stubborn thief

The overwhelming black and brown locusts occupied every inch of land in Liu Chengzong's field of vision.

They flapped their wings in mid-air and slammed into everyone they saw restlessly. Even the toughest soldiers would be knocked headlong by the weak locusts until people put sacks on their faces to hide the sharp scratches on the locust legs. Bleeding scars.

Liu Chengzong immediately ordered people to report the locust plague to Hehuang and Gansu. However, taking the army soldiers who came from the crossroads as an example, people may not be able to escape the spreading locust plague.

After that, it is to catch and exterminate the locusts.

The soldiers and civilians under the Marshal's Mansion knew something about locust plagues, and they had their own methods to control the locusts, but these methods basically treated the symptoms rather than the root cause, because the locusts did not grow on the land they controlled.

Drought never affects all the land, because drought just does not rain, and places with rivers and water sources can endure it for a period of time, but the secondary problems caused by drought are extremely serious, and locust plague is one of them.

When there is a drought, there will be a plague of locusts, because the locusts will lay their eggs on the riverbed and saline-alkali land. When the river dries up and the land is left uncultivated, the plague of locusts will come. day, eat up everything in sight.

Solving the locust plague is very simple, build water conservancy, cultivate in the saline-alkali land, turn over the saline-alkali land and the dry riverbed, raise chickens and ducks by the river, and eat all the eggs.

But once the locust plague occurs, manpower cannot completely solve the locust plague.

Unsolvable means that no matter what you do, it will be a net loss.

People can kill locusts, kill locusts, and catch locusts. Locusts are grasshoppers, and roasted grasshoppers are a delicacy rich in protein. Raising pigs is to raise animals with things that people don't eat, or at least people don't like to eat. The utilization rate of food is very low.

The plague of locusts is to eat up all the rations that people have worked hard for a year, multiply wildly, and then go to another place to repeat the process, leaving only a few bags of grasshoppers on this land.

Once the locust swarm takes shape, it will multiply rapidly. The locusts caught and killed by humans are not as many as the locusts they produce. There has never been a single locust plague that has been wiped out by humans—their survival time is very short. It takes only three months for a batch of locusts to go from swarming to dying, and the larvae born during this process live for five months.

So as the saying goes, a grasshopper after autumn can't jump for a few days.

When they die, the plague of locusts is over.

It is for this reason that many locust temples were built in ancient times, and traditional thinking regards locust plagues as a warning from heaven to rulers.

There is actually nothing wrong with this kind of thinking, because there will be no locust plagues if there is no water conservancy in disrepair and large-scale land abandonment; and water conservancy disrepair and land abandonment are the top priority in the agricultural era, which is a manifestation of the ruler's immorality.

When the locust swarms in the seventh year of Chongzhen first descended on the land of Lanzhou, everything was chaotic and disorderly.

The sky was instantly dark as if a rainstorm was about to fall. Everyone knew that this year's second crop was over. Men, women and children knew that they would not be able to harvest much food. The mountains and plains were full of people chasing locust swarms frantically.

Bags, bed sheets, curtains, clothes, and of course the best flour bags, people use everything they can find at hand to wave against the impact of the locust swarm, and bags of tightly tied flour bags are thrown on the ground , making a fuss.

The same is true for the army of the commander-in-chief. Liu Chengzong originally wanted to ride back to the city on horseback, and ordered people to open the warehouse and take out equipment to catch locusts. Who knew that the horses were hit by dense locusts and could not walk, and two or three of them could be trampled to death every step they took when they dismounted and walked.

People can only use everything to catch locusts. He ordered the guards to tear down the tents and tie up several large bags with tents and curtains. The battalion generals, led by the captain, dug trenches and drove the locusts into the trenches with long poles. They were immediately buried, and those who did not get in were slapped to death with a shovel.

But the incident happened suddenly, and the army they drove into the wild was not half prepared for it. What's more, compared with manpower, the number of locusts flying in the sky was so huge that it had little effect.

Fortunately, the swarms of locusts came and went quickly, but within half an hour, the swarms of black swarms flew away one after another, like a short and crazy dream. It disappeared without a trace, leaving only some locusts wriggling slowly on the wasteland.

When the sound of wings fluttering in his ears gradually dissipated, and the heaven and earth returned to tranquility, Liu Chengzong looked at the devastated suburbs of Lanzhou, and just heaved a sigh of relief when he heard someone cry first in the field, and then there were farmers everywhere. Crying in despair.

Gone, the vegetables prepared for winter, the fragrant pears hanging on the branches, and the sorghum corn that is about to ripen, all were bitten to pieces, and they were all gone.

The locust-infested fields cannot be said to be clean, but a mess. There is no vegetable field left, and the stems and leaves in the crop fields have been gnawed. Only a single stalk is left in the originally thriving agricultural land, as if standing in the field pieces of corpses.

