lying down

【030】Emperor Garden Swallows Locusts, Panshan Locusts Extinct

Chang'an Imperial City, Yuhe Garden, Li Shimin frowned and looked at the wheat in front of him. The stems and leaves had turned yellow, and the ears of wheat were oddly small.Although it is carefully taken care of, it cannot be compared with previous years.

"Your Majesty, let the servants do these things. It's hot today, and your dragon body is critical." The little eunuch Wang De who was next to him didn't dare to let go of his persuasion, watching Li Shimin frowning and thinking hard, his heart was filled with worry.

Li Shimin turned around and glanced at Wang De lightly.At this glance, Wang De was terrified, and broke out in a cold sweat. He quickly prostrated himself on the ground and pleaded guilty: "This slave is talkative, please forgive me, Your Majesty!"

"Get up, what is wrong with you? You are in your position, and you are trying to govern! You have been with me for many years, and what you just said is your own job. It's just that this country is based on agriculture. This year, there was a severe drought near the capital. How can I ignore it with peace of mind? Seeing that the people of the world are in the midst of water and fire! Hey..." After finishing speaking, Li Shimin squeezed the ears of wheat he picked in his hand, and looked into the distance.

There was a person standing behind Li Shimin, silent.This person has high brows and a wide forehead, a long face with sharp edges and corners, and his eyes are full of spirit.Hearing Li Shimin's exclamation, he nodded secretly.He took a step forward, bowed and said: "I thank my emperor for the people of the world!"

Li Shimin was a little surprised when he heard this person thanking himself for the people of the world, he turned around and asked, "Xuancheng, why do you thank me for the drought today?"

Wei Zheng replied as if the old well was not disturbed: "Locusts and drought are natural disasters, not human beings. When natural disasters come, the key is to work together to plan and do our best to care for the people's livelihood. Now that I heard my emperor's words, I can understand them in my heart." There are always people in the world, what a blessing! Why don't you worry about natural disasters!" These words were very passionate, and the tone was sonorous.

Hearing Wei Zheng's words, Li Shimin's expression softened a little, and he was about to speak when he suddenly saw a few locusts flying to the top of the grass leaves, walking quickly, and grabbed them with scrambling hands.Just grabbed a few and held them in their hands in an instant, Wei Zheng and Wang De followed quickly, and looked at the locusts in Li Shimin's hands together, the more they looked, the more surprised they became.

I saw a few dead migratory locusts in Li Shimin's palm. They were fat and big, as long as half a palm!Obviously eats well and grows surprisingly fast.Seeing this, Li Shimin was furious and cursed: "The people regard food as their wealth and life, and you eat it and destroy it. How do you tell my people to live? If the people are guilty, those sins are all on the ground." If you really have a soul in me, eat my heart and stop harming the people!" After saying that, he raised his hand and stuffed a few migratory locusts into his mouth and chewed them, regardless of the taste, with a bitter expression. Qiu Shen looks like.

Wang De next to him was startled, his brow was sweating anxiously, and he hurriedly persuaded: "Your Majesty, you will get sick if you eat it! Don't eat it!"

Li Shimin didn't seem to notice it, and said in a deep voice: "It's okay, if there is a disease, I will bear it, don't let my people suffer this suffering!" After saying that, he walked towards the imperial study.

In Panshan Village, the migratory locusts seemed to have arrived as promised.Two days after the wheat in the village was sun-dried and put into storage, groups of locusts came to look for food. A few days later, the locusts covered the sky and the sun in this small Panshan village.

At this time, the locusts were fierce, and the family gathered in the main room to rest. After a while, the locusts became less and less, and everyone except the old lady would go out to kill the locusts.

The old lady Li Wangshi was sitting on Hudeng, clutching a cup of not-so-clear white water tightly in her hand, her complexion turned pale when she heard the "cracking" sound like dense hailstones falling on the roof and at the main entrance.She experienced such a scene when she was young, and she even saw the bloody appearance of the migratory locust, which was extremely hungry, and went straight to bite people and animals.

Slowly closing his eyes, he took a sip of the water tremblingly, and his breath gradually calmed down.

