"These are divine locusts, they can't fight! The divine locusts hold vengeance. The more they fight, the more violent they will be in the coming year!"

The Yan family's daughter's family stopped, not only because of the authority of the village elders, but also because they found themselves in vain. The locusts fell one after another, and they didn't care about culling at all. One fell down, and other locusts quickly filled it. Hundreds of thousands of locusts died, and new locusts came from the air. They seemed to take a fancy to this place, breaking through the weak embankments of the villagers like a surging river.

The villagers gave up and threw away their tools. Following the village elders kneeling on the ridge, they kept bowing their heads and kowtows, chanting words in their mouths towards the flying locusts, praying for the locusts to leave quickly.

They said that it was really difficult for the villagers to keep these crops because of the severe drought this year. They said that Yanchi is a poor place, and the thousands of acres of land in this area can't stand the food of the locusts, so you should go elsewhere. Everyone's eyes were full of pleading, full of piety. They seemed to believe that his own prayer could move God and make these little creatures hold their mouths high.

But it didn't help that the swarm showed no mercy.

As the sky gradually gets brighter, the crops are dwindling little by little, the willows and shrubs become bald little by little, and the grass is disappearing little by little... The whole Yanchi Town is bleak, as if in advance Ushered in midwinter.

At the same time, locusts continued to appear in the air, and some people began to cry helplessly in the locust rain, and the cry soon resounded throughout the city.

Everyone has foreseen that this winter, it will be very cold, very hungry, and difficult to endure.

The Yan family's daughter did not cry, her father and brother stared blankly at the situation in front of her, she hugged her mother tightly and comforted her, but there was only fear in her heart.

She wondered if these monsters, who kept biting at everything, would eat meat, and once they had eaten the crops, they would come to bite people. Although experience told her that locusts do not eat people, she was still secretly worried.

The more it was like this, the more she missed her husband. Before he disappeared suddenly, he was her god, giving her rich food, food, and a safe environment. No matter what was in front of her, he would keep her safe.

He had a strong physique and a pair of eyes full of murderous intent. The scholar who looked at her a few times on Xinjiang Street was so frightened that he glared back and begged for mercy. I don't know if he yelled at the locust swarm now, will they retreat?

But now that he is gone, the daughter of the Yan family is like duckweed floating in the heavy rain, lonely and helpless.

Personal destiny, in the face of natural disasters, is so insignificant...

...

"My lord, in Anyi, Yanchi, Quwo, and Xinjiang, locusts have fallen and harmed the farmland. What should I do?"

In the city of Anyi, not far from Yanchi Xiaoyi, Wei Manduo had a solemn expression on his face. After the minister came to emergency, he immediately put on a sacrificial dress and knelt down in the temple to pray without eating or drinking.

Others thought that the family head of the Wei family was really worried about the people, but in fact he scolded him in his heart, scolding why the year was so strange this year, scolding why Qin State was fine, but he was hit by drought locusts continuously. Weimanduo didn't have any rules for how to deal with disasters. Droughts can also be done according to the "Twelve Rules of Famine Management" summarized by Zhou Shi Da Situ. Although it is not as good as Zhao's, it is still somewhat effective.

But for the locust plague, which is more violent and more harmful, since it was recorded, all the summers have no choice but to let it harm the crops. Especially this time the scale is so large that it has covered more than half of the Hedong area. Zhao, Wei and Han have been affected by the disaster. The Wei family's territory is concentrated in Hedong.

But he couldn't let the people see his helplessness, so Weimando could only play according to his own routine during the drought.

After he came out of the temple, he said to his servants in a serious manner: "Wait, go down here, and issue a notice to teach the people that fathers are kind and filial to sons, and husbands and wives are harmonious."

"This..." Wei's officials are very confused. The problem now is not about indoctrination, but about the plague of locusts. Is this useful?

Weimanduo had a crooked reasoning of his own: "Don't you see, there are places in the east of the river where locusts can't be found, some places eat everything, and the places that are eaten are all because of the unsophisticated local folk customs! It's what it deserves!"

Everyone suddenly realized, Weimanduo continued to preach to them: "Natural disasters and earth monsters, so those who warn the masters, after the drought, migratory locusts follow. According to the old man in the country, these are divine locusts, which cannot be controlled by manpower. It can only be lifted by relying on the God of Tianzu.”

"So that's the case." Many of Wei's sons believed it to be true.

At the end, Weimanduo said meaningfully: "Moreover, the reason why there will be continuous disasters this year, we still have to find the reason from within Jin..."

Not every aristocratic politician in the Spring and Autumn Period has the progressive cognition that "the way of heaven is far away, and the way of humanity is fine", even Confucius couldn't do it. In the Spring and Autumn Annals of the State of Lu, which he compiled, there are more than ten places where the occurrence of locusts is recorded in the immediate aftermath of political changes, and the meaning is self-evident:

The plague of locusts cannot be prevented, and it is even the result of the emperor, princes, and rulers “losing morality” and rituals and music. ".

Obviously, the chaotic person within Jin is of course Zhao Shangqing, who has been tossing around since he came to power!

