King Jing completely trusted Li Yu, but dealing with the locust plague was no small matter. King Jing paused, held Li Yu's hand, and looked worried, as if asking him if he was sure.
Li Yu chuckled and said, "Yes, I am. But the method may not be very decent."
King Jing did not care about being decent. He was more worried about Li Yu's safety than whether he could stop the locust plague. Generally, people deal with locusts by burning them with fire. Although it can kill a lot of insects at once, there is also the risk of being burned if you get close to the fire. Xiaoyu is a carp spirit, so he would be afraid of fire, right?
Li Yu saw his concern and said, "Your Highness, don't worry, I won't go into battle myself."
Or rather, it was not him who had to go into battle. Yingying, don't think of him as a powerful goblin who can call the wind and rain. He is just a system fish, and he is also afraid of insects!
King Jing looked at Li Yu for a while, and when he saw that he was really not joking, he nodded and allowed him to try.
Li Yu asked for paper and pen, and wrote down several sentences in one breath. It was a coincidence. Before Li Yu crossed into the book, it happened that some countries in the original world were suffering from locust plagues, and his country provided some help. Li Yu was curious and roughly studied how to deal with locust plagues. Although he didn't remember everything, he found it very interesting, and some of the memories were still fresh.
They are deep plowing, grain selection, and duck army.
King Jing:?
Li Yu tried his best to explain them in a way that the ancients could probably understand: "Deep plowing means that locust eggs originally grow in the soil. When plowing, the soil should be turned as deep as possible, and the eggs will be exposed to the sun and will... be killed by the sun."
"Selecting grain means that locusts do not eat all crops. If you plant more grains that locusts don't eat, then the locusts will have less to eat, and naturally they will not make trouble."
King Jing was smart and understood them immediately. These two things really made sense.
King Jing's eyes fell on the third one. What is the duck army? Is it the duck he thought of?
"Your Highness is right." Li Yu blinked his eyes. "As the saying goes, one thing overcomes another, and ducks can eat locusts. The first two points may be too late for places that are already plagued by locust plagues. Your Highness can now get more ducks to solve the urgent problem. This is called... a duck army."
King Jing: "..."
King Jing frowned. What Xiaoyu said, especially the duck army, was unheard of.
But what Xiaoyu said sounded reasonable. At least it was not burned with fire, and there was no life-threatening danger. King Jing nodded slowly.
Some families in Luofeng Town raised ducks, but not in large numbers. They were originally used to sell them for money and for their own consumption.
King Jing ordered Wang Xi to buy a few ducks. They would know if ducks could eat locusts after a try.
Wang Xi took on the task himself. He went there before dawn and came back in less than an hour. He said excitedly, "Your Highness, it really works! I saw with my own eyes that the ducks ate a lot of locusts as soon as they landed. They kept eating from the time I went there to the time I came back. They never stopped!"
Wang Xi hurried back to report the news. He was so happy that one of his shoes almost fell off.
According to Wang Xi, a duck ate about a hundred locusts in one breath. King Jing made a rough estimate and was also somewhat uncontrollably excited.
If he reported to the emperor first and the Ministry of Revenue allocated funds to buy ducks, the locust plague would be even more serious.
King Jing needed this opportunity, so he ordered Wang Xi to use the money of King Jing's mansion to buy all the live ducks in the western frontier. If there were not enough in the entire western frontier, he would send people to buy ducks from the nearby prefectures and counties.
Li Yu suggested, "Your Highness, don't just buy big ducks. You can also buy some small ducks to raise. You can set up a place to raise ducks. Ducks grow very fast and can catch up with the locust plague!"
King Jing thought to himself, this is also a way, so he ordered Wang Xi to do it.
A duck is not expensive. King Jing has plenty of money. The people of Luofeng Town are grateful to King Jing for repelling the bandits. When they learned that King Jing wanted to buy ducks, those who raised ducks at home rushed to send their ducks to him. Many people refused to accept any money. When the nearby counties heard that King Jing bought ducks to treat locusts, they were curious and wanted to make a fuss. They sent groups of ducks to Luofeng Town.
King Jing ordered his guards to meet him along the way to ensure the safety of the people. He was also afraid that the bandits would take advantage of the situation to rob. However, when the bandits heard that King Jing wanted to treat locusts, they waited to see King Jing's excitement and did not care about snatching a few ducks for the time being.
