After a while, Baili Yan ordered someone to collect a bag of roasted locusts, clean them in person, and repair two more letters to send to Jiang Min and Jiang Rong, father and daughter, along with the locusts.

At this time, the sky was already dark, and the news of the locusts fighting the fire had already reached the mansion through Wang Jiu, and when he heard that the locusts threw themselves into the fire pit like a sea, Jiang Min finally breathed a sigh of relief, and sat back on the rattan chair to enjoy the coolness brought by the ice.

In order to deal with the locust attack, Guangxin City inside and outside the city concocted bonfires in the same way, there are braziers inside and outside the mansion, and straw mats are nailed to the windows, for fear that the locusts will eat people.

Jiang Rong has been pampered since she was a child, and at first glance she was stunned when she saw the locusts all over the world, and her face was as pale as paper with red lips, and when she learned that the army of locusts was blocked out of the city, the stone hanging in her heart fell slightly.

"Father, this locust is really brainless, and he was easily deceived by Wei Xian's plan to throw himself into the fire pit. I don't know where he learned such a crooked way, but it's amazing. ”

"yes." Jiang Min sighed and said: "The loss is that Marquis Dingyang, Jiang Yan, Gongsun Yue and others don't know good generals, if Wei Xian is really used by them, I am afraid that it will be you, my father and daughter who will suffer at this time." ”

As soon as the words fell, I heard the servant outside the door say through the door:

"Lord, Mr. Wei sent someone to deliver a letter ahead, please take a look."

"Send it in."

"No."

The servant brought the two letters into the study, along with the locusts tied to the mouth of the bag, and then withdrew with the door closed.

The outside of the envelope indicates that one is for Jiang Min and one is for Jiang Rong. Jiang Min suddenly felt strange, and wanted to open his daughter's letter first, but suddenly he was curious and saw the pocket in front of him, and there was a line of words written on the pocket: "The county lord will open it after reading the letter, otherwise don't blame it for being rude." ”

Seeing this, Jiang Min was surprised, and he said:

"Rong'er, look at this letter."

Jiang Rong took the letter, wondering in her heart, and couldn't help but wonder what Wei Xian's idea was.

The father and daughter opened the letter at the same time, and the content was very simple, but after reading it, both father and daughter were angry:

"Ridiculous!"

"This guy is so rude that he wants his daughter to eat roasted locusts!"

Jiang Min's face suddenly became a little unbearable:

"The truth that there is a living by eating insects in the world is really ridiculous."

As soon as the words fell, the eyes of the father and daughter fell on the sackcloth pocket on the table at the same time, Jiang Rong's chest suddenly tumbled with sour water, and all kinds of nausea welled up in her heart, and when she thought that there were some locusts in the bag, she immediately felt embarrassed to vomit.

But after thinking about it again, as long as you taste it, you can get five stones of cold ice for free every month, plus twenty pieces of bath soap for free, Jiang Rong still can't help but reach for her pocket.

"Father, why don't you give your daughter a taste first?" Jiang Rong couldn't help beating the drum in her heart: "If it's really as delicious as Wei Xian said, you might as well give it a try." ”

Jiang Min looked puzzled, how could his daughter agree, there must be something wrong with the letter just now. So he took the letter in Jiang Rong's hand, and read the letter even more strangely:

"This soap is the yellow thing your mother used?"

"Yes Father, there are two kinds of uses: medicinal and bathing."

Speaking of this, Jiang Rong suddenly felt that she had missed her mouth, and at this time Jiang Min said:

"Then your mother's illness was also cured by Wei Xian."

Jiang Rong timidly said:

"Yes, it was the daughter who asked Wei Xian for advice behind her father's back. He was originally a Langzhong, and his daughter wanted to be mostly okay at this time. ”

"Hmph. You are a big girl, but you also have the face to ask such things in front of a man with a foreign surname. ”

"Father's anger, Wei Xian's law is obvious to all, my mother has not been seriously ill for nearly two months, and I ask my father to learn from it."

"That's it. Wei Xian has always been perverse, since he promised you benefits, he must have figured out your temperament, and you should be careful in this matter in the future. ”

"Yes, father. That...... Roasted locusts? ”

Min Ran comforted and said:

"How can a father let his daughter suffer like this, since Wei Xian and Chen Yunfeng can risk their lives, how can they be good for their fathers, let's try it first for my father."

