The locusts ate the crops they had worked so hard to grow, and now the prefect and the Fan family were kind-hearted and willing to give them a chance to earn money.

You can't miss that.

Without crops, the money must be caught.

The number of places is limited, the competitiveness is too great, ordinary people call friends, everyone cooperates, and the silver is evenly divided when the time comes.

The people tried their best to catch the locusts, and the number of locusts eliminated was greater than that of the people in the 17 counties.

More importantly, in addition to the participation of the people, the chickens and ducks of these three provinces have also made meritorious contributions.

Because Li Qiao knew about the occurrence of this locust plague, he decided to set up a line of defense in Jincheng Mansion, Yuncheng Mansion, and Changzhi Mansion to stop the locust army and prevent the locust army from crossing the province.

This line of defense has not been set up in vain, and it has made a lot of contributions this time.

The people of these three prefectures obeyed the call of the government and raised a lot of chickens and ducks, after all, Li Qiao is famous, and the people are not worried about their own chickens and ducks smashing their hands, so there are a lot of chickens and ducks raised by each family.

When the locust plague came, these chickens and ducks ate locusts as fast as humans, but they did eat a lot of locusts.

Human capture + chickens and ducks worked together, and the army of locusts was consumed a lot in these three mansions.

Li Qiao finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Although the effect of chickens and ducks in exterminating locusts is not particularly significant - the power of chickens and ducks is limited, it is more the role of the Fan family and the prefect of Jincheng Prefecture.

But it worked, and he didn't bother in vain.

*

The author has something to say:

Chapter 226: The Locust Plague Destroyed Measures in various places

However, the locust plague continues.

According to the observations of the people of Jincheng Prefecture, Yuncheng Prefecture, and Changzhi Prefecture, the locust army did not go south in a straight line, but turned around and went east after entering Yuanhe Province.

But this is only what Sanfu has observed, and where the locust army will go next, Sheng Jing can only wait for news.

Just as several prefects in the seventeen counties did, the prefects and prefects of the three prefectures of Jincheng Prefecture also tried their best to spread the news to Yuanhe Province.

The eight-hundred-mile rush is faster than the army of locusts, and the people of Yuanhe Province have one or two, two or three days to prepare.

If the local magistrate had been able to do so, he would have been able to put in place some measures to eradicate locusts in such a short period of time.

Sheng Hong was anxious and couldn't sit still.

As long as the army of locusts exists, what they eat is their silver, and they not only have to be exempted from paying taxes to the people in the affected areas, but they also have to distribute seeds and seedlings for free.

The army of locusts marched south from the central part of Xishan Province all the way into Yuanhe Province, and now they are about to sweep and wreak havoc in Yuanhe Province, and the crops that farmers have worked hard for months have been swept away in one day.

The peasant's heart is bleeding, and his heart is bleeding.

The unhappiness in his heart could not be relieved, and he began to investigate the response of the magistrates wherever the locust army went.

Zhixian's Yulu is as high as 1,000 taels a month, 1,000 taels!

Ordinary peasants, a large family, can't save so much silver in a hundred years!

took his hard-earned money, but didn't do anything for him, who can bear this?

The more he thought about it, the more angry he became, Sheng Hong ordered a good investigation of the reactions of all local officials in the places where the locusts passed, even if it was a small county magistrate or even the head of a village, he would not let it go.

In Dasheng, the class of the gentry is very suppressed, and the village chief can directly contact the magistrate, although the village chief is not in the establishment of the imperial court, but it is directly facing the people at the bottom, and the village chief does not act, or there is a village tyrant in a village, the degree of abomination is not lost to the magistrate at all.

While Sheng Hong was busy settling accounts, Li Qiao began to buy food and prepare to distribute it directly to the affected people.

Of course, he bought not fine grains, but coarse grains such as millet, corn, and sorghum. Eating too many sweet potatoes is not good for your body, so you have to eat them with other coarse grains.

