Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 1093 Prepare for the Locust Plague

Li Mingxuan entered the Chongzheng Hall, and without waiting for him to salute, Zhao Dezhao asked anxiously, "Li Aiqing, what happened to the matter of praying for rain?"

Li Mingxuan shook his head, and said with a worried face: "Your Majesty, Lord Lu Yuqing prayed for rain on His Majesty's behalf, but the rain has not yet arrived. In accordance with the old rules, I should send my assistant ministers to build an altar in the eastern suburbs, and then pray for rain..."

"Otherwise, I'd better go pray for rain myself!" Zhao Dezhao said enthusiastically.

Three months ago, at the beginning of spring, there was little rain in the Central Plains, and the wheat in the fields urgently needed irrigation.At that time, Zhao Dezhao suddenly insisted on going his own way, wanting to change his image in the hearts of the people, so he personally prayed for rain, but it rained heavily for three consecutive days the next day.With this success, Zhao Dezhao has greatly increased his confidence in himself, and wants to show off his skills this time.

However, Li Mingxuan absolutely did not believe that Dong Zhongshu made up the theory of the telepathy between heaven and man to fool the emperor, and he would not believe that Zhao Dezhao was the real son of heaven. If Ye Chen... With the miracle he created, maybe there is still such a possibility.

And the Son of Heaven prays for rain in person, and everyone will be happy if he succeeds, but if he fails, it will be a great blow to the prestige of the Son of Heaven, and it will directly shake the hearts of all people in the world.

It's just that Li Mingxuan couldn't tell Zhao Dezhao these true thoughts, but Zhao Dezhao's reaction today was already in Li Mingxuan's expectation, so Li Mingxuan had already thought about what to say: "Although the drought is heavy, fortunately it is not during the farming season. If autumn comes It will not be too late for your Majesty to pray to the heavens at that time when there is still no rain during the plowing season."

When Li Mingxuan replied like this, Zhao Dezhao gave up after thinking about it.Although there are still some crops in the summer fields, they are not as important as the staple food wheat.It is really inappropriate to pray for rain now. If there is still no rain after autumn, it is not too late to go.

Putting this matter aside and waiting for the result of the ministers begging for rain again, Zhao Dezhao thought of another thing, and said a little excitedly: "I heard from Zhang Dong of Song Weifu that Ye Chen, that dog thief, is on patrol. Was stabbed twice, was there any injury?"

Li Mingxuan said: "As far as I know, Ye Chen was not in danger and was never injured."

Zhao Dezhao expressed regret and unwillingness, and said, "It's a pity, that dog thief has a lot of life."

Li Mingxuan continued: "However, according to reliable sources, Hu Sanguang from the Security Department of Xiangfu Kingdom was stabbed to death, which is considered to have broken Ye Chen's hand."

……

……

In Song Dynasty, Qinfeng Road, Yongxingjun Road, and Hedong Road were severely drought-stricken. Xiangfu Kingdom was adjacent to these three roads. How could it be spared because of the national border.The six states of Fuzhou, Linzhou, Longzhou, Hongzhou, Yanzhou, and Lanzhou were also severely drought-affected.

Among the six states, Longzhou and Yanzhou are not far from Xiajing, and they are the most densely populated places in Xiangfu Kingdom.Although Xiangfu Kingdom is not comparable to Song Dynasty in terms of food stored in people's homes or in official warehouses, Ye Chen, Han Xizai, Ma Wentao, Jia Xian, down to prefecture and county officials are also worried these days.However, under Ye Chen's forced request, he didn't do anything to pray for rain, which was a waste of time and money. For this reason, Ma Wentao, Han Xizai and others tried hard to persuade them many times, but Ye Chen flatly refused.

There was a severe drought in six prefectures, and with Ye Chen's character, he wanted to leave the palace, leave Xiajing, and go to have a look.

Longzhou is next to Xia Jing. After dealing with today's main political affairs, Ye Chen brought Lian Jicheng, Han Xizai, and Ma Wentao to Longzhou under the protection of [-] hidden guards and [-] cavalry from the Tianwei Legion.

Just entered Longzhou territory, before entering Longzhou City, when passing a small river named Xiaocang River, Ye Chen stopped, walked to the river, and looked around.

Xiaocang River, which Ye Chen has passed by many times, is usually at least three or four feet wide, and the deepest part of the water is five or six feet.But now there is only one stream left.

Ye Chen gazed at the river for a while, then walked towards the dry river beach. The cavalry of the Dark Guard and Heavenly Guard Legion had already dispersed to guard the surrounding area. Ma Wentao, Han Xizai, Lian Jicheng, Jia Xian and others quickly followed Ye Chen down. After reaching the river beach, Ye Chen went down to the river beach, looked carefully at the ground, and suddenly said: "Dig here."

Everyone was stunned for a moment, Lian Jicheng had already taken out a dagger and started digging on the river beach.

Just after digging half an inch deep, Ye Chen waved Lian Jicheng back, squatted down and grabbed a handful of moist soil from the small pit dug by Lian Jicheng. Dust rubbed it with his fingers solemnly, and four or five strips about an inch long appeared in front of everyone.

"Your Majesty! What is this?" Han Xizai couldn't help asking.

Ma Wentao said with a heavy expression, "This is a locust." Han Xizai came from a family and lived in the south of the Yangtze River. Although he had heard of it, he had never seen such a thing before.Although Ma Wentao was also born in a scholarly family, when he was an official in Song Guozhou County in the early years, he was very close to the people and hardworking. He encountered a plague of locusts, so he saw this thing.

