There had been people from the village who had come to talk to the village about raising ducks.
So Guo Deng nodded.
"That kid from the Li family told us about this before, but we don't really know what's going on."
Xu Guangqi said, "There are many things to do in the villages, and we don't have enough manpower right now. However, we are here to promote this matter in Guanzhong. Guanzhong has always been a place where locust plagues frequently occur. His Majesty is very worried about this.
Last year, an official in Fujian wrote a memorial to the emperor, saying that a small merchant in Fujian named Chen Jinglun had come to the government on his own initiative and told them about the strategy he had developed to control locusts by raising ducks. He suggested that the government promote this strategy to other regions. This person was not ordinary. Seven years ago, he was the one who had secretly obtained the sweet potato seeds from Luzon without the Red-haired Yi's knowledge.
For this, His Majesty the Emperor specially rewarded him. This time, he suggested to His Majesty to raise ducks to control locusts. He had tried it in his hometown and said it was very feasible. The court had found records of raising ducks to control locusts in ancient books. Now that someone had tried it, he was immediately summoned to the capital to teach the method.
Now, the imperial court has come up with a rather successful strategy for raising ducks to control locusts. They are ready to promote it in large numbers in the locust disaster area. The larvae of these locusts are called locusts. Everyone has seen them before. Ducks specialize in eating locusts. A duck can eat a few pounds of locusts a day. "
"Oh, ducks can eat locusts?"
Guo Deng and the group of old people looked at each other, feeling this was very novel.
"Yes, ducks eat horseshoe worms, and they eat a lot of them. Moreover, the meat of these ducks that have eaten horseshoe worms is especially delicious, and they are very popular. Now, His Majesty the Emperor eats duck meat that has grown on horseshoe worms in the palace."
The villagers were even more surprised.
"His Majesty the Emperor eats them too?"
"Of course. His Majesty the Emperor's strategy is like this. Guanzhong has always been a locust disaster area, so His Majesty the Emperor will have the villages take the lead in organizing households to raise ducks. Every family will raise some ducks to eat locusts. Then, when the locusts are mostly eaten, the ducks will grow up.
When the time comes, you can sell a portion of the meat in the city. The village will act as a middleman for you. The rest can be bought by the garrisons in Guanzhong and Gansu. There are a lot of garrisons, at least hundreds of thousands of them. It will also be good for the army to replenish their meat supply. What do you think of this? "
They looked at each other and counted with their fingers. They felt that this was a good thing and not a bad thing.
"Minister Xu, can this duck really eat the caterpillar?"
"Of course."
"Alright! I agree! Old Li, Old Zhang, Old Wang, what about you guys? "
Guo Deng then looked at the other old farmers who could speak.
The old farmers looked at each other and laughed.
"The Daqin officials have never lied to us. We believe them. Raise them!"
The old farmers agreed.
Guo Deng asked again.
"Minister Xu, of course we will raise the ducks, but how many should we raise?"
Xu Guangqi said with a smile, "The imperial court has already calculated for you. These locusts lay a lot of eggs and reproduce very fast. If there are too few ducks, we really can't eat them all. So the imperial court has calculated that we should raise ten ducks for every hundred mu of land, that is to say, one duck for every ten mu of land. Chairman Guo, how many mu of land do you have?"
"Two hundred and forty mu."
Guo Deng said immediately.
"That's twenty-four ducks."
Xu Guangqi said, "These ducks can't be used separately. The villages have to organize the farmers to raise ducks. When the ducks are needed to hunt for locusts, all the ducks in the village will gather together and eat together. If the number is not enough, some ducks will be borrowed from other villages.
These ducks can eat two or three catties of locusts a day. They eat a lot, but ducks are greedy and can't control their mouths. If people don't care, they will eat themselves to death. So every half an hour, the ducks have to be driven somewhere else to let them digest.
Also, you can't release the ducks randomly. You have to wait until the seedlings have grown strong but haven't borne any fruit. Release the ducks to the fields. At this time, the ducks won't destroy the crops and can eat more caterpillars. You have to pay attention to training the ducks and make them listen to commands.
When the ducks are raised, you don't have to worry about not having a place to sell them. You can eat some yourself and keep some duck seedlings to sell in the city. The army will buy the rest. The soldiers in the army also need meat. Now that there is such delicious duck meat, they are very willing to eat it. If there is no problem here, the imperial court will soon send duck seedlings here, and the village will arrange people to guide you step by step. "
Guo Deng and the others looked at each other and nodded repeatedly.
"Our Six Alliance Village will definitely do this. As long as the imperial court sends the ducks here, we will immediately start raising ducks here. I will immediately tell the people to be ready at any time. Eating locusts is such a good thing, how can we not do it?"
Guo Deng's attitude made Xu Guangqi very happy. After lunch, he took everyone to wander around the field.
After wandering around, they found two locusts' nests. Xu Guangqi immediately asked the villagers to bring tools to beat the locusts. As soon as they dug up the soil, a lot of locusts were jumping around.
The villagers were shocked and immediately tried their best to beat the locusts. Xu Guangqi and the accompanying officials also joined in and tried their best to beat the locusts. They fought until the sun was setting, but they still couldn't kill all the locusts. They didn't know if there were locusts' nests in the remaining fields.
Guo Deng and the others' faces turned green with fear.
Although half of the fields were planted with potatoes, there was still a lot of wheat and other crops. If they only relied on potatoes, they would probably have a hard time next year.
"Minister Xu, what do you think we should do? If there are more and we can't handle it, what should we do? "
Guo Deng came to Xu Guangqi with a bitter face to ask for advice.
Xu Guangqi's face was solemn. After thinking for a while, he said, "I will immediately arrange for the first batch of ducks to be sent to the villages where the locusts' nests were found. They will be preferentially preying on these locusts. Don't worry, it's not the autumn harvest yet. The locusts can't get up yet. The government will not sit idly by!"
Including Liu Lian Village, there were already three villages in Xi Yang Village where locusts were found.
Xu Guangqi felt that the situation was serious. The previous locust eradication work was not done properly. Now there was a problem, and he felt that the problem was not simple.
Therefore, he immediately ordered the officials to return to Xi 'an to prepare for the relevant matters. He then urged the people who were transporting the flock of ducks to speed up. Time waited for no man. It was extremely urgent. A day late could bring harm to this year's harvest.
Xu Guangqi's urgent urging attracted the attention of many people. The Xi 'an General Locust Control Office had sent out official documents to every village. Every village head was to enter a state of war and prepare for this year's locust war. They must not allow the locusts to eat a single grain of food in Guanzhong.
These were the farmers' life-saving rations, and also important strategic rations for the government. Xiao Ruxun wanted to turn Guanzhong into a logistics base for the future Northern Expedition. Controlling the locusts in Guanzhong was of utmost importance. There was no room for negligence.
Once the locust plague broke out, the entire North would suffer. The entire General Locust Control Office would be severely punished by Xiao Ruxun for their incompetence.
For the country, for their own future, for the lives of the people, the entire General Locust Control Office had to move as fast as possible.
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