Chapter 66 [Little Brother Takes Action]
Falcon tilted his head and stared at the can of cod in Jiang Lili's hand without moving, as if he wanted to eat the can first. Suddenly, he felt a chill behind him, and the back of his neck was pinched by a murderous big hand without warning.
Xin Che grabbed the falcon by the scruff of its neck and said in a cold voice, "Go chase the locusts. Only when you're done, you can eat."
The falcon, which originally looked dull, seemed to be activated all of a sudden, flapping its wings. Xin Che let go of it, and the falcon flew out, making a long and crisp sound in the air, which was very penetrating.
Jiang Lili's eyes widened. "It's playing dumb with me. It clearly understood what I said, but it's still pretending to be a stupid, gluttonous ghost."
"Don't be too gentle with this silly bird."
Xin Che looked at the falcon. This stupid eagle was becoming smarter and had two faces.
The villagers who were chasing locusts noticed an eagle spreading its wings in the sky:
"Where did such a big eagle come from?"
"Do eagles eat locusts? Are we saved?"
After the falcon circling in the sky let out a long cry, birds began to fly out from the distant mountains and forests.
Birds from all directions followed the falcons and swooped down on the crops covered by locusts.
Jiang Lili quickly shouted, "Fellow villagers in the fields, please evacuate first to avoid being accidentally injured by birds!"
The villagers who were chasing insects came out of the fields one after another and looked at the sudden flying birds and the majestic falcon eating and driving away the locusts. They felt a sense of salvation and relief.
Someone had already seen Jiang Lili summon the eagle. At this time, Tianshui Village Chief Liu took the lead and walked up to Jiang Lili and said, "Miss, thank you for asking the eagle to help you just now. You are the benefactor of our entire Tianshui Village!"
Zhang Xin had previously told Village Chief Liu that the exile team would be staying in the village. He was very welcoming, saying, "I saw you all helping to drive away the locusts just now. You're welcome to stay in Tianshui Village. However, our conditions are limited, so please don't mind."
Everyone was very happy to hear that they had a place to stay tonight, even though they didn’t have to camp out in the mountains!
After exchanging a few pleasantries with the village chief, Jiang Lili solemnly warned, "Everyone, don't take it lightly. These birds will leave when they're full. You have to take advantage of this respite to find a solution."
"To be honest, we in Tianshui Village worship the locust god every day. We've never had such a large locust plague before. It's just that everyone has been busy with farm work and offering sacrifices to the locust god recently, so we've slacked off."
People will control locust plagues through prayer, and will ask the gods for protection, to eliminate locust plagues and protect crop harvests.
Village Chief Liu's face was filled with regret: "This locust plague is probably a punishment for our village."
"When I get back later, I'll have the whole village worship the locust god."
What? Worship the locust god to solve it?
Jiang Lili was dumbfounded. With so many locusts, they must have laid their eggs on a large scale on dry soil somewhere. She had to drive out all the locusts in the ground first, and then find the eggs and disinfect them. Yes, the locusts would definitely come back to the soil again.
Why are we still worshipping the locust god?
Jiang Lili wanted to express her doubts about the village chief's worship of the locust god. Xin Che, seeing Jiang Lili's puzzlement, lowered his voice and explained, "People don't have many ways to deal with locust plagues. In a remote place like Tianshui Village, the number of methods used to deal with locust plagues is even smaller. However, the tradition of praying to the locust god for crops is deeply rooted."
Jiang Lili understood what Xin Che meant. Worshiping the locust god was a tradition that people had believed in for hundreds of years. No matter how she talked about science now, it would be a waste of time.
During the conversation, some birds had already flown away after their full meal. However, there were still sporadic locusts wriggling where they had stayed, and more locusts were flying over from a distance.
As a young man from Shui Village who often traveled around, Zhang Xin was not so convinced by the locust god. He knew that worshiping the god would not work and could only provide psychological comfort. So he asked Jiang Lili, "Miss, do you have any other methods?"
Jiang Lili turned her gaze to Master Liao.
Master Liao had already reviewed all his life's knowledge in his mind. He said in a childish, clear voice, "I see there are quite a few haystacks in the village. These haystacks can be lit and placed in the fields. Locusts are afraid of flames and smoke, so lighting the haystacks can drive them back."
"If you have ducks at home, you can drive them into the fields. They can eat some of the locusts!"
Village Chief Liu frowned. "Those haystacks are for repairing houses. How can we burn them so easily? What if they burn our crops?"
Some people felt sorry for their ducks: "Ducks are precious poultry in our village. Raising ducks is not easy. What if they get sick from eating these locusts?"
After hearing what Liao Dabao said, Zhang Xin, a carpenter and friend of Escort Master Cen, felt that what the boy said made a lot of sense. According to what he had seen and heard everywhere, locusts are attracted to light and afraid of smoke. He quickly took Zhang Dun's parents back to get the haystack, as every bit of the crops could be saved.
Master Liao scratched his head. Xiaopang’s pesticides haven’t arrived yet. He has to do something to protect the crops before all the birds leave!
Some people are already starting to get upset:
"Why listen to a kid's nonsense!"
"Whose child is this? Stop giving me advice and get down to business!"
Seeing that Master Liao’s words were ineffective, Jiang Lili asked Master Liao to type in the group and she would repeat it.
After receiving Master Liao's third idea, Jiang Lili pointed to a nearby plot of land where no crops had been planted. "Then let's dig a big hole in the open space ahead, then light a fire to attract the locusts!"
Some people questioned: "What if the bugs don't come? Wouldn't it be a waste of effort?"
"The village raised money to rent that piece of land. What if it gets damaged?"
Village Chief Liu scratched his head and said, "Girl, why don't you call some more birds over? There's such a big forest on the mountain. You can even control eagles!"
"My wife happened to rescue that eagle. It's a blessing from heaven that it can come out to help. Are you still not satisfied, village chief?"
Xin Che had a cold face and a look of hostility between his brows. The villagers didn't dare to speak.
Xin Che handed Jiang Lili the water bag and said, "Drink some water. We've done our best."
Jiang Lili originally wanted to stay overnight in the village and help out if she could, but she didn't expect these people to be so stubborn, so she gave up.
Anyway, I'm leaving tomorrow, so I can make some money by selling the insecticide directly to the government.
It’s not that no one listened to what Jiang Lili and Master Liao said.
The families of Zhang Xin and Zhang Dun came with haystacks, and Zhang Xin asked Zhang Dun to ask Liao Dabao and Jiang Lili where to put the hay for burning.
Zhang Xin's wife brought some persimmons to Jiang Lili and her group. "Thank you for your hard work, everyone. Come stay at my house tonight."
Jiang Lili nodded: "It's okay, we are bothering each other."
Zhang Xin and Zhang Dun's families set fire to haystacks near the land they rented. With the guidance of Master Liao, the smoke from the burning haystacks, with the help of the wind direction observed by Master Liao, quickly reached the locusts covering a large area of the land.
Master Liao munched on a persimmon while looking at Zhang Xin, who respected him very much, with great satisfaction: "Which other plots of land do you own? Show them to me!"
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