Great Warriors of Sui and Tang Dynasties

Chapter 1221 Li Xiancheng

Li Gang, the prime minister of Yanshi County, dressed in a blue official robe, came to the river beach with a few subordinates to inspect. excitement.

Li Gang walked around with a dark face, stopping to look and ask questions from time to time.

The more he watched, the more frightened he became. On the Yellow River beach, a lot of locust eggs were really dug up. It was almost as if he dug down several or even seven or eight locust eggs with a hoe.

shocking.

It was not until noon, and many people had already dug up half a bucket of locust eggs. A rough estimate was at least five or six catties.

On this river beach, there are no fewer than four or five thousand old and young digging in just a dozen villages in Mangling Township, and it takes several thousand catties to dig.

Looking at the buckets of locust eggs, Li Gang's heart became more and more heavy. He began to realize that this time he might really face a huge locust plague. Only such a few thousand acres of river beach could be dug out in half a day. Thousands of catties of locust eggs are coming.

There are [-] to [-] locust eggs per catty. If they all hatch, think about [-] to [-] migratory locusts, which can directly destroy crops in a large area. Wouldn’t it be possible to hatch several thousand locust eggs? Thousands of migratory locusts?

Li Gang's scalp tingled when he thought of the migratory locusts covering the sky and blocking out the sun, leaving no blade of grass in their path.

It seems that what the emperor said in the previous meeting was not exaggerated.

An old official said at the side, "In the past, there would always be locust plagues here every few years, but I have lived for most of my life, and I have never seen so many locust eggs. This time, it can be regarded as a rare occurrence in a hundred years." ah."

Li Gang didn't say a word.

He continued to turn around. At the end of the day, he turned around the thousands of acres of river beaches, and found that they were all the same, with dense holes everywhere. People could dig out many egg masses with a hoe, and it was quite easy to dig eggs.

Regardless of being tired, Li Gang said to the old officials around him, "We must inform everyone, don't have to dig it out, don't try to be quick, just careless omissions, if one egg is missed, dozens of migratory locusts will be born later, and the evil will be eliminated. !"

Sitting on the beach of the Yellow River, Li Gang felt very heavy.

At the end of the day, he only ate two steamed cakes, but he didn't care about being tired and hungry.

The subordinate officials persuaded him to go back to the county seat, but he insisted that he planned not to go back for the time being, and would just stare at this river beach these days.

noon.

All the families were busy digging eggs and didn't have time to go back, so they hurriedly ate some dry food brought by the family and drank some cold water before continuing to dig.

Everyone dug eggs to rest, and went to the neighbors to see the harvest and compare the results.

Ding Laosan dug very hard. For him, digging locust eggs was actually not too tiring. In the past, he had several brothers, but some died of famine, some died of war, and they still died of famine during the war.

For a bite to eat, he went up to the mountains to hunt and go down to the river to touch fish, and even ate grass roots and tree bark and soil during the famine, that feeling of hungry chest sticking to the back, black eyes, and sour water in the stomach , It is really memorable.

Life is easier now, but there is also a big family, there are three sons and two daughters in the family, three of them died before, the eldest Zhuzi works as a clerk in the county town, and the second eldest Heiwa is in the school Studying, the youngest son is just three years old.The daughter-in-law always says that she wants to have two more children. The poorer the family, the more she wants to have more children. With no one to rely on, she thinks about relying on children in the future. If there are more children, brothers and sisters will also have more to rely on.

The family has dozens of acres of land, all of which have been divided over the past few years. There are paddy fields, mountainous land, and mulberry forest land. However, they live in the north of Mang Mountain, near the Yellow River, in Mangling Township. The harvest is unstable, and some fields are often flooded. Although the flooded imperial court will reduce or exempt land taxes, the income is also reduced.

When the third child has free time, he will go fishing and hunting, and sometimes he will go to the county town or Luoyang with the villagers to find work, and do part-time jobs for a period of time to supplement the family.

He was still thinking, when the time is better, the family saves some money, and then borrows some money, renovates the old house at home, builds a few more rooms, and adds a backyard. Prepare the place where the family will live after marriage.

It was getting darker.

The sun has disappeared.

Everyone was still reluctant to leave.

"How much have you dug?" Lao Ding put down his hoe and asked his wife Li.

Mrs. Li wiped off her sweat and handed the bucket to the third child.Lao Ben carried the bucket and estimated it, "I guess it weighs fifteen or six catties."

"Really so many?"

"I know how much it is when I carry it, and I can't be wrong."

"Fifteen catties, wouldn't it be possible to exchange for 45 catties of millet?" Ding Laosan has eight members in his family. The eldest son works as a clerk in a shop in the county town, and his two daughters also work in Luoyang workshops to earn wages. There are two children and three adults, but usually the second son goes to school and eats at school at noon.

There are three big children and one small family, and there are only three liters of food a day.

"Save some food, enough for our family for half a month."

The price of rice in Luoyang is [-] yuan for a bucket of rice, and millet is cheaper, but it costs more than ten yuan for a bucket. In this way, if a family digs locust eggs today, it can be exchanged for a hundred yuan.

The third child said that this is not the case. When locusts rise, famine comes. In years of famine, gold can't buy food.

"I just don't know if I will really accept it."

Looking at the sky, it was very late, and we had to walk back in a while. The village head and the militia captain were already yelling for everyone to go home, fearing that it would be too late and there would be wild beasts and wolves.

Everyone packed up their tools and went home together.

On the way, everyone was discussing the matter of exchanging locust eggs for food.

"It's so late, I guess no one will come to collect it today, so I hope someone will come to collect it tomorrow."

"It's fine if someone comes to collect it the day after tomorrow."

I arrived at the village in the dark and found someone waiting at the entrance of the village.

"Zhang Zuoshi, why are you here? It's so late."

"The new Li County Prime Minister issued an order, requiring us to go down to every township and village to register the dug locust eggs for food, no matter how late it is today. You see, we have already brought food here. "

Everyone saw that there were indeed two large carts of grain over there, and they couldn't help but get excited.

"Hurry up and invite from the village."

In the village, only a few people with limited hands and feet stayed in the village, and the rest who were able to move went to the river beach to dig eggs during the day.

The village head welcomed Zhang Zuoli and the others into the village.

"I'll ask my mother-in-law to arrange food!"

"We ate dry food on the way, so we should do business first. I think everyone is waiting to change the food. Please get some torches and oil lamps. Let's go to this village to change the locust eggs first."

Everyone was very excited, many people ran to get the lamps, and some people started to light a fire directly at the head of the village.

Zhang Zuoli is still very serious about his work. The new county magistrate is too powerful, and the newly demoted bachelor is still the prince's teacher. Although he is only the eighth-rank county magistrate now, he has been a prince's teacher after all, who knows when he will go up again Already.Therefore, everyone didn't dare to object to Zhang Xiancheng's obviously unreasonable order, so they just ran away hard.

"Everyone line up and come one by one."

(End of this chapter)