[Three Kingdoms] After crossing, I opened the sick and weak main road line

When the news of the raging locusts spread to Jizhou, the whole Jizhou was in an uproar. The locusts in Guanzhong had already become a disaster. It was only a matter of time before the disaster reached Jizhou. All the harvest was ruined.

Before the locusts reached the territory of Jizhou, the whole Jizhou was already in panic. Fortunately, Yuan Huan was prepared, so that he would not be at a loss when the natural disaster really came. He didn't know what to do.

During the period at the end of the Han Dynasty, there were many natural disasters. He couldn't remember which year and month there were disasters. He only knew that there were wars, plagues, droughts, locusts and other unpredictable accidents that caused the population to drop sharply.

Plagues and droughts are frequent, and no one can tell when the locusts will come, but as long as there is a severe drought in summer, there will probably be locusts raging, and natural disasters do not know when they will come. We should plan ahead instead of digging wells when thirsty Preventing problems before they happen is the right way.

As early as when Cao Cao first took over Yanzhou, he had already ordered the people to raise poultry, check the fields for insect eggs before planting in spring, and dig out any locust eggs that may be in the field when plowing in spring and burn them before planting. Plant crops.

Jizhou, Yanzhou, and Yuzhou have been prepared for the past two years. The people don’t understand why chickens and ducks should be fed.

Every year, chickens and ducks are taken back by the government at a high price, and the eggs dug out of the ground are collected and sent to the government office to exchange for food. For ordinary people, no amount of orders is as motivating as the food they get.

Chickens and ducks can prey on their own, so it doesn’t take too much trouble to raise them outside. Even if you don’t worry about free-range breeding, it doesn’t take much effort to keep them in the yard. Turning the soil during spring plowing can make the crops grow better, and it takes a little effort to dig out insect eggs. You can exchange food from the government, which is much easier than working hard to tend the crops. The young and middle-aged families not only dig their own land, but even the wasteland that has not been opened up.

These places use the method of labor-for-relief to recruit refugees. In the past, farmers were needed to reinforce the city and repair the canals. In the past two years, there have been a lot of refugees. There is no need to specially recruit migrant workers from this state. Only the refugees are enough to do the work. Seven seven eight eight.

The civilian husbands recruited may be lazy. The refugees are different. These fleeing people have experienced wars and famines. They can do anything to have a bite.

Although there were droughts in the Central Plains in the past years, the water canals in various places were properly repaired, and the government responded quickly, so they did not suffer too much loss, and the grain production was even higher than in previous years when there was no drought.

Yuan Huan has been in Jizhou for a long time, and with the help of Xun Yu and others, almost no one dares to perfunctory his orders. Their Jizhou shepherd looks gentle and decent, but his methods have nothing to do with gentleness.

It is said that there are policies at the top and countermeasures at the bottom. It is impossible for the officials at the top to go deep into the villages to check the situation. When the government just ordered the folks to build water conservancy and raise more poultry, many people said they agreed, but in fact they didn’t care at all. .

They understand how to build canals to divert water and prevent droughts, but what are chickens and ducks for? People can’t eat enough to eat, so what kind of chickens and ducks are raised? Meat is so extravagant. Serving the chickens and ducks, where does it take so much time to serve one and then another?

Anyway, the government did not force the chickens and ducks to be sent over to exchange for money after they are raised. At worst, the chickens and ducks should be stewed in soup first. If someone comes to ask, they will say that their children want to eat meat after they are raised, so they will kill their gluttons. No matter how bad it is, it's okay to run away and get lost.

Yuan Huan had already guessed that some people would be obedient and obedient, so he specially added an order when people distributed the chicken and duck cubs. Anyone who dared to fool at will, all the harvest of the family in the coming year will be handed over to the government. Ten percent.

The left and right government agencies provide relief to the victims every year. The refugees who fled from the disaster can obtain food by working. They could spend the winter leisurely with the food left over from the autumn harvest, but after they were found to be fooling the government, they could only rely on their hands to get through the winter together with the refugees. food.

Refugees who fled have nothing when they first arrive, they can only work in the severe cold to make a living. The locals have land and savings and come out to work with them in the cold weather. Could it be that there is something wrong with their brains?

The simple people don't have so many bad intentions, at most they just don't like to deal with people with brain problems. Knowing why those people are reduced to working with them in the cold weather, they simply write the word disgust on their faces .

If the family has too much food and not enough to eat, they need to work to subsidize the family. They can understand it. They have fallen to this point because of the government's tax increase because of mistakes. They are afraid of being implicated in the future.

