Li Gang, the county magistrate of Yanshi, dressed in a blue official robe, came to the river beach with several clerks to inspect and found that under the mobilization of the government, the river beach was full of official surnames. Everyone was very enthusiastic, and the whole family and young were working together, and they were excited to dig.

Li Gang walked around with a dark face, stopped to take a look and asked from time to time.

The more he looked, the more frightened he became. Many locust eggs were dug out on the Yellow River beach. Almost with a hoe, he could dig several or even seven or eight locust egg blocks.

shocking.

Before noon, many families had already dug half a bucket of locust eggs. A rough estimate was that it would have to be at least five or six kilograms.

On this river beach, there are less than four or five thousand young people digging in more than a dozen villages in Mingling Township, and there are thousands of kilograms left.

Looking at the bucket of locust eggs, Li Gang's heart became heavier and he began to realize that this time he might really face a huge locust plague. With just a few thousand acres of river beach, thousands of kilograms of locust eggs were dug out in half a day.

There must be 10,000 or 20,000 locust eggs per pound. If all hatch, think about 10,000 or 20,000 locusts, which can directly destroy a large area of ​​crops. Wouldn’t thousands of locust eggs hatch tens of millions of locust eggs hatch?

Thinking of the locusts that covered the sky and the sun, Li Gang's scalp was numb.

It seems that what the emperor said at the previous meeting was indeed not exaggerated.

An old official said next to him, "In the past, there will always be locust plagues here every few years, but I have lived for most of my life and have never seen so many locust eggs. This time, it can be regarded as a once-in-a-century encounter."

Li Gang didn't say anything.

Continue to turn around. After a day, he turned around the thousands of acres of river beaches and found that it was the same everywhere, with dense holes everywhere. With one hoe, the people could dig out many eggs, which was quite easy to dig.

Without caring about fatigue, Li Gang said to the old official around him, "You must notify everyone, don't dig it clean, don't try to be quick, you will be careless and omit it. If you miss an egg block, you will be able to produce dozens of locusts when you turn around, and you will be able to eliminate all evil things!"

Sitting on the Yellow River beach, Li Gang was in a heavy mood.

At the end of the day, he only ate two steamed cakes, but he didn't care about his fatigue and hunger.

The clerk advised him to return to the county town, but he insisted that he planned not to go back for the time being, so he would stare at this river beach these days.

At midday.

All the families were busy digging eggs and had no time to go back, so they hurriedly ate some dry food brought by their homes, drank some cold boiled water, and continued digging.

Everyone digs eggs and rests, and will run to the neighbors next to see the harvest and compare the results.

Ding Laosan digged very hard. For him, digging locust eggs is not too tiring. In the past, he had several brothers, but some died from famine, some died from war, and they still died from famine during war.

In order to eat in one bite, he went up the mountain to hunt and hunted the river and touched the fish. He even ate grass roots and tree bark during famine and ate soil. The hungry chest was against the back, his eyes were black, and his stomach was sour and sour.

Today, life is getting better, but the whole family is raised by a family, with three children and two daughters in the family, and three children in the family, and three died before. The eldest son Zhuzi worked as a partner in the county town, the second son Heiwa studied in school, and his youngest son was just three years old. The wife always said she wanted to have two more. The poorer the family, the more she wanted to have more. If there was no one to rely on, she would think about relying on her children in the future, with more children and more brothers and sisters.

I have dozens of acres of land at home, all of which have been divided over the past few years, including paddy fields, mountains and mulberry forests. However, their village lives in the north of Mangshan, close to the Yellow River, and the harvest is unstable. Some fields are often flooded. Although the imperial court will reduce land taxes, the income is also reduced.

When the third brother is free, he will go fishing and hunting. Sometimes he will go to the county town or Luoyang with the villagers to find work, and work for a short-term work for a while to supplement his family income.

He also thought that when life is better, his family will save some money, then borrow some, renovate the old house at home, build a few rooms, and add a backyard. His son is growing up day by day, and he has to prepare a place for them to live after marriage.

It got darker a little bit.

The sun has disappeared.

But everyone was reluctant to leave.

"How many have you dug?" Lao Ding put down his hoe and asked his wife Li.

Li wiped his sweat and handed the bucket to the third brother. Lao Ben held the bucket and estimated it, "It's probably fifteen or sixteen pounds."

“There are so many?”

"I can tell how much I can lift my hand, I can't make any mistakes."

"Fifteen kilograms, wouldn't that be exchanged for forty-five kilograms of millet?" Ding Laosan's family of eight, his eldest son works as a clerk in a county shop, and his two daughters work in a workshop in Luoyang to earn salary. There are two children and three adults at home, but his second son usually goes to school and eats at school at noon.

The family has three big and one small, and only three liters of grain a day.

"Save some food, it's enough for our family to eat for half a month."

The price of rice in Luoyang is twenty cents, and millet grain is cheaper, but a bucket of rice costs more than ten yuan. After all, today the family can dig locust eggs, which can be exchanged for hundreds of yuan.

The third brother said that it was not the case. Locusts arise, famine comes, and in the years and years, gold cannot buy food.

"I just don't know if I will actually receive it."

Seeing that it was too late, I had to walk back later, the village chief and the militia captain were already shouting that everyone was going home, afraid that it would be too late, there would be wild beasts and wolves.

Everyone packed up their tools and went home together.

On the way, we were discussing the issue of changing the locust eggs into food.

"It's so late, I guess no one will come to collect it today. I hope someone will come to collect it tomorrow."

"It's okay if someone comes to collect it the day after tomorrow."

I touched the darkness and found someone waiting at the entrance of the village.

"Zhang Zuoshi, why are you here? It's so late."

"The new county magistrate Li issued an order, requiring us to go to all townships and villages no matter how late we are today, and register the dug locust eggs to exchange for grain. Look, we have already brought the grain."

When everyone saw that there were indeed two trucks of food over there, they couldn't help but become excited.

"Come in the village now."

There are only a few people with inconvenience in the village who are inconvenient to their hands and feet, and the rest of the people who can move to dig eggs during the day.

The village chief welcomed Zhang Zuoli and others into the village.

"I'll ask my wife to arrange food!"

"We ate dry food on the way, so we should do the job first. I guess everyone is waiting to change the food. Please make a torch and oil lamp. Let's go to the village to replace the locust eggs first."

Everyone was very excited. Many people went to get the lights, and some people started to burn fires at the entrance of the village.

Zhang Zuoli is still very serious about his work. The new county magistrate is too big. The Grand Secretary who has just been demoted is still the Prince's Teacher. Although he is only the eighth-rank county magistrate, he has been the Prince's Teacher after all, so he didn't know that he would go up one day. Therefore, everyone did not dare to object to the obviously unreasonable order of County magistrate Zhang, so he ran away.

"Everyone line up and come one by one."
Chapter completed!