This summer, the harvest in Hebei (north of the Yellow River) was very bad. So the reason for the bad is locusts. These human-eating insects attacked the entire Weizhou almost overnight. The people in Lingqiu woke up early in the morning and found that their county had become a "locust city". Countless locusts covered every corner, wall, house, and road in Lingqiu City were covered with inch-long locusts. From a distance, it seemed that the entire Lingqiu had been dyed with a layer of yellow-green. Early in the morning, Huan Zhen went to the Zuiweng Pavilion as usual.

When I was working, I was less than two miles from the south of the city to the west of the city, my body was covered with locusts, and my skin was hit by flying insects. The scene outside the city was even more miserable. The locusts flew across the fields like black clouds. After the black clouds, only bare poles of millet and wheat in the field were left, and the vegetable leaves were gnawed like fishing nets. Each of the farmers in the village held a big broom in their hands to beat them everywhere, but how could they catch the flying insects? They just rushed from this land to that land. The desperate farmer sat underground and cried in the dark sky.

Huan Zhen finally broke through the heavy blockade of locusts and rushed into the Drunken Old Man Pavilion like a fleeing. But Zhang Shoucheng was already there. When he saw Huan Zhen coming in, he said with a frown: "Ah Huan, we can't do this business anymore!" Huan Zhen was shocked and said: "What?" Zhang Shoucheng sighed long and said: "It's not all that damn locust!" Huan Zhen only said that he was referring to the decline in the purchasing power of the people after the locust plague.

It will affect the business of the restaurant, and immediately agreed. Zhang Shoucheng shook his head repeatedly and said, "Ah Huan, you are wrong." He slapped the table and said, "Master Ma of our Datong Mansion is angry and asks the rich households in the mansion to donate silver to sacrifice to the locust god." Huan was shocked and couldn't help laughing, saying, "Locust god?" Zhang Shoucheng said unhappily: "What's so funny! Just look at it, it's less than three days, the mansion will be ordered to do so.

It's coming! Two years ago, the Locust plague in Datong, Master Ma was a wealthy family in Tongfu. He invited a few Taoist priests of Qingwei to summon some thunder tribes and locust envoys to drive away locusts, and had a quarrel." Huan Zhen then realized why the farmers in the village just drove away locusts but did not dare to kill them. It turned out that there was such an inside story. He felt it was very funny and forced himself to hold it back, saying, "Where is the locust god?" Zhang Shoucheng snorted in his nose.

He said disdainfully, "Master Ma only knows fighting crickets. Locusts look similar to crickets. How could he bear to kill one and a half?" Huan Zhenqi said, "Is there such a thing?" Suddenly, he remembered someone and asked, "What is the official title of Master Ma?" Zhang Shoucheng glanced at him and said, "Why don't you know? Master Ma's name is Shiying, he is from Guiyang. He came to Datong as the prefect of three years ago."

Huan Zhen was stunned and laughed. Unexpectedly, Master Ma, who worshiped the locusts, was actually the famous cricket boss Ma Shiying, who was famous in the later generations. Ma Shiying was famous for playing with crickets. People at that time recorded him as a human being, with his wealth and wealth, and he was overwhelmed every day. The book of Yu was in a hurry and still regarded fighting crickets as a play. He was the "cricket husband" for a while. He was the emperor Hongguang, who was the Qing army who was on the river and ordered people to catch toads and give aphrodisiacs. He said casually: "There are three realms of playing crickets: one is to pay attention to things, like Jia Sidao, and play insects to ruin the country; the other is to "use entertainment as gambling", and use fighting

Crickets are a means of profit, which is 'Jia's poison'; the third term is 'meaning in things', which is the highest level, and is done by many literati and scholars. The so-called 'listening to the singing can make you forget your tiredness; watching the fighting can make you feel happy.' It seems that the number of times our Master Ma plays with crickets is still very different!" Zhang Shoucheng said "high opinion", but his face was dissatisfied. Huan Zhen ignored him. Look outside the door, locusts are still flying all over the sky. It seems that it is impossible for customers to come to the door today. Some of the other guys came to see that there is no business to do, so they took a nap in the store, while some of them didn't even come.

