Li Shimin hoped that Li Xiu could come up with a way to stop the locust plague, but unfortunately Li Xiu didn't know much about the locust plague and couldn't do anything about it, but at this moment, he didn't expect Yang Nong to stand up and tell Li Shimin that he had a way to reduce the loss of the locust plague, which surprised everyone. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

"Yang Gong, please speak!" After Li Shimin reacted, he immediately asked Yang Nong eagerly.

"Your Majesty, the reason why the locust plague is terrible is mainly that when the locust plague occurs, the locusts cover the sky and the sun, and eat up the crops in the field, resulting in almost no harvest of crops in the current season, resulting in starvation everywhere, but if the locust plague breaks out, the damage to the crops is very small, then the locust plague is not to be feared!" Yang Nong said with a smile at this time.

"How is this possible, when the locust plague comes, those locusts are like crazy, even the leaves will be devoured by them, and it is impossible to spare the fat and juicy crops!" As soon as Yang Nong's words fell, he saw Du Ruhui suddenly frown and said, it's not that he doesn't believe Yang Nong, but Yang Nong's idea is really a little whimsical.

"Hehe, Du Xiang doesn't have to be in a hurry to refute, if it was placed in the past, whenever the locust plague broke out, the crops in the field would indeed be devoured, but now it is different, because no matter how powerful the locusts are, they can only only have crops above the ground, and the crops under the ground can be preserved......"

"Sweet potato!" Without waiting for Yang Nong to finish speaking, Li Xiu next to him shouted in surprise, he finally understood what Yang Nong meant, sweet potatoes grow in the ground, and even if the locusts eat up the vines on the surface, the roots below can still grow again, of course, this will affect the yield, but it is much stronger than no harvest of grains!

"Hahaha~, what the horse said is right, what the old man said is the sweet potato that our Ministry of Agriculture is promoting, this thing grows underground, not afraid of locust gnawing, and even if the vines on the surface are destroyed, they can grow again, so if after the spring next year, the imperial court will vigorously promote sweet potatoes in Guanzhong, even if the locust plague comes, there is no need to worry about the danger of food!" Yang Nong said excitedly at this time, he had just thought of this.

"Great!" Li Shimin couldn't help but get up when he heard this, he was still having a headache about the locust plague just now, but he didn't expect that the solution to the locust plague had already been available, but they didn't think of it before, but this can't be blamed on them, after all, even Li Xiu, the person who offered sweet potatoes, didn't think of it either.

"Yang Gong, it is indeed a good way to let Guanzhong plant sweet potatoes, but I remember that the planting area of sweet potatoes seems to be only in Xinzhu and Qingtian counties, if you want to promote it to the whole Guanzhong, this seedling is probably also a big problem, right?" But at this moment, Li Xiu suddenly frowned and spoke.

It's not that Li Xiu poured cold water, but sweet potatoes are different from other crops, although they can also be propagated with sweet potatoes, but it is too wasteful, they are generally used to grow vines to cuttings, and vines need to be propagated in advance, preservation is also a problem, in addition, the time for sweet potato planting is too short, and now only Qingtian and Xinzhu counties are planted, so even if the sweet potatoes in the two counties are used to raise seedlings, I am afraid it is not enough for the entire Guanzhong planting.

"Don't worry about horses, sweet potatoes reproduce rapidly, far faster than corn, so now Qingtian and Xinzhu counties, the number of sweet potatoes is far more than corn, although this year is a little drought, but sweet potatoes are very drought tolerant, the yield has not been affected, and after the sweet potato harvest, you can concentrate on storage, and then distribute seedlings around next year, of course, even so, want to let Guanzhong all plant sweet potatoes is still a little insufficient, but it doesn't matter, we have another way to raise seedlings in the Ministry of Agriculture!" When Yang Nong said the end, he also showed a smug expression on his face.

"Another kind of seedling? Isn't sweet potatoes all about sprouting vines from sweet potato rhizomes, and then cutting them with these vines? Li Shimin couldn't help but be a little surprised when he heard Yang Nong's words, he also attached great importance to sweet potatoes and corn, and he knew the planting process of sweet potatoes very clearly.

"The original seedling raising method of sweet potatoes is indeed as His Majesty said, it is to use the roots of sweet potatoes, that is, the fruits that sweet potatoes can eat to raise seedlings, but last year our Ministry of Agriculture found that the sweet potato vines and vine roots that we discarded in autumn can also be used to raise seedlings if they are properly preserved, so that a large number of sweet potato seedlings can also be cultivated by using the vines and vine roots that were originally to be discarded. But you can let every county plant a part of sweet potatoes to cope with next year's locust plague! Yang Nong reported excitedly again.

