In mid-July, the Jin Kingdom was plagued by locusts after the great drought, and the officials and people of the Wei clan sat back and watched the locusts devour the grain that was about to be harvested and did not dare to hunt and kill, so they only knew to kowtow and worship and build a temple of sacred locusts. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 info Wei Manduo even openly condemned it, saying that this was the curse of the rulers of the Jin State who did not cultivate virtue enough, and pointed the finger of public opinion at the Zhao family.

Zhao Wuxian didn't carry this pot, he publicly retorted: "The locust plague is rampant, seeing that the crops are eaten by locusts and have no harvest, and the people are starving to death, Wei Qing's politicians don't want to save it at this time, but they come out to condemn others. How can they be worthy of the people below? ”

So in the name of disaster relief, Zhao Wuxian dispatched thousands of soldiers into Changzi County to help the local people grab and harvest grain, and how much they could cut. However, it is interesting that in the army that rushed to the counties and townships, there were also a few people who did not carry scythes and spears.

These people who were jokingly called the "Art Team" by Zhao Wuxian are special troops that have only been set up in recent years, they come from the "Hundred Operas" in Taoqiu City, that is, the profession of performing for a living, and its founder is the famous actor You Mo in Taoqiu, You Mo was brought to Yecheng by Zhao Wuxian, I thought it was to make fun of Shangqing, who expected to be arranged this a duty. On weekdays, he took a group of actors to play horns and acrobatics in the army, so that the soldiers could be happy and happy, and save the military life from being too serious and dull to cause trouble.

But they don't play those tricks this time, they just eat with one mouth.

After the actors arrived at the place, they immediately gathered the people in the township community and performed a unique "Manyan Opera" in front of everyone, which was a simple story cross talk, and the script selected by Zhao Wuxian for them was played, but they were allowed to play freely on the spot.

In the small town of Taiguyi, there are two people on the earthen platform that was originally a township shooting ceremony, one person is wearing an ugly clothes, playing the role of a peasant who has lost everything due to the crossing of locusts, and the other is wearing a crown and belt, playing the role of a Zhao official who went to the countryside for disaster relief.

The person who played the farmer didn't have good acting skills, but he worked very hard, and he sighed as soon as he appeared.

"The locusts cross the border, and the fields are dense, but there is no harvest at home."

Speaking of sadness, he grabbed the ground with his head, which aroused a deep resonance among the people of Taiguyi.

At this moment, a gong sounded, and the person who played the role of the official of the Zhao clan immediately jumped out and said loudly: "Since it is so hateful, it is better to kill it!" ”

The man who played the farmer was shocked: "The priest laughed, the mantis is a god locust, how can you kill it before it is too late to worship?" ”

"It's not a god." Those who played the role of officials categorically denied it.

He turned his head and proclaimed to all the people, "The one of God is also the Lord of men." The gods of the mountains and rivers of the Jin Kingdom, the gods of the four mountains and the four rivers and rivers, all have to be recognized by Zhao Shangqing to count, but they don't know any gods and locusts and insect kings. Jun Bu heard that Shangqing angrily reprimanded outside the eldest son city a few days ago, "You eat the rest of the people's grains, such as the heart and intestines of the rest of the food, and the rest of the flesh and blood can relieve hatred!" 'Raise your head to the sky and swallow locusts, so all the locusts fly away, and dare not do harm?' It can be seen that these flying locusts are false gods, and they are afraid of the true master. ”

Seeing that the people were skeptical, he added: "Can the great witch of the Song Kingdom, Zhu Ru and others, know? The most predictable person in the world, the most favored by heaven, she also sent a message to the Jin Kingdom, saying that this locust plague has nothing to do with any human immorality and heavenly retribution. ”

"What the hell is that mantis?" The actor who played the farmer asked the right question, and this question was also what the simple people wanted to ask. Just as the daughter of the Wei Clan's Yan Clan had seen, the situation of the locusts filling the sky was so shocking that they were terrified, and they subconsciously thought that it was not caused by ordinary forces.

"Mantis are insects, and the mosquitoes that bite you, and the flies that buzz in the shitholes, are all a type of insects! If you don't believe it, go to the field and see, the ground is full of locust eggs, and in the coming year new locusts will be born. ”

The actor who played the role of an official turned his head and asked the people loudly: "All things are born to support people, which shows that man is the spirit of all things and is supreme. And these insects are the lowest things in the world, and swarms are just their habits, will you worship the white maggots in the toilet? Will you sacrifice the mosquitoes in the stinking gutter? ”

Everyone was angry and shouted, "Naturally not! ”

"Then why are you afraid of any locusts?"

Seeing that the mysterious face of the flying locusts had been exposed, the crowd was excited, and the real officials of the Zhao clan stood up and announced loudly: "In this case, the second and third sons should hunt locusts instead of sitting back and watching the locusts eat food!" Shangqing said first, if you get a stone of locusts, you can exchange it for a stone of food! ”

"Locusts can be exchanged for food!?"

A thousand words, can not compare to the effectiveness of this sentence, under the performance of the dramatist, the villagers who no longer have a sense of mystery about locusts began to collectively mobilize to join the army to fight against the locust plague......

……

Since Zhao Wuxian proposed to fight the locusts to the end, he was naturally prepared. In addition to the engineering led by Lu Ban, the book lovers headed by Shi Zhao, and those who tinkered with astronomical instruments and depicted star maps headed by Chang Hong, there were even a group of people who cultivated "Gewu Zhizhi", headed by Wang Sheng......