Ye Chen sighed and said, "That's right, it's locusts, but to be precise, they're locust eggs."

"Locust eggs?" Han Xizai and Jia Xian said in surprise.

Ye Chen pointed to the river beach under his feet. On the dry and cracked land, there were densely packed small holes, and said: "Under the soil, in these small holes, there should be locust eggs."

The faces of Han Xizai and Jia Xian turned pale in an instant. The two of them didn't have seen this thing like Ma Wentao, and they knew some of the reasons. They didn't know what a locust egg looked like.Han Xizai had never even seen locusts that could cover the sky and the sun in the south of the Yangtze River. Although Jia Xian's home was in the Central Plains, he was not very clear about it.At this time, the two looked at the countless small holes extending to both sides on the river beach, and thought that if there was an egg in a hole, then...

Jia Xian finally couldn't help but said: "There are so many locust eggs on the riverbanks on both sides of this small river, so there are more than a dozen small rivers in the six states that were hit by the disaster in Xiangfu country, and some lakes, ponds, etc. On the edge, on the edge of the creek, there are probably locust eggs."

Ye Chen shook his head, rubbed the soil away with his fingers, and threw away the others. He just held an egg in his hand, and said with a very solemn expression: "Dozens of locusts can be hatched from this egg, just in front of our eyes. The riverbanks on both sides of the Xiaocang River will turn into millions of locusts in more than two months. And there may be hundreds of millions of locusts in the land of six states. Even if some locusts do not survive the hatching process, the The number is also extremely scary. In addition, everyone, don't forget that there will only be more locusts on Yongxingjun Road, Qinfeng Road, and Hedong Road in the Song Dynasty, and they will fly to our Xiangfu country."

"One locust egg can actually hatch dozens of locusts..." Now, not only Han Xizai and Jia Xian, but even Ma Wentao, who knew more about locusts, turned pale.As for the truth of what His Majesty said, they will never doubt it.

Ye Chen threw the eggs on the ground casually, looked at the cloudless sky with his hands behind his back, and said, "Water is the nemesis in the hatching process of locusts. If this place is submerged in water, the locusts will naturally not hatch. On the contrary, the weather for locusts to hatch is more difficult." It is dry, and the survival rate is higher."

Ma Wentao looked up at the scorching sun, gritted his teeth and said, "Looking at the weather, there is no sign of rain at all."

"Be prepared to prevent locust disasters!" Ye Chen's voice was heavy. Although Xiangfu Kingdom had reclaimed a lot of fields, and because of the well-built water conservancy facilities such as canals and wind-powered waterwheels, especially the seven counties and one prefecture in the Hetao Plain, more than 600 Almost all of the [-] mu of land is paddy fields, and the seeds selected by the Agricultural Research Department are much better than Song and Liao, so the grain yield per mu is relatively high, and there is no shortage of food in general.But don't expect autumn harvests in six states and more places this year.In this case, the surplus grain of the common people will be eaten up soon, and the common people will have no grain, so the grain in the official warehouse will naturally be used for disaster relief.

"In addition, the Ministry of Security has found out that there is not much food left in the Changping warehouse on the third disaster-stricken road in the Song Dynasty. Once the famine begins, if the Song Dynasty court cannot transport the food in time, a large number of refugees will surely enter our Xiangfu country." Ye Chen suddenly said. After a while, he said again.

Han Xizai hesitated for a moment and said, "Your Majesty, although we have enough food in the Xiangfu Kingdom, we have to keep it for the army during the war. If the refugees from the Song Kingdom flood in, there will be chaos. I think we should send a large army to prevent them from entering. Our country."

Ma Wentao said: "Your Majesty, this move will definitely cause countless deaths and injuries to the refugees of the Song Dynasty. I am afraid that it will harm the peace of heaven, and it will not be conducive to the aspirations of the people when His Majesty conquers the world one day. But if all the refugees of the Song Dynasty are allowed to flood in, we are afraid It is unbearable, so the minister thinks that part of it is acceptable."

Ye Chen glanced at Han Xizai and Ma Wentao, and said decisively: "No matter how many refugees come from the Song Kingdom, we will accept them and do our best to keep them alive."

Han Xizai, Ma Wentao, and Jia Xian wanted to say something else, but Ye Chen interrupted them with a wave of his hand, and said, "Don't forget, what is the most lacking thing in our Xiangfu Kingdom? It's not food, nor gold and silver, nor the army, but people."

Han Xizai, Ma Wentao, and Jia Xian couldn't help but tremble when they heard the words, yes!Today, the land area of ​​Xiangfu Kingdom is even much larger than that of Song Kingdom, Wuyue Kingdom, and Wu Kingdom, but the population is much smaller than these countries, even less than ten million.

In particular, the Hexi Corridor, which was newly conquered last year, was sparsely populated. The fertile land of Hehuang was also uninhabited because more than 60 Tibetans were relocated to Liangzhou, Taozhou, and Qinghe Prefecture, especially the proportion of Han people was too small.

For this reason, as early as the beginning of the year, the upper and lower courts discussed many times in the government affairs hall, and finally came to the conclusion that if there are another 500 million people filling these places, whether these people are farming, working, doing business, or even consuming , will greatly enhance the national strength of the Xiangfu country, and the relationship between them is naturally not simply a matter of creating a lot of taxes.Anyone with a little wisdom will understand the truth.

(End of this chapter)