Three Kingdoms, at the beginning of the game, recognize the thief as the father, hit the spectacle,

It's just a pity that things didn't go as planned.

He clearly said that he wanted to stay at home, but Qiao Ying seemed to see the worry hidden in his brows and eyes, and drove him out of his arms.

……

Time soon fell into the night, and it was almost visible to the naked eye. The locusts that were frantically feeding during the day seemed to be much quieter than before, and no longer flew all over the sky like they did during the day.

And Zhang Yan also changed into a special suit at the right time, just like those professional beekeepers, covered his body layer by layer with dense gauze, and then came to the place agreed by everyone outside the city.

The current time is [-]:[-] pm.

At the gate of the city, hundreds of "heavily armed" members of the Public Security Department had already been waiting here.And with the passage of time, this number is still increasing.

……

"My lord, you are here."

From a distance, Zhang Yan saw a man in the same robe as himself and waved his hand, as a greeting.

Hearing that voice, it was Kuai Qi, Prime Minister of Lujiang Wancheng Kingdom.

As the "Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee" of Wancheng, Kuai Qi naturally appeared on the battlefield in the face of the first battle against locusts. How about it.

As for the county magistrates in several other counties, such as Wang Lang and others, they returned to their respective territories early to preside over disaster relief.

They are different from Kuai Qi. Both Wang Lang and Chen Deng are about 30 years old, and they already have some experience as officials.

According to Zhang Yan's estimation, even if these masters under his command were allowed to serve as the prefects of a county, there would probably not be any major problems, let alone serving as a small county magistrate now.

There is only Kuai Qi, who is still only a teenager in his teens and still needs constant training.

……

"My lord, wait a little longer. The order we passed down earlier agreed to do it at midnight, and there is still about a quarter of an hour."

"More than 3000 people from the Wancheng Public Security Department have all arrived at the scene. This time, we have arranged more than ten points around Wancheng, covering a large area inside and outside the city. If there is no accident, we can get certain points tonight." It worked."

"It's just a pity for those good fields... After the locust plague is raging, the land may be full of insect eggs, and there is no way to cultivate it."

"According to my estimation, it will take at least a few months... until the locusts are hatched and cleaned up, so that the farmland can be reused."

"I just don't know, it's too late."

……

Following behind Zhang Yan step by step, Kuai Qi kept reporting the current situation to him.

Because he, like Zhang Yan, was wearing a heavy robe and a bamboo hat sealed with gauze, so his voice sounded a bit muffled.

The two chatted like this, while walking along the walls of Wancheng.

While Zhang Yan was still thinking hard about how to deal with the gathered locust corpses, a dull drum sound came from a distance, and the previously noisy team suddenly fell silent.

"My lord, it's about time, let's go too."

Arching his hands, Kuai Qi suggested softly.

……

"OK, let's go then."

As if infected by the sound of the drum, Zhang Yan was in a daze for a moment.

Afterwards, he shook his head with a smile, and walked forward with Kuai Qi.

……

"Report—"

……

It has to be said that in ancient times, without those complicated procedures and speeches, the efficiency of collective action was still very high.

After a short report and roll call, the original more than 3000 officers and soldiers of the Public Security Department were divided into a dozen square formations according to the planned area, and under the leadership of their respective leaders, they marched towards their target area. .

Zhang Yan also carefully discovered that although Lujiang's Public Security Bureau has only more than 3000 people, that is, the [-] guards who were originally responsible for guarding the city, the actual number of people present today seems to be far greater than this number.

Behind the security officers and soldiers holding shovels, pickaxes and torches, there are still a considerable number of civilians.

These people did not cover up as tightly as those officials, but they all wore face scarves and held nets made of white cloth in their hands, and followed behind them like this.

……

"What? My lord, are you talking about those common people?"

"Oh...they came here spontaneously to follow us."

……

"After all, you also know that when such a disaster happened in our Lujiang River, besides you, the people who are most worried are probably those people."

"I don't know who spread the news that we are going to do it at night. After coming and going, many people followed. I guess they want to help?"

"In addition, we in Lujiang grow a lot of cotton and hemp, and you have specially raised hundreds of women to be responsible for weaving... In the Jiangdong area, the price of cloth in Lujiang is almost the lowest. Veils, nets and the like For many families, the cost is actually not that high.”

……

On the other side, after hearing Zhang Yan's question, Kuai Qi thought for a while, then answered a lot of things with a smile.

Maybe Zhang Yan doesn't pay much attention to it, but as the governor of Wancheng, he can get access to a lot of grassroots information when he is working.

For example, although Lujiang has a large population, so the pressure on basic consumer goods such as food, clothing, housing and transportation is huge, but also, under full production, the prices of grain, cloth, and even cattle and horses in Lujiang are the most stable in the Jiangdong area.

Under such circumstances, the common people had some spare money in their hands, so in order to keep their own one-third of an acre of land, it was a matter of course to bring their own dry food to help these government soldiers.

……

"So that's how it is... If it's spontaneous, it's pretty normal."

"Among these people, I'm afraid that many of them are forced to harvest the grain in their own fields ahead of time, so they want to come here to help, get over the locust plague earlier, so that they can prepare for the next wave of grain planting..."

"Well, Kuai Qi, you can pay attention to these people who are willing to come to help. When the time comes, make a simple statistics, and start with these people's fields. When their land is almost cleared, these people try When it comes to the sweetness, I am definitely embarrassed to leave like this, and will continue to help us clean up other places."

……

In this way, with the flow of the crowd, the thousands of people who were originally crowded together were divided into more than ten small groups and walked in different directions.

