Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 311 Locust Hunting Order

Su Ze personally stood by the Yellow River, looking at the swarm of locusts on the other side of the river.

Only when you are there in person can you understand why the ancients worshipped locusts as gods. Even in areas such as the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River where locust plagues frequently occur, there are special "Bala Temples". There are even places where living people are sacrificed to the locust god, praying that there will be no locust plagues in the coming year.

The Maosu Gobi Desert, which was gradually becoming desertified during this era, became a barrier to prevent locusts from moving south.

Fortunately, Su Ze made preparations in advance and issued a manual on preventing and controlling locust plagues. However, there were still some sorcerers with ulterior motives who spread the rumor that the locust plague was caused by Su Ze's lack of benevolence.

These witches spread rumors that locusts were the incarnation of gods, and that they could not be killed or driven away in the face of a locust plague, so they resisted Su Ze's "Locust Hunting Order."

The situation was urgent, and Su Ze did not delve into who was behind these witches and sorcerers. Instead, he took the lead in destroying the obscene sacrifices in the counties and villages along the Yellow River with thunderous means, and executed these witches and sorcerers in the same way as Ximen Bao did in the past.

Immediately afterwards, Su Ze adopted a two-pronged approach, using the methods of "fire attack" and "peace buying".

"Fire attack" is to light a fire in the center of the field, use the locusts' ability to repel light to lure the locusts into the fire net.

"Hemai" means that the government offers a certain amount of reward and calls on the people to catch locusts.

Su Ze even sent out troops to have soldiers catch locusts in the fields and pastures, and finally managed to stop this round of locust plague.

But looking at the swarm of locusts flying towards the east, Su Ze could only sigh. This was truly the scene of the end of a dynasty.

"General! It is just as you expected. A large number of locust eggs have been dug out from the dry riverbed upstream. I have asked the soldiers to burn them!"

After blocking this round of locusts from passing through, Su Ze ordered his generals to lead their troops upstream along the Yellow River, specifically looking for riverbeds that had been damaged by drought this year and digging out locust eggs in the riverbed.

Locust plagues and droughts complement each other because locusts need to lay eggs on dry soil with low vegetation cover. The best place to lay eggs is naturally the riverbed exposed due to drought.

These locust eggs remaining in the soil may hatch and spread again in June or July this year, or in February or March next year, causing locust plagues for several consecutive years.

In fact, the southward shift of the farming center of the Central Plains was due not only to reasons such as the destruction of vegetation in Guanzhong and soil erosion, but also the interruption of the Yellow River's flow.

Starting from the Song Dynasty, due to the failure of the Song Dynasty to divert the Yellow River, a large-scale Yellow River flooding area was formed in Shandong. These Yellow River flooding areas became the best breeding grounds for locusts after suffering from drought.

Starting from the Northern Song Dynasty, locust plagues occurred frequently, and the once prosperous Hedong, Qi and Lu regions finally inevitably declined.

During the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, the Yangtze River basin became the main grain producing area and Jiangnan became the economic center.

The mother river, the Yellow River, has been tormented into this state by these insects!
Su Ze made up his mind that if he could unify the world in the future, he would quickly control the Yellow River while it could still be saved.

Su Ze said seriously:
"The General's Office drafted the "Land Clearance Order". Yu Jin, this is military law. You lead your troops to the counties along the river again. All the land that has occupied the riverbed must be returned to farmland, and all those who privately dig the riverbank will be executed!"

Yu Jin knew that Su Ze was going to use the knife, and he said excitedly: "Yes!"
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Compared with Su Ze's orderly response, when the news of the locust plague was brought to the court of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Empress Dowager Hu was just panicked, but none of the ministers in the court could come up with a useful solution.

However, facing the locust plague, the rulers really have no good solution.

Even a wise and valiant emperor like Emperor Taizong of Tang in later times could only catch the locusts and curse them after encountering a nationwide locust plague:

"People depend on grain for their survival, and you eat it, which harms the people. If the people have committed a sin, it is my fault. If you have a soul, you should only eat my heart and not harm the people."

Then Li Shimin swallowed the locusts and prayed to God to punish him alone.

Historical books say that the locust plague disappeared after Li Shimin swallowed the locusts. But in fact this is just the historian's Spring and Autumn writing style. The locust plague in the early Tang Dynasty was endless and was not alleviated at all because of the king's virtue.

In the past, when faced with locust plagues, the imperial court would resort to two measures: opening warehouses to provide relief and reducing taxes.

It was impossible to open the granaries to provide disaster relief. The wars over the years had already emptied the granaries of the Northern Wei Dynasty.

It is not easy to reduce or exempt taxes. Nowadays, money has to be spent everywhere. Only a few states like Hedong can collect taxes. The states in Hedong were the first to be hit by the locust plague this time. If their taxes are reduced or exempted, the officials in Luoyang will starve to death.

There was really no other solution, so Empress Dowager Hu finally came up with a solution - worship Buddha.

She once again donated a large sum of money at the Yongning Temple, praying to the Buddha to bless the Wei Dynasty. She then personally worshipped at the Ba La (Locust God) Temple, and sent Yuan Shen, who was still leading his troops back to Luoyang, to hand over the army to his deputy, ordering him to return to Pingcheng to sweep the tomb of the previous emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty and pray for the protection of their ancestors.

As for the effect of praying to gods and Buddhas, it cannot be said that there is no effect at all, but it can only be said that there is no effect at all.

In February of the second year of Xiaochang, a locust plague invaded Heng, You, and Yan states. The newly sprouted grass was eaten clean by locusts, and the three states were left with barren land for thousands of miles, with no green left.

