Chapter 289: Man Conquers Nature
This feeling exists even in the Jiangnan area, let alone the North.
Since there had been no rain since March, Yuan Shao had become alert.
In the first month of the year, when Qiao Yan and Chunyu Jia were arguing about whether to send troops, Yuan Shao was watching the court in Chang'an and was laughing at the joke.
Although Qiao Yan's decision won in the end, Chunyu Jia took sick leave because of the incident of fainting in the street and did not return to the court until a month later. However, Yuan Shao still felt that Qiao Yan looked very disgraceful for making things come to this point.
He couldn't help but feel that maybe it was because last year's public opinion attack did have a certain effect, Qiao Yan's decision to postpone the dispatch of troops seemed to be an attempt to cover up one's mistake.
But now it's different.
Qiao Yan might have really made that move based on his judgment of the right time!
For the north, if the spring rain in March can fall, it should be regarded as precious as oil. Anyway, it is not uncommon to have little rain in spring over the years.
However, considering the lack of rain in autumn and winter, Ju Su's previous speculation that the weather was not right, and Qiao Yan's actions, Yuan Shao also became a little uneasy.
Judging from the current situation, it is not yet a drought, but Yuan Shao feels that it is better to trust his opponent's judgment at certain times. After all, he did make some progress by stealing Qiao Yan's achievements.
He asked Ju Su, "Is it too late for us to build the canal and store water now?"
Ju Su answered Yuan Shao's question with silence.
It would undoubtedly be a bit late to do this during the spring ploughing season.
But this cannot put all the blame on Yuan Shao.
Even Ju Shou felt that the situation was a little strange. However, from the middle of last year to the end of the year, while they were trying to create trouble for Chang'an, they also felt that these hindering factors might not prevent Qiao Yan from raising an army this year.
For this reason, the entire Jizhou and Qingzhou areas spent almost all their free time besides farming and storing grain on military exercises, and did not make up for some of the infrastructure that could have been built.
If we were to repair it now, I'm afraid it would be too late.
The only way is to wait and see the weather and ensure that agricultural activities in various places will not be disrupted by water shortage.
At the same time, we imitated the situation when Qiao Yan overturned the keel when he was building it in Leping, and remedied the areas that needed special attention.
"Things like a keel overturn can be considered an emergency measure if the disaster only affects a small area and is not severe enough. However, since we can prepare for it early, we should consider its long-term use." Qiao Yan commented after receiving the news from Yecheng.
From the perspective of Cheng Yu, Guo Jia and others present, Qiao Yan's words did not contain any sarcasm.
Who can blame drought? Although it is indeed an important node that widens the gap between the two forces, in the final analysis, it is the people who suffer.
If the drought really continues into the following summer and autumn, as happened in the sixth year of Guanghe, it would be a disaster that would be enough to cause the public resentment during the Yellow Turban Rebellion.
"A drought cannot be treated as just a drought. Have all other arrangements been given instructions?" Qiao Yan asked.
Compared with drought, the concurrent locust plague is what Qiao Yan needs to be more prepared for.
Now that the temperature is rising in spring, it is time for the locust eggs in the fields to hatch naturally.
Once the drought environment is suitable for locusts to reproduce, they will multiply at an incredible speed.
Spring drought often promotes the first round of locust reproduction in summer, resulting in a locust plague at the turn of summer and autumn. If the drought still does not ease, a second round of locust plague will occur two months later until the outside temperature is no longer suitable for the natural hatching of locust eggs.
Now there is no condition to use any organophosphorus pesticides to kill locusts directly, so we can only approach it from two aspects.
One is to deprive locust eggs of suitable hatching conditions, and the other is to let the hatched locust nymphs be killed by their natural enemies.
"It's all been arranged." Cheng Yu replied, "I now understand more and more that the establishment of the Leping Monthly Report when the conditions were not so harsh back then has played a great role today."
During the Guangxi period, Leping Monthly had already been promoted from Bingzhou to Liangzhou. During the Jian'an period, with the ascension of Liu Yu to the throne, it became recognized as an official publication and gained even greater popularity.
