Chapter 158 There is no locust plague in Liangzhou
Xu Wude has a hundred acres of "good farmland".
In fact, there are only fifty acres of land that can be used to grow crops, and the rest are orchards developed outside the mountains and forests.
The most common fruit tree planted in the orchard is the earliest apple, which was called Munai and Miankou at that time.
There is a sentence in "Thousand Character Classic": The most precious fruits are pear and pear, and the most important vegetables are mustard and ginger.
What this means is that the most delicious fruits are plums and pears, and the most delicious vegetables are mustard greens and ginger.
However, compared to modern modified apples, nectarines are actually not very tasty at all.
It is not grown in large quantities for food, but for use as aromatherapy.
The herbs grown by Xu Wude are transported to the south to be made into incense after they mature.
It is then transported to prosperous cities and flows into the homes of powerful merchants.
But now due to the drought, not a single fruit has been produced and all the leaves have fallen off.
I don’t know if the seedlings will come back next year.
Xu Wude could ask people to transport some water from the mountain to prevent the crops from dying of drought, but he couldn't take care of these fruit trees.
"If it rains again, the tree will survive."
Xu Wude was looking forward to heavy rain soon!
On the dry fruit trees, you can see locusts lying in the sun.
After passing through the mountains and forests, there is a flat depression, which is one of the Xu family's farmlands, several acres in size.
The crops grown are millet and sorghum, which become millet after being shelled.
This crop likes warmth, is drought-resistant, has strong adaptability, and can grow in sandy loam.
The nutritional value is also high. Li Bai once praised it: "A few buckets of jade at home are not as good as a plate of millet."
Xu Wude touched the bent ears of grain and said with anticipation: "In half a month or more, at most twenty days, we can harvest them, and the ears will be much heavier."
He shouted to the two farmhands who were guarding his fields, "Add some more straw men! Look at these annoying birds!"
"Yes, sir—"
There is also millet in Sang Ning's space, and he just harvested a crop.
Her rice is a giant, Xu Wude's, that is jumping shit.
There is no direct comparison.
It was already a mess, and now there is nothing to gain...
Sang Ning squatted down and saw that there was almost always a one-centimeter locust on every millet plant.
The color of locusts is green and yellow, which is very similar to the color of rice. You can't see it at all unless you look carefully.
One rain can hatch tens of thousands of locusts, but Xu Wude is still waiting for half a month.
Sang Ning held a locust and showed it to Xu Wude.
"That's all? It's not even enough to fill my stomach. Wait half a month for them to grow up, and my millet will be ripe."
"Fatty, do you know how locust plagues are formed?"
"If there are too many locusts, it will become a disaster!"
Why!
On the importance of popular science.
Even someone with some knowledge like Xu Wude doesn't understand it, let alone ordinary people.
"You know how people rebel, don't you?"
rebel?
Xu Wude was shocked.
He took two steps back, his eyes alert: "Why should I know this! Are you trying to get me to rebel?"
Damn it, you look so damn dead, it's almost like you've committed a sin!
"Does a rebellion start in one place?"
"Not necessarily. They might just storm into the palace and kill the king."
go!
You really can't use the question-and-answer format when talking to this guy.
"Peasant uprising! First gather in one place, then expand and recruit soldiers.
The same thing happens with locusts! When a large number of locusts gather in one area, they begin to search for comrades. Every time they fly over a place, locusts from that area will join them.
Until it becomes a storm and no one can stop it."
"Yangguan and Longcheng have been raining for some time, and it must have rained elsewhere as well. Do you think the locusts over there are about to grow bigger?
Let me tell you, the flying speed of locusts is 40 kilometers per hour. That is to say, if a locust plague occurs in Yangguan, the nearest place to us, you only have one hour to harvest 50 acres of land.
Moreover, Yangguan reacted promptly, sending a pigeon to inform the governor immediately.
Xu Wude stood there in a daze.
Quickly calculating in the mind.
With fifty acres of land and dozens of people in his family, it would take at least five days in previous years to complete the task. How could it be possible in two hours?
Sang Ning looked at the cloudy sky with a serious expression, "What I'm talking about now is only the best-case scenario.
Another fear, the most feared, is that the locusts don't pass through Yangguan, but come from somewhere else. If that happens, Liangzhou will be doomed."
Half a month, who will give you half a month!
Xu Wude shuddered.
Of course it's over.
"No, there has never been a locust plague in Liangzhou..."
He muttered to himself and squatted down to check.
At first I couldn't see anything, but when I looked again, I saw that one after another was emerging from the stems.
There are also some on the ears of grain.
"Collect it now. You don't lack food, so you can make some money."
If Xu Wude accepted it, other merchants in Liangzhou City would be easier to persuade, and the people would follow suit.
As long as the bulk of the crops are preserved, even if some are not harvested, it will not cause a major disaster.
"No, this is no small matter. After the autumn harvest, I have to pay a large amount of grain to the government. I, I have to go to the county governor's office."
It hurts, it really hurts!
That's golden corn, which has been getting less and less every year. This year it has been reduced by half. Who can bear it!
His wealth has almost shrunk to what it was ten years ago!
Sang Ning also has to go, and she has to explain the situation to Bai Yi.
Bai Yi hasn't had a good time these days either.
The rain only made him excited for two days, and then the bad news came.
The relief grain transported by the government was looted by refugees and bandits along the way.
And that is the last relief food this year!
In other words, from now until March next year, there will be no external aid and Liangzhou City will have to rely entirely on self-sufficiency.
After the autumn harvest, merchants would collect taxes, and the people who had no food would have to rely on these tax grains to survive for several months.
He also prayed for one or two more heavy rains before the autumn harvest to increase the harvest by a few more percent.
Then we sent people out to buy some radish, cabbage, and mustard seeds and distributed them to the people so that they could have more food for the winter.
When Xu Wude and Sang Ning arrived, Bai Yi was thinking that the rain had changed things a lot, and whether he should collect more grain from the merchants.
Who would have thought that Xu Wude would give him such a big "surprise" as soon as he opened his mouth!
"Xu Wude, did rainwater get into your head? What locust plague? How could there be a locust plague in Liangzhou City?
Is that mountain and forest barrier that stretches for thousands of miles fake?
You're such a scoundrel! If your ancestors hadn't lived in Liangzhou City for generations, I would have arrested you as a Western Liao spy!"
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