North of Luoyang, on the banks of the Yellow River.

A feather forest rider with red pheasant feathers on his head blocked the beach on the south bank of the Yellow River.

The emperor and the crown prince walked on the river beach, Luo Cheng had a small shovel in his hand, and the prince held a bamboo sieve and a small bucket.

Luo Cheng bent down and lowered his head, observing the river beach very seriously.

"Father, what are you looking for?"

Luo Cheng straightened up and looked at the Yellow River in front of him, the Yellow River that used to rush in the past has now been greatly reduced, and a large area of river beach land is exposed.

"Last autumn, there were frequent floods in many places, but in winter there was no snow, and today there is no rain, and there is a vision in the sky."

The crown prince was puzzled, "Didn't my father say that all the heavens are natural, and the so-called visions are all hereticals?" ”

"I am referring to the anomalies of nature, not the ghosts and gods. There is a saying, O prince, that you should remember, that the drought is very dry and the locusts are grown. After a long drought, there will be locusts, and I have brought you here today to check the situation for myself. Come and see, do you see these tricks? ”

The prince followed the emperor's finger, looked down carefully, and sure enough, he found that there were indeed many fine holes on the beach of the Yellow River.

"Father, what is this?"

"This is the hole left by the locust to lay its eggs, and if you dig down this hole, you will be able to dig up the locust eggs by an inch or so."

The prince was surprised, took the shovel and dug it, he dug carefully with curiosity, and his movements were extremely careful, for fear that the digging would be broken, Luo Cheng watched patiently from the side.

After a while, the prince said in surprise, "There are really worm eggs!" ”

Under the excavated soil, a large row of insect eggs are densely arranged, there are nearly 100 pieces, slightly beige eggs buried in the soil, at first glance, I thought it was a grain of millet, almost the same shape and color, but smaller.

"Count how many!" Luo Cheng squatted on the side and said.

So the prince counted carefully, and there was a subordinate official of the East Palace behind him, standing behind him and recording all this. And behind the emperor, there are also two historians on duty who are working hard to write, and even have a sad face.

The left history records, the right history records, the emperor's side, almost always leave the historians, they record the emperor's words and deeds, in order to keep them for future generations.

The historians were worried, the locust plague, two terrible words appeared in their minds.

The prince didn't seem to know the horror of the locust plague, and the eleven-year-old prince was just a natural lesson, and he was very happy to have his father accompany him to come out to see the Yellow River digging locust eggs.

"Eighty-seven!" After the prince finished counting, he said happily.

"Locusts lay eggs, generally can lay fifty or sixty to more than a hundred eggs at a time, the average locust will die after laying eggs, but some strong ones can continue to live, and even a second egg will not be long before they can lay a second egg, and they can lay more."

The prince looked at his father with admiration, and his father seemed to know everything and could do anything.

"Do these locusts lay eggs the same as silkworms?"

"No, silkworms pupate, but locusts don't. These locusts can grow two seasons a year, and after the eggs laid in the fall survive the winter, they hatch in the summer, and the hatched locusts are only larvae, called hoppers, and they will shed their skin five times before turning into adult locusts. The flying locusts are swarmed, they eat everything, and wherever they pass, there is not a single inch of grass left, the crops have no seedlings, and the particles can be harvested. ”

"Especially after the drought, locust plagues are more likely to break out, and if they are not controlled in time, they can even spread to more than a dozen counties, causing a great famine. Historically, the locust plague records are endless, the Han Dynasty recorded, almost every eight or nine years there will be a big locust plague, the small locust plague is countless, there are often historical records, locust plague is serious, cannibalism. ”

'Is this locust so powerful?' The prince was surprised.

"The three plagues are floods, droughts, and locusts, which are even more terrible than the plague."

Zuo Shi couldn't help but say, "Sage, it's been nine years since the last great locust plague, could it be said that all this is really a heavenly certainty?" ”

Luo Cheng shook his head.

"The occurrence of locust plagues is a natural phenomenon, not a certain number of heavens. Locust plagues often occur after floods and droughts, why? Because the floods and droughts have given the locusts an excellent environment to grow. For example, this Yellow River beach, last autumn, the Yellow River flood, although did not cause a major disaster such as the bursting of the embankment, but the water level rose sharply, and then the water receded, these river beaches became a good place for locusts to lay eggs. ”

Locusts also pick places to lay eggs, they like to pick the kind of soil with high moisture content, but the soil is dense or even a little alkaline to lay eggs, this kind of soil is conducive to the survival and hatching of locust eggs.

There are often many weeds such as reeds on the banks of the river, which are also the favorite food of locusts, and at the same time, laying eggs on the edge of these places is also conducive to the feeding and growth of the hoppers that hatch from the eggs.

"In a normal year, a lot of snow will freeze to death in winter, and in spring, the water level of the Yellow River will rise, and most of these beaches will be flooded, so most of the locust eggs will be drowned, and there will be a few left, and it will be difficult to become a disaster. However, after flooding and drought, locust eggs can often hatch in large numbers and survive. ”

The extreme climatic conditions of autumn rain and flooding, no snow in winter and no rain in spring will make this year face the possibility of extremely dangerous locust plagues.

The prince stood up and looked at the holes on the river beach under his feet, and felt his scalp tingle for the first time.

"There are 100 locust eggs in one hole, how many eggs are there in this riverbank?"

Luo Cheng was also very worried and said to the prince, "Before, I asked the Imperial City Division and Jinyiwei to each pick a place to check, the Imperial City Division picked a piece of Yellow River beach, and Jinyiwei picked a lake beach. ”

Jin Yiwei and Huangcheng Si picked out places where there were obviously a large number of locust eggs, they measured out one acre of land, carefully excavated locust eggs, and then counted, in order to make the data accurate, they even measured a total of ten acres of land excavation statistics.

The results are striking.

In each acre of land, there are as many as 2 million to 3 million locust egg masses, and each egg mass is the egg mass laid by a locust, and there are often 50 to 60 to 100 eggs in it.

In this way, it can be as high as 340,000 eggs per square meter.

One acre of land is 666 square meters, even if the acres of the Tang Dynasty are small, one mu is more than 580 square meters.

The river beach in front of the emperor alone has as much as 3,000 acres.

There may be 200 million eggs in one acre of land, and 3,000 acres of land, that's 600 billion eggs.

Just imagine what a terrible sight it would be if all these eggs were successfully hatched, and the whole world would be overwhelmed with locusts, and all the places they passed would be swept away.

Moreover, so many locusts can lay another season of eggs to hatch in the fall.

Even if not all eggs can hatch, even if you look at the most dense spawning grounds now, because of the drought, how many river beaches and lakes and ponds have such suitable places for spawning.

Who knows how many eggs are buried down there.

The number of the prince was taught by Li Chunfeng himself, and he was still very proficient in the ninety-nine multiplication table, but after he counted the numbers given to him by the emperor, he still couldn't believe that there were too many locust eggs on the 3,000 acres of river beach, more than 100 million, and he always thought that he had miscalculated.

"You're not mistaken, there are indeed so many locust eggs on this beach."

Prince Jiawen's scalp was numb, and it seemed that countless locusts were burrowing out of the river flats, and then jumped on top of him, drowning him.

"Father, is there a way to kill these locust eggs and prevent them from hatching?"

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