Jiang Min untied the sackcloth pocket, frowned when his eyes drooped, and Jiang Rong's face was full of disgust.

Jiang Min stubbornly reached out to fetch the locust, he struggled for a long time in his heart, and was reluctant to swallow it, and finally closed his eyes, put it in his mouth and chewed it twice, the original disgusted look suddenly disappeared, but there was a little more surprise:

"Well, worm meat is delicious. Rong'er, you can taste it too. ”

"Me!" Jiang Rong pointed at herself in surprise, completely forgetting the courage under the temptation of Fang Cai.

Holding back the malice in her chest, Jiang Rong reached out to take the insect meat, and from time to time she set off goosebumps, and finally put it into her mouth in a daze, chewing and chewing, her eyebrows flew and her face was shocked:

"It's really delicious, smooth and burnt."

"For the sake of the father, the whole city can follow suit, and the locusts are fed during the day, and the cooked locusts can be fed, which can not only feed the stomach but also nourish the people, and also use insects to replenish food, which is really a good thing to kill three birds with one stone."

The number of locusts far exceeded expectations, and it is difficult to say that the threat of locust plague can be completely eliminated by raising fires at night to attract locusts to fight the fires. If they do not act during the day, the locusts still have the ability to completely destroy the farmland and crops in the territory of Guangxin. Fighting locusts and eating locusts is also a last resort, and it is better than doing nothing during the day.

Jiang Min found Taishou Yuzhuang overnight, and the city government Sima Xu Tan and the two urgently consulted, and ate cooked locusts in front of the two of them, and finally persuaded the two to edict the whole city, counties, and villages overnight, and during the day, all the people within the scope of Guangxin's territory would fight locusts and roast locusts, and those who ate locusts on the first day would be rewarded with copper coins and hundreds of dollars.

What if someone lies?

Baili Yanxin also supported the recruitment, but whoever received the reward money ate twenty in front of him. The bounty is only valid on the first day, it will be halved on the second day, halved on the third day, and no more rewards will be issued on the fourth day.

People are generally curious or afraid of unknown new things, insects as an abominable new thing, there are certainly not many people who eat locusts on the first day, but there must be brave men under the heavy reward, only as long as someone dares to try, there will always be people to follow the trend, and finally form a herd effect.

There is almost no need to worry about how much money to spend, the peak period is bound to occur on the third day, and even if you are full and die after the third day, there is no reward.

The locust fire lasted all night, Guangxin Nandi is the hardest hit area, the fire reflected half of the sky, the defenders of Dingyang City mistakenly thought that Dingyang had changed, especially the county soldiers of Dingyangcheng have been guarding against Guangxin Gongsheng, and sent people to Guangxin to inquire about the situation as soon as they found the fire.

The fire lasted until dawn, and within a radius of two meters of the bonfire, a layer of more than 20 centimeters was spread on top of each other, most of which were charred locust corpses, not counting the locusts that were burned into ashes by the bonfire overnight, which shows how ferocious the locust plague is.

As soon as I woke up overnight, Bailiyan came out of the tent to wash, and looked at the sky from a distance, there were still locusts migrating from south to north, but the density was far less than the fierce momentum of yesterday afternoon, at least half to sixty percent.

Chen Yun got up very early, and last night's ease was gone:

"Brother Chen got up really early."

"Hey, I'm tossing and turning."

Bai Liyan was surprised and hurriedly asked him:

"Why is that?"

"Look!"

Chen Yunfeng pointed to the bonfires everywhere, and a pair of bonfires were set up every hundred steps from south to north in the border area of Guangxin and Lincheng, with a width of five miles. The blackened locusts stretched all over the place.

"Brother Yunfeng is worried that today's locusts are far more powerful than yesterday's."

"Exactly, this is the first day. Previously, the eldest prince sent a letter, the locusts were strong for more than ten days, even if there were only five days, Guangxin autumn grain would not be harvested. ”

Bai Liyan laughed, Chen Yunfeng was puzzled:

"Brother Xian can still laugh?"

"Brother Chen knows that it is difficult for the army to survive without food."

"How can I not know this, but what does it have to do with locusts?"

"Brother Chen didn't know, this locust traveled from south to north, and its north and south spanned thousands of miles, and the locust front swept away the grain and grass, so what did the later locusts and the last locust eat?

