"Madam Su, why don't we call it a day? You should go and rest for a while."
Su Luo didn't even look up and said, "No, I can wait, but Daogu can't. If you're tired, go and rest first. I'll take care of things here."
Du Xiuyuan was too physically able to continue and could only rest briefly in the carriage.
Inside Fu Man Lou, Nangong Qing lit up the entire room, which was filled with books. He sat amidst the books, flipping through one after another until his eyes were bloodshot.
"Young Master, we have received a message that not only the rice in Yongle County has been infested with pests this year, but the entire southern part of Nanning has also been affected." Ah Xu handed the letter to Nangong Qing.
Looking at the reports from various places, Nangong Qing was filled with worry. If this were the case, it would mean that half of the people in Nanning would have no harvest.
The grain from the north alone cannot save so many people, and the disaster relief grain reserves are not enough to last until next autumn's harvest. There is still war in the north, and the food and supplies for thousands of troops cannot be cut off.
Without food, the people's morale will be thrown into chaos, and Nanning will be in grave danger.
If the Northern Liang army were to invade at this moment, Nangong Qing dared not even think about it. He dropped the letter in his hand and quickly looked through the book to see if there was any way to help.
"Ah Xu, how's it going in the capital?" Nangong Qing asked Ah Xu while flipping through a book.
"Young master, the altar has already been set up in the capital, and the Imperial Preceptor will offer sacrifices to Heaven tomorrow." Ah Xu told him everything he had found out.
"What is Magistrate Jiang doing?"
"The magistrate and the young master are both trying to find a way to control the leaf miners."
"I understand. You should also look for information on how to eliminate leaf miners."
Ah Xu usually dislikes reading the most, but things are different now. Even if he doesn't like it, he has to read. Tonight is destined to be a sleepless night.
After midnight, around 1 AM and 3 AM, Ah Xu finally couldn't stand it anymore and went to sleep.
Nangong Qing threw a book at A Xu's head, and A Xu jumped up, drew his sword, and stood up: "Who's there! Show yourself..."
Seeing Nangong Qing staring intently at him, Axu sheathed his sword, realizing what he had done.
"Young...Young Master..."
"Take a good look, search carefully." Nangong Qing's eyes were dark circles.
After drinking several cups of tea, Ah Xu fought off his sleepiness, still holding the book that Nangong Qing had smashed in his hand. He stared at the book with wide eyes, and he seemed to see the words "Night-Diving Insect" on it.
Not seeing clearly, Ah Xu held the book up to his eyes and tried to look at it again. It really was the three characters "leaf miner".
“Grandpa…Young Master, there are bugs in this book.”
Ah Xu excitedly held up the book, his eyes wide as saucers.
Nangong Qing immediately stood up from the pile of books and snatched the book from A Xu's hand. If he didn't know A Xu well, he wouldn't have been able to understand what A Xu was saying at all.
"Young Master, what does this book say?" Ah Xu asked, leaning close to Nangong Qing's shoulder.
Nangong Qingyue's brows furrowed even more deeply.
"According to the book, leaf miners destroyed crops on a large scale two hundred years ago. Later, burning was used to get rid of the insects. When the heavy snow came in winter, the leaf miners were extinct."
"Burning? Wouldn't that mean we'd have no food left? That won't do!"
Ah Xu sat on the books and read all night, but it was all for nothing.
Nangong Qing also sat down and asked blankly.
"If burning is the only way to kill leaf miners, then this is the last resort for the sake of next year's farming. If we don't get through this disaster, I'm afraid Nanning will be destroyed."
Ah Xu wanted to comfort Nangong Qing, but he really didn't know how to comfort people: "Young Master! It won't happen."
...
Outside the kiln, Su Luo also stayed up all night, boiling the herbs again and again, failing time and time again, until finally an explosion woke everyone up.
"I did it! I did it!" Su Luo laughed amidst the mess.
Du Xiuyuan was startled by the explosion. When he got up, he realized that he had been sleeping in the carriage for so long that the sky was already showing the first rays of dawn.
"Luo Luo, are you alright?!"
Zhao Ruyun quickly put on a coat and came out to check on Su Luo, afraid that she might be hurt.
"It's alright, it's alright, Grandma, you can go back to sleep."
As dawn broke, Zhao Ruyun was still wide awake, staring at the bottles and jars outside the kiln and the pungent smell of medicine on the ground.
"I'm not going to sleep, Luo Luo. You've been fiddling with these things all night. Go get some sleep. I'll clean up here."
Zhao Ruyun came over after she got dressed.
"Grandma, don't come any closer. These are all poisonous pesticides. You don't know any better, so don't touch them."
Hearing that it was poisonous, Zhao Ruyun didn't go forward. Su Luo cleaned up the place herself, otherwise it would be bad if Yan Chuan and Yi Huan accidentally bumped into it while they were playing here, not to mention the two dogs at home.
"Madam Su, I've overslept." Du Xiuyuan rushed over in a hurry.
"It's alright, I've finished making the medicine."
The moment Su Luo killed the leaf miners and their eggs, all her fatigue vanished.
Du Xiuyuan went to see the rice plant that Su Luo had dug up and brought home. The pesticide had not affected it, but the insect eggs on the leaves had turned yellow and died, and the leaf miners in the glass bottle had also died.
Du Xiuyuan stared at Su Luo, wondering if she had figured this out herself, or if she had accomplished it overnight. He wondered what kind of monster she had as her master, who was just too amazing.
"Grandma, go and invite the village chief to our house. Tell him I've figured out a way to get rid of the pests."
Su Luo asked Zhao Ruyun to make a trip, and she would take the village chief to her own field to test the medicine in a little while.
"Really?" Zhao Ruyun looked at Su Luo with burning eyes.
"Really, you should go quickly,"
"good!"
After cleaning up the ground, he and Du Xiuyuan boiled a new pot of pesticide.
Before Yan Chuan and Yi Huan, the two children, got up, Su Luo cut down a bamboo stalk, punched countless small holes in the bamboo joints, and used the principle of a syringe to make a spray bottle.
When Su Luo checked the pesticide again, it was almost ready. She poured in lime, and it immediately started bubbling. Anyone with eyes could tell that it was poison.
"Madam Su, is it all done?" Du Xiuyuan asked.
"Hmm, clean up the dregs later, they're poisonous."
This pesticide was something Su Luo had failed at dozens of times before finally developing. The large iron pot used to boil the pesticide was brought by Du Xiuyuan, and this pot of pesticide was enough to spray two acres of land.
“Su Luo, I heard from your mother-in-law that you made an insecticide.”
The village chief ran over, and Zhao Ruyun couldn't keep up with him; they weren't home yet.
"Village chief, once the pesticide cools down, we'll go to the fields to test it. We'll spray it in the morning, and we'll know if it's effective by the afternoon," Su Luo said confidently about her research.
"Okay, okay! Let's go together in a bit."
The people in the county are completely different from those in Su Luo's area. The county magistrate invited a Taoist priest to come early in the morning to set up an altar and perform a ritual.
Nangong Qing and A Xu also went. The people of the county each held three incense sticks and worshipped heaven and earth with the Taoist priest, asking the gods in heaven to help the people get rid of the insect plague.
The pig's head and fruit platter were prepared in the same manner as the sacrificial ceremony, with all the ingredients poured into the fire so that the immortals could feel the worship and sincerity of mortals.
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