As everyone waited, on the afternoon of the third day, the northern sky suddenly turned pitch black.
It blocked out the sun's rays, obscuring the sky and the sun.
The buzzing sound was audible to everyone.
"They're here! They're here!"
"The locusts are coming!"
The locust plague, which should have been a source of fear, arrived as expected, much to everyone's delight.
The people were not alarmed at all; in fact, they were quite excited.
The locusts weren't satisfied with the food in the previous county town, so this time they saw a large patch of green plants and swooped down.
"Let the ducks out!"
Someone shouted, and everyone opened their duck coops and quickly scrambled inside.
The ducks, having been hungry all day, saw the locusts in the field as if they were seeing large chunks of fat meat. They charged forward proudly, aimed, and devoured them one by one.
One duck can eat about a hundred ducks, but there are tens of thousands of ducks in Lingshan County.
In just one afternoon, the locusts that flew to Taile Village were wiped out.
The ducks, having eaten their fill, waddled home slowly.
After being cared for for half a month, they clearly recognized where their home was.
The crops in the fields were not severely damaged, and the villagers only poked their heads out when they heard the locusts' calls gradually subsiding.
But then they saw the ducks returning in large groups.
Some villagers even picked up the ducks and kissed them.
But Nanzhi knew that the locusts wouldn't get away so easily.
According to Cherry's survey, there are at least four or five swarms of locusts.
These locusts were just the vanguard.
"Don't let your guard down, there's a second and a third batch coming. Remember to lock up the ducks when you get back and don't feed them. There will be another batch tomorrow."
The group quickly went back and locked the ducks up to prevent them from going out to find food.
Nanzhi arrived at the edge of the rice paddy, where locust corpses were scattered about.
The rice plants suffered some damage, but not too much.
These locusts were almost poisoned to death after just one bite.
Nan Qun arrived at the scene immediately and exclaimed in surprise upon seeing the locust corpses on the ground, "Zhizhi, what happened?"
The locusts collapsed before they could even take two bites, which is unlike their usual behavior.
Nanqun picked up a small stick and started shoveling locusts off the ground.
Nan Zhi: "Well, it's possible that these locusts are just old. It's normal for them to grow old, get sick, and die."
Nan Zhi ran away after saying that, leaving Nan Qun looking puzzled.
So that's why the people coming to their rice paddies are all old, weak, sick, or disabled.
Do these locusts look down on their rice?
A lot of locusts also landed in Lingshan County, but fortunately every household raised ducks, and the locusts were soon dealt with.
The Wang family.
Wang Tianzong likes plants, so he keeps quite a few in his yard.
She takes care of the plants more diligently than she takes care of her own son.
Upon seeing the sky full of locusts, Wang Tianzong immediately ordered his men to move any that could be brought inside back into the house.
If it can't be moved in, have someone cover it with a net.
But locusts are not afraid of these things.
In no time at all, the net was torn to shreds with holes.
"Oh, my darling!"
Upon seeing this, the steward quickly ordered the ducks to be released.
The ducks quacked and waddled toward the meat they had been longing for.
The locusts were wiped out in no time.
"Hahaha." Wang Tianzong came out, picked up a duck, and said, "You are a great hero."
Upon seeing this, Wang Yushu couldn't help but say, "Dad, it's just a duck."
Wang Tianzong: "What duck? It's more useful than you."
Wang Yushu: "..."
He seemed to never imagine that one day he would be worse off than a duck.
“Oh, right,” Wang Tianzong suddenly put down the duck, “Old Geng, go and get someone to buy grain.”
Old Geng's housekeeper was also Wang Tianzong's capable assistant.
"No need," Wang Yushu stopped Lao Geng.
"Young master, this is what the master instructed."
Wang Yushu walked up to Wang Tianzong and said, "I mean, we don't need it anymore. The surrounding counties have run out of grain."
"What happened to them all?"
Wang Yushu looked up and said, "Because I bought all of this grain long ago."
After saying that, he walked away.
"Master, what's wrong with the young master?"
Wang Tianzong stared at his son, as if it were the first time he had looked at him so intently.
Old Geng went out to inquire, and sure enough, just as the young master had said, all the grain that could be purchased had been bought up.
He ran back and told Wang Tianzong the news.
Upon hearing this, Wang Tianzong scattered a handful of duck feed on the ground.
"I'm getting old, and I'm too timid to do things. It's time for the young people to go out and make their way in the world."
Just as Nan Zhi had predicted, five waves of locusts came in four days, but the ducks ate them all.
The ducks have visibly gotten fatter these past few days.
Seeing that it was almost time, Nanzhi asked Wang Yushu to start selling the grain.
They bought the grain at a low price initially, but now, due to the locust plague, grain prices have skyrocketed.
There were even instances where a tael of silver cost one jin of grain, which far exceeded the price of the grain itself.
And it's still soaring.
The court officials had many opinions about this, but no one could do anything about it.
The imperial court has limited grain reserves. If grain prices cannot be brought down in time, other problems will arise.
Minister of War Fang Chengen stepped forward: "Your Majesty, if we don't bring down grain prices, the displaced people will turn into bandits, and the Great Yang will be in chaos."
Emperor Zhaode was troubled. "My dear minister, do you have any ideas?"
Fang Chengen: "Your Majesty, this is a problem with the Ministry of Revenue. They should be instructed to find a solution as soon as possible."
Their Ministry of War only cares about fighting wars; they can't think of things that require brainpower.
Tao Hongtu, the Minister of Revenue, was very anxious: "Your Majesty, we are also trying to find a solution. If all else fails, we can send Fang Chengen to suppress the rebellion."
This chapter is not finished, please click the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
