Poor family mother and son

Chapter 446 The Locust God Doesn't Bless You, I Bless You!
The black butler naturally hated Xiaobao, but he had nothing to do with him.

Even if you send someone to kill him, you can't kill him, so what else?They could only send someone to monitor Xiaobao's movements every day to find the opportunity.

Seeing Xiaobao encourage the people to catch and eat locusts this time, the black butler felt that he had a way to ruin the reputation of Sanshun Escort.

So he made people spread rumors everywhere that the young owner of Sanshun Escort was against God's will and offended the God of Locust, which brought great trouble to Xiaobao.

If Xiaobao uses the name of the Sanshun Escort to carry out the locust-for-grain operation, it will definitely turn the people who can't afford food to his side and crack down on the rumors.

Chu Qing still felt that it was inappropriate for Xiaobao to do this by himself, and even said it was dangerous, but there was one thing she didn't expect.

Deputy Wang Qianhu reported the whole story of the incident in detail to the secret investigation department while he was engaged in "locusts for food" in Yibin Mansion.

In a few days, in addition to the Yibin Mansion Council, government offices in various places will also receive orders. In addition to regulating food prices, "locusts for food" will also be used as a method to reduce pressure on "Yi Cang" and "Guanghui Cang". been promoted.

Yicang is under the organization of the government, and the fee is drawn according to the head and the acre of land, and is used to relieve the people in case of a famine.

Guanghui warehouse was established with government taxation and its main purpose was to help the old, young, sick and disabled.

When the famine is too severe, the functional differences between Changping warehouse, righteous warehouse and Guanghui warehouse are not so great.

Of course, this is only a role that can only be played under a clear officialdom.

In fact, it is not uncommon for officials to use the grain in these granaries to repay private debts, or for the government to directly use it for national use, that is, the government directly transports grain to the capital.

So after Chu Qing left, on the fifth day when Little Treasure was carrying out the "locusts for food" activity at the Sanshun Escort, the Youzhou government government also began to do the same.

But the difference is that the food that the common people exchanged from Xiaobao was relatively fresh rice grain, while the food that the common people exchanged from the government office was old moldy grain.

There are no corrupt officials who don't want food.

For corrupt officials, the granaries in various places are simply a no-cost business. Only unsalable rotten rice and old rice can be used for disaster relief. They have secretly sold the good rice, so how can they still get it?

However, the operation of exchanging locusts for food gave them time to "remedial". For example, in Youzhou Prefecture, the magistrate began to call grain merchants to raise food.

This is a matter of the government, and the common people naturally don't know it.

The common people only know that the Sanshun Escort Bureau can not only exchange rice for food, but also teach everyone how to catch locusts, such as intercepting them with fishing nets, copying them to sweep the fields, smoking wormwood and wrapping them in cloth bags, etc.

People who can't afford food, and those who can afford it but are not willing to spend money on it, are all involved in the action of catching locusts.

When Xiaobao looked at the people who pointed at his nose and scolded him a few days ago, and raised their arms half-covered their faces to exchange for food, he always said in relief: "The locust god will not bless you, I will bless you!"

Although the Chongyu Mansion where Xiaobao lives does not raise chickens and ducks like the Yibin Mansion where Chu Qing lives, and effectively controls the hatching and reproduction of locusts, Chongyu Mansion has more water areas than Yibin due to its lower terrain. Mansion, so the pest damage did not exceed Yibin Mansion.

Locusts like to lay their eggs in relatively dry places, and last year there was a flood in Chongyufu, so the pest damage here is not too serious.

Not serious is relative to the definition of "disaster". When officials report to the court, they must classify disasters into grades. If the degree is serious, it is called "disaster", and if the degree is not enough, it is called "harm".

The common people's judgment standard is: if the locusts do not form a "cloud", it is not called a disaster.

While looking at the locust-for-grain line, Xiaobao listened to the people chatting in line:
"Oh, the harvest this year will not be good! Even if there are no locusts, the drought alone will not yield much food!"

"Even if there is no drought, locusts alone won't be enough!"

"Where is this? You are still young and don't know. Old man, I experienced it once. The locusts all over the sky, you walk in the field, and they all fly towards your face and mouth!"

"Is it really that evil?"

"It's so evil! I also knew that year, old man Wang and I escaped from the famine together, but I was still young at that time."

"Actually, the locusts were just like the ones now, but there were many more locusts in less than a month. In autumn, the sky was full of clouds, and even the birds disappeared in the sky!"

"Don't birds eat bugs, why don't they disappear?"

"Xiaosheng, you don't know this. Too many things can be scary! There are too many ants, and the house will be gnawed down by you. There are too many locusts. Let alone birds, the dogs at home hide in the house with their tails between their legs. go!"

"What do they know, a group of children! At that time, you just took off your clothes and pumped them into the air, and you could pull out hundreds of locusts."

Because the locusts and food need to be weighed before being exchanged, the speed is not fast, and more and more people in the queue are participating in the chat.

Soon, the person who started the chatou was no longer the center of the chat, but shifted to the well-informed and experienced old people.

Some old people are not good at words, but from his expression, one can feel the despair of "thousands of locusts pass through the border, and not a single grass remains".

The team suddenly became dull again.

Soon, a cheerful young man broke the dullness and said:

"It's a pity! If there are so many locusts now, if we shake off the clothes and smoke a bunch, how much food will we have to exchange for!"

"Hahaha, that's not true! You don't even know that for these locusts, I waved my pen in the field all morning and ran across four acres of land!"

"Are you swinging the rice paddle in the field? Aren't you afraid that you'll spoil the rice? It's earring now!"

"Forget it! I don't know how your family is. Most of the ears of rice in our field are shriveled. Instead of watching it grow no grains, it's better to catch locusts. Maybe the grain in exchange will be longer than it Much more!"

"It's true, my field is also full of shriveled ears, and if I don't turn around, I will go to the field to catch locusts!"

"I heard from my daughter-in-law that her natal family's village went all out to catch locusts, and so did her natal family. The whole family was mobilized. As a result, the locusts didn't dare to gather together, and it took a lot of effort to catch them!"

Little Treasure listened, feeling very complicated.

My mother said, if the locusts are all over the sky, the locusts will turn black. At that time, there will be such a poisonous poison, chickens, ducks, and birds will not dare to eat them, and human catching locusts will not be able to catch them. What an effect.

The young people brought up the excitement of chatting again, and the content of everyone's chat expanded:

"Hey, let me tell you, now that the summer harvest is over, will you continue to exchange for food after the summer harvest?"

"You said, why did they change locusts?"

"Can't it be kindness? How about opening a porridge shed directly?"

"Yeah, just ask, their young boss is standing there!"

"Why don't you ask, what are you asking me to do?"

"Tell me, he exchanged so many locusts, can he eat them? Didn't he just say that he let people catch locusts and eat them a few days ago, offending the locust god?"

"It's not that, it's that he's wrong to even catch him!"

"If you think about it carefully, you have to catch vegetable insects, why can't you catch locusts, right?"

"That's right, if the Locust God really blesses us, can we still send locusts to eat crops?"

"Have you ever eaten locusts? I have. It's not good!"

"What do you eat? Raw?"

"No, how dare I cook it, it stinks! It's not delicious!"

"My little son is roasted!"

"Then I'll try baking it later!"

"Are you willing? No more food?"

"Just bake one..."

(End of this chapter)