Chapter 310 Water Conservancy Project

Fusu's face was puffed up. "Grandmother is out doing something important. I can't help her even if I go. Although... although I'm a little sad, Grandmother promised to come back. I'll just wait here for her to come back."

Although my father is very powerful, sometimes his words are really annoying.

Fusu felt unhappy.

He also wanted to go with his grandmother, but his grandmother was busy with so many things outside and had to spare time to take care of them, so he couldn't do that.

"If you don't fight for something, it will belong to someone else."

Ying Zheng didn't like Fusu's humility. He suffered injustice just to make others happy. Why?

What he wants should belong to him.

It is not known whether he was saying this to Fusu or to himself.

Fusu blinked his big eyes, "Father, are you jealous?"

"If you don't know how to use words, don't say anything."

What does jealousy mean? How could he be jealous?

Who could he be jealous of?

"Father wants me to compete with Ziying. Isn't it because you are jealous?"

Because the king's father couldn't win against Ziying, he wanted him to help. Don't think that he is a child and can be easily seduced.

Ying Zheng felt a little headache. Perhaps he shouldn't have argued with Fusu about these messy things. Who the Queen Mother liked was none of his business. If Fusu wanted to suffer injustice, that was his business.

When Fusu saw that his father ignored him and turned away, he became more certain of his suspicions.

Father is so childish!

"What are you standing there for? Why don't you go back to the palace?"

"Oh, here he comes!" Fusu responded immediately and hurriedly chased after him.

Yingchuan County was originally the territory of Han State, but was now established as Yingchuan County by Qin State. The current prefect of Yingchuan County is the former Nei Shi Teng, the father of Ling Yin.

County Magistrate Teng had already received the news that the Queen Mother would come to Yingchuan, but he was busy organizing people to control the locust plague and did not wait at the city gate in advance.

When Zhao Yuanxi and others arrived at the city gate, County Magistrate Teng Cai finally arrived in a hurry.

"I am late in receiving you, and I hope Your Majesty will forgive me."

"What crime has the county magistrate committed by running around for Yingchuan?" Zhao Yuanxi saw that he looked disheveled and knew that in just a few days, the situation in Yingchuan was obviously worse than before.

On her way here, she had seen many people catching locusts with nets, but it was obviously a drop in the bucket.

The locusts they caught could not catch up with the ones flying over, and more and more locusts were eating the crops that had just grown and had not yet bloomed.

"Tell me about the situation here!"

The county magistrate bowed and agreed. He was stunned when he saw the little guy standing next to the empress dowager. Seeing that the empress dowager looked normal, he didn't say anything else and began to introduce the situation here.

Yingchuan County has a Yingshui River running through the entire area, but due to the drought this year, the river flow has decreased. However, due to the well-developed water network, there are not only many rivers such as Yingshui, Rushui, and Qinshui, but also it is close to the Yellow River in the north. Therefore, no large-scale drought has occurred, and farming has been carried out as usual this year. The source of these locusts is mainly from the downstream areas of Yingshui River.

This is not the origin of the locust plague, which is good news. However, precisely because this is not the origin, it will be more difficult to control.

Zhao Yuanxi sent people to dig ditches around the fields in various places in Yingchuan County, spread quicklime in the ditches, and organized people to drive the locusts into the ditches and kill them. For those locusts that had already become adults, bonfires were lit every ten meters at night, and branches dipped in soapy water were used to drive away the locusts.

In order to prevent locusts from laying eggs in the fields and causing another locust plague, she sent people to Yingchuan County to build water conservancy projects, dig ditches and build dams.

At night, Zhao Yuanxi sat by the fire and threw the locusts caught by the people during the day into the fire. The locusts were burned with crackling sounds, and a strange fragrance was emitted in the air.

Ziying leaned against her tightly, his little nose twitching, "Grandmother, it smells so good! Can I eat this?"

…

When Zhao Yuanxi heard this, he couldn't help but reflect on whether he had been starving Ziying recently. How could he say such scary words? Or was he really not picky and wanted to taste everything?

"Individual locusts are edible, but swarms of locusts like this have toxins in their bodies and should not be eaten."

"Okay!" Ziying felt a little regretful, mainly because the smell was too fragrant, like barbecue, but with a hint of grass fragrance. Seeing that the chickens could eat it, he thought that he could eat these insects as well.

The county magistrate couldn't help laughing when he heard this. "Master Ziying, you must be hungry! I have some dried meat here. You should try some."

"Eat!" Ziying threw himself into the arms of the county magistrate without hesitation, which made Zhao Yuanxi's face turn black.

She said quietly, "Do you follow whoever gives you food?"

Ziying offered the dried meat to her mouth in a flattering manner, "How could that be! I'm not such a greedy person!"

The county magistrate would not harm him, and his grandmother was still here, so he could naturally rest assured.

Zhao Yuanxi pinched his face angrily.

After staying in Yingchuan for a while and seeing that the situation had improved, Zhao Yuanxi instructed them to replant some crops that could be grown in summer, and also transported a batch of new seeds from Qin and asked the county magistrate to distribute them.

Although Yingchuan will certainly have a poor harvest this year, we should try to recover as much as possible if we can.

Afterwards, she went to the nearby Dang County. The situation in Dang County was even worse than that in Yingchuan. The crops in the fields had been eaten up, leaving nothing. Even the trees on the mountains were no longer green.

At first glance, Zhao Yuanxi thought he had come to the loess slopes in autumn and winter.

The county governor here seemed helpless in the face of the locust plague and took a laissez-faire attitude, which made Zhao Yuanxi very angry. He directly had him dismissed from his post and wrote to Ying Zheng, asking him to send a reliable county governor.

Dang County was closer to the State of Chu than Yingchuan. In order to prepare for the attack on the State of Chu, the State of Qin stationed a large number of Qin troops in Dang County, and the main general was Wang Ben.

Zhao Yuanxi could not mobilize the army, but she was able to persuade Wang Ben to send some Qin troops to participate in the locust extermination campaign.

At first, the people of Dang County were not used to the Qin soldiers helping them control the locust plague, and they kept their distance from them. But as time went by, they found that these Qin soldiers seemed to be really here to kill the locusts, and they gradually let down their guard.

Even the little boy who was delivering water to the fields would ask them, "Soldier, would you like some water?"

This novel experience was not only strange to the people of Dang County, but also to the Qin soldiers.

Wherever they passed, the gates of every place were locked, and they were very scared. They never thought that one day they would be able to enjoy being fed and appreciated by others.

The news that Qin soldiers were helping the people of Dang County to control the locust plague spread throughout the country. Not only did everyone in Qin know about it, but people in Chu and Qi also heard about it.