Poor family mother and son

The word "Master Cotton" is still very loud.

The common people don't know what "Wailang, a member of the Department of Cotton", but they know that "Master Cotton" is a woman.

The woman in men's clothes in front of her claimed to be "Master Cotton", and the old man's expression changed from anger to questioning: "What's your last name?"

"My name is Chu Qing." Chu Qing replied.

This can't dispel the old man's suspicion. He has indeed heard that "Master Cotton" has the surname Chu, but he has never seen it.

The old man asked, "What are you doing here?"

Chu Qing pointed at the old man's fist that was clenched with dirt: "It came for the thing in your hand."

The old man asked again: "What do you mean?"

Chu Qing pointed to the laundry stone by the river again: "Let's sit there and chat for a while." After saying that, he walked over first.

The old man followed hesitantly. After sitting down, he spread his palms, looked at the few cylindrical eggs, and asked, "Do you know what these are?"

Chu Qing said: "I know. I was interrupted by you just now, are you afraid that the villagers will hear it?"

Seeing that the old man didn't answer, Chu Qing said to himself: "Just now I said that there will be locusts in extreme droughts. I'm worried that there will be locust plagues this year."

The old man just sat down and stood up again. He wanted to interrupt Chu Qing's words, but he was afraid that if the person in front of him was really "Master Cotton", he would not be able to take the blame.

He said: "I don't care who you are, please don't say what you said just now, if people hear you, I will have to eat and walk around, and we don't have any chickens or ducks to sell!"

It's not easy for Chu Qing to sit down when someone of such an age is standing and talking, so he also stood up: "Why can't you talk? What concerns do you have? There is no one else here, so you can talk to me and treat it as a chat."

Chu Qing showed him her bronze waist badge, and wanted to show it to him while sitting and chatting, but the old man was in a hurry at the slightest word, so there was no room for effort.

No one is like Chu Qing, who goes out with a waist card of no less than two yuan every day.

Others hid silver in their waists, but she hid a waist badge, one piece of iron was issued by the secret investigation department; the other piece of copper was issued by the Ministry of Household Affairs.

The old man was startled, and took the waist card with both hands, forgetting that there was still a handful of sand in his hand, which made the waist card stained with dirt, and his clothes were also stained a lot.

He wiped his clothes back and forth in a panic, and kept apologizing, but he didn't let go of his waistband, but turned his back and looked back and forth, for fear that the villagers in the distance would see his movements and surround him.

"Are you really Mr. Cotton?" The old man's hands trembled, and his voice trembled. Although he could not recognize the lettering on the waist card, he had seen the waist card before.

Not to mention the copper ones, even the silver ones have been seen before. Doesn't the magistrate have a piece of silver?Ordinary people privately guess whether such a piece of silver is enough to make a bracelet.

The fifth grade and above are silver, the third grade and above are gold, clearly understand this, copper!Rank differences are ubiquitous.

After struggling with his identity for a long time, Chu Qing suddenly realized how Bai Hua felt about him when he first met Bai Hua.I guess I want to scold people more than I do now.

Chu Qing's silence made the old man a little panicked: Do you want to kneel down and kowtow when you see the official?
"Let's sit down and chat." Chu Qing sat down again, and the old man also sat down after hesitation.

Picking up the locust eggs again, to tell the truth, if you don't know that they are insect eggs, just looking at this thing, I really think it's quite cute.

Yellow, a little elastic, and a little shiny after cleaning, like an ultra-small capsule.

"In your village, do you raise more chickens or more ducks?" Chu Qing asked.

The old man still held Chu Qing's badge in his hand and did not return it, as if this would increase his confidence in speaking: "My lord, we raise a lot of chickens in our village. Chickens and ducks are not easy to keep together, and they are easy to get sick."

The old man spoke a little cautiously, and looked even more like he had something to say but had to answer the question first.

It is true that chickens and ducks cannot be kept together, because their living habits are different, and mixed breeding will cause diseases to each other and waste feed.

"Yes." Chu Qing agreed without saying a word.

The old man waited for a while, holding on to Chu Qing's waist card, made up his mind and finally spoke: "My lord, I have something to say."

Chu Qing nodded: "Old man, please tell me."

The old man hurriedly said: "My lord, I won't kowtow to you if I'm being rude. There are young people from the village over there. I'm afraid they will see it, because what I want to say may cause trouble!"

Chu Qing was a little surprised: "Bringing trouble?"

The old man swallowed his saliva: "Yes, the old fellows in our village all feel that this year... there will be a plague of locusts!
You were right just now, as the old saying goes: When there is a drought, locusts will come.

After last autumn, when the floods stopped, there were a lot of locusts in the field. At that time, I thought they would not be able to hop for a few days anyway. Everyone didn’t care. They just told the children to go to the field to catch more insects. In winter, even if Insect eggs will also freeze to death.

But who would have thought that last winter was not too cold, there was a little snow a year ago, and it will not fall again, this year is even worse, and there will be no rain in the next year!
The drought is severe. I heard thunder once in the moonlight last month, and then there was nothing!

Although the locusts weren't too noisy after last fall, they gave birth to a lot of cubs!

A few of us old guys went to dig in the fields last month, and we can dig this thing up anywhere! "

The old man pointed at the locust eggs: "If the drought continues like this, these things may come out a few days later, but the crops will die of drought;
But what if, if it rains someday, this thing will turn into a locust swarm, break out of the ground, and cause a disaster!
We went to the village head, and the village head went to the head of the village. After discussing it for a long time, we thought it was a big deal, so the head of the village went to the county magistrate, but we didn't expect to be beaten and thrown out! "

Chu Qing immediately asked, "Why hit the board?"

The old man said: "The magistrate's words are just lies and rumors! The magistrate said that a drought is a drought, just go and fetch more water to irrigate the fields!"

If you dare to speak nonsense, spread rumors everywhere, and make people panic, he will be sent to jail!He was not even allowed to go back to the village.

The chief thought it might be because he was afraid that the common people would make a fuss about not paying the summer tax, but the old man felt that it would be useless, so he had to find a way!We ordinary people just point to the prospects in the ground to survive!

If it doesn't rain, we will lose more than half of the harvest in our field. If there is a plague of locusts, then we will have to lose our house!
My lord, little old man, I experienced a plague of locusts when I was young. At that time, the locusts covered the sky and the sun for ten days, destroying the vegetation wherever they went, and nearly half of the people in the village starved to death;
That’s when I fled here with my family, and I couldn’t escape, there were refugees everywhere, staring at blood-red eyes, catching and eating children whenever I saw them...”

The old man closed his eyes, as if the horrible scene was in front of him, and he couldn't see it until he closed his eyes: "My lord, I am 65 years old this year, and I have experienced five or six locust plagues since I was a child... …

Xiaolao has never been to other places, but here we have a disturbance every ten or eight years, and each time it is not too big. We guard the mountains, and there are fruits and bark, so we can survive;
But this time... Look, insect eggs can be dug up everywhere, and there may be nothing left to eat even in the mountains. "

Can it be so serious? !