Wang Xi quickly gathered 5,000 live ducks and nearly 1,000 ducklings.
The ducklings still needed to be fed, but the live ducks were organized into a duck army, which was hurried to the worst-hit towns.
King Jing also went there in person, and within a day, they had achieved gratifying results. The duck army was really good at eating, and a small group of ducks could eat almost all the locusts in an acre of land in just half a day.
What used to worry the people was that locusts didn’t live long. Even if they managed to burn them, they would grow again quickly and might even cause a fire. Now, they don’t have to worry about that at all. Ducks can keep eating them for days without any other risks. The loss is very low. When the locusts in a town are almost gone, the duck army will lose less than 10%.
Ducks are really a surprise. King Jing smiled and gave Li Yu a thumbs up, and continued to order Wang Xi to buy ducks from the surrounding areas.
However, the second purchase had some accidents. Wang Xi found that some merchants knew that they needed ducks, and they bought a lot of them from farmers at a low price in advance, and then resold them to Wang Xi at a high price.
Wang Xi was so angry that he reported to King Jing. Li Yu himself did not expect such a problem to happen. After all, it was understandable to store water and grain, but how could they store ducks? Don’t you see what time it is now? King Jing’s palace spent money to buy ducks to help the people fight against locusts, but someone was making such a black-hearted money against his conscience. If the locusts eat up all the food, where will they eat?
Really, giving three times the profit, they dare not even want their lives.
King Jing had already made a plan in his mind. He glanced at Wang Xi lightly and asked Wang Xi to write down who they were and let them store the ducks without paying any attention.
Wang Xi did not buy many ducks this time and was worried that he had missed the main task, but King Jing had it in mind.
Should we buy chickens? King Jing looked at Li Yu.
"Chickens are fine! But chickens are not as edible as ducks..."
Li Yu nodded hurriedly. His Highness even knew this!
King Jing only wanted something that could eat locusts. He ordered Wang Xi to buy some chickens. On the other hand, King Jing also set up the duck farm that Li Yu asked him to run. He hired a few brave duck farmers and used locusts as food. The ducklings grew very fast. Just when the duck army in front was about to run out of food, the ducklings grew up and laid a lot of duck eggs.
Li Yuxi said happily, "Fortunately, Your Highness bought a lot the first time, so we can continue now!" Wang Xi
was the chief eunuch of the palace, and these days he was only buying chickens and ducks and hatching eggs. King Jing smiled confidently and took over all matters related to the latter. As for hatching eggs, His Highness King Jing also knew a lot.
As for those who kept live ducks, they didn't wait until the palace bought them at a high price, so they could no longer keep them.
Ducks are living creatures. They are not like grains that can be piled up in the warehouse. They need to be fed and cared for. If you are not careful, they will starve to death. Many of them even escape.
Seeing that the Jing Palace no longer buys ducks, the duck farmers were dumbfounded. What should they do with so many ducks? But who else in the West could afford to buy so many ducks at once, except the Jing Palace?
These people were afraid of losing money, so they went to find Wang Xi to apologize and pay compensation. Wang Xi was reminded by the Jing Palace, and he stood up straight. He kept lowering the price, and finally accepted the ducks at a price much lower than the market price.
The duck army and the duck farm are now operating normally. Li Yu went to the duck farm run by King Jing and looked around. He made many comments from a modern perspective. He thought the ducklings in the farm were cute, so he asked for two yellow ducklings and raised them in his yard. The fish
cubs were so excited to see the fresh ducklings that they had never seen before that they were almost unable to contain them. Not only Dabao, but even Sibao, the confused one, was eager to try.
Li Yu was afraid that the ducklings would eat the fish, so he refused to let the fish cubs get close and only allowed them to look at them from a distance.
Sibao liked the beautiful ducklings very much. Once, when Li Yu was taking a nap, he secretly jumped out of the crystal bottle to play with the ducklings.
Speaking of naps, it is actually a habit that Li Yu developed after giving birth to the fish cubs. It is said that people develop well if they sleep more when they are young. Li Yu thought that the fish cubs could also sleep more, so
she would take a nap with several fish cubs at a certain time every day. The fish cubs are all lively and active. When Li Yu wakes up, they all burrow into the water grass quilt with Li Yu. As soon as Li Yu falls asleep, the fish cubs crawl out of the quilt and play on their own.