After coming and going, there are not a few people who have been punished, and the speed of strengthening the city defense in counties and counties has been much faster. The work that could only be done in spring, with the participation of these punished people, can be completed in winter that year.

After Yuan Huan arrived in Jizhou, he seldom had strict policies. Everyone in the government thought that he had a good temper and would not get angry. Unexpectedly, when it came time to punish him, he would not be soft at all. Dare to show one thing on the surface and hide another thing behind.

Don't worry about what Master State Shepherd wants to do, they just do what they are told, if they don't understand it is because they are stupid, if they are stupid, they just know it, there is no need to say it out to embarrass themselves.

The state shepherd is in charge of a state, and there are so many talented people around him to assist him. If there is a problem, it will be their turn to make irresponsible remarks.

Jizhou’s annual locust prevention measures are carried out in an orderly manner. The arrangements for Yanzhou and Yuzhou are even smoother than Jizhou. After all, Yuan Huan seems to have a good temper. He would be cut off, Cao Mengde would be reasonable anyway, and when he went to Yuan Gonglu, he didn't even have a chance to defend himself.

The people in several places didn’t understand why the government insisted on raising chickens and ducks, but when the locusts came, the people found that the chickens and ducks that usually squeaked around were killing locusts faster than people. It's even faster to catch, and for a while I began to regret not having enough chickens and ducks at home.

If they had known that poultry would be of such great use when locusts cross the border, they would have to raise more chickens and ducks even if they tightened their belts. Anyway, chickens and ducks are given by the government for free, and the bugs at the door are not enough to eat They can go out to catch some caterpillars to feed them. Children are idle at home, and it is not hard work to catch worms and collect grass seeds in the fields. No matter how bad they are, they can feed some wheat, and they will not starve to death no matter what.

Locusts are the best feed. Chickens and ducks can feed themselves without them worrying about going out. When the locusts are almost eaten, the chickens and ducks at home are also raised so smooth that they can be killed and eaten. God sees their suffering. Sending them meat to eat, why were they so ignorant at the beginning?

Households with few poultry beat their chests and stomp their feet, while those with many poultry smiled happily, especially in the Linshui village not far from the Zhang River. A village raised thousands of teals. All households are ready to release the chickens and ducks raised at home to hunt for locusts as soon as there is any movement, and immediately gather the thousands of teal ducks together to be ready to be released at any time.

Thousands of teals have been raised since the spring. After the locusts entered the territory of Jizhou, they protected the grain of thousands of acres around the village. They didn't even use much manpower. Eat up the locusts.

The locusts came from Guanzhong, and the speed of spreading was beyond people's imagination. No matter how busy Cao Cao and Guo Jia were trying to remedy it, after they arranged a way to catch the locusts, the crops in the fields that were about to have a good harvest There is not much left.

The crops in Guanzhong were almost eaten by locusts, which multiplied extremely fast. I don't know why there were so many eggs in the ground. One batch flew away and another batch came, and soon spread to surrounding counties.

The dense migratory locusts swept in, and it was not enough to rely on poultry to catch food.

It was also the first time for Yuan Huan to see locusts. In the era he lived, locust plagues had disappeared in the country he lived in. It took several generations of hard work to finally solve this trouble that had plagued China for thousands of years. He had never seen a real locust. Fortunately, I have heard of various small methods to control locusts.

The grain and grass in the treasury of Jizhou is enough to support the people's harvest this year, but the people below don't know it. They only know that countless people will starve to death when the locust plague comes. If there is nothing left, even if the government exempts them from taxation, they will not be able to live without anything in the field.

Jizhou has been fairly stable in the past few years, and every household basically has a little surplus food, but few of them can survive until next year's food supply after the locusts have ruined all the crops in the field.

The food provided by the government for disaster relief without taxation. Jizhou has been sending out food for the refugees in recent years.

The people who had seen how terrible locusts were, panicked. All the officials in the government went out to appease the people. Finally, the soldiers in the barracks were dispatched to calm them down.

The soldiers can't make the locusts disappear, but the soldiers can help them catch the locusts. One more person is more powerful. There is no unparalleled road. The state shepherd asked them to raise chickens, ducks, repair ditches and dig out eggs. Maybe it is true When the locusts came, Master State Shepherd still had a way to disperse the locusts.

On the high slope outside the city, Yuan Huan's scalp felt numb watching the swarms of insects flying by from time to time. It was a completely different feeling to see the pictures and videos of the locust plague from the data and to see the locusts crossing the border with his own eyes.

