Great Warriors of Sui and Tang Dynasties

Chapter 1220 Grain Drops from the Sky

Early in the morning, Dingjiatai, Manling Township, Yanshi County, was beating gongs and drums.

Villager Ding Laosan went fishing last night, slept late, and now he is sleeping soundly. He was woken up by the sound of gongs and drums. He sat up with red eyes, but saw his son who was supposed to be in school at home.

"You little bastard, how dare you skip class? Is it easy for you, grandpa, to send you to school? Although tuition fees are waived in elementary schools, which one is less for books, pens and papers, for you to go to school hard, I will get up early In the dark, after working on the crops in the field, I have to go fishing and bird hunting in my free time, and I also go to the county to do labor, your mother raises chickens and feeds pigs, and your kid actually skips class." He said and touched the bedside. , If you want to beat this little bastard up, it's not easy for ordinary people to support a child to study.

Even if paper, ink and pens are not as expensive as before, they are not cheap.

"Grandpa, I didn't skip class, it's because our school is on holiday today."

"You lied to me, today is not a holiday, nor is it a ten-day holiday. What kind of holiday are you taking?"

"It's really a holiday. Our whole school is on holiday. The teacher said that the higher-ups have notified us that we will carry out a mass eradication of locusts for the whole people, so we have a holiday. This allows us to come back to get tools, and then we have to go back to school and be led by the teacher to dig locust eggs."

Ding Laosan rubbed his red eyes, and asked in confusion, "What are you digging for during the holidays?"

"Digging locust eggs is the eggs that locusts lay in the ground. It is said that last winter was flooded and there was no snow in winter. This spring is dry. I am afraid that there will be locust plagues. Therefore, the sage issued an edict to let the local governments dig locust eggs as a precaution."

Ding Laosan got up and went to his small courtyard, seeing his wife was also taking out the sieve and shovel, "What are you doing?"

His wife Li Shi said, "Early in the morning, the captain of the militia was beating gongs and drums, saying that the county government had notified the villages to go to the river beach to dig locust eggs. The locust eggs cannot be dug clean, and a large number of migratory locusts will appear later, and they will be punished at that time."

"Is there still this?"

"No, I heard that a death order was issued from above. In any county that is not good for locust control, the county magistrate, county magistrate, and county lieutenant will be removed from their posts. In any township that is not good for governance, the township chief will be dismissed for inspection. Unfavorable, the head of Lizheng Village will be dismissed."

Ding Laosan shook his head, "I've never heard of digging locust eggs?"

At this time, the mother of the third child came out of the room, "Drought means there is a drought, and we have to fight the drought. There is a plague of locusts, so we have to worship the God of Locusts. The temple of the God of Locusts in our village was demolished a few years ago. The God of Locusts will not accept it." When we came to offer incense, we became angry, this is to punish us by sending down locust plagues, and we have to build another temple of locusts in the village, everyone worships."

Ding Heiwa said, "Mother, our teacher said that the locust plague is a natural phenomenon and has nothing to do with the locust god, and worshiping the locust god is useless."

"Your child knows everything after studying for a few days?"

Ding Laosan glared at his son, not letting him refute his mother.He asked his son to bring him a basin of water to wash his face, "One meter of locust eggs is exchanged for three catties of millet. Are these locust eggs easy to dig?"

Heiwa fetched water and handed the towel to his father, "It's easy to dig. Our teacher took us to the place where there are locust eggs. The holes are dense, mainly on the banks of rivers and lakes. They are all flooded." The place where the water is receding, the soil is hard outside, but there is still water inside, is the place where these locusts like to lay their eggs. The river beach in front of our platform is full of holes, densely packed, just an inch below the ground. There are locust eggs on the left and right."

"Our teacher calculated that if we dug up a catty of eggs, there would be about four to five hundred egg masses, and there would be one egg mass in each hole."

When Ding Laosan heard it, he became interested.

"The river beach is about one inch underground, so four to five hundred holes have to be dug for a catty?" But one inch is very shallow, and the river beach is no harder than the mountain. If the holes for locusts to lay eggs are dense, then there are really some holes. Head digging.