In the affected areas of Xishan Province, some counties have coal mines, and people can dig coal to earn wages in addition to farming, and life is still good, even if this season's autumn grain is gone, the family still has the wheat that has just been harvested and the old grain that was not eaten last year.

But there are also many areas where there are no coal mines, and the life of the people at the bottom in these places is very ordinary.

Therefore, Li Qiao's donation of grain this time is aimed at those whose families are extremely poor, and they will not survive this winter without this season's autumn grain.

He didn't plan to donate more, after all, there would be many places to use the money in the future, and the scope of this locust plague was wide, and he couldn't support it with his financial resources alone, so he did his best.

In addition to Li Qiao, there are also some people who donate money and food to the charity hall.

Sheng Hong did not call on everyone to pay out of their pockets, but the locust plague had spread all over the capital, and some capable people spontaneously donated silver and food.

Everyone doesn't donate much, after all, there are too many things donated in the past few years, and maybe they will continue to donate this winter - this summer is not very hot, and the cold time after the year is longer than last year.

For example, the Xin family, although they have a lot of money, but this time Xin Zhi and Li Yu'an only donated eight hundred taels of silver on behalf of the Xin family.

Coarse grains are cheap, three or four cents per catty, and eight hundred taels of silver can buy more than 200,000 catties of grain.

The Seventh Prince, the Great Prince, the Second Prince, the Fourth Prince, several scholars, six servants and others did not donate much, between tens of taels and hundreds of taels.

Some low-ranking officials donated between a few hundred and a few taels.

Fan's family is in the affected area, Fan's family is not short of money, what they donate is food, Fan Bu directly opened a warehouse and donated all the food in his warehouse.

Some kind-hearted wealthy families did not donate much, such as Han Ning, who donated two hundred taels on behalf of the Han family.

The small boss with a solid family background has donated a few, a dozen, or a few dozens.

Li Xiaorui, Li Changfeng, and Li Yunfan were caught up in the experience of eating locusts by their parents, so they wanted to donate most of the money in their piggy banks.

In fact, they don't have a very specific concept of this locust plague, because they have not experienced it personally, no matter how detailed the elders like Li Qiao, Taozhu, Wang Osmanthus, and Li Dashan are, they don't have too deep feelings.

But that didn't stop them from donating silver, and the three little ones were very kind.

Li Qiao didn't let them donate more, and everyone donated one hundred taels to do their best.

There will be many natural disasters in the future, so the money in the piggy bank will be donated slowly, and there will always be a time when it will be useful.

Everyone didn't donate much, but when the news of Yuanhe Province reached Shengjing, these scattered donations were more than 50,000 taels.

After the locust army entered Yuanhe Province, it first raged in the three border provinces, and then really went east.

The response of the three prefectures of Yuanhe Province was similar to that of the officials of Xishan Province, and after receiving the news, the prefect and the prefect ordered the people to exterminate the locusts.

Some officials have little ambition and do not want to be promoted, but only want not to make mistakes, so they are not enthusiastic in this locust eradication operation, and they just call on the people to catch locusts, and do not give substantial incentives.

Some officials want to seize this opportunity to make a name for themselves, so that they can show their faces in front of Sheng Hong.

These ambitious officials, like the prefect of Jincheng Prefecture, paid bonuses out of their own pockets to encourage the people to exterminate locusts.

Every official's response is under Sheng Hong's investigation.

Soon, the news that made Li Qiao worry reached Shengjing.

The army of locusts continued eastward and reached Hexi Province.

Li Qiao set up a chicken and duck defense line in Hexi Province and the two adjacent provinces of Hexi Province, and this time the army of locusts passed through Hexi Province and one of them, and then continued eastward, heading straight for Dongshan Province.

The duck goods shop in Sanliu Village has expanded a lot more than before, because the duck goods in this shop are not only for Pingcheng and Fucheng, but also for the remaining four counties of Hexi Prefecture.