In March, the locust plague hit Ji, Ying, Yan, Yan, and Beixu provinces, and the crops harvested during the spring farming season suffered a devastating blow.

Among them, the three states of Ding, Ying and Ji, which received the remnants of the Six Garrisons, suffered the worst disaster.

The prophecy of Han Baling before his death - "The one who destroyed the Yuan clan was the Six Garrisons" spread quickly, and rumors began to spread in the three states that the remnants of the Six Garrisons had caused the locust plague. The influx of the remnants of the Six Garrisons had originally aroused hostility from the local people of the three states.

The reason is very simple. The large influx of survivors from the Six Towns has brought fierce competition to ordinary people in the three states.

Although these survivors who came to the Three States from the difficult Six Towns suffered unfair treatment, the prosperity of the Three States still made them willing to stay.

This shows what the living conditions in the Six Towns were like. Being a townsperson in the Six Towns was not as good as being a slave in the Three States.

If there had not been this locust plague, perhaps the remnants of the Six Garrisons would have settled down in the Three States, and after being annexed, disintegrated and encroached upon by the powerful families of the Three States, these people of the Six Garrisons would have also settled down.

But it was obvious that God was not going to give the Northern Wei this opportunity.

With this locust plague in the Central Plains, the hatred between the immigrants from the Six Garrisons and the ordinary people from the Three States was completely ignited, and the conflict between the survivors of the Six Garrisons and the government and the wealthy families was also completely ignited.
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Dingzhou, Zuoren City.

Xianyu Xiuli was a pastoral slave who was sold to Dingzhou. He was originally just an ordinary townsman of Huaishuo. Later, after Huaishuo City was captured, he was forcibly recruited into the rebel army by Po Liu Han Baling and was promoted to Qu Shuai for his merits.

Later, after the defeat of Po Liu Han Baling, Xianyu Xiuli was escorted to Dingzhou for resettlement, and finally placed by the government in Zuoren City as a shepherd slave.

Xianyu Xiuli had served as a general and had a generous personality. On his way to Dingzhou, he helped many survivors of the Six Garrisons. After arriving in Zuoren City, he naturally became the leader of this group of slave herders.

The Six Garrisons itself was a paramilitary organization based on tribal blood ties. When the three states resettled the remnants of the Six Garrisons, they did not break up their organization for the convenience of control. Instead, they grouped people from the same hometown and clan together, trying to control the remnants of the Six Garrisons by collective responsibility.

However, this lazy resettlement method also made the connections between the survivors of the Six Garrisons closer.

Xianyu Xiuli relied on his accumulated reputation in Zuoren City to quickly win over several nearby Six Garrisons tribes and thousands of people.

After the locust plague, in order to fight for pasture, the remnants of the Six Towns banded together more closely and had several conflicts with the local forces of Zuoren City. In the end, the people of the Six Towns relied on their bravery and blood to seize the precious pasture.

"General Qu, the Dingzhou Beijia Ge Rong has sent someone here again, saying that he wants to help us. Although the dog official is from the Six Garrisons, he is a government lackey and is not trustworthy."

They were all pastoral slaves arranged here by the government, but those who gathered around Xianyu Xiuli still called him "Qu Shuai", and Xianyu Xiuli did not seem to notice anything wrong.

Compared to the hostility of his confidants towards Ge Rong, Xian Yu Xiuli said:

"Although Ge Rong is the deputy governor of Dingzhou, he was ostracized by the Dingzhou officials because of his status as a member of the Six Garrisons, so he was sent here to garrison. If we want to accomplish great things, we still have to try our best to unite all the people we can unite with."

Since March, the situation in Dingzhou has become increasingly tense, and because of the locust plague, refugees have appeared in the north of Dingzhou.

For the people of the Six Towns who experienced the Six Towns Rebellion, this script is too familiar. Isn’t this what the Six Towns looked like before the rebellion?

Xianyu Xiuli's reputation is getting higher and higher, but he is not a particularly ambitious person. He unites the remnants of the Six Garrisons in Zuoren City more for the purpose of keeping each other warm.

Following the order of Yang Jin, the governor of Dingzhou, Ge Rong led his troops to defend against the bandits in Yanzhou near Zuoren City.

In fact, although they are called bandits, the ones causing trouble in Yanzhou these days are actually the remnants of the Six Garrisons.

The largest group was Du Luozhou and his six townsmen who gathered in Shanggu County of Yanzhou. The Yanzhou government troops had carried out several raids on Du Luozhou, but Du Luozhou escaped every time and even defeated the government troops several times.

The situation was turbulent, and Xianyu Xiuli had no intention of rebelling. Since Ge Rong had shown goodwill to him, Xianyu Xiuli decided to maintain his relationship with Ge Rong for the time being.

"Is the envoy sent by Ge Rong the same Yuwen Lian from last time?"

The subordinate nodded. As a native of Huaishuo, Xianyu Xiuli had certainly heard of the reputation of the Wuchuan Yuwen family.

If we had known that the Yuwen father and son were good at fighting, it would have been the Heba father and son and the Yuwen father and son who killed Wei Kegu.

Unexpectedly, the father and son of Yuwen went south to Dingzhou and joined Ge Rong.

At this moment, another confidant rushed in and said:

"Chief! Those Dingzhou people are here to steal our water source again!"

Xian Yu Xiuli immediately picked up his weapon and said to everyone:

"Gather the brothers, this time we have to teach those bastards a lesson!"

When they were resettled last year, the government allocated livestock to each person, and they would take inventory in March of the spring. If any of the livestock died, the government would impose severe punishment on them.

When fighting for water, the people of the six towns really fought desperately!

(End of this chapter)