Sibao, a fish, jumped out of the crystal bottle just like that. Thanks to King Jing's foresight, he laid a thick blanket on the ground just in case. Sibao landed without being injured.
But Sibao was just a palm-sized fish. He completely forgot to leave the crystal bottle and the fish tank, and he could not move. Soon after landing, he felt uncomfortable.
Dabao, Erbao and Sanbao all swam to the edge of the crystal bottle, anxiously watching Sibao struggling.
His brother is in danger!
Dabao jumped out regardless, followed closely by Erbao and Sanbao, all of whom wanted to help Sibao.
As a result, originally only Sibao was struggling on the ground, but later all four fish were flapping their tails.
Li Yu only took a short nap and woke up from time to time to look at the fish. He found that after a while, the fish jumped out of the crystal bottle one after another. Li Yu was scared to death and quickly caught all the fish back.
Sibao was scared and clung to Li Yu.
Li Yu was angry and distressed, and it was difficult to blame this careless and confused fish. He fed Sibao some fish food to divert Sibao's attention.
Who knew that Sibao was still clinging to him while chewing the fish food.
Li Yu: "..."
Li Yu wanted to know what was wrong with Sibao, so he teased Sibao to talk. Sibao said incoherently: "Daddy, I want a duck!"
Li Yu guessed that Sibao wanted to see a duck, but it fell to the ground.
Why did Sibao like ducks so much?
Li Yu thought about it, and with a wicked smile, he took Sibao to see the grown-up duck. Sibao saw with his own eyes that the duck's mouth was much longer than when it was a child, and its neck had become long and curved. It was a tall and fat big duck. Thinking of the cute furry little duck, he burst into tears.
After bullying Sibao, Li Yu went to bully Dabao.
Dabao failed to save his brother, but he and his two other brothers fell to the ground. Dabao realized that he was wrong. When Li Yu came to find him, he took the initiative to say to Li Yu: "Dad, I know I was wrong."
Li Yu, who actually likes to stroll around, said: "Oh, Dabao, what did you do wrong? Tell me."
"It's... I was too weak to bring my brother back."
Dabao felt a little wronged and embarrassed.
Li Yu: ???
Son, wake up, your fault is not that you are too weak, okay!
Dabao was totally unaware of the fish father's complaints, and said very seriously: "I want to be the strongest fish, to protect my brother and my father!"
Li Yu: "..."
Li Yu seemed to see the lofty ambition behind Dabao. Really, they were all little fish hatched from the same batch of fish eggs, but Sibao couldn't speak clearly, but Dabao could clearly say a long list of wishes!
"Dabao is a good boy." Li Yu rubbed him with his fins as if to soothe him, and then said: "But remember to do what you can."
Dabao:?
Do what you can, what does it mean!
Li Yu taught him: "It means that Dabao can only protect his father and brother when he grows up."
Dabao nodded as if he understood: "Then Dabao must grow up quickly."
Li Yu: "..."
Emma, although she felt that it was a bit exaggerated, she was inexplicably warmed by Dabao!
Thanks to the efforts of the Duck Army, the locust plague in the western border has been brought under control. Although there are still recurrences in some areas, according to the current combat power of the Duck Army, it is believed that it will not take long for the locusts to be completely eradicated.
However, even if the locusts are eradicated this year, we cannot easily relax our vigilance in the future. The locust plague is difficult to cure, and it will recur. However, now there is a magic method to cure locusts, even if it recurs in the future, it is not a big deal. The people in the western border who have the conditions have started to raise more ducks.
I heard that ducks are good things. Not only can they be sold for money and eaten as meat, but they can also kill locusts!
In the end, it is quite a headache to deal with the duck army that has eaten so much locusts and become fat.
Li Yu's eyes lit up when he saw so many ducks. He remembered something and sipped his saliva. He said to King Jing: "Your Highness, how about we eat roast duck?" King
Jing: "..."
King Jing was a man who could eat the cucumber that Li Yu personally patted without changing his expression or heartbeat. What's the big deal about eating a mere roast duck?