The country is broken

"Try it with insecticide?" someone suggested.

"What about the insecticide? Where did you get it? Pick it up from the sky? Get another one." Battalion Commander Wu realistically refused to let the proposal go through the preliminary review, and shot him immediately.

"Mobilize the soldiers to fight bugs collectively" Another person said the most unskillful method.

"You are a pig! There are too many people or too many bugs, when will this fight?" Before Battalion Commander Wu could speak, the others all threw a bunch of blank eyes over and vetoed it.

"Or, let Li Wei use the Nine Heavens Dragon to roar, anyway, it's a mass-destructive nirvana, and anyone can overturn it, let alone a bug." Someone actually hit Li Wei with his idea. [

Everyone's eyes were on Li Wei, and Xiao Lizi was considered a strange man in the third regiment.

"Me?! Don't be funny." Li Wei blinked his eyes a few times, stroked his chin, which had not yet grown a beard, and said, "Come on, how can such a big locust be useful." Jiutian Longyin just contained The wave that causes the damage resonance of the human body, and the damage resonance point of the little locust is completely different from that of the human body. God knows that if you roar, most of the people will fall down, but the locusts are still dancing happily.

"Hmph! As soon as the dragon chant comes out, there are ten miles of people! Xiao Lizi is alone, so many ways, even if they are effective, they may not be very effective." Xu Yiting, the instructor of the second battalion, shook his head.

Another failure!

The cadres were collectively depressed. Since ancient times, locust plagues can be resisted. Once such a natural disaster breaks out, the common people can only sit and die. This locust army is much more ruthless than the imperial army.

"Report! I, I have some opinions." Fan Guowen raised his hand timidly. Since the recruits came back from the trial, he has been promoted to be the squad leader of the second company's first platoon machine gun squad. He has seven soldiers under his command, equipped with a Maxim and three light machine guns.

"Comrade Guowen! Let me know your opinion." Battalion Commander Wu looked at the new machine gun squad leader who participated in the battalion-level cadre meeting for the first time.

"I, my family also has a big farm, so I have studied books on biology. I know some habits of locusts." Fan Guowen obviously has no experience in speaking on such a large occasion, and his speech has completely lost its previous fluency. Some stutter.

It was only then that the people around remembered that this soldier who graduated from a university major had a large farm in his home in the United States, and he was not a scholar who didn't distinguish between leeks.

Li Wei frowned fiercely, why did he still have such virtues when he was the squad leader, and said anxiously: "Quickly confess and be lenient! Be honest!" He habitually took out the fighting thorn that never left his body, and fiddled with it in his hand.

Li Wei's words were still the fighting thorn in his hand, which immediately acted as a special medicine for stuttering.It proved that political power comes out of the barrel of a gun, and it is the boss's last word. Fan Guowen's expression changed when he was frightened, and his words immediately became sharper: "The dew is heavy in the morning, and locusts can't usually fly. They are more afraid of fireworks, and some Phototaxis, you can light a fire at night and drive locusts to the fire."

"I think it's feasible!" Li Wei nodded, although there were not many textbooks on locust extermination in the school before.After all, there are not many opportunities for locust plagues to occur in modern times.Fan Guowen's words still have some truth.

"Anyone else have any good suggestions?" Xu Yiting, the camp instructor, wrote down Fan Guowen's words.

Li Wei recalled the scene of waking up from a nap and seeing chickens and ducks desperately pecking at locusts all over the yard. He raised his hand and added: "You can look for natural enemies of locusts, such as chickens, ducks, geese, frogs, etc., which are specially bred to prey on locusts. Eliminate locusts and fatten chickens and ducks."

Battalion Commander Wu nodded and said, "That's a good idea." It would be advisable for ordinary people to raise more poultry in their homes, and it would be advisable to gather together to fight locusts.

The interim meeting ended in a hurry, and according to the locust extermination proposal put forward by Fan Guowen and others, Battalion Commander Wu decided to implement it at the same time.

We cut pine grass and weeds from the mountain, sprinkled chili powder and weakly poisonous weeds, and lit several fires on the edge of the field ridges, one by one.At the same time, some water was sprinkled, suppressing the flames, and releasing thick smoke. Several soldiers took fans and other tools at hand, and took turns blowing the thick smoke, leading the smoke to all parts of the field.

For a while, the fields in the second camp were billowing with choking smoke, and the irritating smoke from the piles of grass sprinkled with peppers was unbearable to people, not to mention the locusts, which could still block people's noses.But the valves on the locust's belly are useless, and the irritating small suspended particles can't be shaken off.

After a while, the unbearable migratory locusts soared into the sky and circled in the sky, and more of them were directly smoked and fell down. The first battle was won, and the soldiers cheered. Choked to tears. [

"Roar! ~~~~~~~~"

A long roar suddenly erupted in the distance! ~ The ground seemed to be trembling.

Everyone's hearts trembled, and a feeling of depression and depression immediately enveloped their hearts. The smoke floating in the air seemed to be strongly encouraged by something, and slowly retreated in one direction.

