Poor family mother and son

Chapter 454

People catch locusts and bury them alive on the spot. As everyone knows, not only can they not kill them completely, but they may also plant a greater hidden danger.

There are also places where there is space in the field or the edge of the field, taking advantage of the opportunity to dig a deep ditch about one foot wide, and let the locusts crawl to the bottom of the ditch to a certain thickness and seal a layer of soil until the ditch is full and compacted.

Children are still happier than adults, because they are young and don't know what kind of misery they are about to face.

They followed the adults to the fields every day, and were active among the locust swarms, clasping their hands, scratching their fingers, stamping their feet, and kept busy.

For the more sensible children, some fingers have been cut by the two thighs with sharp teeth of the locusts, and they are still trying to catch them reluctantly.

After six or seven days of busy work, I didn't see any fewer locusts. Instead, the seedlings in the field were gnawed to pieces, and the locusts had nothing to gnaw, so groups of locusts flew up and flew away.

People's sad faces just showed a little joy. However, no one expected that the locust stalks followed one after another, and the number density continued to increase. At this time, most of the Zhuangmiao had been eaten.

In order to ensure that they can harvest a bucket of [-] catties or a liter and a half bowl of grain in the autumn, the common people have to support their exhausted bodies, insist on going out early and returning late to get into the crops every day, and try their best to coax and catch them.

In this way, day after day, from the locusts to the locusts, it took more than ten days before and after the locust swarm was over.

After the locusts passed, the crops stretching as far as the eye can see in the fields of this generation, except for a small amount of beans that the locusts did not eat, the rest of the millet, corn, sorghum, etc. were all destroyed by the locusts, resulting in no harvest.

The surrounding area involves tens of thousands of mu of sorghum and corn planted in more than ten villages. The leaves are basically eaten off, the tassels are all eaten, and the tender stalks are also broken off, leaving only broken and damaged stalks standing upright. sad tears.

Just after June, the hopes of the young and old who waited for the summer grain to take over to make ends meet have all come to naught.

All they can get is to scald the locusts they catch to death with boiling water, dry them in the sun, and store them in sacks to satisfy their hunger.When hunting locusts, someone sang:
"Locust meat also cures hunger,

If you are full, you have to catch it.
If you don't eat it, it will eat you. "

It seems to be balancing the fear and hatred of the Locust God.

And the local officials are still stepping up the collection of summer taxes as usual. As long as they find out that someone has poured grain on the mill, no matter how hard you borrow, you will be forced to take the grain off the mill and carry it away.

People's hearts are paralyzed and society is chaotic.

Beggars spread all over like locusts suddenly, passing through endlessly. In the market, there are many people who snatch buns, take out bags, smash stalls, and grab things.

In order to make ends meet and save their lives, the farmers did not hesitate to sell their belongings and land.

Even one or two buckets of grain, half an acre of land, and a few thatched houses have to be sold.

Others took their children away from home and went out of the county and the mansion to escape famine and beg for food.

There are refugees everywhere.

Some were even more determined to sell their own children to traffickers with tears in their eyes, just for food and drink.

When people are hungry to a certain extent, they lose their dignity. For half a pancake, women can take off their underwear and spread their legs, and men can lick the filth off other people's boots.

Those who can eat bran swallowed vegetables are already considered rich.

More are people who stuff leaves, bark, and wild goose droppings into their mouths.

When people are starved to the extreme, they not only lose their dignity, but also lose their humanity. Those who still have a bit of saneness left will plan to kill those starving corpses; The weaker ones, fell down and stoned to death, and then...

In every village, there are some families who have died to the point of extinction.

In barren ditches, roadsides, villages, and temples, dead bodies can be seen everywhere that are left unattended and powerless.

The ditch is dead and the ditch is buried, and the road is dead and the road is buried.

There was a woman who died of starvation by the side of the road, and her son, who was too weak to cry, tore a piece of cloth from another dead man's clothes, covered his mother's face, and walked away on his knees with his fellow travelers.

There are even corpses with naked hips, which have been pecked by wild dogs and crows, and their skeletons are rotten.

The old man who hated himself for not dying said sadly: "If you die early, someone will be buried, and if you die late, no one cares about you."

*****************
"Bang!" The emperor's fist hit the imperial case hard.

Eunuch Li knelt down: "Your Majesty, don't hurt the dragon's body!"

"You bastard! You bastard! You bastard!" Emperor Qingde was so enraged that he couldn't choose what to say.

If he didn't take measures in time for the locust plague, he would not be wronged to this point.

However, he even issued detailed edicts on how to dig the soil, how to dispose of insect eggs, how to graze and train chickens and ducks, almost every detail, but still caused such serious disasters in several state capitals.

In the past, why did the emperor want to issue the "Edict of Guilt"?Is it just because of the plague of locusts?
Do not!
It is because the disasters are followed by death, disease, rebellion, war, and... internal and external troubles!
In order to control the speed of development of the situation, the emperor had to compromise, and that kind of compromise was humiliating.

Is it now his turn to suffer such humiliation?
The emperor tried his best to suppress his emotions, and there were still many things to deal with.

On the imperial case, several reports were lined up, sent by Hu Hengqiu.

The first one: Drought in Jishun Prefecture, locust plagues, food shortages, and public grievances abound. The students of the academy jointly wrote the excerpt banners: "The country will lose its way, and God will first send disasters to condemn it", "The country will prosper , there must be auspiciousness; when a country is about to perish, there must be evildoers”;
The second: Large-scale chicken plague and duck plague occurred in the southern part of New Lun Prefecture. The prefect Song Tingshan was investigated and related to the nobles of the old East Lun.
The third: the grain merchants in the six prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River ordered the grain in the hands of the farmers one after another before the summer harvest, so that after the summer tax, the farmers sold their surplus grain one after another, and the tenants had no food to eat;

The fourth: After the Hesot tribe purchased grain from Chuqing, King Voss sent the fourth prince Kailidi to recruit, which aroused the dissatisfaction of Zuoxian King Suonanjia. King Xian colluded with Daxuan and conspired against him.

The emperor pointed to the first report and said nothing.

Hu Hengqiu immediately explained: "The academy is called Hongzhe Academy, and the head of the mountain is the cousin of Qin Gaojin, the prefect of Jishun."

Could it be more obvious?It is not good for him to govern the place by himself, so he put the blame on the emperor, and called the locust plague a punishment from heaven!

The emperor ordered a second report.

Hu Hengqiu continued to explain: "Song Tingshan found out that some people deliberately put sick chickens and ducks into farmers' homes at night, causing the plague to spread. These people have been arrested and confessed that the instigators are several old nobles;
But raising poultry was Song Tingshan’s decree at the suggestion of Chu Qing, and Chu Qing provided chicken and duck seedlings, and farmers bought them on credit first, so Song Tingshan suspected that the plague was aimed at Chu Qing;

In addition, locusts are not a disaster in Xinlunzhou this year, and the breeding of chickens and ducks has hardly affected the food here;
However, when the locust disaster occurred in Jishun Prefecture, a large number of chickens and ducks died. Song Tingshan also suspected that it contributed to the locust disaster, because the wind direction this month has turned to the southwest, which is conducive to the entry of locusts with the wind. "

Although the terrain of New Lunzhou is higher than that of the mainland, the southern part is relatively flat, and it is also an important area for growing food crops.

If it is really as Song Tingshan judged, then these old nobles... their hearts can be punished!
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(End of this chapter)