In early February, Li Yan finally got a report from Lao Wang. The above message was not very useful to him, but there was one piece of good news.

That is what Yang Sichang proposed, changing the township soldiers in each prefecture and county into a formal official army, and the leaders of the township soldiers were given corresponding official positions. Moreover, in order to save the cost of buying horses from Xining, the soldiers in Shandong and Henan in the mainland can raise horses, and the number of horses raised can be determined according to the grade.

In other words, as long as you become a village soldier, you will be able to become an official soldier in the near future, and you will be able to raise your own horses. This is very beneficial for the development period of the team, at least it can reduce the threat of the officer and army. As for the rogue bandits, so far, he has not found any other bandit forces in the west outside the city.

But what kind of methods should be used to turn their own troops into village soldiers? This is a question that Li Yan needs to think about. But normal training still has to continue, and you can't let go because there is nothing to do.

That afternoon, Li Yan was teaching the soldiers archery. Previously, every soldier, including the sidemen, had sharpened their own barrel wrenches out of cow bones. There are more than 30 bows and arrows in the stockade, and each person can do one. But the pulling force of these bows and arrows is very different, from seventy catties of tensile force to one hundred and fifty catties of tensile force, almost every grade.

"Don't put the wrench too low," Li Yan showed to the soldiers, explaining: "It should be put in a moderate position, so that the first joint can catch the front end of the wrench." ”

The soldiers began to adjust the wrenches on their thumbs, and some had already begun to practice using them to draw the bowstring.

Li Yan commanded loudly: "Don't compare with others!" Unless your fingers are exactly the same! When you go back today, polish it yourself again and make the wrench fit your own fingers! ”

"Yes!" The soldiers replied loudly.

Just as Li Yan was about to start explaining how to draw the bow, a buzzing sound began to come from the sky. Li Yan and the soldiers all looked to the north where the voice came from, and found that a large dark cloud of black pressure was drifting towards here.

"What's that?" Li Yan asked in surprise.

"Locusts, locusts." Huang Desheng stared at the frightened eyes and stumbled as if he was answering Li Yan's question, but it was more like he was talking to himself.

Suddenly, the low, buzzing black cloud descended and slowly spread to the ground. In the fields far to the north, locusts with folded wings began to bounce on the ground, then eat the wheat seedlings that had just returned to green. The field seems to belong to the county king's house, where a deep well was drilled to carry water to irrigate the wheat fields, so the wheat is still rising very well, but after today, it will be barren.

Everyone stood outside the wall, staring at hundreds of thousands of millions of locusts bouncing south. The fields they received had not yet burned the dead grass and had not been planted with crops, so although they were surprised, they would never be in a hurry.

And no one took care of the fields of the county king's mansion. Although the tenants did not have to pay the taxes and forced labor of the imperial court, the rent of the royal palace was not small, but it was only a little less than that collected by the imperial court. And they don't have the ability to take care of it, just a few people, and they can only watch the wheat seedlings being eaten up little by little.

At this time, the people in the house also heard the movement and rushed out to see what was going on. When they saw the locusts in the north slowly moving towards this side, they all closed their mouths in shock, and asked unconsciously, "What should I do?" What to do? ”

Li Yan asked Wang Dejiang to come over and asked, "What should I do in this situation?" ”

"Smoked." Wang Dejiang replied: "But it is only effective if a large area is lit at the same time and smoke is released." ”

Li Yan thought for a while and said with a smile: "Anyway, we haven't planted anything in our field yet, let these guys come in, and then set fire to the dead grass in the field and burn them to death." ”

"Childe, that's a good idea." Wang Dejiang replied casually.

Wang Dejiang responded casually, but Li Yan was serious. Anyway, with their field of less than 200 acres, even if they smoke it, it will have no effect, so it is better to burn some locusts to relieve their anger.

He immediately ordered the soldiers to go to the mountain of the stockade and start digging a trench to enclose the stockade. The excavated soil must be sprinkled on the weeds on the side of the stockade until the soil layer completely covers the weeds. The trench does not need to be very deep, only one foot is enough, but the width should be up to one zhang. In addition, the barren grass covered by the excavated soil is almost two feet away.

It's a plain, the fields are connected to the sky, the grass is next to the grass, and if you light a fire, the whole area will burn. With these two feet of separation, in the absence of tall trees, it should be able to block the spread of the fire. The stockade was the most important place, and as for the rest of the place, he could only send someone to inform them that the locusts were to be burned and that they should leave as soon as possible.

Through the joint efforts of the soldiers and their families, it only took more than an hour to dig the fire barrier. At this time, the families who had left the previous group also helped the old and the young to come to the village, which was almost the only refuge they knew.

Li Yan didn't embarrass them. Open the door and let them all in. But this was only a temporary shelter, and when the fire passed, they still needed to leave the stockade. Now that there is a shortage of food, there is really no more food left.

At dusk, the locusts finally entered the fields occupied by Li Yan and them in large numbers, and many of them entered the stockade. Following Li Yan's order, the soldiers threw the torches in their hands in the direction of their fields at the edge of the fire barrier.

The fire slowly began to burn. A few small fires began to move in the wind, and then merged and grew. Slowly, the barren grassland outside the stockade turned into a sea of fire and spread in all directions. Even in the upwind position, the flame is tenaciously extending there, burning everything combustible in its vicinity.

Some of the locusts spread their wings and flew away, while others were slow to react, being roasted by the fire, jumping around in the flames. But they were doing useless work, their wings were burned, and no matter how high they jumped, they could not escape the scorching heat of the god of fire.

The fire was spreading, and by late at night, the entire western side of the county was burning. Including the fields of the county king's mansion and the Zhou king's mansion, as well as the houses of their tenants, they were all shrouded in flames. And the county seat of Qixian County. It was the night when people banged gongs on the city walls, reminding the people of the city to be ready to put out the fire.

The next day, the fields were littered with charred carcasses of locusts.

Li Yan instructed: "The carcasses of locusts don't need to be cleaned up, they will be turned into fertilizer, and there will be a bumper harvest this autumn." ”