All the locals reflexively made the same movement, squatting down with their hands covering their heads and ears, and no one wanted to be accidentally injured by Xiao Lizi's Nine Heavens Dragon Cry.

The terrible locust plague made the Second Battalion use all kinds of tricks. It doesn't matter if the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice, it is a good cat.

Real knowledge comes from practice. After combining theory with practice, Li Wei coughed several times in depression. The Nine Heavens Dragon Yin was exhausting, and he could only last for less than a minute, except for being shocked to death within 1 meters from him. The locusts fell like rain, and the ground was covered with corpses. The locusts 30 meters away fled in all directions in a panic, and they didn't sell Li Wei's account at all. The Jiutianlongyin also had limited effect.

Villagers who can't kill locusts no matter what, some frantically pounce on locusts, some kneel on the edge of the field and beat their chests and feet, and cry loudly, some gnash their teeth and point at the sky and curse the earth, some are desperate and stagnant when they want to cry There are also people who knelt and put their hands together to pray devoutly. Many desperate villagers simply released their livestock, crying and watching the livestock eat the grain and locusts together.

Facing the plague of locusts, which has been punished by heaven since ancient times, it inevitably made people in the base areas panic. Some ignorant old ladies even set up incense tables and offered locusts as "divine insects", praying to the so-called gods that the locusts would not come to eat food. .

Many secret agents and traitors lurking in spread rumors everywhere, saying that the Eighth Route Army is against the sky, offending the gods, and the heavens have punished them. the contradiction between.

A few people who didn't know the truth clamored that the casualties and losses in the base areas were caused by the Eighth Route Army's angering the Japanese, and angering the gods, causing disasters to come down from the sky, making the situation even more unstable.

Some villages even obstructed the political propaganda and war preparation work of the Eighth Route Army working group. Many militia family members forcibly pulled back their relatives who joined the militia. Frustrated, they had to be forced to withdraw from the militia and guerrillas. Some villages even put their swords and guns into storage.

At the same time, the Japanese army near the blockade was uncharacteristically, posing as a family of China and Japan. Many Japanese soldiers imitated the Eighth Route Army, doing some work for farmers, stuffing some candy for children, using some small favors to win people's hearts, and then warmly invited people from the base areas The villagers went to live in the security area of ​​the Japanese army and established the so-called "human circle", trying to fundamentally compete for the human resource base of the Eighth Route Army and evacuate the strength of the base area from the bottom.

Due to the unstable situation caused by the locust plague, the Eighth Route Army's front headquarters in Matian Town, Liao County is holding an emergency meeting at the regiment level.

At present, the most urgent needs of the base areas are food and people, but the locusts and the Japanese army, two natural and man-made locust (imperial) troops, are like two hands tightly choking the throat of the base area, making the military and political units of the Eighth Route Army at all levels breathless. .

It is almost a foregone conclusion that the harvest of spring wheat and the style of spring will reduce production in a large area. However, the unpredictable movements of the Japanese army cast an ominous shadow over the minds of all the people at the Eighth Route Army headquarters meeting.

An intelligence analysis from a subdivisional staff department and multi-party intelligence confirmation from the underground intelligence network indicated that the Japanese army was brewing an offensive of unprecedented scale in the near future.

However, food is the lifeblood of the base areas. The unexpected locust disasters caught all the soldiers and civilians in the base areas by surprise, and they had to mobilize a large amount of manpower to carry out disaster relief and robbing operations. On the other hand, the alarm of the Japanese army launching a large-scale sweeping offensive became louder and louder.

The Hundred Regiments War the year before last, the intensified anti-third public security raid last year and the Spring Festival raid in March this year, although the Eighth Route Army has achieved gratifying results, but at the same time brought a large number of casualties, the population of the base area has reached an all-time low.

The lack of defense caused by locust extermination is courting death, preparing for war but waiting for death without food, grabbing food or anti-mopping up, the Taihang Mountain Anti-Japanese Revolutionary Base had to face the biggest challenge in history.

This made the staff members of the General Staff of the Eighth Route Army almost restless. If they did not snatch food from the locusts, the soldiers and civilians in the base areas with empty stomachs would collapse without attack even if the Japanese army did not come to fight. This is something that even children can recognize. Knowing the situation, the Japanese would naturally not be so stupid as to miss the opportunity of the locust plague to deal a fatal blow to the base area.

"Looking at the moment, the manpower in each district can only choose to exterminate the locusts and save themselves, and replant as soon as possible, or actively stockpile war preparations and train for war. Reduce losses." Deputy commander-in-chief Peng has already seen the current situation clearly. Natural disasters and man-made disasters are all on the battlefield, and the choice is that the winter has just passed, and the situation can only be worsened. To a fatal degree.

"But after all, the base area is still our territory, and the Japanese are foreigners anyway. At least, we still have a geographical advantage. As long as the base area is still in our hands, we will be more sure of defeating the invaders." Chief of Staff Zuo continued Deputy Commander Peng's words angrily broke the deadlock in the conference room. [