Datang: Starting from a fortune-telling stall, Wu Zetian was suddenly abducted

Chapter 50: The locust plague is not over yet, why do we care about our home?

"Every family is like this. We are jealous and want to kill these animals. But we were stopped by those dog officials."

"My lords, I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about the officials from the previous dynasty. They said this is the locust god and cannot be hunted and killed. Anyone who hunts and kills randomly will be arrested."

Huo Haoyan, the magistrate of Lantian County, couldn't help asking:
"What will you do? If you really don't catch them, will you just watch the locusts destroy the crops?"

The old man shook his head,

"Catch him. We must catch him. If the government doesn't let us catch him, we will catch him secretly."

"These locusts can eat. Since they have eaten our food, we will eat them. We don't care about the locust god."

"It's just that the locusts flew away quickly, and we couldn't even eat the locusts. Later, later"

When the old man said this, he suddenly burst into tears.
"My lords, you have never tasted hunger."

"I am the only one in my family of nine who survived. The rest all starved to death."

After listening to the old farmer's story, everyone was moved.

The second old farmer’s narrative,
The third.
Until the last old farmer said that he was eating because of the locust plague.The county magistrates were really in a state of confusion, as if there was a ray of light on their backs.

Although the common people talk about the past dynasty, the mistakes are made by officials, the same officials as them.

It's all because they don't dare to offend the so-called Locust God. They watch the locusts raging in their own territory without doing anything.

Li Chengqian asked people to send all these old farmers out.

He opened his mouth and said:
"Masters, if I remember correctly, in the first year of Zhenguan, there was also a locust plague in our Tang Dynasty. Fortunately, the scale was not very big."

"But there are cases where people suffer when they see locusts raging."

Many officials here have experienced the locust plague, and they were even involved in the inaction Li Chengqian mentioned.

At this moment, after listening to Li Shimin's words, they all looked ashamed.

Li Chengqian went on to say:

"This time is different from last time. Some experienced farmers judged based on the eggs that locusts are likely to spread thousands of miles."

"Your Majesty has entrusted this job to me and the gentlemen, and we have the responsibility to do it well."

"To take precautions before they happen, we start by destroying locust eggs."

Wugong County Magistrate Yao Yang, who was a military commander and a direct descendant of Li Chengqian, stood up and said:
"Your Highness, you are right. Damn it, no matter what the locust god is."

"If it doesn't make things easier for the people, we won't make it easier for them."

Li Chengqian nodded in satisfaction, motioned him to sit down, and continued:

"This is where the locusts attacked me that day. To put it into detail, the removal of insect eggs that day was relatively small. Unlike today, basically all the chickens and ducks in Liquan County came out."

Everyone who heard this couldn't help laughing.

Li Chengqian waited for everyone to laugh, then suddenly his tone became stern:

"I will set up camp here today and wait for the locust god to attack me again. I want to see who is more powerful, it or us."

"Huo Qubing, the great general of the Han Dynasty, once said that the Xiongnu are not destroyed, so why should we take care of our family?"

"I borrow his words today to encourage everyone: If the locust plague is not gone, why should we take care of our homes?"

There was light in his eyes when he said this.By this time, all the county magistrates were convinced and stood up one after another and promised to go back and make arrangements to fight the locust plague now.

Li Chengqian looked at the admiring crowd and breathed a sigh of relief.

He could actually take the advice his father gave him and deal with it forcefully.

However, none of these officials are treacherous or evil. If they are directly removed from office, their career will basically be over.

So he decided to do it according to his own ideas first. If there are still people who are pushing back or resisting, then don't blame yourself for forcing it.

He kept his word and actually settled here.

After handling government affairs every day, we go to surrounding counties for on-site inspections to learn about the progress of locust eradication.

Or if there is any difficult situation, he, Li Chengqian, will handle it.

And he also discovered that, just as he expected, the biggest resistance during this period came from the people.

Basically all the people are unaware of the dangers of locusts.
Instead, they were full of awe at the mysterious whereabouts of locusts that came and went without a trace, and they worshiped them one after another, not to mention harming them.

Li Chengqian organized many old farmers who had seen locust plagues to carry out missionary education in the fields, but the effect was still not very obvious.

On this day, Lantian County Magistrate Gao Guoan asked Li Chengqian for help and asked him to come over and find a solution.

The last time Li Chengqian went there, he found that although Gao Guoan was persuaded by him, many people in his territory still went their own way.

When he arrived at the Lantian County Government Office, he realized that the situation was much more serious than he thought.There are actually a lot of people here blocking the entrance of the county government office, at least thousands of people, making trouble.

These people held hoes and poles in their hands.

Shout at the gate of the county government office:
"Gao Guoan, what are you thinking about? You are not allowed to water the fields or work, but you are allowed to get rid of locusts. Are you trying to force us to rebel?"

"We are determined not to remove the locust eggs;"

"If Gao Guoan wants to harm the locust, he will have no descendants;"

Looking at the steps of the county government office, Gao Guoan unsheathed his long sword with a gloomy face. He looked at the people making trouble below without saying a word, and there seemed to be anger about to burst out from his eyes.

Dozens of government officials stood behind him, each with his sword unsheathed and his bow strung.

There was only one senior clerk from the county government who was sweating profusely and trying to persuade him, but with little success.

If this trend continues, bloody conflicts will be inevitable.

Li Chengqian first asked Wei Yingcai to go over and comfort Gao Guoan, and then asked people to mobilize [-] soldiers from outside the city to maintain the scene.

Then he suppressed his inner anxiety and observed the rioting people, trying to see who was taking the lead.

At this glance, he really saw the clues. Among this group of people, there were ten or twenty people who were obviously better dressed than the common people.

If wearing bright clothes is a personal dressing habit, then there is something wrong with them yelling loudly whenever the Shiye County Government dissuades them.

And the words that insulted Gao Guoan were all shouted from the mouths of this group of people.

Seeing this situation, Li Chengqian couldn't help but cheer up:
Looking at it this way, someone must be behind the riots at the county government. In other words, it is very likely that someone wants to make a fuss about the locusts.

He arranged for the guards to secretly catch the two troublemakers, pull them down from the nearby teahouse and interrogate them, and this time they actually asked them.

There are two landowners in this county, one is Zhen Youqian and the other is Jia Youde, both of whom are among the top big landowners in Lantian County.

(End of this chapter)