When cheap paper such as bamboo paper was obtained from Hanzhong and was produced in batches and sent to Chang'an, the selling price of Leping Monthly was further reduced.
And with the establishment of the Painting Academy in Chang'an City, the illustrations became richer, allowing illiterate people to gradually adapt to this.
They buy one every month and keep it at home, reading the contents by guessing, and feel that they are getting closer to the life of the upper class.
It is precisely because of this habit that they did not realize that the circulation of the March issue of Leping Monthly had increased sharply. They only found that the selling price was lowered by a few cents, so they were less distressed about buying it.
However, some perceptive people compared the newspapers with their neighbors after taking them home and found that the differences in the paintings in the newspapers in the past had disappeared, and they could no longer compare which newspaper had better paintings. But soon, they were attracted by the content of the newspapers and had no extra energy to consider that problem.
In the past, Leping Monthly had six sections. Even if adjustments were made occasionally due to the theme, they were mostly just merging two of the sections. It was never like this March issue.
Almost all the content on the page is related to drought and locust plague.
As per custom, Chang Lin gave lectures to the people in Shangdang County.
However, with the changes in the past few years, the people surrounding him are no longer the same as what Tian Feng saw back then. They just listened to what he said, and now they also have newspapers in their hands.
So when this new newspaper arrived, someone immediately exclaimed: "Oh, locusts!"
On the front page of this newspaper is a locust with its structure drawn particularly clearly, even the names of its various organs are marked.
In the early years, locusts were called locust gods. Everyone knew the destructive power they could cause to crops, but no one dared to make any in-depth observations of them. Now, this has been exposed in this way.
Below the locusts is a picture showing a field covered with locust eggs.
Next to it was a sentence that no longer needed Chang Lin to translate for them to understand -
In the most extreme cases, there can be 40,000 locust eggs in a square meter of land suitable for locust breeding.
If you think this represents 40,000 locusts, you are wrong, because there can be more than 50 locust eggs in one egg mass.
"How...how could there be so many?" Everyone looked at each other, suspecting that there was something wrong with the statement in the newspaper.
From the time the Colapine Monthly Report was created to the present day, there has never been any exaggeration in the various popular science knowledge and reporting of results. So why should we falsify the locust data now and make people who see the data panic for no reason?
What's more, this is only the most extreme case in the description, and it may not reach this extent most of the time.
Sure enough, it was written below that if they turned the land over in the same way as they usually do, raking the land until it was loose instead of compacted, and also burned the straw and returned it to the fields, then this data could be reduced to one-tenth of the above.
They immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
Chang Lin glanced at their expressions and wanted to say that even if it was only one-tenth, it was still a terrifying amount, from the original two million to two hundred thousand.
It has to be said that Cai Zhaoji put a lot of effort into writing when compiling the Leping Monthly.
When conveying information to the public, these gradually decreasing numbers can create a more impressive memory effect than the usual statements with rules and regulations.
On the next page, the newspaper gave a clear explanation of one of the favorable conditions for locust hatching in a vivid and illustrated way.
Why do locusts prefer to lay eggs in compacted soil? Because such an environment lacks water.
In a comparative experiment that has been conducted at Leping Academy since the Guangxi period, it was found that land with a moisture content of only 10% is most suitable for locust hatching, so you can measure the soil in your own fields by drying it to determine how much moisture it contains.
Of course, depending on the crops, the higher the water content of the land is not necessarily better. It still needs to be adjusted according to the crops. Just don't let this 10% environment easily occur.
The main streams of the major canal projects within the three states have also been marked on the map to support fields that were originally far away from the water flow.
However, there are still some things that are not taken into account, and you need to check and fill in the gaps yourself.
If this condition that is conducive to locust hatching is cut off, the number of locusts that can hatch on a ten-foot square area of land will be reduced to one-tenth of the previous number.
"Then there are still 20,000 left." The child next to Chang Lin calculated.
This number is still not low, but compared to before, it makes people feel much more hopeful.
