The salted fish couple is fleeing famine

Chapter 161
Meng Xia, the crops have entered a crazy growth period, and even the sorghum in the saline-alkali land has germinated smoothly, which makes Hei Wa, who has always been prejudiced against the saline-alkali land, heave a sigh of relief.

The whole sorghum field piled up from saline-alkali soil covers more than 200 mu. This low-lying swamp has not only been filled up, but also raised six feet, making it an artificial dry land.

The foundation has been completely dug, and now the foundation stone needs to be buried in the deep pit and piled up with cement slurry.

In Dali Village, Steward Li received reports from several village heads today that there were a small number of small locusts jumping around in the wheat fields and pepper fields, and they didn't even let the konjac go unnoticed.

Steward Li hurried to the field, and had to keep his old eyes wide open to see the scattered little locusts. Although this thing looked like it was only two days old, who could forget the locust plague last year?
Don't be careless!
While instructing the village heads to drive the villagers' chickens and ducks into the field, he went to the capital's uncle's mansion to report to Cuihua.

"This kind of locust should be the eggs that flew here last year. We didn't freeze these locust eggs to death last year. Master, the locusts are too small right now, and it's difficult to catch them by humans."

What can Cuihua do?There is no pesticide available now!
"Let the aunts in the village hatch more chickens. Let's buy thousands of chickens and put them in the field. We can eat as much as we can!"

"The old slave will go to the market first, and buy hundreds of big chickens to go back!"

Now in the Zhuangzi of Dali Village, they only raise hundreds of chickens, ducks and geese, which is obviously not enough.

Not to mention that Yuan Mansion wants to buy it, who doesn't want to buy chickens and ducks if they have land?For a while, the value of chickens and ducks on the market doubled, and they were sold out immediately.

No place to buy it?Cuihua is a latecomer!

Mrs. Zhang took Qian Alan to hatch chickens on the kang. Her daughter said that as long as the heat of the kang was the same as that of the hen, the chicks could hatch.

If the chicks can be hatched in her hands, it will not only be of great help to the daughter, but also add another business to their family.

Qian Alan is very interested in this job. She is a village girl who grew up in the village. Now that her husband's family conditions are so good, she doesn't have to go to the fields or do heavy work. She only does some light work of hatching chickens. What can I do? here?

Father Hu was worried about his daughter, and murmured to Mrs. Zhang: "Our daughter's village, including those that have been reclaimed, must have more than 2000 mu. Old woman, you chicks will hatch smoothly, and I will go there Turn around."

"Got it, got it, I'm serving these eggs with more heart than my granddaughter!"

The current fur shop of the Hu family is guarded by the lad from the Laifu family. Recently, Hu's father has been walking around in the village of his daughter's house, and he will reach out to grab the little locusts when he sees them.

Even the old Yuantou, who was making puzzles in Dali Village, put down the job of doing puzzles. The old farmer, he hated locusts even more.

The two old men patrol the field every day, but they are old and their eyesight is not good.

In the end, Old Yuantou also mobilized the little kids in the village to ask them to help. He gave the kids two copper coins a day.

Hundreds of little boys pouted their buttocks, catching small locusts in the wheat fields and pepper fields every day. After Heiwa found out, he carried several boxes of copper coins for his father to Dali Village.

"Father, Master Yue Zhang, please help me, give those little brats copper coins every day!"

"Your father, can I be short of this little money? Do you still need to get these? If this good crop is eaten away, I will feel so sorry for me!"

"What's so busy? Son-in-law, don't worry!" Father Hu felt that being able to help his daughter and son-in-law felt very fulfilling.

The temperature in the north is lower than that in the south. In the south where the locust plague was severe last year, the cycle has started again this year.

The weather is hot, and the locusts grow faster, and they are all half-big bugs.

People also learned the method of eating locusts from the north last year, but no matter how many people eat them, they can't keep up with the hatching speed of locusts and the speed of eating crops.

Officials in the south are almost dying of worry. Last year, they received relief from the imperial court. They wanted to do a big job this year, but they didn't wait for the crops to start earing, and they came again.

They dare not report it, and they dare not report it seriously. It is a test to be sure of the scale.

Qing County, downstream village.

The rice in the paddy field is only one foot long, but there are already half a large locust gnawing on the leaves.

Big Sister Niu is about to turn gray hair, but she spent more than 100 taels of silver to buy the [-] acres of paddy fields. The rice planted in the first year of this year has grown very well.

It was not easy for her to settle down, and she had a house and fertile land.Plague of locusts?Didn't this come here last year!
She took advantage of the price drop of paddy fields after the locust plague last year, so she bought it. Based on her family's current value, she told Niu Changshui that his daughter-in-law could pick it out.

Not only her family, but all the villagers in the downstream village are anxious and anxious.

"Village chief, what are we going to do here?"

"Those little scourges are really too small, and it's hard to catch them!"

"I think it's good to let the ducks go, but the chickens don't dare to go into the water!"

"Yes, yes, yes, let's go to the city and buy more ducks!"

The villagers were all caught blind, but the ducks in the market town were not sold at all, and the people who sold the ducklings were divided up by the neighbors who came to the house before they left the house.

Hao County Magistrate is one head and two big. He narrowly avoided the liquidation last year, but this year the rice in the county will go wrong, so he can't even think about it.

This kind of situation, which is not yet called a disaster, cannot be reported, and the matter seems to be still within the controllable range.

Chickens are used in the dry land, ducks are kept in the rice fields, and the locusts that jump around more vigorously cannot escape the eyes of the poultry.