The most obvious evidence is that this locust plague originated in Daluze, Taiyuan County of the Zhao family.

For a time, this kind of argument spread in the Wei family's territory, and the scholars of the Wei family speculated that perhaps Zhao Wuxi continued to use troops to crusade the kingdom of the Rong and Di, which violated the traditional "no conquest in the wild" and caused a conflict between yin and yang. Are you stable?

Perhaps Zhao Wuxi forcibly moved the capital to Tongjiao, causing the mountains and rivers to shake, right?

Perhaps it was Zhao Wuxi who specialized in Jinquan, and finally made God dissatisfied, right?

Even if he denies it, according to the usual practice, the rulers are also responsible for the disaster. If it was in the past, the Marquis of Jin should have issued an edict, ordering Zhao Wuxi to take the blame and step down.

But now that the Zhao clan is dominant, no one dares to let him hand over the ruling position, or return the power to the Marquis of Jin. Weimanduo just wanted to put the blame for the disaster on Zhao's head, so that the people under his rule would hate Zhao's, not himself.

Weiman did a lot of acting, and he also wrote a special letter to Han and Zhao Erqing, saying that he had worshipped the sky with all his heart and made the rain fall, which means it was effective. Now that altars should be set up to worship as before, Zhao Wuxi, as a ruler, should set an example and ask the monarch to hold a ceremony to worship the gods of Tianzu in Tongli, and build locust temples in various places to worship the locusts and let them leave the country early , let the people suffer less...

...

"The high-ranking doctor is troubled and harsh in power, then it will be dry, and the fish and snails will turn into locusts..."

Outside the eldest son city, Zhao Wuqi finished reading Weimando's letter, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it to the ground, sneering.

After he received the book of flying pigeons from Taiyuan, he immediately set off for Changzi County, but unfortunately the locusts were faster than him. When he came here, he saw that the locusts were flying overwhelmingly, biting and devouring. Wherever it flew, no grass remained, and the sky and the earth were pure.

The whole of Changzi County was affected by disaster. After Zhao Wuxi came here, urgent reports came like raindrops. All counties reported to him how big the locust swarms were in their county, where they had flown, and how many villages were affected. As if reporting where the fire has burned...

In addition to being nervous, Zhao Wuxi actually received a malicious letter from Weimanduo, who immediately laughed in anger.

This is a life-and-death battle between insects and people, and those who do nothing and build locust temples to please insects are simply traitors to mankind! shame!

He complained to the others: "It's not that the locust eggs on the ground are invisible, and the katydids are transformed from fish and snails. Are there people who believe this?"

Zixia on the side smiled and said: "People in the city usually don't go to the countryside and grass, and they don't stare at the locusts like those students in the academy, from mating, to laying eggs, to hatching. The whole process of being a larva and finally becoming a nymph, so seven out of ten believers.”

Zhao Wuxi shook his head and said, "Wei Qing is a sensible person, and his real purpose for doing this is to hold high the banner of 'indeed in power, and disasters from heaven', so that all the people of Jin will hate me. Ah. It not only transferred the contradictions in the territory, but also retaliates for Zhao's practice of hoarding food... No, if the people really think that I caused the disaster, then I will get food to quell the anger of the people, which is really clever."

A trace of cruelty flashed in his eyes: "Since he Weiman is so unkind, don't blame me for being unjust!"

Zixia couldn't guess what Zhao Wuxi planned to do to the Wei family, but judging from the fact that he did not report the disaster last year, hoarded food, and introduced Langya salt into the Central Plains market, Zhao Shangqing had a plan for the Wei family. Weimanduo is very scheming, and he has already noticed that this time using the disaster to put pressure on Zhao Wuxi is also a way of testing.

But what is more important is how to deal with the disaster. The locust plague is no better than the drought, and there is no precedent for successful governance before. On the other hand, the Zhao family has a vast territory, and the eldest son is affected by the disaster. He can also move food from other places for relief, but watching the locusts crossing the border is not the way.

"How to do it?" Zhao Wuxi had already made up his mind.

Wei knelt down in front of ghosts and gods and prayed, pinning his hopes on "governing demons with virtue", and suggested that he, the "culprit", should bathe and change clothes, go to the temple of locusts to fast and apologize, and the locusts would lie on the ground and stay away. And go.

Of course this is useless~lightnovelpub.net~Zhao Wuxi decided that he wanted to make himself the object of the people's prayers and trust.

He wants to bring them hope and lead them to work together to defeat the natural disaster with manpower!

At least, he won't bow down to a group of vermin!

This is the minimum pride of being a human being, especially the future generations!

The field where they were located was severely damaged, and the locusts covered the sky and the sun. Zhao Wuxi grabbed a locust and caught a locust. It is not big or small, and its powerful legs are constantly kicking and struggling.

"The ants are still alive, but if you want to live, the people also want to live!"

Zhao Wuxi stared at the locust for three full seconds, and made an astonishing move in front of everyone's eyes.

He violently removed the locust's head, threw it into his mouth and swallowed it.

"If you eat the grains of the rest of the people, it's like eating the rest of your heart. Only by eating your flesh and blood can you relieve your hatred!"

(To be continued.)