In their family, he and his wife are in charge of digging, and their son and daughter are in charge of sifting. They can get about ten catties a day no matter what.

More than ten catties of millet is not much, but spring plowing has not started yet, and depending on the year and climate, it has been dry this year, and it is estimated that there is no water for spring plowing. There have been locust plagues here before, and he remembers them clearly. Every day, there will be no grass left wherever it passes, and once the locust plague is over, there will be famine.

Although there is a lot of rations in the family now, everyone is afraid of famine, and it is a point to save more food.

After washing his face indiscriminately, the third child immediately decided to take the whole family to dig locust eggs.

"Go to the village first and listen to what the village chief has to say."

"it is good."

Ding Laosan took his three-year-old son Shitou to the village, and found that many villagers had gathered here.

There is also a notice posted on a wall at the head of the village.

"If you want to overcome the famine, quickly dig locust eggs."

"If you want to eat white noodles, you have to dig locust eggs!"

"One catty of locust eggs is exchanged for three catties of millet, as much as you have."

"The control of locusts is not good, and the whole village will be punished!"

The village head stood in front, and was reading out the instructions to the villagers loudly.

Some villagers are more concerned about whether the locust eggs can be exchanged for food, and some people say that what is the use of the locust eggs, and who will exchange food for it must be a lie.

"Cheat you a bear ball, how can the imperial court deceive people? This is written in the edict issued by the sage, no matter where the world is, you can exchange locust eggs for food from the Yamen, as much as you can."

"Is there really such a good thing?"

"The county also sent Zhang Zuoshi to inform me earlier that Dingjiatai is close to the Yellow River, and there is a large area of ​​the Yellow River beach in front of it. It is said that the locust eggs are densely covered there, so we must dig it out. As for the locust eggs for food, when the time comes People from the county will come to the village to exchange them directly, so we don’t need to bother to go to the village or county.”

"The weather is getting hotter, and the locust eggs will hatch into adults in March. Everyone, hurry up and move. No matter what important work you have in your hands, go to the river beach to dig locust eggs for me."

The village head also asked the militia captains and women captains in the village to take the lead.

After the meeting, the villagers were full of enthusiasm. They took tools from their homes one after another, and then the whole family, old and young, went to battle together and rushed to the river beach.

When I got to the river beach, I found that a neighbor village had already started digging on the nearby river beach.

Ding Laosan asked his son to choose a piece of land, which was separated from the villagers.

"Grandfather, you can see that this densely packed hole is full of holes, there must be many locust eggs inside."

"It's full of grain, dig it quickly." Ding Laosan laughed and said, in his opinion, this is just like digging grain directly in the ground, which is much easier than growing crops.

Mother Ding was chanting aloud there, but when she listened carefully, she was chanting about the locust god, don't blame.

The third child picked up the hoe, and as soon as the hoe went down, he dug up a large piece of soil. Heiwa's eyes were sharp, and he saw the eggs in the soil.

"Grandfather, look, there is a big row of eggs."

Almost without using a sieve, I picked up a long piece of locust eggs directly from the dry soil. This is the egg laid by a locust, and there are dozens of locust eggs inside.

The third child looked down, "It's quite easy."

"Grandfather, there are still some in this soil." Hei Wa said loudly, in the soil with the hoe that the third child dug up just now, there was not only one egg mass, but several egg masses.

"Damn, it's really a lot. If it's so dense, then it's really grain falling from the sky. It's no problem to dig twenty catties a day."

Li Shi said, "There are so many of us, so work hard. You can dig more than a dozen catties. If you exchange one catty of eggs for three catties of millet, you won't earn forty or fifty catties of millet that day."

Now even Mother Ding can't care less about reciting the locust god. It's no wonder that digging the ground can exchange dozens of catties of grain a day, which is no easier than falling grain from the sky.

"Don't just stand there and talk, dig quickly, dig quickly." Ding's mother urged her son.

(End of this chapter)