Dozens of families working in tile workshops in the upper and lower villages are not so panicked, after all, they still have a stable income.

Niu Damei wandered around the town and the county for two days, but she couldn't buy any ducks. She was so anxious that blisters formed on the corners of her mouth.

In the end, in desperation, the three aunts and nephews had to go to the fields to catch insects in person.

Niu Changshui looked at the rice field that had flooded his calf, and he didn't dare to say anything else. He opened his eyes wide, trying to catch those little locusts.

"Ah, ah, aunt, a bug has got into my calf!"

The aunts and nephews are all mountain people. Wherever they have farming experience, they have never seen leeches.

This year, their family has hired villagers to help from plowing the land to transplanting rice seedlings. The hairs of Niu Damei stand up, and she is also afraid of this thing.

It was Niu Changshui who was more daring. He grabbed the leech that was half-submerged on his sister's calf, and pulled it out desperately.I didn't expect this thing to be so tightly attached, the body was pulled into two pieces, and the head was still inside.

"Wow, aunt, aunt, I'm so scared, I don't want to go to the field! I don't want to go to the field!"

Niu Xi'er saw the blood coming out of the gash on her calf, and couldn't bear it any longer, and burst into tears.

Although she has never seen a leech, she heard from the villagers that this leech can lay eggs in the human body, and the human body is warm, and those leech eggs can hatch into small leeches, but people must not The blood in the body was sucked up.

The more she thought about it, the more frightened she became, and Niu Xi'er couldn't stop crying.

Sister Niu had no choice but to send Xi'er to the doctor's house in the village. After seeing it, they didn't even need to use medicine, saying that it would be fine to clip the head out.

However, I also told Big Sister Niu: "The leech gets into the meat, you can't pull it out, you have to pat the place where it attaches, otherwise the leech head will rot in the human flesh."

"Doctor, is there any medicine here that can kill them? Can you make the medicine?"

The old doctor said: "Myrrh is useless, but salt kills them!"

Niu Damei is speechless, salt is so expensive, can she spread salt all over the field?Now, not only Niu Xi'er siblings are unwilling to go to the field to catch insects, but she also dare not!

I can only watch helplessly as the half-sized locusts hop around in the rice fields and go to the market every day to buy ducks.

This kind of locust plague, which seems to be within the controllable range, has not yet attracted the attention of the court. Xia Hongdi is still watching with great interest.

Heiwa's focus is still on the project. The foundation will be completed in this month, and a lot of bricks and tiles have been fired. The big blue bricks they fired are several times larger than those on the market, and the tiles are also wider. longer.

Zhang's mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, who do not have a thermometer and rely entirely on their hand temperature, used [-] eggs, [-] eggs at a time, with an interval of [-] days, and recorded each batch of eggs.

The first batch of eggs, 20 days later, the entire army was annihilated, and Zhang was so angry that he ate them all with shallot fried eggs.

The second batch of eggs, after 25 days, hatched five chicks, which gave the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law great security.

In the third batch of eggs, 30 days later, ten eggs hatched, and this half of the hatching rate was considered a victory.

The fourth batch and the fifth batch were both successfully hatched halfway.

Looking at the 35 chicks of different sizes, Mrs. Zhang could not wait to send them to her daughter immediately. Moreover, the weather was warm, and the chicks passed the first five days tremblingly.

Xiaolian, Xiaohe, and Xiaowei are very rare for these tender chicks. The three sisters, who are already walking steadily, have to feed the chicks every day.

Grandma and aunt/mother are already crazy about hatching chicks, so the Laifu family can only take care of the three of them.

Mrs. Zhang was not satisfied with incubating on the kang of Hu Erniu's house, and invited people to build a whole house with yellow mud on the Dafang side, with four earthen kangs. She plans to make this business bigger and stronger. .

Cuihua heard that her mother had hatched the chicks, so she ran to Dali Village to watch with great interest. In the past month, his father had already distributed a large box of copper coins.

"Father, are there still many locusts?"

"I can't finish catching, girl, this thing is endless, maybe thousands of them will be drilled out of the soil overnight for you."

"Catch as much as you want, I'll go to the field and have a look!"

Cuihua was in the wheat field of Dali Village, and I watched it all morning. Don't underestimate these children. There are dozens of half-sized locusts in each person's small bamboo cage.

The locusts have not developed their wings yet, so they can only jump around with their legs. It will be even harder to catch them when they grow wings.

The leaves of the wheat seedlings, many of which have been gnawed a few pieces, are still standing tenaciously.

On the ridge of the field where no one cares about them, the leaves of wild vegetables have been gnawed so badly that even chickens and ducks can't eat them.

Heiwa only heard Cuihua talk about the seriousness of the situation at night, and he was also numb.

It stands to reason that if the locusts are the same as last year, it should be widely announced, but the court has not made any movement recently!
The sorghum in his saline-alkali land is only two feet high. Could it be that he also wants to buy a flock of chickens?

"What? Another plague of locusts? Didn't you say it was under control a while ago? How many prefectures are there in the disaster-stricken place?"

Xia Hongdi has the impression that the inspectors have submitted several papers recently, but all of them are local officials who are organizing the people to control locusts in an orderly manner.

In such a serious situation last year, the capital's locust extermination methods were able to reap two-thirds. Don't these idiots know how to follow suit?
"Your Majesty, today is different from the past. These locust eggs have been lowered into the soil, and batch after batch have been caught. Maybe, maybe it will be worse than last year."

The inspectors are about to cry. Their department only has feedback and supervision rights, but no execution rights. The microphone is easy to be splinted!
(End of this chapter)