Wulang Li Zhengshuo sat at the bottom, seeing his old lady's complexion, he comforted him: "Mother, it's okay, the second brother has returned to Taiyuan early, there will be no accidents on the way, and we don't have to worry about it in the village, the eighth brother's method is really amazing , I really admire it."

After Goro finished speaking, Yunniang and Chu Yun, who were standing behind the old lady, also stroked the old lady's back and comforted her in a low voice.

Ouyang Yu sat close to the door, heard everyone's conversation, turned his head to look at Wu Lang, and smiled back.I can't help but think of the locust extermination experience in the past half a month:

Ouyang Yu ran through the night with a torch, lit the piles of bonfires that he had prepared earlier one by one, and slapped the locusts that flew on his face while shouting: "Seventh Brother, Fifth Brother, add a few more piles to the northeast corner The bonfire, or the locusts will be there!"

Goro and Qilang who were following behind heard the words, turned back and ran towards the northeast corner of the village. They took a few villagers and quickly picked up the miscellaneous wood and straw piles prepared in advance in front of each house. Go, and then pile up quickly, light the torch, and the bonfire ignites instantly, and I saw countless migratory locusts rushing towards them as if they had seen their favorite food in their lives. Bursting locusts fell blackly all over the ground.

A locust flew crookedly, pierced one end of Ouyang Yu's hand holding the torch, and one bite down, there was a small tooth mark on Ouyang Yu's skin, and blood was also left.

"Grass, you dare to bite me!" After Ouyang Yu finished speaking, he slapped down with his left hand, and with a "slap", the not-so-small locust was smashed to pieces, and Han Xi, who was beside Ouyang Yu, couldn't help but feel nauseous. I retched.

Ouyang Yu grinned, a woman is a woman and cannot stand a battle.Walked two steps over and patted the locust off her shoulder, and asked aloud, "Sister, are you alright?"

Han Xi seemed to have seen Ouyang Yu's slight mockery in the night, covered her mouth with one hand and continued to retch, and slapped Ouyang Yu's shoulder fiercely with the other, but Ouyang Yu didn't react, thinking that this little girl wanted revenge, just listened There was another "slap", a bigger locust was slapped to death by Han Xi, and the green juice flowing out from its body splashed Ouyang Yu and Han Xi's faces.Han Xi glared at Ouyang Yu, as if she was protesting, then turned around abruptly, and started to vomit...

During the daytime, when the locusts were few and far between, a group of men worked hard to dig the soil in rows among the ridges of the field. Ouyang Yu was also among them, holding a hoe that he had never used before, digging hard.Not far behind is a group of women leading the newly hatched chicks and adult chickens to keep pecking at the soil. The soil is of different depths, and piles of locust eggs are exposed in front of the chickens. , became a delicacy in their mouths.

Teams of village boys surrounded the adults not far away with their sturdy trapping bags, covering the scattered locusts in the air, stepping on them again, and throwing them into their waists regardless of how the locust corpses were broken into pieces. This is the "betrothal gift" money and "dowry" money that their parents told them. Every day, they see that they have exchanged more than a dozen coins, and dozens of coins are happily put into the purse by their parents. I also fantasize about the day when a little girl or a fool in the village gets married.

This is the experience of controlling locusts in Panshan Village in the past month. Regardless of age, gender, everyone worked together to fight against the plague of locusts. So far, no one in the village has been injured, and there have been no refugees who have left their homes!

Ouyang Yu gradually felt a sense of integration and a little sense of accomplishment in his heart. He thought maybe it was not a mistake for him to travel to the Tang Dynasty...

Note 1: The age of hair tie refers to 16 years old.

Note 2: Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty swallowed locusts. See "Zhenguan Political Leaders": In the second year of Zhenguan, there was a drought in the capital, and locusts rose up.Emperor Taizong went into the garden to look at the grass. When he saw locusts, he picked up several locusts and cursed: "People depend on grain for their life, but if you eat it, it will harm the people. The people have made mistakes. If you give me one person, you have a spirit, but you should eat me." The heart is harmless to the common people." When he swallowed it, the left and right remonstrated: "I'm afraid you will become sick, don't do it." Taizong said: "I want to remove the disaster, how can I avoid the disease?" So he swallowed it.

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