Before the matter came to him, he could joke that no amount of locusts could hold back the iron stomach of the big foodie country. Seeing locusts fly by, no one would have the appetite to take these green with black and black with yellow The worms are eaten as dishes.

In the situation where the locust plague almost disappeared in later generations, many people, like him, have never seen a real locust plague. They don't know that the locusts that have become a plague are completely different from ordinary locusts.

The locusts they saw couldn’t be a disaster, and some people even specially raised locusts to eat. Roasted locusts and fried locusts tasted crunchy and delicious, and they were rich in protein. There are so many people in the country that they eat locusts. When the locusts come, they eat three meals a day. They can always be eaten to extinction, why can they still be starved to death by locusts?

As everyone knows, it's not that the ancients never thought about eating locusts. As early as the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Taizong of Tang issued a similar order.

At that time, the common people were still very afraid of locusts, like plague and other troubles that they could not solve. They also believed that locusts were punishments given to them by gods. Send locusts down to punish them.

The winter is not too cold, the spring is rainy, and there will be another drought in the summer. After that, locusts will appear again in all likelihood. The eggs buried in the ground are not frozen to death in winter. The spring is moistened by rain, and the summer is warm and dry. The adult worms hatch after a period of time, often overwhelming overnight.

The common people couldn't figure out where these deadly insects came from. All they could think of was God's punishment. Locusts were not insects, but locust gods. Since they were named gods, they couldn't hurt them at will.

So until the Tang Dynasty, when facing locusts, the folks would only set up an altar to pray to heaven, until Tang Taizong swallowed locusts with his own body, and the prime minister Yao Chongli made the world realize that there is no locust god, and locusts are not killers. No, and then the people began to hunt and kill locusts when they encountered locust plagues.

It’s just that the speed at which humans can eat insects is far inferior to the speed at which insects can eat crops, and crops can’t run without long legs if they are planted in the ground. Locusts have wings, and they flap their wings and leave after huh-huo. Humans can eat them. how much to drop.

What's more, the locusts that caused a disaster cannot be eaten too much. The poison on this thing is ok to eat a few, but if you eat too much, you may lose your life.

The locusts ruined the crops and then went to other places to harm other places. They did not stay in one place for a long time. The most terrible thing was not the locust plague, but the famine that followed.

The locusts in summer eat up the crops in the field, and the common people can still live on the surplus food at home. If it is not possible, they can go to the mountains to hunt, fish and pick wild fruits for a few days. Eat, that is the real loss of life.

One year's harvest was ruined by locusts, and the stored grain was almost enough to eat after summer and autumn, and there was nothing to eat in the mountains in winter. If there was no government relief, how many people would die of freezing and starvation? OK.

What's more frightening is that the locust plague will not only appear for one year. The locusts need to hatch and often do not spread in the first year. However, the drought often lasts for several years. The larvae of the locusts like a warm and dry environment, and the hatched insects are getting more and more The more there are, the worse it will be if it is not handled properly at this time, and the disaster will spread across the state and county.

If there are more insects, there will be more eggs, and if there are more eggs, there will be more insects in the next year. If this continues for many years, no matter how thick the family is, it will not be able to support it.

Jizhou, Yanzhou, and Yuzhou are properly protected. There have been no large-scale locust plagues in recent years, but they can only control themselves and cannot control locusts in other places. In order for the government to play a role as soon as possible when natural disasters occur, he also It is necessary to grasp the northern states and counties as soon as possible.

The level of medical care these days is low, and the typhoid plague can easily cause the tragedy of ten rooms and nine empty rooms. Unless it is a last resort, he does not want the people to eat locusts as a meal for their hunger, and collect them as feed for chickens and ducks.

Yuan Huan frowned and rubbed his forehead to relieve the discomfort caused by the noise. So many migratory locusts swarmed one after another, which was more disgusting than the same number of flies flying by. The only way to catch insects is to catch insects, Wen Ruogong and you, hurry up and order the prefects of the counties, the people can take the dried locusts to the government to exchange for the same weight of grain, and the same is true for the unhatched eggs in the field.

The destiny is unreliable, they can only do their best, as long as people are still alive, there is always a way to outlive the locusts.

Locusts are not easy to store. They shrink into a ball after being dried and are not too big. Chickens and ducks can eat small insects one at a time. If you think about it, you know it won’t be too big. If you want to fill your stomach with locusts, you must at least catch a sack That's fine, besides, he let the people eat, and the people may not dare to eat, so it's the most cost-effective to catch them and send them to the government to exchange for food.

