Wanli 1592

Chapter 1141 Controlling Locusts

Whether a drought occurs is the primary basis for judging the locust outbreak.

Especially in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, the Guanzhong region and the three provinces of Hebei, Shandong and Henan, these densely populated and drought-prone areas are often breeding grounds for locusts.

Xiao Ruxun handed over the leadership of the locust control team to Chen Longzheng, who had excess energy, and asked him to lead the locust control team to go out to work and investigate everywhere.

In the first half of the first year of Longwu, Chen Longzheng led a locust control team to conduct investigations in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. He returned to Beijing in December of the first year of Longwu, and told Xiao Ruxun what he saw, heard and gained in a detailed report.

Chen Longzheng reported that the situation in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River is quite bad. Unlike the Jiangnan area, there are very few locust plagues in the Jiangnan area. After the land reform, the control of local officials has greatly increased, and it is very convenient to organize villages and manpower to build water conservancy projects.

They have complete supplies and manpower, and they can often repair some water conservancy projects that need to be repaired. Water conservancy projects can also be built in places where water conservancy needs to be built. The possibility of drought in places with perfect water conservancy is naturally small. If there is less drought, locust plagues will naturally not form.

Therefore, there is no need to worry too much in the Jiangnan area. The possibility of locust plagues is extremely low. It is precisely the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in the north, which lacks manpower and material resources, and the official organization is not as mature as Jiangnan, especially the southeast.

In the 25th and 26th years of Wanli in the previous Ming Dynasty, there were wars again. The northern captives invaded the south and slaughtered wantonly. The army fought fiercely with them. Datong in Shanxi was almost in ruins.

After Xiao Ruxun's Northern Expedition, hundreds of thousands of troops crossed the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River for control, which also had a certain impact on the local area. Therefore, the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River are still in the recovery period, with dilapidated construction and water conservancy.

Now I have to thank God for not raining heavily. Otherwise, once it rains, the Yellow River will overflow and cause floods.

Although Xiao Ruxun worked very hard to send batches of officials to Shanxi and Datong to take the lead in land reform and control, and provided a large amount of food for local officials to restore Datong with work, but the time was short. The results are not obvious, and their energy is low.

In other words, if there is a drought in the north now, there will be a locust plague. Once a locust plague occurs, the central government will be exhausted and unable to cope.

Therefore, the prevention and control of locust plagues must be carried out before that, and the central government should come forward to organize manpower and material resources in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River to prevent locust plagues.

Chen Longzheng advocated cutting off the aquatic plants in the low-lying and stagnant water to clear the locust spawning sites. When the eggs were formed in spring and summer, once there were rows of loose soil, it must be caused by the development of the eggs into larvae, and the government organized manpower. to process.

After the eggs become larvae, it is necessary to dig ditches and beat them. More importantly, in the larval stage, that is, when the locusts are still in the state of gnats, a large number of ducks should be stocked in the area. Ducks like to eat gnats and can eat them in a day. A few catties of gnats not only do not need feed, but can also eat locust larvae, killing two birds with one stone.

There is another way to do it next.

It is to have a variety of crops such as taro, mulberry, pea, mung bean, hemp, sesame, etc. that locusts do not eat, or when locusts have no choice but to sift plant ash, lime, etc. eat these crops.

After getting this detailed report, Xiao Ruxun ordered the locust control team to simplify it into the "Locust Control Order", listing all the methods one by one, and writing it in easy-to-understand words.

Then ordered the printing office to print a large number of them, and then distributed them to the villages in areas where locusts are prone to occur, and asked the village chiefs to organize farmers' associations to study intensively, and they had to memorize them by rote.

This is the first time that Xiao Ruxun has issued a nationwide mandatory decree. Even if forced to memorize it, at least one member of every family in the farm must be able to recite it in full. This is a matter of their lives. Public whipping.

This is what happened at the same time as the Battle of Bozhou. Xiao Ruxun ordered the whole country to recite, and then established the General Administration of Locust Control in locust-stricken areas, with Xu Guangqi as the director of the general administration, and Chen Longzheng as his deputy. Zhao Shizhen took over temporarily.

In Xiao Ruxun's view, although Xu Guangqi is good at studying Western learning, he is better at handling practical affairs, and he is Wang Zuozhi's talent.

Compared to him, his deputy, Zhao Shizhen, is the real firearms maniac and military industry maniac, specializing in firearms. He wants to train Xu Guangqi in the direction of the chief assistant of the cabinet. Zhao Shizhen is his successor in the Ministry of Military Industry.

So this time when the General Administration of Locust Control was established, he named Xu Guangqi to take the lead, and provided him with enough opportunities to earn seniority, political achievements and fame, so that he could become famous faster and lay the foundation for him to succeed the old Wang Xijue in the future.

At the same time, he arranged more than 130 young officials whom he was very optimistic about into the General Administration of Locust Control, and asked them to go to the local area, travel all over the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, see all kinds of life, and use their own feet bit by bit Feel the hardships of the people and prepare for entering the central government to hold important positions.

When the war was in full swing, locust control was also in full swing. Countless smart and capable officials were transferred to the General Administration of Locust Control to work with Xu Guangqi.

Xiao Ruxun sent elite troops to escort them all the way to Xi'an, inspecting places along the way, contacting places one by one to customize policies, and at the same time controlling the locust plague, he also deeply inspected places in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River.

Xiao Ruxun also gave Xu Guangqi a secret mission, which is to learn about the living conditions of the people in various places during this period, to see which places are too difficult to live in, and there is little resistance to moving to other places.

The idea that it is difficult to leave the homeland and return to the roots of the fallen leaves is something that Chinese people cannot erase anyway, but if life forces them to leave, they must go. Xiao Ruxun does not want to force people to leave their homeland, so now we need to understand the ways of leaving their homeland in various places How is the idea.

Those who are willing to leave are of course the best, and those who are not willing but not resistant are also necessary. The north cannot leave too many people, and as much as possible, move as much as possible to the south. This is already a policy that must be implemented.

Xu Guangqi was quite surprised by this. He didn't expect that the emperor was still thinking about such a thing. There were already so many things to do, and when An Sheng couldn't be seen with so many thoughts, the emperor actually wanted to find something to do.

Now, Xu Guangqi probably understands the significance of the emperor's appointment of him as the director of the Locust Control Administration.

It is rumored that Xu Guangqi is the successor of the future chief assistant of the empire, and it seems that it is not a lie.

Xu Guangqi broke into a cold sweat for himself.

(End of this chapter)