Early in the morning, Dingjiatai in Piling Township, Yanshi County, was beating gongs and drums.

Villager Ding Laosan went fishing last night, slept late, this will sleep fragrantly, heard the sound of gongs and drums was also woken up, he sat up with red eyes, but at a glance saw that his son who was supposed to go to school in the school was at home.

"You little rabbit cub, how dare you skip class? Is it easy for me to send you to school? Although the primary school is free of tuition, but this book fee paper and pen money which is less, for your kid to work hard to go to school, I get up early in the dark, busy with the crops in the field, I have to go to fish and touch birds when I have time, and go to the county to do service, your mother raised chickens and pigs, and your kid actually skipped class. As he spoke, he touched the side of the bed, wanting to beat this little rabbit cub, how difficult it is for ordinary people to support a child to study.

Even if pen and paper are not as expensive as they used to be, they are not cheap.

"Grandpa, I didn't skip class, our school is on holiday today."

"You are a fool, today is not a New Year's Day, nor is it a mid-year holiday, what kind of holiday?"

"It's really a holiday, our whole school is on vacation, and the teacher said that the above notice is going to carry out a nationwide elimination of locusts, so it's a holiday, so let's come back and get tools, and then we have to go back to the school to dig locust eggs by the teacher."

Ding Laosan rubbed his red eyes and asked puzzledly, "What are you digging during the holidays?" ”

"Digging locust eggs is the eggs laid by locusts in the ground, saying that last winter there was no snow and this spring is dry, I am afraid that there will be a locust plague, so the sage issued an edict to let the local government dig locust eggs as a precaution."

Ding Laosan got up and walked to his small courtyard, and saw that his wife was also taking out the sieve and shovel at home, "What are you doing?" ”

His wife, Li Shidao, said, "Early in the morning, the militia captain was beating gongs and drums, saying that the county government had notified the villages to go to the river beach to dig locust eggs, and said that one pound of eggs could be exchanged for three pounds of corn." He also said that if the locust eggs in any village are not dug up cleanly, and a large number of locusts occur in return, then he will be punished. ”

"And this?"

"But no, I heard that the above issued a death order, which county is unfavorable for the control of locusts, the county order county and the county lieutenant must be removed from office, which township governance is unfavorable, the township pavilion chief inspection and so on must be dismissed, the governance of Lizhong is unfavorable, and the village chief of Lizheng must be dismissed."

Ding Laosan shook his head, "I've never heard of digging locust eggs?" ”

At this time, the mother of the third child came out of the room, "If there is a drought, there will be a drought, and you have to fight the drought, and there is a locust plague, so you have to worship the locust god." The locust temple in our township was demolished a few years ago, and the locust god could not receive incense and offerings, so he was angry, this is to send a locust plague to punish us, and we have to let the township build another locust temple, and everyone will make offerings. ”

Ding Heiwa said, "Mother, our teacher said that the locust plague is a natural phenomenon, and it has nothing to do with the locust god, and it is useless to worship the locust god." ”

"You know everything after a few days of reading?"

Ding Laosan glared at his son and didn't let his son refute his mother. He asked his son to fetch him a basin of water to wash his face, "One meter of locust eggs for three catties of millet, is this locust egg easy to dig?" ”

Heiwa brought water and handed the towel to his father, "Good digging, our teacher has taken us to the place where we have dug and there are locust eggs, the holes are dense, mainly on the river beach, the lake and pond, are the places where the water has been flooded and receded, this kind of place is hard outside, but there is still water inside, the most is the place where these locusts like to lay eggs, on the river beach in front of our platform, there are holes everywhere, dense, and there are locust eggs about an inch underground." ”

"Our teacher calculated that there are about four to five hundred egg masses when digging up a pound of eggs, and there is one egg mass in a hole."

Ding Laosan heard it and became interested.

"There is about an inch below the ground on the river beach, so you have to dig four or five hundred holes for a catty?" However, an inch deep is very shallow, and no matter how hard the river beach is, it is no better than the mountain, and if the holes of the locusts are very dense, then there is really a digging head.