A large part of the reason why the people panic is that they don’t trust the government enough. They don’t think that the government will help them when they know they are short of food and clothing. After all, the imperial government has provided disaster relief for hundreds of years, and half of the food that can really reach the people’s hands is rare. , Those who should starve to death will still starve to death.

Before going out, Yuan Huan went to the granary to take a look, and personally compared the amount of grain in the account book with the amount of grain in the granary. He was really relieved to make sure that their grain could last until next year's new grain.

If the loss of the people is too great, he will not let it go anyway. The grain in the granary can be stored in another way. Anyway, talents are the most important. If there are no people under the rule, it is useless to keep more grain in the warehouse.

Fortunately, I was not dazzled by gold and silver fans before. When the people below went to sell salt in various places, they also traded grain first. Otherwise, the grain in the granary would always be out of the grain. When the locust plague came, there would not be enough grain in the granary. It's a real rush and helplessness.

Xun Yu and Ju Shou obeyed the orders, seeing that their lord's complexion was not good, they couldn't help but persuade him to go back to the mansion to rest first, "My lord, it's windy outside, locusts are not something that can be solved in a day, you have to take care of your health."

"It's okay, I can still hold on." Yuan Huan shook his head, stood there and looked at it for a while, and then turned around to go back, "Wen Ruo, go back and prepare some offerings to the heavens. On the first day of next month, we will be outside the city Sacrifice to heaven and earth."

Xun Yu didn't think too much, just nodded to show that he remembered that when a natural disaster strikes, he needs to sacrifice to the heaven and the earth to appease the gods. Heaven and earth can stabilize people's hearts.

But now there are only two Sangongs left in the court, one is the lord of their family, and the other is Taiwei Yang Biao. Neither of these two can be dismissed casually. Probably only one guilty edict can come.

"Your Majesty is not here to worship the sky this time. The locusts haven't dispersed yet, so don't disturb your Majesty." Yuan Huan walked slowly, and when he said this, he stopped and waved to Cao Ang, who was next to him with a pale face. It's the first time I've seen this scene at such a young age, my face is paler than him, and I really need to continue to practice.

Yuan Huan sighed in his heart, and when the young man walked over, he whispered a few words, and saw his frightened eyes, "Catch, catch locusts to eat?"

Cao Ang is very courageous, but no matter how bold he is, when the locusts fly by, he subconsciously wants to hide in a place where he can't see anything. Fear.

But now, the lord actually asked him to find locusts to eat when offering sacrifices to the heavens. He must have heard it wrong. They were burnt for the heavens to eat during the sacrifices, right?

Yuan Huan patted the young man on the shoulder, and his tone was gentle enough to make him give up struggling, "You can prepare some as sacrifices, but you can't leave less for you to eat. Don't worry, one or two locusts won't kill you."

Dong Zhongshu put forward the "interaction between heaven and man", which means that there is the principle of imperial power granted by heaven, and at the same time, it also restrains the behavior of the emperor, so that the emperor cannot do as he pleases, regardless of floods, droughts, locust plagues, as long as there are natural disasters, the emperor must have done something bad.

Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty swallowed locusts alive, which was a blatant challenge to the heavens. When the emperor encountered a locust plague, he did not say sacrifices to heaven and earth to pray for forgiveness from the heavens, but even ate the envoys sent by the heavens. Isn’t this a challenge to the heavens?

However, Li Shimin was still alive and kicking after eating locusts, he was not sick or died, just proved to the common people that eating locusts is no big deal, there will be no punishment from heaven, and he will not be struck by lightning. When the people are too hungry, they will naturally catch locusts to eat.

He did not dare to imitate Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty in swallowing locusts alive, but it was okay to set up an altar to worship the heavens to let the people know that locusts are not so terrible. Until the Tang Dynasty, the people still regarded locusts as gods. Now it is the end of the Han Dynasty, and there are definitely not a few people who have this idea .

He can use the method of exchanging food for the people to catch locusts, but it is inevitable that some stubborn people would rather starve to death than attack the locusts. To be on the safe side, it is better to find a way to let the people know that it is only right for them to kill insects.

If locusts are alive, people cannot live. It makes no sense because locusts starve themselves to death.

Cao Ang's eyes widened in horror, and hurriedly ran to Xun Yu's side in a panic, "Mr. Wen Ruo, my lord is sick from anger, please persuade me quickly, how can locusts eat?!"

That thing is really inedible, my lord, wake up!