At the end of May, outside the city of Yanzhou.

With the arrival and departure of a "buzzing" sound, all the green in the fields around Yanzhou City turned to dust. Locusts that obscured the sky and the sun flew wildly in the sky, like dark clouds, constantly hovering above Yanzhou City, as if looking for anything to eat in their stomachs.

This is the locust plague, and now this locust plague has swept through the north and south of Beijing, Shandong, Zhejiang, and Henan, and everywhere it goes, it has become a wilderness, and the people everywhere have no food to eat.

The locust plague swept away the people, and the locusts ate all the food they could eat, and then the famine ensued.

The sanity of the victims gathered outside Yanzhou City had been exhausted by hunger, and then tens of thousands of victims were coerced by thieves and began to besiege Yanzhou City, and the huge city suddenly became a battlefield of flesh and blood.

The news that Yanzhou City was besieged by the victims soon spread to Lingshanwei, and Lingshanwei suddenly became nervous. The war in Yanzhou City is like a spark in a dry pyre, and I don't know when it will cause a fire.

So Lingshanwei immediately issued an order to all the thousands of households and hundreds of households: immediately clear the thieves in the jurisdiction and disperse the gathered victims!

In the 100 households of Wangjiazhuang, Liu Yan looked at the order in his hand and couldn't help but shake his head in disappointment. In the eyes of those officials, whether the victims will riot is already the biggest question now, and it has even exceeded the lives and deaths of hundreds of thousands or millions of victims across Shandong!

"The situation is starting to get out of hand!"

Liu Yan sighed, he still remembered that there was a record of this locust plague in the history books: "In May of the eleventh year of Chongzhen, there was a drought of locusts in Liangjing, Shandong, Henan, and Zhejiang. ”

And the final result of this locust plague is that "there is no grass in the wild, ten rooms and nine empty" everywhere.

After Liu Yan sighed, he summoned a group of subordinates in Wangjiazhuang, Miao Shao, Xu Ming, Yue Ming and other chief flag officers rushed one after another, and Tan Xiaoda, Xu Le, and Zhao Min also rushed one after another.

Liu Yan looked at everyone, when he got married, Tan Xiaoda and Xu Le came to congratulate him, but Bao Xuezhen, the director in charge of the medical officer, was busy studying the use of drugs in the army, so he didn't come, just asked Tan Xiaoda to send a congratulatory proposal.

"Why don't you see Master Bao?"

Liu Yan asked suspiciously: "Could it be that Director Bao is still in the hospital?" ”

Tan Xiaoda said: "Lord Qiyu, Director Bao is indeed still in the medical hall, it has been more than ten days, and his subordinates heard that Director Bao is preparing the marching and summer pills, and the prescription is still a little improper, so he can't get out." ”

Liu Yan nodded and said with a smile: "It seems that I didn't choose the wrong person, Master Bao is really pedantic, so I can rest assured." ”

Then Liu Yan entered the topic and talked directly to everyone.

“…… You all know that, right? Now there are already a few thieves in Lingshanwei, and victims from all over the country are also pouring in, and the situation is very grim. According to the order sent by the Qianhu in Xiahezhai, the thieves in our Qianhu are also ready to move. ”

Miao Shao said excitedly: "My lord, give the order, when will we send troops to suppress the bandits?" ”

Xu Ming was even more direct, clasping his fists and saying; "My subordinates are willing to be the vanguard, and lead the troops to investigate the situation of the thieves everywhere, and explore the way for the adults in front."

Liu Yan smiled and asked the two to sit down first, and said: "It is certain that the bandits will be suppressed, but this time the dispatch of troops is secondary, and the resettlement of the victims in transit is the top priority." ”

Everyone's faces were pale, Yue Ming clenched his fists and said: "What the adults said is extremely true, and the subordinates remember that Dr. Xu Guangqi once said in the early years: there are three causes of hunger: water, drought, locusts, the land is high and low, the rain is remote, the flood and drought are disasters, and some are still spared, but the drought is extremely locust, thousands of miles, the grass and trees are all gone, or cattle and horses, and the flags are all gone, and the harm is especially worse than the flood." This plague of locusts is arguably the most dangerous of all the plagues. And those victims have no longer anything to do at this time, and even after a long time, the victims everywhere are afraid that they will have to change their children and eat! ”

Liu Yan was very worried about this, the consequences of the locust plague were very serious, but it was not just because the locust plague itself caused great disasters to the people, but that there would be a drought before the locust plague, which was what the ancients called "locusts will be locusts after a long drought".

In fact, the Chinese ancestors have been fighting against locusts for thousands of years, and at this time, the people of the Ming Dynasty have also demonstrated their strong wisdom and learned from production.

One of the people who has to be mentioned is the scientist Xu Guangqi. Xu Guangqi was proficient in agronomy, and compiled the "Complete Book of Agricultural Administration" and "Removal of Locusts", which recorded a large number of methods to resist locusts.

Some of the methods used in later generations to deal with locust plagues were to draw on the experience of the working people of ancient times. For example, locusts are exterminated by digging ditches, usually with cloth or wooden planks in the field, and when the locusts fall into the ditch, they are quickly buried or culled. This is recorded in Xu Guangqi's "Complete Book of Agricultural Administration": "When the beetle jumps and acts, it must open a ditch to catch and fight, and its method is to see the beetle everywhere, pre-dig a long ditch, two feet deep and wide, and make a pit at a distance of zhang in the ditch so that it can be buried." ”

There is also a natural enemy prevention and control method, which is recorded in the "Record of Removing Locusts": "Before the solution of flying, ducks can eat it, hundreds of ducks enter the rice furrow, the locusts are exhausted in an instant, and there is also a method of catching locusts in the south of the Yangtze River." This is what we now call the "duck army", which is still used in later generations.