They don't do anything else, Zhao Wuxian's private treasury contributes to ensure that these people have food, clothing, housing and utensils. They only need one person to find a thing and observe it vigorously, such as observing locusts, bamboo, and dogs and horses. The difference is that they also have to record and summarize, and at the end of the year, hand over the progress and experience of the record to prove that they are not just eating rice.

The system of biological sciences could not be established from scratch, but a large number of observations could be made, just as Alexander created the conditions for Aristotle, and all rare things were sent to the palace for research records.

In the process, the people who observed the locusts also had some insight into the relationship between the growth of locusts and the climatic conditions of the environment, for example, they concluded: "The locusts are as large as corn at the beginning, and as large as a fly in a few days, and can jump in groups, and they are called locusts." And for a few days they were able to fly in flocks, and their names were locusts. Wherever the locusts go, their beaks are constantly gnawing and destroying the crops, but they do not eat beans and hemp...... For a few more days, the female locusts lay their eggs in the ground. The eggs in the ground will be repeated into locusts in eighteen days, and the locusts will be repeated in this way, and within ten years, the descendants of a locust will be thousands upon thousands......"

They also solved the eternal mystery of the locust plague: "Where locusts are born, they will be at the end of the great ze, and they will also dry up suddenly...... Therefore, the Jin Kingdom is exhausted in spring and autumn, and it is the source of locust disasters! ”

"This is probably the earliest entomological record in the world...... "Zhao Wuxian was also surprised by their achievements, his private treasury money was not spent in vain, but at present, he is just asking people to study various creatures related to agriculture as a supplement to agronomy.

It was also with these observations that he concluded that locusts had phototactic habits, so he asked the counties of Changzi County to set fires at night and dig pits around the fires to attract locusts at night to send them to death. Some officials resisted the removal of locusts and were immediately dismissed, and Zhao Wuxian announced that if the county officials allowed the locusts to eat the grass, causing the people to starve of food, they would be responsible for the consequences and go to the court of Dali Temple to be tried!

Under such circumstances, all counties in Changzi County actively rescued grain and organized the people to eradicate locusts. In addition to attracting with fire at night, long ditches are dug in the fields, one at certain intervals, and the farmers are mobilized to beat gongs and drive them away. Locusts the size of a grain of rice are frightened and jump into the ditch and bury them with earth. For the adult locusts that have escaped the net, they should be taken with ropes and stored in cloth bags, in short, they should be used to the extreme.

In addition to manpower, chickens, ducks, geese and birds in the forest can help a lot this time. When the locust plague came, others were worried, but they were overjoyed, and opened the duck house to graze the ducks, just like the grazing cattle and sheep of the grassland people.

At first, he was afraid of the name of the "Divine Locust" that came from the Wei family, so he could only release it secretly, but later Zhao Wuxian encouraged him to release it with great fanfare. It is said that a big duck can eat two catties of locusts a day, and a hundred ducks can eat as many as two hundred catties of locusts a day!

In addition to being surprised and commended, Zhao Wuxian also regretted that he could only make up for his losses now, and in the coming year, he had to raise more chickens and ducks in various places to prevent the next generation of locust eggs from hatching from becoming a disaster again. Based on the observations of the "Gewu" faction, farmers were mobilized to mow grass in the low-lying areas of Changzi County where water and weeds grow, and after drying it, it could be used as fuel and clear the places where locusts lay eggs.

Finally, since locusts do not eat taro, mulberry, rhizome, peas, mung beans, marijuana, etc., he encouraged Changzi County to replant more such crops next year, which is conducive to preventing the damage of locust plague.

The above methods can be said to be quite thorough, only because the locust plague is rampant, so the effect is also limited, but compared with the black smoke miasma of Wei's praying for gods and worshipping ghosts, it is much better.

From mid-July to early August, in half a month, a total of 140,000 locusts were culled in each county of Changzi County. The Zhao clan had a vast territory, and there was a steady stream of grain from Yecheng Changping to the west, in order to help the people of the eldest son and save them from famine......

After paying for the labor and getting the food for the winter and the seeds for the coming year, the people were naturally ecstatic, singing "I will go to the other side, and return to my hometown!" "I'm happy to return home. Zhao Wuxian's image in their minds has also become even taller.

A master who can lead them through natural disasters......

A virtuous king who produces miracles everywhere he goes......

This miracle is not a forged miracle, but a condensation of thousands of people to unite against all evil insects.

However, in the word of mouth of the people, the locust plague that began to slow down under the action of various factors was said to be "Zhao Shangqing looked up to the sky to swallow locusts, so God moved and let the locusts fly elsewhere"......

Zhao Wuxian didn't know that he had the intention to plant flowers and flowers, and he was in the city of the eldest son, listening to the ministers discussing how to deal with the 140,000 stone locust corpses, as well as the locusts that were constantly handed over by the peasants, jumping around......

He listened to it for a while, but he didn't like it, so he stood up and said with a smile: "The second and third sons have worked hard, let's stop here today, and tomorrow we will take a day off, and the rest will feast the ministers in the county guard's mansion, and the eldest son must be present with the county officials!" I'll let the chef concoct a special meal and treat you to it! ”

ps: I'm sorry for the chapter if I have something to do today

(To be continued.) )