What's more, locusts migrate from south to north, and at the same time spread to the east and west sides of the Central Plains. The locusts in the back have no food to eat, so they can only spread east and west, and will starve to death in the north. ”

Chen Yunfeng said thoughtfully:

"Brother Xian is saying that locusts have no successor?"

"Exactly. The damage of the locust plague lies in the vanguard, and if the vanguard is broken, its potential will be wiped out. As long as you keep the day today and burn another fire tonight, the locusts from the south will be greatly reduced from tomorrow. ”

The larger the locust population, the greater the devastation, and the more depleting the destruction, as long as there is no food, they can starve to death in a few days. The locusts migrate from south to north, the locusts in front will eat up the grain and grass, and the later locusts can only eat the leftovers, especially the locusts migrate all the way to reproduce, and the locusts after breeding have little food left in the local area, and can only expand to the place where there is food.

The locusts spread from Qiunan County all the way to Xianxi County, Du County, and Beihai County, and Qiunan County and Xianxi County have become extinct, and there is little food left for the locusts to forage, naturally forming an isolation zone without food.

There are not too many locusts that will go north through Chunan County and Xianxi County in the future, so they will be diverted to forage elsewhere, and after the locusts are swept away, they will converge and spread to Beihai and other counties, and when the food along the way is swept away, the locusts arriving in Beihai County will reach a peak.

Because further north, there is the sea, and the locusts will die and have no place to bury, so there is almost no need to consider the possibility of the locusts moving south again after migrating north.

When the locusts arrive in Beihai County and eat up Dingyang, Pucheng and Guangxin, Dingyang, Pucheng and Guangxin will once again become a vacuum area for food, and the locusts will continue to ravage Beihai all the way, and the other road will go their separate ways and then spread to the west and east to forage.

Guangxin is like an isolated island, surrounded by the North Sea on three sides, and the momentum of locust attacks has gradually decreased over time, and there is no successor army of locusts that Chen Yunfeng fears.

When the sky is completely bright, Guangxin sent an order to encourage locusts to eat locusts and spread to various places, as expected, there are few recipients, but there are also bold, really can't stand the locusts gnawing autumn grain, take the lead in fighting locusts, there are not many people who eat, and there are not a few people who fight locusts.

This lasted for one day, and the actual expenditure of the treasury in the end was less than 100,000 yuan, and the total number of people was less than 1,000 people who could eat locusts. On the second day, 150,000 copper coins were spent in various counties and villages, but the number of locust eaters doubled compared with yesterday, and on the third day more people received more money than in the previous two days combined.

On the fifth and sixth nights, it was difficult to see swarms of locusts gathering at night to put out the fire, and the news that the locusts had reached their peak in Lincheng and Pucheng was also reported one after another, and the locusts spread to the west and east in a big way, and the remnants of the locusts in Guangxin basically lost their threat.

"Hahaha, okay!"

Jiang Min took the case better, and his eyebrows were raised with joy, and Wei Xian said with a deep salute:

"The lord praises falsely, Wei Xianshi doesn't dare to be."

"Eh, deserve it."

Jiang Min Dayue, his eyes gestured to his daughter Jiang Rong, Jiang Rong comprehended and took the wooden plate, and there was a piece of white jade falling in the wooden plate, the white jade was exquisitely clear, and the carving was very exquisite.

"This is a reward from my father to Mr. Wei, please accept it, sir."

"This ......"

Baili Yan glanced at it, it was slightly inferior to the piece given by the king of Jiexian, even so, the price of a piece of beautiful jade is as little as a few inches of silver, and as much as a few dozens, but it is worth a lot of money.

"Thank you for the jade."

Bai Liyan happily accepted it, and did not intend to refuse.

Jiang Rong secretly glanced at Baili Yan, and the moment her eyes swept over, she was keenly captured by Bai Li Yan, and under the four eyes, Jiang Rong's cheeks turned red, and she immediately withdrew the wooden plate and walked back sideways.

At this time, Jiang Min and Chen Yunfeng said:

"Yunfeng, can there be statistics on the loss of autumn grain?"

"Back to the lord, from the counties and villages as of yesterday's report, the loss of autumn grain this time is at least more than 30 percent, based on the current decline of locusts, the loss of this locust plague should be more than four. Even so, it was no different from a bad harvest.

In the next year, it is believed that all taxes should be reduced or exempted this autumn, and at the same time, Guangxin's grain reserves should be increased in preparation for another locust plague next year, and even the year after next, which will lead to a grain shortage. ”