Wanli 1592

Chapter 1140 Controlling Locusts

Confucius was a very smart man.

Judging from his various words and deeds, he is not the kind and kind old man in the painting, explaining the principles of life to you with a pleasant face.

Various records can show the very wise side of Confucius. He is very smart, has insight into human nature, and has a very thorough observation of many things, seeing through the essence at a glance.

For example, the State of Lu issued a decree that those who rescued their slaves from other countries could go to the government to receive the money they spent. Confucius’ disciples did not receive the money after rescuing a Lu citizen, but proudly showed off in front of Confucius. .

As a result, Confucius was furious.

Do you think everyone is as rich as you and loves fame?They all care about their own interests!Who is willing to do things that are not beneficial?
If you don’t take money, people will praise you. In the future, if someone takes money, others will criticize him. Slowly, will anyone still be willing to rescue the natives who are living abroad?

Confucius' wisdom and insight into human nature can be seen.

Then again, if Confucius was not smart or wise, could he have founded Confucianism in that world of great controversy?

He may have a very deep understanding of superstition about ghosts and gods. He saw that the people only knew how to pray but did not know how to find reliable solutions in the face of natural and man-made disasters, and only knew how to pray passively but did not know how to actively seek solutions. Deeply sigh.

It was only limited to that era. Although Confucius advocated respecting ghosts and gods and keeping a distance from ghosts and gods, focusing on his own subjective beliefs and not allowing ghosts and gods to dominate, he still believed in the existence of ghosts and gods. The theory of interaction between heaven and man began in the pre-Qin period, and Confucius also relatively agreed.

Then Dong Zhongshu carried it forward for political purposes.

These miscellaneous ideas and the worship of ghosts and gods are also the biggest obstacles to many policies that Xiao Ruxun will implement. If Huaxia wants to move towards a new life, it must get rid of the superstition and worship of ghosts and gods.

The common people must know that everything is created by their own hands, and has nothing to do with ghosts and ghosts. What they have been fighting against is the meteorological disasters caused by climate change. It is nature, not the punishment caused by man-made evil. It doesn't exist at all.

The legacy of these thoughts is far-reaching and must be broken, so that the people know that their hands and legs are more reliable than any ghosts and monsters.

Because the locusts could not be eradicated, they actually built temples to worship the "Locust God", trying to impress the Locust God and stop it from eating crops.

Funny, pathetic.

If you can't solve anything, you will enshrine the other party as a god, never try your best to find a solution, and blindly pray to God and Buddha, this is the evil result.

It is also the importance of breaking such superstitions.

Locusts have been a very troublesome problem in all dynasties, and no matter how they are managed, they can't be managed well. That's why people are forced to build temples to worship and ask for God's blessing.

But the dynasties and dynasties did not catch them without a fight, nor did they not find other ways to deal with locusts, but only knew about sacrifices.

Beginning in the Han Dynasty, the government paid money to buy locusts and let the people organize to fight them. In the Tang Dynasty, Tang Taizong took the lead in eating locusts, which led to the folk custom of eating locusts. People discovered the edible and medicinal value of locusts and tried their best to fight against them. Locusts, but still can't solve it.

Not to mention ancient times, in modern times, when technology is so advanced, there is still no good way to eradicate locusts, because their reproductive ability is too strong.

However, although locusts cannot be eradicated, it is still possible to control locusts by various means to reduce the frequency and number of locust plagues.

It’s just that no one has summed up a reliable strategy for controlling locusts, and no one has taught these methods to the people. Once the locust plague occurs, the people can only watch the locusts wreak havoc.

Some people naively think that eating locusts can eradicate locust disasters and feed the victims, thereby solving the problem of locusts. If such a simple thing can be established, there should be no locust plagues after Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty.

Locusts eat crops and all kinds of crops too fast. They can eat all the edible plants by staying in one place for only one or two days, and then immediately take off and move to the next area. One or two days is enough for people to hunt and kill. How many locusts?
After the food is eaten up, the locusts killed are enough for so many farmers to eat for a few days?Can you eat the next crop to grow into?

It is true that locusts are high in protein and rich in nutrition, but they are low in calories and digest quickly. They are not enough for the victims to eat for a few days.

Therefore, if you want to deal with locust plagues, spending money to buy locusts and mobilizing people to eat locusts are both acts of afterthought. In fact, they are not prevention, but only rescue, and the rescue is very limited. If you want to control locusts, you need to start from the root cause.

The ancients were not fools. Although they were restrained by the thoughts of the induction between heaven and man, not all of them were sitting still. Since the development of printing technology in the Tang and Song Dynasties, there have been many locust control techniques on paper. Today, people are familiar with the ancient books on locust control strategies. It is recorded above.

But firstly, the mobilization power of the country is not enough, the executive power of officials is not enough, and the common people do not understand deeply, so it is difficult to form enough locust control force, and it is difficult to thoroughly clean up the locust growing areas to prevent locust disasters.

So whenever the locusts grow wings and start to wreak havoc, people can only sit and wait to see the overwhelming locusts eat up their crops. They can do nothing but pray to Buddha and shed tears, and then starve to death in batches.

While Xiao Ruxun sent people to investigate climate change, he also sent quite a group of capable young officials to retrieve books on locust control over the years from the warehouse, find out the method of controlling locusts, and collect the law of locust occurrence and the main places of occurrence. , and the main location of the outbreak.

It took a month for the locust control team to summarize the location, time and pattern of locust disasters.

They concluded that locust plagues often break out on a large scale after a severe drought, and most of the outbreaks are in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, far more than the number of outbreaks in the Yangtze River Basin and south of the Yangtze River. The outbreak time is generally the most rampant from May to August, that is, Between summer and autumn.

Summer locusts are at their peak in mid-May to early June of the lunar calendar, and autumn locusts are at their peak in early and mid-August of the lunar calendar. June and July of the lunar calendar are the period when summer and autumn locust disasters occur concurrently. They are very smart and are born when the crops are most lush and are about to harvest. , Eat up the hard work and rations of the people for a year, and walk away.

Locusts don't eat crops, they eat people.

The locust control team further concluded that locust plagues are most distributed in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, especially in the three provinces of Hebei, Shandong, and Henan. In the south of central China, locust plagues are gradually decreasing, and there are almost no locust plagues in the southeast coast.

It is recorded in ancient books that the locusts were extremely dry due to drought, so the locust control team believed that locusts need to grow in a relatively dry environment to become a disaster. Places with abundant rainfall and humid climate are not suitable for the growth of locusts. Therefore, the Yellow River Basin suffered repeated locust disasters after each drought.

It is also recorded in ancient books that locusts grow from larvae to gnats in the soil, and then from gnats to locusts. Therefore, the locust control team believes that locusts should lay their eggs in the soil and grow. I like warmth.

In other words, once a severe drought occurs in a certain area, locust plagues are likely to appear in the second year. The locusts will grow there, and after they grow up, they will eat the crops there first, and then move to various places.

(End of this chapter)