And Zhang Yan and Kuai Qi were not idle either.

They followed the team with the largest number of people and set off from the gate of Wancheng to the south. They traveled about ten li before stopping.

"Okay, we have arrived at the target location, ready to start!"

Following the leader's order, a large number of strong security guards immediately started to work.

Some of these people were responsible for digging pits, some were handling the torches that were to be lit later, and some stood with the people who followed behind them, constantly giving instructions.

You know, in ancient times, there was almost no difference between soldiers and coolies. The government paid for these people to support them, and these people did things for the government.

Not to mention helping to dig holes and fill soil, it is quite normal to be temporarily called by the government to repair the city walls.

These guards are clear about this matter.

Take the construction of the Great Wall in the pre-Qin period as an example. In almost all the education of later generations, the cruelty of Qin Shihuang Yingzheng was described. A large number of people were recruited to build the city wall at the border. If they were exhausted, they would build it into the city wall together. The cruelty of the means is simply outrageous.

When Zhang Yan was young, when he had just learned this knowledge, he also felt unfair and angry about what happened to Meng Jiangnu and others.

However, as he got older, he learned more and more knowledge. Only then did Zhang Yan know that although Qin Shihuang recruited civilians to build the Great Wall, most of the main force were not those who could not even guarantee their survival. The common people, but the soldiers who had the official establishment of the Qin Dynasty at that time.

According to historical records, in 214 BC, the First Emperor Yingzheng sent General Meng Kuo to lead an army of 30 to the north to fight against the Xiongnu. After expelling the Xiongnu, he destroyed all the city walls of the previous Warring States period along the defense line in the northern part of the Yellow River. Linked together, this is the original Qin Great Wall.

No history book has ever recorded how many corvees were used in the construction of the Qin Great Wall... But what must be known is that at that time, the Qin Dynasty had just passed the war, and a thousand wastes were waiting to be rebuilt. The whole country added up, I'm afraid there are only about [-] million people.

What is the concept of more than 2000 million people?After deducting the old, the weak, the sick and the disabled, and the female relatives among the 2000 million people, the remaining strong men, let alone conscripts, would not be an easy task even if all the farmlands across the country were planted.

Adding that the Qin Great Wall was not "built" but "connected", Zhang Yan only felt that there was a great possibility that the main force building the Great Wall at that time was not the common people, but the soldiers who had nothing to do after the great war.

Don't you see, after the end of the nation-building war after 2000, China has substantially abolished the military system.From this point of view, Yingzheng asked 30 people to build the Great Wall at the beginning, maybe he did not have the idea of ​​​​consuming the excess population.

Of course, these are off topic.

The reality is that during the Han Dynasty when the Qin system was inherited, groups such as local guards not only had experience working for the government, but were also particularly good at it.

The sound of shovels colliding with soil and stones kept ringing. In less than half an hour at most, hundreds of people dug several large pits in the field here, which were nearly five or six meters wide and half as deep as half a person.

In the middle of those big pits, the leader of the team has already started to order and pile firewood inside.

After a while, one after another, a total of ten huge fires were lit.

……

"Huh—good guy, there must be thousands of locusts here, right?"

An exclamation came from behind, Zhang Yan turned around and saw a young man who looked only in his early 20s.

The man held a lighted torch and stared blankly at the direction of the fire ahead.

On the mud wall around the fire, tens of thousands of locusts were black and dense, surging like waves.

Seeing this scene, even the most skilled farmer frowned, subconsciously took half a step back.

"Okay, what are you still doing in a daze, pull up Bai!"

"Only a group of ten, surrounded by a white cloth around the fire, and others use those net bags to catch as many locusts as possible, and put them into the prepared pockets!"

When he just went out, Zhang Yan didn't actually see how many locusts were flying in the sky. This gave him an illusion, and it also gave the guards of the Public Security Bureau an illusion, thinking that the locust disaster was nothing more than mediocre, and he didn't imagine it. as terrible.

Now, after the flame was ignited, many locusts began to slowly approach the direction of the fire, and many of the larger ones even jumped directly into the fire, making bursts of crackling, which immediately made Zhang Yan feel Some scalp tingling.

Fortunately, not all the people present looked like this.

I saw several officials from the Department of Agriculture who were invited to help as "consultants" frowned, and then told everyone not to be dazed anymore, and started to get busy.

PS: Say two digressions

First, some readers may have forgotten that one mile in the Han Dynasty was more than 250 meters, and ten miles is roughly equivalent to two and a half kilometers today, which can be reached in half an hour on foot.

Second, did Qin Shihuang use ordinary migrant workers to build the Great Wall? I think it must have been used, but the proportion should not be too large.

At that time, the Qin Dynasty fought a nationwide war from south to north and from west to east for more than ten years. In fact, many people died when they were young. I always think that a leader should be reluctant to let these people die. , farming is real.

On the contrary, the Qin Dynasty at that time had a twentieth-class nobility system, and military merits could be awarded. I have every reason to suspect that this is Qin Shihuang disarming in disguise and reducing military expenditures to develop the economy.At the same time, let those martial arts factions die more, which is conducive to the centralization of power.

In the end, no one can tell what the truth is about this matter, because everyone has not lived at that time, so they can only guess.

The Confucianists scolded the Qin Dynasty very harshly. After all, everyone knows what they know, legalists, dogs of the Han Dynasty, everyone wants to eat.

In addition, the matter of Meng Jiangnv itself is also a legend, we can't say that, according to the legend, Meng Jiangnv said that there was no man left in her village, did she really think that all the men in the Qin Dynasty were sent to corvee?