The War Court and Lap Pillow, Austria's Mandate of Heaven

Chapter 709 Unexpected 【Addition】

Pius IX's deworming ceremony continued, but he felt that the sky seemed to be darkening.The other people present also felt this, and they raised their heads to see that the sun in the sky was covered by the black swarm of insects, and they were on their way.

At this time, Pius IX couldn't help but shrink his pupils. In fact, in order to ensure that there would be no accidents, he clearly ordered the surrounding farmland to be burned and used the scorched earth policy to stop the swarm.

However, Pius IX overlooked one point. The locusts are not humans, and their marching speed far exceeds that of humans.

The flying speed of locusts can reach 10 kilometers per hour, and they can fly continuously for 3 days, that is, they can fly about 720 kilometers in one flight.

Therefore, Pius IX laid down a cruel isolation zone, which can be easily crossed by locusts.

So the holy city, Rome, fell, and both the precious flowers and the carefully pruned trees became the rations of locusts.

Pius IX even fled into Castel Sant'Angelo without even completing the ceremony. It's not that locusts can eat people, but that the audience was scared away, so who else would he act for.

"Oh! God! There are too many locusts!"

Even though they had escaped into the church, the sound of locusts hitting the door panels and glass could be heard from time to time outside.

Seeing the embarrassment of the pope, the congregation couldn't help but began to pray one after another, while the high-level officials went to the underground chamber under the escort of Swiss mercenaries.

In the secret room, there are not only good wine and food, but also beauties who have been waiting for a long time, and there is even a band and a children's choir.

In the face of the overwhelming locusts, Franz has not much to do, because there is no strong enough insecticide, and pyrethrum is actually still not enough.

So all Franz can think of is chicken soldiers and duck generals. There are not many ducks in Europe, but chickens are easy to find.

Franz himself has set up many chicken farms, and is the largest chicken farmer in the Austrian Empire.

At this time, Franz didn't care whether it was laying hens or broiler chickens, and directly shipped 100 million chickens to northern Italy to fight locusts.

After all, the story of chicken soldiers and duck generals has not only been passed down for thousands of years, but is still used in modern times.And it can not only eliminate locusts, but also fatten chickens and ducks and sell them for money. Those high-protein chickens and ducks can't be eaten normally.

However, the "quack killing" that Franz expected did not actually appear. The ducks were extremely weak when facing this large desert migratory locust, and were even scared to run around.

The locusts living in the eastern grasslands are not the same species as the African migratory locusts. Ducks really like to eat those small locusts, but they only like to eat locust gnats without wings. They are not very interested in adults.

The size of the desert migratory locust is three to five times the size of the grassland grasshopper, and it is more flexible and harder.

Moreover, the tsar migratory locust will secrete pheromones to change its own hormone levels, and even secrete something like phenylacetonitrile, which will stimulate the duck's body to feel uncomfortable.

In addition to phenylacetonitrile, if the number of locusts is large enough, they will also secrete hydrocyanic acid, which will directly cause symptoms of poisoning in most birds.

So the 100 ducks that Franz managed to get together were useless. Relatively speaking, the attack power of the chickens was really impressive, but even [-] million chickens were helpless against hundreds of billions of locusts.

And what's even more embarrassing is that the locals have been thinking about these chickens and ducks, especially after the failure of the operation to guard the fields, they began to rob them in the hope of recovering some of their own losses.

Other countries are also very concerned about the locust plague, because French agriculture has experienced poor harvests for two consecutive years. If there is another locust plague this time, they will have to import food from the United States.

Spain is also facing a similar situation, even worse than the situation in France. After all, the French have colonies and money.

But the Spanish government is really poor and white. If the locusts come, they can only catch as many locusts as possible and store them for the winter.

Northern Italy has always been an important grain-producing area of ​​the Austrian Empire, and the reduction in production after the locust plague reached an exaggerated level.

Vienna, Regent Council.

"Damn it! Not only do we have to deal with the vast number of locusts, but also the vast number of Italians!"

Too many things happened this year, and Earl Kolarov obviously felt the pressure as the finance minister.

The Poles in the north, the refugee problem, the ubiquitous cholera and crime, the border friction and the Swiss in the west, the Slavs in the east, the tsunami and locusts in the south, and the most difficult thing to deal with, the Pope.

Prince Metternich was also very helpless. It was impossible for the Austrian Empire to leave northern Italy alone, but how could it be so easy to solve the relief food for more than 1000 million people?
The Hungarians were very happy. Kossuth published an article in the newspaper calling for not to sell a grain of grain to Austria, and starve to death these German villains.

Franz couldn't help complaining while holding the newspaper.

"This Mr. Kossuth is still so naive, and the victims should be Italians."

"Thank you for being able to laugh. If the Hungarians really don't sell food, then there may be riots in northern Italy, right? And have you forgotten that the Polish Restoration Army is preparing to revolt in September?"

Adjani reminded, but she is not too worried about what will happen to Austria. After all, Franz looks confident, and there should be a solution.

However, the former was too disappointed with the intelligence and confidentiality work of the Polish Restoration Army, and all plans were completely exposed to the enemy's field of vision.

Just find a few people who claim to be Polish restorationists and you can get in. You can even buy a full version of the uprising plan for a few florins in Vienna.

If they didn't fail, it must be because the other party didn't want them to fail.

"Don't worry, there is no need to worry about the source of food, and it is impossible for Hungarians not to sell their own food, and those revolutionaries also have to eat.

As for those insurgents in Poland, I think you know better than I what their virtues are.

But this locust plague has disrupted a lot of things, and the damage is far beyond my imagination.Why is it that chicken soldiers and ducks will not work? "

"Aren't you going to continue recruiting chickens and ducks to fight against the swarm?"

Franz scratched his head.

"I have no other choice. I can't invite the "God" like the Pope, right?"

"How do you know if you don't try?"

Ajani had a very serious expression.

"That's fine. Locusts! Get out of my country!"

Franz raised his hands to the sky and made a very serious look, and Adjani was also amused, after all, the former rarely does such outrageous things.

However, the two amused in the Schönbrunn Palace at this time did not know that the locusts actually turned around after eating northern Italy and flew to the Ottoman Empire
(However, this is not because Franz's words really worked, but because the locusts couldn't fly over the Alps, so they turned to the Balkans.

There have been several large-scale locust plagues in history that turned around in this way. The Austrians in the north made countless preparations, and then the former stopped coming. )
(End of this chapter)