Wanli 1592

Chapter 1315 Raising ducks to control locusts
The news of raising ducks to control locusts in Liulian Village quickly spread. In just five days, the matter of raising ducks to control locusts spread from Liulian Village to the entire Xiyang Township.

There are nearly [-] households in nine villages in Xiyang Township. Township head Liu Jinxian led the officials in the village to cooperate with officials from the General Administration of Locust Control to visit each village and gather the villagers to watch on the spot and dispel their concerns on the spot. .

Xu Guangqi announced to the people that the Daqin government would never let them raise ducks without a place to sell them. As long as they raise ducks and take good care of them for a while, after the ducks grow up eating gnats, there must be a place to sell them. , they can definitely get the money.

Xu Guangqi used his own reputation as a guarantee to ensure the villagers' trust in the government.

In order to ensure that the matter was fully promoted, Sanyuan County Magistrate Chen Siguang also personally stepped in.

The presidents of the peasant associations in each village in Xiyang Township first held a meeting under the organization of the county magistrate Chen Siguang to unify their ideas, and then went door to door under the leadership of the township magistrate Liu Jinxian to persuade those who felt that there were no gnats in their fields and it would be troublesome to raise ducks. work for them one by one.

After three days, the matter was finally finalized. All the more than 2000 households in Xiyang Township agreed to raise ducks to control locusts. One family raised a dozen or twenty ducks, and these [-] ducks were quickly released from Xiyang Township. A town has been digested.

Chen Jinglun, Chen Zhenlong and his son immediately organized people to start from Liulian Village, and explained to the people in the village how to raise ducks, how to release ducks to the fields to eat gnats, how to reduce the mortality of ducks, how to manage ducks so that they do not run around, etc. .

At first, there were not many people who knew how to raise ducks. Later, Xu Guangqi saw that the speed of promotion was a little slow, so with a big wave of his hand, the officials of the entire Locust Control Administration came to learn the essence of raising ducks and controlling locusts from Chen Jinglun and his son.

Xu Guangqi asked the officials to learn it, record it into a summary and take it to various villages to explain and guide the villagers in detail, and then be responsible for follow-up.

He gave important instructions, saying that the matter of raising ducks to control locusts should be thoroughly implemented, so that villagers can learn the method of raising ducks to control locusts, so that even after the general administration of locust control is abolished, the people in Guanzhong will no longer be able to control locusts. Don't worry about the locust thing.

Some officials originally thought they could sit in the government office and remotely control it, but Xu Guangqi waved his hand——

Except for the manpower necessary for daily administration, all the manpower that can be spared will be sent to the countryside by Lao Tzu!Those who don't go to the countryside will immediately report to the emperor and be dismissed on the spot!
As a result, officials from the entire Locust Control Administration and even officials from Xi'an Prefecture and Sanyuan County were dispatched to help.

Of course, the officials in the townships are duty-bound to learn together, and then run around to promote and explain to the villagers the necessity of raising ducks to control locusts and so on.

At the same time, Xu Guangqi took people around from village to village to check the situation of gnats in the land. When a field was found, the whole village had to be cleaned by ducks to ensure that no gnats would turn into locusts.

During this period of time, the second batch of [-] ducklings sent from the capital was also delivered, and the promotion was extended from Xiyang Township to Daqiao Township, and gnats were found in six of the eleven villages in Daqiao Township. Nests, the second batch of ducklings are put here first, and the gnats are removed.

Xu Guangqi led the officials to run around non-stop, while Chen Jinglun and his son commanded an army of ducks to follow up and eat gnats everywhere. Soon, the news spread throughout the Xi'an Prefecture, and then, the news spread To the entire land of Guanzhong.

There is still more than a month until the autumn harvest season. It is related to the annual grain harvest. No official in the local government dares to underestimate this matter. See if you need to use some means or something.

If the locusts were really going to wake up, the emperor would probably plow the entire Guanzhong area's officialdom in his rage, and the first unlucky person would be Han Xuan, the new governor of Shaanxi and the leader of the five tiger generals in the land reform.

Han Xuan, who had just finished the land reform work and gained a firm foothold in the Guanzhong area, absolutely did not want to see this kind of situation. Instead of being defeated by the powerful landlords and gentry, he would be defeated by the locusts. He could not accept this kind of thing anyway.

So Han Xuan learned the information provided by Xu Guangqi at the fastest speed, and immediately started to urge officials from all over the country to act quickly, go down to various places to inform the news, and organize people to immediately go down to the village to check the situation of gnats. .

Officials from all state capitals, counties and townships immediately took action.

Fortunately, they have all been fully trained in mass movements and know how to contact the masses and guide them. The news was collected one by one by Han Xuan, and Han Xuan immediately conveyed it to Xu Guangqi, letting Xu Guangqi know the seriousness of the problem.

When Xu Guangqi collected the news from all over the country, the speed was as fast as possible, but it has already entered August, the weather is getting hotter, and the action of raising ducks to control locusts is also proceeding faster and faster.

Xu Guangqi's face was serious after reading it.

"Look, there are traces of locust gnats found in the eight prefectures and two Zhili prefectures of Shaanxi. In the past few years, Guanzhong and Gansu were drought and rainless, and there were also wars and chaos. There were several wars, so that the population was sparse and the wasteland increased. The locusts like to lay eggs in wasteland. Fortunately, we found It should be done early, and the response should be timely, otherwise when the autumn comes and the locusts take off, it will be a big disaster.”

Xu Guangqi handed over the drawing he had summarized to Han Xuan, and Han Xuan looked very pale after seeing it.

"Fighting evil gentry and bullies, but this little locust can't do anything about it. If it weren't for His Majesty's quick delivery of ducks, I don't know how many disasters this year will suffer, but at this rate, there may still be a certain scale of locust plagues this year. .”

"Well, it's probably inevitable."

Xu Guangqi nodded: "Fortunately, potatoes are planted in all parts of Guanzhong. The locusts can't do anything to potatoes, and there will be no food for life. Potatoes and sweet potatoes in the south of the Yangtze River will have a bumper harvest. If there is a plague of locusts here, it will not be completely gone Method.

But even so, there must be preparations in advance, Han Futai, I suggest that you and I jointly write a letter to His Majesty as soon as possible to let His Majesty know that there may be a small-scale locust disaster in Guanzhong, but we will do our best to control the locust disaster within the scope of Guanzhong Inside, locusts are not allowed to harm other places across provinces. "

Han Xuan nodded.

"You're right, I see."

Han Xuan looked at the picture again, and suddenly raised his head and said: "This year, there is not much rainfall in Jiangbei, and there are locust plagues in Guanzhong. There are probably many other places. Right now, ducks are raised to control locusts. If there are locust plagues in other places, what will happen?" Is good?"

"Your Majesty said that using Guanzhong as a pilot is also to ensure that Guanzhong is not lost. In the next few years, the policy will be tilted towards Guanzhong and Gansu. In preparation for the Northern Expedition, other places can be properly released and organized. , the government pays for the purchase, and now potatoes and sweet potatoes are widely planted, which can be regarded as a lot of relief."

Xu Guangqi replied slowly.

(End of this chapter)