In their family, he and his wife are responsible for digging, and his son and daughter are responsible for sifting, so how can they get ten catties a day.

More than ten catties of millet said not much, but now the spring ploughing has not begun, and look at the climate of the year, this year has been dry, it is estimated that there is no water spring ploughing, there has been a locust plague here before, he remembers clearly, the locust plague covers the sky and the sun, where it passes, there is not an inch of grass left, and the locust plague is a famine.

Although there are a lot of rations in the family now, everyone is afraid of famine, so it is enough to save more food.

After washing his face a few times, the third child immediately decided to take the whole family to dig locust eggs.

"Let's go to the village first and listen to what the village chief has to say."

"Okay."

Ding Laosan led his youngest son, Shishi, who was only three years old, to the head of the village and found that many villagers had gathered here.

There is also a notice posted on a wall at the head of the village.

"If you want to survive the famine year, dig up locust eggs quickly."

"If you want to eat white flour, you have to dig up locust eggs!"

"One pound of locust eggs, three pounds of corn grain, how many are exchanged for how much."

"If the locusts are not good, the whole village will be punished!"

The village chief stood in front and was reading the instructions aloud to the villagers.

Some villagers are more concerned about whether the locust eggs can be exchanged for food, and some people say that what is the use of the locust eggs and who will exchange them for food must be deceitful.

"Lie to you a bear ball, can the court deceive people? This is written in the edict issued by the sage, no matter where the counties in the world are, they can exchange locust eggs for food to the yamen, and how many can be exchanged for as many as they want. ”

"Is there really such a good thing?"

"Previously, the county also sent Zhang Zuoshi to inform him, saying that our Dingjiatai is close to the Yellow River, and there is a large beach of the Yellow River in front of it, saying that there are locust eggs there, so we must dig it up. As for the exchange of locust eggs for food, the county will come to the village to directly collect and exchange them, so we don't have to trouble going to the township and county. ”

"The weather is getting hotter, and the locust eggs will hatch into adults in March, so everyone should hurry up, and whatever important work you have in your hands, go to the river beach to dig up the locust eggs."

The village chief also asked the village militia captains and women captains to take the lead.

After the meeting, the villagers were enthusiastic, took tools from their homes, and then the whole family went into battle together and rushed to the river beach.

When I arrived at the river beach, I found that there were already neighboring villages digging on the nearby river beach.

Ding Laosan asked his son to choose a piece of land to separate him from the villagers.

"Grandpa, you see that this dense is full of holes, there must be many locust eggs in it."

"It's all grain, dig it up." Ding Laosan said with a smile, in his opinion, this is simply the same as directly cutting grain in the field, which is much easier than planting crops.

Ding's mother was there chanting, but listening carefully was chanting about the locust god and so on.

The third child picked up the hoe, and as soon as the hoe went down, he dug up a large piece of soil, and the black baby's eyes were sharp, and he suddenly saw the eggs in the soil.

"Grandpa, look, a large row of eggs."

Almost without a sieve, he picked up a long locust egg mass from the dry soil, which was the egg of a locust, and there were dozens of locust eggs in it.

The third child looked down, "It's quite easy." ”

"Grandpa, there are still in this soil." Heiwa said loudly, in the hoe soil that the third child dug out just now, there was not only one egg mass, but several egg masses.

"Damn, there are so many, if they are all so dense, then this is really food falling from the sky, and it is no problem to dig twenty catties a day."

Li said, "There are so many of us, be diligent, you can dig more than a dozen catties, one catty of eggs for three catties of millet, and you can't earn forty or fifty catties of millet that day." ”

Now even Ding's mother can't care about reciting the locust god, don't blame, you can change dozens of catties of grain a day, this is not easier than falling grain from the sky.

"Don't just stand there and just talk, dig quickly, dig quickly." Ding's mother urged her son.