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"Is this locust plague really uncontrollable? If more people are sent to kill them, the locust plague will always spread more slowly, and the people will be able to recover some of the grain they have cultivated for a year. (The fastest update speed is on the Aishang Novel Network biquge.info)"

Zhao Junchen's words were originally just a casual remark to show his concern for the locust plague, after all, in Zhao Junchen's view, Liu Changan, as the prefect, must have been doing such a thing as organizing people to kill locusts, but the locust plague came too quickly and had little effect.

However, the reality is far from Zhao Junchen's imagination.

Hearing Zhao Junchen's words, Liu Changan was shocked and inexplicable, and said in a stumbling voice: "Big, my lord, how can locusts be killed?" The locust plague is the heavenly punishment of the locust god, once it is culled and offends the locust god, how can it be good? ”

On the other side, Xu Qingyan also had the same expression, and said repeatedly: "Young master, locusts can't be killed, otherwise they will disobey the mandate of heaven and will be punished by the gods!" ”

Seeing Liu Changan and Xu Qingyan's expressions, Zhao Junchen couldn't help but be stunned.

Is the locust plague a heavenly punishment? Locusts can't be culled? Otherwise, you will offend the locust god?

The view that the locust plague is regarded as a natural punishment is quite ridiculous in the eyes of later generations, but seeing Liu Changan and Xu Qingyan's stern and serious faces at this time, Zhao Junchen realized that in this era, this kind of argument has long been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

Zhao Junchen read a lot in his last life, and he also had a slight understanding of the views of the people in ancient times on natural disasters, he knew that most of the ancients regarded natural disasters as a kind of "heavenly punishment", and they were extremely awe-inspiring and valued this "heavenly punishment", a large-scale natural disaster, and even forced the emperor to issue a "guilty edict", whether it was a bright monarch or a faint lord, he had to admit that his virtue was wrong in the "guilty edict", in order to pray for forgiveness from God.

Although he understood this, Zhao Junchen never imagined that this view would be so deeply rooted in the hearts of the people in ancient times, just because the locust plague was regarded as a kind of heavenly punishment, and those who were officials could let the locusts rage, the grass and trees were exhausted, and the famine was everywhere, and the people could only watch the locusts all over the sky gnaw away the grain they had worked hard to cultivate for a year.

Then, Zhao Junchen suddenly remembered Yao Chong, a famous minister of the Tang Dynasty.

Yao Chong should be the first official in ancient times to oppose the "heavenly punishment theory", about the fourth year of the Tang Dynasty, the locust plague in Shandong was rampant, when everyone was dedicated to "worshiping the sky and praying for blessings and eliminating disasters", only Yao Chongyi advocated culling locusts and burning insect corpses, and the emperor Tang Xuanzong at that time was quite enlightened and finally agreed to Yao Chong's proposition. According to Yao Chong's construction, the locust plague was quickly extinguished, saving countless people, and for a time Yao Chong was regarded as a Buddha by the people of Shandong, and he was grateful for countless things.

But it didn't take long for the shape shì to take a sharp turn, the next year there was another large-scale locust plague in Shandong, for a time the "heavenly punishment theory" was noisy, almost everyone thought that the locust plague recurrence was because Yao Chong rebelled against the way of heaven and offended the gods, and the people of Shandong who also regarded Yao Chong as a Buddha of ten thousand families, their views on Yao Chong also changed suddenly, thinking that Yao Chong had affected them, and for a time the people's resentment boiled, and everyone in the Manchu Dynasty impeached Yao Chong, and regarded Yao Chong as his right-hand man Tang Xuanzong, although he once again obeyed Yao Chong's construction to kill locusts, But he had to belittle Yao Chong again to comfort the world.

Yao Chong's official fortunes were stable throughout his life, but the ups and downs in those years were due to various reasons, but the locust plague in Shandong was undoubtedly the most direct cause, and it was also the most powerful excuse and reason for political enemies to attack him.

Since Yao Chong, although hundreds of years have passed and society is constantly developing, the world's perception of natural disasters has not changed much.

Not only locust plagues, droughts, floods, fires, earthquakes, at this time, the first thing people think of is not to save themselves, but to ask for the locust god, the city god, the dragon king, the stove lord and the land god.