Thanks to the construction of cement roads, the connection between the five counties of Hexi Province was much faster than before, and the time to travel between the two places was shortened, and duck goods, which were not easy to store, began to be sold to the remaining four counties.

In this way, it is not enough to rely on the ducks of Heijo.

The people of the remaining four counties also began to raise ducks, and later chickens, to supply the fried chicken shops in Pingcheng and Fucheng.

The business of the fried chicken shop is no worse than that of the duck shop, and the people have the habit of raising chickens, so there are more chickens than ducks in the whole Hexi Prefecture.

With so many chickens and ducks there, the five counties of Hexi Province have never been more tightly defended than ever before.

In addition, the news was received three days in advance, so when the vanguard of the locust army entered the territory of Hexi Province in a scattered manner, the people who had been prepared for a long time released their marked chickens and ducks, and prepared brooms, sacks and other tools.

Locusts are a good fodder, and now every household has a lot of chickens and ducks, and these locusts can not be burned without fire, and it is best to preserve them.

The government said that when these locusts are cooked, dried, ground and bagged, and then cooked for chicken and duck food in the future, the locust powder is mixed into it, and the chickens and ducks that are fed are big and fat.

Since the crops are destined to be eaten and cannot be saved, then we must catch more locusts to make up for our own losses!

Moreover, the magistrate also set a bonus, although the big guys are now rich, but who would think that they have more money?

With the purpose of saving feed for their chickens and ducks + earning bonuses, the people of the entire Hexi Mansion went into battle and fought to the death against the army of locusts.

Not only did the farmers try their best to catch them, but the small traders also closed their doors and grabbed their tools.

The chickens and ducks stopped working when they were full, but the people were hungry and continued to fight, and the locusts flew away after eating the plants in the field, and if they wanted to catch more locusts, they had to eat endlessly.

The people of Hexi Prefecture worked hard, and together with a large number of chickens and ducks, they really wiped out a lot of locusts.

According to the current prefect of Hexi Prefecture, when the locust army first came to the boundary of Hexi Prefecture, it lay on the sweet potato seedlings, which were nearly one foot thick, and when the locust army flew away, the thickness was only half a foot.

The heroic people of Hexi Mansion wiped out half of the locusts that broke into the boundary of Hexi Mansion!

In addition, the prefect of Hexi Prefecture also made it clear in the report that Hexi Mansion did not need the assistance of the imperial court, and the people of Hexi Prefecture could bear the loss.

Hexi Province did not add a burden to the imperial court.

When this report was handed over, Sheng Hong's face, which had been gloomy for a long time, finally turned cloudy.

Although it is said that the army of locusts still finished the crops of Hexi Mansion to Huohuo, it can be regarded as a small revenge for Hexi Mansion to eliminate so many locusts.

What's more, the people of Hexi Mansion bear the loss of this time and don't stretch out their hands to ask him and the court for money, which is too pleasant.

How sensible!

He likes this kind of officials and people who give him peace of mind.

However, speaking seriously, I have to give Li Aiqing a small reward.

This time the huge locust plague, Hexi Mansion was able to wipe out half of the locusts in the territory, which made him angry, which largely relied on Li Aiqing.

It's nothing short of a miracle.

In the past, how could manpower destroy the great locust plague?

They all wait for the locusts to die on their own or when the temperature drops in winter.

Not to mention that half of it is eliminated, even the elimination of one-third is a fool's dream.

But now because Li Aiqing can wipe out half of it, he can't dream of such a good thing in his dreams!

However, the specific rewards and punishments will be discussed after the locust plague is completely over.

He wants to settle accounts together, and settle accounts for all the officials where these locusts pass through, and the Jinshi he has worked so hard to select are all waiting to be promoted to become officials, and he doesn't do practical things and eats vegetarian meals, and his hard-earned money does not raise waste.