Xu Shiyang originally wanted to wait until the end of the year in southern Liaoning and launch another attack as much as possible before that.

The reason why he is in a hurry to return to Qi Province now is that he has received news from Quancheng - there is a possibility of a locust plague this year!

In the era when Xu Shiyang came, the locust plague was simply a concept that only existed in the history books, and even locusts have become a special delicacy that must be cultivated in some places.

But in this era of agriculture, the term locust plague is a catastrophic disaster that can be ranked with floods, droughts, and military disasters - these small insects can really shake the country's foundation!

In the eyes of many people, locusts can even be said to be as ferocious as Tartars, so much so that the shadow of the locust plague even covered up Xu Shiyang's military victory in southern Liaoning.

After Xu Shiyang returned to Quancheng non-stop, the Metropolitan Governor immediately convened an emergency meeting.

There is only one theme of the conference, and that is how to deal with a possible locust plague!

"Since February this year, there has been a sudden increase in the number of displaced people from other places in Qi Province."

This is good news, but the Metropolitan Governor Xu Muhe always had a gloomy face when he said this:

"In April, Ben Du felt that the situation was wrong, so he sent someone down to ask what happened in the Central Plains and why so many people suddenly came to Qi Province."

"Here's the thing......."

In the past few years, the Tartars have plundered too much, and the entire Central Plains except Qi Province has suffered heavy losses.

The water conservancy system in the Central Plains was already in a state of ruin, with more people lost, and there was no unified command, so the work of repairing and building water conservancy in various places naturally became more and more powerless.

Twelve years after Jianxing, the Yellow River and several other rivers in the north began to flood every year, and after fifteen years of Jianxing, there was finally no flooding, but drought followed!

Last year and the year before that, because the Governor's Office organized manpower to build water conservancy, I didn't feel it deeply, but as soon as I crossed the Yellow River, the entire Central Plains region in the west was in a severe drought for two consecutive years.

Drought and locust plague are often closely linked, as the old saying goes: locusts must be in the drought! In fact, since last year, locust plagues have begun in some areas of the Central Plains, but the locust plagues did not seem particularly serious at that time.

However, this year is different, according to the new homeless people, in some areas of Henan Province, now a hoe goes down, and all the locust eggs are turned out!

The locust plague is different from others, this insect is a living creature with wings, once it flies up like a dark cloud, dense can cover the sky, pass through the state, fly and eat, and never stop if you don't eat a thousand miles of red land!

Hundreds of acres of land will be eaten into white ground in an instant, and there is no way to avoid it.

The household department has already sent people to consult experienced old peasants, and combined with the information provided by the displaced people, Shanxi, Henan, Hebei and other provinces will be hit by a big locust plague this year.

The part of Qi Province east of the Yellow River should not be able to do so because of the good support of the irrigation system, but there are locust plagues in the surrounding area, and the locusts have eaten up the local area, so they will inevitably attack Qi Province.

It's a war!

If left unattended, the good situation that the Governor's Mansion has saved after several years of struggle may all be filled into the belly of locusts in a year!

"The scale of this year's locust plague is bound to be huge."

Governor Xu Muhe said in a sad tone to all the main officials under the Governor's Mansion:

"If we don't do well, it is possible that all the land west of Qingzhou will not be harvested!"

"The situation of the Governor's Mansion, you should also know that we do have some grain stored here, and it stands to reason that even if there is no harvest this year, the people of the province can survive half starvation."

"But the locust plague will never last only one year, what if there is another locust plague next year? What should I do if I make trouble later? If the locust plague lasts for five years in a row, what will we eat? Do you want to give up the family business that you have worked hard to and become a homeless person? ”

Qi Province has been very comfortable in the past few years.

There is no need to worry about the Tartar raids, the bandits have been almost wiped out by the new army and the militia, and the Governor's Office has organized manpower to build river embankments and water conservancy, so that everyone can have water to water their crops in drought years.

Taxes were light, and although labor was heavy, the Governorate paid them handsomely, so much so that many people now had to work as a means of income.

There are also factories, every month to send their mother-in-law to the textile factory to work for a few days, the money for needles and threads is available, if you work for more than 20 days, the wages of female workers are not even lower than farming, if you do a full month, it is possible for a female worker to feed the whole family.

Then the money and grain earned by the man farming and working can be saved, and those who have a loan can use it to repay the loan; If you don't have a loan, you can also deposit it in the bank to eat some Weibo, but it is better than stable interest.

Not only the common people, but even the officials of the Governor's Office, who were mainly born as the owners of the Dock Fort, also felt that their lives now were much more comfortable than they were a few years ago when they were afraid of this and that.

So no one wants to go back to the past, and no one wants to be an outcast.

"NN's!"

A household official who usually looked at Si Swenwen jumped up first, and shouted in the middle of the large conference room with a hideous face:

"Lao Tzu even dares to kill Tartars, so that he will not be driven to be a homeless person by a little bug!"

Most of the officials of the current Governor's Office have participated in the defense of the Yellow River defense line as militia commanders, and have fought with the Tartars.

Therefore, although this guy is a civil official of the household department, and he has read books for a few days, when he encounters this kind of thing, he is still as rude as a martial artist.

"The Governor doesn't need to say much, just tell me what to do!"

"Yes, yes, yes! The Tartars are all defeated by us, and I don't believe that locusts can be more powerful than Tartars! ”

Someone took the lead, and in an instant the entire conference hall boiled.

The officials of the six ministries shouted:

"The Governor gives the order! Let's fight locusts! ”

"Fight locusts!"

"Go to the locust !!"

The roar resounded in the sky, and the morale was very high.

"Good!"

Xu Muhe stood up from his chair suddenly:

"Bendu said it first, the importance of this war is not worse than when the Tartars attacked! Therefore, it is comparable to wartime, and the men, women and children of the whole province have to contribute! ”

In the huge conference room of the Governor's Mansion, everyone was excited, but Xu Shiyang sat on a chair and watched all this quietly.

He wasn't excited, not because he was dissatisfied with everyone's enthusiasm for controlling the locust plague, but because Xu Shiyang thought of something else:

Locust plagues are different from floods and droughts, because of the undulating terrain and the degree of water conservancy construction, there are always those who survive floods. Drought is similar, and people who are near rivers or have wells have a chance to protect themselves.

Only this locust plague must be: it must rely on the merits of the state, it must be the cooperation of the people, and it must be the unity of tens of millions of people, and there is no reason to avoid killing oneself.

Therefore, tackling the locust plague is a major test for the building of grassroots organizations of a political power.

In another time and space, at the most critical moment of the nation, the performance of the TG and KMT parties in controlling locusts can actually show the gap between the two parties' implementation capabilities.

Therefore, Xu Shiyang feels that this locust plague is a disaster, but it may also be an opportunity.

It is a good opportunity to strengthen the construction of the grassroots and directly decentralize the tentacles of the Governor's Office to the lowest level.

A good opportunity to improve people's ability to collaborate and their sense of collective pride.

If the plague survives, the Governor's Office may officially grow into a completely different regime.

She will become invincible!