Huan Zhen was so idle that he looked at the flying locusts. Suddenly, he remembered that when he was a child, when the locust plague was plaguing, his younger brothers often made fires and burned locusts to eat. He couldn't help but itchy. He turned around to the kitchen to get a willow basket and threw it outside the door. After a while, the basket was filled with locusts. Huan Zhen dragged the willow basket back with a fire hook, looked in, and smiled, "It's not bad, it's fat and big!" Zhang Shoucheng didn't know what he was going to do, so he stretched his head curiously. Huan Zhen smiled mysteriously, turned around and walked into the kitchen, and tinkered for a while before coming out.

Zhang Shoucheng could only smell a scent and said in surprise: "What is this?" Xiang Huan Zhen looked in the bowl in his hand and shouted: "This... is this locust?" It turned out that northern farmers were very superstitious at that time. Although hunting locusts was a last resort for worms to seize food, it was absolutely absolutely necessary to eat. Therefore, although Zhang Shoucheng opened the largest restaurant in the local area, he never thought that locusts could become dishes. Huan Zhen said with a smile: "Boss Zhang is so smart! I, the locust, was soaked in wine first and then fried in oil, and the taste was very good!" Then he picked one and threw it into his mouth, licking his mouth, making it look like the world's number one delicacy.

Zhang Shoucheng finally couldn't resist the temptation of the fragrance, so he reached out to take one, took a bite, chewed it, suddenly his eyes lit up, and he blurted out the word "good". Seeing this, all the friends gathered around, and they tasted it one by one, and they all said it was very delicious. Huan Zhen waited for everyone to eat, and said calmly: "Boss, if we set up a locust mat, do you think there is a store?" Zhang Shoucheng was stunned, but he didn't expect that Huan Zhen had such an intention. After thinking about it, he shook his head and said, "I don't know. Fortunately, there are locusts everywhere in the sky, so there is no need to pay for it, even if you try it." He suddenly shook his head and said, "No, no! How could Master Ma allow us to catch locusts to eat?" Huan Zhen thought that this was really a problem. He thought about it for a moment and said, "Don't be busy in advance. I will talk to you when I go to see Prince Jiang." He went there, borrowed a straw raincoat from Zhang Shoucheng, and went out to the county government.

He had lived in the county yard for a long time, and the servants in the gatehouse knew that he was the son-in-law of Zhou Shichang, so he did not stop him when he came and let him enter the Houya. Huan Zhen asked Jiang Bingcai, who was in Sibuzhai in the Houya, and he didn't want anyone to spread it now, so he walked over. Before the person arrived, he smelled a burnt smell in his nose. Huan Zhen took a few steps, but saw Jiang Bingcai squatting in a small flowerbed in front of Sibuzhai. The smoke in the flowerbed was burning, and it was very spectacular. He was far away and shouted, "Old parents, my nephew Huan Zhen, please see me!" After calling out a few times, Jiang Bingcai raised his head and saw that it was Huan Zhen. Zhan Yan said, "I have missed Brother Shi these days, but I don't want Brother Shi to come, so I condescend to you." Huan Zhen said he didn't dare to look at the things he was burning, and seemed to be a pile of locusts. He pointed to the fire and said, "I dare not ask my parents, this is What are you doing?" Jiang Bingcai picked up his beard and said thoughtfully: "According to several elders outside the East Gate, this locust plague is once a hundred years!" Huan Zhen was shocked and said, "Then..." Jiang Bingcai looked at Huan Zhen and smiled bitterly: "It's a pity that Lord Ma would definitely not care whether he met once a hundred years or once a thousand years, just pay attention to the sacrifice to the locust god." Huan Zhenqi said, "Is there a post in Datong Mansion?" Jiang Bingcai shook his head, He said, "That's not yet. Just because of Lord Ma's character, he posted a post and must have asked the counties to assign a priest to summon generals." He said helplessly. Huan Zhen asked, "Why does Lord Ma prohibit the catching locusts? If he apologizes for this year and the people are living in poverty, wouldn't he be afraid of hindering his future?" Jiang Bingcai hesitated and said, "This county is also puzzled. Could it be that the locust god really blesses Lord Ma?"