……

Just when Zhao Junchen was thinking darkly, on the other hand, Liu Changan felt that he needed to teach Zhao Junchen some "common sense", in Liu Changan's view, Zhao Junchen put forward the theory of "culling locusts" completely because he didn't know the world, was young and ignorant.

After all, in the eyes of the world, the reason why Zhao Junchen was able to occupy a high position was not because of virtue and talent, but simply because of the favor of the current Emperor Deqing.

Therefore, Liu Changan slowly explained to Zhao Junchen in a helpless tone: "My lord, you don't know, although the sage Zeng Yun 'is silent and strange and confused', but the people are ignorant, how can they understand the way of the sage?" And the first dynasty of Mr. Xuanhu (Note 1) also had a judgment on the locust plague, and was praised by the first emperor, but after all, it has not yet penetrated into the hearts of the people, for those ignorant people, the locust plague is the punishment of the locust god to them, can only be obedient and not reversible, only the cultivation of virtue to avoid disasters is the right way, in this case, if you rashly organize manpower to kill locusts, I am afraid that not only can not get the understanding and help of these people, but will cause panic and shock among the people, and if you don't do well, there will be chaos. It is precisely because of this that local officials such as me rarely organize manpower to cull locusts when locust plagues occur, and of course, if there are people who voluntarily kill locusts, the government will not stop them. ”

Looking at Liu Changan's regretful expression of "angry people", Zhao Junchen suddenly felt that locusts and corrupt officials had many similarities.

They are all in peacetime, they are all out of chaos, they are all insatiable, they are all extremely destructive, but they make the people inexplicably awe-inspired.

Perhaps, the only difference is that the backer of the locusts is the ethereal "locust god", dressed in the skin of "heavenly punishment", while the backers of the corrupt officials are the court and the emperor, dressed in the official clothes of "herdsmen on behalf of the Son of Heaven".

In fact, Zhao Junchen is not qualified to comment on these, after all, he is now an out-and-out corrupt official.

However, hearing Liu Changan's explanation, Zhao Junchen felt that this ignorance of the world might be an opportunity for him.

An opportunity to improve his disgraceful reputation among the government and the opposition.

Therefore, Zhao Junchen not only did not agree with the teaching, but instead stared at Liu Changan coldly, without the previous kindness, and said slowly: "Zi is silent and blames the gods, this sage's words, it turns out that Liu Zhifu, you still remember, looking at your reaction just now, the left sentence is heavenly punishing the right sentence locust god, I thought you were the god stick of the locust temple." In my opinion, although you are incompetent as the prefect, if you go to the Locust Temple to do things, it is just right. ”

Seeing Zhao Junchen's reaction like this, Liu Changan couldn't help but feel a mess in his heart, he couldn't care about the narrow space in the carriage, he hurriedly knelt down in front of Zhao Junchen, kowtowed and said: "My lord, forgive my sins, and the lower officials ......."

Without waiting for Liu Changan to explain, Zhao Junchen had already continued: "Governor Liu, let me ask you, do you really believe the theory of heavenly punishment and the theory of the locust god?" ”

Hearing Zhao Junchen's inquiry, Liu Changan didn't know how to answer for a while.

Judging from Liu Changan's reaction before, even if he is not convinced of the theory of the locusts god and the theory of heavenly punishment, he would at least rather believe it.

But at this time, he was afraid of touching Zhao Junchen's mold, so he didn't dare to tell the truth, and he had the intention to lie to deal with it, but he was afraid of making Zhao Junchen even more angry

In the end, after hesitating for a long time, Liu Changan still said: "My lord, the theory of heavenly punishment and the theory of the locust god have been circulating for a long time and have a far-reaching impact......

Zhao Junchen smiled and asked, "Okay, since you believe and think that this locust plague is God's punishment for my Ming Dynasty, then let me ask you, why did God send heavenly punishment in your Lu'an Mansion?" Is it you, the prefect, who have done something wrong? Or is the current emperor's virtue at a loss? ”

Hearing Zhao Junchen's heart-wrenching words, Liu Changan trembled with fright, but he didn't dare to answer casually anymore.

……

Note 1: Xu Guangqi, whose name is Xuanhu, wrote the "Complete Book of Agricultural Administration", which is the first work in the history of our country to conduct statistics and research on the locust plague, and it is precisely from the "Complete Book of Agricultural Administration" that the feudal rulers gradually began to have a correct understanding of the locust plague.

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