As the saying goes, every inch of time is an inch of gold, especially for Zhu Youzhen. is now seven years away from the apocalypse in history when he ascended the throne, and it is only three years. And 1644, the year when he hanged the coal mountain, is twenty years old.

If you want to change history, you can't sit back and wait for pie to fall from the sky. Therefore, since coming to Qinwangzhuang, Zhu Youzhen has been clockwork and carried out various tasks in full swing.

But a few days after the summer harvest, Zhu Youzhen was unusual. Instead of sowing seeds, he bought a large amount of thatch from other places, as well as a large number of birds of all kinds, and scattered them into the farmland. In addition, a large number of gauze nets were purchased from Xi'an City, and workers worked overtime to produce thousands of insect nets.

Although these don't cost much money, they really don't see any effect. The workers were all inexplicable, thinking that this helper could not be trying to flutter dragonflies and butterflies and amuse his two little ladies? If it weren't for the sake of wages, these people would really have to pick and choose.

Zhu Youzhen didn't seem to pay attention to it at all, and went to the fields all day long to check the spread of thatch. On this day, Rui'er couldn't hold it back, so she invited Sun Chuanting to persuade Zhu Youzhen together, or sow seeds as soon as possible, otherwise the loss would be too great.

The two of them really found Zhu Youzhen in the field, and saw that he was looking at the horizon in the distance with his negative hands, and his expression seemed to be quite serious. Rui'er didn't dare to disturb her husband, so she asked Sun Chuanting to come forward to persuade her.

This Sun Chuanting was not polite, because in addition to treating the enemy, Zhu Youzhen was respectful to no matter who he was, and he never behaved like a prince. He hurriedly stepped forward and arched his hand: "Your Highness, Xia Bo is about to be sown, but everyone doesn't know what you are busy with!" What is the use of spreading grass in the field? What is the purpose of buying birds? The court is blunt, and I hope His Royal Highness will make it clear! ”

Only then did Zhu Youzhen find that the two of them were coming, and he smiled busily: "Xia Bo? Not busy, not busy, I have to wait two more days. ”

"How long will it take?" Rui'er was really a little anxious, and couldn't help but say slightly, "If you delay for a few more days, you will miss the opportunity to sow seeds!" Besides, there are thousands of new workers, and the daily wages are hundreds of taels, but the prince asks them to spread grass in the field, isn't it..."

"Don't you want to say, isn't this full of food?" Zhu Youzhen laughed and said, "Don't worry, my husband is not crazy or stupid, and he is still hungry!" But I really can't sow seeds for these two days, because I'm waiting for something. ”

"What's that?" Both of them felt inexplicable, "What is missing, can't we buy it with silver?" ”

Zhu Youzhen's expression gradually turned grim, and he pointed to the horizon in the distance and said, "You can't buy such a thing with silver, and I wish it wouldn't come!" Look! ”

The two looked in the direction pointed by Zhu Youzhen, but they couldn't see anything except the blue sky and white clouds, and they couldn't help but look at each other. After a while, I saw a small dark cloud rising on the horizon, but the sun was still blazing overhead, and there was no sign of changing the sky.

"What's that?" Rui'er couldn't help but ask in surprise.

Zhu Youzhen's face sank like water, and he muttered: "It's finally here!" Inform all the workers, including all the Qin soldiers, to put down all the work in their hands and gather in the field immediately! ”

Before the words fell, the dark cloud was getting bigger and bigger from far to near, and there was a faint creepy "buzzing" sound.

At this point, Sun Chuanting suddenly realized, and couldn't help but change color: "It's a flying locust!" ”

That is, in the blink of an eye, the dark clouds have been overwhelming, and it is indeed a dense army of locusts! These six-legged insects usually look inconspicuous, but when they gather together at this moment, they can cover the sky and make the whole sky dark!

These locusts are not afraid of people at all, and they fall into the fields on a rampage. Whether it is the millet that is not yet ripe, or the thatch that Zhu Youzhen sent to scatter in the field, it is full of locusts in an instant, and even hundreds can fall on a single crop! As for the total, it is impossible to count at all.

A large group of flying locusts is a catastrophe for any crop. The locust's chewing ability is amazing, and a plant can be gnawed clean in an instant. When the swarms of locusts fly up again and look for their next target, the original crop is often left with a hard bare rod.

Rui'er and Sun Chuanting were frightened, and then they understood why Zhu Youzhen didn't sow seeds. If the seeds had been sown a few days earlier, the seedlings would have been unearthed at this moment, and they would not have been fed all these locusts!

After being stunned for a long time, Sun Chuanting muttered: "Your Highness is a true god!" How did you know that locusts would cross the border? ”

Zhu Youzhen didn't have time to explain to him, so he was busy gathering people and arranging the extermination of locusts. In fact, since last year, there has been a severe drought in northern China, and the drought often leads to locust plagues. Because locusts like drought rather than moisture, especially since their eggs must be laid on dry land, which was common knowledge in previous lives.

After anticipating that there would definitely be a locust plague this year, Zhu Youzhen asked the men of the Huanghai Merchant Gang to rush to various places in advance to observe the development of the locust plague, which was also the first important task of the intelligence network.

Judging from the news sent back urgently, as expected, this year's locust plague originated in the Kaifeng area of Henan Province, and gradually spread to the surrounding Shandong, Hebei, and Shanxi, and finally entered Shaanxi a few days ago. Moreover, the locust plague this time was even worse than in previous years, and there was no grass growing in the places where it passed, and the hard work of the people for a year was wiped out in an instant.

After getting this news, Zhu Youzhen certainly didn't dare to sow seeds. But it's not enough to just not sow seeds, even if these locusts don't destroy Jingyang's crops, it would be a disaster to fly elsewhere. And it is impossible for Zhu Youzhen not to sow seeds all the time, even if he drags it out until the locusts cross the border to sow seeds, what if these things fly back again? Therefore, Zhu Youzhen made up his mind that he must completely extinguish this batch of locusts crossing the border.

In previous lives, locust infestations were relatively rare, because there was already the technology of aerial spraying of pesticides. But now this trick obviously can't be used, so Zhu Youzhen has to find another way.

First of all, Zhu Youzhen bought a large amount of thatch, which was used as bait to attract locusts to the fields. Wait until the locusts have landed, and then release a large number of birds. Birds are the natural enemies of locusts and can eat some of them, which is also known as biological control.

But such measures alone are not enough, when there are too many locusts, biological control is not effective, and birds cannot eat even if their bellies are broken.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen urgently mobilized the whole county and threw all the manpower that could be mobilized into the locust extermination campaign. The tragic battle of human locusts has begun!