The woods that Liu Chengzong looked at also seemed to have entered the winter in advance, and they were gnawed bare.

His food is gone.

But Liu Chengzong didn't have time to feel sorry for the food eaten by the locusts. He needed an accurate calculation of the losses and led Lintao Prefecture to fight against the locust disaster.

He pointed at Habayashiro next to him, raised his finger to the west, and said in an urgent tone, "Go to Dongguan Town, Hehuang, and find Chengyun. If Chengyun is not here, find Song Shouzhen and Wu Panlong. Before tomorrow morning, I will ask them to start from [-] A township security officer dispatched forty officials who are familiar with the affairs of the township to meet me in Lanzhou."

The Habayashi Lang selected by Liu Chengzong is called Liu Yiren. Since he left the baby camp and came to Liu Chengzong's side, his work has been very easy. He has never received such an urgent order. The frightened war horse turned back and ran westward.

From Lanzhou to Dongguan Town, it is [-] miles without crossing the Yellow River by boat. Liu Chengzong will see people from Dongguan Town tomorrow morning, which means that everyone will not be able to sleep tonight.

As soon as Liu Yiren left, Liu Chengzong called for Wang Wenxiu with disheveled hair.

Liu Chengzong was the marshal who watched the exercises, and Wang Wenxiu was the brigade commander who organized the exercises.

Sudden locusts were flying all over the sky, and the golden drum flags that the army relied on to command all failed. The flags could not be seen, the golden drums could not be heard, and the organization was directly disrupted. Instead, let the Seventh Battalion army participating in the battalion maintain its organizational system and stay obediently near Fulongping.

But this is entirely Wang Wenxiu's wishful thinking. In fact, when the locusts arrived, the [-] soldiers were in a mess, like spreading beans into soldiers. There are troops all over the road.

Completely going their own way, Wang Wenxiu tried his best, but not a single battalion was retained.

It can't be said that they didn't keep it at all, at least Ding Guodong's Suzhou camp didn't move, but this has nothing to do with Wang Wenxiu, Ding Guodong himself didn't want to move.

Although Ding Guodong is a ruthless person on the battlefield, he is very well-behaved outside the battlefield, because in essence, Liu Chengzong's conquest of Gansu was a disaster for the Ming army in Gansu. They did not suffer from such severe natural disasters in Shaanxi, so they themselves There is no betrayal, and the organization of the Ming army is not as bad as that of the Shaanxi Ming army.

The army of the Marshal's Mansion, even if it was the Ming army in the past, actually experienced self-righteous rebellion and desertion, and was brought under Liu Chengzong's banner again, and each department was very independent.

This feature is true even for the most elite and loyal battalions. They can carry out orders from Liu Chengzong well, but when Liu Chengzong's orders do not come...they will move by themselves.

Ding Guodong is different. He is a very traditional general, and the Suzhou soldiers under him are also very traditional Ming soldiers. Relatively speaking, they are more formal than the most regular army in the Marshal’s Mansion. There are no orders from above. If you don't move, don't move.

The three battalions of Luo Rucai, Li Wanqing, and Yang Chengzu under Wang Wenxiu's command were different. The three of them had already disappeared with their troops—they wanted to rescue disasters and catch locusts.

Once the migratory locusts descended from the sky, people couldn't see the distance or hear orders at all. They couldn't even see Fulongping, let alone Liu Chengzong and Wang Wenxiu standing on Fulongping.

Each of the three battalions had less than 3000 people, but none of the three generals could pull away the entire army under the swarm of locusts. Yang Chengzu took more than 1000 people and ran for eight miles to defend the official warehouse outside Xiguan, Lanzhou. Li Wanqing ran halfway west to guard the sorghum fields.

Luo Ru is a young expert in long-distance running. He is dressed in fancy clothes. He is the most beautiful boy in the marshal's mansion in the sky full of locusts. The soldiers can find him. Wherever he goes, the soldiers will follow him... But Luo Ru has just gone to Xigu.

If you ask Liu Chengzong, which crop is the least important around Lanzhou at this time, he will definitely say sweet potatoes, because it gets cold in autumn, and the sweet potatoes planted in the ground have stopped growing, and there are not many sweet potatoes planted in the Marshal's Mansion.

Sweet potatoes are afraid of the cold, and the cold mountainous areas are not suitable for planting, and the growth period coincides with that of wheat and corn. In addition, the growth, harvesting, and storage stages are extremely labor-intensive. In Hehuang, only Dongguan Town is planted because of Liu Chengzong's order. In Lanzhou, after harvesting wheat in Xigu, a batch of sweet potatoes were planted in rotation, and the vines were eaten as vegetables.

Luo Rucai went to defend the sweet potato.