Huan Zhen naturally didn't believe his ghosts and gods, and asked tentatively: "Can you catch any locusts in the sky beside you?" Jiang Bingcai sighed: "It's hard! Even if Lord Ma doesn't issue a ban, it's like climbing to the blue sky." Huan Zhen asked: "Why is this?" Jiang Bingcai didn't bother him and said slowly: "Locusts have wings. I'll drive them to kill them here, and they will fly elsewhere. This county is the county magistrate of Lingqiu. If he arrives at Guang

Ling, Guangchang, could not lead the villagers to cross the border to kill. During the locust plague two years ago, Lord Ma ordered that the locusts were not allowed to be hunted, so we had to drive away the locusts. However, we drove out of Lingqiu County and flew into Guangling and Guangchang. This county also joined the county magistrates of the two counties, saying that this county was "not good at controlling locusts and harming their neighbors", hahaha!" Huan Zhen was speechless. He remembered that when he read Guo Zizhang's "Homantic Words" before, there was a joke in it:

Qian Mufu was the county magistrate of Rugao County. One year, a drought caused harm to locusts, but the county magistrate of Taixing County, which was adjacent to Rugao, deceived his superiors and said, "There are no locusts in this county." Soon, the locust plague broke out and the boss blamed him. The magistrate of Taixing County had no words to defend himself, so he had to say, "Our county has no locusts, they all flew from Rugao County." He also issued a document asking Rugao County to step up the capture of locusts and not to harm the neighboring county. After receiving the document, Qian Mufu wrote a few sentences below and sent the document back to Taixing. Those sentences were: "Locusts are natural disasters, not county magistrates have no talent. Since they flew away from the place, they asked your county to take them in."

Huan Zhen always thought this was a purely cold joke, but he didn't expect that there was such an official. For a moment, I didn't know whether it was angry or funny, but I thought that my great plan for the locust banquet was probably just a waste. I also thought of the opportunity to raise my salary in vain. I couldn't help but hate Ma Shiying for thousands of times. Jiang Bingcai said: "This county is burning fire and producing smoke, but I want to try to smoke the locusts with smoke. Otherwise, if you rely solely on human power, you will probably have no grains this year." Huan Zhen nodded and said: "I have a way to not kill the locusts, but also let them fly away. But this is the benefit of treating the symptoms but not the root cause?" Jiang Bingcai said: "What good strategy does Brother Shi have? Tell me quickly, even if you have the strength.

If you haven't caught, there will always be everyone to discuss it. Even if you don't treat the symptoms, it will be better than to give up the rituals and expose the rituals." Huan Zhen sneered: "You can summon wealthy families in the county and order to raise funds within a specified period of time. A locust temple is built next to the county government to worship General Liu Meng. On the day the temple is completed, the people will bow together. There is a congratulation saying, 'Grandpa Locust is good, don't eat all the millet. All living beings have worked hard for half a year. They have not been warmed up and have not been full. Bald heads and barefoots are on the back of the sun. Sweat like Master Zhu, it's okay. How about the green and yellow crops that are not harvested in the autumn? Master Locust, do good, don't eat all the millet. Master Locust, do good, don't take the crops too cheaply.' In this way, the locusts will naturally fly away. However, once people are not sincere, they will inevitably fly back again. Therefore, it is said that treating the symptoms and not treating the root cause."

