Chapter 226: Two Locust Plagues

Cangzhou, these great clans gritted their teeth at the merchants of Cangzhou, but there was nothing they could do except appeal. Because they found that their own children and officials in this southern Hebei region have become "Qingyao" officials, but Qing is Qing. But there is nothing at all. Without the support of the government, this is fine, and there can be no real suppression of businessmen in terms of class. The family can survive for generations, of course, it is deep-rooted, and it is not a little commercial impact that can hit it.

Several clans banded together to raise the price of food. As soon as the price of grain is high, the people will complain about it, so that they can put pressure on the government. These people, who say that they value agriculture and suppress business, think about the people, but for the sake of a little profit of the branch chamber of commerce, they take the lead in hurting the people. When the price of grain is high, there will naturally be grain merchants from other places to transport grain here, and several clans will discuss and send their own private soldiers to pretend to be thieves to block all imports and exports, and at this time, a siege situation has been formed against Cangzhou. The time has come when the grain from the outside cannot come in, and the grain inside has a price a day, and the time has come when people will starve to death even if they hold gold.

Naturally, the price of grain in Cangzhou will not be raised, and people from other states and counties in southern Hebei will inevitably come here to buy grain. Cangzhou is bound to have less grain, and if it is snapped up, then Cangzhou's own people will not be enough.

The people take food as the sky, and when the sky falls, there will be complaints, whether it is the history of Cangzhou or the Daotai of South Hebei Province, they cannot turn a blind eye. In this way, the clan can open his mouth and enter the Cangzhou Chamber of Commerce strongly.

This is the energy of the world, and in the past, the government was all compliant. And often before the people can talk about it, they have already made concessions.

But this time, the Cangzhou Chamber of Commerce obviously didn't want to make concessions immediately. Instead, it made a counteroffensive posture. First of all, the merchants who traveled from south to north put out the sinister tricks of the family, and let the anger of the people be inflicted on those families. Subsequently, in order to prove that Cangzhou is not in the same group as the family, Cangzhou opened up and closed the position, which pushed down the rising grain prices.

After the autumn harvest, Zhao Lu intentionally or unintentionally carried out many expansions and purchased a large amount of grain. Up to now, the entire southern Hebei is rushing to buy grain, and it seems that there is an endless posture of buying it. However, the granary is always limited, and when Zhao Lu contacted Xingzhou to assassinate Shi Qin, he asked him to suppress bandits in the territory and keep a passage in southern Hebei on the road. In addition, the fleet arranged by Xu Qing in Qiantang has also been to Cangzhou once, as long as this year's summer grain, a large number of grain ships will arrive, plus Cangzhou's own grain, there should be no need to worry.

Suzhou and Hangzhou are ripe, and the world is full.

As long as the current grain lasts until then, the siege of the world will be relieved.

When the clans were complacent and the merchants had their own countermeasures, an official ran to Zhao Lu and hurriedly said: "Lord Zhao, Lord Zhao, trouble, there is a locust plague!" ”

Zhao Lu stood up suddenly: "What do you say, say it again!" ”

"There are many places in Xingzhou and Dezhou, and the entire southern Hebei region, except for our Cangzhou, has all been plagued by locusts!"

Zhao Lu sighed and said, "I didn't expect that there were so many insects in such a heavy snowfall last year......"

At this time, Zhan Zeng, the chief on the side, said: "This locust plague is a big thing, why is there no rumor in our county?" ”

The official explained: "I heard the old man say that we have a strong wind and many birds near the sea of Cangzhou, so there are no locusts. However, once the locusts can fly, I am afraid that it will also plague our Cangzhou. ”

Zhao Lu stood up and said, "No, we must prevent locusts from coming in." Come and issue a notice, so that the people of Cangzhou can come out to get rid of insects. ”

The official hurriedly stopped and said, "Lord Zhao, no, this locust is the son of the locust immortal, if you kill them, the locust immortal will harm you instead." ”

Zhao Lu scolded: "What locust immortal, we have Xu Gong in Cangzhou, afraid of a little monster?" Come on, gather all the officials, let's go to Xugong Temple to pay respects, and bless me with a bumper harvest of summer grain in Cangzhou. ”

There was indeed no locust plague in Cangzhou, and Xingzhou, which was under the jurisdiction of Qin Shi, also quickly organized personnel to extinguish the locust plague, because Qin Shi also firmly believed that the locust immortal was not as powerful as Xu Gong. However, when fighting insects in Qinghe County, it was resisted by the local gentry. Eventually, the locust plague spread, the people suffered unspeakably, and the price of food increased further. The strength of the Maison for thousands of years comes from its vast land and the people who are attached to it.

With the exception of most of Cangzhou and Xingzhou, the situation in other places is similar to that of Qinghe County. The governor of South Hebei Province immediately sent 100,000 fires to Chang'an. At this time, in Guannei, due to Xu Qing's timely handling, the locust plague in the seven counties of Guanzhong was immediately extinguished. On the contrary, Xu Qing asked the people of the Xu family to use the money to buy a lot of properties of down-and-out families.

Xu Qing's goal of opening up the wisdom of the people has also been achieved, what locust immortals, let's eat locusts, catch locusts, 70,000 catties a day, don't you come out? Or Lord Xu said it well, what kind of locust immortal is this, it is all rumored by those rich people, I advise you not to believe it, beware of their excuses to seize our land.

And the edge of Chang'an City is even more incredible. For several days in a row, the palace would send people out to catch locusts for a penny, provoking people to go to the fields to catch locusts, and sometimes the whole family would go out, and children could earn more than a dozen dollars. Later, more and more people were caught, and the locusts were worthless, ten pennies, a hundred, and a catty......

At this time, Xu Ji Fuli Lou in Chang'an City also took the opportunity to launch a new dish, called fried land shrimp, and land shrimp is shrimp on land. For a time, the distinguished guests in Chang'an City came to try it. Within ten days, the roasted locusts and fried locusts went from the palace to the tables of the people. After a few more days, not even a single locust could be found in the fields. Some hunters stopped hunting and went to the locust plague in the county to buy locusts.

Xu Qing inspected the seven counties and asked the farmers to plant melons and vegetables on the land that had been damaged too badly, and the melons and vegetables had a relatively short ripening period, so that they could exchange money and grain with others. This plague of locusts was quietly suppressed. And God, it seems that he is unwilling to let go of this opportunity to have a locust plague, and there is another locust plague in Hebei.

This Xu Qing can't help it, the far water can't save the near fire, if he rushes to Hebei to rescue the disaster, the trees are gnawed by locusts, and the crops are saved? Judging from the area and extent of the disaster, the locust plague in Hebei was much more serious than that in Guanzhong, and the imperial court had to come up with a disaster relief plan.

But Xu Qing didn't know that his old friend in the north, the descendants of the wolf god, also learned about this locust outbreak. Since last winter, the Eastern and Western Turks have been on fire, and now they have reached the end stage. It seems that the Jili Khan has reached a consensus with the Western Turks to deal with the Tang Dynasty together, and the rest of the benefits are exchanged, just to buy cloth and send wire.

A good fighter can often sense the next opponent and smell the scars on the next opponent's body.