Theoretically speaking, the sweet potatoes in the ground should not be eaten by locusts, at most the vines on it will be lost, but as long as the roots are still there, the sweet potatoes can still grow in the future, but the theory is only a theory after all, and no one is sure what the actual situation is, so it must be investigated on the spot. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Li Xiu was also worried about this, so he went out of the room with Yang Nong, and called Yang Dui and several other chief officials in the Ministry of Agriculture, and then they went out of the yamen together, although sweet potatoes were also planted in the yamen, but they had been driving away and catching locusts for the past two days, so the number of locusts in the yamen was too small to see the situation of sweet potatoes under the locust plague.

In fact, there is no need to go far, the Yamen of the Ministry of Agriculture is very close to Li's Zhuangzi, and the surrounding farmland is also Li's Zhuangzi, most of which are planted with sweet potatoes, so they randomly picked a field and walked in, the previous sweet potato fields are all green, even if the weather is dry, but the sweet potatoes are very drought-tolerant, so they grow far stronger than wheat, and the vines in the ground are almost overflowing.

But only three days after the arrival of the locust plague, the green of the ground has lost most of it, especially those fresh leaves, almost all of which have been devoured by locusts, even the relatively tough vines are now crawling with locusts, when Li Xiu and they arrived, every step would startle a locust.

"The leaves have been eaten, but they don't even spare the vines, and it seems that they won't leave until they eat up everything they can eat!" At this time, Yang Nong picked up a vine that had been bitten from the ground, and said with a sad face.

Li Xiu also squatted down at this time to carefully observe the remaining vines, and found that many vines had been bitten off, and the weather was too dry, so these vines also withered a lot, only some vines connected to the roots still looked a little alive, but locusts also liked to eat this kind of vines the most, because there was water to replenish their needs.

"Yang Dui, dig out one and take a look!" Li Xiu raised his head at this time and instructed Yang Dui, who was holding the tool, and Yang Dui immediately agreed, and dug down a sweet potato with a hoe, but after a while, he saw several fist-sized sweet potato tubers being dug out.

"Finally, we guessed correctly, the rhizomes of sweet potatoes are not damaged, as long as the locusts leave, they can grow vines again!" Yang Nong also bent down to pick up a few pieces of sweet potatoes at this time, and said with a happy look on his face, no matter how wreaking havoc the locusts are, they still can't eat the sweet potatoes underground, and these sweet potatoes have been growing for half a year, and they can be regarded as satisfying.

Li Xiu also picked up a piece of sweet potato at this time and looked at it, and then smiled and said: "These sweet potatoes are still a little smaller, but it doesn't matter, for example, this piece of land can be eaten half and left half, and the remaining sweet potatoes can be harvested again after the vines grow again, and then the sweet potatoes will grow bigger, and the dried sweet potatoes can also be eaten until next year!" ”

There is no fixed harvest season for sweet potatoes, as long as the rhizomes grow, you can eat them, but according to the habits of Guanzhong, they are generally harvested every six months, and some people like to let the sweet potatoes grow long enough for a year, and harvest them in the autumn, so that the sweet potatoes that grow are big enough, and the sweet potatoes harvested in the autumn can also be put into the cellar, with the help of low temperature and anoxic environment, they can be stored for a winter, and even take out fresh sweet potatoes to sell during the New Year, and they can also make a profit.

Since it is to investigate the situation of sweet potatoes under the locust plague, naturally you can't just look at a piece of land, in fact, Li Xiu and Yang Nong are going to go around the entire Xinzhu County to collect the sweet potato situation in various places, so after seeing a few plots of land here, they are ready to ride a horse and go to other places to take samples, this kind of thing is very hard, Li Xiu and Yang Dui These young people are fine, but Yang Nong is so old, he will definitely not be able to bear it.

"Yang Gong, why don't you go back and rest first, and leave the rest to us!" After looking at a few nearby plots of land, Li Xiu immediately persuaded Yang Nong, the weather is so hot, Yang Nong is old, and he is still sick, he has been coughing just now, and he is going to ride a horse next, Li Xiu is really worried about his body, so he opened his mouth to persuade.

"What the colt said is right, uncle, don't follow us young people, Uncle Niang told me to let you rest more yesterday, if your illness worsens, I'm afraid Uncle Niang will not let me go first!" At this time, Yang Dui also pleaded with a bitter face, Yang Nong's body is indeed not as good as before, and after only a few turns, he is already out of breath, and his cough is even more serious, so Yang Dui doesn't dare to let Yang Nong do this anymore.

Yang Nong is usually a very strong person, but at this time, he also felt that his body really couldn't hold on, especially when the sun was shining overhead, and there was a fire in his body, and it was useless to drink any amount of water, so in the end, he could only nod helplessly and said: "Okay, then the next thing will be left to you, I'll go back and rest!" ”

Seeing that Yang Nong finally agreed to go back, Li Xiu and Yang Dui were also relieved, and at that moment Li Xiu sent two guards around him to help Yang Nong back to the Ministry of Agriculture to rest, he and Yang Dui and a few people rode on horses, walked along Xinzhu County, and finally even went to the next Qingtian County to also go around, since smallpox was eliminated, Qingtian County has also returned to normal, and Qingtian County has many fertile fields, and the area of sweet potatoes planted is also more.

Through the investigation of sweet potato fields in various places, Li Xiu and his colleagues found that the sweet potatoes in other places are similar, the leaves and vines on the surface are destroyed, but the rhizomes in the ground are very intact, which will become the life-saving food in the Guanzhong area this year.

However, compared to sweet potatoes, other crops are much more miserable, such as wheat and grains, etc., all of which have been devoured, and corn, which has also been eaten by locusts and only has a bare stem, fortunately, it was known in advance that there may be locust plagues, so the Ministry of Agriculture has withdrawn most of the corn seeds, and only a small part of the corn has been planted this year, and it seems that this year it will definitely be lost.

In addition, Li Xiu also noticed that the water level of the rivers in the two counties is also very low, and some ponds have dried up, because it has not rained for a long time, and if it continues like this, I am afraid that the locust plague will be followed by a drought.

When it was getting late, Li Xiu and the others rode back to the Ministry of Agriculture, at this time they were all tired, Yang Dui and the others rushed to the canteen to eat as soon as they arrived at the Yamen, and Li Xiu was also ready to go home, so he went to Yang Nong to say goodbye, but when he just pushed open Yang Nong's door, he couldn't help but exclaim, and then rushed in anxiously!