Whether or not there was a drought was the most important factor in determining a locust outbreak.
Especially in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, the Guanzhong region, and the provinces of Hebei, Shandong, and Henan, these areas were densely populated and prone to drought. They were often breeding grounds for locusts.
Xiao Ruxun handed over the leadership of the locust control team to the energetic Chen Longzheng and let him lead the team to go out and do research.
In the first half of the first year of Longwu, Chen Longzheng led the team to do research in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. He returned to the capital in the twelfth month of the first year of Longwu and wrote a detailed report to Xiao Ruxun.
Chen Longzheng reported that the situation in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River was not good. It was different from the Jiangnan region, where locust plagues were rare. After the land reform, the control of the local officials increased and could easily organize the manpower of the villages to build irrigation works.
They had all the resources and manpower and could often repair the irrigation works that needed to be repaired. Where there was a need for irrigation works, the possibility of drought was naturally low. With less drought, locust plagues would not occur.
Therefore, there was no need to worry too much about the Jiangnan region. The possibility of locust plagues was very low. It was precisely the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in the north that lacked manpower and resources. The officials were not as well-organized as Jiangnan, especially in the southeast.
In the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth years of the Ming Dynasty, there was war. The Northern Barbarians invaded the south and massacred. The army fought fiercely and Datong was in ruins. The large clans were wiped out, not to mention the common people.
Later on, Xiao Ruxun went on a northern expedition. Hundreds of thousands of troops passed through the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. This affected the region to a certain extent. The middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River were still recovering. The infrastructure was in ruins and there was no water conservancy to speak of.
Now they had to thank the heavens for not raining heavily. If it did, the Yellow River would overflow and cause floods. The embankments were in disrepair and the people in the north would be in dire straits.
Although Xiao Ruxun had worked very hard to send batch after batch of officials to Shanxi and Datong to take the lead in land reform and carry out control, as well as taking out large amounts of food to allow the local officials to restore Shanxi and Datong. However, the time was still short, and the results were not obvious. They also lacked the energy.
In other words, if there was a drought in the Northern Lands, there would be a locust plague. Once there was a locust plague, the central government would be exhausted and unable to cope.
Therefore, it was necessary to prevent and control the locust plague before then. The central government would step forward and organize manpower and resources in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River to prevent the plague.
Chen Longzheng advocated cutting down the water plants in the low-lying areas to clear out the locusts' nesting grounds. When the locusts' eggs formed in spring and summer, if there were any loose soil, it must be caused by the locusts' eggs developing into larvae. The government would then organize manpower to deal with it.
After the eggs had turned into larvae, they had to dig trenches to kill them. More importantly, during the larval stage, when the locusts were still in the larval stage, they had to raise a large number of ducks in the area. Ducks came to the ground and liked to eat the larvae. They could eat a few catties of the larvae in a day. Not only did they not need to feed, they could also eat the larvae of the locusts, killing two birds with one stone.
Next, there was a method that wasn't really a method.
It was to plant a variety of crops that the locusts did not eat, such as potatoes, mulberries, peas, green beans, hemp, sesame, or when the locusts were helpless in the future, they could sift the plant ash and lime into fine powder and sprinkle it on the crops. This way, the locusts would not eat the crops anymore.
After receiving this detailed report, Xiao Ruxun ordered the locust control team to simplify it into the 'Locust Control Order'. All the methods were listed out and written down in simple and easy to understand words.
He then ordered the printing office to print it out in large quantities and distribute it to the villages in the locust infested areas. The village heads would organize farmers' associations to study it and memorize it.
This was the first time that Xiao Ruxun had issued a nationwide mandatory decree. They had to memorize it even if they had to. He requested that at least one person from each household in the farm could memorize it in full. This was a matter of life and death. If they were lazy and did not memorize it, they would be flogged in public.
This was what happened around the same time as the Battle of Bozhou. Xiao Ruxun ordered the entire country to memorize it and then established the General Locust Control Department. Xu Guangqi was the head of the department and Chen Longzheng was his deputy. The main task of the Ministry of Military Works was temporarily handed over to the Left Assistant Minister, Zhao Shizhen.
In Xiao Ruxun's eyes, although Xu Guangqi was good at studying the Western knowledge, he was better at handling practical matters. He was a talent to assist the King.
Compared to him, his deputy, Zhao Shizhen, was a real firearms and military maniac. He specialized in firearms. He wanted to train Xu Guangqi in the direction of the Cabinet and Zhao Shizhen would be his successor in the Ministry of Military Works.
Therefore, for the establishment of the General Administration of Locust Control, he named Xu Guangqi as the leader. He wanted to provide him with sufficient opportunities to earn political achievements and fame, so that he could quickly make a name for himself. This would lay the foundation for him to take over the old Wang Xijue in the future.
At the same time, he arranged for more than 130 young officials that he thought highly of to enter the General Locust Control Department. He asked them to travel the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River to experience life and the suffering of the people with their own two feet. This was to prepare for the important positions in the central government.
When the war was in full swing, the locust control department was also in full swing. Countless capable officials were transferred to the General Locust Control Department to work with Xu Guangqi.
Xiao Ruxun sent elite troops to escort them all the way to Xi 'an. Along the way, they inspected the places and contacted the local governments to formulate policies to control the locust plague. At the same time, they also inspected the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River.
Xiao Ruxun also gave Xu Guangqi a secret mission. It was to understand the living conditions of the people in various places. He wanted to see which places were too difficult to live and which did not have much resistance to moving to other places.
It was hard to leave one's homeland. The idea of returning to one's roots was something that the people of China could never forget. But if they were forced to leave, they had to leave. Xiao Ruxun did not want to force people to leave their homeland. Therefore, he wanted to understand how the people of various places felt about leaving their homeland.
It was best for those who were willing to leave. It was also necessary for those who were unwilling but not against it. They could not leave too many people in the North. They had to move as much as possible to the South. This was a policy that had to be implemented.
Xu Guangqi was surprised. He did not expect the Emperor to still be thinking about such things. There were already so many things to do and there was no peace to be seen. The Emperor still wanted to find something to do.
Now, Xu Guangqi understood why the Emperor made him the head of the General Locust Control Department.
Rumor had it that Xu Guangqi was the future successor of the Empire's Prime Minister, and it seemed like it was not just a rumor.
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