But this ghost defends sweet potatoes not because he likes to eat them. On the contrary, because he is stationed in Xigu, he has eaten sweet potatoes as a meal, and he has acid reflux, heartburn, and farts. After that, he will be anxious with anyone who asks him to eat sweet potatoes—but Conversely, if anyone said that the Marshal's Mansion would not grow sweet potatoes from now on, he would be in a hurry with him.

Luo Ru just ate too many sweet potatoes and swore that as long as he had a bite to eat, he would not even look at the sweet potatoes if he could eat white noodles but not yellow noodles.

But the premise here is that there must be a bite to eat. In this era, as the leader of the peasant army who emerged from the drought in northern Shaanxi, Luo Rucai knew very well that they would still encounter a situation where they would not have a bite to eat. At that time, he would He must eat black noodles made of sweet potatoes, so he must defend the sweet potatoes.

No matter how good wheat and corn are, they cannot be eaten until they are ripe. Sweet potatoes are different. Except in winter, they can be planted, dug, and eaten at any time. They may be smaller, but the leaves, roots, and fruits cannot be eaten to death.

But, well, Luo Ru had a good idea... He ran for thirty miles to Xigu, only to find that the corn and sorghum planted along the way were almost eaten up by locusts, only the sweet potato field was in good condition, and there was nothing wrong with it
Like him, locusts don't like to eat.

Wang Wenxiu, with disheveled hair, heard the summons and rushed to see Liu Chengzong. When he saw Liu Chengzong, he was very ashamed at first sight, thinking that his camp was not done well.

Unexpectedly, Liu Chengzong didn't care about this matter at all, and was even surprised by his ashamed expression: The locust plague came, which means that the emperor has lost his virtue. I am not the emperor. Chongzhen in the Forbidden City should be ashamed. Why are you ashamed?
Fortunately, Wang Wenxiu, before he could speak, opened his mouth to accept the punishment: "The commander-in-chief, the last general made a mistake in leading the troops, the Seventh Battalion..."

"It's just a plague of locusts, don't be downcast."

Liu Chengzong raised his hand to interrupt, and blocked what he hadn't said. The army ran everywhere. Up to now, only seven battalions have been found there, but none of the battalions is full. Return, this is normal.

The locust plague is force majeure. The army running around is indeed a problem, but it is also understandable. After all, they are doing what they should do-the locusts really let the locusts rush into the official warehouse where Lanzhou stores food. Tens of thousands of troops ate them. What?
"Listen to me, I will take care of the locust plague, don't worry about it." Liu Chengzong gave Yulin the order to go back to Lanzhou, and walked with Wang Wenxiu on the horse: "Go back to the palace first, call the battalion generals, Wei Qian'er and Ding Guodong don't need to go."

Wei Qian'er and a few other generals had just run over when they heard Liu Chengzong watching him and saying this, everyone was dumbfounded: "Where do I need to go, Commander?"

Seeing Liu Chengzong stationed beside the horse road, he urged: "You don't have to participate in the military meeting, gather your camp, the bugs come from the east, this year the whole Shaanxi rotation crops are gone, tens of thousands of officials in Gongchang Mansion and Qinzhou What will the army eat? You and Ding Guodong gather up the army and rest on the spot, prepare to set off tonight, and then come to the palace when you are ready."

When Wei Qian'er heard that there was an order, he immediately clasped fists with Ding Guodong and returned to the barracks.

When the locust plague was bad, Liu Chengzong's face was gloomy and scary, and no one dared to speak until he entered Lanzhou City, Liu Chengzong directly asked Yulin to ride into the mansion to hang a map, and Wang Wenxiu asked: "The commander wants to use the locust plague to start a war?"

"War?" Liu Chengzong stared and said, "The bugs came from the east. I'm afraid that the officers and soldiers will come to snatch my food!"

The reason why Liu Chengzong's order was issued in a hurry was because he calculated in his heart that it was conservatively estimated that there were still 20 days left.

He personally compiled the Marshal's Mansion's Famine Relief and Epidemic Prevention Book, and he knew a lot about locust plagues.

The first attack of the locust plague was just the drum before the war. Every time the locusts passed through the land, they would lay eggs in the soil and then fly away to find food. In Lanzhou, there is a high probability that they will fly back.

The eggs in the ground will turn into worms after 20 days, and then a new batch of locusts will rise up again and lay eggs in the ground again that can survive the whole winter.

He can't eliminate the locust plague because the locusts' spawning grounds have covered the whole of Shaanxi, and there will be a large-scale locust plague next year, but at least he can control the locusts and insect eggs in Hehuang and Lintao this winter as much as possible. And establish a set of means to deal with locust plagues.

But the most important thing is that no one came to make trouble during these 20 days.

Otherwise, the plague of locusts has never been something that can be passed in one wave.

good evening!