Hearing Yang Nong's answer, Li Xiu also secretly screamed ashamed, he was still the second-in-command of the Ministry of Agriculture, but he was not clear about many things in the Ministry of Agriculture, such as the method of raising seedlings with vines and vine roots in sweet potatoes, he didn't know at all, after all, he usually only went to the Ministry of Agriculture for ten days and a half months, and he only went around casually, rarely cared about the specific matters within the Ministry of Agriculture, Yang Nong was used to his lazy attitude, and usually looked for him unless there was something particularly important and unsolvable.

"Hahahaha~, God bless my Datang, the previous smallpox has been conquered by my Datang, and now I am not even afraid of the locust plague!" Li Shimin couldn't help but laugh excitedly when he heard this.

Immediately afterwards, Li Shimin handed over the sweet potato seedlings and the promotion of next year to Yang Nong, and Yang Nong was not polite, and directly asked Li Shimin for money, after all, the sweet potato vines in the two counties should be collected and stored until next spring, which is not a small project, requiring a lot of manpower and material resources, and Li Shimin was not stingy with this, and directly asked Fang Xuanling to assist Yang Nong.

However, although sweet potatoes can resist the locust plague, they cannot let the locust plague develop, so Li Shimin quickly handed over the matter of organizing farmers from all over Guanzhong to destroy insect eggs to Du Ruhui, which is more cumbersome, and it is not something that can be done in a while.

The imperial system has the advantage of the imperial system, that is, once something is decided, it can be handed over to the minister for implementation immediately, so with Li Shimin's order, Yang Nong, Du Ruhui and others immediately got busy, Li Xiu, as a member of the Ministry of Agriculture, was really embarrassed to be idle, so he also helped Yang Nong run around in the Ministry of Agriculture.

Li Shimin was very generous, and directly transferred an army of more than 20,000 people to Yang Nong, and at this time it was already harvest time, under the command of Yang Nong, more than 20,000 people dug up all the sweet potatoes in Qingtian and Xiangxiang counties, and the sweet potatoes were stored in the cellar, and then they will be sent to various places to raise seedlings next year.

As for the remaining vines and roots, they were also collected by the army, and then cut into small pieces according to the requirements of the Ministry of Agriculture, and finally buried in moist sand, according to the experiments of the officials of the Ministry of Agriculture, so that they could be preserved for a winter, and even if the temperature of the sand was right, the vines might grow roots, so that next year it would be easier to plant.

After all, after the sweet potato harvest, the vines cannot be stored for a long time, and they must be planted in the sand in a short time, so after the end of the autumn harvest, the sweet potato seedlings are almost busy, as long as they wait until this winter, and then send the sweet potato seedlings to Guanzhong for planting.

Originally, Li Shimin handed over this matter to Du Ruhui, and there was no matter of Li Xiu, but such a large-scale mobilization of the people, the imperial court also needs to be implemented layer by layer, from the imperial court to the local state capital, and then from the state capital to the county, and then from the county government to the domestic Li Zheng and the squire, etc., very unfortunately, Li Xiu's family is the largest squire and tyrant in Xinzhu County.

Ordinary people are very afraid of the locust plague, and even offer the locust as the locust god, usually do not dare to harm the locust at all, for fear of arousing the wrath of the locust god, thus causing the locust plague. It is precisely because of this that when Du Ruhui organized the extermination of locust eggs in various places, he deliberately played a trick, and did not tell the people the truth at all, and did not even explain, but just asked the squires to organize farmers, and then according to the instructions of the county government, they turned over the wasteland in an area.

Li Xiu and Princess Pingyang controlled nearly half of the land in Xinzhu County, so the elimination of locust eggs naturally needed their assistance, Li Xiu did not shirk this, and even personally ran all over his own fields, and then carved out the places where locusts like to lay eggs, not only turned over the land, but also asked people to organize the chickens raised in each village and raise them in the wasteland, these chickens are the natural enemies of insects, and no amount of eggs is enough for them to eat.

In fact, Li Xiu also thought about raising chickens to fight the locust plague, but later he felt unreliable, because the locust plague will move, the locusts will only stay in one place for a few days, and they will fly away after eating the local plants, and Datang does not have the large-scale chicken farms of later generations, there are not enough chickens to eat locusts, so the operability of this method is not strong.

The elimination of locust eggs is not something that can be completed in a day or two, after Li Xiu organized the people, there are naturally special people responsible for management, but these people are their own tenants, so Li Xiu is also very generous, all the people who participate in the work are in charge of two meals, and there is a meal of meat every other day, which makes the people have no complaints, after all, this kind of treatment can be compared with the army.

The weather is getting colder and colder, and Li Xiu is too lazy to run out anymore, but he also has one thing to worry about during this time, that is, the little girl named Fuqin ran more diligently to his house, and only inquired about Xuanzang's news every time, which made Li Xiu a little annoyed, and finally simply asked Yuechan to see her for herself, but this day Sun Simiao suddenly came to Li Xiu and told him something about the mysterious little lady behind Fuqin.