Page 3 mentions that at this point the locusts have not yet gathered into swarms, or even existed as adults, so their habits can still be used to restrain them.
From a plant perspective, beans, alfalfa and trees can hinder the reproduction of locusts.
Not to mention trees, beans and alfalfa both have a market nowadays. It won't be a big loss to reduce the planting of millet and wheat this year and switch to planting these two things.
At the end of May of the year before last, Qiao Yan summoned the noble families who came because of the alcohol restriction order to Chang'an and provided them with the recipe of soy sauce. By the end of the year, this thing became a hit in various states.
The harvest in the fields is getting better and better, and people are also beginning to want to enjoy delicious food. They only need to spend a little money to buy soy sauce and improve their meals to a higher level. Why not?
Soy sauce production shops that tasted the sweetness of this inevitably began to purchase soybeans from outside.
After all, it is much cheaper for farmers to plant some soybeans in the middle of the fields than for them to use large tracts of land to grow this crop themselves.
Soybeans are obviously popular, but what about alfalfa?
Same here.
The offspring of the Arabian horses that were brought back from the Silk Road several years ago and the fine horses from Bingzhou and Liangzhou were in the period of thriving growth, and alfalfa was a very important kind of feed they needed.
Therefore, the state government would often collect a batch of alfalfa from outside, preferably those with good quality.
This is not a losing business either.
"These two things can be planted, and we can plant more for disaster prevention. Anyway, the grain stored last year is enough for this year's food. The most important thing is to ensure this year's harvest as much as possible." Someone came to the conclusion after doing some calculations on the side.
When it comes to calculating the profits from their crops, these farmers are no slower than experienced accountants.
However, in Chang Lin's opinion, the reason why they accepted the planting of beans and alfalfa so easily was the reputation that Qiao Yan had accumulated step by step since he became the governor of the state.
Thinking about the time when he came to Bingzhou, which was a last resort to avoid Wang Kuang, the governor of Henei, Chang Lin couldn't help but have the illusion that he was in another world.
It was indeed a decision made in haste, but now it seems to be the right decision.
"Chang Shi, with this planting method, the locusts can't get enough food, and most of them will be killed in the competition. How many are left now?"
The child beside him tugged at the corner of his clothes, interrupting Chang Lin's thoughts.
He quickly replied, "About four thousand left."
Four thousand is not a small amount.
Fortunately, these locust eggs and the hatched larvae have some animal natural enemies.
For example, the chickens and ducks that had been used in dealing with the locust plague in Bingzhou that year, and the frogs, wild swallows and other animals that were painted on the newspapers at this time.
According to the newspaper, there will be a temporary ban on capturing these animals by state regulations to ensure that they can kill the locusts before they reach the adult stage.
Taking the native plover, also known as the Morellocera ovalis, as an example, a specific experiment was also conducted at Leping Academy. It was found that a pair of adult Morellocera ovalis and a nest of chicks can eat more than 15,000 locusts in a month.
Chickens and ducks are also good at killing locusts.
As to whether raising chickens and ducks to actively kill locusts will cause adverse effects, the answer was given in the locust eradication operation in Bingzhou that year.
Locusts are not really so deified that they cannot be caught by humans, and if they are touched, disaster will befall them.
You know, this is what Qiao Yan said at that time.
If exterminating locusts does indeed bring divine punishment, the state government will bear all the consequences.
This provincial government can be understood as Qiao Yan, who exercised Zhang Yi's authority, or it can be understood as Zhang Yi himself, who was blamed by Qiao Yan.
The result is always the same.
There was no real punishment from heaven.
Qiao Yan has been on a meteoric rise and is only 20 years old now. Others only say that she has amazing luck, but no one says that she has bad luck.
As for Zhang Yi... for the people of Bingzhou who admired Qiao Yan, his losing the position of Governor of Bingzhou was not a disaster.
First he became the governor of Guangling and experienced people's livelihood, even fell to the bottom and became a commoner, and finally rose again to become the governor of Xuzhou. This is called -
After a period of trials and tribulations, the butterfly emerges from the cocoon.