When Jiang Bingcai heard this, he was stunned and his face turned pale. He walked around two circles. He suddenly stretched his feet and kicked the fire. He made sparks flicker and said angrily: "Why should brother Shi laugh at me like this? I have fought with this black veil and I don't want my life. I'll just write a letter to the emperor!" Huan Zhen saw that he was so excited, but he felt a little regretful. He hurriedly bowed to the ground and said, "I didn't mean to offend me, but I saw locusts rampant and the people were living in poverty. I was anxious for a moment, and offended the adults." Jiang Bingcai sighed: "How can I not be anxious in my mind? It's just that the officials are weak and weak, and I can't do anything! Well, it's better to go home to sell sweet potatoes than to be a magistrate of the people. Although this county is also from two lists, it doesn't take its future more seriously than the lives of the people. Today, Japanese counties draft memorials."

Huan Zhen shook his head and said, "Sir, I don't know." Thinking of the matter he had seen before about Xizong's carpenters and ignoring the government affairs, he said, "Long live now is just a carpenter. Even if the memorials of the adults were delivered to the capital, they were still in the hands of Wei Zhongxian and his group. How could they care about the lives and death of the people? They just thought about how much benefits the adults could give them. Can adults calculate how much wealth they have to open the joints?" Jiang Bingcai was shocked and looked around and saw that there was no one around. Then he calmed down and said, "Brother Shi, you are so brave! Nine Thousand Years Ears Do you dare not live like this? Huan Zhen was also shocked. He did not expect Wei Zhongxian's terror rule to be so strict. This was the first time he had heard about the cruelty of politics since he came to this world. He was stunned for a moment and didn't know what to say. Jiang Bingcai glanced at him and said, "This county and Pi Ming have been in contact for 20 years, and I firmly believe that he knows people's ability. Since Pi Ming recruits you as his son-in-law, he must have extraordinary points. In the opinion of this county, Brother Shi is very talented and cannot be limited in the future, but he must take good care of himself and don't seek troubles." Huan Zhen agreed.

Jiang Bingcai said, "Well, things have come to this point, I can only do it. The county summons people to drive away locusts, at most, just like last time, ginseng was 'not good at controlling locusts, and harming neighbors'." Huan Zhen said, "I have something unknown to me, I want to ask for advice." Jiang Bingcai didn't know what he was going to ask, and said casually: "Please tell me." Huan Zhen asked, "I don't know which post from Datong Prefecture to Lingqiu is going to come from?" Jiang Bingcai was stunned and asked, "Brother Shi asked what to do? Could it be that I want to intercept official documents halfway? No, no!" He said four or five times in a row. ", just shook his head. Huan Zhen smiled and said, "Don't worry, my nephew has no intention of intercepting the official documents. He just wanted to teach the official documents to delay some time." Jiang Bingcai was even more confused and could not ask. Huan Zhen could not do anything, so he had to tell him what he thought. When Jiang Bingcai heard this, he applauded and immediately gave him the location of the Northwest Gunfengling Station. At that moment, Huan Zhen told Jiang Bingcai to do whatever he should do in the past few days, and asked him to take care of the Zhou grandchildren. After the two had finished their plan, Huan Zhen went back to the Zuiweng Pavilion to sue for a leave. Zhang Shoucheng saw that there was no business in the store, so he was so happy.

The Gengfeng Ridge is located northwest of Lingqiu, about three or four hundred miles away from Lingqiu, but it is the same line as Hengshan. There is Gengfeng Post at the ridge, which is the only way from Datong Prefecture to Lingqiu. Huan Zhen borrowed two fast horses from Jiang Bingcai, and kept changing horses and running wildly. When it was dark, the two horses were so tired that they foamed at the mouth, and Huan Zhen could hardly sit on the saddle. Before leaving, Jiang Bingcai once told him that there were many thieves in Datong and asked him not to walk at night. It seemed that it was impossible to get around before sunset. It's all, I can only find a stay and stay for the time being. I walked forward for a while, and there were pedestrians on the road. Huan Zhen stopped and asked about the path. Then he realized that he had been walking a path in a daze. He was going to the northwest of Lingqiu, but somehow he came to Linguankou in the northwest of Guangling County. He was very angry and wanted to slap himself twice. But the road was wrong and it was useless to hurry, so he had to go to Linguankou for a while and go to the night and go twice tomorrow.
Chapter completed!