However, the use of ducks to defend against locusts can only be applied to regional locust plagues, and has little effect on swarms of locusts that have already gathered and fled. However, this method is also conducive to increasing farmers' incomes, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone for many ordinary people in ancient times.

Moreover, Xu Guangqi systematically proposed for the first time to control locusts from the root cause and completely eliminate the comfortable environment for locust breeding. Among them, "dry water" is a lake that has dried up due to drought and lack of rainfall.

At the same time, the people of the Ming Dynasty also learned about the phototaxis of locusts. At night, the net is spread out to catch it. Some magistrates also gave heavy rewards, and a pound of locusts could even be exchanged for a pound of rice and a pound of flour.

Although the ancient working people came up with various methods in the fight against the locust plague, but at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the level of productivity in various places was devastated, and the situation in the north and south of the Ming Dynasty became more and more erosive. Embark on the path of violent rebellion against the imperial court.

Liu Yan said: "At present, although the population of our Wangjiazhuang is already very large, but I think it is still not enough, and we must continue to recruit victims. ”

Regarding the recruitment of displaced people, Tan Xiaoda and Xu Le naturally had no opinion, but Zhao Min and Yue Ming stood up almost at the same time.

Zhao Min Zhengse said: "The adults care about the people, and their subordinates admire them so much, please accept the worship of your subordinates!" ”

After speaking, Zhao Min knelt directly on the ground, Liu Yan hurriedly stepped forward to help Zhao Min up, and was about to speak, but Yue Ming on the side said: "My lord, my subordinates think that it is not appropriate to recruit disaster victims. ”

"Oh?"

Liu Yan first stopped Zhao Min, who was about to open his mouth to refute, and then said with a smile: "What's wrong with this?" ”

"My subordinates think that there are two things wrong with this matter."

"Please."

"One: The adult is only the manager of the hundred households in Wangjiazhuang, if it is placed on the northern border, the population under the rule of the adult is only a thousand, and the number of troops is only more than a hundred. But what is the population and army under the rule of adults today? ”

"Now the population of Wangjiazhuang is already large, and the defense of the Qianhu in front of Xiahe Village has to rely on the force of important people, so he ignores the matter of the expansion of the army, but what do other officials think about this matter?"

Yue Ming said worriedly: "My lord, although the world is turbulent at the moment, but the imperial court is the imperial court after all, and it has its own laws, and his subordinates are worried that the matter of the adults wantonly recruiting the population and expanding the army and horses will be caught, and something big will happen!" ”

"Second: Once the recruitment of the victims begins, before the locust plague passes, many victims will come one after another, and then to resettle them, it will be necessary to reclaim a large amount of wasteland, purchase farm tools, ploughing cattle, seeds, build houses in various fire piers and tunpu, and need to buy rations, warm clothing, etc., how much money will it cost?"

"Although we now have tens of thousands of taels of silver in our Wangjiazhuang Hundred Households, these silver are spent on thousands, or even tens of thousands of victims, like stones falling into the sea, and they can't make any splashes at all!"

After listening to Yue Ming's words, everyone's faces became very ugly, obviously the two reasons put forward by Yue Ming had already made everyone's hearts worried.

Liu Yan looked at everyone's expressions, suddenly laughed, and said, "Mr. Yue's heart is clear, I know." And I also thought of these two points that Mr. Yue said, but even so, things still have to be done. ”

Yue Ming said in surprise: "My lord, why is this? ”

Liu Yan naturally couldn't tell Yue Ming and the others clearly, he couldn't tell everyone that Jiannu would rush into Shandong this year, and he had to prepare in advance and accumulate population and troops in advance, right?

So Liu Yan said: "I can't say the specific reason now, but I can tell you one thing, the two problems that Mr. Yue said, judging from the current situation in the world, are no longer a problem." ”

Everyone looked at each other, and they all felt that Liu Yan was alarmist, although there were armies of thieves raging in Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan and other places, and there were Jiannu armies outside the customs that were constantly detained, but in the eyes of everyone, the world of the Ming Dynasty was still as stable as Mount Tai. So what does Liu Yan's words mean?

Miao Shao looked at Liu Yan without saying anything, thought for a while, and said: "My lord, my subordinates think that even if they want to contain the disaster victims, they must control the number of people, and it is good to accommodate a few hundred people in the fire road piers and tunbao places, and it is good to give appropriate relief to the remaining disaster victims." ”

Xu Ming and Zhao Min did not speak, but Yue Ming agreed.

Liu Yan shook his head and said, "Don't talk about this matter anymore, just do as I say." Let's talk about the bandits. ”

Seeing this, everyone couldn't say anything, but the worry in their hearts still didn't dissipate.

Liu Yan didn't care about this, and said: "Director Zhao, you immediately draft a few orders, and send them to Dapanbao, Huangshan Dun, Fengshan Dun, and Shagou Dun early tomorrow morning, and order Chen Xun, Wang Yue, Wang Bo, Zhang Yi, and Shen Tuo to come to discuss the matter immediately." ”m.

"Yes."

"Director Tan and Director Xu, tomorrow we will start preparing spare supplies for the soldiers of various departments."

"Yes."

"General Yue Qi, immediately prepare money and food, prepare three days' rations for the officers and soldiers of each department, as well as a month's military salary, for backup."

"Yes!"

Some people died, but not completely......