this fried locust was a rare delicacy to accompany the wine.

Especially in this era, without any chemical fertilizers and pesticides, this locust is a real, natural and pollution-free delicacy, where can I eat it in the previous life?

"Wow! We now have dozens of hundred-pound cloth bags full of them, that's not ......"

Xiao Guizi, this guy, has always been a foodie, and when he heard this, he immediately opened his eyes and said very happily. 7 Q

The other people next to him behaved similarly, all thinking about fried locusts at noon and night, eating and drinking with wine.

This is just the first harvest of a large farm, and now there are so many big farms in the Ming Empire, how many dry locusts will be harvested after this locust plague?

For a long time to come, this all-natural delicacy will be served with sake, and it will be delicious just to think about.

Just when everyone looked at the large number of locusts, the sound of gongs sounded in the big farm again, and the sky was black again.

Everyone roared excitedly, and each holding a large net bag or a large cloth bag, began to fight again.

This unprecedented human-insect war lasted for more than ten days.

It wasn't until the locust plague swept through the place that most of the green plants in the wild along the way were almost eaten up by a large number of locusts, and the locust plague was almost over.

Most of the swarms that have no food source are locusts that have not passed through or missed the various large farms.

They were in a daze, and after losing most of the group, the remaining small half-insect swarms flew away into the distance, leaving a mess everywhere.

The wilderness across the river from this large farm is already clean and slippery, and as long as there are plants that can be bitten by insect swarms, they are basically gone.

Even on many mountains, as long as the branches and leaves that locusts like to eat, some large and small trees do not have a single leaf.

In the area directly under the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty, there are now about 100,000 large farms of 10,000 mu, because of sufficient preparation and manpower, and several effective methods to deal with locusts have been made in advance, and the loss is not large.

Only about half of the crops on the fields of the major farms were lost, but more dried locusts were harvested than the grain was lost.

These locusts are good things, and after they are dried, they are fed to the poultry, which is growing at a visible rate.

In the past ten days, the poultry who have eaten and drunk enough have grown up a lot.

All kinds of female birds lay eggs, but also lay extremely diligent, all poultry are bright fur, become special spirit.

Some of the women in the big farms, when they were catching locusts every day, dried and stored the booty they had caught that day.

The locust plague had just passed, and the roasting of locusts in the large farms was completed a day later.

According to Zhu Youxiao's instructions, in the next few months, these poultry will be fed with locusts and coarse grain derivatives.

In these few months, there will inevitably be an outbreak of breeding.

As soon as the locust plague passed, the big farms began to harvest all kinds of crops.

Because of everyone's careful care, coupled with the ecological rational combination of planting, and not affected by drought, the yield of crops planted by each large farm is far beyond the imagination of all farmers.

According to the final statistics, it is estimated that it is nearly half more than the best annual harvest of the Ming Empire.

Among all the direct jurisdictions of the Ming Empire, both military and civilian, all of them were smiling for a while.

The sweet potatoes and potatoes that have just been promoted are still growing well, and they will surprise all the people of the empire after the Mid-Autumn Festival.

These sweet potatoes and potatoes were seeds collected from all over the south by Zhu Youxiao's order, and they were forced to be planted by force.

For these two crops with huge yields, Zhu Youxiao naturally had to plant them in large quantities so that he could store a large amount of emergency food.

Lest in the second half of this year, in the area south of the Yellow River, a large number of displaced people fled from the Southern Ming and Puppet Dynasties, and they were at a loss.

During this period, although these two high-yield crops were not vigorously promoted by the imperial court, many people have cultivated them since the Spaniards and Portuguese brought them into the Ming Empire decades ago.

The Spaniards, after conquering parts of North and South America nearly 60 years ago, introduced these two high-yielding crops to the country, and later slowly spread them to all parts of the world.

In the past few years, all the large and small grain stores in the Ming Empire have basically been sold.

However, these two high-yield crops are not valued by the government and people of the Ming Empire, and no one regards them as life-saving staple foods.

After the vigorous locust plague passed, an even more vigorous summer harvest began.

Within a few days, at the end of the summer harvest, the time had come to the end of the eighth year of the Apocalypse and the beginning of July.

Taking advantage of the good weather during this time, almost all the people of the empire were busy for six or seven days, drying all the grain and putting it into storage.

Immediately afterwards, the fields were re-fertilized, and all the fields that had been harvested were turned deep in preparation for the sowing of autumn grains.

With such a large number of people, the cultivation of autumn grain is not a problem at all, and this is a general mobilization of the whole people.

It can be said that in a few days, all the fields in the big farms will be planted in a race against time.

With the countless amounts of grain in storage, Zhu Youxiao and the ministers breathed a sigh of relief.

There is food in the hand, and there is no panic in the heart.

This statement can be called the truth, and there is absolutely no doubt about it.

The massive amount of grain harvested this time is the greatest foundation of the Ming Empire, and it has the real foundation for stabilizing the people's hearts.

From now on, the Ming Empire will be like a majestic mountain, not the enemy of this era, which can be shaken.