From this perspective, it wouldn't be that difficult for them to raise more chickens and ducks and kill the locusts themselves.
According to this method of breeding and protecting locust killers, more than 90% of locusts can be eliminated.
"But there are still 400 of them?" Chang Lin heard someone ask this.
This is not a small amount.
What's more, this is only the number that appears on an area of ten feet square.
If the amount of land owned by each household is calculated according to this ratio, it would be even more terrifying.
Chang Lin shook his head, "It's not over yet."
To these people, the next page was mostly words, and indeed it was not as intelligible to them as the previous pages which were all pictures. But in his opinion, this page was actually far more meaningful than the previous pages.
He explained: "It is said here that the above calculations are based on the assumption that all locust eggs can be successfully hatched, but in fact this is not the case. The eggs laid by these locusts have a very low survival rate because the number of eggs in a litter is extremely large. Perhaps without the influence of these external forces, only one in ten can survive."
"Combined with the above interference, at most a dozen locusts can survive in a ten-foot square of land. With such a number combined with human extermination, it is not enough for them to form a large-scale locust plague."
"These things look scary, and their numbers far outnumber humans. However, they are far from being as complex in body structure, as flexible in mind, and as resilient in the face of crises as humans. Even if we really have to name them natural disasters, it is enough to say that man can conquer nature."
This idea proposed by Xunzi was gradually forgotten after the reverence for heaven and earth and the firm belief in the theories of prophecies became the norm of the times. But now it was written down by Qiao Yan at the instruction of Cai Zhaoji in this most special Leping Monthly.
Without these previous step-by-step progress, which turned the locust plague from an intractable punishment from heaven into a number that could be counted on one's hands, these four words would never have had such an intuitive appeal.
Man can conquer nature...
Even when listening to Chang Lin's interpretation of the contents of the last two pages of the newspaper, these villagers would often go back to look at the page with the words "Man can conquer nature" written on it, with a somewhat dazed look on their faces.
They didn't know most of the words on the page, but now they must have remembered four of them.
"If it weren't for the special circumstances, saying this now would easily cause trouble."
Chang Lin had just sent away the neighbors who were listening to him explain the monthly report information when he heard Zhong Changtong's voice.
Chang Lin looked at the other person and replied, "Someone has to do this."
The young man was still the same as when Xi Zhicai saw him that year, holding a stack of papers in his hands, but he looked much more mature than before.
Just as he and Xi Zhicai said, he was just going to Leping Academy to audit classes at that time and had no intention of staying there for long.
Due to some family reasons, he soon returned to Shanyang, Yanzhou.
But at the invitation of his good friend Chang Lin, he came to Bingzhou again.
Here he continued to observe people's livelihood and also carried out his own theoretical creation.
If he had free time, he would walk all the way from Shangdang to Leping, often stopping along the way to talk with people from Bingzhou whom he met by chance.
The longer he stayed here, the more he felt that the Grand Marshal's approach to doing things could not be simply described with the word "courage", because in some of the details, it was clear that there were earth-shaking changes.
But before, those signs of change were revealed by her in an extremely careful and gentle manner, and there were always things that prevented others from noticing them.
It was not until today's phrase "Man can conquer nature" that a clue was finally clearly revealed!
No, it wasn't just what he and Chang Lin said that might cause trouble.
His gaze shifted from meeting his friend's gaze to the monthly report in his hand.
It is difficult to describe what kind of storm was stirred up in his heart when he saw that the handwriting and patterns on several adjacent newspapers were exactly the same.
This has a greater impact through physical objects than theoretical changes.
You know, before the Leping Monthly, all books were copied by hand, and the original copies of the books were kept in the hands of the aristocratic families, which made knowledge a monopoly of the upper class. But now...
Now a completely different way of "production" has emerged!
Although Zhong Changtong is young, his vision is not narrow at all.
The moment he clearly realized that the way newspapers were produced had changed, he had only one thought in his mind:
He seemed to be witnessing the beginning of a new era!
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